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March 2007
Volume 1, Issue 3
Spring Training Begins
Understanding how non-financial decisions affect cash flow and profitability
Gain the advantage you need to succeed as a small business owner
The first of several locations opens with assistance from the Illinois SBDC at ISU
Commerce Bank's Bob Lakin supports the Illinois SBDC at Illinois State
We want everyone to like us and show up to the party we throw. When asked, "Who do you sell to?" the further away from 'everyone' your answer is the better.
If you are anything like me, you are ready for warmer weather. Maybe it is a throwback to my childhood, but spring always seems so full of promise – of changes just around the corner. This spring as we celebrate our 2nd anniversary, we are preparing for spring training.
Our Certificate in Small Business Management will begin again on March 28, 2007 – this time offered in the evening. We are also teaming up with Bank of Illinois to offer Profit Mastery – a two day workshop beginning in late April on financial ratio analysis and cash flow and budget techniques.
Get ready for a down-to-earth, hands-on, and practical workshop. One challenge in business is understanding how seemingly non-financial decisions affect cash flow and profitability. The reality, of course, is that any decision you make in your company affects your finances. Sound financial management is essential for business success. Unfortunately, most business owners have not been trained in accounting or finance. Over 90% of business failures are attributable to poor financial management. When you don’t know where you are, it is difficult to chart a future course.
Participants will work with case studies to learn how to solve the root cause of financial problems–instead of just treating the symptoms. We’ll also show participants how to analyze company performance with financial ratios and how to use industry comparison analysis.
Our Certificate in Small Business Management will allow you to gain the advantage you need to succeed as a small business owner or operator. Taught by a combination of Small Business Development Center staff as well as local attorneys, accountants, and business professionals in the trenches, you’ll receive answers to your questions - no theory!
This program begins Wednesday, March 28, 2007 running for eleven consecutive Wednesday evenings from 6 – 9:30 PM ending June 6, 2007
Cosi is the premium, convenience restaurant that offers breakfast, lunch, afternoon coffee, dinner and dessert menus full of creative, fresh, flavorful foods and beverages. Cosi has developed featured foods that are built around a secret, generations-old recipe for crackly crust flatbread. This artisan bread is freshly baked in front of customers throughout the day in open flame stone hearth ovens prominently located in each of the restaurants.
The Cosi vision is to become America's favorite quality, convenience restaurant by providing customers authentic, innovative, savory food while remaining an affordable luxury.
Commerce Bank has been committed to serving the small business population and the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Illinois State University. "The Illinois Small Business Development Center at ISU has proved to be a great resource to our commercial lenders.
The guidance they provide means safer loans now and the need for expansion loans in the future," commented Bank President, Bob Lakin. Commerce Bank provides small business loans, merchant services, and financial calculators in a business resource center.
It's a little lie we like to tell ourselves.
Really, it is our egos talking to us. It talks about a utopian society, world peace, and the promise of eating everything chocolate, while maintaining a coveted 30 inch waistline. We want to believe it - desperately want to believe it. But it is really just a façade we cling to.
What the heck am I talking about?
The notion that everyone wants to buy whatever it is that we sell in our business. Oh, I can hear you defending yourself as we speak. "I don't believe that. It would be undisciplined to run a business that way. Plus, I have been through a target marketing exercise before. I don't try to sell to everyone."
The Illinois Small Business Development Center is funded in part through a cooperative agreement
with the U.S. Small Business Administration in partnership
with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Illinois State University.
All SBA programs are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis.