Financial Projections

Family Businesses Have Big Impact on US Economy

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 by Glenn Dunlap

Do you know someone who owns a family business? Surely you do. They are all around us - from the restaurants, dry cleaners, and retail shops (the places we affectionately refer to as "mom and pops") to the largest privately-held conglomerates all across our nation. Here are some facts recently shared in the Indianapolis Business Journal that should make you stop and appreciate those family businesses owners:

More than 90 percent of the 20 million businesses in the United States are family-owned.
Six of 10 jobs created are in family businesses.
59 percent of our U.S. gross domestic product is created by family businesses.

Maybe you are one of those business owners. If so, thank you! Or maybe you are thinking of making the leap. If you are putting together a business plan to start a new business venture, you'll know that you are in good company. There are business owners near you who can provide you with lessons learned and share their insights into running a business. While many view entrepreneurship as risky and uncertain (and ownership contains both), putting your future in the hands of someone else, especially in these turbulent times, can prove just as risky or uncertain.

So for that start up, map out your business strategy, complete your financial projections, bounce the idea off of successful business people and business advisors like those in our Indianapolis consulting firm, and get on your way!

Wall Street Journal Discusses the Trend of Using Part-Time CFO's

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 by Glenn Dunlap

Startup and early stage companies have often used the services of a part-time CFO. In fact, our Indianapolis consulting firm has been providing these services to entrepreneurial companies for over six years. We were recently contacted, however, by the Wall Street Journal to discuss whether using part-time CFO's was a growing trend not just with early-stage companies but also with companies who would have traditionally had a full-time CFO. Here are some excerpts from the article that they ran today:

Some small-business owners in need of accounting help to balance their books and guide them out of a financial black hole are renting CFOs rather than hiring them. The strategy comes at a time when the deep recession has forced small companies to look for money-saving alternatives that can yield good returns yet avoid substantial overhead costs.

"They're looking for ways to streamline and be efficient as they can," says Glenn Dunlap, a co-founder of Milestone Advisors LLC, a small-business consulting firm in Indianapolis that provides CFO services.

The average annual salary for a full-time CFO in a small- to medium-size businesses ranges from $94,250 to $175,750, according to a 2009 Salary Guide by Robert Half International Inc., a Menlo Park, Calif., staffing services firm that serves the accounting and finance fields. Renting one can be significantly cheaper.

Entrepreneur Bob Compton, founder and chief executive of Vontoo Inc., an Indianapolis-based voice-messaging company, says he has rented CFOs for six companies he has started or been a lead investor in. "To hire a CFO in the early-going is a waste of money," Mr. Compton says. "It's much better to invest that money in engineers and sales people."

For Vontoo, he pays $5,000 a month for the CFO's strategic advice, bookkeeping services and accounting expertise. "It's a tremendous cost-saving," he says.

Click here to read the full article or follow the links to our webpage to learn more about how Milestone's business consultants can complement your management team in all aspects of your business.

Milestone Client, My Health Care Manager, Featured in the News

Monday, August 31, 2009 by Glenn Dunlap

The August 24th edition of the Indianapolis Business Journal featured Milestone Advisors' client, My Health Care Manager.

The company's CEO, Alan Stanford (pictured here), began working with Milestone three years ago when planning the start-up of the new business.

My Health Care Manager helps older adults achieve better management and control of their total health care, longer independence and greater peace of mind for themselves and their loved ones.

Here's an excerpt of the article about their recent success:

Indianapolis-based startup My Health Care Manager has signed an agreement with Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. that will eventually put My Health Care Manager’s elder care service in front of the health insurer’s thousands of employer clients and their workers around the country.

It’s a coup for My Health Care Manager, which has only about 500 individual customers now. But in September and October, WellPoint salespeople will pitch My Health Care Manager’s service to employers around Indiana.

Late this year or maybe next, WellPoint will talk up the service around the Midwest. Eventually, the company plans to roll it out in all 14 states where it operates.

