I only gave
One Star in my review posted on Amazon.co,uk.
Here is my book review.
This Think aha book is one of a series of meant to give you quick, actionable advice.
It’s the first one I’ve read in the series. It will also be the last. [continue reading…]
In my review of
by Steven Beaman posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book One Star.
Right from the start, it is clear that the book needs editing to knock it into shape and make it more readable. [continue reading…]
In my review of
by Alyson Ogilvie-Lee posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Two Stars. This means it is Disappointing.
The author quotes statistics about business failures in Australia and, just like in the UK, far too many businesses close.
She says that paralysed management is a major cause. The business owners know there is a problem but can’t face up to dealing with it. Gradually it gets worse until the final cash flow crisis makes it impossible to continue. [continue reading…]
The full title of this book by Arnold S Goldstein is
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Four Stars. This means it is Good and Well Worth Reading.
Here is my book review.
This book starts with some solutions to serious business problems which I think are illegal in the UK because directors of a struggling company have a duty to protect the interests of creditors and other stakeholders.
This is because it’s American and was published in the early 1990s.
If you think that means there is no reason to read the book, that would be a mistake. [continue reading…]
The full title of this book by Martin Robertson is
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Three Stars. This means it is Worthwhile.
Here is my book review.
The author drifted into starting his own accountancy practice and he shares the mistakes he made.
The chapters are broken into two sections. What he did and what he learnt he should have done. [continue reading…]
The full title of this book by Sharad Kumar Churiwala and Govindaraju TV is
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Three Stars, meaning Worthwhile.
Here is my book review.
This book jumps straight into internal control weaknesses like orders delivered but not invoiced, items replaced under warranty but no warranty claim has been made on the original supplier etc. It’s a useful reminder that profit and cash can leak through your business through neglect. Areas of customer fraud or abuse are also covered. [continue reading…]
The full title of this book by Richard W. Linford is
In my review posted on Amazon.co.uk, I gave the book Three Stars, meaning it is Worthwhile.
Here is my book review.
I don’t like the title of this book and believe it will take you longer to read it than 30 minutes and much, much longer to answer some of the questions. [continue reading…]
The full title of this book by Bruce Bowler is
In my review at Amazon.co.uk, I rated the book at the FOUR stars level which means I consider to be good to very good.
Here is what I posted.
No one starts a business expecting to have it shut down in a few years yet statistics indicate that this happens far too often.
There are two types of closure: [continue reading…]
From time to time, a business owner will contact me and ask for a free Business SOS because their business has cash flow difficulties.
The first issue we face is the problem of diagnosis. A business may be experiencing cash flow problems for a number of different reasons and curing the problem for the long term means getting to the root cause.
Cash flow difficulties normally mean that the business is struggling:
If your business is losing money, you have a situation that can’t be sustained indefinitely. The clock is ticking and, unless changes are made, your business will fail.
In the days of the dot.com bubble in the late 1990s, a new measure became the rage called the cash burn, measured in months.
This was the number of months the business could continue to trade as it currently was, before it ran out of cash.
This was simply the amount of funding available divided by the monthly cash outflow.
If there was £80,000 in the bank and the business was using £20,000 of it a month, the cash burn was 4 months. If nothing changed, then the following month, it would be three months as the cash would have dropped by £20,000.
This meant that an end date could be calculated. If your cash burn at the end of April was 4 months, then everything was over by the end of August unless:
a) the net cash used changed for the better;
b) more money was invested into the business to give it an extended life.
It’s simple arithmetic that halving the burn rate, from £20,000 to £10,000 per month extended the life of the business. The £80,000 = 4 months became 8 months and that gave much more time for bright ideas to be thought about, implemented and improved before the crunch.
I was a consultant, small business coach and advisor based in Birmingham, with over 35 years business experience, including more than 20 years as self employed.
My main business qualifications are:
– Chartered Accountant
– MBA
– Certified Guerilla Marketing Coach
My main interests are in helping business owners who are stuck get unstuck by thinking more clearly about their issues and possible solutions.
I no longer provide professional business coaching but I will be sharing more ideas on my blog and will continue my popular business book reviews.
I can be contacted by email at Paul@BusinessDevelopmentAdvice.com
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