Full Transcript for Ep 23: David Place - Make Your Financial Statements Work for You

00:03:38,718 Now I've got to take a big one. 81 00:03:38,718 --> 00:03:40,762 Right. Great. Great point. 82 00:03:40,762 --> 00:03:42,889 Yeah. I mean, we all knew about tariffs, right? 83 00:03:42,889 --> 00:03:44,891 I mean, that was right in the front page. Correct. 84 00:03:44,891 --> 00:03:46,893 Any other things that happened? 85 00:03:46,893 --> 00:03:48,269 Behind the scenes? Correct. 86 00:03:48,269 --> 00:03:51,231 You're not having one. Not communicating. 87 00:03:51,231 --> 00:03:54,734 And having some regular meetings with whether it's your procurement team or 88 00:03:55,276 --> 00:03:58,947 as you brought up the point of maybe material prices going up 89 00:03:58,947 --> 00:04:02,825 and you're not aware of it in time, and then, you know, there's 90 00:04:02,867 --> 00:04:06,955 there's months later where, you know, all of a sudden you're like, well, why? 91 00:04:06,996 --> 00:04:08,373 You know, why is my margin eroding? 92 00:04:08,373 --> 00:04:09,332 And they go back. 93 00:04:09,332 --> 00:04:12,794 Well, we had a price increase on this, that and the other thing and yeah, 94 00:04:12,835 --> 00:04:16,256 I mean the Sunni and about it, then you could start to make plans for 95 00:04:16,714 --> 00:04:20,802 either finding other ways to save, you know, and cost the board 96 00:04:20,927 --> 00:04:24,555 or having those difficult conversations sometimes with your clients. 97 00:04:24,597 --> 00:04:26,140 Yeah, absolutely. 98 00:04:26,140 --> 00:04:30,603 So if I'm an owner and I'm very busy and I'm Aerostar my coffee 99 00:04:30,603 --> 00:04:34,482 or I'm, you know, machining my parts and I'm scheduling people. 100 00:04:34,607 --> 00:04:38,903 What what are the most important things that I need to be aware of 101 00:04:38,945 --> 00:04:40,363 from my financial statements? 102 00:04:40,363 --> 00:04:42,824 And actually, let's back up just a second. 103 00:04:42,824 --> 00:04:46,244 So there are three parts to a financial statement. 104 00:04:46,452 --> 00:04:47,704 Can you just run through those? 105 00:04:47,704 --> 00:04:50,623 Because I don't know that we always think to look at all of them. 106 00:04:50,623 --> 00:04:53,084 Yeah. So well from a statement perspective right. 107 00:04:53,084 --> 00:04:54,419 Yeah. Balance sheet. 108 00:04:54,419 --> 00:04:57,130 You got a PNL or an income statement here, folks. 109 00:04:57,130 --> 00:04:59,340 Talk about. And then you've got a cash flow statement. 110 00:04:59,340 --> 00:05:02,135 It's generally what we kind of keep an eye on. 111 00:05:02,135 --> 00:05:05,471 And, you know, I always say, you know, and I first saw 112 00:05:05,513 --> 00:05:08,308 look at the balance sheet and I look at the support 113 00:05:08,308 --> 00:05:10,601 behind the accounts that are on the balance sheet. 114 00:05:10,601 --> 00:05:13,813 I mean, if if your balance sheet is supported, 115 00:05:14,188 --> 00:05:16,065 then your income statement is going to be fine.

116 00:05:16,065 --> 00:05:19,777 It the, you know, the the dollars might not be categorized 117 00:05:19,777 --> 00:05:23,281 in the right accounts or proper accounts, but at the end of the day, your cash, 118 00:05:23,323 --> 00:05:26,492 you know, your cash and your profit numbers are probably pretty accurate 119 00:05:26,492 --> 00:05:29,495 because you've got a comfort level with your balance sheet. 120 00:05:29,871 --> 00:05:31,539 But, you know, there's, 121 00:05:32,957 --> 00:05:33,166 Yeah. 122 00:05:33,166 --> 00:05:34,459 And I'd say that's kind of where, you know, 123 00:05:34,459 --> 00:05:37,462 look at those three statements specifically, and, 124 00:05:37,879 --> 00:05:40,590 and then make sure that you're comfortable with account balances 125 00:05:40,590 --> 00:05:44,385 and account reconciliations and make sure that are done properly and timely. 126 00:05:44,427 --> 00:05:44,761 Yeah. 127 00:05:44,761 --> 00:05:48,973 I mean, that's I, I hate reconciling bank accounts. 128 00:05:49,140 --> 00:05:53,770 I and I, I know that I'm talking to the wrong person with that statement, 129 00:05:53,770 --> 00:05:58,649 but, that's like one of my least favorite things to do on a personal level. 130 00:05:58,649 --> 00:06:01,235 On a business level, all of the above. 131 00:06:01,235 --> 00:06:03,071 Not so true. 132 00:06:03,071 --> 00:06:06,407 And but it's it will identify. 133 00:06:06,407 --> 00:06:10,119 And we were talking about it earlier about if there's any fraud going on to 134 00:06:10,161 --> 00:06:13,539 if you're not doing a bank statement and reconciling it 135 00:06:13,581 --> 00:06:17,460 and taking a look at, you know, any reconciling differences and asking why, 136 00:06:18,669 --> 00:06:21,672 then you open yourself up to 137 00:06:21,798 --> 00:06:23,883 the chance that there may be some fraud going on. 138 00:06:23,883 --> 00:06:26,010 Yeah, I see it a lot in small businesses. 139 00:06:26,010 --> 00:06:28,763 I mean, more often than you'd think. 140 00:06:28,763 --> 00:06:31,849 And it's, it's, you know, sometimes the horse is already out 141 00:06:31,849 --> 00:06:33,393 the barn for a while. 142 00:06:33,393 --> 00:06:36,396 Like when someone already finds out. Right. 143 00:06:36,396 --> 00:06:37,563 But so what do I. 144 00:06:37,563 --> 00:06:39,232 If I'm looking for that? Right. I'm. 145 00:06:39,232 --> 00:06:43,361 I'm thinking, you know, my my bank account should have more money in it. 146 00:06:44,695 --> 00:06:46,614 Where do I go from there? Yeah. 147 00:06:46,614 --> 00:06:50,743 I mean, so you start to, I mean, after the reconciliation 148 00:06:50,827 --> 00:06:52,912 and start looking at the you look at the statement, 149 00:06:52,912 --> 00:06:56,457 you can start looking at to see from a customer 150 00:06:56,499 --> 00:06:59,502 by customer basis, product by product basis. 151 00:06:59,502 --> 00:07:02,296 You can look at, you know, what are your margins today

