Too many designers have little grasp of the financial side of their businesses. It's a complicated undertaking that not everyone has the inclination to handle with the result that many designers see only the short-term picture and have no sense of where their company is really headed. In cases like that, a financial expert with a flair for making these issues comprehensible to ordinary people is called for. One of the best is Eli Escobar.

He is particularly well versed in explaining the ins and outs of business because his 25 years of experience in the jewelry and fashion accessories fields ranges from sales representative to company general manager and lots of points in between. In fact, he has been general manager of two companies; Buch + Deichmann, a Danish fashion accessory company, and most recently, for Dian Malouf, a Dallas jewelry designer.

For the past four years, his consulting company, Accessories Network Management, has worked with companies on operations, sales management, and profitability projects.