June 11, 2025 • 43 mins
If you own a small business—or you're thinking about starting one—this episode is a must-listen. Chris and Dennis break down the three financial statements every business owner should understand: monthly and annual sales reports, profit and loss (P&L) statements, and the all-important balance sheet.
From tracking seasonal trends to spotting early signs of trouble, they explain how these tools can help you make smarter decisions, grow more confidently, and build real value over time. Packed with real-world examples, this episode shows how numbers don’t just measure your success—they help you create it.
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Episode Transcript
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Chris (00:02):
Hello everyone, welcome to Episode 18, Financial
Statements for the SmallBusiness.
Today we're digging into atopic that sounds boring, but
trust me, it's not.
When you understand yournumbers, they tell you what's
working, what's not and whereyour business is really headed.
You wouldn't run a gutterinstall without a level.
Don't run your business withoutusing your business financials.
In this episode, dennis and Iwalk through how we use our
(00:24):
monthly and annual sales reportsto spot trends, catch slowdowns
early.
We talk about P&Ls and whatthey actually reveal about your
profitability, and we dive intothe balance sheet, the one
financial statement that revealsthe real value behind all your
hard work.
You'll hear how we use thesetools to make real decisions,
like when to hire, when toexpand, when to buy trucks or
buildings, and while trackingthese financials has helped us
(00:46):
grow year after year.
So grab a cup of coffee, sitback, relax and welcome to
Monkey Business Radio.
All right, hello Dennis, howare you doing.
Chris, I'm doing well.
How are you Good?
Good, Going to be talking aboutbusiness financial statements
today Sounds boring, but itisn't.
(01:07):
It doesn't have to be.
We've spent some time on thisin the past, but this is a
little different today.
Dennis (01:12):
Well, Chris, we use business financial statements
for everything.
So if we're talking aboutvaluing your business, we're
going to use business financialstatements.
If we're talking aboutmarketing 101, we're using
business financial statementsfor that too.
If we're talking abouteliminating debt, taking on debt
, we talk about businessfinancial statements in a
(01:35):
peripheral way all the time.
So we're going to talk a littlebit more specifically about
them what they are.
I mean a little bit about howwe use them.
But, yeah, your businessfinancial statements mine are
very important.
I mean a little bit about howwe use them.
But, yeah, your businessfinancial statements mine are
very important.
I use them every day.
Every day, no matter what groupI'm talking to, no matter if
it's a franchisee or if it's apotential franchisee, we're
(01:55):
always making reference to ourbusiness financial statements.
Chris (02:00):
Yeah, you've noticed it even on these podcasts, so we
keep coming back to thesefinancial statements.
Dennis (02:25):
No matter what the subject is that we talk about,
there have my financials infront of me, and so does Bruce,
and so does Andy, so we cananswer any question they may
have.
Chris (02:34):
Yeah, we were just talking to Bruce just before the
show.
He had about six hours toprepare for the last guy that
came in and he just went to thestatements, pulled them all out.
Dennis (02:40):
That's why we do it every day.
Rolled them out, yeah,statements.
Pulled them out.
That's why we do it every day.
Rolled them out, yeah, becauseit tells you so much and when
you make reference to your ownfinancials every day, you can
almost find anything veryquickly because you know exactly
where it is.
Today, we're going to focus onjust a couple of business
financial statements.
We're not going to get overlytechnical on this.
The three statements we'regoing to talk about today you
(03:01):
know your annual sales reports,your profit and loss statements
and your balance sheets.
Those are the three big ones.
You know, one of the firstthings that a new business owner
becomes aware of is sales.
You know he's got a newlandscape company, he's got it
going on and he hits the groundrunning and he's banging $20,000
(03:22):
a month in sales.
He's doing good.
It's his first season.
He's looking at that 20,000 amonth.
Now he wants to hit that numberevery month and he starts in
May and June and July.
He's doing good.
Okay, he's focusing primarilyon what we call your sales
figures, your monthly salesreport, which, when you put 12
(03:44):
of them together, you get anannual sales report.
Sales I like to go month bymonth and then at the end of the
year we do a compilation and wehave an annual sales report and
this is going to give me a look, month by month, year to year,
how we're growing in terms ofgross revenues only, and I am
constantly looking back.
So we are in the month of Mayright now.
(04:05):
I'm forever looking back atlast May, two years ago, three
years ago, may, and actuallyright now I'm looking at June.
May is set, we're movingthrough May, things are going
well.
So I'm looking at June and I'msaying what did we do a year ago
, two years ago, three years ago, june, and I can make a comp to
that.
Okay, you know, three years agowe did X and two years we did
(04:27):
X.1 or X plus one.
Last year we did X plus two.
This year I went to X plusthree, whatever that number is.
So I'm making comparisons tothe same month a year ago, two
years ago, three years ago.
That's why we keep monthlysales and we keep annual sales
and when you put them alltogether you get a good look.
Let's say the last five years.
Chris (04:49):
So what kind of conclusions can you draw from
those comparisons?
I use these all the time youlook two years back or something
like that, can you say that wasrelated to advertising or
weather, or number of people Ihad, or Okay, so here's what
happened recently.
Dennis (05:02):
We had a great year.
Cape Cod got a monkey, southShore got a monkeys.
Just in general, we all had agood year.
Okay, we turned into the newyear and Cape Cod got a monkeys
and South Shore got a monkeys.
Those are our corporatelocations, each of them.
We just busted it out with arecord year by a lot for each of
them.
Now, february that was inJanuary February was cold,
(05:24):
really cold, the coldestFebruary in 10 years.
We had enough snow to cover therooftops but not enough snow to
form ice dams, which is one ofthe specialties in the
wintertime is we remove ice dams.
There wasn't enough snow tocreate ice dam, but there was
enough snow to not allow us todo our gutter cleaning and our
(05:46):
gutter installs.
It was too cold, too nasty.
So we really took a beating inthe month of February and I can
look at February and look at thelast three and say, yeah, we
did not have a good February,and I just make a asterisk, a
note.
It was weather driven and we'llmake a note.
You know, very, very cold cameinto March.
March was rainy and nasty andgutter cleanings were up but
(06:11):
gutter installs were down.
So again, another, what I wouldcall.
Not my best month as a companyboth South Shore gutter monkeys
and Cape Cod gutter monkeys theywere off a little bit.
Again.
I'm looking back at last yearMarch two years ago, march,
(06:32):
three years ago, march and I seewe're just having a terrible
March and I made a note at theend of the month in my report.
It was very rainy, installswere down, cleanings were up and
we move on to April, april.
I start getting concernedbecause in this particular year,
the new administration inWashington announced the
possible threat of tariffs andthe bottom fell out of Wall
(06:52):
Street and then there wasmention of possibility of
eliminating some tariffs toCanada and some of these other
smaller countries and all of asudden, the market's back up
again.
Up it's down, it's up, it'sdown.
Now by mid-April.
I'm wondering are we inrecession?
And it's been 10 weeks, butit's also been 10 weeks of
really cold weather and reallyrainy weather.
So I don't know, is thisslowing us down?
(07:16):
Is this a recession?
Is it driven by Wall Street oris it just weather related?
So I have all this in front ofme and I'm talking, you know, 10
weeks in a row, chris, and I'mgetting concerned and I'm making
adjustments based upon that,and that was just my annual
sales figure.
Chris (07:33):
Yeah, so it's interesting .
You annotate that as well.
It's just not numbers and stufflike that.
Dennis (07:37):
You say, oh yeah, this is what's happening all the time
.
Chris (07:40):
So you can look back three years ago and say, oh, it
was rainy here too, but onlything that tells me that my
profit and loss statementdoesn't tell me that, my balance
(08:07):
sheet doesn't tell me that.
Dennis (08:08):
No, my monthly sales reports and my annual sales
reports tell me that.
And so this year I made severalchanges.
I made changes internally,function-wise.
I added an extra layer ofprotection internally for my
gutter install process SouthShore and Cape Cod.
(08:30):
I add an extra band ofadvertising on a podcast
streaming station and all of asudden we're pulling out of it.
It's working.
Now.
The weather's better, wallStreet is booming.
We had a little bit of a downday yesterday, but basically the
last two weeks of Wall Streethas been climbing nicely and the
weather got better.
So all of the things I wasconcerned about showed
(08:53):
improvement, especially myscheduling my schedule's full
again.
We seem to be pulling out ofthat slump we were in.
So was it a slump?
Was it a nosedive, or were weflirting with recession and then
we avoided it?
I don't know, but it was mysales figures that I follow that
alert me to this, and everyyear I'm going to say, for the
(09:14):
last five years other than no,2020 and 21,.
Covid and those first two COVIDyears we actually did really
well, but 22, 23, 24, and thisyear, 25,.
Each year I have a little bit ofa lull and it always seems to
occur during a time that myinstall gutter installs are down
, and that's usually not weatherrelated.
(09:36):
It can be, but it's usually not.
Sometimes it's economic related.
There could be a lot of factors.
So when I see this downtrend inmy annual sales report and my
monthly sales reports I startasking myself what could it be?
And I look at the four or fivemost likely causes.
Number one marketing.
(09:56):
So I call my marketing peopleand I check with all my radio
people.
Are my radio ads hitting?
Are these working?
I talk to the crew chiefs Areyou guys putting your signs out
on the job sites?
Are we getting all the exposurethat we need and what we want?
If so, we move on to the nextlevel and over the years it
happens once a year and I make alittle bit of a change and
(10:18):
every year we seem to recover.
So I'm a little bit of a hiccupin our annual process.
It could show up in April andMay.
It could show up in July,august.
What we do is we make changesbased upon that and usually we
improve overall as a company,because now we've added an extra
layer of protection againstthings like this.
(10:40):
So a couple of years ago we hada situation much like the one
that we're discussing now andone of my coworkers, charlie, he
had an idea and I said that's agood much like the one that
we're discussing now.
