There is a new piece of software called Qvinci  that pulls data from QuickBooks and creates graphs that is attracting some attention lately. The Sleeter Group gave it their Awesome QuickBooks Ad-ons for 2010 award for smooth interaction with QuickBooks data and ease of use. Qvinci is inexpensive dashboard that pulls numbers from QuickBooks and displays it in an easy to see graphs. You can customize it to show four graphs that are important for the owner to see at a glance. You can also use Excel to pull data from and create graphs. I spoke with the owner and he was fast to respond and assist with technical support. So was his staff.  The software pulls data from reports that already exist in QuickBooks, but it lacked in pulling raw data from different areas and trying to pull them into a custom report automatically. You also could not add a formula to an existing graph to create a custom result. This had to be done in Excel. The makers did say that they were making plans add those functions next year. All in all it is a nice piece of software for a reasonable price.

ProFound Impact Business Coaching

Are you READY for some Knowledge and Action? This Coaching Process is geared towards empowering you, the business owner, and key team members, with powerful business tools. It will assist you to clearly see the issues and solve the root cause of difficult business problems. 

ProFound Impact Process Business Tools

1. Product/Service Line Solutions You will know what products/services are profitable vs. a waste of time.Job Costing tracking creating a history of what does and does not work. Weigh new Product/Services that will further your goals.

2. Financial Awareness  Clean up QuickBooks & Train the bookkeeper to keep it that way. Use QuickBooks to the fullest potential.Build Cash Flow to lower debt, develop future services and enjoy life more.

3. Remove Wasted Steps and Time  Apply Lean Processes for faster and cheaper customer delivery.

4. Set Key Indicators  Set your Dashboard to track the top three key indicators and drive your business towards your goals.

5. Strategy for the Future  Map the current situation to see where you are.Set the course for a better future.Create goals and Organizational chart to take you there. 

Call Chris at 360-303-5798 and start taking action now. 

I was facilitating a business coaching session today when the owner of the business surprised me with a challenging question. He asked me what I had learned in coaching business owners through this difficult year. Here are some of the crazy things that struck me.

• This year is like no other. There is no map to follow. Trends are broken. Comparing the business to last year does not help.
• If we listen real carefully to our customers they will help us revamp our products and services to closely match what they really want now.
• Every business is unique in how the recession has changed it. Some services and products are in higher demand now and others have been stagnant over the years and this is a wake up call for businesses to take action.
• If we can survive this year with the key contributors to the business intact and participating in bringing new ideas to the table, that is a fine accomplishment and should be commended.
• It's a time to reach out to others for assistance and assist others.
• If the team can learn to do more with less, bring services & products  to the customer quicker and cheaper than before, then they can be proud of revamping a good business to a great business for 2010.
• If we can learn to be nimble race car adjusting quickly to the road ahead and less of lumbering locomotive than we will be great in 2010.

I have never been so amazed than I have this year by the small business owner's depth of creativity and skills they apply to survive in a down market and the lessons they use to thrive in an up market. What have you learned and what skills are you honing this year?

http://biznik.com/articles/lessons-from-the-recession

This is the ProFound Impact Process:

Monthly Improvement and Business Education Advancement

1. Advanced Financial Management Coaching
   1. One meeting a month. Minimum of 12 months.
   2. Analyze and Improve Business Profits Monthly
   3. Building a Budget.
   4. Developing and Understanding a Cash Flow Report
   5. Benchmarking your company to the Industry.
   6. Unlimited e-mails and phone calls.
2. Job Costing Coaching
   1. Analyzing what each job costs.
   2. Determining the costly issues and how to avoid them.
   3. What went right and how to ensure duplication?
   4. Take each job and improve upon it.
3. Teaching the Bookkeeper QuickBooks Done Right
   1. How to do Quarterly Payroll Taxes
   2. How to post Refunds.
   3. Where to post equipment.
   4. How to update Loan interest write offs monthly.
   5. Unlimited phone calls and emails.
4. Lean Manufacturing
   1. Learn the lean process.
   2. Learn to identify waste in your business.
   3. Learn how to eliminate waste.
   4. Learn to identify the root cause of waste.
   5. Eliminate waste
5. Lean Office
   1. Identify waste in estimating, Invoicing and Change Orders.
6. Technology Advancement
   1. Identify Technology to improve the company.
   2. Recommend one Technology improvement a month.
   3. Make recommendations on timeline.   
   4. Software add-ons for QuickBooks- Scheduler, Inventory, Estimators etc.
7. Future Strategies, Services & Products
   1. What are the key future indicators for your business?   
   2. How will the future affect your business?
   3. How can be proactive towards the future?
   4. What new services and products can your company provide?

 

Value Added to the Business and Owner

1. Advanced Financial Management Coaching
   1. Improve financials by avoiding costly mistakes and improving net profit.  Yearly  $_________  Times 3 Years $_________
   2. More discretionary time.   ______Hours Year
   3. Less Stress with a greater understanding.  ____Reduction of Stress
2. Improving Job Costing Yearly $______ Times 3 Years
3. Teaching Bookkeeper Accounting
   1. Less time spent cleaning up reports.
   2. Stress level reduction.  _____
4. Lean Manufacturing – 80% waste in most processes.
   1. Savings in to the bottom line by eliminating waste.  
   2. Improved on time performance.
   3. Improved Customer Satisfaction
   4. Morale improvement with staff.
   5. Repeat savings in future jobs.
5. Lean Office– 80% waste in most processes.
   1. Savings in to the bottom line by eliminating waste.  
   2. Improved on time performance.
   3. Improved Customer Satisfaction
   4. Morale improvement with staff.
   5. Repeat savings in future jobs.
6. Technology Coaching
7. Future Strategic Planning

Why should anyone add a business coach to their team? For the same reason that you would have a sports coach.

- Improve the skills and knowledge to create the business edge.

- Strengthen your business through repeating exercises in areas of management reports, tracking and analyzing job costing and benchmarking your business to the Best of your industry.

- Focus on areas such as new services and products that will leave the competition in the dust.

- Create a play book with the strategic plan of your business.

- Train your team to become Lean using the techniques of Lean Manufacturing and Lean Construction and stay that way through rough and smooth times.

A good coach will keep you on track mastering your plan of attack and strengthening your business edge.

The Profit and Loss statement is the most important navigational tool of the business. It is often not checked enough to keep the business on course for success. We plan to change that using the ProFound Impact Process to create a deeper understanding of the parts for everyone and reviewing the Profit and Loss statements on a regular monthly basis.

Consider the elements of a Profit and Loss for Contractors broken down into five elements, just like a human being:

Head = Sales Estimates and Client Selling
Upper Body =Cost of Goods for Heavy Lifting & Doing the Job
Waist = Gross Profit
Legs = Expenses Supporting the upper business portion.
Net Profit = Feet- The more we make the faster we can move.

Gross Profit = Sales   -   Cost of Goods

Net Profit = Gross Profit  -  Expenses