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EP321 When to Move Beyond QuickBooks: CFO Insights for Growing Businesses · Profit With A Plan

• 0:09
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Most business owners start on QuickBooks, but at some point, the very tool that kept you organized can actually hold you back.
• 0:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: How do you know when it's time to move on, or what you should move on to? In this episode of Profit with a Plan, we're talking about the signs that you've outgrown QuickBooks, and why that's actually a milestone worth celebrating, and how to transition into a new system that supports scale, not just survival.
• 0:37
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So, if you've ever wondered whether your financial setup is helping you grow, or quietly limiting you, this conversation is one you don't want to miss.
• 0:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Hey entrepreneurs, are you working too hard for too little profit? Well, welcome to Profit with a Plan podcast, where we help you scale smarter, increase profitability, and build a business that's worth more, whether you keep it or sell it.
• 1:02
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I'm Marcia Reiner, business growth strategist and Profit Booster behind Infinite Profit. I've helped countless entrepreneurs to turn their businesses into highly profitable and sale-ready assets, so they can enjoy more income now, and a bigger payday later on.
• 1:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So join me for practical strategies, expert insights, and proven steps to make your business more profitable, more valuable, and built to last.
• 1:27
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Today's episode is sponsored by Infinite Profit, where we don't just talk profit, we deliver it.
• 1:33
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• 1:47
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• 1:52
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• 2:02
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• 2:06
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Alright, let's jump into today's episode. I'm excited to introduce today's guest, Larissa McIntyre. She is the founder of Rockbridge CFO, where she serves as a fractional CFO for growth stage service businesses.
• 2:23
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Larissa brings a wealth of experience as a former corporate CFO, having led both finance and HR in global organizations.
• 2:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Now she partners directly with founders who want more than just profits. What? She helps them build businesses that are sustainable, scalable, and truly driven. Larissa, thanks for joining me on Profit with a Plan today, I'm excited.
• 2:46
  Laresa McIntyre: I'm excited to be here, too!
• 2:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, so, I always love to start off the conversation because, you know, people always seem to land or evolve into their career. How did you get into the CFO space and, and helping companies grow like you have?
• 3:03
  Laresa McIntyre: Yeah, well, as you mentioned, I was in the corporate world as a CFO for 15 years, and when you're a corporate CFO, you get to help
• 3:11
  Laresa McIntyre: one founder, one business. And, you know, if you've got ideas that don't really fit within that space, you know, sometimes they don't really allow you to really grow, so…
• 3:25
  Laresa McIntyre: I decided to go out into the fractional space, so this gives me an opportunity to work with multiple businesses and multiple founders, and it's challenging sometimes, because there are so many different, things that you can run into, but at the same time, it's really exciting, and it's always something different.
• 3:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I love it. So, in the CFO world, you're looking at what, right? Just so we can give kind of a definition of a CFO, I mean, you and I know very clearly what that means, but maybe the audience might be thinking it's something else.
• 3:57
  Laresa McIntyre: Sure
• 3:58
  Laresa McIntyre: So you have a bookkeeper, maybe an accountant, and they're really focused on the present, or the past, making sure that your financial statements are stated correctly, making sure you're okay from a tax perspective, and that type of thing. Whereas a CFO is really somebody who looks at the future.
• 4:18
  Laresa McIntyre: Somebody who's looking at forecasting, strategy, how to help you grow your business, and they're able to bring in a lot of experience and insights about business that will help you figure out what are the next steps I need to make to really grow my business.
• 4:35
  Laresa McIntyre: And that's how they kind of separate themselves a little bit from the…
• 4:40
  Laresa McIntyre: Bookkeepers and the accountants and the controllers of the world.
• 4:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, and that is so important, and I'm glad you explained that the way you did, because
• 4:49
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, definitely the tax people are looking what happened last year, the accountants are trying to keep all the numbers organized for right now, and the controller's trying to manage the finances of the business. But, you know, it's so… it's so important to have a team member like you on board that would allow them to say, hey.
