Saturday, October 27, 2018

Assessing a New venture’s Financial Strength and Viability



 What do we learn?  

a.     The importance of understanding the financial management of an entrepreneurial firm.
Ø  2 activities of Financial management:
·         Raising money.
·         Managing a company’s finances in a way that achieves the highest rate of return.
Ø  Important for a firm to have a solid grasp of how it is doing financialy.
Ø  Aware of how much money they have in bank and if the amount if sufficient to satisfy their firm’s financial obligations.

b.    4 main financial objective of an entrepreneurial firm.

Ø  Profitability: the ability to earn a profit.
Ø  Liquidity:
·          ability to meet its short-term financial obligations.
·         Account recievable: money owed to it by its customers.
·         Inventory: its merchandise, raw aterials, and products waiting to be sold.
Ø  Efficiency: how productively a fir utilizes its assets reltive to its revenue and its profits.
Ø  Stability:
·         The strength and vigor of the firm’s overall financial posture.
·        Debt-to-equity ratio: calculated by dividing its long-term debt by its shareholders equity.

c.      The process of financial management as used in entrepreneurial firm.
Ø  Financial statement: written report that quantitively describes a firm’s financial health.
Ø  Flows that commonly used:
·         The income statement.
·         The balance sheet.
·         The statement of cash flows.
Ø  Forecasts: estimation of a firm’s future income and expenses based on its past performance, its current circumstances, and its future plans. ( typically, new venture base their forcasts on an estimate of sales and then on industry averages or the expiriences of similar start-ups regarding the costs of good sold and other expenses)
Ø  Budgets: itemized forecasts of a company’s income, expenses, and capital needs. (important tool for financial planning and control)
Ø  The process:

1.      Tracking the company’s past financial performance through the preparation and analysis of financial statements.
2.      Prepare forecasts for 2 or 3 years in the future.
3.      Preparation of pro forma financial statements.
4.      Ongoing analysis of financial results. (financial ratios)
o   Depict relationships between items on a firm’s financial stetments.
o   Used to discern whether a firm is meeting its financial objectives.

d.    Difference between historical and pro forma financial statements.
Ø  Historical financial statements:
·          reflect past performance and are usualy prepared on a quarterly and annual basis.
·         Required by the securities and exchange commission (SEC)
·         To prepare financial statements and make them available to punlic
·         Submitted to the SEC thourgh number of required fillings. (the most comprehensive fillings is the 10-K →report a similar to the annual report except that it contains more detailed information about the company’s business)
Ø  Pro forma financial statements:
·         Projections for future periods based on forecasts and are typically completed for 2 or 3 years in the future.
·         Strictly planning tools and are not required by the SEC.

e.      The different of historical financial statement and their purposes.
Ø  Includes:
·          income statement.
o   Reflects the results of the operations of a firm over a specified period of time.
o   Records all the revenues and expenses for the given period and shows whether the firm is making a profit or is experiencing a loss.
o   Typically prepared on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis.
o   Most are prepared in a multi-layer format.
o   Three numbers that receive the most attention when evaluating an income statement:
1.      Net sales: consist of total sales minus allowances for returnedgoods and discounts.
2.      Cost of sales/ cost of goods sold: includes all the direct costs associated with producing or delivering a product or service.( include the material costs and direct labor)
3.      Operationg expenses: include marketing, administrative costs, and other expenses not directly related to producing a product or service.
o   Compare the ratio of cost of sales and operationg expenses to net sales for different periods.
o   Profit margin: ratio that is of practicular importance when evaluating a firm’s income statements.
o   Price-to-earning ratio,or P/E ratio: One ratio that will not be computed.
·         The balance sheet.
o   A snap shot of a company’s assets, liabilities, and owners equity at a specific point in time.
o   3 major categories of assests:
1.      Current asstes: include cash plus items that are readily convertible to cash.( such as accounts revievable, marketable securities, and inventories)
2.      Fixed asstes: assets used over a longer time frame.( real estate, buildings, equipment, and furniture)
3.      Other assets: miscellaneous assets including accumulated goodwill.
o   3 major categories of liabilities:
1.      Current liabilities: obligations that are payable within a year. (including account payable, accured expenses, and the current portion of long-term debt)
2.      Long-term liabilities: notes or loans that are repayable beyond 1 year. (including liabilities associated with purchasing real estate, buildings, and equipment)
3.      Owner’s equity: equity invested in the business by its own owners plus the accumulated earnings retainedby the business after paying dividens.
·         The statement of cash flows.
o   Summarizes the change’s in a firm’s cash position for a specified period of time and details why the changes occurred.
o   Similar to a month-end bank statement.
o   Reveals how much cash is on hand at the end of the month as well as how the cash was acquired and spent during the month.
o   3 separate activities:
1.      Operating activities: net income( or loss), depreciation, and changes in current assets and current liabilities other than cash and short-term debt.
2.      Investing activities: the purchase, sale, or investment in fixed assets. (such as real estate,equipment, and buildings)
3.      Financing activities: cash raised during the period by borrowing money or selling stock and/or cash used during the period by paying dividens, buying back outstanding stock, or buying back outstanding bonds.
·         Ratio analysis.
o   Most practical way to interpret or make sense of a firm’s historical financial statements.
o   Divided into profitability ratios, liquidity ratios, and overall financial statements.


f.      The role of forecasts in projecting a firm’s future income and expenses.
Ø  Forecasts: predictions of a firm’s future sales, expenses, income, and capital expenditures.
Ø  Provide the basis for its pro forma financial statement.
Ø  Helps a firm create accurate budgets, build financial plans, and manage its finances in a proactive rather thana reactive manner.
Ø  Assumptions sheet: Explanation of the sources of the numbers for the forecast and the assumptions used to generate them
Ø  Sales forecast: A projection of a firm’s sales for a specified period (such as a year).
Ø  Regression analysis: A statistical technique used to find relationships between variables for the purpose of predicting future values.
Ø  Percent-of-sales method: A method for expressing each expense item as a percentage of sales.
Ø  Constant ratio method of forecasting: If a firm determines that it can use the percent-of-sales method and it follows the procedure, then the net result is that each expense item on its income statement (with the exception of those items that may be individually forecast, such as depreciation) will grow at the same rate as sales.
Ø  Break-even point: Where total revenue received equals total costs associated with the output of the restaurant or the sale of the product.

g.     The purpose of pro forma financial statement.
Ø  Similar to its historical financial statements except that they look forward rather than track the past.
Ø  The preparation of pro form financial statements helps a firm rethink its strategies and make adjustments if necessary.
Ø  The preparation of pro forma financials is also necessary if a firm is seeking funding or financing. 
Ø  3 types of pro forma financial statement:
1.      Pro forma income statement: Shows the projected results of the operations of a firm over a specific period.
2.      Pro forma balance sheet: Shows a projected snapshot of a company’s assets, liabilities, and owner’s equity at a specific point in time.
3.      Pro forma statement of cash flows: Shows the projected flow of cash into and out of a company for a specific period.
4.      Ratio analysis: to evaluate a firm’s historical financial statement should be used to evaluate the pro forma financial statements.

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