Hard to believe that I’ve had my own company for 9 years now. As I’ve been contemplating my future direction, I found my mind wandering back through the years reflecting on the good, bad and the ugly of being an entrepreneur. Clearly, the good outweighs any of the challenges or I wouldn’t still be doing it today, but boy oh boy, the mistakes that I’ve made.
Are you paying attention to your numbers?
No, I don’t mean your sales numbers, although those are very important. I mean, are you paying attention to things like cash flow and profitability? If you were like me, you don’t pay much attention to the financial segment of your company. You never learned about balance sheets and profit and loss statements. Financial statements rarely, if ever get produced. If there was enough money in the business checking account to pay the bills you are happy. Your accountant? You use him for taxes once per year. Sometimes you are shocked that you owe the IRS a lot of money.
I certainly have a lot of business strengths, but people, accounting and finance are not two of them. As a result, I learned a lot of painful financial lessons over the years. These days, I do pay attention to the financial side of my company. Though I will never be a financial management wizard, I’ve discovered that minding your numbers is actually not hard once you understand the simple terms.
Meet Ruth King.
All of us have blind spots when it comes to our businesses. For some, it might be sales or operations. In my case, its finances. For the last several years, I’ve committed myself to learning because even though I will never be naturally gifted in the finance department that is no excuse for not knowing what is going on. I’d like to introduce you to my coach and teacher Ruth King, who is the creator of the website, www.TurnOnMyFinancialLightbulb.com, small business self-help financial coaching.
At Ruth’s site, you can learn about the importance of balance sheets, profit and loss statements, cashflow, breakeven, pricing, and all of the financial things you need to learn to have a successful business. Ruth explains this information in plain English, not in accounting gobblygook:
Hundreds of small business owners have taken this course to rave reviews like:
“I’ve been through other financial classes. With yours I really got it for the first time. The light bulb finally went off.”
“I normally don’t get jazzed about this stuff but I’m jazzed.”
“I just wanted to drop you a line and thank you. It is the best money I ever spent. I now understand how to read my financial statements and what the income statement and balance sheet mean. Funny when you buy QuickBooks no one really explains things the way you do.”
Ruth really knows how to explain accounting terminology in English so that you “get it.” You take it when it is convenient for you. And, Ruth even reviews your course homework to make sure you “get it.”
Take the quiz on the home page – I did. You can immediately see whether this course is for you. When you enter EV12578 in the promo code, you receive a $100 discount on the course tuition. This is a “Thank you” from me to you. It just might be the right thing to help you.
In the spirit of full disclosure…
I believe so passionately in the good work that Ruth is doing to help business owners improve their financial acumen that I signed on as a referral partner. As peeps from my network sign up for Ruth’s program, I’ll earn a little residual income also. Though I’m earning a little income from the referral, please know that Ruth really knows her stuff…I wouldn’t recommend her otherwise no matter what the referral fee!
