This is an important skill for all business owners, entrepreneurs, or anybody interested in making a business work. There are a myriad of financial forms, graphs, and other documents that are available to help you look at your business, but the income statement can give you some of the best data available. And it's really not as hard as it sounds.

Jeff Cornwall, director of the Belmont University Center for Entrepreneurship, gives the secret:

"It is important to look beyond the numbers presented in the income statement and examine the percentages that each of those numbers represents. Look at major expenses every month to see what percentage of sales is being used to pay for each expense."

The rest of the simple article gives some good examples on how to use that little nugget of information, but the key is to 'look beyond the numbers' and look at trends over time. Did you really make any money when you got that new account after all of the time spent courting them? Was the hassle of getting that custom product rushed in from a new vendor worth it financially? Will I be able to continue doing business with Medicare and the new competitive bidding reimbursements?

It's important to balance what is seen on the paper with what is going to work for your business. You may show that your initial investment in that new account is sucking you dry on paper, but it may be worth it for the future revenues. Just make sure you have a way to re-examine your loss leaders before your whole business is a loss.

One of my favorite managers to work under shared the monthly income statement with her staff during the first team meeting of each month. She stepped everybody through how to analyze the data on the sheet as well as what that data meant in relation to each person's contribution to the branch. It didn't take long before everybody felt ownership and a sense of pride when numbers were up and also felt a sense of urgency when numbers were down.

Not everybody shares financial numbers with their staff. If you don't, why not? If you do, what changes have you seen in staff productivity and ownership?