Shooting the War

CHINA AND GLASS
China restoration is always delicate work, requiring care, accuracy and knowledge of technique. How much knowledge depends entirely on how ambitious you arc. Most people, if they Fail in simple efforts to stick china together, take it to a professional restorer if the piece is of any value. It also depends on what is going to happen to a piece after it is mended. If it is to stand peacefully on a shelf, then the repair need not be so strong as it would have to be for domestic use. Some people try to restore a piece to the state where only a very close scrutiny will reveal the mend. It is technically possible to fool even ultra violet light. Others feel that there is no shame in a few cracks in old china. Like so many skills connected with making and mending things, china restoring can develop from the ability simply to stick broken pieces together, to the most complex dowelling and pinning and moulding and modelling and casting and painting. It can start by being a chore and end by being an art, which like any art develops into pride in craftsmanship, and pleasure in achievement. Maybe the kind of painstaking repair I am thinking of comes outside die scope of a book on restoring junk, but I shall include an outline of some of the methods and materials and tools needed just in case you do decide to venture further than a little bit of glucing.
Some technical colleges run classes on china restoration, but they arc few and far between, although this is one of the best ways to gain expert knowledge and experience. The study of books on die subject and plenty of practice should make you reasonably efficient if you are not totally ham-fisted !
There arc so many objects in so many shapes and sizes made of so in-uiy materials; so many ‘pots’ that it is difficult to detail all the techniques, and each job must be treated on its merits. The first and easiest method is to mend by sticking. Sticking things together used to be more difficult than it is now, because die old adhesives were nothing like so easy to use or so heat-and-water-resistant, so free from shrinkage, or attacks by fungus, so clean, so invisible, or so strong. The invention of cellulose glues and epoxy resin adhesives has completely revolutionised sticking, and made it possible to mend things with adhesive alone where riveting, dowelling, or pinning would once have been essential.
As a general rule, a piece of china, be it a plate, a pot, a Statuette, or a vase, can be mended by sticking alone if the two faces come together properly and neatly and if they can be made to stay in position while the adhesive is setting.
If a part such as a curved handle, or the limb of a figurine, is broken, perhaps in more than one place, and there are pieces missing; or if the surfaces to be joined are chipped and do not fit, or there arc whole sections missing; then more ambitious methods will have to be used. Whole sections can be remade by modelling with epoxy resins just as the sculptor models, or by making plaster moulds and taking castings. Large missing parts can be moulded or modelled incorporating wire supporting frameworks fixed to die whole piece.
Broken parts are refixed together and to the whole, provided they are thick enough to carry drilled holes, either by pinning—which means inserting a metal pin into a hole drilled after the pieces have been stuck—or by dowelling, which is the joining of pieces by drilling matching holes in each and cementing in a single dowel. Any or all of these methods might be necessary at the same time in one single object (see Fig. io).
Lastly, broken pieces can be riveted together. The ugliness of this technique, strong though it is, means that it has largely been superseded by other methods since the discovery of die better adhesives, and is really only used for extreme strength and utility rather than for restoration and beauty.
Cleaning. Before any porcelain or pottery may be mended it must be cleaned. Normally all that is needed is a wash in warm soapy water. If die piece is already clean, then wipe it with a piece of silk dipped in methylated spirits. Keep any old pieces of real silk for china restoration work, as silk does not leave little bits of lint or fluff caught on jagged edges.
Remove stains from china with very dilute hydrochloric acid, but test first in case the acid etches the glaze. A cloth dipped in either bicarbonate of soda or common salt will remove coffee stains.
To remove dirt along cracks which are not going to be repaired—cracks which are, and look dirty—make a pad of cotton wool and saturate it in a mild bleaching solution such as hydrogen peroxide and lay it along the crack for some days, renewing the solution as die pads dry out. When the treatment is completed, scrub the piece gently with a soft brush, and even more dirt may conic away. This method is useless on earthenware, but for this and for English porcelain, which is usually so porous that the dirt is well ingrained, soak the piece for up to a week in a solution of domestic bleach. This will remove most stubborn stains and won’t etch the glaze.
If china has been previously mended, the edges of the breaks may be very dirty, and sometimes glue remains which is invisible except under a magnifying glass. All edges must be cleaned, and you must be sure they fit together before going ahead with the next stages of the job. First of all soak the pieces in boiling water with pure detergent added. Remember, if there is another part of the object which has been mended and which you do not wish to do again, to keep it out of the water or it may melt apart. Glue, Seccotine, shellac and Durofix will come off in boiling water, and joins made with these adhesives will soften sufficiently to be parted. If this treatment does not tackle the old glue then you will have to get to work with the appropriate solvents (see Solvents). Methylated spirits will shift shellac that has resisted boiling water. Swabbing with cotton wool dipped in amyl acetate removes cellulose adhesives such as Durofix. Acetone removes cements, but may take some time about it. Dissolver is a new solvent which will shift many kinds of glues including Araldite, especially some of those used for glass repairs.
Literally to boil a piece in detergent and water is a last resort to remove stubborn adhesive without abrasion. Finally it may be necessary to pick away at the old adhesive with a scraper or even a needle. Obviously this has to be done with care.
If old rivets have to be removed, cut them in half with a needle file and pick out the bits using acetone to remove the cement if necessary.
The first two methods are done with just a few tools, but the moment you have to drill, more complex tools will be necessary, and this means more expense, and also more time spent on learning to handle the tools. China drilling is not difficult, but it takes a light hand and a steady one, and infinite care and patience.
A power drill, which is normal workshop equipment nowadays, can be used with the rightbits for a lot of drilling work provided it has both vertical and horizontal bench stands and operates at the right r.p.m. The ideal tool for most drilling is a dentist’s drill—in fact an electric motor with a. flexible drive and a hand-held drill at the end. But this is an expensive piece of equipment not justified unless a lot of work is to be done, so its use is not described here. A hand drill and appropriate bits will needed for starting holes, and for the awkward holes. A special twist drill with high gearing can be bought for work on china, and some people prefer this to the other types. It is good for dowelling and for work in substantial pieces, but is a little difficult to control on really delicate work.
Brass wire is used for pins and dowels, and unless you arc doing very complex work only one or two sizes will be needed. Other standard tools such as the hacksaw, and calipers you may already have. Small cramps and a pin vice are useful, and all shapes and sizes of small files and rasps, scalpels, and probes. Various materials will be needed for making moulds, supporting pieces while they dry, binding to aid adhesion etc. These I shall mention as they conic into use.
Sticking. There is some general information on adhesives wider that specific heading. Here I shall discuss the various methods used for mending china with adhesives.
Ordinary domestic two-tube Araldite (AV and HV roo) is suitable for all practical purposes for almost any work. It is best used in a well-warmed room, and pieces should always be warm when joined. Keep the tubes of Araldite warm before mixing. All this helps the adhesive to flow readily, and to grip. A cold unheated workshop is not a suitable place. Work in a heated room with a radiator with a flat top or heat conductive shelf above it so that pieces can be kept warm.
The second important point, already stressed several times, is that pieces must be clean and dry. Pieces that have been washed or boiled to clean them may take quite a long time to dry out, especially the unglazed edges of breaks. Damp, dirty surfaces just will not adhere.
Thirdly it is vital to grasp the basic principle of adhesion, whicl, is to bring the original faces as close together as is physically possible, with the thinnest practicable layer of adhesive between. The edges and surfaces of the break then lock together naturally. It is a misapprehension to suppose that thick layers of adhesive will make more successful joints. All the adhesive that is needed is enough to fill all the tiny gaps and crevises between the faces so that the two present smooth surfaces to each other with no air pockets, and they will adhere.
Lastly, stuck joints need to have some pressure exerted upon then, while the adhesive is setting, either by clamping the pieces together, or by putting a weight on top of a flat piece, or more usually by binding the pieces together with gum strip (not Sellotape) in such a way that pressure is exerted on the join.
The methods of applying this binding
g differ slightly
with every mend. Always use gummed strip, and buy a big roll at least il” wide. Cut this down if necessary. Strips are stuck as nearly as possible at right angles across joins such as simple breaks in a plate or vase. When thc join is rather more difficult, such as a broken vase handle or lid, the strip is stuck on so that it will exert pressure at right angles to the join. The wet gummed strip is easy to put into position, and as it dries it shrinks, holds fast to the china and so exerts pressure on the join. When you reach the stage of placing the prepared pieces together, wet the cut strips of paper thoroughly but remove any surplus drips of water with a swab. They should be damp right through but not dripping wet, as moisture will prevent pieces from adhering if any gets on to the broken edges. Sometimes it is best to pre-stick the strip on to one piece of the work (after you have warmed the piece for glucing, or the gunimed strip will dry out completely) and then put the two edges together. Draw tile loose piece of strip down smoothly and tightly across the join. A little bit of practice at binding diffi llcult shapes will teach you how best these paper bandages can be applied. Remember always that as the strip dries and tightens it must pull across at right angles to the join, so bringing the pieces together and holding them there. Use very long strips if necessary. Make a cross of strips, stand a pot in the middle and bring the ends right up over the top to hold it together. Small
small
pieces of strip may be needed across very joins to exert pressure (see Fig. 7). A binding applied like a puttee round and round an object is almost useless except to keep things in place. The same binding techniques will be used when mending by dowelling and pinning, as described later, and a little thought and study will help you to work out the details for each job. Very occasionally it is not possible to bind, to clamp, or to weight pieces together because of a peculiar shape or a break in an odd place. Make supports out of plasticise or wire to push pieces together, or at any rate to hold them in position while the adhesive sets. No tension is applied to the joint so this way isn’t that satisfactory, but it is better than nothing. Don’t let plasticise come into direct contact with Araldite or any epoxy resin, as the two will react together.
