Lawyer and principal of commercial firm Omond & Co, James Omond, recommends business owners spring clean their supply agreements and ensure that all the paperwork is in order to avoid problems “if things go pear-shaped”. Here’s his spring checklist:
This is an unavoidable spring-cleaning chore.
Not every business owner really understands financial data. This spring it is time to ensure that the financials you are receiving from accounts are timely, accurate and make sense.
McAdam’s clients receive monthly score cards that spell out the health of their business in layman’s terms. The system, using EIS software is designed for clients who aren’t brilliant with a P&L statement. The reports include green ticks for good figures, red crosses for the bad news, plus arrows to announce whether this figure is trending up or down.
Clients also receive an overall grading from A to D, graphs of the scorecard trends and fundamentals such as business’ liquidity, working capital, asset usage, efficiency, gearing and profitability. The reports start from around $400. “There’s no use having an accountant show them a P&L sheet if they can’t interpret it,” says McAdams.
“One of the best things you can do is get people to get rid of their crap,” says global innovation leader for Geyer, Laurie Aznavooria. She also recommends buying a good scanner and hiring a “college kid” to come in and scan essential papers, then get rid of the paper.
Continue to enforce basic greener practices such as double-sided printing, energy-efficient light globes, standby power switches and green power, however these practices are not going to make a huge difference to a company’s carbon footprint.
“If you want to go greener, get more strategic,” she says. Cut back on business travel, encourage staff to take a bus rather than a taxi and offer showers and bike racks for cycling commuters.
A critical way that companies can improve their workplace productivity is to look at ways to make staff feel more comfortable and more productive.
Wireless networks, different workspaces away from the traditional desk and opportunities for staff to customise their workspace will give workers an element of control over the way they work.
This spring, take the time to look at new ways staff can work. For Aznavooria, the GFC is a time when many businesses are not flat out. They have the time to step back and think about how they run their business, how they can attract new generations of workers, how they can boost productivity. “Use this time to think, create strategies now so that when it gets busy again, you will be on the right track.”
Sit back and watch the ‘Last Lecture’ from Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch in the last days of his life, cut short by pancreatic cancer in July 2008. If you haven’t already, join the 10.2 million who have.
writeFlash({“allowfullscreen”:”true”,”allowscriptaccess”:”always”,”src”:”https://www.youtube.com/v/ji5_MqicxSo&hl=en&fs=1&”,”width”:”425″,”height”:”344″});
There is also a pragmatic lecture by Pausch on time management that includes clever ways to get the most out of every day (something you think about a lot when you are dying of pancreatic cancer). Anyone who suffers from procrastination and time wasting needs to watch it.
writeFlash({“allowfullscreen”:”true”,”allowscriptaccess”:”always”,”src”:”https://www.youtube.com/v/oTugjssqOT0&hl=en&fs=1&”,”width”:”425″,”height”:”344″});
Emily Ross is the co-author of 50 Great eBusinesses and the Minds Behind Them (Random House).
Smart Company is the leading online publication in Australia for free news, information and resources catering to Australia’s entrepreneurs, small and medium business owners and business managers.
