I have an opportunity Saturday to attend an investor conference here in Phoenix at the Phoenix Convention Center, South Ballroom, conference begins at 8AM. I will be with one of my clients, Global Medical Equipment of America and bringing information for Agratek (Water Conservation) and other clients at the same time. I will be on the hunt for funding to see my clients succeed. Apparently they are taping a segment of a syndicated TV show called Money TV which both the CEO of GMEA and myself as a consulting CFO will be interviewed. I will try to get a copy of the show and post it on my site here. They are expecting 1800-2500 people Saturday! We will be taping an episode of MoneyTV on location and I will be answering a list of interview questions tomorrow which are interesting to say the least. We rehearsed the questions all afternoon Friday. I guess I will have to wear a suit and be presentable. The next AMI conference is February 21 & 22 in Tucson.
Posted in Uncategorized by .
Oct 10
14
Diabetic Treats from Phoenix Arizona
I will now admit it, I am a Type 2 diabetic. I like chocolate as well and I was disappointed when I thought I would not be able to eat one of my favorite things. E J Confections and the owner Ellie Joseph is a client and friend of mine. What she has quoted from me is absolutely correct. My blood sugar readings are no different after eating one of her truffles. Any they taste great.
I am buying these for my clients, regular ones of course.
| EJ Confections |
| 4253 E. Expedition Way, Phoenix, AZ 85050 w 866.716.1655 w www.ejconfections.com |
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
Claire Slattery October 11, 2010 847.284.4404 |
| Sugar-Free Gourmet Chocolate Tests Successfully by Diabetics |
Phoenix-based confectionery, Eleanor Joseph Confections now offers a full line of sugar-free truffles in flavors ranging from Apricot Brandy to Espresso to their Simply Chocolate truffle. They have perfected this line of sugar-free truffles which has drawn the attention of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics. “After tasting a half of three different flavors of EJC truffles, my sugar levels remained unchanged, plus I was overjoyed with the quality of the taste.” commented Jenna Smith, Corporate Partners Manager for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and a Type 1 diabetic.
Eleanor (Ellie) Joseph, the owner and truffle master of EJConfections, has been in the confectionery business since 1983. She is passionate about what greets the palettes of her customers and is continually perfecting the quality of her truffles by adding flavors, textures (such as nibs) and now Maltitol, a sugar alcohol used as a sugar substitute to create her diabetic truffle line. Maltitol has 75-90% of the sweetness of sucrose and nearly identical properties. EJC truffles are good for diabetics because the sugar in this diabetic chocolate is absorbed more slowly than sugar contained in many supposedly harmless foods, such as white bread and potatoes. This means that the blood glucose does not rise right away and the body has more time to process the sugar intake. It is Ellie’s favorite choice because it has no medicinal taste and no bad after taste, plus it is not as heavy a product as opposed to the density of the regular truffles. Some of EJConfections best non-diabetic customers even love the sugar-free line because of the lighter taste. But what is truly the most rewarding result of offering this line of sugar-free truffles is the benefit for a diabetic. Al Schaap, a B2B Consulting CFO, also a Type 2 diabetic says, “When I met Ellie, I was less than excited about trying another truffle because the ones I have tried are too light, too sweet and never have enough substance for my taste. But, EJC truffles are extraordinary and an experience worth having. After an entire truffle there was no change in my blood sugar level.”
Eleanor Joseph Confections serves the best truffles you’ll ever taste by continually refining and perfecting the intricacies of making premium-quality truffles. Each truffle is created with care and affection by skilled artisans, using only the finest natural ingredients. Our truffles have no air whipped into them, nor do we use molds. They are wheat free, gluten free and non-GMO. Visit www.ejconfections.com for more information or to place an order.
Posted in Things that I have Learned by .
I did promise a second part and I will now promise a part three which I will write to wrap up the series. Let us start out with a couple of quotes that I like to liven up the prose we are reading.
