M4D Autumn Release 2015

Page 5

There are three main elements to business continuity: 1. Resilience be difficult architecture and and critical engineering businesses to maintain Businessfor infrastructure functions are engineered or a balanced flow throughout the year. A successful will form designedcash to be unaffected by most disruptions. This business can take the always be aware of current cash flow and accounts receivables to enable of redundancy and additional capacity. regular distributions and dividend payments. Invoicing systems and clear 2. Recovery payment terms can both help to ensure prompt payment from clients. Our Have systems in place to ensure critical and less critical business functions clients operate with 14 to 30 day payment terms can return to normal operation soon after an incident with minimal or no 3. Lackloss of of reliable systems. A financial management system can be a function. significant asset in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your 3. Contingency business. Strong reliable and up-to-date systems can help you to clearly the last-resort Contingency plans arereact to betoemployed only if see This yourisincomings andoption. expenses so that you can issues before and Recovery planning has either or not adequately protect theyResilience arise. Your business will also benefit fromfailed the ability to quickly filter the business the disaster. financial data byfrom revenue stream so that you can quickly see which areas of the business are and aren’t making money. Financial and business Make the time to analyse your business operations and liabilities to see where management systems can significantly ease the administrative burden your critical weaknesses lie. If you are unsure where to begin, speak with a Rob through automation and efficiency. Filonzi (M4D). Plan for the worst; hopefully it will just be an academic exercise, but not, if trouble you’ll be prepared. 4. ifReducing costs does rathercome than calling, increasing revenues: the ebb and flow of a project-based workflow can mean fluctuations between financial gain and financial strain. It’s easy to rush to cut costs in times of difficulty, but be careful not to cut off valuable revenue streams and / or people at the same time. If money is being spent to stimulate growth then the revenue generated from spending could be far more valuable. Have a good look at your business development strategies and only cut once you have analysed what is and isn’t working for your business. PSMJ is one of the world’s leading authorities and publishers of effective 5. Big picture thinking.for Profit for the sake of it is all good and well, but management techniques architectural sometimes a small profit gain can get in the way of long-term business and engineering firms. They have freely Always think the big picture and long-term goals of your madesuccess. available a number ofabout informative business — with that financial forecasting you’ve done in mind — before and up-to-date e-books for download. saying to projectsforthat will bring in money in the short-term, but that The team at yes Management Design may ultimately but obstructive to future progress. strongly advise business leaders to exploit

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