• 5:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: financially, where do I want to go, right? Does it make sense to implement this strategy financially, right? And yes, you could probably come in and talk about sales, and you could come talk about marketing or HR, like you said, you have that skill set, but it's all the numbers and the financial
• 5:27
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: being of your business that, honestly, and you'll probably agree with me, that the business owner just doesn't see or understand in the depth that they really should. So you're a fantastic partner on that level, right?
• 5:44
  Laresa McIntyre: Oh, absolutely. Look, founders have tons of hats they have to wear. They really have to be focused on every aspect of their business, and a lot of times they're not, you know, grounded in financial information.
• 5:58
  Laresa McIntyre: Or they haven't come from that background, so it's sometimes difficult for them to take a financial statement and look at it and really suss out what they need to be focused on.
• 6:10
  Laresa McIntyre: where maybe their pain points are, what are causing some issues within their business, and when they can bring in somebody like me, who can help them, because of the experience I've got, it makes things so much easier, and it gives them a good sounding board. You know, it's… being a founder is a very lonely thing, and you know, it's always good when you have people that can back you up.
• 6:32
  Laresa McIntyre: And give you some sense of confidence about what it is you're doing within your business.
• 6:37
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Exactly, and the thing that I love so much about it is that numbers don't lie. They can be…
• 6:45
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: packaged and created incorrectly, but the data's the data, and if you're able to look at these numbers and go, oh, this makes perfect sense, and explain it in a layman's term to the founder, then it just makes them go, oh, okay, I didn't realize that. I thought I was so much farther ahead.
• 7:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: or I thought this initiative we were taking was really paying off, but might not be.
• 7:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, having that eyesight and that…
• 7:13
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: the brain power that works in that way is so important. But you know what? I think the funny thing that… that people… the business owners fear is that, oh, I've got to hire one for me.
• 7:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Well, no. As you mentioned, the fractional, you don't have to hire one for you, right?
• 7:30
  Laresa McIntyre: Right, exactly. It's… look, CFO salaries are quite high, I mean…
• 7:35
  Laresa McIntyre: Sometimes it's two, three, four hundred thousand dollars, and there's bonuses, and sometimes some of them are looking for equity. And if you're, you know, making $3 million in revenue a year, that's a pretty big chunk of your bottom line.
• 7:51
  Laresa McIntyre: So, being able to bring in a fractional makes a lot of sense. You get that insight and the CFO-level experience.
• 8:00
  Laresa McIntyre: without having to be an enterprise-level company. And, you know, that's what I really like, is the fact that I can come in and give people my insights and my expertise.
• 8:12
  Laresa McIntyre: And they can still afford it.
• 8:14
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yes, and I think that's the… the fractional space has really taken off over the last few years, which is perfect for the growth-minded business owner that is really striving to that next level, right? And they're not the enterprises or the major corporations. They're just trying to, you know, make ends meet, make a little, you know, green profit, and, you know, take care of their employees and their
• 8:39
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: their customers, right? To have that insight of what really, truly can make a business
• 8:46
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, more money going into your pocket, more opportunities that you could take advantage of.
• 8:51
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: that's where I… that's where it really pays off. So, thank you for defining that. I mean, I know that wasn't the point of the conversation, but it is so important when looking at the way we do business that… to have that kind of person on your team, and… and more…
• 9:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Favoritely, you know, in a fractional position where you're not having to pay, you know, all the extra stuff of having a key employee on team. So that's good.
• 9:16
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Alright, so let's talk about what we came to talk about a little bit today, which is what happens when we really start to grow, and how do we recognize when we should get rid of systems that we have, and maybe look for different systems going in? And perfect example would be your accounting systems.
• 9:34
  Laresa McIntyre: Right, absolutely. Look, a lot of smaller businesses start out on, you know, QuickBooks, maybe even QuickBooks Online, or Xero, or FreshBooks, and that's great when you're small and you're not complicated, but there is going to reach a point where getting data out of your system.
• 9:50
  Laresa McIntyre: Or getting the financial information you need to really get your insights becomes difficult.
