“When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Winston Churchill

2018 is less than two months away, and the time has come to start planning for the new year. Do you know where to start? Read on for a few tips to develop an ironclad budget that will set your business up for success.

Define Your Business Goals

The first thing to do is define your businesses goals. Are you looking to increase your client base? Do you want to foster customer loyalty and resell to your existing customers? Be sure that your goals are attainable: set SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound) and be sure to evaluate them mid-year.

Assess Your Sales and Expenses

The easiest way to get started is to use past sales figures as a starting point. From there, you can determine your total costs and expenses. The SBA (Small Business Association) breaks costs into three categories: fixed, variable, and semi-variable.

1. Fixed: these are costs that stay the same for your business, such as rent, insurance, leased furniture, etc.
2. Variable: these correlate with sales volumes, and the cost of materials you need for your products and services.
3. Semi-Variable: these are costs that can be variable if influenced by the volume of business. This includes marketing, salaries, etc.

Determine Your Profits

This figure can be determined from subtracting your costs from your businesses revenue. This can help you determine if you can purchase new equipment, hire new employees, or increase your marketing budget.

Allocate Your Marketing Budget

Now that you know your businesses overall budget, you can develop your marketing budget. Opt for low cost marketing techniques like digital marketing, which can easily be integrated with your existing direct mail strategy. Be sure to develop a realistic and robust budget since marketing can bring in new customers and help resell existing ones.

The team at Darwill has years of experience with assisting our clients with goal setting and budget planning. For more information, or for a consultation, please contact us today.