152 00:07:02,296 --> 00:07:05,383 versus what were they last month, you know, last month or last year. 153 00:07:05,508 --> 00:07:08,970 And see why there's a assuming if the cash isn't at the level 154 00:07:08,970 --> 00:07:13,808 that you expect it to be at, or normally it would be at, you know, year over year. 155 00:07:14,934 --> 00:07:18,354 Then there could be some things that are eroding, you know, margin. 156 00:07:18,354 --> 00:07:22,191 And the sooner you could figure out where that is, the point 157 00:07:22,191 --> 00:07:25,820 where you can make make changes and adjustments to, to correct it. 158 00:07:26,028 --> 00:07:27,363 Make sense? Makes sense. 159 00:07:27,363 --> 00:07:30,241 Sometimes I might want a third party to come in. 160 00:07:30,241 --> 00:07:30,908 Right? 161 00:07:30,908 --> 00:07:36,747 Like, if I'm worried that the cash is going someplace else or, 162 00:07:36,747 --> 00:07:41,294 you know, a myriad of different things, you know, can can happen. 163 00:07:41,461 --> 00:07:45,923 I one terrible had someone that, 164 00:07:46,841 --> 00:07:52,722 the operator was sending ordering pieces, 165 00:07:52,930 --> 00:07:57,393 sending them and duplicative one to client, one to his house 166 00:07:57,393 --> 00:08:01,689 and then selling the one from his house on his own accounts. 167 00:08:02,857 --> 00:08:06,486 And so the project costs weren't tying out, right? 168 00:08:06,527 --> 00:08:09,280 Like, the the what they were expecting 169 00:08:10,364 --> 00:08:11,032 was always 170 00:08:11,032 --> 00:08:14,243 they were never earning good margins on that project. 171 00:08:14,243 --> 00:08:18,998 And when we looked at it, we flagged it and said, this is make any sense? 172 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:21,000 Like, give me 4 or 5 more examples. 173 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:24,670 And it was consistently a problem, like it was consistently. 174 00:08:24,712 --> 00:08:27,882 And we went back to them and said, figure out what's wrong. 175 00:08:27,965 --> 00:08:30,426 Like, are you bidding your projects wrong? 176 00:08:30,426 --> 00:08:32,678 Because that's one thing, right? 177 00:08:32,678 --> 00:08:34,388 Okay. 178 00:08:34,388 --> 00:08:38,851 Or are you paying too much overtime or are you like, what's happening? 179 00:08:38,851 --> 00:08:43,439 And they went back and found that that was in fact a big problem. 180 00:08:43,439 --> 00:08:48,277 But they were had not looked at kind of an end of project 181 00:08:48,569 --> 00:08:53,032 review on where they came in versus where they bid. 182 00:08:53,950 --> 00:08:54,283 Yeah. No. 183 00:08:54,283 --> 00:08:56,160 Definitely important to know your cost for sure. 184 00:08:56,160 --> 00:08:58,120 Your product costs. 185 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:00,957 And, you know, a lot of, a lot of the owners, 186 00:09:00,957 --> 00:09:03,876 I mean, they, they, they, they've been at it for a long time. 187 00:09:03,876 --> 00:09:07,380 So they kind of, they

can smell it when, when something's not right. 188 00:09:07,380 --> 00:09:09,090 And and that's a beautiful thing. 189 00:09:09,090 --> 00:09:11,133 You know, sometimes as accountants we look at it, 190 00:09:11,133 --> 00:09:13,010 we look at the numbers that tell us the story. 191 00:09:13,010 --> 00:09:14,804 But sometimes the owners can just say, 192 00:09:14,804 --> 00:09:18,599 they can look to see something and know there's there's something's changed. 193 00:09:18,599 --> 00:09:18,849 Right. 194 00:09:18,849 --> 00:09:20,560 And, and then it's really up to us to 195 00:09:20,560 --> 00:09:24,146 go in there and put something out to figure out what what it is. 196 00:09:24,313 --> 00:09:25,064 Yeah. 197 00:09:25,064 --> 00:09:28,484 And it can be anything, right? 198 00:09:28,526 --> 00:09:30,403 Like anything can happen. 199 00:09:30,403 --> 00:09:31,153 Yeah. Yeah. 200 00:09:31,153 --> 00:09:34,031 Software costs go up and sure enough, goes up. 201 00:09:34,031 --> 00:09:35,575 Yeah. I mean, do you know what? The floor. 202 00:09:35,575 --> 00:09:39,287 If you're in a manufacturing facility and you have that option as a as an owner, 203 00:09:39,328 --> 00:09:40,454 make sure you're out there, you know, 204 00:09:40,454 --> 00:09:43,749 and sometimes, you know, walking around, you'll see machines that are down. 205 00:09:43,874 --> 00:09:44,750 You'll see some, 206 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:46,794 some other, you know, 207 00:09:46,794 --> 00:09:49,797 waste on the floor, waste in baskets. 208 00:09:50,047 --> 00:09:51,132 You know, 209 00:09:51,132 --> 00:09:54,468 I work for a company at one point where, you know, we'd go out and see the trash 210 00:09:54,468 --> 00:09:56,053 bins, you know, and just take a look. It's 211 00:09:56,053 --> 00:09:58,764 because people don't want to tell you the this problem is out there. 212 00:09:58,764 --> 00:10:02,560 Oh, and they would just, you know, at the end of the day, dumb stuff 213 00:10:02,560 --> 00:10:05,980 into different, you know, trash bins and cover it up with something else. 214 00:10:06,022 --> 00:10:10,860 And and, you know, I mean it hopefully you don't work in an environment 215 00:10:10,860 --> 00:10:14,697 that people are fearful of that, that that they would raise their hand 216 00:10:14,697 --> 00:10:17,992 and tell the owner or their supervisor that, hey, 217 00:10:17,992 --> 00:10:20,036 we got a problem with this machine over here. 218 00:10:20,036 --> 00:10:23,873 It's banging out a bunch of scrap and and you know, we need some, you know, 219 00:10:23,914 --> 00:10:27,293 preventive maintenance at that point, you know, really maintenance, you know? 220 00:10:27,501 --> 00:10:28,085 Yeah. 221 00:10:28,085 --> 00:10:30,713 To fix it. Yeah, absolutely. 222 00:10:30,713 --> 00:10:31,297 Okay. 223 00:10:31,297 --> 00:10:33,466 That's all. All good tips. 224 00:10:33,466 --> 00:10:34,759 What am I missing? 