February 12, 2025 • 57 mins
Uncover financial strategies that can transform your blue-collar business with insights from Lauren Furtado, the Unconventional CFO. Lauren joins us to break down barriers and challenge traditional CPA norms, making financial concepts like cash flow management and forecasting more accessible to entrepreneurs who might feel overwhelmed. Learn how a fractional CFO can be a game-changer in your business, offering tailored support without the full-time cost, and why cultivating a dedicated sales team is crucial for sustainable growth.
We tackle the necessity of financial transparency, the pitfalls of neglecting financial oversight, and the importance of setting transparent business goals. Through personal anecdotes and shared experiences, we reveal the transformative power of regular bookkeeping and strategic tax planning. Discover why understanding your specific business needs is crucial, and how to navigate the diverse specialties within the CPA profession to find the right fit for your business.
Feelings of shame and embarrassment in financial management are common, but they don't have to hold you back. Embrace vulnerability and the willingness to seek out expert help in areas where you may not have expertise. This episode is packed with real, raw advice to empower you to build a strong team and connect with financial experts who can guide your journey to success. Learn how overcoming mindset hurdles and acknowledging financial vulnerability can be key steps toward achieving your business goals.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast
, where we discuss the realest,rawest, most relevant stories
and strategies behind buildingevery corner of a blue collar
business.
I'm your host, cy Kirby, and Iwant to help you in what it took
me trial and error and a wholelot of money to learn the
information that no one in thisindustry is willing to share,
whether you're under that shadetree or have your hard hat on,
(00:30):
let's expand your toolbox.
Welcome back, guys, to anotherepisode of the Blue Collar
Business Podcast.
We have talked about manyvarious topics on this channel
so far, from continued educationto having different influencers
here, to engineers, to aviationengineers and handyman, but
(00:55):
today is a pretty excitinglittle opportunity for a lot of
you guys.
We have Ms Lauren Furtado, theunconventional CFO, correct?
I did say that, correct, right?
That is correct, okay, we aregoing to be discussing some
(01:15):
things that all of you guys andmyself need help with.
There is no doubt about it, andit's one of the main reasons I
started this whole podcast wasto connect ladies like herself
with the expertise andexperience that she has, but is
willing to actually explain andcome down to our level of.
(01:37):
Hey, this guy is an electrician, doesn't even know what P&L
acronym stands for yet, and sowe're going to go through some
of these number one mindsethurdles that we need to get over
as entrepreneurs so we can alsospeak the same language.
But something that Ms Laurenhas already expressed her
(01:57):
passion about, and that's cashflow and cash flow being king
and cash flow management, butalso how she's going to help us
in the world of forecasting.
Like that world for me is stillsuch a struggle to understand,
because we're just trying tomake it to the end of the month
a lot of times, you know, in theblue collar sense, especially
(02:17):
in the first five to seven years, or three years, if you make it
past that point.
So, and then, last but notleast, we're going to talk about
accountants in general, becauseI'm going to tell you guys a
little bit of my experience ofseveral accountants that I have
been through to get to where I'mat and why I'm looking into the
(02:40):
fractional CFO kind of route tohelp my accountant and how they
can supplement behind thescenes not waste one of your
payroll team members that maybedon't have all the knowledge.
Bring somebody in like MsLauren Furtado, the
unconventional CFO.
Thank you so much for joining.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Cy, you are the financial guru and actually guys
and it's so funny as we think,especially in the South New York
, you know, there's even alittle bit of a gap there for us
to you know, reach that upperechelon level of language
(03:22):
sometimes.
Know reach that upper echelonlevel of language sometimes.
So our brief intro call we had,we were discussing, literally
talking about where kind of thehistory of the struggle that I
have been through as a businessowner and you know, sarah, being
the ultimate CFO but not reallyknowing what a CFO is,
(03:44):
encompassed with all the burdenthat comes with the CFO position
.
But tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
Tell us a little bit aboutunconventional CFO and what you
do for these blue collar men andwomen.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah.
So I want to maybe just startwith the background on why it's
unconventional, cfo, and Ireally say that in two respects.
First is when you think of whata CPA is and looks like,
typically it's not me.
I am covered in tattoos, I'vegot my nose pierced right, I've
got my long dark hair, andyou're not thinking of a guy
(04:21):
with white hair behind his bigwooden desk with a sweater vest,
right.
So I think I just like to breakthe perception of what
accountants look like.
Number one, but also two, inthe way that we deliver our
service.
We were chatting earlier justabout really making the
information and the conceptsdigestible.
So I think that is very muchnot the norm in the accounting
(04:42):
world.
I think often business owners,especially in the blue collar
space, feel intimidated by someof the financial concepts and
it's unfortunate that that isnot backed in nothing right.
So I think that perception isaccurate of what some accounting
and finance focus do.
Right, they talk over you.
They say I've got it handledLike they don't actually take
(05:02):
the time from a client serviceperspective, to explain the
concepts and the impacts of yourdecisions on your financials.
That's another word driver onwhy we named it unconventional.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
CFO sector.
I mean, anytime you're thinkingfinance, immediately, why call
her?
There is this ginormous dividebetween our language level and
what we understand.
Hell, we're just trying to getenough work to keep our guys
busy and all the other littlethings that it takes to keep
(05:37):
this thing going.
But once you start actuallycompounding some work together
and then all of a sudden you'reout past your skis real quick
with all the money flooding inwhether it's flooding in or it's
not enough in a lot of casesand knowing where to start, and
somebody like yourself that iswilling to come on a show like
(06:01):
this, completely designated tothe blue collar sector of the
world, and go hey guys, I'm yourperson, I deal with um.
I.
I want to touch on one point,and where you were, the CPA is a
lot of the white haired woodendesk gavel thrower.
They want to tell us we're here, throw.
(06:27):
Or they want to tell us we'rehere, yep, but you need to be
here, sigh.
And that needs to be done byapril.
Have a good day and I'm likewell, just just build me a stair
stab, just give me a path, aplan of action, anything, please
.
And because it's our finances,it's our financial, like those
financial statements to you guysin the blue collar world are
everything, and let me tell youabout it from experience.
(06:50):
When you're providing crappyfinancials, you're going to get
the word no more than you'llever experience, and you're
going to turn people off by justlooking proper people that
understand a P&L, like Ms Lauren, but bringing you in to maybe
shape that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, often right, you're going to get no's from
banks when you're looking forfinancing.
You're not going to be able topurchase equipment.
You're not going to be able togrow your team.
You're going to get no onbonding right.
That's another one where they'relooking for your financials and
, if one, your bookkeeping ismessy or it's not up to date and
you can't clearly communicatekind of why certain things
(07:29):
happen in the finances of yourbusiness.
It becomes really difficult andI think, being support from a
continuing perspective for theclients that we serve, I'm able
to do that with them right.
Them feeling just the comfortof me being on a call with a
bunch of bankers that are askingquestions about even just
mid-year financials like hey,what's this from?
(07:50):
What is this?
Why this right?
So just having someone in yourcorner right to support you in
conversations that can feel veryintimidating when, like we
talked about before, I might noteven understand the difference
between my profit and my cash.
So often I hear like my P&Lisn't profitable but where's my
(08:11):
cash?
I'm having a hard time makingpeople right.
So like just to be able tobridge the gap on some of the
knowledge going into thoseconversations and then being
there to support I think is justsuch an intangible thing that
people don't realize just tobuild your confidence.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
It just makes a world of difference the confidence is
everything too, and it's like,do you?
I wish I would have slowed downand listened to sarah a little
bit I have no problem in sayingthat because if I knew the
importance of what the questionshe was, asking the right
questions, although she wasbeing guided the wrong direction
(08:47):
several different times and Igot to say that's a little bit
of the leading into kind of myfirst point of the day is that
mindset hurdle thatentrepreneurs face, business
owners and their financials,because they're're like I don't
want to bring anybody in, wefeel this embarrassment, this
(09:09):
shame, because we're, we'reexpected to know.
In a lot of conversations youhit two on the head bankers and
bonding and utility guys,excavation guys uh, we are
utilities, especially to liveand die by your bonding cap
aggregate of what the entire topline revenue, which equals,
(09:30):
obviously, if you're doingthings right job costing and
expense tracking, uh, profit atthe end of the year.
And the most important thing isdocumenting and knowing your
cost per job, per item.
And there was a lot of yearsthat I didn't know my cost.
I was just out there but I can'ttell you the amount of guys
(09:51):
that are in my shoes sittinghere going hey, that's me and
there's probably some guys goingwhat an idiot, but at least I'm
vulnerable enough to go.
Hey guys, this was me.
I need you to understand.
It's a lot of us out therebecause the mindset switch that
you, that you need to have frommy experience is, hey, you're
(10:13):
not in the business all the timeand by this point in my world
where I started feeling likethis is like I had to be out
there in the field and I had tobe up there and estimating and I
had to be everywhere.
I had to be out there in thefield and I had to be up there
and estimating and I had to beeverywhere.
But I was still just trying tostay in this, in the business
role, where you're comfortable.
Exactly, it's comfortable, right, but then nothing is growing.
(10:34):
Everything is dying becauseyou're not out here working on
the business and understandingand learning and engaging, while
your entire team is looking atyou going hey, dude, will you
just get it together please?
We're waiting up here.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
It's becoming the CEO , right, and it's not being a
doer.
It's not fulfilling the jobs,it's being able to manage team,
understand your finances, it'sall those things and that, I
think, is a big hurdle for guysthat have worked blue collar
businesses traditionally rightthat like when you're used to
spinning the tools.
That's where your comfort levelis.
(11:08):
It's hard to make that jumpinto that ceo level mentality of
like managing it in a verydifferent way.
Um, and it's interestingbecause you said vulnerability
and I always say it's like thefinancial nakedness, like I'm
asking you to expose it right,because your finances are a
reflection of all the decisionsyou've made right, even on a
personal basis.
(11:28):
If I said, sigh, show me yourcredit card statement right now,
you probably would cringe,you'd say lauren absolutely not.
You're gonna see that, like weordered pizza three times last
week and like I'm wasting moneyon 10 different subscriptions
that I probably don't even use,and like.
so it's just.
It's a matter of being able tolet go of any judgment, so
finding a professional you feellike really comfortable and that
(11:52):
you can trust with your numbersand that there's not going to
be judgment.
Right, it is what it is and forme, when you talked about the
steps you need in order to getto a certain point, the only way
that I can bridge the gap onwhere we are today and where you
want to be is by reallyunderstanding and have a good
understanding of the financialsand the habits that led up to
(12:13):
that, because I can't say Cy gocancel these five subscriptions
or only order pizza once a weekand then we can meet your goal.
If I don't understand some ofthat right, so it's being able
to be vulnerable with the goodand bad and anything in between
and just exposing it.
Like I have seen so manytransactions I've seen
(12:35):
bankruptcies of multi-billiondollar companies in my
experience, like I've seenthings go really badly but I've
also seen things go really well.
And on the less, you're willingto look at your numbers.
You have a glorified hobby I'msorry to tell you that, but like
if you are not in business, tojust spend your time and not do
anything with it, if you have nogoals of growth, of selling it
(12:57):
one day or passing it down toyour son or actually trying to
provide for your family and meetadditional goals, then you
don't even need to botherlooking at the numbers.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
The difference between entrepreneurs and
skilled business owners.
Business owners just do thething.
They just they're going throughthe flow.
Yeah, I've got the businessEntrepreneurs always trying to
build value within the businessitself and so that way that one
day they can either exit from it, give it to your son.
But you're right, I think I'lltell them myself.
(13:30):
I lost focus in last year withjust everything we went through.
Economically wise, there wasnobody's.
There was still companiesaround me doing just fine, don't
get me wrong.
There were larger companies but, um, it was extremely tough.
So for me to focus on the badduring the bad was even worse
(13:52):
for myself.
And the embarrassment because,like when my guys are broke, so
what?
Nobody knows that they can'ttune it until Friday and they
get a paycheck.
