The CTP Approach

Implementing CTP services can be a step-by-step process. At each step, we may draw from and integrate elements of each of the following:

Strategic Planning
As a business owner, you may have reached a point where your business has grown so much that you can no longer manage by intuition. You have too many opportunities in front of you and too many employees to manage. Creation of a strategic plan will help you identify the opportunities that you really ought to pursue and give you a template for conveying that strategy to employees, bankers and other stakeholders. The planning process may involve:

• Defining what the business’s mission really is
• Assessing the core competencies of the business and its people, and determining whether those competencies support the mission
• Determining areas of the business that need skills enhanced or added
• Assessing growth opportunities
• Developing the model for what the organization needs to look like to achieve the mission and pursue identified growth opportunities

Business Analysis
No plan is complete unless it’s tied to GAAP-based financial projections. These projections help validate or challenge beliefs about your company’s strengths and opportunities. They also provide estimates of capital requirements and what form the capital should take. Most importantly, the projections are the numeric representation of the strategic plan – the plan lays out where the business wants to go; the projections estimate the results of executing the plan. CTP’s analysis and projections may include:

• Assessing the business’s historical financial performance – is it in line with what one would expect for similar businesses?
• Developing metrics and criteria for estimating future business performance
• Estimating the costs of filling gaps in the organization
• Developing a chart of accounts that really represents what the business owner wants to track
• Looking beyond the P&L to how cash is generated or used by the business in areas like receivables and payables management and capital investment
• Integrating growth opportunities into the plan to estimate their effect on the business’s financial performance
• Developing an overall picture of the future profitability and cash-flow generating capabilities of the business that can be varied depending on assumptions for growth and the decisions made by management
• Sitting down with the business owner(s) and key stakeholders on a regular basis to review progress with the plan, identify problem areas and develop plans of action for getting things “back on track”

 
Systems Analysis and Training
While creation of a strategic plan with associated projections is important, the projections don’t execute themselves.  It is also necessary to ensure that your business has the financial reporting systems in place to properly measure performance against the plan. Employees critical to the profitability of the business must learn how their behavior impacts that profitability. CTP can help the business and the owner(s) by:

• Making sure the accounting system can generate meaningful financial reports
• Designing reports that measure performance against the plan
• Designing a set of “dashboard” reports that give the business owner a continual look at a few key metrics critical to the business
• Evaluating whether the company’s existing business management systems are a help or a hindrance to company growth
• Training other stakeholders in the organization how to participate in the information gathering and reporting process – creating a culture of communication and accountability
• Developing human resource systems necessary to support growth, including regular performance reviews, tying pay to performance and implementing cost-effective benefit plans
• Working with bankers and outside investors to secure funding for business opportunities
• Helping the business evaluate expansion, acquisition or growth opportunities
• Acting as an experienced “sounding board” for ideas and issues the owner may face