CEO Tools Blog » Cash and Credit

Overcome “but my job isn’t cash”

ceotools — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:16:06 +0000

My great mentor, Red Scott, smartly observed that “cash ain’t cash unless it’s cash!” Lenders these days promise to lend, and then don’t…others send checks that bounce, they offer assurances of payment…then delay, and so on. To bolster your cash, simply talk to your people frequently about how their actions and activities affect cash. Do let them know we’re okay, but we need to focus on cash due to the long-delayed recovery. Get them to forecast where they’re going, and how it impacts cash. By simply creating cash awareness, your cash will improve! See the “Forecaster” and “Cash Manager” tools under New Tools Catalog for more ideas. May your cash really be cash! Kraig

12 Seasons of Business: Improve Cash / Financing

ceotools — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 19:10:37 +0000

How do we improve cash/financing during this slow recovery? By managing our company’s credit better! Use Tatum LLC’s ideas: get to know your lender’s needs and positions, and respond accordingly to them. Identify in advance what to do when/if your lender cuts your credit line by 20% or more; most have already done that without telling you. Or, they’ve toughened up your lending trigger points. Next, forecast 16-weeks out on cash flow, for internal use, and then give that forecast a “haricut” with safety valves before sharing with lenders. Trade price for payment with customers and suppliers to improve your cash flow. Finally, get new, auxiliary lines from private sources (angels and private placements), SBA lenders (who are now supported by the otherwise-errant stimulus funding), local and community banks and credit unions.

Regardless of the particular lender, manage your credit better with the timeless Tatum article on lending and credit: click on the following address http://www.ceotools.com/blog/2009/01/recession-ideas-from-tatum-llc/ and then print out the free PDF by clicking on “Managing Bank Relationships…”

You’ll be glad you checked it out! With best regards, Kraig

RSS Feed Now Enabled

ceotools — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:40:58 +0000

Here at www.ceotools.com/blog we’ve enabled RSS feeds so you can subscribe and receive updates to this BLOG when they are posted. Please click on the SYNDICATION link (left bottom of blog LEFT COLUMN) and then approve it to deliver the latest BLOG entry when we post it. Or, just click this link: http://www.ceotools.com/blog/feed/ Hope this is helpful to you in following our BLOG! And, many thanks to Michelle Nelson at www.blueintl.com for suggesting we do this in the first place. Very best wishes, Kraig

“12 Seasons of Business” for June 2010

ceotools — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:58:05 +0000

June’s “12 Seasons” is all about a new, fresh look at what’s going on in our business world and what our responses probably ought to be.

How, at mid-year, to improve cash, credit, clients? Well, how about a brand new focus on those three areas: commission three tiger-teams in your company (or your peer or presidents group) to brainstorm, research the internet, and concoct unusual or maybe untried responses.

Here are some ideas: 1-replace your prompt-pay discount with a prompt-pay rebate, payable the following month (thanks to Abe WalkingBear Sanchez for this idea); 2-ask for cash deposits on orders; 3-teach your customers inventory earn-&-turn and DSO-tracking to improve their cash-flow, and they’ll likely return the favor of prompter pay to you; 4-lease items instead of buying; 5-outsource just about everything.

We’ll continue to publish tips like these at www.ceotools.com/blog, so please visit our weblog and other great blogs regularly for ideas. We’re just now publishing the updated “Top 10 Tools for Financing Businesses” which might be helpful to you.

Once again, helping each other through this recession/recovery is our goal!

With best regards, Kraig Kramers

Top 10 Tools to Finance Your Business

ceotools — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 12:11:31 +0000

Here’s an update on my Top Ten Financing Tips for ideas to improve your company’s lender/banking. Very best, Kraig

WHAT CAUSES SALES – NEW FOR 2010

ceotools — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 20:53:54 +0000

We were asked recently to write an article for Vistage UK (Top CEO organization there) on What Causes Sales and if you just click on that link you’ll have two pages on how to make this KING of Tools work for you. You’ll grow your business faster and more consistently, causing more profit, once you get into this tool. So please jump on it now…we guarantee results! With very best profit-making wishes, Kraig

Cash-Getters

ceotools — Sun, 02 May 2010 12:38:23 +0000

May 12 Seasons – Let’s just go for CASH this month! How do we get our hands on cash immediately? A few quick ideas: go to customers and ask for quicker payment for a few months; also go to suppliers and ask them to help with slightly delayed payments for a few months. We did this at Snapper when our parent company (NYSE-listed) ran out of cash; we raised $14 million in two weeks just that way.

More cash ideas: go to your bank and borrow down against your availability; check your inventory “earn-&-turn” and your receivables “DSO tracking on 12mma charts” for items and accounts that can yield immediate cash. Try WalkingBear’s credit/collection techniques (see our blog below and search on Walking); try “Walking Your Four Corners (W4C)” to identify stuff you can liquidate or translate into cash. Often, you’ll also see things that represent additional collateral to shore up your borrowings (into cash).

Click on the following link to see our Vistage article on niche improvements, some of which get cash: http://www.ceotools.com/blog/2009/07/ten-ways-to-capture-niche-opportunities/ — all these ideas aim at helping your business.

Please remember our C-H-I-P-S acronym that works in every business we’ve ever walked through: Cash Hides In Peculiar Spots! I’m sure you’ll get some cash from your business by just walking your four corners.

Finally, just search on “Walking” in the seach box above for ideas from our favorite credit/collections guru (Abe WalkingBear Sanchez).

Why not? Introduce New Products/Services…how to

ceotools — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:55:19 +0000

Why not…introduce new products and services to get more volume? Many smart companies are betting on this now. An example might be to extend your offering beyond selling them software to installing, customizing, or integrating the software; while this has been done in that industry, could you apply it to your industry? What if you researched wht others are doing in other countries, other markets, other industries like yours just to get some ideas? You might just get a great, new idea. — Please leave your comment below to add to these thoughts!

Why not? Value Engineering: improves customer & cost

ceotools — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 14:51:48 +0000

Why not…institute “value engineering” into your products and services. Make products that give the customer more, but actually cost you less. The classic example is improving the packaging of your product to be easier to open or extract the product from, while reducing the packaging cost (yes, it’s do-able for almost any product or service — been there, done that)! Why not brainstorm this with your employees and your customers? – Please share your comment below to enhance these ideas!

Why not? In-Source to you What’s Not

ceotools — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:47:58 +0000

Why not…offer customers cost-reduction by outsourcing what they do to you? Saves them and grows your volume! For example, if you do marketing communications, maybe you could do all of their mark-com for a customer instead of just doing their advertising. — Please provide your comment below to add to these ideas!