When the company's broke andthe owners are broke, everybody
knows it, everybody knows everysingle day, and it seems like it
(14:12):
just all hits at once.
And if you maybe had a cashflow management system to maybe
tell you when those spikes arecoming, you can prepare for that
, and that's things I've justlearned in the last year.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, absolutely, and forecasting it's obviously not
a crystal ball right.
But, it can, directionally,kind of give you the indicators
on when you have inflows andoutflows happening.
Right, without cash flowforecasting, it is very hard to
make decisions alluded to before.
(14:53):
We hopped on about, like justbusinesses going out.
Um, the one of the biggestreasons that businesses go out
of business is because of badcash flow decisions.
Right, like I'm gonna buy thispiece of equipment or I'm gonna
hire this person like all of asudden, after a couple of months
, literally your cash isliquidated, that you have
nothing to show for, potentially, years of hard work.
So it's really unfortunate ifyou don't take the opportunity
to have someone help you buildthat cash flow, and it doesn't
(15:15):
have to be a fractional cfo,right if you're on the smaller
side.
To be honest, if you have thediscipline and accountability to
be able to do it yourself, youhave to have some ability to see
where you're going because,again, like we spend a ton of
time with our clients actuallydigging deep into your business
goals and your personal goals,when we do onboarding Cause it's
let's pull back the layersright Of like.
(15:37):
why do we want to have 10 Xrevenue by next year?
Right Like.
Help me understand the wisebehind it.
Right Like in it we can onlybreak it into like the steps and
the timing and like the thingsto do If we have the
understanding of like what thosethings are, to be able to put
it in the picture and we canscenario build.
Oh so you need to buy uh, youknow you're gonna need to do
(15:59):
like extra maintenance on theequipment next year and it's
gonna double that cost all right, plug it in.
All right, you want to hire, um, a new product manager?
All right, plug that right.
So it's again justunderstanding the impact of the
things before it's alreadyhappened.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
That's what we all want as business owners and
entrepreneurs.
We want to, especially whenthings are going bad.
Man, it rains, it feels likeevery little thing is all going
to come down on you all at once.
And then you look at the bankaccount.
You can't fix no problems and Ican't tell you how many times,
especially in the last fiveyears, I doubled my gross
(16:37):
revenue up until 24.
It was going great.
Again, I lost focus on thethings that I needed to be
focusing on Sales, being numberone and building a great sales
team.
I thought utility andestimation guys, we don't need a
sales team, we just need anestimator.
He can handle it all right.
No, no, I was asking a lot outof one individual.
(17:00):
And now I've built a team andthe sales is just completely,
completely game changer in 12months.
And production that was thenext thing to meet up to the
production level.
But you know what they bothneed.
They need those numbers of whatthey're actually producing.
If we don't get that back tothe right people, the right
(17:21):
system, we're not billing for it, we miss a billing.
That's a huge, altogether bigdeal right per project.
But the accounting side ofthings is always from my
experience and hopefully I'mspeaking for a lot of business
owners we immediately hand thatoff to oh, my spouse can handle
(17:42):
it.
And I'm going to tell on Saraha little bit here.
She has done incredible with ahigh school education.
She's not an accountant.
I'm not an accountant.
We are not financial people.
I am a dirt and pipe guy.
That is what I am.
And then so then you take onthis CEO title and you're like
oh well, I'm going to make allthese decisions now with
(18:02):
absolutely zero experience otherthan being a dirt and pipe guy
and then being too prideful toreach out to somebody like
yourself and go, hey, I need alittle help.
But to what you're doing aswell with Unconventional CFO is
be willing and open and go, hey,I just really want to work with
these contractor guys.
(18:23):
Speak a little bit on that.
Why you just number one?
Because of our open mindset.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
I can understand, but there's a lot of walls we put
yeah, but I also what I loveabout most of you guys are your
action takers right.
So, like, if we have a call andI say, sigh, this month, these
are the action items that needto get done.
Like, once you understand itand once you can wrap your head
around it, it's go time right,like you're hard working and
(18:49):
like you're willing to do thethings.
I um, candidly, personality wise, being from the Northeast, like
I'm a no BS person, like Idon't need to be on the other
end of like some woman that ownsa coaching business, that like
is indecisive and like uh likeexcuses, I don't deal well with
that.
So for me, I love the fact thatit's like all right now that I
(19:13):
know what to do, I'm gonna goget it.
Um, so for me, like that's sucha big thing.
Um, the other thing too I knowwe started talking about cash
flow, but it's, there's such aneed with the cash flow issues
to like get a good system inplace and like also process.
The other thing I bring from aperspective is like hey, what
(19:35):
technology can we use to fixthis?
Like I've seen guys still doingstuff on paper.
I've seen inefficiencies withlike even a spouse doing some
level of bookkeeping where it'slike, well, let's, I'm going to
teach you how to set the rulesso you don't even have to touch
the transaction anymore, right?
So, like just being able to seeopportunities and
inefficiencies of what goes on.
(19:55):
I think there's such a bigopportunity to save people time
so they can focus on chasingrevenue, not on categorizing
expenses and low level stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Everything you're speaking on, like we're sitting
here, I'm sitting here goinglike, well, yeah, duh, you know
because it sounds so, I don'teven know what the word is for
it, but I, I encourage you guysthat are in that three to seven
year mark, as you're buildingwhatever business that you may
be in.
Guys, you're not a cfo, you arenot a ceo.
(20:29):
Yet there is people out, youare, you are.
You put yourself in thatposition, big dog, and it's up
to you, man or woman, to go out,research, find people that
build comfortable relationshipsthat unteach you.
And I will tell you straight upfrom my experience with the
financial side I have trustedthe wrong folks.
(20:51):
We didn't even get to cash flowmanagement or any proactive
system.
It was all reactionary toeverything, every question that
I had, and I'm like, why are younot telling me this information
?
I thought I trust you to justpay the tax, man, I guess.
(21:11):
And there's no strategy,there's no process.
You know.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah.
So let's dive into thedifferent accountants.
I know we probably had thattranslated in the conversation,
but let's dive into that becauseit was such a good lead of.
Like I always say, first let'stalk about CPAs.
I am one, but I like todescribe CPAs just like a
medical degree.
We all have passed somethinglike the boards, but then we all
(21:40):
have specialties.
So as a CPA, I actually do nottax work.
It's interesting because peopleoften say I need a CPA.
Usually that means I needsomeone to do my taxes.
But I will say CPAs havedifferent specialties.
Understanding your need versusa title is what I always
encourage people.
So, there are some basic needsin your organization, no matter
(22:04):
your size, that you are going toneed.
And let's talk about tax first,right Tax compliance.
You have to have your returndone.
You need to make sure payrolltaxes are getting remitted,
anything sales tax and then,beyond, just tax compliance.
That is just like my stuff isfiled, things are getting paid.
Tax planning and strategy arealways what I encourage.
(22:25):
Planning for sure, that is,having conversations before the
end of the year to understand,like, well, what's my liability
going to be, so I can eitherplan to spend more money this
year or I want to show someprofit because I'm going to go
to the banks looking for lendingright, and that's hard to do if
I'm showing a loss year afteryear.
Yeah, so just having aconversation from tax planning
(22:47):
before you get your tax billbefore the end of the year,
where it's too late.
And then strategy is reallyright, the stuff that gets hype
on social media.
But, like, once you get to acertain size, making sure that
you elected to be like an s corp, you can hire your kids right.
There's the Augusta rule.
There's a number of differentthings from a strategy when,
like, you're in a position whereyou really want to minimize tax
and you're willing to put insome work, invest in someone
(23:10):
helping you to do that that'sthe tax piece.
Now let's talk accounting andkind of the management of your
finances.
On a regular basis at a minimum, you need a bookkeeper.
I'm not saying you have to hireone.
It could be your wife, it couldbe your cousin, it could be
someone that lives overseas anddoes it at a very low rate, it
(23:31):
could be someone you have inyour office.
It can be whatever you envisionit to be right.
So, but having someone whounderstands enough about your
business in your industry andwhether they're willing to learn
it, because there's someonewho's going to be in-house with
you full-time or going to besomeone you're looking for
externally.
Again, I I always recommendsomeone who has done your type
(23:55):
of business construction.
Businesses are very differentthan working on I don't know a
SaaS company, a retail client.
It's just nuanced and you wantsomebody who understands how you
need to analyze your financialsso they can prepare your
financials on a regular basisfor you to be able to review.
(24:15):
The other thing maybe, just aswe're talking bookkeeping, I
just want to encourage frequency, right?
I don't want a bookkeeper tocome in once a year and like
clean it up and just look atthem annually.
I want them to close my booksevery single month so I have the
ability to look in my businessand actually make decisions.
Because if I'm waiting even aquarter, that's three months of
information.
(24:36):
That, like I can't react twomonths ago.
It's really hard to continuallymake decisions if I don't
understand where I have been ona regular basis.
So I just want to encourageregular bookkeeping.
If it's not being done weekly,at least monthly.
Close the book so we have someinformation.
So the bookkeeper is one.
Two is an accountant.
(24:57):
Right, some people need these,some people don't, but those are
people who, potentially, aredoing your AP, processing
payroll, doing some of the liketransaction-type stuff that's
not just lurking like withinyour GL, whether it's QuickBooks
Online or whatever systemyou're using to do your
bookkeeping.
And the accountant can beengaged too to help with AR
(25:20):
things like that accountreconciliations.
So that's number two.
You can also have layers inbetween.
Right, can I have a controller,when I get to a certain size,
that manages your accountingteam?
Sure, but we're going to skipthat for purposes of this
discussion.
But where we talk about CFO, Ialways want people to understand
that's executive level, that is, someone who is focused, like
(25:43):
you said, of the thing you weremissing was forecasting,
strategy advice and, candidly,when you are a a smaller
business, you don't need thisperson full-time, right?
I love the fractional model andI love that, like, people are
just becoming more aware of itbecause it gives you the
advantage of having advice fromsomeone who has such experience
(26:07):
in the market serving, in myexperience, multi-billion dollar
corporations for two decades.
Right, if I were to go get afull-time job, it's going to
cost multiple six figures forsomeone to hire me full-time.
But you get my expertise foryour business at your level for
a fee, a fraction of the cost,right, like.
So it's just a great modelbecause you get expertise you
(26:29):
wouldn't normally, until you getto like 50 million dollars in
revenue when I actually needsomeone full time.
So I just want to encouragepeople to think about the level
of expertise, and there's alldifferent CFOs out there.
People may have worked in FP&A,they may have worked in
corporate.
There's a number of differentexperience levels that you're
(26:52):
going to find with CFOs, butthat's where the trust thing
comes into.
I encourage anybody looking forCFOs to really find someone who
still has experience in theirindustry, but someone you really
have a relationship with,because we're going to have some
hard conversations.
Right, I'm going to say aside.
We didn't talk about thistransaction and you did it and
there's nothing we can do aboutit.
So now we got to figure out thepath forward Right.
(27:13):
So like having hardconversations but also
celebrating the wins, and likeit's such an intimate
relationship because I amlooking at your decisions, I am
looking at your numbers, I'masking you about how your
personal goals fit into yourbusiness goals.
I'm going to ask about yourfamily dynamics.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
I'm going to ask about all sorts of things that
might feel uncomfortable butalso like, just are so helpful
for a blue collar guy.
We're just thinking, oh, I needsomebody to handle my books.
I need what is it?
What does that even mean?
Like, and you just broke downthe bookkeeping level.
That's what you need.
You need a book keeper, youneed somebody to close that
(28:06):
month out.
You need somebody to enterexpenses, enter deposits.
Hopefully it reconciles at theend of the month, but past that
everything else could befractional from there.
So I would highly suggest youget somebody, just like Ms
(28:27):
Lauren just said, with someexperienced expertise.
That's word to word negativenegative there, but anyways,
experience in your field,because instruction is so
different and it's looking forthe need, right.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
So instead of saying I need a CFO, maybe it's saying
like, hey, I own, I'm a GC andI'm looking for strategic
partnership with financialsright?
