For more than a decade Ken has built a reputation as a leader who is respected for his integrity, work ethic, and commitment to lifting people and companies to new levels of achievement. Ken has served in several leadership roles, including CFO, COO, VP of Administration, and VP of Sales, in start-ups, mid-stage companies, and large multi-national corporations. His experiences cover a variety of industries, including construction, real estate, financial services, business services, medical/dental, manufacturing, telecommunications, distribution, retail, internet services & SaaS, market research, and outsourcing.
In two of his executive roles, Ken helped a start-up grow to over $100 million in annual sales in just four years and he helped a medium-sized company almost triple its operations, quintuple net income, and sixtuple cash flow in just three years. Ken has served as a court-appointed receiver and has negotiated “workout” proceedings for several insolvent entities. He was recognized as the top producing manager in a Fortune 500 firm. He has developed and presented numerous business plans and financial models/forecasts that have successfully obtained the debt and/or equity financing required for growth.
Ken earned a B.S. in business from BYU and an MBA from the University of Georgia in finance, entrepreneurship, and risk management/insurance. His peers selected him as the most outstanding MBA student in his graduating class. Ken is a published author on business and finance topics and he has taught business/accounting/entrepreneurship courses as a part-time faculty member at UNLV and UVU.
Throughout his career, Ken has continually served his community by serving in his church and the Boy Scouts of America. Ken is an active member of the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum. He serves as the Treasurer of the Young Founders Organization of the BYU Center for Technology & Entrepreneurship and he regularly mentors BYU business students, especially those that want to start a business. He lives in Pleasant Grove, Utah with his wife, Angela, and their six children.
Ken founded CFOwise in 2006 and currently serves as its CEO.
Address:
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Locations Served:
(801) 664-8226
ken@CFOwise.com
Utah, Nevada
Some of my blog writing time has been directed to fulfilling a request to provide articles for the American Express Open Forum®. The first one is titled “3 Components of Financial Clarity” and it went live on their website yesterday.
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This is the tale of a mug, dry cleaning, and customer loyalty…
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INTRODUCTION
Clarity in business has to do with three things – the past, the present, and the future. Where we’ve been, where we find ourselves today, and where we are going – our final destination. Like a three-legged stool, removing any one of these elements would damage our ability to see the whole picture of our [...]
Start-Up companies do not need theoretical or impractical advice. They need tips and suggestions that they can easily and swiftly implement to improve their chances for success. In the spirit of this need, here are ten tips in the areas of accounting and finance that they should consider implementing in a hurry:
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I just finished a biography on Charles Ponzi by Mitchell Zuckoff titled: “Ponzi’s Scheme.” This was a very interesting understanding of the psychology and motivations of a man whose name has far outlasted the name of many men more respectable than him. His legendary rise and fall, and his manipulation of financial instruments in the [...]
Imagine swimming from one end of the pool to another in 30 seconds. Is that good or bad? How do we determine how we are doing, what is going well, and what we should try and improve? It primarily has to do with comparing our performance to ourselves and others.
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This post is going to be more personal than most…I hope you never feel this pain.
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Most businesses have at least some seasonality to them. Perhaps the first quarter of every calendar year is always slow, or your business comes to a stand-still every November through December. Here is an example of a business that slows dramatically ever summer:
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I have long suspected that most business people cannot give a simple definition for the common term of “business model.” It seems to be a nebulous and vague term that escapes most. Most people think they know what it means, but when you ask them to define it, they usually can’t come close to verbalizing it. [...]
Business partnerships are one of the most unique and trying relationships we will ever enter. Some work, but most fail. I did a quick test. I searched Google for “business partner problems” and found about 169 million results. Compared to only 143 million results for what I assumed would be the more common term of [...]
Based on total number of unique visitors to each of our blog posts through the year, here are our top ten blog posts of 2009. Enjoy!
1. TOP TEN 2010 TRENDS FOR ENTREPRENEURS - We received a lot of very positive feedback on this blog post as well as a radio interview request. Listen to Ken Kaufman’s [...]
I created my Twitter account (CFOwise) on December 26th, 2008. After one full year, this is what I have learned:
Twitter is like every other form of connecting with people (yes, I’m excluding all non-person driven Twitter accounts). Whether it be face-to-face, over-the-phone, through social networking, or via some other medium, connecting with people professionally and [...]
With 2009 coming to a close, we look ahead to what we can expect and should plan for in 2010. Here is my list of the top ten trends founders, CEOs, and entrepreneurs of start-up, emerging, and medium-sized businesses should consider as they prepare for the new year.
1. The recession will not end, regardless what [...]
As I sat trying to explain the deal points of a transaction for one of my clients to a business attorney, I was amazed at how he began every sentence with: “The problem is…” He spent my entire time with him explaining all the problems with the deal, so I invited him to share some [...]
Although the phrase “working capital” is common in business and finance circles, it is often very misunderstood. Here’s an example: if I asked you if you would rather own a business with a lot of working capital instead of a little working capital, what would be your answer? Most people would prefer the business with a [...]