When I was in the business of buying entrepreneurial companies, the first thing we’d look at to determine the value is the cash flow. If you want the option to sell your business someday — it might make sense for you to pay attention to your cash flow now! Most businesses are valued based on…
Remember that first time you got paid by a client? You stepped out on your own, got some work, delivered on it, and got paid. I know for me it felt like magic. People were just giving me money! As my business grew I started adding some expenses, I built a website, I added a…
Executive compensation can be a hard topic to tackle, especially for startups and other growing companies that need to attract experienced talent on a smaller budget. What you may not know is that base salary is the smallest component of executive compensation, generally outweighed by incentive pay. That is good news for growing companies with…
We’re going to talk about, and work on, this process to help you to make more money for a while. But this might not be the perfect time in your life to do that. So before we get deep into this, I want to stop and check, are you all the way in? Even if…
On Thursday, we talked about how stupid money is. If you didn’t read it, or if you didn’t do your homework, click through and do that homework now. It will make this conversation a LOT more meaningful. You remember we talked about how most people don’t really want money. We want what money brings, enables,…
When you first start your business, it’s important to “follow your gut” because you don’t have any track record and your numbers don’t point anywhere. Your “gut” is your true north. In the fog and confusion of a start-up, you need something “steady” to hold onto, and your gut instinct is as close as we…
One of the most agonizing decisions that a business owner has to make is deciding when to hire a new employee. It’s a huge risk! You’re bringing on additional salary, you have the cost and distraction of the search, there’s training the new person… And what if they don’t work out? It’s a difficult process…
We talk a lot about budgets at Anchor Advisors. In fact, we sell them so much you might think we stand to make a commission on them! “This budget here … it’s the answer to all your financial woes. Look at all the bells and whistles. It can keep your business on track by helping…
When I was a corporate drone, I hated budgeting. It seemed like a charade, a game where we all had to guess what answers the big boss wanted. We inevitably failed, and the big boss would send back a budget that had nothing to do with what we had just spent hours slaving over and,…