Sadly, one of every two startup businesses fails within the first three years. But it’s possible to increase your odds by more than 50%. The number one criterion that separates successful startups from failed startups is this: Understanding the numbers of your business. Think about this. You know what you’re going to sell. You know who your customers will be, and you know how you’re going to market. But are you confident you’re charging enough? What will your startup costs come to? How much cash d... [continue reading]

I met with a new client this week. They are an excavating company that clears, fills, and grades land before a building is built. The managers are all young and know their business very well. They want help establishing the systems and processes that they know they need to grow their business profitably. There is one area in particular about which they knew very little, and that’s financial reporting. I don’t think any of them even knew what an income statement was. But since they understood their bus... [continue reading]

This week I met with three entrepreneurs who Bob and I met through a workshop on business planning that we hosted for SCORE (Service Corp of Retired Executives). All three entrepreneurs are starting or running small businesses. I love working with entrepreneurs and have great respect for their vision, determination and confidence. They told me about their businesses, and I told them how ProjectionSmart could help them understand the numbers of their businesses. ProjectionSmart Startup One of the entr... [continue reading]

This blog is part 1 of the most common financial mistakes that I’ve seen small business make in my 30 years of small business experience. Avoid these big ones and you’ll miss some potentially huge setbacks. Mistake #1: Understand your numbers! Most people start a business because they have a passion for something. They want to meet a need in the marketplace or do some good in the world. They know their product, and they know who their customers are and how to reach them. What’s the one thing they... [continue reading]

One semester I was teaching “Business Plan Development” to a group of students who were considering starting their own businesses. These students wanted to increase their odds of success, so they took the class to learn how to do business planning. To help them understand the numbers of their business, I had them use ProjectionSmart Startup. I told them, “Just enter your raw data into ProjectionSmart. Don’t worry about it for now. Just enter your best guesses and let ProjectionSmart do the analysis... [continue reading]


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Five stars

"As someone with little business experience, ProjectionSmart took the fear out of creating a business plan. It helped make the numbers easy to understand and surprisingly fun!"
~ Elizabeth, entrepreneur

Five stars

"Simple and effective product for creating your financial projections!"
~ Elijah, Entrepreneur

Five stars

"ProjectionSmart is like my crystal ball!"
~ Brent, veteran small business owner

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