Every small business has a limiting factor. It could be leads, cash flow, capacity, almost anything.
The Small Business Doctor diagnoses and develops a treatment plan for your bottleneck.
From business plan analysis to routine small business checkups to strategy sessions,
the Small Business Doctor provides the full-suite of strategic fractional CFO services.
There are 2 types of cash flow that help a financial manager assess the financial condition of a small business. The first is operating cash flow, and the second is free cash flow.
Operating cash flow is earnings before interest plus depreciation minus taxes. You can find this directly on a small business’s cash flow statement as “cash flow from operations.”
Finance professionals will talk a lot about EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) as a proxy for operating cash flow. However, EBITDA is not the same as operating cash flow, and the differences between the two are magnified for small businesses as compared to large corporations.
If operating cash flow is negative for long, the small business will be in big trouble. According to SCORE and my own experience, cash flow is easily the number one killer of a small business.
Free cash flow is the total cash flow of the firm. This cash flow includes adjustments to operating cash flow for capital expenditures on long-term assets and any changes in net working capital. This is the cash available to a small business’s owners and creditors.
Over the years, I have happily and confidentially advised a wide range of clients from a plumber near Pittsburgh to a robotics startup to a multi-state pediatrics practice. I am always your primary point of contact and hold myself accountable for your success.
The initial consultation is always free. My billing goal is to always provide clients with a high return on investment when working with me irrespective of their budget.
I am not a salesman. I will only take on a client when I can provide genuine value for them. Reach out if you need expert advice, assistance or have a question.
Hi there! I'm Matt. I'm a Christian, husband and father of four. I'm a graduate of Calvin, Harvard, Cardiff and Johns Hopkins Universities. I have a PhD in Economics, an MBA in Finance and an MS in Data Analytics. I'm a numbers guy who can communicate well!
I began this service to work directly with the small and mid-sized business owners who grow our great country's economy. Since 1999, I've worked with owners across industries from high tech IT and robotics to small farmers and artists. I've also helped and advised nonprofits from churches to civic organizations.
I also served as a Finance Staff Officer and eventually as the National Division Chief for Measurement Research within the US Coast Guard. The research and methods I created there continue to guide strategic decisions to this day.
I enjoy being active outdoors, especially in wild lands. Hiking, biking and fly fishing are some of my favorite pastimes.
I also love dogs! I'm an AKC obedience evaluator, and I train service and therapy dogs.
Companies need to keep some amount of inventory. When I go to a home repair supplier, I expect them to have the copper pipe I need in stock. When I go to my local bakery, I expect them to have the macarons I crave in stock. When I go to my local grocer, I expect […]
Our culture values specialization. Having specialized skills often leads to outsized material benefits. It also often results in praise and social status. Consider the social recognition that would be given to a medical doctor who is a primary care family medicine doctor compared to that given to an orthopedic surgeon. They are both highly educated, […]
What Are Transaction Costs? Transaction costs are often overlooked in economics and textbook finance. In real life economics, however, they play a very significant role. In corporate finance, you can see many of a company’s transaction costs located in the selling and administrative categories within the Selling, General and Administrative (SG&A) section of their Income […]
During the Great Depression, British economist Ronald Coase wrote a famous essay on the nature of the firm or company. As with America at the time, many free-market economies were also enduring a severe and difficult economic depression. The Soviet Union, however, was growing to become a significant industrial economy. This led to a debate […]
Selling, General or Administrative Expenses One way to see how economic transaction costs are internalized within a company is in the SG&A Expense lines of a company’s income statement. All of the selling and administrative expenses are internalized transaction costs, and so is the insurance expense within the general expenses category. This is not the […]
What Is the Balance Sheet? The Balance Sheet is one of the primary financial statements used in accounting. The Balance Sheet shows a snapshot of a business’s financial position at a point in time. There are two sections: Assets and Liabilities & Equity. Not only does the Balance Sheet show individual and composite account balances, […]
What Is the Statement of Comprehensive Income? The Statement of Comprehensive Income is a financial statement for items that are not included within Net Income from the Income Statement but nevertheless do affect the equity section of the Balance Sheet. The Statement of Comprehensive Income shows total comprehensive income. The Statement of Comprehensive Income includes […]
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