Or I own a landscaping business.
I really need someone that canhelp with my bookkeeping, right?
So like seeking it in themarket in a way that clearly
communicates your need, versuslike the person, because then I
(29:09):
think it just becomes harder tolike really find the person
you're looking for.
So I always say, like expressthe need and then you can find,
ultimately, who fits.
That.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
It might be a CPA, it might not, and a lot of times,
guys I'll just again beingpretty vulnerable here I've had
a extremely rough relationshipwith the last two or three CPAs
gone through.
I feel comfortable with the onethat we've landed on now.
That now actually hasexperience funny, you might say
(29:41):
that with my specific industry.
And so it actually was worsethat I was trending with these
people because we were trendingin the exact opposite direction.
Like I just said, it wasreactionary, there was no
proactiveness.
But just like you guys you knowexcavation guys some of you
(30:04):
guys may go out and dig cable.
Some of you guys may go out anddo waterline Like I'm a utility
guy, I do water insurance,storm drain, but I don't do
anything with cable.
Do I have the same equipment tobe able to put cable in the
ground?
Absolutely, but it is a totallydifferent sector of my industry
that I don't have experience in.
So, just like to your pointthat bookkeeping, that's pretty
(30:27):
general knowledge and we can getsomebody trained up or get them
with somebody that you trustand have a comfortable
relationship at that.
Whether it's a executive levelor whoever that may be, I would
highly suggest that it'ssomebody with the expertise to
train from day one at that yeartwo mark, like.
I know a lot of you guys aresitting there going oh, they may
(30:49):
even just scroll right by us.
I'm not ready for that.
A cfo and I'm like guys, dude, Iwish I could go back five or
six years and concentrate andfind a miss lauren that would
come in and go hey, what do wereally need this 85 000 pound
excavator?
Before you sign your name to it, like, uh, can you show me
(31:10):
contractually where you're goingto use this machine eight
months out of the year and havethe absolute need?
I need those challenges, andyou guys do too.
You need somebody challengingyou because if not, you're just
going to have short-term goalsand short-term fail.
Because you have to have thatmentorship.
That's somebody to go to andget advice.
(31:32):
Sometimes it's going to beworse than uh, than you know
that you would expect.
Sometimes it's going to be aflat no Um.
But I think what I was hearingfrom you just a minute ago, that
a lot of these clients just goahead and do those decisions and
then go hey, how are we goingto fix this?
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Yeah, and I think it's having the ability to give
them a tool to see what theimpact is before they do it and
getting them to use it Right.
So, like we're going to investall this time building a
cashflow forecast, well, I'mgoing to teach you how to use it
, even when you're not on thephone with me.
So before you do that, like goin and plug in the number in
(32:10):
that cell and understand whathappens exactly with your cash
balance over time when you dothat.
So it's being able to equippeople with implementing the
review of the impact prior tothe decision being made.
And I think it's just gettingthem accustomed to using that
(32:31):
tool.
And it's so powerful.
And I just recently onboarded aclient where it was like he said
I can't believe you weren'tdoing this before.
And I said you can't beatyourself up, you don't know what
you don't know.
Right, but bring it alltogether.
And I think the hard partsometimes to depending on your
structure is like, well, I'minvesting all this money in this
(32:52):
system like Procore orfoundations, or whatever I'm
using to do.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Don't say that word.
That's a no, no word in myworld.
Oh my God, go on about them.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
But, right, like, I still don't feel like I have the
capabilities to see thereporting that I truly need, so
it's just being able to come inand like bring it all together
for you guys.
That I think is so impactful,to like listen, sure you guys
can transact, do estimating anddo job costing and wherever, but
like being able to bring thatall together so you can
understand the big picture isn'talways done and, again, if you
(33:27):
don't understand or bringsomebody in who's going to
explain that to you, it's reallyunfortunate.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
I think that's where you're obviously striving to be
different.
It's not a hey, let me handleall of this.
And you probably have clientsthat are like that and do one
quarter, one meeting, a quarter,et cetera.
But then you probably also haveclients that you talk to almost
every day probably and that areneeding that guidance and are
(33:54):
needing I still need taught on alot of the things at the
executive level that I stilldon't quite understand.
Don't get me wrong, that Istill don't quite understand.
Don't get me wrong.
Education is expensive andexperience is priceless.
And me going through andlearning those mistakes without
having some type of forecast andstill to this day, I've got a
small budget, but do I have thisforecasted plan?
(34:15):
Guys, I'm not sitting in frontof you acting like I got
everything that's coming out ofher mouth.
I'm learning with you, guys,like I'm nine years into this
and as a company, we arecompletely overhauling our
financial and our awareness, tax, consult, all of it,
bookkeeping, everything.
But it takes a few of thoseeducation lessons.
(34:39):
If you're not going to jump outthere in year two or year three
and start this system and avoidthose, I would highly suggest
you do that.
But if not, you are going tolearn with your own money and
pay for a very hard knockededucation.
That could be avoided, but Ithink that's the big difference.
That I'm hearing is like I'venever had anybody in the
(35:00):
financial world go hey Cy.
Anybody in the financial worldgo hey Cy.
Well, other than my CPA thatwe've been working with not too
long sat there with my P&L.
He's a fairly highly regardedman and doesn't have much time.
It's very boom, boom, boom.
He sat there for two hours,went through my P&L and balance
sheet and asked questions andcircled this.
(35:21):
Wanted to know the.
Just like you're saying, hey,where's this coming from?
Why is this here?
Do you even know what this is?
No, I don't, and I can honestlysay yes, I know how to write a
P&L and a balance sheet.
It may not be the results thatI want, but do I know how to fix
the information on that balancesheet?
You know, to get me where Iwant to go is the biggest
(35:43):
question of all, and most of thetime, guys don't feel bad.
You're not going to know how.
Neither do I.
That's why I'm sitting herehaving this conversation.
I've gone to a fourth CPA innine years that actually has
expertise in what I do.
So that's that I encourage youto.
Um, I mean client level.
(36:04):
Ms Lauren, where are you?
Obviously you've been up hereat the upper echelon, but your
main contractor that you'reworking with is that 100K a year
?
Is that a million a year?
Where's that range for theseguys that are listening?
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Yeah, so we always preach that everyone can benefit
from a CFO.
I will say it's not like likeyou said.
People might scroll past this,will say it's not like you said.
People might scroll past thisand say I'm not ready for that.
Right, that's wrong, that'sactually wrong 100%, so everyone
can benefit.
Now, the frequency may bedifferent depending on your size
and complexity.
So I'll say, for smallerbusinesses in the six-figure
(36:38):
range, I'll do a one-timeservice and it'll be okay.
Hey, lauren, like I've got mybooks cleaned up, like I really
need to build a forecast, canyou help me?
Sure, I'm gonna meet with youone-on-one.
We build the forecast, I'mgonna teach you how to use it,
but you gotta go do it becauseyou can't afford, right, so
candidly.
Yeah, and it's to be honest,when you're that size, you don't
have as much complexity withmeeting me as frequent as you do
(37:03):
, right?
So it's getting that in placeand like, as you start to grow,
just there's more growing pains.
You've got more team, you'vegot more systems, you've got
more um issues that just come upright.
So it's just um, when you're onthe smaller side, even just once
a year, and that one-timeservice I do with people, it
really depends on what theirneed is.
A lot on looking at pricingright, can we look?
(37:25):
At us can we look at biddinglike are we profitable?
Like does this make sense?
And when you're only looking atgross margin, you're not
looking at your overhead costs,like really looking at them, not
just like guessing?
Oh well, I think 20% makessense.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Like guess what you're wrong, you're wrong, I am
the guy sometimes you needsomeone to show you that right.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
So, like I've had those conversations as well.
So just making surefoundationally some things are
set, because if you have goalsto grow your revenue guess what
that margin issue doesn't goaway, just becomes a lot bigger
and your cash runs out veryquick with, like, bigger jobs
that you're accepting oh so thatI would say for the smaller
(38:06):
right again, like maybe once ayear and specifically focused,
but you have to make sure thatyou're going to use whatever
tool we spend time on.
Um.
I do have quarterly clients, um, that fall kind of in the
million to three million dollarrange from an annual revenue
standpoint, um, and that iswhere, again, they're not huge
but like still need some advice.
(38:27):
They're not making decisions asfrequently typically when we go
that route or they're like youknow we're having the
bookkeeping done, we know how tolook at the reports and like
the reports that we provide arereal time so they can go on at
any point in time and look at itthemselves, right, but like
okay, our meetings just aren'tas frequent.
It's you know more informationto review on a quarterly basis
(38:49):
in terms of what's happened.
But, um, you know again, likejust that that revenue mark not
as complex, but if you're growthminded and you're growth driven
and you're going to get up tokind of where the sweet spot is,
that I say it's between threeand $50 million of annual
revenue, that I think you needsomeone who is engaged each
month and we talk, as you saidbefore, more than monthly,
(39:12):
that's for sure.
We have a monthly dashboardreview of the financials.
That's pretty formal, but, likeevery other week, we're having
conversations and, to be honest,we're on Slack, they're
emailing me, calling me andthey're not treating me as a
full-time employee.
But at the same time, whenthere's urgent things that need
to be handled uh, really tofinance I'm not going to ignore
it, right.
Just because I'm yourfractional cfo doesn't mean that
(39:33):
, like, I'm going to leave youon your own to deal with
something that I really do needto be involved with um and then,
beyond that, it's like youreally need somebody full time,
right?
So when you get to that like 50and beyond million dollar mark,
like you probably need to go outand hire an actual CFO that
works for you full time and sitsin the office.
And that's always the goal forme is like, either get them to
(39:56):
like exit or whatever goal theyhave long term, or get them
where they need a full time CFOand help them hire that person
Right.
Like what are you looking for?
What are the attributes?
Is there anyone I can recommend?
So like, for me, it's alwaysget them to the point where they
don't need me anymore.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
That's what I hear a lot of from the good ones.
I want to work myself out of ajob.
And how do you do that?
And that's just teaching.
That's, hey, entrepreneurs.
That's opening these big thingson the side of your heads and
listening to what they're saying.
They're not, I promise youthey're not wrong.
I have sat across many tablesmany times and go, oh, that's
(40:36):
not, there's no way.
And then make up somerealization justification that's
completely fabricated, to makemyself feel okay about the
insecurity of you seeing this.
And I have done it.
I can't tell you how many times, but you're not going to get
any better not holding yourselfaccountable.
(40:57):
How, as a business owner, theonly way you know you're making
money is overviewing the P&L,the balance sheet, monthly per
project.
I know I may be going a littlefurther in depth, but when you
get past that five-year mark,you really got to start job
costing per job per project.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
I would encourage you to do it before then Even
before that, yes, of course,from day one.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
I, I'm sorry that would be coming from your side
of the screen but over here inreal world.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
If you don't have a whip report and you're actually
monitoring it like that'sanother thing.
We're going to spend a lot oftime on a what a whip report a
whip report tell us about it ohmy god, so I'm gonna send it to
you.
Here's the template tell theaccountant that you have to go
do it, okay.
Yeah, it literally is lookingat your job progress again, like
(41:47):
depending on the functionalityof your system.
A lot of it happens in whateversystem you're using to do
costing and to actually likemanage that.
But a document that shows everysingle job, it's a job cash
flow, basically it's going toshow what you've invoiced, what
percentage complete you are, ifthere's overbidding, like just
really mapping out.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Okay, when you're invoicing.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
When are we collecting that money?
Like if we have overbid.
We can clearly see it.
Like how are we invoicing?
Is it based on actual costs oris it based on percentage?
Complete, like just being ableto see the whole picture from a
job perspective and monitor thatvery closely yeah, that is
called a, what we would call anunder billing, over billing
(42:33):
that's part of it, right so?
like under and over billingreports out of the system to
feed into this whip report,because it's got just all the
different components put in.
Because I'm with you, right,like over under billing is
showing obviously snapshot intime of where you are in voice
versus total job contract.