• 9:57
  Laresa McIntyre: You're living in spreadsheets all the time because you can't pull anything out of the system. You really have a difficult time doing forecasts and budgeting because of it. And that's when it's time to kind of take a step back and say, you know what, maybe we need to take a reset and take a look at our financial system.
• 10:14
  Laresa McIntyre: And figure out what do we need, not just for now, but also what we need over the next 3 to 5 years.
• 10:21
  Laresa McIntyre: anybody that's gone through a systems implementation or software implementation knows this is not something you want to do every year. This is something you want to kind of…
• 10:32
  Laresa McIntyre: have it service you for the next 3 to 5 years before you maybe have to either give some consideration to another upgrade, or figure out, what can I do to change what I've got?
• 10:44
  Laresa McIntyre: And it's not just the software, too, it's really looking at your processes and looking at, you know, your business holistically. You know, I've got some experience doing these software implementations when it comes to finance, and it's really about sitting down and figuring out
• 11:01
  Laresa McIntyre: What do we need, and what are we trying to get out of it? Making some good evaluations.
• 11:06
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So that you can pick the right system, and… Yes.
• 11:09
  Laresa McIntyre: Work on it.
• 11:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I think that's really important, because oftentimes the business owner goes, okay.
• 11:14
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: if I've got to change my whole process and financial system on it, and I know my employees are going to be screaming and yelling at me because they're going to have to learn something new, and we're going to need the ramp-up time, then the business owner's thinking, well, why don't I just go buy the biggest the best, which may not be the best, you know, step either, because you're buying something that's
• 11:36
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Maybe either too sophisticated, or very often, too expensive for what you need today.
• 11:42
  Laresa McIntyre: Exactly, exactly. And I see it a lot. I've seen companies get roped into these big ERPs that they really don't need.
• 11:51
  Laresa McIntyre: So there are some other options out there that are kind of at that mid-level that really make a lot of sense. Now, look, if your business is complicated, you're dealing with a lot of inventory, or you're in.
• 12:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Fantastic.
• 12:04
  Laresa McIntyre: It's a whole different ballgame. Right. But if you're a service-based business, there's a lot of different options that you have available to you outside of QuickBooks that will give you those financial insights and the data that you need out of your financial system as you grow.
• 12:21
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And I think that's so important, you know? I mean, any bookkeeper can…
• 12:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: 99.999% of bookkeepers say, oh, they're QuickBooks certified, right? But because it's so simple and so basic that anybody can do it. Now, these next… the mid-level softwares that could really help you mine the data, as you keep suggesting.
• 12:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: they're not going to be that much more difficult. It's just knowing where the buttons are, and where the forms are, and… but the data going in is the same, right? It's nothing… shouldn't be that complicated.
• 12:55
  Laresa McIntyre: Now, it's more about the way the data goes in, as you said. I mean, a user interface, you want to look for something that has a nice user interface, but
• 13:04
  Laresa McIntyre: The key difference between, say, QuickBooks or FreshBooks, and maybe something like Business Central or NetSuite, which are two of the kind of mid-level options that you can look at.
• 13:17
  Laresa McIntyre: is something called dimensions. So, you think about it, you have your chart of accounts, everybody knows I have an account for my marketing expenses, or I have an account for travel, and I might be able to assign departments to those expenses. So, I know how much my sales team spent, or how much my operations team spent.
• 13:37
  Laresa McIntyre: what those mid-level systems do is they give you multiple dimensions. So now, for example, I have marketing expenses, but now I can add on what channel did those marketing expenses come from? Was it social media? What part of social media? Was it Facebook? Was it LinkedIn?
• 13:55
  Laresa McIntyre: And now, when you start looking at
• 13:58
  Laresa McIntyre: For example, cost of your customer acquisition, and trying to figure out what marketing channels
• 14:05
  Laresa McIntyre: really brought me the best ROI,
• 14:07
  Laresa McIntyre: Now you've got the data to be able to dig in and say, okay, this is how much we spent on Facebook, we got X number of customers, there's the CAC, and it just makes it much easier for you to make business decisions when you've got that kind of information available to you.
