THE BLOG

Here’s something I say often, because it’s true and because most people need to hear it: revenue growth does not equal financial clarity.

You can have a great month, a great quarter, a great year on paper — and still not really know what’s happening underneath that top-line number.

And if you don’t look at your financials often, you are not alone. Most business owners I talk to don’t. Or when they do look, they’re not sure what they’re actually looking for. So if that’s you, don’t feel bad about it. It just is. And there’s a way forward.

Because revenue, on its own, is a vanity metric. It tells one story. The full picture — margin, expenses, what actually stays in the business — tells you the real one. And as you grow, that good feeling of “we’re doing well, we’re growing” can quietly mask everything happening below the surface.

Why Fast Growth Hides the Leaks

When you’re scaling, you make decisions quickly. Yes, we need that tool. Yes, we need that teammate. Yes, we need that contractor, that technology, that solution. Hire, grow, invest — and expenses sneak in while you’re moving fast to keep things going.

That’s not a character flaw. That’s growth. But every now and then you have to pause and parse out where you actually are, so you can confirm the places you’ve invested are still the places you want to be investing. Awareness first. Everything else builds from there.

The 5 Places Money Quietly Disappears

1. Software and subscriptions. You add tools as you need them — but do you still need them? Maybe you brought something on for one launch or one campaign and never cancelled it. Maybe it’s not working the way you expected. This is exactly why I keep my software expenses low. If one tool can do a lot of things, I leverage the heck out of it, because I’d rather spend my time serving clients and connecting with new people than managing a pile of subscriptions.

2. Contractor expenses. We want experts helping us — that’s a good thing. But check in on the scope. Is the commitment still being honored, or have things shifted without the contract and the financials shifting with them? Work expands, work contracts. Just make sure things are still aligned and you’re still getting what you need.

3. Ad spend. This one comes up for me a lot on the Meta side. You’ll have a campaign that’s working beautifully on the front end — but as you follow it through the funnel, the ROI isn’t actually there. It’s a revenue-profitability microcosm: the front end tells one story, just like top-line revenue does, but if you don’t follow it all the way to the end, you can keep funding a campaign that isn’t paying you back. Sometimes we keep running something simply because we’ve always run it.

4. Refunds and dropped payment plans. Start with a benchmark for your company so you can tell whether refunds are high or low at any given time. Maybe a product launched with zero refunds, and a year later that same product is getting 5%. Why? Are people not getting it fast enough? Did quality shift with a new vendor? Sometimes it’s not even “bad” — maybe the system that notified people about expiring credit cards just quietly broke. Either way, it’s worth a look.

5. Time and roles. Money doesn’t only leak through hard expenses. It leaks through time, too. Maybe you’re doing something because that’s how you’ve always done it — not because it’s how it needs to be done now. That might mean taking an honest look at roles, responsibilities, and how people’s hours are actually spent.

The Money Date

So how do you stay on top of all this without becoming the CFO of your business on top of being the CEO? You don’t have to love spreadsheets. You just need a money date — once or twice a month, with yourself.

I look at my financials a couple of times a month. Mid-month is a light check-in: does anything look odd, is there anything I need to flag or follow up on? End of month is the real look — pull your P&L straight out of your bookkeeping system and go through the expenses. Does anything look large? Does anything look off? Is each investment actually moving the business forward? Yes? Great. It’s as simple as that. You’re building awareness through a financial lens.

I also glance at my credit card and bank statements around the 15th and the 30th, just to catch anything that’s gone wrong. And I’ll be honest with you, because real is real: there was a season I got busy and wasn’t looking closely. Maybe 60 days went by before I really sat with the bank statements — and I noticed a lot of Uber charges. We don’t Uber on my card. It was fraud. Our credit card company sorted it out no problem, but if I hadn’t been checking in, that could have gone on for a long time.

The 3 Numbers to Know

If you take one thing from this: know three numbers. Revenue in — what is it? Expenses out — what is it? And what’s left over — your profitability. Everything else builds from that foundation.

CONCLUSION:

If the numbers feel a little scary, remember they’re just useful information. Scary numbers don’t mean you’ve failed — they mean something needs your attention. Maybe that’s building a system for looking at your numbers regularly. Maybe it’s digging into one specific thing. Either way, it’s data that informs how you lead and the decisions you make from here.

Financial clarity was never about being a numbers person. It’s about not being surprised by your own business. So start where it feels comfortable, and if you need help, reach out. You are right on time to step into action and take a look at your numbers — and that’s exactly how you preserve your profitability as you keep growing.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

 Revenue You probably know this already, but revenue growth does not equal financial clarity. And you are not alone if you don’t frequently look at your numbers. In fact, most business owners I speak to don’t often look at the financials in their company, or when they do look, they don’t necessarily know what they’re looking for.

So don’t feel bad about this. It just is, and there is a way forward, and we’re gonna get started today. Oftentimes, most businesses will know their top-line revenue, but margin and the things in between are a little bit harder to decipher. But with practice, you’re gonna have this down. Honestly, revenue alone is a vanity metric if you don’t understand the full picture around it.

And as your business grows, that feeling that comes with we’re growing, we’re doing well, can mask all of the other things that may be happening underneath that top line in the business. And let’s face it, as you’re growing, we’re making decisions quickly. Yes, we need that solution. We need that tool. We need that technology.

