B2B CFO^® (602) 296-6888

Many golfers calculate their handicap, with the most analytical also counting their putts per round.  A friend of mine had the lowest average putts per round one year on the PGA tour – lower even than Tiger Woods.  That sounds very impressive, but my friend didn’t win any major tournaments that particular year.  He retired from the pro tour a few years later.  Though one element of his game was at the top of his profession, helping him win his share of tournaments over his career, several other metrics were not operating in concert to keep him in the game.

What is it about life that we keep tabs on everything from our IQ, credit score and cholesterol level to our investment portfolio annual return, miles per gallon and Mulligans?  Everything that we consider important in life and business is measured by a metric or key performance indicator (KPI).  Do you care more about your total weight or percentage of body fat?  Both are important.  But if your body fat percentage is low, you are willing to carry more weight due to muscle mass.

Some factors give us one degree of perspective, but without others we still don’t know the total picture or how -- or why -- it needs to change.  Metrics are important in life, school, health and sports.  How much do you use them in business to determine what is going well and what needs to change?

Here’s how SearchCRM.com defines a business metric:

A business metric is any type of measurement used to gauge some quantifiable component of a company's performance, such as return on investment (ROI), employee and customer churn rates, revenues, EBITDA, and so on. Business metrics are part of the broad area of business intelligence, which comprises a wide variety of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help enterprise users make better business decisions. Systematic approaches, such as the balanced scorecard methodology, can be employed to transform an organization's mission statement and business strategy into specific and quantifiable goals, and to monitor the organization's performance in terms of achieving those goals.

Current ratio, debt versus equity and gross profit by inventory item are common ways of assessing the health of your business.  What is your company’s sustainable growth rate?  Do you know what really drives your company and the way to assess wise strategy? Or do you look only to sales, cash and profits as the primary indices of success?

Each business is unique in what should be measured.  Every industry has it own common KPI. In life, some metrics are common and some are unique to an activity.  Humans don’t measure their personal “miles per gallon,” but they certainly measure their car’s MPG. 

Are you measuring the results of your company in terms of productivity, profitability and efficiency – and if so, are you doing in a way that drives you to make the most significant changes required to best your competition, attract the best customers and reward the best employees?

The role of the Chief Financial Officer includes determining the most significant metrics for the company.  The Chief Executive Officer relies on those measurements to make decisions that impact elements of the metric to improve results.  If you need help gaining a perspective on what measurements you should be monitoring in your business, give me a call.  As a B2B CFO^® I specialize in helping determine the vital metrics for your company.

It is estimated that 8%-10% of the US population (24 million to 30 million individuals) suffers from diabetes. This includes both diagnosed cases as well as those individuals who may have the disease but have not yet been diagnosed.

Why should this be a concern to employers? Diabetes costs $116 billion annually in direct medical costs and is estimated to cost another $58 billion annually in indirect costs (loss of work, disability, loss of life). As an employer, you can make sure that your health insurer provides programs to help your employees manage their disease. This is something that won’t cost you anything. After all, it is in the insurance company’s best interest to make sure your employees maintain their health, i.e., less complications means lower number of claims paid. It also means that your experience rating as it relates to your employees becomes more favorable resulting in lower premiums.

Another reason why you should be aware of diabetes is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA is a federal law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities. Diabetes may be considered a disability under the law.

Unfortunately, I learned about the ADA the hard way. My older son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2002 when he was 6 years old and certain accommodations had to be made in school. Approximately 10% of the individuals with diabetes have this more serious form of diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes)
This form of the disease can occur at any age, but most commonly is diagnosed from infancy to the 30s.  In this type of diabetes, a person's pancreas produces little or no insulin. It is an autoimmune disease and one does not “outgrow it” as they get older.  People with type 1 diabetes must inject insulin several times every day for the rest of their lives. Others such as my son wear an insulin pump that delivers insulin via a cannula inserted under the skin (24 hours a day, 7 days a week).

Type 2 (non-insulin-dependent or adult-onset)
Type 2 diabetes typically develops after age 40, but can appear earlier, and has more recently begun to appear with more frequency in children.  In this form of diabetes the pancreas still produces insulin, but the body does not produce enough or is not able to use it effectively.  Type 2 is a metabolic disorder and in many cases can be managed with weight loss and exercise.

