Financial Poise™ has one mission: to provide reliable plain English business, financial and legal education to individual investors and private business owners.

Good Character and Cash Flow Improve Banking Relationships Typically, there is significant triage to be done before determining if you can improve banking relationships. Most often, the problems come back to cash flow and misunderstanding what banks do. While Boards[...]

Consumer Sales and Marketing Challenges That May Challenge You Too Consumer-focused businesses have three key challenges: Understanding what the customer/market wants Targeting the right segments Differentiating what they offer from what their competitors offer In all my years creating marketing[...]

Understand the Stakes of Collecting Personal Information Cybersecurity law has been called many things in recent years—evolving, complex, varied, cutting-edge, even hilarious. Ok, maybe not the last one. But I would offer another phrase that can serve as a key[...]

Preserve Wealth by Recognizing Tipping Points Families that have worked extremely hard to build wealth find it even more difficult to preserve that wealth over time. Often, the concern is that a wealthy family could go from shirtsleeves to shirtless in[...]

Tribal Knowledge: Be in the Know America is getting older. Not just in terms of it having a birthday every year, but in terms of the percentage of people closing in on retirement. You can thank the aging Baby Boomer[...]

Consuming More Protein Is Consuming Us Walk down a grocery aisle, or do a quick Google search on weight loss, and you will be inundated with low carb, high protein diets, articles and products. Low Carb, Paleo, Keto, Eco-Atkins, Zero[...]

Millennials in the Workplace Want to be Understood The Leading With Courage Academy recently led a panel discussion on millennials in the workplace, and how to better incorporate this unique demographic into your culture for greater success. During that discussion,[...]

It’s not Selfish to Reap the Benefits of Organized Philanthropy Bringing family members together to invest philanthropically is a game changer, but organized giving can challenge even the strongest families. Yes, philanthropy is about generosity, but it can also feel[...]

Midwest Is Best When It Comes to Venture Capital Value Readers of my earlier Financial Poise articles may remember this: I am a rare breed, a value investor who also loves to talk venture capital value. Seems strange? I’ll explain.[...]

Using a Travel Agent to Plan a Trip is a Necessity Not a Luxury You know taking a vacation is great for your long-term job performance, stress levels, and overall health, and you finally got your spouse to agree to[...]

Everyone Who's Anyone Is Developing a Branding Strategy “Branding” is a word that gets thrown around a lot these days. From individuals developing personal brands to professionals tasked with complete makeovers for iconic brands like FedEx, UPS, and KFC (notably[...]

What Qualifies as Qualified Business Income? In the six months following the passage of the landmark Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the business community has been anxiously awaiting clarifications on certain aspects of the legislation. Specifically, the area that defines[...]

Medical Identity Theft is a High Cost Crime Norah said she thought it was odd when she received a letter from her insurance company denying a $7,000 insulin pump. She wasn’t a diabetic. That letter should have been an alert[...]

The Financial Market is Reaping the Benefits of New Blockchain Technology Technological advancement is accelerating at an extraordinary rate. Yet, finance and capital markets, which operate within a restrictive regulatory environment, have been resistant to adapt to this phenomenon. The[...]

Lessons in Structuring Family Office Structures The number and sophistication of family offices has grown substantially over the past several decades. In fact, some estimates suggest that there are more than 3,000 family offices managing trillions in private wealth. This[...]

Death and the Distribution of a Descendant’s Dough A trustee manages the assets, distributions and other obligations under a trust agreement. A corporate trustee is an entity, such as a bank-owned or independent trust company. There are many types of[...]

Family Owned Business: The Other Side of the Coin On February 19, 2018, Financial Poise published an article by Bruce Werner, the regular contributor to this column, entitled, “Effective Private Company Board Strategies Drive Goals to Completion.” Bruce highlighted that[...]

Driving Future Hedge Fund Returns, Performance With so many articles about “hedge fund performance” popping up recently, investors are right to wonder what is driving this increase in returns and renewed investor interest. With thousands of funds spread across multiple[...]

Many Paths, Much Resistance for Families in Business I’m old enough to remember maps. Yes, physical, paper maps that you bought at gas stations or got for free from the AAA office. Once unfolded, they never went back to the[...]