“Most successful men (or women) have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have developed the opportunity that was at hand.”
– Bruce Barton taken from Motivatingquotes,com
“The secret of success in life is for a man (or woman) to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.”
Benjamin Disraeli taken from Motivatingquotes,com
Marketing is the opportunity to figure out WHO your market is, WHAT motivates your market, HOW do I get to the market, and HOW profitable is the market that you want to go after. Effective Forecasting then starts with the answers to these questions. Combine the marketing with the Sales Activity that Allan Himmelstein talked about in Part I, the company now has the drivers to success that will make a forecast effective. If you cannot forecast the revenue, the forecast is built on sand and will be meaningless. Do not waste your time on building a business tool that cannot be used to drive your business to success.
Karen Pasternack Straus has been one of the bright spots as a Marketing consultant in Phoenix Arizona. She truly understands how marketing interacts with a company’s sales and operations. She also knows what Return on Investment means and can explain how marketing has a positive ROI.
The balance of this article was written by Karen Pasternack Straus, Garnet Creative .
Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up: How Marketing Improves The Sales Forecast
by Karen Pasternack Straus, Garnet Creative “your strategic design partner”
(kpstraus@garnetcreative.com, 480.456.4560)
Whose forecast is more realistic, Sales or Marketing? Neither. Effective forecasting requires a balanced perspective and coordinated efforts by Sales and Marketing on an ongoing basis. To simplify, you could say that Marketing provides “top-down” view, while Sales offers a “bottom-up” view.
A Marketing forecast generally takes the following approach:
- Estimating Market Demand or Total Opportunity: Marketing estimates the demand for your product/service and any competing alternatives by analyzing market data gleaned from sources outside the company, such as industry analyses, periodicals and market research. Consideration is also given to the general market conditions that affect demand, including economic conditions, trends, seasonal or cyclical factors, and adverse or advantageous events such as strikes or fads.
- Determining Potential Company Share: To determine your company’s potential share of the total opportunity, Marketing analyzes the relative strengths and weaknesses of both your product and your company relative to the competition. They watch for opportunities and threats, break the opportunity into actionable market segments, and use this information to help shape plans throughout the company.These Marketing analyses provide a balance or cross-check for the Sales view, which tends to be based on pipeline analysis – taking into account contracts, prior customer behavior, what customers are saying about their intentions to buy, and anticipated changes in personnel or territories.
- Shaping Plans: With an understanding of the opportunity in mind, Marketing may influence Sales results by implementing marketing campaigns and events, and by providing appropriate sales training and tools to support various stages of the sales process. Marketing may also have an influential role in product plans (new and updated offerings, obsolescence) and supply plans (inventory, delivery, service/support, ability to respond to unanticipated changes in demand).
- Focusing Sales & Marketing Efforts: Marketing and Sales deliver the strongest results when their conjoined efforts are focused on opportunities with the greatest short and long term profit potential – which is not necessarily the maximum sales volume. They must work together to build effective marketing programs and sales compensation plans that emphasize:
- profitable product lines
- profitable market segments (given the company’s cost to initially reach them and to provide ongoing support)
- strategically important customers (new and existing)
- key vertical markets (characterized by common requirements and opportunities to leverage prior successes to gain additional customers)
- deliberately chosen channels and/or territories
- value-added partners and resellers (which must be cultivated in order to gain longer term advantage)
In the end, the most effective forecasting takes place when the “top-down” market opportunity is considered as well as the “bottom-up” sales forecast, and when there is agreement between Sales and Marketing on where efforts will be focused.
Posted in Forecasting by .
My Dogs My Heros
I am going to deviate from the useful but boring topics that are of value to the business world that I am associated with in Phoenix, AZ as a part time cfo
My topic today is what I have learned from one of my dogs. I have two miniature dachshunds, the black one and the brown one each weighing around 11 pounds but they have no clue of their size. The white dog is a maltese poodle mix that the other two have converted to their slave.