Um, but again, like justbringing in the cost component
(42:54):
and really being able to analyzeagain the cash flows and how
those come in as well.
Um, so you can analyze it andthe biggest benefit, because you
probably go in job by job, thatis important.
But understanding how all thejobs fit together is such a big
piece too.
Because guess what, when Istart one big commercial job and
I have to outlay six weeks ofpayroll costs before I see a
(43:17):
dime, that's a problem.
If I have another big jobthat's starting in the same
month as well, right, so likejust being able to say yes and
saying no to jobs too, rightlike you don't have that picture
, you don't have the ability toreally make the decisions.
Um, and sometimes the shinything seems exciting, but at the
end of the day, like can youactually afford to do it?
Speaker 1 (43:38):
I am telling you it would be so I don't even know
the word.
Refreshing to be able to seethat and I can tell on myself
and go no, we don't have a WIPreport in place and it sounds
like we absolutely need to.
And from this conversation, Imight actually benefit in a
(43:59):
quick regard there.
But, yeah, knowing, yeah,overbilling, underbilling like
even most CPAs last three CPAs Ijust learned what an
overbilling, underbilling all ofthat is.
I'm nine years in right, andthis CPA is like what do you
mean?
You don't know whatunderbilling, overbilling is.
This is like this is like yourold document to go to the
(44:21):
banquets and um, so Like this islike your old document to go to
the banquets and so.
But what I was trying to get atis I'm finally in a regard where
they know the constructionbasis, from estimation to
production to accounting, and itall ties together Like we even
speak the same language.
Hey, you're a contractor, go bea contractor, let me be an
accountant.
(44:41):
And hey, I need thisinformation from the field into
the admin team so the admin teamcan get that into accounting as
quickly as possible Footages,production rates, material, job,
all of that.
But that's like one first pieceof the puzzle that so many
don't ever even get to is theproject management role of.
(45:02):
It's not about work you can doc.
It's not about work you can doc.
It's not about work you can do.
It's about work you candocument you've done and getting
that documentation in real timemoving through the whole kit
and caboodle to get to you, soyou can give us the answer yeah,
absolutely, and the only wayyou can react to that right is
if you've got your team doingand honoring your basis.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
So, like implementing some process changes, if they
need to happen, and themunderstanding.
The impact of communicationwith team is always kind of key,
like guys.
This is why this is important.
It might feel annoying but likeI need you to go in and update
this stuff so I can react.
I can have conversations umabout additional bills or, you
know, talking to suppliers aboutmaterial costs, whatever.
(45:43):
It is right, like there's onlyone way that you can react and
that's if they're doing ittimely change orders.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
How can you adjust for change orders?
How do you know how much gravelyou've actually used?
If you don't even.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Yeah, I was there, it was such a thing people want is
a last minute surprise.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Oh my god, and it's and you're thinking in your head
because I was for years, ohI'll just.
The last thing people want is alast minute surprise.
Oh my God, and it's.
And you're thinking in yourhead cause I was for years, oh
I'll just.
Well, obviously, this, this isgoing to cost this, here's your
bill.
And they're like oh no, uh, howabout not?
Do you have written approval?
Do you have this?
Do you have that?
And so there's so many lessonsto be learned, and especially as
(46:22):
you grow so quickly and you getout in front of your
overextended in your skis.
But you can do that on aproduction standpoint and you
can do that from a manpowerstandpoint.
But the one place you cannot dothat is in the financial sense.
I can sit here and say that,but I can also sit here and say
(46:43):
that I have done that, livingthrough it right now and being
unbankable and doing all thesecrazy things of being a part of
what a business owner is.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
But if you don't know what you don't know, just like
you said and there's a lot ofthings in this regard that I
still am learning and I'm stillhaving to learn the hard lesson,
yeah, and but I do want to takea minute to commend you on the
fact that, like you're willingto one switch providers right,
like people get so comfortable,I think, with like the CPA
they've been using forever, evenif the service isn't that great
, so the fact that you'rewilling to get what you want to
be paying for, you know what Imean Like the fact that you have
someone giving you professionalservices and you're willing to
(47:26):
like actually go out and chase.
What you think you need at thispoint is number one and number
two, that you're willing to dothe cleanup stuff right.
That, like you understand, thefoundation has to be good in
order to build the rest of thehouse.
So you're in the thick of thatright Of like digging out and
building that foundation andgetting good numbers, so then
you can move into the ability todo something like forecasting.
(47:50):
Because I'll tell you nowsomeone that hires me that has
terrible books.
I've had multiple conversationswhere, like people have said, I
haven't done my taxes, Ihaven't done my bookkeeping in
like two years and I'm like,till you get that cleaned up,
like just don't call't call meright, like I am not going to be
helpful to you if I don't havegood information.
So the fact that you're takingthe steps to get that in good
shape, you're facing that right,that vulnerability, that asking
(48:14):
for help like you, overcomethose mindset things and you're
in the right.
You're headed in the rightdirection.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Well, I'll tell you, because I built a house for the
crappy foundation and it blewover in the first windstorm and
I took on.
We've done a lot of work in ourlittle nine years and we've
done uh, we've done a lot, butat the same time it will always
come crumbling down.
I mean technically, that's.
What I do is civil construction, is foundation taking out the
bad but in the good, yeah.
And then it is just such asimple and it I think a lot of
guys in my shoes, just to befrank with you, get almost feel
(48:54):
completely ignorant when we'resitting across the table and a
lot of these conversations likeand just feel out just outright
dumb because we're like, how didwe not, how did we not do, why
what?
And it's like, but again, reachout, be vulnerable.
You are going to getembarrassed, you are going to
(49:16):
feel shame, but guess what?
You don't know, what you don'tknow.
Go find the right, comfortablerelationships, um, to help you
move forward, because the wrongones are only going to hold you
back and, if not, set youfurther back than where you're
at right now.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
Yeah, and listen.
I'm a business owner too, thereare things in my business.
Sure, I can analyze myfinancials all day, right, but I
can't necessarily do a greatjob at marketing, right.
So, like there's things in mybusiness, I'm not great at and
that's why I'm like, okay, canyou, someone needs to help me.
Like I hire out, I have people,I have people.
(49:54):
Teach me, okay, I'm gonnaengage you to help me with my
marketing.
All right, explain this to me,show the system to me, do all
the things.
Like I need education on it.
One and number two, I also needhelp.
Or like I just don't know howto do that stuff, and that's
okay.
I I'm not gonna be the jack ofall trades and I can't fulfill
every need.
If I think I'm gonna be like anormal human being, right, like
I can't do all the things, um,in 24 hours that I get for the
(50:20):
day, right, um, so it's justacknowledging that and that's
okay.
Right, like the finances to meis an expected one that you're
going to ask for help on, so itshouldn't be embarrassing and I
understand, though, because it'sespecially when you've been in
business for a long time there'sguys that sit across you, but I
should have known this.
Right, there's some shame andthere's some ego, and I know
(50:40):
that's a hard conversation tohave right when you are a good
collar guy, which usually youguys are a little rough around
the edges and like you don'twant to admit when you're wrong
and like all the things.
But guess what like?
The only way to make thisbetter is to figure out where
you are.
It's just like weight loss youcannot have a goal if you're not
willing to get on the scale andsee where you are today.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
And I think, honest to God, shout out to podcast
videos here because the ownerand myself were talking.
He's a mentor to myself andhe's like, hey, man, have you
ever?
This is about almost two yearsago.
He's like, hey, have you everheard about fractional HR?
And I'm like, wait a minute,what's fractional?
(51:22):
Like in my mind I didn't evenknow that there was fractional
HR.
And I'm like, wait a minute,what's fractional?
Like in my mind I didn't evenknow that there was fractional
HR.
Ladies, fractional CFOs,fractional project management.
Guys, like, there is these toolsand resources that are experts,
tried and true throughexperience of 20 years of
getting to where you know misslauren's at well, let her use
(51:46):
that for your business whereyou're at right now and start
today.
I'm telling you guys um, uh, Idon't know if I have, but if you
guys have loved this content.
Bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom um, don't know if I threw the
sponsorship, but today is we'regoing to do a post roll today,
(52:07):
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You'd love to be a sponsor hereon the Blue Collar Business
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Reach out to us on the website,become a sponsor tab and get in
touch with us there.
Um, I got to ask you the final,final question here.
(52:29):
Um, that maybe not the finalquestion, but I think we've
already talked about mindset somuch, but I ask everybody the
same question If you've listenedto a couple episodes.
But what's the takeaway for theblue collar guy and let's go
entrepreneur route that issitting there feeling that shame
and embarrassment?
What's his first couple ofsteps to getting out of that
(52:51):
stuck mindset and exactly wherehis position is?
Speaker 2 (52:56):
You have to really take a good hard look at why
you're doing this whole thing.
But if you're not willing toask for help and, to be honest,
I think you're going to have areally hard time in the
entrepreneurial world in generalif you're not building team.
If you think you can do it allyourself finances are the exact
same thing right.
It is just a member of yourteam that's going to help you
(53:18):
with a specific piece of it, andyou have to let go of the
personal tie that it's truly areflection of your identity.
It's not right.
You may have made some crappydecisions and guess what you're
going to learn from those,because we're going to figure
out what to do differently toreally improve profitability.
Get your hands around cash flowforecast.
Eliminate the stress like.
The other thing that peopledon't understand is the
(53:38):
intangible things that come frombeing comfortable with your
finances.
Uh, you know those of you havebeen wide awake at night
thinking how am I going to makepayroll this week?
Am I going to have to lay guysoff?
It is not a good feeling, it'snot.
And to be able to eliminatethat and to be able to be
comfortable that you've got theright process around your
financial reporting, you've gotthe right people engaged and you
(54:00):
truly have people on yourcorner is a level of comfort
that I can't even explain.
Speaker 1 (54:10):
Like and for that to replace the ego, it seems like a
no-brainer.
No-brainer, that's a.
That's a really good response.
And no, I would agree with you.
I can't tell you how manynights I have stared at the
ceiling going, well, lord, uh,what we're gonna do this month
there, feller and trusting andfacing in him, but going past
that as being a good steward,amen.
And you've got to figure outexactly what you're doing with
(54:33):
those finances.
And one thing you said that wetalked in intro is that you
wouldn't bore us with thefinancial talk, and so I've got
to say Is everyone asleep?
No, I doubt they are.
I bet you've rung a few guys'bells, honestly, just from the
way you sat there and describedand came out of the box as
(54:56):
unconventional as you are intoyour inward look of financials
and helping us.
Because the biggest strugglefor these guys I know you've
already seen it, but in myexperience to get past that
five-year mark, that three-yearmark.
These guys are good, honestguys.
They start out that way butthey get consumed by the
(55:18):
business piece that overwhelmsthem.
They do what they got to do toget out and then all of a sudden
they're not a thing anymore.
And that is the number onefocus.
I started this podcast was toshine light and things that I
have struggled with immensely toget where I'm at and to be real
and open and and raw about whatneeds to happen next.
(55:41):
And hopefully you guys havefound some value.
I know I have.
She got me kind of thinking ona couple of things, so if I'm
thinking, I bet they are too.
So I can't thank you enough forjoining us.
Where can we find you socially?
Website or go ahead.
Speaker 2 (55:57):
Yeah, website's the best bet because, honestly, on
my website you can actually booktime directly on my calendar.
Because if anyone's interestedin hearing a little more about
what fractional CFO services are, also, if you're looking for
recommendations.
The other thing I love doingwith people that I don't even
end up working with is like hey,lauren, I live in Georgia and I
really hate my tax account.
Do you know anybody down thereLike I love making connections,
(56:19):
even if you're not meant to workwith me and you're looking for
accounting support, whether it'sbookkeeping, whether it's
tax-related, or you really dowant to hear more about
fractional CFO work.
I'd love to chat.
Speaker 1 (56:30):
That's awesome.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Until next time, guys, you canfind the rest of our episode on
bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom orany podcast platform that you're
already streaming on.
You can watch from the websiteas well.