Gestational Diabetes
About 2 to 5 percent of pregnant women develop high blood sugar during pregnancy. Although this type of diabetes usually disappears after the birth of the baby, women who have had gestational diabetes are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

Warning Signs for Type 1 Diabetes

Knowing the warning signs for type 1 diabetes (juvenile diabetes) could save a life as these may occur suddenly:

If you or someone you know exhibits one or more of these symptoms, call a doctor immediately. More often than not, the disease goes undetected until the individual goes into what is known as diabetic ketoacidosis (“DKA”). This can be a life threatening event and the individual must be taken to the hospital where intravenous fluids and electrolytes must be given while the diagnosis is being made.

Individuals with diabetes successfully perform all types of jobs from heading major corporations to protecting public safety to being a professional athlete (Jake Cutler, the starting QB for the Chicago Bears was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in 2008). Yet, many employers still automatically exclude them from certain positions based on myths, fears, or stereotypes. For example, some employers wrongly assume that anyone with diabetes will be unable to perform a particular job (e.g., one that requires driving) or will need to use a lot of sick leave. The reality is that, because many individuals with diabetes work with few or no restrictions, their employers do not know that they have diabetes. Some employees, however, tell their employers that they have diabetes because they need a "reasonable accommodation" a change or adjustment in the workplace to better manage and control their condition. Most of the accommodations requested by employees with diabetes such as regular work schedules, meal breaks, a place to test their blood sugar levels, or a rest area do not cost employers anything to provide.

If you need additional information or questions, do not hesitate to contact me at ebaloga@b2bcfo.com or visit www.JDRF.org.

I’m often asked by prospective clients, bankers, CPA’s, attorneys and other referral sources about the differences between a B2B CFO® and other temporary or interim solutions such as Tatum or similar type firms.

Usually I start out by simply stating that we (B2B CFO®) are a “long-term, part-time” solution where as Tatum or other interim solutions are a “short-term, full time solution”.  After that statement, I then start articulating how we differ in our service and client relations approach.  
And believe me folks, there is a huge difference between a B2B CFO® Partner and other solution providers.  Below is a list of the primary differentiators between B2B CFO® and others.

1.    Part time (long term) at B2B CFO® vs. Interim/Temporary (short term) at Tatum and others.

2.    Handshake agreement with B2B CFO® vs. Signed Contracts with others.

3.    No hidden fees at B2B CFO® vs. several termination fees or transition fees with other firms such as Tatum

4.    Small to Middle market focus at B2B CFO® vs. Big game hunters at other firms such as Tatum

5.    Cash Approach at B2B CFO® vs. some obscure terms such as Financial and Technology Services at other firms.

6.    Partner Collaboration Support at B2B CFO® vs. Employee Based at Tatum and other firms.

Finally, I like to convey to my prospective clients and referral sources that our Partners at B2B CFO® are building long-term practices similar to CPA firms and it is our goal to have a roster of satisfied clients as opposed to being a temporary solution or project based consultants.

At B2B CFO® we genuinely care about our client's success and we want each and every one of our clients to realize their dreams.

Cash. We Help You Get It.

My friend Mark Green of Performance Dynamics Group LLC recently wrote this great article on asking the right questions and the price of not asking the right questions. I've found that asking the right questions is indeed critically important in my work helping business owners.

The Art of Asking the Right Questions

What makes a good question? Is it really that hard to ask a question that will open up discussions, create learning and sharing, and result in productive communications?

The truth is, most of us don't know how to ask good questions, or when we do ask a really great question, it is by accident. There are several ways to ask questions. Some people seem really good at it, while others use a random, what-ever-pops-into-head approach.

Fifty percent of good communications is good listening. Asking the right questions must precede good listening. Good questions pave the way for good communications.

We have all encountered problems with bosses and colleagues, and especially with spouses from asking the wrong question at the wrong time. We scratch our heads and wonder what went wrong? After all, we were just asking, right?

