SurvivalWare 3.1 – Shopping Cart back by Popular Demand

Shopping Cart

The shopping cart is simply a tool to collect in one place a number of variables for viewing or reporting.  When you are in the Dataviewer, Projections Module, Budget Module, or Rusty’s Toolbox, the variables are organized into tabs for viewing.  There is one tab each for the three primary financial statements: Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow (circled below).  There are additional tab for things like Breakeven Analysis, Working Capital, and Valuation.

Since the Fort Knox model is designed to be used by a variety of businesses, chances are that you use some, but not all of the variables provided.  When you’re doing analysis or projections, it can be useful to have the 10 or 20 most important variables in your business visible on one screen.  These may be different for you when doing historical analysis vs. projections.  They may also be different for you over time.  Problems may crop up that require special monitoring, and a view of a different set of performance indicators.

We provide the shopping cart as a means to collect variables from the far reaches of the model and put them in one place.  You can quickly graph them in succession using the Next and Back button with the trend charts or Comparanator.  In the Reports module there is a selection to print out the variables in the current shopping cart with any of the column sets.

We allow you to create multiple shopping carts, and edit their contents

At any time you can Left Mouse Click the Survival Cart icon and it will bring up the rows in the current shopping cart.  Notice the “Back” icon has been activated.  Click on this to leave the shopping cart view and go back to the previous view.

Since the Fort Knox model is designed to be used by a variety of businesses, chances are that you use some, but not all of the variables provided.  When you’re doing analysis or projections, it can be useful to have the 10 or 20 most important variables in your business visible on one screen.  These may be different for you when doing historical analysis vs. projections.  They may also be different for you over time.  Problems may crop up that require special monitoring, and a view of a different set of performance indicators.

We provide the shopping cart as a means to collect variables from the far reaches of the model and put them in one place.  You can quickly graph them in succession using the Next and Back button with the trend charts or Comparanator.  In the Reports module there is a selection to print out the variables in the current shopping cart with any of the column sets.

We allow you to create multiple shopping carts, and edit their contents

Adding Rows to the Shopping Cart

This is a two step process, and we will be the first to admit it is a little clumsy.  First select the row you want to add by clicking on it or one of its cells.  Then Right Mouse click the Survival Cart Icon.  If you Left Mouse Click by mistake, the tabs will disappear and the rows contained in the current shopping cart will appear.  If this happens, you can click on the “Back” icon to restore the previous screen.

Viewing Rows in the Shopping Cart

When you move the mouse over the SurvivalWare Cart icon, the message bar tells you how many rows are in the shopping cart.

At any time you can Left Mouse Click the Survival Cart icon and it will bring up the rows in the current shopping cart.  Notice the “Back” icon has been activated.  Click on this to leave the shopping cart view and go back to the previous view.

Edit Shopping Cart

The Edit Shopping Cart feature is under the File Menu in the DataViewer, Projections Module, Budget Module, and Rusty’s Toolbox.

Here’s what it looks like.  You can delete a row, move a row up or down in the list, or empty the cart altogether.

You can also save the shopping cart under a new name, or read in a previously saved shopping cart.  Shopping carts can be stored in any folder, but preferably in the Model folder.  The file names use the extension, “.SHP”.

Reports with the Shopping Cart

Click on the Reports Icon from the Main menu to access the Reports module.

Then:

1. select the Shopping Cart report
2. Select a column set
3. Click on the Preview Report icon

 

SurvivalWare 3.1 – New Comparanator Options

The comparanator  has been much improved in version 3.1.  There are now a total of ten “Styles”:

• Basic Line Chart

• Dual Scale Line Chart

• Actual vs. 12 Month Average

• Actual vs. Budget vs. Last Year

• Next Year Budget

• Peer Group Members

• Scenarios

• Peer Group vs. Benchmark

• Actual vs. Comparison Group (25/50/75)

• Actual vs. Comparison Group (5/25/50/75/95)

 

 

 (right click)

To select a comparanator style, and make it the default going forward, simply Right Click on the Comparanator Icon or select “Set default Comparanator style…” from the File Menu  in the DataViewer or Projections Module.

Basic Line Chart

Graphs the focus row (and Next and Previous rows as requested) against a single comparison row.    You can browse through a list of variables in the Fort Knox model to pick a comparison row.  Once selected, it is “sticky” – i.e. it remains the default comparison row until you explicitly change it. 

The Basic Line Chart uses a single scale for the Y-Axis, which means it is useful only when comparing rows of similar magnitudes, e.g. two different expense lines. 

Here is “Total Overhead” vs. “Sales”:

 

  

Dual Scale Line Chart

 

 Useful for comparing variables of different magnitudes. 

Graphs the focus row (and Next and Previous rows as requested) against a single comparison row, using separate y-axis scales for each row   You can browse through a list of variables in the Fort Knox model to pick the comparison row.  Once selected, it is “sticky” – i.e. it remains the default comparison row until you explicitly change it. 

Here is “Delivery Costs” vs. “Sales” in a Dual Scale Line Chart.  The scale for “Sales” goes from zero to 250,000.  For “Delivery Costs” it goes from 0 to 15,000.

Actual vs. 12 Month Rolling Average

Graphs the focus row (and Next and Previous rows as requested) against the twelve month moving average for that row.  Note that you are not given the option to change time periods like you are with the other comparanator styles.

Actual vs. Budget vs. Last Year

Graphs the focus row (and Next and Previous rows as requested) for the twelve months of the current year.  For the same 12 months, the Budget numbers are graphed, as well as, last year’s numbers.  Note that you are not given the option to change time periods like you are with the other comparanator styles.

Note: Current Year Budget values can be entered in the Budget Module. 

Next Year Budget

Graphs the focus row (and Next and Previous rows as requested) for the twelve months of the current year.  For the same 12 months, the Budget numbers are graphed, as well as, the numbers for Next Year’s Budget.  Note that you are not given the option to change time periods like you are with the other comparanator styles.

Note: the Next  Year Budget values can be entered in the Budget Module. 

