Oct. 27, 2025

Business and Cash Flow Forecast

This week's Powerful Business Strategies segment with Michael Barbarita of Next Step CFO is Imagine, having a business GPS that not only shows you where you are right now, but predicts exactly where you'll be in 6 months, 12 months, even 18 months from today. A GPS that answers questions like: "Can I afford to hire that manager?" "What happens if sales drop 20%?" "When is the best time to expand?"

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Hi, you have done to censure wow for you young.

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This is the pipe Man here on the adventures of

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Pipe Man W four c Y Radio once again in

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the positively pipe Man mood with our resident expert. And

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I think, you know, last week, I think I kind

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of screwed that one up. So I think better this

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week and I did it right. But more importantly, this

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guest that we have really does it right for your business.

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So let's explore some more powerful business strategies with Michael Barbarita.

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Thank you for having me again, Deane. I appreciate it,

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you know my pleasure. Yeah, you know, one of the

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this one today we're gonna talk about as a financial strategy,

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and business owners have a hard time grasping this one.

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Now it's something I do with every single one of

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my clients because it helps It helps them so much

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in a decision making process because you see, a CFO

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is forward looking, where most of the financial people like

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CPAs and bookkeepers and so forth, they're historical. They're mostly

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telling you what happened, where a CFO it tells you

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what looks like is going to happen. And one of

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the tools that we use, and that a strategic business

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owner needs to have is a business and cash flow forecast.

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And I've got some benefits and reasons why the business

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and cash flow forecast is. It's just it helps why

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it helps you make better business decisions because it helps

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you identify the ramifications of your decision. It tells you

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the ramifications of your decisions before you make it, and

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so but all the strategic advantages that it has I'm

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going to go through, but business owners don't necessarily grasp

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it for some reason, and despite the fact that I'm

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able to convince every one of my clients eventually to

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have one and they thank me for it afterwards. Because

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an it's an ongoing blueprint. It's an organic, ongoing, dynamic,

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ongoing blueprint. So the first benefit is with a business

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and casual forecast, you actually discover the most successful business

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model you can have. The forecast reveals your business's true

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potential and it shows you the most efficient way to operate.

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It's like having X ray vision into your business model.

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And so when you can discover the most effective business

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model you can have, because it's not necessarily the business

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model you have now, and when we propose strategy implementation,

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we show you what it looks like financially through our forecasting,

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that's another big advantage. Another advantage is it's a competitive

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advantage through knowledge. When you know your numbers and understand

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your business model, and you're knowing and you have a

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good grasp of what's going to happen, you're far ahead

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of your competitors who are operating on gut instinct and hope.

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So that's another benefit. The third benefit is something that

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business owners relate to the most out of all the

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benefits that I offer with the with the forecast, and

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that is the can I answering? The can I afforded? Question? Yeah,

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that's the question I get the most. You know, can

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I afford a new truck? Can I afford a new manager?

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Can I afford a new location, a new product line?

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The forecast gives you accurate answers and shows you the

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risk of thenociated with any of those investments, So and

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and and it has provided so much clarity for business

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owners who are just unsure. It just that when they're unsure,

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at best, they're on the fence. But when they we

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can kick them over the fence one way or the

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other with the with the with the tool that we

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use the business and cash flow forecast. It's like a

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breath of fresh air for them because they're not stressing

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over these decisions. They see how it will work and

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they have confidence because the forecast is essentially their their

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view of what the future will happen. Especially on the

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top line. It's also a risk assessment and opportunity discovery tools.

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So the forecast tells you both. Uh, you know what

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the risk are and what the opportunities are. It shows

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you what investments make sense and which ones could cause

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problems down the road. And it tells you when it's cloudy,

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not when it's raining, which is very important for business

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owned to really grasp and understand because we're able to

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identify for our clients when it's cloudy, when things are

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just start where I start to question, make I start

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to develop more questions for the business owner. UH. That

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gets them thinking about the risks uh, but also the

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opportunities because it's also an opportunity UH a tool discovery,

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opportunity discovery tool. Next, it's cash requirements. Okay, you'll you'll

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see the needs of cash requirements well in advance, so

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they have time to secure funding or you know, maybe

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you want to self fund it. But whatever, whatever reason,

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whatever way you want to go, it's telling you in

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advance that you're probably going to need more money in

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a couple of months, and a year, in ten months,

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whatever whatever. The forecast says. Another advantage of forecast is

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it's a resource planning for growth or control or contraction.

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You know, at what sales level do you need more people,

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what sales level do you need more equipment? You know,

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the forecast tells you exactly when to make these critical decisions.

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So it's it's really and I've only gone through half

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of the benefits, but it's really just those benefits alone

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makes it worthwhile to have your CFO prepare these these forecasts.

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There is it. There isn't a Fortune five hundred company

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in the world that doesn't do a forecast, even I

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should say Fortune ten thousand.

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I don't know how you could run any business without

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a forecast.

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Yeah, I mean, you've got to know where you're headed.