“We now have a way to get to the market,” said Alan Stanford, founder and CEO of My Health Care Manager. He added that he will now pitch his service to Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans that WellPoint does not own.

“It just gives our company credibility as an established company very quickly,” he said of the WellPoint deal.

My Health Care Manager has annual revenue of less than $1 million now. But within a year, Stanford expects sales to near $10 million.

“We’re past the development phase and now we’re in the scaling phase,” Stanford said. “We have the potential to be a very large business.”

Milestone is proud to have worked with Alan Stanford and My Health Care Manager to develop their financial projections and business plan in their formative stages and to continue to provide them with part-time CFO, controllership and accounting services. Congratulations to Alan and his team. We wish you much success!!

Can We Start With The Financial Projections?

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 by Glenn Dunlap

At Milestone Advisors, we complete dozens of business plans for our clients on an annual basis. Over the years, we've developed our own process that we follow when developing the plans. We start with the market and opportunity assessment, marketing plans, management and operations, and finally the financial projections. But from time to time, our Indianapolis business consultants are asked to start the process by developing the financial model first. Our response is typically, "Based on what?"

The Economist released an article about business planning that emphasized the importance of working your way through the tougher elements - market analysis, market planning, team development, etc. - before spending too much time on the financials. Here's a snippet:

In an influential article in Harvard Business Review, William Sahlman, a professor of business administration, suggested that business plans “waste too much ink on numbers and devote too little to the information that really matters to intelligent investors”. What really matters, suggested Sahlman, are four factors that are “critical to every new venture”:

• The people;
• The opportunity;
• The context;
• The risk and reward.

A great business plan, Sahlman suggested, is one that focuses on asking the right questions about these four things. It is not easy to compose, however, because “most entrepreneurs are wild-eyed optimists”. In any case, as he says, “The market is as fickle as it is unpredictable. Who would have guessed that plug-in room deodorisers would sell?”

Our business advisors would agree whole-heartedly with the areas of focus for a business plan. While we believe in the importance of sound financial projections, they need to be supported by a great deal of research and analysis. If you are struggling with your corporate strategy, give us a call. We'd love to help you with our consulting services!

IBJ Article Features Milestone Client - Ali Sales Roach, President of Compendium Blogware

Monday, August 10, 2009 by Glenn Dunlap

The Indianapolis Business Journal featured a few "Women in Technology" in this week's issue. We have been fortunate enough to work with Ali Sales Roach, the President of Compendium Blogware. Here's a portion of the article about Ali:

From fellow to entrepreneur
A case in point is Alison Sales Roach, an Orr fellow from 2003 to 2005. She majored in English at DePauw University and was not very attracted to

Compendium President and Co-Founder, Ali Sales Roach

technology.
    “I was more interested in marketing and figured good writing skills couldn’t hurt any position,” said Roach, who grew up in Columbus, Ind.
    As an Orr fellow, she worked for two years at ExactTarget, an e-mail marketing software company, where she was mentored by Chris Baggott, one of its co-founders. There, she became intrigued by “real-life problems that all marketers face: How do I generate a never-ending stream of demand? How do I constantly get new, inbound prospects in front of our salespeople?”
    She left to head online marketing at the local office of RCI, a New Jersey-based resort timeshare network, and then at Cha-Cha, a Carmel mobile search company founded by Scott Jones.
    In 2007, the entrepreneurial spirit struck. She and Baggott co-founded Compendium Blogware, which specializes in blog software and search engine optimization. Named to IBJ’s 40 Under 40 list this year, she is president of the company, which has 35 employees, offices in Circle Tower and 40 angel investors.
    “Getting technology to solve problems is easy when you have lived them firsthand,” Roach said. “You are always in the shoes of your users. So I never really aspired to create technology, but technology was the inevitable solution to the problem of customer acquisition. And the broad exposure I was able to get at ExactTarget as an early employee and part of the Orr fellowship gave me a good sense of how you build a technology company from a business perspective.”

