How to Understand Business Finance

How to Understand Business Finance provides a quick and effective course from the perspective of the pursuit of business growth, and describes a business proceeding from initial set-up through its first year of trading

The modern marketplace is increasingly unpredictable and there is an ever-greater need for non-financial managers to understand the financial and management accounting process. How to Understand Business Finance is part of the bestselling Creating Success series published in association with the Sunday Times, which has been translated into 25 languages with over 500, 000 copies sold. This book is written for those managing a business in a real market. It provides a quick and effective course in financial literacy, aimed at the pursuit of business growth, in the context of the journey of a business from initial set-up through its first year of trading. As well as learning how to understand balance sheets and profit and loss accounts, readers will also learn the principles of: market dynamics; budgeting and forecasting; fixed and variable costs; break-even analysis; the difference between profit and cash; financial ratios for measuring business performance; investment appraisal; stock market ratios; shareholder value; financial measures for improving business performance, and much more. How to Understand Business Finance helps you to understand double entry bookkeeping, supply chain management, the difference in American and British accounting terminology, financial ratios for measuring business performance, common acronyms, and the real cash flow implications of working capital.

Helps business owners to: understand the business cycle, manage their assets and measure performance

Autorentext
Brian Helweg-Larsen is a global educator and director of Profitability Business Solutions. He has spent the last 15 years developing business simulations to assist corporate change and improve financial results for clients including Nestlé, Ford, Unilever, Abbott, Pfizer, Zeneca and Guinness. Brian teaches in three languages across five continents and runs the only business simulation (on which this book is based) used by the Harvard Business School's MBA Programme.

Inhalt

• • Chapter - 00: Introduction;
  • Chapter - 01: So why do you want to know more about finance?;
  • Chapter - 02: The business cycle;
  • Chapter - 03: Where do all the business functions fit in?;
  • Chapter - 04: Financial planning the budgets;
  • Chapter - 05: Measuring business performance financial ratios;
  • Chapter - 06: Getting finance from the bank;
  • Chapter - 07: How our investors see us stock market ratios;
  • Chapter - 08: Valuing a company;
  • Chapter - 09: Shareholder value and economic profit;
  • Chapter - 10: The hidden costs depreciation, amortization and tax;
  • Chapter - 11: What must we sell to make a profit?;
  • Chapter - 12: Tools for evaluating projects;
  • Chapter - 13: Where is all our cash? Managing working capital