Profitable businesses fail regularly, and the mechanism is always the same: money owed arrives more slowly than money owed out. The cash conversion cycle, the thirteen-week forecast, and the warning signs.
Reading a Cash Flow Statement: What the Income Statement Hides
The income statement is the easiest financial statement to flatter. The cash flow statement records only what actually moved — and reading the two together reveals most of what a company would rather you missed.
Merchant Cash Advances: The Arithmetic Behind the Pitch
Structured as a purchase of future receivables rather than a loan, it sits outside much of the regulation governing lending, including the requirement to state an annual rate.
Working Capital Is Where Growing Companies Quietly Fail
The most counter-intuitive fact in corporate finance is that growth consumes cash. A business winning more orders and expanding margins can run out of money doing it.
The Quarterly Estimated Tax System Was Not Designed for Uneven Income
It asks a business to pay tax on income it has not finished earning, based on a projection of a year that is not over. For seasonal firms that is a structural cash flow problem.