How to Strategize for Cash Flow

Hi, thank you so much for having me.
I'm excited. So I love your brand, the cash flow CFO, which it's like, it just has like a good job to it. But can you share your experiences and your journey of how have you gotten to where you are today? Like really helping business owners understand how important cash flow is what it means, what you need to do to get there. Before you got where you are today? What led you there?
Oh, gosh, well, it's been quite a journey. And it's been such an amazing, fun journey also, because I feel like I have the best job in the world. I get to work with business owners on making more money. And who doesn't love that? Right? So I'll back up a little bit and tell you how I got to where that now. So back in college, I was playing soccer. And as an athlete in college, you're kind of one focus what you're, you're there to do, right? And so I decided, Oh, well, I'll just take a business. I'll go the business major way, cuz, you know, lots of good stuff there. And I started taking accounting classes, and I would aced them. And they were really easy for me. And I just kept taking. So of course, I got my first and I'm like, Oh yeah, sign me up for another accounting class. And so I just kept taking them. And one day, my professor pulled me aside and he said, you know, this doesn't come natural to most people. And I said, Oh, really, I had no idea. And so as I continue taking accounting classes, I just I fell in love with it. And you know, come to find out that accounting is truly the Language of Business. It's like a foreign language, I'll give you that much right. And so for a lot of the business owners listening, it's like learning Italian, if you speak English, it's not something that you know, it just automatically comes to people. So, um, you know, as I got more and more into the way that accounting supports businesses and business models, the more I really became intrigued. And, you know, that's kind of where my trajectory just took off. And so after college, I went to work for a venture capital firm, where I got to see lots of really cool transactions and startups and different, you know, stages of businesses and what they were doing and how they were financing their growth and how they were really just putting all the pieces together. And I saw that from the financial perspective. And so it was just really cool. And so I worked for a couple other corporate entities and really, to be honest with you, I was bored out of my mind, working on the same set of books doing the same thing for years. I was like, this is just there's nothing Have you more out there? Right? And so yes. So I started, you know, dabbling in helping other businesses, small businesses that I knew personally, with my skill set, and really just saw a great opportunity to, to help more businesses by starting my own company. And so that's what I did. And fast forward, I think we're about six years into it. And we have a tremendous group of clients that we work with, and we support them on outsourced accounting, and also fractional CFO services, where I joke and I say that I get to sprinkle my pixie dust on all these businesses, because I get to see from the inside out, and I see the inner workings. And I see the metrics, and I see the data. And I see all the good, bad and ugly, we call it. And we really have, you know, a big impact on whether or not that business is going to be successful.
Which is, is huge. And so even before we started recording, we were talking about the different roles and the different people that you would want to consider from like your financial team. And then also like, what's the right time to like engage a person to do those things? And so, before we really jump in and talk specifically about cash flow, can you share? What are the different roles of a financial team that really, from a successful business from passion cash out, internally, externally? Like, what are the the big positions that are really needed?
That's such a great question. And I think this is honestly where business owners get the most confused. And I like to give the example and say, imagine you are the business owner, and you're driving down the road in your car. And sitting in the backseat is your bookkeeper or your accountant and your tax prepare. And they're looking at the rear view window, and they're telling you, here's where you went, here's how much you spent. They're looking at the historical data, then you have your CFO sitting in the front seat, looking out the front windshield of the car telling you, here's what's coming up, here's how to plan and here's how to be prepared. And so while you need everybody in the car, because they all serve a very important role, they're all going to give you very different advice based on their skill sets. And so oftentimes, business owners say, Well, I'm trying to get my bookkeeper to tell me how to save money on taxes. Or I'm trying to get my tax preparer to tell me how I should manage my business. And you know, should I invest in this? Or should I hire this staff, you know, kind of thing, and I just look at them, and I go, Yeah, you're asking the wrong person the wrong questions, you're gonna get frustrated and get the wrong advice. And so, so everybody in the car is who you need on your team, but you might need them at different stages as your business grows. So the very, very first thing you should ever do in your business, the very first hire is a bookkeeper, whether it's for five hours a month, or you need more time, whatever it may be, that bookkeeper is going to pay for themselves by keeping you organized, not missing out on business expenses that can lower your taxable income. And you know, just making sure you're getting paid on time, they're smoothing out your cash flow. So there's no big dips. And you can focus on doing what you do best selling, grading, delivering all those things in the business and feel like you have that peace of mind that somebody is making sure all the numbers are where they're supposed to be.