And one of my co-workers,charlie, he had an idea and I
said that's a good idea, charlie, why don't you take it and run
with it?
And what he did was he would goevery two weeks and review all
the quotes that we put out forgutters, for installs, and he
(11:01):
would take out the ones that wegot and he would do a follow-up
call to all the gutterinstallation quotes that we
didn't get.
And what we found was Charliewas nailing 10% to 15% of them.
Wow, and so, yep, and it's onlytwo to three days every other
week.
And we integrated that Becauseit worked so well, we kept it
(11:23):
going and we integrated into ournormal process that, because it
worked so well, we kept itgoing and we integrated into our
normal process.
And to this day, charlie stilldoes that process, probably two
to three days every other week.
Wow, and that has made us astronger company.
And you know what, chris?
It all comes from our annualsales report and our monthly
sales reports.
That's where it comes from.
Chris (11:43):
So this is your real-time data.
You've got a lot of datastreaming in here and we'll talk
about some of the other stuffyou're using, but this is kind
of your real-time adjustmentsyou can make using this data.
Dennis (11:51):
My annual, my monthly sales reports.
For me personally, they driveevery day what I do.
Every day I'm looking and, ofcourse, if things are going good
and booming, my day is reallyeasy when things are booming,
are going good and booming myday is really easy when things
are booming.
Everybody's busy, the officestaff is firing on all cylinders
.
I don't even have to show up.
Everything is great.
(12:13):
I still show up, but my burdenis light.
These last 10, 12 weeks it'sbeen heavy because I keep
running tests and I keep lookingat things.
I'm looking and I'm poking.
I'm trying to find out what theheck is going on, and I think
we've pulled out of it.
Things are looking at things.
I'm looking and I'm poking.
I'm trying to find out what theheck is going on, and I think
we've pulled out of it.
Things are looking good again.
Everybody's busy, all thetrucks are firing on all
(12:34):
cylinders, literally andfiguratively.
Chris (12:37):
It's a nice sunny day on the Cape today.
It is Maybe that's going tohelp Been a lot of rain.
Dennis (12:40):
So, chris, those are my monthly and my annual sales
reports.
That's where all thatinformation comes from.
It's the simplest thing, butthere's so much information in
there.
For me, and the longer you'rein business, the more track
record you have, the morevaluable all this data is.
Monthly sales, annual sales, youknow, yeah, that's one
(13:01):
component.
You just hope that you'repricing things right so you're
profitable, which brings us tothe next.
So are you making money?
Are we making money?
Sales are good.
Are we making money?
That's where we have our P&L,our profit and loss statement.
Do them by the month.
We also do them by the year.
Now, to be honest with you,chris, I don't do monthly P&Ls
anymore.
It's, for the most part,unnecessary at this point
(13:28):
because I know we're profitableand because almost all of my
profitability is tied towardsgross sales.
Because you got your fixedcosts and then you got your
variable costs and my fixed arewhat they are, my variables.
Everything is a function ofsales.
So my payroll is a function ofsales.
Back that out.
My monthly marketing budget isa function of projected sales.
(13:52):
We back that out.
So the monthly P&Ls are veryimportant, I believe, early on
in your life.
But as you grow and you realize, okay, you're hitting
profitability every month andyour gross profit on each unit,
each widget, is X and as long asyou're doing 10X, 20x or 250X,
(14:17):
you're going to be profitable.
So monthly P&Ls, I believe, areimportant early on, but in the
long term, I think your annualP&Ls are more important.
I'm buying inventory this monthfor work we're going to do next
month.
I mean there is a delay.
That's why I don't do month tomonth.
After three or four years ofbusiness and you're very
(14:39):
profitable and things are goingsmoothly, doing monthly P&Ls
isn't worth the accounting time.
It's a little bit of adistraction, but you know a
profit and loss.
An annual P&L or even a monthlyP&L is.
You grow sales and then youtake out payroll.
You know tools and equipment,marketing, disposal fees,
material insurance.
(15:00):
You know workers comp and thelike, fuel for the trucks and so
on and so forth.
Those are your expenses.
And when you do this monthlyyour first let's say two to
three years in business, whatyou're doing is you're really
fine tuning.
You're saying you know whatyou're looking in.
You're saying my payroll is alittle heavy.
I either have to increase myprices on my widgets or I'm
(15:21):
going to have to decreasepayroll and that's what a
monthly P&L will tell you.
You know those first two tothree years and you know what
you're going to do.
You're going to trim payroll alittle bit or tighten things up
a bit and you're going to add 5%to the price of your product or
service.
So now you're widget, you'regetting a little bit more,
you've tightened up payroll andyou can look in three, four,
(15:43):
five months in a row.
Payroll as a percentage of salesis no longer an issue and you
fix that.
And you did it because of yourmonthly P&Ls.
And annually though, that'swhen it shows you how much you
made for the year, and that'simportant because that's my
annual P&L a copy of it is sentdirectly to my accountant, my
(16:03):
tax man, and we do all of ourown internal accounting here.
But we have a former teammateof ours from Bentley College,
dave Doucette.
He's our tax prep guy and so,yeah, I just take my annual P&Ls
, I send him a copy and I sendhim my annual balance sheet.
All of that just goes right toDave.
I don't send him receipts, Idon't send him anything at all
(16:27):
other than four or five pages.
That's it.
It can fit in one manilaenvelope or it's really the
click of a mouse.
These days.
Four pages, five pages, that'sall Dave gets from me.
It makes his job easy.
Chris (16:40):
Well, you start, you work with a lot of people just
starting out in business.
I mean, that's part of yourconsulting business.
What do you find with this P&L?
When you walk in the door andstart chatting with them and ask
them about this sort of stuff,what are you finding?
Dennis (16:51):
The first thing is a lot of people don't know what a
profit and loss statement or anincome and expense summary.
They're the same.
A lot of people don't reallyknow what it is.
Sometimes I find I have two orthree young folks right now that
I'm working with on theirhousehold budget.
That's again entry-levelaccounting here's your income
for the month and here's yourknown expenses expenses that you
(17:13):
got to do.
You got to pay the rent or paythe mortgage.
Well, so I treat a startupbusiness like that.
That's why we do monthly profitand losses with a startup.
So they understand.
I don't want them running for10 months in a row and then
hitting December and having noidea as to what went on over the
last 10 months.
But if the new young owner, therookie, the startup guy, does a
(17:38):
P&L month one and then two, youknow not only does he now know
how to do it, he knows what itmeans.
You know not only does he nowknow how to do it, he knows what
it means.
And by month five they'remaking adjustments all on their
own, without my telling them oranybody else.
They're just naturally becomingimmersed in the business.
That's why I really lovemonthly P&Ls for the startup.
(17:59):
It shows the new business ownerexactly what's going on.
And a lot of franchisees, a lotof small business owners.
They're really smart, they knowstuff.
Andy, my business partner hereat the Cape Cod Gutter Monkeys.
He came from a corporate world,he was the CFO, he was vice
president of finance, but hedidn't know how to run a small
business.
And I said here's what Irecommend, that we start out
(18:22):
with these three statements.
And he knew right.
He goes wow, that's a greatidea.
Yeah, those are good ones.
To start with, he doesn't needsales breakdown figures.
We haven't sold anything yet.
He was used to running thefinancial department for a $50
million a year company and nowwe're starting a company that
(18:42):
hasn't sold a single widget yet.
So even with somebody like Andy,there's a learning curve, and
even myself, so I've always beenself-employed.
But anytime you start a newbusiness there's a learning
curve there too.
So, yeah, those first I'm goingto say six months, maybe eight
months, we did monthly P&Ls andthen we didn't need to do them
anymore.
So I think it's important whenyou're starting out to act like
(19:05):
a rookie, even if you're aveteran coming from another
field, because there's so manylittle things that happen in
business.
I remember Bruce got his MBA andI don't have an MBA, I don't
have an advanced degree.
And he said yeah, sure, I havean MBA, I just don't know how to
start a business and I don'tknow how to run one.
I know how to go into anexisting company and function
(19:27):
well amongst the people there,but it's something new.
Listen, when you're starting abusiness and you are now
marketing with your own money,there's a big difference than
working for XYZ company andyou're marketing with the boss's
money.
When it's your nickel that'sgoing out, you're right in the
check with your own money.
There's a big difference.
Chris (19:46):
Yeah, it's like what is it an MBA?
They'll tell you everything youneed to know about dating, but
they've never had a girlfriend.
Yeah, and I know even herewe've had meetings with our own
franchisees.
They'll come in and I think onetime you actually sat down and
you asked them the question howdo you know if you're making any
money or profits?
What are your profits?
What are you basing yourprofits on?
And I came up with alldifferent sort of things oh,
(20:08):
what's in my checkbook?
What's in this, what's in that?
It was kind of interesting tohear it.
Dennis (20:12):
That was one where I started the meeting with a
little round table.
And what is the most importantdocument in your arsenal right
now?
What is the most importantfinancial document?
And some of them a couple ofthem, I think said how much
money's in the checkbook.
Yeah, checkbook came up, itprobably did.
Another one said weekly payrollas a percentage of sales that
(20:33):
week, which is very, very shortsighted, and actually two people
said that.
I think one said it and thenext one agreed.
You know, what I'd rather seelike my steering wheel is my
monthly and annual sales report.
That's my daily steering wheel.
My big picture roadmap would bemy balance sheet, because that
(20:54):
tells me the value of my company.
But for day to day it's mymonthly sales reports as
compared to last year, thismonth and last month and next
month, just because that monthlysales tells me how I'm doing in
comparison to other months andI always want to see a little
bit of growth.
Everything in my arsenal, likemy Excel sheets, it's all color
(21:17):
coded too, so I can glance andit's color coded.
I can say wow, last year we had10 up months and two down
months.
Because it's color-coded, I cansee the two down months right
away every time.
