Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!: 4 Keys to Unlock Your Business Potential Paperback – April 13, 2014

I got a lot from reading this book. It’s like Dave Ramsey’s “Total Money Makeover” book meets business world, and “Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits” goes even deeper by explaining how to increase your bottomline while increasing labor efficiency and business assets.What I also like is this book is basically an accounting book that talks about the key things to look for when reviewing your numbers. One major problem I had in my business was making sense of the numbers and this book shows you exactly what numbers to look at in order to grow your business and increase your bottomline.Again, this book is basically real accounting 101 for business owners that want more money in their personal bank account and to live debt free personally and business wise, whether they want to stay solo or have a team running their business for them.I also recommend this book to anyone having issues with team leadership and development and want to increase their bottomline.And again, even if you’re solo, this book is actually better suited for you since it will help you get started off right and have a good pretax profit on Day 1. He actually talks about this in his book. The business that had a 15% pretax profit did FAR better in 3 to 5 years while the other business that had a lower pretax took a lot longer. But what I also like is 15% is just the recommended MINIMUM. If you can start your business with a higher pretax profit and continue to increase ir, you’ll definitely cover way more ground than other business in a short time and this book will be your biggest secret weapon.

Simple yet actionable framework for measuring profitability in a small to mid-sized business. Written simply but detailed enough to make it easy for the reader to take action. Lots of templates provided which also encourages action taking.

Like some others here, I'm a bit skeptical on his view of owner salary vs savings on SS taxes, but at a minimum you should at least look at the numbers based on a "real world" market salary for the owner and not the $30K you are paying yourself in salary to avoid taxes. In the end it's the Dave Ramsey principle that emotion and motivation are part of the equation. Greg maintains that what you will profit if you stick to his system will FAR outweigh those extra SS taxes.This view was actually hard for me to look at because I my accounting picture wasn't quite as rosy as I thought it was, but now I have some good ideas how to tackle the issues and make it more profitable. More profitable doesn't always mean more revenue either. It may just mean more efficiency.I have read all sorts of business books from E-Myth to Good to Great, etc. As the E-Myth would explain, I'm a technician that went into business without a clue about how to run one though somehow I've made it 11 years and been profitable the whole way. This book, like no other I've read, gives me some insight into the P&L and how to use it as a guiding light. It explains how to look at labor efficiency when I had no clue what that was.At a minimum you will come away with some new ways to look at your accounting numbers that might just show you which employees are making you money and which ones are not.This book went quickly for me. Read it in two days. If you are trying to make your business more efficient, I think you'll love it.

Good principles and written in such a manner that it should be an easy read for most. I was hoping to learn a lot from this book, and learned that I am very much on-track as unbeknownst to me, I had been running my business this way the last 3 years. I credit Dave Ramsey for getting me thinking along these lines a few years back when I started implementing his teachings, and there are similarities to that and what is in this book (get and stay out of debt, live within your means, grow organically, etc.). I agree that labor costs are a HUGE variable in profitability, or lack thereof. One takeaway for me was that once your business hits a certain profitability % (15% in the book), you should invest in growing the business which initially may drop the profit rate, but ultimately should increase it. I have gotten comfortable with a respectable profit margin and should instead work to slowly grow the business. I will only do so with a no-debt approach, though.*************IF you are a business owner and not regularly paying yourself ... like I did years ago ... READ THIS! You will get a lot of value from it.

Very interesting book full of information. Read prior to starting my own company and I can’t emphasize how useful it was.

This book has plenty of excellent advice and is a fast read. Highly recommended for anyone looking for some big picture KPI to focus on growing your business. As a CPA and a financial leader in the manufacturing industry myself, I am always seeking additional knowledge to expand my skill set and improve processes. Greg's focus on 10% being the true break-even is a novel concept that squares well with what I have seen to date in my career. He lays out details on what to look for in your business, how to measure it, and how to make it happen.This book exceeded my expectations. It is written clearly enough that a novice in accounting/finance can understand it but has insights that professional accountants and managers will appreciate.One thing to note: this book seems to specify that it focuses primarily on businesses up to 5 million; however, I have worked almost entirely in much larger entities than that and believe the information provided is just as applicable in these larger companies.