In my review of
Finance on a Beermat by Mike Southan, Chris West, Stephen King and Jeff Macklin
on Amazon.co.uk, I rated the book at the Four Stars level. This means I think it is Good and Well Worth Reading.
Here is my book review.
For those who want to understand more about finance and even have a finance cornerstone
The Beermat series of books provide simple and clear explanations of how to build and grow a successful entrepreneurial business. Finance On A Beermat continues with the traditional and regular authors Mike Southon and Chris West receive help from Stephen King and Jeff Macklin, two of the main people behind a franchise for part time finance directors.
At the centre of the beermat idea is that the entrepreneur needs to put the right support team in place quickly – a mentor and four functional cornerstones including a “Finance Cornerstone”.
The book describes a cornerstone as “an expert on an aspect of business who has real leadership input into the venture.” The finance cornerstone is not a part time bookkeeper who will help you process transactions but a finance expert who will keep you and your team focused on generating profit and cash flow.
The chapter headings are:
1 – A finance cornerstone
2 – Accounting 101: the very basics
3 – The seedling business
4 – Tax and the law – be careful with this chapter since compliance issues can change very quickly.
5 – Accounting 102: basic management information
6 – The sapling business: the idea really becomes a business
7 – The young tree business: managing profitable growth
8 – Exit
I like the way the book covers the teaching of the key finance concepts and also puts the ideas into the context of the life of the business from start-up through to success and to the eventual sale.
I believe in the idea of Finance Cornerstones, from the start if the intention is to build a big business in true entrepreneurial tradition or from around the 15 to 20 employee mark if the business grows gradually. In the UK the idea is usually called a part time finance director. It is a role I have done myself although I stopped some years ago but, for a while, helped other part time FDs to market themselves.
This book is well worth reading if you are struggling to get your head around the finance terms and concepts and you don’t understand much of what your accountant says to you. It’s light reading rather than a heavy finance or accounting textbook and some people will want more detail than this provides.
It is available to buy from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.
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