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What is the Budget Your Business podcast with Scott Geller · Budget Your Business

• 0:01
  Scott: Hello, and welcome to the podcast Budget Your Business, the podcast for small business owners who want to financially plan for every aspect of their business.
• 0:13
  Scott: I'm your host, Scott Geller.
• 0:16
  Scott: Being then it's our very first podcast, our very first episode, I thought I'd share a little bit about myself.
• 0:23
  Scott: I've been in finance for over 20 years in one manner or another.
• 0:28
  Scott: I started out with the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond as a bank examiner, traveling around the 5th district, I think mid-Atlantic states, talking, going from one small community bank to another.
• 0:40
  Scott: It was a fantastic first job learning all about how banks operate.
• 0:46
  Scott: I then left to help start the audit department, essentially from scratch, for a general electric spinoff insurance company.
• 0:57
  Scott: Learning adapting the GE way, starting out a department.
• 1:04
  Scott: It was quite an experience.
• 1:05
  Scott: I then moved on to Risk at the same Fortune 500 firm and under then learned the value of risk management.
• 1:14
  Scott: Also discovered I was very easily replaceable as I was impacted by a layoff.
• 1:20
  Scott: I took another job, the same business.
• 1:27
  Scott: FPA, for those that don't know, is financial planning and analysis.
• 1:32
  Scott: Think about the finance group that figures out what happens in a business and then explains it to everybody.
• 1:41
  Scott: This was where I developed an appreciation for the finance function, for the value of data, and really planning for an entire company.
• 1:52
  Scott: Then I left to join another insurance company in a similar role that quickly spun off into a small 50-person business.
• 2:02
  Scott: And this opportunity was fantastic.
• 2:06
  Scott: I got to create a financial function from scratch.
• 2:12
  Scott: I understood what it was like working with a small business.
• 2:17
  Scott: I dug in deep with the power of finance for an organization, and I found my calling.
• 2:25
  Scott: I found my calling with small businesses.
• 2:28
  Scott: I really loved working with this small organization versus my corporate past.
• 2:33
  Scott: Fortunately, that business shut down.
• 2:36
  Scott: So I started my own firm.
• 2:38
  Scott: I became a small business owner myself.
• 2:41
  Scott: I started Capitus Advisors as a fractional CFO.
• 2:46
  Scott: I serve as the fractional CFO or part-time CFO to service, staffing, and technology businesses, typically less than$50 million in revenue.
• 3:00
  Scott: And I love this space.
• 3:02
  Scott: This is where I really enjoy working.
• 3:06
  Scott: On a personal side, in fair warning, in these episodes, I'm a big sports guy.
• 3:14
  Scott: I love sports.
• 3:15
  Scott: You're going to hear about probably Auburn Tigers, UNCW Seahawks, and Carolina Panthers.
• 3:23
  Scott: Right now, I'm drinking from my Panthers glass right now.
• 3:29
  Scott: I have two boys, and you'll likely hear a story or two from them.
• 3:34
  Scott: Keep me busy and I love it.
• 3:36
  Scott: Possibly a life story if it's allowed every now and then.
• 3:39
  Scott: And I love golf.
• 3:41
  Scott: Again, fair warning, you might get an occasional Scott Story or a sports comedy.
• 3:48
  Scott: So, why create this podcast, budget your business?
• 3:54
  Scott: Well, I came to a crossroads.
• 3:56
  Scott: Early in my consulting career, I dabbled with some internet radio, discussing various financial topics, and enjoyed it.
• 4:07
  Scott: Thought someday I'd like to try it again.
• 4:10
  Scott: Fast forward to today, and my as I'm working with small businesses as a fractional CFO through my own firm, Capitist Advisors.
• 4:21
  Scott: And yeah, as a fractional CFO, I work with a small number of companies at a time.
• 4:33
  Scott: And thought, what if I could support more businesses?
• 4:39
  Scott: That spawned the idea to start a podcast.
• 4:43
  Scott: Budget your business.
• 4:47
  Scott: And if I'm gonna start a podcast, why not focus on a topic I enjoy?
• 4:53
  Scott: Budgeting and financial planning for small businesses.
• 4:57
  Scott: That's really where I love digging in and spending time.
• 5:02
  Scott: So why not focus on a subject I enjoy?
• 5:06
  Scott: Why budgeting?
• 5:08
  Scott: Why do I enjoy budgeting?
• 5:10
  Scott: Well, let's start with maybe a risque and slightly um confusing statement.
• 5:20
  Scott: Budgeting by itself, in its traditional form, is not the best use of your time.
• 5:29
  Scott: That's right.
• 5:30
  Scott: Budgeting by itself in its traditional form is not the best use of your time.
