Linda Dawson


You would be surprised how valuable your Profit & Loss Statement is and how it can help you manage your business. It can show you if you material, labor or administrative costs are too high or too low. It can also show you the trend in your business so that you can capitalize on favorable trends and mitigate negative trends. And finally, your Profit & Loss Statement can provide the foundation for creating a budget and truly enable you to get control of your costs.

Most small-business owners think of their bookkeeping as a necessary evil that is useful only for the preparation of tax filings. But your Profit & Loss Statement is much more than that. Comparing the current year financial activity to the prior year can tell you how your business is progressing - whether the trends are headed up or down. If they are headed up then you can expand on what you are doing right. This will increase your profits and make your business stronger. Conversely, if the trend lines are heading down, you can identify what is causing the negative trend and then make changes to rectify the situation. Maybe your quality is slipping or your vendors are causing delays in the production cycle. Whatever the problem, by figuring out what is going wrong, you are sure to improve your business.

Another useful tool is calculating costs as a percentage of sales. This calculation will tell you if your material or labor costs are too high and show how your selling and administrative expenses are tracking against sales. Costs that are too high will eventually put you out of business. But costs that are too low are a real danger too. It could indicate a decrease in product quality or reduced customer service.

By digging a little deeper you can identify which product lines are most profitable. It might surprise you that a product receiving little attention has a great gross profit. That is your starting point for a marketing program to push a product with low sales volume but great gross profit potential.

Your Profit & Loss Statement is also a useful tool for creating a budget. Once you have identified your sales streams and costs, you can estimate what those items will be next year. It might surprise you that a small increase in sales without a corresponding increase in costs can have a dramatic positive effect on the profitability of your business. At the same time, increased costs without a corresponding increase in sales can cut deeply into the profitability of your company. This is especially true of labor costs which are often the highest cost in a business.

So take a few minutes and look at your Profit & Loss Statement. Compare it with last year and see how your business in progressing. Then look at those percentages to see if your costs are too high or too low. You will be surprised at how much valuable information is available just by reading your Profit & Loss Statement.

David Ogden


Are you the type of person that is operating a home business on a shoestring? This shoestring could be anything from a lack of capital, to a lack of time to effectively build your home business.

Here are four home business management tips that are guaranteed to make your life easier.

1. First of all if you are not running your home business on the Internet you are making a big mistake. The Internet offers many advantages to any home business owner regardless of the type of products you sell.

The Internet makes it possible for you to be online selling 24 hours a day, whether you are sitting at your desk or not. This makes it much easier for you to manage your business as well as for you to be more profitable all the time.

2. Another advantage of the Internet is that you can automate much of your business. One way to do that is to utilize an autoresponder for future follow up.

Every home business needs leads and people that they can contact whenever they want. An autoresponder is an automatic way to send email and a great way to create leads and contact people in the future.

What you are doing is building an email marketing list that you can contact at any time. Plus, you are also managing your business by building relationships with people that someday can be future business partners with you.

3. One thing you can do is create a frequently asked questions page for questions that someone has about your home business. Email can be a big waste of time, especially if you find yourself replying to the same questions over and over.

When you create an FAQ page people will click on that and get the answers directly which frees up your time to do other things for your home business. I am sure you can find better things to do than typing replies to people’s email.

4. Set up a blog and use it to keep your customers and prospects up to date. Many people are used to subscribing to RSS feeds which is an automatic way for you to deliver updates about your business.

A blog is a great way to get content online without having to build web pages. If you are not a technically inclined person you will save all kinds of time not having to struggle building web pages.

This is four home business management tips are guaranteed to make your life easier.

Barry Byers


Finding the right person to fill for your temporary management needs can be difficult. Based in London, Interim Management London is a service that can provide you with multi-discipline, experienced, senior Managers and Interim Teams to deliver external and internal projects to corporate clients throughout the UK.

Interim Management London provides experienced senior level management executives throughout the UK when and where they are needed. Their business is based on giving clients a personal service that is second to none. If you have an issue, Interim Management is there to help.

Interim Management works on an individual approach with clients. They ensure that they work side by side with their clients to determine both personal and corporate delivery of objectives. By assessing your business culture and the standards by which you work, Interim Management is then able to identify the right person or team for the job. Upon arrival to your business, managers have been fully briefed about their expectations and job at hand and are ready to add value from day one. During the assignment, progress reports are reviewed to ensure everything is going as planned and is up to the client’s standards and satisfaction.

The major disciplines at Interim Management are Project Management, Management Accountants, Strategic Procurement, IT Project Management and Human Resources. Their client sectors are Defence, Government, Construction and Aerospace.

Interim Management’s services are flexible and the terms and conditions are completely dependent on each client’s requirements. The Interim Managers are individually selected for every assignment based on your needs and business culture, the sector and discipline experience, and optimum chance of achieving the objectives with minimum risk.

