When you're in business it's easy to get carried away with the everyday tasks, especially those including looking after customers.  After all, that's where the money is supposed to be!

But, you shouldn't ever ignore the underlying numbers, because these can make or break you.  You should love the numbers and spend some time with them because it will repay the effort many times over.

Here's seven good reasons to love numbers:

1. They allow you to make smart decisions about how to grow.  Sometimes you just have to use your instincts in situations, but it can be very helpful to have numbers to back up what you feel is needed.

2. Numbers tell you quickly if your current business strategy is working.  Invaluable in pricing your products and services, they will tell you if you are growing profitably or losing money which alerts you fast that you need to change your pricing and/or costs.

3. You'll avoid stressful situations, like BAS and tax instalments.  You think you're okay, you forgot the BAS is due tomorrow, and the bank account is short.  (A properly prepared cash forecast is one solution).

4. You won't waste time on things that aren't working.   It could be that one of the products is no longer profitable, so either dump it or make changes that will improve the return (price increase, better buying, control of waste/loss, reduce discounting, more sales training, etc).

5. Numbers keep you focused.   It's so easy to be distracted by too many opportunities or issues.  However, numbers are a great leveller and highlight what you should focus on (usually it's sales).

6. You'll know when your hard work has paid off.   One purpose of having a business is to benefit your personal life.  The numbers will tell you if the stress and long hours are paying off for you (not just cash in the bank, but also trends of improving sales and margins, higher profits, assets that convert quicker to cash).

7. Numbers are a fact of business and you can't ignore them.   Being across the numbers is a positive, a representation even of you and your business, and they actually enable you to be free.

Some suggestions:

- keep the numbers up to date (at least monthly)

- know how to interpret them (look at the important key indicators, compare actuals to the forecasts)

- use them to assist strategic decisions (sales needed to break even, sales per customer, cash required for growth).

The latest statistics are out on business failures, they're up quite a bit, and when you analyse the reasons/excuses given, a lot of the time the real reason is a serious lack of understanding of what the numbers were telling the business owners.

We've worked with a number of our clients in the past twelve months to help them get on top of their financials.  Not just tax, but what they want to do with the business (personal and business goals), how they'll get there (forecasts and strategy), and monitoring regularly (up to date financials, one page reports, analysis of financials).  Please think about how these, or even come of them could benefit your lifestyle.