So as you grow your platform andyou grow your business
financial statements, you'llnaturally color-code them to
(21:38):
however you want them.
There's no right or wrong way.
The only right way is whatworks for you.
And as long as it's a GAAP, agenerally accepted accounting
principle, as long as it's donein that format, it's good for
your accountant, it's good foryour bank, it's good for almost
all purposes.
So yeah, the P&L that's goingto tell me at the end of the
(21:58):
year if I'm profitable and, ifso, how profitable I am and what
that does.
That tells me a lot ofinformation too.
So end of the year, I look atprofitability.
We do this all the time.
We say, boy, we're going totake it on the chin, we're going
to owe because we pay ourquarterly taxes as a corporation
and it looks like we didn't payenough.
So we're going to get hit hardon April 15th.
(22:19):
And sometimes, like this year,we overplayed our hand last year
and we overpaid a little bitand we got a lot of money back
this year.
But when you do your P&Ls byyear two, three, four now you
know this.
So you know like, as you'recoming into the end of the year.
Call it December 31st, theannual year is over, the fiscal
(22:40):
year is over and I can puttogether a P&L fast, real fast,
and I can look at my last fouror five years and say hey guys,
we're in good shape, we'regetting money back on April 15th
which is what I said this year,because there was some nice
things that fell in ourdirection Some of the new trucks
we purchased were actuallyfully deductible in a single
(23:01):
year.
So 2024 was great because webought four trucks that year.
They're fully deductible in asingle year, so 2024 was great
because we bought four trucksthat year.
Chris (23:05):
They're fully deductible in a year.
Dennis (23:07):
Well, one of them was 14,500 GVW gross weight and so
anything over 12,000 GVW wasdeductible in that year, that
fiscal year.
You bought it.
It doesn't get amortized, itgets expensed, Wow.
So that was 100,000 plus orminus expense that we didn't
(23:28):
know was coming.
And when I looked at thenumbers and this is like January
3rd I said to the guys in theoffice we're in good shape,
we're getting money back thisyear, so that allows me a little
bit of freedom over the nextthree and a half months.
You months from January 1st toApril 15th, and actually we get
our taxes in in February and weknew by end of February, early
(23:51):
March, we're getting a lot ofmoney back.
And so we go OK, we're in goodshape, we effectively don't have
to worry about payingquarterlies in April and June
because we're getting so muchback in April and June, because
we're getting so much back.
So when you have a recurringprofit loss statement after a
while, you can just glance at itand know stuff.
(24:11):
I remember years ago when welived in New Hampshire, I owned
a roofing company good-sizedroofing company and I walked in
and Mark Secord, a lifelongfriend and he was my accountant
at the time.
He owned an accounting firm inLittleton, new Hampshire, and he
was waiting for me and it waslike April 10th or something or
April 5th, so his office waslike a beehive of activity.
(24:33):
And I walk in and he hands memy taxes and he says, hey, here
you go and here's what you owe.
And I glanced at it and I said,mark, did you account for my
SEP deduction?
And he goes oh geez, no, Iforgot about that.
He says, how did you know that?
And I said well, because thiswas left blank and usually it's
filled in, you know, and thenumber here looks a little too
(24:53):
high anyway.
And somebody that was in theoffice said in what world does
the local roofing contractorknow as much as his accountant?
Well, in my world it is,because I am a bit of an
accountant.
I happen to be a roofingcontractor and I happen to drive
a truck and kind of look like aroofer most of the time, but
I'd done it so many times Icould tell.
(25:14):
At a glance I knew what I wasexpecting and the numbers were
off a little bit and all I didwas flip about three pages in
and I could see that he forgotto allow for my SEP deduction
and he just said come on back intomorrow, we'll have it ready
for you.
Chris (25:28):
He just said you know you don't have to make those
payments this year ahead of time.
That's going to save you cashflow and all that other stuff.
It helps you out all over theplace.
Dennis (25:35):
Yeah, it's a huge advantage and even when we have,
like this year 2024, we had areally big growth year, but at
the end of the year we had alittle bit less in the company
operating capital, but we boughtfour trucks.
We also added about 24 or 26parking spaces.
I mean, we grew a lot.
(25:57):
So when you have a year likethat that adds, first of all,
four trucks and an added 26parking spaces, that makes my
balance sheet look good becauseI added to my balance sheet, but
it makes my bank account look alittle weaker, which, well,
that's what happens when you buyfour trucks, and so at a glance
I don't worry that my operatingcapital account is lower than
(26:21):
it normally is at the end of theyear.
I know why it's there Becausewe added more assets, but those
are assets that are nowproducing revenue and those
assets are all bought and paidfor.
So again, just understandingthe P&L and all that is in the
P&L, start doing a balance sheetright away, because as you grow
(26:41):
, it makes it so much easier.
And really, the final businessfinancial statement we'll talk
about today and then we're goingto bring them all together, is
the balance sheet.
Chris (26:50):
Yeah, we've had a whole podcast on balance sheets and IP
and all that sort of thing.
Dennis (26:53):
Yeah, and we're not going to dive too deeply into
that end of it.
But a balance sheet.
It balances the left is thesame as the right.
It's perfectly balanced.
Balances the left is the sameas the right.
It's perfectly balanced.
So your assets go on one sideand your liabilities go on the
other, and any differencebetween the two is either a net
profit or a net loss.
So on the asset side, assetsare good, liabilities are bad,
(27:16):
so to speak.
On the asset side of things, Ilike to point out three types of
assets that we deal with everyday Current assets A current
asset is cash, or cash in thecurrent working capital fund for
your business Accounts.
Receivable that's money that isowed to you.
You've already completed thejob.
(27:37):
The customer hasn't paid youyet.
That's an asset.
You just haven't picked it upyet.
Prepaid expenses If you'vepurchased inventory but you
haven't took delivery on it,well, that's an asset.
So it's already bought and paidfor any type of prepaid
expenses.
One of the examples I use isquarterly taxes.
They're all prepaid.
Well, this year I'm getting twoof those four quarters back.
(27:58):
That's an asset, it's prepaid.
So that's why I considerprepaid taxes as an asset,
because even if you owe thetaxes now.
You don't because it's prepaid,so you pay your quarterly taxes
At the end of the year.
That's an asset.
So current assets.
Chris (28:14):
That one takes a little bit for my mind to wrap around
that one, but okay, prepaidtaxes.
It's an asset Taxes are easierto understand, I guess.
Dennis (28:22):
If I prepay my taxes and you don't, at the end of the
year let's say so somewherearound April 15th you're going
to owe, let's say, $160,000 incorporate taxes.
I'm not going to owe anybecause I prepaid them last year
.
So one of those is a good thing, right, okay.
So that is an asset.
And in the case of my examplethis year, we overpaid last year
(28:44):
on the books.
So when we turned the cornerinto the new year we knew we
were getting a refund.
That's an asset.
So current assets Anothercurrent asset is inventory.
I don't count it as that in myworld.
My asset, the main component ofmy asset, is aluminum products.
I have $200,000 in aluminumproducts in my warehouse.
(29:06):
They're not going bad and infact Andy overpurchased a little
bit a couple of months ago,before there was talks on
tariffs, just in the event thataluminum prices did creep up a
little bit the two main productsthat we use in aluminum.
He bought another probably5,000 pounds of each.
So he ordered an extra fivetons of aluminum just in case,
(29:28):
and all we do is warehouse it.
Aluminum doesn't go bad.
We're going to use that in thenext six, seven months anyway.
No big deal.
So I put my inventory underfixed assets a building, the
building we're sitting in,trucks, company trucks those are
fixed assets Inventory.
Because my inventory is largeand it doesn't need to turn over
(29:50):
that fast.
I call it a fixed assets Toolsand equipment, office furniture,
computers, desks, all thosethings.
They're fixed assets.
And the other component of theasset column is intellectual
property and that's that verysubjective one that we talk
about all the time.
And you take the total of allyour assets and you add it up
(30:11):
and it adds up to a big number.
And then you look at yourliabilities.
You've got long-term debt,mortgages, vehicle loans, any
recurring payment that is morethan 12 months out.
I've heard certain accountantstell me, you know, if you have
your truck on a five-yearpayment, once it gets under 12
months you only have 10 monthsleft.
(30:32):
Sometimes they don't call thata long-term debt and I think
it's acceptable either way.
But you take off your long-termdebt and if you don't have any
long-term debt, well then youhave a zero in that column.
Current liabilities those arefinancial obligations that are
due between 30 days and a year.
It's your recurring bills andif you pay your bills every
(30:53):
month you really don't countthat as debt.
None of them are over 30 days.
They get paid every month.
So your balance sheet, that'swhere you take your assets minus
your liabilities, and what youget is either a net profit or
net loss.
In this case, it's your networth, chris.
I think that's the mostimportant one, because sales are
great, but sales don't indicateprofitability.
(31:16):
The amount of revenue you havein your company checking and
savings accounts, the amount ofcapital that you have, that's
important too.
Profitability is good.
But your net worth, yourbalance sheet, your number,
that's what your company's worth.
Some of it might be subjective,but the truth is this is the
big one.
The balance sheet, this is whatyour company's worth after all
(31:39):
these years of working hard twoyears, three years, four years
and you can watch that numbergrow If you stay on top of that.
You're going to look at yoursales numbers and they're
growing every year.
And you're going to look atyour balance sheet numbers and
the bottom line on the balancesheet is your value and that
number is growing every year.
And as you watch these twonumbers grow, and if you do this
(32:00):
monthly and you do thisannually, you're going to have a
really good grip onprofitability, on revenue
streams, you're going to have agreat look at your annual and
your monthly sales figures.
But, more importantly, you'regoing to be watching that
balance sheet every year andyou're going to say wow, this
year we bought two more trucksand we still added a little bit
(32:22):
to our capital reserve account.
Question I'm asked often is whatkind of a salary do you take?
