Your accountant’s job is to minimize your tax liability. That’s accounting.

Your job as a business owner is to manage for maximum profit. This requires an approach to the numbers that is different from how your accountant might look at things.

I call the owner/manager’s approach “counting” – using numbers to illuminate the most important components of company productivity. A good counting system enables owners to measure, predict, and strategically manage the productivity of their business.

QuickBooks is where most integration companies do their management “counting”. But QuickBooks doesn’t come with any instructions on the best way for custom integrators to set-up and use QB. So most integrators either figure it out on their own, or hire a bookkeeper or accountant or QuickBooks advisor to help them.

Problem is, most accountants and bookkeepers and QB “advisors” have NEVER RUN A CUSTOM INTEGRATION COMPANY (or any company, for that matter). They have NO IDEA what the components of productivity are for a custom integration company. Their counting methodology is shaped by what the accountant needs, or the way bookkeeping was done at other places they’ve worked.

The Top-Line Management System™ (TLM) is a comprehensive methodology for managers to Count, Measure, & Predict productivity. QuickBooks for Integrators™ teaches TLM counting practices specific to the integration business.

It is the only course of its type for the very business you are in.

The QB course opens the doors for you to more effectively manage, improve, and prosper from your integration business.

In good times, good counting is important.

Right now, good counting is REALLY important.

Fast-Forward’s 12^th edition of QuickBooks for Integrators™ begins Friday.

I am confident this will be a really valuable investment in your company’s future. And if you sign up for the course and attend Friday’s first session and find it’s NOT what you were hoping for, I will issue a full refund.

For more information, visit www.ffbizcoach.com/qbcourse.html.

I hope you can join us!

RE: the May 19 newsletter, ACCELERATE #132

I was taken to task by a couple readers who felt I was not emphatic enough about WHAT A HUGE MISTAKE IT IS to create customer invoices before work is done or goods are delivered.

Wrote one…

“In late December we received a large prepayment for product we ordered in January.  This didn't seem like a problem until we received notice from our accountant at tax time that we owed a ton on taxes.  That prepayment that had been invoiced looked like 100% profit in 2009 to the IRS, because the COGS had not yet been applied to it.”

Yup, if there is a payment AND an invoice, it’s a taxable event – income tax and sales tax. But if there’s just a payment, which is what really happened in the above story, there is no income and no taxable event.

But the premature invoicing hazards can be even greater than a tax problem. Here’s what another reader commented…

“…you failed to mention the greatest hazard that an integrator can face when doing his books this way.  That is, that his banker may look at the company’s accounts receivables and assume that it represents money owed for goods and services rendered.  This might lead a bank to approve an artificially higher line of credit.  Later on, the bank may realize its error and revoke the line of credit and put the integrator in non-recoverable financial distress.  This alone should scare companies into making sure their book keeping was done correctly.”

He was describing a FATAL mistake – “non-recoverable financial distress” is a fancy way to say, “kaput / out of business / bankrupt”.

Thanks for putting a sharper point on this. It is bad business to count the money the wrong way.

I was raised as a Christian, went to Sunday school, got confirmed.

You would think I’d be cognizant of Good Friday (which is tomorrow). But nnooo…

Instead, I scheduled the 11^th edition of my QuickBooks for Integrators course to start tomorrow.

And wondered why I was getting fewer sign-ups than I had expected.

Readers to the rescue! (thanks for pointing this out to me)

The start of the course has now been pushed back one week to April 9.

A better Friday to start learning about better bookkeeping.

To learn more about the course, www.ffbizcourse.com/qbcourse.html.

I received an urgent call yesterday.

"Steve, we need to submit our financials to be eligible to bid with this institution. Could you take a quick look?"

We got on-line and started looking at the company QuickBooks file. Within hour I was able to find three bookkeeping errors that, once fixed, improved their stated Q1 profit by over $30,000. Talk about the high cost of bad counting!

Are your books telling the truth?

