Show Me
By · CommentsSee how RAI Stone Analytics helps small businesses anticipate and understand the impact of their decisions to the bottom line. (This is a silent video that includes pop-up boxes).
How do You Compare?
By · CommentsSee how you can use your financials to find your competitive edge.
Show Me The Money
By · CommentsGet a sneak peak at the new online face of RAI Stone Analytics in this 2.5 minute video. See how we turn your small business financial information into knowledge that will grow your company.
An Industry Reinventing Itself Webinar Preview
By · CommentsAha moments change the course of lives. Visualize Oprah with her microphone in hand waving her hands in the air saying aha! These direction-changing moments also happen for companies. In this 4-minute clip, listen to the Aha moments that altered the future of two businesses, and helped them become industry leaders.
This snippet is part of a webinar, recorded in June 2012, which focused on the reinvention of the advertising industry. RAI Stone Group serves small companies by providing financial analytics so that you can find out where you are going and decide if that is where you want to go. http://youtu.be/P7LRbxK5t1s
Visit http://www.raistonegroup.com/industry-predictions to download our free industry report.
If you have questions regarding this small business analytics video or anything else, give us a call at 715-598-4340 or visit: http://www.RaiStoneGroup.com
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An Industry Reinventing Itself
By · CommentsTake a front row seat in the making history! How many more times will we see a well-entrenched, mature industry be driven to the brink of extinction, and then turn itself around in a matter of years? When an industry is in the throes of reinventing itself, that’s something worth talking about.
Listen to the webinar recorded on Tuesday, June 19. Two industry panelists share their stories about pre- and post- 2008 business, provide insights, and discuss what’s next for the industry.
Dancing With Your Cash Flow
By · CommentsSmall Business Analytics Video: “Dancing With Your Cash Flow”
Hello, and welcome to RAI Stone Group’s video series titled “Follow the Numbers”. My name is Sam Zordich, I am the founder and CEO of the RAI Stone Group. This video is called
“Dancing With Your Cash Flow”
Have you ever tried to project your cash flow? Made a weekly budget but found that it was a moving target because customers didn’t pay as you expected? At this point, you may have simply stopped trying because the effort just felt futile.
Before you stop entirely, here are two things you need to know that may help you rethink how you project your budget.
First, there are items your pay for, like principal on a loan, that do not show up on the Income Statement. But you still pay for it each month.
Second, most cash flow programs only show net change. Here’s what I mean by “net change in cash”.
Let’s say on June 3 you decide to pay down $10,000 on your Line of Credit to bring it to $0.00. ($10,000 – $10,000 = $0.00). The next week is payroll but a large customer does’t make their payment so you have to use the LOC again and back it goes up to $10,000.
Because the net change is 0 from the beginning to the end of the period, that transaction doesn’t get on your cash flow statement.
Don’t give up on projecting your budget, just do it with the right facts.
Thanks for watching the small business analytics series. We hope you find this of value. If you have any questions regarding small business analytics or anything in the video, call us at 715-598-4340 or leave your comments below. We appreciate your feedback!
If you found this video helpful, your friends and colleagues will to! Use the buttons above the video to “Like” it, “Tweet” it, email it, and post it anywhere else your friends hang out.
If you haven’t already, check out our last video post titled
“Small Business Analytics: Are You Losing The Forest For The Trees?”
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Small Business Analytics: Are You Losing The Forest For The Trees?
Hello and welcome back to RAI Stone Group’s small business analytics video series entitled “Follow The Numbers”. I’m Sam Zordich, founder and CEO of the RAI Stone Group. This video is called:
“Are You Losing The Forest For The Trees?”
I’m an avid student of leadership and what I’ve found is leaders have the ability to get the big picture and then make decisions from there. So I’m here to tell you that if you’re in charge of a division or a company, and you’re looking at every cost you ARE losing the forest for the trees, and worse, you’re wasting time.
The best high level overview I’ve found is the Cash Breakeven. We’ve all used some breakeven calculation to find out how many items we need to sell before making a profit. Many of us also use this to set prices. If you have only 1 product or service to sell, that’s a quick calculation.
It becomes far more tricky when you add more customers, more products, more sales. And then try to factor in late payments, product discounts, or partial shipments and it gets out of control.
