Be in control of your business.

Understand the effects of changes.

Be able to predict the effects of proposed changes.

Leave "seat-of-the-pants" decisions to things that don't matter.

Management Accounting

Gives you the information that enables you to take control of important aspects of your business that are usually left to "seat of pants" decisions.

With modern computer systems it will not bury you under mountains of paper or require a whole new department to manage the figures.

Each Product's Contribution

Put simply, if you know the contribution that each product or product group makes to your overall profitability you will be able to make value judgements on increasing or decreasing product ranges and you will know where to concentrate development and expansion.

Applying Engineering Principles to Marketing

If you also measure the effectiveness of your publicity outlets - be they Direct Response Advertising, Corporate Image Advertising, Press Releases, Direct Mail, Exhibitions, Web-site responses, or even your (other) director's days at the golf club you will be in an informed position to make value judgements.

Some trade magazines work better than others - even with much smaller circulation. Some exhibitions are much better than others - even with much lower attendance.  If you monitor the costs of these and allocate them to resultant product sales - by product or product group, you will get the true value or contribution that each makes.

Are YOU in Control?

If you measure something and let everyone involved know the results - it will usually improve on its own!
If you don't measure it, you don't know whether it is getting better or worse and you are not in control. You are relying on the seat of your pants and good luck.

Monitor the ratios

Try working out the percentage of turnover that you spent each year over the last three years on marketing, i.e., advertising, exhibitions, leaflets, web-site, distributor days, etc.. How does it compare with the percentage invested in R&D?  How does the profit contribution of each product or product range vary? Are the ratios getting better or worse?

This is simply applying engineering principles to marketing - very few companies do it but it is common sense.  Once you understand something, you can improve it.

The Lottery

You chose your lottery numbers by the seat of your pants. If you are lucky you will win. Have you won yet? That is no way to run a business.

We can help you set up the systems required to put you in control of your business.

Astonbury Marketing Services
AMS, 19 Colne Road, Brightlingsea, Colchester, Essex, CO7 0DL, United Kingdom
Freephone: 0800 068 6190 Telephone:  +44 (0) 1206 305996  FAX:  +44 (0) 1206 307846
Electronic mail : help@astonbury.co.uk Copyright © 2001 Astonbury Marketing Services