So important, and what are your thoughts on people getting their own QuickBooks account and then trying to figure it out on their own? I think you would have been amazing like, because it came numbers come natural to some people like I have met some people like that. And then when someone was like, yeah, get QuickBooks and I'm like, Oh, I love technology. I love software. I love platforms. And then I tried to like do it and then I've no clue what I'm doing and it was all wrong. And so what it what is your advice on on that is just outsource it.
Yeah. Well, you know, I always look at things in what's going to give you your biggest ROI. So as a business owner, if it takes takes you three hours to do something that someone else without proper skill set can do in 30 minutes or even an hour, what is your time worth to you, and if you could go out and sell a project, that's going to make you $500 versus paying somebody $18 an hour to do three hours worth of work. It's a no brainer, right? And so I think a lot of businesses, business owners don't look at it in that type of evaluation and that lens, and they think, Oh, I'm gonna save money over here by doing it myself. But, you know, and the other side of that, these days, the software's very advanced, and it's not as intuitive as you know, debits credits, even if they knew debits and credits, it's not like that anymore. And so you really want to bring in somebody that can help you, you know, do do the accounting piece, and you can go and focus on generating revenue.
Yes. And now do bookkeepers have to be CPAs? Like, what is the difference there?
Yeah, so you actually don't want a CPA to be doing your bookkeeping, because you're gonna pay a lot of money for that. Yep. So, you know, it's it's a little bit of a tricky conversation. Because bookkeepers, they aren't regulated like a CPA, a CPA, you have to have a degree you have to have sit for a very, very intense examination, there's many parts to it, it takes a long time, then you have to go and get so many years of work experience where anyone could sit down at their kitchen table and pull out a laptop and say, I'm a bookkeeper. So with that being said, a CPA, you don't want to pay to be doing your bookkeeping, because it's their way to qualified and you're gonna overpay, but you really have to be careful when you're hiring a bookkeeper to make sure that they they should have an accounting degree, or a finance degree, they should have a book of business, they should have references that are current. You really do have to do your homework a lot more with a bookkeeper than a CPA, because there's no oversight organization like a CPA has. So yeah, I've heard some some unfortunate stories about bookkeepers and and, you know, to be honest with you, in my company, we do a lot of cleanup, because people don't take the time to really vet the bookkeeper. And then there's the whole other layer of QuickBooks Desktop versus QuickBooks Online. Yeah, if you know one, that doesn't mean you automatically know the other. And so. So business owners, unfortunately, there's a few places you can get tripped up. But with just, you know, kind of slowing it down and doing your due diligence, you can find a good bookkeeper.
Yeah, and we had the same one for a long time. It was great in the beginning, and I got way too comfortable. And just, it's like, there's money in the bank, like it's fine, until one of the business partners passed away unexpectedly of a heart attack. And things started to fall in the cracks. But I didn't know it until I got a letter from the IRS that was like, Yeah, we got your extension. I'm like, I didn't vote on extension, I had all my shit in on time. What? I'm confused, and then come to find out, you know, the firm that I had been using for a very long time, they were very apologetic and said, Oh, you don't have to pay anything, like we're gonna take care of me like, but you need to communicate that to me, like, Do you know how hard that I work to, like, get all my stuff done. And, and the worst thing that I did is like, I'd wait till like the last minute. And now I conditioned myself, you know, years later of learning don't do those things is like, you know, the first of every month or around the first very month, making myself zoom with our bookkeeper for an hour or two once a month, rather than like waiting till the end. Because while automation is great, and QuickBooks and other other programs, and I know there's other programs out there like they're great, but they're every single month like shits not perfect. And she'll have to go in and like override things and move things and there's double transactions because there was a the, the 31st It seems like the 31st any month that there's 31 days that like trips up the system are so bad. Oh, no. But it's so important and it's not fun. It's not sexy, but like you said, it really drives the success of a business so it really matters. So let's talk about cash because everybody wants to know like tips and I know that you give six specific tips of managing cash flow and like why it's so important. So let's, let's kick that off with why is cash flow so important?
