Cashflow Blog

By Mike Selvon

Most small business owners are quite eager to find avenues to help their enterprise grow into a thriving business. One key approach to help propel businesses forward is securing additional working capital, in order to get the business to the next level.

Usually, this means that the entrepreneur needs to go to a lending institution to get a small business loan. When meeting with a loan officer for this purpose, detailed business financial information will be required.

The most pertinent financial information that you will need to collect in preparation for applying for a small business loan are the basic financial reports that virtually all businesses of any size generate on a monthly or quarterly basis. These financial statements provide potential lenders with a profile of the financial situation of the business. They are also invaluable in providing the business owner with the management knowledge they need to strategically improve their ongoing business plan.

The most basic form of business financial information consists of a collection of financial statements and reports, which are prepared according to strict, standardized accounting principles. Since accounting practices and principles have long been standardized and accepted worldwide, virtually anyone with even a basic understanding can quickly understand the financial picture of a company that is painted by these basic reports.

The main reports that are generally part of a company’s financial information are the following: the balance sheet, the cash flows statement, the profit and loss report, and the overall financial statements, which include highlights and summarize each of the other reports. While the financial statement provides a review, the individual reports go into specific detail for the period of time that the report covers. Many times, when monthly reports are generated there are also quarterly and yearly reports generated that help to provide insights into the overall, financial trend of the business.

The purpose of the balance sheet is to provide the details of all of the current assets of the business, all of the liabilities that the business is obligated to pay, and the resulting business equity. In order for this financial information to be most useful, it should separate the current assets and current liabilities from the listing of the long-term assets and the long-term liabilities.

The profit and loss part of financial information is the report that most commonly covers longer periods of time, usually per business quarter or year. These profit and loss statements often include comparison charts for the previous time period going back long enough to help to identify the important trends.

Without this comparison, it might be easy to assume a business is doing well simply because it is profitable, yet overlook the fact that it is less profitable than the previous year. These trends will be very important to the lenders as it gives them insights about the success of working capital management overall.

When preparing a statement of cash flows, it can be compiled by either using the indirect or the direct method. Generally, this kind of business financial information is better with more detail because the fuller the detail, the clearer the view of the business’s financial situation. Most loan officers agree that for the purposes of obtaining financing, the more detailed the information the better because it shows that the business has nothing to hide.

Enrich your knowledge further by reading more great [http://assetmanagement.akainfoportal.info/Business-Financial-Information.php]business financial information articles from Mike Selvon portal. We appreciate your feedback at our [http://www.mynicheportal.com/financial-services/proving-your-business-financial-information]financial planning blog where a free gift awaits you.

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The Business Financial Information You Need For Funding

By Barry Jone

Who does not want to have freedom? Who doesn’t want to be a boss of his own? Desire to win is what makes the difference. Opportunities are unlimited; what you need is to find one. There is never lack of opportunity, but lack of information about the opportunities available is what becomes a hurdle in the path of success. (more…)

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Business Startup Loan - Innovative Way To Boost Up Your Venture

The first step to taking control of and improving our finances is education.

For many people, this involves suddenly paying attention to a subject which they perceive as boring, foreign and possibly intimidating. Most people begin by trying to wade through the financial section of the daily paper and/or going to the library and taking out books on finances.

While this ‘plunge in’ approach to learning can be a great way to start, because it is so intense it can often be daunting, and cause people to feel overwhelmed and give up.

Fear not, as these feelings are normal, and things actually WILL get better and more clear. In fact, the more you learn about the financial world, the more FUN you will have dealing with your finances. As with anything you feel you are good at, what now seems like a chore will become a pleasure, especially as you begin to see the results of your efforts.

Below are some of the more common feelings which accompany a woman/person starting out on the journey to financial knowledge and empowerment. Read them and take heart knowing that you are not alone; far from it. Many women have blazed this path before you, and many more are travelling it along with you, feeling the same frustrations and overcoming similar challenges.

• Embarassment/intimidation:

  ‘I don’t know much about finances, but I don’t want anyone else to know.’ We pretend we know and we don’t ask questions. After all, it’s easier to be ignorant with no one knowing (maybe they’ll think we know) than to admit we don’t have the answers. We may not even have the brightest of questions.

  SO WHAT? Asking questions is how we learn, and life is short. If we always take the long way in our learning - struggling through books and articles full of terms we don’t understand - then it will take us far longer than necessary.

