Revenue Vs Profit

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve sat down with a business owner who’s excited about their “great year” and then watched their face fall when I show them the profit number. Revenue and profit are not the same thing. And if you’re...

Red Flag Awareness

I don’t like being the bearer of bad news. But I’d rather tell you now than watch you learn it the hard way. Embezzlement, fraud, and financial manipulation happen in small businesses more often than anyone wants to admit. According to the Association...

Revenue Tracking

If you can’t tell me, right now, off the top of your head, how much revenue your business did last month and where it came from, we need to talk about revenue tracking. This is the number that drives everything. Revenue funds payroll, pays vendors, feeds...

Simplifying The Office

If your office looks anything like most of the small businesses I walk into, there’s a stack of receipts on someone’s desk, a filing cabinet that hasn’t been opened since 2018, and at least one drawer nobody claims. I get it. Running a business means...

Starting Off Right

There’s a particular kind of excitement in January. New year, new projects, maybe a new business. I love it. But I’ve also seen enough January optimism turn into April panic to know that how you start the year matters. Whether you’re launching a...

Year-End To-Do’s

Every year around Thanksgiving, I get the same phone call: “Sharla, I think I need to do some year-end stuff, but I don’t know where to start.” And every year I tell them the same thing. You should have started in October. But since you didn’t,...