225 00:10:34,759 --> 00:10:35,551 What should they. 226 00:10:35,551 --> 00:10:37,845 You know, where what what are what? 227 00:10:37,845 --> 00:10:38,763 Red flags. 228 00:10:38,763 --> 00:10:41,474 Like you can get back to being proactive. Right. 229 00:10:41,474 --> 00:10:43,934 And setting up metrics or KPIs. 230 00:10:43,934 --> 00:10:47,146 And within your business, you know, so that you set expectations, 231 00:10:47,730 --> 00:10:50,900 got historical results that, you know, you can, you can pull from 232 00:10:50,900 --> 00:10:52,318 and set up a baseline. 233 00:10:52,318 --> 00:10:56,489 And then, you know, we all as all business owners, they have goals, right? 234 00:10:57,198 --> 00:10:58,866 You know, what are those goals in the company 235 00:10:58,866 --> 00:11:02,161 and kind of, you know, start start there and work down, you know, in 236 00:11:02,161 --> 00:11:05,164 terms of trying because people will say, hey, I have goals. 237 00:11:05,164 --> 00:11:08,084 And, you know, I'd love to do KPIs, but what KPIs do I pick? 238 00:11:08,084 --> 00:11:11,712 You know, and, you know, there's so many out there that we could, you know, 239 00:11:11,754 --> 00:11:16,425 that we could sometimes waste our time on not focused on the right things. 240 00:11:16,509 --> 00:11:18,844 And I always tell folks, hey, start with your goals. 241 00:11:18,844 --> 00:11:19,887 What are your business goals? 242 00:11:19,887 --> 00:11:23,849 Short term, long term, short term, you know, next 12 months, long 243 00:11:23,891 --> 00:11:26,894 term, maybe over the next 36 months, you know, three years 244 00:11:26,977 --> 00:11:29,730 and whatever this might be, don't make them voluminous, but, 245 00:11:29,730 --> 00:11:31,941 you know, make some, you know, could be growing revenue. 246 00:11:31,941 --> 00:11:32,900 It could be, 247 00:11:32,900 --> 00:11:35,986 you know, it could be a cultural or HR thing that you want to improve on. 248 00:11:35,986 --> 00:11:38,698 It could be just documenting processes so that, you know, 249 00:11:38,698 --> 00:11:40,324 if someone leaves you can, you know, 250 00:11:40,324 --> 00:11:44,120 you can kind of, you know, cross train very quickly and keep the business moving. 251 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:47,373 But whatever those are, you know, those goals are, 252 00:11:47,540 --> 00:11:51,168 you know, set up a, you know, some strategic initiatives around those. 253 00:11:51,210 --> 00:11:52,586 Okay. 254 00:11:52,586 --> 00:11:56,882 Maybe it's by function or maybe it's over the top of the business. 255 00:11:56,882 --> 00:12:00,678 But then and then just tag KPIs 256 00:12:00,886 --> 00:12:04,807 metrics to each of those initiatives and then just start tracking them. 257 00:12:04,890 --> 00:12:07,101 Yeah. We have a scorecard. 258 00:12:07,101 --> 00:12:11,480 You know, for our business how how much happened each week. 259 00:12:11,564 --> 00:12:15,443 And that's where we start our, our weekly meetings, 260 00:12:15,443

--> 00:12:19,280 looking at our scorecards and, and seeing how we did. 261 00:12:19,321 --> 00:12:21,157 Right. Like it? It's. 262 00:12:21,157 --> 00:12:23,200 Yeah. And, you know, I mean, if you if you do have, 263 00:12:24,535 --> 00:12:26,328 you know, you have these goals and then you and your 264 00:12:26,328 --> 00:12:29,957 and you're starting to put some of these strategic plans in place. 265 00:12:30,249 --> 00:12:31,041 It's a great way. 266 00:12:31,041 --> 00:12:34,837 You know, as you go, go forward to make sure that, you know, 267 00:12:34,879 --> 00:12:39,675 you're seeing you're, you know, you're you're inspecting what you expect, right? 268 00:12:39,759 --> 00:12:42,261 You're expecting to start working towards those goals. 269 00:12:42,261 --> 00:12:44,054 Are you seeing are you seeing that 270 00:12:44,054 --> 00:12:48,434 in those metrics and KPIs that come out, whether that's weekly real time, right. 271 00:12:48,476 --> 00:12:48,809 Yeah. 272 00:12:48,809 --> 00:12:50,936 A lot of, you know, business owners I see will have some 273 00:12:50,936 --> 00:12:53,063 sort of dashboard on there and they can just, 274 00:12:53,063 --> 00:12:56,734 you know, go to as a, you know, right on their desktop, see how, you know, 275 00:12:56,776 --> 00:13:01,071 orders are going, you know, for the orders coming in that's going out for the day. 276 00:13:01,113 --> 00:13:04,492 And they can pretty quickly tell how the week might be going or the month. 277 00:13:04,700 --> 00:13:07,453 Right. Going right on the productivity. 278 00:13:07,453 --> 00:13:08,037 Yeah. 279 00:13:08,037 --> 00:13:12,958 I was talking to a client, and, I, you know, we're in mid process 280 00:13:12,958 --> 00:13:16,962 and we got the updated numbers and I'm like you down a little bit. 281 00:13:17,004 --> 00:13:19,882 What what happened? We had six snow days. 282 00:13:21,592 --> 00:13:25,137 I was like oh yeah that's true. 283 00:13:25,179 --> 00:13:26,263 Yeah we did. 284 00:13:26,263 --> 00:13:26,889 Yeah. 285 00:13:26,889 --> 00:13:30,810 You know and but they knew, right? 286 00:13:30,810 --> 00:13:33,270 They had looked at it. They knew why they were down. 287 00:13:33,270 --> 00:13:37,775 They knew that a the orders were still there, which is is great. 288 00:13:37,775 --> 00:13:42,154 But that's why, cause couldn't get there, 289 00:13:42,863 --> 00:13:45,950 you know, I mean, every industry has its has its hair, right? 290 00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:48,035 There's different things that impact you a certain way. 291 00:13:48,035 --> 00:13:48,661 And certainly, 292 00:13:48,661 --> 00:13:52,498 you know, in manufacturing, if it is, if that is your industry in business. 293 00:13:53,624 --> 00:13:56,168 You know, those things definitely can impact. 