Accounting for the Numberphobic Quotes

“The goal is to build a profitable business, not maintain an expensive hobby that will leave you in the poorhouse.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“The key test of whether or not a business is a going concern is if it has a stable and loyal client base, predictable profitability, and predictable cash flow.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“A going concern is a business that is self-sustaining with predictable revenue streams, reasonable expenses, and adequate cash levels to pay its bills.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“Short-term obligations to investors, suppliers, or the bank to cover cash crunches or to build inventory are called notes payable.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“Test the market with samples first, if you can, to know what is really going to sell. • If possible, don’t build inventory in large quantities and eat up cash unless the business has the orders in its hands. • Try to find strategic partners that have quick turnarounds for building inventory. • Unless you have real-time data on customer demand and have an extremely tight connection to your suppliers, you’ll never get inventory forecasting exactly right. • Err on the side of less rather than more inventory as a rule of thumb. • If you have to make a trade-off between paying more per unit in COGS to reduce the cycle time to build inventory, choose the higher COGS and reduced production time. You’ll be placing smaller orders with greater frequency, turning inventory faster and cash faster. Read this point again—it’s not very complicated (place smaller orders, more frequently), but it’s really, really important for managing your inventory.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“What you want to avoid at all costs is returns”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“Responsiveness”—squeezing time out of the inventory process—is the only way to do this. Those companies that can produce inventory on demand are usually very profitable.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“inventory is nothing more than big piles of cash sitting on a shelf in a warehouse.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“Every year, he reviewed supplier contracts, combed the market for deals, and then asked for either a discount or extra value for his account.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“Successful business managers know they are in the collections business, whether they like it or not.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“strategy of including the end-benefit the client receives as well as the effort required to complete the project provides a way to give value to the intangible.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“Write the benefit directly on the invoice above the price you’re asking them to pay.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“Remember, customers don’t hire you to do work; they hire you to deliver results.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“Credit extension, invoicing policy, payable policy, dealing with customers, and negotiating with suppliers, banks, and internal staff are all management disciplines that have a direct impact on the cash cycle.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“the most successful small business managers are not the ones who never make a mistake; they are the ones who make their course corrections sooner.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“sunk cost—an expense that has yielded no benefit and can never be recovered.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“in service businesses, you’re selling time and talent.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“Fixed Expenses ÷ Net Margin per Unit
= Breakeven Unit Volume”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“The number of units sold that corresponds to the breakeven point is called the breakeven unit volume (or “breakeven point volume” or “breakeven volume”).”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“the key to reaching the breakeven point as quickly as possible. Keeping expenses low while growing net revenue—selling more”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“Until net revenue from sales is consistently higher than the total of both fixed and variable expenses, a business is not self-sustaining.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“Every product or service must have a gross margin of at least 30 percent of net revenue or 45 percent above cost of goods sold.)”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“good rule of thumb is to manage net income so that it yields at least 5 percent of net revenue.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“Every product offered should improve gross margin, not degrade it. You can’t make it up in volume. Please don’t try.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“Only add products or services to the company’s offering that generate at least 30 percent gross margin based on the price and the cost of making or delivering that product (COGS).”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“key is to build revenues faster than expenses.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“rule of thumb, fixed expenses should be managed to around 20 percent of net revenue and variable costs around the same level, around 20 percent, depending on the industry and how long the business has been operating”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“The business can tolerate a lean month, but the goal is to adjust course and show a profit by the end of the quarter.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“The time to take on more fixed expenses is when the orders are in your hands and the business has to scramble to get the orders out.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners

“Let net revenue and gross margin drive the right level of expenses, not the other way around. This is the Holy Grail of small business management.”
― Dawn Fotopulos, Accounting for the Numberphobic: A Survival Guide for Small Business Owners