Know your numbers

10 December 2021

By KYLIE WALSH

From the greatest adversity comes the greatest learnings – and that’s certainly been true in recent months. Kylie Walsh shares her thoughts about how you can use your experiences to inform business planning.

How quickly times can change.

When I first sat down to write this article, things were so very different. The market was booming and there was a real buzz and momentum across the industry. For my part, I had a new business that was outperforming my initial forecasts, with business retreats booked out through to October.

Fast forward a few months, many of us remain in lockdown and there’s no end in sight. While buyer demand remains strong, stock is low and the Spring market looks like it will be quieter than usual. My own business has taken a hit. Retreats have been cancelled and keynote addresses postponed.

All of this has led me to think a lot about business planning and budgeting.

Business planning is a must

Over recent months, it’s been wonderful to see so many in our industry supporting each other. The efforts of industry leaders to foster wellbeing initiatives and ensure their teams remain connected has been inspiring.

I am, however, concerned about our efforts as an industry to support our leaders and business owners in relation to business planning. Far too many that I speak with still don’t have a budget or cashflow projections in place to reflect current market conditions, which is a worrying fact.

As an industry, we’re generally not great at setting aside cash reserves to see us through difficult times and build wealth. But surely the last 18 months should teach us that business planning is a fundamental business requirement, rather than a “nice to have”.

Get your house in order

I encourage you to use this time to invest in yourself by investing in business planning.

• Obtain the very best financial advice. Your accountant and other advisors are critical at times like these. First-class partnerships mean everything. Don’t settle for second best. It’s time to plan ahead and protect your business, because there may not be a “next time” for you to get it right.
• Leverage your accounting software. If your budget for the next 12 months is not already uploaded to your accounting software, make it happen as a priority. Make sure you know the break-even point for every sale and management, and identify leakage points. Which properties are holding you back or costing you money?
• Move forward with a profit ethos. Make this your guiding principle and only work with high-performing people who have the DNA that fits with your values and objectives. We all work too hard and invest too much to be working with people and property that cost us money and don’t generate profit.

KYLIE WALSH is a well-known industry leader and the founder of RE Growth with Kylie Walsh. You can connect with Kylie at regrowthkyliewalsh.com