The 3 Most Important Financial Statements

Your financial statements are crying. They are so sad! They have so much information to share with you but they don’t know how to get through to you because they speak a different language than you do. They speak accounting and numbers, and numbers are your very least favorite things to look at – unless they are BIG numbers in your bank account!

If you’re like most small business owners, you have never taken an accounting course. This means that you’re running your business with one hand tied behind your back. When you started your business nobody told you all the extra skills you would need to be successful – accounting being one of several. How can you possibly understand your financial statements with little or no accounting education?

Think about your financial statements as a series of stories. Chapter 1: The Income Statement (Profit & Loss). In fact, they are the history of your business. Financial statements also tell how much your business is worth. Chapter 2: The Balance Sheet. It may be lower than you’d like, but at least you know your real numbers. Financial statements also remind you where you receive money and where you spend it. Chapter 3: The Cash Flow Statement. This means you can look at these patterns and make solid decisions from a place of knowing rather than sheer gut instinct. In other words, your financial statements help you to really know your business inside and out and be in control of the results. No judgment, no criticism, only credibility and facts.

If you cannot read your financial statements, at some point accounting will become the obstacle to your growth. Instead of letting this happen, why not look at the financial statements as your early warning system, your history or your roadmap to success? You might just be able to cheer your financial statements up! There are services that can help you get a little education in reading those financial statements and discovering the stories they can tell! Marcy Maslov was co-contributor to this press release.