With 2012 just around the corner, here are my most popular blog posts, based on number of unique views, in 2011. Please note that the year of original publishing is listed in parentheses after the title.
1. 3 Reasons Your QuickBooks Statement of Cash Flows is Wrong (2009): It's clear that plenty of folks are trying to figure out why their statement of cash flows is wrong. Every business owner should be looking at this report on their business' financial performance every month, along with the balance sheet and profit & loss statement. This article gives some tips to make sure
2. The Key Business Metrics Every Entrepreneur Must Know (2009): Moving up from the fourth most popular post last year, entrepreneurs are starving for better data, information, and knowledge about their business performance to gain strategic competitive advantages.
3. Please Define Business Model (2010): Jumping from number 11 last year, I wrote this post as a follow-up to an experiment I conducted in a class full of college business majors. I was shocked when they failed miserably to clearly and concisely answer the question.
4. Crisis Management--Lessons Learned from my 2-year-old (2011): Tackle the issue head-on with the truth. There is just no better way to address the situation so that it will not come up again. Be comprehensive, honest, and diplomatic. It worked with my two-year-old, and she's the toughest sell I've had!
5. Top 11 2011 Trends for Entrepreneurs (2010): I did really well on some of my predictions (struggling economy) and not so well on others. Still, some of my predictions may take several more years to develop. Either way, it was a fun article to write and I cite great sources on each trend listed.
6. 4 Signs Your Business Partnership Will Fail (2010): Dropping from the top spot in 2011, I am still on a mission to communicate the principles outlined in this blog post. I see these mistakes being made all the time, yet they are avoidable with a little
7. What is Your Definition of Success? (2010): Success is relative, a matter of one's perspective within the context of where they have been and what they are trying to accomplish. No matter what your definition, the reflective question mentioned in this article will help you determine if you're on the right path.
8. Why Accountants Make Horrible Business Leaders (2011): The only thing more fun than authoring this post was all the flack I caught from accountants who failed to read past the title. I'm not just picking on accountants, but identifying attributes and skills of great leaders from which we all can learn. I don't know if the concerned
9. Staffing Accounting/Finance Department from Start-up to Medium-Sized Company(2009): So many business owners struggle to understand what they really need from the
10. I Do and I Understand (2010): Slipped from number 9 last year, the title of this post is actually a quote from Confucius. Experience is an effective teacher, and is often required to successfully navigate the treacherous waters of entrepreneurship.
11. What's a Cap Table and Why Should I Care? (2011): During an entrepreneurial finance lecture at a University, I walked a class through several rounds of equity financing, emphasizing each round's impact on a company's capitalization table, or the structure of its equity. I even included a snapshot of the grid I created on the white-board, with pre and post-money valuations included among many other things.
I hope you enjoy visiting, or revisiting, some of these articles and wish you all the best in the new year!