Financial management is very crucial for the smooth running of any business. It is essential to have proper accounting practices to evade a situation where the cash flow balance becomes extremely unmanageable and can lead to severe losses and even bankruptcy.
Particularly for companies operating on loans and investment capital, it is essential to maintain the finance books regularly and monitor all areas of concern to make timely decisions and schedule timely repayments to avoid bankruptcy.
One of the most crucial things to manage for business owners is debt. Debt is the capital a business owner borrows from an external source and agrees to return within a particular time, along with a certain proportion of interest. Although debt can be a valuable tool to start your business venture, you need to confirm that the debt is playing in your favor and not against you.
Sometimes, companies require money while making purchases of inventory and equipment. You can compare debt to a tiger consuming your business. If you fail to eliminate it from the company, you will ruin your goodwill and find nowhere to undo the loss. Furthermore, if the supplier does not supply you with credit, you might be unable to offer salary increments, insurance policies, and bonuses.
Here’s how financial mismanagement and accumulating debts lead to your company’s bankruptcy.
Piling up interest rates: When a company borrows money repeatedly, interest rates will increase accordingly. The higher the interest rate you agree upon taking the loan, the bigger the chances of bankruptcy if you cannot start repayments as per the decided schedule. Several reasons can be attributed to the rise of interest rates. These include the company’s credit history, the business owner’s personal credit history, the banking transaction history of the company, the company’s credit rating, and the country’s macroeconomic situation.
Not abiding by the repayment schedules: Repayment refers to the payback of a loan and the interest rate. Repayment becomes your company’s responsibility when you borrow a loan from a lender on terms and conditions. Even if your company fails to meet the desired goals and gain profit, you must pay on time. Regardless of the circumstances, the lenders will ask for repayment, and in case of delay, they have the authority to declare you bankrupt. You will utilize all the company’s assets through legal proceedings for payment.
Directly costing the company’s human resources: Debt always harms a company’s human resources. The reason is that it cannot facilitate and hold onto the employees with incentives. Debt never allows salary increments, bonus amounts, or insurance. This act resulted in several resignations of professional and skilled employees. Additionally, your company’s reputation will surely be destroyed, leaving it lonely in the ocean of debt.
The older the debt, the higher the interest, and the greater the fear: Another significant obstacle is the old age of the debt. The older a debt becomes, the more difficult it is to repay. If a company fails to repay the loan on time, the interest rate will keep increasing until it gets paid. The older your history of debt in your accounts, the more traumatic the situation will become.
Failure to meet client expectations: When there is an increment in leverage, the company might try to reduce costs by compromising the production quality of products and services. Customers seek another quality brand with lower standards and quality and shop from there. This act results in reduced income, and now it is more challenging to repay the debt than ever.
Cash flow imbalance: Too much dependence on debt financing will cause a company to have a lower cash flow since interest and principal payments are on the debt. A business can determine its debt-to-equity ratio to measure its reliance level on debt financing. The lower the balance will be, the better it will be. Negative or lower cash flow is one of the most significant obstacles businesses encounter.
Debt will always be adverse for a company. Indeed, companies should have lower obligation amounts to ensure the prosperity of their business. To summarize, if your company fails to repay the debts timely, it will grow into a tiger and eat up your company in no time.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Uncover Essential Entrepreneurship Secrets for Success
Entrepreneurship secrets are the proven strategies, mindsets, and systematic approaches that successful business founders use to transform ideas into thriving enterprises, encompassing everything from developing the right entrepreneurial mindset and building solid business fundamentals to mastering financial management, customer relationships, and scalable growth systems.
After twenty years as CEO of Complete Controller, I’ve had the privilege of working with thousands of entrepreneurs across every industry imaginable. The patterns are crystal clear: successful entrepreneurs follow specific, repeatable strategies that dramatically increase their odds of beating the sobering statistic that 21.5% of private sector businesses fail in their first year[5]. This comprehensive guide reveals the essential entrepreneurship secrets that can transform your business journey from uncertainty to sustainable growth—the same principles our most successful clients use to build thriving enterprises.
What are the essential entrepreneurship secrets for success?
Answer: Entrepreneurship secrets include developing an entrepreneurial mindset, mastering business fundamentals, building strong networks, managing finances wisely, and creating scalable systems
Entrepreneurial mindset encompasses nine critical traits including determination, laser focus, exceptional drive, decisiveness, independence, authenticity, flexibility, continuous learning, and creativity
Business fundamentals require comprehensive planning, thorough market research, proper validation before launch, and systematic approaches to growth rather than relying on luck
Strategic networking opens doors to mentorship, partnerships, funding opportunities, and the emotional support necessary for navigating entrepreneurial challenges
Financial management and scalable systems form the foundation for sustainable growth, preventing the cash flow problems that cause 29% of startup failures[2]
The Entrepreneurial Mindset Foundation
The foundation of every successful business begins with cultivating the right entrepreneurial mindset, which research shows encompasses nine critical characteristics that distinguish thriving founders from those who struggle. Determination stands as the cornerstone trait, representing the refusal to fear failure and instead seeking solutions when setbacks inevitably occur. This determination works synergistically with laser focus, enabling entrepreneurs to avoid distractions and maintain concentration on activities that directly drive business growth.
Successful entrepreneurs demonstrate exceptional drive by developing daily habits that keep them aligned with their goals. They maintain the decisiveness necessary to make rational decisions quickly in high-pressure situations while exhibiting comfortable independence in problem-solving. Yet they still recognize the immense value of strategic collaboration and networking. Authenticity permeates all their interactions, creating genuine connections with stakeholders who may not always believe in their ideas initially but cannot question their passion and commitment.
Developing mental resilience and adaptability
The most successful entrepreneurs exhibit remarkable flexibility in their approach to work-life integration. Traditional schedules simply don’t apply when you’re building something meaningful—these founders think about their ventures constantly and willingly work whenever necessary to capitalize on opportunities. This flexibility combines with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, driving continuous learning and recognition of when additional expertise is needed to bring ideas to life.
Mental resilience becomes crucial when facing entrepreneurial challenges. According to recent data, 92% of entrepreneurs have no regrets about starting their business despite the difficulties, with 70% starting their ventures because they wanted a career or lifestyle change[8]. This resilience pairs with patience to stick with problems long enough to solve them, seeing required investments now to gain desired results later. The case of Melanie Perkins exemplifies this perfectly—she was rejected by over 100 investors for three years before receiving her first investment for Canva, which now serves 60 million customers across 190 countries[14].
