Predictions for All Your Clients!

Jan 02, 2024 by Roger Scherping



You’ve built a successful business as a trusted financial advisor. Your clients rely on you and your staff of trusted advisors to produce accurate financial statements every month, to interpret the statements for them, and to use those statements to help them improve their profitability and cash flow.
                                                                                           
But why stop there? Would your clients benefit from a look into their future? Is there a way your entire staff can quickly and easily produce a 12-month prediction for each client? Something that requires very little training and could easily be used by everyone on your staff? And would you like to generate additional billing hours every month with a new service like this?


Seeing the Future

When I was turning around small companies, there was one thing I did that helped make me successful. I used my ability to look into the future and see where we were going. I’m a CPA and good with spreadsheets, so I was able to answer questions like: When will we start making a profit? How much cash will we need? When will we achieve a positive cash flow?
                                                                                                                            
I later realized that all small companies should look ahead like this. Regardless of their financial condition, all small companies need to know what problems lie ahead. They need to understand where their cash is headed. They need a way to make quantitative business decisions instead of relying on gut instinct. They need the peace of mind that comes from seeing where their business is going.

You give your clients their backwards-looking financial statements every month. That’s great; they need that. But let’s face it: No one drives their car looking in the rearview mirror. They drive their car looking forward through the windshield!

Based on my experience with my clients, I believe that showing them their financial future is the greatest benefit a trusted financial advisor can provide to their clients.

With a solid understanding of their future, your clients will better understand the numbers of their business, have a 12-month financial plan to follow, and have the peace of mind that comes from knowing where their business is going. As their trusted financial advisor, you will have happier clients, a better differentiated business, and more revenue. Sound good to you?

There is a huge opportunity for you here because not many trusted financial advisors go beyond preparing the monthly financial statements, nor offer any type of forward-looking advice.

So what exactly is a prediction?


What the Heck is a Prediction?

At ProjectionSmart, this is how we describe a prediction.


- A prediction can project what will happen if the company remains on its current path. It can also compare the current path to a more aggressive or more conservative scenario.

- A prediction can also analyze several different possible courses of action, like a new product or production line or an acquisition. Then it can quantitatively project which one makes the most sense financially.

- With ProjectionSmart, a prediction can be done in just a few minutes. This is a low-effort, high-reward opportunity.

- Does “strategic planning” sound intimidating? Does it sound like something that your client couldn’t possibly do? Again, we prefer “prediction,” and we make the process simple enough that anyone can do it.

- There are lots of online “templates” that you can download. Most require a level of understanding of accounting that is beyond the average small business owner. But there is no need to use a complicated template when you can do a prediction using ProjectionSmart’s simple online tool. There is really no training required with ProjectionSmart.

- There are also lots of online financial planning tools, but they are all aimed at sophisticated financial managers. ProjectionSmart is the only tool that was created with the small business owner in mind and tailored to the typical small business owner’s level of financial acumen.

- We use only high-level data, the rolled up balance sheet and income statement, because we are doing a form of modeling. This is not a detailed financial analysis tool. It’s a high-level decision making tool. This approach appeals to the small business owner who prefers to works best at the higher level and wants to avoid complexity.

- We rely on history for comparison purposes. Also, since most small companies don’t do a budget, we often use the prior 12 months as a basis for the next 12 month’s budget. We want to make this process easy.

- A prediction is not a one-and-done thing. A prediction can be updated quickly and easily, so it can be done every month so that your client has a rolling 12-month view of their future.

- A prediction doesn’t require a complex spreadsheet. We have incorporated the function of a complex spreadsheet into our easy-to-use online tool. You don’t need to worry about a formula error somewhere or a bad assumption that drives an erroneous result. You just concentrate on your inputs and the results.

- Since all of your staff is using ProjectionSmart, there is no friction to staff members switching clients. They can jump right in and pick up where the previous staff member left off. No need to learn and understand a spreadsheet that the previous staff member created.

- Your data is stored securely online and accessible from anywhere.

- Finally, we have found that your client will understand their prediction better when they are involved in the process of creating it. That’s why we made ProjectionSmart easy enough for the small business owner without a strong finance or accounting background to understand.

                                                                                                                     
So a ProjectionSmart prediction is not overly technical and difficult. It is focused on the small business owner. It provides maximum benefit for minimal result. Done monthly, a prediction provides a rolling 12-month look ahead to show your clients where their business is going and give them exactly what they need to succeed.


Monthly prediction service

So add a monthly prediction prepared with ProjectionSmart to the services you provide your clients every month. ProjectionSmart is very simple to use, and it requires only a few minutes per month to achieve many benefits for both them and you.

Maybe you are able to bill for an additional hour each month to create their prediction, or maybe you bill them an additional fee for their prediction. It’s up to you.
                                                
When you do a monthly prediction with your clients, they will be more successful and more comfortable with their numbers. They will be anticipate and avoid problems, leverage resources more effectively, make more quantitative business decisions, and feel much better about their business’s future – all because of you!

On your side, you will increase your monthly revenue, have happier and longer-term clients, help your clients be more successful, and differentiate your practice.
                                         
After all, who doesn’t want happier and more successful clients and more revenue? Let us help.


Here’s a video to show you how easy ProjectionSmart is to use.                                                                               
                                    
Try out the new ProjectionSmart here.


 

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