• 5:36
  Scott: Looking at a business January to December, or if you have a fiscal year for those 12 months, spending a significant amount of time in putting together a budget for 12 months, and then running through the entire pageantry of budgeting a year later, it fails.
• 5:56
  Scott: Why does it fail?
• 5:58
  Scott: Because a change.
• 6:00
  Scott: Change is why the traditional budgeting process fails.
• 6:05
  Scott: And I don't know about you, but in my business, I had to deal with change constantly.
• 6:12
  Scott: What changes in your business?
• 6:14
  Scott: It might be your focus.
• 6:16
  Scott: The competition changes it, the market changes it.
• 6:20
  Scott: Service your services and products might change.
• 6:23
  Scott: Your life might change.
• 6:25
  Scott: Everything changes and it impacts your business.
• 6:32
  Scott: Think about COVID.
• 6:34
  Scott: How many budgets were created in the fourth quarter of 2019, or even January and February of 2019, that mapped out what was going to happen from January 2020 to December 2020?
• 6:48
  Scott: I had one myself.
• 6:49
  Scott: I started my business in March of 2020.
• 6:52
  Scott: How many of those were created?
• 6:56
  Scott: And then we're just completely thrown out the window in March.
• 6:59
  Scott: Right?
• 7:00
  Scott: Less than three months into the year, it's thrown out the window.
• 7:05
  Scott: How many times have you created a budget?
• 7:08
  Scott: And by the time you get to March, maybe you get to April, if you're really lucky, you get to May, and you're still working on it.
• 7:16
  Scott: You're still comparing back to it.
• 7:18
  Scott: Because odds are you probably put it on the side of the desk or some folder on your computer, and something else got in the way.
• 7:27
  Scott: Well, budgeting in traditional format is not your best use of time.
• 7:34
  Scott: It's more of a progression.
• 7:36
  Scott: To me, the budget is a full process, kind of start to finish.
• 7:42
  Scott: Think about it that way.
• 7:44
  Scott: The budget is, you know, maybe you still spend that one time a year, you really focus on what you want to do.
• 7:51
  Scott: You bring in your strategic plan, you think about your goals, you put together your budget.
• 7:56
  Scott: But then think about it as planning.
• 8:00
  Scott: Okay?
• 8:01
  Scott: Not just budgeting, but continuous planning.
• 8:04
  Scott: For example, if you're driving to work and you see there's an accident on, let's say, the interstate, it's a couple exits up, and you know that there's a is whenever there's a back uh accident, there's always a really large backup, and it takes forever to get in.
• 8:22
  Scott: So, what do you do?
• 8:24
  Scott: You take an alternate route.
• 8:26
  Scott: You take an exit early and you take the back roads or another road.
• 8:30
  Scott: You don't stay the course just because you did yesterday, or just because you put it in a budget three months ago.
• 8:41
  Scott: You plan for something different, and in a small business, change makes you plan for something different every day.
• 8:50
  Scott: So you tail it from budgeting to planning.
• 8:53
  Scott: Eventually, you get to forecasting where you marry the planning to financial forecasts on a regular basis, and that's what this show is about.
• 9:04
  Scott: This show is taking you from a budgeting mindset once a year to a planning your business, a financial plan for your business throughout the year.
• 9:21
  Scott: As well as looking at every aspect of your business.
• 9:26
  Scott: So financially planning for every aspect of your business.
• 9:33
  Scott: So, how are we gonna run the show?
• 9:36
  Scott: Well, you're I when I went out and I looked for podcasts, I I'm an avid podcast listener.
• 9:43
  Scott: I love listening to podcasts, taking the dog for a walk, driving around, going for a run.
• 9:48
  Scott: I you can find a number of podcasts about personal budgeting, about your personal finances.
• 9:56
  Scott: And you can also find a number of podcasts targeting financial roles.
• 10:01
  Scott: But I couldn't find many focused on budgeting for small businesses.
• 10:08
  Scott: The personal budgeting podcasts are great for you as an individual or for your family.
• 10:15
  Scott: What it doesn't do, it doesn't tell you how to project a sales pipeline for your business.
• 10:21
  Scott: It doesn't tell you how to bring on a new CTO.
• 10:25
  Scott: It doesn't tell you how to deal with a bank or getting a line of credit at a bank.
• 10:30
  Scott: It doesn't tell you how to rent a new location.
• 10:34
  Scott: Those are all aspects that need to be planned for.
• 10:39
  Scott: The finance podcasts are great too, but let's be real.
• 10:42
  Scott: They're made for people like me, CFOs, FPA people, the people that really like to get nerd out, not like to nerd out on the finance area.
• 10:54
  Scott: And that's probably not going to help too many small business owners.
• 10:59
  Scott: So my mission for budget your business podcast includes two goals.
• 11:06
  Scott: One, I want to budget for every aspect of your business.
