Good-BYYYYYY, Woody
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009There’s a scene from the movie “Toy Story” (1? 2?? Woody and Bo Peep Finally Make Out???) where Mr. Potato Head is packing for some sort of adventure. Mrs. P helps him or, as most husbands might say, once again tries to micromanage him. Part of that um, help includes grabbing an extra set of eyes for him, what she calls his “angry eyes.”
There’s tremendous benefit from sharing your financial statements with a select group of people, those who have an interest in the operation of your restaurant or business. There can also be an advantage to show them to someone not involved in the operation. While it needs to be someone who can be trusted with the financial data, giving it to a person like this might point out some issues you or another principal may have overlooked. That extra set of eyes could find a new and useful expense category, for instance. They could make you rethink the relevance of a component of your balance sheet. Their questions and comments just might help you find a better way to explain the financial aspect of the restaurant to other pertinent parties that regularly review them.
So don’t be afraid to, on occasion, get some unfamiliar eyeballs taking a look at your profit and loss statement. You may just find some unexpected but useful help. Your significant other, perhaps. A trusted colleague. The guy at the bank who helped secure your build-out loan. Your insurance agent. The 7-11 employee who looked the other way when you sucked the top off of the slurpee and then refilled it. Okay, maybe not that last guy, but you get the idea. Take advantage of a second set of eyes.
As for me, I’m still rooting for Hamm and Sally (the freak-O doll that Sid morphed) to get together in the next version.