• 14:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I love it. Yay! And not just for marketing, but you know, the simplicity of being able to mine that data is so much more important. As you say, the entry-level accounting systems don't let you divide and departmentalize
• 14:42
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: The, the pieces that need to come in and come out.
• 14:46
  Laresa McIntyre: Well, they can, they can, but the problem that you run into is you have to do it through a chart of accounts.
• 14:53
  Laresa McIntyre: And you… look, anybody that's been doing… has done accounting, once you get a chart of accounts that starts to explode because you have to add in all these extra accounts just to get that granularity.
• 15:06
  Laresa McIntyre: It becomes very difficult to manage it, and that's why having the ability to keep one account and just add the dimensions makes it so much better.
• 15:16
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oh, I love it, I love it. So, what, at what phase in a business do we start to look at that? When would… when would the light go on and go, okay, we're ready to change? What kind of signals would come out?
• 15:30
  Laresa McIntyre: I think it's really when you're not getting the insights that you need easily from your system. You know, profitability, things like your margin, being able to break margin down.
• 15:46
  Laresa McIntyre: You know, if you've got multiple entities, or multiple locations, and you want to be able to track information from those entities separately, and also consolidate them all together.
• 15:58
  Laresa McIntyre: That's usually a good signal. Anytime you feel where your financial system is your pain point, and it's not giving you what you need without somebody spending days mining the data, that's when you really need to take a step back and say, okay.
• 16:16
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Got it.
• 16:17
  Laresa McIntyre: Do we have the right system in place? And if not, what should we be looking for?
• 16:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah, and I think that that's really important. When it becomes a challenge to get that data, or when the founder's saying, all I need to know is what we're doing in this initiative that we're working on.
• 16:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Is it… is it working on it? And then the team starts, you know, busting a sweat, going, well, I put it here together, and it's kind of here, and… but how does the founder… I mean, it sounds like you'd have to be told by your financial team that we're, outgrowing our current system. Rather, we're the founder's just saying, I want some answers, and the financial team gives them answers, but
• 16:59
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Didn't tell them that it took them, you know, 3 days to produce those answers, or…
• 17:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That those answers may be incorrect.
• 17:07
  Laresa McIntyre: No, and that's very true, and I think that's where, you know, founders need to make sure they're asking questions. You know, if…
• 17:15
  Laresa McIntyre: it's all about communication, right? So, if you're looking at your finance team and asking them for something, and they're looking at you like, oh my god, what did they just ask me to do? And they start to sweat, and it takes them days to put things together. That's, like, a big red flag.
• 17:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It should never take…
• 17:34
  Laresa McIntyre: a team a huge amount of time to put information together. Business doesn't stop.
• 17:40
  Laresa McIntyre: just because their financial system isn't giving you what you need. Your business still continues, and the quicker you can get the information you need, the quicker you can make a decision, the quicker you can make sure that you're moving in the right direction.
• 17:55
  Laresa McIntyre: you know, it's all about communication and making sure you're keeping that line open with your finance team, and saying, guys, you need to tell me when you think that there's problems, when it's creating an issue for you to get the information, because then I can help and step in.
• 18:12
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Right. Right. Wow. Okay, so this is, this is really great. So when we're looking at, making that decision, and you mentioned companies like NetSuite that, that are perfect for the mid-level companies, and so on,
• 18:28
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Do they often have, those long commitments and those long situations where you've gotta… you've gotta commit to a significant period of time, and then the transition from… from QuickBooks into a company like NetSuite would take, you know, okay, we're gonna shift it over in a month, and then… I mean, it just seems like it's like,
• 18:48
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: stress.
• 18:48
  Laresa McIntyre: It can be, and that's why the first thing you need to do is really sit down and say, what is it that we need?
• 18:55
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Hmm.
• 18:56
  Laresa McIntyre: So that you don't end up…
• 18:58
  Laresa McIntyre: signing up for more than what you need, even for the next 3 years. You know.
• 19:06
  Laresa McIntyre: NetSuite… the way NetSuite prices their things and the way, like, Business Central does it is two different… totally different things. Like, I'm very familiar with Business Central.
