The year-end is coming up and planning for 2016 should be underway. I was at a client’s office a few days ago and we were discussing their strategic plans and 2015 performance. They were very excited about the growth and giddy about their profits.
I was dubious of the numbers because the profit percentage was so much higher than most other companies I know in their industry or, frankly, most industries.
After drilling down a bit and guess what our business lawyer found? $350k in expenses were on the Company’s Balance Sheet as a loan but not in as expenses on the P&L? It took just 15 minutes of inquiry by a business lawyer to determine what was missing and change it. The main clue: the company had no cash but massive profits.
How big a deal was this? Well, the owners were planning to increase their Bank lines of credit and grow at a greater rate next year–by adding locations and bringing on new investors. What a disaster that would have been–securities and bank fraud for starters and bankruptcy for dessert.
So what did our business lawyer do about it? First, we reviewed the company’s entire operating system along with the financial records to determine how this happened to fix it. The real issue: human error. The chart of accounts was incorrectly established when the company opened a few years earlier.
You may be asking, why is the attorney and General Counsel doing such a review? Because the legal consequences of the mistakes found are unquantifiable and we are the experts at effective, legal business operations and producing correct results.
We are fixing this and positioning the company for profitable growth.
Are you growing profitably? Is there a hole in your Financial or Human Capital Management that needs to be addressed? A quick review and operational audit by a business lawyer will help determine if a problem exists. Start 2016 off strong by closing out 2015 properly. Call for a consultation today.
General Counsel P.C. has the expertise, skill and–the real key–unique experience of running companies as C Level Executives that makes a difference when advising our clients on: (i) structuring operations for efficiency and legal protection (which means more value); (ii) administration (not just overhead but value added elements); and (iii) Sales/Marketing (proper incentive based compensation causing the behavior that drives results!).
Call us for a consultation with a business lawyer: (703) 556-0411
See Your Future. Plan Your Future. Control Your Business Destiny.