David Lightfoot, B2B CFO®
Providing B2B CFO® services in Everett, WA and surrounding areas

My three installment series on fraud has spawned a fourth chapter; The Fraud Trilogy has a sequel. And the reasons for the sequel are twofold. First, I got a huge reaction from people relating their first-hand experience with fraud in business. I knew that fraud had become more common but it appears we have veritable epidemic on our hands.

Read the rest of Top 10 Steps to Help Small Businesses Prevent Fraud

There are some things that are stealing that I would not consider External Fraud. These include shoplifting or stealing of equipment. That’s just theft. External Fraud is usually financial in nature and includes credit or debit card fraud and check fraud. All three are common.

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The 2010 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse found that almost 90% of all frauds were
“asset misappropriation.” And the most common asset that is “misappropriated” is cash. No surprise here. But theft can also mean stealing inventory, fixed assets or other assets. The average loss from an asset misappropriation was $160,000.

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What is  called “The Fraud Triangle” is well established. In order for fraud to occur,  all three elements of the triangle must be present. These three elements are: pressure, opportunity and rationalization. Any organization can take measures to reduce the exposure to all three elements, thus reducing the chance that fraud will occur.

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I believe that listening is one of the most important things we can do. Note I said “can” do because most people don’t do it or don’t do it well. I’m talking here about active, engaged listening. Not listening while distracted, multi-tasking, hungry or preoccupied. And not listening, just waiting for a pause, so that you can make your next point. I mean really hearing. Listening to understand. Listening without interruption.

Read the rest of The Art of Listening

QuickBooks has established itself as the standard accounting software for small (and not-so-small) businesses. A few years ago, the Journal of Accounting, the official publication of the American Institute of CPAs, did a survey on small business accounting softwares. The result was that QuickBooks has a 90% market share, Peachtree has a 9% market share and all the others have a combined market share of 1%. And this market is so large that 1% is enough to support several companies.

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I’ve written previously about the difficult transition from doer to manager; the toughest transition in business in my mind. And rarely do we become a pure manager in small to medium-sized businesses. Instead, we usually retain some “doing” while most of our time is spent “managing.” Still, we can all learn to be better managers which will benefit the businesses in which we work.

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It is the time of year when most companies are doing their budgeting for the next year. This can be a frustrating and time consuming exercise. It is also important.

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That title line isn’t about your eyesight. It doesn’t ask whether you have 20-20 vision. It asks whether you have A Vision for the year 2020; ten years from now.

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I believe the hardest transition in business is the one from Doer to Manager. Let’s face it, when a person starts a business, they need to do everything or almost everything. As the business grows, however, the business owner needs to shed some of his or her duties. They need to delegate, and that is a difficult thing to do for the founder of the company. At first glance, few can do a given task faster or better than they can. Training someone else takes time; a commodity in short supply when one is growing a business. Unless the business owner can delegate tasks, growth of the business will be limited to what one person can control. There is only so much one person can do.

Read the rest of The Hardest Transition in Business… Going from “Doer” to “Manager”