You don't have to have asubscription if you guys don't,
(56:51):
so don't be afraid there.
Ms Lauren, thank you so muchfor your time and I look forward
to it.
Speaker 2 (56:56):
Yeah, it was a pleasure, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (56:57):
Thank you, ma'am.
If you've enjoyed this episode,be sure to give it a like.
Share it with the fellers.
Check out our website to sendus any questions and comments
about your experience in theblue collar business.
Who do you want to hear from?
Send them our way and we'll doour best to answer any questions
you may have.
Till next time, guys.
Hey guys, welcome to the Blue Collar Business Podcast
, where we discuss the realest,rawest, most relevant stories
and strategies behind buildingevery corner of a blue collar
business.
I'm your host, cy Kirby, and Iwant to help you in what it took
me trial and error and a wholelot of money to learn the
information that no one in thisindustry is willing to share,
whether you're under that shadetree or have your hard hat on,
(00:30):
let's expand your toolbox.
Welcome back, guys, to anotherepisode of the Blue Collar
Business Podcast.
We have talked about manyvarious topics on this channel
so far, from continued educationto having different influencers
here, to engineers, to aviationengineers and handyman, but
(00:55):
today is a pretty excitinglittle opportunity for a lot of
you guys.
We have Ms Lauren Furtado, theunconventional CFO, correct?
I did say that, correct, right?
That is correct, okay, we aregoing to be discussing some
(01:15):
things that all of you guys andmyself need help with.
There is no doubt about it, andit's one of the main reasons I
started this whole podcast wasto connect ladies like herself
with the expertise andexperience that she has, but is
willing to actually explain andcome down to our level of.
(01:37):
Hey, this guy is an electrician, doesn't even know what P&L
acronym stands for yet, and sowe're going to go through some
of these number one mindsethurdles that we need to get over
as entrepreneurs so we can alsospeak the same language.
But something that Ms Laurenhas already expressed her
(01:57):
passion about, and that's cashflow and cash flow being king
and cash flow management, butalso how she's going to help us
in the world of forecasting.
Like that world for me is stillsuch a struggle to understand,
because we're just trying tomake it to the end of the month
a lot of times, you know, in theblue collar sense, especially
(02:17):
in the first five to seven years, or three years, if you make it
past that point.
So, and then, last but notleast, we're going to talk about
accountants in general, becauseI'm going to tell you guys a
little bit of my experience ofseveral accountants that I have
been through to get to where I'mat and why I'm looking into the
(02:40):
fractional CFO kind of route tohelp my accountant and how they
can supplement behind thescenes not waste one of your
payroll team members that maybedon't have all the knowledge.
Bring somebody in like MsLauren Furtado, the
unconventional CFO.
Thank you so much for joining.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Cy, you are the financial guru and actually guys
and it's so funny as we think,especially in the South New York
, you know, there's even alittle bit of a gap there for us
to you know, reach that upperechelon level of language
(03:22):
sometimes.
Know reach that upper echelonlevel of language sometimes.
So our brief intro call we had,we were discussing, literally
talking about where kind of thehistory of the struggle that I
have been through as a businessowner and you know, sarah, being
the ultimate CFO but not reallyknowing what a CFO is,
(03:44):
encompassed with all the burdenthat comes with the CFO position
.
But tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
Tell us a little bit aboutunconventional CFO and what you
do for these blue collar men andwomen.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah.
So I want to maybe just startwith the background on why it's
unconventional, cfo, and Ireally say that in two respects.
First is when you think of whata CPA is and looks like,
typically it's not me.
I am covered in tattoos, I'vegot my nose pierced right, I've
got my long dark hair, andyou're not thinking of a guy
(04:21):
with white hair behind his bigwooden desk with a sweater vest,
right.
So I think I just like to breakthe perception of what
accountants look like.
Number one, but also two, inthe way that we deliver our
service.
We were chatting earlier justabout really making the
information and the conceptsdigestible.
So I think that is very muchnot the norm in the accounting
(04:42):
world.
I think often business owners,especially in the blue collar
space, feel intimidated by someof the financial concepts and
it's unfortunate that that isnot backed in nothing right.
So I think that perception isaccurate of what some accounting
and finance focus do.
Right, they talk over you.
They say I've got it handledLike they don't actually take
(05:02):
the time from a client serviceperspective, to explain the
concepts and the impacts of yourdecisions on your financials.
That's another word driver onwhy we named it unconventional.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
CFO sector.
I mean, anytime you're thinkingfinance, immediately, why call
her?
There is this ginormous dividebetween our language level and
what we understand.
Hell, we're just trying to getenough work to keep our guys
busy and all the other littlethings that it takes to keep
(05:37):
this thing going.
But once you start actuallycompounding some work together
and then all of a sudden you'reout past your skis real quick
with all the money flooding inwhether it's flooding in or it's
not enough in a lot of casesand knowing where to start, and
somebody like yourself that iswilling to come on a show like
(06:01):
this, completely designated tothe blue collar sector of the
world, and go hey guys, I'm yourperson, I deal with um.
I.
I want to touch on one point,and where you were, the CPA is a
lot of the white haired woodendesk gavel thrower.
They want to tell us we're here, throw.
(06:27):
Or they want to tell us we'rehere, yep, but you need to be
here, sigh.
And that needs to be done byapril.
Have a good day and I'm likewell, just just build me a stair
stab, just give me a path, aplan of action, anything, please
.
And because it's our finances,it's our financial, like those
financial statements to you guysin the blue collar world are
everything, and let me tell youabout it from experience.
(06:50):
When you're providing crappyfinancials, you're going to get
the word no more than you'llever experience, and you're
going to turn people off by justlooking proper people that
understand a P&L, like Ms Lauren, but bringing you in to maybe
shape that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, often right, you're going to get no's from
banks when you're looking forfinancing.
You're not going to be able topurchase equipment.
You're not going to be able togrow your team.
You're going to get no onbonding right.
That's another one where they'relooking for your financials and
, if one, your bookkeeping ismessy or it's not up to date and
you can't clearly communicatekind of why certain things
(07:29):
happen in the finances of yourbusiness.
It becomes really difficult andI think, being support from a
continuing perspective for theclients that we serve, I'm able
to do that with them right.
Them feeling just the comfortof me being on a call with a
bunch of bankers that are askingquestions about even just
mid-year financials like hey,what's this from?
(07:50):
What is this?
Why this right?
So just having someone in yourcorner right to support you in
conversations that can feel veryintimidating when, like we
talked about before, I might noteven understand the difference
between my profit and my cash.
So often I hear like my P&Lisn't profitable but where's my
(08:11):
cash?
I'm having a hard time makingpeople right.
So like just to be able tobridge the gap on some of the
knowledge going into thoseconversations and then being
there to support I think is justsuch an intangible thing that
people don't realize just tobuild your confidence.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
It just makes a world of difference the confidence is
everything too, and it's like,do you?
I wish I would have slowed downand listened to sarah a little
bit I have no problem in sayingthat because if I knew the
importance of what the questionshe was, asking the right
questions, although she wasbeing guided the wrong direction
(08:47):
several different times and Igot to say that's a little bit
of the leading into kind of myfirst point of the day is that
mindset hurdle thatentrepreneurs face, business
owners and their financials,because they're're like I don't
want to bring anybody in, wefeel this embarrassment, this
(09:09):
shame, because we're, we'reexpected to know.
In a lot of conversations youhit two on the head bankers and
bonding and utility guys,excavation guys uh, we are
utilities, especially to liveand die by your bonding cap
aggregate of what the entire topline revenue, which equals,
(09:30):
obviously, if you're doingthings right job costing and
expense tracking, uh, profit atthe end of the year.
And the most important thing isdocumenting and knowing your
cost per job, per item.
And there was a lot of yearsthat I didn't know my cost.
I was just out there but I can'ttell you the amount of guys
(09:51):
that are in my shoes sittinghere going hey, that's me and
there's probably some guys goingwhat an idiot, but at least I'm
vulnerable enough to go.
Hey guys, this was me.
I need you to understand.
It's a lot of us out therebecause the mindset switch that
you, that you need to have frommy experience is, hey, you're
(10:13):
not in the business all the timeand by this point in my world
where I started feeling likethis is like I had to be out
there in the field and I had tobe up there and estimating and I
had to be everywhere.
I had to be out there in thefield and I had to be up there
and estimating and I had to beeverywhere.
But I was still just trying tostay in this, in the business
role, where you're comfortable.
Exactly, it's comfortable, right, but then nothing is growing.
(10:34):
Everything is dying becauseyou're not out here working on
the business and understandingand learning and engaging, while
your entire team is looking atyou going hey, dude, will you
just get it together please?
We're waiting up here.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
It's becoming the CEO , right, and it's not being a
doer.
It's not fulfilling the jobs,it's being able to manage team,
understand your finances, it'sall those things and that, I
think, is a big hurdle for guysthat have worked blue collar
businesses traditionally rightthat like when you're used to
spinning the tools.
That's where your comfort levelis.
(11:08):
It's hard to make that jumpinto that ceo level mentality of
like managing it in a verydifferent way.
Um, and it's interestingbecause you said vulnerability
and I always say it's like thefinancial nakedness, like I'm
asking you to expose it right,because your finances are a
reflection of all the decisionsyou've made right, even on a
personal basis.
(11:28):
If I said, sigh, show me yourcredit card statement right now,
you probably would cringe,you'd say lauren absolutely not.
You're gonna see that, like weordered pizza three times last
week and like I'm wasting moneyon 10 different subscriptions
that I probably don't even use,and like.
so it's just.
It's a matter of being able tolet go of any judgment, so
finding a professional you feellike really comfortable and that
(11:52):
you can trust with your numbersand that there's not going to
be judgment.
Right, it is what it is and forme, when you talked about the
steps you need in order to getto a certain point, the only way
that I can bridge the gap onwhere we are today and where you
want to be is by reallyunderstanding and have a good
understanding of the financialsand the habits that led up to
(12:13):
that, because I can't say Cy gocancel these five subscriptions
or only order pizza once a weekand then we can meet your goal.
If I don't understand some ofthat right, so it's being able
to be vulnerable with the goodand bad and anything in between
and just exposing it.
Like I have seen so manytransactions I've seen
(12:35):
bankruptcies of multi-billiondollar companies in my
experience, like I've seenthings go really badly but I've
also seen things go really well.
And on the less, you're willingto look at your numbers.
You have a glorified hobby I'msorry to tell you that, but like
if you are not in business, tojust spend your time and not do
anything with it, if you have nogoals of growth, of selling it
(12:57):
one day or passing it down toyour son or actually trying to
provide for your family and meetadditional goals, then you
don't even need to botherlooking at the numbers.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
The difference between entrepreneurs and
skilled business owners.
Business owners just do thething.
They just they're going throughthe flow.
Yeah, I've got the businessEntrepreneurs always trying to
build value within the businessitself and so that way that one
day they can either exit from it, give it to your son.
But you're right, I think I'lltell them myself.
(13:30):
I lost focus in last year withjust everything we went through.
Economically wise, there wasnobody's.
There was still companiesaround me doing just fine, don't
get me wrong.
There were larger companies but, um, it was extremely tough.
So for me to focus on the badduring the bad was even worse
(13:52):
for myself.
And the embarrassment because,like when my guys are broke, so
what?
Nobody knows that they can'ttune it until Friday and they
get a paycheck.
When the company's broke andthe owners are broke, everybody
knows it, everybody knows everysingle day, and it seems like it
(14:12):
just all hits at once.
And if you maybe had a cashflow management system to maybe
tell you when those spikes arecoming, you can prepare for that
, and that's things I've justlearned in the last year.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah, absolutely, and forecasting it's obviously not
a crystal ball right.
But, it can, directionally,kind of give you the indicators
on when you have inflows andoutflows happening.
Right, without cash flowforecasting, it is very hard to
make decisions alluded to before.
(14:53):
We hopped on about, like justbusinesses going out.
Um, the one of the biggestreasons that businesses go out
of business is because of badcash flow decisions.
