"Numbers? Eh."

"I know how successful my business is by looking online at my bank account."

When someone tells me this with a straight face, I am immediately nervous.  It just isn’t possible. Financial statements give a more complete picture of the business' health.  If you don’t know how to read financial statements, you’re in trouble.  Period.

"But, I’m not a numbers person."
Is not the thing to say to a bank when you are trying to get a loan.

"I’m a big-picture thinker. Numbers just bog me down."
Is not what you tell your vendors when you haven't paid them.

"I’m better at marketing." 
Is not what you say to your one employee when their payroll check bounces

"I’m not a “business person.” (Yes, I've actually heard this from business owners.)
Is not what you say when the IRS levies your account to pay back taxes owed by the business you own.

You better learn to be a numbers person if you want to run a successful company.  This is one of the reasons we established Start-Up School. What better place to learn how to read important financial data than in a series of one-on-one mentoring sessions with a CPA?  What if you knew exactly which numbers were the most important, and you could focus on them? You can and you should.