Was sind einige Best Practices für die Budgetierung für kleine Unternehmen?

In terms of budgeting best practices for small business, I would suggest applying incremental budgeting approach, as the most simple method, where you start off from last year's actual figures and add or subtracts a percentage, for different budgeting categories. Besides defining revenue growth rate, as primary driver for budgeting other categories, I would also suggest leaving room for discretionary or one-off costs that are well justified. Once this operational budget is completed, I would also suggest adding capital budget and cash budget, as basis for compiling overall financial budget.

The first step is to understand the business model and the drivers, what are the revenue streams, what are the growth drivers (and how are they work). Armed with that knowledge you'll be able to truly understand the numbers.

As a small business, the owner is majorly focussed on the cash flows rather than the profitability. As cash is something that the small business would need to expand the show rather than having fancy balance sheets. For them, it is essential to know what kind of revenue and cost drivers they are delaying with to budget their activities and enhance the cash flows. As a small business, it would be more focused on creating a strategy to create local markets and hence their cost drivers would also differ significantly than those of any big corporation!

For small businesses budgeting success its key for managers to Separate Personal and Business Finances: This will make it easier to track expenses, maintain accurate records, and ensure that you're making informed budgeting decisions

Examine and forecast likely revenue. Examine fixed costs and subtract variable expense. Set aside contingency and unexpected costs. Determine profit and finalise the budget.

Keeping end goal in mind, one needs to ensure budget goals is aligned with your strategic, tactical and operational goals. E.g. Tactical goal - Develop new products or expand the number of services you provide. Define what you want to achieve with your budget to help you stay focused on one thing at a time. Ensure achievable goal pushes you beyond your comfort zone but still remains within your reach.

As a CFO I do not see many business owners focus on this step. Very important When you do this your goals become so much more doable

1. Keep the Budget real. 2. Budget v/s actual comparison 3. Review and monitor the budget. 4. Follow Zero-based budgeting in the case of traditional-based budgeting. 5. Focus on the variances especially when the variances are huge. 6. Take notes of the variances and make sure you take them into consideration while preparing the next budget.

In my experience, for small businesses, it's important to: 1. Set realistic revenue projections. 2. Pursue growth in revenue with urgency, making it the one dominant focus of all business activities. 3. Realize that costs can be cut only up to an extent before the cost savings begin to negatively impact the business. 4. Separate personal/business spending. 5. Build in contingencies.

The budget has to be created in a meaningful way, with inputs that represent actions in your control. For example if you sell a course, you will budget how many per month at which price. The price will likely change as you're running promotions and that will also impact the units. Paying for staff has to be broken down too, do you pay a %, based on performance, fixed etc? The best budget is the one you understand and makes sense for your business. One that allows you to make decisions to grow the business rather than just explaining numbers

It is also important to maintain separate bank accounts and financial records for your business. Personal and business accounts should be separated

In my experience helping small businesses with their budgeting, the most common approach is bottom-up. Unless you're a startup or have a highly sophisticated sales department with software to match, starting with your expenses is typically easiest. I begin with fixed costs such as rent, insurance, and salaries. Then I sit with Marketing, Operations, and other departments to understand their plans for the coming year. Lastly, working with Sales and the CEO will help to set revenue and COGS/COS, as well as make any adjustments to other expenses, based on their feedback.

Each method has distinct advantages: top-down ensures strategic alignment, bottom-up encourages participation, and ZBB focuses on cost-efficiency. The choice depends on the organization's size, culture, and goals—combining elements of all can offer a more holistic budgeting approach. Due to the considerable time and effort required by ZBB, which could potentially affect operational speed, small businesses often opt for the other two budgeting methods.

In my experience, the bottom-up approach is best because the amount that is being spent must be in the budget along with planning for future needs. Therefore, the budget must include the COGS (Cost of Goods Sold), Expenses, paying down / off any debt load, and setting cash aside for future needs such as emergencies (expected or unexpected), business expansion, taxes and legal fees, and the owner’s retirement plan. It is then possible to compare the cash flow needed to fund the budget to the current revenue, and manage any shortfall by cutting the expenses without harming the production of revenue.

The value add of the Budgeting process is critical to any size of organization. Budgeting is a living and breathing process that should not drift to a year end procedure. I would suggest a quarterly check-in meeting will all respective stakeholders to ensure collaboration throughout the year.

Changing my perspective on budget reviews completely changed the way I handle my finances! Rather than just scrutinizing numbers, these reviews became a journey of self-discovery. Regular reflections revealed my spending patterns, helping me make smarter choices and celebrate even the smallest wins. By fine-tuning with accurate data and realistic assumptions, my budgeting transformed into a continuous process of self-improvement. It's not merely about reaching the destination but embracing the growth along the journey that truly matters.

Les risques et les opportunités devraient être également identifiés afin de renforcer le réalisme des hypothèses. Les risques et les opportunités devraient également être intégrer dès l'élaboration du budget pour ne pas laisser place aux imprévus

Seeking professional advice when you have a small business is the best thing you can do. When I set budgets up for businesses, I take into account their knowledge, who will be updating it, what data they have available and any other factors that will impact the company's ability to use it in the future. I also train the people that will update in the future and color code the cells to make it easier to know what to update and what not to.

Seeking professional advice is one of the best options for a small business owner. It may not be necessary from the get-go but at a certain point any small business will have to formally define its structure like when applying for a business loan at a local bank. A professional accountant is always a good idea to make sure the books are in proper order. I found it useful creating standard operating procedure (SOP) manuals for things like budget updates and such because that makes it easier for people to look up what to do later on when they need to change or update. Making it process-centric complies with the best practices approach and eliminates the need for institutional knowledge.

Business owners can have blinders on when completing the budgeting exercise. By engaging with a professional they are equipped to point out things you may not have considered and are well versed in analyzing trends that you may not have noticed. Optimizing profit should be the goal of the budgeting exercise. When business owners are involved in this exercise it allows them to understand their business on a deeper level.

Seeking professional advice can be very helpful to a business. Having a good accountant who is willing to educate their clients, a financial coach, and tapping into the free services at SCORE or finding a seasoned business owner who is willing to mentor the business owner can accelerate getting a business off the runway and onto a path of financial success.

Remember that as a small business, you are sensitive and more responsive than medium to large organizations to impact. A negative sales trend this year or a one-time considerable expense can completely change your strategy and out come.

Small businesses will benefit from the annual budget exercise. For maximum results I recommend consulting with a professional to walk you through the exercise. And remember, while budgets are a fantastic tool to help you optimize the profit in your business, you must monitor your results monthly to ensure you are on the right path.

During the budget review and adjustment process it is important to understand which budget items are discretionary and can be cut without harming the production of revenue (meals and entertainment for example), and which expenses are mandatory (marketing and advertising for example), and which expenses must be paid but can be shopped regularly for competitive prices (Insurance and cost of good sold suppliers for example.) The business owner should have a good grasp on which type of expenses directly contribute to producing income, while knowing that paying for those expenses by adding debt is just creating another expense that must be paid. A business cannot borrow its way to solvency.