Hmm. Well, I mean, it cash is the lifeblood of any business. And, you know, I find that there's a lot of business owners, especially those that are not money motivated, they're in it because they love what they do, they love the service they provide the clients they get to work with. And I often find that those types of business owners, they have a different motivation. And you know, really, when you boil it down, having cash gives you opportunities. So when you are really good at managing your cash, and doing all the things, you know that we talk about having your three months worth of reserves and making sure that you know, you're allocating, every dollar that comes in, goes into one of the big spending buckets, you know, we have four big buckets that we we tell our clients, how to allocate their their revenue into gives you opportunity, it gives you a seat at the table, when something really cool comes along, or an opportunity in your business to you know, whatever it may be, if you've got cash, you've got options.
And I would say also, too, if there is an emergency, or like a pandemic, or something like that, you might have to dip into some of that stuff. Because there is so many things that are out there, that you don't quite have your arms around. And oftentimes I have friends that constantly are like, Oh, my God, people owe me over $100,000. How, how do you get to the I mean, I know everybody's different. And then there's some of the stuff is like government contracts, or they're in the medical industry, and they're waiting on insurance companies. And sometimes like some of the physicians that are also very entrepreneurial. They're like, we have to sometimes wait a year for insurance companies, but like it's crazy. And so they varies by industry. But for the creatives, and for the people that provide a service, you know, a long time ago, my account said, if they aren't paying on time, like you stopped doing the work kind of thing. And I don't know, like what the best advices do you guys advise your clients on? Like how long is too long before you like go turn people or companies or companies into collections?
Yeah, so that's definitely worst case, because then you're getting cents on the dollar for for the work that you've performed. But a good rule of thumb is to say, for every dollar in revenue that you generate, you shouldn't have more than 45 50% going to deliver that service, right. So it that should be your first rule of thumb is get a deposit for 50% of what the work you're going to be doing is, so you've at least covered your hard costs you've covered, you need to bring in a contractor to help perform on what you've sold, or your internal team, you got that part at least taken care of. So you're not being the bank having to pay people and then wait to be paid. So then the other 50%, obviously, really important to Bill, right when the work is completed, because then the clock starts ticking. Most people give a 30 day payment terms, you could also give a discount if they pay within 15 days to motivate them to put you at the top of their list. Because if they've got five people to pay and only enough to pay for, you want to be in, you know, first in line. So looking at at discounts for fast payment is a good way to speed up collections and receivables and to make sure that you're going to get it and then just have a process put in place that at certain time intervals, you're doing certain things and it doesn't have to be you the business owner should not be doing this. This should be a process a system that set up an SOP that their bookkeeper does where they say on day 35 If this email goes out with a friendly little reminder on day 40 This phone call happens on day you know whatever it may be in your business, you need to have those processes set up and they need to be automatic and just part of how you collect money. Because squeaky wheel gets the oil every time and if you wait 3060 90 days before you're picking up the phone calling on something, you know. And the other side of that too is if there was an issue, and you wait 60 days to follow up on it, and then they go, Oh, you actually billed me incorrectly it should have been whatever it may be, then the clock starts again, you have to wait another, you know, 30 days to submit the invoice and but so just always be proactive and have processes in place that will automatically be collecting your money for you.
Yeah, I mean, automation 98% of the time, like works. And it's beautiful, like those reminders like our our bookkeeper set it up, and it's great. And she deals with it. And it's like, don't want to deal with that every day. It's just it's not a good use of time, like you said, it's just not a good use of time. So we all make mistakes, which turn into opportunities and learning opportunities, but like, what are the biggest mistakes that you see really see, like, especially creative business owners that they're making? And it's almost like we get in our own way, but like, what are the financial mistakes they're making that is really preventing them and keeping them from growing?
