How Is Your Company Performing?

As a business owner your CTi Dealership can be a tremendous asset in your portfolio of investments. To see how your business is performing though, you need to see it from three different angles, namely, the income statement, cash-flow statement and balance sheet.

The Income Statement details the business’s cash generating ability. It projects such items as revenue, expenses, capital (in the form of depreciation) and cost of goods. You should generate a monthly income statement for the business’s first year, quarterly statements for the second year and annual statements for each year thereafter.

The Cash Flow Statement details the amount of money coming into and going out of the business – these reports should be generated monthly for the first year and quarterly for each year thereafter. The result is a profit or loss at the end of the period represented by each column. Both profits and losses carry over to the last column to show a cumulative amount. If your cash-flow statement shows you consistently operating at a loss, you will probably need additional cash to meet expenses. Most businesses have some seasonal variations in their budgets, so re-examine your cash-flow calculations if they look identical every month.

The Balance Sheet paints a picture of the business’s financial strength in terms of assets, liabilities and equity over a set period. You should generate a balance sheet for each year profiled in the development of your business.

(The above was taken from the book Start Your Own Business by the staff at Entrepreneur media)

Remember, a stand alone set of books for your business will not only show you its real performance, it will also point out what is working well along with what needs to improve. In addition, a separate set of books for your business will make it much easier for a potential buyer to see what they are purchasing if and when you are ready to sell in the future.

Sales and Marketing Help
by Brad Hieneman

As the exterior installation season travels into full tilt, it’s time to kick your advertising into high gear. While many of you exhibited at the Spring home shows, you now have those leads converted and jobs on the books. So how do you find the next gear?

This article is a review of the tools available from CTi. Remember, help with any of these items is only a phone call away at 800 447 6573.

Print Advertising: CTi offers camera ready ad slicks, both black and white along with full color for both magazine and newspaper advertising. Want to generate some free advertising? Use one of CTi’s press releases with your company information and news filled in. These tools can be found by going to www.cti-concrete.com and going to the training manual under the Business Building Section.

Online advertising: CTi can offer your Dealership its own web site. By utilizing our web site development and hosting service, we can create a site identical to www.designcti.com but with all of your company information included where the corporate information currently resides. All you need to do is secure the domain you would like your company to use (the easiest way to do this is go to www.godaddy.com and perform a search to see if your name is taken). Once you have the domain you would like to use (for example concreteresurfacing.com), secure it through Go Daddy and call our office at 800 447 6573. We will send out an order form to get the information you would like included on the site, build the site for you and upload it to your new domain. In addition, CTi also has a national agreement with one of the leading e-mail blast advertising companies in the country. We can target homeowners with homes of the values you choose, incomes you would like to see and send out a message to these folks’ e-mail boxes. To find out more information on this service go to www.cti-concrete.com and click on the “Advertising Info” button.

Direct Mail: The granddaddy of direct advertising, CTi offers you a number of ways to get in your customer’s mailbox. You can mail the CTi direct mail card that will show up as your own, separate ad. In addition, CTi has National agreements with Val Pak, The Clipper Magazine and Red Plum Advertising for our Dealers. The details of where the various companies mail and their rates are located at www.cti-concrete.com and click on the “Advertising Info” button.

Sales Help: CTi can help hone your sales abilities with its in home instructional DVD. This DVD will walk you through a typical in home presentation and give you tips on how to strengthen your message to your customer. In addition, CTi has its own pitch book to walk you through a presentation along with the Navigator design imaging software and the Estimator estimating software. Don’t forget about all the photos you can download from www.cti-concrete in the “Dealer Photos” section.

As the economy find firmer footing, Dealers across the country are finding more customers with the ads they are currently running. Don’t miss the upswing in business, get your name in front of your customers today.