Professor Zulmira Silva, M.Sc., teaches finance at Fapuga. At the Business and Management Workshop, created by Dr. Ana Carolina Puga, general director of Nepuga/Fapuga, she spoke in her talk about how to run an aesthetic clinic efficiently.
“I often say that financial management is the heart of a business, because it is the sector that “pumps” money to the whole company. If you don’t know how to manage money properly, bankruptcy can be the outcome. Sebrae (Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service) has a statistic showing that companies open and close in less than five years, and the biggest problem is business management, not what the professional actually knows how to do”, the professor explains.
Therefore, the goal of the talk was to discuss how to make decisions based on short- and long-term planning grounded in a budget, as well as to understand the importance of financial controls.
Workshop: Principles of Management in the Financial Sector
Management as a whole has four principles that can be applied in practically every sector of a company. In this talk, however, Professor Zulmira discussed each of them as they apply to the financial sector of a business.
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Plan: for all the plans and investments a company will make, in any sector and in general, it is necessary to do planning, a budget to guide spending through the next year or the coming months.
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Organize: after planning, it is necessary to organize the structure of the activities. To do so, you need to create processes for carrying out the project, assigning activities to each person.
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Direct: this means leading, motivating, guiding, and communicating with a business’s employees, in order to avoid turnover of professionals in your company.
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Control: pay attention to internal controls, rather than jotting things down any which way and without purpose. All these spreadsheets (or however you choose to run your controls) need to have relevant goals and indicators.
Objectives of Financial Management
After understanding that these basic principles of financial management must be followed to run an aesthetic clinic efficiently, the company can move on to achieving its objectives.
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Keep the company in a permanent state of liquidity, as a basic condition for the normal development of its activities;
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Obtain new resources for expansion plans, based on economic and financial feasibility studies and at the lowest possible cost (internal and external scenario analysis).
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Ensure a balance between profit objectives and financial liquidity objectives, quantifying expansion plans according to the possibilities of obtaining resources, whether one’s own or from third parties.
In addition, Professor Zulmira stresses that a business can only survive and expand if its finances are in order. And to that end, financial control and cash flow can help the company stabilize and create strategies for the future.
How to Manage the Finances of an Aesthetic Clinic Efficiently?
So, after all the groundwork the professor provided to explain the importance of financial management in a company, a well-organized process for a clinic’s finances consists of:
- Recording all financial transactions;
- Separating personal finances from the clinic’s;
- Having a cash flow statement is essential;
- Being aware of the need for an emergency reserve;
- Investing in technology for this control, or simply a well-built Excel spreadsheet;
- Planning a semiannual or annual budget.
In addition, the professor highlights the importance of separating finances between your personal and business accounts. She also leaves three pieces of advice:
- Have a business account, without mixing it with your personal account;
- Make transfers to your personal account to cover your personal expenses, such as rent, school, trips, etc.;
- And lastly, do not use company reserves for personal expenses.
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