Peer Group Members

These can be separate locations if you have multiple outlets, or clients of yours who have agreed to share data files.  This style graphs the focus row (and Next and Previous rows as requested) with one line representing each group member.  It is useful for small groups. 

You can create a CSF file in the DataViewer, Projections Module, or Rusty’s ToolBox.   Select “File ‘ then “Create CSF File”.

Scenarios

This does the same really as Peer Group Members, but the group members are different scenarios for the same company as opposed to different companies.   You create the scenarios by typing in different assumptions or using the Forecast Tool to access different forecast techniques.  Then save each result under a new name (File / Save Company As…). 

You would normally select this style from the Projections Module as opposed to the DataViewer.

Peer Group vs. Benchmark

Here’s “Total Overhead” for the month of March 2010 for the group.  US201 was selected to be the benchmark. 

You can build your own  benchmark file and enter published industry stats by setting up a new company.  Check the box “Use this file for Benchmark data only.”  This allows you to enter values for calculated measures such as “Inventory Turns” or “Days of Cash.”

Actual vs. Comparison Group

In SurvivalWare a Comparison Group has special meaning:  it is a collection of company or locations which have been assembled in a central area (e.g. by a corporate analyst for a franchise company), and analyzed through the Company Stats module in Rusty’s Toolbox.  The analysis produces a set of “meta data” files than can be re-distributed to the participants without compromising anyone’s privacy. 

These two comparanator styles let you graph your performance against the percentiles of the group – either 3 at a time (25^th percentile, Median, 75^th percentile) or 5 at a time by including the 5^th and 95^th percentiles as well.

We’ve included a sample comparison group so you can see how this works. It is called “fake-meta-data” and the files are all contained in the folder ..\Survware\FortKnox\ComparisonGroups.

SurvivalWare 3.1 – A Sneak Preview

There have been a number of improvements to SurvivalWare that have been made this year,  and we have decided to make the new version available sooner rather than later.  Look for the official announcement later this month.   We continue to simplify the user interface, while at the same time making sure SurvivalWare does what you need it to do.  The most popular new feature seems to be the new Time Scale / Time Span icons that appear on the Trend graphs so that you can instantly switch from Months to Quarters or Years, and expand the view from History, to more History, and on to Projections.

The top row controls the time scale.    The current selection is greyed out (in this case Months).  The second row of icons lets you control the time span appearing in the chart, with more time periods appearing in the chart as you go from left to right.

Some other recent advances:

 

Shopping Cart to gather variables from around the model for viewing or reporting

New Comparanator styles

Create CSF File menu item allows for quick creation of peer groups or scenario lists for graphing and reporting

Advanced Data Load option simplifies the user interface for loading non QuickBooks data

Forecast Tool upgrade – can model “delays”  in key line items.  Also Term Loan calculator

Analyze company stats feature in the Toolbox: brand new user interface to make it easy for franchise groups to calculate percentiles for their locations

Automator (Pro version only): complete overhaul of the user interface so that command lists and explanations are available on the screen as you are building applets.

AlphaGraphics Customers:  the new Budget module development work is proceeding and should go into testing soon.  The hope is to release this feature in SurvivalWare version 3.1.

Cash Flow Management Tips

Last Thursday’s Wall Street Journal featured yet another article on the sad state of small business bank lending.

(“Real Collateral Damage – with Assets Harder to Value, More Small Businesses Need Cash to Get a Loan” 7/22/2010 pg B1)

After I turned to page 6 to continue the article, I kept flipping back to the first page to make sure I wasn’t reading the Onion.  Banks are apparently – and with a straight face – offering to lend you your own money and charge you interest for the privelege.  Their wording of the offer is slighly different, but the outcome the same.

In these perilous time, I figured it would be a good idea to revisit some proven cash flow management techniques.  If you’re a small business owner, you have to steel yourself against the probability that credit will NOT be forthcoming, and that the government is not going to bail you out. 

Here are some of the latest tips gleaned from our recent Webinar on the SurvivalWare Cash Planner.

Tip #1:  Roll up your sleeves and do some detailed cash planning when (and only when):

1. You are just starting out
2. You’re in trouble (less than 15 days cash)
3. You’re in transition (new hires or layoffs, new product release, etc.
4. You’re a practitioner of Just-in-Time Capital and you want to stick it to the banks by not borrowing from them

Tip #2:  Find out which vendors will accept credit card payment of invoices.

It is amazing who will accept credit card payments now – lawyers, accountants, marketing consultants and other service providers in addition to the usual product vendors and retailers.  If you can, run all our your non-payroll expenses through your American Express, and earn points at the same time.  That extra 30 days can be huge.  But of course, this works only if you can pay AMEX on time each month.

Tip #3:  Find out what it means to be “on-time” with American Express.

Sally from Salt Lake City reports that she called them recently about 10 days ahead of the due date on the bill, and asked if she could split the payment in half.  She was told no, they couldn’t do that, but that she could take advantage of the 15 day grace period.  This turned out to be one of many key “baby steps” she took to get through a real nasty cash crunch.

Tip #4: Change the lag in work to payday.

Donnie in Des Moines changed payday to the 8th and 22nd from the 1st and the 15th of each month.  The key to retaining employees is to make the announcement in advance – not the day of payday.  Since over half of his costs are people costs, this had a significant impact on his “Days of Cash” – increasing it by 4.

Tip #5:  Be persistent.

Duh.  Hank in Houston tells me that if Plan A doesn’t work, he goes to Plan B, and if that doesn’t work, to Plan C.  He points out there are 26 letters in the alphabet.

What are your most effective Cash Flow Management practices?  We’d love to hear about them.

