May 19, 2026 • 12 mins
Michael Barbarita of Next Step CFO and Powerful Business Strategies will discuss Cash Management – When I was in the ski business which is clearly a seasonal business, I never needed my line of credit. This show identifies what needs to be done to properly manage your cash.
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Click Here to Subscribe to The Adventures of Pipeman for PERKS, BONUS Content & FREE GIVEWAYS!
Take some zany and serious journeys with The Pipeman aka Dean K. Piper, CST on The Adventures of Pipeman also known as Pipeman Radio syndicated globally “Where Who Knows And Anything Goes.”
Would you like to be a sponsor of the show?
Would you like to have your business, products, services, merch, programs, books, music or any other professional or artistic endeavors promoted on the show?
Would you like interviewed as a professional or music guest on The Adventures of Pipeman, Positively Pipeman and/or Pipeman in the Pit?
Would you like to host your own Radio Show, Streaming TV Show, or Podcast?
PipemanRadio Podcasts are heard on Pipeman Radio, Talk 4 Media, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Amazon Music, Audible, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and over 100 other podcast outlets where you listen to Podcasts.
The following are the different podcasts to Follow, Listen, Download, Subscribe:
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- Pipeman – The Wandering Jew
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Follow @pipemanradio on all socials & Pipeman Radio Requests & Info at www.linktr.ee/pipemanradio
Stream The Adventures of Pipeman daily & live Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays at 1PM ET on W4CY Radio & Talk 4 TV.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi, you live then too, censure.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Wow, crazy Young.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
This is pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man
W four c Y Radio with our positively pipemin segment
and specifically our resume expert in business with some powerful
business strategies. So let's welcome to the show. Michael Barbarita
from Next Step CFO.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
How are you fantastic? Thank you for having me, Dean.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
So today I want to talk about the lifeblood of
a business, cash management. And before I go into the detail,
let me just tell you a little story. So when
I was in the ski business, and you can imagine
the seasonality of a ski business, ski business really runs.
We used to let it run from the end of July.
We actually had a sale in July to kick off
the season and it ran essentially to the end of March.
(01:04):
Now people were still skiing in April. So I don't
want to and people should just to continue to ski
in April. I don't want to discourage anybody, but from
a retailers standpoint, that was generally the season, and we
closed for the summer. And we closed for the summer
because if we sold any summer goods we would have
(01:26):
carryover in it. Yeah, and we were ski specialists. This
was a ski specialty store. We didn't sell aqualungs in
the summertime. We didn't sell you know, bikes or any
of that summer stuff. And the reason is is because
we were we weren't good at it. The cel crew
(01:46):
was always lousy, even for the for my competitors who
did it. And you always have carryover, and that carryover
is cash that's sitting in inventory. So what we did
is we closed period. We paid the people. We paid
our people a legitimate salary, uh, you know for the
(02:08):
thirty nine weeks of the of the ski season whatever
it was.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And and they loved it. By the way, they got
three months off.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
It's like teachers, right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
It was just like it was.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
It was very similar and they loved it. But at
any rate, it was it was because of cash management,
because we didn't want to have carry over in areas
that we weren't even specialists in that we would sell
very little off.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Well not only that, but you got bills that you
still have to pay, like turning the power on and
everything else where. You're not jerraing revenue.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
That's right. Now, here's the thing. We never ever used
or touched our line of credit.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
HM. That's agressive, right, And.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
The reason right, I mean a totally seasonal business closed
three years out of the three months out of the year,
and we never ever touched our line of credit. And
the reason is is because of our cash management. And
what that cash management involved was negotiation with the vendors,
(03:15):
so we would buy. So what we would do, Dean,
is we would sell through as much as we could
from July to through December, okay, and then in January, February, March,
we would buy closeouts or inline product, but it would
always be dated in September October, and so we would
(03:41):
sell all that product and not have to pay any
bills on it. That would finance our summer, and then
when we had our big sales in September, we would
easily be able to pay for the product that we
already sold.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
And so it worked out. It just worked out famously.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
But it's all about understanding your revenue inflow, with your payouts,
with your your cash dispurstments.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
That's all it is.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
And I think it's true of any business really in
any industry, not just a seasonal one, because every business
has ups and downs, and I can certainly relate because
I used to be in retail in the pool and
spa business which was the exact opposite of your season.
So you know the story used to sell Christmas stuff
during the winter, but you didn't really make money. The
(04:33):
business didn't make money. The salespeople didn't make money. So
you had to learn how to manage your income and
not you know, and realize to amortize it over the year.
