Where you stand

I run a business and want it to run better

If that is you, here is what this situation usually involves, in the order it usually comes up: the things worth checking, what each one is, and where the arithmetic for it lives. None of it says what to do.

1. Break even with the owner's own pay inside it, and runway in months, are the two numbers an owner can say aloud; the break even and runway guide shows how.
2. The gap between delivering and getting paid is where a profitable business most often runs out of cash; the cash runway calculator shows the gap in months.
3. What one customer costs to win and to serve, with the owner's time and returns counted, is the unit economics; a customer who loses money loses more at scale.
4. Profit is what is left after the owner is paid a real salary; before that it is a number that flatters.
5. A Solo 401(k), a SEP, and the S corporation question each have a landscape page; an owner can shelter several times what an employee can, and a CPA runs the arithmetic for a particular business.
6. A profit and loss read every month, with one sentence on what changed, is how owners catch a problem while it is small.

Read these

Break even and runway: two numbers every owner should be able to say aloud
Unit economics: does one sale make money before you count the rent
What a one percent fee costs over a working life