294 00:13:56,168 --> 00:14:00,464 And not to mention just, you know, sometimes employee vacations, you know, 295 00:14:01,048 --> 00:14:04,051 you know, the timing of those making sure you kind of manage those if you can 296 00:14:04,677 --> 00:14:05,719 because, you know, you don't, 297 00:14:05,719 --> 00:14:07,513 you know, sudden you're you're going to get one month, 298 00:14:07,513 --> 00:14:10,307 you're going to probably have a ton of overtime. Right? 299 00:14:10,307 --> 00:14:12,560 Make it up to make it. 300 00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:13,727 Yeah. Yeah. 301 00:14:13,727 --> 00:14:16,063 That's what they're like. Wait till next month. Yeah. 302 00:14:16,063 --> 00:14:17,565 Right. Right. 303 00:14:17,565 --> 00:14:18,482 Great. So. 304 00:14:18,482 --> 00:14:21,485 But you're going to pay all the overtime to. 305 00:14:22,152 --> 00:14:24,738 Yeah. To get it there. 306 00:14:24,738 --> 00:14:27,366 Absolutely. But yeah. 307 00:14:27,366 --> 00:14:31,245 How do you manage overtime like in terms of financially. 308 00:14:31,495 --> 00:14:32,621 Yeah. 309 00:14:32,621 --> 00:14:34,623 Well when you got to pay for it. Right. Right. 310 00:14:34,623 --> 00:14:36,125 So we take care of that. 311 00:14:36,125 --> 00:14:39,128 But, you know, like I said earlier, you know, just a couple of minutes ago, 312 00:14:39,169 --> 00:14:41,672 you know, and, and trying to look at vacation schedules, 313 00:14:41,672 --> 00:14:43,632 making sure you know the best you can. Right. 314 00:14:43,632 --> 00:14:46,552 I mean, the summer is obviously a most people want to take, 315 00:14:47,511 --> 00:14:50,514 but try to, you know, in terms of managing, 316 00:14:50,598 --> 00:14:53,851 you know, whatever department obviously operations or 317 00:14:53,851 --> 00:14:57,563 it can come right down to customer service or accounting even, you know, 318 00:14:58,522 --> 00:15:02,651 you want to make sure that you've got a decent crew intact and, 319 00:15:02,693 --> 00:15:07,823 you know, a good schedule and then, you know, on the operations side, 320 00:15:07,865 --> 00:15:11,619 trying to manage that beyond just making sure you got the right folks 321 00:15:11,619 --> 00:15:14,830 and not only not only the right you got, you got people 322 00:15:14,872 --> 00:15:18,083 right in the in the business available, but also their cross-trained. 323 00:15:18,125 --> 00:15:19,919 Right. So it might be worse. 324 00:15:19,919 --> 00:15:23,005 You know, they normally work on that machine every day. 325 00:15:23,005 --> 00:15:28,093 But if Jim's out or Sally's right there cross trying to be able to run over there 326 00:15:28,135 --> 00:15:28,636 run that. 327 00:15:28,636 --> 00:15:31,013 So depending on where that orders are hitting for the month 328 00:15:31,013 --> 00:15:32,890 it could be different machines. True. 329 00:15:32,890 --> 00:15:34,016 If they're not cross-trained 330 00:15:34,016 --> 00:15:36,977 that machines down and you're not getting those orders out that that. 331 00:15:36,977 --> 00:15:37,770 So that's true. 332 00:15:37,770 --> 00:15:41,440 But you know also just another way you can also try to

instead of just, 333 00:15:41,690 --> 00:15:45,235 level loading, you know, the floor, you know, if you know, some 334 00:15:45,277 --> 00:15:49,323 you can have a dip in, in Manning for a couple of weeks or whatever it might be. 335 00:15:49,365 --> 00:15:50,783 Just make sure you have those conversations 336 00:15:50,783 --> 00:15:52,743 with your clients and customers. 337 00:15:52,743 --> 00:15:54,995 And maybe it's just a, you know, a 338 00:15:56,205 --> 00:15:58,207 date deliveries a little differently. 339 00:15:58,207 --> 00:16:00,709 But set expectations with them so you're not, you know. 340 00:16:00,709 --> 00:16:02,711 Right. You don't want to be late for an order. 341 00:16:02,711 --> 00:16:04,630 That's not a good thing. 342 00:16:04,630 --> 00:16:07,758 So if I'm looking at my financial statements 343 00:16:07,758 --> 00:16:09,843 and let's say I've never looked at them before, right? 344 00:16:09,843 --> 00:16:13,597 We've just finished tax season, and I'm getting 345 00:16:13,597 --> 00:16:17,685 my financial statements, and it's not something I've paid attention to. 346 00:16:17,726 --> 00:16:19,937 But I heard this crazy lady on a talk show 347 00:16:19,937 --> 00:16:22,231 and she said I should be looking at them. 348 00:16:22,231 --> 00:16:26,110 So I'm going through and I got them. 349 00:16:26,110 --> 00:16:28,696 If I've gotten them prepared by a financial person, 350 00:16:28,696 --> 00:16:31,657 I probably have last year's and this year's next to each other. 351 00:16:31,657 --> 00:16:33,617 And I'm getting kind of the breakdown. 352 00:16:33,617 --> 00:16:37,746 What do I need to know from what I got, like, 353 00:16:37,913 --> 00:16:40,958 and how do I use that information 354 00:16:41,041 --> 00:16:45,379 tomorrow, the next day and the next day to continue 355 00:16:45,379 --> 00:16:49,383 to perpetuate my business, either to a new goal, right? 356 00:16:49,383 --> 00:16:52,970 Or, just to keep doing the same thing? 357 00:16:53,095 --> 00:16:54,263 Right. Yeah. 358 00:16:54,263 --> 00:16:57,975 I mean, well, you get them and, and and again, as I said earlier, 359 00:16:57,975 --> 00:16:59,476 you just talk about, hey, where are they? 360 00:16:59,476 --> 00:17:02,479 You know, what are the variances that you have and try to correct those. 361 00:17:02,479 --> 00:17:06,066 Right. But you also look at trends too. 362 00:17:06,108 --> 00:17:12,197 So, you know, if you got a 12 month trended running, you no income statement. 363 00:17:13,574 --> 00:17:14,908 Sales through, you know, 364 00:17:14,908 --> 00:17:19,163 gross profit or sales through net profit, or EBITDA. 365 00:17:19,830 --> 00:17:23,125 You know, you can, you can easily see you know, where, where 366 00:17:23,125 --> 00:17:26,170 there's dips, where there's, you know, changes have been correct. 367 00:17:26,170 --> 00:17:27,880 Those adjust for them. 368 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:31,133 And then really, I mean, if you're