Milestone Advisors, a group of 25 Indianapolis Business Consultants, works with Ali and other CEO's of high growth companies to provide them with strategic planning, developing financial projections, accounting services, and Part Time CFO services. If you are looking for help wth your business strategy, obtaining bank financing, or just need accounting advice, give us a call. We would love to work with you too!

Congrats to Ali on the feature!

News Report: Part-Time CFO Can Double Profitability and Cash

Sunday, August 2, 2009 by Glenn Dunlap

In an article released yesterday by the Gulf News, writer Verne Harnish lays out three ways that investing in your business accounting services can increase your profitability and cash. Here's a little of the article:

Businesses often under invest on the accounting side, seeing it as pure overhead meant to be kept to a minimum. And given a marginal dollar, most business owners will opt to either spend it on acquiring more resources or making more sales.

In fact, I've seen the best investment a company can make is bolstering the numbers side of the business. Hiring just one additional accounting clerk or a part-time CFO can double profitability and cash within 12 months. So how can they help the most immediately? Here are three ways:

Regular pruning is critical to the growth of plants; the same for your business. The key is knowing where to prune and how deep. And during turbulent times, it's often advisable to prune deeper. But you need the hard data to help direct the shears.

Have your accounting team give you a spreadsheet that shows gross margin dollar contribution (or just revenue) by products/services listed in descending order. Then walk down the list and draw a line when you reach 85 per cent of your total revenue or gross margin dollars. Seriously consider eliminating the rest, taking the energy and focus you've placed on these underperforming activities and redirecting it to your top producers.

This same exercise should be repeated with customers, raising prices on your least loyal to either make them more valuable or drive them to your competitors. Obviously, this needs to be handled delicately and an evaluation of future lifetime value needs to figure into the decisions. Your accounting department can be helpful in providing this additional analysis.

Continue the exercise by location, opportunities, distribution channels, etc. What's critical is that someone is handing you a piece of paper (best if it's graphical) that is keeping you updated on the profitability/margin contribution by product, customer, office, channel, and/or sales person each week. Then you and your business unit leaders will have the data needed to make critical resource allocation decisions.

If you've ever come up short of cash, as I have, you never want to be in that place again. That's why I've received a cash report each day for almost a decade. CEOs tend to focus more on the profit and loss statement and ignore their cash flow and balance sheet reports at their peril.

To alleviate this weakness, the daily cash report summarizes the cash on hand in various bank accounts, details what has come in and gone out in the last 24 hours, and projects what's expected to come in and out as far out as we have data.

At Milestone Advisors, an Indianapolis Business Consulting firm, we help our clients by providing financial accounting services such as operations analysis, customer and product analysis, and cash and financial projections.

Valuable Lessons for Corporate Finance Needs

Friday, July 31, 2009 by Glenn Dunlap

Determining how much money to raise at any stage of a business is not always a crystal clear decision. There are many factors that come into play: how much money will we need until we're cash flow positive; what valuation will we receive today; if we only raise a portion of our need today, will we get a better valuation in the future; are these the right partners that can get us all the way through; do we think we can find "smarter money" down the road, are these the right terms and conditions and on and on...

CEO's are making decisions about what's best for the long-term viability for the organization balanced with the challenge of not giving up too much in return. As Yogi Berra would say, "It's 90% art and the other half is science." Or something like that.

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story about Blowtorch Entertainment Corp, a San Francisco based company that had big plans to distribute entertainment content across the net, is nearly out of business. How could they raise $50 million last year and nearly be out of business? The answer is because their investors, largely hedge funds, are themselves going out of business or have had to pull back severely.

Blowtorch’s future is in doubt after the company’s undisclosed hedge fund backers, which provided the majority of capital in the form of debt, pulled out as the financial crisis took its toll.

“Our business plan was predicated on equity and debt,” Blowtorch Chief Executive Kelly Rodriques said. “Our debt effectively went away while we were working on our first couple projects and we just slowed everything down. We’ve kept it alive, but haven’t been doing any investing.”

