Smart business owners need to be sure their accounting departments are sufficiently familiar with changes in tax law, or they need to seek help from accounting services that are paid to keep up with regulatory changes.
Staying Abreast of Tax Law Changes Aids Better Bookkeeping Read More »
most managers only measure outputs, not inputs, which is like telling a Little League team to score more runs, rather than actually explaining how to swing a bat and make contact with the ball. Similarly, most companies measure traffic, revenue or earnings, without considering how to improve the company at an atomic level: how to make a meeting better, or an engineer more productive.
“How am I Doing, Boss?” – Management Metrics Improve Team Performance Read More »
One of the primary reasons that the strategic planning process fails is because the plan is written and then set aside to gather dust. Once the plan is created, it needs to be communicated to the parties involved in its success. Provide metrics that align with the expectations for the plan’s outcome
How to Create Strategic Planning To Drive Strategy Read More »
The litmus test for each of your strategic objectives is that it has to meet each of these five criteria. If the objective fails to meet one or more of these criteria, then either assess it to determine if it is truly strategic, or revise it to make it more specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time bound.
Being SMART About Setting Strategic Objectives Read More »
Strategic objectives should be selected to address the major challenges facing the company. To make these SOs manageable and actionable, limit them to no more than eight, and it’s vital to prioritize them.
Developing Strategic Objectives for 2012 Read More »
Many small businesses are structured as S corporations of LLCs, which means the owner’s personal taxes are intimately tied to their businesses. The flow-through income from the business has to be reported on the owner’s tax returns.
Tax Laws Change: Be Sure to Know Your Options for 2011 Read More »
Many employees respond best when they feel their company cares about them and their ideas. Unhappy employees are less likely to perform at their best. How do you show you care?
The Best Employee Incentive is Recognition Read More »
In addition to checking the data accuracy and closing the books, you should think about and plan for the up-coming year. Be sure your tax objective is aligned with your business goals.
Time for your End of Year Wrap-up: 6 Things to Consider Before 2012 Read More »
Closing the books means you are ending your official accounting period so you can start the next period with a clean slate. It means that once the books are “closed” there will be no more changes to the financial documents for the closed period. So accuracy is critical. The closed books are the “gospel” of what has happened in the financials for your company.
The Time of Reckoning – Closing the Books for 2011 Read More »
All too often we see people over plan and make no progress, as opposed to measure how their plan is working and make the necessary changes to the plan as conditions change
The Three Basic Steps to Building Your Business Read More »
In the last blog post we talked about creating an operating budget. This is a blueprint of your operations to help you chart the growth of your company. Where an operating budget is a planning document that is designed to give you a way to plan for the company’s growth, a cash flow forecast helps
Cash Flow is King! Plan Accordingly Read More »
Start by reviewing the numbers that show your actuals (from your P&L report), your forecast (based on where you think you can make adjustments), and the difference or variance for each line item. Now you have a working budget!
Strategies for Budgeting Success Read More »