Once profitability is determined, measures for success need to be monitored to make proactive decisions.

Measures for Success with the Virtual Financial Manager

"You can't manage what you can't measure, " according to Tom Peters, successful author and Harvard professor. Perhaps this is why over 40% of large businesses implemented balanced scorecard principles during 2000. These same principles apply to medium and even small businesses.

Performance measurement tools that incorporate the balanced scorecard enable business owners to be proactive in their decision-making. By defining leading indicators or predictors of success in addition to the lagging indicators delivered by traditional financial statements, opportunities can be timely identified.

The Virtual Financial Manager (VFM), designed by Windsor & Associates, is an example of a tool that not only incorporates leading indicators but also provides a visual summarization of position and opportunities that adds value to the business owners' understanding and decision-making capabilities. Of course, the summary is supported by drill-down capabilities to identify the causes and contributing factors.

By establishing and communicating the performance indicators, all members of the team can understand their impact to the overall success of the business. In this way, performance measurement can facilitate a shared vision throughout the organization and speed the effective implementation of strategies.

In addition to providing a customized performance measurement tool, the Virtual Financial Manager delivers forecasted income and cash flow positions. The Virtual Financial Manager works with the existing financial reporting system to provide timely, decision-making information. Windsor & Associates complements the VFM with a full range of business development services from strategic planning to marketing plan implementation.

To learn more about the Virtual Financial Manager, call Windsor & Associates today at 651-322-2734 or email us at deb@windsorandassociates.com.

Measure Profits with Activity Based Management (ABM)

Do you really know where you are making your money? Do you know where you are adding the most value to your customers? If not, consider the following benefits of activity-based management.

A competitive advantage can be obtained by:

• Identifying profitable products/services and customers
• Restructuring of product/service
• Raising quality levels
• Reducing overhead

Activity-based management identifies the competitive advantage by answering such questions as:

• What drives profits and losses?
• What processes and activities add to or subtract from overall profitability?
• What can be done to change or meet customer demands and respond to competitive pressure?
• Why do particular costs exist?
• Is this cost necessary?

Windsor & Associates has a track record of effectively implementing Activity Based Management. To learn more, call Windsor & Associates today at 651-322-2734 or email us at deb@windsorandassociates.com.

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Hire

Has your growing business had the time and money to bring on board a full-time chief financial officer? If not, consider the services that Windsor & Associates can provide as a CFO for Hire. These services include:

• Management team advisor focused on strategy and financial impact
• Performance measurement tool that details financial performance and highlights predictive critical success factors
• Assessment of risks and internal controls along with related policy and procedures
• Cash and working capital management tools
• Information systems review and enhancement
• Financial and management reporting
• Pricing policy, including tools such as pricing models
• Budgeting-operating, cash and capital
• Profitability analysis-product/service and customer levels
• Costing-product and activity-based
• Financing relationship management

To learn more about CFO for Hire, call Windsor & Associates today at 651-322-2734 or email us at deb@windsorandassociates.com.

Planning for the E-element in Your Business

So the dot-com craze has died down? It was no surprise for this profitability-minded individual that the day of reckoning was coming. But what is to be learned from this frenzy?

The E-element in a business will still be crucial to future success. Opportunities to create new revenue streams or eliminate expensive processes abound. The first step in moving forward is to plan.

Part of any plan is to evaluate the existing environment. To identify opportunities, the first step is to understand the profitability of your existing customer base. This analysis includes reviewing where value is being added for the customer. Review of these activities will identify opportunities to enhance value and profitability utilizing the E-element.

Windsor & Associates delivers the tools to conduct this profitability analysis. Additionally, our partners can define and implement your E-business strategy.

To learn more about the E-element, call Windsor & Associates today at 651-322-2734 or email us at deb@windsorandassociates.com.