"I wasn’t surprised to see cash flow management at the top of the list," said Bill Reeb, CPA, and chair of the Small Business Conference Program. "But I was surprised by how few small business owners are leveraging tools to get a better handle on it."

Based on the survey results, most small businesses are not leveraging business metrics to make better management decisions. For example, 51 percent of those surveyed say they don’t use budgets or forecasts to help manage their business and 32 percent say they don't have specific metrics in place to monitor performance on a daily or weekly basis. Only 17 percent agreed that daily or weekly metrics are as important to them as their financial statements.

Another key survey finding had only 21 percent of participants measuring their return on investment of advertising and promotional dollars; and only 11 percent stated that they regularly monitor non-financial indicators, like customer support calls and visits to the company Web site, to further evaluate business performance.

"Clearly, based on the survey, these small business owners are not taking advantage of simple tools that would help them better manage their profitability and performance," said Reeb.

The survey results will be a key topic at the upcoming conference, "Key Strategies for Driving Business Success." The conference will be held in Providence, R.I., on Nov. 13 – 14, and will gather together CPAs and small business owners to discuss strategic planning, HR management, employee hiring, access to capital, succession planning, operations management and more. More info:  www.cpa2biz.com/conferences or call (888) 777-7077.