June 30, 2026

Building Your 2027 Strategic Plan in Q3 - Powerful Business Strategies

Building Your 2027 Strategic Plan in Q3 - Powerful Business Strategies
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It's the Positively Pipeman segment of The Adventures of Pipeman bringing you Powerful Business Strategies. Michael Barbarita of Next Step CFO discusses Building Your 2027 Strategic Plan in Q3 - If you start your 2027 plan in November, you're going to end up with a list of goals, not a strategic plan. There's a huge difference, and that difference is the reason most business owners hit December 2027 and realize they basically just had another year of the same thing.

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WEBVTT

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Hi, you live, don too censure.

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W C WOW for.

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You your.

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Once again. This is the Pipe Main here on the

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Adventures Pipe NW four cy Radio and we're on our

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powerful Business Strategy mission today with Michael Barbarita next step

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CFO and we're on a mission for our twenty twenty

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seven strategic plan. So let's talk about Michael, Thank you,

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Thank you Dean.

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What happens is there's a lot of business owners stopped

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planning for the following year, if at all, by the way,

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in November and December.

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And what is that like the New year's resolution rather

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than a plan.

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Yeah, it's similar to that, and that's what it ends

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up being essentially, because twenty twenty seven ends up being

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the year is twenty twenty six. So starting a strategic

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plan and you're planning for twenty seven in Q three

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allows you to allows you the time to be able

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to make better decisions and to be able to understand

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the plan or get help with the plan. So because

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I see what happens a lot is there's a lot

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of planning that goes on in November December for those

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who do it, by the way, there's some people who

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never plan. So that that's gonna probably stay on forever.

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But those who do plan should consider starting in Q

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three because they have a they'll have more time to strategize,

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they'll have more time to really understand what's happened in

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the first half of twenty twenty six to be able

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to really negotiate their their their game plan. And what

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ends up happening is the quality of the plan ends

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up much better and the probability of implementation increases with

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the longer the longer time frame for planning. And so

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even if you just stop once a week, uh and

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and and set and put an hour aside once a

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week for the twenty twenty seventh plan, you'll be that

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much more ahead of the game. Come whenever you normally

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do it firstus whenever you normally do it. So it's

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just really a great way start stop early because a

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lot of business owners they for those who do it

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at all, uh, they just cram it in. They cram

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it in and it and it's just not a it.

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It just doesn't work well. And what happens up happening

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is the year ends up being the same as it's

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always been. Hmm.

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So what other advice do you have to give people?

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So that they could be fully prepared for twenty twenty.

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Well, there's a couple of things I want to I

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want to talk about uh and and it to the

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planning component, and that is what I find is best

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known beats best product every time. So if you look

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at McDonald's, they don't have the best burger. Domino's doesn't

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have the best pizza. Doctor Phil isn't even the best

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psychologists in the world. He's not if you ask. I

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have asked multiple psychologists about doctor Phil's skill in psychology.

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It's really low. It's really low.

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But I'm not so okay, he's.

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The highest paid psychologist in the world. Yeah, and he

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is because he's best known.

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And there's only one reason for that. You know the reason, right.

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That's right?

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Yeah, you know he he was personally groomed by Oprah

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to be who he is. But I can say that

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he probably isn't ranked as one of the top psychologists.

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He's definitely not. If by the way surveys have already

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been done, he's not even the top thousand.

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Wow.

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Yeah, I mean surveys among peers have been done. He's

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not in the top thousand. So right, but he's the

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highest paid because he's the best known, and it has

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to be you have to be known. It's not really

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how the quality of your product. Domino's pizza people don't.

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A lot of people don't. If you had a rank pizzas,

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Dominoes would probably not be, not even close to the

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top three. Yet they're very wide. You know, you know,

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they're tremendously successful. But they but they but they're one

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of the reasons why they are successful is their best

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known and they have compelling offers like the one that

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they did for the college kids were thirty minutes will

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deliver it or it's free. You know, those types of

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compelling offers obviously help them to become best known. So

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anyway that best known will be best product every time.