Right, like I'm gonna buy thispiece of equipment or I'm gonna
hire this person like all of asudden, after a couple of months
, literally your cash isliquidated, that you have
nothing to show for, potentially, years of hard work.
So it's really unfortunate ifyou don't take the opportunity
to have someone help you buildthat cash flow, and it doesn't
(15:15):
have to be a fractional cfo,right if you're on the smaller
side.
To be honest, if you have thediscipline and accountability to
be able to do it yourself, youhave to have some ability to see
where you're going because,again, like we spend a ton of
time with our clients actuallydigging deep into your business
goals and your personal goals,when we do onboarding Cause it's
let's pull back the layersright Of like.
(15:37):
why do we want to have 10 Xrevenue by next year?
Right Like.
Help me understand the wisebehind it.
Right Like in it we can onlybreak it into like the steps and
the timing and like the thingsto do If we have the
understanding of like what thosethings are, to be able to put
it in the picture and we canscenario build.
Oh so you need to buy uh, youknow you're gonna need to do
(15:59):
like extra maintenance on theequipment next year and it's
gonna double that cost all right, plug it in.
All right, you want to hire, um, a new product manager?
All right, plug that right.
So it's again justunderstanding the impact of the
things before it's alreadyhappened.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
That's what we all want as business owners and
entrepreneurs.
We want to, especially whenthings are going bad.
Man, it rains, it feels likeevery little thing is all going
to come down on you all at once.
And then you look at the bankaccount.
You can't fix no problems and Ican't tell you how many times,
especially in the last fiveyears, I doubled my gross
(16:37):
revenue up until 24.
It was going great.
Again, I lost focus on thethings that I needed to be
focusing on Sales, being numberone and building a great sales
team.
I thought utility andestimation guys, we don't need a
sales team, we just need anestimator.
He can handle it all right.
No, no, I was asking a lot outof one individual.
(17:00):
And now I've built a team andthe sales is just completely,
completely game changer in 12months.
And production that was thenext thing to meet up to the
production level.
But you know what they bothneed.
They need those numbers of whatthey're actually producing.
If we don't get that back tothe right people, the right
(17:21):
system, we're not billing for it, we miss a billing.
That's a huge, altogether bigdeal right per project.
But the accounting side ofthings is always from my
experience and hopefully I'mspeaking for a lot of business
owners we immediately hand thatoff to oh, my spouse can handle
(17:42):
it.
And I'm going to tell on Saraha little bit here.
She has done incredible with ahigh school education.
She's not an accountant.
I'm not an accountant.
We are not financial people.
I am a dirt and pipe guy.
That is what I am.
And then so then you take onthis CEO title and you're like
oh well, I'm going to make allthese decisions now with
(18:02):
absolutely zero experience otherthan being a dirt and pipe guy
and then being too prideful toreach out to somebody like
yourself and go, hey, I need alittle help.
But to what you're doing aswell with Unconventional CFO is
be willing and open and go, hey,I just really want to work with
these contractor guys.
(18:23):
Speak a little bit on that.
Why you just number one?
Because of our open mindset.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
I can understand, but there's a lot of walls we put
yeah, but I also what I loveabout most of you guys are your
action takers right.
So, like, if we have a call andI say, sigh, this month, these
are the action items that needto get done.
Like, once you understand itand once you can wrap your head
around it, it's go time right,like you're hard working and
(18:49):
like you're willing to do thethings.
I um, candidly, personality wise, being from the Northeast, like
I'm a no BS person, like Idon't need to be on the other
end of like some woman that ownsa coaching business, that like
is indecisive and like uh likeexcuses, I don't deal well with
that.
So for me, I love the fact thatit's like all right now that I
(19:13):
know what to do, I'm gonna goget it.
Um, so for me, like that's sucha big thing.
Um, the other thing too I knowwe started talking about cash
flow, but it's, there's such aneed with the cash flow issues
to like get a good system inplace and like also process.
The other thing I bring from aperspective is like hey, what
(19:35):
technology can we use to fixthis?
Like I've seen guys still doingstuff on paper.
I've seen inefficiencies withlike even a spouse doing some
level of bookkeeping where it'slike, well, let's, I'm going to
teach you how to set the rulesso you don't even have to touch
the transaction anymore, right?
So, like just being able to seeopportunities and
inefficiencies of what goes on.
(19:55):
I think there's such a bigopportunity to save people time
so they can focus on chasingrevenue, not on categorizing
expenses and low level stuff.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Everything you're speaking on, like we're sitting
here, I'm sitting here goinglike, well, yeah, duh, you know
because it sounds so, I don'teven know what the word is for
it, but I, I encourage you guysthat are in that three to seven
year mark, as you're buildingwhatever business that you may
be in.
Guys, you're not a cfo, you arenot a ceo.
(20:29):
Yet there is people out, youare, you are.
You put yourself in thatposition, big dog, and it's up
to you, man or woman, to go out,research, find people that
build comfortable relationshipsthat unteach you.
And I will tell you straight upfrom my experience with the
financial side I have trustedthe wrong folks.
(20:51):
We didn't even get to cash flowmanagement or any proactive
system.
It was all reactionary toeverything, every question that
I had, and I'm like, why are younot telling me this information
?
I thought I trust you to justpay the tax, man, I guess.
(21:11):
And there's no strategy,there's no process.
You know.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah.
So let's dive into thedifferent accountants.
I know we probably had thattranslated in the conversation,
but let's dive into that becauseit was such a good lead of.
Like I always say, first let'stalk about CPAs.
I am one, but I like todescribe CPAs just like a
medical degree.
We all have passed somethinglike the boards, but then we all
(21:40):
have specialties.
So as a CPA, I actually do nottax work.
It's interesting because peopleoften say I need a CPA.
Usually that means I needsomeone to do my taxes.
But I will say CPAs havedifferent specialties.
Understanding your need versusa title is what I always
encourage people.
So, there are some basic needsin your organization, no matter
(22:04):
your size, that you are going toneed.
And let's talk about tax first,right Tax compliance.
You have to have your returndone.
You need to make sure payrolltaxes are getting remitted,
anything sales tax and then,beyond, just tax compliance.
That is just like my stuff isfiled, things are getting paid.
Tax planning and strategy arealways what I encourage.
(22:25):
Planning for sure, that is,having conversations before the
end of the year to understand,like, well, what's my liability
going to be, so I can eitherplan to spend more money this
year or I want to show someprofit because I'm going to go
to the banks looking for lendingright, and that's hard to do if
I'm showing a loss year afteryear.
Yeah, so just having aconversation from tax planning
(22:47):
before you get your tax billbefore the end of the year,
where it's too late.
And then strategy is reallyright, the stuff that gets hype
on social media.
But, like, once you get to acertain size, making sure that
you elected to be like an s corp, you can hire your kids right.
There's the Augusta rule.
There's a number of differentthings from a strategy when,
like, you're in a position whereyou really want to minimize tax
and you're willing to put insome work, invest in someone
(23:10):
helping you to do that that'sthe tax piece.
Now let's talk accounting andkind of the management of your
finances.
On a regular basis at a minimum, you need a bookkeeper.
I'm not saying you have to hireone.
It could be your wife, it couldbe your cousin, it could be
someone that lives overseas anddoes it at a very low rate, it
(23:31):
could be someone you have inyour office.
It can be whatever you envisionit to be right.
So, but having someone whounderstands enough about your
business in your industry andwhether they're willing to learn
it, because there's someonewho's going to be in-house with
you full-time or going to besomeone you're looking for
externally.
Again, I I always recommendsomeone who has done your type
(23:55):
of business construction.
Businesses are very differentthan working on I don't know a
SaaS company, a retail client.
It's just nuanced and you wantsomebody who understands how you
need to analyze your financialsso they can prepare your
financials on a regular basisfor you to be able to review.
(24:15):
The other thing maybe, just aswe're talking bookkeeping, I
just want to encourage frequency, right?
I don't want a bookkeeper tocome in once a year and like
clean it up and just look atthem annually.
I want them to close my booksevery single month so I have the
ability to look in my businessand actually make decisions.
Because if I'm waiting even aquarter, that's three months of
information.
(24:36):
That, like I can't react twomonths ago.
It's really hard to continuallymake decisions if I don't
understand where I have been ona regular basis.
So I just want to encourageregular bookkeeping.
If it's not being done weekly,at least monthly.
Close the book so we have someinformation.
So the bookkeeper is one.
Two is an accountant.
(24:57):
Right, some people need these,some people don't, but those are
people who, potentially, aredoing your AP, processing
payroll, doing some of the liketransaction-type stuff that's
not just lurking like withinyour GL, whether it's QuickBooks
Online or whatever systemyou're using to do your
bookkeeping.
And the accountant can beengaged too to help with AR
(25:20):
things like that accountreconciliations.
So that's number two.
You can also have layers inbetween.
Right, can I have a controller,when I get to a certain size,
that manages your accountingteam?
Sure, but we're going to skipthat for purposes of this
discussion.
But where we talk about CFO, Ialways want people to understand
that's executive level, that is, someone who is focused, like
(25:43):
you said, of the thing you weremissing was forecasting,
strategy advice and, candidly,when you are a a smaller
business, you don't need thisperson full-time, right?
I love the fractional model andI love that, like, people are
just becoming more aware of itbecause it gives you the
advantage of having advice fromsomeone who has such experience
(26:07):
in the market serving, in myexperience, multi-billion dollar
corporations for two decades.
Right, if I were to go get afull-time job, it's going to
cost multiple six figures forsomeone to hire me full-time.
But you get my expertise foryour business at your level for
a fee, a fraction of the cost,right, like.
So it's just a great modelbecause you get expertise you
(26:29):
wouldn't normally, until you getto like 50 million dollars in
revenue when I actually needsomeone full time.
So I just want to encouragepeople to think about the level
of expertise, and there's alldifferent CFOs out there.
People may have worked in FP&A,they may have worked in
corporate.
There's a number of differentexperience levels that you're
(26:52):
going to find with CFOs, butthat's where the trust thing
comes into.
I encourage anybody looking forCFOs to really find someone who
still has experience in theirindustry, but someone you really
have a relationship with,because we're going to have some
hard conversations.
Right, I'm going to say aside.
We didn't talk about thistransaction and you did it and
there's nothing we can do aboutit.
So now we got to figure out thepath forward Right.
(27:13):
So like having hardconversations but also
celebrating the wins, and likeit's such an intimate
relationship because I amlooking at your decisions, I am
looking at your numbers, I'masking you about how your
personal goals fit into yourbusiness goals.
I'm going to ask about yourfamily dynamics.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
I'm going to ask about all sorts of things that
might feel uncomfortable butalso like, just are so helpful
for a blue collar guy.
We're just thinking, oh, I needsomebody to handle my books.
I need what is it?
What does that even mean?
Like, and you just broke downthe bookkeeping level.
That's what you need.
You need a book keeper, youneed somebody to close that
(28:06):
month out.
You need somebody to enterexpenses, enter deposits.
Hopefully it reconciles at theend of the month, but past that
everything else could befractional from there.
So I would highly suggest youget somebody, just like Ms
(28:27):
Lauren just said, with someexperienced expertise.
That's word to word negativenegative there, but anyways,
experience in your field,because instruction is so
different and it's looking forthe need, right.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
So instead of saying I need a CFO, maybe it's saying
like, hey, I own, I'm a GC andI'm looking for strategic
partnership with financialsright?
Or I own a landscaping business.
I really need someone that canhelp with my bookkeeping, right?
So like seeking it in themarket in a way that clearly
communicates your need, versuslike the person, because then I
(29:09):
think it just becomes harder tolike really find the person
you're looking for.
So I always say, like expressthe need and then you can find,
ultimately, who fits.
That.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
It might be a CPA, it might not, and a lot of times,
guys I'll just again beingpretty vulnerable here I've had
a extremely rough relationshipwith the last two or three CPAs
gone through.
I feel comfortable with the onethat we've landed on now.
That now actually hasexperience funny, you might say
(29:41):
that with my specific industry.
