Optimizing Your Food Business Finances with Christine Rico

Christine Rico Founder CFO on Speed Dial

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Meet Christine Rico

Christine Rico has over 25 years of experience in business development and financial management. As the founder of CFO on Speed Dial, Christine works with mission-driven entrepreneurs in the food business to extract meaningful and actionable information from their financial reports, identify specific financial goals, and create profit plans to optimize their bottom line.

Episode Highlights

During this episode of The Food Means Business Podcast, we discuss:⁠

  • How to organize financial information to inform business decisions, not just taxes

  • The importance of setting financial goals and profit targets that reflect your vision

  • How to create a profit plan that can help you grow and scale your business

  • Practical tools for estimating taxes

  • How profits can inform both your bottom line and social impact

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    All right,

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    Christine, welcome to the Food Means

    Business podcast.

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    Oh, I'm so happy to be here.

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    Yeah. Thank you for being here.

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    I would love for you to.

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    Just before we jump into,

    you know, CFO on Speed Dial,

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    your company, give us a little bit of

    background on you and how you kind of left

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    the corporate world or working world

    to launch your own business.

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    Yeah.

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    So I started out as a

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    what would probably be called

    a mom preneur,

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    which is to say that I had a full time job

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    where I was working

    for a national nonprofit

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    that was focused on the quality of jobs

    in home care and I worked with a network

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    of worker owned home care businesses

    on business growth and development.

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    But I was based in the Bronx and traveling

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    nationally,

    and I had two small kids at home.

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    And one day, my son, who was just in

    first grade or kindergarten,

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    I forget, which was throwing up on his way

    to the after school program.

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    And they called me and I'm like, I'm

    an hour a way, should I come now?

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    And the answer was absolutely yes.

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    So I had quit that job and stayed home

    for a year, and everybody in

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    my family was like, We don't really

    want you to go back to work full time.

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    And I was like,

    I have to do something with my brain.

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    So I started consulting,

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    and that's

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    eventually, as my children grew,

    I became more independent.

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    I got to actually turn

    my little consulting projects

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    into a business

    that is now CFO on Speed Dial.

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    That's great.

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    How did you come up with the name?

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    It was actually through a conversation

    I had with a client,

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    so I was working with this wonderful

    woman, Beth Linsky,

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    who had been creating jams

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    in the Hudson Valley for many years.

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    Three years.

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    She was one of the original selling

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    at the growing NYC Green Markets,

    and she wanted to sell her business

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    and I was helping her position

    the business for sale.

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    And it actually took a lot longer

    than we thought.

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    So here we are two or three years later,

    and I was still working with her

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    and I said, Well,

    why do you keep paying me?

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    Well, why are we still doing this?

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    And she said, Well, it's

    not just about the sale of the company.

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    I know when something goes wrong

    in my business, I can just call you up

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    and talk to you about it

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    and you'll help me out

    because you know my business so well.

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    And it's true.

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    I had helped her

    with all kinds of bookkeeping

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    and accounting and billing

    and all kinds of issues in her business,

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    not just the sale of the business.

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    And so that was

    when I came up with this idea,

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    Oh, yeah, I'm the CFO on speed dial

    because you can just call me.

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    And that's basically how it works.

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    Great.

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    So tell us about the CFO on Speed Dial.

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    What do you do?

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    How do you work with entrepreneurs

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    and what types of entrepreneurs

    do you work with?

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    So we are a virtual CFO company,

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    which means that we provide

    financial strategy work.

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    So we go beyond the day to day

    bookkeeping.

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    We can do that if you need it.

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    But most of what we like to work on

    is making sure that the decisions

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    that people are making about

    how to grow their business, how

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    to maintain their business, are based

    on a solid understanding of real numbers

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    and a kind of very strategic plan about

    where they want to go with their business.

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    So is it?

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    Yeah, sometimes

    you have to just make decisions day to day

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    and know like what's going to happen

    next week or in two weeks.

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    And that's something that

    a lot of businesses that are caught in

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    the recession have to face when they have,

    you know, big cash problems.

