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Ratio Analysis for Small Businesses – What You Need to Know?

Whether you are an individual just starting your own business or an entrepreneur who wants to scale up their business, the financial ratios are a helpful tool. Financial ratios are the key steps in helping your company determine whether it’s getting the most out of each of its assets. It enables you to understand the value of different assets and their use. The process of ratio analysis also provides a snapshot of your business to help guide your financial decisions. The financial ratios go beyond the financial statements to evaluate the financial performance of any business. This series explains ratio analysis, its uses, examples, tools, and outputs. We then take you through four simple but crucial ratios that any business owner interested in maximising return on investment should evaluate as part of their small business analysis. 

What is the process of ratio analysis? 

 

Ratio analysis assesses the value of various assets in your business. It is not a financial statement analysis. It focuses on one specific asset — your business’s most valuable, most utilised, or most profitable asset. The goal is to determine the relative importance of that asset and all other assets in your business so that you can better understand your financial situation and the direction of your business. The balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement offers limited insights, but financial ratios go beyond such statements to reveal important things about an organisation. Sometimes, ratios serve as a warning sign which shows that the existing strategies should be changed. It depicts what is working and what is not working for the company. 

How to do ratio analysis? 

 

Financial spreadsheet program can be used to perform the process of ratio analysis. These programs allow for easy creation and analysis of graphs, tables, and charts that allow for detailed analysis and easy data visualisation. You can also create a simple spreadsheet to track your assets and liabilities and use a ratio calculator to get a quick and easy visual representation of the data. You can also use spreadsheets to generate a cash flow projection for your business. These programs enable you to do this in a very customised and business-specific way that allows you to examine your cash flow and project potential increases or decreases in future cash flows.

On the other hand, business owners can outsource their accounting and bookkeeping services to a third party. Outsourcing accounting and bookkeeping services bring endless benefits to small and large businesses. The experts are highly qualified and possess relevant experience in solving accounting needs. They conduct financial analyses for businesses and determine how efficiently the owners manage their business. Outsourcing serves as a cost-effective and less time-consuming option for organisations. The owners can focus on more productive activities and leave the rest with the experts. 

The four key ratios for small business owners to evaluate 

 

The first ratio you’ll want to look at is cash-flow yield. This is the amount of money you are earning from your assets per amount you are spending on your assets. The cash-flow yield ratio is simply the cash flow divided by the sum of all the assets in your business. This ratio can help you determine how efficiently your cash is being spent by determining the profit you make per dollar of income.  

The second ratio you’ll want to evaluate is the profitability ratio. This ratio shows how much money you are making per dollar of assets. The profitability ratio is calculated by dividing your profit by the total assets in your business. This ratio is helpful when you’re only looking at a portion of your assets, for example, your investments.  

The third ratio you’ll want to evaluate is its return on invested capital (ROIC). This ratio measures the overall profitability of your investments. The ROIC ratio is calculated by dividing your profit by the total amount of money you have invested in your business. This ratio is helpful when you’re only looking at a portion of your money, for example, your initial investment. 

The last ratio is the debt-to-worth ratio which depicts how dependent a small business is on its borrowed finances compared to its funding. It compares how much you owe to how much you own. The total liabilities of the company divided by the net worth gives the value of debt-to-worth ratio. The debt-to-worth ratio should not be greater than 1 since it indicates that a business has more capital from lenders than its own. Banks or financial institutions might see this as a risk before granting loans.
 

Key takeaway 

 

The process of ratio analysis helps small businesses in numerous ways but, most importantly, to view and analyse trends. Similar type of companies can use such trends to facilitate comparisons. In addition, investors use such information to gain insights into the actual financial health of an organisation. Thus, it is important to perform such an analysis to get the most out of your investment. The earlier you understand your assets and liabilities, the easier it will be to make informed decisions about the future of your business. 

The key to conducting ratio analysis is to keep accurate financial statements. Using the numbers in the financial statements, the ratios can pinpoint where the business is going, where it may be running into problems, etc. Being a small business owner, it is important to know the value and success of your company. One way to do that is through financial ratios, which help to simplify and clarify your business finances. Financial ratios enable businesses to improve their current and future financial state. Especially small businesses can analyse business risks and predict financial forecasting through ratios. In this way, it saves small business owners from committing financial blunders and saves costs.  

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