I see it all the time as I travel the country talking to business owners. They try to do everything. Sales, HR, Operations, Marketing, Accounting, and oh yeah … leadership.

It’s time to delegate responsibilities and focus on what you’re good at – delegate, double-check and disappear (or go do what you’re good at.)

Generally, business owners develop their skills and expertise through sales, operations, tech, or the finance side of business. Most of the business owners I talk to cut their teeth on sales which makes sense based on their “take action” personality types. This works great – in business, sales start everything.

However, what most business owners are weakest at is their accounting and finance skills.

They understand the P&L. Simple – sales minus cost minus expense equals net income. However, they generally don’t want to understand the balance sheet or cash flow.

I find the biggest need for these businesses I’ve been talking to recently is 1) a complete understanding of their financial statements (the business report card) and 2) clean, basic reporting for visibility and accountability. This includes tracking key business drivers for profit, asset velocity, business efficiency, corporate effectiveness, and cash flow.

I find the biggest need for these businesses I’ve been talking to recently is a complete understanding of the financial statements (your report card) and clean basic reporting for visibility and accountability tracking key business drivers for profit, asset velocity, business efficiency, corporate effectiveness, and cash flow.

Many of these owners don’t trust their numbers and therefore they run things by the seat of their pants. With data analytics tools now, it’s easy to get real-time data to look at customer psychometrics and data, as long as the information is current. That often takes delegation to someone (for lack of a better term) more excited about keeping up with it. You don’t have to be the accountant to understand the basics that will help you make the best decisions you can for your business. Who can you utilize on your team that will help you have the data you need?

So delegate it, double-check by getting regular updates, and spend the bulk of your time doing what YOU do best!

If your business doesn’t have this system in place, let’s talk.