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Crystal Clear Bookkeeping presents a variety
of workshops for small business owners.

All of our workshops  are customized based on the participants' needs.  This is a great way to provide a valuable resource for your members or clients.

Frances Schagen has been helping small business owners for over 20 years, most recently through her company, Crystal Clear Bookkeeping Ltd.  She is a Certified Business Workshop Presenter through ACSBE.  (The internationally renowned Acadia Center for Small Business & Entrepreneurship) and she is in the APEC/IBIZ Certified Business Counsellor program. 

The Certified Business Trainer program has developed a series of prepared workshops with a unique participation format.  Most of the time is spent in small groups working on the particular aspect of the topic most relevant to each business.  This format encourages business owners to share practical hints, tips and tricks.  Then the results are brought back to the group, so everyone shares the best information.  Please allow 2 1/2 hours for groups of less than 15 and 3 hours for larger groups. We can use this template to prepare a workshop on any small business topic. 

Contact Us for pricing and requirements..
 

Popular Workshops Developed by Frances Schagen: Financial SMARTS Hidden Treasures The Price is Right

Workshops Developed by ACSBE Include: Entrepreneurial Planning Marketing Management Human Resources Financial Management Information Technology Managing Business Growth Opportunity Identification Opportunity Assessment Succession Planning Time Investment

This workshop is designed to offer business owners a practical, rubber-meets-the-road blueprint for using their financial information to improve the management of their company.

• "I’d love to, but I’m too busy running my business to spend time with the financials" 
• "I run my business for lots of reasons other than money."
• "I’m not registered for HST so I only have to do my bookkeeping at year end for taxes, and I didn’t make money so I don’t have to do it this year."
• "I look at my statements and it’s all greek to me.  I just look at my bank balance to see how I’m doing."

I shudder when I hear statements like these, I’m sure you do too.  And I hear them all too often.  A banker friend of mine told me the story of a company that tripled its sales but lowered its profit margin so they were losing money on every sale.  "This is a multi-million dollar company and they didn’t understand the concept of gross margins."

The successful business owners I work with, keep a close eye on their financial information and they spend less time doing it than others spend worrying about it!  The reason is that they have a clear understanding of what information they are looking for.  They use their statements to keep track of how changes they have made in their business practices are impacting their results.  They have learned from experience that the time spent provides a higher return than not doing it.

This workshop is designed to address those specific concerns.  The first half of the day is spent on benefits, pains and results of doing this work.  The afternoon is spent on how to do it and overcoming the barriers. 

Workshop Schedule

Welcome and Introductions

Success triangle 
What are business capabilities?
How do they affect business practices?
How do limitations in those limit ultimate success?
What to do about it.

Numbers as a way to keep score
small business as a life style not a way to ‘increase shareholder value’
value of doing this
pain of not doing this

Financial SMARTS

STATEMENTS
Financial statements give you a precise measure of how well you are doing. 

MEASUREMENTS
Successful business owners focus on a couple of key figures, watching how they change over time.  The specific measurements change over time and depend upon the business practices you are tracking.

ASSESS
The numbers tell you if what you are doing is working or not.  Are they trending up or down?  Which way do you want them to go? 

RE-EXAMINE
If you are not getting the numbers you want or you want to improve your results, dig deeply to determine which functional areas can effect your results. 

TACKLE SOMETHING NEW
Once you know what areas to work on, try something new.  If you keep doing the same old things you will keep getting the same results. 

SUCCESS
Success comes from continued improvement.  Small increments, over time add up to big improvements.

Important Measurements and the business practices that affect them
Gross and net profit margins
profit per input

Lunch

Financial SMARTS self-assessment
application to your business
what do you need to do this?
discussion

Hidden Treasures

 

Finding Hidden Treasure in Your Financial Statements Bookkeeping isn’t just fun.   ;-) Use the information to make   management decisions     and to figure out the best ways       to make and save money.

Where to look for Hidden Treasures?