Yeah, I would say it's probably pricing. And, you know, I touched on it a little bit saying, the cost to deliver what you sell should not be more than, say, 50%. So then you also want to look at so right there, you know, if it cost me $300, to deliver this service, I'm going to at least charge you 600. Okay, because what that does is it gives you room for general and administrative expenses, it gives you room for marketing expenses, and you're factoring in profit upfront. And then what you do is you track all of those, you know, all of as you spend the money and you're tracking it to make sure that you're not dipping into that profit in each job that you sell. So that's number one, that's a little bit more of my CFO hat on then, then the bookkeeper advice, but I it breaks my heart when people deliver such great services, and then they under charge, and the only really what you're doing is you're you're preventing other people from finding your services, and helping other people because you're, you're frustrated, as a business owner, you're doing all of this great work, and you're not having anything, there's no money in the bank to show for it. And that's really what it boils down to setting your pricing correctly, and then monitoring that your expenses don't go over what you've budgeted the allocation for, you know, labor is direct labor is one of the biggest expenses in a service based business. And if you don't have mechanisms in place to track time, against jobs against budgeted amounts, then it's going to always come back to bite you in the butt because things get out of control. And you know, they say what you measure matters. And it's just so dang true that you can't get away, you just can't hide from that, that fact. So
you cannot and it's so incredibly true. And there's so many software systems now that help people track their time. And I'm a huge proponent of time blocking not only for myself and my own calendar, but all of our team members too. It's like, okay, if we're gonna work 20 hours a month on one brand, then how many hours you know, are there in a week divided by that that's how we figured out how many brands we can take. And then once we get three more people, we have to hire someone else. Like, that's how you know that you can grow. Not income with all this on my own. But it was somebody who like understands numbers, like helped me put together a fancy spreadsheet, but it's just really helpful to map it all out. And again, it's not fun, like it gives me literally a headache to sit down and do that. But it feels so good to like get it out of your head and see the growth and know that things are being profitable. And you catch it before 10 years goes by and you're like, oh my god, we're really not profitable. Like it's very painful. So that's it's so important. So what do you have? Do you have like the top tips like what are the things that business owners need to know to manage cash flow?
Well, number one is to know who the right people on the team are and what services they're providing for you so you can get the best utilization out of them. Number two, track everything. And if you don't like tracking things, hire a VA or hire somebody else that's gonna help you because even outside of what the book keepers doing, there's still so much that needs to be tracked in a business. So leads sales, conversion, average transaction price, these are all things that are not glamorous, but they need to be tracked. Because it, it makes decision making so much easier in your business when you have the data in front of you. And I'll be the first to admit when we start working with a client, and we're, we tell them, Okay, we're going to implement a system that's going to track your your customer acquisition rate, they look at us, like, say what you're gonna do what, and then we show them what it looks like. And, you know, if I always joke with them, and I say, okay, these first few months are like when you turn your shower on, and it's ice cold, and you jump in, but then it starts to warm up. And then pretty soon, the showers nice and hot and steamy. And you're like, Oh, this is amazing. Okay, that's what it's like when you first implement some of these systems, because you might have been doing many, many years of the same way that your team is used to your you're used to. And, but trust me, it's so worth it to track all of these things. So you know, how much can you spend to acquire a lead? How much you know, what's your customer lifetime value? What these are all things that you hear? And they're like, how does that help me? Well, when you get somebody like my skill set on your team, I can just look at that and be like, oh, we'll change that move that, you know, and all of a sudden your revenues increased by 20%. So all of those things super important. And having the bookkeeper and having them be a, an active part of your team. And you said you meet with her or bookkeeper once a month. That's awesome. So for us, we email our clients every Friday, even if there's nothing even if there's no questions, we just say, Hey, your account looks great. Hope you have a good weekend. Because what that does is it reminds them even though we're a virtual company, we want you to think we're just down the hall, right? We want to be part of your business, because that's how we can do our job, the best way possible, is to hear Oh, um, the CEO went and bought office supplies and used her personal card. Well, in our head, we're like, Hey, that's a write off. And it's not going to flow through on the business checking account. So I need