Posts tagged small business

Running in the Background

Running in the Background

There’s what we are doing. Then there is what’s running in the background. Running in the background can mean things we have initiated and are happening, but without our direct input.  Like when you send an email asking for more information or you are waiting for someone else on the team to finish their task, […]

Doing What We Love

Doing What We Love

My strengths (according to Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath) are everything about looking at a situation, gathering necessary information, looking to the future, figuring out the highest and best use of available resources and plotting the next steps to get there. Futuristic Learner (I don’t just like learning, I crave it.  It’s why I […]

Favourite Customers

Favourite Customers

Our favourite business Owners are the ones that engage in their financials as a way to understand their business better.  They use them to make decisions about what’s working what isn’t and where improvements can be made.  Our favourite Business Owners stop and chat with us about how they are doing, about what their plans […]

Business Model Generation

Business Model Generation

My friend Bernd Nurnberger sent this business model tool/bookand it was like a light turned on for me. I’ve been thinking a lot about how CCBL should work and what we are trying to accomplish. The Business Model Canvas tool guided me through thinking about each aspect of our business model.  Very powerful stuff! Each […]

Enchantment: the art of changing hear...

Enchantment: the art of changing hearts, minds and actions by Guy Kawasaki

This is a great book to read as I’m thinking about creating the best experience for people working with us (as staff, Business Owners and partners). The Table of Contents is a checklist to measure progress so here goes: How to be Likeable – most people would agree I’m a likeable person.  I’ve been working […]

100 Day Project

100 Day Project

There are 100 days between today, 14 September and 20 December (the day I typically stop for the holidays (I am a mother of 4)). If I don’t do things differently, nothing will change and I want things to step up a notch here.  Starting today I am doing one thing to move each of […]

What I look for right now on my Finan...

What I look for right now on my Financial Statements

When I look at the statements for my bookkeeping company every month, I’m looking for several things: Did I make a profit? In a service business, you should pretty much expect to make a profit from the get go. What’s my gross margin*? For a service business, I like to see between 40-60%.  Some business […]

Financial Statements

Financial Statements

The new workbook is posted under the members tab.  Here is a synopsis. Your Profit & Loss tells you how much money you brought in, how much you paid for expenses and how much was left. Your Balance Sheet tells you what you have or own in the business and how you paid for it.  […]

Economics and Small business

Economics and Small business

The term economics refers to the study of the movement of money at the population level.  Economics looks at the aggregate of all the grocery shopping (for instance) by everyone and makes inferences and predictions based on how much, how often or how little we spend as a group. What does that have to do […]

March is Numbers Month

March is Numbers Month

Numbers tell the story of your business.  They tell of struggle, triumph, of recessions, weather, shortages and realized opportunities. Numbers are a language – a very logical one and one without emotion.  We don’t see an exuberant zero or an unhappy negative.  They just are.  We feel emotion when we see numbers because we think […]