Blowtorch’s story is an unfortunate case in which the company’s fate belonged to financiers instead of the leadership charged with executing the vision. Click here to read the full story at WSJ.com.

How can you avoid a similar fate? When our business consultants work with our clients on fund raising activities and the development of a corporate finance plan, we first build financial projections to try to determine how much capital is needed and what structure is best suited for the business. We also consider the condition of the market, the strength of the investor(s), the cash burn in the business, and confidence that management has in the execution of its strategic and business plans.

We would also typically steer our clients away from "committed" or "pledged" funds and instead opt to bring the money into their account or into an escrow fund. This should help avoid a situation like Blowtorch that thought it had $50 million when it in fact had something significantly less and was unable to execute its plans.

If you are wrestling with these issues, contact Milestone Advisors, an Indianapolis consulting firm that provides management accounting, corporate finance, and business strategy services to CEO's just like you.

VC Investment Down 51% From Prior Year

Tuesday, July 21, 2009 by Jeff Lantz

PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) released a MoneyTree report on Tuesday that indicated VC investments were down 51% from the same period last year. Funding in the 2nd quarter was $3.7 billion which translates into a decrease of $3.8 billion from the prior year. Overall funding for the first half of the year was $6.7 billion, which is the first time since 1997 that VC's invested less than $7 billion in the first two quarters of the year.

Mark Heesen, NVCA's president, released a statement saying "Halfway through 2009 we are seeing more positive signs than at the beginning of the year, including an overall increase in investment levels and an ongoing interest in seed and early stage funding. However, until we see notable upticks in venture fundraising and exit activity--which drive investment levels--we won't expect considerable increases in the number of deals completed each quarter.

The sector that benefitted most from VC investment was biotechnology, which received $888 million. Interest in the telecom, media and entertainment, semiconductor and internet remained weak, with investment in the internet sector down 68% from the same period last year.

This data, while certainly not positive, underscores the importance of have a solid business plan and finance model when searching for venture capital or bank financing. The ability to articulate this information in a concise and meaningful way is also of critical importance. In this challenging time, the time tested adage that you only get one chance to make a first impression has never been more relevant. If you need help building a financial plan or just another set of eyes on your plan before you present, the experienced Indianapolis management consultants at Milestone Advisors are here to help you.

Click here for an chart on VC funding by quarter.

Risk Management and Financial Plan - How do they work together?

Friday, July 17, 2009 by Jeff Lantz

Accenture recently published their 2009 Global Risk Management Survey. The results indicated that 85% of executives believe their companies need to overhaul their approaches to risk management. These executives said that common problems they want fixed are ineffective integration of risk into decision making, lack of alignment between companies' strategies and appetites for risk, and a lack of timely data. The survey also indicates that over 40% of companies had already increased their investments in risk management or planned to do so within the next 6 months.

So what's wrong with increasing your risk management activities? Nothing. But the survey doesn't tell us what companies are doing to fix the biggest problem above - lack of timely data. Or, more specifically lack of timely financial data. If your financial plan isn't in order you can't possibly manage your risk effectively.

As a small business owner, what are you doing to make sure that your business accounting is providing you with the information you need to set your strategic plan? Your business is the sum of the parts and your risk management strategy is no different. If you need help with your business plan or accounting, consider contacting Milestone Advisors.

Avoid Surprises When Obtaining Bank Financing

Friday, July 10, 2009 by Jeff Lantz

Surprises are part of what makes life exciting. We all love being surprised on a birthday or an unexpected visit from a old friend. But financial surprises are in a whole different category. Bankers will tell you that surprises in working with companies are rarely a positive event.

We are right in line with bankers in our feelings about surprises usually being of the negative sort. One of the first questions we ask when starting to develop the financial plan to help a company obtain bank financing is, "Is there anything we need to know about that you haven't told us yet?". During one recent engagement we found out about a lien placed by the state government after receiving a commitment offer from a lending institution.