We need that teammate. We need that person. We need that contractor. Hire, grow, invest, and expenses sneak in there. Again, you’re not alone in that. You’re making decisions quickly. You need to keep things moving forward. But every now and then we’ve got to pause and just parse out where we are so we can reevaluate and make sure that the places that we’ve invested are still the places we want to be investing.

So let’s dive into some common places money disappears as businesses scale and grow. First up, subscriptions and software. Again, you’re adding them as you need to. But make sure you still need to be making those investments. You might have added something for a specific marketing campaign or a launch, and you don’t need it anymore.

Or you needed it, and it’s actually not working the way that you expected it to. So we need to cut that from the budget. In addition, this is why I tend to keep my software expenses fairly low. If I have one tool that can do a lot of things, I try and keep it that way. I try and leverage, leverage, leverage the heck out of it, because I don’t want to spend my time managing things.

I want to spend my time serving and delivering for my clients and marketing and connecting with new people. Another area to watch for are contractor expenses. Yes, we want experts to help us in our business. But just check in. What is the current scope of work? Is the commitment still being honored or have things shifted and we haven’t realigned the scope of work, the contract, and the financials around it?

Maybe work has expanded, maybe work has contracted. So just check in on those contractor relationships from time to time to make sure you’re still getting what you need out of it and things are still appropriately aligned. Don’t forget to also check in on your ad spend from time to time. Are you getting the correct ROI on all the things you’re investing in your ad spend across the board?

This comes up for me a lot on the meta side. It’s so important. Oftentimes, we will have a campaign that’s working really well on The front end, but as you move through the funnel and you move through the marketing campaign, we’re not actually getting the ROI. This very much is like a revenue profitability microcosm.

Revenue tells one story, just like the front end of a marketing campaign tells another story. But if we don’t follow it all the way through to the end, we might be investing in a marketing campaign that is not getting us ROI. So look at your ad spend from time to time and make sure that you are getting ROI on that campaign that may be ongoing or may just be something you do it because you’ve always done it.

Check on those things. Another place that money can disappear are in refunds and in payment plans dropping off for one reason or another. So this is something that you’re gonna wanna take a look at from time to time because you want to start with having a benchmark for your company so that you can assess, are refunds high or low right now at any given time as your company grows?

So maybe when you sell a product, you get zero refunds. This is a great place to be. But a year later, that same product now gets 5% refund requests. Why the change? What happened there? Are people not getting their product fast enough, so by the time they get it, they don’t need it anymore? Is it that the quality has shifted and you shifted vendors, and now that’s impacting your refund process?

Again, it could be any number of reasons that refund requests tick up or payment plans drop off. It might just be that in your payment plan process, that the way that you used to notify people that credit cards expires, that that system broke down. So it may not be anything bad. It just may be a system that needs tuning up, but it’s definitely something to look at from time to time.

As you go through and look at and analyze where these money leaks may be popping up, again, it starts with awareness, but as you dig in, you may notice things both within your hard expenses like software, subscriptions, and s- explicit refunds, but also in the time that people spend. Maybe you’re doing something in your company because that’s the way you’ve always done it, but it’s not necessarily the way it needs to be done anymore.

So it may also require that you take a look at roles and responsibilities and how people’s time is being spent. This may sound like a lot to dig into, so how do you do it without becoming the CFO of your business in addition to holding the CEO role? You don’t have to love spreadsheets. Don’t worry. You may need a monthly or twice monthly money date with yourself.

In fact, I recommend looking at financials a couple times a month, both mid-month and at the end of the month. Mid-month, we’re just checking in lightly. Does anything look odd? Do I need to flag anything or check on anything or follow up on anything? But at the end of the month, definitely look at your P&L, your profit and loss statement that you should be able to get right out of your bookkeeping system.

Take a look at what expenses are on there. Does anything look odd? Does anything look large? Take a look at those expenses and the investments that you’re making and confirm, is this actually moving the business forward? Yes, it is. Okay, it’s as simple as that. You’re building awareness and you’re observing what’s happening in your business through the financial lens.

I am also taking a look at my credit card and my bank statements periodically, the 15th and the 30th of the month, just to be aware and identify if anything has gone wrong. There was a season, oh my gosh, I’m almost embarrassed to tell you this, but real is real. Business happens. This is gonna happen to all of us at some point.

There was a season I was busy and I wasn’t looking so closely, and I popped in to do a check-in. Maybe 90 days had gone by before I had really looked at the bank statements. Maybe it was only 60. And I noticed a lot of Uber expenses. Like, we don’t Uber on my card. This is not normal. There should not be this many Uber expenses.

And there was fraud happening. So this is another area where money can be leaked and it’s not even something you or your company did. We’ve just got to check in on those statements every once in a while to know that it is happening to be able to report it. And of course, our credit card company helped us with that no problem.

But had I not noticed it and been regularly checking in on those statements, that could have went on for a long time. You’re also going to want to know three key numbers. Revenue in, what is it? Expenses out, what is it? And what is left over, your profitability. Everything else and everything in between is going to build from that foundation.

And lastly, if the numbers feel a little bit scary, remember you are not alone. It’s useful information. It just means something needs your attention, whether we need to build a system for you regularly looking at your numbers or we need to look at something more specific. But either way, this is just data that’s going to inform how you lead your business and decisions that you make in your business from this point forward.

Financial clarity isn’t about being a numbers person. This is more about you not being surprised about what’s happening in your business. So start taking a look. Start where feels comfortable and if you need help, definitely reach out. Remember, you are right on time to step in action and take a look at your numbers.

This is definitely going to help you preserve your profitability as your business continues to grow.