not doing it already as business 369 00:17:31,133 --> 00:17:34,261 owners, forecasts are really, really important. 370 00:17:34,261 --> 00:17:38,640 Whether you're forecasting cash forecasts are really hard. 371 00:17:38,724 --> 00:17:39,058 Yeah. 372 00:17:39,058 --> 00:17:43,979 So yeah, I'll say, you know, I've had plenty of people telling me 373 00:17:43,979 --> 00:17:47,191 I can't forecast in my business for, you know, x, 374 00:17:47,191 --> 00:17:50,194 y, z reasons. 375 00:17:50,444 --> 00:17:53,363 Sometimes there's some validity, right? 376 00:17:53,363 --> 00:17:57,117 If you've got new projects, you don't exactly know what you're getting to, to 377 00:17:57,159 --> 00:17:58,118 bring in. 378 00:17:58,118 --> 00:18:03,665 But so how do I how do I create a forecast? 379 00:18:04,124 --> 00:18:06,960 Reliably? Right. 380 00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:10,756 We always we always look at our owners and we're like, if we've worked with them 381 00:18:10,756 --> 00:18:14,093 for a couple of years, if they've come in through our Exit Advantage program, 382 00:18:14,134 --> 00:18:18,222 you know, we're going to be like, okay, they make rose colored glasses. 383 00:18:18,430 --> 00:18:18,764 You know, 384 00:18:18,764 --> 00:18:23,268 they their forecasts are always above or their forecasts are always below. 385 00:18:23,268 --> 00:18:27,898 And it seems to be pretty consistent with whoever made the forecast. 386 00:18:27,940 --> 00:18:31,443 So if I'm making it, how do I know it's right 387 00:18:31,443 --> 00:18:34,446 and what do I use as my markers? 388 00:18:34,696 --> 00:18:36,532 Good question. 389 00:18:36,532 --> 00:18:38,867 Well, historically when I got involved and asked, 390 00:18:38,867 --> 00:18:42,079 you know, put something like a forecast to get it moving forward. 391 00:18:42,204 --> 00:18:45,290 Always start with last year, you know, and and say, 392 00:18:45,290 --> 00:18:49,253 okay, here here's our 12 month, you know, January. 393 00:18:49,294 --> 00:18:53,048 So it's a calendar year company January through December. 394 00:18:53,048 --> 00:18:55,092 Here's what we did. Right. Okay. 395 00:18:56,093 --> 00:18:57,219 If there's seasonality 396 00:18:57,219 --> 00:19:00,222 in the business you're going to that that that would be right in there. 397 00:19:00,264 --> 00:19:00,472 Right. 398 00:19:00,472 --> 00:19:03,767 Going to be consistent with, you know, the the next 12 months, 399 00:19:03,767 --> 00:19:07,855 you're trying to forecast, you know, in January of your new of your new year. 400 00:19:07,938 --> 00:19:11,984 And and then, you know, you go through and you say, okay, what, 401 00:19:12,025 --> 00:19:13,485 what what things have changed. 402 00:19:13,485 --> 00:19:17,739 You know, you know, my price has gone up on my, you know, my material costs. 403 00:19:17,906 --> 00:19:21,160 Have I had a wage increase in the year end 404 00:19:21,368 --> 00:19:24,246 that have got a factor into

my forecast? 405 00:19:24,246 --> 00:19:27,374 So you have and then I and then you make some certain assumptions as well 406 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:29,835 where, hey, I know that in the second half of the year 407 00:19:29,835 --> 00:19:30,961 I'm gonna do a price increase. 408 00:19:30,961 --> 00:19:34,006 So from June, July on I'm going to have a fourth. 409 00:19:34,047 --> 00:19:36,383 I'm going to add 4% of sales per month. 410 00:19:36,383 --> 00:19:36,967 Okay. 411 00:19:36,967 --> 00:19:40,179 You know, base that off of last July through December. 412 00:19:40,220 --> 00:19:41,722 Right. Results. 413 00:19:41,722 --> 00:19:45,017 And so it's, you know, you kind of start there. 414 00:19:45,434 --> 00:19:49,605 It it's, it's more of an art that it's a science, I think. 415 00:19:49,646 --> 00:19:50,564 Absolutely. 416 00:19:50,564 --> 00:19:53,525 So I think you have to start somewhere and 417 00:19:53,525 --> 00:19:57,654 and then as you move, as you go out, you'll start to see where about. 418 00:19:57,988 --> 00:20:00,240 Why did I miss this month? My forecast. 419 00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:01,450 What was it? 420 00:20:01,450 --> 00:20:04,411 And then you just kind of fine tune those things as you, as you, 421 00:20:04,411 --> 00:20:06,246 you know, as you learn. 422 00:20:06,246 --> 00:20:09,041 Yeah. Experience from it. And it gets better and better. 423 00:20:09,041 --> 00:20:12,336 But and certainly, you know, I try to make the next quarter. 424 00:20:12,377 --> 00:20:12,586 Right. 425 00:20:12,586 --> 00:20:15,130 That's something that's right here on you know, 426 00:20:15,130 --> 00:20:18,675 you want to be really kind of tight with that and the best you can. 427 00:20:18,717 --> 00:20:21,345 Right. Right. And the longer you're doing the forecast. 428 00:20:21,345 --> 00:20:22,304 Well that's a good point. 429 00:20:22,304 --> 00:20:26,433 Everybody assumes when we say forecast that we want the whole year, right. 430 00:20:26,475 --> 00:20:28,518 What's your forecast for 26. 431 00:20:28,518 --> 00:20:33,607 But if you're just starting to forecast forecast a quarter see how you do. 432 00:20:34,316 --> 00:20:37,236 I mean, you got, you know, a lot of and you're 433 00:20:37,236 --> 00:20:40,656 not only just looking for yourself, but you also got banks sometimes involved. 434 00:20:41,031 --> 00:20:42,449 So can there's covenants. 435 00:20:42,449 --> 00:20:43,450 You know if you have some debt. 436 00:20:43,450 --> 00:20:46,536 And so it's important to you know if you're having those, 437 00:20:46,745 --> 00:20:49,873 if you're having maybe a soft quarter or anticipate one, 438 00:20:49,915 --> 00:20:52,417 it's good to have conversations with your bank as soon as you can. 439 00:20:52,417 --> 00:20:54,544 You know under those situations where, hey, 440 00:20:54,544 --> 00:20:57,047 you know, I just I just forecasted my covenants 441 00:20:57,047 --> 00:21:00,050 and we're going to be kind of tight, but we don't do the best we can. 442 00:21:00,092 --> 00:21:04,638 We might have to scale back, you know, Manning or whatever it might be. 443 00:21:04,805 --> 00:21:05,055 Right. 