October 13, 2025 • 33 mins
How are you reviewing and looking at your company financials? Do you look at them? Our guest today is Cassmer Ward,who shares with us insights to stop chasing "the one" financial report you must have as a leader.
TODAY'S WIN-WIN:
Stop chasing the “one report to rule them all."
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
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- Connect with our guest on social:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassmerward/
- https://www.youtube.com/@NexagyEducation
- https://www.tiktok.com/@cassmerhward
- https://www.instagram.com/cassmer_ward/
- https://www.facebook.com/CassmerWard
- https://x.com/cassmerward
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Cassmer Ward is a Financial Executive and business educator with over 20 years of experience in accounting, operational strategy, and entrepreneurship. He works with clients across industries to uncover the key drivers of growth and financial health. As an adjunct instructor at Queens University’s McColl School of Business, he’s known for translating complex business concepts into engaging, accessible formats including his book How Much Does It Cost to Make a Donut? and an online “Netflix-style” entrepreneurship course. With a background in Accounting, Management Information Systems, and Strategic Leadership, Cass combines financial acumen with creative problem-solving to guide both business owners and students toward smarter decisions and sustainable growth.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/.
The information provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered financial, legal, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified professional before making any business decisions. The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host, Big Sky Franchise Team, or our affiliates. Additionally, this podcast may feature sponsors or advertisers, but any mention of products or services does not constitute an endorsement. Please do your own research before making any purchasing or business decisions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tom DuFore (00:01):
Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast,
where each week we helpgrowth-minded entrepreneurs and
franchise leaders take the nextstep in their expansion journey.
I'm your host, Tom Dufour, CEOof Big Sky Franchise Team.
And as we open today, I'mwondering how you review your
financial statements and if youhave one financial report that
(00:23):
rules them all, the one that's amust.
Well, our guest today isCasmere Ward, who shares with us
insights about the onefinancial report you must have
as a leader.
Now, Kaz is a financialexecutive and business educator
with over 20 years of experiencein accounting, operation
strategy, and entrepreneurship.
He works with clients acrossindustries to uncover key
(00:44):
drivers of growth and financialhealth.
He's also an adjunct instructorat Queen's University's McCall
School of Business.
He's known for translatingcomplex business concepts into
engaging, accessible formats,including his book, How Much
Does It Cost to Make a Donut inan Online Netflix-style
entrepreneurship course?
With a background inaccounting, management
(01:05):
information systems, andstrategic leadership, Cass
combines financial acumen withcreative problem solving to
guide both business owners andstudents towards smarter
decisions and sustainablegrowth.
You're going to love thisinterview, so let's go ahead and
jump right into it.
I know there will be a lot offolks that fall in that range
(01:40):
that end up listening to thispodcast.
So it'll definitely be relevantto them.
It's hard not to ask about AIintegration here, but with AI
automation, all of these thingscoming forward, especially with
administrative type tasks, isthe need for accounting and
these types of services.
Do you see those things goingaway and relying on these types
(02:02):
of technology?
Cassmer Ward (02:04):
Well, you know what?
Like AI, oddly enough, issomething we're banking on in
the new year.
And when I say that,everybody's saying, oh, I'm
investing heavily in AI becausethat's the future.
And what they're doing isthey're trying to scale down
their operations so it's muchmore run by AI.
However, the opportunity we'reseeing is AI is a great tool.
(02:26):
Okay.
It is, it can provide insight,it can gather a lot of
information really, really fast.
We see it a lot with peoplethat use QuickBooks.
AI's been in there for years.
You can set up rules where itautomatically identifies things
and automatically starts sortingthings.
And if everything were to stayconstant in everything from
(02:47):
business, life in general, AImight be even more impactful
than it already is.
The problem is, is thingsaren't consistent of life or
business in general.
So people think AI is like, Idon't need somebody to think
through this anymore.
AI will do it.
AI will only do it based onwhat's been done in the past.
(03:09):
Really, what happens is whenyou set it up, you're literally
taking your hands off the wheeland letting it take where you
want.
So we got self-driving carsright now, right?
Tom, have you ever been in aself-driving car?
Tom DuFore (03:22):
I have not.
No, I have not been yet.
I know a few folks who have,but I'm not one of them at this
point.
Cassmer Ward (03:28):
So at this point, would you jump in one and just
take your hands off the wheel?
Do you feel that comfortable?
If AI, it's all it's goteverything built into it, but
it's just not there yet.
It would be irresponsible to doit.
So the opportunity that we'reseeing, especially in the
accounting world, is while we'lluse it as a tool to make our
operations better, it canprovide overall outlines and
(03:52):
some insight.
But at the end of the day, itcan't tell you how to do it.
It can't actually applystrategic initiatives,
operational execution, and allthat.
So a lot of people can say,hey, AI, if you were my CFO,
what would you do here?
And it would spit out a varietyof information.
It's like, okay, help usexecute it.
(04:13):
Well, all it's going to do isgive you all the information so
you can go do it yourself.
You know?
Again, great information.
Where this has lined us up onthe services we provide is over
the years, I meet with anyentrepreneur that has finance
and accounting issues.
And my general pitch is I willtell you everything I need, I
(04:35):
can.
And if you can go do it on yourown, more power to you.
Go be a billionaire.
Best of luck to you.
But the question is, is are yougoing to do it?
And at the end of the day, theyneed a butt in the seat to help
get the work done.
So, Tom, there's a millionthings.
How to build a deck, how tocreate your own app, all the
(04:57):
things like we AI provides allthat information, even the
internet, to do to get there.
At the end of the day, are yougoing to sit down and do that?
And can you do it any fasterwith that information that
someone's already done thousandsof times?
Tom DuFore (05:15):
I think that's very well said.
It's a tool that comes into it,right?
Even thinking about theiteration and transition from
QuickBooks desktop to QuickBooksOnline, right?
I mean, even just thattransition, however many years
ago when that started, and justkind of part of the evolution of
changing.
And I think your comment on ifall things were consistent and
(05:36):
constant and never changed, butthis is not a set it and forget
it type of a deal.
The business is evolving everyday, every week, even for a
small business, they're changingweekly, monthly, quarterly at a
minimum with what's happening.
Cassmer Ward (05:50):
One customer late pays you can throw a whole cus
the whole, you know, month outof whack for a small business.
AI can't predict whether or notthat customer is going to pay
you on time.
It's going to make anassumption based on what the
current terms are.
Who follows the terms, youknow?
Tom DuFore (06:08):
We work with a lot of entrepreneurs, successful
business leaders, people who arerunning companies that are
going to be tuning into this.
I'll ask us from a coupledifferent perspectives.
The first is just thinking ofthat successful owner or founder
that's leading a business.
How do they kind of go throughand start assessing, well, when
do I need a bookkeeper versus acontroller versus a CFO type
(06:33):
guidance?
Is it all of it?
Is it some of it?
How do you kind of help advisepeople in sorting through that?
Cassmer Ward (06:38):
Businesses need bookkeepers.
They literally need someone toenter the information into the
accounting system, financesoftware, even if you don't have
that into an Excel spreadsheet,right?
And you'd be surprised how manylong operating businesses do
just that.
But literally, it's justcollecting the data so you can
turn it into information thatyou can make decisions from.
(07:01):
Okay.
So as you gather that, we allget our bills.
We get our ATT bill for ourinternet, we get the rent bill
for our office.
All of that comes in.
But organizing that data andfiguring out how that needs to
come in, a lot of bookkeeperscan do it at a very low level.
But then what happens is abusiness owner is like, okay,
(07:23):
I've got all the data.