But the combination of the details – not the details – provides a map of your company’s terrain so you can quickly see what’s working or not working. With this big picture, you get to lead. When you’re in the details, you’re following.
I’m going to show you how a cash breakeven can make your life waaaaay easier by going through just a few oddball events.
Background:
Let’s say your products are priced at $1,000. You pay $700 for cost of goods. Your monthly overhead is $5,000.
–Situation A – Your first sale is $2,500 to a customer notorious for paying late, up to 75 days from the time you invoice.
–Situation B – Your next sale is for $5,000 and they pay COD but your salesperson gives a 10% discount.
–Situation C – Your last sale is also for $5,000 but now you have to reorder product to cover it and your vendor ships in 20 days.
Imagine trying to get the big picture from just those 3 details. The point? Get a cash breakeven done. Use your talents to lead, not follow.
Thanks for watching the small business analytics series. We hope you find this of value. If you have any questions regarding small business analytics or anything in the video, call us at 715-598-4340 or leave your comments below. We enjoy your feedback!
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Small Business Analytics – Are You Banking On Profitability?
Hello and welcome to RAI Stone Group’s video series called “Follow The Numbers.” My name is Sam Zordich and I am the founder and CEO of the RAI Stone Group. This video is called:
Are You Banking On Profitability?
I recently received an email that said “There are only two ways to improve your Gross Margin…and increase cash flow.”
Normally I don’t bother with marketing messages, but this one plays on a common misconception. It implies that profitability directly impacts cash flow. It doesn’t. In fact, believing that is a sure way to derail you.
So here’s the truth. Gross margin is the expected profit from a sale. In an ideal world. It’s not yet cash in the bank. Let’s say you manage to increase your gross margin from 40% to 60%. You increased profit 20 cents on the dollar, from 40 cents to 60 cents. That’s all you’ve done. You’ve increased your “expected” profit. You haven’t done diddley to your cash flow.
Here’s why this distinction is so important: There are real life events that have a way of wreaking havoc on that “expected” profit number, while other events affect cash flow. They are NOT interchangeable.
For example, if your salesperson discounts an order because they don’t want to lose a customer, that discount obviously affects profit. And that’s fairly common these days.
On the other hand, if a customer can’t make their payment on time, or a vendor changes to COD, or inventory remains in sotck 60 days longer than anticipated, THOSE directly impact cash flow.
So?
Don’t bank on “expected” profits from sales. Instead, bank on your “expected” CASH FLOW.
I hope this clears up that misconception. Thanks for watching – we hope you find this of value. If you have any questions regarding small business analytics or anything in the video, call us at 715-598-4340 or leave your comments below. We enjoy your feedback!
If you found this video helpful, your friends and colleagues will to! Use the buttons above the video to “Like” it, “Tweet” it, email it, and post it anywhere else your friends hang out.
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Here’s Where It Started…
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Here’s where it started that a technology development firm decided to analyze an industry.
Six months ago, I gathered a team of professionals together in our conference room. Our purpose was to get to the bottom of a very stubborn problem RAI Stone Group was facing. The room was filled with software developers, strategists, financial analysts, advisors and accountants, and a few customers and salespeople. We were going to leave that room with a solution!
The problem was this: we simply weren’t reaching enough small business owners and leaders to make a difference. It really came down to how we could get beyond the old economy’s reliance on experts who knew the rules and had all the answers. The explosion of new technologies turned everyone into a pioneer and an innovator instead. And it was from this new place we had to find new ways to connect with our target market so they could make an informed choice based on their needs and circumstances. The age of experts was over and the new buzzword became effectiveness.
Now, you’ll appreciate the irony of a bunch of rationalists trying to solve a communication and awareness problem. We were still stuck in the old thinking of “right” and “wrong” answers instead of effective and ineffective efforts.
We didn’t come up with a solution or answer to our problem that day. Funniest of all, we didn’t even notice the absence of a marketer or publicist in the group. And it was the fact that we hadn’t noticed that absence that prompted us to produce the Advertising Industry Brief (http://www.raistonegroup.com/industry-predictions). But we did learn that to tackle a communication or awareness issue, we should include those specialists in the meeting. Duh!
Small Business Analytics Testimonial
By · CommentsSmall Business Analytics Testimonial for RAI Stone Analytics from Stillman Law Offices LLC