Surprises like this can easily kill a deal that would have otherwise been successful. In this particular case we were able to have the lien lifted by our assisting our client with filing the appropriate paperwork. Not being aware of this before presenting the financial package certainly damaged the credibility of all involved and significantly delayed the availability of funds.

Whether you are considering working with a consulting firm or going straight to a bank for financing, it's always better to put everything on the table and work through any potential issues together. Holding things back in hopes that they slip through without anyone noticing is never a good business strategy.

What Are the Best Businesses to Start Today?

Friday, July 3, 2009 by Glenn Dunlap

Inc. magazine recently published a list of the best industries in which to start a new business. Here are the Top 10 industries that they recommend:

Candy
iPhone Apps
Health Care Technology
Beer, Wine, Liquor Wholesale
Software as a Service
Home Healthcare
Yoga Products and Services
Technical and Trade Schools
Fast Casual Dining
Green Construction

If you are thinking of starting a business in one of these industries or even one not listed here, our Indianapolis management consultants would be happy to work with you to fully develop your business plan and financial projections as well as work with you to determine the capital structure you need and to secure your bank financing to start the project.

Indiana's 21st Century Fund Cut in Half

Friday, July 3, 2009 by Glenn Dunlap

Indiana's tech fund was cut in half in the recent budget that was passed on June 30th. The 21st Century Fund was created in 1999 to advance Hoosier innovations by helping companies through the early stages of development, moving them closer to commercialization. Admittedly, the first few rounds of funding went to university projects which rarely saw commercialization. However, the State quickly realized that the money had to get in the hands of entrepreneurs who could create businesses around the technologies that they were developing.

One of the biggest complaints from the Indiana entrepreneurial community is that we lack early-stage or see-stage funding. Well organized management teams with a well thought out business strategy can still have difficulty raising money - or at least have difficulty doing it within our state borders.

With the capital markets being in disarray at all levels, this is not the time for our state to cut funding or investments in early stage entrepreneurial companies. Where do our legislators think the next wave of jobs will come from? Hopefully Indiana will get its own financial plan together rather soon and we'll see additional resources allocated to the entrepreneurial businesses.

Click here to see Governor Daniels' interview about the finance model for the 21st Century Fund.

10 Questions for Every Leader

Thursday, June 25, 2009 by Jeff Lantz

If you are a leader, here are 10 great questions posed by Bill Taylor, the cofounder of Fast Company.

Do you see opportunities the competition doesn't see? Or, are you out-thinking your rivals?
Do you have new ideas where to look for new ideas? Consider looking at other industries for thoughts about new segments, products, etc.
Are you the most of anything? Your company (or product) can't be everything to everyone, so who is your target and what are you doing to separate yourselves in the eyes of your customer?
If your company went out of business tomorrow, who would you miss and why? Or put another way...what really matters?
Have you figured out how your organization's history can help shape it's future? Learn from the past and use it to evaluate future options.
Can your customers live without you? If the answer is yes....right NOW would be a good time to figure out how to change that view, and quickly.
Do you treat different customers differently? Remember, not all customers are created equal. Focus on those that are core to your product and mission.
Are you getting the best contributions from the most people? Surrounding yourself with a team of advisors and having a sense of humility is critical.
Are you consistent in your commitment to change? Set your vision, manage your financial plan and be the constant driving force in your company.
Are you learning as fast as the world is changing? Simply stated, what are you doing to stay sharp?

As you think about these questions, how will you take your answers into your role within your organization? Whether you are a CEO reviewing your business strategy, a CFO modifying a financial plan, or a manager developing a marketing strategy for a new product launch these are thought provoking questions are sure to get you thinking about your organization.

Professional Development

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 by Jeff Lantz

What steps are you taking to enhance your skillset? Do you regularly attend networking events? When is the last time you had a performance review, formal or informal?

