Jan. 4, 2026

Powerful Business Strategies - Solving Cash Flow Problems

Show Notes
Transcript

Solving Cash Flow Problems – In our program 90 Days to Fast Cash we cover 5 critical strategies to get cash fast. We will summarize those strategies in this episode.

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WEBVTT

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Hi, you have done to censure Wow for you.

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Your This is the Pipe Man here on the Adventures

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pipe Man W four c Y Radio with our resident

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business expert with some powerful business strategies. Here on the

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Positively Pipemin segment. Let's welcome Michael Barberita. How are you excellent?

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Thanks for having me. How you do it?

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I'm doing great. And like last week we were talking

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about ice cream and lines of credit, that's right, and

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this week we're talking about solving cash flow problems. Hopeful,

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Hopefully that doesn't mean your ice cream's melting, but I

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do think they kind of go hand in hand. So

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what advice do you have for our listeners?

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Yeah, so, you know, cash has hiding places, and it

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probably takes me about five to ten minutes to look

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at a balance sheet and really understand where the cash

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is going. Sometimes it's going it's hiding in an inventory.

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Sometimes it's hiding in receivables. Sometimes it's hiding in something

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called prepaid expenses, which is something your bookkeeper will put

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like if you had to pay a deposit for a

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trade show that's happening in the future, that would go

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into prepaid expenses, or if you had to make a

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big deposit on an insurance policy that would go into

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prepaid expenses, because that's an expense that would happen every month,

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and it be incurred every month, but not all at once,

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which was you know, for example, if the deposit is

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five months of insurance, that shouldn't all go to insurance

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expense in one month. Should get spread out over five months,

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and it usually he hangs out in prepaid expenses and

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gets taken out of prepaid expenses and into insurance expense

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as time passes. And with respect to the trade show,

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whenever the trade show occurs, that's when the expense occurs.

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So that's another place. Another place that could be hiding

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is capital expenditures if you're buying equipment and or if

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you have equipment loans. You know, what people don't understand

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is that when you have an equipment loan, you make

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a payment of interest and principle. The only thing that

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goes to the P and L is the interest. The

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principal piece reduces liability on the balance sheet and doesn't

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show up on the P and L. So when people

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make twenty thousand dollars, then they say, well, where is it?

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If they had principal payments on equipment loans or any

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kind of loan for that matter, of twenty thousand dollars

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or thirty thousand dollars, they now have a negative cash flow.

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They make twenty when they thirty thousand went to pay

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down the principle on loans. So people don't understand that.

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People think if they make twenty thousand, they could take

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out twenty thousand. That creates cash flow problems. If you

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have other things like loans where you're paying the principle

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on those loans, you are actually expending cash when you

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make those payments that doesn't show up on the P

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and L. That's really a tricky area for a lot

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of people if I see that time and time again.

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So we have a program called ninety Days to Fast Cash,

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and what we do. The first thing we do in

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that program is we find the hiding places where cash

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is hiding. Now, certainly we'll look at receivables and we'll

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explain we have a number of strategies that we use

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when it comes to how to manage receivables. And to

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give you an example, I was just working with a

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client in the month of October and that client I

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was able to show that client how to pick up

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two hundred thousand dollars of additional cash flow in two

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weeks just by managing the receivables properly, you know. And

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one thing that's really interesting. I see this a lot

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in the trades. When a trades person goes to a

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house and finishes the job, it's customary to get paid

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when the job is finished, not to put it on

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your receivables, right. People in the trades have to understand

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and learn how to manage their receivables where when they

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finish the job, they tell the business of the customer,

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the residential customer up front, We're going to collect a

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check or get a credit card when the job is done. Period.

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But I can't tell you how many people in the

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trades just blow off that that piece of it and

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then they have a receivable and then it never gets paid. Yeah, right,

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And so that's that's cash flow that you're missing out on.

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That's because their money is hitting in a mattress.

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It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing to me. But one of

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the things, so one of the things we do in

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our ninety Days to Fast Cash program is cash has

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hiding places, and so we find the hiding places and

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sometimes that could reveal, you know, in the case of

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my client in October, a couple hundred thousand dollars a

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cash flow in a couple of weeks. Yeah, but we

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also talk about and how to strategically raise prices something

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that business owners and I say the words strategically because

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there's strategic ways to do that with packaging and bundling,

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with upsells, down seals and cross seals. There's strategic ways

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to increase prices where it's not even noticeable. You know.

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Some some companies have had opportunity to raise their price

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is two or three percent and their customers won't even

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notice it. But that's two to three percent more gross

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profit points, which can be very significant on big volumes.

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So strategically raising prices, strategically cutting costs. And what we

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do when we cut costs is we ask the business

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owner four key questions. Is that expense going to help

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acquire a customer, Is the expense going to help retain

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the customer, Is the expense going to increase the long

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term value of the customer, And is the expense help

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deliver the product or service to a customer? If it

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doesn't qualify in any one of those. If the answer

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is no to all of those, you cut the expense.