The problem is that we were raised by parents and teachers who asked the wrong questions for most of our lives. Parents ask their children questions designed to teach them something. Teachers also use questions that are rhetorical or Socratic, designed to make us think and come up with the right answer, as predetermined by them. There is usually only one right answer, the one they are looking for.

Here's a clue: these people-parents and teachers-aren't really asking questions. They are trying to tell us something. They do not ask questions to learn something, but to teach what they determine is important. We learn from parents and teachers the wrong way to ask questions in the adult world.

What Real Questions Are Supposed to Do

Real questions are designed to learn about the other person's way of thinking, and to gather information. A truly neutral question is rare. Most of us ask leading questions designed to influence others to our way of thinking, just like our parents and teachers do.

Instead of gathering information about the other person's perspective, our questions lead someone down a thinking path of our choice. One needs only to view TV courtroom dramas to see prime examples of leading questions.

When you ask leading questions, you must hold your own agenda in sight, and design your questions to end up with a predetermined answer. The person asking the question is focused on getting to this result, and therefore is not really listening to the responder with an open and receptive mind.

While this can be an effective teaching method, it is not a way of developing true and meaningful communications, because the listening is cut off by predetermined goals on the part of one person.

Different Kinds of Questions

Managers overuse this leading style of questioning, and then wonder why they don't fully understand the actions of employees. They don't have a grasp on what is really going on, because they aren't asking open questions designed for learning.

People in relationships, including spouses, often fall into the "leading question" trap, in persistent attempts to influence the perspective of the other person. People communicate better when they start asking neutral questions to learn about the perspective of the other.

Some authors define questions as being empowering or disempowering. Empowering questions are positive ones, such as:

• What works best for you?
• What are you doing right?
• What is your favorite part of this?
• When are you most effective?

Disempowering questions are also called judging questions. They bring up negative feelings and focus on what is wrong:

• Why did you do that?
• What went wrong?
• Who caused this?
• How could this have happened?

Notice that these disempowering questions can appear to be neutral. They resemble information-gathering questions. It depends on the source, the context, and tone of voice. There is a fine-line between information-gathering where one is exploring causes in order to find solutions, and questions that judge and blame. It also depends on who is asking the questions, their position of authority, and their prior history of being judgmental and blaming.

In order to frame questions in a neutral, exploration context, it may be necessary to qualify questions with statements such as:

• Help me to understand this situation...
• I just want to clarify the sources of this problem so we can solve it...
• Without blaming anyone, can we identify where we went wrong here?

Questions are clearly the way to create open discussions, deepen relationships, and create a learning environment necessary in any relationship, be it at work or at home.

We all fall into the trap of trying to influence through our questions, because it is so ingrained in us from early childhood on. It is hard to ask truly neutral, non-leading questions without influencing.

Asking Coaching Questions

Here are some guidelines for creating a more coach-like approach in our communications and questions.

When problem-solving with another person, remember these three kinds of questions designed for three different levels of interactions (Argyris):

Single loop questions: How can you fix this problem? What needs to be done differently? How can this be done better, faster, more efficiently?

Double loop questions: Is this the right problem to fix? What else needs to be considered? Is there another way to get better results?

Triple loop questions: What is your role in this, and how do you need to be in order for this to be solved? What shifts in your thinking and being need to happen?

Clearly there is much that goes into asking the right questions at the right time. There is a body of research designed around Appreciative Inquiry, in which people are taught the effectiveness of keeping discussions and questions positive.

We live in a culture that readily diagnoses what is wrong and focuses on how to fix things, without adequately investigating what is right. Research shows that people learn better when reinforced positively rather than negatively, yet we continue to focus on what is wrong, gaps in performance, and areas for improvement.

About The Author

Mark Green, Founder & President of Performance Dynamics Group, is the New York Metropolitan Area certified Coaching Partner for Gazelles International & the Rockefeller Habits Methodologies. Gazelles International is the premier Executive Education and Coaching Solution for leaders of mid-size firms with 30 to 2000 employees. In fact, over 20,000 executives and their companies have benefited from Gazelles programs since 1997. Our goal is to bring you:

• Actionable, practical tools and support for creating and managing growth.
• High-impact consulting, coaching and education with high ROI.
• Access to the business thought-leaders of our time and the best consulting and coaching resources available.

