Founder & Fractional CFO at realCFO LLC. Peace of mind decision-making for small-business owners. Dripping Springs, TX.
Dripping Springs, TX
Joined October 2023
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His name is going on that door after all.
A different bank saw the dream his own bank had missed.
If a no has stalled your plan, this is the one to read.
realcfo.net/blog
Here is what I have learned sitting across from owners.
A no from the bank is often not about you. Sometimes you are just standing at the wrong desk.
The full story is on the blog this week.
realcfo.net/blog
He did everything right. Built the business. Made the plan.
Then the bank he had trusted for years said no at the last minute.
For a moment the whole dream stopped.
This week on the blog: what a no from your bank really means, and what to do next.
realcfo.net/blog
An owner I worked with had drifted from 58% gross margin to 42% over four years.
Same rates. Rising costs. He'd never noticed because he watched revenue, not margin.
We sat down, pulled the trend, raised his rate 8% on new clients. He lost zero. Margin went back. The cash followed.
The lever wasn't sales. It was price.
Three places margin leaks:
- Prices that haven't moved in years
- Suppliers you've never renegotiated
- The "flexible" work that takes 40% more hours than you bill for
Find one this week. Make one adjustment. Watch the trend over the next three months.
Monthly review. Same report. Into the model. That's how margin gets defended.
An owner I worked with had a record Q2 and watched Q3 come in 28% lower.
Same clients. Same team. Same offer. What changed?
He'd stopped his two networking lunches a week to keep up with delivery. The hopper went empty without him noticing.
We rebuilt the weekly log — two touches a week, one follow-up. By Q4 the hopper was full again.
Activity is a leading indicator. Watch it before revenue.
Three things to track in your sales hopper, every week:
- New conversations started
- First meetings booked
- Proposals sent
Same fields. Same review day. Into the model.
If you can't recall last week's numbers in 10 seconds, your system needs work. The hopper is the number that predicts the bank balance 60 days from now.
If revenue dropped this week, the cause was 60 days ago.
What were you doing in early April? That's the question your books can't answer.
But your activity log can — if you keep one.
Five numbers. The first is your sales hopper.
An owner I worked with ran his whole shop off the bank app. Some Mondays he felt fine. Some Mondays he didn't, and he couldn't tell you why.
We built a one-page model — five numbers, read weekly. Six months in, he stopped guessing.
The bank balance isn't a strategy. It's a scoreboard.
realcfo.net
Three minutes to test if you're running off the numbers or off the bank balance:
Open your books. Find your gross margin %.
Find your A/R over 30 days.
Find your operating expense total.
If any of those took more than 90 seconds to locate, your system needs work. The numbers should live in one place — same sources, same cadence, into your model. That's what runs the business.
realcfo.net
Featured in this month's Dripping Springs City Lifestyle: “Whippled but Not Whipped.”
A major surgery taught me to ask “what next.” What next became realCFO — helping owners run on real numbers, not the bank balance.
citylifestyle.com/articles/w…
Most owners run their business off one number. It's the wrong number.
The bank balance tells you what already happened. It can't tell you what's coming.
What number do you read first on Monday morning?
realcfo.net
A business owner came to me. Bank balance: healthy. About to make a $60K hire.
I asked his AR days. He didn't know.
We pulled it: $100,000 sitting uncollected.
Held the hire. Collected the cash. Made the offer 30 days later, on the right number.
realcfo.net
Who cares about cash?
Let me tell you:
1) Employees
2) Suppliers
3) My wife!
Cash is the lifeblood of the world!
Running out of cash = the end of your business.
Rob Jacob retweeted
You can’t fix what you can’t see.
That’s why finance is less about math and more about visibility.
Is @ConnorAbene right?
I have chatted with thousands of entrepreneurs who tell me You don't understand my business!
It's hard to tell them THEY don't understand their business.
Yes, he is right!
Most founders think they know their numbers.
But when I ask a few simple questions, the truth usually shows up fast.
1. Do you know your cash position for the next 8 weeks?
If not, you’re managing from your bank balance instead of a plan.
Cash visibility is not just about survival.
It’s how you make confident hiring, investment, and expense decisions.
2. Do you know which products, clients, or services actually drive profit?
Revenue is easy to track.
Profit is not.
If you don’t know your true profit drivers, you might be scaling what is quietly hurting you.
3. Do you know what happens if revenue drops 20% next quarter?
If the answer is no, you don’t have a forecast.
You have a wish.
Every business needs a scenario plan before the market forces one on them.
These 3 questions can tell you more about the health of your business than a 40-page report.
If you can’t answer all 3 clearly, you’re not leading with visibility. You’re reacting to whatever happens next.
The best founders don’t just read their numbers.
They use them to see around corners.
Hey business owners!
Ever feel like your financial statements are written in ancient hieroglyphs?
What's the ONE thing you just DON'T GET about your P&L, balance sheet, or cash flow statement? (e.g., "Why does profit ≠ cash??")
Drop your Qs below – I'll break 'em down! Let's turn confusion into clarity.
Not understanding how your systems and processes work together will give you a plate of spaghetti, and you will never know what is going on.
The SMB Efficiency Crisis: Why Your Tools Are Failing You (new blog post) The average small business now uses about 20 different software tools. Each one promised to solve a specific problem. QuickBooks handles accounting. Stripe processes payments. Your CRM manages customer relationships. Gmail handles communication. Each tool does its job well.... but guess what?