Slides used for Dave Bittner's presentation at PressNomics 2012.

1. 1. Vision
Translate from gen’l to fin’l
Top Ten Financial Tips
for Business Owners • What do you want to be?
• What, how & when will biz reward you?
• Chart course to get there
Dave Bittner • Pattern after role models
• Choose SMARTCODE goals
bean$talk
CFO GROUP
greenhou$e
BOOKKEEPING
2. Operational Structure 3. Planning & Budgeting
simplify & standardize
• Minimal moving parts
• Fin’l road map that leads to vision
• Repeatable, systematized, automated
• Responsibility accounting (perf by mgr)
• Recurring revenue
• Monthly rev, exp & cap budgets
• Pipelines for all key ingredients
• Translate to cash flow
– Cash, customers, personnel, vendors, etc.
• CSF targets: prof, prod, eff, liq
• No single point of failure
• 1 metric = pulse (e.g., hit count)
Step back, check for: 4. Responsibility
• Reasonableness • FlowChart > OrgChart > AcctChart
• Data relationships intact – 1-to-1 & 1-to-many Many-to-1
• Plan makes sense as whole • Show staff how ea impacts fin’l perf
• No Lotusology errors • Share resp for fin’l goals
– Can I count on you?
• Hold accountable
• Incentive comp: loss aversion?
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2. 5. Controls & Safeguards 6. Measurement & Reporting
• What gets measured gets improved
• Background checks (incl ref & credit) • Mthly budg v act’l P/L and Dash of CSFs
• Limits of Authority • Mthly CF, BS, unit profit, A/R(w)
• Independent approvals • Measure indiv, teams & processes
• Segregation of Duties • Timely, accurate and actionable
• Surprise Tests/Audits
• Public accountability
• Insurance
7. Leverage 8. Cash Flow
• OPM • Growth paradox: cash intensive
• Use debt to multiply power of your $ • Arrange financing early: up to 18 mos
• Up to 2x equity (PIC + RE – Distrib) • Keep cash + AR:
• Debt costs less & has tax adv – Pre-profit: > 6 – 18 mos outflow
• Have pipeline of equity investors, too – When profitable: > 1.5x monthly outflow
• Near-term: use 8-week cash forecast
9. Focused Diversification 10. Fin’l Talent & Toolbox
• Surround self w entrepreneurial team
• Less is more
• Strong fin’l function will help w growth:
• For max fin’l adv, focus resources on
– Planning, control, fundraising, advice
mkt niches
• Internal resources on strengths & opps
• To mitigate risk, vary cust, equip &
investments • Outsource non-core functions
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