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    But a much stronger place to be

    and is to be making decisions

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    about your business with,

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    you know, the foresight of where you want

    your business to be in two years

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    or five years or ten years.

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    You know,

    do you want to sell your company?

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    Do you want to sell in new regions?

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    Do you want to get big enough

    to have national scale distribution?

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    Like what's important to you?

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    And as for types of companies,

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    most of our businesses are led by women,

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    and all of them

    have some form of social impact.

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    I love working with food companies.

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    I find food businesses really

    convivial and interesting.

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    Plus, I like good food and

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    but we've also worked with various kinds

    of consulting businesses

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    that are working around zero waste or

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    green tech, and also with companies

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    that are doing solar installations

    or other kinds of

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    things that would alleviate

    climate change.

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    So climate,

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    social justice

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    and food are kind of the things

    that are most likely

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    to show up in our client base.

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    So do you work with startups

    and established businesses?

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    Can you talk a little bit

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    about the types of your target

    audience who you be looking towards?

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    Sure.

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    So for our kind of full service

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    virtual CFO work,

    the companies we work with are larger.

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    They tend to be a million

    in revenue or close to it,

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    up to 10 million in revenue.

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    I think for most companies,

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    once you get to 10 million,

    you should have your own CFO part times

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    you know, might not count it anymore,

    although we're really good.

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    And for smaller companies,

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    there's a couple of ways to work with us.

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    One is what we call

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    fast action projects,

    which are short term projects

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    where we would work with you

    for 8 to 10 weeks to polish up

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    Some projections work if you're going

    to be approaching investors

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    to work on, you know,

    analysis of different business units,

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    which you in pricing, things like that,

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    they're usually fairly

    constrained project.

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    They have a really clear deliverable

    and a really clear outcome

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    outcome for the business.

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    And the other thing that we offer is

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    a series of courses

    and or ongoing kind of community

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    consultation so that you don't have to pay

    for one on one services.

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    You can get access to a CFO through

    either.

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    Our courses are a good program.

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    We've worked

    together on one of your group programs,

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    which I really appreciate because

    I got to know my numbers really well.

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    So you can

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    you talk a lot about knowing your numbers

    and what are meaningful numbers?

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    Meaningful numbers.

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    Number one, they have to mean something

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    to you.

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    And I'm not really joking when I say that.

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    The first day you have to be up to date.

    They should be current.

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    You should know, like this week

    what happened in your business.

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    They have to be

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    designed and and recorded

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    in such a way that they make sense

    to you and your business.

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    So yeah, one of my pet peeves

    is, you know, books

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    that are set up with only the idea

    of producing a tax report at the end

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    and not like managing the business month

    to month or week to week.

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    So we work really closely

    with business owners

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    to make sure that the Chart of Accounts,

    which is kind of the backbone

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    of your financial reporting, is designed

    to give you information that you can use.

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    So all the same kinds of expenses

    occur together

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    instead of randomly in alphabetical order,

    things like that.

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    So the the definition of meaningful

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    numbers are is that they're current,

    they're up to date, they're

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    accurate, and they're put together

    in a way

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    that give you information

    you need to run your business.

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    So I can speak from experience.

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    It's sometimes like, you know,

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    working with the numbers

    can seem overwhelming at times.

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    And I know that you've come up with

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    what you call a one page plan

    to help business owners.

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    So if you could do kind of like let's walk

    through what

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    it would look like for someone

    to create a one page plan.

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    And from what I can see, it's like simple

    and straightforward and something

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    that, you know, someone can use

    in their business on a day to day basis.

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    So what's the first step in

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    in creating this plan

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    and why create the plan?

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    First of all, the why create this plan?

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    So, you know, as I talked about,

    finance strategy

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    is about having a goal

    that you're shooting for.

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    And so having a one page plan

    gives you a connection

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    between your financial reports

    or your budget and that goal

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    so that you can create a path to get

    where you want to go and that you can,

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    by looking at your numbers,

    understand where you are on that path.

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    So a one page

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    plan is

    a summary view of your ideal month.