Business Fundamentals and Strategic Planning
Every successful entrepreneurial venture requires rock-solid business fundamentals, beginning with comprehensive business plan creation that serves as your strategic roadmap. This document details business goals, achievement strategies, market analysis, target audience identification, financial projections, and operational planning. These elements prove essential not only for maintaining focus but also when seeking funding from investors or lenders.
Market understanding represents another critical component requiring thorough research to comprehend industry dynamics, target audience preferences, and competitive landscapes. This knowledge enables identification of market needs, trend anticipation, and effective business positioning. Understanding customer preferences and pain points allows for tailored product or service development that provides genuine competitive advantages.
Avoiding critical planning mistakes
Research reveals that 42% of startups fail because there’s no market need for their product, while 29% run out of funding[2]. Many entrepreneurs make critical errors by skipping fundamental validation steps in their eagerness to launch. They secure funding and build minimal viable products before conducting proper customer discovery, customer journey mapping, and comprehensive idea validation. This approach almost guarantees failure because products that hit markets without meeting genuine consumer needs result in completely wasted investments.
The most successful entrepreneurs validate ideas as the first step before seeking any funding. They conduct thorough customer discovery through surveys, pre-orders, and beta testing programs to confirm market demand before full product development. This systematic approach significantly reduces the risk of joining the 42% of startups that fail due to lack of market need.
Network Building and Customer Relationships
Building strategic networks opens doors that would otherwise remain closed throughout your entrepreneurial journey. Cities and regions supporting entrepreneurial ecosystems recognize this networking imperative, often establishing resources to connect entrepreneurs with mentors and key players in local business communities. These relationships help discover necessary resources, receive early marketing support, obtain scaling advice, and get assistance answering fundamental business questions.
The data backs this up powerfully: 61% of entrepreneurs find customers through word-of-mouth referrals, making relationship building absolutely crucial for success[8]. Smart entrepreneurs actively seek mentors with experience in their industry or entrepreneurship generally. These relationships provide invaluable insights, guidance, and advice that help avoid common mistakes while expediting learning processes. Mentors serve as sounding boards for ideas, challenging assumptions and pushing entrepreneurs to think bigger while helping refine strategies and improve decision-making.
Technology integration for competitive advantage
Modern entrepreneurial success increasingly depends on leveraging technology to enhance operations, productivity, and market reach. Even businesses with offline-first models cannot afford to skip digital footprints—lacking online presence results in lost credibility and makes customer discovery significantly more difficult. Smart entrepreneurs start with clean, mobile-friendly websites, establish Google Business Profiles, and maintain active social media channels.
The integration of artificial intelligence and automation tools represents a growing opportunity for entrepreneurial advantage. Implementing these tools early through platforms like Zapier for automation, HubSpot for customer relationships, and QuickBooks for financial management can free up valuable time for focusing on scaling activities[10]. Even small efficiency improvements compound over time, providing significant competitive advantages in increasingly competitive markets.
Financial Management and Growth Strategies
Effective financial management emerges as vital for business sustainability, involving close monitoring of cash flow, budget creation and adherence, and maintaining financial cushions for unexpected expenses. Smart financial practices include regular financial reviews, minimizing unnecessary costs, and making informed investment decisions that help avoid pitfalls while planning for future growth[9].
The surge in new business formation tells an important story: entrepreneurs filed 5.2 million new business applications in the U.S. in 2024, representing a 48.6% increase over 2019 levels[16]. This unprecedented growth creates both opportunities and challenges. Successful growth requires systematic approaches combining multiple strategies working together. Product-market fit amplification creates foundations for powerful network effects, enabling more efficient expansion models. Strong revenue models provide stability needed for aggressive scaling approaches, while optimized growth teams make these strategies work effectively.
Building scalable systems early prevents the bottlenecks, errors, and customer frustration that inevitably emerge as businesses grow. Smart entrepreneurs invest early in affordable, scalable tools that grow with their business rather than requiring constant replacement as operations expand.
Conclusion
The entrepreneurial journey transforms from overwhelming to achievable when you understand and apply these proven secrets. From developing the right mindset and building solid fundamentals to mastering financial management and creating scalable systems, each element plays a crucial role in your success story. The data shows that businesses following these systematic approaches dramatically increase their survival rates beyond the critical first five years.
Your next step is clear: take action on these entrepreneurship secrets by implementing them systematically in your business. Start with validation, build your network, leverage technology wisely, and create systems that scale. Success in entrepreneurship isn’t about luck—it’s about following proven frameworks that thousands of successful entrepreneurs have used before you. Ready to implement these strategies with expert guidance? Contact the team at Complete Controller for comprehensive support in building your entrepreneurial success story.
Frequently Asked Questions About Entrepreneurship Secrets
What personality traits are most important for entrepreneurial success?
The nine essential traits include determination, laser focus, exceptional drive, decisiveness, independence, authenticity, flexibility, continuous learning appetite, and creativity. Among these, determination and resilience stand out as the most critical, enabling entrepreneurs to persist through the inevitable challenges and setbacks that every business faces.
How much money do I need to start a successful business?
Research shows that 64% of small enterprises started with just $10,000 in capital. The key isn’t having massive funding but rather validating your business idea first, managing finances carefully, and scaling systematically. Many successful businesses bootstrap their early growth through customer revenue rather than external funding.
What’s the biggest mistake new entrepreneurs make?
The most costly mistake is failing to validate market need before building products or services. Since 42% of startups fail due to lack of market need, conducting thorough customer discovery, surveys, and beta testing before full product development is essential for avoiding this common pitfall.
How important is networking for entrepreneurial success?
Networking is absolutely critical—61% of entrepreneurs find customers through word-of-mouth referrals. Beyond customer acquisition, strategic networking provides access to mentors, partners, investors, and the emotional support system necessary for navigating entrepreneurial challenges successfully.
When should I start implementing technology and automation in my business?
Start implementing basic technology and automation tools immediately, even before you feel overwhelmed. Early adoption of platforms for customer management, financial tracking, and task automation creates efficiency gains that compound over time, giving you competitive advantages as you scale.
Harvard Business School Online. (2024). “4 Entrepreneur Success Stories to Learn From.” https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/successful-entrepreneur-stories
“Digital Presence Impact on Business Success.” McKinsey & Company. (2024).
“Market Validation Methods.” Stanford Business School. (2024).
“Common Financial Mistakes in Startups.” Financial Times. (2024).
“Startup Failure Analysis.” Crunchbase. (2024).
“Product-Market Fit Study.” Y Combinator. (2024).
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Jennifer BrazerFounder/CEO
Jennifer is the author of From Cubicle to Cloud and Founder/CEO of Complete Controller, a pioneering financial services firm that helps entrepreneurs break free of traditional constraints and scale their businesses to new heights.
