tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105730292011-11-26T16:40:05.372ZDesigned to help Small and Midsize business (SMBs) owners with practical, down-to-earth accounting, financial and managerial advices impacting their overall profit. This blog will not follow per se current business news, nor the author's mood, but will strive to cover management concepts or pitfalls useful to improve Your business.Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.comBlogger231100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1115549955829494962005-05-17T11:44:00.000+01:002005-05-17T16:13:19.143+01:00

Yes, I know, Accounting is definitely a dreadful activity that very few individuals enjoy to do in their day's work (except accountants and auditors of course), but it is so much central to Your Small and Midsize Businesses (SMBs).After all, if you are in business, I assume that one of your greatest motivators is to make money and get rewarded for the time, money and risks associated to your

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1115799455318803792005-05-11T09:10:00.000+01:002005-05-11T11:24:28.716+01:00

I did write already about Innovation in a previous blog, where I linked the word Innovation with Growth. Most certainly, a more positive and optimistic statement than the one used for today's blog headline.I was amazed recently to read a White Paper written by Longdon Morris on "Business Model Warfare" (a 325 kb pdf, 28 pages document) . Here are some excerpts that should make you think on how to

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1115462963070429462005-05-07T11:43:00.000+01:002005-05-08T07:07:44.070+01:00

Most Large or multinational companies have implemented Dashboards allowing top managers to monitor their businesses at a glance.But first of all, What is a "Dashboard"? Very easy, the term comes from the automotive industry. If You would have Your new car delivered without a dashboard, how would you know when you need to refill the tank, or if you are driving over the speed limit? Car

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1114551561905888662005-04-26T22:38:00.000+01:002005-05-02T07:48:28.553+01:00

Taking a new major business commitment is most of the time a fearful endeavor. Plenty of question marks will pop up in your mind about its long-term benefits and also, you know it, its opportunity costs (i.e. committing funds and other resources to one commitment might prevent you to pursue in the future other business initiatives possibly more beneficial for Your business).I propose today to

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1113559399349866172005-04-15T10:48:00.000+01:002005-04-23T14:33:49.836+01:00

Depending on your start-up capital and how much retained earnings You accumulated in your balance sheet, you will face sooner or later the necessity to get additional financing to fund your growth. But the whole question is: "How much should you ask for in order to keep My business healthy?" Books have been written about "Leveraging your capital".What does this exactly mean? You can find a good

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1112722982207219802005-04-11T18:41:00.000+01:002005-04-23T14:33:25.220+01:00

I knew that Sarbanes-Oxley (commonly referred to as "SOX" - don't confuse them with the American famous baseball team, they are less fun to watch !) new regulations to reduce significantly company's malpractices arising from Enron or MCI would increase your internal costs (Europe is certainly not being far behind with a huge fraud case - Parmalat - an $18Bn fraud - Yes you read it correctly I

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1112608387923958702005-04-05T10:51:00.000+01:002005-04-04T17:27:00.130+01:00

You probably observed through my different blogs that through my comments on SMB management, I always attempt to express more or less complex management theories in simple and directly applicable terms. By doing so, my intention is to give You the Right Foundations for a future SMB growth. As a management practitioner, I am fully convinced that "Management is an Art" more than a

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1112422758093366552005-04-02T07:19:00.000+01:002005-04-02T09:26:22.446+01:00

Any Small or Midsized Business (SMB) owner or decision-maker is bombarded by a constant stream of management decisions, most often to be taken very rapidly and with very limited capacity to bounce them back and analyze alternative routes with partners.And once a decision is taken, more sleepless nights continue to haunt You about ironing out some rough edges that you feel are necessary to make

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1112262960167891252005-03-31T10:43:00.000+01:002005-03-31T11:40:03.866+01:00

Once the goods have been delivered to Your customers or Your services rendered, you still need to close the loop and collect the cash that has been invoiced.Yes, it would be so nice if 100% of your sales could be made on a COD (Cash-On-Delivery) basis like it is the case for instance for Internet sales. In most cases, Your customers will negotiate some credit terms that you will gracefully (or

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1111660128685956692005-03-24T10:28:00.000Z2005-03-25T08:02:35.596Z

I agree, these two terms might often lead to some confusion but they are truly pivotal in how you should apply them in your business. First let's define them: Efficiency is: ”the Ratio of number of units necessary to produce a given output" Brrr... Here is an easier definition: if worker A needs only 3 hours to produce a certain widget, rather than 4 hours for his/her colleague worker B, you

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1110756450194089432005-03-22T23:26:00.000Z2005-03-22T19:53:31.496Z

SMBs are characterized by limited and in general less qualified staff they would wish to have. Moreover, they need to juggle more issues than an average employee or manager in a large company (an advantage by the way, as it forces SMBs to focus their attention and precious time on key business problems).So, why would be advocate here to get some budgeting done in the context of SMB management?

