Managing and improving cash flow can help manufacturers survive tough times and prosper during better times. Every manufacturer is different, so the right cash flow strategies depend on your situation. Let’s take a look at several strategies that might be right for your manufacturing company.
The continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedented disruptions to the supply chain and a competitive business environment have created a challenging business environment. But manufacturers are facing another major obstacle: the ever-growing skills gap in the workforce. Here’s one possible solution to this.
Many of us have thought about how to best transfer our wealth to our heirs someday. It’s vital to understand the importance of your values when it comes to your wealth and sense of purpose in life. Here’s how to show your kids the connection between the two so they see the “why” behind decisions made with the family money.
Business owners, year end is officially here. It may even be over by the time you read this. (If so, Happy New Year!) In any case, the end of one year and the beginning of another is always an optimal time to look back on the preceding 12 calendar months and ask a deceptively simple question: How’d we do?
Every business should prepare an annual budget. Creating a comprehensive, realistic spending plan allows you to identify potential shortages of cash, possible constraints on your capacity to fulfill strategic objectives, and other threats. Whether you’ve already put together a 2022 budget or still need to get on that before year end, here are four red flags to watch out for:
Whether the customer is always right is debatable, but businesses should put their customers first when developing a strategic plan for next year.
Commercial loans, particularly small business loans, have been in the news over the past year or so. The federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program has been helpful to many companies, though fraught with administrative challenges.
Fun fact: A summer job may enable your teen to contribute to a Roth IRA.
Most business owners would likely agree that strategic planning is important. Yet many companies rarely engage in active measures to gather and discuss strategy. Sometimes strategic planning is tacked on to a meeting about something else; other times it occurs only at the annual company retreat when employees may feel out of their element and perhaps not be fully focused.
What you need to know now about the Employee Retention Credit
Since March 2020, many small business owners and their advisors have been focused primarily on Paycheck Protection Program Loans (PPP), PPP forgiveness, and Employee Retention Tax Credits (ERTC). That focus certainly has made sense; however, as you wrap up your PPP forgiveness and ERTC calculations, this is a brief reminder not to forget about the research and development (R&D) tax credit.
Most of us are taught from a young age never to assume anything. Why? Well, because when you assume, you make an … you probably know how the rest of the expression goes.
A dangerous assumption that many business owners make is that, if their companies are profitable, their cash flow must also be strong. But this isn’t always the case. Taking a closer look at the accounting involved can provide an explanation.
Have you created a viable succession plan for your business? This daunting task can be made easier by choosing the right perspective.
Many business owners generate financial statements, at least in part, because lenders and other stakeholders demand it. You’re likely also aware of how insightful properly prepared financial statements can be — especially when they follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. But how can you best extract these useful insights? One way is to view your financial statements through a wide variety of “lenses” provided by key performance indicators (KPIs). These are calculations or formulas into which you can plug numbers from your financial statements and get results that enable you to make better business decisions.