Brittany McMillen is a seasoned Marketing Manager with a sharp eye for strategy and storytelling. With a background in digital marketing, brand development, and customer engagement, she brings a results-driven mindset to every project. Brittany specializes in crafting compelling content and optimizing user experiences that convert. When she’s not reviewing content, she’s exploring the latest marketing trends or championing small business success.
Is Your Company Ready for Digital Transformation Success?
Digital transformation readiness is your organization’s capacity to successfully adopt, scale, and sustain digital technologies across strategy, operations, and culture without breaking the business—it’s the foundation that separates costly failures from competitive advantages. Your readiness depends on aligning leadership vision, technology infrastructure, data quality, workforce skills, and change management capabilities around clear business outcomes, not just implementing new tools.
Over my 20 years leading Complete Controller through multiple waves of technological change, I’ve learned that true readiness goes beyond software purchases or IT upgrades. The companies that thrive are those that assess their current state honestly, build foundational capabilities systematically, and connect every digital initiative to measurable value. This article provides you with a practical framework to evaluate your readiness across seven critical dimensions, close gaps strategically, and transform digital investments into sustainable growth—all while maintaining operational stability.
Is your company ready for digital transformation success?
Digital transformation readiness means having aligned strategy, leadership, technology, processes, data, culture, and metrics that create measurable business value, not chaos
You need clear strategic objectives, executive ownership, and governance that connects digital projects to revenue, efficiency, risk reduction, and customer outcomes
Technology infrastructure must support automation, analytics, and scaling without constant firefighting or integration nightmares
Your workforce requires digital skills, change management support, and cultural acceptance of new ways of working
Data quality and process standardization form the foundation—without them, even the best technology fails
Understanding Digital Transformation Readiness (and Why It Matters Now)
Digital transformation readiness represents your organization’s capacity to adopt, absorb, and scale digital technologies and ways of working across the entire business ecosystem. Between 70% and 88% of all digital transformation projects fail to meet their intended objectives, with research from McKinsey, BCG, and Gartner consistently confirming this rate across industries. This staggering failure rate makes readiness assessment critical for survival, not optional planning.
Key dimensions of digital transformation readiness
Strategy and governance: Clear alignment between digital initiatives and business goals, with defined decision rights, funding models, and success metrics that everyone understands.
Leadership and vision: Active executive sponsorship, cross-functional alignment, and a compelling transformation narrative that connects technology changes to business outcomes.
Technology and infrastructure: Modern, secure, integrated systems capable of supporting automation, cloud computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence at scale.
Talent, skills, and culture: Digital competencies across the workforce, continuous learning programs, and organizational culture that embraces experimentation and calculated risk-taking.
Data and process maturity: Standardized workflows, governed data management, and high-quality information assets that power analytics, automation, and informed decision-making.
The Complete Controller Digital Transformation Readiness Checklist
Strategy & governance – aligning digital with business outcomes
Assess strategic clarity
Your digital strategy must explicitly connect to revenue growth, cost reduction, risk mitigation, and customer satisfaction metrics—vague aspirations like “becoming more digital” guarantee failure. Document specific outcomes like “reduce invoice processing time by 40%” or “achieve 80% customer self-service adoption within 18 months.”
Governance and ownership
Establish a cross-functional steering committee with clear decision rights, budget authority, and accountability for digital investments. Define who approves projects, monitors progress, and makes go/no-go decisions based on ROI and strategic fit.
Portfolio and prioritization
Create transparent criteria for project selection, resource allocation, and performance evaluation. Track active initiatives against original business cases and kill underperforming projects quickly to redirect resources.
Leadership, culture & change management
Executive commitment
C-suite leaders must visibly champion transformation through time allocation, budget commitment, and personal adoption of digital tools and processes. Only 27% of C-suite executives say their organizations are ready to scale generative AI, and 47% admit they’re unprepared for accelerating technological change—this leadership gap undermines entire transformation efforts.
Change management discipline
Implement structured communication plans, training programs, and feedback mechanisms for every major rollout. Address the reality that 44% of employees report change fatigue causes burnout, with over a third considering leaving their organizations.
Cultural readiness
Foster environments where employees question legacy processes, suggest improvements, and experiment without fear of failure. Build psychological safety that encourages innovation while maintaining operational excellence.
Technology, infrastructure & security
Current state mapping
Document your complete technology landscape including core systems, integrations, cloud readiness levels, and technical debt. The average organization uses 897 different applications, but only 29% are integrated—this fragmentation creates data silos that prevent unified analytics and automation.
Scalability and flexibility
Build architecture that accommodates new applications, APIs, and automation without requiring complete re-platforming. Companies with strong integration achieve 10.3x ROI from digital initiatives, compared to just 3.7x for those with poor connectivity.
Security and compliance posture
Strengthen cybersecurity, access controls, backup procedures, and compliance processes to handle increased digitization. Review our guide on remote work security post-COVID for practical security frameworks.
Data, analytics & insight
Data quality and governance
Establish clear policies for data ownership, quality standards, access controls, and lifecycle management. With 82% of data leaders struggling to provide reliable information for decisions, and 77% of organizations rating their data quality as average or worse, this foundational element often determines transformation success or failure.
Analytics capabilities
Deploy reporting dashboards and predictive analytics that decision-makers actually use, not vanity metrics. Focus on actionable insights that drive behavior change and business improvement.
Single source of truth
Eliminate duplicate data sources and conflicting versions of critical financial, customer, and operational information. Learn how companies successfully transition from spreadsheets to CRMs for unified data management.
Processes, automation & customer experience
Process standardization
Document and optimize workflows before applying automation—automating broken processes just creates faster failures. Map current states, identify bottlenecks, and redesign for efficiency.
Automation level
Clearly identify which tasks remain manual versus automated across finance, operations, sales, and support functions. Prioritize automation opportunities by ROI and implementation complexity.
Customer journey digitization
Implement online self-service options, omnichannel experiences, and digital feedback mechanisms that measure satisfaction through CSAT and NPS scores. Digital customer experiences often drive the highest transformation ROI.
How to Run a Practical Digital Transformation Readiness Assessment
Step 1 – Define your transformation objectives and scope
Clarify whether your primary goal focuses on operational efficiency, revenue growth, organizational resilience, or customer experience enhancement. Translate broad goals into specific, measurable outcomes with clear timelines and success metrics.
Define which business units, processes, and systems fall within transformation scope versus those remaining stable. This boundary setting prevents scope creep and maintains focus on highest-value opportunities.
Step 2 – Choose or adapt a readiness framework
Select from established models like those from Deloitte, Gartner, KPMG, or the Institute for Digital Transformation, but simplify to 5–8 dimensions relevant to your business. Use straightforward scoring like “behind/on par/ahead” or a 0–5 scale that employees understand.
