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Best Practices When Forecasting Cash Flow
Cash flow is a top concern for most businesses today. Cash flow forecasts can help you predict potential shortfalls and proactively address working capital gaps. They can also help avoid late payments, identify late-paying customers and find alternative sources of funding when cash is tight. To keep your company’s cash flow positive, consider applying these…
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Avoiding Conflicts of Interest With Auditors
A conflict of interest could impair your auditor’s objectivity and integrity and potentially compromise you company’s financial statements. That’s why it’s important to identify and manage potential conflicts of interest. What is a conflict of interest? According to the America Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), “A conflict of interest may occur if a member…
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The Balanced Scorecard Approach to Strategic Planning
In the early 1990s, the Balanced Scorecard approach to strategic planning was developed to enable business owners to better organize and visualize their objectives. With 2021 shaping up to be a year of both daunting challenges and potentially remarkable recovery, your company should have a strategic plan that’s both comprehensive and flexible. Giving this methodology…
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Put Your Company’s Financial Statements to Work for You
It’s almost time for calendar-year businesses to prepare their year-end financial statements. If used correctly, these reports can be a valuable management tool. Use them in benchmarking and forecasting to be proactive, not reactive, to market changes. 1. Benchmarking Historical financial statements can be used to evaluate the company’s current performance vs. past performance or…
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Red Flags of Deadbeat Debtors
Unfortunately, many businesses have experienced problems with collections during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accounts receivable are a major item on most companies’ balance sheets. Slow-paying — or even nonpaying — customers or clients adversely affect cash flow. Proactive measures can help identify collections issues early and remedy them before they spiral out of control. Recognize the…
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Should You Add a Technology Executive to Your Staff?
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic impact have hurt many companies, especially small businesses. However, for others, the jarring challenges this year have created opportunities and accelerated changes that were probably going to occur all along. One particular area of speedy transformation is technology. It’s never been more important for businesses to wield their internal…
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Rightsizing Your Sales Force
With a difficult year almost over, and another one on the horizon, now may be a good time to assess the size of your sales force. Maybe the economic changes triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic led you to downsize earlier in the year. Or perhaps you’ve added to your sales team to seize opportunities. In…
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Lessons of 2020: Change Management
The year 2020 has taught businesses many lessons. The sudden onset of the COVID-19 pandemic followed by drastic changes to the economy have forced companies to alter the size of their workforces, restructure work environments and revise sales models — just to name a few challenges. And what this has all meant for employees is…
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Family Business Owners Must Weave Together Succession and Estate Planning
It’s been estimated that there are roughly 5 million family-owned businesses in the United States. Annually, these companies make substantial contributions to both employment figures and the gross domestic product. If you own a family business, one important issue to address is how to best weave together your succession plan with your estate plan. Rise to…
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Should You Add a Technology Executive to Your Staff?
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic impact have hurt many companies, especially small businesses. However, for others, the jarring challenges this year have created opportunities and accelerated changes that were probably going to occur all along. One particular area of speedy transformation is technology. It’s never been more important for businesses to wield their internal…
