Casandra Avoids Revenue Miss in Seasonal Industry

Let’s meet Casandra. Casandra is a marketing director and has been in marketing since graduating from college. She can’t see herself doing anything else but marketing. Outside of her 9-5, she has helped smaller companies with their marketing plans which has brought in a good amount of extra income.

She specializes in industries that are extremely seasonal in nature. Casandra does not want to provide one off marketing plans to small businesses because it’s not scalable and basically exchanging time for money. She has decided to create marketing courses that will walk small companies through annual marketing plan creation.
Casandra has mapped out 3 courses that she wants to develop. She has targeted to have all 3 courses complete within 6 months in time for when these companies generally start their marketing plans. She will provide the expertise but contract out most of the production work. She has come up with a well thought out budget and has chosen someone based on testimonials and her portfolio.

Going through a risk assessment exercise made Casandra realize that there is something she needed to address. Since the contractor charges per hour and there is a chance that it will take longer than expected, there is a risk of going over budget.

Casandra has come up with a plan: if the contractor is not able to complete the first course in 2 months, she will reduce the hourly rate and get additional help. The contractor has agreed.

Although this will not bring her costs totally back in line to the original budget, it will control the overages and better ensure she will have the courses in time for her prospects. And this will reduce the chance of missing sales revenue related to annual marketing planning.
Casandra did a great job of thinking like a CFO. She not only kept in mine reducing expenses but also increasing the chance of revenue. A good CFO looks at expenses as well as revenue.
To get more details and your copy of what Casandra used for her risk assessment exercise, click here. Please let me know if you have any specific questions about the budget risk example.