Last October 2019, a local banker called me with an opportunity and asked if I could meet with a company that had been losing money for a number of years and was in trouble. When I met with the owners of this company I discovered that they had a business consultant working with them trying… Read More »
Your Balance Sheet Is a Snapshot in Time
Recall that your P&L, or income statement, is like a movie in that it covers a period of time within your business. Your balance sheet is more like a snapshot in time since it is taken on a particular date in time (for example, December 31, 2019). The balance sheet is a record of the… Read More »
How Your Profit and Loss Statement Is Like a Movie
The P&L (profit & loss), or income statement, is simply a report of your revenue minus your expenses, which equals profit. As my last blog post explains: profit is not cash but the theory of cash. Your P&L is like a movie of a period of time in your business. Your P&L is a lagging… Read More »
Cash is NOT King
We have all heard that “cash is king.” The origin is unclear, but it has been attributed to Pehr Gyllenhammar after the global stock market crash in 1987. At that time Mr. Gyllenhammar was CEO of the Swedish car group Volvo. The maxim is used to reflect the belief that cash is more valuable than… Read More »
Are you struggling to survive in your business?
Many businesses are currently struggling to survive as a result of the pandemic. Often there are many reasons for this condition but one of the most important is the lack of adequate cash flow. Without cash your business is destined to struggle and eventually die. There are only four ways to get cash in your… Read More »
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?
Recently the Hertz rental car agency filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company was unable to meet their $11 billion financial agreement to their secured lenders. In addition, the company listed more than 100,000 creditors that they owed money to. Hertz was a $25 billion company that was highly leveraged. It was dependent on… Read More »
Improve Your Efficiency in Every Aspect of Your Business
Early in March I had the opportunity to present to a group of twelve bankers at a local commercial bank here in Portland, Oregon. I discussed how applying value stream and process-mapping tools to your business can help to streamline processes and procedures and increase efficiency. A value stream is a sequence of events or… Read More »
Don’t Let Uncertainty Paralyze You
We are currently facing tremendous uncertainty as a result of the economic impact of a nationwide shutdown of business. This uncertainly about the future creates a great deal of stress and causes us to focus on the immediate situation rather than the broader possibilities that may become available to us. In his recent article for… Read More »
How Bank Ties Are Impacting Federal Aid
Several news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday April 21st, have reported about the aid businesses received under the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the fact that many of the businesses that received aid were not the ones with the greatest need. It looks as if receiving PPP was heavily influenced… Read More »
How to Face Uncertainty
Last week I posted an article written by my oldest son, Nathan Furr,* for Harvard Business Review, which you can find here or on my website. Nathan discusses his interview with Nobel Prize winner Ben Feringa, who shares his wisdom about uncertainty. Mr. Feringa says that we need to be resilient in the face of… Read More »