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    Financially,

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    it helps you to establish goals

    for each product or service that you offer

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    so you would know what your sales target,

    how much, what your pricing should be,

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    what your revenue should be, and then what

    are the cost side of the business,

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    the expenses that you need to cover

    as your business grows.

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    And it also takes into account

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    any of the cash needs that don't show up

    on your profit and loss or on your budget.

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    Things like paying down debt,

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    paying your taxes,

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    sometimes taking your own pay.

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    So there's a lot of cash

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    needs in a business that might not show up

    in a more traditional

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    budget form that we try

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    to put upfront in the one page plan.

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    And hopefully by having this plan,

    it will give you

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    rules of thumb or benchmarks.

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    So when you're

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    looking at your financial report,

    you can say, I’m not where I need to be,

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    what do I need to do

    to make that next month better?

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    And also give you some confidence

    that like if you're looking at something

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    and it shows and it looks off,

    you don't think that it's your mistake.

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    You understand that there's

    something going on in your business

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    either something that

    was missed in the bookkeeping

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    or something that

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    you want to change

    about how you're operating.

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    But you know, I always say

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    that confusion is a form of information.

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    And if you see something in your numbers

    and it doesn't seem right,

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    you have to ask questions

    because that's the only way.

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    Either you learn or you'll figure out

    that there's something wrong

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    that needs to get addressed.

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    So I have here,

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    like I guess the foundation is to

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    to, to declare your top financial goals.

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    So you talk a lot

    about what goals could look like, but also

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    how many goals should we be,

    should we put together or is there

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    is there a limit

    to what we should be looking at?

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    Yeah, I actually think

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    you should have one primary financial

    goal that you're focused on

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    at any one time.

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    It could be a year, a one year goal,

    it could be a five year goal.

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    But there should be like a Northstar

    that you're really focusing on

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    because if you focus on too many things

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    and it's not focus, it's distraction.

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    Sometimes you need to do two, maybe three.

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    But if you have more than three top goals,

    then you haven't prioritized

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    what's really important.

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    So you have to stop and think about why

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    that's important and keep asking the

    why questions about each of those

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    until you identify

    what really is the leading priority.

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    So, you know, we start with a list of

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    four or five or six or seven

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    possible goals and they're all valid.

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    And it's you have to kind of

    and I only offer

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    those as like a way to think about

    what might be your top goal.

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    You might come up with something

    completely different.

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    But there are things like,

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    you know, you could have your top goal

    as improving profit.

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    You just want to be more profitable

    next year, or it could be increasing

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    your own pay, or it could be,

    you know, building your company valuation.

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    As you prepare to sell your business,

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    it can be really specific,

    very focused goals, or they could be

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    broader goals that are going to take you

    a couple of years to get to.

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    But it's important to have an anchor

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    in that goal

    that best reflects your vision.

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    And I also it's not on the one page

    plan specifically,

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    but I also really tend to ask people

    when I work with them,

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    what's the social impact goal

    that goes along with that?

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    Because that's

    what's really your motivating factor

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    in building your business right?

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    So what what is the change you're seeking?

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    What is it you want to do

    and how do you know if you're able

    00;12;47;29 - 00;12;51;02

    to be both profitable

    and of social impact?

    00;12;51;02 - 00;12;53;01

    Because those are the things

    that you need.

    00;12;53;01 - 00;12;55;24

    Both of those things

    to be true to kind of keep going.

    00;12;57;08 - 00;13;00;18

    So what are what's the first step

    in creating this plan?

    00;13;01;16 - 00;13;05;28

    So the first step is to gather

    all the information.

    00;13;05;28 - 00;13;08;03

    As I said,

    we're going to talk about in the one

    00;13;08;03 - 00;13;10;15

    page plan, we're going to look at revenue

    and sales.

    00;13;10;15 - 00;13;11;27

    You're going to look at cost of goods.

    00;13;11;27 - 00;13;13;22

    You're going to look at monthly

    operating expenses.

    00;13;13;22 - 00;13;16;06

    You're going to look at taxes.

    You're going to look at your profit plan.

    00;13;16;20 - 00;13;20;01

    So the first thing to do

    is to prepare the information.

