On Nov. 16, the Michigan Small Business Technical Development Center (MI-SBTDC), will be holding their Fiscal Fitness for the Growing Business at Fifth Third Bank at 1000 Town Center in Southfield. The Fiscal Fitness program has been lauded by small business owners who participated in previous workshops as a vital tool and is a “boots on the ground” approach to assist small businesses to help them take their business to the next level.
Topics for the upcoming workshop will include ways to improve your company’s cash flow, how to use your balance sheet and income statement to diagnose business problems and identify opportunities, how break-even analysis can help develop better pricing and make better investment decisions; how to ensure you have enough working capital to support growth and how to keep your banker on your side.
Fiscal Fitness for the Growing Business is a one-on-one, confidential financial management consulting process designed to strengthen financial literacy and improve the ability to access the capital businesses need to grow.
Many small business owners wear so many hats and are doing everything from managing inventory, purchasing goods, marketing and sales to sweeping and locking up. Small business owners are everyone from the receptionist, the IT person and the CEO. Managing the myriad of tasks leaves little time to make room for to handle yet another task. With most small businesses however, the task financial management is more often than not one of the primary duties that is outsourced. This can remove the business owner from the primary barometer of the financial health of their business. As a result, the small business owner is intimately aware of everything that is going on in his or her business except the most crucial aspect. Knowing the financial health of his or her business can help a small business owner sleep soundly at night or it can be the “canary in the coal mine” and help determine what issues need to be addressed to head off potential disaster. Knowing that “the numbers” are crucial to business success, many small businesses do not realize the importance of understanding the figures that make up the balance sheet and income statement. After attending the workshop and sometimes a follow-up meeting, these small business owners typically put many of the concepts and tools they received to use and are much happier with the results.
Fifth Third Bank has been the statewide sponsor of Fiscal Fitness for the Growing Business, funded by the Fifth Third Foundation, since June 2009 and all Fiscal Fitness programs provide management tools for the non-financial manager.
The workshop is a precursor to the MI-SBTDC Fiscal Fitness Counseling Program which provides the business owner up to four 1-1/2 to 2 hours, one-on-one consulting sessions with a Michigan SBTDC consultant over four to eight weeks to complete the program. At each consulting session the business owner’s actual company information will be used to ensure he or she gets a clear understanding of how the concepts that are introduced will work in their business.
CEOs who have three or more years of financial history and want to develop a better understanding of how to use their financial statements to help make better informed decisions will find this program indispensible.
The program is from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at EMU-MI SBTDC @ Tech Town, 440 Burroughs Street, Suite 307A, Detroit. The morning begins with a continental breakfast at 8 a.m. and the workshop is from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. You must pre-register for the workshop. The price has been reduced from $50 to $25 for all attendees. Fifth Third Bank clients are eligible to attend for free. Call (734) 487-0355 to register at no cost.
Other upcoming sessions for 5 Keys to Fiscal Fitness are:
Wednesday, Oct. 20, Downriver Community Conference Center, 8 a.m. to noon, 15100 Northline Rd., Suite 179, Southgate.
Wednesday, Nov. 17, Monroe County Community College, Administration Building in Room A-173, 1555 S. Raisinville Rd., Monroe.
If you are interested in more information regarding the Fiscal Fitness for the Growing Business or would like to register online, you can visit the MISBTDC website at www.misbtdc.org/region9.
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