I received an urgent call yesterday.

"Steve, we need to submit our financials to be eligible to bid with this institution. Could you take a quick look?"

We got on-line and started looking at the company QuickBooks file. Within hour I was able to find three bookkeeping errors that, once fixed, improved their stated Q1 profit by over $30,000. Talk about the high cost of bad counting!

Are your books telling the truth?

Good bookkeeping practices - what I call "good counting" - will give you good numbers to work from. And good numbers are one of the fundamentals to achieving more productive, profitable results. The story above is just one example. (In fact, it's just one example from yesterday.)

Bad counting is the norm among small businesses. Too many owners take too little interest in good counting practices. As a result, too many companies are being run without the benefit of good numbers.

I like to say, "The numbers don't lie." I need to amend that by adding, "But bad numbers don't tell you anything."

Those phone calls yesterday? I take them all the time. 314-918-0338. My name is Steve. Try me.