Define concrete criteria for each maturity level—what does “3” look like for data quality in your organization? Create assessment rubrics that eliminate subjective interpretation and enable consistent evaluation.
Step 3 – Collect data across the organization
Deploy multiple data collection methods:
Surveys to gather broad employee perspectives on readiness
Executive interviews to understand strategic priorities and concerns
System inventories documenting technology capabilities and gaps
Process maps revealing workflow inefficiencies and automation opportunities
Culture assessments measuring change readiness and digital mindsets
Include perspectives from finance, operations, IT, HR, and customer-facing teams to avoid IT-centric tunnel vision. Each function experiences transformation differently and contributes unique insights.
Step 4 – Score, benchmark, and visualize your readiness
Aggregate scores by dimension and display them using radar charts or heat maps that highlight strengths and gaps at a glance. Compare results to industry benchmarks where available—for example, manufacturing uses frameworks like the Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) to evaluate 16 readiness dimensions.
Create visual dashboards that make readiness status obvious to executives and transformation teams. Update scores quarterly to track progress and maintain momentum.
Step 5 – Turn gaps into a prioritized roadmap
Link low-scoring areas to specific initiatives with assigned owners, budgets, and timelines. Sequence projects to protect operational stability—fix foundational technology and data issues before launching ambitious AI or omnichannel experiences.
Build quick wins into early phases to demonstrate value and maintain organizational support. Balance transformational initiatives with incremental improvements that deliver immediate benefits.
The Human Side of Digital Transformation Readiness
Managing fear, fatigue, and resistance
Transformation introduces uncertainty about job security, tool overload, and shifting performance expectations. Acknowledge these concerns openly rather than dismissing them as resistance to change.
Use transparent communication, regular listening sessions, and celebrating small wins to maintain trust and momentum. Share both successes and setbacks honestly to build credibility and realistic expectations.
Equipping your people for new ways of working
Only 10% of HR and learning professionals feel fully confident their workforce has skills needed for the next 12-24 months, with leadership, AI, and technology identified as critical gaps. Invest in comprehensive digital skills training, mentoring programs, and peer champions who reduce time-to-proficiency on new tools.
Connect performance management and rewards directly to adoption metrics and continuous improvement contributions. Make digital proficiency a clear career advancement criterion.
Where technology still needs human expertise
Automation and AI augment rather than replace human judgment, ethics, relationship-building, and creative problem-solving. At Complete Controller, digital workflows and automation free our professionals to focus on interpretation, advisory services, and complex client challenges instead of manual data processing.
Position technology as an enabler of more meaningful work, not a threat to employment. Help teams see how digital tools eliminate mundane tasks and create opportunities for higher-value contributions.
Is Your Digital Transformation Worth It? Building a Business Case and Measuring ROI
The core metrics that signal readiness and success
Productivity and efficiency metrics: Track organization-wide productivity improvements, process cycle time reductions, and automation rates across departments. Measure time saved and errors reduced through digital initiatives.
Customer metrics: Monitor CSAT scores, Net Promoter Scores, retention rates, self-service adoption, and time-to-resolution improvements. Customer experience often delivers the fastest and most visible transformation returns.
Employee metrics: Measure software adoption rates, time-to-proficiency on new platforms, and engagement scores. Low adoption signals readiness gaps requiring immediate attention.
Financial metrics: Calculate revenue growth from digital channels, margin improvements from efficiency gains, direct cost savings, and overall ROI on transformation investments. Toyota’s predictive maintenance program achieved 25% downtime reduction, 15% equipment effectiveness improvement, and $10 million annual savings—delivering 300% ROI through aligned technology, people, and processes.
How to link your readiness score to investment decisions
Low readiness + high ambition = Start with foundational projects like data cleanup, core system upgrades, and process standardization. Build capabilities systematically before attempting transformational changes.
Medium readiness = Focus on scalable initiatives that deepen customer experience and enable cross-functional automation. Expand successful pilots methodically while strengthening weak readiness dimensions.
High readiness = Explore advanced analytics, AI applications, and new digital business models through rapid experimentation cycles. Maintain readiness through continuous capability development.
A Real-World Example: How Readiness Drives Transformation Outcomes
Case study – Manufacturing readiness and digitalization
Siemens built a comprehensive digital factory vision (Industrie 4.0) by first systematically assessing readiness across strategy, technology, organization, and operations. Rather than launching scattered pilots, the company created a complete roadmap linking computer-aided design through factory floor execution with real-time analytics at every step.
The Digital Factory Division acquired strategic capabilities, defined new organizational roles, implemented governance structures, and deployed solutions at the Electronics Works Amberg facility. This structured readiness-first approach produced a working prototype that became the global Industry 4.0 standard.
Key takeaways for all industries:
Use structured readiness models to guide investment priorities based on capability gaps
Connect each initiative to measurable operational and financial outcomes like throughput or service levels
Treat readiness as an ongoing discipline requiring regular reassessment as markets and technologies evolve
Your 90-Day Plan to Improve Digital Transformation Readiness
Days 1–30 – Baseline and quick wins
Run a lightweight readiness assessment covering strategy, technology, data, process, and culture dimensions. Use simplified scoring to quickly identify obvious gaps and opportunities.
Fix visible friction points immediately: eliminate duplicate tools, automate manual handoffs between systems, and create missing performance dashboards. These quick wins build momentum and demonstrate transformation value. Explore efficient paperless office solutions for immediate productivity gains.
Days 31–60 – Design your roadmap and governance
Establish a cross-functional transformation council with representatives from major business areas. Define 3–5 strategic outcomes for the next 12–18 months with clear success metrics.
Prioritize 2–3 high-impact initiatives with assigned executive sponsors and project teams. Focus on projects that address major readiness gaps while delivering measurable business value within 6 months.
Days 61–90 – Launch pilots and embed change
Launch controlled pilots with strong change management support, comprehensive training, and continuous feedback loops. Start with willing early adopters who can become transformation champions.
Track leading indicators including user adoption rates, process cycle times, and satisfaction scores. Adjust approaches based on data before scaling successful pilots organization-wide.
Final Thoughts: Turning Readiness into a Sustainable Advantage
As a founder who has navigated digital change repeatedly, I’ve learned that digital transformation readiness is a leadership discipline, not an IT project. When you invest time to assess where you stand, engage your people authentically, strengthen data and processes systematically, and tie every initiative to business outcomes, transformation stops being a risky bet and becomes a repeatable capability.
