Strategic Plans and Budgets – Performance Tools
Understanding how to get the most out of your strategic plan is important. A robust strategic planning process includes translating the strategic and operational objectives into pro forma financial results. These financial results, like the strategic plan, typically...
Standing in a Queue, Lining Up for Services
What happens when you miss a meeting or a deadline to a service provider? Suppose you have a deadline to submit a document for review to a business advisor (lawyer, accountant, marketing professional…) Friday at 5 pm and you don’t send the document until noon on...
Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh
The only thing we truly have choices about and control of is our reactions (to people, events). While it is often challenging or nearly impossible to "be reasonable" in our reactions to things that happen and things people do, channeling the energy we lose to things...
Software Is a Tool, Not an Answer
Regardless of the size of your organization, software is a tool when it comes to running your business. It is not an answer. Software enables you to do more with what you have, IF (and it’s a big IF) you make the right selection. Making the right selection when it...
So What If You Fail? It is Part of Succeeding
“How can you do that?” It is a frequent question. “You do so much; aren't you afraid to fail?” Yes, everyone is afraid to fail to some degree, but it gets less as time goes on and you get use to it. Everyone fails at something, usually every day. You fail to lose...
Payroll Systems – It Pays To Get It Right!
Payroll is one of the “simple” business tasks that we often think that anyone can handle. After all it is just math, right? For those of us who aren’t either experienced in payroll issues or payroll professionals trained in the complexity of complying with local,...
Small Business Credit on the Edge
Every day we read more about the credit crisis. First came Wall Street and the banks; now credit card companies and small business credit lenders are in the news, asking for bailouts, requiring loans, or closing down. Because of this many small, credit-dependent...
Small Business, Competitive Markets
While big businesses (especially those traded on public stock exchanges) get the press, the real news—and arguably the differences in day-to-day life and the economy—rest in the small business, in this country and around the world. The majority of existing and new...
Size Doesn’t Matter – Sound Business Practices Do
Whether you are a small business or a Global 100 business, the underlying tenets are the same when it comes to financial management and sound accounting practices. The ability to "know the numbers" and what they mean is of critical importance to achieving the maximum...
“Owning” the Business
You may be the business owner, but do you really own your business? “What is the difference?” you may be asking. Well, it comes down to whether you are truly taking responsibility and accountability for making things happen— especially the making the hard calls, the...