My 6-year old told me yesterday that she is having so many “issues” right now. I was quite concerned but luckily these “issues” only included an arm that was hurting and a runny nose. Whether it’s your 6-year old, spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend, or business, having “issues” in life is never a good thing. 

A few weeks ago I was trying to coordinate a transaction between two companies.  Each company needed buy-off from their respective CPA’s on issues relating to tax.  After several attempts to clear a time on both schedules I realized why I was running into difficulty: the deadline for tax filers who filed an extension was October 15^th (17^th this year).  There

Watching last night's World Series game and seeing the Cardinals celebrate the walk-off home run by David Freese was amazing. I love seeing people live out their dreams and having success.

My son recently turned 8 years old and the traditional present from his grandparents on that birthday is a pocket knife. Both my wife and I think this might be a little young to be receiving a pocket knife as we have experienced the results of young boys with knives.

Ask for feedback?  We all are eager to receive that constructive criticism right?  Yeah, like a trip to the dentist or a final exam.  While we may not enjoy the process, feedback is critical to our growth.

My 4 year old boy just started playing soccer. While it's very entertaining to watch, it reminded me of a horribly dysfunctional business that lacks the financial reporting and leadership all businesses require to survive and thrive. 

Undefined roles

What is the 9-80 Schedule?

As we launch into the new year, here are the top 11 trends that entrepreneurs need to be aware of, think about, and for which we should all prepare:

There seems to be a lot of buzz around businesses having a dashboard.  Even Intuit has jumped on board and tried to provide this functionality in QuickBooks with its Snapshot Center.  For those unfamiliar with this concept, a dashboard is one place a business owner should be able to look to see all of the key metrics and performance indicators of their business.  To learn more about this concept, please visit my blog post: The Key Business Metrics Every Entrepreneur Must Know.

Although the phrase "working capital" is common in business and finance circles, it is often very misunderstood.  Here's an example: if I asked you if you would rather own a business with a lot of working capital instead of a little working capital, what would be your answer?  Most people would prefer the business with a lot of working capital.  But the answer is not that simple, and, in many cases, smaller working capital actually indicates better management and cash flow generation.  I will take a few par

Most employees are responsible. Employees will do their job well,(at least, they think they are doing a good job.) Employees generally feel responsible. These feelings of responsibility are feelings of obligation, and are pretty much instilled in all of us since childhood.   So why aren’t these employees measuring up?  Well, we need to look first to accountability and then past the individual to the team and processes.

Remember you and your employees are in business not busyness. Busy work is not the work of business. Doing the wrong things well helps no one.

Every economic downturn is marked by extended receivables collection.  More businesses need to rely on their vendors, suppliers, and contractors to finance the increased time and effort required to collect their receivables - this creates a significant tightening of

I believe most people are honest.  Yet with the right amount of opportunity, even the best are tempted to steal from their employer.  This is why every business, regardless of its size, needs to have some internal controls in place to protect the company and the its honest employees.

The examples of employee theft and embezzlement are far too many to cite.  But most of us have heard at least one horror story.  I met the owner of a company yesterday who had an employee embezzle over $1,000,000 from the compan

I was asked this question today, and I think it deserves a little bit of discussion.  I will share my take on the subject, and then share the opinions I received from several of my friends on Twitter.  Feel free to add your comments.

Let me come straight out with my main opinion - any excuse to not take care of the layoff all at once is covering selfish motives.  Either we don't want to hurt someone's feelings, we don't want to face the music, we don't want to be the "bad" guy, or we are just sc