I need it turned intoinformation.
And that's where you startlooking in the senior
controllers, senior accountantsand controller level to say,
this is the format.
And I always say, you know,with your financial statements,
Tom, what do you need to look atto understand the health of
your business?
You know, well, I want to knowwhat my income is.
I want to know what my cost ofgoods sold are, my cost of
(07:46):
services, I want to know what myoverhead is.
Well, let's start providingthat structure for you.
And in that, how detailed do wewant to get?
Do we want to have it, youknow, we can have office
supplies, we can have labor, wecan have labor that is
production related, we can haveoffice labor, we can break all
those different pieces down.
But how would it be structuredto where you could look at it
(08:08):
and make a decision as quicklyas possible?
Sometimes you see with this,whether it's a bookkeeper or
even some controllers, they liketo categorize everything.
I had one client and I stillgive them a hard time to this
day.
They had a special category forbirthday cards for office
birthdays.
And they spent $40 a year onbirthday cards.
(08:31):
I'm like, why, why are youbreaking this down?
Like, are we literally, are wegonna have a budgeting session
based on birthday cards?
And they were like, well, wejust thought we'd want to know.
I'm like, let's, you know what?
I don't know what you're gonnado with that information.
Let's talk about the numberswhere you're gonna make that,
you know, those decisions.
And then from there, also yourPL, your balance sheet doesn't
(08:54):
have to have all the data at aminute level for you to make
decisions.
You can use classes,dimensions, locations, products
and services.
A lot of people try to createthe one report that rules them
all in their PL.
It's like, no, no, no, no.
That's the health of yourbusiness and what you're doing
to generate wealth.
Overall, if you're wanting tolook at business lines, product
(09:18):
lines, customer services, breakdown the customer, let's set up
separate reporting.
Do not try to set up reporting.
So a controller spends timehelping develop that structure.
That way they can say, here'sthe information.
This is what happened in allthese areas.
CFO looks forward.
What are we gonna do with thatinformation to get out there
(09:42):
well, well, well in advance toget where we want to go?
We're a $5 million company, wewant to be at $15 million.
We're gonna need more people,we're gonna need more customers.
We can't get those customers inthis market.
And building a plan, afinancial plan that gets you to
reach those goals, the CFO ismuch more strategic and
(10:02):
operational rather thanbackwards looking like a
controller would be, if not evena bookkeeper.
Tom DuFore (10:08):
That helps clarify.
And I know even in running myown business, I've run several
businesses over the years.
And just having that clarity onthe role that each one of those
plays, sometimes when you'retalking to different service
providers or people you'respeaking with, sometimes it runs
together.
It's unclear exactly whatthey're going to be doing and
helping you through that.
(10:29):
That kind of leads me to thenext thought or idea that I was
thinking about is how thispertains to franchising, is
that's the second perspective Iwas gonna be looking from.
And franchisors are one oftheir very important jobs is to
support franchisees and to helpgive them advice and
suggestions.
But generally, they're notbookkeepers, they're not
(10:49):
controllers, they're not CFOs.
They're gonna provide somecoaching and support along the
way, of course.
How have you worked withdifferent businesses at varying
life stages, right?
Where some might be in a highgrowth, some might be mature,
some are maybe just starting,but they're projecting and
growing quickly, you know, andyou might have a whole bunch of
different businesses in each ofthese different categories, much
(11:11):
like a franchise system might.
How would you maybe advise orrecommend handling that diverse
amount of businesses anddifferent stages that they might
be working in?
Cassmer Ward (11:22):
So I would love to tell you, Tom.
I'd be a billionaire if I couldsay the only way to do that is
through good accounting and CFOand controller work.
I will say, while I always dothink that's important, what
franch what franchisers need todo in order to get people to
line up is provide that theopportunity and the the vehicle
(11:42):
they're offering in theirfranchise will provide value.
Ultimately, it's going toprovide a return on their
investment.
Okay.
Now, we could, you know what,Tommy and you could have a
gossip session about all thefranchise oars that are
literally just trying to gettheir fees out there, get people
in some commercial real estate,and sink or swing.
(12:04):
There's a million of those.
There's stories out there ofthese franchise oars that they
build a huge network and end upwith a bunch of franchisees that
can't make any money off ofthat.
Okay.
Those are the badpractitioners, good franchise
oars, the ones that stick aroundfor not two years or five
years, but 50 years are the onesthat have something that says
(12:26):
people want hamburgers, frenchfries, and all that.
They want a quick turnaround,they want an easy location and
all that.
They want something that peoplewill continue to buy into, that
customers, that the demand isthere, and identifying the
marketing and you know, thedemand that will help drive that
business.
Okay.
So figuring all those piecesout, I would say, for a
(12:48):
franchise or is their key assetwhat they're selling.
At the end of the day, whatmeasures whether or not they're
right is how well they'remeasuring their accounting and
finance.
And I would hope, as afranchise, or if I sold you,
Tom, a franchise, I own anengineering company as well.
If I were to sell you afranchise of that, I know
exactly how, you know, what anengineer needs to bring in, how
(13:11):
to get in front of people thatwill want your engineering
services and do that.
I can provide all the metricson that.
I can tell you what groupmeetings in your area you need
to go to.
I need all the tools.
I can provide all the templatesfor you to do that.
It is one of those thingsthat's so great about
franchises, is it is the list,it is the to-do list.
Do all of these things and youshould be successful.
(13:35):
You know, you use youraccounting and finance, you
know, divisions to measurewhether or not the output is
coming from there, maybe tweak afew things along the way.
But that is really the uh proofof concept right there that
what I've been sold is providingthe return they promised me
when I bought into it.
Tom DuFore (13:54):
You've worked with a lot of clients and businesses
over the years.
And I'm just curious if you'veseen some consistent blind spots
or some consistent maybetrouble areas that you've seen
clients generally bump into whenyou see these types of things.
Cassmer Ward (14:10):
Overall, uh I spend a lot of my time in the
education arena of whataccounting is in finance.
Talking about accounting rightoff the bat, not all accountants
are the same.
And I'm not talking about skilllevel, but I'm talking about
areas of expertise.
So, you know, a lot of peoplelike the gold standard of an
accountant is being a CPA.
You know, I've got my CPA.
(14:32):
I can't tell you I'm any betteror worse off for it.
Uh, it's something I was proudto get.
Prepping for it was the realhard work.
But going back to engineers fora second, with engineers, they
all take their CPA, it's calledthe PE, professional
engineering's license.
But you have electricalengineers, you have mechanical
engineers, civil engineers, youname it.
(14:53):
There's, you know, when they goto get their PE license, they
take the exam in theirdiscipline and they end up
getting their stamp to become aPE, right?
Engineers are very specific.
So whether while they all havetheir PEs, you don't see
electrical engineers saying, oh,I'll do mechanical engineering
work and all that.
(15:14):
The accounting world iscompletely different.
You have tax accountants, whichthere are, you know, that's
what most people thinkaccountants are are tax
accountants.
I pay someone to do my taxes.
My mom to this day still thinksI'm busy every April because
I'm doing everybody's taxes.
I gave up that fight many, manyyears ago.
(15:36):
But the truth of the matter isthere are tax accountants.
There's auditors, there arepractitioners, practitioner
accountants.
And then the world where Ispend my time in is managerial
accounting.
So, like I told you, Tom, ifyou said, hey, Cass, will you do
my taxes?
I'd be like, No, I do a reallybad job.