More Info

White paper on Just In Time Capital:

http://www.survivalware.com/articles/just_in_time_capital.php

10 Tips to Survive a Cash Flow Crisis:

http://www.survivalware.com/articles/10tips.php

SurvivalWare Cash Planner – 45 minute webinar from 7/14/2010:

www.survivalware.com/download/2010-07-14_Webinar_SurvivalWare_Cash_Planner.wmv

Special Initiative to Help Gulf Coast Small Business

We can all feel their pain.  And by we, I mean the entrepreneurs who form the backbone of this unabashedly free-enterprise-appreciating country of ours. We feel a certain kinship, though we have never met.  Many of us have been through disasters of one sort or another – sometimes of our own making.  We understand some of what you are going through.  Depending on the line of business, Gulf Coast small businesses are faced with  losing all their customers, or their supply chain, running out of cash, and even laying off their family members.  If that is not bad enough, they get the aftershock of applying for compensation and waiting.  If they live long enough.  I was saddened to read in this morning’s Washington Post of a suicide of a small business owner seemingly in despair.

I grew up around the beach.  I can’t imagine how bad it would be to have it covered in oil and fouled for years to come.  My heart goes out to the people of the Gulf Coast. 

I heard Ken Feinberg (the BP Fund Czar) boast on the Newshour last week that the BP Fund would be up and operational in 60 days.  All I could think was the impact on my small business compadres whose livelihoods have been turned upside down by the Deepwater Horizon disaster.  60 days is a long, long time. 

 “Every oil spill has a silver lining – if you are a lawyer, that is.”

Economist, May 22, 2010 

Why is it the lawyers who always make out like bandits?! Then there is the rest of us. 

There are thousands of small business owners either directly dependent on the Gulf for their livelihood, or indirectly but in a big way.  There is so much uncertainty.  Time is the enemy.  How long is this going to last?  What are they supposed to do?  Cease operations and spend full time filling out forms, preparing testimony, and chasing down bureaucrats?  My guess is that there are a lot of entrepreneurs scrambling, shifting focus, going through transitions – and that they don’t actually have a lot of free time on their hands. 

We think we can help these small business owners in two ways: 

(1) We can help with the planning for the here and now to get through the next 60 to 90 days.  This is where the SurvivalWare Cash Planner comes in.  It does detailed cash planning down to the day and week.  We are hosting a webinar on Wed July 14, 2010 to show you in detail how the Cash Planner can be used to understand the cash impact of your decisions and current situation.  

The Cash Planner helps you avoid making commitments you can’t keep.  It also helps you put a number on your problem – such as “I need $30,000 to $50,000 over the next 3 months to get through.  I’ve got 3 weeks before I need the first $10,000.”

Then you start working the problem.  Knowing the timing and magnitude help you prioritize your efforts. 

During the webinar we will conduct a survey of participants to find out some of the best strategies for dealing with cash shortages. 

There are thousands of small businesses on the gulf coast who have been up-ended by the BP disaster.  They need help now to get through some tough times.  I believe the SurvivalWare Cash Planner can be a lifeline.  The difference between Survival and not. 

(2) We might be able to take some of the pain out of backing up a claim.  With SurvivalWare’s Fort Knox Model you can show clearly your financial condition before and after the disruption, and buttress your claim with the facts.  You can do two sets of projections: life assuming no “spill, and life after the “spill” – and calculate how much worse off you are as a result.  We are hosting a webinar on Wednesday June 30, 2010 on using the Fort Knox Model to do these kinds of cash flow projections. 

My video man, Sam, suggested we do a 90 Day Free Trial version special for the Gulf Coast small business owners to help them survive.  When things loosen up, maybe with the help of a claim check or two – they can purchase the software if they still have a need for it and are happy with its performance.  

But wait – this is the federal government, a giant oil company, and the former head of the 9/11 compensation commission we’re talking about – we’ll make it 120 Days just to be safe. 

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  

Gulf Coast Entrepreneurs: Get your 120 day free trial of SurvivalWare

http://www.survivalware.com/free-trial_gulfcoast_aid.php

Wed, July 14, 2010 11 a.m. EDT Webinar 

The SurvivalWare Cash Planner – indispensable during times of transition”

Wed, June 30, 2010 11 a.m. EDT

Financial Projections Webinar: Using SurvivalWare to Analyze a Startup

Glossary of euphemisms: 

“going through transitions” – downsizing, rightsizing, first ever layoffs, firing people, firing family members, closing operations, bouncing checks, angering creditors, owing back taxes, missing payday, getting cut off from suppliers, etc. , etc., etc.

“disruption” – fishing grounds close, resort areas lose their appeal, customers go belly up, lots of people running around declaring “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”

“oil spill” – 50,000 barrels of oil a day spewing from the Gulf floor for 60 days and counting.

Transparency Pays – the Power of Information

On a plane trip back home from Omaha last night, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal called “The Summer to Go on a Power Diet” discussing products and techniques for reducing power usage.  In the body of the article, they talk about the impact of  just making cost information available:

“A study by the Envirnmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford showed a 5% to 15% reduction in power consumption just by providing energy information to users.”

( Article link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704009804575308791120750332.html)

Kevin Cushing talks about a similar benefit from sharing financial information with employees. 

In a recent video testimonial, he explains:

“And something I think that’s understated in SurvivalWare, and in sharing financial information as a whole, is how can you keep your employees informed about the financial health of your business?  A lot of small business owners think that their employees don’t know, or don’t care, or it’s way over their head.  Other ones want to hold it all in, because they feel like that’s private information for them and they shouldn’t be sharing that with their franchisees.”

“Well, whatever a person’s philosophy is, that’s fine.  But, SurvivalWare gives you the opportunity, to the person who would have a perspective like mine, that the more your employees can know about the health of your business, the more that they can do to improve the performance of the business.”

(see his remarks at  http://www.survivalware.com/videos.php under Testimonials – the 5:53 one)

It reminded me of my early days as an industrial engineering student when I learned about the Hawthorne Effect.  Look it up on Wikipedia if you want the details – but in a nutshell some industrial engineers were trying to improve productivity at this huge GE Plant in the early 1900’s, and kept meticulous production records to help them study the impact of certain things.  They turned up the lights – and sure enough productivity increased.  They turned the lights back down – and guess what – productivity increased again!  They concluded it was the attention from management, knowing what was being watched, that led to the improved performance. 

My advice is to shine the spotlight on those metrics and measures that are most important to your business, and share the information with employees so they know how they can best imrpove the performance of the business.  And I guess now I’ll have to practice what I preach!