    00;13;20;14 - 00;13;24;00

    The answers to the questions

    are relatively simple and straightforward,

    00;13;24;00 - 00;13;26;01

    but only if you have something

    to base them on, right?

    00;13;27;05 - 00;13;27;21

    So for your

    00;13;27;21 - 00;13;31;23

    revenue and your sales forecast,

    you want to know your list

    00;13;31;23 - 00;13;34;26

    of your products and services

    and the price of each of them.

    00;13;36;08 - 00;13;39;14

    That should be relatively easy to come up

    with.

    00;13;39;14 - 00;13;43;03

    One way to do

    that is to look at your historical data,

    00;13;43;03 - 00;13;45;21

    to say, okay, over the last 12 months

    or over the last quarter,

    00;13;46;07 - 00;13;51;05

    now how many did I sell and then come up

    with what you think the monthly average is

    00;13;51;05 - 00;13;55;04

    or should be, You might take last year

    and add something to it.

    00;13;55;10 - 00;13;56;21

    You might take last year and subtract

    00;13;56;21 - 00;14;00;02

    something from it depending on

    what is trending in your business.

    00;14;01;00 - 00;14;03;08

    So the next one you've figured out

    00;14;03;08 - 00;14;05;26

    your revenue goals you want to talk about.

    00;14;06;08 - 00;14;10;28

    You want to develop the information

    about the total cost

    00;14;11;15 - 00;14;15;18

    to produce or deliver one

    unit of each product or service.

    00;14;16;01 - 00;14;18;10

    This might be the most complicated of

    00;14;18;28 - 00;14;21;00

    any of the things

    that we asked you to estimate.

    00;14;21;17 - 00;14;26;00

    So if you're selling products,

    if you have five different products,

    00;14;26;00 - 00;14;30;13

    you want to know the specific costs

    of each of those products

    00;14;31;16 - 00;14;33;13

    and you want to add it up

    00;14;33;26 - 00;14;36;01

    so that you can have the

    00;14;36;18 - 00;14;39;09

    the unit cost one unit of each product.

    00;14;39;09 - 00;14;40;29

    What does it cost you to

    00;14;40;29 - 00;14;44;08

    deliver that to the warehouse

    or deliver that to your consumer?

    00;14;44;18 - 00;14;47;23

    If you've been in business a while

    and you have pretty standardized costs,

    00;14;48;03 - 00;14;49;21

    then you can use an average.

    00;14;49;21 - 00;14;54;18

    You can take an average of your costs

    and use a percentage of revenue

    00;14;54;29 - 00;14;58;02

    applied to that service

    to determine your unit cost.

    00;14;58;02 - 00;15;04;21

    So if I know I spent $1,000

    to deliver all of these products

    00;15;04;21 - 00;15;09;00

    and I got $5,000 of revenue,

    then I have 20% cost of goods.

    00;15;09;14 - 00;15;12;03

    It's just simple math and 1000

    00;15;12;03 - 00;15;15;07

    divided by five.

    00;15;15;07 - 00;15;19;21

    So you can you can use a percentage

    to determine the unit cost

    00;15;19;21 - 00;15;22;10

    or you can actually add up the cost

    to determine the unit cost.

    00;15;22;11 - 00;15;25;11

    Either way it works,

    but you want it drilled down

    00;15;25;11 - 00;15;28;19

    into one unit for each product or service.

    00;15;29;18 - 00;15;29;29

    Got it.

    00;15;29;29 - 00;15;31;27

    So what's what's next?

    00;15;31;27 - 00;15;34;08

    Next, we look at monthly operating costs

    00;15;35;07 - 00;15;37;24

    and here you're going to add up the total

    00;15;37;24 - 00;15;41;02

    of all your monthly operating costs

    within specific categories.

    00;15;41;22 - 00;15;45;11

    And this goes back to how I said,

    you know, you want your cost

    00;15;45;11 - 00;15;48;18

    to be bundled in meaningful ways

    so all of your payroll

    00;15;48;18 - 00;15;50;25

    and personnel costs

    should go together in one bundle.