Rosie, the brown dog, has had two back surgeries, liver cancer surgery and allergies. She believes she is actually a 60 pound German Shepherd that will defend her owners against any delivery person who comes to the door. Through all of the problems she has had Rosie will not give up. She dreams large because she does not see herself as others see her. Rosie has learned a lesson that all of us humans should learn, that if you do not dream large you will not be able to enjoy life as much as possible. She does not let the adversities of life get in the way of swimming, playing ball, terrorizing small birds that fly too low or protecting her humans.
What I have learned from her and what I want everyone else to learn is that we can defeat anything we set our mind to. Rosie is not participating in the economic problems; I have decided I do not want to nor do I want my clients to participate in the economy that we have today. With enough positive attitude, energy, dreaming large and some small amounts of capital (I will leave this topic to another day because I know how to solve this issue) we can do what we want to do.
Rosie is my hero and I want to be worthy of the example she has set. Everyone I know should find a Rosie in their life and use them as an example of what life could be.
Sep 10
24
How to Effectively Forecast (Part 1)
There have been a couple of my favorite philosophers that I would like to quote here to begin this topic:
- The person attempting to travel two (or more) roads at once will get nowhere.
Xun Zi - I would rather be lucky than good. Casey Stengel
The problem with either of these fine quotes is the issue of limited resources. Limited resources such as time and money mean that there are choices to be made and these choices should be after careful consideration. This is the starting point for this article and thought process.
Truly if the businessperson can focus on some type of goal then the path to that goal is execution of the plan. Forecasting is meant to begin the journey not to distract from the execution of the plan.
Step one to forecast effectively involves the sales forecast. I have invited some respected friends to help me write this and subsequest articles, which will be in several parts.
Allan Himmelstein is a sales consultant with his own company Sales Coach AZ http://www.salescoachaz.com/ . I have worked with Allan on several projects and educational sessions. His technique is on target and very effective with generating additional sales. Allan wrote this part of the article.
Throughout my career, one of the most dreaded activities was sales forecasting. It is a dreaded but a necessary evil. Your sales people must be involved. Only they have firsthand knowledge of the account. If done properly, there are many aspects that cannot only help your business, but help the sales people perform better. Don’t you want your salespeople thinking like business owners?
The strangest experience in forecasting was when I was with a German company and I projected only $100,000 in sales and actually had $600,000. They nearly killed me for selling too much. I thought they were crazy.
After some discussion, I started seeing their point. The effect on the company was enormous. If they would have known, they could have gotten new people. If they would have known, they could have gotten new equipment to produce product, and even more important projected their cash flow.
Sales forecasting is part science and part guesswork. There has to be a system in place to help the salesperson and sales management to forecast at least 80% of the sales in a simple succinct manner. Part of the problem is that some sales people are eternally optimistic, and others do not want to stick their necks out, so they forecast low. Without a system, you have no way of knowing and it becomes pure guesswork. At the same time, you do not want it taking too much time away from sales efforts. Or is that an excuse, hmmmm?
A CFO can really give you great forecasting tools. However, you will need to include subjective points like the following:
- Historically what has your major accounts done?
- If the account buys the same products next year, why will there be an increase or decrease?
- Are there any new products in the pipeline?
- What actions need to be taken before the sale is being made? Ie. Specifications, pilot plant testing, pricing acceptance, contract signing.
- Who needs to help within in the organization and when?
- If everything is successful, when can the first order be expected?
- How much will that first order be?
- What is the yearly potential?
- What other new accounts do you expect and their volume?
No matter what expect a minimum of 10-20% deviation from their forecast. Anything more and they do not know their business.
Posted in Forecasting by .