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It's just and you've got to you've got to understand

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the risk and opportunities. You got to understand if you're

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going to need more people or more equipment, and that

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The other advantage of the forecast is multiple what if scenarios,

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so you could even right in front of your eyes,

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you could say, Okay, this is what it looks like

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if sales drop twenty percent, or what if you lose

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your if you lost your biggest customer, what does that

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look like? Or on the other hand, what if you

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get that large contract. What does that look like? You know,

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it's not all negative, it's also positive. There are what

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if scenarios for everything. Yeah, and so it helps you

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plan for multiple what if scenarios so that you are

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prepared for anything. And then it optimizes staffing decisions. So

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if you ever wonder if you have too many people

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or too few people, the forecast shows the optimal number

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of people that you need and where they should fit

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in the organization. That's another big advantage because staffing is

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could be a nightmare, especially if you have over five people. Yeah,

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and then it's the forecast is also the basis for

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the strategic plan. It gives the company direction. It builds

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your confidence because you have that direction. So it it

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it helps with the strategies that we that we help

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you implement because we could see what that looks like financially,

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because a lot of I'll call them coaches. I hate

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using that word. By the way, Dean, we're strategists and.

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I'm not a fan of that word at all because

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the most overused word ever, and most of the people

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that call themselves coaches don't even have the certification that

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there are or even realize that there are certifications for

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experts that are actually doing that. And also, you know,

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one is coaching without implementation.

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Like right, that's right, I mean it has.

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To go hand in hand.

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Absolutely, And just so you know, Dean, I don't know

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if I've ever said it on the show. I am

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a CERTI of five profit coach, which means I have

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been have gone through rigorous training because like you said,

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there's many coaches out there that you know, just really

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don't know how to grow a small business. And so

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we go, we went through a real rigorous training to

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prove to earn the certification that proves that we can

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help implement implement strategy. That's and so that's why I

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get away from the word coach. So that's why I

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don't call you know, that's why I don't talk about

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being a certified profit coach. That is the terminology, that

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is the certification. But we help implement UH strategy and

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that's why I call it strategic implementation, and so the yeah,

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so the other thing is critical metrics. The forecast helps

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you identify the critical metrics in the business, and metrics

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are financial parameters that evaluate the performance and productivity of

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a busines. And it's easier for the business owner to

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understand four or five critical metrics than it is for

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them to read financial statements and understand what those are

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telling them, even though as a CFO my job, one

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of my jobs is to give the story that the

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financial statements are telling the business owner, but the critical

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metrics helps them understand it better. So that's the other

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thing that the forecast does. It helps identify those critical metrics.

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And the other thing is is I mentioned earlier that

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the forecast isn't something we just prepare and throw in

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a drawer like most business owners do. You know, they

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call it a budget. What we do. Our forecasting is dynamic,

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which means it's always ongoing. It's a constant tool that

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gets updated with actual results. And once those actual results

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are updated, the forecast rolls forward and you're able to

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better understand what's going on. And then finally, capacity limitations

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understanding what your capacity limited. You know, every business has

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capacity limits, and what the forecast will do is will

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tell you when you reach your capacity, so you might

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have to make additional investments in order to grow. Maybe not,

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but at least it helps identify capacity limitations. So those

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are the benefits of forecasting. And I got to tell

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you it's it's hard to it's hard to talk about

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or market business and cash flow forecasting. I'm usually able

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to convince my prospects and clients once I have an

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opportunity to go through those benefits, because you just can't.

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It's just it's just too difficult to go through those

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benefits or to talk about those benefits in a very

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very compact way that business. Because business all hate numbers

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to begin with. So if I talk about a business

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a cashul forecast, it's like turning off a switch in

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their brain.

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And like I said, like I've said before, they you know,

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they don't want to know a lot of times, and

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they think ignorance is bliss. But you know what forecasting

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is bliss?

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Right, we gotta you gotta do it, you really got

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to do it, and so and and so it's part

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of our program. So because As you know, we're both

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CFOs and strategic implementation specialists, and so we combine both

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the financial with the strategy. So when we implement the strategy,

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we understand the financial reorifications of that strategy. And that's

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what makes it advantageous to work with us.

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And how do they work with you?

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But okay, well, they would go they would go to

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my website, next step CFO dot net. They would be

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able to download a free copy of my book called

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Powerful Business Strategies. And then they would also if they

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go to the contact page, which was is NEEXTSTEPCFO dot nets,

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forward slash contact or just click the contact page when

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you're on the website, they would be able to schedule

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a book interview. There's nothing to buy, leave your wallets

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at home. It's sixty minutes on zoom. And by the way,

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the reason why we do it is we're constantly updating

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our book with different versions, and it's sixty minutes on zoom.

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I present a strategy from the book and then I

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ask you if the strategy, if a business owner were

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to implement that strategy, what the impact would be to

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a business owner in your industry. Then I documented for

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the book but I promise you this. You will learn

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business and financial strategies that your competition isn't doing. And

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that's why it's so valuable for a business owner to

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go do a book interview.

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Oh yeah, it's key. You know, you have to be

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not only aware of your competition, but you have to

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do things that they're not doing, because that's what separates

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you from the pack. And that's what separates you from

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the pack.

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That's right, that's what we're all about. That's what we're

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all about Dan doing what your competition isn't doing.

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There it is so thanks once again for wealth of

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information and for giving us some powerful business strategies. And

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I implore all our listeners reach out to you see

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what Michael has to say. You won't be sorry because

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it will help your business immensely. And thank you Michael

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for once again being on the adventures of Pipeline Pipeline.

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Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin on

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w for c UI Radio.