In the glory days of the digital photo frame business, when his products were still a novelty and shoppers were flush with cash, getting a bank loan to manufacture them was a cinch, Michael Levy says.

“We would say: ‘We got a $1 million order from the Sharper Image. We need financing. With a snap of the fingers, the guy drove down to my office, we’d sign a document, he’d give us the money,” Mr. Levy recalls, sitting in the Deer Park, Long Island, office of the Media Street Group that he runs with his brother, Norm.

Renaissance Capital is the go-to source for information on IPOs.

You've just purchased or opened a small business and you know your trade, but when it comes to bookkeeping and, more specifically, budgeting, your skill set is lacking. It's OK - the good news is that it is possible to come up with a budget, or at least a good estimation of what will be needed in terms of dollars and cents. Read on for six simple tips that will help you put together a top-notch small business budget.(To read about large corporations' budgets, check out How Budgeting Works For Companies.)

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Fewer than 1 in 10,000 startup companies gets funded by VC firms, according to a report on small business finance by Dr. Bill Bygrave (left), professor at Babson College. Bygrave discusses results of the 2006 GEM Finance Report with Smart Answers' Karen E. Klein

Between 2004 and 2007, Apex facility resources, a seattle furniture dealership and relocation company, experienced a 900% jump in sales. Yet the owners, Marlaine McCauley and Matt Watson, didn't know if they'd actually made any money.

"We didn't have any kind of operating budget when we started growing," says McCauley. "We just threw people at growth," hiring more and more salespeople rather than looking at the bottom line. "We tried to invest in some accounting systems, but it didn't work. We didn't really know where we were as a business."

The Financial Management Center serves CPAs practicing in business, industry, and government. It provides financial managers and executives with the cutting-edge tools and resources needed to move organizations forward. For those new to the profession or working in related areas, the Center also offers background information on issues and topics affecting today's business environment. Information on human resource issues, career and personal development, and ethics is also available.

This group didn't have silver spoons. That didn't stop them from becoming world-class entrepreneurs, such as J. K. Rowling (left).

At Hot Studio, a San Francisco-based design company, the rule is to always be frugal.

Business executives and managers have to develop at least basic skills in financial management. Expecting others in the organization to manage finances is clearly asking for trouble.

Basic skills in financial management start in the critical areas of cash management and bookkeeping, which should be done according to certain financial controls to ensure integrity in the bookkeeping process. Executives and managers should soon go on to learn how to generate financial statements (from bookkeeping journals) and analyze those statements to really understand the financial condition of the business.

Financial analysis shows the "reality" of the situation of a business–seen as such, financial management is one of the most important practices in management. This topic will help you understand basic practices in financial management, and build the basic systems and practices needed in a healthy business.