4 Essential Components of a Sales Report

October 30, 2022


Why are sales reports essential? The reasons are numerous. For one thing, they provide clarity on whether your sales team is meeting its quotas. Second, they give you an idea of which products are selling well and which ones need improvement. Plus, thorough sales reports are key to making important decisions about where to allocate your resources. Given all these advantages and several others, businesses will always need state-of-the-art sales reports. But honestly, this is easier said than done.

Here are four essential components of a sales report to get you started on the right track.

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Filed Under: Management, Sales Tagged With:

Why is Statement of Retained Earnings Important for Small Business?

January 10, 2019


One of the most important financial and accounting concepts to be aware of when it comes to your company is retained earnings. Retained earnings can be seen as a business savings account that can grow or decrease, based on financial decisions. Mathematically, retained earnings are determined by:

 

Retained earnings = Net income – dividends + beginning retained earnings balance.

Let’s assume this business scenario. A company currently has $10,000 in beginning retained earnings along with $7,000 in profit. During this set time the company paid $4,000 in dividends. Using the formula, the company’s current retained earnings value would be $13,000. ($7,000 – $4,000 + $10,000).

It’s important to note that retained earnings are not the same as net income, also known as revenue. Instead, retained earnings are based on a company’s total profit along with other factors. Retained earnings are a historical count of net earnings that haven’t been paid out to shareholders.

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Filed Under: Finance Tagged With: ,

8 Steps to Get the Most Value Out of Web Analytics

November 11, 2015

Web Analytics
Web analytics is one of the cornerstones of having a successful website. It’s essential for any business to have a site that performs well in the modern age. Anyone who wants their online efforts to be as good as they can be, needs to be able to analyze the numbers and trends. If you can see and understand why a certain event or trend is occurring, you can correct, recreate or improve on it. The art of web analytics allows for you to do this, whether you do it yourself or hire a pro. If you think your business needs to make better use of web analytics, use this guide to find out how.

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Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: ,

How can Small Business Gain Critical Insights with Sales Analytics

November 20, 2014

Sales Analytics
The sales process has changed dramatically over the last few years. In the past, businesses relied on talented sales reps to help them sell a product. Today, many companies are turning to sales analytics. The data from this analysis can provide companies with the insight they need to improve their performance and grow. Below we show number of helpful ways in which small businesses can use data to improve their business.

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Filed Under: Sales, Technology Tagged With:

6 Reasons Small Businesses are not Getting Return on BI Tools

November 23, 2013

6 reasons small businesses are not getting return on BI tools
Business Intelligence is the latest technology that promises to revolutionize the way management can have a pulse on their business. Today’s businesses are awash in data generated from all types of sources at the fastest rate in the history. Majority of businesses cannot keep up with this so called Big Data and simply don’t understand what to do with it. No doubt this data holds lot of valuable insight and can help businesses make the right decision at the right time. The problem is finding that needle in this haystack.  This is where business intelligence tools come into picture. Companies are investing large sums of money in these tools. When used properly these tools can provide succinct reports that can managers gain insights make quick decisions.

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Filed Under: Technology Tagged With:

Small Biz Owners – Do You Manage Performance or Just Monitor It?

May 30, 2013

Do you manage performance or just monitor it
“You cannot improve something that you don’t measure.” This is the mantra many leadership coaches have preached for number of years, and for the right reason. If you do not know how your business is performing you are practically driving the car without a dashboard. Anything can go wrong along the way and you wouldn’t come to know about it before it’s too late. That is why performance monitoring should be integral to running a business for any leader.

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Filed Under: Management Tagged With: ,

What can Small Business Owners learn from Greek Crisis

June 6, 2012


Unless you have been hiding in a cave for the last couple of years you know Greece is on the verge of economic collapse on the scale not seen before. The unemployment rate is a staggering 22% and they are expected to default on their loans unless they receive yet another round of financial help from their neighbors and EU partners.
While it may be tempting to think of Greek situation as unique, it is not far-fetched to think of an analogous scenario for small businesses. After all, as we show below the reasons behind Greek crisis are prevalent in many of the businesses – both large and small. That’s why Greek crisis holds important lessons for business owners in how not to get into the financial disaster. Below is our attempt to explore reasons behind Greece’s failure and how they apply to small business owners.
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Filed Under: Finance, Management, Strategy Tagged With: , , ,

Key Performance Metrics for Hotels and Services Business

July 20, 2010


In the previous blog post we indicated that many types of small businesses have “standard” set of metrics that you can use as a starting point to determine the key metrics you should track for your small business. We discussed key metrics in the retail and restaurant business in the previous post. In this post we have shown the metrics for additional businesses – hotels / motels and service businesses.
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Filed Under: Employees, Management, Operations, Sales Tagged With: , , , ,

Key Performance Metrics for Retail and Restaurants

July 19, 2010


Every small business owner needs to look at the business reports daily, weekly and monthly on a regular basis to stay up-to-date with how their business is performing. You need to understand what key performance metrics to look at in those reports. We showed how to identify and track key performance indicators in this post.
You don’t have to start from zero when looking for key performance metrics for your business. Many types of small businesses have “standard” set of metrics. As a small business and franchise owner you should be aware of these metrics. In this post we will summarize the key metrics for retail businesses and fast food / restaurants.
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Filed Under: Management, Operations, Sales Tagged With: , , , ,

How to identify and track key performance indicators?

July 16, 2010


In the previous post we mentioned that many small business owners find it difficult to explain how their business is doing with the numbers backing up their words. It is even more difficult to predict how the business is going to perform few months down the road. However, it doesn’t have to be this way.
By identifying and tracking few key performance indicators (KPIs) any small business owner can not only figure out how the business is performing; but also forecast where it is headed. This is no different from when the doctor checks vital signs such as blood pressure, pulse, weight, etc. of the patient to find out what is wrong or could go wrong. You only need 5 or so KPIs to get a feel of the business performance.
Typically, these KPIs will be different for different industries. For example, the retail store should look at comparable sales and inventory turnover; while exercise facility would track customer turnover and average sales per customer. Most large publicly traded companies include these KPIs in their annual reports or in the financial analyst reports.
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Filed Under: Finance, Management, Operations, Sales Tagged With: , , ,