to get a copy of that receipt to put it in owner. You know, like, for us, we hear those things. We're like, hey, we didn't do anything, we need something. But if we're just an afterthought, and we're not part of the business, we don't hear those things and you lose out right. So keep an open line of communication with your bookkeeper and set up those systems. You should have an SOP for accounts payable accounts receivable, invoicing collections, month, end reconciliations, the different types of reports that you need to see how you process payroll, how your people submit their time, like, yes, it's, it's a lot. But if you can get all that stuff set up, it's this whole big chunk of stuff floating around in your head gets a home and you can focus on the other stuff in your business, that's going to create new revenue streams, more more clients, and profit and all that other good stuff. And
when you're at probably seven figures, it's time to look at a fractional CFO, because they're going to help you with creating predictable profits, they're going to help you implement the next level of reporting that you need to have in your business. And they're going to be the one that you know, as your business grows, you're going to have a bigger team underneath you and a lot of the conversations about the direction of the company, and how you're using the the funds in the business, you can't have that conversation with a lot of people on your team. And so having this this fractional CFO to have those conversations with bounce ideas off of or say, Hey, I thought of this great revenue generating revenue stream. Well, your CFO is gonna go and run the numbers for you and come back and be like, yes, that's great or no, that doesn't work, things like that, that as you start to grow, you really need that that higher level skill set in your business. And then they're also that kind of quarterback between all of your other financial people. So your CFO will manage your bookkeeper, your CFO will work with your tax prepare and whatever your tax strategy is, your CFO implements it, your financial advisor, same thing. So the CFO is really the quarterback of your whole financial pillar in your business. And they're the ones that connect the dots so that it's one less thing on your to do list as the business So that's just a quick list of some, a few things, guys, that's it. I know it's a lot, but know
it. And like you said, it depends on where you are in your business. And so when you start to really have to forecast and think about and look at things ahead of time, again, you shouldn't have to be the one to do it, as the business owner, like having someone come to you and say, Hey, this quarter, or whatever, like, you're gonna have to pay X amount of dollars in taxes, instead of just, which is a great problem to have you guys really is. But there are ways to be more strategic about it. Which is where like, a strategist comes in. And I love your analogies of like driving in the car, looking in the front, looking in the back, it's easy to understand, it's like, I get that. And I like your analogy of like, jumping in the shower, and it's freezing cold, you know, and then it's because everybody, most people either drive a car or ride in a car. And I hope everyone takes a shower, you know, a daily or every other day, at least, I don't know. But it's also relatable. And I think that something that really sets you apart, and your team is like being relatable, and breaking it down. So it's really easy for people to understand because this, the whole world of just finances and understanding businesses and taxes and the rules and the laws, which by the way, they change every flippin year. And every time a there's an election, and there's different parties in and out like I was recently getting schooled on that. And they're like, well, Angela, and I'm like, I don't know anything about politics, but they're like, well, you should understand this, this, this and this and this. And I was like, Oh, absolutely. That's, you know, they're like, well, new things are coming in. And like, I don't watch the news. I don't watch TV. Like, I know, it's bad. But my mother brother, like, they'll tell me what I need to know, I guess like, I've made it this far in life without like subjecting myself to the news every day. But it's just like, in your business. It's almost like my news is relevant to my business and like what they're trying to tell me. And sometimes I'm like, I don't want to make the decision, like, you know, what's best, like, do whatever we need to do, and I'll sign it. But you don't have to know all the details. And you don't have to understand everything. It's just trusting the team and the people. But I do appreciate when people make it more relatable, so that I can like, understand, because sometimes I'm like, I know, you think I'm a dumb blonde. And I'm really smart at a few things. But like I don't know a lot about the other things, but that's where you surround yourself with the people that can help you get there. Otherwise, like, I would have been bankrupt a way long time ago, like working at the Apple Store. And there's nothing wrong working. Like I love the Apple store. But I just feel like, you know, you're born to like run businesses and like grow and connect and, and help people and I get bored really easily. So but in terms of like your clientele, do you guys work with people that like are in specific industries? Do you work with creatives? Do you work with people and in healthcare? Or is it just a wide gamut? Or do you have like a favorite industry?
