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01/03/2011 - 10:20pm

We all know the last few years have been rough for many business owners. 

For the top 20% of small and medium size businesses (SMBs), things now seem to be going pretty well.  Your business is growing and your cash flow is strong.   People are buying your products or services.   As they say on those really cool tee shirts, Life Is Good.

For another 20%, and unfortunately I am referring to the bottom 20%, life has not been so good.  Some of you are not reading this because you are out of business.  Others are on life support....

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12/04/2010 - 10:00pm

I recently spoke to a business owner who was in a real bind - an inventory bind. He had gotten caught in the inventory trap.

A very influential customer had called and said they were considering placing a big order.  The customer asked if they would be able to handle it.  The owner did the math and said yes.  If he wanted to fill the order, he would need more inventory. 

He immediately called his supplier.  The supplier said, yes, they could produce it. To be ready for the “big order”, the business owner asked them to start.  The inventory began arriving a few days later....

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10/26/2010 - 2:24pm

We’re in an expansion.  No, really. 

The other day, a business owner was bemoaning the current recession.   I told him I hated to break the news to him, but…

Did you know that on September 20, 2010, the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research officially declared the recession that began in December 2007 was officially over in June of 2009?  Feel better yet?

Well, it’s true, statistically speaking, the longest recession since World War II is over.  But government declarations aside, most businesses are still struggling with the ongoing conditions of high unemployment, tight cash flow, changing banking practices, government uncertainty in taxes, health care and...

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08/07/2010 - 8:44am

I recently met with a business owner and I asked my standard first meeting question, “So what information do you use to run your business?” After almost ten years of asking that question to business owners, I continue to be amazed at the responses I get.

“Well, I know I have some reports. Let me see if I can find them…oh, here they are.” Hands me sealed envelope.

”Data, have we got data!” Then he hands me 30 pages of metrics and reports.

And then the infamous, “Here you go – hot off the press. Here are my tax returns – federal and state” (this is usually in September and the returns had just been filed for the prior year).

When I was growing up in the CPA world, and then as I started in the public company world, I noticed we spent a lot of time on the...

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06/15/2010 - 2:29pm

If you ask some business owners about income taxes, you often get the response that they do a lot of “work” at year-end to minimize their taxes. 

Too often, they are advised that by minimizing their tax liability, they save money. That is the way many people generally think, so it must be true. Right?

Wrong.  From my experience, I have found that the key to growing a successful business is to pay taxes.

Why? Because those that pay the most taxes have the highest earnings. Those that have the highest earnings are strong and healthy. Those that are strong and healthy have the best relationship with the most cost effective source of financing that exists – a bank.

It is often counter intuitive to the way most people think.

Now I am all for good tax planning, but not to a...

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