My Writings
Essays
aka Long-form rants
Why I don’t call myself a CFO:
Chief Financial Officer is more than a fancy title. CFOs play a very particular and important role in large businesses. I can help your business, but I’m by no means a true CFO (and I’m not going to lie about it just so I can charge you more).
End the P&L:
Profit & Loss reports are the small business report. But, maybe they shouldn’t be. Read the pros, cons, and learn the P&L tricks.
What you need to know before opening an S-corp:
The internet loves touting S-corps as an one-size-fits-all tax savings. But, in reality, they’re very complicated and, in some situations, may end up costing you money.
Free worksheets:
Various worksheets I use with clients that I’ve made available for free. Currently, that’s just a Profit & Loss worksheet for side-hustles and consultants, but more to come.
The Tools I’m Using:
This is all the tech I use to run Resting Business Face (including the newsletter, LinkedIn content, and accounting practice). Feel free to rip it off.
The Email Library
Updated Whenever I Remember
Your personal finances affect your business profit and cash flow
Legal nuances aside, you and your business are intertwined. Your business provides for your family, stresses you out, helps you feel fulfilled, and occupies most of your waking thoughts. It's very clear what our businesses give us. But, it's a little less clear what...
How to start saving for retirement (as a business owner)
Saving for retirement is much harder for business owners than regular old employees. When saving for retirement, all employees have to do is sign 401k paperwork with HR, set a contribution amount, and pick from a list of preselected investments. Then, it's taken care...
Different kinds of emergency funding
The best time to plan for an emergency is when things are going well. That's when you have a clear mind, time to really think thru your plan, and won't be pressured into making snap decisions. You don't need to have a fully fleshed out wartime-CEO document, but you...
‘Profit’ can mean different things to different people
One of the biggest problems when trying to understand small business accounting & finance is the terminology. The rules that define accounting (yeah, there's rules. They're called GAAP and IFRS and are just as lame as you'd think they are) very specifically define...
A (very) basic order of operations for paying yourself from your business
Small businesses grow in stages. In the beginning, there's a clamoring for personal financial stability (aka you gotta earn enough money to buy food and pay rent). In that stage, the most important things are generating revenue, being profitable enough, and paying...
Search for bottlenecks in your invoicing process
Improving cash flow seems simple on the surface. You just speed up invoice collection, slow down bill payment, and make sure you have capital available for emergencies. But, that's easier said than done. Textbook cash flow advice will only get you so far. For example,...
Worry about your business and not ‘what the market can bear’ when increasing prices
When discussing pricing, people frequently mention 'what the market can bear' (aka the max people will pay for your product/service) as the upper threshold. Because, in theory, if you charge more than what the market can bear then no one will buy from you. But, 'what...
Improve your cash flow by collecting client payment info during contract signing
At its core, improving cash flow has a lot to do with the timing and availability of cash in your business. That's why mega-corps will delay paying bills for as long as possible, because it leaves money in their accounts longer and improves the overall cash...
Proactively look for surprise expenses to improve your long-term cash flow
Proactively managing cash flow is more than just enforcing payment terms, delaying your cash outflows, and building a tiny emergency fund. You should also be actively looking for potential cash flow problems and planning for them. Because, a surprise expense that...
Demonstrating value doesn’t end at the sale
Clients are usually the happiest with and most excited by your services when (and shortly after) they hire you. That's when they're most convinced that you can solve whatever problem or pain-point they're currently facing and feel the relief of getting it off their...
Reader question: “I raised my prices and a few of my clients are upset. How do I fix this?”
Raising your prices is one of the most common bits of internet small business wisdom. The general idea is that you're almost always undercharging because people are bad at determining their own value and, even if you lose a few clients, the increased billings will...
Questions to ask yourself before changing course
Constantly learning, iterating, testing, and evolving helps keep your business ahead of new challenges and beating the competition. New innovations can be as simple as new software tools, addon services, or updated deliverables, but can make your business...
Keep a running ‘progress & goals document’ so you can more easily look back on your growth
True growth is incredibly slow. It's a series of marginal improvements over a long enough period of time until you finally become proficient or successful. For example, they say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert (which is debatable, but this is just an...
Getting started with business systems and procedures
Standard operating procedures, systems, and processes are amazing because they keep everyone on the same page, keep client work consistent, reduce errors, and, honestly, take some of the thinking out of repetitive tasks and projects. Instead of setting up every...
Understand your cash flow better with a master recurring expense calendar
Recurring expenses are a major, major factor in small business cash flow. Things like rent, utilities, payroll, loans/leases, and software expenses are constantly drawing against your business revenue, profit, and emergency fund/war chest. Understanding, anticipating,...
Ask clients for feedback (instead of assuming)
After a few years in business (or in our chosen careers), we fall into this bad habit of assuming we know what our clients and potential new clients want. And, like all assumptions, that makes an ass of you and me. Bad assumptions lead to unhappy clients, weak...
Always have a Plan B
A major aspect of starting and running a successful small business is experimenting until you find what works for you then doubling down on it. You need to find the right processes, marketing channels, software, locations, employees, service providers, etc. And, once...
Reader question: “How do I respond to a bad review?”
Bad reviews are the worst. You're busy juggling client demands, admin tasks, and your personal life while genuinely trying to do a great job, then, out of nowhere, you get a bad review. It's the last thing you need and an absolute downer. But, more importantly, it's...
Credit card debt is like quicksand
Credit card debt is a funny thing. It's brutal and can quickly overwhelm your business with its 15%+ interest rates. But, it's frequently glamorized by entrepreneurs. Many entrepreneur influencers suggest funding your early-stage business with credit card debt or...
Review your Profit & Loss before you forward it to your accountant this tax season
It's no secret that I love accounting. Accurate accounting helps you make more educated business decisions, plan spending, and detect fraud. And, modern accounting software makes the entire process so much easier. It downloads transactions, suggests categorizations,...
Making a New Year’s resolution isn’t enough to transform your business. You need a plan.
Hey, I'm Michael Eckstein 👋, and this is 'Ordinary & Necessary', a weekly newsletter about the small business profitability, cash flow, strategy, and personal wealth that will help your business grow. You signed up on my website. If you'd like to...
Read your insurance benefits now, before you need to make a claim
Hey, I'm Michael Eckstein 👋, and this is 'Ordinary & Necessary', a weekly newsletter about the boring business topics that don't get enough traction on the web, but will help you manage and grow your business. You signed up on my website. If you'd like to...
Budget in growth for 2021
Hey, I'm Michael Eckstein 👋, and this is 'Ordinary & Necessary', a weekly newsletter about the boring business topics that don't get enough traction on the web, but will help you manage and grow your business. You signed up on my website. If you'd like to...
Conversations to have with your problem clients (and how to fix them)
Hey, I'm Michael Eckstein 👋, and this is 'Ordinary & Necessary', a weekly newsletter about the boring business topics that don't get enough traction on the web, but will help you manage and grow your business. You signed up on my website. If you'd like to...
Crappy clients are a cash flow problem
Hey, I'm Michael Eckstein 👋, and this is 'Ordinary & Necessary', a weekly newsletter about the boring business topics that don't get enough traction on the web, but will help you manage and grow your business. You signed up on my website. If you'd like to...