Controllers On Call

12/15/2022

"My director of finance just handed in his / hers resignation and will stay on for two weeks only"….YAKS…

Rember that It is an employee market right now, how do I make my company more attractive to my current employees so that they stay for the long term? This is a question many decision makers and HR professionals always ask themselves.

In case you thought about it, just know it’s a common theme which has a very common solution. To put it briefly, it’s all in the employee relations and how you manage them.

Let’s dive more into the subject. What does it mean to create and sustain healthy employee relations?

➼ Show Respect

Show that you treat your employees with respect. It’s important for people to know they are valued beyond the job description and to feel that they are important for the company. Empower them and make them feel like they’re part of a bigger picture, listen to they have to say, when they suggest let know that “it’s a great idea which will lead to your team feeling more empowered and motivated.

➼ Be Transparent

According to Glassdoor, increased transparency creates trust between employers and employees, improves morale, lowers job-related stress, and contribute to employees happiness and overall performance. Even more, when people know what they get into, they are more likely to respond.

➼ Be Communicative

What makes employees consider to stay with your company is the way you act in a conversation. When you are responsive and communicative, they tend to approach more topics in more depth. The best-performing employees tend to seek companies that encourage efficient and constant communication.

➼ Build a Brand

Make sure your company stands for something, it has a set of values and a mission. In time, this will lead to likeminded employees. People associate with brands they believe in.

➼ Competitive Pay and Benefits

Even though the benefits a company offers are not everything when it comes to a job, they play an important role when people make an important move. Benefits and salary packages should at least meet the industry standards, though for extra results, you could also look more into the perks that might be attractive for your target.

As Lawrence Bossidy said “I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day, you bet on people, not on strategies”, employees are the one resource you should always focus on.

Besides taking into consideration these five pillars, you can start looking for aspects that might make your company stand out from the crowd.

Think about what you do so that your current employees will stay with your company for a long term.





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11/29/2022

WW3??

We just marked 104 years since WW1 (a.k.a. the First World
War, the Great War, the War To End All Wars) the war that was to end all wars. However, as we are looking back from where we are today, what can we really conclude? How much of that war is still dictating our lives today? How much of our world has changed from the war that was to end all wars?

> First, let us remember that WW 1 was the catalyst that started WW 2. After the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had to pay the equivalent of $300 Billion dollars in today’s prices to the victors of the war. Hi**er used this, as a motivator for the German people that felt humiliated and abused after the surrender to the allies. This made it much easier to rally the German people into “patriotic nationalism” that brought Hi**er eventually into power.

> Second, the Turkish Empire that was in control of the Middle East since early 1500s and until their surrender to the British forces in 1918 has disappeared. The area that was Syria, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt all became British Mandates/ areas of British/French influence.

> Third, after WW 1, the European victors in their arrogance, decided to divide the Middle East without considering religious, cultural, or historical differences. (E.g. creating countries like Lebanon made of Shiites, Sunnis, Druze, Christians that have nothing to hold them together, or Iraq made of Shiites and Sunnis and other sectors) as well as creating other issues that are at the core of world tensions ever since 1918.

> Fourth, after the Tsar of Russia joined WW1 and had mismanaged the Russian army into some devastating loses in 1915 and beyond, the disquiet of the Russian people, due to the war and food shortages in Russia made it fertile ground for Lenin to return from exile and lead the Bolshevik revolution. Thus, making the USSR a world power and a major player in world history

We claim that WW1 ended 100 years ago, yet too many wars to count that took place from WW1 in many parts of the world including some that are sill on going.

I would hazard to say that it is not over since we are still dealing with its outcome every day. The sad thing is – it is 2022 and we are witnessing the war between Russian and Ukraine. We have learned nothing …….do you think we are headed towards WWIII?

11/22/2022

Consulting? Coaching?

Consulting and coaching is often misunderstood, many a times I see how CEO, COO and Presidents of start-up companies need to make a decision that they do not have the know-how, experience, skill, or understanding to make.

They know they need coaching, they know they need to make a decision, but they are unable to make a decision. They would call you to an initial meeting, they will tell you what they want, and they will ask for a proposal for your services, they will get a proposal as requested and then see that you actually want to be paid for your services "Surprise, surprise".

At that point, a reasonable expectation would be for a reply that either says, "Thank you for your kind proposal, but we are going with someone else", or maybe even a counter offer. However, they are scared/busy/forgot/don't know how to call or write you back. They do not have the basic etiquette and understanding that after you took your time to meet with them; that you had expenses like travel, parking and others; that they owe you a reply; they lack the simple understanding that this is part of running a business.

