August 27, 2025 • 15 mins
Think cash flow forecasting is just a fancy spreadsheet exercise? Think again.
In this episode, we’re digging into why cash flow forecasting is one of the most powerful leadership tools in your creative business—and how it gives you permission to plan, not panic.
From knowing when you can afford to hire or invest to making sure you don’t underpay yourself “just in case,” forecasting helps you grow with confidence (and sleep better at night).
Whether you’ve got monthly retainers or variable income, this episode breaks down how to use your numbers to make proactive, strategic decisions instead of reacting to your bank balance.
In this episode, we cover:
✅ What cash flow forecasting actually is (and how it’s different from a budget)
✅ Why forecasting is essential for growth—not just survival
✅ What goes into a good forecast: from starting cash to buffers
✅ How forecasting helps you hire, invest, and pay yourself without the guesswork
✅ When it’s time to bring in a fractional CFO for deeper support
If you’ve ever found yourself saying “Can I actually afford this?”—this episode will help you answer that with clarity.
🎧 Hit play now and see how forecasting gives you more than just numbers—it gives you peace of mind and a path forward.
🔗 Resources & Links
Website: https://www.firestormfinance.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/firestormfinance/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@firestormfinance?hl=en
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-e-8796b6176/
Newsletter: https://firestormfinance.myflodesk.com/ajmiv1kyt1
📝 Want to see a specific topic on the show? Submit your suggestion here!
📢 If this episode helped you feel a little more grounded in your growth—share it with a friend, leave a review, and help more creatives make confident money moves.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
samantha-eck_2_02-20-2025_120206:
Welcome to the Creative Minds Smart (00:01):
undefined
Money Podcast, where we turn financialconfusion into creative confidence.
I'm Samantha Eck, bookkeeper andfractional CFO for creative entrepreneurs.
Each week I'm sharing myfinancial expertise and actionable
strategies to help you builda thriving creative business.
Plus, you'll hear from industry expertswho bring fresh perspectives on growing
(00:23):
your business beyond the numbers.
Because building a successfulcreative business starts with
strong financial foundations.
Your next chapter starts now.
You are listening to the CreativeMinds Smart Mini podcast,
and today's topic is cashflowforecasting, like I said, in the CFO.
(00:44):
Episode, we will be talkingabout a few of these coming up.
So we're gonna focus oncashflow forecasting.
We're gonna talk about profitability.
We're gonna talk about somecommon KPIs that creative service
providers need to be looking at.
And we're also gonna talk aboutthe importance of benchmarking.
But today we're really gonna focus andnarrow in on the cashflow forecasting.
(01:07):
So cashflow forecasting oftengets treated like a chore.
Because why would you wanna look atthe future when you can just look at
what's currently in your bank account?
But it's actually one of the mostpowerful leadership tools you can have
as a business owner, and it is suchan underrated forecasting report that
(01:27):
we need to really just talk about it.
So in this episode, I'm gonna show youhow you can use cashflow to grow higher
and rest so that you can have completeand total clarity on your business.
So cashflow forecasting is differentfrom just bookkeeping because
like I have mentioned before andtalked about before, bookkeeping is
(01:50):
based on what's already happened.
So when I'm in there and I'm categorizingand I'm reconciling and I'm looking
at your books, that's everythingthat has happened in the past.
It's not anything that'shappened in the future.
It is past data that I'm looking atand making sure that it is accurate.
Now, that's not to say thatbookkeeping is not important.
We need that past data.
(02:10):
We need your bookkeeping to be up todate in order to get you these critical.
Financial strategies andforecasts that we need to look at.
So forecasting, when we think aboutit, it's what's about to happen, like
what's gonna go on in our business.
So it shows you how much cash you'llhave on hand on a week by week, a month
by month basis based on your income.
(02:34):
You know, you two expect, andthe expenses that you know are
going to come in and it's not.
A perfect report.
I will tell you that right now.
Forecasting is very volatile.
It's very something that.