And so it actually was worsethat I was trending with these
people because we were trendingin the exact opposite direction.
Like I just said, it wasreactionary, there was no
proactiveness.
But just like you guys you knowexcavation guys some of you
(30:04):
guys may go out and dig cable.
Some of you guys may go out anddo waterline Like I'm a utility
guy, I do water insurance,storm drain, but I don't do
anything with cable.
Do I have the same equipment tobe able to put cable in the
ground?
Absolutely, but it is a totallydifferent sector of my industry
that I don't have experience in.
So, just like to your pointthat bookkeeping, that's pretty
(30:27):
general knowledge and we can getsomebody trained up or get them
with somebody that you trustand have a comfortable
relationship at that.
Whether it's a executive levelor whoever that may be, I would
highly suggest that it'ssomebody with the expertise to
train from day one at that yeartwo mark, like.
I know a lot of you guys aresitting there going oh, they may
(30:49):
even just scroll right by us.
I'm not ready for that.
A cfo and I'm like guys, dude, Iwish I could go back five or
six years and concentrate andfind a miss lauren that would
come in and go hey, what do wereally need this 85 000 pound
excavator?
Before you sign your name to it, like, uh, can you show me
(31:10):
contractually where you're goingto use this machine eight
months out of the year and havethe absolute need?
I need those challenges, andyou guys do too.
You need somebody challengingyou because if not, you're just
going to have short-term goalsand short-term fail.
Because you have to have thatmentorship.
That's somebody to go to andget advice.
(31:32):
Sometimes it's going to beworse than uh, than you know
that you would expect.
Sometimes it's going to be aflat no Um.
But I think what I was hearingfrom you just a minute ago, that
a lot of these clients just goahead and do those decisions and
then go hey, how are we goingto fix this?
Speaker 2 (31:49):
Yeah, and I think it's having the ability to give
them a tool to see what theimpact is before they do it and
getting them to use it Right.
So, like we're going to investall this time building a
cashflow forecast, well, I'mgoing to teach you how to use it
, even when you're not on thephone with me.
So before you do that, like goin and plug in the number in
(32:10):
that cell and understand whathappens exactly with your cash
balance over time when you dothat.
So it's being able to equippeople with implementing the
review of the impact prior tothe decision being made.
And I think it's just gettingthem accustomed to using that
(32:31):
tool.
And it's so powerful.
And I just recently onboarded aclient where it was like he said
I can't believe you weren'tdoing this before.
And I said you can't beatyourself up, you don't know what
you don't know.
Right, but bring it alltogether.
And I think the hard partsometimes to depending on your
structure is like, well, I'minvesting all this money in this
(32:52):
system like Procore orfoundations, or whatever I'm
using to do.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Don't say that word.
That's a no, no word in myworld.
Oh my God, go on about them.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
But, right, like, I still don't feel like I have the
capabilities to see thereporting that I truly need, so
it's just being able to come inand like bring it all together
for you guys.
That I think is so impactful,to like listen, sure you guys
can transact, do estimating anddo job costing and wherever, but
like being able to bring thatall together so you can
understand the big picture isn'talways done and, again, if you
(33:27):
don't understand or bringsomebody in who's going to
explain that to you, it's reallyunfortunate.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
I think that's where you're obviously striving to be
different.
It's not a hey, let me handleall of this.
And you probably have clientsthat are like that and do one
quarter, one meeting, a quarter,et cetera.
But then you probably also haveclients that you talk to almost
every day probably and that areneeding that guidance and are
(33:54):
needing I still need taught on alot of the things at the
executive level that I stilldon't quite understand.
Don't get me wrong, that Istill don't quite understand.
Don't get me wrong.
Education is expensive andexperience is priceless.
And me going through andlearning those mistakes without
having some type of forecast andstill to this day, I've got a
small budget, but do I have thisforecasted plan?
(34:15):
Guys, I'm not sitting in frontof you acting like I got
everything that's coming out ofher mouth.
I'm learning with you, guys,like I'm nine years into this
and as a company, we arecompletely overhauling our
financial and our awareness, tax, consult, all of it,
bookkeeping, everything.
But it takes a few of thoseeducation lessons.
(34:39):
If you're not going to jump outthere in year two or year three
and start this system and avoidthose, I would highly suggest
you do that.
But if not, you are going tolearn with your own money and
pay for a very hard knockededucation.
That could be avoided, but Ithink that's the big difference.
That I'm hearing is like I'venever had anybody in the
(35:00):
financial world go hey Cy.
Anybody in the financial worldgo hey Cy.
Well, other than my CPA thatwe've been working with not too
long sat there with my P&L.
He's a fairly highly regardedman and doesn't have much time.
It's very boom, boom, boom.
He sat there for two hours,went through my P&L and balance
sheet and asked questions andcircled this.
(35:21):
Wanted to know the.
Just like you're saying, hey,where's this coming from?
Why is this here?
Do you even know what this is?
No, I don't, and I can honestlysay yes, I know how to write a
P&L and a balance sheet.
It may not be the results thatI want, but do I know how to fix
the information on that balancesheet?
You know, to get me where Iwant to go is the biggest
(35:43):
question of all, and most of thetime, guys don't feel bad.
You're not going to know how.
Neither do I.
That's why I'm sitting herehaving this conversation.
I've gone to a fourth CPA innine years that actually has
expertise in what I do.
So that's that I encourage youto.
Um, I mean client level.
(36:04):
Ms Lauren, where are you?
Obviously you've been up hereat the upper echelon, but your
main contractor that you'reworking with is that 100K a year
?
Is that a million a year?
Where's that range for theseguys that are listening?
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Yeah, so we always preach that everyone can benefit
from a CFO.
I will say it's not like likeyou said.
People might scroll past this,will say it's not like you said.
People might scroll past thisand say I'm not ready for that.
Right, that's wrong, that'sactually wrong 100%, so everyone
can benefit.
Now, the frequency may bedifferent depending on your size
and complexity.
So I'll say, for smallerbusinesses in the six-figure
(36:38):
range, I'll do a one-timeservice and it'll be okay.
Hey, lauren, like I've got mybooks cleaned up, like I really
need to build a forecast, canyou help me?
Sure, I'm gonna meet with youone-on-one.
We build the forecast, I'mgonna teach you how to use it,
but you gotta go do it becauseyou can't afford, right, so
candidly.
Yeah, and it's to be honest,when you're that size, you don't
have as much complexity withmeeting me as frequent as you do
(37:03):
, right?
So it's getting that in placeand like, as you start to grow,
just there's more growing pains.
You've got more team, you'vegot more systems, you've got
more um issues that just come upright.
So it's just um, when you're onthe smaller side, even just once
a year, and that one-timeservice I do with people, it
really depends on what theirneed is.
A lot on looking at pricingright, can we look?
(37:25):
At us can we look at biddinglike are we profitable?
Like does this make sense?
And when you're only looking atgross margin, you're not
looking at your overhead costs,like really looking at them, not
just like guessing?
Oh well, I think 20% makessense.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Like guess what you're wrong, you're wrong, I am
the guy sometimes you needsomeone to show you that right.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
So, like I've had those conversations as well.
So just making surefoundationally some things are
set, because if you have goalsto grow your revenue guess what
that margin issue doesn't goaway, just becomes a lot bigger
and your cash runs out veryquick with, like, bigger jobs
that you're accepting oh so thatI would say for the smaller
(38:06):
right again, like maybe once ayear and specifically focused,
but you have to make sure thatyou're going to use whatever
tool we spend time on.
Um.
I do have quarterly clients, um, that fall kind of in the
million to three million dollarrange from an annual revenue
standpoint, um, and that iswhere, again, they're not huge
but like still need some advice.
(38:27):
They're not making decisions asfrequently typically when we go
that route or they're like youknow we're having the
bookkeeping done, we know how tolook at the reports and like
the reports that we provide arereal time so they can go on at
any point in time and look at itthemselves, right, but like
okay, our meetings just aren'tas frequent.
It's you know more informationto review on a quarterly basis
(38:49):
in terms of what's happened.
But, um, you know again, likejust that that revenue mark not
as complex, but if you're growthminded and you're growth driven
and you're going to get up tokind of where the sweet spot is,
that I say it's between threeand $50 million of annual
revenue, that I think you needsomeone who is engaged each
month and we talk, as you saidbefore, more than monthly,
(39:12):
that's for sure.
We have a monthly dashboardreview of the financials.
That's pretty formal, but, likeevery other week, we're having
conversations and, to be honest,we're on Slack, they're
emailing me, calling me andthey're not treating me as a
full-time employee.
But at the same time, whenthere's urgent things that need
to be handled uh, really tofinance I'm not going to ignore
it, right.
Just because I'm yourfractional cfo doesn't mean that
(39:33):
, like, I'm going to leave youon your own to deal with
something that I really do needto be involved with um and then,
beyond that, it's like youreally need somebody full time,
right?
So when you get to that like 50and beyond million dollar mark,
like you probably need to go outand hire an actual CFO that
works for you full time and sitsin the office.
And that's always the goal forme is like, either get them to
(39:56):
like exit or whatever goal theyhave long term, or get them
where they need a full time CFOand help them hire that person
Right.
Like what are you looking for?
What are the attributes?
Is there anyone I can recommend?
So like, for me, it's alwaysget them to the point where they
don't need me anymore.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
That's what I hear a lot of from the good ones.
I want to work myself out of ajob.
And how do you do that?
And that's just teaching.
That's, hey, entrepreneurs.
That's opening these big thingson the side of your heads and
listening to what they're saying.
They're not, I promise youthey're not wrong.
I have sat across many tablesmany times and go, oh, that's
(40:36):
not, there's no way.
And then make up somerealization justification that's
completely fabricated, to makemyself feel okay about the
insecurity of you seeing this.
And I have done it.
I can't tell you how many times, but you're not going to get
any better not holding yourselfaccountable.
(40:57):
How, as a business owner, theonly way you know you're making
money is overviewing the P&L,the balance sheet, monthly per
project.
I know I may be going a littlefurther in depth, but when you
get past that five-year mark,you really got to start job
costing per job per project.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
I would encourage you to do it before then Even
before that, yes, of course,from day one.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
I, I'm sorry that would be coming from your side
of the screen but over here inreal world.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
If you don't have a whip report and you're actually
monitoring it like that'sanother thing.
We're going to spend a lot oftime on a what a whip report a
whip report tell us about it ohmy god, so I'm gonna send it to
you.
Here's the template tell theaccountant that you have to go
do it, okay.
Yeah, it literally is lookingat your job progress again, like
(41:47):
depending on the functionalityof your system.
A lot of it happens in whateversystem you're using to do
costing and to actually likemanage that.
But a document that shows everysingle job, it's a job cash
flow, basically it's going toshow what you've invoiced, what
percentage complete you are, ifthere's overbidding, like just
really mapping out.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Okay, when you're invoicing.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
When are we collecting that money?
Like if we have overbid.
We can clearly see it.
Like how are we invoicing?
Is it based on actual costs oris it based on percentage?
Complete, like just being ableto see the whole picture from a
job perspective and monitor thatvery closely yeah, that is
called a, what we would call anunder billing, over billing
(42:33):
that's part of it, right so?
like under and over billingreports out of the system to
feed into this whip report,because it's got just all the
different components put in.
Because I'm with you, right,like over under billing is
showing obviously snapshot intime of where you are in voice
versus total job contract.
Um, but again, like justbringing in the cost component
(42:54):
and really being able to analyzeagain the cash flows and how
those come in as well.
Um, so you can analyze it andthe biggest benefit, because you
probably go in job by job, thatis important.
But understanding how all thejobs fit together is such a big
piece too.
Because guess what, when Istart one big commercial job and
I have to outlay six weeks ofpayroll costs before I see a
(43:17):
dime, that's a problem.
If I have another big jobthat's starting in the same
month as well, right, so likejust being able to say yes and
saying no to jobs too, rightlike you don't have that picture
, you don't have the ability toreally make the decisions.
