Right now I am teaching a personal financial planning course. It is a little outside of my areas of expertise so I brought in 2 guest lecturers. My students learned a lot from people in the finance industry as they teach outside of the textbook and more about real-world examples and application. The biggest lesson [...]

As we approach the second full week into the new year do you have clarity as to what you want to accomplish in 2011? When our goals are clear we can create action steps to reach them. About six months ago I had a coach who specializes in Feng Shui visit my office. She asked [...]

The world is abuzz with New Years resolutions. The paper and other media are full of weight loss tips and tricks. Fitness gyms are seeing their annual spike in new memberships as the goal to loose weight is one of the yearly top new year resolutions. Most of us know that new year resolutions do [...]

As we approach the last month of the year many businesses are in the middle of planning and preparing for a new year. One of the most common planning tools is a budget. For some tips about how to create a budget refer to Budgeting: Are You Doing It? and Year End Budgets. These posts [...]

I love this time of year. It forces us to spend time with our extended family, even when we sometimes might not want to. Thankfully, I am in a good place with most of my family members, including my in-laws. My children are really looking forward to seeing their grandparents and I am looking forward [...]

What does your cash flow look like right now? Are you still worried about the economy? Have you been putting off purchases or hiring a new employee because cash is a little tight? What about that new computer you need because the one you are using is 2-3 years old? A friend of mine recently [...]

When you started your business hopefully you wrote a business plan. If you did not, you can create a short version of a business plan now. While writing a business plan helps you prepare for the initial start-up phase and the first few years of operations at some point it becomes outdated. Many business owners [...]

Owning a small business can come with a lot of decisions, even before you make the first sale. One of the most common decisions is whether to form a Corporation or to operate as a Sole Proprietorship or Limited Liability Company (LLC). A corporation might sound like a good idea to a small business owner [...]

A sole proprietorship is one of the easier and most common forms to start a business. The only requirement of a sole proprietorship is registration as a business if any name other than the owners name is used for the business. The sole proprietorship is an extension of the business owner, not separate from it. Although [...]

It has been a few years since I have reviewed and updated my resume. It is not always easy to translate a project or accomplishment onto paper. But doing so allows us to recognize our own achievements, something most of us do not do enough. I have been teaching undergraduate and graduate classes for six [...]