Based on the information we putin, it's not gonna be perfect,
but it's more about being preparedthan it is about being perfect.
We wanna utilize the data to kindof see if we can plan around it.
(02:57):
And of course, the easiest way to havesome sort of cash flow forecast is if
you have monthly recurring revenue.
If you have variable revenue,it's a little bit harder, but
that's when we really lean on thathistorical data, like I was saying.
So you wanna have good books?
And good historical data inorder to really utilize a
(03:17):
forecast or a cash flow forecast.
So you might be wondering,okay, that's great, but why is a
forecast so critical for growth?
I talked about this a lot in the lastepisode, but a forecast is really
critical because it's going to help youdetermine if you can hire right now,
if you need to delay an investment orif you have enough to pay yourself.
(03:38):
And I wanna just reallynarrow in on those right now.
If you were saying, okay, I want to hirea new account manager for my business.
I know they're gonna cost an extra$700 a month, can I afford that?
And we punch that into your forecastand we say, okay, how is $700 a
month going to impact your businessover the next five, six months?
(03:59):
And we see that you can hire themthis month, but next month, you
know you have a client leaving, yourincome is immediately gonna drop.
We know that Maybe it's not theright time to hire right now.
A or B, we know that you need to getanother client before you can feel fully
confident in being able to hire right now.
(04:19):
Same thing with the investments.
If you're looking at that and you'resaying, I wanna purchase a $5,000
educational course so that I can growmy business because I feel like this is
gonna be so valuable, and it'll just helpyou determine if you need to delay it.
Because again.
Not necessarily delay it, or if youneed to have more clients, if you're
(04:39):
like, okay, I need one more clientbefore I can buy this this month,
and then I will feel comfortable.
Or if you're like, okay, you know what?
I have some expenses droppingoff in the next couple months.
I'm gonna wait a couple months to get it.
And also.
Analyzing and saying, okay, I knowI can, I need to pay myself $5,000.
I'm gonna predict thatacross the next few months.
So if I'm making sure thatI'm paying myself $5,000,
(05:00):
how much do I have left over?
That's why it's so critical to beingable to grow your business because
you're gonna have all of that data atyour hands and being able to actually
understand if you can hire, if youcan invest, if you can pay yourself.
So a forecast just lets you respond earlyinstead of reacting late, because of
(05:22):
course, again, if you're looking at sixmonths from now and you're like, can't.
The, just as an example, you'relike, I wanna hire a bookkeeper.
And we put that in your forecastand we see that $500 a month or a
thousand dollars a month is fine forright now, but in six months when you
know you have some clients who you'renot sure if they're gonna renew or
not, that income is gonna be down.
(05:43):
Now you can say, okay, well, hmm, whatdo I need to do to make sure that in
six months I can keep this bookkeeper?
Because now you're gonna know.
You're gonna know exactly what'scoming and how you can prevent it.
Okay, so now we've try andkind of talked about it.
I wanna talk about whata good forecast includes.
I'm not gonna teach you how to makea forecast, that's really hard on
(06:05):
a podcast that's really hard toactually explain and like go through.
But I really want to talk about like whata good forecast includes so that maybe you
can kind of like help, help, I can helpyou piece together some form of forecast
so that you can do something yourself.
So the first thing you're gonnaneed is your starting cash balance.
(06:25):
And before you're like, okay, I'm gonnaput in the $5,000 I earned last month.
No, nope.
No, we don't do that.
Your starting cash balance is the moneythat you have in the bank right now.
So if you've $3,000 in the bank, thatis your starting cash balance, not
the income you have coming in, not theincome that you had from last month.
(06:47):
It is the money that is inyour bank account today.
That is your start cash balance.
The next thing is your expected income,so anything from your contracts, so
maybe you have an outstanding contractor a payment plan from your retainers.
If you're a social media manager and youhave clients that have retainers from
any launches that you might be launchingthis month, maybe you're launching a new
(07:10):
course and you expect to make $30,000 fromthat course of the course of the month,
again, that's expected income and then.
