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How did you educate yourself to understand business from the inside out?

Envision

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As I have progressively been introduced into entrepreneurship with my start up and first rental property I have begun to realize that I literally have a sliver of education in the realm of finance/accounting needed to be a successful CEO and entrepreneur/investor. I really hate not knowing what I dont know and so I am turning to alot of the experienced members on this forum and I have a question for you.

How did you educate yourself?

I need to fully understand balance sheets, profit and loss statements, I want to be able to calculate my cost of acquisition of each of my customers, I want to be able to analyze properties and businesses to understand the companies/investments inside and out.

Any guidance in this area is much appreciated!

@JackEdwards @AllenCrawley @G_Alexander
 
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marklov

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Take each thing you lack knowledge on .
Plug it into google/youtube
Learn then
Apply
 

Vigilante

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Masters degree from the school of hard knocks, with an undergraduate degree in getting kicked in the midsection.
 
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AndrewNC

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I need to fully understand balance sheets, profit and loss statements, I want to be able to calculate my cost of acquisition of each of my customers, I want to be able to analyze properties and businesses to understand the companies/investments inside and out.
pl.PNG
Here's a good way to track your profit and losses. If you made $150 in sales today and spent $100 on advertising, you can determine your $50 profit this way.

I have over 730,000 users from my first business..and I don't know WTF a balance sheet is.

cost of acquisition....see image above.

Analyze properties and businesses? idk what that is.

^sarcastic tone with my answers above, but i'm serious. Learn by DOing - Find a mentor who has done what you are looking to do and they will guide you along the way. I dont do real estate, but the things you mentioned seemed like business school fluff. Find someone who did EXACTLY what you want to do successfully and they will weed out the fluff from the real stuff you need to do.

Masters degree from the school of hard knocks, with an undergraduate degree in getting kicked in the midsection.

phd-public-high-school-diploma-premium-hoodie-sweatshirt_132373.jpg
 

Daniel A

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FUARK! I just wrote a long reply on Tapatalk, got a text, checked it, went back to Tapatalk and lost my reply to you!

Short Version:

I just finished up my first accounting class (college) today and I only 'need' to take one more. I know it's not enough...

Khan Academy covers those topics (https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/core-finance). The Personal MBA's website recommends quality books on those topics. I've bought and scanned over Mike Piper's Accounting Made Simple book (recommended on the personal mba website) and it seems great. It doesn't seem to teach how to actually make journal entries, but QuickBooks or FreshBooks make that easy.

Two different accounting focuses:

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/managerialaccounting.asp (what I focused on with my class)

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/financialaccounting.asp
(the focus for the next class)
(
 

ZCP

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Books. Wikipedia. Other investors. Failing a LOT on my own.

Try to find accounting books written for executives running the company.
 

RogueInnovation

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Finances are easy.
Being a substantial/awesome CEO who has his financial integrity on lock is harder.

You as a rule of thumb don't just buy things, you always check facts, you double check concepts, and triple check plans and options.

Cashflow wise, you always look at percentages, and risk vs reward.
For example, a narrow profit margin, creates higher risk, but if the business is well established and stable in its profits, that lessens the risk, and if you have assets in the biz it can lower risk.

You need to have the ability to contrast risks and costs and necessary moves.
And you can't just ignore opportunities cuz of their costs or their risks, you just have to spend time figuring them out to better work.

You can lower costs, you can raise prices, you can change the focus of what you sell to promote an easier to scale product line, you can better a process so quantity gets out quicker and smoother.

I mean, its not tough...
The tough part is if YOU are stupid,
If you can't say "no we won't spend here" and "we have to take a risk there... lets get diligent" in the right places its on YOU, not your economic understanding.
 

Envision

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Thank you all for your guidance and answers

I did find a mentor doing what Im doing and more, he is a multi millionaire many times over and I met with him the other day and I realized I needed to know everything down to a T to scale a business on the financial side and I dont want to sound like a dumbass in front of him so I that is why i asked.

Thanks again
 
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Envision

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Finances are easy.
Being a substantial/awesome CEO who has his financial integrity on lock is harder.

You as a rule of thumb don't just buy things, you always check facts, you double check concepts, and triple check plans and options.

Cashflow wise, you always look at percentages, and risk vs reward.
For example, a narrow profit margin, creates higher risk, but if the business is well established and stable in its profits, that lessens the risk, and if you have assets in the biz it can lower risk.

You need to have the ability to contrast risks and costs and necessary moves.
And you can't just ignore opportunities cuz of their costs or their risks, you just have to spend time figuring them out to better work.

You can lower costs, you can raise prices, you can change the focus of what you sell to promote an easier to scale product line, you can better a process so quantity gets out quicker and smoother.

I mean, its not tough...
The tough part is if YOU are stupid,
If you can't say "no we won't spend here" and "we have to take a risk there... lets get diligent" in the right places its on YOU, not your economic understanding.

my concerns are that my apparel brand does not fill a need and I need to find a place in the market that it can fill or I need to move on and stop wasting my time, your point about risk and reward is exactly correct. But I havent been doing that because I didnt know how. Calculating and minimizing risk is everything at this stage and I need to figure my shit out ASAP or stop wasting my time.

I think its a mixture of understanding economics and making good decisions as well btw.
 

RogueInnovation

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my concerns are that my apparel brand does not fill a need and I need to find a place in the market that it can fill or I need to move on and stop wasting my time, your point about risk and reward is exactly correct. But I havent been doing that because I didnt know how. Calculating and minimizing risk is everything at this stage and I need to figure my shit out ASAP or stop wasting my time.

Apparel BRAND?
If it isn't making money, is it really a brand? Just like "if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it still make a sound".
You first have to look at what the f#ck you are telling yourself versus reality, there is no point being a whiney lil biatch moving from project to project whenever stuff gets hard.

If you are being stupid, and can't even assess what business you HAVE or what opportunities it might bring with a calm and level head, then looking at risk and reward is just a futile thing to do because you are just going to label it as is most convenient to your emotional state.

DON'T DO THAT!

Geesh...
Finances are a simple FACTUAL part of a business that INCLUDES appraising opportunities and employing diligence and thoroughness. It is not meant to be wibbly wobbly baby balm to soothe your concerns.

Don't rush out and do crazy stuff...
 

Envision

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Yeah Im with you that is why im asking the question, I need to understand finances to be able to make smart decisions.

Its making money.. I need to manage it correctly.
 
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