Closing the Books on 2011

January is drawing to a close and you should have enough information to close the books for 2011. We use a checklist for our clients to make sure everything has been entered and all accounts reconciled or verified. A brief checklist looks like this:
1. Verify that all vendor bills are posted by the end of the year
2. Invoice any customers for any work done in 2011
3. Review Accounts Receivable and determine if any need to be sent to a collection agency or written   off as uncollectible
4. Review all loan payments to verify the correct allocation between interest and principal.
5. Reconcile
    a. Bank accounts
    b. Credit cards
    c. Accounts Receivable (compare the Balance sheet amount to the aging report)
    d. Accounts Payable (compare the Balance sheet amount to the aging report)
6. Create a list of 1099 vendors and calculate the amount due them.
7. File your 1099s
8. Adjust any prepaid items, such as insurance
9. Record any accruals for the year end for any other expenses which aren't included in Accounts        Payable or the credit card
10. Calculate and record depreciation and amortization expense as needed
11. Review asset and expense accounts to insure that all fixed assets have been recorded on the books
12. Prepare year-end reports: W2, W3, 940, 941, 1096, 1099, WT-6, WT-7, UCT101 and remit to the   appropriate parties
13. Review your financial statements for 2011: Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, A/R aging, A/P aging,   Budget to Actual
14. Enter the budget for 2012 into your accounting program
15. Review your data backup plan for adequacy and clean up your paper files
16. Schedule your appointment with your tax preparer

Taking Action

A new client of ours recommended the book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen and commented that it was a real life saver in her business.  I have just started reading it and what has struck me the most so far is his statement that the best way to reduce stress and increase productivity is to take action.  This struck a chord with me as I have often found this to be true.  When I have been worried about a presentation at work or fretting about a friend in need, stopping and asking myself "what are you going to do about this besides worry?" and then taking action has reduced the anxiety.

When we are reviewing financial statements with our clients and pointing out areas of concern, our first question is "why do you think this is happening?" but the next question is always "what are you going to do about it?"  Merely making note of a negative trend in your business is not enough although it is the first step.  This is why we focus on managerial accounting and work with our clients on reviewing their financial reports regularly.  The sooner you spot a negative trend, the sooner you can take action.

When has taking action reduced your anxiety or increased your productivity? 

Running your business with a proactive attitude

One of the seminars we are working on deals with how you can run your business more effectively if you approach life with a proactive attitude rather than always reacting.  Here are just a few topics to inspire your curiosity:

Develop short and long term plans, set up a budget, have goals and benchmarks to measure your planning and goal setting.

Write up job descriptions for employees and have regular job performance reviews.

Get expert help when you need it: accounting, IT, marketing are a few common areas where many business owners seek help.

Develop a good risk management policy.  Many small businesses are run with a very small staff and it is important to plan ahead and have procedures in place in the event someone else has to step in due to illness or injury.

This is just a start to the topic and we have many more areas to cover.  Any suggestions as to what else we should cover?

Why do I have to do my accounting?

What is accounting really? Techniques or a language that allows you to keep track of the money coming in and going out of a business. Many people are uncomfortable with accounting because they are unfamiliar with the terminology. I can’t tell you how many times I tried to explain to friends struggling with an accounting class in college how assets could be debits, liabilities-credits while income was a credit and expenses were debits. They always thought assets and income should act the same way. I tried to get into the theory behind double entry accounting and how the balance sheet and income statement flow through each other, but some people just got bogged down with the terms.

The nice thing about the invention of accounting software programs is that the terminology has really become a non-issue. With QuickBooks or other programs, the user is filling out forms or writing checks and the program “writes” the entries for you so you don’t need to know whether you are debiting cash or crediting sales. Once you let your discomfort over the terminology go, you can focus on learning how to use the program. Modern software has nice features built in that require you to enter data such as customer names and addresses only once and then each time you invoice that customer, all that information is automatically entered into the form. Even better, once you’ve learned how to use your accounting software, you can really reap the benefits of good accounting by learning how to use the many reports the programs can generate.

