Recent Articles from Marty Koenig
The definitive, whole-picture, year-end checklist
There are so many year-end business checklists going around. I’ve read them all, and it irks me that they all miss something huge. Most of them seem to be written by a CPA firm, which is great if you only want a tax-related checklist. The advice in those checklists don’t take into consideration what strategy […]
Eight tricks to beat your competition
A business owner can spend a lot of money and time with consultants trying to figure out what the competition is up to. Last week, I sat down with a business owner, and one of the first questions I asked was, “What do your competitors do to win against you?” The response? A blank stare. […]
The small business technology challenge
The IT function continues the challenge of becoming a strategic player in small companies. I’ve been an advocate of small companies using technology for their strategic advantage. However, most small biz owners aren’t all that tech savvy, and if they are, they don’t hold IT in high regard. Times have changed. Today’s IT function no […]
Top 12 ways to get the “big check”
First, I want to differentiate an “entrepreneur” from a business owner. The difference is fundamentally a mind set. An entrepreneur is super driven to create the future. They see or experience a problem, put together the team and funding, and execute on their vision of a future industry, and leverage their market-changing innovation. Their companies […]
The high price of a cheap bookkeeper: Part 4
Here is what every business owner needs to know when hiring a CFO: 1. Are they just a number cruncher who appears socially awkward, or are they clearly a people person with proven leadership skills and someone that people want to follow? 2. How technical and systems oriented are they? If they don’t know what […]
The high price of a cheap bookkeeper: Part 3
Another caveat for business owners – if you send a mess to your CPA to prepare your income tax returns at the end of the year, your CPA will need to clean up that mess first, which can be very expensive! That is what happened to my client, POA. There was no way POA’s owners […]
The high price of a cheap bookkeeper: Part 2
A recent client had determined that they wanted to sell their company in a couple of years. That is one of the reasons they needed to get their books in order. Nobody is going to buy a company where it takes three weeks to prepare a balance sheet and income statement (and even then the […]
The high price of a cheap bookkeeper
Every small biz I’ve worked with has one thing in common: They aren’t so good at keeping good books. I’ve looked at hundreds of companies and their books. It has simply never happened where I walk into a company and everything in their accounting/finance department is perfect. Not that perfection is the goal, but 99.9 […]
Top three year-end tips for business owners
As the holiday song goes, “Making a list, checking it twice” should remind you not only of Christmas, but preparations for year end and the upcoming New Year. The good thing about business slowing down for the holidays is that you’ll have some time to re-evaluate what you did over the last 12 months. You […]
Get ready: Here comes 2011
‘Tis the season where everyone is thinking about the upcoming holidays, skiing in the mountains, as December is a short month and business is either slowing down or going crazy to hit year end numbers. However, if you didn’t begin your 2011 business plan process in October or November, December is the time to accelerate […]
Top 14 benefits of the Small Biz Jobs Act
The new small business lending bill “Small Business Jobs Act of 2010” shows the federal government got the message: Most job growth is caused by small businesses. The small-business bill provides $12 billion in tax incentives and provides a $30 billion lending fund to help cash-starved businesses. This Act is expected to leverage a total […]
Six key questions to ask before hiring a CFO: part 3
(Editor’s note: This is the last of three parts. Read part 1 and part 2) 4. How will you proactively communicate with me on an ongoing basis? Unfortunately, many CFOs do a horrible job of proactively communicating with their clients on an ongoing basis. The general thinking in the financial industry is that financial work […]