Having cleaned your porcelain or china ready for mending, next check whether or not all the pieces arc there, whether or not they fit together perfectly, and then decide upon your method of restoration. Pieces made of thin China ai-c almost impossible to dowel or pill as there is no thickness to take drilled holes. Hollow figures may need to be dowelled in the hollow sections, or by pinning. But if there are sufficient clean, close fitting edges which will contact nicely, sticking alone may be all that is needed. Details of dowelling and pinning follow, but here I deal with sticking on its own. A piece which has been broken into several pieces should be very carefully checked for fit before applying adhesive. If necessary make tip a kind of jig-saw puzzle, using Sellotape and fit the whole thing together. Be careful not to work yourself into an impossible corner by putting the pieces together iii such a way that i lie last piece cannot be got into place. This can happen, for instance, in a bowl where the break consists of two or more pieces which arc wider at the lower end than they are at the rim end. If a piece is in several fragments it is sometimes easier to stick two or three pieces together to make one large piece, and then join this to the main piece. So do take a bit of thought, and be sure that you have solved the puzzle before taking any irrevocable steps (see Fig. io).
If, as well as being in several pieces, the pot has a Chunk missing, it will be necessary to mould a new piece, but first of all any sticking must be done mid finished, and the Moulding is later carried out as a separate operation.
Having cleaned the pieces, dried them and checked for fit, warm them thoroughly. Prepare a small amount of adhesive, no more than you need, and apply it with a knife to one edge of the two pieces to be joined. Usually it is best and easiest to apply the adhesive to the piece rather than to the whole. Put adhesive on both edges only if the fit is not perfect, or if the material of which the pot is made is very heavy thick porous earthenware, which will absorb a lot of adhesive.
Then bring the two edges together as firmly as you possibly can. Obviously you don’t want to break the china again, but exert as much pressure as you dare on the join so that the adhesive comes squeezing out. If you want to remove adhesive in order to get a clear look at the join through a magnifying glass to make sure it is properly aligned, moisten a water colour brush in a little methylated spirit and take off a little adhesive with that. Do not take it right down to the join as this will weaken it. Surplus adhesive should not be removed along the join until after it has all set. Any adhesive which has escaped on to other as yet unmende8 broken edges, or on to gilt or lustre glaze on the pot, must be removed at once with the paint brush. On the broken edges it will prevent proper matching if it dries into a little lump, and it will lift gilt or lustre when it is finally removed.
H.M.G. adhesive can be used in conjunction with Araldite to make a fairly quick setting join, by putting H.M.G. on one surface of the join and Araldite on the other. The quicker drying H.M.G. binds with the Araldite and helps to hold the two pieces together while setting takes place.
Then the joins are bound with gummed strip as described above. The piece is put down and left to set. Epoxy resins, especially when the join has been properly strapped, will hold almost immediately, and the pieces will not move in relation to each other unless the joins are imperfect or unless the balance and weight of die pieces are such that gravity pulls them out of place. Plasticine supports, bowls of fine clean sand, bits of wood and wire, will all make supports and cradles. If the piece to be joined is some kind of figurine and not a plate or a bowl with flat or curved surfaces, parts sometimes have to be stuck on entirely by balance. The heads of small figures frequently get broken off, and ifyou intend to stick a head back without dowelling, the fit along the break will have to be perfect, and the figure itself must be held in a firm grip so that the head will balance in place while the adhesive sets. Bury the figure in a bowl of sand, with the broken edge set horizontally just above the level of the sand, and then balance the part on it. Move the buried section about until the broken-off piece balances perfectly upon it. Make sure all loose sand is brushed away from both edges, and then, using very fluid adhesive, anoint the broken edges. Carefully put the piece back into place, and allow it a few moments to adhere before delicately, and without moving the buried base, setting it perfectly into position.
It really is a matter of trial and error, and with a bit of ingenuity you can find a solution to every problem of sticking and binding and balancing.
The final process of sticking when using epoxy resin glues, is to harden the joins by baking. If an entire piece has to be moulded in, after some sticking has been done, it is still best to bake the first work for a short while before doing the moulding, just to make certain that the work which has been done is really firm. Baking can be omitted entirely if the piece can be left alone for a good long time to set.
Up to a point the heating of Araldite softens it, and if you leave a job for some hours before baking and a piece has slipped a little out of place, warm the join with boiling water swabs to soften the Araldite enough to move the piece back into position. Leave joins made with Araldite for a few hours before baking and then place the piece in the oven of an electric cooker or of a solid fuel cooker. Put an asbestos mat on the middle shelf and place the china carefully on that, and keep the oven at a temperature of Zoo deg. for about an hour. Over 3oo deg. the Araldite will darken and in any case the china may not stand it. If your oven has no thermometer, buy a small one. If it is impossible to keep the temperature of the oven steady,heat the oven, put in the piece, and switch the oven right off, leaving the piece there until the oven is cold.
Mending Cracks ivith Adhesive. So often articles crack without breaking. The cracks get dirty, and the piece when touched vibrates a little and does not ring true. It may, one feels, collapse into pieces at any moment. Cracks can be repaired quite effectively without completely breaking the pieces apart. Most forms of pottery and porcelain are to a small extent flexible, so carefully insert the edge of a razor blade and part the crack a little. Clean the crack as described above and make sure that the whole piece is thoroughly dry by standing it on a radiator until it is pretty warm. Heat the separate tubes of Aralditc to get them runny and make up a mix, with a little white colouring in it if there are any chips along the crack which need to be filled. Mix the Araldite on a warm surface and keep it warm while working. My own nightstore type electric radiators which have flat tops, are absolutely ideal for this work and I work directly on top of one. This is not recommended by the makers of nightstore radiators but who cares about that !
Prise the crack apart with the razor blade as far as is possible without breaking the piece completely. If the crack runs right to the rim or edge of the piece, slide the edges of the crack apart a little, one up and one down to expose some of the broken edge. Run the adhesive right into the crack, work it in with a finger if necessary, then move away from the radiator and press the edges tightly together. Wipe off any surplus adhesive with methylated spirits, but not that exactly along the crack. Put several pieces of gummed strip across the crack at right-angles on both sides of the piece, and leave the whole thing to dry (bake after an hour if you wish to) for half a day on the top of the radiator. This should set the adhesive perfectly.

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When the revolver, or pistol with a revolving chamber, was first adopted in the British Army, the principle was by no means a new one ash gateleg extenstion table. As far back as the middle of the seventeenth century John Dafte of London had made a revolver-carbine with a cylinder, turned by hand, containing six chambers johnson “antique card table”. Powder and ball were inserted into the front of each chamber, and a spring catch on the barrel engaged in slots to hold chambers in turn in the firing position bookcase islamic style.dwg. Each chamber had a 17th century dutch small cupboard value. separate flash-pan, with a sliding pan cover which was opened by a link attached to the cock, as the latter struck the steel 18th century chambersticks. The lock was of the snaphaunce variety with a separate steel 19th century dressers.
Nevertheless) after a certain initial popularity in the seventeenth century, little more was heard of revolver-pistols or carbines until the appearance on the gunmaking stage of Elisha Hayden Collier edwardian c19th construction buildings. Collier was an American gunsmith of Boston, Massachusetts antique english knights dining tables. In about 1810 he succeeded in making a practical pistol with a revolving cylinder, which was turned by hand china made in czechoslovakia. He was not, of course, the first to do this, but the Collier mechanism was infinitely superior to anything which had preceded it coop dresser. The priming mechanism was ingeniou§ meissen harlequin kandler. There was only one flash-pan, instead of one to each chamber, and this was recharged automatically from a magazine after each shot walnut versus maghony drop leaf table. The magazine was fitted on the flash-pan cover and incorporated a ratchet and pawl mechanism which was actuated by the closing of the pan art deco furniture  antique shop california. Collier used a novel and ingenious system to align the chambers with the bore of the barrel antique furniture 1800. The front of each chamber was countersunk and fitted over a cone on the rear of the barrel pictures of antique spider leg tables. A spring held the cylinder in position, and to move the cylinder round, it was pressed back against the spring to free the chamber which had been in the firing position from its cone seating century hepplewhite walnut card table. During the actual moment of firing the pressure of the spring was augmented by a steel wedge operated by the movement of the cock antique small oval drop leaf table. This mechanism produced a very close and firm union between barrel and cylinder antique tudor furniture. All Collier revolver weapons operated on the same principle carved top gateleg coffee table.
The Collier revolvers were extremely good, but, unfortunately, very expensive to manufacture czechoslovakian lusterware. Collier was unable to interest either American private capital or the United States Government, and, accordingly, he left for England in 1811 robert jupe table. There he established a shop at 45 The Strand, London, and was granted a Royal Patent,
In England Collier seems to have made a number of revolving arms for the forces of the East India Company, including both pistols and carbines “english cabinet”  dining  antique  amsterdam. The pistol was 14 inches long, with octagonal smooth-bore barrel, 61 inches in length and with a calibre of ‘47 inch trestle table lyre base. In 1852 he returned to the United States and reopened his old gunshop in Boston francois linke.
During the first decade of the nineteenth century Samuel Colt was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in the United States finest candelabras. The son of a merchant, he was destined to become the most famous maker of revolving pistols: so much so that the terms revolver and Colt were at one time almost synonymous art deco antique dresser. Samuel Colt, however, does not seem to have had any ambitions to become a gunsmith in his earlier days anantique pembroke tables with two drawers. Indeed, at a comparatively youthful age he announced his intention of becoming a lecturer revolving bookcase drum table. Even in the United States lecturing cannot have offered a promising career, and one does not imagine that Colt’s parents greeted the idea with any enthusiasm regency ironstone marks blue. Nevertheless, he chose the somewhat original subject of laughing gas, and whilst still below the age of twenty gave platform demonstrations of his subject art deco furniture dining table  copy of the duke. He travelled under the name of Dr painted antique wine cooler. Coult of New York, London and Calcutta, and his lectures really did take him to these places antique oval dutch table. Whilst in Calcutta, in fact, he took notes on a Collier arm wooden arm chair pedestal castor antique oak. This was probably one of the revolvers which had been made by Collier for the East India Company pine “coaching table”.
It may have been this Collier weapon which first really aroused Colt’s interest in firearms stone china george jones stoke on trent. At any rate he took careful note of its construction and complex mechanism indian interior low seating drawing room. During the voyage back to America Colt whittled away at a piece of wood, shaping the design of a model of a revolver which should be based on Collier’s system but have a much simpler mechanism antique table top wooden book stand.
