Financial Measurements: The Key to Your Business

Article by:

Stephen Halasnik

EO New York

Stephen Halasnik is President of HEALTHCAREseeker.com, which places traveling nurses and allied health professionals throughout the United States. He has been an EO member for two years.

Having a financial measurement process in place has helped me to be successful and, more impor­tantly, feel like I run a good company. At the end of the month, I can’t wait to see what these mea­surements will be, whether negative or positive, so that I can determine what strategies are work­ing and not working.

It isn’t just that I review these reports, but that I also track the key ones such as revenue and profit against year-to-date and monthly goals. This includes the use of graphs so that I can visually see where we are and post results so that my team can see our progress, too.

Here are some questions I ask myself to ensure I have solid financial measurements:

• What type of financial information is critical to my success?
• How can I produce that information accurately?
• Is my accounting department using the right tools (software) and booking expenses/sales accurately?
• How often do I need to review these reports?
• How can I put the information into a visual format to measure results vs. goals?
• What resources do I have to help me with financial issues?

I am not just interested in running a business that makes money; I want a company that is also pro­fessionally run. To me, a financial measurement process is an important step to achieving both of these goals.