Etiquettes are a minimum and basic codes of behaviour that differentiate us as modern society from the Neanderthal society, they include certain mannerism and behaviours, such as answering a proposal even if it means a negative answer. If you as a businessperson do not keep your word, do not take the time to reply respectfully to clients/service providers/, I can guarantee you that your days are numbered as a successful business.

Coaching is in part exactly that, adding value to you as an executive and to your company through betterment of your behaviour patterns, knowing how to do what and when. Much of the daily stress on executives is due to lack of understanding on how to act or behave in certain situations. This lack of knowing creates a lot of pressure on people. Take a situation when you have to fire a person working for you, what do you say to a person that you are about to let go, knowing he has a family, responsibilities, mortgage, car payments? The stress on the person doing the firing is in many occasions bigger than the person fired.

Coaching and consulting of executives, helps the executives to better understand their role in the company, helps executives become better leaders, better decision makers. It helps executives have more stress free time to run the company better, and reach their goals and objectives easier. By the way, you will find you also become a better spouse, parent and friend outside the office.

08/19/2022

Is it the time to day goodbye to your job and starting your business?

➼Have you sat down to do the calculations of how much money you need to get you going and starting?

➼Money is an amazing tool, it will start you by giving you the initial get up and go financing that you will need to start up your business such as: hiring people, buying raw materials, perhaps renting a place of business, maybe a car for the business, furniture, machinery, training ......etc..

➼Money has another benefit that gives entrepreneurs an amazing advantage; money is a measuring device, and a very good one, because it helps you measure not only your business venture, but also relative to others, to the economy, tells you how you are doing with inflation, are you paying too much service fees, are you getting better in your business compared to other times and seasons, it gives you the ability to have real picture of your business.

➼So, first work out how much you will need, when you determine how much money is needed to start (or expand) your business, you can decide whether to move ahead.

➼Remember that new business takes some time to start making money so do not be discouraged in case a year or two are not making a profit.... do look for the why and the when?

➼Make sure you have the resources to carry you thru such difficult time. Maybe you will need to give up the idea altogether for the time being which is ok.

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06/08/2022

Am I the only person in the world that thinks that if humanity was to spend $1.89 Trillion dollars in one year on Medical R&D we will resolve all sickness, disease, and medical issues such as Cancer, Cardio and even the FLU within a very short time?

➼ It's the weekend and we keep seeing these touching commercials that ask us to donate money to the different medical emergencies around the world, St. Jude Hospital, Sick Kids Hospital etc. So, in one of my crazy ideas, I decided I shall do a bit of research on Public AND Government spending on two things, Money spent on "MEDICAL RESEARCH" in 2020 and money spent on "ARMNAMENT" at the same time.

➼ Global spending on weapons reached record levels last year despite the PANDEMIC. Research carried out by the think-tank The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) shows that the amount spent on defence globally went up to $1.83 trillion (£1.29 trillion) a rise of almost four per cent in real terms over 2019.

➼ The US continues to have the world’s largest defence budget, with $738 billion (£522.32 billion), the UK, with $61.58 billion (£43.58 billion) is the second highest, while Russia is now third on $60.64 billion (£42.92 billion). Asian states had a 17.8 per cent share of the international weapons spending in 2010. This has risen to 25 per cent by 2020. The main driver for this was China, whose 2020 budget of $12 billion (£8.49 billion), was greater than the combined defence budget increases in all other countries in the continent.
➼ And now for something completely different as John Cleese would say......
➼ Published by Conor Stewart, Sep 22, 2020. This statistic shows the amount spent worldwide on research and development in medical technology .....

How much money is spent on medical research worldwide?

➼ In 2017, some 28.6 billion U.S. dollars were spent on R&D in total med-tech worldwide - estimated for 2020 is 32 billion.

➼ Medical technology is used for diagnosis, monitoring, or treatment of diseases or medical conditions.

➼ And so I am hopeful that all of us think the same way - we will resolve all sickness, disease, and medical issues such as Cancer, Cardio and even the FLU within a very short time to come.

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05/31/2022

Is liquidity the ease or difficulty of converting assets to money?

➼You heard the term "Cash Is King", this makes money the yardstick/benchmark for liquidity. Money has perfect liquidity it is basically a 1:1 ratio. Money is the medium of exchange for the economy; money can be used to purchase or acquire any commodity, any good or service, available. (Assuming no other powers are involved such as politics/war/and other unforeseeable forces).

