Included in every session will be one or more Skill Set exercises to help you engage with the Big Ideas presented. While this is optional, don’t cheat yourself and move through the Roadmap without applying the concepts you’re learning! Challenge yourself to complete every Skill Set activity and see what changes in your business as a result. We promise good things will happen.
Are you well-versed in using Profit and Loss Statement to calculate your profit and to strategize on how to become more profitable? Review the Session 8 Profit and Loss Statement examples, or use this template to start, and complete the following exercises.
Determining how often to run a P&L
- Making a plan on what you want to accomplish by utilizing P&Ls is a great first step.
- Do you want to use a P&L for monthly, quarterly, or yearly review?
- Do you know the benefits of each?
- Write down a few goals for monthly, quarterly, and yearly P&Ls. What do you hope to learn? Are there areas of concern? Are there specific areas you want to improve? Do you hope to simply have a better understanding of how you’re doing on a regular basis?
Recording the Data
- How do you plan on faithfully recording data to plug in to your P&L?
- Create a plan on how to record data daily.
- Is there a time of day that works best for you to record and organize the data so it’s ready to pull when you need?
- Where is data slipping through the cracks?
- What plan do you need to make to seal the cracks and faithfully record data?
- What will be the format of recording the data so it’s organized and reasonably available for use?
Plugging in the data and running the report
- What times of the week, month, and quarter do you plan on running a report?
- Do you need to open your calendar and plan times so you don’t miss them?
- What tools do you plan on using? Do you need help with templates?
- Do you have a file where you plan to place the reports so you can review them?
Interpreting the results
- Are you starting with an idea of what you hope to accomplish?
- What are your problem areas, and what does the P&L deny or confirm?
- What are you surprised to see from this higher view of your profit and loss?
- Are there results that you don’t quite understand and you need to consult with someone on?
Communicating the results
- Who on your team do you need to share these results with for clarity and collaboration?
- Set aside a specific time to meet with team leadership to discuss P&Ls.
- Ask them what their areas of concern are.
- Ask them for their thoughts on developing a strategy to address areas of concern, and to advance in the direction of more profitability
Developing a strategy
- Identify areas of concern, or areas of success that you want to build on
- Create action steps to improve
- Play through a couple hypothetical scenarios regarding areas you want to improve, and revise action steps according to what you learn
- Decide who will be responsible for implementation
- Create communication structure for progress updates
- Set dates to review and refine strategy with key leadership
Refining your process
- At some point, you’ll need to revisit your P&Ls and decide if current efforts are positively impacting trends.
- What needs to change in the following months to make sure you are hitting your yearly goals?
- Who needs to be brought into leadership strategy that isn’t there already?
- Are deadlines being missed? What scheduled meetings need to happen on the calendar to keep everyone accountable?
- Do you need more meetings or less meetings?
- Are there tools/technology available to help manage the reporting process?
