…by nature.
I am one. I know a lot more like me. Since accounting is the language of business, I needed to learn some basics and continue to sharpen the saw over time.
Back when we started Intense Debate I did not know the difference between a balance sheet and an income statement. I think there is this fixation on hacking things together in the web world and turning it into a business if people (I freaking hate the term “users”) begin using their app. So much attention is drawn to the lean start up methods, and raising money from VC’s, but rarely do I see talk about pro formas. I think this is a mistake that leads to poor budgeting, improper break even analysis, and little clue about the behavior of variable and fixed costs over time.
Oh, and what about when Obama wants his taxes paid? You better know what you owe beforehand. Sure… you can hire a CPA, but this is like working with programmers and having no idea about programming yourself.
If the your app catches on, then you “pick up the pieces” and commercialize the technology in some way. At this point I think every entrepreneur needs a basic understanding of accounting.
I stumbled on a great resource the other day that I would recommend to any entrepreneur, web or otherwise. Susan Crosson has contributed 211 video accounting lessons on YouTube each broken into small 3-5 minute chunk lessons on a concept. Taking 15 mins a day and watching these has been a great benefit to me and so I would like to share this with the world.
Susan Crosson Video Stats
What is really interesting are the stats from one of her videos. Her videos are very popular in Pakistan and India. Just another example of the power of web video as a conduit to learning around the globe.
Enjoy this lesson on the accounting equation.
