Hey, small business owners! Do you share your financial numbers with your team? Especially your managers? At least one person?
I do not recommend sharing with entry-level or mid-level employees. Only managers.
If you are a solo entrepreneur, do you share your financials with a business confidant? A mastermind group, board of directors, or just someone to hold you accountable?
Do you want to see your organization grow? Share your financial profit and loss reports with your managers. Then tie them to results with quarterly bonuses, or an after-hour pizza party, or a paid day off. Print a monthly report, a quarterly report, and a year-to-date report. Oh, and then compare to the same time last year. This will show where we are growing or declining. Good data can show which revenue streams are profitable and which ones need work. Or, NEWS FLASH, which streams need to be eliminated?
Good data will also show you your trends. Q2 (April – June) is our best quarter? Q4 (Oct. – Dec.) is historically our worst quarter. Slow winter, great summer. Slow fall, great winter.
It will help you in decision-making going forward. You can ask yourself, what can we do now, to make sure next winter is not as painful?
Your numbers are your scoreboard for results! Know the score. I recommend looking at your P&L (Profit & Loss) daily. But at the very least – weekly. This will drive you and your team to make the necessary changes to increase revenue and net profit!
Meet quarterly with your bookkeeper or accountant. Have them teach you your numbers. At the same time, how to save or when to pay your taxes.
I can also help you with this. It is a big part of hiring a coach and putting together the necessary steps to grow your business to a healthy 7 figures.
In one of my recent coaching sessions with a client. He was stressing over where he was at currently. I asked him, is it money? He said no. I asked him what his net profit was currently. He replied, “I have not looked in quite some time. So, I ran his year-to-date report and guess what? His net profit was up 1004 percent. Yes, a thousand and four percent since he hired me. He was shocked. I patted him on the back and said, excellent job. You are doing all the right things. Stop looking for the wrong things and start concentrating on the positive.
Besides your bookkeeper, there are several resources to learn how to read your reports, such as the “help” button on the financial software program. YouTube, Facebook groups, etc.
As you learn your numbers. You can start to go back and see how you have grown over the years. You can start to predict and forecast, or next quarter or next year. As a small business owner, financial reports should be your number one tool to help you with business planning, or your next years business plan.
Visit my website at craigmoody.co and book a confidential discovery call with me to find out more.