{"id":291,"date":"2019-01-31T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T16:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zairmail.com\/blog\/?p=291"},"modified":"2021-10-18T10:31:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T17:31:00","slug":"strategic-planning-looking-for-patterns-in-your-finances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zairmail.com\/blog\/index.php\/strategic-planning-looking-for-patterns-in-your-finances\/","title":{"rendered":"Strategic Planning – Looking for Patterns in Your Finances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When you\u2019ve got all of your financial information in front of you, it can feel overwhelming. Especially when it comes to business finances. If you followed our last guide \u2018Doing the Math\u2019 you should now have a much clearer overview of your financial performance in the previous year and roughly why it performed this way. The next stage is to look for patterns within the numbers that can serve as clues for planning.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start with the Customer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A good place to start is by sorting all of the orders by the customer. If you sell fast-moving items such as food or fashion, it will be better to approach this slightly differently. For fast-moving items look at the largest order values or total repeat orders for the top percentile, middle percentile, and bottom percentile. If you have customers who use your business as an ongoing service, or something that fits this category closely, sort customers from largest to smallest.
It doesn\u2019t really matter how you do this, the end goal is the same. You want to figure out who your biggest customers are; whether that\u2019s another company for a B2B or the biggest category of individuals customers for a B2C organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you carry out this task, be mindful that things might not always be as they seem. Large customers might have been in a position to negotiate additional discounts. Small customers might actually contribute more to the bottom line. This is why it\u2019s so important to carry out a financial assessment rather than make assumptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pareto Principle<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

You might find the \u2018pareto principle\u2019 to be true in your own stats. This is when roughly 80% of your sales are generated by just 20% of your customers. The higher that percentage (80%) the riskier it becomes for your business. You know the phrase \u2018don\u2019t put all your eggs in one basket\u2019; this couldn\u2019t be truer when it comes to customers\/clients. Of course, there are some industries where this can\u2019t be avoided due to a small number of prospective customers. However, in cases where this is not true, try and nurture smaller customers and find new ones to reduce your overall reliance on the \u2018whales\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Answer these questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n