I'm going to be teaching some entrepreneurs some finance basics.  I've done this before, and I show the group what a balance sheet is, what an income statement is, and then show them a little about cash flow statements before getting into a little about debt vs equity financing and Q&A.

I'm going to follow much the same format this time around, and then I'm going to spend one on one time with some of them.  During this one on one time, I'm going to teach them how to forecast not only an income statement but also a balance sheet.  What say you - too complex for a non-accountant?

If you had a larger audience for the first part, would you add or leave out anything?

I tend to not get into anything but the very basics on entity selection.

As an entrepreneur (either back when you were new to it or now), if you had a mentor who was a CFO and also a well rounded business person (founder of some startups and a one-time COO) what would you most want to hear about in a hour and a half long lecture?

Perhaps understanding working capital & time value of money (NPV, ROI, etc.).  These two concepts help drive sound decisions in the business world.  Perhaps these are more advanced than the financial statement nuts & bolts, but I see people make mistakes carrying too much inventories and/or purchasing capital when they should have leased for a short period, etc.  I may be a bit skewed though since I work in this field.

I run two businesses and I don't really understand a balance sheet or really much about accounting in general. Wish I did.

I have a CPA I use to take care of it but I don't really understand most of what he says.

I run my business debt free as much as possible.

I take in what money I can and spend what I have to.

An understanding of accounting would likely help me gauge everything better but pretty much I try to bring in as much revenue as I can and spend as little as possible. It seems to have worked.  

raising capital and managing cash flow, although getting into adjusted working capital without some basic accounting background would be too much in one session...

Dude, you end to create a course/tutorial on this. I'll buy