Steve Wilkinghoff - Found Money: Simple Strategies for Uncovering the Hidden Profit and Cash Flow in Your Business

Table of Contents

Copyright 2009 by Steve Wilkinghoff. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Wilkinghoff, Steve, 1969-

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

eISBN : 978-0-470-50431-4

1. Industrial management. 2. Business enterprises. 3. Businesspeople.

4. Profit. I. Title.

HD31.W5159 2009

658.155-dc22

2009004119

To Sherri, Julia, Lauryn, Graeme, and Carter.
You are the five best things in life,
and give me strength, motivation, and humor.
I love you all very much.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my sincere and deep appreciation to the many people who have contributed, each in their unique way, to the realization of my vision for helping business owners throughout the world.

To my wife, Sherri, for being such a great and supportive friend, partner, and mother to our children. You make it possible for me to work, travel, create, and build my vision of transforming the lives of business owners throughout the world.

To my children, Julia, Lauryn, Graeme, and Carter. You four are proof that angels really do exist here on earth. I have a bottomless well of love and admiration for each of you in my heart.

To Mom, Dad, and Max. Thank you for your love, encouragement and support in all my dreams and all Ive aspired to accomplish over the years.

To Michael Gerber. You are an amazing person with powerful insights into the world of business. And as a friend and mentor, you are absolutely wonderful to know.

Thank you all.

FOREWORD

I am a reader of books. I am also an author of books. Over the last month, I have read more than 25 books. Over the past 25 years I have written 9 books. Like you, I suppose, I readand I writeto be inspired, to be caught up in new worlds, to have my imagination piqued, to listen to the sound of words. But, most of all, I read and I write to be entranced by an incredibly well told story. I am infatuated with a great, original spin on an old story.

This book, Found Money , is just that: a great, original spin on an old story.

In this case, the old story is the story of money.

According to Steve Wilkinghoff, money is not the root of all evil; its our lack of understanding of money that is.

As entrepreneurs and business owners, you and I are faced every day with the story of money as it plays its way in and out of our businesses and our lives.

As entrepreneurs and business owners, you and I have faced the dreaded meeting with our financial advisors, accountants, CPAs, CFOs, and, of course, with our husbands and wives.

Always, we are asked those dreaded questions: How did this happen? Why didnt we make any money? Why did sales not go upor, even worse, why did sales go down?

And, most of all, where is the money when you need it?

In Found Money , Steve Wilkinghoff will tell you an old story in an original, compelling, and amazingly important way. Hell tell you that your CPA isnt your greatest friend, your Capital Advisor is.

What is a Capital Advisor?

According to Steve Wilkinghoff, a Capital Advisor is a professional who has mastered the art and science of finding money in your company, long before you ever need it, and showing you why and how you can design your company in such a way as to create found money everywhere you look: in the Sales Department, in the Marketing Department, in the Production Division, in the Inventory Control System.

In short, Steve Wilkinghoff is the supreme Capital Advisor for your business and your life.

He will show you in the pages of this book how to think about money in a way you never have before.

He will demonstrate to you in this book that the story of money is a magical story, one loaded with promise, one that always can have a happy ending ... if you approach it the way your Capital Advisor shows you to. If you are determined to do more than add up the results at the end of the story, design those results at the beginning of the story, where every great company lives.

Enjoy this book.

Adopt its principles.

But, most of all, listen to Steve Wilkinghoff, one of the most important storytellers you have ever had the privilege to meet.

I did. And my life has never been the same since.

MICHAEL E. GERBER
Author of The E-Myth Revisited ,
Awakening the Entrepreneur Within ,
and Founder and CEO of The
Entrepreneur Capital Corporation

PREFACE

Have you ever seen a small child trying to walk a large dog? Of course you haveweve all seen that familiar scene at least once before. A small child (heck, sometimes even a small adult) holds on to a leash with all his or her strength, teeth clenched and neck muscles popping from the exertion of trying to control the animal. The child tries to lead the dog in whatever direction he or she wants it to go, and the dog goes along with the childas long as it wants to.

But the large dog is definitely the one whos really in control. That becomes obvious the second that dog picks up a scent, sees something it wants to explore, wants to go faster, or wants to go slower (yeah, right). Then it goes off in the direction it wants to go, and the small child is taken along with the dog.

Its those moments where it becomes obvious that the dog is really the one in control. Up until that point, the child might have felt that he or she was in control, but that was just an illusion that continued as long as the dog went along with the child. When the dog shows whos really in control, though, the child more or less goes along for the ride. The child holds on, hoping the dog will eventually get to where the child wants it to go.