Viper Marketing & Communications Group

Let Cash Join Your Team

Author: Neil Wilkins

Neil learnt his marketing with the likes of Orange, NatWest, BP Castrol and Ordnance Survey and now helps individuals and businesses to communicate more effectively. He trains and mentors marketers on professional Chartered Institute of Marketing qualifications through to post-graduate level.

In the world of small and medium sized businesses it's a commonly held belief that Cash is King. This philosophy has migrated into larger organisations who for years had relied on the deep pockets of lenders and financial institutions to help fund growth and development.

If cash has such an important role to play then it needs to be taken seriously, not only by accountants and book keepers but by everyone in the organisation, whatever part they play.

Return on Investment is a fashionable phrase used to define the financial value of activity, projects and campaigns. One of the key outputs of ROI is of course cash, but it doesn't just grow on trees or arrive easily from such activity. It needs to be nurtured and coaxed out in a coordinated fashion by everyone involved.

An interesting way of approaching this money management is to treat cash as part of the team. Give it a role, give it a job description, bring it to team meetings and talk to it much as you would a real person in the team. Give it regular appraisals so you can help it to improve performance. Bring it to life with a real personality. Sometimes it'll perform well and at other times it'll need support and maybe mentoring and extra attention to get back on track.

Bringing cash to life makes it real for people in the team who don't naturally consider it part of their role. Of course if ultimately the success of the organisation relies on the cash it's able to raise to support it then everyone should see the benefit of working closely with it as a key member of the team.

- Posted on Monday 23 May 2011 at 10:40 by Neil Wilkins

Tags: cash-flow (2), roi (7)