Can you run a successful business if you aren’t good with numbers? Yes. There are a lot of entrepreneurs doing just that. But if you believe that you are good at running the business but bad at understanding its finances, think again. You’re probably better at numbers than you think you are.
That’s the message from Lynn Corazzi, fractional CFO, and “money tour guide” with 35 years’ experience in financial leadership, and Andy Weins, fourth-generation entrepreneur, veteran, and public speaker. They’re co-authors of the new book Stop Avoiding Your Numbers. The book helps entrepreneurs get over their own limiting belief that they’re not good at understanding numbers, so they can help their companies thrive and grow.
Too many entrepreneurs and solopreneurs, including me, will tell you that they’re good at what they do, but bad at analyzing the numbers from their own businesses. Weins says he can relate because he used to feel the same way about writing.
“I no longer believe that narrative.”
“I struggled with English growing up,” he says. “I failed English four times in high school.” For a long time, he believed he was bad at writing, but eventually he managed to change that outlook. “I’ve written two books because I stopped telling myself I was bad at writing and reading, and I started figuring out what I could do to be successful. And I read, probably, more than 20 books a year because I no longer believe that narrative.”
In a the same way, he says, you can get beyond the idea that you’re bad with numbers. “When people start embracing their numbers, they realize there are some numbers they really like and appreciate,” he says. For example, they like getting places on time. And they like having money in their bank accounts. “Knowing how long it takes to get somewhere, or how much money you make, those are numbers,” he says. “You might not love math. But with the tools out there, there’s not a lot of math involved when it comes to understanding your numbers, especially your key performance indicators. It’s more the awareness people are lacking.”
That lack of awareness can make it hard to make financial decisions, Corazzi adds. “Every one of those, for a big company, gets subjected to a lot of analysis. What’s the upside, what’s the downside, what’s the expected return? But we often find smaller business owners are reacting to something without a whole lot of information. They start guessing, or delaying decisions.”
“No one’s ever surprised when they run out of money.”
Avoiding those numbers means you might miss the chance to fix a problem before it’s too late. “No one’s ever surprised when they run out of money,” Corazzi says. “They can feel it. It happens gradually over time until one day it actually does happen.”
