Balance Sheet, revenue growth, accounts payable, depreciation….

The mere site of these words can send some into hiding. The truth is that financial intelligence is a vital skill in the business world. Even if you aren’t a ‘number cruncher’, understanding the concepts behind the balance sheet, income statement, and the cash flow will aide you in your career.



In Financial Intelligence: A Managers Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean by Karen Berman and Joe Knight, you are presented an easy to read ‘guide’ to get you feeling comfortable with financial concepts. The authors take the explanations a step further and break down the concepts, providing examples where the numbers come from and some key areas where accounting assumptions and bias may reside.

Karen and Joe own the Business Literacy Institute, a company which coaches and educates employees “to think and act in the best financial interest of your organization”.

After reading this book you will be able to pick up a balance sheet and understand the various subcategories of assets and liabilities, and why they always equal owner’s equity. That esoteric equation: Assets – Liabilities = Owners Equity will finally make sense!

Although this books audience leans towards managers, I found that this book would also be useful to the everyday stock investor who wants to understand the fundamentals of financial concepts. When researching companies to invest in, it’s imperative that you can read and understand all the financial statements to determine whether the company is a worthy investment. This book can be your learning guide if you want to improve those skills; a skill which the average investor lacks.

Check out an excerpt at Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.

Writing a business book is an incredibly effective way of differentiating yourself and improving the fees you command - Mike Schultz, www.RainToday.com

Mike Shultz, publisher for RainToday, an online content site specializing in marketing and selling for professional services firms, provided me with some information regarding those who write business books. The report he conducted, Business Impact of Writing a Book: Data, Analysis, and Lessons from Professional Service Providers Who Have Done It, showed that:

• 74% of authors reported a ‘strong’ or ‘very strong’ influence on publicity and PR for their practice
• 77% of authors reported at least some fee improvement as a result of publishing a book
• 84% of authors reported a ‘strong’ or ‘very strong’ influence on brand improvement
• 100% of authors reported at least some improvement in their ability to differentiate themselves from the
  competition

The full report can be found by clicking here. You will definitely want to check it out if you are considering writing a business book.

Last month I had the opportunity to interview Dave Lakhani. Dave is the author of the top selling book The Art of Persuasion, and President of Bold Approach.

Question#1 In your book you discuss the various techniques that will aid you in persuasion. Besides persona, which obviously is important as you describe in your book ‘it’s the foundation of the house’, what technique would you give the most weight to aid you.

Question#1 Response

Question#2 As you discuss in your book there is a fine line between persuasion and manipulation, what are some key points to keep in mind not to cross that line?

Question#2 Response

Question#3 Being a multipreneur you’ve definitely faced obstacles. What has been one of the toughest lesson you’ve learned in your career so far?

Question#3 Response

Question#4 Your company, Bold Approach, offers many services from PR to marketing to personal coaching. What area of business would you consider your favorite to work with?

Question#4 Response

Question#5 Who were some people you looked up to for inspiration when growing up?

Question#5 Response

Question#6 What are some of your recent favorite reads?

Question#6 Response

Question#7 How much has blogging expanded your ability to deliver your ideas?

Question#7 Response

Charge prices which reflect your value.

The sentence above is simple to understand, right? Why then do so many people face difficult decisions when choosing how to price their product/service? Well, for one, pricing isn’t easy. It’s the one decision that determines whether or not you make money. Organizations like the Professional Pricing Society can help, but you can still feel overwhelmed when making the decisions. Don’t be pigeonholed into thinking there is one ‘perfect’ price out there. If you do, Rafi Mohammed, author of The Art of Pricing: How To Find Hidden Profits To Grow Your Business believes you are leaving profits on the table.

Those who are placed with the responsibility to set prices of a product typically do so in the following basic equation:

(Cost of Supplies + Labor) * Markup % = Selling Price

This equation above has been the truism to pricing. Now let’s plug in some figures. Let’s say for instance we are selling a pitcher (of) lemonade (bear with me). Using the equation above:

Let’s assume we get 10 cups per pitcher:

($4.50 + $1.00) * 40% = $7.70 / 10 cups = $0.77 cents a cup

Our supplies cost us $4.50 per pitcher of lemonade, we are charging a fee of $1 for labor (cheap, I know!) and a markup of 40%. This leaves us selling the pitcher at $7.70, or $0.77 cents a cup. You could go ahead and sell all cups at $0.77 cents, and make your profit. But the key to this is there are hidden profits waiting to be discovered!

Implementing one of his pricing strategies, versioning, we could sell the same pitcher in the following fashion:

Have 3 different size cups. Large, medium, small. In one pitcher you can sell

2 Large @ $2.50 a cup
3 Medium @ $1.50 a cup
5 Small @ $0.77 a cup



With a total profit of: $13.35. That’s a 57% increase! Now this is a remedial problem. Think about if you were selling a more expensive item in higher volume. Rafi will help you discover all the possibilities in your pricing. He touches on subjects such as:

The Value Decoder – Finding the true value of your product and pricing it effectively to maximize your profits

Establishing A Culture of Profit – Empowering employees with information. If employees know which products offer the highest margin, you’re more apt to reap the benefits through profits

Strategies to Optimize Prices – When to rein in prices when you might not feel inclined

What’s important is that the methods discussed in this book can be implemented on Monday morning. It’s time you discover your hidden profits!

If you look on the sidebar to the right, about halfway down the page you will see a new search function called Swicki. If you aren’t familiar with swicki, it is a search function that has the ability to learn from your input. It displays the communities popular search terms in a cloud fashion below the search box. Why is swicki an improvement from other search functions like Google? When you have a niche site, like mine for instance, readers are able to see what others are searching, giving you the ability to track trends and relevant search terms. It’s the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ theory at work. Test it out!

Read the Swicki FAQ here for more info.