I take a small salary, so doesAndy.
We don't take a big salary andfor the first seven, eight years
of our current business life werarely, if ever, took a bonus.
All the money went back to thecompany because we looked and we
(32:42):
looked at sales.
Let's say, year one we did 300and year two we did 600.
We just doubled our sales.
My sales went up 100%.
That means my company's salesreport just showed 100% growth.
And let's say, the next year wego to 900 grand.
So we went from three to six to900 grand.
So year three we grew 50% andthen we went to 1.2, and that's
(33:06):
a 33% growth.
So our growth in sales was 100%, 50%, 33%.
Then we had another growth, 33%, then a 25%, then a 20%.
So even though we're growingabout the same $300,000 or
$400,000 a year, we're growingsteady and this is just an
example.
This is in our exact numbers,but we're growing at a rate.
(33:29):
You know, by year five we'regrowing at a rate of about 25 to
33%.
We were also having good yearson Wall Street during that time
period.
We were having some 20% years.
But typically Wall Street willproduce about 10% to 13% growth
on average every year, usuallyabout 13% in recent years.
So I got to ask myself as abusiness owner, I take a salary
(33:52):
that I can more than live with.
I don't have kids anymore.
They're all grown.
They got kids of their own.
I don't have car payments ormortgages.
My life is boring, my life iseasy.
So, chris, if I take a biggersalary, what am I going to do
with the money that I don't needthat I take in salary?
Well, hopefully, if you don'tspend it on a painting.
I'm not going to buy anythingstupid or a boat or anything
(34:13):
like that, right?
Chris (34:13):
What am I going to do?
You're probably going to putinvested in the stock market.
Dennis (34:15):
I'm going to invest in the stock market at 13%.
Right, but why would I take abigger salary and invest it in
the stock market at 13% when myown company is still growing at
a rate of 25% to 33%?
Chris (34:28):
Yeah.
Dennis (34:29):
So when you take your sales report and your balance
sheet report and you line themup and I'm just talking about
sales after five, six years isstill growing at 33%, and six,
seven, eight years growing at 25and 20% steadily, my sales are
growing.
I would rather have put my moneyin stock in my own company as
(34:52):
opposed to Wall Street.
Invest in yourself, right,right, even though we were
having good years I mean, 2022was a bit of a flat year or down
year, but other than that,we've really been rocking it
down on Wall Street.
But then, alongside of it, I'mlooking at my business value,
growth, the value of my balancesheet, and back in the beginning
(35:13):
, year one, I didn't have anybusiness value.
I owned a truck and that's it.
I didn't have sales.
But as I start looking at mybusiness value and I just take
the valuation off the balancesheet and it looks like the
first five years, zero, 50%, 33%, 144%, 27% that's huge growth,
(35:38):
especially that 144% year.
And then year seven, we grewanother 140%, again, largely
because we moved into a newfacility, we bought a new
building.
Chris (35:50):
Yeah, this is fascinating to me because I'm looking at
the sales growth over here.
So that year you had 25% salesgrowth but you built a new
building, moved in there.
That was a big asset.
You added it's a huge asset andit jumped to 140%.
Dennis (36:01):
Where can you earn 140% on your money?
Chris (36:05):
In your own company you can and this is another thing.
That's hard when we're talkingto franchisees and why I'm in my
garage now, I'm comfortablehere, leave me alone why we're
so intent on saying, well, thinkabout some real estate.
Think about this, because thisis where your business value,
that you're building real wealththrough business ownership
shows up.
Is in this column, here at 140%this year, because you built
(36:27):
that building.
You went ahead and investedthat money.
Dennis (36:29):
And we also were able to do that.
We moved into this new facilityabout three years ago and this
building was built out of cashflow.
We bought a small bay over inSandwich here on the Cape, the
next town over year two Year onewe started this company out of
my garage.
(36:49):
Year two we bought a small bay,we paid cash for it it was
about a buck and a quarter andabout two years later we outgrew
it and we bought a bigger bayover here in the industrial park
in Mashpee, where we are now.
We used the profit that.
We used the value that we hadin the first building plus the
profit, and that gave us a bigshot in the arm.
(37:11):
So we took the remainder out ofcashflow.
We bought the second building.
We had that building aboutthree years, maybe four, and we
were busting out of the seams.
But also that building took abig jump in value because
post-COVID real estateskyrocketed and so when we
bought this building we had moreequity in that other building.
(37:32):
We're able to turn in and buythis one and with the equity
that we had in the otherbuilding plus we already own the
land that it's on we didn'tneed a whole lot of money to
complete the project and we'reable to do it out of cashflow
without taking out a loan.
Part of the reason is we kepttaking small salaries and
reinvesting in this company.
(37:52):
That was about to have 140%growth year.
We didn't know it at the time,but that's what we've done Now.
At the end of year 10, at theend of year 10, in our current
business life my sales growthonly showed 11% and my business
value growth was also startingto level off.
(38:13):
We only had an 11% growth year.
That was two years ago.
So now, chris, I ask thequestion what do we do with any
additional revenue?
Do the owners take an owner'sbonus and invest it in Wall
Street?
Now it's a roll of the dice,because it appears that my sales
(38:33):
growth and my business valuegrowth is beginning to level off
Again.
It's not a bad thing.
No, you're an establishedcompany now.
Right, but also we're bigger,yeah.
So you know, if my business isworth a million dollars and it
grows by a half a million, itgrew 50%.
Yeah.
If my business is worth 10million and it grew a half a
(38:56):
million, it grew at 5%.
Yeah, it still grew at the samedollar amount, but it's a much
smaller percentage.
So this is why I like to see mysmall business startup clients
and my franchisees and allpeople that I work with to
really wrap their brains aroundthis type of business financial
statements, because it makes youso much smarter.
(39:18):
You feel like you're onfinancial steroids when you're
talking with your bank, whenyou're talking with accountants,
and I got a call from a partnerin a potential franchise.
So the franchisee came in for ameeting a week ago.
He had his accountant give me acall yesterday and his
(39:38):
accountant you might say hegrilled me hard for 30 minutes
and honestly, it was just acasual conversation because I
knew everything he was going toask me.
Before he asked me, I alreadyhad it up on my computer screen
and every single question heasked me I had the proper answer
for him in like a minute and so, once again, having a great
(40:01):
knowledge of your own company issuch a powerful tool.
That's why I love these threepieces of financial data.
It's how I live my life.
Chris (40:11):
Yeah, it is kind of fascinating.
This is not my background.
I have an engineeringbackground, so it's kind of
introduced a little bit.
When we were originally talkingabout joining AGM, of course a
lot of this stuff came up, butthen, as we've kind of been
talking to the franchisees andnow talking to people who are
interested in buying a franchiseand people who are interested
in potentially AGM, all this isplaying out right in front of me
and it's really amazing becausewe've been going through it as
well on the podcast, so I'm justseeing this playing out in real
(40:34):
life here.
It's pretty amazing to watch.
Dennis (40:36):
Everything we do on the podcast for the most part is in
theory.
Yeah, but it's not that farremoved from reality.
Chris (40:43):
No, and that's what I'm seeing now.
It's just every time we've donea podcast, a week later we're
talking to somebody orsomebody's coming in asking
questions and it's like, oh well, we just covered that on the
podcast.
So it's almost like I'm gettinga business degree.
Dennis (40:54):
You know what?
I see people on television I'llsee like a couple come on the
Shark Tank or something and theysay we don't have a business
degree.
But we've been watching theShark Tank for 13 years.
I hear this all the time.
I don't watch that manyepisodes anymore, they're just
too many of them, but I like tocatch the new one.
I think on Friday night theyhave it and it's really great to
(41:15):
see that because people canlearn a lot.
They can learn a lot just byosmosis, being in the same room
in the same environment.
And, as I said, a lot of what wedo here on the podcast is
theory.
But beginning Monday morning toSaturday afternoon, football
teams are talking theory.
There's no offensive lineclosing in on the quarterback.
(41:36):
Quarterback wears red, You'renot allowed to hit him.
So from Monday to Saturday it'sall theory.
But if you play it out in BillBelichick Tom Brady language,
that theory converts very nicely.
On Sunday afternoon, Not everyplay is going to get a first
down.
You're not going to score everysingle time, but you certainly
increase the odds by what you dobetween Monday morning and
(42:00):
Saturday afternoon.
Chris (42:02):
Yeah, that's a great analogy.
Might be a good way to go outhere.
We're reaching the end of ourtime limit, so you have any
final thoughts for us?
Dennis (42:09):
Gosh, chris, I don't Again.
What an enjoyable topic.
I hope it was helpful forpeople out there.
Chris (42:17):
And yeah, if you're a small business person or you
know someone's in small business, you know, refer this podcast
to them, because it's got a lotof great information.
And I'm telling you, as we gothrough these podcasts and we
talk about these things, I'mseeing them play out in real
time here.
It's been a very compressedtime since I've been here.
I've been here two years.
It seems like a lifetime, butwe've gone through a lot of
different things.
Dennis (42:35):
So many moving franchisees.
Chris (42:36):
We have people coming in interested in the company, so
there's a lot of stuff going on.
I'm seeing this play out inreal time and I can tell you
it's theory and you know, duringthe podcast.
But we do have our Sundayafternoons here where we're
actually making use of thisstuff.
Dennis (42:48):
So so, chris, thanks again for having me, and no
monkeys were harmed in themaking of this podcast.
All right, we'll see you guysnext time.
Chris (43:00):
Thank you for tuning in to monkey business radio.
If you enjoyed today's episode,please make sure to subscribe,
like and follow us wherever youget your podcasts.
It really helps us reach moreaspiring entrepreneurs like you,
and if you've got a question ortopic you'd like us to cover,
leave a comment or reach out tous on social media.
We'd love to hear your thoughtsand keep the conversation going
.