In today's HBR Tip of the Day, Steven DeMaio points out that many financial plan's in today's economy are being scrutinized for savings opportunities. In these turbulent times it isn't uncommon for training budgets to be reduced/eliminated to conserve cash. While I'm sure that all of us have always felt some responsibility for our own professional development, at times we have been able to rely on a company sponsored training plan that is typically mapped out in conjunction with an annual performance review. If your training plan has been reduced, postponed or eliminated because of lowered financial projections, now would be an excellent time to put additional effort into your broadening your network and skills. Some easy suggestions include meeting with at least two former co-workers a month, one major learning experience a quarter (i.e. volunteering at a not-for-profit), and conducting your own performance review.

These simple steps can broaden your strategic horizon, keep you in touch with the changing market conditions and allow you to fine tune your exit strategy for retirement!

Profits Don't Always Follow Hard Work

Thursday, June 11, 2009 by Jeff Lantz

While almost every successful (and unsuccessful) entrepreneur puts in long hours this doesn't always equate to a profitable business. In this month's issue of Fortune Small Business, Jay Goltz identifies his Seven Deadly Sins for small businesses. Here is a quick recap:

Sloppy Accounting - Lack of a financial plan that identifies what it takes to be profitable
Unrealistic Pricing - Understanding the total cost of your product(s)
Naive Hiring - Small businesses often require extra diligence when hiring as you can't afford to hire the wrong (or uncommitted) person
Fear of Firing - Jay asks a great question, "Would you be relieved if anyone on your team quit tomorrow?"
Lack of Standards - As the owner, your words and actions set the tone for the business and it's operating principles
Lack of Controls - Focus on quality control and responding to customer concerns
Poor Branding - Is your branding helping or hurting your bottom line?

I would add one to the list, and that is to know the strengths and weaknesses of yourself and staff. Maybe you are a financial accounting wizard but don't fully understand branding. It could be that you aren't comfortable handling HR issues. As you grow your team, finding the right personnel that complements the rest of your staff will be critical to your success.

Since it's baseball season, I'll call the items above playing small ball and not swinging for the fence. Doing the little things right and understanding the details might not make you successful, but it can prevent you from realizing your dream of a successful entrepreneur.

Role of the CFO & Financial Staff - More Important Than Ever

Wednesday, June 3, 2009 by Jeff Lantz

The recent turmoil in the markets has likely led your bank to push for more detailed financial information and also increased the frequency of those reports. A recent study by the McKinsey Group indicates that time spent on financial planning and analysis has increased significantly. Following close behind were financial risk management and strategic planning (see chart below).

What this chart doesn't highlight is the impact of the increased responsibilities/expectations on the CFO and his or her staff. More and more co

mpanies are expected to do more with less, but is this a fair expectation? Is it realistic for a CEO to expect an already over burdened financial staff to deliver additional information? As a CFO, having a staff skill set matrix will allow you to quickly determine if the requests can be handled internally or if this request could be more efficiently handled with an outside consultant. Even if you don't have the need for an outside consultant now, it could be a good time to be evaluating companies that provide financial accounting services that could supplement your staff on a short term basis.

Consider contacting Milestone Advisors to discuss how we can play a role in supplementing your existing staff with one of our Indianapolis based business advisors.

Adapting to the New Economy

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 by Jeff Lantz

There isn't much doubt that the economy has changed over the past year. But has your business adopted to the new economy? Peter Bregman recently published an article on Harvard Business that discusses change and the new economy. Peter notes "Change doesn't mean doing more of the same: selling harder, working longer hours, being more aggressive." Instead he suggests being inconsistent and aligning yourself to the changing market conditions.

Are you aligned with the changes in the financial market? It might feel safe to stick with your business plan that you developed before the economy changed but you must ask yourself if that is what is best for the future of your business. As a business owner you likely have a trusted network of business advisors that you turn to for guidance. Now would be an excellent time to use them as a sounding board to get their thoughts on whether your strategic plan and financial projections appear to be aligned with new economy.

