It's easy to be cynical or even downright pessimistic if you read the news: religious leader and mayors arrested for corruption, etc. etc.
I am not advocating suspending your newspapers subscriptions.
But I am suggesting finding optimistic open-minded people to mingle with and enjoy their energy. I am lucky I get to do this a lot.
Today I joined a new green business group sponsored by the local award-winning SCORE chapter. There were so many intelligent and sustainable business ideas in one room!
On Monday I am attending a social gathering of the Optimists' Tribe, a newly formed group that revels in an optimistic view of the present and the future. I am looking forward to an infectious evening of new contacts and positive friends.
I will report back soon.
Optimistically,
Marc
Showing posts with label green. Show all posts
Showing posts with label green. Show all posts
Friday, July 24, 2009
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
podcast...cooooool
I never did a radio show before but was thrilled when Liz Kopyscinski, Vice President Belray Asset Management, asked me to spend a half-hour on her weekly podcast about local businesses. It went so fast and when you enjoy doing something it's easy to speak about it! Thanks, Liz, for the invite and I hope all of you enjoy listening:
Friday, March 21, 2008
It really IS better to give than receive!
Science proves what we have been helping nonprofits do for 6 years: receive from their donors in a smarter way.
Donors feel better (see article) and nonprofits keep more of the donations.
Everyone feels better this way!
Have a nice holiday weekend.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Who is gonna bail you out????!!!!????
Citibank, Bear Stearns, who else? And there will be more.
When you need a financial bailout, who will come to your rescue? No one, right?
Don't wait until it's too late. Work on your cash flow NOW.
The key to business success is sound cash flow and actively managing that cash flow. You probably cannot do it alone.
Call us in to help, we have particular expertise and tools to optimize your cash flow.
When you need a financial bailout, who will come to your rescue? No one, right?
Don't wait until it's too late. Work on your cash flow NOW.
The key to business success is sound cash flow and actively managing that cash flow. You probably cannot do it alone.
Call us in to help, we have particular expertise and tools to optimize your cash flow.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
LEAP DAY!
Happy February 29th. Leap Day.
At the local coffee shop, a cup will cost you 29 cents all day, with a coupon of course!
If you optimize your cash flow for your business, today is like finding a $20 bill in your pocket. How?
It would mean one more day to receive more money in your bank account. It would mean one more day to optimize your working capital and be more efficient.
The analogy I like to use is that cash flow is like blood rushing throughout your body. A clog in the plumbing can cause problems throughout the business. Efficiency of cash inflow and smarter ways to accept payments will make your business healthier. One extra day to receive money is a gift.
I hope you have a prosperous Leap Day.
At the local coffee shop, a cup will cost you 29 cents all day, with a coupon of course!
If you optimize your cash flow for your business, today is like finding a $20 bill in your pocket. How?
It would mean one more day to receive more money in your bank account. It would mean one more day to optimize your working capital and be more efficient.
The analogy I like to use is that cash flow is like blood rushing throughout your body. A clog in the plumbing can cause problems throughout the business. Efficiency of cash inflow and smarter ways to accept payments will make your business healthier. One extra day to receive money is a gift.
I hope you have a prosperous Leap Day.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Preparing your company for a recession
An article dated 30Jan08 by Tim Reason on CFO.com entitled, "Preparing Your Company for Recession" and was subtitled "Face it: Financial Crises are Inevitable. To Emerge Strong, Companies Must Be Quick and Smart in Their Responses" spoke about 3 general ways to prepare for a recession:
1) seek ways to reduce costs
2) optimize working capital
3) measure your performance
How right he is.
I want to embellish some of his points hinting at how our services work to prepare any size company or nonprofit for the economic downturn we are in and will see continue for a while. But why wait for a recession to implement keener business and achieve smarterpayments (name rings a bell, huh?)?
1) How can you reduce costs that can be pared down, and use technology to do so?
Think anew about all your routine processes and ask: Is there a better way? Does it have to be done this way? Can technology, especially email and the internet, accomplish the same?
Consider paper invoicing, mailing and labor costs: could an invoice travel from you to your customer by email, be opened and paid all in one transmission? Sure. See this blog's most recent posting or cruise over to our greinvoice website, for details of a new service we offer: http://www.greinvoice.com. Imagine saving postage (goes up again in May!), paper and envelope costs (I cannot believe how expensive paper is getting), and getting paid faster right on the email/web-based invoice you send the customer. That gives you more time and money to do other things like optimize your cash flow or measure your business results while your payment is on its way to you. Win win.
2) Why not optimize working capital: that's an essential practice even in good economic times?
Have you tried to get a loan recently? Bank liquidity is drying up; I know, a bad pun, but you get the point. Bankers sleep best at night knowing their customers' working capital (especially their CASH FLOW) is as smooth and efficient as possible. After all, that's what's paying them back.
However, banks do not market all the best solutions. You need to go outside the banking industry to find out about ways to improve cash flow. Independent financial consultants offer new ways that banks don't offer. And each service should be tailored ot your specific needs. Like: faster cash in the bank account, no matter who helps you get it there faster, is what makes a lower interest rate on your loan, or whether the bank gives you a loan at all. If you don't do this, someone at the bank will measure your efficiency, which brings me to #3.
3) How and what do you measure? Who has the time????
Statistical measurement is anathema when your business is growing quickly. There's just no time to stop and measure. When business slows down, you are fixated on revving it up. Once again, no time or inclination to measure.
Certain services we offer provide historic totals and other ways at looking at your business graphically and seeing things in a new way. We made it easy to see a graph or chart, so you could gain new insight. If you do not measure your business, your banker will (see discussion in #2 above).
