How FlowFirst’s Model Maximizes Cash Flow for Your Business
The Operational Flow process works best when each stage supports the next and integrates with Sales and Financial flow.
Maximizing cash flow for your business is central. Not only does having a steady flow of cash help you stay on top of goals and allows you to deliver real results to your clients but is the foundational springboard that jumpstarts business growth and allows you to pursue new goals that will bring your business to the next level.
What is FlowFirst?
FlowFirst®, developed by Hart Vida & Partners, is a business management system that helps companies optimize cash flow by integrating three essential business flows:
- Sales
- Operations
- Finance
Strategy, people and process enable the previously mentioned flows to integrate.
This article will explore Operations (otherwise known as Operational Flow) and how it can contribute to the overall efficiency and prosperity of your business.
What is Operational Flow?
Staying organized with the Operational Flow model awards your business reliable steps towards realizing projects, achieving milestones, and ensuring that your team keeps up to date with their assigned duties and responsibilities.
Specifically, the Operational Flow process encompasses four simple steps that will enhance the ability of your business to deliver an excellent product or service:
- Plan
- Prepare
- Review
- Deliver
Plan
Creating a plan not only keeps clients and employees on the same page but shows your company’s ability to deliver to your customers in a timely fashion.
A successful accounting firm, for instance, can improve its efficiency during the year by holding a weekly planning meeting to discuss goals and expectations. At each meeting, the team will clarify what needs to be prepared, reviewed, and delivered during the coming weeks. Through clear communication and goal setting, you will provide employees clear priorities, address potential bottlenecks early, and meet deadlines sooner compared to working without a plan. Instead of trying to manage work against a plan set months in advance, the firm will work from a focused, week-by-week planning cycle that will keep deliverables on track.
With a clear and detailed plan in mind, you can proceed with peace of mind and elevate your business to the next level.
Prepare
Preparation is the stage where you are preparing your product or service. You are relying on your historical methods of preparation (i.e. what has worked and what has not). All the while, you personally institute quality control and ensure everything ready for the “Review” stage.
A company that reviews their own preparation is essential. This will mean that less errors are caught in the “Review” stage.
Review
Consistently reviewing your preparation allows you to catch mistakes before you deliver your product.
In 1983, Apple nearly drove itself to bankruptcy with the unveiling of the Apple Lisa. Despite Apple’s initial goal to replace expensive minicomputers at the time, Apple blundered on the hardware’s capabilities and market price. Not only did the Apple Lisa have 1 MB worth of memory, but Apple’s list price for the computer was $10,000 (equivalent to a little over $33,525 in today’s money). Consequently, Apple sold 10,000 Lisa computers over the course of two years.
The failure of the Apple Lisa demonstrates the need to constantly revise your plan and ensure that you are meeting your clientele’s expectations. Multiple sets of eyes on any plan will reveal weaknesses or blunders that, once removed, will make your plan more likely to succeed. While meeting deadlines showcases your ability to deliver on time, one unaddressed mistake of whatever size will compromise your business’ credibility in the eyes of current and prospective clients.
If you catch a mistake before it leaves the door, then it will not be a mistake.
Deliver
Delivery is the final stage of a well-developed operational plan culminating into a trusted, tangible product. By putting your work in clients’ hands, you meet commitments and generate real results for your business.
Delivery is the final stage in Operational Flow. Delivering to your clients benefits your business by:
- Reinforcing client trust
- Creating your business’ best marketing source
- Generates renumeration for the product or service
Take pride in what you and your team have worked on while noting how each completed project or product launch can be improved upon for the future. Effective businesses treat delivery not as the end of the process, but as the point where learning, refinement, and future growth begin.
Conclusion:
The Operational Flow process works best when each stage supports the next and integrates with Sales and Financial flow. Planning supports the preparation stage, which then supports the review stage and, ultimately, delivery.
Editor’s note: This article is a collaboration of Alex Hart and Jorge Mariño.
FlowFirst® is a registered trademark of Hart Vida and Partners.
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Identify Your Small Business Sales Flow Opportunity
