Tag: Financial Management

Growing a business requires meticulous planning in all fronts, but one that is often overlooked is the Financial Management plan. Though you may only run a small business for now, no doubt you have dreams to make a name in the world of business even more. This is where Financial Management comes into play.

Financial Reporting and Accounting
This type of reporting is essential if you want to keep track of your companys financial history and will give you an accurate picture of all your companys income and expenditure. Upon analysing the accounting and financial reports, you will be aware of what your company is spending and just how much. Earnings from specific product lines or services can be identified, as well as sales contributions from your marketing staff. This type of reporting is an essential way to manage your costs and analyse your marketing efforts.

Financial Statements – Simple Financial Ratios
Analysing your financial statements and using simple financial ratio gives you a clear indication of how your company is faring against other companies. Though it is not essential, it can really point out what your company might be lacking and what needs to be improved upon. If you strive to be the best in the industry, it only makes sense to benchmark your company against other great companies. You can review how sales trends are affected by the change of season, or change in taste of your consumers and more.

Ongoing Research
Stay on top of your game by conducting research on how other companies are handling their expenses and the new methods or technologies which will aid you in controlling these costs. Companies who are willing to set aside some budget for research will be rewarded handsomely in their bottom line. A good research can point you to the right direction, whether or not you have to tweak some procedures or streamline your operations to improve your performance. Ultimately, you can devise strategies to improve areas that not up to par with competing companies.

Financial planning and budgeting
Good financial planning is essential for any company or organisation. This involves planning ahead and setting key projected targets or figures which will be used in comparing the budgeted verses actual figures. If you can reach your targets and manage your expenditure in achieving it it will leave your business in a healthier state.

In a highly volatile market and hard economic times that the world is facing right now, proper and concrete business planning can help your business to survive and even flourish. In the case of financial planning and managements, they will do more than just review your financial statements, but also to make sure that expenses can be controlled effectively and dont go to waste. This way, when time is right, those expansion plans can come into fruitions.

A well known university SMU is most famous for health and medical. Now, it is famous for distance education also. In the recent days, it has been known for distance MBA very promptly. The university provides own written books for its MBA education. There is an introduction of financial management book.

There are 15 chapters in the book. The book deals the management problems and financial resources in business firms. Financial management is known as basic managerial actions relating to the three major decision areas such as investment, financing and dividends and working capital management.

The book comprises 15 units:

1.Financial Management – the chapter explains the meaning, scope and examines the goal of corporate financial management.
2.Financial Planning – the chapter explains the meaning and need of financial planning.
3.Time Value of Money – the chapter introduces about time value of money and discounting of cashflows.
4.Valuation of Bonds and Shares – in this chapter writer explains about the valuations of bound’s principles and equity shares.
5.Cost of Capital – this unit describes the concept of cost of capital.
6.Leverage – it is one of the most important chapters in the financial management which deals financial and combined leverage.
7.Capital Structure – in this chapter many theories of capital structure has been introduced.
8.Capital Budgeting – the chapter explains the meaning, significance of capital budgeting decisions and about various investments of appraisal techniques. 9.Risk Analysis in Capital Budgeting – there has been introduced risk in capital budgeting decisions.
10.Capital Rationing – it examines the steps which involved in capital rationing process.
11.Working Capital Management – there are various concepts of working capital and factors that influence the working capital requirements in a firm. 12.Cash Management – this is the most important component of working capital.
13.Inventory Management – the unit describes about various forms of inventory management.
14.Receivables Management – cost of maintaining receivables, formulation of credit policy and determination of an optimal credit period has been discussed in the chapter.
15.Dividend Decision – basically, the chapter deals about payment of shareholders.

These are the brief description of financial management book of SMU MBA. A student can find more about these chapters in the book of Financial Management.

In todays world, more and more companies are on the look out to employ financial consultants to effectively meet the accounting/investing needs of their corporation. Hence, job opportunities for a financial consultant are significantly on the rise. By becoming a financial advisor, one can set foot into the exceedingly dynamic sector of financial management and planning.

In the domain of financial management and planning one can find jobs such as a :-

Financial service provider

Research analyst

Financial consultant

Whilst hiring a the following skills and capabilities are sought after by the employers-

In the highly dynamic field of financial management and planning a professional must have the ability to attend to detail, organise and handle multiple tasks together.

The capability to find out the logic behind a problem or situation is a must for financial consultants.

An upcoming financial advisor must be competent in the monitoring of securities, trading of money and analysing of the stock market. A Financial service professional must have the ability to recognise trends in the stock market and generalise from it, rationalise the reason behind the trends and predict the time period of these trends. This process is beneficial for both corporate and personal investors to make informed decisions.

A vital aspect of the domain of financial services is to help customers understand the market and to make secure and precise predictions. It is to be noted that making predictions about future trends is often indistinct and at times can be risky. But the skill of a good financial service professional is that he has the ability to foresee significant features of the market and has a good overall perception of issues that are likely to affect this market.

Assisting private investors is a major part of the work profile of a financial service professional. Hence the financial professional is expected to have specialised knowledge of tax laws, alterations that are probable to take place to the existing tax laws and influence of these changes on estate planning / investment.

A good understanding about investments/insurances/complexity of the stock market is a vital skill which is required in order to be a successful financial service professional.

Good communication skill is also another crucial factor for becoming a proficient finance professional.

The qualifications required to work as Financial Service Professional is a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration or Economics or similar. Additional knowledge of global markets and corporate finance, in-depth know how of economics and analysis of risk, trading in the forex market and commodities market is an added benefit.

These are the basic skills you ought to possess for exploring your opportunities in the wide arena of Financial Management and Planning and becoming a Financial Services Professional.