➼"As a general rule financial assets tend to have greater liquidity than physical assets. Financial assets, including bank accounts, stock certificates, government securities, and other legal claims, tend to be relatively liquid. This results, in part, because most have active, established markets and transaction cost is low relative to the value of the asset. "

➼In other words, you can withdraw $500 of cash from your savings account at the ATM machine with no effort or expense; sell a stock or an old artwork for cash relatively easy online.

➼"Physical assets, including real estate, housing, durable consumer goods, and capital equipment, tend to have relatively less liquidity. Markets that exist for these goods are usually less active and transaction cost tends to be greater. Because physical assets are often more specialized, better suited for some uses than others, finding the specific buyer wanting the asset and willing to pay the "going market price" is more challenging."

➼Accounting liquidity measures the ease with which an individual or company can meet their financial obligations with the liquid assets available to them—the ability to pay off debts as they come due.

➼In the example above of the old artwork that we can assume at $2000 value, the assets are relatively illiquid as the market for old artwork now is a little slow and would probably not be worth its full value of $2,000 today, tomorrow on the other hand it may yield $5,000.

So, when it comes to selling or disposing of your assets regardless of what they are, always ask yourself Can I do without it? Do I really need this? Do I really want this? Do I really have to do this?

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05/25/2022

Are we heading into years of low-quality products like cars, food, or even services?

➼ Nowadays with the end/no-end of the pandemic we are faced with "INFORMATION" issues, we are being fed with information, half truths, misleading information; we are told about food shortages, car shortages, labour shortages and are witnessing the baby formula shortage.

➼ This leads me to reconsider one of important things in economics... the question of adverse selection... this question arises when the lack of information limits the quality of goods exchanged.

➼ The presence of imperfect information can discourage both buyers and sellers from participating in the market. Buyers may become reluctant to participate because they cannot determine the quality of a product. Sellers of high-quality or medium-quality goods may be reluctant to participate because it is difficult to demonstrate the quality of their goods to buyers—and since buyers cannot determine which goods have higher quality, they are likely to be unwilling to pay a higher price for such goods.

➼ Imagine a situation where a used car dealer has a lot full of used cars that do not seem to be selling, and so the dealer decides to cut the prices of the cars to sell a greater quantity. In a market with imperfect information, many buyers may assume that the lower price implies low-quality cars. As a result, the lower price may not attract more customers. Conversely, a dealer who raises prices may find that customers assume that the higher price means that cars are of higher quality; because of raising prices, the dealer might sell more cars. Sounds familiar?

➼ With the shortage of baby, people are starting to be afraid that the situation will force lower quality baby food to be imported to the USA due to the panic among young mothers. Will other products / services follow suit?

Are we going towards a "market for lemons": which is a market in which only low quality products ("lemons") are offered for sale?

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05/16/2022

Is it time to switch from your to do list to timeboxing?
So what is timeboxing?

➼The purpose of timeboxing is to ensure that you use your time productively. To use this technique, you assign a specific deadline to each task. This is known as a timebox and the choice between a to-do list and timeboxing may be the most important decision I made about work productivity – and perhaps my sanity. The principle has its origins in software development and is used by several famous people, including Elon Musk and Bill Gates, to work more efficiently.

➼It is a very simple and popular time management technique that helped me take better control over my daily schedule. I get to set a fixed amount of time in my calendar for a particular task. It’s like scheduling a meeting in my calendar. I select the day, start, and finish hours, define my desired outcome, and reserve time my calendar. when it's finished, I analyze my progress and move on to the next one. It’s also a very helpful technique for practicing self-discipline and organizing a schedule in a way that my most important tasks come first, instead of working on the task until it’s done, I can proactively decide how much time I will dedicate on it and when (and even where).

➼Timeboxing isn’t a strategy to get all your work done faster—it’s just an effective way to break down, re-think tasks and get my day organized. It certainly replaced my things to do list. With planning came a more strategic approach, rather than just reacting to the urgency of the moment. Things are now scheduled, daily, weekly, monthly where before some to do’s would be at the bottom of my to-do list, losing out to more important things. What a stress reliever!

Timeboxing certainly offers many benefits. Are you ready to make this most important decision about your work productivity – and perhaps our sanity?

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05/10/2022

➼Ecommerce and online business, shopping and buying has been growing fast before the COVID-19 pandemic pushed even more U.S. consumers online, due to lack of other ways to shop, or just for better opportunities. ➼In 2020 and beginning of 2021 many businesses pushed hard to put their businesses o...

