Fix this First Welcome to your what first survey. Name Email Do you pay yourself every month? The owners are usually the last to be paid, do the owners get paid every month without fail, in full? No Yes None Do you have a a system for measuring leads and conversion rate? Most small businesses over-estimate how many leads they convert into sales.Leads are enquiries, quotes, phone calls and emails that you send or receive.The conversion rate is the number of sales resulting from these leads, normally expressed as a percentage. Yes No None Does paying VAT & Taxes cause cash flow problems? The delay between receiving payments and paying taxes can stress cash flow in small businesses.Do you dread the VAT bill or struggle to find the money to pay the taxman? Yes No None Is every job completed on time and at the price quoted? (if you contact the customer with any unforseen costs) Calm seas do not make great sailors, but if you are always battling against unrealistic schedules and pricing points there may be a problem with how jobs are quoted.Unless there is a problem with a job that is impossible to predict all work should be completed on time and within budget.Is this true of your garage? Yes No None What is your daily Breakeven value? Breakeven Value is the amount you must take in a day to cover your Cost of Doing Business.This internal metric is a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that every business owner should know.Measuring this daily, not weekly or monthly, keeps profitability at the forefront of operations.Improves scheduling, and provides real-time data to make informed decisions. Are all invoices settled within 30 days? Prompt payment is essential for cash flow, late payment is a symptom of poor management, slack business processes or the wrong type of customer.All work should be paid for within agreed timescales, it is not uncommon to wait 30, 60 or even 90 days for payment when dealing with account customers.If possible negotiate terms for faster payments. Yes No None Did you have negitive cash flow at any point in the last 12 months? Negative cash flow is when outgoings are greater than income.94% of UK SME's suffer from at least one month of Negative cash flow every year. Yes No None Do you have any business Debt? (exculding mortages) Debt is not always bad, but borrowing money to pay for parts, wages and other operating expenses is a sign of a business with a sales-level need.Good debt is borrowing to increase leverage, leasing equipment is a good example, where the return on investment is greater than the interest paid, and may have tax benefits. Yes No None Is the overall margin on parts above 33% Parts margin and mark up is a revenue stream most garages do not exploit fully.Measuring the overall margin is a KPI that allows for fluctuations in margin across different parts and suppliers.A healthy margin (min 33% ) results in increased cash flow and covers the operational costs involved with ordering, collecting and returning parts. Yes No None Does your average customer use your services more than once per year? The 3 ways you can leverage each customer is Average invoice value Number of transactions Referrals Yes No None Do you know which of your products or services returns the most profit? Garages offer a wide range of products and services, some are more profitable than others.Knowing the gross profit of each product/service can help when making decisions to increase profits. Yes No None Does your Business have more than 3 months Operating Costs in Savings? Cash in the bank allows a business to survive unexpected events and business disruption.Too much cash in the bank and inflation will erode the value of the savings.The ideal amount of liquidity is 3-6 months of operating costs. Yes No None Does your Business have more than 6 months Operating Costs in Savings? Any more than 6 months of operating costs in savings should be invested. Yes No None None Is your business lean? (More than 70% efficient?) Do you sell more than 70% of the available hours, MOT slots or other service offerings? Yes No None Do you have any vacancies, or staffing issues? Yes No None Does the person closest to the task have enough autonomy to influence the outcome? Yes No None Does the business have a succession plan for key roles? Yes No None Do you rank on the first page of popular search engines for your primary product offer? Yes No Don't Know None How may reviews do you have? Less than 100 More than 100 More than 300 More than 500 None How long could the business run for without the Owner(s) present? This question aims to establish the stage at which the business is operating.If the owner(s) were to go on holiday and were not able to be contacted (they can still monitor business performance) how long would it be before the staff needed your help? 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Indefefinately None Time's up
