Even in America, not all customers are created equal. If you apply the “Pareto Principle” to your sales department, you’re likely to make two discoveries: 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers and 80% of your sales are generated by 20% of your sales team. The ratio varies by industry, and for some companies,...

As you scramble to get up-to-date on changes to the federal tax rules under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, there also will be major changes to U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Here’s an overview of the major accounting rules that will change over the next few years. These changes are likely to require updates...

It’s important for employees to make the connection between their duties and your company’s big financial picture. Here are a couple of ways to help ensure that your staff members make that critical connection: Ask each employee to write his or her own job description to explain how that employee makes money for the firm. Supervisors...

E-mail is ubiquitous in the American workplace and along with its growth comes the risk of lawsuits that can cost your company a bundle. In most cases an employer is held responsible for information contained in corporate e-mail messages. That means a company must take steps to ensure that e-mail communications don’t pose a legal risk....

From time to time, nearly every business experiences cash shortfalls due to the timing of cash payments vs. receipts. Why do shortfalls happen? It all goes back to the cash conversion cycle. Most businesses pay workers on a weekly or biweekly basis. They also try to pay suppliers and vendors in accordance with the negotiated payment terms...

When companies depend on mandatory overtime, they must try to minimize the stress and disruptions it causes in their workers’ lives. Studies show that as overtime is extended, productivity can drop anywhere from 10 percent to 50 percent. So regular overtime can become very expensive when you add in the costs of redoing work and the...