Author: Simon Zhong

"No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit." - Andrew Carnegie One common mistake made by entrepreneurs is they do not delegate. When they start their own businesses, very often they have to do anything and everything to get it off the ground. However, in order for a business to grow and thrive, the owner should be focusing on the core tasks such as making sales, building customer relationship, increasing billable hours, and managing the business. Some activities such as shuffling papers or doing the bookkeeping should be delegated to staff or completely outsourced to outside service providers. Effective delegation can free up business owners to attend to core activities, which contribute much more to the bottom line of…

Although you don't need to be an accountant to be a small business owner, your business will have a much better chance to survive and thrive in this challenging business world if you have the basic accounting skills to analyze your business results. If you are unable to interpret your financial information, you will have no idea what is working and what is not. As a small business owner, at least, you should have knowledge of the three basic financial statements: Balance Sheet, Income Statement (Profit and Loss Statement), and Cash Flow Statement. The balance sheet represents a snapshot of your business' assets, liabilities, and shareholders' equity at a specific point in time. It gives you an idea as to what the business owns and owes, as well as the amount invested by the owners. The income statement (Profit…