Do You Know What Your Business Is Really Making?

You may have customers.

You may have good sales.

You may even sell out regularly.

But after buying stock, paying transport, covering packaging, electricity, bank charges and household needs, how much money does the business actually make?

How to Know If Your Small Business Is Actually Making Money helps you answer that question.

This practical South African Quick Guide was written for people running real small businesses — from home-based food sellers and spaza shops to clothing resellers, car washes, salons, market traders, service providers and side-hustles.

You do not need accounting knowledge or expensive software.

The guide shows you how to start with simple tools such as a notebook, calculator, phone, receipts and your own business records.

What You Will Learn

• Why sales and profit are not the same thing.
• How to calculate what a product or service really costs you.
• How transport, packaging, airtime, electricity, spoilage, discounts and other small costs can reduce profit.
• Why a profitable-looking business can still run short of cash.
• How mixing household and business money hides what is really happening.
• How to estimate how many sales you need before your weekly costs are covered.
• How to complete a simple weekly profit check.
• How to implement a practical 30-day money-control plan.

The book follows a practical progression from understanding sales and real costs through cash control, break-even and weekly profit measurement, ending with a 30-day implementation plan.

Practical Tools Included

The guide also includes a Simple Money-Control Toolkit designed to help you apply the lessons in your own business.

Resources include:

• Daily Sales and Expense Sheet
• Weekly Profit Check
• Product Cost Check
• Owner Withdrawal Record
• Customer Credit Register
• Stock Check
• Weekly Cash Check
• Break-Even Check
• 30-Day Money-Control Tracker
• Month-End Money Check

The resource section is deliberately designed for entrepreneurs who may prefer a notebook, calculator, or simple worksheet rather than expensive software.

Who This Guide Is For

This Quick Guide is particularly useful for:

• informal traders
• township businesses
• home-based businesses
• side-hustlers
• spaza-shop operators
• food sellers
• resellers
• market traders
• salons and barbers
• car washes
• local service businesses
• micro-enterprises trying to improve their financial control

A Quick Guide Built for Action

This is not a complicated accounting textbook.

The aim is much simpler:

Know what comes in. Know what goes out. Know what remains.

The book’s 30-day approach asks the reader to record everything, understand what products really contribute, find cash leaks and measure the result before deciding what to improve next.

Start where you are. Make it profitable. Build what works.