But there are a lot ofaccountants, and I'll be honest,
(15:57):
some of the biggest uhoffenders of this are these
accounting firms that offeraudit and tax that say, oh,
we're gonna provide theseconsulting services.
And they get into bookkeeping,they get into these to where
they don't have industryexperience, they don't have
managerial experience, theydon't know how to run a business
outside of an accounting firm.
(16:17):
And it would, you know, itwould be no different than me
saying, I'm gonna do those taxesnow.
I'm gonna do that auditing.
So what have the the the a lotof business owners, they get a
tax accountant set up as like,I've got my accounting team,
they're set up.
They don't.
They have their tax person setup.
And they probably have somebodythat does a great job at taxes.
But when it comes tobookkeeping, they don't care
(16:40):
about what categories it's goingin.
And it's not that they don'tcare about it because they're
out to get you.
To do taxes well, they justneed to make sure everything is
recorded so they can do good taxreturns.
Not, is it in a way where youcan provide reporting on
customer sales reports, productlines, margin?
None of that in tax world, thatmeans nothing.
Tom DuFore (17:01):
Very interesting and very helpful for sure.
I want to go back to a part ofthe conversation when you're
talking about the reporting andthe various types of reports.
I found that that interesting.
Have you found in your work andworking with different
industries, different clients,running your own businesses, is
it generally maybe a handful ofreports that an owner or leader
(17:22):
kind of focuses in on, a few ofthese to help them in their
decision making?
Do you find that I'm justtrying to get a sense of is a
owner that's listening in,right?
Are they saying, well, boy, Ilook at my PL and my balance
sheet, and that's about it.
What am I missing out there?
Are there 10 other reports Iought to be paying attention to?
Or so you know, everybodystarts with the PL.
Cassmer Ward (17:41):
And honestly, you all get everybody gets into
business to make sure that theycan make money.
Like, no problem.
But making business decisionsbased off of that, if I told
you, Tom, you're profitable by10% or $10,000, whatever you
want to call it, you know, yourquestion is is like, okay,
great.
But but what where does thatdrive you to move next?
(18:02):
And what if I told you that,you know, your revenues up 10%,
your net profit is down?
Well, we can start drawing somecomparisons.
Like you're doing more work,but you're making the same
amount of profit.
Like now you're working harderto make the same amount of
money.
So what happens is that's wherea lot of business owners that
don't have a strong financial oraccounting background, are
(18:23):
like, well, what do I do next?
Well, here's the question (18:25):
is this more because of a raise in
overhead?
Is this more of a raise becauseyour margins are getting
thinner?
Where do we need to look next?
And do we need to look atoverall margin or do we need to
look at margin per project orper job or per widget?
You know, one of the thingsI've always seen, like with
construction companies I'veworked with, I've worked with a
(18:46):
lot that they'll lose money atthe end of the day.
And the owners or managers arelike, how are we losing money?
We make a profit on every jobwe did.
But I'm like, yeah, but younever cover your overhead.
You never cost, you know, coverthe cost of your marketing,
your office, and all of thesethings.
You've got a volume issue.
The only way to get over thereis a volume issue.
(19:07):
And then sometimes, in order toget that volume up, you need to
invest a little in the overheadjust to get there.
So your overhead number goes upeven as you're growing volume.
To say that there's keyreports, it really is looking at
what you're trying toaccomplish and kind of zeroing
in on where I can make adifference?
Can I make more on margin?
Do I know how to drive sales?
(19:28):
As an accountant, I'm bad atsales, I'm bad at marketing, but
I know how key it is.
Like I know where I need tospend my dollars so somebody or
the right people can help drivesales to get into our business.
Those are investments I'mwilling to make from there.
Then in order to make sure theypay off, we start tracking our
(19:49):
month-over-month sales growth.
We take a look at maybe wedon't even look at the dollars.
We just take at the look, thenumber of new clients coming in
along the way.
And building that metric, thethe metrics that help you decide
whether or not something isworking.
Tom DuFore (20:04):
Very, very well said.
And what's a great way forsomeone to find out more about
you, your company, what you'redoing, or your services?
Cassmer Ward (20:11):
Yeah.
So uh honestly, I've got aunique name.
My name is Casmer Ward.
I'm sure the spelling will beon the episode in and of itself.
But if you go to kasmerwar.com,that will lead you to my book,
to me.
It will also lead to mycompany, Nexegy, which is at
Nexegy.com.
And that's where you'll findout all kinds of the services we
provide, everything fromaccounting services, fractional
(20:33):
CFO services, fractionalcontroller.
And not only that, you'll finda link to my YouTube channel,
which we go over a lot of thisstuff in detail.
So there is everything fromlectures to the managerial
classes I teach to theentrepreneurships class I teach
to the business case interviewsI do with other entrepreneurs
that are used as business casesin the master's program I teach
(20:56):
at.
Tom DuFore (20:56):
Well, Kess, this is a great time in the show, and we
ask every guest the same fourquestions before they go.
And the first question we askis Have you had a miss or two on
your journey and something youlearned from it?
Cassmer Ward (21:08):
You know what's funny, Tom, is every miss I've
gotten has been the best thingthat happened to me.
It started all the way back incollege.
I remember in order to help,you know, offset tuition, make a
little extra money, I appliedto be an RA.
There were 30-some candidates.
Let's say there were 34candidates, 30 open positions,
(21:32):
slam dunk.
Everybody, like, you'll begreat at this, you'll do this.
I was one of the four that didnot get chosen.
Opportunity came up uh sixmonths later, applied again,
didn't get it.
Finally got it on my third onethat year, got RA of the year
award, literally, really kind oflearned everything I needed to
(21:53):
be a good RA, which I will behonest, I'm sure a lot of people
out there is like RAs do work,or you know, there's anything
there, but it was something I'llbe honest.
My experience as an RA wasprobably very instrumental in
the management skills I learned,how to deal with people, how to
collaborate.
(22:14):
Getting it right off the bat,honestly, probably was one of
the best misses off the bat.
Same thing.
I've at one point, uh, as muchas I uh I'm passionate about
accounting, I'm a passionateabout entrepreneurship, applied
for a university to be anaccountant faculty.
Applied three times, never gotit.
Looking back at it and what thelife of a faculty member at the
(22:37):
university would be, I wouldnot be where I am today.
And I probably would be doing alot more administrative work
than I would be teaching.
And I think, you know, asdisappointed as I was at that
time, best thing that could havehappened was that miss along
the way.
Tom DuFore (22:54):
Let's talk about a make or two, a highlight,
something on the other side.
Cassmer Ward (23:00):
So here's the thing that probably would people
would call a miss along theway.
Last job I got, I was firedfrom.
It was a job that I wasstarting as the company was
growing, I was disagreeing withmanagement and did not feel
comfortable ethically with whatthey were, the direction they
were going.
I refused to do, you know,anything I found questionable.
(23:21):
And I remember going home atevery day being like, I just
wish they'd fire me.
I just wish they'd fired me.
I was just a big ball ofstress.
I am an accountant.
I am not anybody that wouldsay, go start a business.
You know, it's it's too risky,it's it's a lot of work.
I mean, you know, I'd nevermake that choice.
(23:42):
When I was eventually fired, itwas weird how much I dreaded
it, how calming it was.
It was like, oh, thank God itfinally happened.
I was able to leave.
Their top three engineers leftand said, we start an
engineering firm up.
We'll all be partners.
And I like because they askedme to do it, I was a business
(24:03):
owner within 30 days of leavingthat company.
And then from there, kind ofcaught the bug and said, Hey,
you don't need me full-time tobe your CFO.
We're not that big yet.