The companies succeeding with transformation share common traits: honest readiness assessment, patient capability building, and relentless focus on value creation. They understand that sustainable transformation requires equal attention to technology, people, and processes—with leadership commitment binding everything together. Ready to assess your organization’s digital transformation readiness and build a roadmap for success? Contact the experts at Complete Controller to discover how our team helps businesses navigate transformation with confidence while maintaining operational excellence.
Frequently Asked Questions About Digital Transformation Readiness
What is digital transformation readiness?
Digital transformation readiness is an organization’s preparedness to successfully adopt and scale digital technologies and ways of working across strategy, technology, people, processes, and data so that transformation efforts deliver sustainable value rather than disruption.
How do you assess an organization’s readiness for digital transformation?
Most organizations use a digital readiness assessment or maturity model that scores multiple dimensions (such as strategy, leadership, technology, culture, data, and processes) on a scale, then identifies gaps and prioritizes initiatives based on business impact and feasibility.
Why is digital transformation readiness important?
Without readiness—particularly clear strategy, governance, leadership, and cultural support—digital projects tend to stall, exceed budgets, or fail to deliver ROI, leading to tool sprawl, change fatigue, and loss of trust in technology initiatives across the organization.
What are the key components of a digital readiness assessment?
Common components include strategy and governance, organization and leadership, technology and workflow, culture and people, with some models adding data maturity, customer experience, innovation capability, and financial metrics to create comprehensive evaluation frameworks.
How do you measure the success of digital transformation initiatives?
Use a mix of financial, customer, process, and workforce KPIs such as productivity gains, cycle time reductions, automation rates, CSAT/NPS scores, digital adoption rates, revenue growth from digital channels, and ROI on digital projects, benchmarked before and after initiatives.
Sources
Svitla Systems Blog. (2023). “Digital Transformation Readiness Assessment.” https://www.svitla.com
Whatfix. (2024). “22 Digital Transformation KPIs and Metrics to Track ROI.” https://www.whatfix.com
Bughin, J., et al. (2020). “The 2020 McKinsey Global Survey on Artificial Intelligence.” McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com
Harvard Business School. (2018). “Building the Digital Manufacturing Enterprise of the Future at Siemens.” Case 616-060. William Shih. https://www.hbs.edu
SuperAGI. (2024). “Case Studies in AI Workflow Automation: Real-World Examples of Process Optimization and Efficiency Gains.” https://www.superagi.com
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Jennifer BrazerFounder/CEO
Jennifer is the author of From Cubicle to Cloud and Founder/CEO of Complete Controller, a pioneering financial services firm that helps entrepreneurs break free of traditional constraints and scale their businesses to new heights.
Brittany McMillen is a seasoned Marketing Manager with a sharp eye for strategy and storytelling. With a background in digital marketing, brand development, and customer engagement, she brings a results-driven mindset to every project. Brittany specializes in crafting compelling content and optimizing user experiences that convert. When she’s not reviewing content, she’s exploring the latest marketing trends or championing small business success.
You run a business and expect your workforce to push the envelope to meet their targets, but they hesitate – what will you do? Employees are indeed the ones that make or break a business. Embracing strategies to help them identify and unleash their true potential is necessary. Leaders and managers often have difficulty pushing employees to reach their targets. If you are a manager facing issues convincing the workforce to achieve monthly targets, try these steps, and you will notice a marked improvement.
Work on a Plan
One of the first things you should do as a manager is work out a plan that works. Ask for suggestions from your team members to make them feel motivated and vital. You will benefit them, you, and the company as they’ll work relentlessly to reach their monthly and quarterly targets.
Layout and Connect Dots
Come up with a plan and layout dots to be filled by your team members. Discuss the project with them and ask their opinions if it works. Listen to each idea and discuss its pros and cons. Discard views that have more cons than pros and continue with the plan. Finalize the schedule the same day and get the team to work on it the next day. Remember that the time value of money is a real deal, so you have little time and a lot of work to do.
Avoid Making Favorites
Some managers tend to fall victim to favoritism as they prefer to engage with top performers only. Setting favorites demotivates others and may fire back at you. Be fair to all employees and avoid making yourself available only for top performers. Be honest and firm that you are there for the entire team, not just one or two individuals.
Be There for Your Team
You will often notice that your team members expect you to be around. Please make yourself available for them as much as you can. Troubleshoot their problems and be a good listener. Hear them out and assure them You will address their concerns.
Set Targets and Expect Performance
Pushing the workforce to achieve targets is one of the more difficult tasks to perform. It would help if you concisely explained why gettingmarkss is essential and what benefits they will cherish. Ask them to focus on the work during work hours to know they have targets to meet. Tell your workforce that you don’t expect them to lower their guard and be on their toes constantly. Let your team know that good things come to those who work.
Incentives and Rewards
Your verbal motivation may not work wonders, so you need something more to push them. A good manager never shies away from rewarding his team. Incentives work wonders for improving employee performance. You will notice marked improvements once they know they’ll be rewarded for meeting or exceeding their targets.
Create Competition
Competition works for employees just as it does for companies. You may be operating in a highly competitive, cut-throat market where only the best get the lion’s share of the business. The same goes for employees, as the top performer gets the best rewards and incentives. Others can work their way up next month by working extra hours to meet their targets.
Win Their Trust
Perhaps the most important way of winning the hearts of your employees is by letting them trust you. You can achieve this in many ways. Start by clearly explaining what you expect from them. Explain to them what is in it for them to have a clear target in mind that they could strive to reach. Find ways to satisfy your employees in any way you can and tell them how important they are to the company.
Explain Everything in Detail
A good manager is good at explaining things. Avoid being repetitive and be explicit about what you want from them. Expect questions and think about ways to satisfy their queries. Don’t hesitate to give them some leverage for asking many questions. Remember, a satisfied workforce doesn’t hesitate to push performance to reach or exceed targets.
In short, please do everything possible to motivate and push your team to bring their best performances every time.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Any organization that invests in workers’ development is investing in its success. By giving your workers ongoing training, you are building an office that is flexible, adaptive, and ready for change.
Workers developing expect functional and informative training that fulfills their needs as updated, informed professionals and employees at your organization. This training is a significant step in building genuine worker experience management techniques.
Although various training programs are available, some core courses are necessary for your workers’ success. And it could be helpful in a personal range too. Here are some training programs that every employee must take in 2021.
Effective Communication
Unsuccessful communication can lead to inappropriate relationships and impact your organization’s bottom line. Whether in a face-to-face meeting or an email loop, every worker must understand the essentials of communication. Communication will help your group develop the primary skills they want to communicate in writing and verbally, externally and internally. The next step is starting up avenues for workers to communicate with the company’s management. A constant listening technique confirms that feedback can flow from the workforce as worker engagement develops. Mutual with a data security course, communication will be more efficient and secure for your company.
