According to the Insurance Information Institute, up to 40% of businesses hit by natural or human caused disasters never re-open.  They close because their normal processes are overwhelmed by loss:  loss of data, inventory, space, personnel, or all of the above.

So how do you make sure your business is one of the survivors?  By thinking about potential disasters before they happen, making a plan, and practicing to make sure the plan works.

For more information on preparing your business for disaster, see the article from our sister company, Accounting Solutions Partners, which provides bookkeeping and accounting services to small and mid-size companies.

By Tom Varga, Managing Partner

Although many small business owners believe that all banks are alike and their money is just another commodity, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, banks can be easily differentiated. Based upon size, the regions they serve, the number of specialized departments, the industries and sectors they serve, and their general prestige, banks are as dissimilar as the people who run them.

Click here to read more.

By Tom Varga, Managing Partner

Negotiations precede all business transactions, whether they are the sale of a product, the formation of a joint venture, an acquisition or sale of a company or the hiring and firing of employees. Daily negotiations also take place internal to a company or organization. Therefore, solid negotiating skills are a critical asset for  all business executives regardless of their functional areas.

To read the entire article, click here.

Ever wonder why some people are pursued by recruiters and some people aren't?  In this piece, Matt Youngquist, career coach and frequent speaker/presenter with our own Mark Tranter, answers this question and gives the low down about how the recruiter "system" works.

Click here to read more.

By Tom Varga, Managing Partner

Selecting the proper legal form to organize your business has become increasingly complicated, but the choices today are more flexible and numerous than in the past.  Until a few years ago, the choices available were fairly limited.  If an entrepreneur feared liability from creditors or had partners/investors, the company was incorporated; otherwise, the simplicity of a proprietorship or partnership was often chosen. Today, the choices are much more complex but offer small business owners greater flexibility and protection.

 To read more, click here.

The New York Times published a great article with research about the benefits of part-time finance help for a variety of small business situations.

Read the entire article here.  (If you are not already a NYTimes Online subscriber, you may be asked to provide your email to login; there is no charge to read up to 20 articles per month.)

In my most recent post, Mark Tranter, partner with CFO Selections in Bellevue, differentiated between well-networked executives and executives who didn't pay attention to building relationships. Here are some more in-depth strategies you can use today to make your transition more successful.

To read the entire article, click here.

"There are two types of CFOs, those that have a network and those that don't," says Mark Tranter, partner with CFO Selections in Bellevue. While both executives are competent, the non-networked CFO averages one year of unemployment while the networked CFO gets multiple job offers within weeks of announcing a move.

To read the entire article, click here.

Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you know our economy is still struggling. As a result, many businesses are strapped for cash. This is particularly true for small businesses, which haven't had government largesse to fall back on the way some of the big guys have.

To read the entire article, click here.

We've all heard it said: cash is king. And in these days of tight credit and a generally "down" economy, that's more true than ever. Whether you are looking for a loan, or just trying to keep your business afloat, it's hard to overestimate the importance of knowing where your cash is -- and were it will be in the near term future.

Regardless of the exact type of account, the best place for cash to be is "available for use." But often, businesses find their cash is tied up, stuck in a bottleneck that causes it to come in too slowly or go out too fast to meet the needs of the business. Here are some of the main places that can become cash traps, stopping you from growing -- or surviving at all.

• Your customer's bank: Are your receivables growing faster than your revenue? This can be due to collections issues, problems qualifying customers, or invoices that don't go out in a timely manner.
• Your vendor's bank: Are you paying your vendors too soon? Can you improve the pricing you get by asking for multiple bids, or negotiating better deals?
• Your warehouse: Is your inventory growing larger and larger each month? Do you have good processes in place to tell you what is actually selling, what needs to be ordered, and when and how you should move out aged inventory?

Once you have identified where your money is now, it can be very helpful (and is required by many lenders) to create models showing where it's likely to be in the next four quarters. You do this by identifying and modeling all the major drivers of your cash flow, for example revenue projections, seasonality of the business, average number of days to collect receivables, inventory turns, average payables outstanding, and the timing of major asset purchases.

CFO Selections can help you manage your cash flow by quickly providing a clear picture of your current cash position, strategies to improve cash management, an objective assessment of how current and potential lenders will view your situation, and a roadmap modeling multiple scenarios so you can anticipate problems and devise solutions.

About Tom Varga
Tom is the Founder and Managing Partner of CFO Selections. He has 20+ years of experience in finance and other executive positions at a variety of companies. Tom enjoys seeing business owners overcome challenges and take their companies to the next level. If he ever had spare time, he would spend it hiking, climbing, and teaching mountaineering.

We are living in interesting times — seriously challenging times economically. As a business owner, I am fighting to keep my business going and growing, in spite of the economy. Worrying about the economy and my business is very draining. To keep myself out of the doldrums, I take a step back, consider the larger picture and find something to celebrate.

To read the entire article, click here.

All of us are affected in one way or another by the current recession. Business owners and managers are facing very tough choices as they struggle to keep businesses afloat and profitable. Employees face the specter of potential or actual job losses. The resulting fear can immobilize workers and make it difficult for management to make and implement good decisions.

So what's a manager or an employee to do?

To read the entire article, click here.

Running a small business means you are handling multiple responsibilities. The product or service you sell is only one part of the equation – there is an accounting and finance component to running a business that can differentiate a successful business from a struggling business.  You don't have to be an accounting expert, but  you can save yourself a lot of trouble - and a lot of money - by understanding some of the basics like the time value of money, the difference between cash and accrual accounting, and why only some costs are relevant to business decision making.

To read the entire article, click here.

If we accept that employee accountability and measurement are good things, when tied to appropriate goals and performance expectations, how can we make the process useful to all concerned?

To read the entire article, click here.

The past two weeks have been wild in the business world. Some of the pillars of Wall Street have fallen and the government is scrambling to pick up the pieces and prevent additional breakage. The taxpayers are groaning as the abacus beads fly, adding up the tab. 

When times are bad, focus on the basics of good business: continue marketing, take care of your people, and, communicate your goals and strategies to your staff. 

To read the entire article, click here.