Don't forget to leave us afive-star review if you found
(43:23):
the episode valuable, and makesure to share it with anyone who
might benefit from our tips andstories.
We'll see you next time.
This podcast is produced byAmerican Gutter Monkeys LLC.
Build real wealth throughbusiness ownership.
For details, visit us atAmericanGutterMonkeyscom.
Hello everyone, welcome to Episode 18, Financial
Statements for the SmallBusiness.
Today we're digging into atopic that sounds boring, but
trust me, it's not.
When you understand yournumbers, they tell you what's
working, what's not and whereyour business is really headed.
You wouldn't run a gutterinstall without a level.
Don't run your business withoutusing your business financials.
In this episode, dennis and Iwalk through how we use our
(00:24):
monthly and annual sales reportsto spot trends, catch slowdowns
early.
We talk about P&Ls and whatthey actually reveal about your
profitability, and we dive intothe balance sheet, the one
financial statement that revealsthe real value behind all your
hard work.
You'll hear how we use thesetools to make real decisions,
like when to hire, when toexpand, when to buy trucks or
buildings, and while trackingthese financials has helped us
(00:46):
grow year after year.
So grab a cup of coffee, sitback, relax and welcome to
Monkey Business Radio.
All right, hello Dennis, howare you doing.
Chris, I'm doing well.
How are you Good?
Good, Going to be talking aboutbusiness financial statements
today Sounds boring, but itisn't.
(01:07):
It doesn't have to be.
We've spent some time on thisin the past, but this is a
little different today.
Dennis (01:12):
Well, Chris, we use business financial statements
for everything.
So if we're talking aboutvaluing your business, we're
going to use business financialstatements.
If we're talking aboutmarketing 101, we're using
business financial statementsfor that too.
If we're talking abouteliminating debt, taking on debt
, we talk about businessfinancial statements in a
(01:35):
peripheral way all the time.
So we're going to talk a littlebit more specifically about
them what they are.
I mean a little bit about howwe use them.
But, yeah, your businessfinancial statements mine are
very important.
I mean a little bit about howwe use them.
But, yeah, your businessfinancial statements mine are
very important.
I use them every day.
Every day, no matter what groupI'm talking to, no matter if
it's a franchisee or if it's apotential franchisee, we're
(01:55):
always making reference to ourbusiness financial statements.
Chris (02:00):
Yeah, you've noticed it even on these podcasts, so we
keep coming back to thesefinancial statements.
Dennis (02:25):
No matter what the subject is that we talk about,
there have my financials infront of me, and so does Bruce,
and so does Andy, so we cananswer any question they may
have.
Chris (02:34):
Yeah, we were just talking to Bruce just before the
show.
He had about six hours toprepare for the last guy that
came in and he just went to thestatements, pulled them all out.
Dennis (02:40):
That's why we do it every day.
Rolled them out, yeah,statements.
Pulled them out.
That's why we do it every day.
Rolled them out, yeah, becauseit tells you so much and when
you make reference to your ownfinancials every day, you can
almost find anything veryquickly because you know exactly
where it is.
Today, we're going to focus onjust a couple of business
financial statements.
We're not going to get overlytechnical on this.
The three statements we'regoing to talk about today you
(03:01):
know your annual sales reports,your profit and loss statements
and your balance sheets.
Those are the three big ones.
You know, one of the firstthings that a new business owner
becomes aware of is sales.
You know he's got a newlandscape company, he's got it
going on and he hits the groundrunning and he's banging $20,000
(03:22):
a month in sales.
He's doing good.
It's his first season.
He's looking at that 20,000 amonth.
Now he wants to hit that numberevery month and he starts in
May and June and July.
He's doing good.
Okay, he's focusing primarilyon what we call your sales
figures, your monthly salesreport, which, when you put 12
(03:44):
of them together, you get anannual sales report.
Sales I like to go month bymonth and then at the end of the
year we do a compilation and wehave an annual sales report and
this is going to give me a look, month by month, year to year,
how we're growing in terms ofgross revenues only, and I am
constantly looking back.
So we are in the month of Mayright now.
(04:05):
I'm forever looking back atlast May, two years ago, three
years ago, may, and actuallyright now I'm looking at June.
May is set, we're movingthrough May, things are going
well.
So I'm looking at June and I'msaying what did we do a year ago
, two years ago, three years ago, june, and I can make a comp to
that.
Okay, you know, three years agowe did X and two years we did
(04:27):
X.1 or X plus one.
Last year we did X plus two.
This year I went to X plusthree, whatever that number is.
So I'm making comparisons tothe same month a year ago, two
years ago, three years ago.
That's why we keep monthlysales and we keep annual sales
and when you put them alltogether you get a good look.
Let's say the last five years.
Chris (04:49):
So what kind of conclusions can you draw from
those comparisons?
I use these all the time youlook two years back or something
like that, can you say that wasrelated to advertising or
weather, or number of people Ihad, or Okay, so here's what
happened recently.
Dennis (05:02):
We had a great year.
Cape Cod got a monkey, southShore got a monkeys.
Just in general, we all had agood year.
Okay, we turned into the newyear and Cape Cod got a monkeys
and South Shore got a monkeys.
Those are our corporatelocations, each of them.
We just busted it out with arecord year by a lot for each of
them.
Now, february that was inJanuary February was cold,
(05:24):
really cold, the coldestFebruary in 10 years.
We had enough snow to cover therooftops but not enough snow to
form ice dams, which is one ofthe specialties in the
wintertime is we remove ice dams.
There wasn't enough snow tocreate ice dam, but there was
enough snow to not allow us todo our gutter cleaning and our
(05:46):
gutter installs.
It was too cold, too nasty.
So we really took a beating inthe month of February and I can
look at February and look at thelast three and say, yeah, we
did not have a good February,and I just make a asterisk, a
note.
It was weather driven and we'llmake a note.
You know, very, very cold cameinto March.
March was rainy and nasty andgutter cleanings were up but
(06:11):
gutter installs were down.
So again, another, what I wouldcall.
Not my best month as a companyboth South Shore gutter monkeys
and Cape Cod gutter monkeys theywere off a little bit.
Again.
I'm looking back at last yearMarch two years ago, march,
(06:32):
three years ago, march and I seewe're just having a terrible
March and I made a note at theend of the month in my report.
It was very rainy, installswere down, cleanings were up and
we move on to April, april.
I start getting concernedbecause in this particular year,
the new administration inWashington announced the
possible threat of tariffs andthe bottom fell out of Wall
(06:52):
Street and then there wasmention of possibility of
eliminating some tariffs toCanada and some of these other
smaller countries and all of asudden, the market's back up
again.
Up it's down, it's up, it'sdown.
Now by mid-April.
I'm wondering are we inrecession?
And it's been 10 weeks, butit's also been 10 weeks of
really cold weather and reallyrainy weather.
So I don't know, is thisslowing us down?
(07:16):
Is this a recession?
Is it driven by Wall Street oris it just weather related?
So I have all this in front ofme and I'm talking, you know, 10
weeks in a row, chris, and I'mgetting concerned and I'm making
adjustments based upon that,and that was just my annual
sales figure.
Chris (07:33):
Yeah, so it's interesting .
You annotate that as well.
It's just not numbers and stufflike that.
Dennis (07:37):
You say, oh yeah, this is what's happening all the time
.
Chris (07:40):
So you can look back three years ago and say, oh, it
was rainy here too, but onlything that tells me that my
profit and loss statementdoesn't tell me that, my balance
(08:07):
sheet doesn't tell me that.
Dennis (08:08):
No, my monthly sales reports and my annual sales
reports tell me that.
And so this year I made severalchanges.
I made changes internally,function-wise.
I added an extra layer ofprotection internally for my
gutter install process SouthShore and Cape Cod.
(08:30):
I add an extra band ofadvertising on a podcast
streaming station and all of asudden we're pulling out of it.
It's working.
Now.
The weather's better, wallStreet is booming.
We had a little bit of a downday yesterday, but basically the
last two weeks of Wall Streethas been climbing nicely and the
weather got better.
So all of the things I wasconcerned about showed
(08:53):
improvement, especially myscheduling my schedule's full
again.
We seem to be pulling out ofthat slump we were in.
So was it a slump?
Was it a nosedive, or were weflirting with recession and then
we avoided it?
I don't know, but it was mysales figures that I follow that
alert me to this, and everyyear I'm going to say, for the
(09:14):
last five years other than no,2020 and 21,.
Covid and those first two COVIDyears we actually did really
well, but 22, 23, 24, and thisyear, 25,.
Each year I have a little bit ofa lull and it always seems to
occur during a time that myinstall gutter installs are down
, and that's usually not weatherrelated.
(09:36):
It can be, but it's usually not.
Sometimes it's economic related.
There could be a lot of factors.
So when I see this downtrend inmy annual sales report and my
monthly sales reports I startasking myself what could it be?
And I look at the four or fivemost likely causes.
Number one marketing.
(09:56):
So I call my marketing peopleand I check with all my radio
people.
Are my radio ads hitting?
Are these working?
I talk to the crew chiefs Areyou guys putting your signs out
on the job sites?
Are we getting all the exposurethat we need and what we want?
If so, we move on to the nextlevel and over the years it
happens once a year and I make alittle bit of a change and
(10:18):
every year we seem to recover.
So I'm a little bit of a hiccupin our annual process.
It could show up in April andMay.
It could show up in July,august.
What we do is we make changesbased upon that and usually we
improve overall as a company,because now we've added an extra
layer of protection againstthings like this.
(10:40):
So a couple of years ago we hada situation much like the one
that we're discussing now andone of my coworkers, charlie, he
had an idea and I said that's agood much like the one that
we're discussing now.
And one of my co-workers,charlie, he had an idea and I
said that's a good idea, charlie, why don't you take it and run
with it?
And what he did was he would goevery two weeks and review all
the quotes that we put out forgutters, for installs, and he
(11:01):
would take out the ones that wegot and he would do a follow-up
call to all the gutterinstallation quotes that we
didn't get.
