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Resources
Resources for business strategy, growth & financial clarity
Free resources to help you understand your finances, optimize your operations, and grow with confidence.
CPG
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Why Your CPG Brand Is Profitable on Paper but Broke in the Bank
Your CPG P&L says you made money but the bank says otherwise. Here is why profitable consumer goods brands run low on cash, and how to fix it.
When Does Your CPG Brand Need a Fractional CFO?
Growing CPG brands face unique financial challenges. Learn the key signs that your brand has outgrown DIY accounting and needs a fractional CFO.
CPG Finance Glossary: The Terms Every Brand Founder Should Know
A plain-English glossary of the finance terms that show up constantly in CPG conversations — with retailers, investors, brokers, and accountants. Bookmark it.
Preparing Your Books for a Retailer Meeting or Investor Diligence
A founder-friendly walkthrough of the financial materials that retailers and investors actually want to see, and what clean books look like when someone serious is about to ask hard questions.
CPG Inventory Accounting Checklist: What Your System Needs to Track
A practical checklist of what your inventory accounting system must capture once a CPG brand crosses a million dollars in revenue. Use it to diagnose gaps before they turn into audit problems.
The Gross Margin Math Most CPG Founders Get Wrong
Most CPG founders calculate gross margin on a shelf price that nobody actually pays. Here is what your margin looks like once brokers, slotting, trade spend, and freight show up.
Bookkeeping Basics
Explore AllSales Tax for Growing Businesses: What Actually Matters
Sales tax is where a lot of growing businesses quietly accumulate six-figure liabilities without knowing it. Here is the plain-English version of what actually matters and when you need to start paying attention.
How to Build a Chart of Accounts That Actually Tells You Something
Your chart of accounts is the skeleton of every financial report you will ever read. Set it up badly and your numbers will lie to you for years. Here is how to build one that holds up.
The Monthly Close Checklist Every Small Business Should Run
A step-by-step monthly close checklist that tightens your books from haphazard to reliable. Use it as a template for an in-house bookkeeper or as a benchmark when evaluating an outside firm.
Cash vs Accrual Accounting: Which One Does Your Business Actually Need?
A plain-English explainer on the difference between cash and accrual accounting, when each makes sense, and the tax and strategic implications of picking one over the other.
Fractional CFO
Explore AllThe KPIs a Fractional CFO Should Be Watching for You
A checklist of the KPIs a good fractional CFO should be tracking and reporting every month. Use it to evaluate whether your finance function is actually delivering strategic insight or just closing books.
The 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast: The One Tool Every Growing Business Needs
A 13-week cash flow forecast is the single most useful tool for running a business through tight cash periods, growth ramps, or major transitions. Here is how to build one that actually reflects reality.
When Does Hiring a Fractional CFO Actually Pay Off?
A fractional CFO is a real strategic hire, not a glorified bookkeeper. Here is how to tell when your business needs one, what they actually do, and what the math should look like before you commit.
Founder Growth
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The Founder Decisions That Should Never Be Made Alone
Some founder decisions should absolutely be made solo. Others should absolutely not be. Here is how to tell the difference, and why the founders who know the distinction build stronger businesses and healthier lives.
How Growing Businesses Should Actually Run Annual Planning
Annual planning fails in most small businesses because it is treated as a budget exercise rather than a strategic one. Here is a practical framework that ties vision to numbers to execution without turning into a three-week slog.
Your First Finance Hire: Bookkeeper, Controller, or CFO?
The right first finance hire depends on what the business actually needs right now. Here is how to tell whether you need a bookkeeper, a controller, or a fractional CFO, and how to avoid the common mistake of hiring the wrong one.
Founders Who Read Their Own Financials Build Better Businesses
The founders who can read their own P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow statement make better decisions and run tighter businesses. Here is what to actually look at, and what the numbers are telling you that your accountant cannot.
Construction
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Founder Resources
Explore AllHow Much Should You Actually Spend on Accounting and Finance?
