Heidi Roizen Quotes

What I learned from Rockefeller that's off-the-hook important is: You need to know exactly where you stand in a business at all times. Measure everything, because everything that is measured and watched improves.

The Profit and Loss Statement tells you a lot about how your business is doing. It can also help you to determine ways that you can go about saving money so that you get to bring more money home! Basically, the P&L statement measures all of your income sources verses all your business expenses for any given period of time.

If you don't have a VP Finance on your team reporting to you, do yourself, your team, and your investors a favor and go hire one right now.

For resourceful tech founders, finding capital is rarely a problem; making the best use of it is another story. A few years slinging pepperoni pies and chicken wings - on tiny margins and with minimal investment - might not be the worst fiscal training.

No matter what business you're in, business is business, and financing and money are critical. I would have made a lot fewer mistakes if I had more schooling in that area.

You have to manage money. Particularly with market economies. You may have a great product, but if your bottom line goes bust, then that's it.

A well-managed business will have a high return on invested capital. But that's a consequence. It's not a way to manage a business.

You need a very good financial person to keep you honest, and to keep track of income and outgo.

Landing a million-dollar investment for your startup is exhilarating. But as big as that number sounds, it doesn't go far. Many startups just getting off the ground won't have a CFO to monitor finances. It doesn't take much for spending to spiral out of control.

Today, I think a CFO needs to be more of an operating CFO: someone who's using the financial data and the data of the company to help drive strategy, the allocation of capital, and the management of risks.

I was always taught that book keeping was more relevant than book reading. The only thing worth reading was meant to be a balance sheet.

I have a business manager and a book-keeper who deals with our household bills. My husband and I sit down with her for a weekly report on how much money is going out, but I'm not terribly interested, and I don't have the patience for it.

Don't ever let your business get ahead of the financial side of your business. Accounting, accounting, accounting. Know your numbers.

Tactical Work is the work you do every day in your business to generate income, along with all of the operational, financial, and management tasks that entails.

One capability every business is expected to have is the capability to make money. It requires a certain kind of discipline, a certain kind of mindset.

Learning how to keep track of inventory and cash flow and creating an income statement and a balance sheet are great skills to learn for managing existing businesses.

I really love being finance director.

No business is good when, on the last day of the month, you're like, 'What was the usage for the month?'

Assets are cold.

If you don't operate it as a business, you aren't going to be around very long.

I'm very aware of my spending, but I'm not very aware of my income. There are certain times when I speak to my accountant, or something will pop up, and I'll be like 'oh' but it's not really a frontrunner in my head.

With the world changing fast, we needed capital for investments. There's only so much bandwidth in your own balance sheet.

Companies always have a balance sheet of its assets, but counties do not.

Some entrepreneurs talk of a high burn rate, high advertising rate, and so on, with no outcome, so it doesn't impress me. But an entrepreneur who has that kind of a feeling of responsibility towards his investors is somebody who will have all my support.

I'm the CEO; I'm the one who should be looking out for risk.