    00;15;51;29 - 00;15;55;00

    All of the professional fees

    or subcontractors

    00;15;55;00 - 00;15;57;08

    that you use should be bundled together.

    00;15;58;17 - 00;16;00;19

    If you have to pay rent

    00;16;00;19 - 00;16;03;20

    and utilities, then you want to bundle

    all of those costs together.

    00;16;03;20 - 00;16;06;22

    I think related to physical plant,

    00;16;06;22 - 00;16;08;24

    your marketing and advertising costs

    00;16;08;27 - 00;16;11;03

    are another category

    00;16;11;26 - 00;16;16;03

    and sales

    related costs may be of another category,

    00;16;16;03 - 00;16;18;12

    especially if you are distributing

    to wholesale.

    00;16;19;05 - 00;16;21;23

    And then finally,

    your general and administrative costs,

    00;16;21;23 - 00;16;24;22

    which is everything that doesn't fit

    into one of those categories above.

    00;16;25;02 - 00;16;29;10

    It's like your licensing.

    00;16;29;10 - 00;16;29;26

    I don't know.

    00;16;29;26 - 00;16;31;22

    I can't even think of anything

    that doesn't go in there.

    00;16;31;22 - 00;16;33;16

    Software, subscriptions, maybe,

    00;16;34;23 - 00;16;37;19

    you know, anything that doesn't

    fit into one of those .

    00;16;37;19 - 00;16;39;23

    Insurance

    definitely you should have insurance.

    00;16;39;23 - 00;16;42;12

    So those are the things that like applied

    across the whole business,

    00;16;42;12 - 00;16;45;08

    not to one specific activity

    or area of the business.

    00;16;47;06 - 00;16;47;16

    Got it.

    00;16;47;16 - 00;16;49;21

    So it seems like

    you probably can pull this information

    00;16;49;21 - 00;16;52;29

    from your accounting software,

    like QuickBooks. Yep.

    00;16;53;17 - 00;16;58;14

    You know, if you can go back

    and take 12 months worth of data

    00;16;58;14 - 00;17;01;04

    and divided by 12 and that's your average

    for the whole year,

    00;17;01;04 - 00;17;03;06

    that's a great way

    to come up with a monthly average.

    00;17;04;01 - 00;17;09;06

    If your business, you know, is newer or

    it has trended in a particular direction.

    00;17;09;06 - 00;17;12;13

    If you've added a lot of staff recently,

    you want to take just the more recent

    00;17;12;13 - 00;17;13;25

    period, maybe four months.

    00;17;15;00 - 00;17;16;03

    But basically you're trying

    00;17;16;03 - 00;17;19;11

    to come up with

    like what your monthly average would be.

    00;17;20;05 - 00;17;22;05

    Right? So let's talk about taxes

    00;17;22;05 - 00;17;24;13

    and how to estimate taxes

    as a part of this plan.

    00;17;25;13 - 00;17;26;06

    Right?

    00;17;26;06 - 00;17;30;09

    So taxes is a tough one

    because everybody's

    00;17;30;09 - 00;17;33;01

    tax situation is different

    and it's highly,

    00;17;34;05 - 00;17;37;27

    you know, unique to the structure of your

    business or the structure of your family.

    00;17;38;20 - 00;17;42;10

    So it's very hard

    to give a rule of thumb and

    00;17;44;09 - 00;17;47;22

    so the best way to estimate the taxes

    that you're going to owe on

    00;17;47;22 - 00;17;51;10

    your current year's

    income is to look at your last

    00;17;51;19 - 00;17;53;18

    year's tax bill

    00;17;54;19 - 00;18;01;12

    and look at how much you paid versus

    00;18;01;12 - 00;18;03;28

    how much revenue

    you declared from the business itself

    00;18;05;00 - 00;18;07;00

    and just come up with a percentage

    that way.

    00;18;07;00 - 00;18;08;28

    That is absolutely

    the cleanest way to do it.