And what we found was Charliewas nailing 10% to 15% of them.
Wow, and so, yep, and it's onlytwo to three days every other
week.
And we integrated that Becauseit worked so well, we kept it
(11:23):
going and we integrated into ournormal process that, because it
worked so well, we kept itgoing and we integrated into our
normal process.
And to this day, charlie stilldoes that process, probably two
to three days every other week.
Wow, and that has made us astronger company.
And you know what, chris?
It all comes from our annualsales report and our monthly
sales reports.
That's where it comes from.
Chris (11:43):
So this is your real-time data.
You've got a lot of datastreaming in here and we'll talk
about some of the other stuffyou're using, but this is kind
of your real-time adjustmentsyou can make using this data.
Dennis (11:51):
My annual, my monthly sales reports.
For me personally, they driveevery day what I do.
Every day I'm looking and, ofcourse, if things are going good
and booming, my day is reallyeasy when things are booming,
are going good and booming myday is really easy when things
are booming.
Everybody's busy, the officestaff is firing on all cylinders
.
I don't even have to show up.
Everything is great.
(12:13):
I still show up, but my burdenis light.
These last 10, 12 weeks it'sbeen heavy because I keep
running tests and I keep lookingat things.
I'm looking and I'm poking.
I'm trying to find out what theheck is going on, and I think
we've pulled out of it.
Things are looking at things.
I'm looking and I'm poking.
I'm trying to find out what theheck is going on, and I think
we've pulled out of it.
Things are looking good again.
Everybody's busy, all thetrucks are firing on all
(12:34):
cylinders, literally andfiguratively.
Chris (12:37):
It's a nice sunny day on the Cape today.
It is Maybe that's going tohelp Been a lot of rain.
Dennis (12:40):
So, chris, those are my monthly and my annual sales
reports.
That's where all thatinformation comes from.
It's the simplest thing, butthere's so much information in
there.
For me, and the longer you'rein business, the more track
record you have, the morevaluable all this data is.
Monthly sales, annual sales, youknow, yeah, that's one
(13:01):
component.
You just hope that you'repricing things right so you're
profitable, which brings us tothe next.
So are you making money?
Are we making money?
Sales are good.
Are we making money?
That's where we have our P&L,our profit and loss statement.
Do them by the month.
We also do them by the year.
Now, to be honest with you,chris, I don't do monthly P&Ls
anymore.
It's, for the most part,unnecessary at this point
(13:28):
because I know we're profitableand because almost all of my
profitability is tied towardsgross sales.
Because you got your fixedcosts and then you got your
variable costs and my fixed arewhat they are, my variables.
Everything is a function ofsales.
So my payroll is a function ofsales.
Back that out.
My monthly marketing budget isa function of projected sales.
(13:52):
We back that out.
So the monthly P&Ls are veryimportant, I believe, early on
in your life.
But as you grow and you realize, okay, you're hitting
profitability every month andyour gross profit on each unit,
each widget, is X and as long asyou're doing 10X, 20x or 250X,
(14:17):
you're going to be profitable.
So monthly P&Ls, I believe, areimportant early on, but in the
long term, I think your annualP&Ls are more important.
I'm buying inventory this monthfor work we're going to do next
month.
I mean there is a delay.
That's why I don't do month tomonth.
After three or four years ofbusiness and you're very
(14:39):
profitable and things are goingsmoothly, doing monthly P&Ls
isn't worth the accounting time.
It's a little bit of adistraction, but you know a
profit and loss.
An annual P&L or even a monthlyP&L is.
You grow sales and then youtake out payroll.
You know tools and equipment,marketing, disposal fees,
material insurance.
(15:00):
You know workers comp and thelike, fuel for the trucks and so
on and so forth.
Those are your expenses.
And when you do this monthlyyour first let's say two to
three years in business, whatyou're doing is you're really
fine tuning.
You're saying you know whatyou're looking in.
You're saying my payroll is alittle heavy.
I either have to increase myprices on my widgets or I'm
(15:21):
going to have to decreasepayroll and that's what a
monthly P&L will tell you.
You know those first two tothree years and you know what
you're going to do.
You're going to trim payroll alittle bit or tighten things up
a bit and you're going to add 5%to the price of your product or
service.
So now you're widget, you'regetting a little bit more,
you've tightened up payroll andyou can look in three, four,
(15:43):
five months in a row.
Payroll as a percentage of salesis no longer an issue and you
fix that.
And you did it because of yourmonthly P&Ls.
And annually though, that'swhen it shows you how much you
made for the year, and that'simportant because that's my
annual P&L a copy of it is sentdirectly to my accountant, my
(16:03):
tax man, and we do all of ourown internal accounting here.
But we have a former teammateof ours from Bentley College,
dave Doucette.
He's our tax prep guy and so,yeah, I just take my annual P&Ls
, I send him a copy and I sendhim my annual balance sheet.
All of that just goes right toDave.
I don't send him receipts, Idon't send him anything at all
(16:27):
other than four or five pages.
That's it.
It can fit in one manilaenvelope or it's really the
click of a mouse.
These days.
Four pages, five pages, that'sall Dave gets from me.
It makes his job easy.
Chris (16:40):
Well, you start, you work with a lot of people just
starting out in business.
I mean, that's part of yourconsulting business.
What do you find with this P&L?
When you walk in the door andstart chatting with them and ask
them about this sort of stuff,what are you finding?
Dennis (16:51):
The first thing is a lot of people don't know what a
profit and loss statement or anincome and expense summary.
They're the same.
A lot of people don't reallyknow what it is.
Sometimes I find I have two orthree young folks right now that
I'm working with on theirhousehold budget.
That's again entry-levelaccounting here's your income
for the month and here's yourknown expenses expenses that you
(17:13):
got to do.
You got to pay the rent or paythe mortgage.
Well, so I treat a startupbusiness like that.
That's why we do monthly profitand losses with a startup.
So they understand.
I don't want them running for10 months in a row and then
hitting December and having noidea as to what went on over the
last 10 months.
But if the new young owner, therookie, the startup guy, does a
(17:38):
P&L month one and then two, youknow not only does he now know
how to do it, he knows what itmeans.
You know not only does he nowknow how to do it, he knows what
it means.
And by month five they'remaking adjustments all on their
own, without my telling them oranybody else.
They're just naturally becomingimmersed in the business.
That's why I really lovemonthly P&Ls for the startup.
(17:59):
It shows the new business ownerexactly what's going on.
And a lot of franchisees, a lotof small business owners.
They're really smart, they knowstuff.
Andy, my business partner hereat the Cape Cod Gutter Monkeys.
He came from a corporate world,he was the CFO, he was vice
president of finance, but hedidn't know how to run a small
business.
And I said here's what Irecommend, that we start out
(18:22):
with these three statements.
And he knew right.
He goes wow, that's a greatidea.
Yeah, those are good ones.
To start with, he doesn't needsales breakdown figures.
We haven't sold anything yet.
He was used to running thefinancial department for a $50
million a year company and nowwe're starting a company that
(18:42):
hasn't sold a single widget yet.
So even with somebody like Andy,there's a learning curve, and
even myself, so I've always beenself-employed.
But anytime you start a newbusiness there's a learning
curve there too.
So, yeah, those first I'm goingto say six months, maybe eight
months, we did monthly P&Ls andthen we didn't need to do them
anymore.
So I think it's important whenyou're starting out to act like
(19:05):
a rookie, even if you're aveteran coming from another
field, because there's so manylittle things that happen in
business.
I remember Bruce got his MBA andI don't have an MBA, I don't
have an advanced degree.
And he said yeah, sure, I havean MBA, I just don't know how to
start a business and I don'tknow how to run one.
I know how to go into anexisting company and function
(19:27):
well amongst the people there,but it's something new.
Listen, when you're starting abusiness and you are now
marketing with your own money,there's a big difference than
working for XYZ company andyou're marketing with the boss's
money.
When it's your nickel that'sgoing out, you're right in the
check with your own money.
There's a big difference.
Chris (19:46):
Yeah, it's like what is it an MBA?
They'll tell you everything youneed to know about dating, but
they've never had a girlfriend.
Yeah, and I know even herewe've had meetings with our own
franchisees.
They'll come in and I think onetime you actually sat down and
you asked them the question howdo you know if you're making any
money or profits?
What are your profits?
What are you basing yourprofits on?
And I came up with alldifferent sort of things oh,
(20:08):
what's in my checkbook?
What's in this, what's in that?
It was kind of interesting tohear it.
Dennis (20:12):
That was one where I started the meeting with a
little round table.
And what is the most importantdocument in your arsenal right
now?
What is the most importantfinancial document?
And some of them a couple ofthem, I think said how much
money's in the checkbook.
Yeah, checkbook came up, itprobably did.
Another one said weekly payrollas a percentage of sales that
(20:33):
week, which is very, very shortsighted, and actually two people
said that.
I think one said it and thenext one agreed.
You know, what I'd rather seelike my steering wheel is my
monthly and annual sales report.
That's my daily steering wheel.
My big picture roadmap would bemy balance sheet, because that
(20:54):
tells me the value of my company.
But for day to day it's mymonthly sales reports as
compared to last year, thismonth and last month and next
month, just because that monthlysales tells me how I'm doing in
comparison to other months andI always want to see a little
bit of growth.
Everything in my arsenal, likemy Excel sheets, it's all color
(21:17):
coded too, so I can glance andit's color coded.
I can say wow, last year we had10 up months and two down
months.
Because it's color-coded, I cansee the two down months right
away every time.
So as you grow your platform andyou grow your business
financial statements, you'llnaturally color-code them to
(21:38):
however you want them.
There's no right or wrong way.
The only right way is whatworks for you.
And as long as it's a GAAP, agenerally accepted accounting
principle, as long as it's donein that format, it's good for
your accountant, it's good foryour bank, it's good for almost
all purposes.
