This is a wonderful time of the year.

A festive season with sharing, giving, receiving, praying, and of course partying.

Enjoy the holiday season and celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, and all other religious and non-denominational events.

Let us hope that the New Year brings opportunities and successes for all.

With best wishes for this holiday season and wishing you a prosperous 2010!

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

Continuing on the theme of golf analogies related to business, putting can teach Entrepreneurs a few things.

Putting well in golf involves speed and line. If you get the right speed and the correct line, chances are that you will be “putting for dough.”

Similarly in business, if you correctly maintain the pace of growth of your company along the line of your vision, success is inevitable. Growing too fast or too slow (not maintaining the right speed), or not keeping sight of your mission and vision (the line) might cause you to miss the putt (your end goal).

Golf and business have a lot in common!

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

As you start winding down the year and get into the holiday spirit, it is an ideal time to publicly recognize your key performers.

Employee recognition should be an integral part of your HR initiatives. Recognizing performance fosters better morale, uplifts your employee base, and makes your company a great place to work.

Entrepreneurs should identify key performance areas that need to be recognized. Take care not to limit the criteria to technical performance only – also reward leadership, team work, initiative and  so on . You might want to involve your employees in selecting an award.

A little recognition goes a long way to build employee morale.

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

One often hears the phrase “put yourself in the other person’s shoes.” It is used when you are being encouraged to understand a situation from the perspective of someone else.

This can be useful advice for making important decisions. Generally one argues their own viewpoint well when a certain decision has to be made. However, in order to make the best decision, Entrepreneurs should consider arguing the viewpoint other than their own.

Making the arguments for a case different from their own allows the Entrepreneur to clearly see all sides of an important decision. Arriving at a decision after considering all viewpoints is best when one makes all the arguments as if they are their own.

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

In the midst of the football season, it is impossible to miss the coaches on the sidelines with a color-coded sheet of possible plays to be called for that game. The head coach with all the assistant coaches spend hours prior to the game analyzing their competitor’s game, strengths and weaknesses, strategies and so on and blend it with their own team’s core competencies to create a game-plan for winning.

Entrepreneurs, do you have similar “playbook” for major strategic actions to be used against, in or with competitors, marketplace, economy, opportunities, employees and so on?

Winning on the field, analogous to the marketplace, requires a lot of planning, analysis, strategizing to come up with the ideal game-plan for success. A playbook for winning a football game is similar to one required for succeeding in business.

Create a playbook for your business. Do the Right Things!

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

When Entrepreneurs start the company, they often control the spending authority such that all expenditures have to be approved by them.

As the company grows and competent leaders and managers are in place, the Entrepreneur/CEO needs to delegate the spending authority to the secondary levels in the organization.

Depending upon the size of the company, use careful thought in establishing the level of spending authority at each level. Purchase orders should be issued only upon the approval of the requisitions by the proper level of authority for the amounts to be expended.

Internal controls in this area are important for growth.

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

Entrepreneurs often juggle multiple balls at the same time. The trick for Entrepreneurs, similar to a professional juggler, is to focus and handle all the balls equally well without dropping them.

Entrepreneurs sometimes have a hard time balancing their multiple projects and goals. Too much emphasis on any one ball will lead to the others being dropped.

One needs to make sure that you only juggle a few balls that can be handled competently. Working on too many priorities might lead to dropping a few ones. Make sure that you don’t drop the critical ball.

Learn to prioritize and do fewer things really well.

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

Entrepreneurs have a lot to be grateful for. First and foremost are our country and the free market system that allows Entrepreneurs the opportunity to create and grow businesses and prosper.

Employees are the backbone of companies and Entrepreneurs should be thankful for the dedication, loyalty and hard work put forth by their people to make businesses successful.

No business can sustain itself without customers and clients. Be thankful to your sources of revenue for putting their trust in you to provide services and products.

Entrepreneurs should also appreciate their suppliers and service providers who continue to supply essential goods and services to sustain their businesses.

Shareholders and financiers who have invested in your abilities to grow the business and provide a return on their capital should be high on the list of people to whom Entrepreneurs are grateful.

Lastly, the community that you operate your businesses in should be appreciated also.

So on this Thanksgiving, I encourage Entrepreneurs to express their gratitude to the above stakeholders in your companies.

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

Entrepreneurs need to periodically assess the effectiveness of their Accounting Department.

The most obvious criteria is whether Entrepreneurs consistently receive monthly statements on a timely basis and if they are accurate. However, past data is merely a reflection of what happened, but does it help you to make better decisions?

An effective Accounting Department is one that moves from just preparing financial statements to analyzing and meaningfully reporting on the data to help Entrepreneurs monitor trends and make optimal decisions.

In addition, Accounting should be closely involved in preparing budgets and financial projections and measuring and reporting on actual versus planned results.

Entrepreneurs, have your Accounting Department become your decision-making support team rather than just “bean counting.”

Ravi Patel

www.patelCFOservices.com

A business associate recently commented that pilots have unique skills that could be useful for managing companies or projects. How can that be applied to entrepreneurial companies?

Pilots when flying at 30,000 feet have a macro view of their surroundings in relation to their aircraft. While having this unique perspective, pilots also pay attention to the micro details, tasks and checklists to ensure that the plane takes off, flys and lands safely and at the correct destination.

Entrepreneurs could definitely use such skills for ”flying” their organizations. Having the macro vision is essential in flying the company to its final destination. At the same time it is also necessary to be aware of the details to ensure that company is on course and at the right speed to reach and land on schedule at its destination.

Entreprenuers, capably “piloting” their organizations, is something to relate to!