Good bookkeeping practices - what I call "good counting" - will give you good numbers to work from. And good numbers are one of the fundamentals to achieving more productive, profitable results. The story above is just one example. (In fact, it's just one example from yesterday.)

Bad counting is the norm among small businesses. Too many owners take too little interest in good counting practices. As a result, too many companies are being run without the benefit of good numbers.

I like to say, "The numbers don't lie." I need to amend that by adding, "But bad numbers don't tell you anything."

Those phone calls yesterday? I take them all the time. 314-918-0338. My name is Steve. Try me. 

Once upon a time most of the new, exciting technology for consumers was AV-related. You don't need me to tell you that's no longer the case.

Yet the words "Audio Video", and Home Theater", and "Sound" are still found in the names of numerous integrators. This is sending the wrong message to our customers.

On Monday (tomorrow), Kevin Mikelonis and I are presenting a free one-hour webinar entitled, "Stop Being So AV Centric: Opportunjties in Lighting Management". If you can carve out the time to join us, you'll hear our thoughts on ways integrators can re0ignite relationships with past clients, while opening the door to new relationships with clients for whom AV just isn't that important.

Here's the registration link for this on-lline meeting at 11a Central on Monday, Feb 8...

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/771583586.

Hope you can join us!

I once attempted to return a large, heavy item to Lowe's. I dragged it into the store and up to the customer service counter. They told me since I'd paid for the item with a personal check, they could not issue the refund for another 10 days...

(I expected that part)

...and that I couldn't leave the item, but would have to bring it back again when I returned.

HAHAHAHA....... You've GOT to be kidding me??!!!!!!

They weren't kidding. Worse, they couldn't understand why I would be so flabbergasted by such a RIDICULOUS policy. (How many times have your heard this... "Sir, our computer system won't allow us to do that". My reply, "Don't make your problem, my problem.")

Are you jumping thru hoops for your customers? Or, like Lowe's, do you make them jump thru hoops to do business with you?

Here's an acid test for any policy or procedure that impacts clients: does it make it easier for them to do business with you? If so, policy passes. If not, policy fails.

I received a nice Thank You e-mail the other day. It was from a store where I had just recently purchased holiday gifts. Their message was brief but effective....

"We already know you're a great customer. Your recent purchase is just the latest proof. Thank you again for choosing to shop at..."

Can you guess the store?

Yup. Best Buy. (I bought cameras & accessories, CDs, and a few movies in a single visit)

So far, it's the only thank you I've received from any of the merchants I've shopped this holiday season. Of course, none of the others have my e-mail address (most have never asked for it).

Why is that? And, more to the point...

Are you collecting e-mails and addresses & phone numbers? Are you sending Thank You's soon after a purchase, or soon after you've had a meeting with a prospect or client or associate?

You might guess what I'd advise if any of your answers are "No".

I'm looking at an envelope I recieved today, from this guy Steve Firszt in St Louis, MO. The envelope is addressed (not a label, labels are tacky) and there's a real stamp on it.

Inside is a glossy holiday card printed with a personal note from Steve, in his handwriting, with his signature and his company's logo. Nice!

I sent this card to myself so that I would know when my clients and associates were receiving theirs. It's the outcome of a really nifty greeting card service I use, where I send cards thru the mail from my PC. There's a page about it on my website, http://www.ffbizcoach.com/id6.html.

If you haven't mailed your holiday cards yet, there's still time (as of this posting). But that's not what this blog is about.

While postal mail is a nice way to touch customers, so is voicemail. In fact, when you're trying to get a near-term response to a business or personal message, leaving a voicemail can be even more effective than postal mail, or e-mail.

Now, calling your customer list and leaving a message can be tedious and time-consuming - unless you use an automated voicemail marketing service.

This is not a commonly-used methodology among integrators, but I've got a client whose two biggest business days (he's a retailer) were both driven by a voicemail message he recorded and then had distributed, to his customer list, by an automated voicemailing service (callzing.com, in this case).