Of course, any sort of like, otherlaunches that you might be launching,
maybe you're launching a new service,whatever income you think that you
might be making in the next month,the month after, the month after.
(07:31):
Usually we try and predict like a setamount with like a percentage increase
based on like either historical dataor what you think is gonna happen.
So for example, if I'm usingmyself as an example, I try and
onboard five clients a month.
That average between 500and $1,500 in retainers.
So if I cut that.
In half and say, okay, the averageclient is gonna be, you know, $750.
(07:55):
That's a 30% increase.
So I'm expecting to grow 30% everymonth if I got all five clients.
So I'm putting that data into a forecastand saying, okay, how do I get there?
I need to get all five of these clientsand need to be around this much, and
that just helps me to predict that.
Then you have your.
Fixed expenses.
(08:16):
So your fixed, non-negotiable expensesare things like payroll, software,
subscriptions that you need for yourbusiness, and then things like rent,
things like rent for your building,not rent for your own personal
needs, rent for your business.
A non-negotiable expenses or fixedexpenses are things that your
(08:37):
business needs to survive and area consistent price every month.
So a Google subscription, forexample, for Google Workspace is 1279.
For one user that is consistent acrossevery month, that's a fixed expense.
Then you also have yourvariable or seasonal costs.
Or what I, yeah, your, what I liketo call your variable expenses.
So this is things like ad spend,things like maybe you have a
(09:01):
contractor who works variable monthsor variable months, maybe you have a
contractor who works variable hours.
That is kind of like a variable cost,whatever you have that is not a set
cost is a variable or seasonal cost.
And then at the end of the day,you have your target buffer.
So what you need to feel safe, so ifwe're talking about what I'm talking
(09:23):
about with those three to six months,
you wanna make sure that that bufferis in there so with all of this
kind of coming into play, we'remaking sure that we don't have drop
below that buffer that you've set.
Again, a forecast isn't something rigid.
I know you might be thinkingit's something similar to a
budget, but it's not rigid.
It's responsive, and we're gonnaupdate it like it's a living document.
So as the month goes on,we make sure that it's.
(09:45):
Consistently updated so thatit's consistently accurate.
It helps us to know like, okay, soif I send my clients a monthly or
a weekly update, I can say, okay,you know, based on the expenses
that we've had so far this month.
We're expected to hit a
negative this month so thatclient knows one of two things.
Either they need to draw back on expenses,they need to hold back expenses, or
(10:08):
they need to increase their revenue sothat they don't hit that negative month.
So it just gives you that kindof like responsiveness that you
need in a business to survive.
So.
Now that we know the basics of a goodforecast, we know what one is, what
changes when you start forecastingbecause you're like, okay, Samantha,
but why does this even matter?
Like, what is going to,how is it gonna impact me?
(10:31):
Of course, when we start forecasting,you know, hiring stops being such
a big leap because it's logical.
You know, if you can affordto hire, you know how much you
could afford to hire someone for.
And if that's not a pricethat you want to hire someone
for, you wanna hire them more.
For more, you know, that you either needto have better, like more clients or
(10:51):
better paying clients or whatever that is.
You know, you stop underpayingyourself as a just in case,
because now a again, you're.
You are accounted for in your forecast.
You know that you need to pay yourself$5,000, $9,000 a month, whatever it
is, and there's no more just in case,because that's in your forecast.
You know that you could afford to payyourself $9,000 and that you'll still
(11:13):
have $5,000 left over at the end ofthe month unless you change something.
And then of course, you canalign things like launches, price
changes, or investments withyour actual financial readiness.
You know that thatuncertainty is now a strategy.
And it's gonna be a gift to your bankaccount and to your nervous system
(11:34):
because you know what's coming.
You know you can do things.
You know you have alaunch coming up in July.
You know that you can plan somebigger expenses around them because
your launch is probably going to besuccessful based on previous launches.
Instead of making a decision just becauseit feels good or just because you think
it might be good, you have now data thatbacks up that decision and is going to
(11:58):
empower you to feel confident about it.
