For Growth

Our forte is improving your existing profitability

As businesses grow it becomes increasingly likely you may require a different type of accountancy service. One that offers considered advice and corporate planning in addition to carrying out the day to day processing of financial transactions.

If you really want to make your business fly then it is crucial you partner with a firm that not only can deliver the basics but also has the experience working with larger commercial organisations.

We provide a service that is second to none and will work with you to achieve your business and personal goals becoming an integral part of your management team.

Key areas of profitability growth

Accounting for compliance and profitability by CIK Accounting Solutions

Improving your profitability

We begin with a discovery meeting to gain a better understanding of your business, when and how you started, your strengths and weaknesses, where you are now, where you want to be, and what road blocks you see stopping you from getting to that place. From there, we really get under the bonnet of your figures and take a deep dive into them.

Some of the things we will consider include:

Automation

A major component in improving efficiency, processes and ultimately profitability is in the use of apps that can reduce or eliminate time consuming manual tasks with a significantly higher degree of accuracy.

Overheads

What are your overheads and can they be reduced? There are a number of ways even an essential cost to your business can be trimmed.

Customer base

Review your current customer base. Who is making you the most money right now? Who has the most growth potential? Who doesn’t have either and is just a drain on resources?

Suppliers

Reviewing your suppliers to renegotiate terms and rates and to encourage you to look at alternative suppliers even if you have previously dismissed them in the past. They may be keen to do business with you now.

Sales strategy

How can you increase sales? What does your sales team look like? Are they well trained? Are they good at upselling/cross selling to existing customers? If you are in the B2B sector are they speaking to the right people who can make decisions?

Pricing structure

Are you too cheap? The simplest way to improve profitability is to raise the selling price but very often this is the most difficult decision to implement because of a fear of losing business. However, it is a fact that most people buy based on value and not price, so if there is a perceived difference in value between two products or services, more often than not the decision is made on value.

Staff morale

What’s the morale of your existing staff force? Are they happy and content and share your vision? Or is there constant negativity and resistance to change with no positive input coming from your senior members of staff? There could be a large number of reasons why they are not onboard but if this is an issue you need to address it. Happy and satisfied employees mean they are more motivated and that means healthier profits.

Delegation and outsourcing

Can you outsource some of the tasks in your business? Marketing? HR? Bookkeeping and payroll? You have to focus your time on income generating activities and not be bogged down with tasks that are necessary but ultimately provide no income.

Service review

You may know what your profit margin is overall, but do you know what the margin is on each individual product or service your company provides? When setting your selling price you will know what your material and labour costs have been but how do you incorporate a fair charge for general overheads that have been incurred? We can instal systems and processes that will tell you exactly which are your most profitable lines and those that need reviewed or removed. A modest 5% profit improvement on a £1m turnover business puts an extra £50,000 on to your bottom line.

Stock control

Do you have an effective stock control system in place? One that means you don’t run out of stock when it is needed, but equally one that doesn’t tie up precious cash holding vast quantities of stocks that will take months to use or increase the likelihood of it becoming obsolete?

Credit control

What does your credit control system look like? Many profitable businesses fail because of poor cashflow. Are new customers vetted properly before doing business with them? Do your customers know what your terms and conditions are? Are sales invoices raised promptly once the work has been done? Once the payment due date has expired are you immediately chasing that debt?

Ready to increase your profitability?

To discuss how we can help grow your business, please get in touch using the details on our contact page.