Sometimes choosing topics for the regular columns in Cleaner — Money Manager, Better Business, Safety First — is challenging. Obviously the main goal is to bring you helpful stories, but finding topics that will appeal to all our readers isn’t always easy.

I work with other editors for some of these; it’s often easier to brainstorm content when you have multiple people pitching and discussing ideas. With perspective gained over our (collective) decades in the industry, I think we manage to deliver stories that the majority of you appreciate and find useful.

While working on ideas for this month’s Money Manager column, another editor and I went back and forth a bit about whether the information was too basic. We know we have readers who are just starting their own business, or hope to one day, and we want to be of service to you. But would everyone else know all this basic financial stuff? Were these reminders too far beneath all the seasoned business owners who read our magazines?

Honestly, the answer might be yes for some of you. If you’ve owned a business for a long time, it stands to reason that you understand budgeting and pay your bills on time.

But reminders about even the simplest of best practices should be welcome, at least sometimes. Frequently reviewing financial habits, or any part of your business processes, should be standard procedure. Everyone from young students to professional athletes to longtime business owners needs to go over the fundamentals from time to time. Think of it as perfecting your free throw by shooting it over and over.

Knowing the steps you should take — like creating a budget or dusting off that business plan more than once a year — is different than acting on them regularly. This idea, known as the “G.I. Joe Fallacy,” plays on the closing line from the 1980s cartoon.  “Knowing is half the battle” isn’t really true. Knowing something doesn’t automatically change the behavior. Only discipline and hard work is going to change it.

So we included the article, “Get Back to Financial Management Basics,” this month as a reminder of that. You may know it all, but are you executing all those things the way you want to be?

If you’re an old pro, I hope you don’t immediately dismiss those “basic” articles. There might be something included that you’ve forgotten about, and brushing up on the basics never hurts.

We also welcome suggestions for stories, so if there is a topic you’d like to learn more about, feel free to send requests to editor@cleaner.com.

I hope you enjoy this month’s issue.