Preview of the Daily Flash Model

This thing is not yet ready for resale, but has been a godsend for us during this transition from heavy development to heavy marketing. I thought I’d share some of the details and see if it is something that might be useful to other companies that depend on the internet for a significant portion of their sales.  I’ve used it – much to the chagrin of my PPC campaign manager – to decide when to turn the PPC ads on and off.  They like to accumulate data for 3 or 4 months before fine tuning the campaign.  I’d like to take 14 days or less.  I’m impatient as hell. When I see that something is not performing as well as it should, I want to fix it.

Also, I’m a big believer in frugal innovation.  Doing something at 20% to 25% of  the normal cost can only translate to more profits or competive advantage.

Also, keep in mind that a product launch is kind of like cooking dinner.  Everything has to come together at the right time.  It took us a little longer to get our video library to where I wanted it to be.  But look at it now:  22 videos in total, with 4 of those “How to” videos.

We’re just now starting to get some viewership.  The trend sure is in the right direction.  Let’s see – if viewership keeps doubling every month for the next 10 months – we’ll have almost a million viewers a month by next April or May.  That’s how we entrepreneurs like to think.

We also put up a video illustrating how I update the Daily Flash Model for Luhring SurvivalWare.   As we move into a full fledged sales and marketing campaign, I find that I update it every morning before breakfast, numbers obsessed that I am.  Click here to view a video preview of the Daily Flash Model in operation.

Sorry – I got off track – I’m just so excited about the power of video to communicate with prospects and customers.  The videos can help in the initial investigation (buying software is tough!), presenting the buying decision to others in the organization,  and in learning how to use the software over time.  With our talented (and young) social media crew, I fully expect one of the videos to go viral before year’s end.  My biggest problem is sure to be how to keep tight reins on exponential growth.  Luckily I’ve got some pretty good tools to help out.

So yeah, there were a few other things that entered into the decision to pause the PPC campaign 10 days ago:

1. I felt the effectiveness was sub-par.  We were paying an average of just under $1.90 per click, and getting a 3% conversion rate. (i.e. the percentage of people who visited the website who downloaded a free trial).  The cost per lead was about 4 to 5 times what I thought it should be.

2. We did not have a good lead follow-up process in place (we almost do now – for sure next week)

3. We resumed only last Wednesday our ability to send out emails to our prospects and customers.  We still have some database updating to do that will take place next week.

4. Two key pages for the website were still not complete:  the Video page which presents our growing video library in a user friendly manner, and the Entrepreneur page, which presents our top 10 list of frugally innovative products and services we just could not live without.  In an early PPC test, the keyword “Entrepreneur” was a very strong draw, and we wanted a landing page that could provide immediate benefit to an entrepereneur.

Both of these pages should be up next week, and then I will pull the trigger on resuming the PPC ads. 

And I will use the Daily Flash Model to track their effectiveness like a hawk.  We’re hoping to have the Daily Flash Model on the market so others can benefit some time in July.

Customer Interview: Gregg Moore, CEO Workplace Integra

The thing I love about Gregg Moore is his enthusiasm for what he does.  As he says,  “I’m a blessed man.  I get to get up and go to work every day and do something I thoroughly enjoy doing.” 

That’s not the only thing we share in common.  Gregg also feels like it is critical for him to systematically analyze his financial performance and manage his cash flow.  Kelly “sat down” with Gregg via telephone a few weeks ago to get his perspective on running a small business, and where SurvivalWare fits in.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  So, why don’t you tell us about your company and your specific role in the company?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Sure.  Well, I’m the President of a company called Workplace Integra, and we deal with occupational safety and health.  We provide onsite consulting, mostly in the area of occupational hearing conservation, but some other areas as well. 

And we also provide this really nice software package called Workplace Applications, which is used primarily by occupational health nurses and people responsible for safety in manufacturing environments.  So, that’s pretty much what we do. 

I guess the company has been around in its present form since the year 2000, although several of us in the company were with a predecessor company that actually went back to the early 1980s.  So, we’ve all been doing this stuff a long time and just love it.  I tell people I am a–I’m a blessed man.  I get to get up and go to work every day and do something I thoroughly enjoy doing.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  And so, what kind of got you started with this?  What other industries do you maybe have experience in? 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Oh, sure.  Well, my training is an audiologist.  I have a master’s degree in audiology from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.  I graduated in 1988, and from there went into the United States Army and was an Army officer.  And about half of the job of an Army officer is hearing conservation, because the Army has some very loud toys and hearing loss is a big deal in the military. 

So, that’s kind of where I got my start in hearing conservation, and just liked it so much that decided to try to make a career out of it.  And that’s pretty much been the great majority of my career since graduating, oh, gosh, how many years ago has it been?  You know, 1988, a nice long time that I’ve been doing this.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Okay.

And so, for example, what would be a safety measure precaution that you would advise a company to take that would kind of help with hearing conservation? 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Ah.  Well, it all starts with a good thorough noise survey, that is, we actually go out and measure how much noise there is in the environment and how much of that workers are actually exposed to.  And then, based upon that, we make certain recommendations. 

Now, there’s this thing called the OSHA Noise Exposure Standard which all manufacturing companies have to comply with if their noise levels are above a certain amount.  And so, we help companies to comply with those requirements, but also to go really well beyond them, particularly in the area of hearing protection, that is, the actual wearing of earplugs and earmuffs.  And training is extremely important.

So, we help companies to develop really effective hearing conservation programs that will go well beyond just the sort of minimal regulations that you have to comply with. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Okay. 

And so, you said the majority of your customers are the big manufacturing plants that have a lot of noise. 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Oh, yes.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Do you have smaller customers as well?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Um-hmm, we do.  Gosh, I guess the customer size ranges anywhere from very small companies with maybe only about 40, 50 people up to companies with–you know, multistate type companies, really multinational companies, with tens of thousands of employees.  So–.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  –Okay–.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  –It’s a very wide spectrum that we cover. 

And geographically–of course, the vast majority of our customers are in the continental United States.  But, we also have clients as far away as Hawaii and American Samoa, and actually went to Saudi Arabia last year.  You know, very far-flung. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Um-hmm.  Okay. 

