Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!

Two of the ideas you’ll keep

The Clif summary of Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first two.

1. The single biggest distortion in small-business books is unpaid or underpaid owner labor. Crabtree insists you first book a fair-market salary for yourself so profit reflects reality, not a subsidy from your own paycheck.
2. Use the 5/10/15 rule: for businesses under $5M in revenue, below 5% pre-tax profit means you barely have a real business, around 10% is merely adequate, and 15% or more is a genuinely great one, measured only after the owner is paid a market wage.

The other 5 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.

What’s inside: 8 chapters

The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.

1. Why Most Small-Business Financials Lie to You
2. The Simple Numbers That Actually Matter
3. Labor Is the Lever: The Labor Efficiency Ratio
4. Pay Yourself First: Then Read the Truth
5. Taxes Are the Cheapest Capital You'll Ever Raise
6. Cash Is King: The Core Capital Target
7. Growth Eats Cash: Funding Expansion Without Going Broke
8. The Forces of Cash Flow and Building Real Wealth