The whole point to establishing a good accounting system is to provide you, the owner, with the information you need to run your business. The less time you spend on the bookkeeping portion of the accounting process, the more time you will have for the analysis portion. It is the analysis that will point out the questions your business is asking you. While modern accounting programs can’t answer the questions, but they can point you in the right direction and give you the information you need to find the answers.

A successful small business owner learns how to make the most from her accounting process by selecting the right program, learning how to use the software, learning how to read the financial statements and using all the great information to make the decisions needed to keep her business moving forward.

Why do small businesses fail?

Even though the economy is starting to turn around, we still see too many small businesses closing their doors.  Why?

• The business didn't take the time to understand what set it apart from it's competitors or didn't articulate that to the market clearly enough.
• The business wasn't set up for success.  A well developed business plan wasn't created which listed all the start up expenses and assets required and located the funding for these expenditures.
• The business didn't know what it's break even point was and didn't systematically determine it's pricing.
• The owner wasn't prepared for how hard a small business owner has to work and the sacrifices that need to be made during the start up years.
• The owner lacked the people skills to effectively deal with employees, customers and vendors.
• The business didn't have proper financial information to make decisions and change strategies.  Good financial statements are NOT just for your tax preparer to use.  They help you understand what is or is not working in your business.
• The owner had insufficient or irrelevant experience to run their own business.  Many people who have always been an employee have no idea what it takes to be a business owner.  The owner of a small business has to know about labor laws and tax codes and licensing requirements and record keeping rules........

It breaks our hearts every time we see a business with a good product or that offers good service fail because it didn't have the proper infrastructure or organization.  We have often thought business owners should be required to take a class so they do understand all the rules and regulations they need to follow and all the other things they need to understand. 

Learning to run your business with your iPhone

Sharlyn Lauby of Mashable had a recent article about online learning apps available for iPhone users. Beth and I haven’t jumped on the iPhone bandwagon yet, but for those of you who have, this is a list of apps available to you:


• Learning To-Go by INTERSOG included Pocket MBA, Pocket CFO and Pocket Manager

• Sandler Training offers courses on sales and sales management

• Skill-Pill has 2 minute videos for hundreds of business topics

• CellCast Widget provides a mobile library with hundreds of topics

• iTunesU gives you access to Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series

Next time you are picking up your kids after practice or waiting to see the dentist, take advantage of the down time to take in a little continuing education. We are big believers in constant learning and improving. Any apps out there we missed?

Perceived value in a tough economy

I was at an advisory board meeting for the Better Business Bureau today and we were discussing perceived value.  We were talking about the reasons some businesses chose not to renew their accreditation with the BBB and it came down to perceived value. 

With many small businesses continuing to struggle financially, owners must make hard decisions on where to spend money.  Some areas are not negotiable-insurance and rent must be paid as do employees.  Other areas are not as obvious such as memberships or dues.  Accounting often falls into the same category-lacking perceived value. 

Beth and I have been fortunate to retain all our clients through the last 2 years, but we often run into the value question when we are meeting with perspective clients.  They know they need help, but the idea of the accounting bill can be hard to swallow.  Those businesses who do retain us do come to see the value of our work which is why they remain clients.  We make sure to post their recommendations and testimonials on our website and on Linked In so potential clients can see what people have to say about our work. 

My husband often finds himself in a similar situation.  He is the sales manager for a local business which is fortunate to have over 50 years of quality products and service to their name.  Despite this sterling reputation, they often find businesses interested only in the bottom line-they want the lowest bill or the cheapest alternative and not the best value.  Again, it is a question of perceived value.  There may be other businesses that provide a cheaper product, but the buyer may find that the quality is lower and the maintenance higher and in the long run, the overall cost to the business will be higher.  Some individuals find this concept difficult to comprehend upfront. 

Any ideas on how to combat the question of perceived value?

No Need to Budget!

“I have never made enough money to need a budget.” I heard a variant of this comment at least three times this month. I want to dispel this myth. If you are ever to get ahead in life, EVERYONE needs some sort of budget. Before my daughter went away to school this fall I sat down with her and we looked at the money she had saved, what other sources of income (i.e. jobs) she might have coming in, and developed a budget for her to follow. Since her finances are simple, we set her up on Mint.com so that she could easily track her spending versus budget.

