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Doing Business – The Right Way (Part 6)

i have a gut feeling about this business – that being May is an excellent time to plan for a vacation 😉

thanks, as always!

» Posted By faux mccoy On February 17, 2011 @ 11:27 pm

Doing Business – The Right Way (Part 5)

the health food store i managed had been in business for 20 years, with the same (very good) bookkeeper for 12. our chart of accounts had been well developed with huge gaps in the numerical sequence to adapt to new ‘categories’. losing that bookkeeper was devastating to me as a manager, but as he left the state, i had to assume it had nothing to do with me personally. (as opposed to the hippies i found smoking dope in the walk in cooler, whose departure had everything to do with me personally). i have major fantasies of writing a farcical handbook called ‘business for hippies’ but we shall see how that goes.

i do some freelance work now as make up artist (not at all hippie like, but i can swing both ways) and am very glad for my previous life as a business manager. at least i already have a giant list of ‘mistakes to not repeat’. i do use quicken to keep track of this business income/expenses and since i am quite small time, it works very well. i used peachtree at the hippie store, which for it’s price point was fabulous, just not remotely ‘user friendly’ …. more like ‘user hostile’.

» Posted By faux mccoy On February 15, 2011 @ 8:42 pm

p.s. – i noted you provided your email – i hope you do not mind an extra-curricular conversation?

» Posted By faux mccoy On February 15, 2011 @ 8:14 pm

wow!!! look, those numbers match on the balance sheet 😉

oh, now let’s have some real fun by explaining the negative asset of depreciation! (i felt like a success when i could do this almost as much as i when could explain baseball’s ‘in field fly rule’)

something that may or may not help in this discussion is explaining how these concepts would apply to the average citizen who might use quicken or the like to track personal finances. the chart of accounts is basically the same as ‘categories’ as used by quicken etc., but it is usually numerically coded in a series which aids the bookkeeper, the accountant and business manager to code each and every transaction to conform to the format of the P&L/Balance sheet.

again, i’m still digging on your articles.

» Posted By faux mccoy On February 15, 2011 @ 8:12 pm

Doing Business – The Right Way (Part 4)

nice article. i was a produce manager and then general manager of a health food coop in california for many years before i became disabled. i was fortunate that my father was a CPA and drilled me on such business specifics since childhood and mentored me throughout my stint as a manager.

the health food industry as you would imagine is largely maintained by liberals/progressives/hippies – what have you. i found that most had no basic understanding of business which was frustrating and i would spend an inordinate amount of time educating not just workers but the 7 person lay board who was in effect my boss.

i loved the work and miss it, but do not miss having to confront deeply held notions such as ‘paying for advertising is evil’… what??? how do you expect to increase sales? i had to argue hard with my board members to spend 1.5% on targeted advertising. i even had one new board member take a look at the monthly reports i prepared including balance sheet/P&L/margin breakdowns by department. he looked it over for a moment, pointed to the balance sheet and exclaimed with incredulity ‘look at this!!! these numbers (assets and liabilities) are exactly the same!’

i shall continue to read your columns because the art of business fascinates me and i love to see liberals who understand and can articulate these concepts.

» Posted By faux mccoy On February 14, 2011 @ 9:51 am

Everything from “Over There” belongs “Here!”

one of the greatest life lessons i learned was in my early 20s by the graciousness of a very wise woman who bothered to teach me about the real meanings of the words ‘humble’ and ‘humility’. the latin root word being ‘humus’ meaning ‘of the earth’… from that point on, it became much easier for me to admit that i was wrong because i never considered being ‘of the earth’ as a bad thing. that was well over 20 years ago and very few days go by which i am not grateful for this ability.

» Posted By faux mccoy On February 13, 2011 @ 3:23 pm

omg – i feel more human already – thank you for the warm welcome

» Posted By faux mccoy On February 13, 2011 @ 2:19 pm

happy sunday to all and sundry. am looking forward to a non HP experience and expect i will find some lost friends here. pleased to be with you all (again).

» Posted By faux mccoy On February 13, 2011 @ 1:55 pm

Sorry to be a Newb…

hate to sound like a noob, but i am having difficulty with adding my avatar – can i buy a clue here?

» Posted By faux mccoy On February 13, 2011 @ 2:06 pm