What should we charge per hour? How should my financial statement be set up? Why does my P&L show a profit but there is no money in my checkbook? What do we need to do to increase profitability? These are questions most contractors ask their accountants. After all, they work with numbers all day long; therefore they must know how to run a business, right? Wrong!

Nearly all business owners turn to their accountant for help when they need advice on how to run a profitable business. The date is set and the meeting takes place. After the meeting is over the average business owner’s head is spinning with the accountant’s comments and you still have no idea what he or she just said. Nor did you gain any additional knowledge on how to run a more successful business. All you know for sure is that the meeting you just left cost you several hundred dollars.

No, you don’t necessarily have a poor accountant. The answer is deeper than that. Accountants are trained to do taxes, not how to run a business! That’s right, after years of training at the university they have a very good understanding of how to properly file your tax returns. Well-trained accountants can actually save you some money through proper tax planning. However, accountants receive no business training. We are asking someone to teach us how to run a business that has no business training. That is kind of like asking a professional baseball player how to properly maintain your furnace. Your accountant won’t be much help when it comes to answering business questions and the baseball player won’t be of much value in maintaining your furnace.

If you want to learn the “business side of your business” you might want to check out Grandy & Associates three-day “Basic Business Boot Camp”. We have trained over 14,000 contractors how to run profitable businesses. For more information, visit www.GrandyAssoicates.com/bbb.

Tom Grandy is president of Grandy & Associates.