Time Management
For every company, time is a worthwhile but restricted resource or asset. It is a significant part of success, yet many workers lack the skillset to manage their time efficiently. These outcomes are stress, poor work quality, and missed deadlines. Time management training gives tools and techniques to assist your workers in staying focused, more productive every day, and organized.
Project Management
We live in a technological era. Most of the tasks are projects. Every group needs at least one person to manage the project team as a manager. According to the Project Management Institute, “Companies that propose training in project management are more effective and better equipped for the difficulties of the continuously developing business environment.” Project management is an ability needed at every level of a company. It must be a part of every worker’s future path. Good delivery on essential business targets will grow when this project management training begins to be executed.
Leadership Training
Your workers today will be your leaders in the future. That is why it is significant that organizations offer leadership training to everybody they recruit, not only managers and supervisors. Vision delivered through feedback analytics often specifies leadership as existing among the most significant organizational features worth mentioning by workers. By emerging your workers’ leadership skills at an initial stage, you will prepare them with the information they need to take on leadership roles successfully in the upcoming days.
Diversity Training
Today’s office is more diverse than ever. So, companies must ensure their departments and teams understand the diversity problems. Measuring training effectively does not always regard skills improvement. Developing social consideration and awareness is also very significant. A diversity training course will help improve your workers’ knowledge and provide them with the necessary equipment or tools to embrace diversity in the office.
Confidential Decision Making
Do not delay until a preliminary decision is breathing down your neck to acquire the techniques to make the correct decision and take the right course of action. Training in choice-making depends on exercise and in-depth mental modeling that pretends the demonstration procedure and makes decisions and steps overall mandatory in the process to make the right call.
Affective Presentation Skills
You need to know about upskills, strategy, and the art of efficient presentation. Working on vocal modulation, such as high-level candidates, working the stage, such as TED talkers, making effective eye contact, such as a therapist, all these basic presentation skills and more will be at workers’ fingertips with appropriate training.
Conflict Resolution
Inappropriate workplace fights can occasionally feel insuperable, slashing output for days, not weeks, especially if the teams in struggle or conflict generally collaborate closely. Although some people are born capable of bringing people together, others could improve their capacity for elegant conflict resolution with proficiently planned training.
Bottom Line
You must organize new training sessions for the employees to perform better and produce more revenue than expected. Trained and experienced employees perform well and have the capability to handle critical situations.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
The coronavirus pandemic has caused extraordinary changes in industries. As the main precaution is social distancing, they banned large gatherings. Even organizations with more traditional workplace values, such as universities and utilities, direct faculty and other staff to work remotely in a struggle to keep employees healthy and safe and prevent the spread of the virus. Those offices that already worked from home before the pandemic are far better and quicker than those that have recently shifted. The problem is that more time is consumed to complete a task than when done physically in the office. Let us prepare ourselves for the plan of work from home culture to take traditional culture.
Want your employees to work effectively, be productive, and be connected while working remotely? Following are tips for safeguarding employees to have support and tools:
Prioritize Announcements and Communication
The employees who are working may feel they are out of the loop. The manager must be responsible for communicating with them daily. Make a schedule and check daily how employees are doing, completing the task, or facing any difficulties. Try to solve any hurdle faced by the employee. Make sure to communicate about any important news as it presents itself.
Be sure that communication is a two-way street to determine if employees have any concerns. Many employees might feel anxious or overwhelmed because e of a pandemic situation; if they show any problems related to that, try to mitigate those feelings.
Set Strong Expectations
Make sure to communicate the expectations of your employees, though they work from home. Employees who know what they want and their expectations are more motivated to fulfill them. Ask if you wish to do any daily reports or gather the employees for an online meeting.
Would you mind not rushing out on the employees? It did not work according to your expectations. Ask about the issues they have and try to resolve those accordingly.
Clever Work Recognition
You get work according to your expectations. Recognize and reward employees for their demanding work. ‘As arduous work always pays off.’ Businesses can do employee recognition in many different forms, but the key goal is to incentivize continued output and devotion from your employees.
It does not mean you need formal or grand appreciation, but it must be effective. For example, a thank you, appreciation message, or email can make an employee feel happy and valued and engage in working from home.
Appreciate Work/Balanced Life
Remote employees may feel difficulties establishing a healthy work-life balance because they can work physically by visiting the office. But pandemic situations disturb personal and professional lives, so they will not have any separation between their personal lives and workspace. Burnout happens! While employees feel like they must be available all day, but it can lead to needless stress.
Situation happened! Then, you should connect to your employees and make them understand the creation of boundaries. Advise them to work only during working hours and keep stepping away from the computer afterward.
Do Not Stop Social
Here, social does not mean social gathering. Here, social means they connect through other platforms on which meetings occur. Apart from work, social interaction with the employees is necessary, making you aware that personal issues might affect your professional life.
Demonstrate a Cooperative Culture
Employees tend to be more engaged when they feel they are part of a team. When employees work from home, it might be hard to buy into the mentality. Managers must ensure employees that they might not work together in the office but work together toward the same goal.
Keep Employees Motivated and Productive
Transparency and tough discussion will only take you far. Keep in mind that even during challenging times, people still want to have enjoyment. Sometimes, because of the workload, employees feel low, which might result in poor work quality. Ensure that the workload is according to the capability of employees to get productive results.
Bottom Line
The pandemic makes people helpless to work from home, as it is an expert’s precaution to avoid the spread of COVID-19. Employees are the company’s assets, so they applied the techniques that made employees comfortable working from home and avoiding taking control of their lives. Above are some tips shared to encourage employees encouraged to work from home.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Imagine a world where everything you own helps you make your day easier. For instance, your alarm clock plays a song to wake you up from bed in the best possible way, maybe with your favorite workout music. Your fridge reminds you that you are low on milk and should get some on your way back. When you get into the car, the GPS tells you all the possible steps you need to take today so that you do not forget to miss anything.
Well, the good news is we are living in a time where days of mere imagination are gone. The world has taken a turn for the better and become technologically advanced. Now, where we live can turn into intelligent homes; cars are parked without assistance, and people live their lives using assistants on their smartphones.
Similarly, workplaces have also transformed. Workplaces we have today in the 21st century are drastically different from how they were ten years back. The introduction of cloud technology has provided professionals with better mobility and a chance to make their work more efficient. Entrepreneurs run their million-dollar businesses from a coffee shop and important documents while traveling on smartphones.