You're not gonna feel like you can'tdo it or you don't know, or like you
might go into the red this month.
You know, you know, and it's sopowerful and I want that for you.
I want that powerful strategyfor you, which is exactly why
(12:19):
I'm talking about these things.
So you might be thinking, okay,so I'm doing a cash flow forecast,
but I just don't understand it.
When might you need me?
When might you need a fractionalCFO or someone to kind of step in
and give you some sort of advice?
We've talked about it before.
CFO strategy and everything likethat is for every level of business.
(12:42):
It's not just for small businessor big businesses, it's for
all types of businesses.
So you can buy a template online.
There's tons of templates withcashflow forecasts, things like that.
That's great and I think that it's anamazing starting point for you to just
get a template and start forecasting.
But what I want you to understand is thatmost templates don't account for nuances.
(13:05):
They don't account for thedifferent income cycles.
They don't account for retentionrates, and they don't account
for the shifting costs.
They're expecting you to put indata that you have consistently.
But they're not expecting you toreally understand what's going on.
Now, I can give you a cashflow statementand say, here's your cashflow statement.
That is not a forecast.
(13:26):
It does not help you with anything.
Forecasting isn't just about fillingin numbers or looking at numbers.
It's about knowing whatthose numbers mean.
It's about knowing that.
You know, the contract, how the contractlabor is going to affect your bottom line.
It's about knowing how therevenue is going to kind of feed
into the rest of everything.
It, you really want to be able tounderstand it because we're not just
(13:49):
tracking money, we're really focusing oncreating a narrative of where the business
is going and how you're getting there.
So if you are like, okay,you know, I feel like I'm not
getting that out of a cash flow.
Like analysis or a cashflowforecast, then you, that's when
you definitely need someone to comein and kind of help you with that.
And I'm totally open for discoverycalls or to chat about this.
(14:12):
Cashflow forecasting is acompletely separate add-on, so
you can get it at any stage.
If you are in my lowest packageto my highest package, I don't
usually offer it to people I don'tdo bookkeeping for because in
order to forecast appropriately,I need to know your numbers.
So.
I can do it, but it mightnot be as accurate as if I
(14:34):
was doing your bookkeeping.
So if you enjoyed this episode, pleaselike it, comment, share it with a
friend, and as almost get out thereon social media, share this podcast so
that people can find it like you andreally learn more about their business
and their finances, and really growappropriately, grow their business to
(14:57):
newer heights and different places.
If you wanna hear a new topic,make sure to fill out the form
in the description box below.
And as always, there will not be any moreguests at the as of the end of this year.
So make sure that you guys arefilling out any topics you want
to hear from me so that I can chatyour ears off like I have been.
(15:18):
Otherwise, I wish you the best week ever.
We will see you next week.
Farewell fellow travelers.
undefined
Money Podcast, where we turn financialconfusion into creative confidence.
I'm Samantha Eck, bookkeeper andfractional CFO for creative entrepreneurs.
Each week I'm sharing myfinancial expertise and actionable
strategies to help you builda thriving creative business.
Plus, you'll hear from industry expertswho bring fresh perspectives on growing
(00:23):
your business beyond the numbers.
Because building a successfulcreative business starts with
strong financial foundations.
Your next chapter starts now.
You are listening to the CreativeMinds Smart Mini podcast,
and today's topic is cashflowforecasting, like I said, in the CFO.
(00:44):
Episode, we will be talkingabout a few of these coming up.
So we're gonna focus oncashflow forecasting.
We're gonna talk about profitability.
We're gonna talk about somecommon KPIs that creative service
providers need to be looking at.
And we're also gonna talk aboutthe importance of benchmarking.
But today we're really gonna focus andnarrow in on the cashflow forecasting.
(01:07):
So cashflow forecasting oftengets treated like a chore.
Because why would you wanna look atthe future when you can just look at
what's currently in your bank account?