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So we have strategic That was just one example, but

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we have strategic ways of cutting expenses. We also encourage

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clients with cash flow problems to increase or or get

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deposits from a customer when they when they sell it

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a customer, it's customary to get a retainer. If you're

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in the professional services business, or if you're in the trades,

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obviously get a deposit. Now, I helped one of my

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clients in the trades. He was given a ten percent

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he was asking for a ten percent deposit, where it

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was customary in that trade to ask for a third deposit,

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and increased his cash flow twenty five percent in two

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months because he's asking for the pick a deposit.

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And people are used to it like it. I think

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people actually will be a little concerned if it's smaller

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than the average. To be honest like that, maybe it's

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not legitimate. You know, even though you think you're doing

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the right thing by taking less of a deposit, you

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might be, you know, stabbing yourself in the foot to

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be honest.

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And you know what kills me. They never mentioned it

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as a feature of their product when they were talking

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to the customer. HM. Okay, so they had a lower deposit,

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but they never used it as a selling technique.

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Yeah, that would be a selling point. So I have

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a perfect example of this. So my dad, that's how

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I got into a polling SPA business. From a very

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young age. He was in the spa business, and when

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he was older and his health was ailing, I was

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helping him with his SPA business while I was actually

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literally starting the radio network. But I was helping him,

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so I was working like fifty million hours a day.

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But I came from the investment business, and he had

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this sales pitch to get people to buy that worked

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quite effectively for him. Where you know these eight thousand

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dollars spas. All he had to do was put a

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two hundred dollars deposit down, and in his mind, he

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wanted only two hundred because he didn't want to spend

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that money that was coming in and then it'd be

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a problem come time when it was to deliver the spot.

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Now me, I came in with a very different attitude,

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coming from the investment business. I got people to pay

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up front one hundred percent deposit hundred and every time,

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and they didn't even flinch, because it's all about how

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you say it and how you present it, you know.

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And he used to get actually upset at me for

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doing that. Don't do that, you know, I don't I

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have to give. I'd rather give back two hundred if

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I have to than eight thousand. But here's what But

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here's what happened. The people that only put two hundred

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dollars deposits down, they're quick to cancel even if they

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think they won't get the two hundred back, because it's

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just a two hundred dollars loss, Whereas none of the

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deals I would sell would cancel because they were fully

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vested in it. So not only from the viewpoint of

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how much money that they already put out, but the

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fact that they all the mindset of already putting it out, okay,

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and also the mindset of you know, I'm already fully

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vested in this, and they take ownership of whatever they're buying,

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Like the people that were putting two hundred dollars deposits

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were not taking ownerships to the spotsor like, okay, I'll

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just give the two hundred dollars to you know, shut

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the salesperson up, you know, whereas with me, they were

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giving the full amount and they had already completely made

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their decision. That wasn't going to change. And in their mind,

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their mindset is they already owned the spines or a

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in their backyard.

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Unbelievable. And you know, to your father's credit though at

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least he used that as a selling.

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Technique, yes he did.

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My clients when they were doing that, they weren't even

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using it as a sales technique. That's benefit whatsoever. Here

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they are giving an advantage and they're not even using

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it in their sales pitch.

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Oh I would use it all the time if it

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were made right.

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They never did, so, you know, it's just it's just

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one of those things that people not they're not thinking about.

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They need they need someone to help them think about

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these things. And that's that's where we come in. And

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and there are so many little tidbits like that, little tweaks.

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These are just small. This isn't like we're going to

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blow up the business.

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It's just small, little tweaksh.

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On most of these things. And as we continue with

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our ninety dight fast Cash program, we get into upsell,

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down sell, and cross out, because that's that could have

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an immediate impact as well as compelling offers. We get

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deep into that. I'm we add clients, increased business and

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increase cash flow at the same time by by generating

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more compelling offers, risk reversals and adding more value to

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the product and bundling and packaging being indifferent to the outcome.

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Having a time limit on when they offer is good

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for having scarcity where you know, they only have three

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appointments left, or they only have three units left. All

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those things have added to their cash flow because they're

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able to turn the sale quicker by having the compelling offers. Yeah,

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and so our ninety day to fast Cash program and

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you know, we guarantee increasing our client's cash flow by

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at least fifty ninety days or or we give all

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the money back. We know, and that's you know when

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we talk about how that's calculated and so fourth upfront,

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but we we guarantee our performance. That's our risk reversal

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to your audience. Nice and so yeah, and so the

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way that the way to participate in the ninety days

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to Fast Cash program is to go to our website www.

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Dot NeXTSTEP CFO dot net. Go to the contact form

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in the website, fill out the contact form and in

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the message section put ninety days to fast cash or

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just fast cash.

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All right, well, I want some fast cash and we're

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going to fastly cash out of this place because I

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think we gave them some great information today and I

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absolutely love that we can give all these powerful business

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strategies from you, Michael Barbarita from Next Step CFO. Everybody

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has to check you out, and everybody asks tune in

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every single Monday to the Positively Pipemin Day and a

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week for the Adventures Pipeman, where you can get more

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powerful business strategies from Michael Barbarica. Thanks for being here

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and thanks for being on the Adventures pipe.

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Man, Thanks for having me. Thank you for listening to

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the Adventures of Pipemin on w for CUI Radio.