• 19:15
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And the reason I like Business Central is if you're already using Microsoft and Microsoft 365.
• 19:21
  Laresa McIntyre: It's a Microsoft product, so it integrates so nicely with all of the different Microsoft Suite items, and it's $70 a month for users.
• 19:32
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: goodness.
• 19:33
  Laresa McIntyre: And you can pay it on a monthly basis. NetSuite, that's a little different. You've got different modules, and you have to figure out which modules you want, and, you know, yes, there's probably a contract you have to lock yourself into, and that's all part of the negotiating. I'm not saying that shouldn't be something you look at.
• 19:51
  Laresa McIntyre: But you just have to go in with your eyes wide open.
• 19:54
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Okay, thank you, because I was starting to sweat when you said NetSuite, and NetSuite's a fantastic company. All of these companies are fantastic for the right situation, but yeah, it can really get, you know, if you ever thought of implementing a sales force, right? I mean, there's… it's a beast, when all you need is this little pie slice over here, and it could really throw you for a loop, the difficulties and
• 20:19
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: and the interconnections, because…
• 20:21
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It's designed to grow with you to be this big company, or this big software suite that you have, but when you're getting in at the lower level, it can be quite intimidating.
• 20:33
  Laresa McIntyre: It can be, it can be. And that's where, you know, bringing in somebody who's got some experience in it is really helpful. You know.
• 20:41
  Laresa McIntyre: your bookkeeper, if they're QuickBooks qualified, may not have experience with some of the other systems, so you definitely want to make sure you're bringing in somebody who can help guide you through the process, and make sure that you're asking the right questions about
• 20:56
  Laresa McIntyre: You know, what it is that you need. They also can help you look at your current processes. Look.
• 21:02
  Laresa McIntyre: Change is inevitable in life. And I know people get really hung up with change management, and oh, I don't want to learn a new system.
• 21:12
  Laresa McIntyre: But sometimes it's a good thing, but, you know, it does take, you have to take a step back and look at what are my current processes, and you have to make sure, if you do select a piece of software, that it's not square peg, round hole. You may have to change your processes, but it may be for the better.
• 21:31
  Laresa McIntyre: You know, I'll give you an example. I mean, if you're currently
• 21:36
  Laresa McIntyre: Putting terms out for your customers, and you're having difficulty collecting money, or anything like that, and you have a certain process that you're using, well, maybe that process isn't really benefiting you.
• 21:49
  Laresa McIntyre: Going to new software and a new process may actually accelerate your receivables, bringing more cash in quicker, and freeing up your working capital so that you can now maybe make some moves that you were kind of holding off on because the cash wasn't in the bank.
• 22:07
  Laresa McIntyre: So, you know, changes in process are not a bad thing. You just have to manage in the right way.
• 22:13
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I love it. And, and so funny that you mentioned that, receivables.
• 22:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: can be quite a challenge, right? I mean, you're fronting your clients, your service or products, right? And they've requested a 30- or 60-day pay, or, God forbid you're working with, you know, a government issue where you're 3 to 6 months to get paid on it. But, I mean, you're fronting that, so having… having someone that could say, hey, is there a better way
• 22:41
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Of managing your systems so that everybody wins.
• 22:45
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, you can boost your cash on cash, and have that money in hand so you can make better opportunities, better decisions.
• 22:54
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And then maybe you can encourage or, incentivize your client to pay you earlier, right? But how do you know this information if you haven't run the data to see where you're going and where those holes and
• 23:10
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And gaps are that people are falling through.
• 23:13
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And that's why having someone that can see the forest through the trees, and be able to read the data and give you that information so you can
• 23:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: be more profitable and be more nimble and agile, right? I mean, there's so… there's so many benefits to… to running your company off of your financial statements and making those clear decisions that, many business owners, especially in the smaller space, they just, like, they don't look at it.
• 23:42
  Laresa McIntyre: Yeah. And sometimes they can get blindsided by their financial statements. I mean, you think, you know.