In times of need Interim Management London can be there to help maintain the standards of your business. If you business is experiencing a turnover, Interim Managers can offer temporary replacement of departed senior managers so that you can maintain continuity of leadership during times of change. If you need to focus on organizational growth, Interim Management London can provide the expertise to meet the needs of current clients so you can focus on organizational growth. If your seniors are experiencing heavy workloads, additional temporary help for senior managements can be provided as well as help your company with special projects and mentoring for new executives.

TIME interim management team members are available at short notice. Equipped with a wide array of expertise, the team is able to quickly grasp your organizational objectives and take on leadership roles to help meet them. Our Interim Management professionals offer your company balance and blend into your workplace enough to succeed as leaders but also offer impartial advice and new ideas as a third party. By being in the office, but not completely immersed in the corporate culture, they maintain their unique presence, perspective and clear focus on your goals.

If your company is in need of temporary senior level management and you can’t afford to have a bump in the road, contact Time Interim Management Executives at 0207-152-6406. Your company has a high level of excellence to maintain, let us help you by providing you with excellent service.

Vincent Murphy


In this article we are going to look at several internet marketing home business tips. These are 6 simple things you should be doing to make your life a little easier as well as more profitable.

1. Information sells. The number one thing people use the internet for is to send and receive email. The next thing they do is surf looking for information. Understand that people buy on emotion. They may have some pain you can help them get rid off with just the right information product at the right time.

2. Selling information products is good because they are cheap to produce and you can provide instant access. There is no shipping involved if you sell information on the internet because you have no physical product. You get paid right away and then send your customer to a download page where they get their product.

3. Capture contact information. The fortune in sales has always been on the follow up. The internet is no different. The person who rules the list rules the money. It has been estimated that you will earn $1 every month for every name in your mailing list.

Promote a landing page or put a sign up form on every web page or blog page. Offer something of value in exchange for their name and email address. Once you have that you can follow up for years or as long as they stay on your list.

4. Start a blog. Nowadays this is very easy to do. And it is easy to maintain. Blogging is a simple way for you to put your internet marketing home business online without having to build a complicated website.

5. Don’t waste your time creating products, just recreate them. Private label rights offer a huge advantage in time savings. Learn to recreate them and repackage them as your own. Then sell them and keep all of the money. Join a PLR club and get new products available every month.

6. Start an affiliate program or offer your PLR products with 100% resell rights. If you are smart you have filled them with affiliate links to other products you sell. You can afford to offer 100% resell rights when you are making money on the backend.

These 6 simple internet marketing home business ideas are things anyone with access to a computer can do to make money. The easier you make it on yourself the more likely you are to stick with it. The longer you stick with it the more money you will earn and so on.

Marvin Jackson


The following document is a standard teaching document. You will find it anytime you either ask or research for yourself, the answer to the question, “What is an Income Statement”.

I have made my own notes that point out basic problems in this document and the problems that are taught to new business owners, “right out of the gate”.  (Understand that I am not saying this document is WRONG. What I am saying, is that while it attempts to teach, its complexity and lack of insight into the reader perspective, creates more confusion then it needs to)

One of the Fundamental Principles of accounting is that revenue and the expenses necessary to earn this Revenue should be as accurate (as nearly as possible) when preparing reports (Income statement and Balance Sheets) for management regarding the results of the operations for a given time period, (month/year). Without accurate data, and records, sound financial decisions are not possible.

The Income Statement (a.k.a. Profit and Loss Statement) is usually prepared on the same date as the Balance Sheet; however, unlike the Balance Sheet, the Income statement does not provide information which is “frozen” for one moment in time.  It presents information for activities, which have occurred over a period of time. The Income Statement is sometimes called the Profit and Loss Statement (P & L Statement) because it traces a company’s profits or losses over a period of time - usually one (1) year. The income statement is an exhibit of a basic business equation:

REVENUES minus COST and the associated EXPENSE equals NET INCOME (or Loss).

(This mathematical formula is taught to us all in business and is fundamentally flawed.  I hate that this is the math foundation that all business operates on.  You start out WRONG and generally, finish WRONG and you never know why.  Watch for my next article and you will find out WHY this math is WRONG!!!!!)

The Income Statement is traditionally organized into four (4) major categories of information:

1)   Revenues (Sales or Net Sales)

2)   Costs and Expenses (Operating Expenses)

These are usually presented as:

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) or Cost of Sales

Operating Expenses

The Operating Expenses may be further sub-divided into:

Selling Costs and any other meaningful grouping, and General and Administrative Expenses (G & A)

3)   Tax on Income (Federal and / or State Taxes)

4)   Net Income for the Month/Year 

(There are 5 key points on any income statement and in order to, CONTROL YOUR OWN DESTINY, YOU MUST KNOW WHAT THEY ARE AND HOW TO MANAGE THEM!!!!)

The normal composition of an Income Statement lists all of the above for a one (1) month period, providing management an immediate insight into the total business activities of their company for a one (1) month period of time.  The statement normally lists year-to-date (YTD) figures as well.  YTD figures are a compilation of all figures for preceding months plus the current month.  This gives management an insight into the total business activities of their company over an extended period of time. (Normally 12 month or less.)

