Business owners and managers are continually encouraged to make changes to their business operations to keep up with the times. There are a number of consultants and change masters who advocate the theory, if you are going to make a change, make it a big one. Perhaps in some situations, there is some merit in this suggestion.

However making big changes is often frightening and involves making expensive choices in how to move forward. As a consequence, the business owner or manager often hesitates and decides the changes are just too much at this time. Therefore nothing gets done and the problems only increase.

Another equally effective strategy is to target a number of small changes to your operations. These changes are less costly and not so frightening. The Japanese have called this process Kaizen, defined as:

"A business management system or philosophy aimed at producing ongoing incremental improvements throughout an organisation, especially in quality and efficiency." (The Free Dictionary)

In 2015 for example, you may seek to improve the cashflow from your customers. The best way to proceed may be to review one step at a time over the coming months. First however, as January is virtually over, you may simply decide to review the sales to cashflow process for your business. For example stage one might be; how do we accept an order and identify the creditworthiness of the customer?

In the coming months, we will review one step at a time with the view of concentrating on that step to ensure you fully understand the process. This way any changes required can be completed quickly and efficiently and without too much disruption to your daily business operations.

What we are seeking to do though taking these small steps is to start you making changes within your comfort zone. In time, as you make more changes and get use to the concept of change, you will generally find that each change becomes easier to manage.

At the end of day, nothing stays the same. Therefore being aware you need to keep reviewing and making changes as appropriate, is simply one of your normal tasks for the survival and growth of your business.

If you are looking for help to make these changes or to work out the stages in your sales to cashflow process, contact Kim Radok at kim@creditmatters.com.au