There is no shortage of software, books, seminars, and social networks for small businesses. Truly, a wide array of distractions and enticements exist for the manager’s attention and affections. In many ways, it’s similar to driving down the highway with a plethora of billboards competing for the entrepreneur’s focus and action.  As service providers to small businesses, we have to be able to sort through the sea of distractions and offer services and business intelligence applications the small business manager will truly value.

So as CPAs, consultants, software providers, and even small business owners ourselves, we must ask this question: what do owners, managers, and entrepreneurs really want and need?

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In my opinion, there are few things that will make the life of a business owner or manager more miserable than what you are about to read in this article. The president of a small business wears many hats dealing with personnel, financials, sales, production and numerous other parts of the company.

As a turn-around consultant, I cannot tell you how many times I have had business principals say, “I just cannot keep my head above water. If it’s not people then it’s customers and if it’s not customers then it’s sales or some other problem coming from left field. It just never seems to end.” All roads lead to the top. And as the company’s leader goes, so goes the company. That’s the way it is.

So if the top leader is over-stressed then it trickles down to all parts of the company. It is in the company’s best interest that the head man or woman is under control, manages stress and performs at a high level.  The following is one of the biggest problems I’ve encountered most while dealing with small companies and it makes managers nuts. So let’s look at the problem and a different way of addressing it.More...

You can’t make decisions, at least good ones, for your business with bad data or data that is missing.  Many CEO’s and managers often make the mistake of managing retroactively by only receiving important data points at the end of the month.  From this vantage point, many issues that could have been easily fixed if the appropriate data had been available weekly or even daily have escalated into large problems.  It is imperative that the management of your company has the information it needs when it needs it to proactively manage your business.

The first step to getting the data you need is to sit down at the computer and create an outline of the most important data points to running your business. This data must be presented to you in a repetitive and reliable manner.  At the same time, the format must be easy to read and quickly understood like a table or graph. More...