So, there you have it, another installment of how we can help you prepare for the recession. Just ask, or we may just suggest a few services.
1) seek ways to reduce costs
2) optimize working capital
3) measure your performance
How right he is.
I want to embellish some of his points hinting at how our services work to prepare any size company or nonprofit for the economic downturn we are in and will see continue for a while. But why wait for a recession to implement keener business and achieve smarterpayments (name rings a bell, huh?)?
1) How can you reduce costs that can be pared down, and use technology to do so?
Think anew about all your routine processes and ask: Is there a better way? Does it have to be done this way? Can technology, especially email and the internet, accomplish the same?
Consider paper invoicing, mailing and labor costs: could an invoice travel from you to your customer by email, be opened and paid all in one transmission? Sure. See this blog's most recent posting or cruise over to our greinvoice website, for details of a new service we offer: http://www.greinvoice.com. Imagine saving postage (goes up again in May!), paper and envelope costs (I cannot believe how expensive paper is getting), and getting paid faster right on the email/web-based invoice you send the customer. That gives you more time and money to do other things like optimize your cash flow or measure your business results while your payment is on its way to you. Win win.
2) Why not optimize working capital: that's an essential practice even in good economic times?
Have you tried to get a loan recently? Bank liquidity is drying up; I know, a bad pun, but you get the point. Bankers sleep best at night knowing their customers' working capital (especially their CASH FLOW) is as smooth and efficient as possible. After all, that's what's paying them back.
However, banks do not market all the best solutions. You need to go outside the banking industry to find out about ways to improve cash flow. Independent financial consultants offer new ways that banks don't offer. And each service should be tailored ot your specific needs. Like: faster cash in the bank account, no matter who helps you get it there faster, is what makes a lower interest rate on your loan, or whether the bank gives you a loan at all. If you don't do this, someone at the bank will measure your efficiency, which brings me to #3.
3) How and what do you measure? Who has the time????
Statistical measurement is anathema when your business is growing quickly. There's just no time to stop and measure. When business slows down, you are fixated on revving it up. Once again, no time or inclination to measure.
Certain services we offer provide historic totals and other ways at looking at your business graphically and seeing things in a new way. We made it easy to see a graph or chart, so you could gain new insight. If you do not measure your business, your banker will (see discussion in #2 above).
So, there you have it, another installment of how we can help you prepare for the recession. Just ask, or we may just suggest a few services.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Green B2B invoicing and payments
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Business invoicing has just gotten “greener,” resulting in more cash in a new, easy way to electronically send an invoice and receive payment, while conserving our natural resources. Beat the recession.
We just launched a new service called greinvoice, which allows businesses to send invoices to their clients by email, with a link on the email to open the invoice on the recipient’s screen, at which time they can pay the invoice by electronic check or credit card…no postage, paper, envelope or trash.
We brought together three best-in-class vendors in this unique service to handle invoicing and payments in a secure online environment. Additionally, we are pleased to be able to help the environment by reducing trash and simultaneously help our clients receive payment faster.
Perhaps we are ahead of the technology curve (as usual), but the simple economics of rising postage rates (announcement today of another one penny rate increase in May) and escalating paper costs and the looming recession make the focus on cash flow even more imperative. Our lower cost to use technology to deliver invoices and receive payment makes more sense now than ever.
We have shown companies, e-commerce sites and nonprofit organizations of all sizes, locally and nationwide, many other ways to improve their cash flow using new technologies and reduce the administrative effort and expense.
See the website, http://www.greinvoice.com/ and let us know how we can help you get more green (pun intended!)
We just launched a new service called greinvoice, which allows businesses to send invoices to their clients by email, with a link on the email to open the invoice on the recipient’s screen, at which time they can pay the invoice by electronic check or credit card…no postage, paper, envelope or trash.
We brought together three best-in-class vendors in this unique service to handle invoicing and payments in a secure online environment. Additionally, we are pleased to be able to help the environment by reducing trash and simultaneously help our clients receive payment faster.
Perhaps we are ahead of the technology curve (as usual), but the simple economics of rising postage rates (announcement today of another one penny rate increase in May) and escalating paper costs and the looming recession make the focus on cash flow even more imperative. Our lower cost to use technology to deliver invoices and receive payment makes more sense now than ever.
We have shown companies, e-commerce sites and nonprofit organizations of all sizes, locally and nationwide, many other ways to improve their cash flow using new technologies and reduce the administrative effort and expense.
See the website, http://www.greinvoice.com/ and let us know how we can help you get more green (pun intended!)
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Blog Action Day-Environmental Theme
Tomorrow, October 15th, is Blog Action Day, where blogs can comment on the environmental aspects of what they do.
Simply put, don't mail payments to people or have them mail payments to you! Save the gas, paper, and reduce carbon emissions associated with business as usual for the past 100 years:
- don't create or mail paper invoices-email them with a link on the email to your website to accept online payment
- don't create paper checks: pay electronically by creating an ACH (e-check) and crediting the payee-saves postage, time, effort, gas and waste
- don't make your clients or customers expect that they have to mail you a check-accept payments electronically via e-check or credit card-and you can do that over the phone, e-fax (saves paper over regular fax), by email, or online
- ask your bank and credit card processor to convert you to electronic statements-you get them faster and without wasting the paper for an envelope or a stamp
That's only 4 ways. There are so many more which we can explore creatively and effectively. Ask us. Challenge us. We will find a way to make payments more environmentally-friendly.
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