The title refers to the book Decisions by Jim Treliving, Doubleday, Toronto, 2012. While there are many life lessons in the book and ideas about operating a business the focus for this column is a checklist for making decisions about money. Money in itself is a merely a exchange for goods and services. Everyone understands the concept, the more difficult aspect is when you have excess or owe  money. At some point, you can  make more money and there is a number which you do not want to be below which is an individual basis. This is why you see some people wondering if they will have enough money to live even though they have well into six figures of assets and other people seemingly have enough and their main support is the basic government pensions. In both cases, the less debt you have the more options are open to you.

Mr. Treliving checklist particularly for entrepreneurs is:

Finances are a Face-to-Face Deal. go see your advisors, your investors and creditors or do not hide behind technology. Put a face to the name.

When in Doubt (and Debt) Choose Transparency It is easy to be transparent when things are going well, it if harder when they are not going well. However the more transparent about your ideas on repayment, you schedules, what you are trying to do to repay, the better for everyone. It is usually not the money, it is the lack of information that causes concerns.

Readjust, do not Renege  When you are transparent, payment schedules can be adjusted to what is going on. Does your business have a sound financial structure? In personal life often you want to pay bills near the day received. In business does your cash flow match your expenditures? are you taking advantage of the discounts being offered?

Financial Uncertainity Breeds Ingenuity  In all businesses not everything works great, some things work better than others, what works best in your business? In Mr. Treliving’s case regarding restaurants, his business, the food was priced too low resulting in very thin margins, his solution was to raise prices and to increased quality and value that his customers recognized. The work was to maintain and exceed quality and value.

Linking to dividend paying companies, when investing in profitable companies, they should be very transparent, if they are not red flags should be waving. All companies and industries go through cycles, it is very hard not to, when doing your homework you want to know how the company fared when it was hit with a downturn in the economic cycle. If the company was not transparent and circled the wagons, it is not worth holding, unless something was clearly changed.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.