So yeah, the P&L that's goingto tell me at the end of the
(21:58):
year if I'm profitable and, ifso, how profitable I am and what
that does.
That tells me a lot ofinformation too.
So end of the year, I look atprofitability.
We do this all the time.
We say, boy, we're going totake it on the chin, we're going
to owe because we pay ourquarterly taxes as a corporation
and it looks like we didn't payenough.
So we're going to get hit hardon April 15th.
(22:19):
And sometimes, like this year,we overplayed our hand last year
and we overpaid a little bitand we got a lot of money back
this year.
But when you do your P&Ls byyear two, three, four now you
know this.
So you know like, as you'recoming into the end of the year.
Call it December 31st, theannual year is over, the fiscal
(22:40):
year is over and I can puttogether a P&L fast, real fast,
and I can look at my last fouror five years and say hey guys,
we're in good shape, we'regetting money back on April 15th
which is what I said this year,because there was some nice
things that fell in ourdirection Some of the new trucks
we purchased were actuallyfully deductible in a single
(23:01):
year.
So 2024 was great because webought four trucks that year.
They're fully deductible in asingle year, so 2024 was great
because we bought four trucksthat year.
Chris (23:05):
They're fully deductible in a year.
Dennis (23:07):
Well, one of them was 14,500 GVW gross weight and so
anything over 12,000 GVW wasdeductible in that year, that
fiscal year.
You bought it.
It doesn't get amortized, itgets expensed, Wow.
So that was 100,000 plus orminus expense that we didn't
(23:28):
know was coming.
And when I looked at thenumbers and this is like January
3rd I said to the guys in theoffice we're in good shape,
we're getting money back thisyear, so that allows me a little
bit of freedom over the nextthree and a half months.
You months from January 1st toApril 15th, and actually we get
our taxes in in February and weknew by end of February, early
(23:51):
March, we're getting a lot ofmoney back.
And so we go OK, we're in goodshape, we effectively don't have
to worry about payingquarterlies in April and June
because we're getting so muchback in April and June, because
we're getting so much back.
So when you have a recurringprofit loss statement after a
while, you can just glance at itand know stuff.
(24:11):
I remember years ago when welived in New Hampshire, I owned
a roofing company good-sizedroofing company and I walked in
and Mark Secord, a lifelongfriend and he was my accountant
at the time.
He owned an accounting firm inLittleton, new Hampshire, and he
was waiting for me and it waslike April 10th or something or
April 5th, so his office waslike a beehive of activity.
(24:33):
And I walk in and he hands memy taxes and he says, hey, here
you go and here's what you owe.
And I glanced at it and I said,mark, did you account for my
SEP deduction?
And he goes oh geez, no, Iforgot about that.
He says, how did you know that?
And I said well, because thiswas left blank and usually it's
filled in, you know, and thenumber here looks a little too
(24:53):
high anyway.
And somebody that was in theoffice said in what world does
the local roofing contractorknow as much as his accountant?
Well, in my world it is,because I am a bit of an
accountant.
I happen to be a roofingcontractor and I happen to drive
a truck and kind of look like aroofer most of the time, but
I'd done it so many times Icould tell.
(25:14):
At a glance I knew what I wasexpecting and the numbers were
off a little bit and all I didwas flip about three pages in
and I could see that he forgotto allow for my SEP deduction
and he just said come on back intomorrow, we'll have it ready
for you.
Chris (25:28):
He just said you know you don't have to make those
payments this year ahead of time.
That's going to save you cashflow and all that other stuff.
It helps you out all over theplace.
Dennis (25:35):
Yeah, it's a huge advantage and even when we have,
like this year 2024, we had areally big growth year, but at
the end of the year we had alittle bit less in the company
operating capital, but we boughtfour trucks.
We also added about 24 or 26parking spaces.
I mean, we grew a lot.
(25:57):
So when you have a year likethat that adds, first of all,
four trucks and an added 26parking spaces, that makes my
balance sheet look good becauseI added to my balance sheet, but
it makes my bank account look alittle weaker, which, well,
that's what happens when you buyfour trucks, and so at a glance
I don't worry that my operatingcapital account is lower than
(26:21):
it normally is at the end of theyear.
I know why it's there Becausewe added more assets, but those
are assets that are nowproducing revenue and those
assets are all bought and paidfor.
So again, just understandingthe P&L and all that is in the
P&L, start doing a balance sheetright away, because as you grow
(26:41):
, it makes it so much easier.
And really, the final businessfinancial statement we'll talk
about today and then we're goingto bring them all together, is
the balance sheet.
Chris (26:50):
Yeah, we've had a whole podcast on balance sheets and IP
and all that sort of thing.
Dennis (26:53):
Yeah, and we're not going to dive too deeply into
that end of it.
But a balance sheet.
It balances the left is thesame as the right.
It's perfectly balanced.
Balances the left is the sameas the right.
It's perfectly balanced.
So your assets go on one sideand your liabilities go on the
other, and any differencebetween the two is either a net
profit or a net loss.
So on the asset side, assetsare good, liabilities are bad,
(27:16):
so to speak.
On the asset side of things, Ilike to point out three types of
assets that we deal with everyday Current assets A current
asset is cash, or cash in thecurrent working capital fund for
your business Accounts.
Receivable that's money that isowed to you.
You've already completed thejob.
(27:37):
The customer hasn't paid youyet.
That's an asset.
You just haven't picked it upyet.
Prepaid expenses If you'vepurchased inventory but you
haven't took delivery on it,well, that's an asset.
So it's already bought and paidfor any type of prepaid
expenses.
One of the examples I use isquarterly taxes.
They're all prepaid.
Well, this year I'm getting twoof those four quarters back.
(27:58):
That's an asset, it's prepaid.
So that's why I considerprepaid taxes as an asset,
because even if you owe thetaxes now.
You don't because it's prepaid,so you pay your quarterly taxes
At the end of the year.
That's an asset.
So current assets.
Chris (28:14):
That one takes a little bit for my mind to wrap around
that one, but okay, prepaidtaxes.
It's an asset Taxes are easierto understand, I guess.
Dennis (28:22):
If I prepay my taxes and you don't, at the end of the
year let's say so somewherearound April 15th you're going
to owe, let's say, $160,000 incorporate taxes.
I'm not going to owe anybecause I prepaid them last year
.
So one of those is a good thing, right, okay.
So that is an asset.
And in the case of my examplethis year, we overpaid last year
(28:44):
on the books.
So when we turned the cornerinto the new year we knew we
were getting a refund.
That's an asset.
So current assets Anothercurrent asset is inventory.
I don't count it as that in myworld.
My asset, the main component ofmy asset, is aluminum products.
I have $200,000 in aluminumproducts in my warehouse.
(29:06):
They're not going bad and infact Andy overpurchased a little
bit a couple of months ago,before there was talks on
tariffs, just in the event thataluminum prices did creep up a
little bit the two main productsthat we use in aluminum.
He bought another probably5,000 pounds of each.
So he ordered an extra fivetons of aluminum just in case,
(29:28):
and all we do is warehouse it.
Aluminum doesn't go bad.
We're going to use that in thenext six, seven months anyway.
No big deal.
So I put my inventory underfixed assets a building, the
building we're sitting in,trucks, company trucks those are
fixed assets Inventory.
Because my inventory is largeand it doesn't need to turn over
(29:50):
that fast.
I call it a fixed assets Toolsand equipment, office furniture,
computers, desks, all thosethings.
They're fixed assets.
And the other component of theasset column is intellectual
property and that's that verysubjective one that we talk
about all the time.
And you take the total of allyour assets and you add it up
(30:11):
and it adds up to a big number.
And then you look at yourliabilities.
You've got long-term debt,mortgages, vehicle loans, any
recurring payment that is morethan 12 months out.
I've heard certain accountantstell me, you know, if you have
your truck on a five-yearpayment, once it gets under 12
months you only have 10 monthsleft.
(30:32):
Sometimes they don't call thata long-term debt and I think
it's acceptable either way.
But you take off your long-termdebt and if you don't have any
long-term debt, well then youhave a zero in that column.
Current liabilities those arefinancial obligations that are
due between 30 days and a year.
It's your recurring bills andif you pay your bills every
(30:53):
month you really don't countthat as debt.
None of them are over 30 days.
They get paid every month.
So your balance sheet, that'swhere you take your assets minus
your liabilities, and what youget is either a net profit or
net loss.
In this case, it's your networth, chris.
I think that's the mostimportant one, because sales are
great, but sales don't indicateprofitability.
(31:16):
The amount of revenue you havein your company checking and
savings accounts, the amount ofcapital that you have, that's
important too.
Profitability is good.
But your net worth, yourbalance sheet, your number,
that's what your company's worth.
Some of it might be subjective,but the truth is this is the
big one.
The balance sheet, this is whatyour company's worth after all
(31:39):
these years of working hard twoyears, three years, four years
and you can watch that numbergrow If you stay on top of that.
You're going to look at yoursales numbers and they're
growing every year.
And you're going to look atyour balance sheet numbers and
the bottom line on the balancesheet is your value and that
number is growing every year.
And as you watch these twonumbers grow, and if you do this
(32:00):
monthly and you do thisannually, you're going to have a
really good grip onprofitability, on revenue
streams, you're going to have agreat look at your annual and
your monthly sales figures.
But, more importantly, you'regoing to be watching that
balance sheet every year andyou're going to say wow, this
year we bought two more trucksand we still added a little bit
(32:22):
to our capital reserve account.
Question I'm asked often is whatkind of a salary do you take?
I take a small salary, so doesAndy.
We don't take a big salary andfor the first seven, eight years
of our current business life werarely, if ever, took a bonus.
All the money went back to thecompany because we looked and we
(32:42):
looked at sales.
Let's say, year one we did 300and year two we did 600.
