February 3rd marked another great speaking opportunity for Accountfully. Our Managing Partner, Brad, was part of the South Carolina Specialty Food Association’s Annual Conference in West Columbia, SC. He sat alongside a few other professionals on the business services panel to answer questions and educate local food entrepreneurs in a number of subjects, including accounting.
What Is SCSFA, Anyway?
The South Carolina Specialty Food Association (SCSFA) is the only state-wide organization dedicated to promoting the best specialty food products available in the Palmetto state. It is a non-profit organization that seeks to further the development and awareness of the South Carolina specialty foods industry through education, networking, peer support/mentoring, and promotions.
For over 20 years, the South Carolina Specialty Food Association has helped farmers, producers, and retailers across the state grow their businesses through joint marketing programs, promotional campaigns, and technical assistance.
The Annual Event Agenda
Each year the SCSFA holds an event that covers more than just the hum drum association administration parts, it becomes a wealth of information, inspiration and collaboration for its members. It hosts industry relevant pros to share tips, such as large grocery store buyers, business mentors and fellow food entrepreneur success stories.
Who Was There
This year, the local buyers panel consisted of individuals from The Fresh Market, Whole Foods and the Padgett Smith Project (formerly Piggly Wiggly). The business experiences speakers were Chevalo and Monique Wilsondebriano, inspiring owners of Charleston Gourmet Burger Company. They discussed how they grew their special business from nothing.
How Accountfully Contributed
The popular subject of the day was definitely accounting, where Brad answered a slew of questions regarding proper accounting structure, what to look for in a bookkeeper, debt financing and inventory management. He also shared Accountfully’s own client success story; The New Primal.
There Were Many Questions, But the Subject of the Day Was Definitely Inventory
Inventory is a very large part of any food business, so Brad explained the importance of how understanding where your largest piece of your business is and how the proper reporting can show where it is truly making or costing your business money. Accountfully breaks out revenue by sales channel, like website sales versus Amazon, etc. By segmenting out each channel into revenue, gross profit, operating profit, you can make better decisions to see where you are truly making your money.
Many newbies to Accountfully’s processes are excited to understand the many systems we implement to better understand these numbers. The SCSFA audience was very pleased to learn how outsourcing their accounting could not only provide them with accurate and up to date financials, but help them understand the real numbers involved in their products.
Accountfully’s Very Own Success Story: The New Primal
Brad was able to share one of Accountfully’s special success stories as it pertains to food entrepreneurs and growth. New Primal was one of the first clients that put Accountfully on the map. The New Primal initially struggled with payroll tax and normal bookkeeping challenges, but were able to get on track with Accountfully’s help. The value added by Accountfully grew the company to where they actually eventually outgrew Accountfully’s abilities at that time. They were also one of Accountfully’s biggest fans and were responsible for a great amount of new clients by word of mouth.
Debt Financing for the Small Business Owner
As is the case with many smaller scale businesses, financing came up. What is best, how to get it, etc. Luckily for the SCSFA audience, Brad had lots to offer in that arena. In short, to get financing, it is best to have accurate and up to date numbers at your disposal. Accountfully provides this, so it makes it a lot easier to gather any reports needed and to understand if you are even in a position to start asking for funds. Accountfully has a webinar exclusively on this subject, that can be viewed here.
Overall, the SCSFA Annual Conference made for a very informative event, and we hope we inspired and helped our local food entrepreneurs by offering some advice and showing where they can get some of the tools to better understand their business and grow. We believe good information is worth sharing and will continue to be involved in events such as these.
If some of these subjects and concepts hit home, we would love to talk more and see where we can help. Give us the rundown on your business through our get started form. We look forward to hearing more.
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