Core Small Business Skills - Financial Management

With research into Australian small business failures revealing that 90% of small business failures occurring as a result of a lack of key management skills, it pays small business owners and entrepreneurs to develop a core set of key management skills on which they can draw. Developing strong financial management skills is one of the core skills essential for the management and growth of any small business and entrepreneurs should learn to master these skills to ensure their ongoing viability and success.

Financial Responsibility

Many entrepreneurs abdicate responsibility for the financial management of their business to their accountants.This is a rookie mistake. As the business owner you must take responsibility and accountability for the management of your finances. For the planning, for the ongoing management and monitoring of the financial aspects of your business performance.

You are also responsible for learning to read and thoroughly understand the key financial reports. Work with your accountant to learn how to read each of the reports and to look for indicators as to your business's financial health.

Financial Planning

Financial planning and in particular forecasting is vital especially when it comes to managing capital and liquidity, because any shortfall for either will lead to the early demise of your business. You need to be continually looking ahead to determine your upcoming financial situation and to asses what needs to be done to meet those financial commitments.

Commercial Finance and TARP Money Small Business Loans Considered

There has been a lot of talk in the financial news about the challenges of getting money into the small business community so those companies can expand, hire more workers, and provide the economic engine to sustain our economic recovery. The Obama Administration has a plan, but like any plan to revive an economy, it requires all the players to be on board. If they are, then this infusion of small business financing money couldn't come soon enough.

There was an interesting article recently in the Wall Street Journal, sub-section CFO Journal on June 23, 2011 titled "Banks Wary of TARP Approach to Small Business Lending," by Emily Chasen (Senior Editor). The article stated:

"The Obama administration's efforts to spur small-business lending through a spin-off of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) - hasn't exactly received thunderous support from community banks, who may be too worried about government intervention if they accept funds, and the creditworthiness of prospective borrowers, to make a dent in the frozen small business lending market."

Okay so perhaps you watched the TV Movie "Too Big to Fail" about the TARP Program and the financial crisis, fall of Lehman Brothers, and global economic crash. There was a decent write up on that TV Movie in the New York Times recently titled "The Financial Crisis Comes to TV" by Michael J. De La Merced published on May 23, 2011. In that movie we watched the fiasco, and the laws of unintended consequences during times of crisis management.