05/06/2022

We got hit with an interest rate hike of .5% with more to come…

➼The "COST OF MONEY" or as it is called by our daily radio, newspapers, TV, and the occasional expert appearing on the Bloomberg channel... Interest rates are the blood line, the oxygen and life for our personal and business life. For a business without borrowed cash we will not be able to buy raw materials, pay salaries, pay bills, pay rent...etc. etc. etc. we borrow money, use it to produce our products, and we pay the going rates for borrowed money... this is also why we must calculate interest rates into our costs calculations, so we don't lose money on our transactions and production.

➼When we invest money into our bank account today, we get paid piddly interest by the bank that is using our money to lend it to others for a double or triple rate. Think of our credit card as an example – today, prior to the interest rate increase we are charged anywhere from 19% to 22% interest rates which are a very useful tool to control the economy; we can control raging out of control prices in real estate for example by raising interest rates on mortgages... Besides mortgages, rising interest rates impact the stock and bond markets, personal loans, student loans, auto loans and business loans. Can you think of others which may affect your monthly cash balance?

➼The logic is simple enough, it's all about alternatives, when the interest rates in the markets are high, it makes the stock exchange with its volatility and unpredictability less attractive – that’s the main reason the stock market took 1,000 points dive yesterday, scary, you may investigate other investments that are less volatile with a peace of mind. “Many times, the stock and bond markets react in an unexpected way during rising interest rates,” says Brian Stivers, president and founder of Stivers Financial Services in Knoxville, Tenn. “That means stock prices could go up when historically they have gone down. So, as in all types of markets, diversification is the key.”

➼Now keep in mind that a creative National Bank of Canada interest policy can be worked and adjusted according to many situations such as pandemic, inflation, war, or out of proportions investments by foreign interests!!!

➼What are your thoughts on the latest National Bank of Canada interest hike, which is predicted to be the 1st of others to come?

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05/02/2022

Do you challenge yourself with these questions: Do I have a career which I love? Do I really know “what do I really want to be when I grow up”?

Great questions to ask yourself. Ask further “who is responsible for my career moves and planning”? Do I have what it takes? Do I have the qualifications needed? In case not, am I working on getting the qualifications and experience needed? Take the time to find out who you are, what you want, what are your strengths, your weaknesses, limitations, and don’t sugar coat any of your answers.

Now that you believe that this is what you want to be when you grow up answer, further ask yourself: how will I manage to get there? What do I need to get there? Remember that there is school, classes, workshops, government programs that are all there available at your service, just do it. Be aggressive about it, don't take no for an answer, self growth and improvement is the key to your success, so never stop learning! Find mentor/s or a coach/s read their work, see how they operate ask questions, learn. Check, recheck, analyse, make sure you cover everything well, better to go over things 10 times and do it right once than to make errors that cost time, money, and disappointment.

Remember no one is out there to look after your career, make sure you do it, there is no one else which will pick up your career moves for you. Life is a process and so is your career. It will always be an ongoing process. Your career will most likely grow, change, diverse, take different directions, so be on top of changes in the situation, personal, and otherwise. Your career is a growth process, things change, situations change, politics change, so be on top of all these changes, it will be to your advantage.

The wise tell us that we love what we do we will never work a day in our life, we will have lots of fun doing it!

04/25/2022

Have you done a check up recently of where your current finances are and how they would look like in the future?

Sometimes, especially after a specific event or a trauma we need to stop, think, and do a recount of the situation... come to think of it, no need to wait for a trauma to be doing a recount of where we are at any particular time... here are a few pointers to help us ..These are true before we start a business and true during the life time of the business... it may be wise to ask for help from trusted people with regards to some of the questions:
• What are my short term and long-term goals?
• What are my personal strengths/effectiveness?
• What are my personal limitations/shortcomings?
• What are my abilities?
• What are the things I’m good at and enjoy doing?
• What are the things that are important to me and my family?
• What are my commitments?
•
These periodical check-ups can be very useful in understanding your business situation and the situation in general and may be the thing that will save your business one day and make you a success on the personal level.

For instance:

With our present situation with the inflation running wild Bank of Canada raises interest rate by 0.5%... in case you do not do a quick checkup you may miss the fact that your monthly commitments went up by $$$ to cover your personal mortgage in case you have one, or pay your line of credit at the bank.....

Lucky I paid attention...

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