It goes without saying that when running a business each and every decision either you or your staff makes could have a serious financial implication.  Everything from energy costs to the quality of paper used in the printers will affect the bottom line; so keeping close tabs on every aspect of the budget will pay dividends in the long run.

Is Your Price Right?

It’s a well-known fact that something is only ever worth what people are willing to pay for it, which can make pricing decisions complicated.  As CEO you have a responsibility to push the barrier of the maximum price at which you can sell your products or services without pricing people out of the market.  Push it too high and your customers will vote with their feet and leave you for a cheaper competitor, but if you don’t push it enough you’ll find your profit margins seriously depleted at the end of the financial year, which will be bad news for everyone.

Do You Treat Your Customers Right?

Customers are usually the MOST important part of any business, but also sadly the most neglected.  The key to improving your bottom line is enhancing your customer offering to create long lasting relationships, turning those who might only have bought from you once into returning customer advocates.

The best starting point for customer improvement is to better understand what they think about your company, products and services to start with.  They key to success here is to better understand and act upon the Voice of the Customer.  By understanding what your customers want and need you’ll be able to put together a strategy outlining how to deliver any areas you fell short in.

Production Costs

Whether your business offers a service or a product, there are plenty of finances to consider when it comes to manufacturing costs.  With a product you have to think about where it is made, how it is made and where and how it is stored.  There is also the cost of packaging to consider.  Similarly, with a service you have to think about whether it is more cost effective to train people to carry out the service offered or to simply hire people who already have the required skill set.

Insurance

All businesses need some form of insurance, it helps to protect the company stock and the people working within the organisation.  However, apart from general cover it is very important that you look into certain insurance polic

Big Business at Sans Souci by Tamio Honma, on Flickr.  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

ies that could benefit a business in your specific industry.  For instance, in the food catering sector, you should look into special insurance policies to cover industry specific risks, such as employees slipping over or burning themselves, or customers falling ill from the food you served them.

Staff Payment

Your staff are a key component of your business so you need to show them this by valuing them accordingly.  Obviously you don’t want to offer astronomical wages, such as a cleaner on the same wage as the chief executive, but you should still offer competitive salaries relative to the position in which the employee works.  If not, you could see a high employee turnover as your workers look for companies that will better remunerate their skills.  Reward based salaries are also a good way to encourage success among the workers of your business.