And then, how did you find out about SurvivalWare?  And what made you decide to buy it? 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Well, I initially found out about SurvivalWare through Philip Campbell. 

I had–well, going back a step, I earned my master’s degree in business administration, my MBA, a good many years ago in the early ’90s.  And I remember, you know, going through the accounting classes and really struggling with the cash flow, you know, statement.  It really didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me at the time.  I understood what it was for and sort of basically how to do it, but it never really made much intuitive sense to me.

Well, you know, all these years later and I’m out here running my own business and here I am having to deal with cash flow issues again.  And I was using a–of course, our company uses Peachtree, you know, to do our books, but I really did not like the cash flow piece of it.  You know, it was kind of your basic accounting model cash flow statement.

So, I was out there searching for something that would help me do things more intuitively.  And I just sort of stumbled, really, upon Phillip Campbell and upon his book on cash flow principles, and that really intrigued me.  And so, I read the book.  I talked with Philip.  And that’s when I really learned about SurvivalWare, was through him.  But, very quickly after that I purchased the software, and Philip was quite instrumental in helping me get things set up.

He did a lot of legwork to get the program set up to where I could use it.  And have thoroughly enjoyed it since then, I can tell you that.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  And so, besides Peachtree, have you used any other kinds of accounting software in the past?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Yes.  When I had a much smaller private practice, I used QuickBooks.  And for my own personal use, I use Quicken software. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Okay.

And then, you said that you were looking to find a program that could help you analyze your cash flow more intuitively.  Do you care–?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  –That’s right–.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  –To elaborate on that?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Well, of course Philip, you know, developed this peace of mind cash flow model, and that made a lot of sense.  And, you know, of course there were two ways that I could go about trying to implement that peace of mind model, which is a more intuitive way of looking at cash flow.  One was I could sit down and try to do it on a spreadsheet.  And, you know, that I can do but, of course, it’s extremely labor intensive. 

But, then the other is to go out and buy somebody’s software that already had that model built into it.  And fortunately, SurvivalWare did.  And so, that’s really what led me to purchase this particular software package was because it already incorporated that peace of mind cash flow model in it.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Okay.

And how important is it for you as the President of your company to keep track of your cash flow?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Oh, extremely.  We are a small consulting firm, about one and a half million in sales.  And in just sort of the nature of consulting, you really have to watch the cash because it’s a little unpredictable, you know, what’s going to come in from month to month. 

So, we really have to be careful not to overspend and to make sure that we have adequate cash flow to meet our needs on a month-to-month basis.  Yeah, critical.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Um-hmm.  Um-hmm.

And what is your user experience with Excel and what are some of its limitations? 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Well, I like Excel tremendously, and probably would be considered a power user of Excel.  But, you know, there are limitations with its graphing capability.  Virtual anything you do in it, you have to manually set up.  If there are minor changes, then you might have to go back and make those changes across lots of different spreadsheets. 

You know, it can be a real pain to use if you’re doing really complex things like looking at data over a long time period.  And you can think of these monthly imports coming in from Peachtree, if you will, you know, profit and loss statements and balance sheets.  You know, those things really add up over years and year and years.  And it can be a bit difficult to go back and make a change and have that change carry back into all those various columns, if you will.

Well, the way Rusty has set up SurvivalWare, gosh, it’s just so much easier to implement even minor changes.  And, you know, you do it and you go on.  It’s extremely quick and simple to do, much easier to do than dealing with Excel. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Okay.

And so, was it easy to learn how to use SurvivalWare? 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Pretty easy, yeah.  The software’s quite intuitive.  You know, I probably don’t use it to its fullest potential.  I use it for what I need to use it for.  It will certainly do a good bit more than what I need it for, and I probably need to sit down with it, particularly with the new version coming out. 

But, yeah, it’s–it was easy to set up, very easy to use, and I think you’ll get out of it just as much you put into it. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Um-hmm. 

And so, how often do you use it? 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Oh, gosh.  Hmm.  At least monthly, because usually I’m importing data on a monthly basis.  You know, for instance, when April is done, about a week or so thereafter, I’ll import the profit and loss and the balance sheets from Peachtree, and that’s when I look at it.  And then, I may come back to it, you know, two or three times over the course of the month just if I want to look at something in particular.

So–.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  –Um-hmm–.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  –At least on a monthly basis. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  How long have you been using it?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  I think, what, three years now?  Yeah, three years.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Great. 

And were you able to learn how to use it on your own, or with help from Learning SurvivalWare?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Actually, Philip.  When all this was set up, I paid Philip to do a little consulting work with me and he showed me some things.  But, of course, I had already kind of dived into it. 

So, it did not take long to pick it up at all.  Although I will say that if you can get at Philip or Rusty or, you know, just somebody to kind of help out right at the beginning, I think the learning curve is greatly reduced by having somebody kind of walk you through a few things who has done it and who knows that software well. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Um-hmm.  Of course.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  I–.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  –And–.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  –Know that in our own company–and, of course, we are software producers as well.  We generally just don’t let that software out the door at all unless the client commits to some pretty extensive training, because otherwise we’re setting them up for failure. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Um-hmm.  Okay.

How easy is it to load data and do projections?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  It was a bit of a struggle at first to learn how to load the data.  But, I think that’s mostly because there’s no kind of direct import into SurvivalWare from Peachtree.  So, it took Philip a little while to figure out how to do that.

But, once that was done, then from that point it was a piece of cake.  I mean, I can do it–you know, it takes all of about three minutes these days.  And I can’t remember the last time that I had a problem with it.  So, it’s a very smooth process once it was worked out.

It’s probably a lot easier coming from QuickBooks than it is from Peachtree.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Um-hmm.

And what do you like best about SurvivalWare? 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  What I like best about it, its ease of use, certainly that peace of mind cash flow analysis that’s built into it. 

I like the fact, too, that Rusty’s very responsive.  If there’s an issue, you’re not sure about something, you know, you pick up the phone, you send an e-mail in, you’re pretty much going to get him.  And I have found him to just be very, very responsive to my needs and concerns.  And I’m not even close to being his largest client, by any means.  I’m a pretty, you know, small potato in that field. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Okay.

