I think it is fair to say that most small business owners are not trained in accounting, bookkeeping, or financial analysis. Yet, once you own a business, you must be all three.
In the early years of owning my business, my financial plan was simple: The amount of money coming in must be the same as, if not more than, the amount going out. And I was able to manage that in my head or by using an Excel spreadsheet. I justified this by saying the business is too small right now to need financial systems or financial professionals. (Let’s be clear: I should not have taken this approach.) Eventually, the business grew to a size such that mental tracking of my $ in > $ out financial plan became untenable.
A couple of years ago I invested in and set up a couple of SaaS based financial systems (invoicing, timekeeping, payroll, accounting). There wasn’t one system (within an affordable price point) that did everything we needed so we implemented multiple systems and had them “talk” to each other. I patted myself on the back for this brilliant decision, thanked my incredible VP of Operations for figuring it all out and making it work, and moved on. For almost 2 years. We put everything on autopilot and what the things in the system said mostly aligned with what was in my head (because, yep, I kept doing that). When it didn’t, I ignored it because I knew better.
Do you see the mistakes? Have you made them?
In the last quarter of 2021, the consequences of my abhorrence of accounting and bookkeeping dropped me in the financial version of Dante’s Circles of Hell. I spent 4 months untangling the Gordian knot that had become my financials. I share this experience with all small business owners in the hope that I can prevent you from having the same experience. To keep this as practical as possible (and not just for my own catharsis), here are the top 5 lessons I’ve learned:
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