  A few questions asked can make a huge difference in your understanding. Swallow your pride and remember that you’re doing this for YOURSELF. Your financial freedom awaits, and the fastest way to get there is to learn faster and put your money to work sooner. No other person’s opinion is more important than that.

• Frustration/demotivation:

  You are extremely motivated to improve your financial future and you dive right in. You read the financials every day and they begin to seem somewhat familiar. Somewhere along the line, you begin to care less, to let things slide. You skip a day or two, and you begin to ask yourself why you’re really bothering anyway - can this really make that much of a difference?…

  This is frustration, masquerading as demotivation. Take heart: this too shall pass. Just as when beginning a new diet or exercise regime, there comes a time when we hit a wall. What’s actually happening is that our inner beliefs - in this case about money - are sabotaging our efforts to change. Because we are unaware of this, we rationalise our slips by telling ourselves it was all no use anyway.

  Now is the time to do some work in uncovering your internal beliefs about money. How you behave in any given situation is as much a function of your beliefs as your intentions. They are in there and they’re holding you back, and can be found by exploring your reactions to what you are doing. For instance, if you are thinking things like ‘I’ll never learn enough to make a difference’ or ‘I’m not smart enough for this,’ you are coming up against your internal beliefs. You can counter this in many ways, including:

  a) carrying on anyway and pushing through the wall,

  b) examining the beliefs and refuting them with postive affirmations, such as repeatedly telling yourself you are smart, capable and powerful,

  c) searching out some role models and having conversations which renew your fire for learning and improving your finances,

  d) purposely remembering times when you felt empowered and strong, no matter the situation. For example, if you once ran a marathon and felt a fantastic sense of accomplishment afterwards , close your eyes and conjure up that feeling. Strengthen it and hold on to it…then carry on with your reading and learning in the financial arena. Everything is connected - when you feel great in one area, it flows over to others and gives you the strength and motivation to carry on.

• Sense of isolation:

  It’s normal to have times when you feel alone during this journey. This is especially true if you have no support within your circle of family and friends. There are many ways to remedy this, and you are never alone.

  Try going online and finding blogs, forums and articles about and by women who are struggling with the same issues you are. Believe me, there are millions. Try joining a local group or two - an investement group, a women’s finance group or even a Cash Flow game in your area.

  If all of these ideas are new to you, a good place to start would be to go on google.com and type in something like ‘finance meeting my city’ (replace ‘my city’ with your city), or ‘women’s finance advice’ and follow some of the links that come up. There are more resources available to you than you may now believe!

• ‘Huge mountain’ sydrome:

  Closely related to the demotivation of point number one, this feeling comes when the learning (or doing) challenge seems so huge that we feel we’ll never get a grasp.
  Try bringing to mind the last time you learned something difficult, even if it was a long time ago…driving a stick shift, learning a new job, etc.. Recall that with every new thing we learn, there is a period when we feel overwhelmed by all the information, and feel we’ll never get it.

  Also recall that things usually seem most cloudy just before they become clear. As with every skill you now take for granted, this too will become second nature. Keep at it and the rewards will be well worth the effort.

• Procrastination on action: You’re feeling like you’ll never know enough. You’ve learned a lot, but somehow you never feel confident enough to put that knowledge into action. The translation of knowledge into action is not the big step you may be making it out to be.

An analogy I love is one I once heard from a mentor, Brian Tracy:

Once an aircraft takes off, it can adjust its’ trajectory any number of times in order to ensure it reaches its’ destination. Based on feedback about the wind, etc., the numbers can be adjusted accordingly…BUT without being in the air, none of those adjustments are possible. It takes the aircraft being in flight to enable it to receive feedback and make adjusments.

Your finances are no different. If you have to start small, then do that - but DO IT. The sense of accomplishment you’ll get from taking that first step will nudge you towards further action. Take that first step - every journey begins with one step.

~ source:http://femalefinance.blogspot.com ~

Read the rest here:
Financial Learning Curve: Overcoming Frustration

An excerpt from my ebook “The Way of the Radical Business”:

to get a copy for yourself go to - www.tadhargrave.com (sign up on left hand side)

The Four Things Most Entrepreneurs Need:

I find that there are three things most of the entrepreneurs I meet need. Maybe you can relate to this:

First is Empathy: Hell, being an entrepreneur can be hard. We can work so hard and take failure or rejection so personally. We can work so hard for so little money.

Second is Context: They need a map to help them understand where they are. They need to understand where they’re strong and weak. They need a clear diagnosis that helps make sense of their symptoms. All they know is that some things just aren’t working. But they don’t know why. They’re lost and they don’t know where they are. They need someone to help them understand where they are and why.

