Your whole business plan can flow from that one number. You can use your break even point as a powerful business tool to make decisions about marketing, strategy, plans for expansion, hiring a new employee, etc.

6. How to make friends and influence check cutters.

Once upon a time, I worked for a corporation-yes, me, quintessential entrepreneur. One of my jobs was working in Accounts Payable. All day long I got calls from vendors. Not friendly social calls, mind you. Angry calls. Irritable calls. Annoying calls. Vicious calls.

And then there were friendly vendors. The ones who took a moment to treat me like a human being. Guess who I knocked myself out for? Guess whose checks made it through labyrinth of bureaucracy and out door? Uh huh. The vendors who treated me with respect. Is that fair? Not at all. But, it is human nature.

Take time to get to know folks that cut checks. Don't be afraid to build bridges and establish relationships. You meet lots of interesting people and your cash flow will improve. One of my friendly vendors hired me away from Cubicle City. I spent next three years improving his cash flow from other side. You just never know.

7. Why paying taxes is a cause for rejoicing.

The strategic approach of many small business owners is to have as little profit as possible at end of year. Otherwise, you'll have to pay taxes. So year after year, small business owners make decisions in their businesses based on intentional lack of profitability.

Now, for majority of small business owners, what IRS considers to be profit is in actuality your paycheck. Are you working to lower your paycheck? Would you put up with that from an employer? By putting up with it from your own business, you condemn yourself to a life of poverty just to avoid having to pay taxes.

I won't tell you that writing checks to IRS is my favorite thing to do and I make sure I take every legal deduction I can, but if I'm paying taxes, it means I'm making money. I like making money. The bottom line is this: If you're paying taxes, it means your business is making money. Go out and make more! Don't let thought of taxes hold you back. Think about it this way, even if you're paying fifty cents of every dollar to government, that's fifty cents more in your own pocket. That's a good thing!

A word of caution: don't boost your earnings and spend it all. Make sure you plan ahead for tax bill!

Caroline Jordan, MBA is a small business consultant and author of Mastering Cash Flow: A How-To Guide for Solving Small Business Cash Flow Problems. For more information visit www.TheJordanResult.com/mastering.html .To get in touch, call Caroline at(207) 583-2630 or send an email to TheJordanResult@adelphia.net.

If you are looking for financially sound future, take a hard look at your credit cards and resolve to do followings:

•From savings you started to make, pay off maximum amount of your credit cards’ debts until you completely eliminate them. •If you are unable to pay off whole amount at once, don’t just pay minimum amount required; pay out as much as you can over that limit. •Shop for credit cards with minimum interest rates – which should not be more than 12 percent – and switch to them. •Use credit cards strictly for convenience only. Don’t charge to your credit cards unless you know for sure that you will be able to pay it off right away. •Minimize quantity of credit cards you are holding. There is no reason to have more than three credit cards.

Same goes for your other consumer loans like student, car, etc.

Mortgage

The second step of your investment strategy should be to evaluate your mortgage payments. There are several very simple ways of reducing your payment time dramatically. Used scrupulously these methods can lower a 30-year mortgage to 10-15 years.

•Instead of making one single payment each month, every two weeks pay out half monthly payment. The idea behind this is, since you are making 26 payments in a year – each one of them carrying 50 percent of your monthly payment – this is equivalent to 13 monthly payments. You are generating an extra month’s payment each year, which in turn will reduce your mortgage term substantially. •Whenever possible, each month try paying ten percent more than you are supposed to. •Whenever you manage to make some extra earnings, use a portion of that to pay down your mortgage.

The mortgage calculator located at http://www.mortgages-loans-calculators.com/Calculator-Mortgage -Payoff.asp will help you to see your progress.

Keep track of your expenses

If you don’t do it yet, resolve yourself to keep an expense ledger of all spending. Just mere act of jotting down all your expenditure will reduce your expenses up to 20 percent. The reason is when you start keeping track of money you spend, you become more careful and discerning in your buying decisions, which in turn help you cutting back and saving hard earned money.