Financial Cents | Arizona's Financial Podcast

Keeping Your Business Healthy & Profitable During Uncertain Times Part II

July 08, 2020 John Lewis and Stephanie Sims Season 1 Episode 6
Keeping Your Business Healthy & Profitable During Uncertain Times Part II
Financial Cents | Arizona's Financial Podcast
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Financial Cents | Arizona's Financial Podcast
Keeping Your Business Healthy & Profitable During Uncertain Times Part II
Jul 08, 2020 Season 1 Episode 6
John Lewis and Stephanie Sims

Picking up the discussion from our previous episode about what businesses can do to remain profitable during uncertainty, we’re keeping the conversation going on profitability. Are the fixed costs of running a business really all that fixed? When should you turn to technological resources to make processes in your business more efficient? It isn’t nearly as glamorous as generating new revenue or boosting gross revenue, but there’s quite a bit businesses can do to increase efficiencies for big net gains. Because for every dollar a business earns, there’s a cost associated with it. And by lowering that expense, you can make your revenue dollars go much further.

In this episode of Financial Cents, host Brent Cannon picks up the conversation with returning special guests Stephanie Sims and John Lewis to talk about increasing operational leverage. John Lewis is a senior vice president and business banking manager at National Bank of Arizona, and Stephanie Sims is the founder of Finance-Ability and author of the book “Funding Your Business Without Selling Your Soul.”

According to Sims, “Operating leverage is how you can do the things that need to be done more efficiently,” and it involves looking at “the way that you provide your services or products, or even in the way that you acquire your customers, that you can do those things a little more efficiently. The way that helps is obviously by saving on cost, because what it allows you to do is obtain the same level of revenue at a lower cost.”

John adds, “as the economy goes up and down, your fixed expenses are going to stay the same and never go away.” So the key is taking a hard look at those expenses and deciding whether or not they justify the revenue they’re helping you create.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or view full episodes at nbaz.com/financial-cents.

A division of Zions Bancorporation, N.A. Member FDIC.

Check out more content Financial Cents content by visiting: https://www.nbarizona.com/financial-cents/

Show Notes Chapter Markers

Picking up the discussion from our previous episode about what businesses can do to remain profitable during uncertainty, we’re keeping the conversation going on profitability. Are the fixed costs of running a business really all that fixed? When should you turn to technological resources to make processes in your business more efficient? It isn’t nearly as glamorous as generating new revenue or boosting gross revenue, but there’s quite a bit businesses can do to increase efficiencies for big net gains. Because for every dollar a business earns, there’s a cost associated with it. And by lowering that expense, you can make your revenue dollars go much further.

In this episode of Financial Cents, host Brent Cannon picks up the conversation with returning special guests Stephanie Sims and John Lewis to talk about increasing operational leverage. John Lewis is a senior vice president and business banking manager at National Bank of Arizona, and Stephanie Sims is the founder of Finance-Ability and author of the book “Funding Your Business Without Selling Your Soul.”

According to Sims, “Operating leverage is how you can do the things that need to be done more efficiently,” and it involves looking at “the way that you provide your services or products, or even in the way that you acquire your customers, that you can do those things a little more efficiently. The way that helps is obviously by saving on cost, because what it allows you to do is obtain the same level of revenue at a lower cost.”

John adds, “as the economy goes up and down, your fixed expenses are going to stay the same and never go away.” So the key is taking a hard look at those expenses and deciding whether or not they justify the revenue they’re helping you create.

Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or view full episodes at nbaz.com/financial-cents.

A division of Zions Bancorporation, N.A. Member FDIC.

Check out more content Financial Cents content by visiting: https://www.nbarizona.com/financial-cents/

Intro
Guest intro: John Lewis and Stephanie Sims
What is operating leverage? How can businesses maximize them?
What should a business consider when it comes to leveraging technology versus human capital?
What is the value of budgeting, saving and seeing a trend line?
A budget provides perspective
Disclosure