Revenue
Understand which aspects of your business make the most money and concentrate on them.  Remember the 20/80 rule.  Eighty percent of your effort is expended to create twenty percent of your revenue.  Conversely, 20% of your energy is used to make 80% of your revenue.  It makes sense to concentrate on the upper 20% of your customers.  Figure out who they are and what they want and go after more like them.  I know it seems counterintuitive to lose customers, but if they are the ones at the bottom- it may make sense to not waste time with them.  Some customers just cost you money.

Increases of small increments can result in big outcomes.  Make contact with more people in a week.  Work hard to increase revenue from each customer. 

Decrease Bad Debt
Have a credit policy and state your expectations on your invoices.  Make sure you charge interest.  Send statements to keep your bill fresh.  Try e-mailing your invoices to save money.

At some point your bad debts are lost money, so pass them to a collection agency that pays on a success-fee basis.  You may be able to realize a windfall.

Expenses
Think of expenses as investments and spend your money where it makes the most sense.

You should audit your major expense categories on a regular basis.  Phone service products change almost daily.  Delivery methods should be checked periodically and any other large expense you have should be checked to see if there is a less expensive way to do it.  Be careful, you don’t want to chip away at your business.  "You can't shrink your way to greatness."

Sometimes memberships such as a golf club membership can be sold.  You must examine if the money now is worth more than the possible money to be made at
some future time.  Perhaps you can entertain your clients some other way.

Examine your lease.  If lease rates have gone up and you have time left on your lease, you may be able to have the landlord buy you out.  She’ll get the opportunity to lease out at a higher rate and you get some cash in your pocket.

What to Pay
Pay when it is due. 
Renegotiate terms based on past volume.
If you are having problems, talk to your suppliers.  They have an interest in keeping you in business.

Cash Flow
Cash flow is important to manage growth and plan for lean times.  Arrange financing before you need it.  Properly managed you can reduce your borrowing costs.  Use your money when you have it.

Assets
Do you have assets on your books that  you are sure  won’t be used in the future? Perhaps you can sell them.  This applies to trademarks and patents as well.

Obsolete inventory and old equipment can be sold at a flea market or to a jobber or liquidator for at least a portion of its original value ( 5-50%).  Don’t pay to store things you won’t use again.

Liabilities
Are there any assets on the books that are undervalued?
If so you can get them reappraised to be used as security on a lower cost loan.

Make sure any borrowing you do is at the best possible rate for you.  Move money to the loans with the lowest interest.  Look for unusual sources of money such as family, suppliers and customers.  Use equity to inject money.

Taxes

• If you are not registered for GST you are losing all the money you pay out.
• Keep and itemize all receipts.
• Pay your family a wage to spread out the tax bill.
• Business loans are tax deductible.
• Write off bad debt expense.  Include it if they pay later.
• Get all your office deductions- see Business and Professional Income book from CCRA.

 

Effective pricing can mean the difference between making it and not making it.  Price too high and you lose customers.  And here’s the irony; price too low and you can lose customers, too!  Or worse - have many customers and lose money on every sale.

Common Mistakes

• not including all their costs in figuring out what to charge, which usually means they are not making enough money to continue in business
• offering a price that is not in line with business offerings – especially for new business owners or those introducing an upgraded service.  The tendency is to price too low, just to get customers. But, then they are perceived as a discount service.

During this 2 hour workshop, participants will learn the 3 ways to work out their best price:

Do you know all your costs? 
In the cost plus method, you must make sure you include all your costs. 

What are your competitors charging?
Once you know what your competitors are charging, you have to make some decisions about how you want to fit within your industry or market.  Do you offer the low-cost alternative or the high end service? 

What does it cost your customers not to use you? 
This is the tough one because it is the hardest to figure out.  We will explore various ways to get this information.

Participants learn how to use all three ways to get the best pricing strategy for their business.  Pricing is an integral part of business planning.  It informs marketing, procedures and purchases. 

We will work through the actual ways and tools needed for getting this information, then prepare a matrix and evaluate the results.  We will wrap up our discussion with a sharing of experiences and collective resources.

This workshop will be of benefit to those starting a business as well as those who are in business and want to maximize their revenue potential.  Because of the short time frame, the workshop will be customized based on the group.  This will ensure the group gets the highest benefit.

Debi Chapman, Agent for Sears Travel,Your Source For Travel
 

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