But am I really made for Finance?

Do you think you are not made for finance? Does the number game scare you? Do you low key expect the data analyst to whip up some numbers for you? Well, thats okay. Hopefully at the end of the post, you feel confident to take the plunge.

Why is finance important?

Let us say that you have a project on hand. It could be either of

• Starting a business

• New product introduction

• On-boarding a new account

All of these will require you to evaluate financial implications. Being a Gujju, I always say "chal, paisa ni vaat kar" (lets talk about money) You are probably thinking "Duh, I know it involves costs". But what if I ask you the following questions

• What is the break-even point of your business?

• How much will a BOGO (buy one, get one) offer on new product cost?

• Can you give me an account level PnL with three scenarios?

Damn, that escalated quickly!

Fikar not. Managers just like to say "chal, paisa ni vaat kar" in a fancy way.

Let's decode these questions

• What is the break-even point of your business? How many units do I need to sell so that I can cover my costs? Wait, so anything beyond "break-even point" means I can start taking money home? Yaas, give me that magic number!
  

• How much will a BOGO (buy one, get one) offer on new product cost? Will this offer throw us into losses at a product level? How long can we keep up with this cash-burn? How will I convince Marketing to allocate money for this?
  

• Can you give me an account level PnL with three scenarios? What do you mean by "three scenarios"? Why do we need to give this account a different deal than other accounts? How much will this account contribute to us?

Bottom line

Let me re-phrase the initial questions.

Do you think you can sustain without being financial responsible? If yes, for how long?

Will you let the fear of numbers keep you away from making rational decisions?

Wont it be amazing if you could reduce dependency on the data analyst?

This series is intended to help you be a financially responsible person. From formatting your sheets to sensitivity analysis, I got you covered.

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