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I believe any small business owner will find Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits a worthwhile read. Everyone should keep this book as a useful business resource as well. Simple Numbers was written by Greg Crabtree, a CPA with primarily small, private held business owners as clients. Specifically, Crabtree’s accounting firm, Crabtree, Rowe & Berger, PC, focuses exclusively on providing accounting and business consulting services to entrepreneurs.

In his book, Crabtree teaches some key principles to making a business healthy and profitable. He illustrates these core principles throughout the book with straightforward examples that you can compare to your own financial statements. I’ve already begun putting several of them into place.

What I especially found informative and useful were the benchmarks he provides for certain categories of controllable expenses (like labor costs). He then demonstrates how controlling labor costs help lead to healthy profitability.  Mr. Crabtree also provides insight into growing a small business, while maintaining profitability along the way. Frankly, the book told me things I just didn’t know – like how much working capital is essential for a healthy business. My first take-away was  implementing some of these principles and developing spreadsheets to track the key performance indicators recommended in Simple Numbers. In addition to the book, Crabtree has a website where you can find his book and some free sample financial templates you might find helpful as well – www.simplenumbers.me.

So, I have to say that this is one of the most useful and informative business books I have read. After reading The One Thing and implementing the Pareto principle, I am challenging myself to follow through and implement the core principles taught by Crabtree in his book. I hope you like Simple Numbers! For more book recommendations, check out our past reviews.