444 00:21:05,055 --> 00:21:08,225 Travel or, you know, to get in those situations. 445 00:21:08,225 --> 00:21:11,520 But we've all been in a you know, I work in a companies cause, you know, 446 00:21:11,603 --> 00:21:14,606 in the day you gotta, you know, try to, you got, 447 00:21:14,690 --> 00:21:17,401 you got commitments to people and you gotta do the best you can. 448 00:21:17,401 --> 00:21:17,859 Yeah. 449 00:21:17,859 --> 00:21:21,697 Well, and if you're doing a forecast on a forecasted budget, then 450 00:21:21,697 --> 00:21:27,119 you have the ability to make those choices in advance instead of being reactive. 451 00:21:28,412 --> 00:21:31,039 I mean, you know, back in 2020, I mean, I work for a company 452 00:21:31,039 --> 00:21:34,751 that was a basically a fiscal year in June 30th. 453 00:21:35,085 --> 00:21:38,588 And so we were ending our first half in like, you know, November ish. 454 00:21:38,588 --> 00:21:41,758 So our second quarter almost heading into the holidays. 455 00:21:41,800 --> 00:21:45,762 And, we, I actually happened to before we were 456 00:21:45,762 --> 00:21:48,849 forecasting out to the end of the year so we can, you know, see where we were at. 457 00:21:48,849 --> 00:21:52,894 And I'm like, hey, if the second half is like our first half right now, the way 458 00:21:52,894 --> 00:21:56,315 we're we're not going to make covenants, you know, in the second half of the year. 459 00:21:56,940 --> 00:22:00,569 And so we started to make some changes on Manning. 460 00:22:00,569 --> 00:22:04,614 We had some furloughs around the holidays, which weren't horrible 461 00:22:04,614 --> 00:22:07,242 because some people like to have time off if they can. 462 00:22:07,242 --> 00:22:11,413 And we, you know, city Connecticut has a great program for unemployment. Yep. 463 00:22:11,455 --> 00:22:14,082 And so we use some of that to our advantage. 464 00:22:14,082 --> 00:22:18,670 And, actually most New England states have programs like that right now. 465 00:22:18,712 --> 00:22:19,338 They do. 466 00:22:19,338 --> 00:22:23,800 So if you're running into a tight spot, you can have some state assistance 467 00:22:23,800 --> 00:22:25,010 for for Lowe's. 468 00:22:25,010 --> 00:22:27,763 And we furloughed with the with the help of the state which was great. 469 00:22:27,763 --> 00:22:31,600 And so and then a little did we know 470 00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:36,563 but Covid hits right in the spring and oh yeah forgot about that. 471 00:22:36,605 --> 00:22:39,816 That was 2019 going into 2020. Okay. 472 00:22:39,900 --> 00:22:43,528 So in April, you know, we had everything shut down, right? 473 00:22:43,653 --> 00:22:46,698 So yeah, the fun the interesting part was fast forward 474 00:22:46,698 --> 00:22:50,869 to that October

period, 4 or 5 months later, and everyone was 475 00:22:50,911 --> 00:22:54,664 we got a peep loan like everybody else did, and our most folks did. 476 00:22:54,873 --> 00:22:59,544 And but then it was now K can you get you know, get it fully forgiven by the SBA. 477 00:22:59,628 --> 00:23:02,839 Right. That was not sure weren't right. 478 00:23:02,839 --> 00:23:06,176 So they were they were periods of time that you took your 479 00:23:06,218 --> 00:23:10,180 your your labor account, you know, in October 480 00:23:10,222 --> 00:23:13,600 time frame of 2020 and had a compare it to a look back period. 481 00:23:13,683 --> 00:23:13,975 Right. 482 00:23:13,975 --> 00:23:18,730 I look back period was in that late 2019 period. 483 00:23:18,730 --> 00:23:21,817 And we had actually because we had furloughed our, our, 484 00:23:21,817 --> 00:23:25,445 oh, full time equivalents were a lot lower than they were in October. 485 00:23:25,487 --> 00:23:26,738 Oh, that makes sense. 486 00:23:26,738 --> 00:23:28,615 And so we were fully forgiven. 487 00:23:28,615 --> 00:23:29,324 I got to tell you, 488 00:23:29,324 --> 00:23:33,453 if I wasn't forecasting or we as a company wasn't fully forecasting, you know, out 489 00:23:33,954 --> 00:23:37,332 at least to the end of the year, seven months out at that point, roughly. 490 00:23:37,332 --> 00:23:39,167 I don't I don't think we would 491 00:23:39,167 --> 00:23:43,088 have gotten some of that loan if not all of it for, you know, forget it. 492 00:23:43,130 --> 00:23:44,256 Yeah. 493 00:23:44,256 --> 00:23:47,634 So again, just a quick example of how important it is to do well. 494 00:23:47,634 --> 00:23:50,720 And that's, I mean, knock on wooden table. 495 00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:56,017 That's hopefully not a specific situation that we run into ever again, 496 00:23:56,017 --> 00:24:00,355 but we keep running into situations that are anomalies. 497 00:24:00,397 --> 00:24:01,064 Right. 498 00:24:01,064 --> 00:24:04,693 Tariff impact and last year tariff recovery. 499 00:24:04,693 --> 00:24:06,695 That's in question currently. 500 00:24:06,695 --> 00:24:09,448 And how do I do this. What do I do with it. 501 00:24:09,448 --> 00:24:10,615 Does it count for 25. 502 00:24:10,615 --> 00:24:13,118 Does it count for 26. Where do I pay taxes on it? 503 00:24:13,118 --> 00:24:14,578 Do I pay taxes on it? 504 00:24:14,578 --> 00:24:17,664 Like, there's about a million unusual questions 505 00:24:17,664 --> 00:24:20,917 that come up in situations. 506 00:24:21,918 --> 00:24:23,336 So there's always something. 507 00:24:23,336 --> 00:24:23,712 Yeah. 508 00:24:23,712 --> 00:24:26,381 I mean, the only, you know, consistent thing is change, right? 509 00:24:26,381 --> 00:24:27,340 So, you know, 510 00:24:27,340 --> 00:24:30,802 just try to do the best you can to, to, to navigate that, compare for it. 511 00:24:30,844 --> 00:24:31,136 Yeah. 512 00:24:31,136 --> 00:24:32,012 So the best you can.

