Angie Mohr 
Finance & Grow Your New Business 
Get a grip on the money

Learn how to grow your small business using sound financial planning. Entrepreneurs need to know how to measure the effectiveness of their operations, human resources and marketing in order to pinpoint inefficiencies and maximize profits. This book outlines all the ways to raise capital and then make it work for you!

Inhaltsverzeichnis

INTRODUCTION xix
PART 1: FINANCE YOUR BUSINESS 1
1 So, What Kind of Business Should You Start? 3
Introduction 3
Why Do You Want to Be an Entrepreneur? 4
Money 4
Freedom 4
Empire building 4
What Kind of Business Should I Start? 4
Manufacturing business 5
Retail/Wholesale business 5
Service business 5
Eight Questions to Ask Yourself 6
2 Is It a Business or a Hobby? 9
Introduction 9
What Is the Difference Between a Business and a Hobby? 10
It’s Not Always about the Money 11
Contents
numbers 101
SMALL BUSINESS
for
v
3 Build or Buy? 13
Introduction 13
Building a Business from Scratch 14
Buying an Existing Business 15
Financial Considerations in the Build-versus-Buy Decision 16
Considering a start-up business 16
Considering a business purchase 18
What’s Right for You? 22
4 Getting Your Personal Finances in Order 23
Introduction 23
Your Retirement Goals 24
How much will you need at age 60? 25
How much do you have to put away between now and retirement? 25
The Concept of Net Wealth 26
Debt Management 26
Your Credit History 28
Insuring Your Assets 29
Life insurance 29
Mortgage insurance 29
Property and casualty insurance 30
Health insurance 30
5 Setting Your Business Goals 33
Introduction 33
Chasing the Almighty Buck 33
What Is the Purpose of Your Business? 35
The Business Plan 36
What Should Your Business Plan Include? 36
The Monthly Management Operating Plan 36
Your Exit Strategy 39
6 Putting Your Money Where Your Business Plan Is 41
Introduction 41
Projecting Your Funding Needs 42
Paying for the start-up costs 42
Providing liquidity to the business 43
Sources of Funding 45
A Bank’s Perspective 46
vi Finance & Grow Your New Business: Get a Grip on the Money
Contents vii
7 Debt Financing 49
Introduction 49
Your Own Resources 49
Credit Cards 50
Suppliers 50
Friends and Family 51
Banks 51
Leasing Companies 52
Private Lenders 54
8 Equity Financing 55
Introduction 55
Common Shares 56
Preferred Shares 56
Partnership 56
Joint Ventures 57
Venture Capitalists 58
9 Risky Business: How to Assess Business Risk 59
Introduction 59
Secured Loans 59
Personal Guarantees 60
Fixed Price Agreements 60
Interest Rate Risk 61
Foreign Exchange Risk 61
Economic Dependence 61
10 Home Sweet Home 63
Introduction 63
Does It Really Save Me Money? 63
How Will It Affect My Personal Life? 65
The neighbors 65
The on-call syndrome 65
The convenience 66
Willpower 66
11 Choosing Your External Team 69
Introduction 69
Your Lawyer 70
Your Accountant 70
Your Financial Adviser 72
Your Board of Directors 73
12 Assessing the Competition 75
Introduction 75
Identify the Competition 76
What Do They Do Right and Wrong? 76
How Are They Positioned to Take Advantage of Opportunities? 77
How Vulnerable Are They to Changing Market Conditions? 77
How Do You Stack Up? 77
Competitive Analysis 78
Intelligence Resources 78
13 Forecasting Profit 81
Introduction 81
Keep Your Bookkeeping Up-to-Date 81
Always Forecast a Rolling 12 Months 81
Tighten Up Billing and Collection Policies 82
Hire Someone to Do It If You Can’t 82
Keep on Top of Changes in the Operating Environment 82
Keep the Work Coming In 83
Continually Assess New Sources of Financing 83
14 Investing in Labor 85
Introduction 85
The Cost of an Employee 85
Salary 86
Employer taxes 86
Office space 86
Fringe benefits 86
Calculating the Benefit 87
Direct labor 87
Indirect labor 87
Your Billing Multiplier 88
Five Signs It’s Time to Hire 88
15 Investing in Equipment 91
Introduction 91
To Buy or Not to Buy 91
viii Finance & Grow Your New Business: Get a Grip on the Money
Contents ix
Erosion 92
Financing 92
Risk 93
16 Financing Expansion 95
Introduction 95
Horizontal Expansion 96
Increase your capacity 96
Expand your geographic area 96
Develop new products or services 96
Develop a franchise 97
Find new markets for your existing products and services 97
Vertical Expansion 97
The Dangers of Expansion 97
Liquidity issues 97
Triggering call provisions 97
Increase in fixed costs 98
Calculating the Benefits of Expansion 98
Finding the Money to Expand 100
PART 2: MANAGE YOUR BUSINESS GROWTH 103
17 The Successful Entrepreneur 105
Why Small Businesses Fail 105
Managing versus Doing 106
The Four Foundation Walls 106
Entrepreneurial drive and vision 107
Record keeping 108
Financial management 108
Planning and strategizing 109
18 The Life Cycle of a Business 113
The Three Stages of a Business 113
Infancy 113
Maturity 115
Decline 115
At What Stage of the Life Cycle Is Your Business? 116
How Can My Business Use This Information? 116
19 A Systems Approach 119
Anatomy of a Franchise 119
A Real-Life Example 120
Benefits of a Systems Approach 120
Your Business as a Machine 121
Becoming the Head Mechanic 121
