Insight with the numbers

We created Insight with the numbers because we firmly believe that accountants should offer more to their clients than a set of, dare we say it, out of date, accounts! Of course your annual accounts are a necessity and as you shall see, we believe that they can be made to be an important tool in understanding your business. Nevertheless, we hope you will see that dealing with a proactive firm of accountants can help your business to greater and quicker success.

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We have long been encouraging our clients to monitor their performance more closely and more importantly to use the information that the monitoring produces to help make better decisions and take correct actions. Within this information you now have the outline for how we think you can go about doing this in order to ensure that your business can improve and grow and become more valuable in the process. Insight with the numbers draws on our many years of experience in advising clients and shows what our most successful ones do. To be completely truthful not all of them do all 10 steps, but the more successful do use many of the strategies we outline here.

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The Insight with the numbers system is broken into a 10 point programme, albeit there is a bonus step at the end. But 10 steps seems so much better than 11! Insight with the numbers can be followed from point one or you can jump in at any point. The reality in running a business is that many things interrelate and we could move the steps around. However, we have tried to make it so that there is a logical order, which is summarised here:

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1. The legal requirements.

Your annual accounts and how to use them to get more value for you.

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2. Cash is King!

How much cashflow you have determines how long you can survive.

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3. The past, the present and the future!

The business plan, forecasts and budgets. Determine what you wish to achieve with your business and then turn those goals and plans into forecasts and budgets.

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4. How are you really doing? Part 1 – The financial numbers.

Management accounts - your monthly financial numbers. Measuring the traditional numbers is still fundamental! Deciding how to report the important numbers.

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5. How are you really doing? Part 2 – The non-financial numbers.

Measuring the non-financial numbers. Deciding what you need to measure.

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6. Are you going uphill or downhill or have you plateaued?

How your performance compares to previous periods. Taking your previous figures and looking at the trends and what that can tell you.

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7. Are you winning or losing?

How your performance compares to others in your industry. Benchmarking to see what you do well and what can be improved.

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8. How to win more customers

Just because you build it does not mean they will come! The basic steps you must take when marketing your business; buying customers as an investment.

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9. It's not how much you make but how much you keep.

Taxation & VAT the silent killers and how to minimise them… legally!!!

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10.Where can you do better and what are you going to do about it?

Determine how much more profitable you could be using what you have discovered about your own performance and those of your competitors. Then develop your action plan for ensuring that your business continues to improve and grow.

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The Bonus - Could you retire if you wanted to?

How much is your business worth? And does that mean you can retire?

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It is, of course, entirely up to you how much input and support you want in each of the individual areas. You might decide to do all the work yourself - using this information and the lessons it contains. Alternatively you might want to make your life easier and get us involved in a number or indeed all of the areas. If you want we can even tailor the Insight with the numbers system specifically for your precise needs.

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You decide. You can have as much - or as little - help from us as you want. Either way, as your accountants we do strongly recommend that you use Insight with the numbers system to help make your business even more successful.

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Should you wish for further information on each step please email us on enquiries@insight-sa.com or telephone 01702 297383.

We are sure you will agree that the Insight with the numbers system lives up to its aim of helping you to get more from your accountants and from your business by using and understanding your numbers.

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