REVENUES (SALES or NET SALES): This section lists all money received by the company during the income statement period from the sale of products or services, or from other revenue sources.  The company may have any number of categories listed separately under the REVENUE (SALES) section of the Income Statement.

COST AND EXPENSES (OPERATING EXPENSES): Normally the first listing under the COST AND EXPENSE section of the Income Statement is “Cost of Goods Sold” (COGS) or “Cost of Sales” (COS) depending on the particular operation; Manufacturing or Retail sales etc. This listing is usually the largest single expense item on the Income Statement and it should include all costs except General and Administrative costs.(Specifically, tracking how much you spent on material and labor, to produce a product or service that is ready to sell)

COGS / COS “Cost of Sales” may be divided into “Direct” and “Indirect”.  It should include all expenses that are directly attributable to the production or purchase of goods which are sold and services rendered, i.e., labor costs including taxes, contract labor, rental equipment, vehicles and associated expenses, freight, etc.

GENERAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES [G & A]:  These expenses include salaries and labor costs of all employees not in “Cost of Sales”, the cost of office operation, rent, insurance and all other GENERAL costs required for the operation and management of the company that ARE NOT assignable to services rendered, production or sale of goods.  The company may have any number of individual categories listed under this section. 

DEPRECIATION EXPENSE:  There are numerous depreciation schedules and policies, i.e., straight line, declining balance, accelerated method, etc.    The company should use the depreciation method that most realistically reflects the decline in service potential of the assets and that results in the best earnings quality.  Management should discuss the various depreciation schedules now being used with the company Certified Public Account (CPA).

INTEREST EXPENSE:  This expense is the annual cost of financing the company through borrowed funds.

The Income Statement figure for TOTAL COST AND EXPENSES is a total of the entries for:

Cost of Sales (Direct and Indirect)

General and Administrative Expenses

Depreciation Expense

Interest Expense

TOTAL COST AND EXPENSES are DEDUCTED from TOTAL REVENUES.

The result is called Income Before Taxes or OPERATING PROFIT (LOSS).

TAXES ON INCOME:  Income taxes and other types of taxes are listed on the Balance Sheet as a Current Liability.  The Balance Sheet shows the total of all types of taxes owed as of the Balance sheet Date.  The amount shown is usually less than the total tax expenses for the year.  This is because taxes are normally paid in installments as the year progresses.  Some taxes have already been paid during the year prior to the Balance Sheet Date and the amount shown on the Balance Sheet will probably be paid in installments after the Balance Sheet date.

The actual expense of taxes paid during the year is shown on the Income Statement.  Some types of taxes are included in the figures for Selling Expense and General and Administrative expense.  The Income Taxes paid during the year are shown separately. On the Income Statement they are listed in a separate section called Taxes on Income.

Depending on how the company wishes to set up its Income Statement the next entry may be OTHER INCOME AND EXPENSE.  This category may be made up of such items as Bad Debt Recovery, provision for Income Taxes, Interest Income, Gain/Loss on Sale of Assets, etc.  The total of all items in this category are then added or deducted, whichever the case may be to/from the INCOME BEFORE TAXES  (Operating Profit (Loss)) figure. The result is NET INCOME for the year.

NET INCOME FOR THE YEAR is the most important item of financial information on the Income Statement.  It is the key measure of the company’s performance.  The amount of profit achieved after all costs, expenses and taxes has been paid from revenues.

After reading this document. ask your self , “Dis this document help?” Probably not.  Especially if you are just starting out in business and have no financial training.

Keep in mind that the above layout and description for an income statement is what is referred to as “TAXED BASED ACCOUNTING”. I will discuss this type of accounting in later articles.

Remember where, “MY”, focus is. The small business owner.  They are this country’s life blood. They are the ones that ensure our future.  This I state again because, “you must communicate at a level that accomplishes your goal and objective”. 

I remember once attending a meeting where the speaker had a PhD in Business.  At the end of the long and very boring meeting every person in the room was confused and a tad bit angry.  Angry because of the money that was spent on this speaker and at the unusable information that was conveyed.   The truth was, the speaker did convey valuable information on strategic planning, but had no idea how to convey this information to people responsible for its implementation.  The speaker detected this uneasy feeling in the room, but instead of recognizing it for what it really was, stated to me, “these people act as if they just came out of a garage with this business!”  Reality, they were only out of their garage for 2 years, knew nothing of business planning, of managed growth, and absolutely knew nothing about financial management.  This speaker was retained to enlighten the team, instead he was speaking as if he were in a classroom of graduate students.

If your goal is to teach or train, you must communicate at a level that can be understood and actually utilized. 

My point, know your audience and speak to them, not at them.

This applies to any industry. For example, if a PhD in Social Work speaks to an offender as a PhD, how much impact on this person’s life, will they really have?

This therefore, is the problem with this training document……………

My next several articles will explain the income statement in terms that anyone can easily understand and apply, no matter your background or your operating business entity.