In this episode of the Small Business Black Holes, Alan Pentz and Tonya Berenson discuss the critical importance of proper accounting practices for small businesses, drawing from Alan's experience as a business coach and founder of Owner Institute to highlight common financial oversight pitfalls and their solutions.
What You'll Learn:
- Why basic accounting is the "language of business" and how to master the seven fundamental metrics every business owner must track
- How to properly structure your accounting by separating direct labor costs from administrative expenses
- The crucial timing principle: why financial data should be available within two weeks of month-end
- Why most business coaching fails to address financial fundamentals and how to ensure you're getting complete guidance
- How to identify when it's time to hire a bookkeeper (typically around 20 monthly transactions)
- The essential difference between managing to bank balance versus proper accrual accounting
- How to break down labor costs between Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) and administrative expenses for accurate profitability tracking
- Why tracking key metrics on a trailing twelve-month basis provides crucial business intelligence for decision-making
Highlights:
[03:10] The Critical Revenue Threshold for Professional Bookkeeping
[11:21] Properly Categorizing Labor Costs for Accurate Profitability Analysis
[14:23] The Million-Dollar Lesson in Financial Literacy
[27:41] The Hidden Danger of Poor Financial Understanding
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