Richard A. Foster, B2B CFO®
Providing B2B CFO® services in St. Paul, MN and surrounding areas

When a company begins to have business problems, these problems will sooner or later affect working capital! Working capital problems basically fall into four main categories, including:

1. Cash – currently in the bank.
2. Accounts Receivable – less uncollectible invoiced amounts.
3. Inventories – less inventories unavailable for sale.
4. Accounts Payable – currently due and payable.

For most businesses, these factors need to be monitored closely, on a regular basis. Why? Because they affect how the company operates. As a matter of fact, if you don’t have cash in the bank, accounts receivables from sales, inventory to sell, or payables for the purchase of inventories, you are effectively out of business, or are heading there quickly!

There are many reasons why a businesses have working capital problems. When this happens, it is critical for the business owner to determine why a working capital problem has occurred, and how it can be corrected as soon as possible. So, how do you determine when you have a working capital problem and how you are going to correct it? Here is a short list of some of the usual causes of a working capital problem:

1. Not enough sales, therefore not enough receivables
2. Past due receivables, therefore not enough cash
3. Customers are paying late, therefore too many receivables
4. Staff added to process orders and invoices, therefore too many payables
5. Inventory information not available, therefore too much cash in inventory
6. Inventory not turning-over properly, therefore too much obsolete inventory
7. Interest or late payment penalties incurred, therefore too many payables
8. Over purchasing inventories, therefore not enough cash

To avoid these and other problems in working capital, the business owner needs to spend time looking at the flow of funds through the business. For each month, a “financial dashboard” should be prepared for the business owner that gives him/her the vital statistics in the areas needed to monitor working capital. For example, each month a report should be produced showing cash budgets, aged receivables, inventory levels by category, inventory turnover, and aged payables. Action should be taken when this information is getting worse on a month to month basis.

Monitoring working capital is not difficult to do. A simple report every month will focus management in the right areas, and help move the business into better times. B2BCFO can help business owners monitor working capital more effectively and can help them tackle working capital problem early enough to eliminate the working capital problem!

B2B CFO NAMED IN PRESTIGIOUS INC. 5000 LIST

184% Growth Earns B2B CFO Spot in the 2010 List of Fastest
Growing Companies in America

Phoenix, Ariz. August 24, 2010 – B2B CFO, nation’s largest
provider of CFO services to small businesses, has been named to the
prestigious Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies in America.



Now in its 29th year, Inc. Magazine’s annual ranking judges US-based
and privately held companies by their revenue growth. This year’s
list was ranked on the percentage in revenue increase from
2006-2009. B2B CFO’s growth earned 84th place in its industry.

“There are approximately 27 million small businesses in the U.S.
today,” said Jerry L. Mills, founder and chief executive officer of
B2B CFO, “It is a huge honor to be among the fastest growing and the
most successful businesses in the country. Our firm has experienced
tremendous growth over the past few years and we are on track to
continue expanding. I am especially grateful to all of the firm’s
dedicated Partners who continue to advocate our services around the
nation.”

In a personalized letter congratulating B2B CFO on this
accomplishment, Jane Berenston, editor-in-chief of Inc. Magazine’s
wrote “Congratulations: your company, B2B CFO, has made the 2010
list of the fastest growing private companies in America. This
achievement puts you in rarefied company, especially if you consider
that over 27 million businesses are registered in the USA. The elite
group you’ve now joined has, over the years, included companies such
as Microsoft, Timberland, Visa, Intuit, Jamba Juice, Oracle, and
Zappos.com. I look forward to congratulating you in person in
Washington, D.C.”

B2B CFO’s growth is reflected in numerous awards this year. The
company was also recently named in ACE Corporate Growth Awards,
which recognized the most successful and fastest growing companies
in Arizona.
In August 2010, B2B CFO has grown to 170 Partners across 39 states,
representing 5,000 years of cumulative experience. Each Partner is a
seasoned financial executive who serves as CFO to growing businesses
on as-needed basis. Approximately 80% of the Partners have a
background that includes senior executive positions at the Big Four,
and all of the Partners have held high level executive finance
positions in various industries in corporate America. Together, B2B
CFO Partners work with more than 500 businesses in the nation with
combined annual sales of more than $3 Billion.

Jerry L. Mills and many of the B2B CFO Partners regularly dedicate
time to educate business owners on financial matters. Mills is a
frequent speaker and contributor and has been featured on many
national media networks including FOX Business, Fortune Small
Business, Smart Money and many others. Mills is also the author of
The Danger Zone – Lost in the Growth Transition, and Avoiding The
Danger Zone – Business Illusions, both business non-fiction books
that help entrepreneurs understand and build a strong financial
strategy.

“We look forward to participating in the Inc. 500|5000 conference in
Washington, DC this fall,” added Mills. “Along with my colleagues, I
look forward to the October 2nd awards ceremony and to meeting the
entrepreneurs that created the other 5000 fastest growing companies
in America.”

About Inc. Magazine

Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures LLC, Inc.
is the only major business magazine dedicated exclusively to owners
and managers of growing private companies that delivers real
solutions for todays innovative company builders. Inc. provides
hands-on tools and market-tested strategies for managing people,
finances, sales, marketing, and technology.

Inc. Magazine’s 29th annual Inc. 5000 ranking of the fastest-growing
private companies in the country is available online at
www.inc.com/inc5000/list

About B2B CFO

Headquartered in Phoenix, Ariz., the firm was founded in 1987 by
Jerry L. Mills. B2B CFO is the nation’s largest CFO firm serving
entrepreneurial, growth and mid-market companies with revenue under
$75 million. The firm’s partners have an average of 25 years of
experience and each individual partner is a senior level executive
with a broad range of expertise. Please visit online at
http://www.b2bcfo.com/

From Wikipedia
Saint Paul (pronounced /ˌseɪnt ˈpɔːl/, abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the north bank of the Mississippi River, downstream of the river’s confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state’s largest city. Known as the “Twin Cities”, these two cities form the core of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, the 13th largest metropolitan area in the United States, with about 3.5 million residents.[3] The city’s population at the 2000 census was 287,151.[1] Saint Paul serves as the county seat of Ramsey County, the smallest and most densely populated county in Minnesota.[4]

Founded near historic Native American settlements as a trading and transportation center, the city rose to prominence when it was named the capital of the Minnesota Territory in 1849. Though Minneapolis is more nationally recognized, Saint Paul contains important institutions and the state’s political activity.[5] Regionally, the city is popular for the Xcel Energy Center, home of the Minnesota Wild,[6] and for the Science Museum of Minnesota.[7][8] As a business hub of the Upper Midwest, it is headquarters for companies such as Ecolab and Lawson Software.[9] St. Paul, along with its Twin City, Minneapolis, is known for its high literacy rate. It is the only city in the US, with a population of 250,000 or more, to increase the circulation number of Sunday newspapers in 2007.

The settlement originally began at present-day Lambert’s Landing but was referred to as Pig’s Eye, when Pierre “Pig’s Eye” Parrant established a popular tavern there. When Fr. Lucien Galtier, the first Catholic pastor of the region, established the Log Chapel of St. Paul (shortly thereafter to become the first location of the Cathedral of St. Paul), he made it known that the settlement was now to be called by that name, as “St. Paul as applied to a town or city was well appropriated, this monosyllable is short, sounds good, it is understood by all Christian denominations…”.[10]