Chris Schwalbach

Entrepreneur, Father and Financial Strategist

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December 13, 2018

Investors Not Biting? 3 Financial Models for the First 3 Phases of Business Growth (Part 1 of 2: Startups)

Investors Not Biting? 3 Financial Models for the First 3 Phases of Business Growth (Part 1 of 2: Startups)

Entrepreneurs hear over and over again that they need a robust financial model in order to raise capital and get the attention from investors else they risk that an investor would say, “You haven’t thought through”, which is the entrepreneur’s nightmare. Yet, a robust financial model does not necessarily mean a super complex and cumbersome […]

Discussion0 Comments CategoriesUncategorized, Visibility TagsCEO, CFO, early-stage company, entrepreneur, financial modeling, forecasting, growth company, owner, pitch deck, startup Share Subscribe

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December 6, 2018

7 Must-have Items to Get from Your Bookkeeper Each Month, for Early-Stage Startup CEOs or Founders

7 Must-have Items to Get from Your Bookkeeper Each Month, for Early-Stage Startup CEOs or Founders

Your role as CEO, president or founder is critical to your small and growing company—you need to focus on product, customers and strategy. One of the last things you want to do is babysit your bookkeeper. Yet I can share dozens of horror stories born of a lack of accounting oversight in the early stages […]

Discussion0 Comments CategoriesAccounting Systems Share Subscribe

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November 29, 2018

5 Ways to Plug Profitability Leaks, for Service-based or Agency Businesses (Part 4 of 4: Forecasting and Pricing Well)

5 Ways to Plug Profitability Leaks,  for Service-based or Agency Businesses  (Part 4 of 4: Forecasting and Pricing Well)

As a CEO or owner of a growing company, your business feels busy, you seem to be making money and you want to hire more people. But can you? How can you know with 100% confidence whether you can afford to hire another person…or not? How fast do they have to ramp up? What happens […]

Discussion0 Comments CategoriesPerformance Accounting Tagsaccounting system, agencies, bankruptcy, consulting, design firms, estimating, financial analysis, forecasting, high-growth company, hiring decisions, law firms, pricing projects, profitability, profits, project costs, service-based businesses, startup, tracking profits Share Subscribe

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November 21, 2018

5 Ways to Plug Profitability Leaks, for Service-based or Agency Businesses (Part 3 of 4: Billing Efficiently)

5 Ways to Plug Profitability Leaks, for Service-based or Agency Businesses  (Part 3 of 4: Billing Efficiently)

Agency or service-based businesses commonly struggle with leaky profitability. These issues are eminently fixable and don’t need to spell bankruptcy. This article series examines five mistakes I see 95% of agency-type businesses make in their accounting. (Links to other parts in this series are at the end of this article.) You want to be able […]

Discussion0 Comments CategoriesPerformance Accounting Tagsaccounting system, agencies, bankruptcy, billing, consulting, design firms, financial analysis, invoicing, law firms, margins, profitability, profits, reimbursement, service-based businesses, T&E report, time and expense, time and materials, tracking profits Share Subscribe

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November 15, 2018

5 Ways to Plug Profitability Leaks, for Service-based or Agency Businesses (Part 2 of 4: Tracking by Work Type)

5 Ways to Plug Profitability Leaks, for Service-based or Agency Businesses  (Part 2 of 4: Tracking by Work Type)

Is your company’s profitability leaky? Ask yourself this: Can you see exactly how and where to improve it? This series of articles is examining five common mistakes that service-based businesses or agency-type firms make in tracking their profitability — mistakes that limit their ability to see and fix those numbers. (Agencies are companies for which […]

Discussion0 Comments CategoriesPerformance Accounting Tagsaccounting system, agencies, bankruptcy, billing, consulting, design firms, expense reimbursement, financial analysis, good chart of accounts, invoicing, law firms, margins, profitability, profits, reimbursement, service-based businesses, tracking profits Share Subscribe

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November 8, 2018

5 Ways to Plug Profitability Leaks, for Service-based or Agency Businesses (Part 1 of 4: Tracking by Customer/Project)

5 Ways to Plug Profitability Leaks, for Service-based or Agency Businesses  (Part 1 of 4: Tracking by Customer/Project)

I’ve witnessed too many service-based businesses shut down their operations because the owners just could not make ends meet. The most common problem? Little visibility to profitability. I’d estimate that about 90% out of the 20 agency businesses we work with exhibit one or more of the 5 main issues. In this series of articles, […]

Discussion0 Comments CategoriesPerformance Accounting Tagsaccountant, agencies, bankruptcy, bookkeeper, CEO, financial analysis, founder, law firms, LLC, margins, owner, payroll decisions, profitability, profits, project pricing, S Corp, service-based businesses, tracking profits Share Subscribe

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November 1, 2018

When Do I Need a CFO in My Startup?

When Do I Need a CFO in My Startup?

“Do I really need a CFO right now? My company is so small. I’m still figuring out my business. What would a CFO even do for me?” Every week, I hear these questions. Over the past 15 years, I’ve worked with hundreds of early-stage and growth-stage companies, and I’ve held the position of CFO myself. […]

Discussion0 Comments CategoriesVisibility Tagsaccounting, CEO, CFO, early stage startup, financial strategy, financing, founder, fractional CFO, high-growth company, offerings, risk management, small business, startup Share Subscribe

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October 23, 2018

4 Financial Concepts that SaaS CEOs Need to Understand

4 Financial Concepts that SaaS CEOs Need to Understand

SaaS and subscription business models are increasingly more pervasive each day. Benefits and conveniences are high for customers: they subscribe to a cloud-based service that is updated and maintained for them. Netflix or Office 365 are SaaS, as are subscription-based physical services such as BirchBox or Dollar Shave Club. But the accounting and analysis can […]

Discussion0 Comments CategoriesProfitable Growth Tagsaccrual accounting, cash flow, CEO, growth company, performance accounting, profit accounting, profitability, SaaS, scaling, startup, subscription as a service Share Subscribe

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October 11, 2018

8 Components of a Strong Financial Package to Run Your Startup or High-Growth Company

8 Components of a Strong Financial Package to Run Your Startup or High-Growth Company

As Edward Demings, the famous management consultant, once said, “In God we trust. All others bring data.” Getting (and digesting) good data is key to running your company wisely and well. For our new clients, typically high-growth startups, one of the first things we do is to put together a comprehensive financial reporting package. I […]

Discussion0 Comments CategoriesF&A Skills Tagsassets, business analysis, cash flow, CEO, CFO, entrepreneurs, financial practices, financial reporting, growth, management reports, P&L, profit, startup Share Subscribe

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October 3, 2018

I’m a CFO Consultant: Here’s the FinOps Reporting We Use to Run the Company

I’m a CFO Consultant: Here’s the FinOps Reporting We Use to Run the Company

As both a business owner and as a CFO, I’ve worked with dozens of early-stage startup and growth companies. These business owners and entrepreneurs often ask me what I do for my company’s financial and operational reporting. What do I look at? And why do I look at it? Companies vary significantly in their reporting […]

Discussion0 Comments CategoriesFundraising Strategies TagsCFO, customer tracking, entrepreneur, financial reporting, finops, growth company, high growth startup, management reporting, management team, operational information, reports, startup, visibility Share Subscribe

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