After his return to the United States, Colt took his wooden model to a pattern-maker of Hartford named Anton Chase, From this Chase made Colt’s first revolver english antique consoles. Whilst in many respects a great advance on the Collier arms, the first Colts suffered from a faulty cylinder design which could result in the explosion of one charge igniting all the others antique dutch rococo serpentine pine chest. In front of the cylinder was a plate which was intended to prevent the balls rolling out of the chambers scandinavian aesthetic. This plate, however, had the disadvantage that a lateral flame leak from the firing chamber was liable to be deflected by it to another chamber, resulting in a chain of explosions in all the remaining chambers in the cylinder french gesso painted 18th century console. Apart from the damage to the weapon, the random discharge of bullets was, at the least, disconcerting antique carved trestle table.
Colt’s laughing-gas show was apparently still a very profitable source of income; for he used it now to finance his revolver experiments german buffet furniture. Indirectly, too, the laughing gas was responsible for Colt revolvers being ultimately adopted by the United States Army fake ironstone pottery. Colt was booked to give his lectures at the Baltimore Museum, and there he met and interested Joseph Walker the director tilt top bird cage table 1740’s. Walker had a relation of the same name who was a captain in the Army; and some time later it was his influence which led the military authorities to accept Colt’s invention art deco sideboard legs.
Colt’s first essay at production seems to have been in conjunction with a gunsmith named Pearson, who was to receive a fixed salary in return for paying the rental of a shop and forge antique ceramic wine coolers. The combination resulted in a small number of revolving pistols and rifles 12 arts and crafts dining chairs. Colt’s income, however, was not yet on a very sound basis, and the partnership broke up somewhat abruptly owing to Pearson’s salary being chronically some months in arrears arts and crafts furniture, antique collectors.
The flame leak trouble in Colt’s arms was finally remedied by removing the frontal plate, and providing a loading lever which drove a slightly oversize ball into the chamber reproduction quality 19th century louis xv fauteuil (armchair) with a rococo hand-carved, floral-scrolled, giltwood frame,. This both prevented the nuisance of the bullet rolling out accidentally and sealed the charge biedermeier gothic commode.
Colt obtained patents in Great Britain, France and the United States in 1835, and his fortunes began to improve hepplewhite revival foldover dining table. The Patent Arms Manufacturing Company of Paterson, New Jersey, set up a plant for the production of Colt rifles and revolvers barker brothers furniture. The revolvers were turned out in a number of different models vienna-style trembleuse. There were three different sizes of frame, and a variety of different barrel lengths and calibres antique french ormulu furniture. In the smallest category the barrels ranged from 21 inches to 4J inches in length, and there were calibres of -28, -31 and ‘34 inches drop leaf table stable base. The next size frame was intended to be carried on a belt, and embraced barrels of from 4 to 6 inches and calibres Of -31 and ‘34 parts of chambersticks. The largest size was a holster weapon with barrels ranging from 4 to 12 inches, all with a calibre of ‘36 etling france 110 “opalescent glass”.
In 1840 the Patent Arms Company failed financially, and five years later the Colt plant was forced to close antique oak drop leaf table with casters. Samuel Colt art deco ceramics. was now back on the rocks with no establishment, no machinery and precious antique pottery matt green tea decanter. little money opalescent etched glass. At this juncture, however, fortune presented Samuel Colt with a war; for in 1846 hostilities broke out between the United States and Mexico sedish design daybed. Ten years previously Captain Walker had used Colt revolving rifles in one of the Indian campaigns, and had been very favourably impressed with them czechoslovakian antique porcelain. He now obtained authority from the Secretary of War to order i000 Colt revolvers hankerchief table mahogany. To meet this order Colt persuaded Eli Whitney, Junior; to undertake the manufacture, and embodied some improvements suggested by Walker as a result of practical experience kent extending antique table.
These first military Colts were of -44 calibre with a barrel length of nine inches table octagon marquetry drawer. Their immediate success resulted in an order for a further i000 antique 17th century drop leaf tables. By this time Colt had established a factory of his own at Hartford, and was consequently able to manufacture the revolvers for the new order himself european antique lectern pedestal table. They differed from the 18th century austrian porcelain. earlier batch in having shorter barrels of 71 inches, and the length of the cylinders was reduced by a quarter of an inch “french trestle tables”. They were subsequently known as ‘Hartford Dragoons’ antique desk makers collector.
In 1848 Colt produced the best known and most successful of all his muzzle-loading revolvers antique draw table trestle. This was the so-called `Navy Colt’ oriental writing bureau cabinet. It had the same barrel length as the ‘Dragoon’ but was a much lighter weapon, with a calibre of only -36 inch josef hoffmann chair. It had a rifling of seven grooves and a six-chamber cylinder secretaire art deco. The mechanism was single action, and cocked by the thumb antique rosewood dining table lion feet. On the earlier models, at any rate, the cylinder was engraved with the picture of a fight at sea, and this is supposed to have been the reason for the popular name of the weapon pictures of early to mid 1800 dressing tables.
The Navy Colt was not without its faults “lit en bateau”. Certain of the components were very liable to break, but Colt overcame this drawback by supplying an enormous quantity of spares for the weak parts, and distributing them to all the establishments of contemporary American civilization where they were likely to be requested art nouveau sideboard.
The Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace was opened in 1851, and Samuel Colt, now a Colonel, seized the opportunity to assault the English market serving sideboards. Subsequent events have been most entertainingly described by Mr antique dresser with turned leg. R silver forks. Scurfield in his outstanding article, ‘Early British Regulation Revolvers’, published in the Journal of the Society for ,Yrmy Historical Research porcelain butterfly: french symbolist poets, verlaine. He says:
`It is notable that (except in America) all revolvers were regarded with suspicion before 1851—the year of the Great Exhibition—although they had been in fairly wide circulation from the x82o’s, when the first hand-rotated “pepperpots”, built on the bodies of centre-hammer percussion pocket pistols, appeared end table ivory inlaid india wwii. The reason for this distrust was a two-fold one: in the first place, all the pre-1852 English types (with perhaps one exception) had radial nipples (i antique desk when thay were made.e rectangular oak gateleg table., nipples at right-angles to the bore), and the result was that in the small calibres generally used fouling accumulated in the chambers under the nipples and caused miss-fires; in the second place, the actions were so defective in design (and often in workmanship as well) that they could not be relied upon to work properly; result, more miss-fires, especially in the very numerous self-cocking pistols double roll antique desk. Thus, so far as the armed forces were concerned, the authorities found their inevitable reluctance to introduce a new weapon for the rank and file supported for once by well-founded practical and technical considerations, while officers (although a few did experiment with larger calibre “pepperpots” and “transition” revolvers, the latter mostly thumb-cocking) hesitated for the most part to discard their powerful and trustworthy single or double-barrelled pistols telescoping dining table. The net result was that the revolver was ignored, or condemned as a new-fangled toy, in the Army and Navy indian vernacular furniture. `But the Great Exhibition changed all that pennsylvania dutch antique china cabinet hand painted pictures. Not only was the Colt revolving pistol on show, in several calibres and barrel lengths, but the great Colonel Sam Colt himself came to London, equipped with a large number of presentation revolvers (engraved, silver-plated, and ivory-butted) for distribution in interested and influential quarters, and exercising his undoubted talent for commercial publicity (of which dubious art he can be regarded as the father); and to everyone’s surprise the English gun trade produced, and exhibited, a rival to the Colt—a rival at least as good, if not better art deco inlay dresser. This was the Adams revolver, the invention of Robert Adams, a partner in the firm of Deane, Adams & Deane, of King William Street in the City birmingham silver finial designs. Adams, too, had a very good idea of the value of publicity and surprise, for he appears to have kept his new arm perfectly and completely in the dark until the Exhibition opened; it was not even patented until February, 18 5 1 17th century japanese imari porcelain.
`But there was to be no more indifference to the revolver in those circles interested in firearms decoart. The value of the Adams and the Colt was plain to all, and the old objections no longer held good; but a prolonged and most entertaining controversy, based essentially (apart from personalities, especially the personality of Sam Colt, who seems to have made as many enemies as friends) on the relative excellence of self-cocking (Adams) and thumb-cocking (Colt) actions went on intermittently until it was eventually decided (for Englishmen, at any rate) in favour of the Adams antique hanging corner display cabinet. The most amusing event in the squabble seems to have been a public lecture on his revolver by Colonel Colt, which was interrupted by a partisan of the Adams (some say Robert Adams himself) leaping to his feet brandishing a specimen of that make of pistol, and shouting to make himself heard in its praise-, after which the proceedings degenerated into a wrangle which soon became a free-for-all german cabinet-makers of the 18th century.’
Robert Adams, who had produced such a dramatic challenge to Colt, was associated with his brother John and John Deane in the firm of Deane, Adams and Deane 3 tiered dessert table mahogany antique rectangular. The partnership was only formed in 1851, presumably to manufacture the Adams revolvers, and was dissolved again five years later victorian tripod small table pillar and claw. In this short period, however, both the original revolver and all the various modifications to it appeared imatation marble antique bedromm suit.
At this stage, before describing Robert Adams’ designs, it would be well to consider the terms single-action and double-action as used in connection with revolvers; for their meanings seem to have altered during the course of the years antique victorian wood stool chamber pot. Originally `thumb-cocking’ was applied to an action in which the hammer was cocked by hand, and the movement at the same time actuated the pawl which rotated the cylinder to the next chamber and locked it in position while the shot was fired 1970s ashtray “art deco” style. `Self-cocking’, on the other hand, was used of an action where the pull on the trigger first cocked the hammer, at the same time performing the other actions mentioned above, and then released the hammer to fire the shot new deco furniture. Both these types were called single-action ebonized aesthetic movement credenza. A double-action revolver implied one which could be either self-cocked or thumb-cocked george ii burr walnut tallboy. But now, in the Fighting Services at any rate, thumb-cocking is described as single-action, and self-cocking as double-action antique bed acanthus paw feet. The future use of these terms in this work will refer to their modern meaning candelabra made in england.
Samuel Colt used single-action, whilst Robert Adams’ revolvers were double-action delatte nancy. Single-action was popular since only a light pull was required to release the hammer: a great help to accurate shooting antique coffee tables carved with romans playing instruments under oval glass. In addition it permitted very rapid fire, by ‘fanning’ the hammer 18th century chest antique. This method of shooting consisted of tying back the trigger, or holding it in the fire position, and flicking the hammer back with the palm of the free hand wedgewood porcelain swan base for pots de creme. An expert could fire six aimed shots in under three seconds, which made this method of using a Colt very popular in those parts where the American way of life was still somewhat uninhibited antique mahogany satin wood inlay and metal tray antique mahogany satin wood inlay and metal tray.
