As a Field Operations Manager for a large franchisor, I would conduct regional business financials classes. These meetings were difficult to plan because the business owners had varying degrees of financial knowledge, different levels of success, and many refused to show any perceived signs of weakness or inferiority to their peers. Let's face it, no one likes talking about money with a room full of work acquaintances.

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I decided to structure the class as a workshop where I would discuss Key Performance Indicators, but not anyone's specific data. For this to be a success, I would need to collect Profit & Loss statements and balance sheets from all the attendees. Additionally, I sent out a survey to discover the key areas each owner wanted to discuss.

Attendance at the workshop was not mandatory since adults tend to be self-directive. In order to persuade as many people as possible to attend, I needed to let each of them know the WIIFM (What's In It For Me?). The surveys allowed me to customize my pitch and gauge their readiness to learn.

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Fortunately, small business owners are often motivated by the same drivers. Most surveys included the topics of profitability, cash flow, and break-even. Their problem-centric learning needs included three primary subjects:

• How can I increase my profitability?

• How can I improve my cash flow?

• How can I decrease my break-even/ How can I hit break-even earlier in the month?

They wanted to make more money!

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For the class, I structured it with very little lecture content. For the lecture portion, I handed everyone a set of financials from a well-operating business. We touched on the key parts of any P & L, and what these statements tell us about the business. We then did the same thing with the Balance Sheet and why it is important to the business. 

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For the workshop, each owner received a folder containing his or her financials AND a second set of financials compiling the entire region's financials. This allowed each learner to leverage what he knew about his own business in the conversation.

I handed out a blank worksheet for each owner to complete with his or her own data as we progressed through the workshop. On the worksheet were all the Key Performance Indicators (ie Total Sales, COGS, Break Even), a space for the participant to enter his information as we progressed through the workshop, and a third column with the compilation data.

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As we would discuss items like Break-Even, we would explain why it was important and how it should be calculated. If someone had an issue or did not understand how to do it, we would walk him through it using the compilation financials. Each learner was leveraging what he knew, learning from the model, calculating his own data, and learning how to interpret the results.

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At the conclusion of the workshop, we surveyed all participants to see if we met their expectations. We also asked if they would attend the session again and if there were any other topics they wanted taught. 

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