Let me go do this on afractional basis.
So ultimately, one of my bigmakes was getting fired and kind
of getting pulled into it byother people.
Now, while anybody that reachesout to me today that says, Hey,
(24:25):
I want to start a business, I'mstill like, hey, a lot of risk,
likelihood of succeeding isvery small.
Don't do it.
I've now done it six or seventimes.
So I'm a hypocrite at the sametime, but it is one of those
things that, like, I would havenever made that choice on my own
out of the gate.
Tom DuFore (24:42):
That story you share reminds me a lot of what I hear
just in the franchise world,why a lot of folks who maybe
aren't ready to jump in andstart their own business, they
end up in a downsizing, acorporate merger, or something
like that happens, that theylose their position, but they
don't quite want to be anindependent entrepreneur, kind
of jumping into it on their own.
(25:03):
So they'll kind of make thatbridge right in franchise,
somewhere more in the middlethere with a little bit of help.
Well, the next question we askevery guest is have you used a
multiplier to multiply yourselfprofessionally or personally or
any business you've run?
Cassmer Ward (25:18):
Working with so many companies over the year,
like I've always talked toowners, and I'm like, we need to
figure out how to find thenext, you know, the next Tom.
So you can elevate your gameand they can take out your
duties.
And literally building outmodels for every hire we do, we
are able to, you know, bringsomebody else on board along the
(25:38):
way.
And for every person that youbring on, you've got your
revenues got to go up to thislevel, unless they're a support
level.
And I did it over and over forall these other clients.
And then I was complainingabout work one day to a client,
and he's like, Well, why aren'tyou doing the things we did?
Why aren't you bringing peopleon?
And I kind of felt called outon it, like, you know, and as I
(25:58):
told you before, Tom, I'm ahypocrite.
Can tell everybody else what todo.
Don't know if I can take my ownadvice.
I brought in some peers.
I literally ran through thesame exercise I did, realized
for every 40,000 I spent onstaff, I could bill out another
110,000.
And I was like, okay, well, Iproved it mathematically.
(26:20):
Actually, doing it's a wholeother thing.
I took the leap and did it.
And I've done it again andagain and again.
Now, at some point, you hit alevel where you're like, okay,
now I've got to build, you know,I've got to fulfill demand.
I've got to, you know, I'mbuilding capacity.
It's that constant balance ofcapacity versus market share.
So I, you know, try to keepcontinuing to balance that.
(26:42):
But we've done that to buildout our team.
It's funny how you can do itfor everybody else, but you're
the last one that uh you do itfor.
Tom DuFore (26:50):
Well, the final question we ask every guest is
what does success mean to you?
Cassmer Ward (26:55):
In a broad sense, I would say success to me would
be being able to do what I wantto do.
You know, I want to do whateverthe heck I want to do.
When I realized what made mehappiest in life, it was I like
helping people.
And I know that's a verygeneric answer, but you know,
where can I help people most?
How can I have the biggestimpact?
(27:16):
And I, you know, Tom, you mightask me to say, hey, can you
help me move?
And like, I could help youmove.
Like, there's better uses of mytime, probably better uses of
your time.
But where could I help you towhere it would have an impact on
your life, you know, and reallydo that?
And I will tell you about, youknow, is I even running a
practice when I realized westarted using metrics of client
(27:39):
success and client impact ratherthan revenue dollars, number of
clients, and all that, that'swhere I got a lot happier.
And all the other stuff workeditself out on its own.
But that's when I was the mosthappy.
And the team I've built aroundthat is the same way.
They love that the the ourclients are like, oh my gosh,
Elizabeth, you're a part of ourteam.
(28:00):
Like, you know, we love that.
Summer, Kathy, Jonina, alleverybody on our team, like we
get, you know, ingrained intheir team that it feels like
we're sitting with them 24-7.
And there is a part of we allwant to be valued, you know?
So, you know, by providingvalue, having an impact there
(28:21):
has been very, you know,important to us.
And at the end of the day,that's what makes us feel
successful, is literallyproviding value in a way that
it's accepted.
And I'll be honest, there are,I don't want to say exceptions.
There are times it's not a goodfit.
There are people that don'twant that, you know?
And if we can't provide aresource that will have an
impact or something that, youknow, you're not ready to take
(28:44):
that next leap.
We run into companies thattheir accounting's a mess.
They just don't want to spendmoney to fix it.
It's like, well, then thepain's not big enough there for
you.
You know, then if we alleviatethat, it probably doesn't mean
that much to you.
Tom DuFore (28:57):
Very well said.
Thank you for sharing.
And as we bring this to aclose, and before we go, I'm
just wondering if there'sanything you are hoping to share
or get across that you haven'thad a chance to yet.
Cassmer Ward (29:09):
When it comes to like running a business, in the
entrepreneurial world, we getfed all of this.
You got to scale up, you got toget your multiples up, you got
to be ready for exit.
I'm gonna 5x, I'm gonna 10x,I'm gonna do all these different
things.
Being an entrepreneur can bereally lonely.
And even with your successfulfriends that work other places,
(29:30):
they don't understand thepressure and the loneliness of
what it is to sometimes be anentrepreneur.
The way I always look at it iswe all want to, we all have our
Everest, we all have ourmountain to climb.
There is no one step to get toEverest.
It's thousands upon thousandsof small steps.
And maybe you look at gettingto the next base camp and really
(29:53):
looking at that, you know, Italked to a couple people in my
podcast along the way.
If you could just work ongetting 1%.
Better every day or every week.
Well, that's exponential growthover time.
It does not need to be in thenext month or the next year.
You know, I don't need to be a1 million and be a $10 million
company next year.
Like, do all of the things.
(30:14):
And usually the ones that, youknow, just like climbing
Everest, if you go too fast,you're going to get altitude
sickness.
You know, businesses do thesame thing.
Take your time so you cansustain the climb and not end up
getting, you know, stalledalong the way.
Tom DuFore (30:32):
Kaz, thank you so much for a fantastic interview.
And let's go ahead and jumpinto today's three key
takeaways.
So takeaway number one is whenKaz was talking about AI and its
impact on business.
And what I like that he said isAI makes some assumptions that
things are just going to staythe way that they are.
But the reality is things arealways shifting and evolving and
(30:55):
changing.
So while AI is a supportive andhelpful tool, it's not the only
tool.
There will still be a need forsupport experts and advisors
along the way.
Takeaway number two is when hetalked about defining the
difference between a CFO, acontroller, and a bookkeeper.
And I kind of looked at this aspast, present, and future,
(31:18):
where a bookkeeper is lookingpast, it's looking backwards, a
controller is present looking atthe right now, and a CFO looks
forward.
I thought that was a greatlittle summary.
Takeaway number three, I lovethe little bit of advice and
nugget he gave for franchiseoars.
And I loved how he said that afranchise or needs to provide
value in the business modelitself, to help the franchisee
(31:41):
create marketing, sales, aplaybook, sustainability,
growth, systems, provenprocesses, et cetera, and help
the franchisee there.
Certainly on the finances, ashe said, helping with accounting
bookkeeping on the back end.
That's nice to have, but themain focus should be to add
value for the franchisee.
And now it's time for today'swin-win.
(32:04):
So today's win-win is when Casstalked about people and
founders and leaders that heworks with that talk about
trying to find one report torule them all.
He said that doesn't reallyexist.
You've got to find what worksfor you.
And chances are it's multiplereports pulling different data
(32:26):
and information into one place.
So I thought that was a greatnugget that there's not this
kind of holy grail of adestination for one financial
report.
