Originally published in Inc. | Read the original article here.
Written by Jenny Groberg | Republished with permission
Trying to “handle the numbers” yourself doesn’t make you a stronger leader—it often does the opposite. As businesses grow, financial complexity grows with them, and what once worked can become a liability. This article breaks down why hiring an accounting expert is one of the smartest leadership moves a growing business can make, protecting valuation while unlocking clearer, more confident decision-making.
Emotional ties and trust issues can get in the way of making smart financial decisions.
Earlier this year, a well-established, multimillion-dollar business reached out to my accounting firm seeking help reviewing their financial statements. Before we work with any new client, we assess their financials to ensure it tells a complete, accurate story. During our review we found 103 issues that, if fixed, would save the company money, reduce liability, and significantly increase the business’s valuation.
We expected the leadership team to be thrilled. They were not.
What we saw as helpful, they saw as criticism. To them, questioning the hard work of their team felt like a personal attack. So instead of taking our professional advice, they chose not to move forward with our services, but to remain in the dark instead.
Entrepreneurs often resist outsourcing accounting work because to them it feels like giving up control, when the opposite is true—it gives them more control. That control comes from accurate numbers and expert insights. For example, cash flow reports help time major purchases, profit margins inform pricing, and budget comparisons highlight overspending early. Hiring an expert may feel like an expense but it is an investment in stability and growth.
Done right, accounting is not just about compliance—it is about gaining confidence, clarity, and smart decision making. And it should be one of the first investments any serious business makes.
If you own a business, you need an accountant. Not next year. Not when you hit $1 million. You needed one yesterday.
Even seasoned CEOs get it wrong
Entrepreneurs shouldn’t be ashamed of bookkeeping errors. Even successful businesses with full-time staff and strong revenue streams have major blind spots in their financials.
It is not because they’re careless—it’s because there’s often a gap between what CEOs think financial health looks like and what it requires. Many assume that if the bills are paid, reports are run, and taxes are filed, everything is fine. What is often missing is proactive oversight to identify risks and inefficiencies, protect valuation, and encourage scalable growth.
Executives outsource all kinds of things. Most CEOs don’t mow their lawns or answer phones. But when it comes to accounting, the same executives who delegate legal work to attorneys and computer support to IT experts, treat accounting like a DIY task. Or they hand it off to someone with a bookkeeping title, without realizing that bookkeeping isn’t a regulated profession. Anyone can call themselves a bookkeeper. While many bookkeepers are excellent at what they do, not all are equipped to provide the level of financial oversight a growing business needs.
The hidden costs of DIY bookkeeping
Most businesses don’t realize the money they leave on the table by not hiring a professional accountant. Executives think they are minimizing expenses, but what they are really doing is exposing themselves to financial drift.
Here’s what that drift looks like:
- Overreliance on software with no one checking for errors.
- Tax mistakes and missed opportunities for deductions and savings.
- Misclassified income or expenses that distort reporting.
- Sales tax problems that quietly grow into compliance nightmares.
- Valuation errors that could cost hundreds of thousands.
Over the years, I’ve worked with many businesses that said their books just needed a quick cleanup, maybe a little organization. But once we take a closer look, it often becomes clear that outdated systems and inefficient processes are quietly holding them back. In one case, streamlining the financial structure helped double a client’s recurring revenue within a year. One client discovered they were making unnecessary interest payments every month. Another saw a dramatic leap in accuracy—replacing error-prone reports with clean, reliable data it could finally trust.
For many, the biggest savings was reclaimed time. No more lost weekends trying to sort out financials before year-end, no more late nights second-guessing numbers.
Emotional barriers
After nearly two decades running an accounting firm, I’ve learned that resistance to outside financial help is rarely about the numbers—it’s about emotions.
Here are four types of business owners reluctant to turn their books over to an outsourced professional:
- Gatekeepers don’t want too many hands on the books. They worry about exposing sensitive data or losing control over access. Instead of building in safeguards with expert oversight, they try to protect the business by keeping everything close.
- DIYers rely on themselves, a trusted employee, friend, or family member to keep the books going. They know it’s not perfect. They might even suspect it’s slowing them down, but pride or personal relationships become a barrier to professional improvement.
- Defenders take feedback personally. They’ve put in late nights and years of hustle, and made hard decisions, and they see the financials as a reflection of that effort. To point out errors feels like a critique of their leadership, when it’s not.
- Reluctant spenders want the help but not the cost. They will invest in marketing or operations, but accounting feels like an expense they can postpone. What they don’t realize is that every month of delay could be costing them far more than a monthly accounting retainer.
These mindsets come not from ignorance, but from pride. Most business owners are just trying to protect what they’ve built. But the longer those emotional barriers stay in place, the more costly they become.
Final thoughts
Remember the multimillion-dollar business from the start of this article? When we reviewed the financials, we found between $70,000 and $150,000 in misclassified or overlooked value—amounts that didn’t show up in reports but significantly impacted the business’s financial picture. If the owner had tried to sell the business those inaccuracies could have lowered the valuation by as much as $1 million, simply because the numbers didn’t reflect the business’s true worth.
Given the potential impact, why hesitate to seek expert help? Outsourcing your accounting is a strategic investment that will strengthen your business’s foundation.
Hiring an expert does not make you less of a leader. It makes you a better one.
When you partner with BookSmarts, you get industry-leading financial expertise that accelerates your business goals. Book a free, no-obligation consult call to learn how we can help accelerate your business.