Yeah, we work with both service based businesses, businesses selling products. Most of our businesses are online in some shape or form. We don't have too many brick and mortar stores. But or businesses in general. But I think and I think that's because we're virtual. So our business model dovetails well into that type of a business model just naturally. And so that that is kind of why we've gravitated or people in that model have gravitated towards us. But like I said, we do try to make it like we're down the hall, you know, we want we have a lot of clients where where they're completely outsourced accounting department, but you ask any of their clients they would never know. And that's our whole objective is to just create a seamless team that that the clients get the best customer experience possible. But service based businesses I think have a lot you know, have a soft spot in my heart for them. Because products have a lot of hard costs, right and it's it's a little bit easier. To figure out your your expenses with products and things like that, where service base, if you're super nice, and you want to give everybody a discount, because you can because, you know, those are the ones where I feel like I can have the biggest impact because I'm like, No, you're giving away your your profit, you know, and when they see it in that lens, they're like, oh, wait, because, and let me get clear on this profit on your profit and loss statement. Net income does not mean it's sitting in your bank account. That is something that's super important for businesses to understand. So when you're being generous and giving a discount to a client, it's okay to do once in a while. But if if you're regularly doing that, you're going to have major cashflow issues, because that net income at very bottom line on your profit and loss statement that's going to service any existing debt you have. So you're paying down credit cards, you're paying down loans, you're paying a car payment, you're paying a you know you have a computer that you finance, like all that lives on the balance sheet, and you don't see it on the p&l, you've got to put money aside from taxes. You if you're going to reinvest in the business, for example, your business is growing, you know that for the example you gave with your staff, you know, how many clients one person can service? Well, when it becomes time to hire a new person, what's that, that lead time that you need to get them trained on boarded before they're actually delivering to your clients, that could be two, three months before they're actually generating revenue for you? Well, guess what, that net income is going to cover those two to three months before that person is generating revenue. So it doesn't affect your operating cash flow. So super important. And you know, so anyway, I love all businesses, I could geek out on business models all day long, because that's just my jam, and I love it. And I could honestly look at somebody's balance sheet and profit and loss and find them $10,000, just like that, but just little things. So don't be afraid to if you have a team that you're working with, and they're not giving you this value, this education, education is so key, you know, fine, there's people out there like our firm, and I'm sure there's plenty of other ones out there that will teach you what you need to know as your business grows. So that, you know you're freed up to do all the other important stuff in your business.
It's so so, so important. And thank you so much for all of your wisdom and your time. This was awesome. If people want to learn more, or connect with you directly, where should they go? Yes,
our website would be a great place to start is the cash flow cfo.com. And you can schedule an appointment on our website, if you think this is something your business is needing. I'd love to chat with you about that. And you can also get our six cash strategies to get some quick cash infusion in your business. And you know, hopefully you'll you'll pick up a trick or two that will add some more money into your profit bucket.
That is awesome. Do you have a platform of choice for social media if people want to connect with you?
Yeah, absolutely. So you can find me on LinkedIn or Facebook. And we actually have a Facebook group Money, Money secrets of seven figure business owners. So you can also find that on your website too.
Who I'm gonna check it out. I love that. That's awesome. Thank you so much. And we will put all of your links all your important links in the show notes because y'all all of the this stuff is important. If I could just tell my younger self these things to like, find the right people get the right education. And just I would be so much further long. I don't regret like the things because it like you said, You You're you have a place in your heart and like the passion of just helping other people like understand. But the day that my accountant at the time showed me, you're doing 32 events for free. Like and you're paying them to do your event. And then I looked at who they were and I'm like, No, those are the most unappreciated people like this sucks. But it teaches you how to prioritize your time and sometimes you have to say no, because not only are you losing money, but you're taking your time and your team's time to do something that's not profitable. And then something that could be profitable that comes in you have you can't you don't have the capacity to do it, or you do a half assed job. So, you know, I've learned that some things the hard way so don't do that don't be me. So thank you so much for your time. This was great.
You're welcome. Thank you.
Awesome. And thank you for listening and watching and tuning into business unveiled. And we'll see you next week for another episode. Have a great day in GST via that's it for this week's episode of business unveiled. Now that you have all the tools that you need to conquer the world and GSD get shit done. Would you share this with your friends and fellow business leaders? One thing that would really really help us and help new listeners is for you to rate the show, and leave a comment and Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you tune in and listen to business unveiled. You can check out the show notes at Angela proffitt.com/podcast and link up with us on social media so you can share your biggest insights. And I want to know your aha moments. Until next week, remember the profitable shifts and structures you're creating in your business, help you be more present in your life. So get out there and GSD