.svg)
The Challenge
Calgary based Retail and Service Small Business with growing sales, steady margins but zero bottom line growth. Fifteen years of operation and the owner felt like he was working harder each year to stay in the same place. Sales growth. Increased owner time demands. No cash growth. Not a fun place to be.
Initial Advice
The owner reached out to his existing accountant. The accountant said you need to decrease your costs. No advice on what costs to reduce, how to reduce them without affecting everything from inventory levels and customer choice and service. Just simple advice, decrease your costs. The owner felt lost.
Huumans Advice
A Huumans’ Partner stepped in for a detailed look. Not only was the answer not to cut costs, but the potential for bottom line growth was exciting. The business had certain service elements that were not only high margin but were a marketplace differentiator. If the owner allocated more physical space and increased marketing spend around these high margin service elements, then not only would he have more free time, but the business would begin to turn a profit and cashflow would be produced.
Did he cut some expenses, yes, he did. But with a Huumans’ Partners help, he cut through the noise of the high-volume low margin item sales and instead laser focused on high margin low volume service sales.
Challenge Met
The owner began to look at his business differently after that. He realized that a business is made up of many components that are interconnected and interrelated and at times some parts overshadow the others, and it is the ability to stop, be still and look at your business in a different way, and more importantly to think about the pieces of the business and how they all work together.
The owner then employed Huumans’ budgeting using the Finroy application to monitor his progress and to assess monthly the overall gross margin he was now producing. And for the first time in many years, he and his wife took a two-week vacation with their children and the family dog.
