Tag Archives: small business financials

Alternative Revenue Streams for Your Small Business

Why would you want to develop some alternative revenue streams for your small business? For lots of reasons! Diversification and customer retention, for a start – customers who have a wide range of sevices and products from which to choose are happy customers!

Alternative Revenue Streams: Things to Consider

You can’t provide everything, so choose your alterative revenue streams wisely. You need to consider:

  1. Your core competencies
  2. Adjacencies to those competencies
  3. Your existing customers
  4. New customers
  5. Standard types of alternative revenue streams

Core Competency

How to decide what your core competency is? This is your bread & butter! A core compentecy is your competitive advantage, what you are known for! You should be better at your core competency than everyone else is. It’s probably the reason why you went into business.

Logical Adjacencies

Logical adjancenies are potential alternative revenue streams that are strategically aligned to your core competency. They steer what you offer in a defined direction. Some different ways to pivot when you do adjacencies is if they are a new product or service for your existing customers or if you are doing the same product or service for a new target market. Both are a natural step in growing your alternative revenue streams strategically.

Existing Customers

Strategies to develop alternative revenue streams that focus on the existing customer include:

  1. Increasing the average sale from a customer
  2. Increasing the frequency with which customers use your business
  3. Offering something new that customers also need
  4. Developing more effective retention strategies.

Keeping a customer is worth even more (and is much less expensive) than finding a new one!

New Customers

Strategies to develop alternative revenue streams that focus on new customers include:

  1. Targeting new markets
  2. Testing new offerings

Standard Alternative Revenue Streams

Standard alternative revenue streams include:

  1. New products, services, intellectual property, programs
  2. Events
  3. Memberships
  4. Intermediaries
  5. Residual income
  6. Sharing economy
  7. Government contracts
  8. Crowdfunding

Learn More About Alternative Revenue Streams

When it comes to alternative streams, the limit is really only the resources that you have available to implement them and oversee them. The general rule is that, regardless of how many revenue streams you have, 20% of your revenue streams should be producing 80% of your income, so focus on that 20%…but make them what you want! You can do one or more of them, blend them…have fun!

Watch the video to hear more about all of this.

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Small Business Finance 101

What you don’t know when it comes to finance, can hurt you!
 
Understanding some basic finance models can help you make more objective decisions. This helps you avoid emotional decisions that often are the wrong decisions for your business.
 
The concepts that are walked through in this 30 minute video are;
 
1. Break Even Analysis
2. Basic Financial Ratios
3. Weighted Averages
4. Decision Making Trees
5. Net Present Value
 
By understanding the basics of these tools and when to consider using them, you have more tools in your toolbox as a small business owner.
 

 
Contact The Expert
info@smallbusinesssolver.com

Need more help on finance? Let us know what else you’d like to see at info@smallbusinesssolver.com

Crowdfunding in Canada

Crowdfunding is one of the new up and coming ways to finance your business. If we look at the international market place, there is $3-5 billion dollars that has been raised in crowdfunding efforts.
 
This is through over 300 portals internationally with 45 of them available to Canadians. Traditionally crowdfunding works by donation or reward.
 
The latest and greatest is that crowdfunding will soon be available in Canada to raise equity. This is going to make raising equity less expensive to do and easier to do.
 
Now is the time to prepare your business for this new opportunity. Learn how in this 20 minute video.
 

 
Contact the Expert
 
Mike Hook
e:  mike@intrepidlaw.ca
www.intrepidlaw.ca
@MikeHookLaw
 
 

Revenue Generation

Increasing our small business revenue generation is something that most entrepreneurs are concerned with. In this video we learn why all entrepreneurs need to make it the top priority and we walk through the 4 main things that we need to focus on to help our revenue grow.
 
1. Number of leads
2. Improve conversion rates
3. Increase the price of the average sale
4. Increase the number of sales per period
 
Plus we walk through all of the tools we have at our fingertips to help improve these 4 areas. Watch it now!
 

 
Contact the Expert
 
Gary Brown
FocalPoint Coaching
gbrown@focalpointcoaching.com
 
 

What’s Your Business Worth?

Business valuation is critical for all small business owners as there is a high probability that you will be needing to evaluate how much your business is worth due to needing a loan, going through a divorce, or selling your business either voluntarily or involuntarily.

 

When it comes down to it, the value of your business is the price that someone is actually willing to pay you for it. But if you are trying to put a dollar value on your business without this step or before this step, there are some things to consider;

 

1. Net tangible assets
2. Identifiable intangibles
3. Goodwill (transitioned and non transitioned)
4. Redundant assets

 

If you are selling your business, there are some great ways to increase the value of your small business. And there are some specific value drivers to be aware of.

 

If you are buying a business, there are some specific details you should be looking for and specific circumstances where you may buy a small business for a lesser amount.

 

Watch this video for all of the details.

 

 

Contact The Expert

 

Fabyelle Chevalier, CPA, CA
Manager – Financial Advisory Services
BDO Canada LLP
Direct: 705 726 6331 ext. 8523
fchevalier@bdo.ca

 

Like the Presentation? Valuation Presentation

Analyzing Your Numbers

 
Financial management and understanding numbers is a daunting topic for many entrepreneurs. However, this is a vital skill when speaking with investors and bankers that will help your business grow and/or survive.
 
This video will give an outline of what numbers are important and some basic ratios to test on your business.
 
Some concepts that are very important are;
 
1. Reviewing your past performance and changing trends can spot problems early.
2. If you don’t have past performance you can also track against industry averages. This can be done based on the industry that you are in and the size of your business.
3. Financial ratios help you determine if there are problems in specific areas in your business.
– the quick ratio and acid test
– accounts payable and receivables turnover
– debt-equity ratios and interest payable
4. Creating a 1-page business performance dashboard helps you see all of the financial metrics in one spot.
 
 

 
Contact Your Experts
 
Fabyelle Chevalier, CPA, CA
Manager – Financial Advisory Services
BDO Canada LLP
Email: FChevalier@bdo.ca
 
Gregg Miyasaki, CGA
Mid-Market Commercial Account Manager
BMO Bank of Montreal
Email: gregg.miyasaki@bmo.com
 
Like the PowerPoint? Analyzing Your Numbers
 

More Resources

 
If you are looking for places to find industry standards;
– Stats Canada: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/start-debut-eng.html
– Your financial institution
– Your accountant
 
 

Small Business Accounting, Bookkeeping, & Financial Basics That Save Money (CANADA)

Keeping up with your taxes and bookkeeping can feel like a full-time job. Especially in the first few years when the learning curve is steep on what to do and what you shouldn’t do in regards to your paperwork.

Jeff Dessau, a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years experience in Canada, goes through what is critical to saving money as an entrepreneur.

 

Want to learn more?  Contact the subject matter expert;

 

Jeff Dessau

jdessau@yaleandpartners.ca

Build Your Financials In Minutes

Financials are the guiding light for a small business. But most if you are a small business owner who dreads financial planning, you are not alone.

Paul Smith, a commercial banker of over 20 years who now helps entrepreneurs attract funding, walks through the overview of how to get through your financial projections needed for a business or for your regular strategic planning.