• 23:49
  Laresa McIntyre: a lot of people look at top-line growth. They look at, you know, what's my revenue? They may look at the bottom line, but they're ignoring the growth.
• 23:57
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: There's a lot of lines in between.
• 23:59
  Laresa McIntyre: Yeah, I know, there's a lot of lines in between, and sometimes they're going, okay, I'm showing a profit, and everything looks great, but I've got no cash in the bank.
• 24:07
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I was just gonna say, comment.
• 24:09
  Laresa McIntyre: But it really boils down to not understanding what's in the financial statement. You have to understand, there's a lot of timing differences in your financial statement. You know, if I service somebody in the month of September, at the end of September, I'm going to write in my book.
• 24:25
  Laresa McIntyre: I had revenue of X dollars. Well, if they don't pay me till October.
• 24:30
  Laresa McIntyre: I've still got the revenue on my financial statement that goes to my bottom line, but I haven't got cash in the bank. And there's tons.
• 24:37
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You still have expenses, employees, taxes, and everything on that money that you haven't even collected yet.
• 24:43
  Laresa McIntyre: Exactly. So, you know, you have to really understand all these timing differences, and not just be blind to.
• 24:50
  Laresa McIntyre: I'm only going to look at the P&L, or I'm only going to look at the balance sheet. You really have to look at your suite of financial statements, you know, your P&L, your cash flow statement, your balance sheet.
• 25:04
  Laresa McIntyre: And for God's sakes, please, please, please do a 12-week cash forecast, because without that visibility, you're just gonna run yourself into trouble, and you're gonna have a lot of sleepless nights.
• 25:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And this is really… this is super valuable, Larissa, you know, because the business owner's not thinking about this, and they're relying on their financial team or their accounting team to provide this data for them, and oftentimes.
• 25:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: their financial or accounting team might be someone's wife, or, you know, someone, Susie Q, that is in, you know, that's been their bookkeeper forever, but is not a financial forecaster. I mean, there's so many gaps that can happen without realizing
• 25:50
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: where the… where the breakdowns are in there, until maybe… maybe the eye-opener for the business owners, they're trying to get some funding for some new equipment or a building, right? There's the big shocker, right? When they go, oh.
• 26:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, you know, and, or, you know, a love letter from the IRS that comes in and says, oh, hey, you know, maybe you didn't do something right, or, you know, maybe you're looking to invest, or have investors invest in you. This is that perfect time that you really want your books to showcase
• 26:26
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: A very profitable and strong company.
• 26:29
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Or you're delivering to the IRS, and you want your books to show a very not-profitable and expense-driven company, right? You know, so these books are the same, but they can really showcase and forecast different outlooks. And if you don't have someone smart like you…
• 26:45
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: On your team, to be able to analyze those numbers, You're driving blind!
• 26:51
  Laresa McIntyre: Yeah.
• 26:51
  Laresa McIntyre: Well, you brought up a very interesting point about investors. You know, investors are sophisticated people, and they are looking for… they're not looking for a QuickBooks P&L. They are looking for you to provide them not just your financial statements, but some insights and a story.
• 27:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: It's.
• 27:08
  Laresa McIntyre: all about the story, and your financials have to tell what is this company going to do so that the investor feels that they understand where you're headed, and they have some faith in what it is that you're saying to them. Look, we can all say, I'm going to grow the business 10-20% next year.
• 27:28
  Laresa McIntyre: But if you… if you aren't able to show or back that up with a story that's so… shit, I'm sorry.
• 27:36
  Laresa McIntyre: that says, here's my marketing plan. Here's how I'm planning on, you know, getting clients. Here's how I'm planning on operating the business. Here's my… here's my staffing plan. Those are all components of things that investors are going to be looking at so that they…
• 27:53
  Laresa McIntyre: have some understanding of what you're putting in front of them. It's… it's not just the P&L. It's… you gotta have the story to go with it.
• 28:03
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And, and…
• 28:04
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: a large, significant portion of that story are financial numbers, right? And… and if you're not… if you're not keeping those active, they look back, right? And so, when that opportunity comes, if you're not clean and organized now, then you have to shuffle and look back.
