324 - 5 Things Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know (Before It's Too Late)

I don't think there's a better quote to describe entrepreneurship.

Because when you start a business, there are so many things you simply don't know.

And the interesting thing is you don't even know that you don't know them.

You have an idea.

You have a product or service.

You're excited about the possibilities and you're ready to get started.

But there is a whole other side of entrepreneurship that doesn't necessarily come up when you're dreaming about becoming your own boss or owning your own business.

I've been an entrepreneur for more than 20 years, and I can tell you there are so many things I know today that I wish I had known when we first started.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm proud of the business we've built and the experiences we've had along the way.

But I also recognize that having certain knowledge earlier could have saved us money, time, frustration, and probably quite a few headaches.

What brought this topic to mind is actually one of my doctoral classes.

I'm currently taking a class called Accounting for Managers, and we've been studying financial statements, how to interpret them, and how they influence business decisions.

I'm learning to read actual annual reports from large companies like Instacart, Target, and Costco.

And as I'm going through this material, I keep thinking to myself, wow, I wish I had understood all of this when we first started our business.

Now, mind you, I don't quite understand all of it, especially with these large businesses, but I'm learning.

And it's not because I don't understand money.

I understand money, but before becoming an entrepreneur, my professional background was in insurance.

I was an insurance broker.

I had experience in corporate business, in a corporate entity, providing services, being really great at my positions.

And I was a business major, so I took accounting 101 and 102, but understanding financial concepts and understanding the financial structure and operations of your own business are two different things.

And this class is helping me connect some of those dots, some of those additional dots, even after all of these years.

And that really got me thinking about some of the other things I've learned along this entrepreneurial journey.

So I know some of you who are out there listening to this podcast, you're earlier on your journey.

Some of you are already in it more so.

But as I was lying in bed the other night, I thought to myself, I really want to share those things that I wish I would have known early on.