And so I would sock away money for those winter
times that were were late.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Right and yeah and right, and that was smart.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Uh, but you know, and you had that's another thing
you had to save, right, So that that that really
makes a big difference when you're managing your inflow and
your outflow. A lot of business owners don't understand. And
by the way, as a retailer at the time, I
don't know if they even do it now. But we
used to have layaways where people would put fifty percent
(05:20):
down and paying thirty days. So we had receivables. Those
are receivables, yeah, you know, so we had a manager.
Even though we were a retailer, we had to manage receivables.
And at the time, this is in the Stone ages
of course, but at the time, it used to take
two days for the credit cards to clear. Now it
usually just takes a day.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
But it used to take two, soime long. Sometimes American
Express was always longer.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
They were paid right, right, right right, So yeah, so
that was a problem then too, and we had to
manage that those receivables. And so we had receivables and
obviously we had payables, but they were managed because weotiated,
and we negotiated the terms, and we might have bought
(06:06):
a little more sometimes, but it wasn't more than what
we needed. It was because we knew that when we
bought something in January and February, we'd sell it all
by September. So you know, we're pretty confident about that.
But I want to just name another couple of places
where cash has hiding places. You know, prepaid expenses.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
What does that mean.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Well, a lot of people pay for trade shows in advance,
they pay for insurance in advance, so they have to
pay any kind of finance fees. Those things are prepaid
and those have to be considered in your cash flow calculations.
The other hiding place is capital expenditures. You know, when
you put five thousand down on a thirty thousand dollar
truck or fib that's a cheap truck, fifty thousand dollar truck,
(06:52):
sixty thousand dollar truck. You put ten grand down, you
have to account for that ten grand. That doesn't show
up on the p and L the balance sheet. Okay,
there's an asset, so you have to be careful. The
same thing with prepaid expenses. That's that's not on the
p and L.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
That's on the balance sheet, so you don't see it there.
You might make money, but.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Your cash is flow. It might be because your prepaid
expenses are higher, your capital expenditures were high, and your
outlay associated with it. Now and the case in the example,
I gave you ten thousand down, sixty thousand dollars truck.
That's a fifty k loan, no problem. You know, the
fifty k pot is no problem, but the ten k
is because that was an outline.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
That was an outline.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
The other thing where there's opportunity for cash is in
customer deposits. Take deposits that only increase your cash flow.
So these are the so there, these are the cash
management opportunities that we found so that we didn't have
to go into our line of credit. We had a
four hundred thousand dollars line of credit. We didn't go
into it once and we didn't have to because we
(07:56):
managed our cash that effectively.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And you and anyone can do that well.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Another thing too, is like my dad used to do
uh in his spa business. He used to do he
didn't want people to pay in full. He wanted them
to only pay a deposit because the earth thing is
is what if somebody changes in their mind by time
they get a delivery and then you have to give
(08:21):
them back a refund that you may not have. So
that this way, he took small deposits, so if that
ever happened, it was a big deal. But also on
the other side, he had cash flow coming in because
as deliveries would go out, you got the cash flow
coming in that you didn't already spend because you had it,
paid it for it, right, got it?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
No, I mean it's all about understanding what your flow is. Yeah,
if you understand how money comes in and goes out,
it's manageable. And but it might take some negotiation with vendors,
it might take it, you know, or or with customers,
depending upon your situation. But but if you understand the flow,
(09:08):
then you'll you'll should.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Have no problems.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I've also found generally that your months that your flow
of revenue is the lowest, your flow of expenses is
usually the highest. You know, like there's a lot of
times in certain industries and clean mind where a bulk
of your annual bills are in one specific month.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Right, that's right, that's that's definitely difficult.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
But but you know it in advance. You do know
it in advance, so it can be manageable because you
know in advance. A lot of a lot of business
owners don't really have put it out that foresight that's
needed in order to manage a situation like that, so
they get surprised by it absolutely or they make excuses
that it's going to come, and that's the end of it.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I got to manage it when it comes.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
You don't have to manage it when it comes if
you manage it before it comes, exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You know, we learn them boy scouts, preparation.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Be prepared, Be prepared.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So how do people reach out to you for more
information on this and other powerful business strategies that can
help them?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I mentally, well, Dean, I'd like them to go to
our website NEXTSTEPCFO dot net. I'd like them to go
in the right hand corner where they can have it
is an orange button that says fine hidden revenue in
less than ten minutes and that is take by taking
an AI business assessment. It takes less than ten minutes
(10:36):
to do. There's no judgment, there's just good answers. And
those answers come in the form of three strategies that
you're not implementing, that are hiding in your business, with
an explanation of how to implement those strategies. So it's
a tremendous tool to be able to just get you know,
start thinking strategically. And this tool drive takes less than
(11:00):
ten minutes to do, less than ten minutes I've done.
