Doing Things The Easy Way

Doing Things The Easy Way

As a small business owner, you may feel like you need to do it all.  You are chef and chief bottle washer, the CEO – Chief Everything Officer, and the person who must make all the decisions about where the company is going and how to get it there. Wow, that’s a lot of hats…

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Ugly Stepchild

I’ve found most business owners, especially new ones, treat accounting like the ugly stepchild.  It’s something that must be dealt with, but the less attention they give it the better.   Most business owners usually start with pushing aside the numbers and focusing on bringing in sales. However, that is a self-limiting attitude. The ugly stepchild…

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Financial Empowerment

California is now requiring all small businesses with 5 or more employees to offer their employees some kind of retirement plan. If the business doesn’t want to provide one, then the state has a new plan call CalSavers* that they will automatically enroll your employees in. I won’t deep dive into the plan (as I’m…

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Remember Your Dreams

Remember Your Dream

All entrepreneurs are dreamers. All businesses start with a dream.   Have you lost touch with yours? After many years in business, it is easy to have lost touch with why you started your business. Maybe it’s time to revisit that dream. Having a driving force that helps you keep going when things get tough is…

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Kick to the Finish

By Sherry Lutz Herrington I ran cross country in high school, and like most things in high school you don’t really imagine it will be of any use later in life. However, I’ve found some of my most important life lessons have come from my high school experiences. In cross country you race for several…

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Statistically Speaking

I read an interesting article recently in the CPA Practice Advisor and felt compelled to address some of the frightening statistics quoted.  I keep saying, where have all these people who have resigned during the great resignation gone?  How are they making a living?  As I suspected, they are opening their own businesses. “During 2021,…

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Systems Failures

By Sherry Lutz Herrington Every business needs systems as well as procedures.  The procedures are the “how-tos”:  the step-by-step guide on how to get anything done.  But the systems are the “what.”  They are the programs and apps you use to keep track of everything you are doing. There are many different systems and every…

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It’s Not About the Numbers

It’s Not About the Numbers

By Sherry Lutz Herrington It’s not about the numbers, it’s about the story the numbers tell. I say that all the time and I believe it. Of course, the numbers matter, but by themselves they don’t mean much. You have to put them into the context of what they mean to have them be useful. Tracking your…

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The Real CEO

The Real CEO

By Sherry Lutz Herrington Many small business owners consider themselves to be the CEO, affectionately known as the Chief Everything Officer (thank you USP Store for that hilarious tagline).  In reality, we often are the chief bottle washer and cook, as the saying goes.  We have no choice (especially when we first get started) but…

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Impacting the Bottom Line – Part II of II

Impacting the Bottom Line

By Sherry Lutz Herrington Now that we’ve examined how to find the “true bottom line,” let’s take a look at ways to improve it. “Impacting the Bottom Line There are two basic pieces to the Profit and Loss. These pieces are income and expenses (including cost of goods sold). Changes in either of these variables…

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