Small Business Finance: free beginner lessons
Small Business Finance is a FinCon topic with 2 short lessons. Keep your business money clean and your profit clear. Each lesson takes about five minutes and ends with a quiz.
What will I learn in Small Business Finance?
You will work through: Separate Business & Personal, Profit, Cash Flow & Taxes.
What is in each Small Business Finance lesson?
Separate Business & Personal
Keep a wall between business and personal money with separate accounts — it makes taxes and tracking far cleaner.
Why should a small business owner keep separate accounts? Separate accounts simplify taxes, make profit visible, and help protect you legally.
Rosa ran a baking side business from one bank account mixed with her personal money. At tax time it was chaos. She opened a dedicated business checking account and a simple bookkeeping app. Suddenly she could see her real profit — and discovered she'd been underpricing for months.
Mixing accounts hides your true profit. Separation reveals whether your business actually makes money.
Profit, Cash Flow & Taxes
Revenue is all money coming in. Profit is what's left after expenses — the number that matters.
Why should self-employed people set aside money for taxes? Without an employer withholding taxes, you owe estimated taxes — setting aside a percentage avoids a painful bill.
Spend it all — you earned it: You may not have set aside taxes or covered slow months.
Set aside taxes and a cash buffer, then pay yourself: Keeps the business stable through ups and downs.
Mix it into personal spending: Hides your real profit and complicates taxes.