Welcome to the first interaction of the The Business of Money blog! Along with the launch of our new Total Wealth Management – Corporate service, The Business of Money will focus on how business owners can successfully and consistently manage their businesses to optimize their personal financial goals. We will discuss principles, concepts and strategies that help you synergize what is happening in your business with what you want to accomplish personally. Together, we will learn, interact, and ultimately, you will have the opportunity to apply new concepts to improve the health of your business and accelerate the accomplishment of your personal financial goals.
To start, there are a few foundational beliefs that will run through the veins of our blog:
- Earnings is an opinion; cash is a fact – The accounting function of business is vital but can also leave us confused. We believe in focusing on simple, tangible financial metrics to judge the health of your business, and that starts with cash.
- The bottom line trumps the top-line – Business culture today is increasingly focused on top-line numbers; the amount of revenue your company produces, the increase in sales you have produced, the amount of money you have raised. We believe that the foundational role of a business from a finance perspective is to produce tangible cash flow to its investors and that the rest is primarily vanity.
- Conservatism pays – We advocate a conservative approach to financial management. You will almost always make better decisions when you are surprised with more than when you are surprised with less, so set yourself up for positive surprises!
- Margin creates options – Operating with margin keeps your options open to produce a higher ROI, pursue new opportunities or decrease your risk exposure. The sooner you build margin into your business, the sooner you can capitalize on those opportunities.
- Begin with the end in mind – We will talk a lot about money on this blog, but don’t lose sight of why you are in business. You got into business to make an impact in an area about which you are passionate so that you can serve your family, team and community. This is precisely why it is vital that you employ responsible financial management procedures for your business. The money is not THE thing, your WHY is.
We look forward to interacting with you through this new medium. We will always invite your responses, questions, and challenges as we explore different financial concepts together and would love to hear what topics you would like to see covered in our blogs!