But it's actually one of the mostpowerful leadership tools you can have
as a business owner, and it is suchan underrated forecasting report that
(01:27):
we need to really just talk about it.
So in this episode, I'm gonna show youhow you can use cashflow to grow higher
and rest so that you can have completeand total clarity on your business.
So cashflow forecasting is differentfrom just bookkeeping because
like I have mentioned before andtalked about before, bookkeeping is
(01:50):
based on what's already happened.
So when I'm in there and I'm categorizingand I'm reconciling and I'm looking
at your books, that's everythingthat has happened in the past.
It's not anything that'shappened in the future.
It is past data that I'm looking atand making sure that it is accurate.
Now, that's not to say thatbookkeeping is not important.
We need that past data.
(02:10):
We need your bookkeeping to be up todate in order to get you these critical.
Financial strategies andforecasts that we need to look at.
So forecasting, when we think aboutit, it's what's about to happen, like
what's gonna go on in our business.
So it shows you how much cash you'llhave on hand on a week by week, a month
by month basis based on your income.
(02:34):
You know, you two expect, andthe expenses that you know are
going to come in and it's not.
A perfect report.
I will tell you that right now.
Forecasting is very volatile.
It's very something that.
Based on the information we putin, it's not gonna be perfect,
but it's more about being preparedthan it is about being perfect.
We wanna utilize the data to kindof see if we can plan around it.
(02:57):
And of course, the easiest way to havesome sort of cash flow forecast is if
you have monthly recurring revenue.
If you have variable revenue,it's a little bit harder, but
that's when we really lean on thathistorical data, like I was saying.
So you wanna have good books?
And good historical data inorder to really utilize a
(03:17):
forecast or a cash flow forecast.
So you might be wondering,okay, that's great, but why is a
forecast so critical for growth?
I talked about this a lot in the lastepisode, but a forecast is really
critical because it's going to help youdetermine if you can hire right now,
if you need to delay an investment orif you have enough to pay yourself.
(03:38):
And I wanna just reallynarrow in on those right now.
If you were saying, okay, I want to hirea new account manager for my business.
I know they're gonna cost an extra$700 a month, can I afford that?
And we punch that into your forecastand we say, okay, how is $700 a
month going to impact your businessover the next five, six months?
(03:59):
And we see that you can hire themthis month, but next month, you
know you have a client leaving, yourincome is immediately gonna drop.
We know that Maybe it's not theright time to hire right now.
A or B, we know that you need to getanother client before you can feel fully
confident in being able to hire right now.
(04:19):
Same thing with the investments.
If you're looking at that and you'resaying, I wanna purchase a $5,000
educational course so that I can growmy business because I feel like this is
gonna be so valuable, and it'll just helpyou determine if you need to delay it.
Because again.
Not necessarily delay it, or if youneed to have more clients, if you're
(04:39):
like, okay, I need one more clientbefore I can buy this this month,
and then I will feel comfortable.
Or if you're like, okay, you know what?
I have some expenses droppingoff in the next couple months.
I'm gonna wait a couple months to get it.
And also.
Analyzing and saying, okay, I knowI can, I need to pay myself $5,000.
I'm gonna predict thatacross the next few months.
So if I'm making sure thatI'm paying myself $5,000,
(05:00):
how much do I have left over?
That's why it's so critical to beingable to grow your business because
you're gonna have all of that data atyour hands and being able to actually
understand if you can hire, if youcan invest, if you can pay yourself.
So a forecast just lets you respond earlyinstead of reacting late, because of
(05:22):
course, again, if you're looking at sixmonths from now and you're like, can't.
The, just as an example, you'relike, I wanna hire a bookkeeper.
And we put that in your forecastand we see that $500 a month or a
thousand dollars a month is fine forright now, but in six months when you
know you have some clients who you'renot sure if they're gonna renew or
not, that income is gonna be down.
(05:43):
Now you can say, okay, well, hmm, whatdo I need to do to make sure that in
six months I can keep this bookkeeper?
Because now you're gonna know.
You're gonna know exactly what'scoming and how you can prevent it.
