Customer Reviews

The Quick Guide to Small Business Budgeting 2nd Edition

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Most small business founder because they lack sufficient management skills with respect to their cash flows and problems of keeping track of their finances. Now in a fully updated and expanded second edition that is with Excel Spreadsheets, "The Quick Guide To Small Business Budgeting" by Julie Mucha-Aydlott is a complete, comprehensive, and thoroughly 'user friendly' "how-to manual providing step-by-step, do-it-yourself instructions for creating a personal budget, creating a business budget, creating business cash flow projections, creating personal finance statements, and estimating income taxes. "The Quick Guide To Small Business Budgeting" uses real-world examples that will enable those with no previous financial accounting experience or skills to successful identify, calculate, and track cash flows and expenditures associated with virtually any kind of commercial enterprise. Of special value are the templates in an accompanying CD that provide Microsoft Excel forms that include: Personal Budget; Business Budget; Cash Flow Forecast; Work in Progress; Weekly Cash Flow Forecast; and Personal Financial Statement. Especially recommended for small business owners who don't have the capital to hire professional accounting services, "The Quick Guide To Small Business Budgeting" will prove as invaluable as it is practical.

While I can appreciate a readers opinion in reviewing my book on small business budgeting, in the defense of the small business owner with the "lemon-aide stand" they needed and asked for detailed down to earth descriptions. Some computers have two CD drives, some small business clients DON'T have enough computer experience to run their own system let alone create customized excel spreadsheets with the correct formulas. They also don't have the budget to hire a professional bookkeeper or accountant to do it for them. They need a simple detailed explanation, which is what I provided to them. Most small business owners still believe that a "DRAW" is a paycheck and is deductible, which it is not! They don't understand the complexity of the tax laws and yes they think that the balance on the ATM receipt is how much money they have to spend.

If you are beyond that and more experienced, you are a very large step ahead of a small business owner who's primary focus is their product or service. As far as the price, the book is competitively priced as it comes with a CD and yes, those Excel spreadsheets.

I won't change my style, and I will continue to provide a more down to earth approach to the small business owner with Joe Standard. You can search inside the book to see if you are more advanced in your budgeting and accounting skills to determine if this book is too simple for you, which is a small percentage.

I have been in business since 1994, and have provided accounting and tax services to just about every industry. I find it incredibly "quick" to tell someone to give up as the readers opinion stated that the person should just quit and find a job if he wants to buy a DVD with all the bells and whistles. That defeats the entire purpose of being successful with your own business. Teaching someone to live within their means while they are building a business is more realistic advice than telling them to quit and get a real job.

The title suggests it is a book about small business budgeting, but it is a wordy and meandering yarn about Joe Standard's need to understand his business and personal finances.

Quote: "Joe's circumstances told him to cut back on some areas of his budget because gas prices went through the roof and the minivan broke down and needed work." I did not buy a book called "Small Business Budgeting" to worry about Joe's minivan.

Quote: "The little angel should be arguing with the little devil on your shoulder, telling you that your budget is cutting it close so buying that new DVD player that has all the extra fancy bells and whistles really isn't the best idea." Maybe the little angel should tell you to get a job working for someone else and buy the DVD player.

In Chapter Four it annihilates the mystery of why the ATM does not give you a balance that matches your checkbook and offers a feeble warning against kiting checks.

This book is 200 pages, double spaced with tons of figures. If you single spaced it, put it on 8 ½" x 11" paper, took out the unnecessary figures and edited out the verbosity, it would be 30 pages long. You are basically buying someone's fluffed-up term paper for a lot of money.

Excel spreadsheets? Quote: "Now you will need to pull out the CD that came with this book. Insert your CD into the correct CD drive on your computer. Just as for the budgeting steps, open the file..." If you need this much guidance to get the CD into your computer, the spreadsheets will seem like magic to you.

In her defense, the author deliberately uses a casual, conversational style trying to make the topic more palatable. For me, she went too far in that direction. The writing style and content make Dick and Jane look like a doctoral thesis.

If you are considering opening a lemonade stand at the end of your driveway and still struggle with the mystery of the un-posted check, this may be the book for you. If you need help understanding your finances from someone who can make the subject entertaining and engaging, buy anything written by Dave Ramsey.
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