Small Business Owners – Educate Yourself!!

Every day I get to speak with small business owners about the inner working of their companies. While the majority have a working knowledge of how to run a business, how to create and understand a pro forma, profit and loss statement, and balance sheet, there are a good portion of business owners who do not know how to read or really understand their business’s financial information. This is no fault of the small business owner, many of whom go into business without studying finance or accounting. Many small business owners are people who took their hobby or talent and went into business with it, not realizing that there is a great deal of background knowledge that is needed in order to be successful.

To all small business owners who are in this category – Take a class! Read a book! Educate yourself! There are entire Youtube channels that are dedicated to teaching basic accounting principles and are available for free to anyone who is interested…  http://www.youtube.com/user/AccountingTutor. It may not be the most entertaining way to spend a few hours of your time, but it will teach you skills that could potentially save your business, and allow you to foresee problems before they permanently affect your bottom line!