Find out more at www.time-for-change.biz.

Early in my career, I had a narrow view of budgeting.  To me, budgeting was a very constricted exercise that an organization plodded through annually.   At the end of the process, the company would generate a very defined budget that was "hard-coded".  By hard-coded, I mean a set number or desired number for each account on the projected income statement, by month, for the budget year.  Then, when this process was generated, these numbers would be entered into a "budget" file, typically within some module of the general ledger operating system.

As the year would proceed, we would compare this information to the actual results and measure the difference between actual and budgeted expenses.  Typically over time, the gulf between the budget and actual sales and expenditures would grow as the year progressed.  Over time, this difference began to make the budget process feel more like the writing of an unnecessary piece of fiction, than a necessary management tool.

Fortunately, I was introduced to the folks at Oliver Wight and, in particular, to Tom Wallace.  I was lucky because Tom was able to show us that there was another, better way to budget.  He pointed out that the problem with most budgets were they were based on a sales forecast.  Usually, these forecasts were generated by some member of senior management.  Almost without fail, these estimates were the best guess or desired sales goal of the organization;   almost equally without fail, we would miss those numbers on the low side.

Tom pointed out to us that essentially there are three kinds of expenses:  fixed, variable and semi-variable.  Fixed expenses do not vary.  For example, depreciation expense remains fixed unless the company buys or sells fixed assets.  Regardless of whether sales go up or down, fixed expenses remain constant.  Variable expense, on the other hand, is entirely tied to the fortune of sales.  If there are no sales, then there is no variable expense.  As sales rise, so does a variable expense.  An example of a variable expense would be ice cream at an ice cream stand.  The vendor buys the ice cream and that purchase remains an asset on the books of the firm until someone comes and orders ice cream.  Once the ice cream is sold, the cost is shown as expense under materials sold.

Occasionally, an item will act as a semi-variable expense.  These costs run somewhere between a fixed cost and a variable cost.  Semi-variable costs act like a fixed cost up until there is some triggering event.  A triggering event is some decision or action that forces the company to add expenses, such as additional supervisors when a shift is added to a plant or additional indirect personnel to meet the demands of production.  In my experience, these expenses are almost always treated as fixed and then the budget is adjusted if the triggering event occurs.   Or, rather than having expenses increase, a company decides to downsize.  Essentially, these costs are reductions of semi-variable expenses.  In fact, almost every fixed cost is actually semi-variable.  Given some event, those costs can and will go up or down.  That is why controlling the discretionary decisions related to fixed costs are often key for companies to reach or regain profitability.

Eventually, we were able to develop a process that allowed for "flexible" budgets.  A flexible budget means that rather than comparing the budget against a constant sales figure, sales are adjusted as well as variable expenses.  Then the budget is compared against figures that are consistent with the actual results.  The end result is a budget that is consistent with sales; far more realistic when compared with actual sales and expenditures and a budgeted bottom line that, not only is understandable, but plausible. 

This reasonableness creates "buy-in" or acceptance from budget managers and gives owners, CEO's and CFO's a much better ability to generate "what-if" scenarios.  In essence, you create a model that provides a roadmap for the organization showing the effect of increases or decreases in sales.  With that roadmap, the company can begin to improve their ability to forecast future profits. Once the company is able to master this process, closing the financial statement becomes an exercise in verifying the profitability the firm expected instead of closing the books to find out the financial results each month.

 The Business Owner's "Seven Deadly Sins"

In a recent CNNMoney.com article, business owner Jay Goltz presented his "Seven Deadly Sins" for entrepreneurs to avoid.  They are, as he puts it, business-killing traps.

So, they must have been all about sales and marketing, right? Well, no, actually, only one, POOR BRANDING, is all about marketing.

OK, then they must have been about the operational aspects of the business!  Well, not exactly...again, only one, LACK OF STANDARDS, (in things like customer service, quality control, and the like) is operationally focused.

Well, then, they must have been about people issues, right?  Well, you are getting warmer...two of the seven are people related: NAIVE HIRING and FEAR OF FIRING.

That leaves three sins, more than any other category, squarely in the realm of...finance and accounting!