I've had business owners do them as little as five minutes,
and most of them the average is about seven minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
So you could do it at any time.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
It's free. You could do it in the middle of
the night if you want to. But you'll get the
answers that it'll get your thinking. I'll tell you that
that I can tell.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
You well amazing. Once again, I'm mental help to our
businesses out there in the world, and I really look
forward to next week because that's one of my favorite
subjects and that's mindset. So we'll see you then, Thanks THEE.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Thank you for listening to the Adventures of plate Man
on w for CUI Radio.
Hi, you live then too, censure.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Wow, crazy Young.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
This is pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man
W four c Y Radio with our positively pipemin segment
and specifically our resume expert in business with some powerful
business strategies. So let's welcome to the show. Michael Barbarita
from Next Step CFO.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
How are you fantastic? Thank you for having me, Dean.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
So today I want to talk about the lifeblood of
a business, cash management. And before I go into the detail,
let me just tell you a little story. So when
I was in the ski business, and you can imagine
the seasonality of a ski business, ski business really runs.
We used to let it run from the end of July.
We actually had a sale in July to kick off
the season and it ran essentially to the end of March.
(01:04):
Now people were still skiing in April. So I don't
want to and people should just to continue to ski
in April. I don't want to discourage anybody, but from
a retailers standpoint, that was generally the season, and we
closed for the summer. And we closed for the summer
because if we sold any summer goods we would have
(01:26):
carryover in it. Yeah, and we were ski specialists. This
was a ski specialty store. We didn't sell aqualungs in
the summertime. We didn't sell you know, bikes or any
of that summer stuff. And the reason is is because
we were we weren't good at it. The cel crew
(01:46):
was always lousy, even for the for my competitors who
did it. And you always have carryover, and that carryover
is cash that's sitting in inventory. So what we did
is we closed period. We paid the people. We paid
our people a legitimate salary, uh, you know for the
(02:08):
thirty nine weeks of the of the ski season whatever
it was.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And and they loved it. By the way, they got
three months off.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
It's like teachers, right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
It was just like it was.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
It was very similar and they loved it. But at
any rate, it was it was because of cash management,
because we didn't want to have carry over in areas
that we weren't even specialists in that we would sell
very little off.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Well not only that, but you got bills that you
still have to pay, like turning the power on and
everything else where. You're not jerraing revenue.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
That's right. Now, here's the thing. We never ever used
or touched our line of credit.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
HM. That's agressive, right, And.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
The reason right, I mean a totally seasonal business closed
three years out of the three months out of the year,
and we never ever touched our line of credit. And
the reason is is because of our cash management. And
what that cash management involved was negotiation with the vendors,
(03:15):
so we would buy. So what we would do, Dean,
is we would sell through as much as we could
from July to through December, okay, and then in January, February, March,
we would buy closeouts or inline product, but it would
always be dated in September October, and so we would
(03:41):
sell all that product and not have to pay any
bills on it. That would finance our summer, and then
when we had our big sales in September, we would
easily be able to pay for the product that we
already sold.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
And so it worked out. It just worked out famously.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
But it's all about understanding your revenue inflow, with your payouts,
with your your cash dispurstments.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
That's all it is.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
And I think it's true of any business really in
any industry, not just a seasonal one, because every business
has ups and downs, and I can certainly relate because
I used to be in retail in the pool and
spa business which was the exact opposite of your season.
So you know the story used to sell Christmas stuff
during the winter, but you didn't really make money. The
(04:33):
business didn't make money. The salespeople didn't make money. So
you had to learn how to manage your income and
not you know, and realize to amortize it over the year.
And so I would sock away money for those winter
times that were were late.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Right and yeah and right, and that was smart.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Uh, but you know, and you had that's another thing
you had to save, right, So that that that really
makes a big difference when you're managing your inflow and
your outflow. A lot of business owners don't understand. And
by the way, as a retailer at the time, I
don't know if they even do it now. But we
used to have layaways where people would put fifty percent
(05:20):
down and paying thirty days. So we had receivables. Those
are receivables, yeah, you know, so we had a manager.
Even though we were a retailer, we had to manage receivables.
