Many people might answer the question above by saying, “to make a profit”. After all, why else would you be in business, if not to succeed and make a profit? Fair enough, however, consider in another area of your life – health. Would you ever say, the purpose of my...

Kindly note the word “conservatism” in accounting has absolutely nothing to do with whether you vote conservative, liberal, or NDP! Ok, now I’ve got that out of the way, let’s define what it means in accounting. Conservatism in accounting simply means this – that...

Michael Gerber, whose business books are huge bestsellers (millions sold) has coined some powerful, memorable phrases that hit you like a bullet, and you never forget. One of those phrases is that business owners need to work “ON their business, not IN it”. What...

How much is enough? It is a question we can all ask ourselves, especially when it comes to consumption. The greatest joy in life comes from creating versus consuming. When we are creating, we are most fulfilled. Whereas consuming is like any addiction – we get a...

I often get told that we accountants must dream in “black and white” because most reports are, well, “black and white”. For me, I love color, and it is amazing how even the two colors “green” and “red” can really make a set of reports come alive and make more sense....

Common sense would dictate that fear as a motivator in business is a really bad idea. Yet, we all know, a gazillion bosses never got that memo!  How did that all come about? By people taking seriously a really evil guy’s advice from about 500 years ago – Niccolo...

What is a Single Point of Failure? It is when your business can tumble drastically, or even collapse if one major dependency fails. Look carefully at your business. Can it operate without that one person, machine, system, or even one huge client? In various ways...