Best Gifts for Your Clients
B2B CFO partner Wendy Nelson shares tips about gifts that may be tax-deductible. SOURCE: Inc.com DATE: 12/06/2011 HEADLINE: To Gift or Not to Gift? Are you trying to play Santa on an elf’s cash-flow? Make your client gifts stand out this holiday season, regardless of budget. With the economy still in recovery, many small business owners are trying to decide whether they should give gifts to clients, what they should buy, and when they should send the gift so it stands out above the rest. Sometimes a simple, yet personalized, card is an appropriate solution to your budget woes. If you have a little more money to spend there is always the standard gift basket. But is “standard” really good enough for your best customers? “When choosing a holiday gift for clients, it is important to be thoughtful,” says Laurence Briggs, president and CEO of Republic of Texas Company Store. “When customers use our corporate gifting concierge service to add personalized touches to gifts, we always ask them to give us more information about their client. What holiday do they celebrate? What are their hobbies and interests? What is their industry?” Briggs reminds us that it is important to show your clients that you care by paying attention to the details. “You would be surprised to learn how many people who celebrate Hanukkah receive Christmas cards from their clients,” he says. That’s certainly not a good way to demonstrate your attention of detail and appreciation of a client. But not everyone can afford a corporate gifting concierge and high-end gifts. If you don’t have a budget for holiday gifts,...
Jerry Mills: Breakthrough CFO Model
The company’s upcoming 25th anniversary and a recent string of awards are solid validation of the pioneering concept on which Jerry Mills, founder and chief executive officer of Phoenix-based B2B CFO, founded his company. By Alison Stanton| October 31, 2011 The company’s upcoming 25th anniversary and a recent string of awards are solid validation of the pioneering concept on which Jerry Mills, founder and chief executive officer of Phoenix-based B2B CFO, founded his company. Back in the mid-1980s, while he was a manager with Arthur Andersen & Company, Mills came up with the idea of creating a company that would provide CFO services to small and mid-market companies, offering business owners solutions that would help improve any cash flow issues as well as the overall organization of the company. To support his theories, Mills developed a model of micro- and macro-economics that looked at the concept of “typical consulting” as it related to the point of diminishing marginal returns. His idea was to help alleviate the stress levels of business owners while simultaneously improving their sales and profits through the services of a part-time CFO. But when he pitched the concept of CFO services to his co-workers, he recalls, they weren’t as excited about it as he was. “It just wasn’t what they did at Arthur Andersen,” Mills says. “They concentrated mainly on audits and tax returns, and so this just didn’t fit in with the type of work that they did.” Undaunted, Mills decided to launch his own company based on his theories and research. “I thought it was a great idea, so I did it solely on...
Interview With Jerry Mills: Take a Break to Be Productive
SOURCE: Small Business Trends BY: Susan Payton DATE: 10/17/2011 You might not expect the author of two business books, speaker, contributor, and founder of B2B CFO(r) to be into yoga and tai chi, but thats exactly what helps Jerry Mills stay balanced between work and life. He practices regularly and also strives to read nonfiction books: “I often have my most creative business ideas after I have lost myself for a few hours in a good murder mystery. It seems that the human mind needs a break in order to be most productive.” And productive he is. His firm, B2B CFO(r), provides part-time CFO services to small and midsized businesses. Currently, the company boasts 200 B2B Partners who serve more than 750 clients with combined annual sales totaling $5 billion dollars. In the next five years, Mills expects to have 400 partners and $45 million in sales. Its no wonder he made the list of Small Business Influencer Champions this year. Mills attributes his firms success to recruiting top professionals, being on the cutting edge of technology and hiring a stellar public relations firm. Jumping in With Both Feet Mills was reluctant to start his business back in 1987, but some valuable advice got him moving: “A man named Roger gave me some good advice. He said, Jerry, the hardest thing you need to do is to make the decision. Once you make the decision, everything else will fall into place about what you need to do to grow your business. He was 100 percent correct.” And while technology is a huge part of B2B CFOs(r) platform now, if...
CFO PINCH HITTERS
Demand grows for temp finance chiefs who can jump in to help companies through reorganizations and turnarounds. -BY RUSS BANHAM Lisa Donahue is not your usual CFO. Although her career includes finance chief positions at sportswear manufacturer Umbro, energy producer Calpine and battery maker Exide Technologies, none of these companies paid Donahue’s salary. Rather, her compensation came from Alix Partners, a firm that helps companies through operational reorganizations and corporate turnarounds. Donahue is an interim CFO at the companies she serves, a role she is presently filling at Boston-based Atlantic Power, a publicly traded power producer. A cottage industry of CFO providers has emerged in the last 20 years, spurred initially by the failed leveraged buyouts of the mid-8os and more recently by increased competition brought on by globalization. Each of the firms involved, including Alix Partners, Tatum, Cerius, B2B CFO, TechCFO and several others, has its own value...B2B CFO® are media experts on, and can speak to the media on:
- - Company Financials
- - Small Business Finance
- - Lending
- - Profit/Loss Statements
- - Exit Strategy
