As a Part time CFO I see a lot of Business Owners and the one thing that the most successful business owners have in common, is that the most successful business owners Know Their Numbers.

What does this mean?  Well, here are a few examples:

• Knowing and understanding your operating costs per hour
• Knowing and understanding what your gross margin percentage is on key products
• Knowing what products you make the most money on and what products you make the least
• Knowing your inventory and what is slow moving
• Knowing your inventory turns ratio
• Knowing your average wage rate of direct laborers 
• Staying on top of how many days your receivables are outstanding
• Knowing how many days your payables are outstanding and knowing when to time all of your disbursements
• Being able to answer a question with total confidence when an employee or a vendor needs a decision because your answer is centered on the knowledge you have about the most important numbers/metrics in your business
• Increasing the overall accuracy of your decisions
• Improving the productivity and performance of your business because you are able to evaluate the productivity and performance of your business
• Understanding the metrics associated with your advertising campaigns
• Knowing how much cash you have on hand at all times
• Knowing what your monthly debt service is
• Knowing how productive your capital expenditures are

To be in control of their business, the business owner needs to know their numbers!