513 00:24:32,012 --> 00:24:34,848 But yeah forecasting is a great tool for that. 514 00:24:34,848 --> 00:24:37,017 So you do a you know, you can kind of anticipate 515 00:24:37,017 --> 00:24:40,228 some of the things that are happening before you have to actually get there. 516 00:24:40,270 --> 00:24:41,563 Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. 517 00:24:41,563 --> 00:24:43,982 Well, and there's always what you hope for. 518 00:24:43,982 --> 00:24:46,610 Right. We beat our forecast. 519 00:24:46,610 --> 00:24:50,822 Like that's that's what you want to end up with is to have a forecast 520 00:24:50,822 --> 00:24:55,035 that's on point that you can plan to and achieve past. 521 00:24:55,076 --> 00:24:57,496 Right. Let's have more sales than that. 522 00:24:57,496 --> 00:25:00,582 That's the problem you want to be adjusting for. 523 00:25:01,333 --> 00:25:01,833 Right. 524 00:25:04,211 --> 00:25:07,214 So the other stuff is more realistic, 525 00:25:08,548 --> 00:25:12,511 but that's that's the one we all strive for is to be above it. 526 00:25:12,677 --> 00:25:15,931 So forecasting. Very important. 527 00:25:15,931 --> 00:25:20,185 How does KPI drive? 528 00:25:21,186 --> 00:25:23,897 Drive our employee count? 529 00:25:23,897 --> 00:25:29,319 Like, do you use your KPI to plan for HR to plan for 530 00:25:29,402 --> 00:25:32,781 how does how does the financial forecast tie to functional forecast? 531 00:25:34,032 --> 00:25:34,282 Yeah. 532 00:25:34,282 --> 00:25:37,744 No, I mean, you know, if we're if, you know, if you've got certain revenue, 533 00:25:38,119 --> 00:25:44,125 you know, goals, if you will, for both, you know, you've got a impact, 534 00:25:44,376 --> 00:25:47,671 that growth ideally, like you said, that's good news if you need it. 535 00:25:47,712 --> 00:25:48,672 Right. 536 00:25:48,672 --> 00:25:51,299 And you, you know, you can, surpass 537 00:25:51,299 --> 00:25:54,719 your forecast, but it impacts the entire business, right? 538 00:25:54,719 --> 00:25:57,430 So going back to, you know, 539 00:25:57,430 --> 00:26:00,642 Manning, as you were, as you brought up, but absolutely. 540 00:26:00,684 --> 00:26:05,730 I mean, if you're, you know, as you as you see, as these strategic initiatives 541 00:26:06,064 --> 00:26:09,568 that you're monitoring with these KPIs could be, you know, 542 00:26:09,859 --> 00:26:12,654 I'm going to open up a new store and open up a new store. 543 00:26:12,654 --> 00:26:15,907 You know, our new warehouse I'm going to take on. 544 00:26:15,949 --> 00:26:19,077 My goal was to grow my my client base 545 00:26:19,077 --> 00:26:22,080 by, you know, 4 or 500 accounts. 546 00:26:22,205 --> 00:26:24,040 Okay. That's going to, you know, it's great. 547 00:26:24,040 --> 00:26:26,126 So you need some support? Probably in sales, right. 548 00:26:26,126 --> 00:26:26,585 Some way. 549 00:26:26,585 --> 00:26:29,838 So you got to start looking at and filling those roles. 550 00:26:29,838 --> 00:26:34,134 But it's the to help you accomplish those goals. 551 00:26:34,718 --> 00:26:39,014 But yeah, definitely, you know, as you, and, you know, people just don't 552 00:26:39,014 --> 00:26:42,392 show up today and are ready to go sometimes there's some training involved. 553 00:26:42,392 --> 00:26:45,478 And so you want to plan around that as well so that, you know, 554 00:26:45,478 --> 00:26:48,148 when they get out there, there is as efficient and productive 555 00:26:48,148 --> 00:26:51,860 as you know, and, and ready to go when those orders start coming in. 556 00:26:51,901 --> 00:26:54,946 Yeah. It's it's a balancing act, right. 557 00:26:55,113 --> 00:26:56,406 Often we see, 558 00:26:57,532 --> 00:26:59,492 owners that love their employees, 559 00:26:59,492 --> 00:27:02,954 and sometimes they keep their employees 560 00:27:03,371 --> 00:27:06,082 extra. 561 00:27:06,082 --> 00:27:06,750 Right. 562 00:27:06,750 --> 00:27:10,670 So, you know, you've hired the replacement. 563 00:27:10,670 --> 00:27:12,130 You've trained the replacement. 564 00:27:12,130 --> 00:27:15,425 But John's not ready to go home and sit 565 00:27:15,467 --> 00:27:19,095 in front of his TV all day or play golf all day. 566 00:27:19,262 --> 00:27:24,601 And so we end up with some extra staff every now and then, too. 567 00:27:24,684 --> 00:27:26,519 Yeah. And and generally. 568 00:27:26,519 --> 00:27:28,813 And I've been a great, great question, a great point. 569 00:27:28,813 --> 00:27:31,191 And I've been in those positions and it is really tough. 570 00:27:31,191 --> 00:27:33,777 I mean, the end of the day the owner is on the business. Right. Right. 571 00:27:33,777 --> 00:27:36,946 So we're there to support them and be sounding boards for them. And 572 00:27:39,074 --> 00:27:41,159 and and you just yeah, you see, 573 00:27:41,159 --> 00:27:43,536 you can definitely see a lot of that in businesses. 574 00:27:43,536 --> 00:27:46,539 And usually unfortunately, it's a down period where the owner 575 00:27:46,539 --> 00:27:51,586 finally realizes that, yeah, it is time to it's a good opportunity 576 00:27:51,711 --> 00:27:54,756 to have a tough conversation with somebody. 577 00:27:55,298 --> 00:27:59,928 So yeah, having the KPIs helps those tough conversations though. 578 00:28:00,887 --> 00:28:01,596 Absolutely. 579 00:28:01,596 --> 00:28:04,224 Right. Like, you know exactly what you're pointing to. 580 00:28:04,224 --> 00:28:08,103 You have you have the markers, you have the information. 581 00:28:08,269 --> 00:28:10,980 It's a lot easier to. And the credibility. Right. 582 00:28:10,980 --> 00:28:13,149 Because you know, the owner, it 583 00:28:13,149 --> 00:28:17,195 you want them to have the credibility and you and giving them good numbers. 584 00:28:17,237 --> 00:28:18,780 Right. Your forecasts would crisp. 585 00:28:18,780 --> 00:28:21,157 They're getting better and better so that they can 586 00:28:21,157 --> 00:28:22,409

