Sales Forecasting Method

Properly forecasting sales helps you plan and prepare for the months and years ahead, allowing you to control costs and focus on successful growth strategies. A good sales forecasting methodology also helps your business run more efficiently. The most practical method for forecasting sales is to base your projections on historical sales results and your past experience. The right sales forecast method for your business is the one that is closest to your actual sales results within a reasonable margin of error.

Step 1

Gather your company's past income statements. Go back several years. Sales data from your income statements over the last five to 10 years has more predictive power than just using last year's sales to forecast this year's sales.

Step 2

Calculate the sales growth rate from year to year. Divide the current sales by the prior year's sales. For example, if your sales this year were $487,000 and last year's sales were $412,000, the sales growth rate is 18 percent ($487,000 divided by $412,000). Repeat the process for all other years in the series of sales data. You should have five year's worth of sales growth rates if you go back five years.

Step 3

Compare the sales growth rates year to year. Plot the sales growth rates using a spreadsheet for visual representation. Ideally, your sales growth rate should increase over time.

Step 4

Analyze various factors that impact sales to gain a better understanding of why sales grew or slowed from year to year. Determine the cause and effect relationship of variables, such as customer demand, worker productivity, advertising and promotion. For example, hiring an additional salesperson has an impact on sales. Demographic trends, such as an influx of consumers with high household income, can also have an affect on sales. Greater advertising and promotion affects sales, as well.

Step 5

Identify external factors that affect sales. External factors include the general economic environment or macroeconomic trends, such as unemployment, interest rates, consumer sentiment and inflation. Other macroeconomic trends include the level of competition. A greater number of competitors can potentially depress your company's sales, which you must forecast into your sales projections.

12 Kunci Pendelegasian Tugas Yang Efektif

Delegasi merupakan salah satu keterampilan manajemen terpenting dan bagian integral untuk mendapatkan hal-hal yang dilakukan secara efisien. Pendelegasian yang baik akan dapat menghemat waktu, mengembangkan individu, meningkatkan keterampilan serta memotivasi tim secara keseluruhan.
Manajer yang baik harus memahami dan menerapkan pendelegasian dengan penuh tanggung jawab. Dan efektivitas pendelegasian manjadi kunci efisiensi fungsi organisasi sehingga ia dapat memfokuskan energinya pada tugas-tugas prioritas.
Berikut 12 langkah untuk pendelegasian tugas/ kerja secara efektif :

Menentukan Tugas

• Identifikasi pekerjaan dalam prioritas kita yang dapat didelegasikan 
• Putuskan tugas-tugas mana yang akan didelegasikan 
• Pastikan daftar tugas tersebut memenuhi kriteria untuk didelegasikan

Memilih Orang / Tim Yang Tepat

• Fikirkan siapa yang dapat membantu, bersedia, dan tertarik dengan tugas yang akan kita delegasikan 
• Apa alasan kita mendelegasikan kepadanya

10 Ways to Reduce Food Cost

Ultimately there are only two ways to make a food business more profitable: you can increase sales or reduce cost. In a depressed economic environment increasing sales is challenging. The following tips are proven methods of reducing food cost:

1. Measure It

“You can’t control what you don’t measure”. Regular stock takes provide a basis for the calculation of the “Cost of Goods Sold” (CoGS). CoGS are calculated using the following simple formula.

Opening Value + Purchases – Closing Value = CoGS

The CoGS as a percentage of Sales is a valuable measure for food cost control.

A spreadsheet can be used as a easy and cost effective solution for calculating Opening and Closing stock values and tracking purchases.

2. Shop Around

It is important to build a relationship with your suppliers, howeverit is also healthy to compare prices with competitors to ensure you are getting a good deal. Keeping a finger on the pulse of market prices by regular price comparisons can reduce food cost.

3. In-House Preparation

Preparing food in-house rather than purchasing pre-prepared ingredients can reduce food cost. There are a wide variety of pre-prepared ingredients available, from pre-cut vegetables to pre-made sauces. Typically pre-prepared ingredients are substantially more expensive than their raw ingredients.

There are a number of considerations when comparing pre-prepared with in-house preparation including:

• Labor cost
• Availability of suitably skilled staff
• Quality