The New Rules of Data Privacy and Protection You’ve probably heard the letters GDPR everywhere lately. “What do they mean and why do I have to care?” is probably your common response. This article seeks to provide you with an[...]

The Best Advisor You Can Hire Would Hire Herself, Too The best advisor you can hire will be a clever and a creative problem solver who interacts with you with total integrity, honesty, and ethical conduct. The worst? Someone’s goal[...]

Blockchain technology is here to stay. Here are 10 reasons why the blockchain won’t be stopped: 1. The Blockchain Won’t Be Stopped: It’s a Technology Wave We’ve seen technology waves before. The PC wave distributed computer power to everyone. The[...]

Get Started Investing in Real Estate If you want to invest your savings prudently, there are plenty of alternatives available. Investing in real estate, savings accounts, stocks and mutual funds, hedge funds, precious metals, oil and gas and cryptocurrencies all[...]

Customer Centric Means It’s Not All About You Customer centric: a fancy phrase for a very basic concept. It means focusing on what your customers want and need. Yet for such a basic concept, it amazes me how many companies[...]

What is Given Can be Taken Away Policies from government have driven the markets in the recent past. The domestic equity stock market (i.e., S&P 500) increased 7.3% after Congress passed tax reform. However, steel and aluminum tariff news pulled[...]

10 Strategies to Help You Save on College Costs For small business owners, understanding three little words—expected family contribution, or EFC—can save on college costs (we’re talking thousands of dollars). How you structure your business, where you hold assets and[...]

The Unique Financial and Personal Needs of Special Needs Parents I remember being in the crowded elementary school gym one time, when people literally just stepped over my daughter while she was having a seizure, as though she were a[...]

Anticipate Contract Issues to Save Yourself a Headache When we negotiate a deal, the paperwork is intended to document the deal. If necessary, the paperwork is supposed to ensure that all parties keep their commitments. But I’ll admit it: I’m[...]

This is Your Brain on...Money. Any Questions? Economists have considered money from every angle for ages, but research in the field of neuroeconomics is relatively new. Neuroeconomics is the study of how humans make decisions using brain activity (neuroscience), economics,[...]

Editor's Note: This is an updated version of a similar article published in March of 2015. To view the original, click here. Using Cash Flow vs. EBITDA to Determine Value How do you monitor your investments’ performance? If the company is[...]

The Fraud at Night, It Shines So Bright… In 2012, Allen Stanford was convicted of running a Ponzi scheme and sentenced to 110 years in prison. As the New York Times reported, Stanford, “is now a shadow of the swaggering[...]

A Primer on Hedge Fund and Portfolio Performance Evaluating hedge fund performance is challenging because it involves many different investment strategies employed by thousands of funds across a global $3.2 trillion industry. While many investors will analyze a previous track[...]

Your Belief System and Values are Fluid As much as we like to think that our belief system and values are defined by independent and reliable decision-making, we are only about half right. Everyone carries an embedded list of “shoulds”[...]

Get Out of Debt by Using Cash Instead of Credit When Jenny and Kenny (the “Chargers”) came to speak to me the first time, there were raised voices and accusations. The Chargers recognized their spending had become out of control,[...]

Editor’s Note: This is an updated version of a similar article published in January of 2013. To view the original, click here. Private Equity Investing Has Exploded Over Past 10 Years The mindset in private equity investing doesn’t seem to[...]

Making Business Decisions Air Force-Style In business, there are undoubtedly days when you feel like you’re constantly moving at speeds faster than Mach 5. With all the chaos that can ensue with endless meetings, calls, emails and more, it can[...]

Editor's Note: This is an update of a similar article, published in July of 2015. To view that article, click here. Investing in Comic Books is No Joke Fueled by the prevalence of top-grossing movies featuring comic book superheroes, interest in[...]

Editor’s Note: This is an updated version of  a similar article, published in January of 2013. To view that article, click here. The JOBS Act Makes Raising Capital Easier Than Ever Signed into law by President Obama on April 5, 2012,[...]

Grow Your Business by Using Delegation to Develop Others As a manager, you’re often told of the value of using delegation to develop others. Delegation can help you focus on the tasks where you’re most needed and can help scale[...]

The Health Benefits are Endless When You Eat to Live Part of my role as a private equity investor is to devour information on food and agriculture. Why? To make sure I understand the trends and impacts within the industry.[...]

