Ana Weaver
Regardless of your professional field, sooner or later you will be faced with the need to make management decisions. Most of them will require you to analyze data and support your point of view with financial indicators.
In addition, mistakes with financial metrics can lead to huge losses. For example, Wells Fargo in 2017 charged its 570,000 customers for auto insurance they didn’t need. It cost the company $80 million in back pay.
And in the world of startups, various homework or essay writing sites such as PayToWritePaper, and other types of sites, according to various studies, up to a third of all companies go bankrupt because of incorrect cost estimates critical to product strategy, inadequate pricing of products and services provided, and underestimation of the level of working capital needed.
You will learn how to manage money in everyday life
Do you have a financial plan? And specific measurable goals for the next six months or year? Do you know your main sources of spending? And can you figure out if you should take out a loan to buy something now?
A basic understanding of finances will allow you to find the answers to these questions. You’ll determine what is your asset (source of income) or liability (source of expenses). And most importantly, you’ll understand how to grow your assets with the capital you have.
New professions will open up to you
If you plan to work in the financial control department, you will most likely calculate certain costs at the level of a particular project or even an entire region. You will also make projections on key indicators, such as revenues and direct costs, cash inflows and outflows.
Finances aren’t everything
Here are three more skills for a successful career. The first is, of course, knowing Excel. It’s not even the functionality of this application, but its prevalence. If you don’t know Excel, you won’t be able to talk to most people in the same language.
The second is the ability to structure data and communicate your thoughts clearly. Very often you come across letters, analytical notes, and other documents from which it is completely unclear what they are about and what the meaning of this documentation is.
The third is the ability to analyze and interpret data. It is not enough to calculate by formulas and present a set of indicators to management. It is important to be able to draw conclusions from your analysis and determine the cause of this or that trend.
How do you know what skills you need? Think about what you want to do. Once you have decided on the occupation, make a list of the skills a person in that position should have. Discuss this with friends, colleagues, or acquaintances in your chosen field and complete the list.
Start the study with one particular skill. Preferably the one that will take the least time to master. As you master a skill, mark on your list what you have already learned. As the number of marks on it grows, the desire to mark all the items will only increase. An additional incentive will be your friend, in whose list at least some of the skills overlap with yours.
How to conduct a successful meeting
Personal meetings are the most important stage of the relationship with the client. It is during them that the impression of you is formed, which will be very difficult to change later. Prepare thoroughly: study the materials for the upcoming meeting, analyze the market and what competitors are doing, try to learn as much as possible about the area in which the client works. Projects and the fate of the business will not be entrusted to a person who does not understand basic things for the industry.
The way you dress, remember? That’s why it’s important to choose your closet responsibly. Do not wear things that look sloppy, underline the simplicity or go against business ethics. Your task is to look on par with the client in order to make a pleasant impression, on the one hand, and not to make him feel uncomfortable, on the other.
In any situation, maintain subordination. All clients have their own character and their own style of negotiation: some of them are very polite, others have a more aggressive manner. Do not give in to provocation. Politeness in any situation is a manifestation of professionalism.
At the first meeting the most important thing is to understand what the goals of the project are, and what exactly the client wants from you (sometimes they need help in formulating them). It is important to be discerning, to clearly formulate questions and not be afraid to clarify: “So, do I understand correctly what we need to do next?” Otherwise, you risk ending up in a situation where you and the client have a different understanding of objectives and goals and you’re addressing the wrong problem.
To make sure you don’t forget anything or miss important information, keep a written outline. If you understand that important issues will be discussed at the meeting, ask for permission to make a dictaphone recording. Just remember: Not everyone is comfortable speaking while the recorder is on.
How to finish the meeting
An important last piece of advice. The only good way to end a meeting is to repeat what you’ve agreed to before you say goodbye. If you didn’t say anything at the end of the conversation, you probably didn’t agree on anything.
And of course, duplicate the arrangements in a letter: send the client a follow-up on the meeting and ask him to confirm that you recorded everything correctly and did not forget anything. That way you can be sure that the interests of all parties are met.