Tracking expenses and budgeting needs to be done at EVERY level of income in order to get ahead in life. I have seen people not able to make ends meet on $20,000 of income, on $50,000 of income, and on $100,000 of income.

The discussion of setting a budget for small businesses often leads to the discussion about personal budgets as so many micro entrepreneurs’ personal and business financial positions are intertwined. People don’t track personal spending and don’t set personal budgets and therefore they rebel against these tools for their business as well.

If you are ever going to succeed, you need to be purposeful in what you do. Planning and budgeting is a tool for being purposeful and not just letting your financial position unfold. It is the difference between controlling your destiny and letting it happen to you. This is true in both the personal and the business realm.

People don’t track expenses and use budgets because it is not a FUN activity. It requires self-discipline. I am a financial analyst and have utilized these tools my entire life and I still grumble every time I sit down to work on my family finances. The feeling is universal! However, the rewards are great!

People don’t like budgets because they fail to account for surprise expenditures and they don’t have savings to fall back on. The key is to make savings a priority with each paycheck so there is an emergency fund to dip into if necessary. Be creative if necessary to come up with the extra. My husband always empties the change out of his pockets at night and does not put it back in his pockets in the morning. Early in our marriage I used to scoop up that change and that was the beginning of our savings.

So here’s the quick technique in a nutshell. It is nothing that you haven’t heard before, but it is a dose of common sense and perhaps brutal reality.

1.       Discuss as a family your goals and priorities for this year, for five years, for long-term.

2.       Stop using credit cards to pick up your extras. Credit cards should only be used with careful foresight and should be paid off in full every month. Using them to shore up your lack of income only leads to worse financial problems.

3.       Track all of your expenses so that you understand what each member of your family is spending money on.

4.       Write down your monthly income.

5.       Decide what portion of your income needs to be put into savings (emergency fund first, then short-term and long-term goals) and make that happen. This is a key point to your budgeting success!  There MUST be some surplus somewhere to cover the unexpected. You CANNOT say that there is nothing left for savings. Savings must come BEFORE your expenses.

6.       Make sure that your savings + expenses are not greater than your income. You will only continue to dig a deeper hole if you spend more than you earn. If savings plus expenses are greater than income then  you need to make some changes (and the answer is NOT to cut out savings):

a.       Take on a temporary second job until you reach your goals of paying off old debt or building up the initial emergency fund.

b.      Cut your expenses. This could simply mean cutting out your daily coffee or cigarettes, but if things are really tight it could mean making tough choices about where you can afford to live and what you have and what activities your kids participate in.

Make the changes necessary to live within your means, to manage your finances with purpose, and to get ahead in life. 2011 is your year!

IRS guidelines for Small Business Health Care Tax Credit

IRS released final guidance for small employers eligible to claim the new small business health care tax credit for the 2010 tax year. The credit is generally available to small employers that pay at least half of the premiums for single health insurance coverage for their employees. Small businesses can claim the credit for 2010 through 2013 and for any two years after that. For the first three years, the maximum credit is 35% of premiums paid by eligible small businesses and 25% of premiums paid by eligible tax-exempt organizations. Beginning in 2014, the maximum credit will increase to 50% of premiums paid by eligible small business employers and 35% for eligible tax-exempt organizations.


The maximum credit goes to smaller employers-those with 10 or fewer full-time equivalent (FTE) employees – paying annual average wages of $25,000 or less. The credit is completely phased out for employers who have 25 or more FTEs or that pay average wages of $50,000 or more per year. Because the eligibility rules are based in part on the number of FTEs, not the number of employees, employers that use part-time workers may qualify even if they employ more than 25 individuals.

Eligible small businesses will first use Form 8941 to figure the credit and then include the amount of the credit as part of the general business credit on its tax return.

FTE is calculated by taking total hours worked by all employees (whether they received benefits or not) for the year and dividing by the total number of employees.

Annual average wages is calculated by taking total wages/salary expense for all employees (whether they receive benefits or not) by the FTE.