Double-action, on the other hand, had many advantages in the heat of battle when targets might present themselves quickly and from unexpected* directions doucai ming. It was then simpler and safer to pull the trigger only, rather than to co-ordinate the actions of finger and thumb cabriole iron legs table. Further, if slower than `fanning’, double-action could produce a much faster rate of fire than single-action antique dressing table with mirror for women ( designs).
Adams’ revolvers differed most-strongly from Colt’s in being double-action oval lacquer tea table. In addition, however, they were far more strongly made, since the barrel and body were forged in one piece english ironstone pottery. The cylinder, on the other hand, only had five chambers as compared with six in the case of the Colt bentwood rocking chair 1880 uk.
There were five models of the first Adams revolvers english hepplewhite revolving rent table. The largest had a 71-inch barrel of -50-inch calibre antique furniture 1800. The next size was much smaller with a 543-inch barrel and a calibre of ‘45 inch louis xv dining tables 8. Following this, a slightly longer barrel of 6 inches was combined with a smaller calibre of ‘38 inches antique commode on legs. Then came-a 41-inch barrel with -32 calibre; and a very small weapon with 3-11 lions paw on antique furniture.- inches of barrel and only -24-inch calibre royal vienna porcelain signed meyer.
In 1854 the ‘Government set up a Select Committee on Small Arms, and this body arranged for tests at Woolwich Arsenal to assess the relative merits of the Colt and Adams revolvers checkoslovakian glass decanter. The tests do not seem to have established a marked superiority by, either weapon gate leg drop leaf tables. The Select Committee preferred the Adams, but their report presumably showed that the margin value for antique china made in austria.of preference was very narrow, for the War Office purchased a large number of Colts in the following year cylinder bureau german. Most of these were issued to the Navy how to repair veneer table on couch.
In 1855 a great improvement was made in the Adams revolver by the incorporation of an invention by Captain F 19th century english cabinet makers. B staffordshire pearlware figures french revolution. E english george iii hepplewhite satinwood bedside cabinet. Beaumont, R paul de lamerie reproduction.E louis sue furniture dressing table 1933., by which the weapon could be used for either single- or double-action antiqu. This pattern of revolver was accepted for the Army, since it obviously embodied the advantages of both the Colt and the original Adams gateleg table imperial furniture. The following year it was succeeded by a similar but slightly improved model, and the last revolver which Robert Adams designed mid centru drum side table.
The Beaumont invention ruined Colt’s English market, and in 1857 the new Pimlico factory and the shop and show-room at No “brass drum tables”. i Spring Gardens, Cockspur Street, London, were closed down, and the American technicians recrossed antique rococo figurines. the Atlantic antique gate legged drop leaf table. The Colt connection was retained by a sales and show room which was established at 14 Pall Mall, where Colt arms made in America could be purchased rosewood chaise lounge 19c. Nevertheless, in spite of the short life of Colt’s English establishment, his revolvers lasted for a long time in the Navy art nouveau france origins. They remained as standard arms until 1862, and some may have remained in use until after 1880 can decorative moulding be antique bookcase.
The Adams revolvers were purchased by the Government, rather oddly, in two different calibres: -So and ‘45 inches; and were apparently issued quite indiscriminately; though there were far more of the smaller calibre serving tables.
In 1856 the Deane and Adams partnership split up antique tambour dining table -clock -desk. Robert and John Adams formed with the assistance of John Kerr (of Kerr & Co arita imari mark., gunmakers, in which he was in partnership with his brother James) the London Armoury Co arita kraak. This new firm took over all the Adams patents antique double pedestal dining room table. In 1858 Kerr & Co antigue oak mid century dining table with draw out leaves. produced a single-action revolver with a 51-inch barrel and made in two made in czechoslovakia initials. different calibres of ‘44 and ‘38 inches fire screen table. A year later they made a double-action revolver late pembroke breakfast table value. The Kerr patents were taken over in turn by the London Armoury Co antique spiral leg oak dropleaf table., and the revolvers were adopted officially by the Portuguese Army and purchased by the Confederate States of America berkey and gay.
In the meantime John Deane had opened his own establish-ment in London Bridge Stfeet, in London; and in 1858 had taken over the percussion revolver patents of William Harding 1930s drop leaf sofa tables. The weapon which was subsequently manufactured was known as the ‘Deane-Harding’ revolver antique 6 ft. st. louis credenza values. It was a double-action piece made in two calibres of ‘44 and -32 inches collapsible antique wardrobe. It had a very complicated lock, and for this reason was rejected as a Service weapon 16th century trestle refectory table. It was, however, much purchased privately by officers of both the British and ‘John Company’s’ Armies what types of materials were used in george hepplewhite furniture. In addition, the Confederate Government purchased a number of Deane-Hardings antique 19th mahogany hepplewhite card table.
Closely associated with the Adams brother’s was a relation or connection named William Tranter; a Birmingham gunsmith who later opened an establishment in London antique talavera for sale. There he manufactured many of the Adams revolvers grand furniture russia. In 1853 he patented a revolver of his own antique trestle refectory table. This had the peculiar feature of two triggers vilas furniture antique. One was for cocking the hammer and the other for firing rookwood nursery tiles. Three years later he brought out an improved type which had only, one trigger and double-action leopold stickly table 1959. There were three classes of this model: the ‘Dragoon’, of -So calibre and a barrel length Of 71 or 8 inches; the ‘Navy, ‘44 calibre and barrel 51 or 6J inches; and the small ‘Pocket’, ‘32 calibre and barrel 4 inches pattern for making victorian wash stands. Of these, the ‘Dragoon’ could be supplied with a detachable carbine stock 18th century antique gate leg table.
In 1858 Tranter secured a Government contract for his `Dragoon’ and ‘Navy’ models italian,furniture,maker,address.

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Nevertheless Henry did his best to ensure that, in spite of the increasing use of firearms, there should remain a large reserve of trained archers in the country from whom he could raise the bulk of his infantry in the event of war. In a new statute of 154:1 the vast majority of the male population between the ages of seventeen and -sixty were required to exercise themselves in archery and to be in possession of a bow and arrows. This was an even wider age limit than was laid down in the statute of 1511. At the same time the use of firearms was limited to certain persons and occasions as follows: ‘It shall be lawful, from henceforth, to all gentlemen yeomen, and servingmen of every lord, spiritual and temporal, and of all knights, esquires, and gentlemen, and to all the inhabitants of cities, boroughs, and market towns, of this Realm of England, to shoot with any hand-gun, demihake, or hagbut, at any butt or bank of earth, only in places convenient for the same: so that every such hand-gun, etcetera, be of the several lengths aforesaid, and not under. And that it shall be lawful, to every of the said lord and lords, knights, esquires, and gentlemen, and the inhabitants of every city, borough, and market town, to have and keep in every of their houses such hand-gun or hand-guns, of the length of one whole yard, and not under, to the intent to use and shoot in the same, at a butt or bank of earth only, as is above said, whereby they and every one of them, by the exercise thereof, in form above said, may the better aid and assist in the defense of this realm, when need shall require.’
There were many to lament the passing of the bow. In 1549 Bishop Latimer, preaching before Edward VI, denounced the vices of the age, and advocated, as a method of combating

FiG. 22. ARBALESTIERS.
The process of loadin,-, is clearly shown. Note the use of the windlass.
them, a return to the noble and manly pastimes which had been practised in his youth. He said: ‘In my time my poore father was as diligent to teach me to shoote as to learn *  me any other thing; and so I think other men did their children. He taught me how to draw, how to lay my body in my bow, and not to draw with strength of arms, as other nations doe, but with strength of the body. I had my bowes bought me according to my age and strength, as I increased in them, so my bowes were made bigger and bigger, for men shall never shoot well except they be brought up in it. It is a goodlie art, a wholesome kind of exercise, and much commended in phisicke. As late as z 55 there is a record in the Venetian State Papers of an appreciation of the English archers by one Giovanni Michele. He says: ‘. . . they, to say the truth; being. most expqrt archers, so that they would not yield to any other people more trained and experienced then they are; and such is their opinion of archery and their esteem of it, that they doubtless prefer it to all sorts of arms, and to harquebuses, in which they trust less, feeling more sure of their bows and arrows; contrary, however, to the judgement of the captains and soldiers of other nations. They draw the bow with such force and dexterity at the same time, that some are said to pierce corslets and body-armour; r; and there are few among them, even those that are moderately practised, who will not undertake at a convenient distance, either aiming point-blank, or in the air (as they generally do, that the arrow may fly further), to hit within an inch and a half of the mark.’    With moulinet or windlass.
The cross-bow was a mechanical
version of the bow, which was far more popular than the latter on the continent of Europe, but which was little used in England. It had neither the range nor speed of discharge of the long bow, but, on the other  hand, comparatively little training was required to enable a soldier to handle it reasonably effectively.
There were two kinds of cross-bow: the arbalest, which was a heavy weapon, and the latch, which was much the lighter, and the more popular in England. The bow of the arbalest was generally of steel. This was strained by means of a small windlass, which fitted on to the end of the butt, and wound up a .tackle which was hooked on to the bow-string. At the foremost end of the arbalest was a stirrup which rested on the ground during this operation, and in which the foot was placed to hold the weapon steady. The windlass and tackle when not in use were carried slung from the waist belt. The arbalest was held in tension, and the bow released by means of a ‘lock’. The early cross-bow locks varied considerably in design. They were not built up on a plate like a gun-lock, but consisted of mutually independent levers set on
FIG. 26. A LATCH.
Elizabeth I.
to the tiller or stock. The lever pivots were pins which passed through the stock from one side to the other. In the sixteenth century the type of lock was introduced which was to be used for many centuries on firearms. In this the mechanism was built on to a plate which was fixed to the stock. The release was actuated by a ‘tricker’, or hair trigger.
The latch was a much lighter weapon, and it was bent by a windlass of much simpler form than that employed for the arbalest. This was the ‘goat’s foot’ lever which worked by means of a cog and ratchet.
