I was recently reminded yet again not to take things for granted and particularly simple things that have important repercussions.
A good friend, intelligent and experienced business executive was making a rather emphatic point to his colleague that their gross profit margin (GPM) was the same thing as their average mark-up percentage – it isn’t. What is interesting though, is that percentages often seem to catch people unawares, and sometimes with devastating consequences.
Let’s clarify.
Mar…
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Added by Mark Robilliard on November 19, 2009 at 5:53am —
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I'm looking for advice setting up an
HSA or
Health Savings Account. This is my first year having company
medical insurance and I'm trying to find the most effective way to set up a budget and…
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Added by Howard Strang on November 12, 2009 at 1:28pm —
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Rapid growth is good, right? Right?
It’s the ultimate entrepreneurial dream. You start a business, struggle for a bit to get the business model right, then whammo – it takes off.
Sales are growing almost daily it seems and demand is strong. Let’s allow some more credit (sales) to really ride this demand. Now we need more inventory – come on suppliers, we need it yesterday. Pay a bit more to get it quickly, it doesn’t matter. We need some more room too, get hold of something. We need som…
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Added by Mark Robilliard on August 24, 2009 at 2:49pm —
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ATTRIBUTION: The following blog is repeated here with permission from the writer Louis Coutts who you can contact at couttslm@bigpond.com for comment or to join his mailing list.
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This is a great story received from my friend Neil Thomas
Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their w…
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Added by Mark Robilliard on August 19, 2009 at 11:28am —
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When I was at the American Society of Training & Development (ASTD) International Conference this summer I attended a very interesting talk about analysing the root cause of things that happen. It's a common sense field of enquiry, one that we consciously or unconsciously engage every day when we work out why things happen. But it was a very useful reminder to look further back for more fundamental causes of what we observe. The title
Root Cause Analysis was new to me but one that I a…
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Added by Peter Frampton on July 28, 2009 at 12:33am —
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I was on the London Underground with the Michaela Sulke-Trezek, the Head of Accounting Comes Alive Europe. We were on our way from London City Airport to Piccadilly Circus, returning from some meetings in Frankfurt. She suddenly looked over to me and said "Look at this... it's good news". Not sure what she was referring to at first, I realized that it was about 8pm and we were at Canary Wharf in the Docklands. That's the stop where all the investment bankers from Morgan Stanley et al get on. Mic…
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Added by Peter Frampton on July 17, 2009 at 9:49pm —
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Whether you have a board or not, act like you do. One day you may want to sell part or all of your business and you will be in a much stronger negotiating position if you have this stuff sorted.
This blog came from a question I was asked “What should I be showing my board each month?” I was a bit surprised at the question as it seemed obvious, but perhaps not.
Your board is comprised of directors. They could be family members, friends, fellow founders, invitees or even self-invited private equ…
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Added by Mark Robilliard on July 15, 2009 at 10:00am —
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We have received heaps of calls from clients at the moment to seek advice on what to do with their mortgage. Should I fix my rate? Should I remain on variable? At the time this blog was posted, the average fixed rate for 3 years is about 6.5%, and almost 7.2% for 5 years. Variable averages are at just under 5.2%. That’s a variance of 1.3% for a 3 year change or just on 2% for a 5 year commitment to lock in. On an average mortgage on the Sunshine Coast of about $230,000 that’s a further $3000 ove…
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Added by Ian Robinson on July 8, 2009 at 12:17pm —
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Collecting money owed to you by your customers must be approached in exactly the same professional manner as when you made the sale. There are three basic steps. I’ll lead.
Step 1: Sales attitude. Undoubtedly, you have spent significant time and effort in designing and developing a professional sales system. From the moment you began to court a new prospect to the day the first sale is made, you ensured your prospect knew that you delivered on your promises – to call back when you said,…
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Added by Mark Robilliard on July 1, 2009 at 12:51am —
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Mention the word ‘accounting’ at your next social gathering and notice the varied reactions. Those in the know will start to talk in accounting ‘tongues’ which will almost certainly kill your party dead. Expect everyone else to start parroting Pythonesque parodies with perverted pleasure. Accounting is a subject with a bad rep which isn't helped by the current global economic crisis.
I didn’t want to be an accountant. At High School I wanted to be, a, marine biologist. For some bizarre reason t…
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Added by Mark Robilliard on June 4, 2009 at 11:30am —
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I've started reading Fool's Gold by Gillian Tett. I was browsing the books at Brisbane airport and was captured by the by-line "How unrestrained greed corrupted a dream, shattered global markets and unleashed a catastrophe". I am very curious to learn more of the detailed background to the global economic crisis so I'll keep you posted as the story unfolds.
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Added by Mark Robilliard on May 1, 2009 at 9:57am —
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This a momentous time in history for us all with the biggest financial upheaval imaginable occurring right before our eyes. Each of us will be touched in different ways by the changes afoot and those yet to come. Never before has the need for financial literacy been so great, and so widespread. You can help by hosting and participating in financial conversations with your family, friends, colleagues and others.
We spent Easter with our cousins 'on the farm' at Dalby in Queensland, and while non…
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Added by Mark Robilliard on April 15, 2009 at 5:00pm —
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Fundamentals are called that for a reason.
Health Savings
'Root Cause Analysis' and Business Dullness
Interest Rates, Fixed or Variable??