Full article found on accountingweb http://www.accountingweb.com

Giving Thanks leads to Small Business Success

In this week of Thanksgiving, I want to take a few minutes to reflect on Giving Thanks in the context of running a small business. I recently acquired two new motivational posters to hang in my office along with my business Vision Statement. These are visual reminders about the reason that I am in the business I am. Both of the motivational posters have a line in them regarding being thankful. 

In a customer focused business model, who are the people that you should be conscious about thanking?

Thank your customers. Thanking your customers not only shows your appreciation but makes you approachable so that you can build a relationship with your customers which will keep them coming back. This relationship also allows you to ask for feedback in order to keep your company focused on your customers’ needs.

Thank your vendors and subcontracted service providers. Let them know that you appreciate the role they play in providing the services and products which allows you to run a successful business. Cultivating strong vendor relationships creates a win/win situation and allows you to provide better service to your customers.

Thank your employees. Let your employees know that they are an integral part of your team. Allow them the opportunity to shine and contribute to your business success. 

Thank your business acquaintances.  Drop a note of thanks for providing a referral or for sending a good article which you were able to apply to your business. The best way to encourage the continuation of behavior that you appreciate is to genuinely provide some positive reinforcement. A thank you is just that.

Thank your partners. They are the ones in the daily grind with you and they are often the last ones thanked for their efforts.

Thank your family and friends. Every successful entrepreneur has people in their lives who patiently endure long hours and endless conversations about work and who pick up the slack in our personal lives. Be sure to thank them for the effort.

Is there anyone else that you would include in this list? Give Thanks!

Ratio Analysis: Part 1

Financial analysts often recommend ratio analysis as a way to measure the condition of a business. Many small business owners don’t know how to calculate the ratios or don’t understand what the ratios are telling them. We will discuss how to calculate important ratios and what they mean.

Financial ratios can be classified into four groups: liquidity ratios, activity ratios, leverage ratios, and profitability ratios. This week we will discuss liquidity ratios and leverage ratios.


Liquidity ratios help measure a business' ability to generate sufficient cash flow to pay it's current bills.
Liquidity is necessary to all business especially during economic downturns or slow periods for a company.

Current Ratio: This ratio is subject to seasonal fluctuations and is used to measure the ability of the business to meet its current liabilities out of current assets. A high ratio is needed if the business has difficulty borrowing on short notice.

      Current Ratio = Current Assets/Current Liabilities

Quick (Acid-Test) Ratio: The quick ratio, also known as the acid-test ratio is an even stricter measure of liquidity and is what saved many businesses when the economy fell apart in 2009.

    Quick Ratio = (Cash + Short Term Investments + Accounts Receivable)/Current Liabilities
Leverage (Solvency) Ratios. Solvency is the ability of the business to pay its long-term debts as they become due. An analysis of solvency looks at the long-term financial and operating structure of a business. The amount of long-term debt the business has is also considered. Solvency is affected by profitability, since in the long run no business will be able to meet its debts unless it is profitable.

Debt Ratio: The debt ratio compares total liabilities to total assets. It shows the percentage of total funds obtained from creditors. The more funding a business has from creditors, the more risk from a decrease in revenue and/or a decrease in profitability.

       Debt Ratio = Total Liabilities/Total Assets

Times Interest Earned (Interest Coverage) Ratio: The times interest earned ratio reflects the number of times before-tax earnings cover interest expense. It is a safety margin indicator in the sense that it shows how much of a decline in earnings a business can safely survive.

     Interest Coverage = Earnings before Interest and Taxes/Interest Expense

The key to all ratio analysis is what you compare the ratios to.  Industry standards are important as well as the business' own history.

Next week, we will discuss activity and profitability ratios.  What is your favorite ratio?

The Dangers Small Businesses Face When Hiring Employees

Employees are essential to the success of most small businesses and yet they are also one of the greatest sources of difficulties for small business owners. I wish the was some law requiring business owners to get proper training before they hire employees because there are so many things to know and so many problems can arise if you don’t handle employment issues correctly.