We just doubled our sales.
My sales went up 100%.
That means my company's salesreport just showed 100% growth.
And let's say, the next year wego to 900 grand.
So we went from three to six to900 grand.
So year three we grew 50% andthen we went to 1.2, and that's
(33:06):
a 33% growth.
So our growth in sales was 100%, 50%, 33%.
Then we had another growth, 33%, then a 25%, then a 20%.
So even though we're growingabout the same $300,000 or
$400,000 a year, we're growingsteady and this is just an
example.
This is in our exact numbers,but we're growing at a rate.
(33:29):
You know, by year five we'regrowing at a rate of about 25 to
33%.
We were also having good yearson Wall Street during that time
period.
We were having some 20% years.
But typically Wall Street willproduce about 10% to 13% growth
on average every year, usuallyabout 13% in recent years.
So I got to ask myself as abusiness owner, I take a salary
(33:52):
that I can more than live with.
I don't have kids anymore.
They're all grown.
They got kids of their own.
I don't have car payments ormortgages.
My life is boring, my life iseasy.
So, chris, if I take a biggersalary, what am I going to do
with the money that I don't needthat I take in salary?
Well, hopefully, if you don'tspend it on a painting.
I'm not going to buy anythingstupid or a boat or anything
(34:13):
like that, right?
Chris (34:13):
What am I going to do?
You're probably going to putinvested in the stock market.
Dennis (34:15):
I'm going to invest in the stock market at 13%.
Right, but why would I take abigger salary and invest it in
the stock market at 13% when myown company is still growing at
a rate of 25% to 33%?
Chris (34:28):
Yeah.
Dennis (34:29):
So when you take your sales report and your balance
sheet report and you line themup and I'm just talking about
sales after five, six years isstill growing at 33%, and six,
seven, eight years growing at 25and 20% steadily, my sales are
growing.
I would rather have put my moneyin stock in my own company as
(34:52):
opposed to Wall Street.
Invest in yourself, right,right, even though we were
having good years I mean, 2022was a bit of a flat year or down
year, but other than that,we've really been rocking it
down on Wall Street.
But then, alongside of it, I'mlooking at my business value,
growth, the value of my balancesheet, and back in the beginning
(35:13):
, year one, I didn't have anybusiness value.
I owned a truck and that's it.
I didn't have sales.
But as I start looking at mybusiness value and I just take
the valuation off the balancesheet and it looks like the
first five years, zero, 50%, 33%, 144%, 27% that's huge growth,
(35:38):
especially that 144% year.
And then year seven, we grewanother 140%, again, largely
because we moved into a newfacility, we bought a new
building.
Chris (35:50):
Yeah, this is fascinating to me because I'm looking at
the sales growth over here.
So that year you had 25% salesgrowth but you built a new
building, moved in there.
That was a big asset.
You added it's a huge asset andit jumped to 140%.
Dennis (36:01):
Where can you earn 140% on your money?
Chris (36:05):
In your own company you can and this is another thing.
That's hard when we're talkingto franchisees and why I'm in my
garage now, I'm comfortablehere, leave me alone why we're
so intent on saying, well, thinkabout some real estate.
Think about this, because thisis where your business value,
that you're building real wealththrough business ownership
shows up.
Is in this column, here at 140%this year, because you built
(36:27):
that building.
You went ahead and investedthat money.
Dennis (36:29):
And we also were able to do that.
We moved into this new facilityabout three years ago and this
building was built out of cashflow.
We bought a small bay over inSandwich here on the Cape, the
next town over year two Year onewe started this company out of
my garage.
(36:49):
Year two we bought a small bay,we paid cash for it it was
about a buck and a quarter andabout two years later we outgrew
it and we bought a bigger bayover here in the industrial park
in Mashpee, where we are now.
We used the profit that.
We used the value that we hadin the first building plus the
profit, and that gave us a bigshot in the arm.
(37:11):
So we took the remainder out ofcashflow.
We bought the second building.
We had that building aboutthree years, maybe four, and we
were busting out of the seams.
But also that building took abig jump in value because
post-COVID real estateskyrocketed and so when we
bought this building we had moreequity in that other building.
(37:32):
We're able to turn in and buythis one and with the equity
that we had in the otherbuilding plus we already own the
land that it's on we didn'tneed a whole lot of money to
complete the project and we'reable to do it out of cashflow
without taking out a loan.
Part of the reason is we kepttaking small salaries and
reinvesting in this company.
(37:52):
That was about to have 140%growth year.
We didn't know it at the time,but that's what we've done Now.
At the end of year 10, at theend of year 10, in our current
business life my sales growthonly showed 11% and my business
value growth was also startingto level off.
(38:13):
We only had an 11% growth year.
That was two years ago.
So now, chris, I ask thequestion what do we do with any
additional revenue?
Do the owners take an owner'sbonus and invest it in Wall
Street?
Now it's a roll of the dice,because it appears that my sales
(38:33):
growth and my business valuegrowth is beginning to level off
Again.
It's not a bad thing.
No, you're an establishedcompany now.
Right, but also we're bigger,yeah.
So you know, if my business isworth a million dollars and it
grows by a half a million, itgrew 50%.
Yeah.
If my business is worth 10million and it grew a half a
(38:56):
million, it grew at 5%.
Yeah, it still grew at the samedollar amount, but it's a much
smaller percentage.
So this is why I like to see mysmall business startup clients
and my franchisees and allpeople that I work with to
really wrap their brains aroundthis type of business financial
statements, because it makes youso much smarter.
(39:18):
You feel like you're onfinancial steroids when you're
talking with your bank, whenyou're talking with accountants,
and I got a call from a partnerin a potential franchise.
So the franchisee came in for ameeting a week ago.
He had his accountant give me acall yesterday and his
(39:38):
accountant you might say hegrilled me hard for 30 minutes
and honestly, it was just acasual conversation because I
knew everything he was going toask me.
Before he asked me, I alreadyhad it up on my computer screen
and every single question heasked me I had the proper answer
for him in like a minute and so, once again, having a great
(40:01):
knowledge of your own company issuch a powerful tool.
That's why I love these threepieces of financial data.
It's how I live my life.
Chris (40:11):
Yeah, it is kind of fascinating.
This is not my background.
I have an engineeringbackground, so it's kind of
introduced a little bit.
When we were originally talkingabout joining AGM, of course a
lot of this stuff came up, butthen, as we've kind of been
talking to the franchisees andnow talking to people who are
interested in buying a franchiseand people who are interested
in potentially AGM, all this isplaying out right in front of me
and it's really amazing becausewe've been going through it as
well on the podcast, so I'm justseeing this playing out in real
(40:34):
life here.
It's pretty amazing to watch.
Dennis (40:36):
Everything we do on the podcast for the most part is in
theory.
Yeah, but it's not that farremoved from reality.
Chris (40:43):
No, and that's what I'm seeing now.
It's just every time we've donea podcast, a week later we're
talking to somebody orsomebody's coming in asking
questions and it's like, oh well, we just covered that on the
podcast.
So it's almost like I'm gettinga business degree.
Dennis (40:54):
You know what?
I see people on television I'llsee like a couple come on the
Shark Tank or something and theysay we don't have a business
degree.
But we've been watching theShark Tank for 13 years.
I hear this all the time.
I don't watch that manyepisodes anymore, they're just
too many of them, but I like tocatch the new one.
I think on Friday night theyhave it and it's really great to
(41:15):
see that because people canlearn a lot.
They can learn a lot just byosmosis, being in the same room
in the same environment.
And, as I said, a lot of what wedo here on the podcast is
theory.
But beginning Monday morning toSaturday afternoon, football
teams are talking theory.
There's no offensive lineclosing in on the quarterback.
(41:36):
Quarterback wears red, You'renot allowed to hit him.
So from Monday to Saturday it'sall theory.
But if you play it out in BillBelichick Tom Brady language,
that theory converts very nicely.
On Sunday afternoon, Not everyplay is going to get a first
down.
You're not going to score everysingle time, but you certainly
increase the odds by what you dobetween Monday morning and
(42:00):
Saturday afternoon.
Chris (42:02):
Yeah, that's a great analogy.
Might be a good way to go outhere.
We're reaching the end of ourtime limit, so you have any
final thoughts for us?
Dennis (42:09):
Gosh, chris, I don't Again.
What an enjoyable topic.
I hope it was helpful forpeople out there.
Chris (42:17):
And yeah, if you're a small business person or you
know someone's in small business, you know, refer this podcast
to them, because it's got a lotof great information.
And I'm telling you, as we gothrough these podcasts and we
talk about these things, I'mseeing them play out in real
time here.
It's been a very compressedtime since I've been here.
I've been here two years.
It seems like a lifetime, butwe've gone through a lot of
different things.
Dennis (42:35):
So many moving franchisees.
Chris (42:36):
We have people coming in interested in the company, so
there's a lot of stuff going on.
I'm seeing this play out inreal time and I can tell you
it's theory and you know, duringthe podcast.
But we do have our Sundayafternoons here where we're
actually making use of thisstuff.
Dennis (42:48):
So so, chris, thanks again for having me, and no
monkeys were harmed in themaking of this podcast.
All right, we'll see you guysnext time.
Chris (43:00):
Thank you for tuning in to monkey business radio.
If you enjoyed today's episode,please make sure to subscribe,
like and follow us wherever youget your podcasts.
It really helps us reach moreaspiring entrepreneurs like you,
and if you've got a question ortopic you'd like us to cover,
leave a comment or reach out tous on social media.
We'd love to hear your thoughtsand keep the conversation going
.
Don't forget to leave us afive-star review if you found
(43:23):
the episode valuable, and makesure to share it with anyone who
might benefit from our tips andstories.
We'll see you next time.
This podcast is produced byAmerican Gutter Monkeys LLC.
Build real wealth throughbusiness ownership.
For details, visit us atAmericanGutterMonkeyscom.
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