Start-ups: Who Can You Bank On?

"A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove you don't need it."

Bob Hope
Comedian

The humor in this would not have been obvious just a few short years ago, but today?

So, if you're just starting your business and need money, where will you go?

Is it really all that bad that banks will not likely prove to be a good source?

It's Not What You Earn But How Much You Keep

"Revenue is vanity . . . margin is sanity . . . cash is king."

Unknown

There's an old sales joke about "losing a dollar on every item we sell, but making it up in increased volume."

I would imagine some CFO's reading this blog are not laughing at this, finding it all too common in their organizations.

They're right to be concerned.

Too much emphasis is placed on how much is sold, too little on how much is earned, and to make matters worse, many managers don't understand the difference between the two.

Do you?

Marketing: Playing the Company Tambourine

"Poets and painters are outside the class system, or rather they constitute a special class of their own, like circus people and gypsies."

Gerald Brenan
20th century British writer

And within business I will add marketers, with apologies to circus people and gypsies if any reading this should be offended by the association.

On our best, most analytical day, we marketers are viewed by "hard science" business types as (barely) necessary evil disruptors of cash flow, returning little value to the business.

True?

The Truth About SPIN

"We didn't actually overspend our budget. The allocation simply fell short of the expenditure."

Anonymous

As the elephant appears different to blind men, each touching a different part, so too are there many ways to view the circumstances we find ourselves in.

Or is there only one way, only one truth?