The IRS has a whole area dedicated to small business http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/index.html and the State of Wisconsin has its own site http://dwd.wisconsin.gov/dwd/employers.htm We recommend all business owners read the information on these sites BEFORE they even begin the hiring process. There are rules about what you can ask potential hires, there are guidelines to help you determine if the worker you are thinking of using is a subcontractor or an employee. The majority of situations will result in an employee, not a contractor and business owners will save themselves a great deal of trouble if they make this determination ahead of time. Even part time, occasional or temporary help usually fits the description of employee. Your accountant, attorney, marketing advisor are all contractors for your small business. The people answering your phone, sorting your mail, staffing your events are almost always going to be categorized as employees by the IRS.

There are rules about what employment related signs you must post at your business, paperwork your employees must file out and you must retain and file with the appropriate agencies (federal and state). There are schedules to meet as far as filing and paying payroll taxes which if you fail to follow will create large penalties and interest for your business and possibly for the owner personally.

There are many choices for processing payroll: online vendors such as Paychex, local payroll processors, and local accounting firms. Business owners should do their research and determine if it makes more sense for them to outsource this task or learn to do it themselves. Whatever the decision, education and training are essential to insure that all the rules are followed and all the schedules met.

Don’t lose money because you did not do your homework ahead of your hiring!

Other Sources of Financing for Small Businesses

While the economy is slowly turning around, many small businesses are frustrated by their inability to get bank financing. I recently read an article in the CPA Daily newsletter discussing alternatives to traditional bank financing.


Factoring:

Factors purchase outstanding invoices, allowing a business immediate access to cash instead of making it wait 30, 60 or 90 days for a customer to pay. Factors buy receivables generally without recourse, meaning they assume the credit risk of the business’ customer.

Equipment Sale and Leaseback:

If a business owns expensive equipment or machinery outright, anything from a fork lift to a printing press, it can find a lender who will buy the equipment for a lump sum and lease it back. During the term of a lease, the lessor (the lender) owns the equipment. When it ends, the lessee (the small business) can buy the equipment from the lessor or give it back and get a newer model.

Microloans:

As the name suggests, microloans tend to be smaller in amount, but can run as much as $150,000. "In many cases, that's enough to help them with working capital for a month or so and that's often all they need,” says Gary Lindner, chief operating officer of ACCION Texas, one of about 300 U.S. non-profit micro-enterprise lending institutions.

Merchant Cash Advance:

A handful of independent finance companies will give merchants a lump sum upfront in exchange for a share of their future credit-card sales. Different than a loan or lease arrangement, a merchant cash advance is based on a business’ monthly credit-card sales history. The upside: unlike a loan, there are no due dates and no fixed payments and it's faster to get approved. The downside: while there's no traditional interest rate, providers such as AdvanceMe, Merchant Warehouse, or AmeriMerchant will take a cut – called a split -- that is generally 15 to 17 percent of credit-card receivables.

Purchase Order Financing:

A financing agent advances money against a signed purchase order for finished goods or value-added products to help fund manufacturing and fulfillment of the order. This type of arrangement is helpful for companies such as import-export firms, which must pay for raw materials immediately but wait to get paid for their finished goods. Once goods are shipped and customers are invoiced, the transaction is closed out.

The upside of purchase order financing: it depends more on the credit standing of a business’ customer rather than its own. The downside: providers of these advances take a cut of a company’s profits, usually in the range of 4 percent or less.

If you chose to go an alternative route, make sure you do your homework and pick a reputable provider of funds. Do any of you have other suggestions for small business financing?

10 Tips for Working a Room

Networking is an essential part of every Marketing Strategy. Learn how to do it well and make it a productive use of your time.

1. Plan ahead. Put not only the event on your calendar, but block off time the following day to follow up and connect with the people you met.

2. Prepare. Dress appropriately, wear your name tag (on the right side!), have your business cards ready, plan your introduction.

3. Brush up on your small talk. Know the main news topics and have a few anecdotes, interesting books or articles, something on your reading list in your head.

4. Put on your smile, practice a good handshake, and remember to be focused on one person at a time. People want to talk to people who are pleasant and have a welcoming attitude.

