Purchases: You are in Control

The old Yorkshire adage certainly holds true. My plumbing is fixed, at last. It only took me two years to finally sort it out. Goodness knows how much money and water I have squandered in this time, and I live in East Africa where water’s a scarce resource. “Crazy fool” as BA Baracus used to say in the 1980s TV series ‘The A Team’, and I’m known as a Business Process expert….honestly.

Not intended as infringement of copyright.

2020 is a tough year! It’s been truly terrible for many of us, particularly in lost revenues and the COVID-19 virus is not letting up it seems. The good news is that everywhere says that we can help ourselves cope with uncertainty by zeroing in on those aspects of our lives which are in our control.

Same with my water. It just needed Patrick the Plumber to help me follow my supply back to the source (at my gate), poke a $5 metal rod into the hole in order to dislodge years of muck and hey presto, where there was once only a dribble, now there is flow.

Even in disastrous times, there is one aspect of life that every business truly controls. How it chooses to spend its own money. It may not always be sexy or cool, like a sales award, but it is very, very important. Notice I used the word “choose” very carefully. Because once the choice is made, control flies away. My advice: focus on the moment of choice, the requirement phase, rather than just the moment of payment in order to achieve the most dramatic results. What have I been doing for the past six months? Focussing on fixing other people’s plumbing as well as my own. We at MyBusinessCFO are currently finalising on a revised Require-Procure-Pay business cycle for a high-growth SME which has been mucky, detailed and hard work.

We are almost there now and the business will soon forget the sometimes heated discussions and take the results for granted. That’s OK, so will my household when they take a shower or turn on the washing machine. As I will be saving Patrick the Plumber’s fee multiple times every month, it’ll take a while longer for me to forget.

Our client's revised Purchase Cycle closes innumerable loopholes, tightens who is allowed to order things, imposes proper scrutiny on transactions above pre-approved limits and puts the client in a much better position to deal more fairly with its numerous suppliers. Hopefully they will remember the MyBusinessCFO team as fondly as I still think of Patrick and his team.

Every business, however large or small, has its own Purchase Cycle and I believe that you should review yours, periodically. You will be amazed at the gunk that gets dislodged when you do, even if some of it is truly filthy.

If you would like to talk to me about how we can help you to take back control, feel free to get in touch.