How long has it been since we started reading and hearing stories about a recession? 1 year? 2 Years? Are we in a recession now but don’t know it? Is one really coming?

I’m sure many business owners if not most people working in businesses as leaders, managers and employees are asking themselves these types of questions. I can’t tell you whether we are in a recession, heading for a recession or neither, but I do have some thoughts I’d like to share.

I recently read this article, Don’t Hang Up on Your Customers | Inc.com by Carey Smith, founder of Big Ass Fans. In it he talks about the danger of cheaping out on customer service. As the financial leader of several companies throughout my career, I’ve often led exercises about cutting costs. Typically, these exercises were started and then the plans implemented because an existing (not anticipated) recession was happening and the ability of the company to meet its obligations and survive were at stake.

I recently had the great fortune to attend a presentation by Dr. Kaihan Krippendorff, founder of Outthinker (www. Outthinker.com). “Outthinker” refers to outthinking your competition and how doing that can generate huge growth in customers, sales, profits and value. They key to Dr. Kaihan Krippendofff’s talk was about finding “The Fourth Option” which he describes as changing how you play the game.

Whether you read or watch the news or just pay attention to the prices from your suppliers and requests for bigger raises from your employees, you know that inflation is significantly higher than most of the last 10+ years.

If you are the founder/owner/CEO of a growing company that is thinking about or in the process of a hiring a full time Controller or Director of Finance (or know someone who is), read on.

Here are five tips for achieving the financial goals in your budget:

Though the Covid 19 pandemic is not fully behind us, I am seeing many businesses pressing ahead with their plans for growth.

There are probably few people in America who don’t think some investment in our physical infrastructure (roads, bridges, trains, sewers, water supply and more) is long overdue.

I’ve created 3 categories of businesses and explain what’s going on for each group and what they can do.

Whether you are a manufacturer, a distributor, reseller or service company, knowing how much money you make on each product, product line, revenue stream, channel, contract or customer is critical to maximizing your profitability.

Business owners often push for productivity, and in a company where there are 10 or 1000 people doing the same task over and over again, it’s easy to set a goal and measure whether it’s being achieved by each individual, a department or a production line.

If you run a company and you’re thinking about where you want that company to go, developing a strategic plan can help you crystalize your goal(s) and, even more importantly, how you’re going to achieve them.

Watching a colorized version of an episode of the I Love Lucy show, I ignored the colorization and kept thinking about Lucy’s get rich quick scheme.

Most business owners and CEOs want to grow their top line, and many do something about it (launching new products, hiring more salespeople, investing in marketing and driving more revenue from their existing customers.) As their Chief Financial Officer, I put a focus on growing profitably.

I expect they want to grow the company to make more money.

If the City of Chicago hasn’t already approached your business looking for Sales & Use Tax returns and money, you should be prepared for their knock.

Almost every business owner I know wants their business to make more money. It can allow them to reinvest, expand their product offerings and increase future sales or it can allow them to put more money in their own pockets.

Has your company ever been in the position where the budget you put together in the fall seems less and less relevant as each month goes on? If so, read on.

Companies big and small develop an annual budget and spend a lot of management time discussing, creating and finalizing it.

Whether you keep your books on a cash or accrual basis, don’t forget to pay attention to your balance sheet.