However, what needs to be realized is that enabling the workplace of the future is not a cakewalk. That is why the U.S. Public Sector Practice Principal for Mobility and Workplace Services collaborates with agencies to explore the opportunities that lie ahead and how they can achieve this dream.
Evolution of Workplaces – Driving Forces
The work environment has undergone significant development in recent years for many reasons. Our lives come together to coordinate the line between work and life is daunting. For some, going to work is no longer just a day at the physical office. Instead, organizations and representatives located worldwide, teaming up with each other, should work in a viable way.
Essentially, there has been an increase in multiple overlaps on the task. The current workforce anticipates that working from anywhere is generally helpful to them, whether at home or in the nearby café. Another objective behind this development is the intense movement of the socio-economy of the labor force. By 2020, 46% of the dynamic workforce will be between 20 and 30 years old. With this younger age comes an alternative wishing arrangement for bosses. As reported by DXC, approximately 80% of this age predict that entry should be the latest innovation to become progressively attractive.
Do You Know? More than 80% of the end-users depend on the latest technology and devices for their professional work. Also, 37% of businesses worldwide are continually working from multiple locations.
The Workforce of the Future
These tilting movements change the working environment, and it is imperative to understand what the Future is. As stated by DXC, some essential qualities characterize the work environment of things to come.
For starters, versatility and cloud are key drivers. Integrating the benefits of distributed computing makes your organization’s information and applications accessible when employees are not near physical servers. The portability and magnification of the wearable device allow you to work independently of the physical office.
Here are a few other characteristics:
Digital personas: The possibility of an “application” and the constant availability of the working environment personalizes the workspace to capture the computerized characters of the representatives.
Digital customer experience: The resident experience is vital in the open area. Customers expect a seamless experience, whether it is the versatile apps in their office, the front desk secretary, or the menu prompts on the phone. In any case, the current “customer” also includes the workers themselves.
Mobility on the campus: Employees expect a smooth transition from work in various fields, including commuting around the workplace. Quick and distant partnerships allow reps to take their work to the cafeteria, meeting rooms, and outdoor spaces.
Digital collaboration: Face-to-face meetings were once the backbone of an association, but advanced joint efforts supplant the usual style of meetings. Elements like Skype for Business and Microsoft Office 365 have reshaped how workers interact.
Innovative workplace: The workplace for what is to come must be a brilliant place that gives reps constant access to the data and information they need. For example, digital whiteboards allow representatives to do collection work quickly and access this data anytime, anywhere.
Conclusion
There is no denying that workplaces have undergone a significant transformation in terms of technology in the last ten years. To define the workplace of the Future, we need digital personalization, mobile connectivity, and wireless collaboration that can occur anytime and anywhere. Today’s workforce is younger and more energetic than ever, which means their capacity to cope with the transformation is more significant than their predecessors. There needs to be a collaboration between employees and technology to create a productive workplace environment.About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Although marketing is the same essential 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion) – and beyond – the way these 4 Ps are utilized has primarily changed. Welcome to the digital age, where marketers and brand managers have had a very narrow window to escape the traditional channels they used to employ to be heard. However, specialists everywhere often tailor year-long plans to adapt to fast-changing trends and rising competition.
The Digital Era and Marketing
Thanks to expanding the primarily known platforms such as Facebook and Google advertising and networks, increased brands have abandoned the “push-marketing strategies” and have accustomed themselves and their customers to “pull-marketing strategies.” Instead of shoving several ads on billboards, TV, radio, and other media channels, they can now customize their techniques according to their audiences and the channels they employ so that brand retention is relevant and the customer goes to the brand. While this is not easy, many successful brands embrace this cyberspace adaptation and have created impactful ads that have helped the brand evolve in the face of competition. Cool, right?
It does not just stop there. Technological innovation allows specialists to edit the conventional funnel, which starts with a broader base of the customer journey that begins with several brands to choose from and ends at the ultimate step. Brand managers and marketers have yet to consider many other options, such as customer feedback, pre-purchase research, and online reviews by brand users.
To help you, we have conducted research to pinpoint advertising channels in our current digital age that will allow you to focus on a few starting points with customers. Of course, to keep building your relationship, you need to listen to your customers and consistently incorporate their feedback into your systems. Amongst the changes and innovations in how brands market themselves in this era, the only consistent fact is that the customer is still king.
How Brands Can Help Themselves
Below are a few things that have evolved from brands innovating with technological advancement.
Customer service
The customer must feel you are the utmost priority in your digital journey. No matter your marketing channel(s), brands must have a conversation option that the customers can opt for at any point. Is the product out of stock? The customer should be able to reach out to you to know. New product? Let the customer know where it is available for them to interact with before their purchase. Packaging updated? The customer must understand that their product is still the same, with new and improved packaging!
Because most of us are now operating behind screens, it has become highly integral that communication is essential.
Research conducted by Bain and Company shows that about 89% of companies compete for customer service support because of its growing importance. Customers should be able to reach out to you around the clock if necessary.
Diverse playing field
Brands now have access to equal channels due to the digital outburst. All brands can start at the same level and access the same resources. Before the new platform age, brands competed for their shelf space, the share of air, and ads on billboards, TV channels, et cetera; however, now brands are looking at top-of-the-mind recall through customized marketing techniques and the share of social media space.
You can use the Facebook channel to reach out to your audience or use banner ads on the Google Display Network to show off your brand. You can get influencers to endorse your brand and increase walkability or YouTube pre-rolls; the possibilities are endless. And the best part is that not all your options cost money. For instance, SEO effectiveness requires reaching the top positions on your Google Search Results. You can employ many options with a fair chance at audience retention as you do not have to pay massive amounts on various fronts.
The ad culture is dead
Traditional ads are finished, and it is no secret. People can opt for the premium option and block ads when browsing the internet, even on social media and other online options. And what is worse that even if you advertise on digital networks such as Facebook that do not allow you to block ads, you can be positive that the phenomenon of ‘ad blindness’ – resulting from audiences’ exposure to brands and their tactics – will make you go unnoticed if you do not innovate your online ads. Brands must break the clutter instead of going with the herd and following prevalent trends that will include them in the masses that constitute ‘ad blindness’.
When the marketing gets tough, the tough get creative.
Last Thoughts
The need of the hour for brands is Go Big or Go Home. However, the dilemma for experts is to reach the right audience, which requires brands to tread carefully and avoid wasting resources such as advertising budgets, brands’ share of space, and brand retention amongst the competition. Brands can stand out by providing excellent customer care, carefully picking their advertising platform of interest, and making creative ads that impact their audience’s minds.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
Investing in the stock market is fundamental and essential, as there is no point in saving and not doing anything to make those savings work for you. Unfortunately, many people think investing in the stock market is unethical and immoral since it is “giving money to bad companies,” a company that invests in weapons, exploits employees, do not pay all the taxes they should, etc.
