Most business owners believe they know their numbers, right up until they actually run them. In this article, cost analyst Mohamed Amin shares five warning signs that your true costs are hiding in plain sight, quietly shrinking the profit you think you're making.

First, you price your products based on a competitor's numbers instead of your own. Second, you don't know your food or material cost as a percentage of each sale. Third, labor and overhead never make it into your pricing math. Fourth, your busiest months don't feel any more profitable than your slow ones. And fifth, you rely on your bank balance rather than a real profit-and-loss statement to tell you how the business is doing.