What should we charge per hour? How should my financial
statement be set up? Why does my P&L show a profit but there is no money in
my checkbook? What do we need to do to increase profitability? These are
questions most contractors ask their accountants. After all, they work with
numbers all day long; therefore they must know how to run a business, right?
Wrong!
Nearly all business owners turn to their accountant for help
when they need advice on how to run a profitable business. The date is set and
the meeting takes place. After the meeting is over the average business owner’s
head is spinning with the accountant’s comments and you still have no idea what
he or she just said. Nor did you gain any additional knowledge on how to run a
more successful business. All you know for sure is that the meeting you just
left cost you several hundred dollars.
No, you don’t necessarily have a poor accountant. The answer
is deeper than that. Accountants are trained to do taxes, not how to run a
business! That’s right, after years of training at the university they have a
very good understanding of how to properly file your tax returns. Well-trained
accountants can actually save you some money through proper tax planning.
However, accountants receive no business training. We are asking someone
to teach us how to run a business that has no business training. That is kind
of like asking a professional baseball player how to properly maintain your
furnace. Your accountant won’t be much help when it comes to answering business
questions and the baseball player won’t be of much value in maintaining your
furnace.
If you want to learn the “business side of your business”
you might want to check out Grandy & Associates three-day “Basic
Business Boot Camp”. We have trained over 14,000 contractors how to run
profitable businesses. For more information, visit www.GrandyAssoicates.com/bbb.
Tom
Grandy is president of Grandy & Associates.