FINANCIAL TRAINING FOR CONSTRUCTION BUSINESSES

1. HOW TO MAKE MORE FROM WHAT YOU'VE GOT

• We review the items you will find in the Profit & Loss Account (as opposed to the Balance Sheet) and where you should find them in the context of your business.  We show you why it really matters how you apply these key terms in practice:
  • Variable Costs v Fixed Costs
  • Margins v Mark-Ups
  • Non cash items (like depreciation)
• We show you the sales you need to find before you make any money and why this is such a useful benchmark.  Then we show you how you can change it in your favour.  There is a bit of a catch for the construction business but if we include your numbers in the training we show you how to calculate this for your business
• Why you need to look beyond just the top--line and bottom-line of your Profit & Loss Account if you really want to make sense of your business
• Ideally with reference to your own figures we show you a quick way to gauge if you are likely to be profitable enough.  And why, for the typical construction business, you need to be more profitable than others.

Often receives stunning feedback from clients and prompts immediate changes in their businesses

2. HOW TO IMPROVE (OR AT LEAST SAFEGUARD) PROFIT IN TOUGH TIMES

• We show you a simple starting point for you to assess the best options for improving profit.  And, if we include your numbers in the training, we'll prepare this for you
• We help you see how changes in top-line sales feed through to profit (or not) as the case may be.  (Applying this in a construction business could have a fundamental impact on your strategy)
• Learn how to calculate the impact of changing costs on your business (now more of an issue than ever) and what you can do to mitigate their effect
• Common sources of margin erosion (or slippage) and the strategies / systems that prevent it.  As part of this we highlight the impact of the silent-killer that afflicts the construction business perhaps more than any other
• Overheads - Is your cost-base too high? Or even too low?  Could, for example, your own QS prove a worthwhile investment?
• We offer you some invaluable tools to help secure better outcomes in your dealings with clients and suppliers
• We highlight some useful benchmarks for deciding whether you should accept or reject work at a given price.

Clients who have been conditioned to think simply in terms of 'more sales & lower costs' find a knowledge of these relationships particularly valuable

3. DESIGN YOUR CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS TO CREATE CASH

• We explain the balance sheet, its format, terminology and critically:
  • What the balance sheet doesn't tell you as well as what it does
  • And the surprisingly true nature of assets and liabilities (which proves central to the problems most construction businesses face
• We show you how to tell a strong balance sheet from a weak one (and why this matters) with the aid of a special template.  And if we build your numbers into the training, we show you what your company balance sheet looks like using this approach. It's an approach you might choose to adopt internally
• Potentially the most important line in the management accounts yet many don't even know what it means.  We explain why it's critical and how you should track it
• How to design your business to create cash rather than absorb it - perhaps the big challenge for the typical construction business (i.e. even when you have lots of work, do you have the cash to show for it?)
• We illustrate the impact of the 3 key relationships that dictate cash flow strength (or weakness).  Always proves illuminating and sometimes, frightening!
• Based on this we look briefly at how to make it easier for a bank to lend you money

Far from some sort of academic exercise, this session often has a profound impact on how people run their businesses

FORMAT AND CONTENT

WHO WILL BENEFIT?

FINANCIAL TRAINING - WHERE?

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