I’ve been working with entrepreneurs for a long time – over 30 years. Regardless of the details related to the person/business, I’ve have noticed two traits shared by each and every one of them: entrepreneurs never have a shortage of ideas and they are emotionally invested in the business. As an outsourced CFO, I help…
Is there a prototypical entrepreneur? You may have noticed that the majority of my blog posts explore this concept, and I don’t think there is. I hope that, if nothing else, the articles I share shed light on the fact that anyone with the right combination of agility and drive can become a successful entrepreneur.…
We tend to be drawn to the stories of the “scrappy young founder” doing whatever is necessary to get his or her company/product/idea off the ground, but we don’t hear enough about those who found success later in life. I think there is something to be said for having a plethora of both real life…
In a recent Inc. Magazine article, Samuel Edwards details seven stages of business ownership from initial inception through making an exit strategy. Each of these stages presents its own distinct set of challenges and rewards, but understanding where you’re at in what I call the “Entrepreneurial Life Cycle” can provide invaluable insight. They are: The idea – This…
In the Fall 2015 issue of the Illinois CPA Society’s Insight Magazine, Kristine Blenkhorn Rodriguez’s article “5 Reason Your Business is Doomed” listed 5 reasons most businesses fail. While this is incredibly insightful, the opposite is also true (and is a bit more optimistic). By inverting her reasons for your business’s demise, we find 5…
Conventional wisdom has implied you need to be an extrovert to start a successful business. To quote Elizabeth Bernstein in a recent Wall Street Journal article, extroverts are “verbally adept and able to inspire employees, clients and investors with the shear force of their personality.” Her article, ‘Why Introverts Make Great Entrepreneurs’ goes on to…
For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by the American Entrepreneur and the idea that anyone can start a business in their garage & build it into an entity that can support a family. I founded PFC for that very reason – to help entrepreneurs – and during the last thirty…
For decades those seeking a career in accounting have been focused on one thing – getting a job at a big firm (preferably one of The Big Four) and working up that corporate ladder. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this method, I started my career at what is now Deloitte, I feel that the…