Achieve Your Goals by Measuring Your Efforts
I spent nine years running a US subsidiary of a Germany company. Their obsession (at least the group I worked for) with metrics gave me an appreciation for the power…
Will Your Business Model Deliver?
In this age of the lean startup, minimum viable product, and fail fast, the advice is clear, test everything as soon as possible. Also, do it while making the smallest…
7 Cloud Bookkeeping Mistakes that Startups Make — and How to Avoid Them
Keeping up with bookkeeping and tax obligations can cause even the best of startups to buckle under the pressure. What should be simple, straightforward processes become muddled and complicated when…
Financial Models: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
I’ve seen and designed hundreds of financial models over the years. Let’s talk a little bit about what characterizes a good model and some of the mistakes that can make…
Expenses Entrepreneurs Underestimate or Forget
Starting a new venture still costs real money, even though the price of entry has come down dramatically in the last few decades. For example, I come from a software…
Five Ways to Avoid Tax & Legal Trouble
A frequent concern I hear from aspiring entrepreneurs is: “I have invented a great product, and I want to set up a company so that I can avoid tax and…
5 Things You Need to Know About Financial Forecasting
For start-up and established businesses alike, there are few planning processes more critical than financial forecasting. Financial forecasting provides proper, well-informed projections of anticipated expenses and revenues, allowing for strategic…
Revenue Recognition for Software & Service Companies
I was recently speaking to a software company CEO who was excited about having signed a big multi-year contract with a customer. He mentioned that this contract would significantly increase…
Recordkeeping for the Restless
Why keep business records? When you’re passionate about your company, keeping accurate business records can seem like a boring chore. It’s not the most glamorous or engaging task, and it…
Business Is So Good It’s Killing Me
A call came into our office last week from a stressed-out small business owner in Florida. He said that he needed a business plan right away that he could submit…