Future of Small Biz

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 by Jeff Lantz

Great article today from Harvard Business review that illustrates the successes of small businesses in today's economic climate. Key points are to be available to your customers, keep your promises, and grow sustainably. Sounds simple, but does your business strategy and financial plan align with sustainable growth? Do you need bank financing to achieve your growth? Our Indianapolis Management Consultants can help buy developing a financial model and business plan that will help your business grow and be successful.

Creation Café and Euphoria Success Story

Friday, March 27, 2009 by Tom Gabbert

Creation Café, described by business partners Lynn Shepherd, Amy Hornsby and Sandy Schimmel as a fun and funky bistro, recently opened on the first floor of Indianapolis’ Buggs Temple. Located on downtown’s near northwest side at the north end of the canal, Buggs Temple is one of the oldest church buildings in Indianapolis and was once the center for some of the best gospel music in town. Today, thanks to Shepherd, Hornsby and Schimmel, the building remains an Indianapolis landmark and hosts their two restaurants, Creation Café and Euphoria.

The Café is a coffee shop offering breakfast fare along with lunch and dinner menus. When another restaurant on the second floor of the the Buggs Temple building went out of business, the partners decided to grab that space, too, and created Euphoria. Under the culinary leadership of Chef Brad Gates, Euphoria is a fine dining restaurant serving dinner as well as playing host to special events and business meetings throughout the day. A graduate of the French Culinary Institute, Gates has held Executive Chef positions at top restaurants in New York, Atlanta and, most recently, with Wolfgang Puck at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Both restaurants also offer off site catering too!

Although the partners successfully built two unique restaurants in a great location and with a top chef, they decided they needed outside expertise to take their businesses to the next level of growth. Lynn Shepherd originally hired Milestone Advisors to assist with their routine accounting tasks. Milestone provides a part-time bookkeeper, Angie Stecovich, who works with Lynn each month to help keep the company’s books up to date. According to Lynn, "I feel as if a black cloud has been lifted. Angie is so pleasant and professional. She asks the right questions in layman’s terms."

Based on her experience with Milestone Advisors’ accounting services, Shepherd decided to hire Milestone to assist the owners with streamlining their marketing efforts. "We know our customers with Creation Café, but we aren’t as familiar with the best way to market our fine dining concept." Milestone Marketing Executive Jeff Chapman is working with the partners to develop strategies and tactics in order to maximize their marketing efforts. "I have had a phenomenal experience with everyone at Milestone and I’m confident that our investment will pay off," says Shepherd.

The partners at Creation Café and Euphoria work with the small business accounting and strategic planning professionals at Milestone Advisors to help them with the exact business services they need. This allows them to focus on what they do best, growing their business by creating a wonderful dining experience for their customers.

To learn more about how Milestone Advisors can help you with your business and marketing needs, please contact Glenn Dunlap at 317-581-1820, or gdunlap@milestoneadvisors.net.

Changes to Loan Program Favor Small Businesses

Tuesday, March 17, 2009 by Glenn Dunlap

Yesterday President Obama and the SBA announced the elimination of the lender fee and the Certified Development Corporation (CDC) processing fee as part of the Federal Stimulus Plan on 504 bank financing projects. This impacts loans approved by the SBA on or after February 17th. The funds to implement this program change are estimated to run through December 31, 2009, or until the stimulus funds are exhausted.

What does this translate into in real dollars as you put together your financial projections? On a $1,000,000 project where the bank is financing 50% and the CDC 40%, the borrower will save approximately $8,500 in fees. In addition, the rates are very favorable at 5.604% for a 20 year loan and 5.072% for a 10 year deal. These changes represent a significant reduction in fees.

Most banks in Central Indiana can offer 504 Loans. Companies have a few CDC's to choose from including Premier Capital Corporation, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit organization. By following the link to their website, you can utilize the tools that they offer to provide more information and to help with accounting for the program.

If you would like some help developing a plan for your corporate finance project, contact Milestone Advisors, a firm of Indianapolis business advisors who consult with CEO's of entrepreneurial companies throughout Central Indiana. Our management consultants and part-time CFO's can help you develop your business plan, finance model, and your capital structure.