Love it or hate it, spring-cleaning is a necessary evil. And that goes for your home and business. As the days grow longer, take some time now to shine a light into the deepest corners of your company. It can save you some long nights later, and you just might find a bundle of cash hiding behind those dust bunnies!
For instance, when David Hohman joined Segpay two years ago as VP of Finance, he came in with a plan — to look at our business from top to bottom and search for ways we might find inefficiencies — which led to savings of more than $20,000 per month.
To help you with spring-cleaning your business, we polled senior executives to come up with the top four ways to develop and perform your spring-cleaning plan.
Open Your Wallet and Examine Expenses
It’s easy to hand out corporate credit cards to cover everyday business expenses. But how often do you really review the purchases that are made on those cards? Are there products or services you no longer use — but are still paying for? For example, we found a host of recurring charges — from software licenses to business subscriptions that our company was no longer using. Had we not looked deeper; we might still be paying those unnecessary expenses.
Look across departments and hold your team members accountable. For example, is your IT department running as efficiently as possible? Are they holding vendors responsible for delivering on time — avoiding costly overruns on development projects? Is your marketing department getting a solid return on investment for the dollars you put against advertising, PR and events? The old saying holds true: “What gets measured, gets done.”
Dive Into Corporate Compliance Documents
As boring and tedious as it sounds, spring is also a good time to review important corporate contracts and documents. You’re having to do a lot of it already for tax season, so go the extra mile to make sure your business affairs are in order.
Start a checklist:
- Are all your company directors and Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs) current on corporate documents?
- Have any key leaders moved or changed addresses? Do you have their driver’s license and passport numbers if needed in an emergency?
- Have you updated and/or re-registered your corporation within the state of jurisdiction? If you’re incorporated in another state, different from your company headquarters, is that still necessary? If not, you could be faced with double taxation and compliance laws.
- Have department heads review all important business contracts to make sure information is accurate and things like automatic extensions or proper notice of termination are followed.
Conduct a Human Resources Review
Spring is a perfect time to review your Human Resource practices, policies and procedures. Do you have the right number of staff members in place to execute your company’s business strategy? Is one department top-heavy, or have priorities changed that require a restructuring? Are you compensating your employees fairly compared to industry standards? Are you conducting annual reviews? Is your employee handbook up to date? Are you communicating with employees on a regular basis? If not, now is the time to put a better plan in place. Effective communications are critical to business success. It builds morale and fosters teamwork.
Think About Financial Year-End Preparation Now!
Even though it’s spring, now is the perfect time to start thinking about year-end reporting. For example, did you send out W2s to all full-time employees and 1099s to all your U.S. contractors, affiliates, producers and models on time this year? Review key contracts with clients and affiliates. Are they still profitable? Does the business still make sense and add to your overall profitability? Take the time to reach out to your payment processor to confirm your reserve amount and funds held. Checking those details now can save you headaches down the road.
Let’s face it — taking these steps is nowhere near as fun as a walk in the park on a beautiful spring day. Taking the time to get your business house in order will both lighten your load and allow fresh ideas to bloom.
Cathy Beardsley is president and CEO of Segpay, a global leader in merchant services offering a wide range of custom financial solutions including payment facilitator, direct merchant accounts and secure gateway services. Under her direction, Segpay has become one of four companies approved by Visa to operate as a high-risk internet payment services provider. Segpay offers secure turnkey solutions to accept online payments, with a guarantee that funds are always safe and protected with its proprietary Fraud Mitigation System and customer service and support. For any questions or help, contact sales@segpay.com or compliance@segpay.com.