The early firearms were more useful for their moral effect than for any damage that they caused; and throughout the mediaeval period the personal, or hand, firearm played a sub-sidiary r6le. The noise and smoke were most impressive; and in the earliest and most inaccurate days there was, from the user’s point of view, a comforting theory that the wounds they caused were poisonous and incurable. Soldiers armed with
FiG. 27. LATCH.
Elizabeth I.
hand-guns would, indeed, need some comfort, for they must have been fearsome weapons to fire, and the observable results extremely disappointing.
0
Hand-auns of sorts were in use in the fourteenth century,  for Froissart mentions their use in an English force commanded by Sir John Chandos in 1369. These were probably very small weapons mounted on the end of a long shaft; for a bill submitted a few years later by William de Sleaforde, Keeper of the Privy Purse, includes the sum of thirteen shillings for fitting eight guns with helves, in the same manner as pikes. The helve, or shaft, was used to give support to the gun, and was generally stuck into the ground at a low angle. To give horizontal fire it might be hooked on to a wall or tree, the front
end being supported by a forked    FIG. 30. A HAND-GUN. rest. The charge was generally
ignited by inserting a red-hot wire through the touch-hole.
In a MS. which is in the British Museum, there is the figure of a soldier firing a hand-gun of a very early form. The MS. is marked `Royal, 15 E IV’, but it is dedicated to Edward V, and must presumably have been completed in 1485. The gun has no stock and is rested on top of the shoulder. It is being fired by applying-a match to the touch-hole, which is on top of the piece. From the attitude of the soldier it looks as if the gun, in its recoil, is likely to prove a far more dangerous weapon to himself than it is to any conceivable enemy This type of gun was, however, already out of date at the time the book was written. The first improvement seems to have been made during the reign of Henry VI, when the touchhole was moved to the side of the barrel, and a pan was secured below the touch-hole to hold the priming powder. Some of
FIG- 32. A HAND-GUN OF 1468.
these guns were turned into dual-purpose weapons by fixing an axe-head to the rear end. By the last quarter of the fifteenth century stocks were being fitted, which enabled the- gun to be held much more firmly and gave the firer some chance of dispatching his bullet in a generally appropriate direction. The butt was, however, held more often between elbow and body than it was into the shoulder. The final improvement to the hand-gun proper was the addition of a cover to the pan to prevent the powder being blown away by the wind.
The match, which replaced the original hot wire, was of cord or similar material which had been soaked in saltpetre or lees of wine. Thus treated, it burnt slowly and was not easily extinguished by inclement weather.
FIG- 33. A HAND-GUN WITH A STOCK.
Although the term ‘hand-gun’ was used to denote a personal firearm until the middle of the sixteenth century, the original crude weapon was replaced by the genesis of the matchlock, when mechanical means were introduced to apply the match to the priming pan about the first quarter of the fifteenth century. This innovation resulted in an enormous improvement in the accuracy of shooting; for the firer could now hold his weapon with both hands, instead of requiring one hand free to apply the loose match. The match was held in a pair of metal jaws, which were brought down on -to the priming pan by raising a long pivoted lever which extended towards the butt. The match holder was called a ‘dog’, ’serpentine’ or ‘dragon’ from its fancied resemblance to these animals.
The matchlock proper was an improvement on the above mechanism, which was now embodied in a ‘lock’. The match was held in the forked holder, or ’serpentine’, by a
FIG. 34. A CALIVER-MAN.
From the Roll of the Funeral of Sir Philip Sydney, 1586.
thumb screw. Linked to the serpentine was a lever, or ’scear’,
which was pivoted inside the lock plate. Raising the rear end
of the scear swung the serpentine over to the flash-pan. The
scear was actuated by a long trigger, similar in form to that of a
cross-bow, which was screwed to its rear end. A scear springwas
fixed inside the lock plate which pressed against the forward
end of the scear, so keeping the lighted match clear of the pan
until the trigger was pressed. The flash-pan was secured to the breech, and was closed by a hinged pan cover. This was always kept closed until the weapon was about to be fired.
The matchlock mechanism was probably suggested by that of the cross-bow. The firearms first fitted with this lock were called ‘arquebuses’; and it has been suggested that the term
FIG. 35. A MUSQUFTUR.
From the. Poll of the Fuxeral of Sir Philip Sydney, r536.
`arquebus’ referred to the lock, and was a corruption of the Italian arcabouza, or ‘bow with a mouth’. When, the first regular unit of English troops, the Yeomen of the Guard, was formed after Henry VII’s victory at Bosworth, one-half of the men were armed with bows and the other half with arquebuses. Of the two the archers were the more-formidable. The effective range of these early arquebuses was only about fifty yards, and they were probably incapable of killing a. man at a greater distance than ioo yards. On the other hand, it was not considered permissible for a fully trained archer to practise at the butts at a shorter range than 22o yards. In addition the archer could shoot six arrows to one shot of the arquebusier. As has already been pointed out, however, it took far less time to train an arquebusier than an archer.
The preparation of the matchlock for firing was, indeed, an appallingly slow business. The procedure for reloading was as follows:
(a) The match, which was lighted at both ends, was removed from the serpentine.
FiG. 36. AN ENGLTSTI MUSQUET.
Elizabeth I.
(b) A charge of powder was measured out from-the powder flask. This was done by reversing the flask and pressing a catch, which allowed the powder to flow into the nozzle of the flask, at the same time stopping up the mouth with a finger. When the nozzle was full the catch was released, this being the requisite charge of powder.
(c) The charge of powder was poured into the barrel.
(d) A bullet was extracted from the pouch and put down the barrel on top of the powder.
(e) A wad of rag, paper or tow was inserted in ‘the barrel and rammed down on top of bullet and powder.
(f) The flash-pan was filled with fine-grained powder from the ‘touch-box’; the cover closed and surplus powder blown away.

(g) The match was put back into the serpentine and adjusted for length. (Adjustments to the match had to be made frequently, or it burnt down too close to the serpentine and went out. The lighted free end was then used to relight the serpentine end.)
The original matchlock arquebus was froze to 31 feet in length overall, with a very short and sharply curved stock. This was intended to be supported against the chest rather than the shoulder. The barrel length was from 24 to 30
FIG- 37. THE HARQUEBUS.
Top: An Harquebus with a Trigger (Henry VIII).
Bottom: The Lock of an Harquebus of a later date with its Serpentine.
inches, and the bore between 20 and 30 (i.e. the number of bullets to the pound).
The different terms used for early firearms are extremely confusing; for not only were different names sometimes applied to the same weapon, but also with the passage of years a name often came to mean something entirely different from its original usage. Thus, ‘arquebus’ and ‘matchlock’ were originally synonymous; but in later years `arquebus’ denoted any light firearm which could be discharged from the breast or shoulder without the use of a rest. Again, ‘hacquebut’ or ‘hakbut’ (and many other spellings) was often used as an alternative to ‘arquebus’, but in earlier times it referred to a firearm with a very curved stock which brought the Ibarrel to eye level. Smaller versions were known as ‘dcmi-hags’ or `half-hackbuts’, and were really a form of pistol.
The introduction of the matchlock marks the close of the
FIG. 38. A D.ENII-FIAG.
mediaeval period, and the approaching end of the superiority of shock weapons. The increasing efficiency of firearms was to result, soon, in the virtual disappearance of armour from the battlefield, and by the latter years of the sixteenth century the bullet had established equality with cold steel.

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Scott was clueless when it came to financials and forecasting. Scott knew how to make money at his video production studio, but keeping it was another matter. He was considered one of the best studios in town for video, audio, and mixing. He even produced quality still photography shots from videos for publicity purposes. But Scott sensed he was slipping. He grudgingly knew he needed to expand his operations to keep up with the market. But he was having so much trouble tracking his money, how could he? He was overwhelmed when it came to accounting and bookkeeping and finances in general.
Then one day, two things happened that dramatically changed his course. First, he lost a significant job to a company he considered to be a lesser production house. When he called to find out why he had lost the work, Scott learned that his lowly competitor had expanded its services offered and had upgraded all of its equipment. It could now produce a higher-quality video at a lower cost. Second, several employee checks had bounced. The employees were not happy. Their NSF payroll checks caused a cascade of late fees and penalties on mortgage, credit card, and other payments. One  employee quit over it. Scott’s valued assistant warned him that such a thing could never happen again.
That was it for Scott. He knew he had to get a handle on his books and then prepare a business plan so he could catch up with the competition. He asked his lawyer for advice on how to proceed. The attorney gave him the name of a consultant who had helped out another client recently.
Shortly thereafter, the consultant, Ron, visited Scott at his studio. He listened to Scott talk of his frustrations with his accounting and his need for a bank loan to acquire new equipment to keep up with his competitors. Scott was very worried he could never get a bank loan because he didn’t have the systems in place to prove that he’d ever be able to repay a loan. At this moment, he wasn’t even sure whether he could repay a loan or not.
Ron told Scott not to worry. There were plenty of entrepreneurs in his
they’d been able to pull it together, obtain
exact situation. With a little help,
a bank loan, and thrive. He would, too.
That was fine, Scott said. But the accounting had become such a problem that he had developed a mental block to it all. When he heard all the financial terms, he just tuned them out. He was stressed that he could never comprehend it well enough to talk to a banker.
Ron had the solution to Scott’s mental block. They would go through the four main accounting reports and relate them to Scott’s business. This way when Scott heard the term, he could equate it to an aspect of his business and be able to talk about it. Scott agreed to give it a try. Ron identified the four main reports they would be discussing as income statement, cash flow statement, balance sheet, and break-even analysis.
Ron could sense Scott’s frustration at the mere mention of these terms. So he asked Scott a production question: “What is a snapshot?” After several questions as to why this was relevant to anything at all, Ron got Scott to answer that a snapshot, as in a photograph, is an image in time. Ron then told Scott that was also what an income statement is: a snapshot of your business at one point in time. If an income statement is prepared on June 30, then like a photograph taken on June 30, it will show you if you are making any money as of June 30. Scott slowly nodded.
Ron also pointed out that in an income statement you bring all of your revenue from sales and other sources into the picture, take out all of your costs,  and end up with a snapshot of net income. This is your photo of the amount of profit or loss you  have on, for example, June 30.
