‘The Best Damn Small Business Newsletter on the Internet’ archives
You need to do a pre-goal-setting assessment
There's all sorts of goal-setting frameworks and theories (eg SMART criteria, OKRs, BHAGs, OGSMs, etc)*. They're supposed to help get your rough goals & dreams out of your head, onto a piece of paper, and into a standardized structure that makes sense which can...
The flaws with ROI and other things to consider when making decisions
I won an award! 🥳 CPA Practice Advisor named me on their annual '40 under 40' accounting professionals list. I've "emerged as [a] future leaders in the profession." Whoop! 🙌🎉 There's two sides to every finance/accounting measure and the...
Business savings isn’t just for emergencies
Most small business owners don't have an extensive finance background before starting their businesses. You're good at a particular skill (eg, marketing, design, writing, coding, law, whatever), you saw an opportunity to open a business, and you went for it. This...
How to rank your clients
All clients aren't created equal. Some clients are easier to work with, more profitable, send referrals, or just have more interesting projects than the rest. Then, others are a royal pain, take up too much of your (and your team's) time, drag down profitability, hurt...
Your personal finances affect your business profit and cash flow
Legal nuances aside, you and your business are intertwined. Your business provides for your family, stresses you out, helps you feel fulfilled, and occupies most of your waking thoughts. It's very clear what our businesses give us. But, it's a little less clear what...
How to start saving for retirement (as a business owner)
Saving for retirement is much harder for business owners than regular old employees. When saving for retirement, all employees have to do is sign 401k paperwork with HR, set a contribution amount, and pick from a list of preselected investments. Then, it's taken care...
Different kinds of emergency funding
The best time to plan for an emergency is when things are going well. That's when you have a clear mind, time to really think thru your plan, and won't be pressured into making snap decisions. You don't need to have a fully fleshed out wartime-CEO document, but you...
‘Profit’ can mean different things to different people
One of the biggest problems when trying to understand small business accounting & finance is the terminology. The rules that define accounting (yeah, there's rules. They're called GAAP and IFRS and are just as lame as you'd think they are) very specifically define...
A (very) basic order of operations for paying yourself from your business
Small businesses grow in stages. In the beginning, there's a clamoring for personal financial stability (aka you gotta earn enough money to buy food and pay rent). In that stage, the most important things are generating revenue, being profitable enough, and paying...
Search for bottlenecks in your invoicing process
Improving cash flow seems simple on the surface. You just speed up invoice collection, slow down bill payment, and make sure you have capital available for emergencies. But, that's easier said than done. Textbook cash flow advice will only get you so far. For example,...
Worry about your business and not ‘what the market can bear’ when increasing prices
When discussing pricing, people frequently mention 'what the market can bear' (aka the max people will pay for your product/service) as the upper threshold. Because, in theory, if you charge more than what the market can bear then no one will buy from you. But, 'what...
Improve your cash flow by collecting client payment info during contract signing
At its core, improving cash flow has a lot to do with the timing and availability of cash in your business. That's why mega-corps will delay paying bills for as long as possible, because it leaves money in their accounts longer and improves the overall cash...
Proactively look for surprise expenses to improve your long-term cash flow
Proactively managing cash flow is more than just enforcing payment terms, delaying your cash outflows, and building a tiny emergency fund. You should also be actively looking for potential cash flow problems and planning for them. Because, a surprise expense that...
Demonstrating value doesn’t end at the sale
Clients are usually the happiest with and most excited by your services when (and shortly after) they hire you. That's when they're most convinced that you can solve whatever problem or pain-point they're currently facing and feel the relief of getting it off their...
Reader question: “I raised my prices and a few of my clients are upset. How do I fix this?”
Raising your prices is one of the most common bits of internet small business wisdom. The general idea is that you're almost always undercharging because people are bad at determining their own value and, even if you lose a few clients, the increased billings will...
Questions to ask yourself before changing course
Constantly learning, iterating, testing, and evolving helps keep your business ahead of new challenges and beating the competition. New innovations can be as simple as new software tools, addon services, or updated deliverables, but can make your business...
Keep a running ‘progress & goals document’ so you can more easily look back on your growth
True growth is incredibly slow. It's a series of marginal improvements over a long enough period of time until you finally become proficient or successful. For example, they say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert (which is debatable, but this is just an...
Getting started with business systems and procedures
Standard operating procedures, systems, and processes are amazing because they keep everyone on the same page, keep client work consistent, reduce errors, and, honestly, take some of the thinking out of repetitive tasks and projects. Instead of setting up every...
Understand your cash flow better with a master recurring expense calendar
Recurring expenses are a major, major factor in small business cash flow. Things like rent, utilities, payroll, loans/leases, and software expenses are constantly drawing against your business revenue, profit, and emergency fund/war chest. Understanding, anticipating,...
Ask clients for feedback (instead of assuming)
After a few years in business (or in our chosen careers), we fall into this bad habit of assuming we know what our clients and potential new clients want. And, like all assumptions, that makes an ass of you and me. Bad assumptions lead to unhappy clients, weak...
Always have a Plan B
A major aspect of starting and running a successful small business is experimenting until you find what works for you then doubling down on it. You need to find the right processes, marketing channels, software, locations, employees, service providers, etc. And, once...
Making a New Year’s resolution isn’t enough to transform your business. You need a plan.
Hey, I'm Michael Eckstein 👋, and this is 'Ordinary & Necessary', a weekly newsletter about the small business profitability, cash flow, strategy, and personal wealth that will help your business grow. You signed up on my website. If you'd like to...
Read your insurance benefits now, before you need to make a claim
Hey, I'm Michael Eckstein 👋, and this is 'Ordinary & Necessary', a weekly newsletter about the boring business topics that don't get enough traction on the web, but will help you manage and grow your business. You signed up on my website. If you'd like to...
Budget in growth for 2021
Hey, I'm Michael Eckstein 👋, and this is 'Ordinary & Necessary', a weekly newsletter about the boring business topics that don't get enough traction on the web, but will help you manage and grow your business. You signed up on my website. If you'd like to...
Conversations to have with your problem clients (and how to fix them)
Hey, I'm Michael Eckstein 👋, and this is 'Ordinary & Necessary', a weekly newsletter about the boring business topics that don't get enough traction on the web, but will help you manage and grow your business. You signed up on my website. If you'd like to...