How to fix your cash flow
When working on improving your cash flow, there are three key steps to take to make large and lasting changes. Each step can be broken down into concrete actions that you can take starting right now.
Year in Review: 2022
A year ago, there was a lot of relief to be finally leaving perhaps the darkest times we have seen in our lives. Leaving that in the rearview mirror was exactly what we needed. We ended 2021 with a sense of relief and a sense of excitement. The world wouldn’t be the same, but great things were ahead in our new reality.
Did My Weather Hedge Window Close?
Weather hedging (for fuel dealers) can best be described as a method to recoup some level of the lost fuel delivery and service profitability that otherwise would have been earned in a warmer than normal winter. They are financial derivative tools designed to counter that hackneyed refrain of helplessness we so often hear: “Hey, we can’t control the weather.”
30% of your competitors could be out of business in the next 3 years…
In any business, in any industry, the “3 legs” that are required to support a business are Sales, Operations, and Finance. Sales can include sales, marketing, customer support and retention, data analytics, social media, etc. Operations includes “everything you do” to serve your customers. In our industry, it is primarily delivery of fuels and the installation and servicing of heating and cooling equipment. Finance includes everything from budgeting, analyzing, reporting, banking, credit, hedging, and more.
You have a job opening we can fill
Imagine you have a job opening for a position covering the followinf responsibilities: Pull data from BOS, budget, etc., create automated custom reports fshowing customer gain/losses, budget variances, delivery history, and performance, service data, analyze customer data for outliers, coordinate with dispatch team and BOS for "smarter" deliveries...
Tackling the Cash Crunch
Many factors are conspiring to squeeze you this winter and the impact could be significant. The good news is that owners and managers have time to plan before the chilly days return and your need for cash to support seasonal operations grows again.
To cap or not to cap…
As retail prices increase, customers who are on pricing programs are shielded from price spikes. Sure, it costs money to be on a cap program, and you might have to be on a budget plan AND have a service contract. But the savings… Caps are intended to protect customers from price increases and allow them to benefit if prices fall. It does come with a cost (the costs to hedge the cap), but those costs are an investment that can yield fantastic results! Dealers who offer caps and hedge them (properly) meet their profit goals and earn a good...
Basis Blowouts: Here to stay?
Is a “steady basis” a thing of the past? Will it return to normal? When might it happen? What if my supplier doesn’t offer me a fixed diff? What if I don’t want one? All of these questions are “top of the mind” as we plan for next winter.
Prices spiked (again). Now what should you do?
On the last day of 2021 the price of WTI crude oil futures closed at $75/bbl. About 10 weeks later, the price had risen to over $90/bbl., and then just 10 days after that, prices traded over $130/bbl. In a 10-day period in February, ULSD futures rose from $2.85/gallon to over $4.50/gallon, an increase of…
Suspended Reality
If there were ever a time to reassess pricing, hedging, inventory management, delivery planning, and asset utilization…now is the time to do so. Sales, marketing, finance, accounting, operations and logistics must be integrated and planned together in order to ensure you operate an efficient business!