"Losing a dear member of our AFS team has been painful and difficult, but remembering him, and who he was, is easy. Marty Aronow was much more than my business advisor, he was my friend and truly one of the good guys. He treated everyone with respect. Even in his final days, Marty worried more about the welfare of those around him than what he, himself, was facing. This is a terrible loss for all who knew and loved him. Though he was a quiet man, he was a rock, but a rock with a glint of mischief. Marty was someone I depended on for the unvarnished truth, and for support as I grew my business over the years. He made a genuine and lasting impression on everyone he touched. Marty's legacy of strong family and an impeccable work ethic live on in the lives of his children, colleagues, clients, and friends. Marty, you will remain forever in my heart, always." — Lisa Corcoran Donations can be made in Marty's name to the organizations below.
The New Jersey Commission on Recreation for Individuals with Disabilities (NJCRID) P.O. Box 26 Kendall Park, NJ 08824 CAREing for Children P.O. Box 1291 Toms River, NJ 08754-1291
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AFS toasts their tenth anniversary with a big wine-making event. They invited a group of clients and colleagues to join them in making their custom, hand-crafted red wine at Bacchus Winemaking Club in Toms River, NJ.
November 2013 "AFS Wine, The Making Of " — The story of our wine, details about our grapes, and the steps we took to craft our custom blend, complete with photos — click here to read April 2014 Several AFS wine-makers returned to Bacchus Winemaking Club to “barrel taste” our wine. Samples were drawn from the barrel to check on the aging process. The wine was smooth and easy drinking, with the fruit of the Petit Syrah most noticeable. Continued tannin development is expected over the next few months in barrel, which will impart structure in the wine. The 2013 vintage for California grapes was a winner, and we’re excited to bottle our wine this summer. May 2014 We returned to barrel taste the wine again. What a difference a month makes! The Cabernet Sauvignon is more forward now, and the blend is becoming more dimensional. July 2014 The design for our wine label has been chosen and we eagerly await the big bottling event. August 2014 The big day finally arrived! Clients and colleagues joined AFS to bottle our 10th anniversary wine. — click here to read Lisa Corcoran selected by peers as one of the Intuitive Accountant Top 100 ProAdvisors from tens of thousands of ProAdvisors in the country. by Gary DeHart May 28, 2014 We are very proud to announce Intuitive Accountant's first annual Top 100 ProAdvisors. This list recognizes the leading consultants who have embraced the ProAdvisor program and have leveraged it in order to better serve their clients and grow their own business. This listing, like all listings of its kind, may have some people you don't agree with and it may be missing some people who you believe should be included. We expect that and highly encourage you to join in the nomination and voting process next year when we will be recognizing the 2015 Top 100 ProAdvisors and the ProAdvisor of the Year. Speaking of ProAdvisor of the Year, as promised, we'll be announcing and recognizing the ProAdvisor of the Year with our presenting sponsor, Canon ImageFORMULA Document Scanners, next month at Scaling New Heights. In addition to the ProAdvisor of the Year, we'll be recognizing the ProAdvisors who stand out in the following categories: QuickBooks Online, Niche, Trainer, Coach, Systems Integrations, Social Media, Business Process Outsourcing, Up and Comer and Friend of Intuit. There is still time to register for the conference and a few hotel rooms remain in the room block, so check out the show website and join us in San Antonio at the single biggest gathering of ProAdvisors in the world as we recognize these Top 100 ProAdvisors and the ProAdvisor of the Year. Please join us in congratulating the 2014 Top 100 ProAdvisors! Congratulations! Murph and Gary Congratulations to all of the Top 100 ProAdvisors (in alphabetical order):
COMMENTARY Why the first person I hired was a bookkeeper Chris Griffiths
Special to The Globe and Mail Published Tuesday, Nov. 05 2013, 5:00 AM EST Last updated Wednesday, Nov. 06 2013, 12:50 PM EST When my first small business was in its infancy, I was struggling to make ends meet. Marketing my new business and finding customers who would trust their money to a startup wasn’t easy. The bills were piling up. I started my business as a one-man show, and as I finally started getting some momentum, my first instinct was to hire a bookkeeper. This isn’t typical. Not at all. But it worked for me, and here’s why: Most entrepreneurs are happy to leave the day to day bookkeeping to an outside firm. Outsourcing this work allows them to focus on their natural skill sets and leave the tedious responsibility of managing invoices and receipts to someone else. Early on, I couldn’t even afford an outside bookkeeping service, so I did it all myself. While it was time consuming and non-revenue generating, I soon learned the value of having up-to- the-minute financial data on how my business was performing. I was addicted to this information; the sales, margins, overheads and expenses were always in front of me in black and white. These numbers didn’t lie and they gave me a sober view on how I was managing my cash flow and what was driving the profit in my business. When it came time for me to break free from those bookkeeping tasks, I already knew how certain transactions should be allocated and was accustomed to seeing it all in real time. Switching to an outside service would mean that I’d receive monthly statements, at best. In my opinion, that information was too old to act upon in a meaningful way, so I hired a part-time bookkeeper to come into the office several hours a week. This allowed me to influence how the books were organized, and meant my statements were only a few days old at any given time. Nowadays, I rarely encounter owners who run their bookkeeping with the same level of detail with which they run the rest of their business. They’ll often get attendance records, production reports, new orders and receivable information every day, while their financials are done once a year, submitted three to six months after year end. I think they’re missing out. As a matter of fact, I know they’re missing out because, when their margins and expenses are well documented and presented, they inevitably change their priorities. When I talk to small business owners about the state of their finances, they typically mention about sales and cash flow. Rarely they know where their margins or expenses are relative to last year or this years’ budget – if they’ve budgeted at all. Furthermore, when I ask entrepreneurs about the current state of their books, they often answer in the future tense. They’ll often mention a big project coming up, the seasonality of their operation or a large receivable coming due. That’s fine, don’t get me wrong. But it speaks to their instincts about what’s about to happen, not how worthwhile or successful their past efforts have been. While a big project or busy season or large receivable are all meaningful metrics, the truth is that it’s rarely one thing that contributes to a small business’ profitability. It’s normally a hundred little things. Where’s the best place to find the financial impact of a hundred little opportunities in your business? One place worth looking, for sure, is in your financial statements. So while I was tempted to make my first hire a salesperson, or service technician or production worker, instead I chose a bookkeeper. With real-time profit and loss statements available to me, I was able to make hundreds of intelligent decisions and changes and improvements, all of which contributed to my success. I know that spending time with your accountant and bookkeeper is something you normally do out of necessity. However, you may benefit from investing more of your focus into those financial statements, more regularly. You’ll see the positive influence it will have on how you run your business every day. # To read this article on the web, click here. Chris Griffiths is the Toronto-based director of fine tune consulting, a boutique management consulting practice. Over the past 20 years, he has started or acquired and exited seven businesses. |
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