B2B CFO NAMED IN PRESTIGIOUS INC. 5000 LIST
184% Growth Earns B2B CFO Spot in the 2010 List of Fastest
Growing Companies in America
Phoenix, Ariz. August 24, 2010 – B2B CFO, nation’s largest
provider of CFO services to small businesses, has been named to the
prestigious Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in America.
Now in its 29th year, Inc. Magazine’s annual ranking judges US-based
and privately held companies by their revenue growth. This year’s
list was ranked on the percentage in revenue increase from
2006-2009. B2B CFO’s growth earned 84th place in its industry.
“There are approximately 27 million small businesses in the U.S.
today,” said Jerry L. Mills, founder and chief executive officer of
B2B CFO, “It is a huge honor to be among the fastest growing and the
most successful businesses in the country. Our firm has experienced
tremendous growth over the past few years and we are on track to
continue expanding. I am especially grateful to all of the firm’s
dedicated Partners who continue to advocate our services around the
nation.”
In a personalized letter congratulating B2B CFO on this
accomplishment, Jane Berenston, editor-in-chief of Inc. Magazine’s
wrote “Congratulations: your company, B2B CFO, has made the 2010
list of the fastest growing private companies in America. This
achievement puts you in rarefied company, especially if you consider
that over 27 million businesses are registered in the USA. The elite
group you’ve now joined has, over the years, included companies such
as Microsoft, Timberland, Visa, Intuit, Jamba Juice, Oracle, and
Zappos.com. I look forward to congratulating you in person in
Washington, D.C.”
B2B CFO’s growth is reflected in numerous awards this year. The
company was also recently named in ACE Corporate Growth Awards,
which recognized the most successful and fastest growing companies
in Arizona.
In August 2010, B2B CFO has grown to 170 Partners across 39 states,
representing 5,000 years of cumulative experience. Each Partner is a
seasoned financial executive who serves as CFO to growing businesses
on as-needed basis. Approximately 80% of the Partners have a
background that includes senior executive positions at the Big Four,
and all of the Partners have held high level executive finance
positions in various industries in corporate America. Together, B2B
CFO Partners work with more than 500 businesses in the nation with
combined annual sales of more than $3 Billion.
Jerry L. Mills and many of the B2B CFO Partners regularly dedicate
time to educate business owners on financial matters. Mills is a
frequent speaker and contributor and has been featured on many
national media networks including FOX Business, Fortune Small
Business, Smart Money and many others. Mills is also the author of
The Danger Zone – Lost in the Growth Transition, and Avoiding The
Danger Zone – Business Illusions, both business non-fiction books
that help entrepreneurs understand and build a strong financial
strategy.
“We look forward to participating in the Inc. 500|5000 conference in
Washington, DC this fall,” added Mills. “Along with my colleagues, I
look forward to the October 2nd awards ceremony and to meeting the
entrepreneurs that created the other 5000 fastest growing companies
in America.”
About Inc. Magazine
Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures LLC, Inc.
is the only major business magazine dedicated exclusively to owners
and managers of growing private companies that delivers real
solutions for todays innovative company builders. Inc. provides
hands-on tools and market-tested strategies for managing people,
finances, sales, marketing, and technology.
Inc. Magazine’s 29th annual Inc. 5000 ranking of the fastest-growing
private companies in the country is available online at
www.inc.com/inc5000/list
About B2B CFO
Headquartered in Phoenix, Ariz., the firm was founded in 1987 by
Jerry L. Mills. B2B CFO is the nation’s largest CFO firm serving
entrepreneurial, growth and mid-market companies with revenue under
$75 million. The firm’s partners have an average of 25 years of
experience and each individual partner is a senior level executive
with a broad range of expertise. Please visit online at
http://www.b2bcfo.com/
Aug 10
30
The CFO as a Selling Tool
As this is my first real entry on my new website, I think I will discuss a non-CFO topic and this topic is how to sell. Interesting topic for a CFO you say. So do most of my clients as they look at me and say; what does a CFO know about selling.
