Michael Doan

Financial statement disclosures in a public filing should allow an investor to see the company through the “eyes of management”. Dell’s management and the investors were seeing different things:

SEC said [Dell] also failed to disclose to investors large payments it received from Intel Corp. in exchange for not using central processing units made by Intel’s main rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc

This evening I attended an AccessEN event. Kristen Manger, CEO of Webvisible was the guest speaker. Her presentation was about how her company survived 2009, one of the most difficult year for many companies. Not only did her company survive, but it met its operational goals and raised $20 million from venture capitalists in the last quarter of 2009.

During her presentation, she said one thing that really stuck out: even though Webvisible is a privately-held company, she and her team run it like its a publicly-traded company. Not only does the company have their financial statements audited annually by Ernst & Young (Kirsten, if you want more value for your money, call me — who the hell are Ernest & Young anyways? Never heard of them), but they have their financial statements reviewed quarterly.

Kirsten is running her business like she means it. She is putting the right infrastructure and talent in place. There’s no mom and pop mentality.

Many business owners ignore the realities of their business. They spend more time being the technician in their business rather than the CEO — the person with the vision for the company and the person who puts all the pieces together. As Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth, says, business owners spend too much time working in their business instead of on their business.

Business owners are so concerned with product development and sales that they do not pay attention to the infrastructure: accounting, human resources, technology, and building key management.

A business owner that is not intimate with the numbers and whether those numbers are accurate are going to have a tough time attracting investors or convincing a bank to extend it a line of credit or loan.

Business owners who don’t know the difference between EBITDA and net income are in trouble. Those who don’t understand the interplay between the balance sheet, profit and loss statement and the statement of cash flows are in trouble. These business owners simply don’t know their business.

The same goes for human resource issues. Many business fail at correctly classifying their employees between exempt and non-exempt or know the criteria that separates an employee from an independent contractor.

Does this all sound overwhelming? It does because it is. A business owner needs to understand these things, but they don’t have to be an expert in them. Outsource the talent that you don’t have but just understand how it all fits back into your company.

As with all new businesses, money is tight but that doesn’t mean that you can’t buy a little help here and there when you get a chance; buy a little advice at a time just to make sure that you’re on the right track.

My 4 year old son, Christopher, proclaimed his “love” for his classmate Madison during dinner tonight. My wife asked Christopher why he loves Madison.

“She respects me,” said Christopher.

“How does she respect you Christopher?”

“She listens to me.”

In the business world we often hear about communication but all too often we forget that listening is part of communication. How many times have we been interpreted by a coworker as we are trying to share our ideas? Worst yet, how often have we interrupted our customers as they talked?

Listening equals respect. This is childhood wisdom that adults should remember and practice.

Goldman Sachs’s CEO received a $9,000,000 bonus (non-cash)  for holding the investment back together last year. This bonus is significantly less that his $68,000,000 bonus in 2007.

How to sound out of touch:

“It takes a lot of the oxygen out of the argument that Goldman’s top of the house is overpaid,” said Brian Foley, an independent compensation consultant in White Plains. “For running an organization that big, and bringing it through the way he did, nine million is not a lot of money.”

Nine. Million. That’s a lot of money. It may not be worth $9,000,000 when the CEO can sales the stock, but even if it is worth half that, its still more money than most people make.

It is crass to say that $9,000,000 is not a lot of people when people are losing their homes or are struggling to stay in their homes.

$9,000,000. That’s earning $4,326.92 per hour.

Back in 2008 I decided that I would one day start my own CPA firm. By the end of September 2009, I had that opportunity. So, it seems ironic, that after only three short months of running my own firm, I am announcing that I’ve joined McKennon, Wilson & Morgan LLP as their audit partner.

I was recently asked, “why the change in direction?” My response: “it isn’t”. I’ll be responsible for re-establishing the MWM’s audit practice, much like I was doing with Doan + Associates (except that at D+A, I was starting one for the first time). One added advantage I do have now is that I don’t have to build my own infrastructure because there is one already in place, but the existing infrastructure is a minor convenience. The real value here is walking into a firm that has a great tax practice with professionals who care about their clients and a firm that has a well-deserved and well-established reputation for providing excellent client service.

I am on the same trip as before, but now with an upgraded vehicle.

I just finished reading Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk. It was a quick read. If you’ve been following Vaynerchuk’s career then you know his mantra and you’ll soon realize that the book doesn’t offer anything new. But, that’s okay. Vaynerchuk has a good story to tell and valid points about building a brand and its worth having all of his tips and tricks consolidated in one place. Sure, you can find everything Vaynerchuk discusses in the book for free on his website, but as Vaynerchuk points out, we are in the “thank you” economy and buying his book is a way of saying “thank you” for all the years of free, but valuable, content he has pushed out.

I’m going to have a Mexican Pizza from Taco Bell tomorrow to honor this man. Its the best Mexican Pizza (seriously).

Glen W. Bell Jr., whose idea in 1951 to sell crispy-shell tacos from the window of his hamburger stand became the foundation of Taco Bell, the restaurant chain that turned Mexican fare into fast food for millions of Americans, died at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. He was 86.

via Glen W. Bell Jr., 86, Taco Bell Founder, Dies – Obituary (Obit) – NYTimes.com.