when they have that good conversation. 587 00:28:22,409 --> 00:28:25,453 It's not like they're not like, geez, I hope I'm not, you know. 588 00:28:25,537 --> 00:28:28,415 Right. These are these, right? Right. They're not right. 589 00:28:28,415 --> 00:28:29,624 You're gonna have this conversation. 590 00:28:29,624 --> 00:28:30,458 And so, 591 00:28:30,458 --> 00:28:33,837 you know, come to find out, it was wrong and you've already let the person go 592 00:28:33,837 --> 00:28:37,590 and they're not coming back generally like that's. 593 00:28:37,757 --> 00:28:37,966 Yeah. 594 00:28:37,966 --> 00:28:41,261 So it you know, having credibility in your numbers is is really key. 595 00:28:41,386 --> 00:28:41,720 Yeah. 596 00:28:41,720 --> 00:28:42,846 Absolutely. 597 00:28:42,846 --> 00:28:46,099 Well, thank you so much for joining us on Touchstone Talks. 598 00:28:46,099 --> 00:28:51,396 I have one more question for you that I ask all of our all of our participants. 599 00:28:51,521 --> 00:28:55,775 If you are not doing fractional CFO work, 600 00:28:56,025 --> 00:28:59,946 and you had to pick a completely different career, what would it be? 601 00:28:59,988 --> 00:29:01,448 Sports radio. 602 00:29:01,448 --> 00:29:03,700 Oh, love sports. 603 00:29:03,700 --> 00:29:06,703 I could use I could speak into this microphone all day long. 604 00:29:06,953 --> 00:29:08,621 But, yeah, I would do that. I think I would do that. 605 00:29:08,621 --> 00:29:10,415 Probably would get paid that well, but. 606 00:29:10,415 --> 00:29:11,040 Oh, I don't know. 607 00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:15,420 I think there are some really well paid sports radio people that would. 608 00:29:15,503 --> 00:29:16,671 And then I'm sign me up. 609 00:29:16,671 --> 00:29:18,840 They probably have a podcast at this point. 610 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:20,175 Yeah. True. 611 00:29:20,175 --> 00:29:21,009 Yeah I think I love 612 00:29:21,009 --> 00:29:24,012 you know, I, I think that would be I think that would be called work for me. 613 00:29:24,012 --> 00:29:24,971 I'd enjoy that. 614 00:29:24,971 --> 00:29:26,556 So that's okay. 615 00:29:26,556 --> 00:29:28,266 That's the whole point, right? 616 00:29:28,266 --> 00:29:31,102 Also what we want for our business owners. 617 00:29:31,102 --> 00:29:32,520 Right. They've done this all year. 618 00:29:32,520 --> 00:29:35,023 What else do they want to do their whole life? 619 00:29:35,023 --> 00:29:38,860 They've done, you know, run the widget company, right? 620 00:29:39,986 --> 00:29:40,320 Yeah. 621 00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:43,698 No, I mean, it's, I think we've had these conversations before, and, 622 00:29:44,365 --> 00:29:47,702 it's, it's it's important when you do go to sell your business. 623 00:29:47,702 --> 00:29:48,912 And in Deborah, they, 624 00:29:48,912 --> 00:29:52,040 you know, they bring you and your team in to help them do that. 625 00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:55,043 It's really important to have a hobby, 626 00:29:55,084 --> 00:30:00,215 that you're really ready and willing to go do whatever that could be. 627 00:30:00,340 --> 00:30:03,593 And and it is not always a hobby. 628 00:30:03,676 --> 00:30:06,387 I went to a really interesting panel the other day, 629 00:30:06,387 --> 00:30:09,849 and they had three business owners presenting. 630 00:30:09,933 --> 00:30:15,647 One of them had sold his business and he was now a priest, a priest. 631 00:30:15,688 --> 00:30:16,856 He went and. 632 00:30:16,856 --> 00:30:19,025 Yep, good for him. 633 00:30:19,025 --> 00:30:20,819 But went back to school. 634 00:30:20,819 --> 00:30:22,779 Went to seminary, the whole thing. 635 00:30:22,779 --> 00:30:25,323 The other gentleman had written three books. 636 00:30:25,323 --> 00:30:25,990 Okay. 637 00:30:25,990 --> 00:30:29,118 And and the other gentleman started another company. 638 00:30:29,160 --> 00:30:31,663 Yeah, yeah. And I talked to. 639 00:30:31,663 --> 00:30:35,750 I was working for a family business, and at one point we had some, 640 00:30:36,292 --> 00:30:39,504 M&A folks come in that were looking to buy the company, and 641 00:30:39,879 --> 00:30:43,883 they sat down and they asked the owner, you know, what hobbies do you have? 642 00:30:43,925 --> 00:30:47,387 And he basically said, this is my hobby, right? 643 00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:51,724 I looked at the we might not be ready the table. 644 00:30:51,808 --> 00:30:52,392 And they were like, 645 00:30:52,392 --> 00:30:56,354 you know, if, when we hear that, we know the deal is never going to get done. 646 00:30:56,521 --> 00:30:56,771 Yeah. 647 00:30:56,771 --> 00:30:59,983 It's not really worth our time to get in there and for them or for us. 648 00:31:00,066 --> 00:31:01,609 Right. Cause you know. Right. 649 00:31:01,609 --> 00:31:04,153 They're just not ready at that moment in time. 650 00:31:04,153 --> 00:31:04,904 Yeah. 651 00:31:04,904 --> 00:31:06,990 To get involved, and that's okay. 652 00:31:06,990 --> 00:31:08,283 You know, that's your business. 653 00:31:08,283 --> 00:31:10,326 You had to do with it, as you will. 654 00:31:10,326 --> 00:31:16,708 But, it's always a good thing to think about if you can't answer the question. 655 00:31:16,708 --> 00:31:17,000 You're right. 656 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:17,917 It's wrong. 657 00:31:17,917 --> 00:31:19,002 Right. Right. 658 00:31:19,002 --> 00:31:21,129 So great. 659 00:31:21,129 --> 00:31:23,590 Deborah, thank you for having me today. Appreciate it. 660 00:31:23,590 --> 00:31:24,674 You're welcome. 661 00:31:24,674 --> 00:31:25,133 You're welcome. 662 00:31:25,133 --> 00:31:25,884 And to our listeners, 663 00:31:25,884 --> 00:31:30,179 if you have not like, subscribed and follow Touchstone Talks, please do so. 664 00:31:30,263 --> 00:31:34,225 You can find us on all major podcast links and a YouTube channel. 665 00:31:34,225 --> 00:31:37,979 And if you'd like some CFO support, David's information 666 00:31:37,979 --> 00:31:42,525 will be at the bottom of our page and you can contact focus CFO. 667 00:31:43,610 --> 00:31:44,402 Thank you. 668 00:31:44,402 --> 00:31:47,155 You're welcome. 669 00:31:47,155 --> 00:31:52,452 Meet. Him. 670 00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:57,123 Maybe it. 671 00:31:58,583 --> 00:32:00,043 Means we.