And at the time, this is in the Stone ages
of course, but at the time, it used to take
two days for the credit cards to clear. Now it
usually just takes a day.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
But it used to take two, soime long. Sometimes American
Express was always longer.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
They were paid right, right, right right, So yeah, so
that was a problem then too, and we had to
manage that those receivables. And so we had receivables and
obviously we had payables, but they were managed because weotiated,
and we negotiated the terms, and we might have bought
(06:06):
a little more sometimes, but it wasn't more than what
we needed. It was because we knew that when we
bought something in January and February, we'd sell it all
by September. So you know, we're pretty confident about that.
But I want to just name another couple of places
where cash has hiding places. You know, prepaid expenses.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
What does that mean.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
Well, a lot of people pay for trade shows in advance,
they pay for insurance in advance, so they have to
pay any kind of finance fees. Those things are prepaid
and those have to be considered in your cash flow calculations.
The other hiding place is capital expenditures. You know, when
you put five thousand down on a thirty thousand dollar
truck or fib that's a cheap truck, fifty thousand dollar truck,
(06:52):
sixty thousand dollar truck. You put ten grand down, you
have to account for that ten grand. That doesn't show
up on the p and L the balance sheet. Okay,
there's an asset, so you have to be careful. The
same thing with prepaid expenses. That's that's not on the
p and L.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
That's on the balance sheet, so you don't see it there.
You might make money, but.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Your cash is flow. It might be because your prepaid
expenses are higher, your capital expenditures were high, and your
outlay associated with it. Now and the case in the example,
I gave you ten thousand down, sixty thousand dollars truck.
That's a fifty k loan, no problem. You know, the
fifty k pot is no problem, but the ten k
is because that was an outline.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
That was an outline.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
The other thing where there's opportunity for cash is in
customer deposits. Take deposits that only increase your cash flow.
So these are the so there, these are the cash
management opportunities that we found so that we didn't have
to go into our line of credit. We had a
four hundred thousand dollars line of credit. We didn't go
into it once and we didn't have to because we
(07:56):
managed our cash that effectively.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And you and anyone can do that well.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Another thing too, is like my dad used to do
uh in his spa business. He used to do he
didn't want people to pay in full. He wanted them
to only pay a deposit because the earth thing is
is what if somebody changes in their mind by time
they get a delivery and then you have to give
(08:21):
them back a refund that you may not have. So
that this way, he took small deposits, so if that
ever happened, it was a big deal. But also on
the other side, he had cash flow coming in because
as deliveries would go out, you got the cash flow
coming in that you didn't already spend because you had it,
paid it for it, right, got it?
Speaker 3 (08:44):
No, I mean it's all about understanding what your flow is. Yeah,
if you understand how money comes in and goes out,
it's manageable. And but it might take some negotiation with vendors,
it might take it, you know, or or with customers,
depending upon your situation. But but if you understand the flow,
(09:08):
then you'll you'll should.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Have no problems.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
I've also found generally that your months that your flow
of revenue is the lowest, your flow of expenses is
usually the highest. You know, like there's a lot of
times in certain industries and clean mind where a bulk
of your annual bills are in one specific month.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Right, that's right, that's that's definitely difficult.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
But but you know it in advance. You do know
it in advance, so it can be manageable because you
know in advance. A lot of a lot of business
owners don't really have put it out that foresight that's
needed in order to manage a situation like that, so
they get surprised by it absolutely or they make excuses
that it's going to come, and that's the end of it.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I got to manage it when it comes.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
You don't have to manage it when it comes if
you manage it before it comes, exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You know, we learn them boy scouts, preparation.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Be prepared, Be prepared.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
So how do people reach out to you for more
information on this and other powerful business strategies that can
help them?
Speaker 3 (10:15):
I mentally, well, Dean, I'd like them to go to
our website NEXTSTEPCFO dot net. I'd like them to go
in the right hand corner where they can have it
is an orange button that says fine hidden revenue in
less than ten minutes and that is take by taking
an AI business assessment. It takes less than ten minutes
(10:36):
to do. There's no judgment, there's just good answers. And
those answers come in the form of three strategies that
you're not implementing, that are hiding in your business, with
an explanation of how to implement those strategies. So it's
a tremendous tool to be able to just get you know,
start thinking strategically. And this tool drive takes less than
(11:00):
ten minutes to do, less than ten minutes I've done.
I've had business owners do them as little as five minutes,
and most of them the average is about seven minutes.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
So you could do it at any time.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
It's free. You could do it in the middle of
the night if you want to. But you'll get the
answers that it'll get your thinking. I'll tell you that
that I can tell.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
You well amazing. Once again, I'm mental help to our
businesses out there in the world, and I really look
forward to next week because that's one of my favorite
subjects and that's mindset. So we'll see you then, Thanks THEE.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
Thank you for listening to the Adventures of plate Man
on w for CUI Radio.
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