And have you seen the new version?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Yes, I have, and it’s sitting on my computer.  And actually went through a little webinar yesterday with Rusty, and I like it.  It looks to be some pretty significant improvements.

The neat thing I like about the software–and, you know, of course it’s designed for really a small company like myself.  But then, you know, it can also be really scaled up to really, really big companies with people who will take the time to start customizing it. 

And I think that’s one of the things that I saw on the webinar yesterday is that it’s actually far more customizable than I though that it was.  And if somebody’s willing to take the time to sit down and learn how to do it, that’s an extremely powerful feature in that software. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Yes.  I saw that, too. 

And so, another good thing is you’re able to save your customization so that once you have set it up for, you know, the first go-round, you can come back to it and use that same model to do what you need every month following. 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Yes, it is very powerful. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  And so, what could you not do without  SurvivalWare that you can do now? 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Well, probably nothing.  I mean, you know, most everything that it does I could do, but I would have to take the time to sit down and really sink a lot of effort into developing spreadsheets, and then, you know, try to keep the graphs up to date.  I think I could probably do just about everything with spreadsheets that I do with SurvivalWare, but the time savings, you know, and just not having to sit down and actually design all that stuff and support it, that’s what makes it attractive to me. 

It’s pretty–it’s an off the shelf software package that was easily customized to my needs.  And basically, all I have to do is just push a button and it does its thing.  It just saves me an awful lot of time and therefore money and headache involved in doing it another way.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  If you were to estimate a percentage how much time you think it saves you within a month, what would you say?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Oh, gosh.  It’s probably reduced–yeah, easily 90 percent, because there again all I have to do is go into it, load the data, which takes, you know, two to three minutes, and then it just sort of unfolds before me.  And what it allows me to do is to concentrate on the metrics rather than the process.  Because if I’m having to do this stuff with spreadsheets, that’s an awful lot of process involved before I can ever get to the metrics. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Um-hmm. 

And in your opinion, what feature has become the most indispensible or critical for your business?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Well, I like that peace of mind cash flow model that’s built into it an awful lot. 

What I also like is the Comparanator, which, again, very, very easily allows you just to pick this or that and just start, you know, trending things and comparing things.  That’s something else that would be much more difficult to do in Excel, for instance. 

But, those two things really stand out for me as being extremely important, being able to quickly compare things and being able to very quickly see what my cash flow is doing.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Okay. 

And how has SurvivalWare enhanced your focus on analysis and projections?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  It has certainly helped.  You know, there again, is it something I could have done in Excel?  You know, do cash flow projections using Excel?  Sure, that’s pretty standard MBA stuff.  But, SurvivalWare, again, just makes the process so much easier because it already had some models built into it that you can pick and choose from. 

Again, why in the world would I go invest that amount of time in a spreadsheet when, you know, here it is just kind of laid out in front of me?  And if I want to choose this model, I can and see what it does.  And if–you know, if I want to choose another model, I can choose it and see what it projects and then go from there.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  And what are some of the differences that you notice between models that are in there?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Well, you know, you can get different results depending upon whether you’re doing–whether you’re trending things, say, seasonally or whether you’re trending things based upon an assumption of a 5 percent growth. 

Or, you know, the neat thing is is that you can apply all of these different models to see which one you think kind of best fits reality.  It doesn’t force you down one road of projecting cash flow.

And again, that’s–that process is far easier in SurvivalWare than it would be in using Excel, for instance. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  So, it allows you more flexibility.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Um-hmm, yeah.  Flexibility and speed, yes. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Okay. 

And what types of businesses do you think would benefit from SurvivalWare? 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Oh, gosh.  Be pretty tough to imagine one that would not benefit from it, really.  You know, any kind of business is going to have cash flow to deal with.  And so, any–you know, any business that’s in business is going to benefit from this.  If they’re not doing cash flow analysis, they’re probably not going to be around. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  And then, also just one, do you have perhaps a real life example of where SurvivalWare kind of helped your business in a way, or avoided disaster, maybe? 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  I think probably not in the avoiding disaster area, because we’re pretty conservative in how we do things. 

What it did help me to do was just kind of see what cash flow had looked like over the past several years, and so I can see bumps in the road.  For instance, if there’s a month or two or a particular season of the year that’s been kind of slow for us, then it helps me to prepare for that, to see it coming, as it were, and, you know, maybe try to put a little bit more cash away during the immediate few months prior to that so that we can weather the little storm that comes up over the slow period.  We can see those coming. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Um-hmm.  Okay.

And would you recommend SurvivalWare to a friend or a colleague? 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Oh, sure, without reservation.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Well, great. 

Do you have any questions or last minute comments?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  No, not really, it’s–well, other than that it’s a great software package.  Rusty’s done a fantastic job with it. 

And I’ll tell you, for a small business to be able to have this kind of a capability at its fingertips, there’s just no reason not to do it. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Okay, Gregg.  Well, thank you so much for your time today, this afternoon.  Well, afternoon, nighttime.

And also, I just wanted to make sure that we have your permission to use any of your comments or any of the content of this interview for commercial purposes. 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Yeah.  Go right ahead.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Okay, great.

Well, thank you so much, and you have a great day.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  All right.  Pleasure talking with you, Kelly. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Thank you.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Bye-bye. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Bye-bye. 

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Outtakes

For those of you interest in Paris or Europe, here’s Kelly talking about the weather while warming up for the interview.

Interview with Mr. Gregg Moore

May 7, 2010; 4:00 p.m.

 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Hi there.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Hello.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  And so, you’re in Greensboro, North Carolina? 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Yes, I am, and it’s a beautiful day.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  It’s actually been quite chilly up here in Paris. 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Uh-huh.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  But, it’s a little bit warmer today.  We’ve got some sunshine. 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Oh, very nice.  Very nice.

So, you are in Paris, huh?

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Yeah.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Oh, very nice.  Are you selling SurvivalWare over there?    