You can't do this with people you don't know, but if you have an existing relationship, this type of marketing doesn't violate DoNotCall regulations.

Do a search on "voicemail marketing" and you'll find lots of resources. It's really affordable, too.

It strikes me this could be a good way for you to get a personal holiday greeting to your customers, even if you fail to get cards in the mail.

All day today I've been working on dealer business planning for 2010. The numbers, that is.

This is an exciting exercise for me, as it quantifies specific ways that companies can improve their financial performance during the year ahead. And while this blog is supposed to focus on ways to improve your marketing, I am compelled to pause a moment to point out the critical importance of these numbers.

The goal of marketing is to bring your sales staff more leads, so they can create more paying customers, so your company can make more money. But it's the numbers that measure your succes at increasing sales and profits; it is via the numbers that you set goals and targets that help you decide on how much to budget for marketing, and how many people you'll need should your goals actually be met.

I know that many business owners pay little attention to the numbers, and that's a shame. No goals, no plan, no way to proactively create greater profits for their company. Lots of money left on the table.

My new CEO Group is going to help business owners become vastly better numbers managers. It's going to be me, riding shotgun with you, creating a powerful TLM plan for profit in 2010.

Stay tuned for my next newsletter, and a new page on this site. The CEO Group is going to be a really important, exciting, and powerful experience for the owners who sign up.
 
I promise.

The latest edition of CE Pro magazine features a cover story about a dealer in Florida who implemented service contracts in 2009 (p44). This was a hot topic earlier in the year, after the CEDIA Management Conference once again highlighted the need for recurring revenues in the CI business.

But in this article the dealer makes a key point about how these contracts obligate them to provide two maintenance vists each year: this helps them proactively resolve/prevent issues, while also getting them back in front of the client. As mentioned in the previous post, this "getting in the door" thing can lead to business.

So, a "premium service agreement" not only provides recurring revenue, it also helps maintain customer relationships AND opens the door to new business opportunities.

Could be a good item for your 2010 "must do" list. And it so happens that I wrote about how to do this in a newsletter back in summer 2008. If you'd like a copy of that newsletter, e-mail steve@ffbizcoach.com and request "ACCELERATE # 87".

A prevalent theme in 2009 has been that big jobs haven't been happening. The absence of new construction has a lot to do with this, of course. But I think the general caution with which people are spending their money suggests an approach that offers prospects a lower-cost way to try out your services.

One integrator told me that their affiliation with Service Magic has produced a higher ROI than any of their other marketing efforts. They have to wade thru a few phone calls to get to a qualified lead, but once they are in the home, good things can happen.

Now, I'm not suggesting you sign up with Service Magic. My point is to look at ways you might offer prospects a low-cost opportunity to engage you. Maybe Apple TV, or Vudu. Sonos? These are especially relevant for the holiday season, and many of your customers don't know they can use your company to acquire these items.

So, tell 'em! Somehow, some way, you need to get in their homes. Because that's where you'll have an opportunity to grow your relationship, and maybe get a big job you didn't see coming.

Einstein called it insanity to expect a different outcome when you keep doing what you've been doing.
So, assuming 2009 wasn't the best year you've ever had in your business, what will you do differently for 2010?
Perhaps you'd like to grow your sales. OK. How?
There are three ways to increase sales. You can...
1)  sell to more of the same kinds of customers, or;
2)  add a new segment of customers, or;
3)  take more dollars from each customer.
These decidedly-different strategies require decidedly-different tactics. And none will succeed just because you've "decided" that's what you want to accomplish.
Over the next few weeks I hope to share some ideas on things you might do differently in 2010. (One of the things I will be doing is hosting this blog. We'll see what happens!)
You are welcome to comment by clicking the Comments link below. You can also click the Comments link to see previously-posted comments. Not the most elegant "forum", but it's the best I can do right now.
(Maybe that's another thing for me to work on in 2010??)