I remember it well. My dear office manager would excitedly call me, “Steve, we have over $30,000.00 in our business account!” (This was back when 30K was a lot of money!) But I think I hurt her feelings when I replied…
“That’s nice, Kay. But you see, I don’t CARE how much money we have now. It’s already spent! What I want to know is… how much do we have in the pipeline!” And she couldn’t tell me! My fault- not Kay’s! (One of my favorite SFS sayings is: “The fish rots from the head down!” And I was the head!)
What every business needs is a quick page-at-a-glance “State of the Union” Report on what is coming at them. (Both good AND bad!) So no matter what size business you run I strongly suggest you…
Implement a one page Weekly Financial Flash Report. (Download the one I used HERE.)
Even though it says “Financial” our Flash Report analyzed much more than current and future funds. I also wanted to know how many contracts we had signed, any employee “issues” and an analysis of each customer complaints we had received over the last week. My Flash Report also gave me an update and completion percentage for each current and pending restoration loss.
NOTE: You should have your Flash Report on your desk by 9:00 AM every Monday. (Which means your staff should pull it together on Friday afternoon and just do final tweaks early Monday.)
Commercial HINT: Be sure to include any tenant complaints so you can be “proactive” with your Property Managers.
Restoration HINT: It is all about SPEED in restoration losses. After all, insureds want their life back and adjusters get graded on “movin’ that paper”! So track your promised completion deadline versus percentage of work done each week.
NOTE: I should have titled my weekly Financial Flash Report my “Don’t Surprise Steve” Report! I HATED being “sand bagged” in business and this weekly Report was a life-saver!
Steve
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