Um, and sometimes the shinything seems exciting, but at the
end of the day, like can youactually afford to do it?
Speaker 1 (43:38):
I am telling you it would be so I don't even know
the word.
Refreshing to be able to seethat and I can tell on myself
and go no, we don't have a WIPreport in place and it sounds
like we absolutely need to.
And from this conversation, Imight actually benefit in a
(43:59):
quick regard there.
But, yeah, knowing, yeah,overbilling, underbilling like
even most CPAs last three CPAs Ijust learned what an
overbilling, underbilling all ofthat is.
I'm nine years in right, andthis CPA is like what do you
mean?
You don't know whatunderbilling, overbilling is.
This is like this is like yourold document to go to the
(44:21):
banquets and um, so Like this islike your old document to go to
the banquets and so.
But what I was trying to get atis I'm finally in a regard where
they know the constructionbasis, from estimation to
production to accounting, and itall ties together Like we even
speak the same language.
Hey, you're a contractor, go bea contractor, let me be an
accountant.
(44:41):
And hey, I need thisinformation from the field into
the admin team so the admin teamcan get that into accounting as
quickly as possible Footages,production rates, material, job,
all of that.
But that's like one first pieceof the puzzle that so many
don't ever even get to is theproject management role of.
(45:02):
It's not about work you can doc.
It's not about work you can doc.
It's not about work you can do.
It's about work you candocument you've done and getting
that documentation in real timemoving through the whole kit
and caboodle to get to you, soyou can give us the answer yeah,
absolutely, and the only wayyou can react to that right is
if you've got your team doingand honoring your basis.
Speaker 2 (45:22):
So, like implementing some process changes, if they
need to happen, and themunderstanding.
The impact of communicationwith team is always kind of key,
like guys.
This is why this is important.
It might feel annoying but likeI need you to go in and update
this stuff so I can react.
I can have conversations umabout additional bills or, you
know, talking to suppliers aboutmaterial costs, whatever.
(45:43):
It is right, like there's onlyone way that you can react and
that's if they're doing ittimely change orders.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
How can you adjust for change orders?
How do you know how much gravelyou've actually used?
If you don't even.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Yeah, I was there, it was such a thing people want is
a last minute surprise.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Oh my god, and it's and you're thinking in your head
because I was for years, ohI'll just.
The last thing people want is alast minute surprise.
Oh my God, and it's.
And you're thinking in yourhead cause I was for years, oh
I'll just.
Well, obviously, this, this isgoing to cost this, here's your
bill.
And they're like oh no, uh, howabout not?
Do you have written approval?
Do you have this?
Do you have that?
And so there's so many lessonsto be learned, and especially as
(46:22):
you grow so quickly and you getout in front of your
overextended in your skis.
But you can do that on aproduction standpoint and you
can do that from a manpowerstandpoint.
But the one place you cannot dothat is in the financial sense.
I can sit here and say that,but I can also sit here and say
(46:43):
that I have done that, livingthrough it right now and being
unbankable and doing all thesecrazy things of being a part of
what a business owner is.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
But if you don't know what you don't know, just like
you said and there's a lot ofthings in this regard that I
still am learning and I'm stillhaving to learn the hard lesson,
yeah, and but I do want to takea minute to commend you on the
fact that, like you're willingto one switch providers right,
like people get so comfortable,I think, with like the CPA
they've been using forever, evenif the service isn't that great
, so the fact that you'rewilling to get what you want to
be paying for, you know what Imean Like the fact that you have
someone giving you professionalservices and you're willing to
(47:26):
like actually go out and chase.
What you think you need at thispoint is number one and number
two, that you're willing to dothe cleanup stuff right.
That, like you understand, thefoundation has to be good in
order to build the rest of thehouse.
So you're in the thick of thatright Of like digging out and
building that foundation andgetting good numbers, so then
you can move into the ability todo something like forecasting.
(47:50):
Because I'll tell you nowsomeone that hires me that has
terrible books.
I've had multiple conversationswhere, like people have said, I
haven't done my taxes, Ihaven't done my bookkeeping in
like two years and I'm like,till you get that cleaned up,
like just don't call't call meright, like I am not going to be
helpful to you if I don't havegood information.
So the fact that you're takingthe steps to get that in good
shape, you're facing that right,that vulnerability, that asking
(48:14):
for help like you, overcomethose mindset things and you're
in the right.
You're headed in the rightdirection.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
Well, I'll tell you, because I built a house for the
crappy foundation and it blewover in the first windstorm and
I took on.
We've done a lot of work in ourlittle nine years and we've
done uh, we've done a lot, butat the same time it will always
come crumbling down.
I mean technically, that's.
What I do is civil construction, is foundation taking out the
bad but in the good, yeah.
And then it is just such asimple and it I think a lot of
guys in my shoes, just to befrank with you, get almost feel
(48:54):
completely ignorant when we'resitting across the table and a
lot of these conversations likeand just feel out just outright
dumb because we're like, how didwe not, how did we not do, why
what?
And it's like, but again, reachout, be vulnerable.
You are going to getembarrassed, you are going to
(49:16):
feel shame, but guess what?
You don't know, what you don'tknow.
Go find the right, comfortablerelationships, um, to help you
move forward, because the wrongones are only going to hold you
back and, if not, set youfurther back than where you're
at right now.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
Yeah, and listen.
I'm a business owner too, thereare things in my business.
Sure, I can analyze myfinancials all day, right, but I
can't necessarily do a greatjob at marketing, right.
So, like there's things in mybusiness, I'm not great at and
that's why I'm like, okay, canyou, someone needs to help me.
Like I hire out, I have people,I have people.
(49:54):
Teach me, okay, I'm gonnaengage you to help me with my
marketing.
All right, explain this to me,show the system to me, do all
the things.
Like I need education on it.
One and number two, I also needhelp.
Or like I just don't know howto do that stuff, and that's
okay.
I I'm not gonna be the jack ofall trades and I can't fulfill
every need.
If I think I'm gonna be like anormal human being, right, like
I can't do all the things, um,in 24 hours that I get for the
(50:20):
day, right, um, so it's justacknowledging that and that's
okay.
Right, like the finances to meis an expected one that you're
going to ask for help on, so itshouldn't be embarrassing and I
understand, though, because it'sespecially when you've been in
business for a long time there'sguys that sit across you, but I
should have known this.
Right, there's some shame andthere's some ego, and I know
(50:40):
that's a hard conversation tohave right when you are a good
collar guy, which usually youguys are a little rough around
the edges and like you don'twant to admit when you're wrong
and like all the things.
But guess what like?
The only way to make thisbetter is to figure out where
you are.
It's just like weight loss youcannot have a goal if you're not
willing to get on the scale andsee where you are today.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
And I think, honest to God, shout out to podcast
videos here because the ownerand myself were talking.
He's a mentor to myself andhe's like, hey, man, have you
ever?
This is about almost two yearsago.
He's like, hey, have you everheard about fractional HR?
And I'm like, wait a minute,what's fractional?
(51:22):
Like in my mind I didn't evenknow that there was fractional
HR.
And I'm like, wait a minute,what's fractional?
Like in my mind I didn't evenknow that there was fractional
HR.
Ladies, fractional CFOs,fractional project management.
Guys, like, there is these toolsand resources that are experts,
tried and true throughexperience of 20 years of
getting to where you know misslauren's at well, let her use
(51:46):
that for your business whereyou're at right now and start
today.
I'm telling you guys um, uh, Idon't know if I have, but if you
guys have loved this content.
Bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom um, don't know if I threw the
sponsorship, but today is we'regoing to do a post roll today,
(52:07):
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You'd love to be a sponsor hereon the Blue Collar Business
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Reach out to us on the website,become a sponsor tab and get in
touch with us there.
Um, I got to ask you the final,final question here.
(52:29):
Um, that maybe not the finalquestion, but I think we've
already talked about mindset somuch, but I ask everybody the
same question If you've listenedto a couple episodes.
But what's the takeaway for theblue collar guy and let's go
entrepreneur route that issitting there feeling that shame
and embarrassment?
What's his first couple ofsteps to getting out of that
(52:51):
stuck mindset and exactly wherehis position is?
Speaker 2 (52:56):
You have to really take a good hard look at why
you're doing this whole thing.
But if you're not willing toask for help and, to be honest,
I think you're going to have areally hard time in the
entrepreneurial world in generalif you're not building team.
If you think you can do it allyourself finances are the exact
same thing right.
It is just a member of yourteam that's going to help you
(53:18):
with a specific piece of it, andyou have to let go of the
personal tie that it's truly areflection of your identity.
It's not right.
You may have made some crappydecisions and guess what you're
going to learn from those,because we're going to figure
out what to do differently toreally improve profitability.
Get your hands around cash flowforecast.
Eliminate the stress like.
The other thing that peopledon't understand is the
(53:38):
intangible things that come frombeing comfortable with your
finances.
Uh, you know those of you havebeen wide awake at night
thinking how am I going to makepayroll this week?
Am I going to have to lay guysoff?
It is not a good feeling, it'snot.
And to be able to eliminatethat and to be able to be
comfortable that you've got theright process around your
financial reporting, you've gotthe right people engaged and you
(54:00):
truly have people on yourcorner is a level of comfort
that I can't even explain.
Speaker 1 (54:10):
Like and for that to replace the ego, it seems like a
no-brainer.
No-brainer, that's a.
That's a really good response.
And no, I would agree with you.
I can't tell you how manynights I have stared at the
ceiling going, well, lord, uh,what we're gonna do this month
there, feller and trusting andfacing in him, but going past
that as being a good steward,amen.
And you've got to figure outexactly what you're doing with
(54:33):
those finances.
And one thing you said that wetalked in intro is that you
wouldn't bore us with thefinancial talk, and so I've got
to say Is everyone asleep?
No, I doubt they are.
I bet you've rung a few guys'bells, honestly, just from the
way you sat there and describedand came out of the box as
(54:56):
unconventional as you are intoyour inward look of financials
and helping us.
Because the biggest strugglefor these guys I know you've
already seen it, but in myexperience to get past that
five-year mark, that three-yearmark.
These guys are good, honestguys.
They start out that way butthey get consumed by the
(55:18):
business piece that overwhelmsthem.
They do what they got to do toget out and then all of a sudden
they're not a thing anymore.
And that is the number onefocus.
I started this podcast was toshine light and things that I
have struggled with immensely toget where I'm at and to be real
and open and and raw about whatneeds to happen next.
(55:41):
And hopefully you guys havefound some value.
I know I have.
She got me kind of thinking ona couple of things, so if I'm
thinking, I bet they are too.
So I can't thank you enough forjoining us.
Where can we find you socially?
Website or go ahead.
Speaker 2 (55:57):
Yeah, website's the best bet because, honestly, on
my website you can actually booktime directly on my calendar.
Because if anyone's interestedin hearing a little more about
what fractional CFO services are, also, if you're looking for
recommendations.
The other thing I love doingwith people that I don't even
end up working with is like hey,lauren, I live in Georgia and I
really hate my tax account.
Do you know anybody down thereLike I love making connections,
(56:19):
even if you're not meant to workwith me and you're looking for
accounting support, whether it'sbookkeeping, whether it's
tax-related, or you really dowant to hear more about
fractional CFO work.
I'd love to chat.
Speaker 1 (56:30):
That's awesome.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Until next time, guys, you canfind the rest of our episode on
bluecollarbusinesspodcastcom orany podcast platform that you're
already streaming on.
You can watch from the websiteas well.
You don't have to have asubscription if you guys don't,
(56:51):
so don't be afraid there.
Ms Lauren, thank you so muchfor your time and I look forward
to it.
Speaker 2 (56:56):
Yeah, it was a pleasure, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (56:57):
Thank you, ma'am.
If you've enjoyed this episode,be sure to give it a like.
Share it with the fellers.
Check out our website to sendus any questions and comments
about your experience in theblue collar business.
Who do you want to hear from?
Send them our way and we'll doour best to answer any questions
you may have.
Till next time, guys.
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