There are thousands of books out their telling you how to memorize possible interview questions and to have an arsenal of winning answers on hand, but biggest part of any job interview is that initial 10 seconds when you meet your prospective future employer.

Most of what you need to know to be successful in any job interview no matter what level, field or company you are applying to work for is pure common sense. Here is my list of common sense tips to job interviews.

Show up. Yes, I’ve actually had several people who didn’t even show up for interview or were very late. As my office is a bit hard to find, I offer to meet customers or job seekers for first time at train station, which is about a 10 minute walk, and escort them to my office. Let me tell you, waiting around train station in middle of January for 10-20 minutes more than you have to is enough to irritate anyone, much less person giving you a job interview. If you’re going to be late, at least have common courtesy to call and have you’d better have a good excuse. If you don’t even show up, well, that says a lot about your character right there.

Wear a suit. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or a woman or applying for a blue collar job or a white collar job, or even doing an interview online via webcam, it is better to dress for success. If you can, wear a nice suit and not something you borrowed that is two sizes too big. You don’t have to wear a designer brand, but try to avoid wearing a cheap looking suit that was made twenty years ago. Wearing an eye appealing suit says a lot about you without you saying anything. There is a lot of truth in phrase, ‘I feel like a million dollars!’ when dressed to kill for occasion. When you walk up to meet your interviewer, you immediately call attention to yourself that you have self confidence, discipline and ambition-all of which are desired by an employer.

Part One: Inventory

Part Two: Accounts Receivable

Part Three: Sales and Marketing

Next Week: Complete Cash to Cash Cycle

The white flag is just a nose away…toward Million dollar prize in cash savings for your business…

So far, in Inventory and Accounts Receivable, we've found $250,000 each in cash savings. Then we found another 250K in Sales and Marketing. And so, now, Accounts Payable is final process within Cash to cash Cycle - and also final $250,000.

The cash cycle is undoubtedly single most important process to optimize for any business – from when you spend money to when you get money.

Circling Cash to Cash Cycle

So let’s tie this back to accounts payable - event that pays for liability incurred by purchasing, which is for inventory required by manufacturing to meet demand. Sales generate this demand that creates accounts receivables, which is turned into cash. And now we have come full circle and completed discussion on cash to cash cycle.

Increasing Velocity of Accounts Payable Processes

Your accounts payable is a bit different than other processes we have examined so far. The first three processes we looked at represented processes where focus was on reducing size of assets (inventory or accounts receivable) or expenses (marketing) and increasing velocity or cycle time. But in accounts payable our focus is on increasing size of asset, while maintaining a solid credit rating - and increasing velocity of process.

Now let’s look at how to find $250,000 in accounts payable savings. If your organization has $500,000 in accounts payable each month, then STOP! We can find $250,000 in savings right here. Where, you ask? Increasing payables by 25% will produce $125,000 in cash plus $125,000 from automating tasks, taking more discounts, and managing process better.

Service Business Procedures Case Study

An organization with $600,000 in monthly payables needed assistance. We examined their payables process to understand and quantify workflow, paper processing and credit issues. Then we designed and implemented a process to increase their use of payables and discounts, improve their payables cycle efficiency, and tie it to their purchasing and receivable cycles. We then reinvested $50,000 back into an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) program to automate some of processes that weren’t automated already.