Profit and Grow Weekly Issue #3

I achieved a major goal this week that I didn’t expect at all.

This issue is a personal topic for me, but I can’t wait to share it. It’s important.

It’s why I do what I do and why it’s important to follow your own “why”.

As always, this newsletter is brought to you by:

Profit and Grow is a fractional CFO, bookkeeping, and tax planning firm helping professional service businesses Maximize their PROFIT, Minimize their TAXES, improve CASH FLOW, and make the wisest business DECISIONS.

If finance is the most painful part of your business, stopping you from focusing on what you do best, visit profitandgrow.com and book a call today.

We scale businesses to $5m in gross revenue, profitably.

Studies say that over the next 10 years, more than 30,000,000 small businesses will change hands.

The Baby Boomer generation is retiring.

Businesses will close.

Businesses will sell.

Businesses will pass down to the next generation.

The sad reality is many of these businesses that pass down will die.

Legacies will fall.

But about a decade before, my fathers business failed first.

My dad is a land surveyor. Still is today, but has been an employee ever since. With NO interest in trying again.

After more than a decade working for the local government as a City Surveyor, he struck out on his own. His business was a quick success thanks to the expanding housing market in the early 2000’s.

Approaching the burst of the housing market bubble, his business collapsed. The trifecta of business problems:

1. Overgrowth with no financial runway

2. Inconsistent Accounts Receivable collections

3. No tax plan

What they don’t tell you is that businesses don’t fail overnight.

It can, and often does, take years.

Over the course of the failure, in my formative high school years, we lost our home, cars, and my parents’ marriage. In a lot of ways, my family, as I knew it. All vanishing, slowly, with the business…

A decade later, I’m in my grandfather's old leather chair behind his older wooden desk, all mine now.

After a failed attempt to take over several years prior, I had left and started my own agency. When the family business went up for sale, I sold my agency and, through proxy, bought my family business.

I was on top of the world. I was a "real" business man, launching, selling, and buying businesses… or so I thought.

A few years later, despite record revenue, opening more offices, and building a team, I got a MASSIVE tax bill.

I hadn't been paying all the taxes I was responsible for. I didn't know what I didn't know.

It showed up during a low period in the middle of the summer, a slower time of year for us anyway. The tax bill wiped out my operating budget, savings, everything.

It took years to build back, but the biggest blow was to my ego. I realized I hadn’t learned from my father’s failure at all.

This was the start of my path into tax accounting. I learned about LLCs and S-Corps. All the taxes business owners are supposed to pay, and I loved it.

I went back to school for Accounting, and became a tax accountant. Then into Client Advisory Services (CAS Accounting), and eventually fractional CFO.

Many of you have read or heard me say, "I’m building the firm that would have saved my business. The firm that would have saved my father’s business."

But one person has never heard that.

He’s not on LinkedIn, in the webinars, or at the events, all of the places I tell this story over and over again.

This past Thursday, I was at lunch with my Dad.

We were at CJ Cannons, a quaint little restaurant at the local airport.

They have this AMAZING “Mexican burger” that has nothing at all to do with Mexican food. It’s a chili cheese burger, and it’s fantastic. And all while watching airplanes, it's great… but I digress.

We were talking about life, and work, and my firm.

“So I know you help people with their accounting and taxes, but what exactly is a fractional CFO?” he asked.

I said, ”Well, I’ll give you an example. I have this client, a $1m revenue service business that’s in a little trouble with the IRS. They took a big hit during COVID and needed loans to float payroll. They have money owed to them, but it takes a long time to collect. Their margins are too low. And if they don't get these things figured out, they're out of business in a few months.

I’ve got this plan. I’m going to fix their tax plan, retroactively, to wipe out the tax debt. We’re restructuring how they collect payments and invoice clients. We’re renegotiating terms with the lenders. We’re mapping out their first price increase in over 5 years and cutting expenses.

When this plan comes together, they’ll be whole (no layoffs), growing, and, most importantly, still in business.”

And then, he said the thing I say…

And it turns out he was the one I needed to hear it from.

My dad said, ”If you and your firm were around when I was in business, I’d still be an entrepreneur today.”

My dad!

The one who FOR DECADES has said he would never be self-employed ever again.

^{We’re actually talking about a side hustle that could become his retirement gig now.}

I thought I was nowhere near my goals. But in that moment, I felt more fulfilled than I have with anything I've achieved in business thus far.

So I’m not “building the business that would have saved my dad’s business, saved my business” as I say…

I’ve BUILT the business that would have saved my dad’s business.

I’m the professional he needed and couldn't find.

I’ve made it.

Now… It's time to get back to work. We have businesses to save.

Thanks for reading the third issue of the Profit Hacking Weekly newsletter. Past issues will be located on the blog section of profitandgrow.com.

If you need help with anything I talk about, like maximizing your profit, minimizing your taxes, understanding your cash flow, or making the best spending decisions, connect with me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielt6/

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By: Daniel Talbott