Report detailing an analysis of Gary Tredwells Cash Flow Essays

Report detailing an analysis of Gary Tredwells Cash Flow Essays Report detailing an analysis of Gary Tredwells Cash Flow Essay Report detailing an analysis of Gary Tredwells Cash Flow Essay In this report, I will be breaking down your cash flow forecast in detail and will be making suggestions and pointing out problems and telling you how I would change them. A cash flow forecast is a statement that shows the expected movements of the cash in and out of a business. It is normally prepared on a 12 month basis but predictions will more than likely be done on a monthly basis. Cash Inflows: Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 16850 1900 2600 3000 3200 3600 3700 3900 4000 4100 4200 4500 Cash out flows: Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 16950 1610 3190 3470 3480 3630 3880 3785 3905 4045 3975 4155 This shows cash inflows from January to December compared with the outflows from January to December I will be using these figures to make recommendation for the issues that I have found. Cash inflows: Sales: Issue: At the start it looks like you have good sales. However you outflow started to become higher than your sales you can see this in six of the months on the statement. Your sales gradually increase towards august and is positive but not by a lot, only by à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½115, unfortunately you are still left with a negative closing balance. Credit Sales: Issue: Credit sales this is when a product is sold to a customer on credit, which means they receive the product before they have paid for it, normally the customer will start to pay it off a month after purchase. This method is used to gain more sales. In your business case selling on credit has gained your more sales as credit sales have increased each month the highest point increased to 1500. Credit sales are a bit of a gamble as you can never predict a late or missed payment. However it does increase the inflow on the cash flow statement. Something that you might consider doing is charging people interest if they are late to repay you this way people would be more inclined to pay you on time. Also it means that if you have to pay interest on a bank overdraft because you dont have the money up front because of a late payment it will then cover your costs. Recommendation: My recommendation would be to increase your prices as you have low sales, this might be essential to your survival and this is your main objective. Potentially you could increase your sales if you did some more advertising. By advertising your business more it will cost you quite a bit of money in the short term. However in the long time I think it will be beneficial. Capital Expenditure: Fixed assets: Issue: You have spent a lot of money on your fixed assets, as this is your first business it is essential that you buy equipment that is needed for you to succeed, as they will hopefully last you a long time. I have noticed that you have spent à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½400 on a trolley jack, there are also I few other that you have spent a lot of money on some of which I dont think were really necessary. This money could have been better spent in other areas of the business. Recommendation: Instead of buying all of your equipment and spending a lot of money in one go it might benefit you more if you had rented equipment like the trolley jack and just brought the essential equipment. This is more expensive in the long term but more beneficial in the short term. This will take half of the capital introduced to the business at the start of the month. This is because you will be paying small amounts each month for the equipment instead of a huge lump some at the beginning. Revenue Expenditure Overheads: Issue: General expenses consist of things like rent, gas, electricity, insurance and power. At the moment you are paying à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½200 a month for your rent this is a very good price and only à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½150 every three months for you light and power which is also very reasonable. Your material costs are at a reasonable price but your sales should be doubling the money you spent so this shows like I said early that you should put your prices up. As the prices are reasonable I am sure you shouldnt have to much difficulty keeping up with payments. However your telephone bill is à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½200 a month which is the equivalent of à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2400 a year you need to keep this bill as low as possible as it is costing you a lot. Recommendation: There are only a couple of things I can think of that will benefit you in this area the first would be to contact your supplier and see if you could start buying in bulk this would cost you more in the short term but would be less in the long term. The other suggestion I would make is to change to a contract mobile for the business look for one with unlimited calls this would cost around à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½50 a month, as you are spending on average à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½200 a month this would save you à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½150 a month which is à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1800 a year. Personal Drawings: Issue: At the moment you are taking over à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1000 a month for your self, I am sure this is what you deserve for the work you do. It would benefit the business if you tried to cut this down if possible. Recommendation: Your business will consistently stay negative unless you cut down on the à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1010 you earn a month. Net Cash Flow: Issue: The difference between the cash inflow and outflow of the business is called the net cash flow. Your expenditure is higher than it should be as a result of this your business was only positive once in the first seven months. Also you used up the capital introduced of à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½16000 before the second month which is not good. Recommendation You need to reduce your expenditure in order to survive. From what I see you have a lot of expenses to sales. You could start up new methods of selling your product such as advertising, cold calling set up an internet site. Closing Balance Issue: Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 100 390 -200 -670 -280 -310 -490 -375 -280 -225 0 345 The figures above show your closing balance. Unfortunately for you the majority are negative. However towards the end of the year it is looking better which means if you can keep this going your business has a high chance of survival. You need to keep your closing balance positive because when applying for a bank loan the cash flow forecast for you business is one of the things that they will look at. Recommendation: In the first couple of months as you can see your business isnt doing to great but if you follow the recommendations I have suggested then hopefully your business will turn around like it has started to do in December. If the closing is consistently kept positive then applying for a loan will be essential for the business as it could be used to invest in to the business. However at the moment you would not be able to apply for a bank loan as the majority of months are negative.

