Why should a business owner illustrate the importance of employee efforts?

Many non-accounting employees don’t make the connection between their job efforts and the bottom line. When you can get your workers to understand the impact of their actions and decisions on profitability, you are well on your way to meeting your business goals. A word of caution: Don’t overuse the financial jargon you learned from your accountant. Use plain English when translating financial performance into meaningful teaching points with your team.

Make the education process interesting and goal-oriented.

For example, at all-employee meetings, rather than just sharing the P&L numbers, break up your personnel into small, cross-functional groups and have them guess what your total sales and costs were. Offer lunch coupons for the group with the most correct answers and invite your accountant to the meeting to explain why their guesses were either right or off the mark. Afterward, hold an open discussion on what could be done to further improve the numbers.

—Your Personal Business Trainer