5. Position yourself. Notice the flow of traffic and position yourself in a place that allows you to see who is coming and going and to be seen by others. You are not having a romantic dinner, so do not allow yourself to disappear into the corners of the room.

6. Know your goal. It is never my goal to gather as many business cards as possible. Instead, I make a point of meeting 2-3 new people and having a meaningful conversation with them and then reconnecting with 2-3 people that I already know.

7. Be customer focused. Ask questions about them. Get a conversation going, not a one-way monologue. Try to identify their needs. Figure out how you can help them.

8. Don't monopolize their time. 10 minutes is plenty of time to have a discussion and move on politely.

9. Introduce people. Everyone is at a networking event for the same reason, so introducing people is another way of being helpful. Think of yourself as a host in this respect.

10. Follow up with your new contacts. Connect on social media, set up a lunch, follow through immediately on any promises that you made. Meeting someone new is the initial goal. It is the follow up that begins the process of building a meaningful relationship.

Anything you would add to this list?

Thoughts on Management and Parenting

Last week marked the bittersweet event of dropping off my (Beth's) oldest child at college. While slightly sad that I am no longer essential, I am proud to see how confidently she is managing this transition. I have been preparing her for this independence for years, gradually giving her more and more responsibility in the home: allowing her to decorate her bedroom as she saw fit (within my parameters of course), requiring that she make her own breakfast and lunch, and making sure that she knew how to cook, clean, sew, shop, arrange appointments, be organized, and most importantly, make decisions. Now is the time to let her try out her skills on her own and accept the mistakes along with the victories. My thinking is that if she was struggling and needing me too much at this moment, then I haven't done my job well as a parent.

This is not very different than the role that a good manager plays in the business setting. A good manager sets the tone, the direction, and the expectations and then allows her employees to assume more and more responsibilities. The entire purpose of having employees is to multiply the amount that can be accomplished by one person alone. Employees need to be provided with clear job descriptions and good training, and then gradually a good manager has to back off and allow the employees to try things on their own, learning from their mistakes en route to the accomplishments. Delegation can be difficult. Accepting that an approach might be different from the way you would have done it but nonetheless effective can be difficult. Both extremes, micromanaging and no managing, lead to nonproductive employees. But an effective manager develops competent employees who see the vision and help to move the company forward. Are you doing your job well as a manager?

Scams targeting Small Businesses

My brother sent me an email last week informing me that he had met with a firm that professes to do profitability and tax savings assessments on small companies and promised to save his company $100K the first year. My brother was wise enough to bring his tax accountant with him to the meeting and when the representative could not or would not provide any details as to how they could save the business $100K, they sent the company packing. They later found out the company has over 300 complaints filed against them with the local Better Business Bureau office.


I am on the advisory board for our local BBB office and at our last meeting, heard a story about a business in our area scammed by a firm promising to write them a business plan and set the company up a foundation which would make them eligible for thousands of dollars in government grants. The company paid $8K in fees which got them a cookie cutter business plan and no grant money.

The moral to these stories is buyer beware. There are more and more unscrupulous businesses and individuals looking to take advantage of a small business owner’s desperation. Before you sign any contract or send any money to a company promising to reduce your taxes or help you get grant or loan money, have your attorney or another trusted advisor look things over. If your cash flow is tight, the last thing you want to do is waste money in a scam.

Dealing with Taxes as a business owner

We have seen far too many people losing money and suffering sleepless nights over tax issues lately. I don’t prepare income taxes myself, but we do help our clients with sales and payroll taxes and we make sure their financial information is complete and accurate for their income tax preparers. Here are a few thoughts about taxes in general.


The right to collect taxes, whether sales & use, payroll or income, is dictated by law so if you don’t pay the amount of taxes you owe, you are breaking the law.

Every business owner needs to understand what taxes they owe and when. Find a professional you like and trust and have them teach you about your taxes. You don’t have to prepare all the paperwork if you don’t want to, but you do need to know what is due and when. You have to work with your service professionals to stay within the law.