Blockchain for Small Business is a Must As a business owner, why should you care about blockchain for small business, cryptocurrency, token offerings and all these new terms and tech that have been buzzing about? For those of you that[...]

Cash Allocation Challenges Businesses For most businesses, cash allocation is a challenge. Margin pressure, seasonality, credit risk, and bank covenants make it a constant chore. Cash is the oxygen of business. You can’t run low and survive. For successful businesses,[...]

How to Find Appropriate Business Attire Suit? Dress? Slacks? Skirt? Neutrals? Colors? Don’t get me started on “business casual Friday”! Choosing the appropriate business attire is so time-consuming in our already busy lives. Not many of us are willing to[...]

An ongoing dispute between Oracle and Google has landed in both Federal Court and Northern District of California court. What will happen next? The Federal Circuit recently resurrected one of the most closely watched cases in recent software history: Oracle v.[...]

Editor's Note: This is an updated version of a previous article. To view the original, click here. Employee Stock Ownership Plans Offer Many Economic Perks Employee stock ownership plans, commonly referred to as an ESOP, offer a range of benefits[...]

Editor's Note: This article is an updated version of an article originally published on May 14, 2014. Mutual Fund Investment Left Investors Behind The Wall Street machine is interested in creating products for profit and not creating profit for the[...]

Success Depends as Much on You as it does Them So you want to improve your relationship with your advisor? Is the relationship tenuous or does it feel like there are trust issues- from your end and theirs? Read on![...]

Use Specific Sales and Marketing Activities for Specific Purposes Hi and welcome to my first article for Financial Poise! Let's jump right in. Supposedly, the days of “I know half of my marketing budget is wasted, but I just don’t[...]

International Venture Capital Races Ahead Take a look at The Fortune Unicorn List: Of the top 100 most valuable unicorns in 2016, 39 are currently based outside of the United States. Fundraising of U.S. VCs has dropped slowly as a[...]

Happy, without Purchasing Disability Insurance Daria and Daniel Diligent had it all figured out. Both were hard-working professionals — Daria a dentist and Daniel a pilot. Happily married and living in a beautiful home, they were raising twin girls with[...]

An Urban Dictionary Education in Terms Anyone with the Internet has probably heard of urbandictionary.com, the crowdsourced, online dictionary for slang words and phrases that contains plenty of “NSFW” content. (To spare you the trouble/consequence of going there, NSFW means[...]

The Loss of Losing Power at Home We recently experienced losing power at home, specifically our gas-powered heat,  for a few days while away on vacation. In the aftermath, I got to thinking about how I could have been better[...]

Exploring Owning Operational Real Estate Owning real estate for investment can take a little or a lot of work, depending on the type of asset you purchase. Passive investments in real estate offerings managed by professional sponsors require little-to-no work[...]

Recently, bad practices caused a client’s accounts receivable to get extended well past 90 days. In fact, the client had 20% of its receivables dated further back than 120 days. Company staff knew that much of that would prove to[...]

Having Your Identity Stolen by Family Hurts Worse Raphael’s Story Raphael was distraught and confused to learn that his son, Raphael Jr., had unknowingly and quite fraudulently signed his dad’s name to his own student loans several years back. Dad[...]

You Can Drive Business Growth Forward- or Backward Many businesses on the precipice of growth or those preparing to enter a new chapter are searching for ways to drive business growth, but can find themselves struggling to move into that[...]

Don't Underestimate the Benefits of Vacation Are you “too busy” to take a vacation? What if I told you that some of the benefits of vacation include better health and an improved bottom line? Would you take one then? Reducing[...]

Choking on the Words During Sensitive Family Business Every cat owner knows the sounds. The deep retching and heaving. The cough that sounds like your cat just may turn himself inside out to eliminate a fur ball. Next may come[...]

Are Wage Discrimination Claims Avoidable? An employer can be sued by an employee for all sorts of things. Specifically, wage discrimination claims is an area that every employer should understand because they are so easy to avoid. One example would[...]

Stock Market Volatility Circles Back Around Stock market volatility isn’t a new concept, especially for baby boomer women who have lived through some of the market’s most tumultuous times. However, with headlines proclaiming catastrophic losses and record point drops for[...]