First, Goltz lists SLOPPY ACCOUNTING as one of the killers.  Without accurate financial statements it is impossible to diagnose what is going on inside a business...good or bad.  Without accurate historical statements it is impossible to make educated projections about what is likely to happen in the future.  That leaves management flying blind and unable to answer critical questions like "When will we run out of cash?"

The next sin is LACK OF CONTROLS.  This includes appropriate internal controls over cash, inventory and other assets, but also controls over processes like granting wage increases, offering discounts and authorizing returns and allowances. Good controls have two important features:  they are written down and compliance is monitored and measured.

Finally, UNREALISTIC PRICING joins the list.  Realistic pricing starts with an understanding of real costs. It also requires the ability to distinguish between fixed costs and variable costs. Without such an understanding it is impossible to make intelligent decisions about things like:  "How far can we reduce our price to match competition without losing money on the order?"

The partners of B2B CFO® can assess a firm's exposures in these areas, and can help implement the appropriate systems, procedures and controls to avoid these business-killing traps.

For more than 20 years the partners of B2B CFO® have helped emerging and middle market organizations with:

               * Cash flow projections

               * Banking relationships

               * Profit Improvement

               * Timely & accurate financial reporting

               * Financial and strategic planning

               * Exit strategies

Our services are provided on a flexible, as needed, cost-effective basis...with no need for a contract, since relationships with our clients are always on a hand shake basis.

Profits don’t matter.

Am I nuts?  Maybe, but let me explain. 

Profits, often referred to as earnings or net income, are an accounting measure meant to measure business performance.  If profits were the end goal, the standard set of financial statements would not include a cash flow statement.

You can’t pay people or bills with profits, only with cash.  Have you ever put profits in your bank account?   Or written a check out to ‘Profits’?  I would bet that all of you have at some time written a check out to ‘Cash’. 

As for what you take home out of your business, it is still only cash that matters.  You see, if you take more cash out of the business, that cash has to come from somewhere.  And usually, it is in the form of debt.  And what is debt?  It is a claim to the assets of the business.  Debt reduces the net assets or equity, which in economist’s terms is wealth.

Wealth comes from cash, not profits.  Generate cash to create wealth. 

Tracking and planning for your business’s cash flow is not a luxury, but a necessity. 

Cash and only cash matters in the end. 

Entrepreneurship Tested:  National CFO Services Firm’s Founder, Jerry L. Mills, Discusses Lessons Learned Regarding Copyright Infringements  

B2B CFO’s founder and CEO, Jerry L. Mills, shares how he handles and leads his company through difficult cases of theft, plagiarism and infringements on intellectual property rights

PHOENIX (Nov. 12, 2009) –    Some believe that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Phoenix based entrepreneur and business expert Jerry L. Mills is not flattered and not amused by  others replicating his firm’s propriety materials.  In fact, this CEO of the nation’s fastest growing CFO services firm has a strong message to other business owners:  protect your intellectual property, or prepare to have it stolen.  

He does not say this with a light heart; his firm has dedicated tremendous resources this year to fight off blatant plagiarism of copyrighted content as well as cases of intellectual property rights infringement and theft.  

In June of 2009, searches for key phrases unique to B2B CFO’s Web site content resulted in a stunning discovery of dozens other businesses plagiarizing the company’s content word-for-word on their Web sites.  The problem was so widespread that this year alone B2B CFO has encountered more than 40 separate cases of plagiarism, including several competitors using B2B CFO’s registered trademark. 

As the nation’s largest CFO firm dedicated exclusively to serving small and mid-size businesses, B2B CFO works diligently on its online branding – constantly building fresh blog content, improving its Web site and investing in strategic Search Engine Optimization.  Now,  Mills and his company have set up procedures to handle most of the issues related to the plagiarism of the company’s Web site.  Mills  designated Rick Daigle, an Atlanta partner with an extensive I.T. background, as the company’s Website Plagiarism Specialist.  Daigle recommends using the website Copyscape and Google Alerts to help find offenders.

According to Daigle, when an offender is first identified, all relative evidence of the infringement is collected and saved.  Next, Mills and Daigle send a “cease and desist” letter notifying the offender of the laws against copyright infringement as a direct violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and International Law. They give the offender 72 hours to correct the issue before turning the violators over to the firm’s law firm. 