Ron went on to say that income statements are also called earning statements or profit and loss statements (P&Ls) and that they all provide the same thing: a snapshot of the business on a fixed date in time.
Scott said he was getting the picture, so to speak. Ron laughed and said next was the cash flow statement.
A cash flow statement is movement, he said. It shows where the money comes from and where it goes. It is different from an income statement, which takes a still picture of sales and profits. Instead. Ron said, the cash flow statement tells you where the cash comes from, how it is being used in the company, and how it is going out of the company. There is movement to a cash flow statement, Ron explained. It is a video. Scott’s eyes lit up. He could visualize the movement.
Ron went on to explain there are two parts to this video. One is called the sources of funds, which tracks not only sales but also loans, line of credit drawdowns, and equity investments from investors. It records the movement of money into the company. Part two of the video shows the uses of funds—the movement of money within the company. This includes the cost of goods sold, administrative expenses, loan and interest payments, equipment purchases, and dividends or draws paid to the owners.
The result of this movement of cash into the company, around the company, and out of the company is called the net change in cash. It is the difference between total funds in and total funds out.
Ron noted that a happy ending to this video would show a positive number and an upward trend. Scott said he was on the edge of his chair to see how his cash flow video ended. Ron agreed but reminded Scott that the cash flow statement doesn’t have a finite end. Instead, it is a measuring tool, a means for improving performance over time. A never-ending video. Scott liked that idea.
A balance sheet was the third report he needed to understand. This matches your assets (the things you own) with your liabilities (the items you owe on). The result is your total assets.
Scott didn’t see how this related to video production. Ron asked him to think about a mixing job, where you lay the audio (the sound) with the video Ron said this was how Scott should remember a balance sheet: the mix of audio and video into one valuable asset. Or, in accounting terms, the mix of assets with liabilities to equal net worth. Scott saw it, and Ron went on to clarify that just as an income statement is a snapshot of the business, and a cash flow statement is the movement of money, a balance sheet is used to get at the owner’s equity or net worth of the business.
The key element of the balance sheet is that it has to balance. In video terms, it can’t look like the English translation of a Japanese movie where the spoken words don’t match the movement of the actor’s lips. Instead, the assets on one side and the liabilities on the other side have to be equal and have to balance.
Ron noted that if you had more assets than liabilities (and hopefully he did), the difference was the net worth of the business. By tracking this regu- larly, you could see if you were getting richer or poorer. Scott understood, and Ron moved on to the break-even analysis.
Ron guessed that Scott, like almost every other video guy he’d ever met, would love to someday make a big-budget Hollywood movie. When Ron asked the question, Scott perked up at the thought. Ron then explained that break-even analysis is like opening night. The movie has been made. Now, how many tickets do you have to sell to break even? Scott understood but asked about the distributors and movie houses. TheN, got a cut of every ticket sold.
Ron explained that was factored into the equation. With a movie, you know on opening night what the fixed costs to make it were. And you know how much the distributor took out of each ticket—for example, 60 percent. Similarly, in a business you have fixed costs such as rent, insurance, and office costs each month, and you have an average gross profit margin on each sale.
Continuing with the movie example, suppose it cost $1 million to make a low-budget thriller. That was the fixed cost. The distributor and movie houses were going to keep 60 percent of each $7 ticket sold. Your gross profit margin was 40 percent. By T dividing the $1 million film cost by the 40 percent you get from each ticket, you learn that you need to sell $2.5 million in tickets to bring in the $1 million needed to break even. Scott clearly understood this and began talking about a script he’d been working on with a friend. Ron brought him back to reality
Just as you had opening night for a film, you have the first of the month for your business. You know what your rent and other fixed expenses are. From there, you have to figure how many things—be it tickets, products, or services—you would have to sell and at what percentage of profit to break even for the month.
Ron got Scott to focus on his own business. With rent and all the other fixed expenses, it cost him $12,000 a month to keep the doors open. A video production job, after paying for film and supplies, netted him 50% percent of the monies paid by the client. So, using the break-even equation, Ron told Scott that he needed to bring in $24,000 a month just to break even.
Scott shook his head. There were some months when he came nowhere near that amount. Ron said he needed this tool for bidding on jobs and taking on new business. You needed to know where you were every month, and you had to hold your margins to reach your break-even point before moving into profitability.
Ron summarized the discussion by writing it down on a piece of paper for Scott to remember:
Accounting Term    Production Term    Answers the question
Income statement    Snapshot    Am I making money?
Cash flow statement Video    Where did the money move?
Balance sheet    Audio/video mix What is this worth?
Break-even analysis    Opening night    When do I start making money?
Scott appreciated the assistance. His mental block was removed. With Ron’s help, the financials were brought into order, reasonable income projections were crafted, and a bank loan was obtained. Scott went on to profitability and eventually made his movie.
The Importance of Forecasts
Bankers and investors will be looking at your plan to see if your business is a good risk. In other words, will your business income allow for timely repayment of borrowed money? One of the ways this risk is analyzed is by reviewing your income projections, which is also known as a pro forma profit and loss forecast. Your income projections report is based on the other four reports we’ve just discussed. If you are a start-up and don’t have a prior history, you’ll be making all five reports up out of thin air. In which case we must favor reality over creativity.
The income projection is a way for bankers and/or investors to get an idea of what the near future (usually three years, seldom more than five) will hold in terms of income and expenses based on reasonable assumptions of costs and sales. Your assumptions should be based on prior experience and real-world numbers. Don’t try to predict the future with a cracked crystal ball, Be realistic.
Obviously, a three-year income projection is a pro forma statement and must be backed up by sound reasoning and expertise—both of which you should have after all your research on industry standards and trends. If you are basing your projections on past performance, be clear about it. But don’t just take last year’s numbers and shove them into next year’s projec-
tions.    ections. Be sure to take into account changes in the industry, the economy
marketing, competition, efficiency, costs, and the like. If you are basing projections on standards and trends, state where you got your information. Again, be realistic. The people you’ll be dealing with will know when you’re blowing smoke.
Whereas the cash flow statement records the movement of all cash going in and all cash going out, the income projection looks only at income and deductible expenses. But all parts of your business plan build on each other. The cash flow statement will contain some of the information you need for income projection.
Forecasting Timelines
The timeline for an income projection can vary depending on how you are using the plan and what you want to accomplish. Three to five years is the average. But remember that the art of prognostication blurs with distance. Three years is certainly a reasonable timeline because it gives a glimpse of the future without risking too much inaccuracy. But note that different funding entities may prefer other timelines. Don’t be put off if someone asks for five years and you’ve only got three. If you want their money, go back and do five.
As with the overall timeline, the time breakdown of your forecast can vary as well. If you are preparing your plan for management purposes, you may want to show your projections by  year. If you are preparing your plan to attract funding, projections by month may work well. But different entities have different preferences, so it is a good idea to check with your target entities ahead of time to find out how they would like your financials laid out.
The basic categories for an income projection are the same as those for the income statement:
Income
Net Sales [account for returns, allowances, and markdowns] Cost of Sales [such as inventory, purchases, and cost of goods available for sale]
Gross Profit [Cost of Sales subtracted from Net Sales] Expenses
Variable [such as advertising, professional fees, packaging costs, freight, supplies and parts, payroll—including overtime and benefits—repair and maintenance, travel]
Fixed [such as rent, leases, utilities, loan repayment and interest, insurance, depreciation of capital assets, workers' compensation, taxes and licenses, and office salaries]
Total
Income from Operations [Expenses subtracted from Gross Profit] Other Income (such as interest income)
Other Expenses
Net Profit or Loss Before Taxes
Taxes [such as sales, real estate, income, inventory, and excise] Net Profit or Loss After Income Taxes •    If you want to take the exercise one step further, include a column for industry standards so that anyone reading your plan can quickly see how your company stacks up against industry averages.
•    As time goes on, you can compare your projections to your real income and expenses and adjust accordingly. Even projections are a good management tool.
•    Financial projections require a high level of financial literacy. If you don’t have great expertise, use the creation of your financial projections as a learning experience and hire a CPA or accountant who will teach you the fundamentals of the statements while you prepare them together.
•    There are several user friendly accounting programs for small businesses that are great resources for both the financially astute as well as the new business owner. Research the Internet for what others have to say about affordable software such as QuickBooks from Intuit.
Forecasting
Forecasting numbers for the future should not be an exercise in wishful thinking. Rather, your forecasts should be based on realistic expectations and real-world experience. However, not all that experience needs to come from you. If you are a brand-new business owner, it is a good idea to talk to others or even hire some professionals to help you get the numbers right. If you are an owner of an existing business, try including your managers and department heads in planning for the future. This is called bottom-up forecasting.
Bottom-up forecasting uses the knowledge of the front lines to predict as accurately as possible the future needs of your business. Managers and department heads can plan ahead for the needs of their teams and give the data to you to approve and compile. These front liners know what equipment will need to be replaced next year, what positions will need to be added, and how many training programs need to be added. Your sales team should have a good idea as to where sales are going and what trends might change the path you are currently on, and the like. Each manager or department head can look at the next few years month by month and come up with a realistic forecast. You can add all those forecasts together to prepare a picture of the future of your business as a whole. Of course, your front liners cannot accurately predict everything that will be needed in the coming three years, but they might have insights you don’t.
Top-down forecasting is planning for the future with the end in mind. It starts with your goals for three years out and backtracks the steps it will take to get there. You start with the big picture—the industry—and your goals within it. With your market share goal, you can figure your projected revenue. From there, you work your way down the table, filling in exact numbers where you can and making your best predictions where you can’t. Still, these are not guesses. Even the advertising section (one of the most variable sections of your projection) can be worked out logically. You know where you stand with the competition and the industry norms. So you know if you will need to spend more or less than the norm in order to increase your piece of the pie. How much more is a little murkier, but your marketing section analysis should be able to guide you.
Top-down forecasting allows you to work your goals into your company’s expectations of the future. It also allows for some spin, but keep it real.
Now to drive home the financials and forecasting of financials, we’re going to review the four reports again and look at some new beneficial ratios to use. If you feel like you’ve had enough of all the numbers, feel free to go on to the next chapter.
Cash Flow Statement: Cash Is King!
