Do you drive your car without looking at the gas gauge or go grocery shopping without at least a plan if not a completed list?

Running a business is one of the most difficult things anyone can do for a career. It's important that you have every advantage available to you to ease the pressures of owning your business. Reading and understanding your financials can be daunting at first but never underestimate the value obtained within those documents.

Should I sell more of this or more of that? Where should I spend my advertising dollars? Are my costs being covered by the sales? Should I increase my pricing? Is this business even viable? Believe me, many people run a business for years before finally realizing that they have never made a profit nor will they in the market they are in or the products they are selling. Knowing this information in the first few months of operations could save hundreds of thousands of dollars, literally.

So spend the time to understand your business financials and if you don't understand them then get your accountant to explain them to you. After all that is their job.