The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course In Finance For Nonfinancial Managers

by Robert A. Cooke

OK. You've wound up at this web site because you don't give two hoots of a lamb's leg about finance and financial decision-making, but some brilliant mind at your company decided you should head up the financial decision-making department of your company. Never mind that you majored in Italian. Or, you are new to business and want to start your own company, and you know you need to know a bit about bookkeeping and financial management. Congratulations! You've found the right book.

The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course In Finance For Nonfinancial Managers is a great little book. Every small business owner who hasn't formally studied finance should read it.

Robert A. Cooke covers it all-- sales, cost of sales, expenses, buying, leasing or doing without, the balance sheet and income statement, and much more. This is not a bookkeeping text per se. The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course In Finance For Nonfinancial Managers teaches finance which is a broader topic. A strategic topic needed for successful growth of a company.

Unlike many introductory small business books, The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course In Finance For Nonfinancial Managers does a really good job discussing budgeting and long-range planning. Using the numbers to plan rather than just recording them for the sake of tax-reporting purposes is what finance and financial decision-making is all about.

Further, Cooke makes financial business planning, which is considered by many to be a boring topic, rather fun to read. He follows the new fictional start-up company, The Spouse House Company. The company makes little sheds, Spouse Houses, for spouses who are in the dog house and who need a little shed in the backyard to hang out in until trouble blows over and domestic tranquility is restored.

The book ends with a short self-test you can take to see if you have retained the information covered in the book. But, hey, this is real life and not school. You don't have to take the short little test if you don't want to. Nor do you have to work out the short review questions. Just know that your competitors who read The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course In Finance For Nonfinancial Managers, who work out the short problems, and who take The 36-Hour Course In Finance might have a business edge on you.

The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course In Finance For Nonfinancial Managers is not only very readable, but reads quickly at only about 270 pages. That means you will be able to read it twice.

In addition to The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course In Finance For Nonfinancial Managers, if you are starting your own business, you should also pick up a copy of Small Time Operator, which covers taxation dates and issues, and a copy of my own Thinking Like An Entrepreneur. These three books will give you a strong tripod base upon which to build your small business and entrepreneurial finance knowledge.