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  No, actually we’re kind of investigating the market.  And I had previously moved here in September of 2007 working as a nanny.  So–.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  –Well, it’s a beautiful place.  I haven’t been to Paris in quite a long time, but–.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  –Oh, okay–.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  –It’s just a gorgeous city. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  And so, when was the last time you were there?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Oh, gosh.  Twenty years ago, easily. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Oh, wow.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Long, long time.  Long time. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Cool.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  And growing up, my dad was in the Army.  So, we actually lived in Germany when I was young and got to travel a good bit throughout Europe.  And I don’t–.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  –Cool–.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  –Remember Paris at that time.  But, I do remember going into the northern part of France and, of course, all over Germany and the Swiss Alps and such.  So–.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  –Oh, nice.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Yeah.  I have some good memories of Europe. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  I haven’t quite made it over to Germany, but I’ve been to Madrid and to Amsterdam and Rotterdam. 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Amsterdam’s great.  Get up to Copenhagen, too–. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  –Yeah–.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  –If you can do it.  I lived in Saudi Arabia for a while and spent a Christmas in Copenhagen. 

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Oh, okay.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  There’s not a whole lot of daylight hours up there that time of the year.  It’s a little bit on the gray side.  But–.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  –Uh-huh–.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  –It is an absolutely beautiful place to be around the Christmas season.  So–.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  –Oh, wow–.

Mr. Gregg Moore:  –I would highly recommend Copenhagen.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  Cool. 

Well, why don’t we go ahead and get started? 

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Certainly.

Ms. Kelly Luhring:  So, why don’t you tell us about your company and your specific role in the company?

Mr. Gregg Moore:  Sure.  Well, I’m the President of a company called Workplace Integra, and we deal with occupational safety and health.  We provide onsite consulting, mostly in the area of occupational hearing conservation, but some other areas as well.

Work on SurvivalWare 3.1 is well underway

Sometimes the development cycle moves faster than others.   SurvivalWare Pro 3.0 was driven by our desire to put customization tools in the hands of power users in preparation for a ramping up of demand.  Version 3.1 is customer driven.  A customer (AlphaGraphics, Inc.)  is paying us to make the Budgeting module simpler to use, while at the same time extending the budget to the Balance Sheet and Cash Flow statements from just the Income Statement.  It’s a big deal, but it sure is going to be nice.  I’m doing the work for the AlphaGraphics model, and at the same time making the changes to our generic Fort Knox model so that the new feature is available to the rest of the customer base.

By the way, if you haven’t seen it yet, take a look at this brand new video of Kevin Cushing, CEO of AlphaGraphics, explaining why SurvivalWare has become a system standard for AlphaGraphics.   He also lays down a challenge to improve SurvivalWare to make it more integrated with their business planning process.

Kevin Cushing on SurvivalWare as System Standard for AlphaGraphics

One of the nice things about the new budgeting module  will be that you can work on the current year budget or next year budget at any time.  Previously it was tough to make changes to the current year budget.

The user interface has been improved, with numbers and checkmarks to help you keep track of your progress.  Here is a sample screen:

It should be ready for beta testing in a week to 10 days.  We’re hoping to get it released in time for the annual AlphaGraphics conference in early July. 

In addition to the new Budgeting Module, there will be other enhancements, such as the ability to enter notes in a company file that can be displayed to help the user remember how to load data or do something else.

Don’t worry – anyone who purchased version 3.0 will be upgraded to 3.1 automatically.  We plan on an upgrade to the technical documentation with version 3.1 as well.

Most AlphaGraphics users are waiting for 3.1 before upgrading from 2.0 so they have to do it just once.

Please leave comments if you have suggestions for improvements to SurvivalWare.  And don’t worry Kirk, we’ll get better looking icons for Balance Sheet and Cash Flow reports before final release.

In Defense of the Virtual Family Firm (VFF)

Venture capitalists may look down on us as hopeless romantics, government policies may try to cut us off at the knees at every opportunity, bankers may be bankers, lending umbrellas when the weather is clear and demanding them back when it begins to rain – and yet we do not despair.  Because we are entrepreneurs.  We are forever hopeful.  We do not give up.  We persist. 

As entrepreneurs, we are hell-bent on making a better life for ourselves, our families, and yes the world. And you know what, Luhring SurvivalWare is leading the charge.   We are leading the charge to increase the financial sophistication and nimbleness of small business owners all over the world so that they are not buffeted so much by the complete failure of the financial system to attend to their needs. 

Pretty soon, banks will be asking “Are you using SurvivalWare?” and will compete vigorously to lend to those companies that do.  The smart banks will be the ones to do this first, because it fosters two way communication between the borrower and the bank, and makes the loan generating, approval, and ongoing monitoring process efficient for both parties.  This is one way to break the credit log jam. 

What we don’t need is a government program that rations credit by putting a ceiling on interest rates, and awards loans to those most skilled at filling out forms rather than actually contributing to economic growth. 

Living well is our ultimate revenge. 

I am so encouraged when I talk to entrepreneurs like Gregg Moore, CEO of WorkPlace Integra in Greensboro, North Carolina, (http://www.workplaceintegra.com) and a loyal SurvivalWare user.  Gregg says,  “I tell people I’m a blessed man.  I get to get up and go to work every day and do something I thoroughly enjoy doing.” 

Or Jarrod Osborne, founder and CEO of Solar Source in Long Beach, California, (http://www.solarsourcepower.com) who has a newborn baby and schedules his appointments for late afternoon after his wife gets off work so that he can care for the child during the rest of the day.  Jarrod is passionate about Clean Energy and building his business,  and is considering SurvivalWare as a potential tool to help him avoid the pitfalls of rapid growth as he looks to expand.  Jarrod still manages to play a lot of golf, and lead an active social life, while doing something he enjoys, and spending precious time with his family. 

This is why we persist.  Why we fight the battle.  And why we’re going to find a way around stupid government policies and the constipated credit market for small business owners come hell or high water. 

Hear this policymakers: you can’t keep us down.  You can keep throwing bullshit our way, but WE WILL PREVAIL.  But for God’s sake, it is in your interest – the whole country’s interest – to remove the shackles and let us innovate and compete. 