And then I think coupled withit, as you begin analyzing your
data and financial metrics, thatreminder that CPAs come in all
(32:47):
different specialties.
Just because someone's a CPAdoesn't necessarily mean that
they're a tax professional orthat they're an expert in your
industry.
I think that was a nice littlereminder.
So finding that right CPA tohelp you find that right report
or set of reports in evaluatingyour business.
And so that's the episodetoday, folks.
(33:07):
Please make sure you subscribeto the podcast and give us a
review.
And remember, if you or anyoneyou know might be ready to
franchise their business or taketheir franchise company to the
next level, please connect withus at BigSkyFranchise Team.com
where you can schedule yourfree, no obligation
consultation.
Thanks for tuning in, and welook forward to having you back
next week.
Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast,
where each week we helpgrowth-minded entrepreneurs and
franchise leaders take the nextstep in their expansion journey.
I'm your host, Tom Dufour, CEOof Big Sky Franchise Team.
And as we open today, I'mwondering how you review your
financial statements and if youhave one financial report that
(00:23):
rules them all, the one that's amust.
Well, our guest today isCasmere Ward, who shares with us
insights about the onefinancial report you must have
as a leader.
Now, Kaz is a financialexecutive and business educator
with over 20 years of experiencein accounting, operation
strategy, and entrepreneurship.
He works with clients acrossindustries to uncover key
(00:44):
drivers of growth and financialhealth.
He's also an adjunct instructorat Queen's University's McCall
School of Business.
He's known for translatingcomplex business concepts into
engaging, accessible formats,including his book, How Much
Does It Cost to Make a Donut inan Online Netflix-style
entrepreneurship course?
With a background inaccounting, management
(01:05):
information systems, andstrategic leadership, Cass
combines financial acumen withcreative problem solving to
guide both business owners andstudents towards smarter
decisions and sustainablegrowth.
You're going to love thisinterview, so let's go ahead and
jump right into it.
I know there will be a lot offolks that fall in that range
(01:40):
that end up listening to thispodcast.
So it'll definitely be relevantto them.
It's hard not to ask about AIintegration here, but with AI
automation, all of these thingscoming forward, especially with
administrative type tasks, isthe need for accounting and
these types of services.
Do you see those things goingaway and relying on these types
(02:02):
of technology?
Cassmer Ward (02:04):
Well, you know what?
Like AI, oddly enough, issomething we're banking on in
the new year.
And when I say that,everybody's saying, oh, I'm
investing heavily in AI becausethat's the future.
And what they're doing isthey're trying to scale down
their operations so it's muchmore run by AI.
However, the opportunity we'reseeing is AI is a great tool.
(02:26):
Okay.
It is, it can provide insight,it can gather a lot of
information really, really fast.
We see it a lot with peoplethat use QuickBooks.
AI's been in there for years.
You can set up rules where itautomatically identifies things
and automatically starts sortingthings.
And if everything were to stayconstant in everything from
(02:47):
business, life in general, AImight be even more impactful
than it already is.
The problem is, is thingsaren't consistent of life or
business in general.
So people think AI is like, Idon't need somebody to think
through this anymore.
AI will do it.
AI will only do it based onwhat's been done in the past.
(03:09):
Really, what happens is whenyou set it up, you're literally
taking your hands off the wheeland letting it take where you
want.
So we got self-driving carsright now, right?
Tom, have you ever been in aself-driving car?
Tom DuFore (03:22):
I have not.
No, I have not been yet.
I know a few folks who have,but I'm not one of them at this
point.
Cassmer Ward (03:28):
So at this point, would you jump in one and just
take your hands off the wheel?
Do you feel that comfortable?
If AI, it's all it's goteverything built into it, but
it's just not there yet.
It would be irresponsible to doit.
So the opportunity that we'reseeing, especially in the
accounting world, is while we'lluse it as a tool to make our
operations better, it canprovide overall outlines and
(03:52):
some insight.
But at the end of the day, itcan't tell you how to do it.
It can't actually applystrategic initiatives,
operational execution, and allthat.
So a lot of people can say,hey, AI, if you were my CFO,
what would you do here?
And it would spit out a varietyof information.
It's like, okay, help usexecute it.
(04:13):
Well, all it's going to do isgive you all the information so
you can go do it yourself.
You know?
Again, great information.
Where this has lined us up onthe services we provide is over
the years, I meet with anyentrepreneur that has finance
and accounting issues.
And my general pitch is I willtell you everything I need, I
(04:35):
can.
And if you can go do it on yourown, more power to you.
Go be a billionaire.
Best of luck to you.
But the question is, is are yougoing to do it?
And at the end of the day, theyneed a butt in the seat to help
get the work done.
So, Tom, there's a millionthings.
How to build a deck, how tocreate your own app, all the
(04:57):
things like we AI provides allthat information, even the
internet, to do to get there.
At the end of the day, are yougoing to sit down and do that?
And can you do it any fasterwith that information that
someone's already done thousandsof times?
Tom DuFore (05:15):
I think that's very well said.
It's a tool that comes into it,right?
Even thinking about theiteration and transition from
QuickBooks desktop to QuickBooksOnline, right?
I mean, even just thattransition, however many years
ago when that started, and justkind of part of the evolution of
changing.
And I think your comment on ifall things were consistent and
(05:36):
constant and never changed, butthis is not a set it and forget
it type of a deal.
The business is evolving everyday, every week, even for a
small business, they're changingweekly, monthly, quarterly at a
minimum with what's happening.
Cassmer Ward (05:50):
One customer late pays you can throw a whole cus
the whole, you know, month outof whack for a small business.
AI can't predict whether or notthat customer is going to pay
you on time.
It's going to make anassumption based on what the
current terms are.
Who follows the terms, youknow?
Tom DuFore (06:08):
We work with a lot of entrepreneurs, successful
business leaders, people who arerunning companies that are
going to be tuning into this.
I'll ask us from a coupledifferent perspectives.
The first is just thinking ofthat successful owner or founder
that's leading a business.
How do they kind of go throughand start assessing, well, when
do I need a bookkeeper versus acontroller versus a CFO type
(06:33):
guidance?
Is it all of it?
Is it some of it?
How do you kind of help advisepeople in sorting through that?
Cassmer Ward (06:38):
Businesses need bookkeepers.
They literally need someone toenter the information into the
accounting system, financesoftware, even if you don't have
that into an Excel spreadsheet,right?
And you'd be surprised how manylong operating businesses do
just that.
But literally, it's justcollecting the data so you can
turn it into information thatyou can make decisions from.
(07:01):
Okay.
So as you gather that, we allget our bills.
We get our ATT bill for ourinternet, we get the rent bill
for our office.
All of that comes in.
But organizing that data andfiguring out how that needs to
come in, a lot of bookkeeperscan do it at a very low level.
But then what happens is abusiness owner is like, okay,
(07:23):
I've got all the data.
I need it turned intoinformation.
And that's where you startlooking in the senior
controllers, senior accountantsand controller level to say,
this is the format.
And I always say, you know,with your financial statements,
Tom, what do you need to look atto understand the health of
your business?
You know, well, I want to knowwhat my income is.
I want to know what my cost ofgoods sold are, my cost of
(07:46):
services, I want to know what myoverhead is.
Well, let's start providingthat structure for you.
And in that, how detailed do wewant to get?
Do we want to have it, youknow, we can have office
supplies, we can have labor, wecan have labor that is
production related, we can haveoffice labor, we can break all
those different pieces down.
But how would it be structuredto where you could look at it
(08:08):
and make a decision as quicklyas possible?
