How Do Financial Management Skills Help You in a Business Career?

Good financial management skills are invaluable for any type of business career, and it’s not just those who work in the finance department who need them. Everyone in an organization can contribute to a company’s growth by monitoring expenses and making sure all financial-related procedures are followed. It doesn’t matter if you’re building your own small business or if you’re part of something bigger, whether you work in accounting or HR, what you do as an individual can have an impact. And the more you know about managing finances, the better it is for your company, your career, and your personal life.

Here are 5 ways that financial management skills can help you in any type of business career.

• Monitor the Financial Performance of Your Department: Regardless of your department, you should monitor is performance and how well you stay within a spending budget, maintain accurate records, and follow all company fiscal procedures. When you have a good understanding of finances, your group will pass any internal or external audits with flying colors and will help the company reach its profit goals.
• Demonstrate Your Positive Financial Impact: Have you ever come up with an idea that helped increase revenue or cut expenses for your company? Perhaps you found a new source for office supplies or raw materials for manufacturing that resulted in cost savings. Or you suggested a clever new marketing campaign using social media that increased sales. Understanding how you may have positively impacted the bottom line of your organization is a key component to financial management. Keep a record of all your financial-related accomplishments and tout your successes in your annual performance review. It could lead to advancement and increased earnings.
• Choose the Projects with the Best Return on Investment (ROI): Imagine knowing which project or team is going to do well within your company and being a part of that effort? With sound financial management skills, you can assess new ideas, equipment, technologies, and products and volunteer to help out on those mostly likely to have a positive ROI. Your skills can serve the company—and your future.
• Analyze Data and Problem Solve: If you have a good understanding of balance sheets and income statements, you can help pinpoint issues and potential problems. Perhaps the company is carrying too much inventory or a particular product line isn’t selling well. Once you know where the problems lie you can help devise a good action plan to improve the situation.
• Understand Investments: Look at where your company chooses to invest its time and resources. Does it make sense to you? With the ability to understand financial concepts, you can decide whether your company is heading down a good path or if it might be time to look for a new opportunity. Your employer also might offer a 401(k) savings plan as a retirement benefit. The more you know about investing and how to interpret financial reports, the better able you will be to improve your own personal finances and prepare for the future.

How to Improve Your Financial Management Skills

• Read Books, Magazines, and Online Articles: Choose any topic in financial management and chances are someone has written a book or article about it. Magazines such as Forbes, Fortune, or Money publish interesting articles about personal and corporate finance. The Wall Street Journal is another good resource. And you can always conduct online searches for interesting blogs, videos, and podcasts on financial topics that interest you.
• Take an Online Class: Want to learn even more? Take an online course, degree, or degree completion program. Business certificate and degree programs can provide you with solid financial management skills that include courses in accounting, finance, and more. In addition to adding to your knowledge base, a degree could help improve your competitive advantage in the job market and lead to more benefits and higher earnings.
• Apply New Skills on the Job: Take the new skills you learn in your courses and apply them to your current role. Take advantage of any opportunity to learn and practice your new skills. If you are working on a team project, volunteer to keep track of the finances or to do a cost-benefit analysis comparing the costs vs. potential rewards. You never know where these skills might take you as you advance in your career.

National American University offers online business programs that allow you to keep working while you learn. You’ll learn about financial management and much more. If you already have a Bachelor’s degree, we offer an online accelerated MBA program as well as an accelerated Master of Management degree. Regularly-paced MBA and MM degrees are also available. Call 800-209-0182 to speak to a counselor or now.