Part of the WeBC SMART Programs

“Financial Fitness” is one of our most popular training series, and now it’s available On-Demand! Part of our SMART Program series, these courses are designed to help you understand key concepts, work through interactive case studies and complete activities that apply the learning to your own business.

About the Financial Fitness Course

When your business is financially healthy, many other aspects of your business become stronger. You can feel more confident making decisions, applying for funding opportunities, or hiring new staff to free up your time.

This self-paced module, created by WeBC, contains the tools, tips, and resources you need to help you feel in control of your finances, achieve your goals, and set your business up for success!

This interactive on-demand learning module includes three chapters:

• Chapter 1 | Understanding Your Finances
• Chapter 2 | Your Business Finances
• Chapter 3 | Financial Management

All sessions are delivered on the WeBC On-Demand Learning Platform, and include downloadable workbooks. After you’ve completed the course, you can connect with a WeBC Business Advisor for complimentary support to expand on your financial strategy.

Thanks to funding from the Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, the WeBC SMART Program is free for 2024!

What’s Included

• Access to the Financial Fitness Module on our On-Demand Learning Platform
• Guidance from a Business Advisor
• Priority access to the next available cohort of Passion and Grit: Build Your Resiliency Toolkit in 2024 (dates TBD)

About the Sessions

Chapter 1 | Understand Your Finances

In Chapter 1, you’ll explore basic financial concepts in the context of your personal finances, so you can develop the confidence to apply those same concepts when it comes to managing your business finances. This chapter introduces the following concepts:

• Understanding your personal cash flow
• Creating a personal balance sheet
• The importance of keeping your personal and business finances separate

Chapter 2 | Your Business Finances

Chapter 2 covers three commonly-used financial statements: the cash flow statement, income statement and balance sheet. Working through each statement step-by-step, you’ll learn how to create, read and understand these statements for your own business.

In this chapter, we’ll work through practical exercises to help you understand the type of financial statements you should be using, and what they can tell you about the health of your business.

By the end of this chapter, you will:

• Understand how to forecast when cash will be going in and out of your business, to reduce the risk of shortfalls, and provide projections to potential lenders
• Create a cash flow statement, income statement, and balance sheet for your business
• Calculate your Cost of Goods Sold
• Understand depreciation

Whether you’re managing your own finances, or have the help of a bookkeeper or accountant, this chapter will help you understand the data so you can make informed financial decisions.

Chapter 3 | Financial Management

As the key decision-maker for your business, it’s paramount that your management style is proactive rather than reactive. Financial management may not be your passion, but it is your job. In this chapter, you’ll learn about two considerations for effective financial management:

• Breakeven analysis – what is the magic number where you start to make a profit?
• Credit and collections policies – should you offer credit, and what should you consider?

Who is this for?

This introductory-level module is open to anyone who would like to improve their financial literacy, master new skills and feel more confident managing the money for their business.

This program is funded by the Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy.