Financial measurements that need to be prepared to measure a company’s performance are:

• The balance sheet
• Income statements (profit-and- loss statement)
• Cash flow statements (source and use of funds)

There are 11 major categories in preparing a financial budget:

1. Sales
2. Cost of Goods Sold
3. Gross Profit
4. Operating Expenses
5. Operating Profit / Loss
6. Other Income and Expenses
7. Pretax Income
8. Income Taxes
9. Net Income
10. EBIT
11. EBITDA

The breakeven technique is a decision making model that helps entrepreneurs determine whether a certain size of production will result in a profit of loss. This technique shows the point at which breaking even occurs, when total revenues equals total costs. Total revenues are equal to the price from the sale of one unit times the amount of units sold. The total cost breaks down to two parts, fixed and variable. Fixed costs are expenses that do not change. Variable cost depends on the volume produced. The breakeven point is when total profit is zero.

Building a corporate culture to match a company’s mission is important because involving everyone everyday moving toward a clearly defined goal or goals makes the difference between success and failure. Building this corporate culture takes strong leadership skills and the ability to interact and bring everyone together for a single goal. As we know ourselves communicating with each other at work makes a big difference in accomplishing certain goals. If everyone did their own thing, the whole picture would not come together.

The 6 skills I feel are important for building a strong culture are:

• Honesty – This allows employees at work to be open to one another. This makes work environment feel more like home.
• Alignment – this makes the company goals easier to reach when everyone is going towards the same goals.
• Teams – If working by yourself is good, think of working as a team challenging each other to do better.
• Empowerment – This shows that you as a manager trusts the employees to make the right decisions that steers the company in the right direction.
• Engagement – This attribute is important because communication in between Managers and employees can help the company grow.
• Support – I always believed supporting others are a good thing. This way if one does not believe in themselves, others are there to help.

The three important factors one must consider when hiring key people are:

• Match values
• Use professional recruiter
• Work experience