Okay, so now we've try andkind of talked about it.
I wanna talk about whata good forecast includes.
I'm not gonna teach you how to makea forecast, that's really hard on
(06:05):
a podcast that's really hard toactually explain and like go through.
But I really want to talk about like whata good forecast includes so that maybe you
can kind of like help, help, I can helpyou piece together some form of forecast
so that you can do something yourself.
So the first thing you're gonnaneed is your starting cash balance.
(06:25):
And before you're like, okay, I'm gonnaput in the $5,000 I earned last month.
No, nope.
No, we don't do that.
Your starting cash balance is the moneythat you have in the bank right now.
So if you've $3,000 in the bank, thatis your starting cash balance, not
the income you have coming in, not theincome that you had from last month.
(06:47):
It is the money that is inyour bank account today.
That is your start cash balance.
The next thing is your expected income,so anything from your contracts, so
maybe you have an outstanding contractor a payment plan from your retainers.
If you're a social media manager and youhave clients that have retainers from
any launches that you might be launchingthis month, maybe you're launching a new
(07:10):
course and you expect to make $30,000 fromthat course of the course of the month,
again, that's expected income and then.
Of course, any sort of like, otherlaunches that you might be launching,
maybe you're launching a new service,whatever income you think that you
might be making in the next month,the month after, the month after.
(07:31):
Usually we try and predict like a setamount with like a percentage increase
based on like either historical dataor what you think is gonna happen.
So for example, if I'm usingmyself as an example, I try and
onboard five clients a month.
That average between 500and $1,500 in retainers.
So if I cut that.
In half and say, okay, the averageclient is gonna be, you know, $750.
(07:55):
That's a 30% increase.
So I'm expecting to grow 30% everymonth if I got all five clients.
So I'm putting that data into a forecastand saying, okay, how do I get there?
I need to get all five of these clientsand need to be around this much, and
that just helps me to predict that.
Then you have your.
Fixed expenses.
(08:16):
So your fixed, non-negotiable expensesare things like payroll, software,
subscriptions that you need for yourbusiness, and then things like rent,
things like rent for your building,not rent for your own personal
needs, rent for your business.
A non-negotiable expenses or fixedexpenses are things that your
(08:37):
business needs to survive and area consistent price every month.
So a Google subscription, forexample, for Google Workspace is 1279.
For one user that is consistent acrossevery month, that's a fixed expense.
Then you also have yourvariable or seasonal costs.
Or what I, yeah, your, what I liketo call your variable expenses.
So this is things like ad spend,things like maybe you have a
(09:01):
contractor who works variable monthsor variable months, maybe you have a
contractor who works variable hours.
That is kind of like a variable cost,whatever you have that is not a set
cost is a variable or seasonal cost.
And then at the end of the day,you have your target buffer.
So what you need to feel safe, so ifwe're talking about what I'm talking
(09:23):
about with those three to six months,
you wanna make sure that that bufferis in there so with all of this
kind of coming into play, we'remaking sure that we don't have drop
below that buffer that you've set.
Again, a forecast isn't something rigid.
I know you might be thinkingit's something similar to a
budget, but it's not rigid.
It's responsive, and we're gonnaupdate it like it's a living document.
So as the month goes on,we make sure that it's.
(09:45):
Consistently updated so thatit's consistently accurate.
It helps us to know like, okay, soif I send my clients a monthly or
a weekly update, I can say, okay,you know, based on the expenses
that we've had so far this month.
We're expected to hit a
negative this month so thatclient knows one of two things.
Either they need to draw back on expenses,they need to hold back expenses, or
(10:08):
they need to increase their revenue sothat they don't hit that negative month.
So it just gives you that kindof like responsiveness that you
need in a business to survive.
So.
Now that we know the basics of a goodforecast, we know what one is, what
changes when you start forecastingbecause you're like, okay, Samantha,
but why does this even matter?
Like, what is going to,how is it gonna impact me?
(10:31):
Of course, when we start forecasting,you know, hiring stops being such
a big leap because it's logical.
