As a trainer and gym owner I love working with people.
Spending time on the financial accounting end of things is not so much fun. In fact, I disliked it immensely for long time.
My early career in the YMCA forced the issue. We had a corporate team that did most of the backend work. As the Executive Director I had to review all the reports and justify deviations, both positive and negative to a review team.
I disliked those meetings so much, until we started beating budget month after month. While I still did not like it, it was much more fun when we were successful, and the numbers proved it.
Later when I was the founder and CEO of my own business, I focused on what mattered most, working with people. I farmed the bookkeeping out and let things slide.
This is painful to admit, but sometimes I did not have current financial numbers for months. The frustration mounted because I never really knew where I stood, even though at the end of the year I was very successful compared to similar gyms.
What do you do if you find yourself in that situation? I had to make a choice to grow and get ahead of this problem or continue to suffer.
Step #1 was to fire the bookkeeper who was a big part of the problem. The second step was to focus on the timing of the P&L (Profit & Loss) sheet.
I set up a system where the bookkeeper provided me a P&L sheet for the month, by the 3rd of the next month – no exceptions. After a couple of months, we added a mid-month review. With advances in online accounting software and some education on my part, now I can look at my P&L any day to see where I stand.
Knowing where you stand financially is a very powerful motivator.
We are in business. Without profitability we are going out of business. Without keeping pace with the market growth, we are losing market share. These are critically important things to be aware of. And remember, this is just the starting point for harnessing the power of knowing all your important numbers.
Make tracking your important numbers a priority for the weeks, months and years ahead. It’s not really that hard once you get going.
We can help and it costs you nothing.
6 Figure Trainers has recently underwritten the cost of a study of the most common things that cause business owners to fail. One of those things is not knowing your numbers.
We’re making the study available to you for FREE. You’ll hear more about soon, but for those of you eager to crush 2019, you can request a time to learn this material here.