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1110842998884396772005-03-19T23:28:00.000Z2005-03-20T19:34:45.663Z

You probably guessed it from the title of this blog. I will definitely advocate that you adopt the accrual-based accounting versus the cash-based one?But, first of all, a quick definition (you can complement my comments by visiting this link).Cash accounting makes you record an accounting transaction only when you either pay or receive money. Simple, isn't? Yes, but this method has a major flaw (

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1110756497003961592005-03-16T23:27:00.000Z2005-03-17T07:18:02.946Z

Just for a change, and to give you a break from accounting intricacies, I wanted today to touch upon a topic important for SMB's: Innovation and how pivotal is it to fuel Your business growth.But, as a foreword, I am pretty sure that you associate with the term "Innovation" fancy stuff like iPod, flat screens, Internet broadband, etc ... all of them being products that can only be launched by

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1110756385220889882005-03-13T23:25:00.000Z2005-03-14T22:16:14.983Z

As I mentioned previously, (listen, this is great stuff !), accounting is essentially booking amounts spent or received in accounts ! But which ones ?If you analyze carefully the previous blog graph, you shall see that your books are divided in Two large groups of accounts: the ones pertaining to the Balance Sheet and the ones falling into the Profit and Loss (also called Income Statement).As an

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1110648592633615832005-03-12T17:29:00.000Z2005-03-12T17:29:52.633Z

Graphical Representation of Balance Sheet and Income Statement 

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1110433150439940422005-03-10T05:37:00.000Z2005-03-12T17:42:55.863Z

Sorry, I realized that in this blog so far, I was jumping sometimes at detailed accounting/financial concepts without at least giving my readers some good foundations.Therefore, I shall attempt here to correct this mistake. Look from now on at blog titles where "101/xx" appears and we will together build stronger foundations to help you improve Your bottom-line.First, you need "to study" some

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1109889084397225702005-03-07T22:30:00.000Z2005-03-10T12:23:29.346Z

In a previous blog, I did talk about maintaining a set of essential financial ratios to monitor Your business and make sure you get enough "Early Warning Signals" to take timely corrective actions.But which one of these should make the very top of your list: CASHIndeed, this is the prime criteria of your success. If cash starts to be tight, it will affect every aspect of your business and more

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1110094412583581792005-03-02T07:22:00.000Z2005-03-10T22:33:33.006Z

Many of us followed happily or not accounting courses and almost invariably, most of the class wondered why the first lessons started with the T concept and the necessity to balance each accounting entries by having its total Debit equals to its total Credit ?God, who invented these principles and why ? In fact, they go back to the end of 15th century when they were spelled out formally by an

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1108418874397723012005-02-22T21:56:00.000Z2005-03-07T20:44:29.063Z

First, a few technicalities regarding the necessity to maintain a chart of accounts and why it is going to be (or is already) a key part of your control system. What's an account first of all: very simply, think of it as being a pot where you will accumulate over time (usually one year) all amounts linked to financial events that affect your business.BTW, never forget that each entry in your

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1108418170187172572005-02-14T21:49:00.000Z2005-03-03T22:25:07.833Z

One characteristic of SMB (Small and Medium-sized Businesses) is that they have to concentrate their financial and HR resources on essential tasks (no time here to split hair or institute complex - and often practically useless - procedures.So you might wonder why I am advocating in this blog to use some simple financial ratios. In fact, you already use at least two of them intuitively1. The one

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1107731199781048242005-02-06T23:05:00.000Z2005-03-10T22:35:37.396Z

Within Small and Midsized businesses, time is a critical commodity due to the limited personnel available to perform all essential tasks required to run a successful business.Pareto, a 'down-to-earth' statistical scientist (see for more info this Web page) discovered that 70%/80% of problems are created by 20% of root causes (this management theory is also well known as the 80/20 rule).

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1107589028801300892005-02-05T06:48:00.000Z2005-03-03T22:24:20.723Z

Sure, you have got product(s) and/or service(s) and you enjoy income from them, but are they manufactured/designed, stored, delivered to your final customers in an optimal way ?First a definition - you can find more insights about these management concepts by visiting www.lean.org or www.leanuk.org"Muda" is a Japanese word that means Waste. I believe that we all agree that in our commercial or

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10573029.post-1107334032945616472005-02-02T09:29:00.000Z2005-02-12T06:59:01.546Z

Yes, such an advice sounds very common sense - For newcomers into the intricate field of accounting principles, a good source is Basic of Financial Management in US Small for-Profit Businesses.Nevertheless, for many small to medium-sized businesses, balancing their "Accounts Receivables" with their "Accounts Payables" is most of the time a difficult exercise. To add to the complexity, even if

Jacques Lejeunehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00539820068269289058noreply@blogger.com0