Money comes in; money goes out. The difference between the two is your profit or loss. Put it all on paper along with a timeline, and you have a basic cash flow statement (or budget). This means you put down how much money you expect from whom (by category—sales, loans, etc.) and when (by date, week, month, or quarter), and how much money you will need to pay out (bills, debts, and expenses) to whom and when,
In Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing, Robert Kyosaki and Sharon Lechter wrote: “Cash flow management is a fundamental and essential skill if a person truly wants to be successful in the B quadrant. Many small business owners fail because they do not know the difference between profit and cash flow.”If preparation of the report seems daunting, try breaking it down into easily digestible pieces. Create separate budgets for revenues (real and/or projected), cost of sales, fixed expenses, and variable expenses. You may also want to create a table of all your sources of incoming cash as well as one for all outgoing cash. You don’t have to include all this information in your plan (the table may contain detail better left under wraps). Then you can use these tables to figure out where the money is going to come from to pay the bills each month if cash in and cash out don’t exactly coincide. And there’s your timeline.
Your table or spreadsheet for cash flowing into your business can include categories such as:
•    Amount of cash you have available for the business
•    Sale revenues (broken out by sales, service, accounts receivable, collections, and deposits)
•    Interest income
•    Any sales of long-term assets
•    Liabilities (such as loans)
•    Equity (such as owner investments, sales of stock, or venture capital)
Your table or spreadsheet for cash flowing out of your business can include categories such as:
•    Start-up costs (including business licenses)
•    Inventory purchases
•    Controllable expenses (such as freight, packaging, and advertising)
•    Fixed expenses (such as rent, utilities, and insurance)
•    Long-term purchase assets
•    Liabilities (such as paying back Loans)
•    Owner equity (money you take out as an owner)
You can prepare a statement for any stretch of time you want, but remember that the further out you project, the more you risk losing accuracy. It is best to stick to one fiscal year, beginning with the start of the current fiscal year and stepping month to month to the end of that same fiscal year. To improve accuracy, keep revising the statement (monthly is ideal) to reflect reality, and your ever-increasing expertise.
The timeline will help you plan for the time lag often involved with collection of receivables and will allow you to time collections so that you are not caught short when bills come due. For example, your office supply store likely experiences an influx of cash during August and September because of the back-to-school frenzy. your big bills may come significantly later in the year. Plan accordingly.
The cash flow statement (like most budgets) only includes real money (cash in, cash out). It does not include noncash transactions (such as amortization or depreciation).
The traditional format of a cash flow statement has the total for the year and the subtotals for each month in thirteen columns (vertical) with column labels across the top. The rows (horizontal) show the beginning balance and the amount of cash in and cash out by source, with the sources listed on the far left. The table (or spreadsheet) will be easier to understand if you break categories into subcategories when you can. Here is an example of a detailed cash flow statement:
Total [this row is the total for each category by column] Beginning Cash Balance [enter under month 1]
Cash Receipts
Sales Revenues
Cash Sales
Receivables
Sale of Long-Term Assets
Interest Income
Total Cash Available [add the Beginning Cash Balance to all Cash Receipts]
Cash Payments Cost of Sales Material
Labor
Purchases

Controllable Expenses
Supplies
Salaries
Freight
Packaging
Advertising
Miscellaneous Fixed Expenses Rent/Lease
Utilities
Office Salaries Licenses/Permits Insurance
Advertising
Miscellaneous Loan Payments Interest Payments Long-Term Asset Payments
Taxes
Federal Income Tax
Other Taxes Owner Draws
Total Cash Paid Out [add Cost of Sales, Controllable Expenses, Fixed Expenses, Loan Payments, Interest Payments, Long-Term Asset Payments, Taxes, and Owner Draws]
Balance [subtract Total Cash Paid Out from Total Cash Available; put negatives in brackets]
Incoming Loans [loan money coming in]
Equity Deposits [deposits to be made]
Ending Balance [add the numbers for each month; this number should be the same as the total for month 12]
An example of a pro forma cash flow statement is found in the appendix; the following is an example of a simplified Cash Flow Statement:

f you don’t, or if you find it difficult to prepare a reasonable projection, you may want to rethink your other sections and go back to researching.
Balance Sheets
A balance sheet (also known as a statement of financial position) is a balance of your company’s finances. It presents data on assets, liabilities, and net worth. Assets are anything of monetary value owned by the business. Liabilities are company debts. Net worth is capital—the worth of your equity as owner. When you add liabilities and net worth, you get a total for assets. Generally accepted accounting principles link these three factors because of their mathematical relationship. A positive net worth means assets outweigh liabilities; a negative net worth means liabilities outweigh assets.
No matter the business, no matter the use, balance sheets share the same format. All professionals expect this format. Anyone can read them and easily compare one to another. Due to the ease of interpretation of this format, balance sheets are relatively simple to create.
Assets are anything of value owned by or legally due to the company and fall into four categories:
1. Current: those that can be converted to cash within a year (such as cash, checking and savings accounts, accounts receivable, short-term investments, prepaid expenses, and inventory from raw materials to finished products)
2. Long-term: investments such as stocks, bonds, and special savings accounts to be kept for at least a year
3. Fixed: resources not meant for resale (such as land, buildings, improvements, equipment, vehicles, and furniture)
4. Other: assorted assets that typically are unique to a business’s circumstances.
Liabilities fall into two categories:
1. Current: payable within one operating cycle (such as notes, taxes, interest, payroll accrual, and accounts payable)

2. Long-term: mortgages, vehicles, notes, and the like (take the current payment due subtracted from the remaining balance)
Net worth or owner equity is given according to the legal structure of your business. Corporations use the total invested by owners or stockholders added to retained earnings (after dividends are paid). Partnerships, LLC’s, and sole proprietorships use the original investment of owners added to earnings after withdrawals.
A sample projected balance sheet is round in the appendix.
Balance sheets should be prepared on a regular basis, not just when you are preparing a business plan. The balance sheet can help you ou spot trends and plug cash leaks before they sink your company.
If you are preparing your plan fora new business, you might want to include a balance sheet of your personal finances instead of a business balance sheet, to show your ability to handle money. Then again, you might not want to do so, in order to show that you value your privacy.
Income Statement
The income statement (also known as a profit and loss statement or statement of operations) reveals your business profitability at a set point in time. What your business has spent (and what it was spent on) is combined with what your business has brought in (and from where) to tell you whether you made money or not.
Preparation of the income statement is best done on a monthly as well as yearly basis. You really don’t want to wait a year to see if you are making money. The data for your income statement should be readily available from your company records.
Again, there is a standard, expected format for your financial data. The income statement should include:
Income
Net Sales [returns and allowances subtracted from gross sales] Cost of Goods Sold

Gross Profit [Cost of Goods Sold subtracted from Net Sales]
Other Expenses
Direct, controllable, variable [those associated with sales]
Indirect, fixed, office, overhead [those associated with administration] Other
Net Profit/Loss Before Income Taxes
Income Taxes
Net Profit/Loss After Income Taxes
A sample of a detailed income statement is shown on page 147. Here is an example of a simplified income statement:
Income Statement for 2008
Gross Sales
Cost of Goods Sold Gross Profit
Expenses
Net Profit Before Taxes Taxes
Net Profit/Loss
The income statement can help you track the effectiveness of ,your plans by showing how expenses and sales are affecting profits or losses. It will also help you plan for variations in sales volumes from month to month. Though you only need one year’s worth of info for the business plan, a comparison of income statements over a period of years can help you see longer-term trends and therefore can help you plan accordingly. Break-Even Analysis
As discussed, a break-even analysis answers the question of how much your business will need to sell in order to cover its costs. For example, if you sell copy machines, the break-even analysis enables you to figure out exactly how many copiers you need to sell in order to pay all your bills. Add one more copier to the mix and you suddenly see profit.
The analysis is a good one for entrepreneurs because it encourages an in-depth understanding of costs. The analysis is a good one for lenders and investors because it says a lot about whether or not you, as writer of the plan, are realistic in your assumptions.
The break-even point is the dream of any entrepreneur. It is that point at which you can start to breathe a little easier. It is the point when you start to think maybe going into business for yourself was a good decision. It is the beginning of stability. It is the point too many businesses never reach. But numerically, it is the point at which your fixed and variable expenses (including cost of sales) are met by your product and/or service sales. You won’t be making a profit, but you will no longer be taking a loss either.
You can display this point in a number of ways in your business plan. In either graph h or table form, you can show dollars of expense compared to dollars of revenue or even dollars of expense compared to units of production (in either products or services). Your income projection can be the source for either way of showing the information.
If you decide to use a mathematical presentation, you can find the exact break-even point with a simple formula:
break-even = fixed expenses + (1 – variable expenses/sales) come that increases as sales increase, your revenue line will be drawn at a forty-five-degree angle on the chart. The point at which your revenue line and your total cost line meet is marked as your break-even point.
Break Even Analysis    Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 Month 7
Sales    20000 22000    24000    26000    280000    30000    32000
Variable Costs    12000 13000    14000    14000    150000    16000    17000
Fixed Costs    10000 10000    10000    10000    100000    10000    10000
Fixed + Variable Costs    22000 23000    24000    24000    250000    26000    27000
Net    –2000 –1000    0    2000    3000    4000    5000
Because the graphic presentation is such a great way to express complicated data for a visually focused society and the numerical presentation is so great for bankers and other number-focused types, you may choose to present Your data in both formats (might as well cover your bases) or pick and choose and customize for your particular audience.
Ratios
When potential investors begin their task of analyzing your business for risk and feasibility, they bring experience and expertise to bear on your business plan. It’s not simply a matter of whether or not they like your idea or whether or not they have the money to give. Nor is it a matter of how personally persuasive you are. What it comes down to is whether or not they think your business proposal, as presented in your business plan, is feasible. In other words, can your business make money?
40000
30000
Costs 20000
10000
0
(sales) Break-Even
(variable costs)
(fixed cost)
Sales Over Time
To create your own break-even diagram, you must first plot your fixed costs and variable costs. Label your vertical axis as costs (in dollars). Then label the horizontal axis as sales (in dollars). Your fixed costs will form a straight horizontal line across the graph because your fixed costs will stay constant even as your sales increase. Your variable costs line will increase as sales increase. The line formed by plotting variable costs on top of fixed costs will create your total cost line. Now you must add your revenue. Because revenue is in-come that increases as sales increase, your revenue line will be drawn at a forty-five-degree angle on the chart. The point at which your revenue line and your total cost line meet is marked as your break-even point.