A revenue-based benchmark for what founder-led and CPG brands should spend on accounting and finance, why CPG runs the high end, and how to read your own number.
The Founder's Guide to Reading Your Financial Statements
Your accountant sends monthly reports. Do you know what they mean? A plain-English guide to the three financial statements every founder should understand.
Exit Planning
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The Financials Behind Every Exit Path
Sell, recap, hand it to family, or sell to your team, every exit runs on the same books. The financial readiness that unlocks all of your options.
What Actually Moves Your Multiple
Two businesses with the same revenue can sell for wildly different prices. The value drivers behind the multiple, and what your books say about each.
The Data Room Your Books Have to Fill
A data room is only as strong as the books behind it. What a buyer's diligence list really tests, and how clean financials fill it without a scramble.
What Your Manufacturing Books Tell a Buyer
When you sell a manufacturer, the buyer underwrites your financials, not your shop floor. The five things your books have to prove to earn the multiple.
Diligence-Proof Your Financials Before a Sale
Deals get repriced in diligence when the numbers do not hold up. How to make your books, returns, and bank records tell one story before a buyer digs in.
Know Your Numbers Before You Choose an Advisor
Before you hire a broker to sell your business, know your own numbers. Clean books let you test a quoted valuation and be the client advisors want.
The Numbers That Keep Partners Aligned When You Sell
When two or more owners sell, the books become the referee. How clean financials, a real valuation, and per-partner math keep a deal from splitting you.
Working Capital: The Deal Term Your Balance Sheet Decides
The working capital peg can move your sale price by six figures, and your balance sheet sets it. How clean books put that number on your side.
What an Offer Is Really Worth Before You Sign
The headline price on an offer is not what you keep. How clean books let you see an offer's real value, before you sign, and improve it while you can.
What You Actually Keep When You Sell Your Business
The sale price is not your number. How to model your real net proceeds from clean books, before an offer, and pull the levers that move what you keep.
The Finance Side of a Family Business Handoff
Family handoffs fall apart over money, not feelings. Why clean books, a defensible valuation, and an early close decide whether the transfer works.
The Earnings Number Behind Your Business Valuation
A buyer values your business on a multiple of your earnings. The size and trust of that number lives in your books. Here is what actually gets priced.
SDE or EBITDA: Which Number Your Books Support
Your business is valued on SDE or adjusted EBITDA, and the metric decides your multiple. What each one is, and how your books determine the number.
What a Recap Partner Reads in Your Books
Selling a stake in your business is underwritten on your financials. What a private equity partner looks for, and how clean books pay you twice.
Your Money After the Sale Closes
The check on closing day is rarely the whole price. What decides how much of your money is still at risk after you sell, and how clean books shrink it.
The Two-Year Financial Readiness Plan
Buyers pay for a track record, not a promise. The finance work to start 24, 12, and 6 months before you sell, so your numbers earn the price.
The Advisor Who Gets Your Books Ready to Sell
Every exit needs a team. The finance seat is the one that has to be filled years early, because clean books cannot be built in a hurry.
What Your Books Must Prove When You Sell
In a sale, you sign promises about your business. The financial ones are only as strong as your records. How clean books turn reps into a non-event.
Documenting Add-Backs That Survive Diligence
A legitimate add-back is worth several times its size at closing. The reporting discipline that makes yours hold up when a buyer's team pushes back.
What Counts as Debt When You Sell Your Business
A buyer prices your business cash-free, debt-free. The balance-sheet items that quietly shrink your payout, and the reporting that protects it.
How Clean Books Win a Quality of Earnings Review
A quality of earnings review can quietly cut your sale price after the LOI. What it tests, and the monthly financial habits that make your profit hold.
The Numbers That Sell a Consumer Brand
Buyers of CPG brands pay for margin quality and proof of demand, not revenue. The financial reporting that gets your consumer business a real price.
What Buyers Are Really Testing When They Meet You
Before an offer, buyers meet the owner. What they test in that meeting, why your numbers decide it, and the finance prep that protects your price.
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