Build Your Financial Skills: Small Business Classes & Resources

You don’t have to be a numbers person to understand your business finances.

Whether you’re trying to make sense of your financial statements, figure out if your pricing is profitable, or better understand your tax responsibilities, financial skills are something you can learn and strengthen over time.

The Wisconsin SBDC at UW–Madison offers approachable, practical financial education designed with small business owners in mind. Drawing on our team’s experience working with entrepreneurs and the expertise of financial professionals, our classes focus on the concepts, questions, and challenges that matter most to small businesses. We break down unfamiliar terminology, connect financial information to everyday business decisions, and help you build knowledge you can put to work.

You don’t need to become an accountant to make smarter financial decisions. You just need a better understanding of what your numbers are telling you, what questions to ask, and how to use that information to move your business forward.

Explore our classes and resources to find the right starting point for you.

Business Planning

Start with the Basics

We recommend that, before taking either financial course, you begin to plan out some basics of your business.

Start your exploration with First Steps to Starting a Business. This free, interactive, online class will help you explore your business idea and assess your entrepreneurial readiness as well as identify your own strengths and weaknesses as a business owner.

Learn the building blocks of business with Biz Smart Sprint OR dive more deeply into business planning with the Entrepreneurial Training Program (ETP). Both classes teach business basics and help you make foundational decisions for the direction of your business.

Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Financial Management

The Language of Business

Accounting is the language of business. Being conversant in this language means you have a better ability to proactively plan where your business is going and to work effectively with your accountant, bookkeeper, lenders, and other members of your entrepreneurial advisory team. The Small Business Development Center at UW–Madison offers two primary open-enrollment opportunities to learn more about business finances and concepts.

Flow chart showing bookkeeping (labeled as tracking), accounting (labeled as understanding), and financial management (labeled as planning)

Compare: Introduction vs. Intermediate Financial Management

Course Name	Introduction to Financial Management	Intermediate Financial Management
Timing	Offered in late spring/early summer & fall	Offered in fall
Time commitment & format	7 hours of instructional time (live virtual).	12 hours of instructional time (live virtual).
Tone and overview of the course	Introductory, focused on bookkeeping basics, accounting terminology and overview concepts, and a deep dive of the components of the “Big 3” financial statements (profit & loss, balance sheet, statement of cash flows).	Intermediate, providing more in-depth exploration of financial management topics to help you analyze your financial data and make decisions for the future of the business.
Short course summary	Nuts-and-bolts of bookkeeping and accounting – covering the “what” of financial management. Includes custom class workbook to help you apply concepts to your business context and does not assume you are familiar with financial statements.	Further context for how to use the information gathered through bookkeeping and accounting – the “so what” and “what now?” of financial management. Relies on participants’ historical financial experience to help make meaning of existing financial data.
This course is best suited for those who…	…are new to financial concepts and do not have an accounting background …may be uncomfortable with “the numbers side” of the business and are looking to increase familiarity …are looking for an introduction to key financial tools and concepts, or to revisit these topics …have recently taken on financial management support roles in their business, or who need a general understanding of financial management to be successful in their roles …would benefit from breaking down the components of each of the “Big 3” financial statements – the Profit & Loss (Income) Statement, the Balance Sheet, and the Statement of Cash Flow … has a brand-new or not complex business (consultants, solopreneurs, service-based businesses that do not require extensive supplies or licensure)	… have basic familiarity with business financials and terminology … want to learn how to read and understand financial information … want to learn to analyze financial information to improve business management decisions … want to improve and manage profitability using budgets and better manage working capital … want to improve and manage cash flows using budgets. … have some complexity in the business and its operations (employees, inventory, depreciating assets) …may have some financial familiarity based on experience, but has not received formal training
Topics and focus of the course	Financial recordkeeping (what records to keep and how to organize them) Deep dive on Financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement), including the components of each, why they are important, and what types of information each statement conveys Financial analysis – broad overview with a few simple examples of how to analyze your financials. Includes high-level overview of pricing and breakeven analysis concepts.	Review of Financial statements – assumes participants have some familiarity Budget types and common red flags Recording transactions (including an overview of debits and credits) Financial analysis principles to make operational decisions (i.e. financial ratios) Pricing, Breakeven Analysis, Profit Planning, and Budgeting Cash Flow & Inventory Planning and Management

Promotional piece for the Beginner's Guide to Financial Projections includes screenshots of the class workbook and sample business financials packet.

What is the Financial Feasibility of Your Business?

When seeking funding and/or determining the feasibility of your business idea, you will likely need financial projections. This free, interactive online class is designed to help you understand what inputs you need to create projections.

You will learn to answer these questions:

What are some next steps I can take to translate my inputs into projections?
How can I prepare to create financial projections? What information do I need to gather?
What is some basic terminology I should understand to be more “fluent” in the language of projections?
How do financial projections work? What are the key components?
What can I expect when working with a traditional lender?
What are some typical sources of funding for new businesses and expansion projections?

Start The Beginners’ Guide to Financial Projections course here

The Wisconsin SBDC Network is a proud part of the Office of Business & Entrepreneurship within the Universities of Wisconsin. It is funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. The Wisconsin SBDC at UW–Madison is also part of the Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub at UW–Madison.

The Wisconsin SBDC at UW–Madison helps entrepreneurs succeed at any stage. We offer no-cost, confidential consulting and business education across a wide region, primarily serving Dane, Sauk, and Columbia counties. SBDC services are provided in a nondiscriminatory way to all legal residents and citizens in the US.

Reasonable accommodations for persons with disabilities will be made if requested at least two weeks in advance. Contact us at sbdc@bus.wisc.edu or call (608) 263-2221.