{"id":1285,"date":"2020-04-13T22:29:44","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T15:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/?p=1285"},"modified":"2025-09-04T15:00:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T15:00:47","slug":"make-sure-you-are-not-losing-money-check-out-these-key-financial-factors-asap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/blog\/make-sure-you-are-not-losing-money-check-out-these-key-financial-factors-asap\/","title":{"rendered":"Make Sure You Are Not Losing Money! Check Out These Key Financial Factors ASAP"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><div><table style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" align=\"center\"><tbody><tr><td style=\"text-align: center;\"><a style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" href=\"https:\/\/24k30f8hj3m39d1mr36er59l-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Upclose-Image-of-mobile-ecommerce-shopping.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/24k30f8hj3m39d1mr36er59l-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Upclose-Image-of-mobile-ecommerce-shopping.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Are you actually making money online?<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><p>Financial analysis helps us understand how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/blog\/attracting-customers-to-your-online-store\/\">your shop<\/a> is performing. There are two parts to a financial analysis: the statement of operations and the balance sheet. The statement of operations tells us how much money (or loss) your shop is achieving based on current sales and costs. The balance sheet tells us how many assets the firm has to support its current and future operations.<\/p><\/div><div>Here are some of the key factors to look for in your shop\u2019s statement of operations:<\/div><div style=\"text-indent: -18.0pt;\"><!-- [if !supportLists]-->1.<span style=\"font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><strong>Revenues:<\/strong> Are revenues growing and at what rate? Many <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/blog\/the-4-realities-that-most-frustrate-and-annoy-buyers-in-physical-stores\/\">e-commerce<\/a> companies have experienced impressive, even explosive, revenue growth as an entirely new channel is created.<\/div><div style=\"text-indent: -18.0pt;\"><!-- [if !supportLists]-->2.<span style=\"font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;\">\u00a0 <strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><strong><!--[endif]-->Cost of sales:<\/strong> What is the cost of sales compared to revenues? Cost of sales typically includes the cost of the products sold and related costs. The lower the cost of sales compared to revenue, the higher the gross profit.<\/div><div style=\"text-indent: -18.0pt;\"><!-- [if !supportLists]-->3.<span style=\"font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><strong>Gross margin:<\/strong> What is the firm\u2019s gross margin, and is it increasing or decreasing? Gross margin is calculated by dividing gross profit by net sales revenues. Gross margin can tell you if the firm is gaining or losing market power vis-\u00e0-vis its key suppliers.<\/div><div style=\"text-indent: -18.0pt;\"><div style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.accountingformanagement.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cash-payment-for-expenses.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.accountingformanagement.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/cash-payment-for-expenses.png\" width=\"640\" height=\"310\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/div><p><!-- [if !supportLists]-->4.<span style=\"font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><strong>Operating expenses:<\/strong> What are the firm\u2019s operating expenses, and are they increasing or decreasing? Operating expenses typically include the cost of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/blog\/the-long-road-to-become-a-cult-brand\/\">marketing<\/a>, technology, and administrative overhead. They also include, in accordance with professional accounting standards, stock-based compensation to employees and executives, amortization of goodwill and other intangibles, and impairment of investments. In e-commerce companies, these turn out to be very important gross margin gross profit divided by net sales expenses. Many e-commerce firms compensated their employees with stock shares (or options), and many e-commerce firms purchased other e-commerce firms as a part of their growth strategy. Many of the companies were purchased at extremely high values using company stock rather than cash; in numerous instances, the purchased companies fell dramatically in market value. All these items are counted as normal operating expenses.<\/p><\/div><div style=\"text-indent: -18.0pt;\"><!-- [if !supportLists]-->5.<span style=\"font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;\">\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><strong>Operating margin:<\/strong> What did the firm earn from its current operations? Operating margin is calculated by dividing operating income or loss by net sales revenue. Operating margin is an indication of a company\u2019s ability to turn sales into pre-tax profit after operating expenses have been deducted. Operating margin tells us if the firm\u2019s current operations are covering its operating expenses, not including interest expenses and other non-operating expenses.<\/div><div style=\"text-indent: -18.0pt;\"><p><!-- [if !supportLists]-->6.<span style=\"font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal;\">\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><strong>Net margin:<\/strong> Net margin tells us the percentage of its gross sales revenue the firm was able to retain after all expenses are deducted. Net margin is calculated by dividing net income or loss by net sales revenue. Net margin sums up in one number how successful a company has been at the business of making a profit on each dollar of sales revenues. Net margin also tells us something about the efficiency of the firm by measuring the percentage of sales revenue it is able to retain after all expenses are deducted from gross revenues, and, within a single industry, it can be used to measure the relative efficiency of competing firms. Net margin takes into account many non-operating expenses such as interest and stock compensation plans.<\/p><p>A balance sheet provides a financial snapshot of a company\u2019s assets and liabilities (debts) on a given date. Assets refer to stored value. Current assets are those assets such as cash, securities, accounts receivable, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/blog\/the-4-realities-that-most-frustrate-and-annoy-buyers-in-physical-stores\/\">inventory<\/a>, or other investments that are likely to be able to be converted to cash within one year. Liabilities are outstanding obligations of the firm. Current liabilities are debts of the firm that will be due within one year. Liabilities that are not due until the passage of a year or more are characterized as long-term debt. For a quick check of a firm\u2019s short-term financial health, examine its working capital (the firm\u2019s current assets minus current liabilities). If\u00a0\u00a0<span style=\"text-indent: -18pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/blog\/budget-your-working-capital-efficiently-to-maximize-the-growth-of-your-business\/\">working capital is<\/a> only \u00a0marginally positive, or negative, the firm will likely have trouble\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"text-indent: -18pt;\">meeting its short-term obligations. Alternatively, if a firm has a large amount of current\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"text-indent: -18pt;\">assets, it can sustain operational losses for a period of time.<\/span><span style=\"text-indent: -18pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div><p>If you would like to <a rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/schedule.html\">get started<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/blog\/4-times-in-which-re-branding-is-mandatory\/\">AiHello<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/account\/register\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">click here<\/a>\u00a0for a free 14 days trial.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Boost your e-commerce profit! Discover how financial analysis, including statements of operations and balance sheets, helps you truly understand if your online shop is making money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,163],"tags":[451,450,449,448],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advertising","category-resources","tag-online-revenue","tag-online-sales","tag-online-shop-management","tag-shop-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12474,"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions\/12474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aihello.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}