Accounting and Budgeting Articles

In this two-part series, we examine how to start a business without a bank loan or venture capital

Part II: Family and Friends, Peer-to-peer lending, Future customers

By Reed Richardson

Family and friends

Tapping into your network of friends and relatives is a tried-and-true method for raising money-today, roughly one in ten Americans report having an outstanding loan with a relative or friend. Your friends an...

When should my small business hire a bookkeeper or accountant?

By Reed Richardson

Every company, whether it's a part-time, home-based sole proprietorship or a multinational Fortune 500 corporation, shares something with all the others: a need to manage the money coming in and out of its coffers. For entrepreneurs, this responsibility, like many others, often falls upon their own shoulders. But being one's own bookkeeper or tax preparer is, at best, a tempor...

When should your small business choose cash versus credit?

by Reed Richardson

The statistics staring at budding entrepreneurs are ugly-nearly two out of three new businesses won't survive past six years. A lack of a rigorous business plan, insufficient marketing, and poor product quality can, among numerous other problems, contribute to this sobering reality, but foremost among the reasons for early failure is a rather mundane and oft overlooked difficulty-...

Part 1: Checks

By Christopher Freeburn

Paying the bills doesn't make anyone's list of favorite things to do. But, like it or not, bills come due and must be paid. No one knows that better than small business owners, who face a myriad of bills every month, ranging from office supplies and equipment leases to office rent, insurance, and marketing services.

Small business owners not only have to pay their bills, but do so in a way tha...

How To Get What's Coming to You

By Chris Freeburn

The key to maximizing the success of any business, big or small, is to maximize the amount of cash coming in, while minimizing the amount going out. That means making sure you are collecting as much revenue from customers as you can, while saving every penny possible on purchases made from suppliers. For a big business, this maximize/minimize strategy can boost profits, for a small business it can mean the differe...

The most popular accounting software packages allow small business owners to handle their routine accounting tasks with ease
By Morin Bishop

Small business owners are accustomed to doing everything themselves, including keeping the books. But prior to personal computers, small business owners with no background in accounting needed to hire someone to put together proper income statements, ledgers, balance sheets, and tax forms. Fortunately, today there is a wide array o...

Even successful small company can find itself in a cash crunch.
Here’s how to keep the money flowing
By Mike Robbins

You’ve done the work, but when will you get the reward? If you don’t quickly collect the money your company is owed, you’re providing interest-free loans to your clients—and robbing your firm of the cash it needs to flourish. Unfortunately, collecting that cash isn’t always as easy as it should be. A 2006 V...