Venture capitalists are frequently asked what sneaky question during management presentations can make or break a company's chances of getting funding. While there are several, one question consistently reveals more about a business builder's depth of operating command than any other. "What numbers do you look at on an ongoing basis?"

Many business builders think they know what numbers count -- the top line of revenues and the bottom line of profits. They think these are the key numbers that will add zeros to their personal annual income and zeros to the company's net worth. The problem is these numbers aren't necessarily the best informants of brewing problems in a fast moving enterprise.

Within every department and within every personnel function is some measure of performance that can be monitored and improved. For example, how fast do you get paid by customers? What is your product return rate? How much administrative time is involved in customer service delivery? How fast does it take your company on average to sell a new account? How many legitimate new sales calls are made each week? Is it five, ten, twenty or perhaps none? What promotions really create new customers? How long does it take to unload your inventory -- by product category? You can guess the answers or you can compare actual results. Buried in these answers are opportunities to save money, free up extra cash flow or target ways to leverage your company's resources in a positive, highly productive way. It's all about identifying a starting point for measurement and seeking improvement every month.

Jack Stack co-wrote a great book called The Great Game of Business about how he took over an ailing manufacturing company and taught his blue collar employees how to monitor their operating numbers. Stack credits this company-wide effort to turning around an uncompetitive old industrial company with heavy debt into a streamlined, profitable company.

Financial results do matter. But the numbers that underlie your financial statements count more. Numbers can be your most trusted ally for building sustainable growth. Numbers can help protect business builders from office politics, sloppy management, unexamined conventional wisdom and complacency. And perhaps the best advantage to precision-based number crunching is it serves as a powerful anchor that keeps a business from floating off course. Simply stated, number crunching grounds your decision making in reality.

If numbers mean so much why do so many business builders avoid the very source of free information that can help them run their business better? Typically, business builders assume number crunching is just for accountants. Others are too busy or just want to avoid the bad news that their numbers may represent.

Number crunching doesn't have to be intimidating. In fact, precision-based number crunching doesn't mean being able to calculate internal rates return or perform complex statistical work. All you need to know is how to add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers. The exercise requires no more than 8th grade math.

Once you determine what numbers will be meaningful to track in each area of your company, make it happen. All it takes is someone to invest a couple of hours to develop some spread sheets -- an employee, an accountant or eager business school student. Then track the results, month after month.

Sometimes improving performance in any department by one or two percentage points can make a meaningful difference in overall business stability -- start ups too! Actually, the more trouble you face in business, the greater your need for precision-based number crunching. It's an important key to recovery.

Other benefits will emerge as well. Watch your employees' develop a new sense of pride about their work and greater command of their numbers. Watch them evaluate how variable conditions affect results. Watch them think more creatively about what new initiatives will improve their numbers with the least amount of ongoing effort. When you take command of your numbers, you have truly taken command of your business future.