20 Analyzing the Status Quo 125
Entrepreneurial Drive and Vision 125
Record Keeping 126
Financial Management 126
Planning and Strategizing 127
The Busy Entrepreneur 127
Defining Processes and Procedures 128
21 Growing Your Business 131
Your Business Goals 131
Profit 132
Freedom 133
Recognition 133
Peace of mind 133
Planning for Growth 133
Good versus Bad Growth 134
The Three Ways to Grow Your Business 134
Attracting new customers 134
Selling them more 135
Selling to them more often 136
Leverage Revisited 136
22 Getting a Handle on Your Revenues 141
How Many Customers Do You Have? 141
How Often Do Your Customers Come to See You? 143
What Do Your Customers Spend? 145
What Kind of Customers Do You Have? 145
Fire Away! 146
The Next Step 146
23 Your Strategy 151
Your Business’s Vision Statement 151
The Mission Statement 153
Your Operational Plan 153
x Finance & Grow Your New Business: Get a Grip on the Money
Contents xi
24 Testing Change 159
Advertising 159
Prices 161
Environment 162
25 Your Product or Service 167
Why Should Customers Buy from You? 167
Competing on price 167
Competing on value 168
How Is Your Business Different? 168
Selling a Product 169
Up Selling 169
Providing a Service 170
Teaching Your Customers 172
26 Your Customer Interactions 175
Telephone Interactions 175
The Art of Closing the Deal 175
Getting more people to call 177
Increasing your conversion rate 178
Using Scripts 179
AWord about Screening Callers 181
Tracking Conversion Rate Changes 182
27 Your Marketing and Promotions 185
The Lifetime Value of a Customer 185
Covering the Cost of the “Dry Holes” 187
Customers Beget Customers 188
28 Your People 191
How Do You Know When It’s Time to Hire? 191
What Will a New Employee Do? 192
The Laws of the Land 194
Attracting Quality Employees 194
The Interview 196
Hiring from an Employment Agency 196
Goal-Based Compensation 197
So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu 197
29 Your Systems 201
The Goals of Systemization 201
“How We Do It Here” 202
Continuous Improvement 203
30 Business Acquisitions 209
Another Way to Grow 209
What Are You Buying? 210
Asset purchase 210
Share purchase 210
Goodwill 211
Customer lists 211
Valuing the Acquisition 211
Floor price 212
Ceiling price 213
Evaluating the Choices 213
31 Exit Strategies 217
Your Personal Goals 217
Heading for the Exits 217
Passing on the business to your children 217
Selling the business to an outside party 218
Liquidating your business 218
What’s My Business Worth? 219
Getting Ready for the Sale 219
The Mechanics of the Sale 219
32 What Happens Next? 223
A Last Word 224
Appendix 1
Present Value of $1 225
Appendix 2
Present Value of an Annuity 227
Appendix 3
Future Value of an Annuity 229
Appendix 4
Resources for the Growing Business 231
Glossary 233
xii Finance & Grow Your New Business: Get a Grip on the Money
Contents xiii
Checklists
1 The Successful Entrepreneur 110
2 The Life Cycle of a Business 117
3 A Systems Approach 122
4 Analyzing the Status Quo 130
5 Growing Your Business 138
6 Getting a Handle on Your Revenues 149
7 Your Strategy 157
8 Testing Change 164
9 Your Product or Service 173
10 Your Customer Interactions 183
11 Your Marketing and Promotions 189
12 Your People 199
13 Your Systems 206
14 Business Acquisitions 212
15 Exit Strategies 221
Diagrams
1 The Four Foundation Walls 107
2 The Life Cycle of a Business 114
3 Typical Time Chart for a Business Owner 127
4 Recommended Time Chart for a Business Owner 128
Tables
1 A Quick Reference to Ratios 53
2 Equity Statement for a 50/50 Partnership 57
3 Cash Flows for Grace’s Market Garden 99
4 Discounted Cash Flows for Grace’s Market Garden 100
Samples
1 Cash Flow Projection for a Start-Up Business 17
2 Discounted Cash Flows for a Start-Up Business 19
3 Cash Flow Projection for a Business Purchase 20
4 Discounted Cash Flows for a Business Purchase 21
5 Business Plan Outline 37
6 Cash Flow Projection 44
7 Cash Inflows 46
8 Customer Survey Form 143
9 Billings by Customer Report 144
10 Terminating a Customer 148
11 Vision Statements 152
12 Mission Statement 154
13 Telephone Interactions 176
14 Potential Customer Interaction Review Form 180
15 Telephone Script 182
16 Documenting Your Work Processes 193
17 Employment Advertisement 195
18 Human Resource Policy 204
19 Valuing a Business Acquisition 212
Worksheets
1 Retirement Planning 27
2 Competitive Analysis 79

Über den Autor

Angie Mohr CPA, CA, CMA is a chartered accountant and certified management accountant. She can be heard regularly on radio with Small Business Survival Tips. Mohr is also a business columnist for a large daily newspaper and has written many articles for business magazines. Mohr believes strongly in planning the entrepreneur’s business and personal life holistically. Her approach helps business owners to understand their business better and to run personally satisfying lives and immensely lucrative businesses. Angie is the author of these books from Self-Counsel Press:

* Bookkeepers’ Boot Camp
* Financial Management 101
* Finance & Grow Your New Business
* Start & Run a Bookkeeping Business