    00;18;09;28 - 00;18;12;15

    If you don't know, you can put in a number

    00;18;13;14 - 00;18;16;26

    and kind of I guess you put in 8% or 10%

    00;18;16;26 - 00;18;20;19

    and then compare it to last year and see,

    are you close way off like what?

    00;18;20;19 - 00;18;23;03

    You know, what do you think

    00;18;23;17 - 00;18;26;27

    if you if you really don't

    have a way of coming up

    00;18;26;27 - 00;18;31;11

    with a good estimate, then you can use 10%

    as a reasonable rule of thumb.

    00;18;31;27 - 00;18;34;23

    And that really comes from the profit

    first world, where

    00;18;35;13 - 00;18;38;10

    the author Mike Micalowicz has looked

    at like a range of companies

    00;18;38;17 - 00;18;42;08

    that's like across all industries

    of all sizes, in all formats.

    00;18;42;08 - 00;18;43;26

    And so it's a very generic number.

    00;18;43;26 - 00;18;45;27

    It's not really a solid number.

    00;18;45;27 - 00;18;49;07

    Remember, when you pay your taxes,

    you're paying your taxes on

    00;18;50;21 - 00;18;54;02

    your taxable revenue,

    which is, after all, your deductions.

    00;18;54;11 - 00;18;57;22

    So in this, we're going to come up

    with a lower percentage than you would

    00;18;57;24 - 00;19;00;29

    see on a texture, because we're going to

    look at the top line revenue

    00;19;00;29 - 00;19;06;03

    and what percentage of that

    is ending up in taxes. And

    00;19;07;11 - 00;19;10;13

    in this case, it's better to overestimate

    than underestimate

    00;19;10;13 - 00;19;13;16

    because it better to be prepared

    to pay more taxes than you need to pay,

    00;19;13;28 - 00;19;17;04

    than it is to have to pay more taxes

    than you want to pay.

    00;19;18;07 - 00;19;20;17

    So that's my recommendation,

    00;19;20;17 - 00;19;24;12

    is to be a little generous

    with that number.

    00;19;24;12 - 00;19;27;23

    All right. And so what's next?

    00;19;27;23 - 00;19;30;17

    Last but not least,

    is planning for profit.

    00;19;31;06 - 00;19;33;12

    So this again, comes from my work

    00;19;34;22 - 00;19;37;00

    as a certified profit first professional,

    00;19;37;00 - 00;19;41;19

    where I help companies to understand

    how to, on a cash basis

    00;19;41;19 - 00;19;46;03

    improve their profitability

    and setting a target for profit

    00;19;46;03 - 00;19;49;08

    that you're going to have in the bank

    beyond everything that you pay out

    00;19;50;11 - 00;19;52;14

    is really critical and

    00;19;53;26 - 00;19;58;19

    so I put a few guidelines in in terms

    of how to estimate

    00;19;58;19 - 00;20;03;18

    how much your cash

    tax cash profit should be.

    00;20;03;18 - 00;20;06;01

    If you can get to 5%

    00;20;07;05 - 00;20;10;07

    cash profit, you will have some money

    to build up

    00;20;10;07 - 00;20;13;12

    as a reserve and to continue the business

    and grow the business.

    00;20;13;26 - 00;20;18;16

    If you can get up to 10%, obviously

    you'll be in a much better position.

    00;20;18;17 - 00;20;22;21

    You're going to cover your operating costs

    and have a lot more room for growth and

    00;20;23;28 - 00;20;27;20

    if you're talking with food businesses

    that are early stage food businesses,

    00;20;27;21 - 00;20;31;05

    getting to 10% is really quite a great

    quite a good accomplishment.

    00;20;32;03 - 00;20;35;07

    Once you start to get a little larger,

    though,

    00;20;35;08 - 00;20;38;24

    you should be pushing towards 10 to 15%.

    00;20;39;06 - 00;20;41;24

    This is a very if you could maintain a 15%

    00;20;42;22 - 00;20;46;07

    profit ratio in the food world,

    you'll be a very strong business.

    00;20;46;07 - 00;20;49;26

    You have money ready to scale

    and you'll even possibly be able to

    00;20;50;20 - 00;20;52;00

    attract outside capital.