  
In an economy where online commerce is crucial, protecting oneself against Web site plagiarism is absolutely essential to the small and mid-sized business owner.

  
But B2B CFO’s challenges with eager copycats did not end online.   The company has recently uncovered a case of another business using B2B CFO copyrighted materials offline as well.   To properly handle this case and to ensure that a proper precedent is set for any future theft of intellectual property, B2B CFO has filed a lawsuit against Kenneth Kaufman and CFO Wise citing infringement of copyrighted materials.

Mills advises copyright owners to consult with an attorney to see if the laws related to RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) might help them in protecting their copyrighted assets by filing criminal copyright infringement, as well as asking for treble damages in a lawsuit.  

The ongoing theft and plagiarism have left Mills and his Partners in B2B CFO committed to continuous monitoring and protecting the company’s intellectual property.   

“We all have a vested interest in our company’s future,” said Mills. “And it is great to see the entire company united in our goal to eliminate cases of theft and plagiarism.”

Mills advises fellow business owners to take proper measures to protect the intellectual property of their Companies.   “Protect your rights by filing for trademarks, copyrights, and patents, and by having strict confidentiality agreements,” said Mills. “But know that regardless of your efforts, some will disregard these rights and steal your intellectual property.   Having proper documentation and protection upfront might help your employees and legal team with the tools to protect your intellectual property.”

ABOUT B2B CFO^®

B2B CFO^® is the nation’s largest CFO firm serving entrepreneurial, growth and mid-market companies with sales up to $75 million.  Headquartered in Phoenix, AZ and operating in 39 States, the firm was founded in 1987 by Jerry L. Mills.  The firm’s partners have an average of 25 years of experience and each partner is a senior level executive with a broad range of expertise.   For more information on the company, please visit www.b2bcfo.com

Jerry L. Mills, founder and CEO of the company, is a small business expert and a national speaker.  Mills is the author of “The Danger Zone – Lost in the Growth Transition” and “Avoiding The Danger Zone – Business Illusions” – non-fiction business books aimed at entrepreneurs.   To purchase a copy, please visit online at www.dangerzonebook.com.

MUST READ - QuickBooks Backups – a Primer and Disaster Story

I was recently contacted by the office manager of a property management company. They had recently experienced a disk drive crash on the computer used by the office manager. This drive also contained the active QuickBooks Company file. Their IT people had a backup process in place so initially there was no major concern.

It was only after the IT folks repaired the PC and restored data from backup media did they discover there was a problem with the QuickBooks company file. That’s when I was called in to help. What I found was a situation I routinely find when I first visit a new client or potential client. The IT people treat the QuickBooks company file as any other file when it comes to their backup methodology. Meaning, they simply include a Windows file copy of the QuickBooks company file onto the backup media.

THAT IS NOT SUFFICIENT and can result in data loss if the backup has to be restored!

Why is that? Because the QuickBooks data file is very much like a relational database (in the case of Enterprise it actually is a SQL Server) and has internal links and relationships which must have “referential integrity”. I won’t go into definition of that term but trust me when I tell you it is important!

These internal links and relationships can sometimes get broken over the course of time if there is an unstable IT environment. PC crashes, network disconnections, power failures, etc., are events which can cause a problem with referential integrity of the QuickBooks data.

So, how would you know if something caused an internal QuickBooks data problem? Simple! QuickBooks has its own Backup utility which will do a data verification every time the company file is backed up. In the event a data corruption occurs an error will appear and prompts you to Rebuild the data. At that time the Rebuild utility will run through the entire QuickBooks company file and repair any problems.

When the QuickBooks Backup utility is not used internal data corruption can continue to degrade the viability of the accounting data until the company file cannot be opened. Having the IT people restore a company file backed up with the Windows backup utility will only restore a corrupt company file. At that point you will experience data loss because the IT people will have to keep going back in time to find a viable backup file which QuickBooks can open.

In the case of the Property Management firm that called me in September, they had lost all 2009 data. As a last resort I sent the company file to Intuits Data Recovery team. The data was unrecoverable even by this team of experts.

