Allocating Expenses
Business owners need to know a few basic terms for evaluating the health of their business: Revenue (how much money you earn), Cost of Sales (cost of the product you are selling) and Net Income…
Planning for Design
Bringing in appropriate design consultation early in the planning process of a new restaurant is an important step that will save you time and money.
Creating a Marketing Plan to Increase Sales
“You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.” - Yogi Berra You’ve got to know where you’re going if you are going to get there. Streamlined operations…
How Do You Measure Success?
I started working with a new client last week who wants to re-energize his business. In our initial meeting, I asked him his goals for the strategic audit. He replied, “I want to make a profit.” I…
Creating Financial Statements
Over the last few months, I spoke with micro-lenders – ACCION USA and The Carrot Project. The story is the same: they have capital to lend, but are having trouble finding “qualified” borrowers.If you…
Case Study: Managing Food Costs
Samantha’s (the name has been masked, as the company was recently sold to a new owner) was a local food service company with retail cafes in the financial district of Boston. They catered to the…
Financing Your Business
Perhaps it’s a sign of a recovering economy: entrepreneurs are opening new businesses. Lydia Shire and Jasper White’s new restaurant, Towne Stove and Spirit opened this summer at the Hynes…
Benchmarking
Recently, I was reading the autobiography of an entrepreneur. He described the demise of his gift catalog business: “Finally, after the program grew so that it produced revenue of three-quarters of a…