• 28:24
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Oftentimes 3 years to get those numbers in line, so that way it now becomes
• 28:30
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Clean and organized for those opportunities that you have.
• 28:34
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: But then that, you know, you may have missed the opportunity in the meantime. So, the best thing that I love to have is to have smart people on your team.
• 28:44
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: That… that are looking and organizing and keeping things going, not just the bookkeeping for taxes, but bookkeeping and accounting and financial statements and forecasting and the whole thing to help you grow forward.
• 28:56
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So that when that opportunity comes, they usually only land in those that are prepared.
• 29:03
  Laresa McIntyre: Exactly, and it's all about being prepared.
• 29:07
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yep.
• 29:08
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: This has been amazing, Larissa. I know that we can… you know, numbers… I geek out on them. I don't like to prepare them, but I can… I can review them and understand them, and… and you love to make sure that they're organized and keeping pace, so I know we could talk on this for a long time, but, you know, without freaking the… the audience out, because numbers panic people. Yeah. How do… how do they start to feel confident?
• 29:33
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: in their… in their understanding of their numbers, and maybe having that team person or that fractional person like you come on board. When do they start to look at that?
• 29:45
  Laresa McIntyre: Look, I think as soon as you are feeling uncomfortable about
• 29:51
  Laresa McIntyre: the disconnect between your gut check and what's actually happening in your business, that's probably a good time to start thinking about it. Look, as founders, we rely on our gut a lot.
• 30:03
  Laresa McIntyre: We're passionate about the project that we're working on, we're passionate about getting it out to the masses, and a lot of times in the early days, you're working on your gut. There will come a time when your gut just… it doesn't work anymore, and that's.
• 30:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Not for what you needed to do.
• 30:19
  Laresa McIntyre: No, absolutely, and you just need to take a step back and say, you know what, I need some help. And there's nothing wrong with saying you need help. I mean, nobody is expecting you to be Superman or Superwoman. If you know the signals, and at least you get the right people on board, then you have a much better chance of success.
• 30:38
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Love it, love it. Alright, Larissa, where can listeners find out more about you and, and getting some help?
• 30:45
  Laresa McIntyre: Yeah, if they want to visit my website, it's rockbridgeCFO.com.
• 30:51
  Laresa McIntyre: And actually, if they go to the insights, part of the menu, I have a whole blog out there, and that cash flow forecast I was telling you about, there's a blog on that, and a template that they can pull down, so if they want to do that, it's got instructions, and it will help them at least get
• 31:11
  Laresa McIntyre: that 12-week cash flow forecast up and running, and then they can take a look at some of the other blog posts and the information about Rockbridge, and see if maybe it might be a good fit, so that they can give me a call and we can chat.
• 31:22
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: I love it, I love it. You know, it is so important, to look at that short window of where the cash is coming from, and what can you do, right? Where… what have I got coming down the pipeline, right? We look at that oftentimes in sales, or, you know, when we're looking at different things, but when you look at it in your company as cash coming in.
• 31:41
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: You know, that's even… that's even sweeter. So, awesome. I love that you're doing that for us. Thank you so much.
• 31:48
  Laresa McIntyre: It has been a pleasure talking to you.
• 31:50
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: Yeah! Alright, listeners, thanks for tuning in today. I hope you picked up some valuable insights and actionable ideas that will help you make your business more profitable.
• 31:59
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And remember, if you're tired of overpriced marketing that's complicated and time-consuming, then the Profit Booster Marketing Hub is your low-cost, easy-to-use alternative to expensive strategies, complete with automations, templates, and a personalized strategy call.
• 32:14
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: So grab some details at ProfitBooster.biz.
• 32:18
  Marcia Riner | Profit Booster®: And while you're at it, don't forget to subscribe! You don't want to miss future shows. You can always find Profit with a Plan on any of your favorite podcast players. We're looking forward to more great profitable strategies on next week's show. So until then, make your plans and profit with them. Thanks so much, Larissa!
• 32:36
  Laresa McIntyre: Thank you.