A message to all B2B CFO Partners whose clients are using QuickBooks . . . . . please make sure they are regularly backing up their QuickBooks company file with the QuickBooks Backup utility. Do NOT take the word of the IT people that they are backing up the data. Make them show you!

If there are any doubt that the QuickBooks company file is properly protected feel free to call me at 404-787-5835.

PHOENIX (Nov. 12, 2009) –    Some believe that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Phoenix based entrepreneur and business expert Jerry L. Mills is not flattered and not amused by  others replicating his firm’s propriety materials.  In fact, this CEO of the nation’s fastest growing CFO services firm has a strong message to other business owners:  protect your intellectual property, or prepare to have it stolen.  

He does not say this with a light heart; his firm has dedicated tremendous resources this year to fight off blatant plagiarism of copyrighted content as well as cases of intellectual property rights infringement and theft.  

In June of 2009, searches for key phrases unique to B2B CFO’s Web site content resulted in a stunning discovery of dozens other businesses plagiarizing the company’s content word-for-word on their Web sites.  The problem was so widespread that this year alone B2B CFO has encountered more than 40 separate cases of plagiarism, including several competitors using B2B CFO’s registered trademark. 

As the nation’s largest CFO firm dedicated exclusively to serving small and mid-size businesses, B2B CFO works diligently on its online branding – constantly building fresh blog content, improving its Web site and investing in strategic Search Engine Optimization.  Now,  Mills and his company have set up procedures to handle most of the issues related to the plagiarism of the company’s Web site.  Mills  designated Rick Daigle, an Atlanta partner with an extensive I.T. background, as the company’s Website Plagiarism Specialist.  Daigle recommends using the website Copyscape and Google searches to help find offenders.

According to Daigle, when an offender is first identified, all relative evidence of the infringement is collected and saved.  Next, Mills and Daigle send a “cease and desist” letter notifying the offender of the laws against copyright infringement as a direct violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and International Law. They give the offender 72 hours to correct the issue before turning the violators over to the firm’s law firm.  

  
In an economy where online commerce is crucial, protecting oneself against Web site plagiarism is absolutely essential to the small and mid-sized business owner.

  
But B2B CFO’s challenges with eager copycats did not end online.   The company has recently uncovered a case of another business using B2B CFO copyrighted materials offline as well.   To properly handle this case and to ensure that a proper precedent is set for any future theft of intellectual property, B2B CFO has filed a lawsuit against Kenneth Kaufman and CFO Wise citing infringement of copyrighted materials.

Mills advises copyright owners to consult with an attorney to see if the laws related to RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) might help them in protecting their copyrighted assets by filing criminal copyright infringement, as well as asking for treble damages in a lawsuit.   

The ongoing theft and plagiarism have left Mills and his Partners in B2B CFO committed to continuous monitoring and protecting the company’s intellectual property.   

“We all have a vested interest in our company’s future,” said Mills. “And it is great to see the entire company united in our goal to eliminate cases of theft and plagiarism.”

Mills advises fellow business owners to take proper measures to protect the intellectual property of their Companies.   “Protect your rights by filing for trademarks, copyrights, and patents, and by having strict confidentiality agreements,” said Mills. “But know that regardless of your efforts, some will disregard these rights and steal your intellectual property.   Having proper documentation and protection upfront might help your employees and legal team with the tools to protect your intellectual property.”

ABOUT B2B CFO^®

B2B CFO^® is the nation’s largest CFO firm serving entrepreneurial, growth and mid-market companies with sales up to $75 million.  Headquartered in Phoenix, AZ and operating in 39 States, the firm was founded in 1987 by Jerry L. Mills.  The firm’s partners have an average of 25 years of experience and each partner is a senior level executive with a broad range of expertise.   For more information on the company, please visit www.b2bcfo.com

Jerry L. Mills, founder and CEO of the company, is a small business expert and a national speaker.  Mills is the author of “The Danger Zone – Lost in the Growth Transition” and “Avoiding The Danger Zone – Business Illusions” – non-fiction business books aimed at entrepreneurs.   To purchase a copy, please visit online at www.dangerzonebook.com.