• 11:14
  Scott: Two, I want this podcast to be practical, and I want it to be actionable.
• 11:22
  Scott: I want you to walk away from every podcast with one to three actions that you can take.
• 11:31
  Scott: You can immediately write those down or put them in your ever note, put them in your electronic note, you can write them down on a sticky note, you can record it, whatever you want to do.
• 11:43
  Scott: One to three actions that you can immediately take in your business to improve your budgeting and financial planning for your business.
• 11:55
  Scott: It will take time to hit every aspect of every type of business.
• 12:01
  Scott: I get it.
• 12:02
  Scott: And I probably have to admit we're never gonna quite get there, but I'm gonna try.
• 12:10
  Scott: I want to take an approach where you'll see me talking occasionally.
• 12:13
  Scott: I'll hop on and give you a couple of of my thoughts and my ideas around budgeting and planning.
• 12:20
  Scott: But more importantly, I want to bring in more three types of guests.
• 12:27
  Scott: One are finance experts, so CFOs, um, finance leaders, and they're gonna provide the how and the why.
• 12:39
  Scott: They're gonna provide the processes to use, the tools, what kind of timing to think about, and the strategies in order to get a budgeting process up and running.
• 12:51
  Scott: Two are gonna be subject matter experts.
• 12:54
  Scott: These are gonna be people that are diving deep into their specialty.
• 13:01
  Scott: They're gonna tell us exactly what to know, exactly what to think about for their area of specialty of expertise.
• 13:09
  Scott: So think about it's gonna run from insurance to, as I mentioned, projecting your sales pipeline.
• 13:16
  Scott: Maybe it's data analysis within your business, maybe it's managed IT services, outs outsourced HR or fractional CFO services.
• 13:26
  Scott: We're gonna bring in these experts, we're gonna have them tell us how, or tell you, small business owners, how to think and how to plan for those aspects of your business.
• 13:40
  Scott: The third, before I forget, the third guests are gonna be business owners, just like you.
• 13:44
  Scott: They're going to share and discuss their experiences around budging that will hopefully give you some ideas as well.
• 13:54
  Scott: Reaching those lofty goals means bringing in a lot of guests, and I have a laundry list.
• 14:01
  Scott: Um I want to find the best to help you for you to listen and learn from.
• 14:08
  Scott: A complementary benefit that is going is that we're gonna build out a resource for business owners around budgeting and planning, identifying, pulling out all those takeaways from the podcast, giving you options for if you want to go look for an you need something for your business, or you need a budget for something if you're in business.
• 14:29
  Scott: Well, hopefully, there'll be a couple options in there that you can take a look at.
• 14:33
  Scott: Essentially, I want to do the legwork for you.
• 14:39
  Scott: All shows are gonna end with one to three immediate takeaways, and I'm gonna ask for a podcast book recommendation.
• 14:48
  Scott: I enjoy when I get those from podcasts, so I'm gonna I'm gonna try to do that in my show as well.
• 14:56
  Scott: So, first, a podcast recommendation that I listen to a lot, and that is Coaching for Leaders by Dave Stehovia.
• 15:05
  Scott: It is an excellent podcast.
• 15:08
  Scott: You can learn from anything from listening better to storytelling to negotiating to leading your teams.
• 15:16
  Scott: You name it, Dave hits it, he has a he has great experience bringing some really good guests on that show.
• 15:22
  Scott: So, podcast recommendation is coaching for leaders.
• 15:27
  Scott: Takeaways.
• 15:28
  Scott: Number one, put a recurring monthly meeting on your calendar that does not get canceled.
• 15:39
  Scott: In that meeting, I want you to sit down and look at your financial statements, your income statement, your balance sheet, your statement of cash flows, and any other supporting statements that help feed into that.
• 15:54
  Scott: Or or or financial data that feeds into that.
• 15:57
  Scott: But at least sit down every month, put that time on your calendar so that you can look at your financials, you can understand what's happening, you know what's going on in your business.
• 16:14
  Scott: Takeaway number one.
• 16:16
  Scott: Takeaway number two is find this up, find the next episode and keep listening.
• 16:23
  Scott: Where can you find the podcast, budget your business?
• 16:27
  Scott: Well, you can find it on Apple Podcasts, you can find it on Spotify, you can find it on my website, www.capitistadvisors.com.
• 16:39
  Scott: And you also find it on my LinkedIn under Scott Yaller.
• 16:42
  Scott: I'll be releasing the the episodes.
• 16:46
  Scott: Alright, folks, that's it for today.
• 16:50
  Scott: I'm really excited about each episode and sharing some of what I've learned, bringing in guests so that you can benefit and plan better for your small business.
• 17:08
  Scott: That's it.
• 17:08
  Scott: I hope you can join me next time for budget your business.