Third is Options: Once they feel heard and understand where they are - they need to understand the various options for getting to where they want to be. This is where more information, reading books, listening to audios can be helpful. It’s a general level of solutions. From this they can begin to pick and choose what feels relevant. This level is about learning the language in a certain arena. They start learning the general principles of marketing, some of the core strategies and tactics and maybe even hear a lot of examples.

You can start to feel really powerful, like you now know how to navigate the terrain. You walk a bit taller. But at a certain point it becomes clear that the more you learn, the more you know you don’t know. You become increasingly aware of where you’re still ignorant. And you start to suspect that you need more than just guidance.

Fourth is Guidance: In many ways, this fourth level is what they were really after when they were looking for options. At the end of the day, they can get too many options. So many that they feel overwhelmed and immobilized. “Overwhelmed by insurmountable opportunity” as Pogo said. I find that most people are silently begging to be led. They’re craving for someone to take their hand and walk them from where they are to where they want to be.

They don’t always want this guide to make the decisions for them (though often they do), but they do want someone who can not only explain the options but also give them their best advice and opinions on what would be best. And guidance can only be done one on one - in a personal relationship.

You just can’t get guidance by reading a book or listening to some audio or watching a video. That just becomes more information. And more overwhelm. In fact, all of these levels are more powerful when it’s person to person. You can get a general level, a surface level, of all of these through books and online - but working with a coach or mentor will be, obviously, far more powerful.

After they’ve absorbed enough information (and for some people it’s more than others) a question begins to surface: “How does this apply to me?” They understand that it works - and why - but they are still struggling to make that principle fit into their business.

But you need to go through these four stages in order. You’ve probably experienced this where someone tried to give you guidance without any real empathy or diagnosis and it felt awful.

If all you do is get empathy - you’re still stuck.

If you get empathy and context but no new information - all you know is what’s wrong but you feel lost about how to solve it. A lot of flailing about can happen here.

In terms of empathy - I hope this ebook provides a little for you.

In terms of context - there are two diagnostic tools (‘The Horrible Hundred’ + and ‘The Radical 180’) you can use to give you an overview of where you are.

In terms of options and information - there’s a lot here to start you off.

In terms of guidance - I’m afraid this ebook won’t be of very much help at all. Isn’t that rotten news? Ah well. It’s a start.

In fact, let’s start off with one of the core principles I base all my marketing and marketing coaching on.

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The Four Things Most Entrepreneurs Need:

People don’t want information. Ultimately, they want guidance.

If you think you’re selling them a product or a service - think again. You are selling them a point of view a perspective.

Let me explain: they are suffering from whatever symptoms they have (e.g. not enough clients, lower back pain, an angry wife threatening divorce, inability to get pregnant).

But - why do they have this problem? And what will it take to fix it?

Does it make sense to you that there are a myriad of ways to solve any problem? Dozens of lenses to even put on it? And, does it make sense that the lense you put on it might shape the treatment you offer?

Let’s take the general example of ‘illness’. There’s many theories on what causes it:

An inconsistency between the will of the soul and the will of the personality:

o Karma
o Genetics
o Bad diet
o Stress
o Excessive acidity in the system
o Fear

Etc. I know some people who think that what you eat is almost irrelevant to your health. I know others who think that food is the only thing that matters.

Here’s the point for you: what is YOUR perspective on why your clients are struggling with their challenges? What’s your point of view? What’s your opinion and perspective?

Here’s what people want:

1. empathy and understanding for their symptoms
2. a clear, well thought out point of view on why they have these symptoms that doesn’t cause them to feel ashamed and stupid. Something that makes sense to them.
3. clear and personalized guidance on what to do about it.

Your job is to do those three things.

Your job is to make your case as to why your perspective is correct. Not to convince them - but just so they understand where you’re coming from and what kind of help they’re likely to get from you. You can’t just say, “Take these pills.” First they need empathy. Then you need to explain your understanding of how things got the way they did. Then you need to share exactly what you think they need to do to resolve it. And of course, engaging them in this conversation is critical.

They don’t want to have to read through hundreds of pages of books and e-books. They don’t want to have to listen to hours of downloadable audios. They don’t want to sit through a weekend seminar. They want someone to give them insight into their own situations. They want you to hold their hand. They want personalized, customized advice.

Always remember this: People don’t want information. They want guidance.

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People Want Guidance, Not More Information