For this is the dawn of a new age in entrepreneurship and business formation.   The Kauffman Center just released their study of Entrepreneurial Activity which shows new business formation reached a 14 year high last year despite the recession.

http://www.kauffman.org/newsroom/despite-recession-us-entrepreneurial-activity-rate-rises-in-2009.aspx 

Contributing to this increase is a phenomenon that I call the Virtual Family Firm (VFF).  We are the family farms of the 19^th and 20^th centuries transposed into the age of the internet and Moore’s law.  We straddle generations and cultures in order to bolster our understanding of the latest technologies and social discourse.  Nothing like having young people around to make you humble about your usage of technology.  

What is a VFF?  It is a company dominated by family members related by blood or marriage, who may live in different places around the country, or even around the world.  The ties that bind and the mutual trust dispense with a whole host of problems and concerns.  You don’t have to come up with non-compete agreements, non-disclosure agreements, or employee handbooks.  Already we have a lower cost structure. 

Next is the frugal innovation enabled by family flexibility.  How about this:  my nephew Sam, who lives in Long Beach, comes to the East Coast and spends 8 or 9 days working with me on some sale videos.

Normal cost:

Airtravel:  $400

Car Rental: $200

Hotel:   $1,000

Meals:       $450

Total:  $2,050

Actual cost:  $300 – less than 15% of the normal cost.  Not too shabby!

Sam stayed at my house.  We did not eat out once.  I cooked every night.  He covered the flight out since he was coming to the East Coast on other business.  Oh yeah – that’s another advantage of a VFF:  I’m totally cool with Sam having outside business interests.  I trust him to devote the time necessary to LSI.  I want him to succeed in life, not just with my company.  The end result:  I know of other software companies spending $15,000 and up for a single 5 minute promotional video.  We get them done for a fraction of the cost.  It allows us to compete.

So you see, it is not just the developing world that practices frugal innovation.  We do it every day in the VFF’s of America just by our very existence.  We have to in order to survive.

Unfortunately, the Big Elites (corporate, media, and government) seem clueless about what it truly is to be an entrepreneur, much less a leader of a VFF.  The risk of wrong-headed policy is that it will stifle or choke off the one hope we have of growing ourselves out of this mess.  By “this mess” I mean the whole economy thing.  You guys are looking for solutions.  There are better strategies than pouring more slop into the federal trough for Wall Street bankers and porcine government contractors.

Here’s an example of the kind of stuff we have to put up with:

I just went through the obstacle course of “getting legal” with my work force, classifying some as sub-contractors, and some as employees to the best of my ability to discern the law (with advice from my accountants and payroll service).

So now I have to register in Pennsylvania and North Carolina in addition to my home state of Virginia.  And pay their un-employment tax. And workers comp rates.  Which means I have to get workers comp insurance.  In case one of my family members slips and falls in their home office due to my negligence and decides to sue.  Say what?!

I’m lucky to have found an incredible company to outsource my “bookkeeping and bullshit” as I like to call it.  (OSI Business Services – highly recommended.  www.osibusinessservices.com Just tell Bill Gerber that Rusty sent you).  Under the rubric “bullshit” falls income tax returns, payroll tax returns, un-employment tax filings, sales tax returns, state registrations, and generally anything that involves filling out a stupid government form.  It ain’t cheap, but it frees me to concentrate on developing product and serving customers.

Here’s my message to policy makers: let’s cut the bullshit.  Just because something is hard doesn’t mean it can’t be done.  We entrepreneurs have to do the impossible every day just to stay in business.  Shut up and listen for a change.  I have three simple suggestions:

Number 1:

Let’s make it easier for virtual companies to establish dedicated work forces across state lines.  Call it the Virtual Family Firm Act.  Is that so hard?  We’re not asking for subsidies or looking to avoid taxes.  Why can’t there be just one government entity to register with, instead of one per state.  How about a special employee classification so that we can treat family members as sub-contractors?  You realize the government forces us to be their tax collectors.  It’s time they did that themselves.  It is an un-necessary burden for us little guys.

Number 2:

Let’s tackle Social Security here and now before it gets worse.  Here’s what I think:

• We as a country are willing to make shared sacrifices if they are deemed fair
• We want to solve the problem.
• Most people don’t understand the significance of productivity vs. CPI indexing, and would consider the lower cost method fair.  The difference is huge.  This is truly low hanging fruit, we need to pick it.
• People live longer, and actually are happier the longer they work and keep active.  We should raise the age of retirement 1 to 5 years, in increments.
• We should ask the actuaries how much benefits would have to be reduced to get the system in balance by some target year, say 2,050.  Or maybe phrase the question:  for each 1% reduction in benefits, what does that do to the solvency projections?  We need this information in order to make informed decisions.  Time to get the ole head out of the sand, and start crunching some numbers to frame the debate.
• There should be no penalty for retirees holding jobs and earning income.  Just normal taxes.  That makes it easier to get by with less guaranteed benefits.  The current reduction in benefits is crazy.

Number 3:

Do not try to control the cost of credit – that will just make the banks become more selective, avoid risk-taking, and ration it.  Guess who is at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to access to credit?  I’ll give you a hint: it’s not AIG, General Motors, or Goldman Sachs.

Yesterday’s USA Today featured an article on the money page with the headline “Rates rise for small firms – Credit card issuers charge 13.7% more.”   Apparently small business rates were 13.7% higher in April vs. October last year.  Consumer cards, on average, were just 2.4% higher.  Molly Brogan, spokeswoman for the National Small Business Association was quoted as saying, “The absence of any small-business credit card protection in this legislation is likely a significant factor in these increases over the last several months.”

You can quote Rusty Luhring as saying, ”Charge me what you want.  I have the tools to figure out whether it is a good deal or not, and how to work repayment into my future cash flow.  Just raise my limit so I can make those decisions without having to jump through hoops.”

Has anyone thought seriously about the lost opportunity that arises from this obscene mis-allocation of capital?  I have, and it makes my blood boil.