    00;20;52;00 - 00;20;54;05

    Banks would be happy to lend to you

    00;20;54;05 - 00;20;58;03

    and you won't feel like you're tight

    and living on the edge all the time.

    00;20;59;14 - 00;21;01;09

    And if you can get to 20% or more,

    00;21;01;09 - 00;21;05;22

    regardless of injury of industry,

    you're an excellent company.

    00;21;07;14 - 00;21;10;13

    Businesses

    that go higher than 20% are things like,

    00;21;10;13 - 00;21;14;24

    you know, online businesses

    that have very little overhead

    00;21;14;24 - 00;21;16;18

    and lots of cash flowing in the door.

    00;21;16;18 - 00;21;19;00

    So if you get more than 20%,

    that's fabulous.

    00;21;19;00 - 00;21;22;07

    There definitely are people out there

    in the Guru world

    00;21;22;07 - 00;21;25;13

    that are claiming 50%

    or more tax rate to profitability rate.

    00;21;25;24 - 00;21;26;12

    That's great.

    00;21;26;12 - 00;21;28;17

    But if you're in a food world,

    you're not going to see that.

    00;21;29;14 - 00;21;32;10

    That would be extraordinary.

    00;21;32;10 - 00;21;37;08

    So how often should we revisit it’s plans?

    00;21;37;08 - 00;21;42;04

    So you're asking about a one page plan

    as a whole?

    00;21;42;13 - 00;21;43;11

    Yeah, the one page finds a whole.

    00;21;43;11 - 00;21;44;29

    Like, how often easy is it something,

    00;21;44;29 - 00;21;47;13

    as I've created the plan,

    do I look at a quarterly?

    00;21;47;13 - 00;21;49;19

    Is it something

    that I look at every six months ago?

    00;21;49;19 - 00;21;51;03

    How should we be using the plan?

    00;21;52;07 - 00;21;53;04

    So what

    00;21;53;25 - 00;21;54;27

    would I do with the plan?

    00;21;54;27 - 00;21;57;02

    Is I recommend

    00;21;59;08 - 00;22;00;20

    keeping the percentage

    00;22;00;20 - 00;22;03;26

    allocations

    for each of those major categories

    00;22;04;08 - 00;22;06;22

    as you look

    every month at your financial report.

    00;22;06;23 - 00;22;08;26

    Because every month

    when you look at your financial report,

    00;22;08;26 - 00;22;11;02

    you want to know

    if you're close to the plan or not,

    00;22;12;14 - 00;22;14;27

    if your what your results are are very,

    00;22;14;27 - 00;22;17;25

    very different than your plan,

    then there's two choices to make.

    00;22;18;06 - 00;22;21;14

    One is to try to adjust your expectations

    00;22;23;08 - 00;22;25;19

    by adjusting the plan

    so that it fits your reality.

    00;22;26;12 - 00;22;28;06

    And the other

    is to try to change your reality

    00;22;28;06 - 00;22;31;03

    so that it fits the plan and usually it's

    going to be a balance of the two.

    00;22;31;03 - 00;22;34;28

    So if your revenue numbers are coming in

    really much lower than you projected,

    00;22;34;28 - 00;22;37;13

    then you're going to have to try

    to cut your costs somewhere.

    00;22;37;13 - 00;22;39;00

    Whether that's in cost of goods

    or operating

    00;22;39;00 - 00;22;42;24

    costs, you're going to have to address

    that or you're going to run out of money.

    00;22;42;24 - 00;22;46;16

    If your revenue numbers are really high,

    then that's going to be a signal to you

    00;22;46;16 - 00;22;49;05

    that you could put more into marketing

    or you can put more into sales,

    00;22;49;26 - 00;22;53;01

    or you can start to build your,

    you know, keep

    00;22;53;01 - 00;22;56;19

    your cash reserves building

    and you have other choices to make.

    00;22;57;16 - 00;23;00;13

    Plan is just a way of setting guidelines.

    00;23;00;13 - 00;23;02;02

    So if your guidelines aren't working,

    00;23;02;02 - 00;23;06;15

    then you really should adjust them

    maybe quarterly, maybe twice a year.

