This is a book for solo and small firm attorneys. No matter where you are in the process of building your firm's financial foundation, we've got the tools and information that can take you to the next level. There is no shame in not knowing how to handle your firm's finances: We've dealt with hundreds of attorneys who are great lawyers, but share this same problem to one degree or another. It's not your fault. The law school you attended prepared you to be a lawyer, but likely left you completely unequipped to handle the business side of practicing law. Most of them adhere to the idea that the practice of law is a lofty, mission-driven profession, aimed at serving clients and righting wrongs - a mission that should be untainted by the concerns of business. Unfortunately, many mission-driven firms don't have the opportunity to serve their clients for very long because they can't fund their mission. Don't let this happen to you.

Author of cult classics The Pumpkin Plan and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur offers a simple, counterintuitive cash management solution that will help small businesses break out of the doom spiral and achieve instant profitability. Conventional accounting uses the logical (albeit, flawed) formula: Sales - Expenses = Profit. The problem is, businesses are run by humans, and humans aren't always logical. Serial entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz has developed a behavioral approach to accounting to flip the formula: Sales - Profit = Expenses. Just as the most effective weight loss strategy is to limit portions by using smaller plates, Michalowicz shows that by taking profit first and apportioning only what remains for expenses, entrepreneurs will transform their businesses from cash-eating monsters to profitable cash cows. Using Michalowicz's Profit First system, readers will learn that: · Following 4 simple principles can simplify accounting and make it easier to manage a profitable business by looking at bank account balances. · A small, profitable business can be worth much more than a large business surviving on its top line. · Businesses that attain early and sustained profitability have a better shot at achieving long-term growth. With dozens of case studies, practical, step-by-step advice, and his signature sense of humor, Michalowicz has the game-changing roadmap for any entrepreneur to make money they always dreamed of.

"Finally, a book that provides invaluable hands-on financial and accounting concepts for use by the thousands of frontline business owners and managers battling for survival each and every day. While 'Wall Street' gets the headlines, 'Main Street' gets the job done." -Robert Svet, CEO, President, & Founder, The Eastridge Group of Staffing Companies "In today's competitive business environment, decisions must be made in a quick, reliable, and confident manner. This book provides CEOs, business owners, and managers clear, concise, and easy-to-understand business financial management concepts to make these types of value-added business decisions." -John Atencio, President & Founder, John Atencio Jewelry How to Manage Profit and Cash Flow provides streetwise advice and practical strategies for business managers and other professionals who need to make critical business decisions. From methods for analyzing past and future profit and cash flow information to differences between massaging the numbers and cooking the books, short, to-the-point chapters that are visually appealing will help you see through opaque accounting terminology and allow you to gain a firm grip on how to manage profit and cash flow in your business. Through three comprehensive sections: "Birthing a Business," "Building a Business," and "Selling or Burying a Business," as well as an Accounting and Financial Glossary, How to Manage Profit and Cash Flow discusses key issues, including: * Investing in assets * Preventing fraud * Handling taxes * Raising capital * Finding cash for growth * Terminating a business

The fast and easy way to grasp cash flow management Cash Flow For Dummies offers small business owners, accountants, prospective entrepreneurs, and others responsible for cash management an informational manual to cash flow basics and proven success strategies. Cash Flow For Dummies is an essential guide to effective strategies that will make your business more appealing on the market. Loaded with valuable tips and techniques, it teaches individuals and companies the ins and outs of maximizing cash flow, the fundamentals of cash management, and how it affects the quality of a company's earnings. Cash flow is the movement of cash into or out of a business, project, or financial product. It is usually measured during a specified, finite period of time, and can be used to measure rates of return, actual liquidity, real profits, and to evaluate the quality of investments. Cash Flow For Dummies gives you an understanding of the basic principles of cash management and its core principles to facilitate small business success. Covers how to read cash flow statements Illustrates how cash balances are analyzed and monitored—including internal controls over cash receipts and disbursements, plus bank account reconciliation and activity analysis Tips on how to avoid the pitfalls of granting credit—evaluating customer credit, sources of credit information, and overall credit policy Advice on how to prevent fraud and waste Covers cash-generating tactics when doing business with dot-coms, other start-ups, and bankrupt customers Cash Flow For Dummies is an easy-to-understand guide that covers all of these essentials for success and more.

This textbook familiarises students with the theory and practice of small business management and challenges assumptions that may be held about the way small business management can or should adopt the management practices of larger firms. For students interested in establishing and managing their own small firm, this book helps them to focus their thinking on the realities of life as a small business owner-manager – both its challenges and its rewards. For postgraduate students that are keen to ‘make a difference’, this text enables them to understand how they might consult to small firms and assist owner-managers to establish and grow their ventures. In addition to students, this book is also useful to small business owner-managers as a general guide on how they might better manage their operations. Managers in large corporations and financial institutions who deal with small businesses as clients or suppliers, and professionals such as accountants, lawyers and consultants who provide advice and other services to small businesses will also find the book of interest.

Successful methodology for identifying earnings-related reporting indiscretions Creative Cash Flow Reporting and Analysis capitalizes on current concerns with misleading financial reporting on misleading financial reporting. It identifies the common steps used to yield misleading cash flow amounts, demonstrates how to adjust the cash flow statement for more effective analysis, and how to use adjusted operating cash flow to uncover earnings that have been misreported using aggressive or fraudulent accounting practices. Charles W. Mulford, PhD, CPA (Atlanta, GA), is the coauthor of three books, including the bestselling The Financial Numbers Game: Identifying Creative Accounting Practices. Eugene E. Comiskey, PhD, CPA, CMA (Atlanta, GA), is the coauthor of the bestselling The Financial Numbers Game: Identifying Creative Accounting Practices.

Managing productivity and profitability in retailing has taken on a particular role since the onset of the recession of the late 1980s. Productivity can be improved simply by rationalising low performing stores, merchandise ranges and by reducing the number of suppliers and employees. However, this is not necessarily a long term solution. The purpose of this text is to propose a means by which a more proactive approach may be taken to improving both productivity and profitability. The book develops a model based upon management ratios typically used in retailing businesses for planning and control purposes. The model encourages the use of existing performance data to evaluate overall company productivity and profitability together with performance characteristics of individual functions. An additional feature of the approach is the facility to explore the impact of changes to the retail offer suggested by customer research responses. To facilitate the use of the concepts and the model used, a disk is also available, containing the application of the model to a number of the case studies and a facility for the user to input their own data.