Plenty, I tell them because in today’s business environment most of the decisions made involve the company’s financial leader. In order to sell them you have to know how to speak CFO. In order to speak CFO you have to know the terminology, you have to understand what motivates a CFO and how to solve the problems that they face every day.
What does a CFO face each day, they worry about Cash Flow. A CFO is concerned with how to conserve cash, how to produce cash and how to get more cash.
I have begun to interview my client’s sales personnel and to train them how to speak CFO. One of my clients asked me to be videotaped giving a presentation to their potential customers not about how to make more profits by using their products but how to maximize their inventory thus producing cash.
I will also use the selling tools learned within Integrity Selling to show my client’s sales personnel how to adjust to different types of CFO’s. I think that one of the key values a CFO brings to the workplace is be pro-active in as many areas of the business as they can. I will bring value by encouraging strategic thinking, how to position the company for the products and services they provide or how to improve operations. Of course, I also make sure the financials are, accurate, banking relations are up to date and effective budgets are in place.
I enjoy talking with business owners about their issues. These people are passionate about their businesses but many times, they work in their business not on their businesses. I force them to think strategically even to the point of being pushy. It gets the owners thinking outside the box, such as when does a CFO know about how to sell.
Posted in Uncategorized by .
Aug 10
25
B2B CFO Commentary
I have seen my organization grow from eight partners in 2004 to over 165 partners today. I also learned that B2BCFO has been included in the Inc. Magazine’s Fastest Growing 5000 companies in the United States. I have included a link to look at the press release.
http://www.pitchengine.com/b2bcfo/b2b-cfo-named-in-prestigious-inc-5000-list-/91195/
B2B CFO also made the Arizona Corporate Excellence award, http://www.aceawards.net
I am very proud to be a member of this organization, not because of its size, ranking in the Inc 5000 but because of the idea that I am a partner in an organization that helps Small Businesses owners achieve their dreams.
I have also been working with an SBA lender, Strategies For Small Business Sue Malone, who specializes in Micro Loans. There is activity within the U S Senate to disband programs like this because “The SBA does not believe that Small Business needs small loans”. I am appalled at this because many start up businesses need small amounts of funding to get employees and sales materials. Every person who is involved with a small business owner should be similarly appalled at this.
Aug 10
17
The New Frontier
This is the new frontier for me so I would like to welcome you to my website or if you prefer Blog. I will try to be informative, I may even become argumentative. I may decide to practice being a humorist; my wife suggests that I should not waste my time. Please do not believe that you will hurt my feelings by disagreeing with me. I want this to be a place where we can share ideas or differences of opinion. I want the readers of my blog to be well informed and maybe get their opportunity to think outside the box.
All of this will be beneficial to all of us. I have plenty of opinions; some are well informed others will be what I think.
A CPA friend of mine once told me: “We are not Boring People, We just talk about Boring things” I am not sure I always agree with this but it will be the beginning of a great relationship.
Posted in Uncategorized by .
My B2B CFO Links
B2B 2010 Inc. 5000 List
B2B CFO® in INC. 5000 list
184% Growth Earns B2B CFO® Spot in the 2010 List of Fastest Growing Companies in America.
Press ReleaseLetter from Editor in Chief
Careers with B2B CFO®
CFO Services
- Cash. We help you get it.
- Banking Relationships
- Profit Improvements
- Strategic Planning
- Cash Flow
- Working Capital
- Gross Profit Optimization
- Expense Reduction
- Financial Statement
- Increased Sales
- Exit Strategies
Featured Book
Complete Small Business Guidebook
The Wall Street Journal featured B2B CFO® as experts in cash flow management.
This must-read book is
our gift to you.
Books
The Danger Zone
Lost in the Growth Transition
Book Details
Table of contents
A Letter to Business Owners
Read the first chapter
Avoiding the Danger Zone
Business Illusions
Book Details
Table of contents
A Letter to Business Owners
Read the first chapter
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