Sometimes you see with this,whether it's a bookkeeper or
even some controllers, they liketo categorize everything.
I had one client and I stillgive them a hard time to this
day.
They had a special category forbirthday cards for office
birthdays.
And they spent $40 a year onbirthday cards.
(08:31):
I'm like, why, why are youbreaking this down?
Like, are we literally, are wegonna have a budgeting session
based on birthday cards?
And they were like, well, wejust thought we'd want to know.
I'm like, let's, you know what?
I don't know what you're gonnado with that information.
Let's talk about the numberswhere you're gonna make that,
you know, those decisions.
And then from there, also yourPL, your balance sheet doesn't
(08:54):
have to have all the data at aminute level for you to make
decisions.
You can use classes,dimensions, locations, products
and services.
A lot of people try to createthe one report that rules them
all in their PL.
It's like, no, no, no, no.
That's the health of yourbusiness and what you're doing
to generate wealth.
Overall, if you're wanting tolook at business lines, product
(09:18):
lines, customer services, breakdown the customer, let's set up
separate reporting.
Do not try to set up reporting.
So a controller spends timehelping develop that structure.
That way they can say, here'sthe information.
This is what happened in allthese areas.
CFO looks forward.
What are we gonna do with thatinformation to get out there
(09:42):
well, well, well in advance toget where we want to go?
We're a $5 million company, wewant to be at $15 million.
We're gonna need more people,we're gonna need more customers.
We can't get those customers inthis market.
And building a plan, afinancial plan that gets you to
reach those goals, the CFO ismuch more strategic and
(10:02):
operational rather thanbackwards looking like a
controller would be, if not evena bookkeeper.
Tom DuFore (10:08):
That helps clarify.
And I know even in running myown business, I've run several
businesses over the years.
And just having that clarity onthe role that each one of those
plays, sometimes when you'retalking to different service
providers or people you'respeaking with, sometimes it runs
together.
It's unclear exactly whatthey're going to be doing and
helping you through that.
(10:29):
That kind of leads me to thenext thought or idea that I was
thinking about is how thispertains to franchising, is
that's the second perspective Iwas gonna be looking from.
And franchisors are one oftheir very important jobs is to
support franchisees and to helpgive them advice and
suggestions.
But generally, they're notbookkeepers, they're not
(10:49):
controllers, they're not CFOs.
They're gonna provide somecoaching and support along the
way, of course.
How have you worked withdifferent businesses at varying
life stages, right?
Where some might be in a highgrowth, some might be mature,
some are maybe just starting,but they're projecting and
growing quickly, you know, andyou might have a whole bunch of
different businesses in each ofthese different categories, much
(11:11):
like a franchise system might.
How would you maybe advise orrecommend handling that diverse
amount of businesses anddifferent stages that they might
be working in?
Cassmer Ward (11:22):
So I would love to tell you, Tom.
I'd be a billionaire if I couldsay the only way to do that is
through good accounting and CFOand controller work.
I will say, while I always dothink that's important, what
franch what franchisers need todo in order to get people to
line up is provide that theopportunity and the the vehicle
(11:42):
they're offering in theirfranchise will provide value.
Ultimately, it's going toprovide a return on their
investment.
Okay.
Now, we could, you know what,Tommy and you could have a
gossip session about all thefranchise oars that are
literally just trying to gettheir fees out there, get people
in some commercial real estate,and sink or swing.
(12:04):
There's a million of those.
There's stories out there ofthese franchise oars that they
build a huge network and end upwith a bunch of franchisees that
can't make any money off ofthat.
Okay.
Those are the badpractitioners, good franchise
oars, the ones that stick aroundfor not two years or five
years, but 50 years are the onesthat have something that says
(12:26):
people want hamburgers, frenchfries, and all that.
They want a quick turnaround,they want an easy location and
all that.
They want something that peoplewill continue to buy into, that
customers, that the demand isthere, and identifying the
marketing and you know, thedemand that will help drive that
business.
Okay.
So figuring all those piecesout, I would say, for a
(12:48):
franchise or is their key assetwhat they're selling.
At the end of the day, whatmeasures whether or not they're
right is how well they'remeasuring their accounting and
finance.
And I would hope, as afranchise, or if I sold you,
Tom, a franchise, I own anengineering company as well.
If I were to sell you afranchise of that, I know
exactly how, you know, what anengineer needs to bring in, how
(13:11):
to get in front of people thatwill want your engineering
services and do that.
I can provide all the metricson that.
I can tell you what groupmeetings in your area you need
to go to.
I need all the tools.
I can provide all the templatesfor you to do that.
It is one of those thingsthat's so great about
franchises, is it is the list,it is the to-do list.
Do all of these things and youshould be successful.
(13:35):
You know, you use youraccounting and finance, you
know, divisions to measurewhether or not the output is
coming from there, maybe tweak afew things along the way.
But that is really the uh proofof concept right there that
what I've been sold is providingthe return they promised me
when I bought into it.
Tom DuFore (13:54):
You've worked with a lot of clients and businesses
over the years.
And I'm just curious if you'veseen some consistent blind spots
or some consistent maybetrouble areas that you've seen
clients generally bump into whenyou see these types of things.
Cassmer Ward (14:10):
Overall, uh I spend a lot of my time in the
education arena of whataccounting is in finance.
Talking about accounting rightoff the bat, not all accountants
are the same.
And I'm not talking about skilllevel, but I'm talking about
areas of expertise.
So, you know, a lot of peoplelike the gold standard of an
accountant is being a CPA.
You know, I've got my CPA.
(14:32):
I can't tell you I'm any betteror worse off for it.
Uh, it's something I was proudto get.
Prepping for it was the realhard work.
But going back to engineers fora second, with engineers, they
all take their CPA, it's calledthe PE, professional
engineering's license.
But you have electricalengineers, you have mechanical
engineers, civil engineers, youname it.
(14:53):
There's, you know, when they goto get their PE license, they
take the exam in theirdiscipline and they end up
getting their stamp to become aPE, right?
Engineers are very specific.
So whether while they all havetheir PEs, you don't see
electrical engineers saying, oh,I'll do mechanical engineering
work and all that.
(15:14):
The accounting world iscompletely different.
You have tax accountants, whichthere are, you know, that's
what most people thinkaccountants are are tax
accountants.
I pay someone to do my taxes.
My mom to this day still thinksI'm busy every April because
I'm doing everybody's taxes.
I gave up that fight many, manyyears ago.
(15:36):
But the truth of the matter isthere are tax accountants.
There's auditors, there arepractitioners, practitioner
accountants.
And then the world where Ispend my time in is managerial
accounting.
So, like I told you, Tom, ifyou said, hey, Cass, will you do
my taxes?
I'd be like, No, I do a reallybad job.
But there are a lot ofaccountants, and I'll be honest,
(15:57):
some of the biggest uhoffenders of this are these
accounting firms that offeraudit and tax that say, oh,
we're gonna provide theseconsulting services.
And they get into bookkeeping,they get into these to where
they don't have industryexperience, they don't have
managerial experience, theydon't know how to run a business
outside of an accounting firm.
(16:17):
And it would, you know, itwould be no different than me
saying, I'm gonna do those taxesnow.
I'm gonna do that auditing.
So what have the the the a lotof business owners, they get a
tax accountant set up as like,I've got my accounting team,
they're set up.
They don't.
They have their tax person setup.
And they probably have somebodythat does a great job at taxes.
But when it comes tobookkeeping, they don't care
(16:40):
about what categories it's goingin.
And it's not that they don'tcare about it because they're
out to get you.
