tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68955041232037088932011-11-27T16:05:29.607-08:00Don't let your career or your company stumble because you're not as savvy about finance as you need to be in today's finance-conscious world. Pick up ideas, concepts, tools to use and pitfalls to avoid, all from Gene Siciliano, nationally known as Your CFO for Rent, in regular postings from his consulting, coaching and speaking experiences. Have a thought to contribute? Readers would like to have those as well, and your feedback is welcomed by Gene.Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.comBlogger261100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-53658381691573424462008-09-29T19:50:00.000-07:002008-09-29T20:13:27.443-07:00

Well, I guess Wall Street showed those foolish folks in Congress who has the power, didn't they? And before that Congress showed those greedy bankers they don't have to rush to their rescue, didn't they? And before that? You can take this pretty far back before you find someone who wasn't being greedy or arrogant or blind. Make no mistake about it - this is a contest to see who really controls

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-22052431286615254852008-09-12T07:17:00.000-07:002008-09-12T07:42:39.762-07:00

This item caught my eye as I was catching up on the news this morning:WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. retail sales unexpectedly fell in August, pushed lower by plunging gasoline prices, according to Commerce Department data released Friday.Huh??? Gas prices down, so retail shopping is down? What are you smoking, dude? If that sentence had read 'sales pushed higher by plunging gas prices' I

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-78885005398645367892008-08-27T19:51:00.000-07:002008-08-27T20:10:00.020-07:00

Josh Kaufman, editor of the website http://www.personalmba.com/ compiled and posted his list of the 77 best business books which would, if they were all read, amount to the equivalent of a personal MBA. His list, which includes my book, can be found at http://personalmba.com/best-business-books/. The list was then mentioned again in an article in BusinessWeek.com -http://www.businessweek.com/

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-1570087887874630862008-08-22T14:52:00.000-07:002008-08-22T15:09:14.445-07:00

I was working with a small spreadsheet that I use to track some personal information today, and I wanted to have access to it from both my home and office PCs. My home machine has Microsoft Office 2007 and the office machine has Microsoft Office 2003. In looking at the two files side by side, I noticed that the 2003 version file took up 621 kilobytes of space, but the 2007 version file took up

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-81898200910659710992008-08-20T20:05:00.000-07:002008-08-20T20:35:14.913-07:00

Well, that's the working title of a new book that a publishing client has asked me to consider writing. The low paid professionals that will be the target market for the book are in the education business (teachers, to be exact) but the need could apply to any number of professionals who are in low paying jobs but stay there because they are passionate about the work. Think: teachers, social

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-85362752108810606442008-08-04T08:04:00.001-07:002008-08-04T08:13:36.911-07:00

If you're active on the web as I am, you probably have dozens of passwords to remember for all the controlled sites you visit. I have nearly a hundred so far. If you keep them all in your head, you're clearly smarter than I am, and if you've got them written down on a piece of paper somewhere, you're clearly not.My solution is RoboForm, a password manager that is itself password controlled, but

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-19456257227993617312008-07-31T13:10:00.000-07:002008-07-31T13:34:26.246-07:00

A Wall Street Journal reporter wrote a piece on hedge funds looking to find bargains in beaten down bank stocks. At one point he wrote this paragraph about the hedge fund investors: "Since it is harder for investors to borrow money at reasonable rates, they won't be eager to be buyers unless prices are marked down further. That all suggests troubles in the financial market will get worse before

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-67264403373193508112008-07-28T20:16:00.000-07:002008-07-28T20:24:27.276-07:00

Compliments of a friend, some thoughts for you to consider in a quiet moment, or not:1. Borrow money from pessimists. They don't expect it back.2. 82.7% of statistics are made up on the spot. No, wait, that's 87.2%.3. The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.4. A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.OK, enough of that for now - until the next time i

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-45880648184127213322008-07-10T21:33:00.000-07:002008-07-08T21:48:00.867-07:00

The Wall Street Journal reported in Managing: Theory & Practice (July 7, 2008, p. B6) on the success of one company in providing flexible compensation choices to its employees. The byline called it a “throwback to (the) ‘80s.” In an era of scarcity for high quality workers – despite the unemployment numbers you read – why would such an idea be so out of favor? While the article focused on one

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-88901092398295276072008-07-06T06:02:00.000-07:002008-07-08T13:33:39.888-07:00

First, this post is not about the banking industry, or the securities industry (regardless of the terrible market performance lately), or the mortgage banking industry, or even the much maligned morgage brokers.It's about the airline industry.An industry strategist was quoted recently as saying "many airline business models cease to work at $135-a-barrel oil prices." I guess they're not in much

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-8307164236185021152008-06-18T20:21:00.000-07:002008-07-08T13:49:11.490-07:00

Launching a new product is for some like birthing a baby. For others it’s more like cooking a bird you’ve never prepared before. Something can and probably will go wrong. The question is how easy will it be to fix it. But let’s suppose your new product turns out to be a real turkey, and you have a warehouse full of half-cooked birds that aren’t going to sell at anywhere near list price. What do

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-74143168899974623482008-06-16T08:00:00.000-07:002008-07-25T09:59:20.171-07:00

OK, maybe those weren’t words from an independent source exactly. But my book is still a best seller for good reason. Finance for Non-Financial Managers, published by McGraw-Hill, is truly finance in plain English for those who are averse to learning about finance and accounting reports and all that stuff. It’s used in classrooms and corporate offices, by big company executives and startup

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-87999913522103096862008-06-14T01:07:00.000-07:002008-07-25T10:03:31.244-07:00

