You need to learn accounting.

Why should I care about accounting?

If you're just starting a business or own one, and you don't know what accrual accounting is, you are going to have a tough time. Accounting is the language of business.

"My CPA handles that anyway, I don't need to learn boring stuff."

The accountant doesn't create financial reports for you to hang it up on your wall. You need to be able to interpret them and make decisions.

PROFIT ≠ CASH

If you do basic cash accounting where you substract the money you spend from the money you receive, then you are not getting an accurate picture of your business. Nobody does cash accounting anymore except small businesses. And if you want to grow beyond being a small business, you need to upgrade your perspective.

Read these books

Don't let "accrual" accounting frighten you. The logic is incredibly simple. You aren't going to be memorizing complex formulas and doing math or anything. Accounting is a surprisingly subjective field. Despite the popular sentiment, it isn't really about numbers.
Read these books in order and you'll learn the fundamentals:

  1. The Accounting Game: Basic Accounting Fresh from the Lemonade Stand by Darrell Mullis and Judith Orloff
  2. Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs by Karen Berman, Joe Knight, John Case

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