Hi everybody Victoria here, author of Zest for Success, owner of The Bookkeeper Hub, and senior partner in HBA Encompass. Another day sitting here, waiting for the kids and a little bit of information from me to you about how The Bookkeeper Hub use the Zest for Success method to increase its business. So today we’re talking about operations and operations changes a lot depending the type of business you’ve got.
If you’re an online business, a bricks and mortar business, or a retail business, the way that you need to think about how you operate changes. And probably the most important one to think about there is premises. So if you are someone who needs a premises whether it be for a retail shop or for people to come in and buy your product, you need to have a think about a couple of things. Now, the first one is where you need to be located. If you’re a retail shop, you need to be somewhere where there is foot traffic. It’s no use finding a cheap little garage around the corner in the back street if no one’s gonna drive pass, no one’s gonna walk pass. They’re not gonna see what you’re selling. If you’re a warehouse, you’re gonna need somewhere that’s big. There may be other rules depending on the type of business that you have, as to where you can actually situate yourself. Restaurants and cafes need to be in areas that are approved to sell food. Loud businesses and manufacturing businesses have to be in industrial areas. So you need to have a think about that, you need to think about where you need to be located. Then, you need to think about how big other precise premises that you need because that will then give you an idea of where you need to start searching. Once you’ve got that under control then you can start looking at price. I know it sounds stupid but we’re not looking at price first. But it’s no use as I said having a really cheap awesome little groovy hangout but no one’s actually coming to see because no one’s gonna see your product. So we’re lucky at The Bookkeeper Hub. We’re a hundred percent online. We can operate from anywhere. Currently our real home is the offices of HBA Encompass because that’s where I spend most of my time but I can do just as much work from home or from the coffee club. It’s up to me where I wanna work from. My bookkeepers are virtual meaning if they don’t work out of my office. My VA is virtual, meaning that she doesn’t work in my office. So they can be anywhere. I don’t need to have a premises with a big floor space and lots of desks and servers and computers because we work cloud. The next thing to think about is comry. Carries on from that is what type of equipment are you gonna need to run your business. If you’re a manufacturing business, then you’re gonna need the tools and the manufacturing information or the manufacturing stuff. I don’t know. I’m not a manufacturer but the machines and whatever it is to produce, whatever it is you’re gonna produce. And you need to think about how much it’s gonna cost to buy these machines. Can you source them locally? Is there a lead time or lag time on actually getting them? Can you find second hand once and then once you know what type of equipment you need that also affects your premises because it comes down to that calculation of the floor size. Then you need to think about staff. Do you need staff? Are you gonna start yourself and just gow from one person and as you get bigger put more staff on. Or do you need staff from day one to do what you need to do? Someone who owns a café can’t run it all by themselves. They need to have staff from day one. You need a cook, a bottle washer, and waitress. Then you need to think about the busy times. So you need to think about what kind of stuff you need. If there’s qualifications, if there’s training required, and what the lag time when that is. If someone’s gonna go and do some training courses to specifically be able to use your machinery. If it’s gonna take a six-week course, then you know that you can’t open your business for at least six weeks after you’ve put that person on. Or do you need to pay more to get someone who got the skills and the qualifications or the experience already. Lots of things to think about. Then we talk about stock. Oh my god stock! How much to carry? Can you order it on a just-in-time method which means that as you need it, you can order it. We’ve all heard of Amazon and drop shipping that I can sell someone something to and then order it directly to their place. There’s many efficient ways of doing things these days. You may not have to carry a massive amount of inventory. The question is can you work smarter rather than harder. And then the last thing to think about before you go ahead is are you selling on cash or are you selling on credit. Because all if this has an effect on your budget. If you’re selling on cash then as soon as you sell something, money is gonna come in. You can pay your suppliers. Pay your staff. Pay your rent. Think of a café. Or if you’re selling on a credit it means that I do a job for your today then I invoice you and I’ll wait for however long my credit terms are. And then hope that you pay in those at those times or if you don’t then I’ve got to chase you. So we’re gonna talk about budgeting in the next couple of episodes. But you need to have a think about your customers. Are they paying cash or are they paying credit? Your stock and supplies, are you paying cash or are you paying on credit? So lots of things to think about in the general operations of your business that you need to get in your mind and perhaps find some numbers. Find some details about them before you can even start to puts out planning whether you’ve got a viable business or not.
Our next episode is gonna be all about business viability. And we’re gonna start delving down into budgets and the numbers things. Sorry. I’m an accountant and a bookkeeper. I have to mention it. Now, I’m not going a deep dive into budgeting 101 but what I’m making sure is that you have a business that is viable before you start spending money and opening your doors and getting into debt and everything else. You wanna make sure that you’ve got a product that is viable. That is gonna give the return that you need to live the life that you wanna have.
Okay, I’ll talk to you next time. See yah!
