How do financial projections help startups build a successful business?
A prerequisite for every business is to maintain a sound business plan that includes meaningful financial projections. This is especially important for startup companies since their failure rate in the first year of operation is extremely high and #1 reason for failure is the startup ran out of cash. Financial
What benefits a certified management accountant brings to your business?
Not every accountant is the same. Certified Public Accountants (CPA) and Certified Management Accountants (CMA) provide distinct services. The difference between the two is not widely understood outside of the accounting profession and established companies. While CPAs or financial accountants are primarily focused on maintaining your financial records, CMA’s core
Scorecard valuation method: How to value a startup with no revenues?
The scorecard valuation method is a popular, pre-money valuation method for early-stage startups. In this method, a startup is valued based on an adjusted benchmark value. The central idea is that a startup should be valued in line with comparable startups (similar in terms of geographical location, industry, market potential,
How to calculate the value and payback period of business investment?
When a business invests in a new piece of machinery, this is known as a capital expenditure. It is vital to every business to ensure that their capital expenditures, especially if they represent a major investment, create value instead of destroying value. The systematic process of identifying, analyzing, and selecting
Essential Components of a Winning Startup Business Plan
Key reasons why you need a business plan for your startup 1. A roadmap to success To succeed in today’s competitive environment, you need a sound business plan and solid execution capabilities. A critical step is to develop a thorough understanding of your competitive environment and to identify the key
How to choose between straight-line depreciation and accelerated depreciation methods
Long-term assets, also known as non-current assets, are used to produce goods or to supply services, rentals, or administrative purposes. They can be tangible or intangible and are expected to benefit the company for over one year. The most common long-term assets for SMEs are: This article explains how long-term
How much must be sold to break even or to realize a target profit?
While every company needs to know the answer to this question, the answer is even more vital for start-ups that do not have much margin for error. This is because the revenues will exactly equal the expenses at the breakeven point. In other words, the company does not incur a
The Berkus method: an elegantly simple model to value a pre-revenue start-up
The Berkus method provides entrepreneurs and early-stage investors with a simple framework to value a pre-revenue startup by focusing on risk factors instead of financial projections. This method is useful for founders and early-stage investors (angels, early-stage venture capital, and crowdfunding backers). However, the model’s simplicity does not replace the