You know, if you can affordto hire, you know how much you
could afford to hire someone for.
And if that's not a pricethat you want to hire someone
for, you wanna hire them more.
For more, you know, that you either needto have better, like more clients or
(10:51):
better paying clients or whatever that is.
You know, you stop underpayingyourself as a just in case,
because now a again, you're.
You are accounted for in your forecast.
You know that you need to pay yourself$5,000, $9,000 a month, whatever it
is, and there's no more just in case,because that's in your forecast.
You know that you could afford to payyourself $9,000 and that you'll still
(11:13):
have $5,000 left over at the end ofthe month unless you change something.
And then of course, you canalign things like launches, price
changes, or investments withyour actual financial readiness.
You know that thatuncertainty is now a strategy.
And it's gonna be a gift to your bankaccount and to your nervous system
(11:34):
because you know what's coming.
You know you can do things.
You know you have alaunch coming up in July.
You know that you can plan somebigger expenses around them because
your launch is probably going to besuccessful based on previous launches.
Instead of making a decision just becauseit feels good or just because you think
it might be good, you have now data thatbacks up that decision and is going to
(11:58):
empower you to feel confident about it.
You're not gonna feel like you can'tdo it or you don't know, or like you
might go into the red this month.
You know, you know, and it's sopowerful and I want that for you.
I want that powerful strategyfor you, which is exactly why
(12:19):
I'm talking about these things.
So you might be thinking, okay,so I'm doing a cash flow forecast,
but I just don't understand it.
When might you need me?
When might you need a fractionalCFO or someone to kind of step in
and give you some sort of advice?
We've talked about it before.
CFO strategy and everything likethat is for every level of business.
(12:42):
It's not just for small businessor big businesses, it's for
all types of businesses.
So you can buy a template online.
There's tons of templates withcashflow forecasts, things like that.
That's great and I think that it's anamazing starting point for you to just
get a template and start forecasting.
But what I want you to understand is thatmost templates don't account for nuances.
(13:05):
They don't account for thedifferent income cycles.
They don't account for retentionrates, and they don't account
for the shifting costs.
They're expecting you to put indata that you have consistently.
But they're not expecting you toreally understand what's going on.
Now, I can give you a cashflow statementand say, here's your cashflow statement.
That is not a forecast.
(13:26):
It does not help you with anything.
Forecasting isn't just about fillingin numbers or looking at numbers.
It's about knowing whatthose numbers mean.
It's about knowing that.
You know, the contract, how the contractlabor is going to affect your bottom line.
It's about knowing how therevenue is going to kind of feed
into the rest of everything.
It, you really want to be able tounderstand it because we're not just
(13:49):
tracking money, we're really focusing oncreating a narrative of where the business
is going and how you're getting there.
So if you are like, okay,you know, I feel like I'm not
getting that out of a cash flow.
Like analysis or a cashflowforecast, then you, that's when
you definitely need someone to comein and kind of help you with that.
And I'm totally open for discoverycalls or to chat about this.
(14:12):
Cashflow forecasting is acompletely separate add-on, so
you can get it at any stage.
If you are in my lowest packageto my highest package, I don't
usually offer it to people I don'tdo bookkeeping for because in
order to forecast appropriately,I need to know your numbers.
So.
I can do it, but it mightnot be as accurate as if I
(14:34):
was doing your bookkeeping.
So if you enjoyed this episode, pleaselike it, comment, share it with a
friend, and as almost get out thereon social media, share this podcast so
that people can find it like you andreally learn more about their business
and their finances, and really growappropriately, grow their business to
(14:57):
newer heights and different places.
If you wanna hear a new topic,make sure to fill out the form
in the description box below.
And as always, there will not be any moreguests at the as of the end of this year.
So make sure that you guys arefilling out any topics you want
to hear from me so that I can chatyour ears off like I have been.
(15:18):
Otherwise, I wish you the best week ever.
We will see you next week.
Farewell fellow travelers.
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