Cash: Survival in Tough Economic Times
A business survives on cash. Making sales may be the objective, but if you don’t collect the cash from a sale in the appropriate amount of time, then making a sale is not enough. A sale needs to be profitable, and that includes a factor for contributing to a...
Cash Management – Not Paying the Bills
Every day it seems we hear about the Enron, Worldcom, ImClone and other "big business" ethical violations. There is no denying the significant impact on millions of people and the financial markets. However, there is a business practice that I've witnessed as part...
Cash Flow Not Flowing? Don’t Cut Your Marketing Efforts!
One of the biggest mistakes new businesses make involves marketing and advertising the business. They either do too much, too little, the wrong type, or stop too soon when results are being seen or when cash gets tight. The adage “You have to spend money to make...
Can The Business Have Moving Targets?
The answer to this question depends upon two things: the context of the question and the timeframe being discussed. As a part of normal business processes - performance targets, budgets, sales forecasts, and so on - a specific target is set. For example, achieve...
Can the Government Teach Small Businesses to Do Business?
There seems to be a buzz about government creating more programs to teach businesses, especially small businesses, how to do business. How to compete. How to cut costs. How to (fill in the blank). More and more programs are being discussed, and I suppose funding is...
Calendars, Time and Image
It seems to be an epidemic of almost pandemic proportions: People and companies are not maintaining or checking their calendars before making new plans or commitments. Just this week an economic development group's director decided to take an extra day of vacation...
Business Plans Are More Than Academic Exercises
Business plans done well and done early with attention to detail can enable businesses to assess the organization’s capital needs more accurately throughout its life cycle. This early “reality check” allows the organization to stave off the capitalization deficit and make wiser spending decisions. When organizations fully understand their capital needs, they don’t have to make “good enough” decisions that frequently lead to duplicate spending on the same item. You know the instances where things are done “good enough for now, and we’ll come back later and do it right when we have more money.” Good enough may be all that is ever done … or you may spend two or more times on the same thing because there isn’t enough money to do it right.
Business Development A La The Coffee Shop Conversation
The world has long left behind the pure dynamics of the large corporation and the world of the cubicle. It has said goodbye to the rules that say that business can only be conducted in person and in a three-piece suit in offices and board rooms. These days business is...
Business CPR – Cash, Prospects and Revenues
It doesn’t matter what your prospects are one year from now or a month from now, if you can’t pay your employees and vendors today. Cash flow determines whether you are in business or closing your doors. So understanding your cash flow cycle – the amount of time it...
Business Consulting: The Need for Cross-functional Perspectives to Profitability
All too often, business consulting is considered a generic label for the entire genre of consulting. When looking at the totality of types of consulting that can be provided by business consulting, it does encompass all the specialized areas from marketing to...