Should You Really Be A Creative Writing Major

Should You Really Be A Creative Writing Major SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips So you’re thinking about majoring in creative writing! Completing an undergraduate creative writing program can be a great way to explore your love of fiction or poetry and hone your craft. As edifyingas a creative writing major can be, it may not be what you expect.Dedicated creative writing majors are also quite uncommon, so if you're committed to getting your degree in that subject, you'll have a narrower pool of possible colleges. Thispost will help you decide whether acreative writing major is right for you. Feature Image: Nilufer Gadgieva/Flickr Many Great Schools (with Awesome Writing Classes) Don't Have a Creative Writing Major As I mentioned above, creative writing is a relatively rare major, so if you're solely focused on schools with a dedicated creative writing degree, you might miss out on schools that could be a great fit for you. Keep in mind that a lot of school that don’t offer specific majors still have great opportunities to pursue creative writing, whether by completing a minor, contributing to the campus literary journal, or simply taking classes. Even if you know you want to study creative writing, tryresearching the opportunities available at differentschools with an open mind. You might be surprised by what you find! You're Going to Have to Read- A Lot I once had a friend who loved writingbut hated reading- especially if he had to analyze the text. If you tend toagree with him, and would rather be submerged in a vat of ants than write a paper about Virginia Woolf's use of symbolism to comment onWorld War I inThe Waves, this course of study isn't right for you. Most creative writing majors are run by the English department, and, in fact, many are special tracks within the English major. As such,they involve a lot of reading of all kinds, including fiction, plays, poetry, and literary theory. I was an English major in undergrad, and we were expected to read a roughly book a week in each class. Some were long (I had one professor assign the longest single volume novel in the English language) and some were short, but it added up to a lot of books! You’ll also have to write critical essays analyzing theseworks of literature- if you really only want to write your own fiction or poetry, consider majoring in something else and taking creative writing classes as electives. (Martin/Flickr) You Don't Need a Specific Major to Be a Writer Writing isn't like engineering: you don't need a specific degree to pursue it professionally. The only thing that you need to do to be a writer is to write. Most writing jobs, whether in publishing, journalism or teaching, don’t require or even expect you to have majoredin creative writing. For the few positions that do require a writing degree, which are almost exclusively in academia,you'll actually need a graduate degree (generally an MFA). Studying writing in school is a great way to motivate you to work on your writing andto get constructive feedback(more on this below), but it’s not the only way. A lot of great writers studied something totally unrelated to writing or didn’t go to college at all. You Can Learn A Lot From Really Focusing on Writing So far I've focused mostly on reasons you might not want or need to major in creative writing, but there's one very good reason to do so: you'll spend a lot of time writing,talking about writing, and reading your peers' writing. One of the key features of any creative writing major is the workshop- a small class where students closely read and dissect each other’s work. Workshops can be very productive, since they offer the opportunity for lots of revision and rewriting. However, they also involve a lot of criticism and can be challenging for very sensitive people. Considerhow you'll react to someone not liking your writing or suggesting ways to improve it. Many creative writing majors also require a capstone project or creative BA thesis, whichrequires you to complete a substantive piece of work that's at or near publication ready. For studentswho are genuinely committed to publishing their writing, this project is an invaluable stepping stone. Some Schools Have Special Opportunities for Creative Writing Majors At schools with particularly strong writing programs, majors may have the opportunity to attend special readings or meetings with authors that aren't open to non-majors. They may also have priority for activities like working at the literary journal or university press. These kinds of perks are completely dependent on the school, however, so make sure to research the specific programs that you're interested in. Bestselling author Emma Donoghue reads from her novel "Room" (London Public Library/Flickr) Final Thoughts Creative writing majors offer a unique opportunity to focus on the craft of writing, but they aren't right for everyone. If the following statements apply to you, a creative writing major could be a great fit: You love to read and write. You take criticism well and don't mind other people reading your work. You want to pursue writing outside of the classroom as well as in it. More RecommendedReading Convinced you want to be a creative writing major? Check out our list of the best undergrad writing programs. Creative writing majors go on to a wide range of jobs. If you're exploring different career ideas, check out our guides on how to become a lawyer and how to become a teacher. If you're looking at colleges, also check out our guide on how to pick the best school for you and our list of the best college search websites. For those of you interested in particularly selective schools, we haveaguide to getting into Ivy League schools written bya Harvard grad. Want to improve your SAT score by 160points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now: