Today is the start of our 12 days of Christmas Challenge when I’ll be sharing tools and techniques – and giving away a few gifts – to help you better understand your business numbers.

Todays partridge in a pear tree is our popular Profit Planner™. A lot of business owners think that profit is what is left over from sales after costs, overheads and salaries. The truth is that you can plan and structure your business to generate exactly the amount of profit you want to fund your desired lifestyle.

We do it with our clients all the time. Just listen to Annabel the founder and CEO of Medical Practice Management Limited – “I honestly believe I (MPM) wouldn’t be where it is without your help, guidance and positivity so thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

To use the tool you must first work out how much you want to draw from your business, after tax of course, each month. Include everything such as a bigger mortgage, holidays, school fees, a new car etc. Multiply it by 12 and that’s your annual drawings into your bank account.

Now open up the Profit Planner™ worksheet (which you can download here) and follow the instructions starting with where you are now (from your latest accounts) to complete the numbers in the first box.

Tomorrow the two turtle doves will show you how to complete the remaining boxes; when its complete you’ll know exactly how many leads you need to generate each week to achieve your profit goal.

Good luck (and if you need help drop me an email)