    00;23;08;06 - 00;23;11;09

    You should not feel like the plan is like,

    you know, stuck in stone

    00;23;11;09 - 00;23;13;18

    and you chiseled in stone

    and you can't change it.

    00;23;13;18 - 00;23;17;13

    You should use the plan to help you

    guide business decisions.

    00;23;17;13 - 00;23;19;20

    But if the plan's not working,

    you need to change the plan.

    00;23;21;00 - 00;23;22;02

    So. Got it. So, okay.

    00;23;22;02 - 00;23;26;11

    So thank you for taking us through these

    these steps of how can we all access

    00;23;26;11 - 00;23;29;20

    this one page business plan?

    00;23;29;20 - 00;23;33;17

    So the one page plan

    is available to any subscribers.

    00;23;33;17 - 00;23;36;25

    So if you go to CFO on Speed Dial.com

    00;23;37;14 - 00;23;39;15

    and hit the subscribe button,

    00;23;40;06 - 00;23;43;14

    you will be welcomed as a subscriber

    and you'll be given a link

    00;23;43;20 - 00;23;47;16

    to a series of videos

    where I walk through the plan

    00;23;48;07 - 00;23;51;09

    and you'll get the it's a Google Sheet

    so you save it as your own

    00;23;51;09 - 00;23;54;02

    and then you can play with the numbers

    and see what results you get.

    00;23;54;28 - 00;23;56;02

    Great. Thank you so much.

    00;23;56;02 - 00;23;58;27

    This is fantastic information

    00;23;59;13 - 00;24;01;27

    and thank you for explaining

    meaningful numbers.

    00;24;02;01 - 00;24;04;15

    So, Christine,

    please tell us what you're celebrating.

    00;24;04;15 - 00;24;05;07

    At Hudson Kitchen.

    00;24;05;07 - 00;24;09;15

    We have a money bell that we ring

    when we are celebrating different things

    00;24;09;15 - 00;24;10;08

    from getting our people

    00;24;10;08 - 00;24;13;15

    getting a paycheck to taking on new,

    new retail partners and new clients.

    00;24;14;06 - 00;24;17;14

    So since it's the start of the new Year,

    I'm really excited to announce

    00;24;17;14 - 00;24;21;29

    that we have launched our Meaningful Money

    course, which we've broken down into two

    00;24;21;29 - 00;24;26;03

    segments, Meaningful Money Essentials,

    which will take you

    00;24;26;20 - 00;24;30;05

    from the top level down work

    that I just described in the

    00;24;30;05 - 00;24;34;27

    in the one page plan

    into much more nitty gritty work on

    00;24;35;22 - 00;24;39;12

    building a cash flow plan

    and making sure that your books

    00;24;39;12 - 00;24;42;05

    are clean and accurate

    and that you have meaningful money.

    00;24;42;27 - 00;24;44;02

    These are what we consider to be

    00;24;44;02 - 00;24;47;11

    the essentials to kind of manage

    through this down economy.

    00;24;48;09 - 00;24;51;04

    And then the second course,

    which will start a little bit later,

    00;24;51;22 - 00;24;54;17

    is called meaningful money next level.

    00;24;54;26 - 00;24;58;18

    And that's where we get into longer

    term projections and really thinking about

    00;24;58;26 - 00;25;03;23

    growth and pivots to to maintain growth

    also in the down economy.

    00;25;04;09 - 00;25;07;10

    So those are the two new things

    that we have to offer

    00;25;07;18 - 00;25;10;28

    that are available

    now on this CFO on Speed Dial website.

    00;25;11;11 - 00;25;12;29

    Christine,

    thank you so much for being here.

    00;25;12;29 - 00;25;15;02

    Please

    let everyone know where they can find you.

    00;25;15;10 - 00;25;18;00

    You can find me at cfoonspeeddial.com,

    00;25;18;06 - 00;25;21;04

    or on most social media @CFOonSpeedDial.

    00;25;21;14 - 00;25;21;26

    Thank you.

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