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So that's number one I want us to share. The

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second thing I wanted to share is something that business

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owners never think about. Never a lot of business owners

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when they started their business, they filled out credit applications

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with suppliers. Many of those credit applications included personal guarantees. Yes,

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what I'm saying is is that business owners who have

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been in business five years or more need to go

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back to those suppliers and get them to waive the

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personal guarantee in writing that the personal guarantees signed five

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years ago, ten years ago, fifteen, twenty twenty five, thirty

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years ago is now waived. Why well, the reason for

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the personal guarantee is, you know, you consider just starting out,

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you're considered a poor credit risk. But having paid for

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five years on time or more ten fifteen, twenty twenty five,

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it's time now to waive the reason why you had

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a personal guarantee. And let me tell you why you

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have to do it. If for some reason you sell

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the company, you're going to be sued that if the

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new company is not even though it's a different company,

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different name, you're gonna get at least sued, if not

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pursued legally for guaranteeing the debt. Granted it was a

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guaranteeing the debt of an old company, but you're still

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going to be pursued. You don't need it. You don't

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need it. You've got to go back to your suppliers

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and if you forgot whether or not you filled out

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an application, or you forgot whether or not the application

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included a personal guarantee, because some don't, you still have

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to ask the supplier if they can come up with

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that application because you want to review it mm hm.

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And you're not out of trouble. Nothing's no trouble. That's

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just a question to the supplier. And if there's a

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personal guarantee, you need it waived period of report because

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you're proven that you could pay that you pay your

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bills on time, and there's no need for them to

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have a personal guarantee on you anymore.

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Yeah. I could tell you that. My uncle was a

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very prominent attorney and the first business I ever started,

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he said to me, don't ever sign a personal guarantee. Now,

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in today's day and age, I think a lot of

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times they require everybody to in the beginning, you know,

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well for sure, yeah yeah, But before it used to

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be you could just say no, you know, and you

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might still get the loan. But I was always told

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never to do that for a lot of reasons that

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you're talking about, right, And you.

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Know, business owners. I had a client who was in

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business twenty five years, thirty years, and he he signed,

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you know, I had him go back to all his

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supply he's wanted to sell his company. I had him

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go back to all his suppliers to get the personal

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guarantees waived, and so he did that, and there were like,

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out of the ten suppliers that he thought he had

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prepared applications for at the very beginning, seven of them

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he actually did prepare applications, and five of them had

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personal guarantees that he got way. And so he's now

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with the new buyer. He's eliminating any hassle for his

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wife or any his heirs or himself, eliminating any hassle. Yeah,

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because he does no longer has personal guarantees with suppliers.

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Because whoever buys the company, if they do a Mickey

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mouse job, or if they're not good operators and they

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take the company, he can get exposed. I have seen it.

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It sounds impossible, but it isn't. No, it's not.

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And and my uncle said to me, you know, one

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of the problems with it is is the whole reason

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you have a corporation is to not have personal liability.

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So what's the point if you're going to sign a

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personal guarantee of having the corporation, if you're going to

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be personally liable anyway?

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That's right.

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Yeah, So how do people reach out more for more

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information from you in this area or any other powerful

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business strategy area.

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Yes, well, they go to NEXTSTEPCFO dot net. They can

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on the right hand upper right hand corner. There's a

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diagnostic they could take. Takes less than five minutes. It

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identifies three strategies that your competition isn't doing, along with

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the financial impact of each, an explanation of the strategy

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as well, and how to go about implementing it. They

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can also download a copy of my book called Powerful

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Business Strategies. It's on the website on the left hand

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side upper corner in an orange button as well, and

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they can download that book for free, and also if

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they'd like to do a book interview, because we're always

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updating the book and we'd love to get industry insight.

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It's thirty minutes on zoom. I present strategies for my book,

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and then I ask one question at the end of

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each strategy, if a business owner in your industry would

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implement the strategy, what kind of impact would it have?

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I documented for the book. And that's it nice and

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they go to NEXTEPCFO dot net forward slash contact, fill

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out the contact form and in the description put book interview.

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Any final words you want to leave our listeners with Michael.

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Don't keep doing what your competition is doing.

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Oh there, it is no wiser words right there. Thank

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you everybody. Make sure to check out Next Step CFO.

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Talk to Michael Barberita. He can help your business and

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amazing ways. And thank you for once again listening to

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the adventures of Pipe Man powerful business strategy segment right

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here on W four CY Radio.

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Thank you, Jam. Thank you for listening to the adventures

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of Pipemin on W for CUI Radio.