If you run into cash flow problems and you can’t meet a tax deadline, don’t bury your head in the sand! File the proper forms or returns and then contact the tax authorities and arrange a payment schedule. The IRS and state authorities want to collect their money and they will work with you. Communication will go a long way to avoid levies and garnishments and fear. Avoidance leads to penalties and interest which grow at staggering rates. We have seen cases where the interest and penalties far exceed the actual taxes owed by the time the business owner sat down with the tax agency.

Owners also need to understand that money withheld from employees’ paycheck is still technically the employees’ money and not sending it to the proper agency is considered stealing. The IRS can come after a business owner personally to collect employee portion of payroll taxes even if the business is incorporated or an LLC.

Learn about your tax responsibilities and work with your service professional to see that you file and pay on time. It can save you and your business.

Learning how to be a business owner

I was reading the UW-Madison Business Alumni Magazine Update for Spring/Summer and I was excited to see the educational opportunities available for entrepreneurs. The fourth annual Wisconsin Entrepreneurial Boot camp was held at the School of Business. This event brings together graduate students from engineering, law and sciences to learn more about running a business by attending interactive sessions led by Wisconsin School of business faculty and real-world professionals. The university also offers two formal certificates in entrepreneurship-one for undergraduates and one for graduate students. The School of Business hopes to assist students in engineering, liberal arts, sciences, law and other majors learn the fundamentals necessary to run a successful business.


This all shows that having a great product or service isn’t enough to have a successful business. Business owners need to be able to read their financial statements and understand cash flow. They need to know what the trends are in their industry and in their market. They need to focus less on minimizing income taxes and more on building adequate equity and capital for their company. The economic downturn showed that businesses which had a plan and had proactive management and had adequate capitalization were able to weather the storm with much less pain than those companies without these essentials.

For those of you starting out or those who survive the latest recession, now is the time to get your business in good shape. Write a business plan, figure out what business knowledge or skills you lack and do something about it. There are classes available at local universities and plenty of books available, such as the E-Myth series. There are software programs available to help you write a business plan, or you can work with the many consultants out there who provide this service.

Entrepreneurs aren’t afraid of hard work so now is the time to take charge.

Where do we find entrepreneurs?

Beth and I were interviewed by a reporter for a local weekly paper recently and we were pleased by how well she captured our philosophy, our mission and our personalities. Yes, we’ve heard all the accountant jokes so it was nice that she tried to demonstrate that we do have a sense of humor! More importantly she wrote about our passion to help small businesses.


We strive to help people looking to start a business and those who are already in business. What we find when we are brought in to work with a small business that has been operating for a period of time, is that even if they have a great product or service, mistakes in running the operation can place them in a precarious spot. We are hoping the article will help us find more people at the start of their business lives rather than after they have run into problems.

So here is our question to all of you-how do we find these potential entrepreneurs and small business owners? We would like to help them start strong and avoid the common pitfalls so many micro businesses face. We want them to have financial information they can use to make decisions about pricing and advertising and hiring. We want them to know how to successfully interview and hire employees. We want them to manage their inventory and collect the money owed them for sales and services. So how do we find them?

Summertime for Mompreneurs

Well it's here! Summer has arrived! The kids are off of school. Camps have begun. Summer...in my opinion the most difficult season of the year for Mompreneurs...especially mompreneurs who work from home and have school age children andwork from home. Scheduling is crazy, the noise level is higher, there are more interruptions in the day, and the internal pull between running your business and providing a fun summer for your kids is at its peak. So how to navigate through these few precious months?

1. Organization is key: Decide how many hours you must work each week. Write your involvement in your children's activities onto your master schedule and then block your work time into your schedule as well.

2. Reclaim your office: During the school year I gravitate to my kitchen counter to work. When summer comes, I need to separate myself from the household activity and move my work back into my office.

3. Set rules: When I am working, the children need to understand that they cannot interrupt me randomly. When I am on the phone, they cannot be playing their musical instruments. Figure out where your problem areas are and set the rules accordingly.

4. Take some time off! You deserve it and the kids are only young once, so reward a good smooth-running workweek with a Friday afternoon at the pool.

What are your tips for managing your summer as a Mompreneur?