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Extended Summer! Here in Western WA, we are enjoying a hot, beautiful September. Love that! We pray that each of you has a wonderful fall in your community as well. Many of you are planning to come to "Strength 2 Strength - A Conference for Christian Business Women." If you haven't already done so, please register today to help us accurately plan for SWAG bags & catering. Thanks! You can also visit our October 9th conference pages on KBWomen.com to read more conference details. Come for business skill building, fabulous networking, encouragement, fun, food, shopping, & more! We've been preparing for you...

Krista Dunk & Tammy Redmon Co-Founders

Thank you for reading today. Please feel free to forward this ezine to anyone who'd be interested.  ~ Tammy & Krista

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Thursday, September 24th: 9:30-10:15am - KBWomen Radio - Join us this Thursday morning as we interview conference speaker and CPA Audrey Godwin! She will give us a sneak preview of her conference topic, and she has some great things to share. Don't miss this show! Listen in 'live' via phone at (347) 202-0747 or online 'live' or archived later at www.blogtalkradio.com/kbwomen.

Tuesday, October 20th 6:15-8:00 - Olympia Group Meeting - Save-the-date for KBWomen's October Olympia networking and business meeting. Forza Coffee Co, Lacey, WA.  RSVP

Friday, October 9th, 2009 - It's almost here... "Strength 2 Strength" Christian businesswomen's conference in Bellevue, WA! Registration is open - just $67 pre-registration ($77 at the door). Visit our online conference pages for more details. You can also request a flier via email. We'd love to see you (and a friend) there!

     Let's Talk Cash Flow
by Audrey Godwin of www.TheGodwinGroup.net (Conference Speaker)

Cash and profit are not mutually exclusive, although many business owners think that if they have cash in the bank, they should be profitable. When you talk about money in your business, what are you really talking about? Cash flow? Profit? Sales? When you discuss finances, what comes up? Cash? Debt? Equity contributions? Or am I being too forward in stating that you are regularly looking at your financial statements? There are many businesses that are in the throes of putting together their tax returns for 2008, yet have very little idea about what is going on in 2009. We just figure that we'll file our taxes, and then eventually catch up to make half-way decent decisions about what to do by the end of the year. And by the way, the end of the year is rapidly approaching!

Let's talk about cash flow – what is it? Cash inflow comes from sales, debt financing and capital infusions by the owner. Cash outflow is payments of vendor trade credit, operating expenses, sales and marketing costs, overhead, product costs, owner compensation, equipment purchases, and debt payments. Yes, this is a bit obvious, but if you are not reviewing cash flow regularly, then you may run out of steam way before you get to the finish line. And let's ask a bigger question, what do you have in place to monitor and measure your cash flow? We tend to tell ourselves that the bookkeeping is more than we can handle because it's "just not our thing" or, "I don't do numbers." While there may be a little bit of truth to that, we really want to dig deeper to "peel back the onion" so-to-speak, in order to understand what we believe around money that is keeping us from managing it well.

Money beliefs are not developed just because you start your own company. Money beliefs are formed way before that. As a matter of fact, owning your own company will bring to the surface those issues much more quickly. If we find ourselves struggling to keep cash flow positive, timely and available, there is a different conversation we need to be having. I have worked with women who are great at keeping detailed books and records for others, but when it comes to their own finances, they fall flat and miss the mark. Now, there is no blame here, it is just a matter of perspective. As women, it is easier to do for others with excellence, yet not really believe that we are deserving of that excellence. I spoke with a client a couple of years ago about this very issue. She was always getting her taxes done at the very last minute (October time frame) and wanting to do better the following year. However, her verbal commitment did not reflect her actions. So, I asked her what she was really willing to commit to in order for her business to thrive and flourish. Read Full Article...

Audrey Godwin, CPA, is the owner of The Godwin Group, PLLC, in Renton, WA. www.thegodwingroup.net

Volume 22, 9-09

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