Staying cash flow positive and preserving capital is the name of the 2009 game. There are brighter days ahead, and your company will benefit when they arrive. …. if you are still in the game and on the playing field.
Challenging economies make for difficult decisions. This week Mackey Advisors CPA chose to lay off a new hire to insure our survival and long term health. Last summer, we hired for growth based on our strategic plan. Today and in the near term, the economic environment is not supporting our plan. We could have stayed the course, and burned through precious capital, putting us in a weakened state for the recovery. Instead we chose to trim back to profitability. This decision offers the company the ability to maintain its strong balance sheet and allows us to continue to invest in technology and other resources to improve effectiveness and efficiency.
And while all the numbers support the decision, there is also the emotional carnage from a layoff. People are personal and it is hard to make a termination decision. This means listening and being present to the concerns and fears of the team with open and transparent communication.
The first goal of the business is to take care of the business. Some of the other moves we made (and are still making) this year to preserve cash while at the same time aligning the company for the opportunity that will come from the economic recovery are:
- cut the fat -we have carefully looked at our overhead and trimmed fat, careful not to slice into any muscle
- reduced CEO compensation
- increased our service to clients (our goal is that none of our clients go out of business!) without raising our fees by leveraging our time with web technology
- frozen pay short term
- added to our knowledge by learning more about web marketing
- monitor receivables like a hawk
The mantra for this year, yes we can. Will you join us?
May prosperity be yours,
Mackey McNeill, CPA/PFS IAR
President and CEO
Mackey Advisors
859-331-7755
Mackey@CultivatingProsperity.com
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