Every business, from a lemonade stand to Boeing, runs on the same five numbers. Learn these and you can read any business — including yours.

1. Revenue — money coming in from sales. Vanity number: big revenue can still mean a dying business.

2. Gross margin — what’s left after the direct cost of the thing you sold. Sell a sauce bottle for $3.60 that costs $2.10 → gross margin $1.50 (42%). Rule: know your gross margin before you start. Under ~25% is a hard life; services often run 50–90%.

3. Fixed costs — bills that arrive whether you sell or not: subscriptions, insurance, rent, loan payments. Keep these brutally low at the start — every $100/month of fixed cost is a $100 tax on your survival.

4. Break-even — fixed costs ÷ gross margin per unit = units you must sell just to not lose money. $600/month fixed ÷ $1.50/bottle = 400 bottles/month before profit #1. Do this math on day one, not month six.

5. Cash flow — the one that kills. Profit is an opinion; cash is oxygen. You can be “profitable” and die waiting 60 days for an invoice while payroll is due Friday. Watch the bank balance weekly; know your runway (months of cash left at current burn). Businesses don’t close because they’re unprofitable — they close the day the cash hits zero.

Growth EATS cash: you pay for inventory today and get paid months later. Doubling orders can halve your bank account. That’s exactly what SBA Export Working Capital loans and EXIM insurance exist for (see START HERE) — fund the gap, don’t die of success.

New owners price too low. Price on value to the buyer, not your cost + a little. A 10% price increase usually beats a 10% cost cut — and often loses fewer customers than you fear. If nobody ever says “that’s expensive,” you’re too cheap.

💡 Practice on this app: model your business’s monthly money in 💵 Budget, track its real spending in 🧾 Expenses (make a separate “Business” account row), and watch the whole picture in 💰 Money.