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PAPER NAPKIN WISDOM GROWTH HUB
Finance and Cash Flow
The best Paper Napkin Wisdom conversations on finance and cash flow, chosen and in order.
Alan Miltz sees it in about 60% of the companies he walks into. The business is profitable on paper and short of cash every month. Profit is an opinion, he says. Cash is a fact. Growth can make it worse. Each dollar of sales may tie up money in receivables and inventory. He reads the numbers in four chapters. Most owners only read the first.
Mike Michalowicz flips the formula. Take your profit first and run the business on what remains. Darcel Dillard-Suite learned cash flow the hard way in a growing mental health practice. Michelle Songy cut her company from 40-something people to 10. Two years later it was growing 60% a year. Steven Rothberg keeps it simple. If a customer wants to give you more money, find a way.
Noah Rosenfarb, a third-generation CPA, adds the step most owners skip. Know your tax strategy.
“Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, cash is king”
Alan Miltz, Episode 115
Start here: the top 9
1
Why a Profitable Business Runs Out of Cash: Alan Miltz
Episode 115 · Alan Miltz
Alan Miltz: why a profitable business runs out of cash; profit is an opinion, cash is a fact, and seven levers move it.
2
Take Your Profit First: Mike Michalowicz on Reverse Engineering Profit
Episode 139 · Mike Michalowicz
Mike Michalowicz, Profit First: take profit before expenses, even when barely breaking even.
3
Cash Flow Lessons for Service Businesses: Darcel Dillard-Suite
Episode 239 · Darcel Dillard-Suite
Darcel Dillard-Suite: why growth starves service businesses of cash, and how to diversify revenue.
4
Why Every Business Owner Needs a Tax Strategy: Noah Rosenfarb
Episode 185 · Noah Rosenfarb
Noah Rosenfarb: tax strategy vs tax planning, and what tax does to compounding wealth.
5
Employee Benefits Are Eating Your Profit: Dan Cosgrove on Making Your Own Model Obsolete
Episode 385 · Dan Cosgrove
Dan Cosgrove: employee-benefit costs quietly eating profit, and how to cut them without cutting benefits.
6
Why Retirement Is a Bad Plan: Derek Coburn on Enjoying Life Now
Episode 269 · Derek Coburn
Derek Coburn (financial advisor): why saving toward a retirement number is a bad plan, and the math of working longer.
7
Prepare to Scale Down: Michelle Songy on Layoffs and Runway
Episode 213 · Michelle Songy
Michelle Songy: runway, and scaling down from 40-plus to 10 people to survive and regrow.
8
What Are You Still Paying For? AI and Your Expensive Software Stack
Episode 368 · Edge of the Napkin
Cost control: auditing an expensive software stack now that AI is replacing it.
9
If a Customer Wants to Pay You More, Let Them: Steven Rothberg
Episode 293 · Steven Rothberg
Steven Rothberg on pricing and margin: let customers pay you more, and what chasing gross margin costs.
The Growth Pattern Diagnostic
The Growth Pattern Diagnostic takes about three minutes and shows where growth is straining the business, money included.
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