The Wall Street Journal carried an article this week discussing web spending tools, that is to say software that helps businesses control costs by telling them where they’re spending their money. It’s called procurement software and it sells for big bucks to big companies. Most companies are not big companies, and most of them can get the same results by learning how to read their own financial

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-63187974243356999222008-06-05T09:00:00.000-07:002008-06-05T09:00:02.772-07:00

Good workers are hard to find, many CEOs report. Despite an economy that some feel is in recession – don’t you believe that part – unemployment statistics across the country are just shy of levels traditionally thought of by economists as full employment. That means you work harder to hire good people and then you have to keep working to keep them, because someone across town is willing to pay

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-2343863096140994502008-06-03T09:30:00.000-07:002008-06-04T06:12:27.417-07:00

With the current shortage of good accounting staff now approaching epidemic proportions, companies are looking to recent graduates for talent that is both current on technology tools and still affordable. But there’s a big caveat to that strategy, ably demonstrated by a recent Robert Half International survey published in CFO Magazine. They surveyed these “millennials” to find out what they most

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-14954137976142165012008-05-31T07:58:00.000-07:002008-05-31T08:55:34.212-07:00

I was reading an interview with the WorldCom whistle blower, once the vice president in charge of internal audit at WorldCom. She made a comment that every CEO whose company has an internal audit function should read. She said having that function report to the CFO, a common situation because of the kind of work internal auditors do, is an inherent conflict of interest for the CFO. The conflict

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-10391327739395486932008-05-26T09:32:00.000-07:002008-05-28T06:41:46.037-07:00

I'm teaching finance for non-financial managers to the management team of a company whose CEO believed they didn't have enough appreciation for the financial side of their business. It's a command performance, in effect, as all managers are required to attend.You'd expect a "show me" attitude, wouldn't you? Glum faces, resistance to participation, and doing only what is required. Well, you'd be

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-64375967281058755562008-05-14T18:25:00.000-07:002008-05-22T08:18:32.671-07:00

In my just released eBook, Finance for Administrative Assistants, I provide a basic overview of finance for administrators and non-management professionals who want to broaden their understanding of financial documents and how to interact with the finance department. NO technical jargon! Guaranteed!This eBook is ideal for administrative assistants and other support personnel whose jobs require

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-60121365878098880962008-05-13T08:00:00.000-07:002008-05-13T08:00:05.890-07:00

I am not an expert in real estate investing. So I pay attention to those who are when making my investment decisions. The best expert I know on California real estate is The Norris Group, a Riverside-based real estate training, consulting and publishing firm (http://www.thenorrisgroup.com/). Their predictions of real estate trends and expectations have generally been very accurate from what I

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-63120616917207176892008-05-10T11:21:00.000-07:002008-05-10T11:46:14.424-07:00

When you decide to improve how your business runs, that means you have to make changes. Change is traumatic, scary, unsettling, uncomfortable, etc. Whatever words you want to put on it, your employees will double it in their minds, and likely resist the discomfort as long as possible. In fact, they'll resist it indefinitely unless the CEO make a clear statement of active support for the change.

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-37163368202396268192008-05-04T16:22:00.000-07:002008-05-04T20:40:01.279-07:00

You can't open a newspaper or turn on the TV these days without reading what some reporter, pundit or politician thinks about the health of the economy. Are we going into a deep recession? Is the consumer going to hibernate and sink the economy? Will more bank failures cause the collapse of the entire banking system?So it was interesting to read what nearly 600 CFOs across the globe told Duke

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-22505573670959616462008-04-30T15:55:00.000-07:002008-05-04T15:56:11.974-07:00

This item appeared in the local newspaper about a wonderful not-for-profit organization on whose board I'm privileged to serve. I want to share it with those of you who appreciate the value that volunteer organizations in this country provide to those in need. The Exceptional Children's Foundation (ECF) is tapping into the time, talent and energy of local up-and-coming young professionals through

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-69311590173889605182008-04-27T07:51:00.000-07:002008-05-16T14:53:18.216-07:00

I forgot to mention earlier that I presented my first webinar a few weeks ago, a content-rich 50 minutes for over 700 of our not-for-profit readers who are involved with forecasting the revenues of a service agency. I covered a host of dos and don'ts, opportunities to take advantage of and pitfalls to avoid, with some Q&A at the end. Also answered a bunch of questions from registered listeners

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-43572219457552585502008-04-24T18:20:00.000-07:002008-04-27T08:54:32.981-07:00

I got a call from one of my clients today, a company that recently hired on a trial basis a new accountant. While not fully qualified as a staff accountant, the young recruit is bright, reasonably experienced and very motivated to do the job well and give the client what they want. At the same time, he is an aggressive negotiator for himself: more money, better title, sooner rather than later,

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-52796658227019139602008-04-21T23:32:00.000-07:002008-04-25T18:01:33.368-07:00

I had lunch today with the PEO area rep to whom I had just referred a new client. For those unfamiliar with the term, PEO is Professional Employer Organization, the current term for the practice of employee leasing in which a provider pools the employees of many typically small client organizations to achieve the critical mass needed to command lower insurance rates, better benefits, robust

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6895504123203708893.post-48899415955080037212008-04-17T20:36:00.000-07:002008-04-27T09:11:51.531-07:00

Congratulations! You’ve had your first entrepreneurial success. You started a business, built it up, and sold it. Even better, you’ve successfully converted your proceeds (or a healthy part of it at least) into cash.Now what?You could retire to the golf links or the tennis courts or whatever you used to do for fun (and now could do again). But you didn’t make that much money, or you’d like to

Gene Sicilianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00256616393772850869noreply@blogger.com0