As a business owner, you might be wondering how early you can reasonably expect your monthly financial reports. Should you get them by the 5th workday? The 10th workday? In the middle of the month? When is the optimal time to review them, and can you get them that early? The answer is surprisingly simple: you could expect your monthly financial reports on the second of every month. Requiring Your Reports on the Second Workday Is Completely Reasonable Think of this as your fin

All entrepreneurs want their businesses to grow. Growth is good. For many entrepreneurs, this is exactly what they’ve focused on since the inception of their initial business idea. Then, one awesome day, they turned around, and happily realized, “Wow! I have a real business here!” Yes! I’m talking to you. You’ve been so wonderfully focused on getting things off the ground and surviving the inevitable bumps and bruises of a start-up that when you popped your head up to look ar

A business owner, you hope that fraud is something you’ll never have to deal with. But the unfortunate truth is that businesses — particularly small businesses that are growing — are ripe with opportunities for fraud. It could be happening in your business without you even knowing it. The biggest risk of fraud in a small business is cash leaving your bank accounts without your knowledge or consent, typically as a direct result of a dishonest staff member who has gained your t

When 6- and 7-figure entrepreneurs want to get to the next level in their businesses, I’m the CFO they call to help them leverage their cash and pay down debt to grow their business. Most entrepreneurs, when we start out, have a long-term goal for our businesses.  Whether it’s 6 figures in revenue, 7 figures, or more, we each have a unique vision of what qualifies as “success”.  That is point out there on our horizon towards which we are constantly aiming everything: our deci

When 6- and 7-figure entrepreneurs want to get to the next level in their businesses, I’m the CFO they call.  I help them get there by focusing on cash flow.  We make sure that owners leverage their cash flow, so they can become more profitable, pay down their debt, and grow faster. One of the reasons clients come to me is because they feel like they’re making money in their businesses, but they have no cash to show for it when they look at their bank accounts. They’ve been p

Change in an organization: Scary – exciting random – organized supported – resisted eye-opening – blinding Change in an organization is all of these things. To top it off, change usually comes because, either something is broken, or something needs to prepare for growth. And whether resetting a broken bone or going through growing pains – IT HURTS! Process improvement efforts, as a driver of change, can be similarly painful in the instant of implementation: It’s often hard f

This week’s thoughts were drafted in a traffic jam.  Yup, it was dictated into my voice recorder during 18 miles of stop-and-go traffic westbound on the Pennsylvania Turnpike as I was working my way to a meeting. Now, to put some context to this, I’m the person who: figures out how long the maps say it takes to get someplace; then adds an extra 50% window for traffic jams, accidents, and construction; then adds an extra 25% window to that for the unexpected (forgot to fill up