Break Even Analysis    Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 Month 7
Sales    20000 22000    24000    26000    280000    30000    32000
Variable Costs    12000 13000    14000    14000    150000    16000    17000
Fixed Costs    10000 10000    10000    10000    100000    10000    10000
Fixed + Variable Costs    22000 23000    24000    24000    250000    26000    27000
Net    –2000 –1000    0    2000    3000    4000    5000
Because the graphic presentation is such a great way to express complicated data for a visually focused society and the numerical presentation is so great for bankers and other number-focused types, you may choose to present Your data in both formats (might as well cover your bases) or pick and choose and customize for your particular audience.
Ratios
When potential investors begin their task of analyzing your business for risk and feasibility, they bring experience and expertise to bear on your business plan. It’s not simply a matter of whether or not they like your idea or whether or not they have the money to give. Nor is it a matter of how personally persuasive you are. What it comes down to is whether or not they think your business proposal, as presented in your business plan, is feasible. In other words, can your business make money?
40000
30000
Costs 20000
10000
0
(sales) Break-Even
(variable costs)
(fixed cost)
Sales Over Time

One of the ways experienced financial decision makers make their decisions is through the analysis of ratios. just as the term implies, ratio analysis involves taking numbers from the financial tables and comparing one to another. Which numbers are chosen and how they are combined tell a lot about different aspects of the business under scrutiny.
Most ratios are not analyzed in a vacuum either. Ratios are commonly compared to one another in a historical, competitive, and/or budgetary context. By comparing current figures with those of the past, decision makers can get a feeling for mobility and trends within the company. By comparing figures for one company to those of competing companies, decision makers can get a feeling for where the company stands in the competitive hierarchy of its industry By comparing real figures to budgeted figures, decision makers can see how well you have budgeted. This last comparison usually comes into play after funding has been granted. It is a good way for investors to stay on top of a company’s promises. It is also a great way for you or your management team to learn to refine your budgeting abilities.
Knowledge of ratios on your part is akin to learning to speak the language of potential investors. It gives you a chance to see what impressions your financials will make on decision makers. It alsoives you a valuable management
tool. By tracking your ratios, you can spot trends, strengths, weaknesses, and potential roadblocks. Following are some of the most commonly used ratios.
Liquidity Ratios
The current ratio and the quick ratio are two examples of liquidity ratios. The current ratio is used to determine liquidity of an existing business by dividing current assets by current liabilities. If the current ratio is greater than 1.0, then the business has a chance of being able to pay its short-term bills. The larger the number, the better the chance of paying the bills. If that number is less than 1.0, the business may be in rough water. However, decision makers will also take into account industry norms. If a ratio of 4.0 is the average for an industry, that current ratio of 1.0 is not nearly as good as it would be in an industry with an average of, say, 1.5.
The quick ratio (also called the acid test) is a measurement of liquidity without inventory being calculated in. It is current assets (not including inventory) divided by current liabilities. Comparing the quick ratio to the cur-rent ratio gives decision makers an idea of how dependent liquidity is upon inventory.
Debt Management Ratios
Debt management ratios include the debt ratio and the times interest earned ratio (TIE). The debt ratio is a measure of risk in that it shows how well the company’s assets support its monetary obligations. The debt ratio is found by dividing total debt (including long-term debt, short-term debt, and current liabilities) by total assets. A high debt ratio means high risk to potential investors.
The TIE measures how well earnings cover interest and can be found by dividing earnings before interest and taxes by interest. The higher the number, the more times earnings can cover interest, thus the safer the investment.
Asset Management Ratios
Inventory turnover and average collection period (ACP) are both examples of asset management ratios. The inventory turnover ratio measures how often your company gets rid of and restocks an average-sized inventory It is measured by dividing costs of goods sold by inventory. A higher number is better because higher numbers mean you are more quickly going through your inventory. This means fewer of your business dollars are tied up in inventory. Inventory can cost you in storage, taxes, insurance, and interest as well as time. Inventory and time are not friends. As time passes, inventory can become outdated, unpopular, or even unsafe.
ACP measures how long it takes to collect on sales on credit. When you sell on credit, there will be a lag time. That lag time is measured by the ACP
9    by
(also known as days sales outstanding and the receivables cycle) and is found by dividing accounts receivable by sales and multiplying the total by 360. Obviously, you want that number to be as small as possible. Ideally you want it as close to your company’s terms of sale as you can get it. If the number exceeds your terms of sale significantly T (greater than 30 percent is usually a problem), you show that you are not being as strict with your credit choices as you should be or there is significant customer dissatisfaction. Neither is going to endear you to potential investors. While you may have most
T    very
of your receivables paid promptly, a few very old accounts can skew this ra-tio. Take into account the odds of ever getting payment from those very old accounts and decide whether or not to write them off.
Profitability Ratios
Profitability ratios include return on sales (ROS), return on assets (ROA), and return on equity (ROE). The ROS ratio is the most basic measurement of profitability and says something about how well you can keep down costs and expenses. Divide net income by sales and, voila, you have profitability (at least on paper).
The ROA ratio similarly says something about how well you use invested assets and is found by dividing net income by total assets.
The ROE ratio builds on the ROA by taking leverage into account and is found by dividing net income by equity. Debt affects ROA and ROE in that the two will be close if debt is small. But when debt grows large, ROE is higher than ROA when the company is doing well and lower when the company is doing poorly.
Financial History/Loan Application
A good indicator of where you’re going in business is where you’ve been. One of the best ways to reassure investors of future success is through showing past success. If you are writing your plan for an existing business, you will include information on your business from start-up to present. Put this first in the financials section; it is your loan application. But prepare it last. Preparation of all the other financial documents will greatly help you in preparation of the financial history.
Even if you are not preparing your plan for investment purposes, this exercise will help in your management practices by helping you look at your business from a big-picture perspective.
The financial history subsection is a summary. Summarize the data from the other sections and reference those sections accordingly. The following are some of the categories usually summarized in this section:
Assets
Liabilities Net worth

Contingent liabilities
Inventory detail
Revenues Expenses
Real estate holdings
Stocks
Bonds
Legal structure
Insurance
Audit information
If you are writing your plan for a new business, you may want to include information on your personal financial history and status, including a personal finance balance sheet with information on assets (cash, life insurance cash value, trust deeds, personal property, mortgages, real estate, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, accounts receivable, notes receivable), liabilities (unsecured loans, credit card debt, revolving credit debt, notes and deeds, loans secured by personal property, loans against life insurance), net worth, annual income, and annual living expenses. This information will help potential investors see how well you handle money. But remember also that in this era of identity theft, the less information you give out the better.
Keep in mind that the personal financial history combined with the information you include in your loan application (provided by institutions upon request) needs to be verifiable and accurate, just as it would if you were providing information on an existing business’s financial history.
Uses of Funds
It would be nice if your promise to pay someone back was all it took to get funding for your business. It would be nice if there were institutions or individuals who would write you a blank check to pursue your dreams. But it’s not likely. Most institutions and individuals want to know exactly what you plan on doing with their money. And keep that straight: It is their money.
The best place to start with how you will use the funds you are requesting (if that is the purpose of the plan) is to provide a summary of your business’s financial needs. If you are preparing the plan for management purposes only, you will want to skip this section.
The summary of financial needs and the uses of funds can both be short and to the point. An example is found in the appendix. The summary is a simple statement of what you need. Working capital, growth capital, and equity capital are the three broad categories of funds. The main difference between the three is in how quickly you will be expected to repay the money. Working capital loans are usually for only a year, growth capital loans are for a few years (usually no more than seven), and equity capital is usually repaid through a stake in the business (which means the payback could be slow in coming, but it may continue to pay over the long haul above and beyond the initial investment),
Be specific as to what you need the funds for. Are you looking for a loan to buy equipment or pay for training? Are you looking for an investor to take on a significant portion of start-up costs?
Also be specific as to how much you need and how it will be disbursed. If you are buying equipment, for example, list how much that equipment will cost, along with the exact make and model. If you are investing in training, list how much it will cost, how long it will take, and who will be doing the training. Give the details it will take for a lender to determine whether or not the investment will increase profit. In fact, if you have data on how profit will be increased (and you should), include that in this section as well.
Assumptions
Not even numbers are concrete in today’s world. There is always a bias, whether conscious or not. The purpose of the assumptions subsection is to explain to readers how you chose your numbers. It is the section readers turn to in order to interpret the biases of the preparer. Assumptions answer the all-important question “Why?” Why did you decide, for example, that you could double your sales in two years? If readers don’t know your reasoning, they cannot make an educated decision as to the validity of your numbers. Your assumptions are yet another chance to convince your readers.
If you are preparing your business plan in order to attract investment, you definitely need this section. If you are preparing your plan for manage-meet purposes, you might leave it out if it’s only for your own use. However, if the plan will be used by others or if you are preparing it for the edification of others in your business, you might want to keep it in. With your assumptions in mind, others within your company are better able to meet goals because they know what is behind those goals. For example, if your income projection states that you plan to double your sales within two years, it would be nice for your sales staff to know how you think that is possible. Is there new technology in the offing? Is a piece of proprietary information finally snaking its way through the approval process? Do you plan an expansion? All good information for your staff to know
As for format, some plans include the assumptions as footnotes at the bottom of each of the financial tables, some include them as a separate page within each table’s subsection, and yet others have one separate subsection devoted to explaining all the assumptions that went into all the financials. Choose the format that works best for your business.
Don’t get lazy with this subsection and never assume that any of the numbers are self-explanatory. Discussions about your plan may occur months after you have prepared your numbers, and you might actually forget why, for example, you thought you could double sales within two years. Don’t get stuck fumbling for explanations in a loan or investment meeting. If the assumptions are on paper, you can refer to them. If they aren’t, you could end up losing the trust of those whose money you are trying to obtain. Why risk it?

•    As final points on the financials, know that your investors want to see how much “skin in the game” you have. Keep your salaries as low as possible to show that you are investing “sweat equity”
•    Also know that your investors will want your overhead kept low. They want to see their money spent on the business, not on the office surroundings.

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