| Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs: What You Really Need to Know About the Numbers (Financial Intelligence) (Financial Intelligence) |  | Authors: Karen Berman, Joe Knight
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $12.34
as of 9/9/2010 07:40 CDT details
New (29) Used (13) from $12.34
Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 48,038
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 1422119157
Dewey Decimal Number: 658.1511
EAN: 9781422119150
Publication Date: October 7, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9781422119150 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Using the groundbreaking formula they introduced in their book Financial Intelligence: A Manager's Guide to Knowing What the Numbers Really Mean, Karen Berman and Joe Knight present the essentials of finance specifically for entrepreneurial managers.
Drawing on their work training tens of thousands of people at leading organizations worldwide, the authors provide a deep understanding of the basics of financial management and measurement, along with hands-on activities to practice what you are reading. You'll discover:
- Why the assumptions behind financial data matter
- What income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements really reveal
- How to use ratios to assess your venture's financial health
- How to calculate return on your investments in your enterprise
- Ways to use financial information to do your own job better
- How to instill financial intelligence throughout your team
Authoritative and accessible, Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs empowers you to "talk numbers" confidently with colleagues, partners, and employees-- and fully understand how to use financial data to make better decisions for your business.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
 Great Follow Up Book June 12, 2010
Jon Thornham (Las Vegas, NV, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I just read two finance books back to back. It has been a while since I studied finance and needed some refreshing. I will say that this is an excellent book but if you are new to finance I highly recommend reading "Financial Statements: A Step-by-Step Guide to Understanding and Creating Financial Reports" first and then following up with this book to solidify the concepts. Most books make finance seem like it is an exact science and in reality it is not. This book goes explains in detail how finance is just as much an art.
A must read for understanding the numbers July 12, 2009
Andrew Kirchner
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
For those who are investing in a company or their own business, this is a must read book. This book makes analyzing the numbers on the financial statements clearer for those who may need more of an understanding in that area. It has helped me to better evaluate companies that I am interesting in investing in.
A "must read" for any small business owner June 12, 2009
Lucy Rudnicka (Temecula, California)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In my accounting practice I come across all kinds of business managers and owners - some are very well versed in accounting and financial matters, others never paid attention to this aspect of their business. In good times, all they felt they needed was a healthy bank account balance.
Well, times are changing and financial intelligence becomes inescapable for all those who want to stay in business and continue to prosper.
In "Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs: What You Really Need to Know About the Numbers" by Karen Berman and Joe Knight I found a superb guide I would highly recommend to all my clients.
The book is perfect for its audience - it doesn't delve too much into the nitty gritty of accounting - debits and credits and journal entries - that's for the accountant. But it gives the business owner the tools to understand the output of a good accountant working for him - the financial statements and their analysis. It covers pretty much the entire spectrum of financial performance of the company, going in just enough detail to illuminate its most important aspects - the financial statements themselves, cash flow, ratios, ROI and working capital management.
Thank you to the authors for an excellent resource, critical in today's business climate!
www.financialsforyou.com
What you really need to know about the numbers April 12, 2009
Dave Kinnear (Lake Forest, CA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
In this iteration of their book, Berman and Knight focus on understanding finances for the Entrepreneurs. I have read many books on the financial statements, ratios and indices that apply to businesses, and this book is among the best. In one place there is a clear explanation of the various reports, how the numbers are derived, what they mean and how to organize your company to positively affect the indicators you need and want to change.
The authors also make learning a useful, hands-on and enjoyable experience with worksheets in the appendices using the information for a fictitious company. Of course, the readers are invited to also use their own company's financial data to develop their understanding of the finances. Despite making things easy to understand, the art of accounting is not obscured or ignored. Berman and Knight make it clear that many of the key numbers we use to "dashboard" our businesses are really not much more than estimates. Informed estimates to be sure, yet still, the numbers are subjective rather than fact. The goal of the accounting team is to get the numbers as close to reality as they can. The goal of the financially intelligent leader is to understand where the art ends and the reality begins.
The book starts with five critical questions:
* Do you know whether you will have enough cash to make payroll next month? How about the month after that?
* If you're running a start-up, do you know your burn rate - that is, how fast you are going through your cash?
* Do you know how profitable your company's products or services really are: do you know that you can be running a profitable business and still run out of cash?
* If you're thinking about buying a new piece of equipment - a truck, a computer system, a machine - do you know how to figure the likely return on your investment?
Of particular importance in today's economic environment is how managers will become focused on cash and cash flow. The authors re-enforce the usually well known but often forgotten admonition that we can be cash rich and not profitable, or highly profitable and run out of cash. As we watch our economy reset to be less consumer driven and more savings oriented economy, we will need to not only serve our customers in an entirely different way, but will also have to re-focus on using all of our financial intelligence to guide our companies to success.
This excellent book, should be on every business owner's, business leader's and employee's desk for easy reference. Financial experts can use it as an outline for in-house seminars on finance for all employees. Well run companies that will survive and perhaps even thrive during this economic tsunami will make sure that everyone in the company attains Financial Intelligence.
A "BusinessCast Podcast" Essential Business Book February 27, 2009
Andrew Brown (Toronto, Canada)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
How many of you look forward to talking about numbers (really)?
The truth is that most entrepreneurs only have a very rudimentary understanding of finance. The problem is that having little or no skill in gathering, organizing or interpreting your company's finances can lead to less-than-perfect, and sometime disastrous, decision making.
That's why BusinessCast podcast (www.businescast.ca) co-host Robert -- a longtime believer in helping entrepreneurs gain financial intelligence -- and I are constantly looking for tools and resources that breathe life into the "numbers side" of your business.
And, that's why we're so happy to have identified "Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs". In BusinessCast #98, Financial Intelligence, we interview co-author Joe Knight. He shares some nuggets but, perhaps more importantly he demonstrates his commitment to developing a truly practical resource.
What impressed me -- and, I'm not a "numbers person" -- is how well this book is written. It's clear, concise and really, well...very human! Meaning, it doesn't feel anything like a finance or accounting text book that speaks down to you. Nor is it so dry that you're just aching to get to the end of the next paragraph.
The authors quite successfully convey fundamental and complex ideas in a way that you'd wish your CFO could! If you're running a business and you're the least bit uncomfortable with business numbers, read this book....and read it, now.
Other resources to help you tackle your finances include:
BusinessCast Podcast #69 (www.businescast.ca) - Business Success By the Numbers - to help you get straight-forward answers to these common numbers-focused questions:
1. Should you buy or lease your car?
2. Should you invest available cash in your mortgage or an RRSP (IRA)?
3. Who should you sell your business to?
Don't forget to visit the BusinessCast.ca
Showing reviews 1-5 of 9
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