Running your business is like a four-legged stool. When all four legs are the same length and sturdy, the stool works fine. You can sit on it, use it as a stepladder, even use it to stack stuff that you need to get to.

But imagine a four-legged stool with one short leg. It will be lopsided when you sit on it. It will probably give you a scare if you use it as a ladder. And, oh, that stack of stuff will just keep sliding off onto the floor.

Now, picture that same four-legged stool but with one leg missing. It will be a balancing act to sit, stand or even stack stuff on it. It may stay upright for a while, but eventually you can be assured that it will lose its balance and fall over.

A business is just like that four-legged stool. You say, "What could possibly be the correlation between a stool and my business?" Well, just like a four-legged stool, a business has 4 key functions: Sales, Operations, Administration, and Finances.

Many business owners are born salespeople—ready to hit the road in search of that next prospect, client and big sale. Others are great technicians. They know their product or service like the back of their hand. Very few business owners come to the table with the financial management tools needed to meet the demands of their business. (Unless they are an accountant, of course.)

So what happens in the end? The salesperson has a strong sales leg, the technician has a strong operations leg, the administrative person has a strong back office leg, but none has a strong finance leg. For some, the business will hobble along year-in and year-out without a strong finance leg. For others, unfortunately, the finance leg is missing and the business will eventually fail.

Either way a short or missing fourth leg is a recipe for disaster.