To do taxes well, they justneed to make sure everything is
recorded so they can do good taxreturns.
Not, is it in a way where youcan provide reporting on
customer sales reports, productlines, margin?
None of that in tax world, thatmeans nothing.
Tom DuFore (17:01):
Very interesting and very helpful for sure.
I want to go back to a part ofthe conversation when you're
talking about the reporting andthe various types of reports.
I found that that interesting.
Have you found in your work andworking with different
industries, different clients,running your own businesses, is
it generally maybe a handful ofreports that an owner or leader
(17:22):
kind of focuses in on, a few ofthese to help them in their
decision making?
Do you find that I'm justtrying to get a sense of is a
owner that's listening in,right?
Are they saying, well, boy, Ilook at my PL and my balance
sheet, and that's about it.
What am I missing out there?
Are there 10 other reports Iought to be paying attention to?
Or so you know, everybodystarts with the PL.
Cassmer Ward (17:41):
And honestly, you all get everybody gets into
business to make sure that theycan make money.
Like, no problem.
But making business decisionsbased off of that, if I told
you, Tom, you're profitable by10% or $10,000, whatever you
want to call it, you know, yourquestion is is like, okay,
great.
But but what where does thatdrive you to move next?
(18:02):
And what if I told you that,you know, your revenues up 10%,
your net profit is down?
Well, we can start drawing somecomparisons.
Like you're doing more work,but you're making the same
amount of profit.
Like now you're working harderto make the same amount of
money.
So what happens is that's wherea lot of business owners that
don't have a strong financial oraccounting background, are
(18:23):
like, well, what do I do next?
Well, here's the question (18:25):
is this more because of a raise in
overhead?
Is this more of a raise becauseyour margins are getting
thinner?
Where do we need to look next?
And do we need to look atoverall margin or do we need to
look at margin per project orper job or per widget?
You know, one of the thingsI've always seen, like with
construction companies I'veworked with, I've worked with a
(18:46):
lot that they'll lose money atthe end of the day.
And the owners or managers arelike, how are we losing money?
We make a profit on every jobwe did.
But I'm like, yeah, but younever cover your overhead.
You never cost, you know, coverthe cost of your marketing,
your office, and all of thesethings.
You've got a volume issue.
The only way to get over thereis a volume issue.
(19:07):
And then sometimes, in order toget that volume up, you need to
invest a little in the overheadjust to get there.
So your overhead number goes upeven as you're growing volume.
To say that there's keyreports, it really is looking at
what you're trying toaccomplish and kind of zeroing
in on where I can make adifference?
Can I make more on margin?
Do I know how to drive sales?
(19:28):
As an accountant, I'm bad atsales, I'm bad at marketing, but
I know how key it is.
Like I know where I need tospend my dollars so somebody or
the right people can help drivesales to get into our business.
Those are investments I'mwilling to make from there.
Then in order to make sure theypay off, we start tracking our
(19:49):
month-over-month sales growth.
We take a look at maybe wedon't even look at the dollars.
We just take at the look, thenumber of new clients coming in
along the way.
And building that metric, thethe metrics that help you decide
whether or not something isworking.
Tom DuFore (20:04):
Very, very well said.
And what's a great way forsomeone to find out more about
you, your company, what you'redoing, or your services?
Cassmer Ward (20:11):
Yeah.
So uh honestly, I've got aunique name.
My name is Casmer Ward.
I'm sure the spelling will beon the episode in and of itself.
But if you go to kasmerwar.com,that will lead you to my book,
to me.
It will also lead to mycompany, Nexegy, which is at
Nexegy.com.
And that's where you'll findout all kinds of the services we
provide, everything fromaccounting services, fractional
(20:33):
CFO services, fractionalcontroller.
And not only that, you'll finda link to my YouTube channel,
which we go over a lot of thisstuff in detail.
So there is everything fromlectures to the managerial
classes I teach to theentrepreneurships class I teach
to the business case interviewsI do with other entrepreneurs
that are used as business casesin the master's program I teach
(20:56):
at.
Tom DuFore (20:56):
Well, Kess, this is a great time in the show, and we
ask every guest the same fourquestions before they go.
And the first question we askis Have you had a miss or two on
your journey and something youlearned from it?
Cassmer Ward (21:08):
You know what's funny, Tom, is every miss I've
gotten has been the best thingthat happened to me.
It started all the way back incollege.
I remember in order to help,you know, offset tuition, make a
little extra money, I appliedto be an RA.
There were 30-some candidates.
Let's say there were 34candidates, 30 open positions,
(21:32):
slam dunk.
Everybody, like, you'll begreat at this, you'll do this.
I was one of the four that didnot get chosen.
Opportunity came up uh sixmonths later, applied again,
didn't get it.
Finally got it on my third onethat year, got RA of the year
award, literally, really kind oflearned everything I needed to
(21:53):
be a good RA, which I will behonest, I'm sure a lot of people
out there is like RAs do work,or you know, there's anything
there, but it was something I'llbe honest.
My experience as an RA wasprobably very instrumental in
the management skills I learned,how to deal with people, how to
collaborate.
(22:14):
Getting it right off the bat,honestly, probably was one of
the best misses off the bat.
Same thing.
I've at one point, uh, as muchas I uh I'm passionate about
accounting, I'm a passionateabout entrepreneurship, applied
for a university to be anaccountant faculty.
Applied three times, never gotit.
Looking back at it and what thelife of a faculty member at the
(22:37):
university would be, I wouldnot be where I am today.
And I probably would be doing alot more administrative work
than I would be teaching.
And I think, you know, asdisappointed as I was at that
time, best thing that could havehappened was that miss along
the way.
Tom DuFore (22:54):
Let's talk about a make or two, a highlight,
something on the other side.
Cassmer Ward (23:00):
So here's the thing that probably would people
would call a miss along theway.
Last job I got, I was firedfrom.
It was a job that I wasstarting as the company was
growing, I was disagreeing withmanagement and did not feel
comfortable ethically with whatthey were, the direction they
were going.
I refused to do, you know,anything I found questionable.
(23:21):
And I remember going home atevery day being like, I just
wish they'd fire me.
I just wish they'd fired me.
I was just a big ball ofstress.
I am an accountant.
I am not anybody that wouldsay, go start a business.
You know, it's it's too risky,it's it's a lot of work.
I mean, you know, I'd nevermake that choice.
(23:42):
When I was eventually fired, itwas weird how much I dreaded
it, how calming it was.
It was like, oh, thank God itfinally happened.
I was able to leave.
Their top three engineers leftand said, we start an
engineering firm up.
We'll all be partners.
And I like because they askedme to do it, I was a business
(24:03):
owner within 30 days of leavingthat company.
And then from there, kind ofcaught the bug and said, Hey,
you don't need me full-time tobe your CFO.
We're not that big yet.
Let me go do this on afractional basis.
So ultimately, one of my bigmakes was getting fired and kind
of getting pulled into it byother people.
Now, while anybody that reachesout to me today that says, Hey,
(24:25):
I want to start a business, I'mstill like, hey, a lot of risk,
likelihood of succeeding isvery small.
Don't do it.
I've now done it six or seventimes.
So I'm a hypocrite at the sametime, but it is one of those
things that, like, I would havenever made that choice on my own
out of the gate.
Tom DuFore (24:42):
That story you share reminds me a lot of what I hear
just in the franchise world,why a lot of folks who maybe
aren't ready to jump in andstart their own business, they
end up in a downsizing, acorporate merger, or something
like that happens, that theylose their position, but they
don't quite want to be anindependent entrepreneur, kind
of jumping into it on their own.