This article shows that people who think investing in the stock market is terrible can also support it since I will show you how to invest in the stock market ethically by investing in just companies, known as socially responsible investment.
What is a Socially Acceptable Investment?
The socially responsible investment consists of investing valued, in addition to the profitability you can achieve, the social and environmental impact of said investment.
How to Invest in Socially Responsible Companies
An option to practice socially responsible investment is to choose actions individually, using your criteria. However, another much more interesting is the use of responsible funds, of which the offer has been growing in recent years. Here is a possible example of an accountable fund, although I do not say it is the best.
My objective with the article is not to expose the socially responsible investment in detail because the truth is that I do not know it in excess, and I am not considering applying it right now.
The article’s objective is to show that there are investment options for many who do not want to know anything about the stock market because it seems evil, so here I leave the best source of information I have found. If you’re going to invest in the stock market and want to do it without putting your money in any company, then you must take steps in the right direction.
What is Passive Management?
Passive or indexed management consists of investing in the stock market using ETFs or index funds, which replicate the behavior of any stock index (for example, you could acquire a fund replicating the IBEX 35).
While someone who applies active management is dedicated to choosing actions individually to beat the market’s average return, someone who uses passive management buys index funds to match the market’s profitability.
Passive management has the following advantages:
· Low cost: Indexed funds and ETFs charge low commissions, and there are usually no sales or custody commissions.
· Great diversification: By buying a simple indexed fund such as the one in my portfolio, you can buy more than 1,500 companies worldwide.
· Little time of dedication: This is one of the most significant advantages of passive management and will focus on in this article. Making money in the stock market by spending little time is possible thanks to passive management.
Invest
As I said, passive management allows us to invest in the stock market, devoting little time and achieving more than decent returns. The profitability you can expect if you invest through index funds is the return on the index to which fewer fund commissions are referenced, usually between 0.2 and 0.5%. ( Here, you can see the historical profitability of the IBEX, for example).
Some investors practice active management and obtain returns far superior to the market’s. Still, they must dedicate hours a day to analyzing companies; even so, many fail.
I have two strategies, one based on passive management, buying funds indexed following a Bogle head strategy.
I continue this strategy because I believe beating the market in the long term is complex, and I want to invest in the stock market without spending much time. The most challenging thing is to start, so let’s see how to start making money on the stock market with passive management.
How to Make Money in the Stock Market
Let’s see how to start building a portfolio of indexed funds step by step, although there is something essential before. The first step is to decide if you will form your portfolio or if you prefer them to do it for you. It is critical to think carefully about the decision before you start since, depending on it, you will have to follow one way or another. Let’s see the advantages and disadvantages of each option so that you can choose the one that best suits you.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
If we ask the reader about the first five words that remind them of a Nordic country, in addition to the reindeer or the cold, the answers would be, with absolute certainty, sustainability, education, conciliation, or quality of life.
The statistics corroborate it. Sweden or Norway is at the top of the sustainability ranking. In 2009, Norway began impeding aquaculture (breeding aquatic species in natural waters). For its part, Sweden holds the title of “most sustainable country in the world” of a total of 62 countries ranked as specializing in sustainable investments. It complies with 85% of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN to stop climate change in 2030. Among them, health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, non-polluting energies, or sustainable cities: everything that guarantees future sustainability.
If the Nordic philosophy of life gives excellent social, economic, and environmental results, why not apply it individually in your house and your finances?
In education, the PISA report, which compares the academic performance of students in mathematics, science, and reading, reminds us each year that Finnish schoolchildren are among the most advantaged (results without considering the grouping of the Association’s schools of Private and Independent Colleges, the CICAE, which can vary the figures). And in conciliation, Finland or Sweden are, again, the ones that facilitate it, according to the Evolution Report of the European Family of the European Parliament.
Responsible investment is the leitmotiv of the largest financial services group in Northern Europe, Nordea Asset Management (NAM), with over 200 years of history and 9.5 million customers in 16 countries.
The social, environmental, and economic indicators show that sustainable development and growth are compatible.
If the Nordic philosophy gives good results, why not apply it individually, each in your home, your life, and even your finances? For a person to recycle their trash, take the bus or the bike instead of the car, add. If all citizens do, you will have reduced CO2 emissions at the end of the year, and the quality of life will increase. The same is true for an investor who places their money responsibly. It will generate an economic benefit and contribute to sustainability.
Responsible investment goes beyond purely financial and provides solutions in favor of sustainability. Responsibility is the leitmotiv of the largest financial services group in Northern Europe, Nordea Asset Management (NAM), with over 200 years of history and 9.5 million customers in 16 countries. Its philosophy is based on investing in funds that meet different environmental, social, or labor requirements and being solvent. Funds from companies are changing the world for good as they meet the ESG criteria (environmental, social, and good governance aspects). For this reason, in 2007, Nordea was one of the first signatories of the Principles of Responsible Investment of the United Nations.
Responsible Investment Generates a Positive Impact
Responsible investment, in addition to obtaining an attractive return, positively impacts the environment. The so-called -by everyone known in these times running- vulture funds buy debt in bankrupt economies and then charge it higher. The funds responsible are more like reindeer, which only eat the most tender grass of the mountain.NAM does not accept funds related to the manufacture of illegal or nuclear weapons; they obtain more than 30% of their income from coal or violate environmental and anti-corruption laws or human and labor rights. NAM’s Global Climate & Environment strategy invests only in companies committed to climate change, and STARS funds cover the emerging, global, European, Nordic, and North American ASG markets.
NAM does not accept funds related to the manufacture of illegal or nuclear weapons; they obtain more than 30% of their income from coal or violate environmental and anti-corruption laws or human and labor rights.
Responsible investments are appropriate in the long term, more than five years, and although equity is associated with some volatility, they allow for good returns. In this sense, companies that meet the ASG criteria are better equipped in the long term and expose their activity to fewer risks (scarcity of resources, strict environmental regulations). Therefore, a company that does not meet the ASG criteria has more possibility of suffering severe monetary and reputation problems.
NAM funds do not include companies that are related to the manufacture of illegal or nuclear weapons or that violate the laws of protection of the environment, human rights, labor standards, and anti-corruption
Suppose the economic incentive of the investments of ASG a while ago was very secondary nowadays. It has become a reality—a socially responsible trend and a synonym for greater economic profitability. The sustainable investment forum of Spain – the ISR funds marketed by national and international managers have grown by 32% in the last two years. 51% has been variable income and the preferred area to invest.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud platform where their QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools are hosted in an efficient SSO environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
