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Chart of Effective Federal Funds Rate compared to Bank Prime Loan Rate

The Federal Fund Rate is the interest rate that banks and credit unions borrow money from the Federal Reserve.  (The blue line on the chart.) The Prime Rate is the interest rate that banks and credit unions lend money to their best customers.  The Prime Rate is generally 3 percentage points above the Federal Fund…
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Budgeting: Is it Worth the Time and Effort? Do You Need a Map for a Road Trip?

Budgeting:  Is it worth the time and effort?  Simply stated – businesses should be budgeting for annual business plans, special projects, capital equipment purchases, new product development and more. Businesses that fail to budget have no defined plan to project growth, manage and judge the performance of the business.  Lack of any kind of budgeting…
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Budget – Even If It’s on the Back of a Napkin

by Daniel R. Siburg, CPA, CVA A budget on the back of a napkin is better than no budget at all.  Even the simplest of budgets will make management think about the coming year’s future direction and performance goals for the business. Budgeting Helps the Business Look Forward to the Coming Year Budgeting is important…
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5 Items for a Company to Consider for the Economic Turnaround

by Daniel R. Siburg, CPA, CVA and Howard W. Fisher Every company, small or large, needs to have a strategic plan outlining their business’s efforts for the economic turnaround.  During the coming period of economic growth, every company should have a defined set of goals to reach and indicators to watch as the economy starts…
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A Publisher’s Cash Management Plan – Part 5 – Risk Management

By Daniel R. Siburg, CPA, CVA & Howard W. Fisher This is the final installment of the Publisher’s Cash Management Plan series that began in October 2002 with “Managing Your Cash Flow” and continued in succeeding months with “Managing Your Accounts Receivable,” “Bridging the Cash Gap with Asset-Based Lending,” and “Managing Your Inventory.” Publishers, like…
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A Publisher’s Cash Management Plan – Part 4 -Managing Your Inventory

By Daniel R. Siburg, CPA, CVA & Howard W. Fisher Inventory management is critical to keeping your publishing business operating smoothly and your customers happy. Inventory is usually one of a publisher’s two largest assets, the other being accounts receivable. Every company needs to manage all aspects of their inventory—from what titles and quantities to…
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A Publisher’s Cash Management Plan – Part 3 – Asset-Based Lending

by Daniel R. Siburg, CPA, CVA & Howard Fisher Asset-based borrowing for any company is a blessing and a loss of control at the same time. This article is will discuss the key points you need to know about asset-based lending. First however, some background. Nature of the Book Trade Traditionally the publishing industry has…
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A Publisher’s Cash Management Plan – Part 2 -Managing Your Accounts Receivable

By Daniel R. Siburg, CPA, CVA & Howard W. Fisher Accounts receivable is a topic that every publishing company knows about, but does every company manage their accounts receivable? A publisher’s cash management plan will always include accounts receivable management. While publishers may think that receivables are trade accounts receivables, there are several types of…
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A Publisher’s Cash Management Plan – Part 1 – Managing Your Cash Flow

Part 1—Managing Your Cash Flow By Daniel R. Siburg, CPA, CVA & Howard W. Fisher The growth and survival of your business depends on active management of one asset—cash. The simplest cash control is the mantra “Never overspend!” However, many moving pieces are involved in managing cash and we are going to cover the major…
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Planning to Sell vs. Needing to Sell

By Daniel R. Siburg, CPA, CVA & Howard W. Fisher Three elements affect an owner’s ability to make an advantageous sale of a company: Time – How long can the owner take to prepare the company for sale and complete the sales transaction? Pressure – What kind of pressure is the owner under to complete…
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