(25:03):
So they'll kind of make thatbridge right in franchise,
somewhere more in the middlethere with a little bit of help.
Well, the next question we askevery guest is have you used a
multiplier to multiply yourselfprofessionally or personally or
any business you've run?
Cassmer Ward (25:18):
Working with so many companies over the year,
like I've always talked toowners, and I'm like, we need to
figure out how to find thenext, you know, the next Tom.
So you can elevate your gameand they can take out your
duties.
And literally building outmodels for every hire we do, we
are able to, you know, bringsomebody else on board along the
(25:38):
way.
And for every person that youbring on, you've got your
revenues got to go up to thislevel, unless they're a support
level.
And I did it over and over forall these other clients.
And then I was complainingabout work one day to a client,
and he's like, Well, why aren'tyou doing the things we did?
Why aren't you bringing peopleon?
And I kind of felt called outon it, like, you know, and as I
(25:58):
told you before, Tom, I'm ahypocrite.
Can tell everybody else what todo.
Don't know if I can take my ownadvice.
I brought in some peers.
I literally ran through thesame exercise I did, realized
for every 40,000 I spent onstaff, I could bill out another
110,000.
And I was like, okay, well, Iproved it mathematically.
(26:20):
Actually, doing it's a wholeother thing.
I took the leap and did it.
And I've done it again andagain and again.
Now, at some point, you hit alevel where you're like, okay,
now I've got to build, you know,I've got to fulfill demand.
I've got to, you know, I'mbuilding capacity.
It's that constant balance ofcapacity versus market share.
So I, you know, try to keepcontinuing to balance that.
(26:42):
But we've done that to buildout our team.
It's funny how you can do itfor everybody else, but you're
the last one that uh you do itfor.
Tom DuFore (26:50):
Well, the final question we ask every guest is
what does success mean to you?
Cassmer Ward (26:55):
In a broad sense, I would say success to me would
be being able to do what I wantto do.
You know, I want to do whateverthe heck I want to do.
When I realized what made mehappiest in life, it was I like
helping people.
And I know that's a verygeneric answer, but you know,
where can I help people most?
How can I have the biggestimpact?
(27:16):
And I, you know, Tom, you mightask me to say, hey, can you
help me move?
And like, I could help youmove.
Like, there's better uses of mytime, probably better uses of
your time.
But where could I help you towhere it would have an impact on
your life, you know, and reallydo that?
And I will tell you about, youknow, is I even running a
practice when I realized westarted using metrics of client
(27:39):
success and client impact ratherthan revenue dollars, number of
clients, and all that, that'swhere I got a lot happier.
And all the other stuff workeditself out on its own.
But that's when I was the mosthappy.
And the team I've built aroundthat is the same way.
They love that the the ourclients are like, oh my gosh,
Elizabeth, you're a part of ourteam.
(28:00):
Like, you know, we love that.
Summer, Kathy, Jonina, alleverybody on our team, like we
get, you know, ingrained intheir team that it feels like
we're sitting with them 24-7.
And there is a part of we allwant to be valued, you know?
So, you know, by providingvalue, having an impact there
(28:21):
has been very, you know,important to us.
And at the end of the day,that's what makes us feel
successful, is literallyproviding value in a way that
it's accepted.
And I'll be honest, there are,I don't want to say exceptions.
There are times it's not a goodfit.
There are people that don'twant that, you know?
And if we can't provide aresource that will have an
impact or something that, youknow, you're not ready to take
(28:44):
that next leap.
We run into companies thattheir accounting's a mess.
They just don't want to spendmoney to fix it.
It's like, well, then thepain's not big enough there for
you.
You know, then if we alleviatethat, it probably doesn't mean
that much to you.
Tom DuFore (28:57):
Very well said.
Thank you for sharing.
And as we bring this to aclose, and before we go, I'm
just wondering if there'sanything you are hoping to share
or get across that you haven'thad a chance to yet.
Cassmer Ward (29:09):
When it comes to like running a business, in the
entrepreneurial world, we getfed all of this.
You got to scale up, you got toget your multiples up, you got
to be ready for exit.
I'm gonna 5x, I'm gonna 10x,I'm gonna do all these different
things.
Being an entrepreneur can bereally lonely.
And even with your successfulfriends that work other places,
(29:30):
they don't understand thepressure and the loneliness of
what it is to sometimes be anentrepreneur.
The way I always look at it iswe all want to, we all have our
Everest, we all have ourmountain to climb.
There is no one step to get toEverest.
It's thousands upon thousandsof small steps.
And maybe you look at gettingto the next base camp and really
(29:53):
looking at that, you know, Italked to a couple people in my
podcast along the way.
If you could just work ongetting 1%.
Better every day or every week.
Well, that's exponential growthover time.
It does not need to be in thenext month or the next year.
You know, I don't need to be a1 million and be a $10 million
company next year.
Like, do all of the things.
(30:14):
And usually the ones that, youknow, just like climbing
Everest, if you go too fast,you're going to get altitude
sickness.
You know, businesses do thesame thing.
Take your time so you cansustain the climb and not end up
getting, you know, stalledalong the way.
Tom DuFore (30:32):
Kaz, thank you so much for a fantastic interview.
And let's go ahead and jumpinto today's three key
takeaways.
So takeaway number one is whenKaz was talking about AI and its
impact on business.
And what I like that he said isAI makes some assumptions that
things are just going to staythe way that they are.
But the reality is things arealways shifting and evolving and
(30:55):
changing.
So while AI is a supportive andhelpful tool, it's not the only
tool.
There will still be a need forsupport experts and advisors
along the way.
Takeaway number two is when hetalked about defining the
difference between a CFO, acontroller, and a bookkeeper.
And I kind of looked at this aspast, present, and future,
(31:18):
where a bookkeeper is lookingpast, it's looking backwards, a
controller is present looking atthe right now, and a CFO looks
forward.
I thought that was a greatlittle summary.
Takeaway number three, I lovethe little bit of advice and
nugget he gave for franchiseoars.
And I loved how he said that afranchise or needs to provide
value in the business modelitself, to help the franchisee
(31:41):
create marketing, sales, aplaybook, sustainability,
growth, systems, provenprocesses, et cetera, and help
the franchisee there.
Certainly on the finances, ashe said, helping with accounting
bookkeeping on the back end.
That's nice to have, but themain focus should be to add
value for the franchisee.
And now it's time for today'swin-win.
(32:04):
So today's win-win is when Casstalked about people and
founders and leaders that heworks with that talk about
trying to find one report torule them all.
He said that doesn't reallyexist.
You've got to find what worksfor you.
And chances are it's multiplereports pulling different data
(32:26):
and information into one place.
So I thought that was a greatnugget that there's not this
kind of holy grail of adestination for one financial
report.
And then I think coupled withit, as you begin analyzing your
data and financial metrics, thatreminder that CPAs come in all
(32:47):
different specialties.
Just because someone's a CPAdoesn't necessarily mean that
they're a tax professional orthat they're an expert in your
industry.
I think that was a nice littlereminder.
So finding that right CPA tohelp you find that right report
or set of reports in evaluatingyour business.
And so that's the episodetoday, folks.
(33:07):
Please make sure you subscribeto the podcast and give us a
review.
And remember, if you or anyoneyou know might be ready to
franchise their business or taketheir franchise company to the
next level, please connect withus at BigSkyFranchise Team.com
where you can schedule yourfree, no obligation
consultation.
Thanks for tuning in, and welook forward to having you back
next week.
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