Sup friends. I'm working on a project to create a bunch of free educational resources for small businesses.

Decent analogy is to imagine a site like TexAgs, but instead of producing content about recruiting, football, and baseball it would be content about finance, people management, and culture.


I'm trying to create the resource I wish I had when I was starting out. I have a long list of things I wish I would've gotten better at sooner.

I have a lot of ideas, but I'm just one dude. I know your list is probably different from mine. I'd really appreciate your input. So...


If you're an entrepreneur
- What is something that you really want to get better at?
- Or maybe now you're decent but you used to really suck at it?
- What's something you see your business owner friends struggling with?


If you're working at a small business
- What's some education you wish you could get but your company isn't able to provide?
- What's something that you see as an employee that the owner, your boss, your colleagues are bad at that really slows everyone down?
- What's something that would be helpful for you to get ahead in your career?


Anyone willing to weigh in, greatly appreciate any thoughts or ideas.

Seems like a cool project. A lot of work I'm sure.

Some ideas maybe…

Negotiation skills
Client targeting
Budgeting and expense management
Accounting and tax strategies
Inventory management
Email tactics and follow up
Leadership ideas and effective ways to communicate to employees

A whole forum on cash flow. "If your inflow don't equal your outgo, your upkeep is going to be your downfall."

So many small business owners fail to adequately plan cash flow and have no chance from the beginning because they think sales and profits are key. Can't survive to long term success resulting from sales and profits if you can't survive short term cash requirements. Should be obvious….but it's just not.

So cash flow is a big topic -- any advice on how you'd break that down into more manageable chunks?

Like if a podcast was about cash flow, what would some of the episodes be?

I think Rich Dad, Poor Dad's cash flow quadrant and his explanation of income vs. expenses in Rich Dad, Poor Dad does a good job of breaking it down, or at least it did for me.

Taxes and accounting. Also retirement accounts that are available to small businesses. And freaking health insurance options

I've been thinking of doing SMB finance and analytics consulting, and based on 8-10 conversations I've had, an overwhelming amount of SMB owner-operators manage cash flow from their bank accounts versus a cash flow forecast. Those same people will tell you they are managing cash flow correctly.

I 100% don't mean to be a jackass, but those topics are boring. I understand they are incredibly important, but SMB discussions too often digress to a successful operator trying to pay less tax and pay less for insurance. Those things are ****ed for everyone, not just business owners. Conversations should be on inbound, outbound, and inorganic growth, legal and licensing issues, hiring lawyers and CPAs, operational efficiency, managing and scaling people, investing in smart tools, and capital structure and fundraising. GTM and operational items that are universal regardless of product or service.

I hear you, but I also see the need to hit on some of these topics.

Might not make great podcast or video content, but some user-friendly idiot's guide type content (with links/connections to more info) would've been very useful to me. Still would, actually.

Like one-pagers on the concept and a resource guide.

I feel a pretty important topic is understanding accrual accounting and the benefits vs most small businesses operating on a cash basis.

Maybe so but for a sole proprietor as myself, I am dealing with all these things yearly. Health insurance options change every year. Tax code changes and even new options for retirement accounts have occurred. None of these will contribute to profitability of a business but they take up way to much of my time and having a group to work through some of it would be beneficial.

Just a note...

These types of podcasts/blogs/etc. always seem to devolve into franchise, insurance, and real estate investing lead generation because that's who is willing to pay them.

Don't do that.

ZERO interest in that.

And that brings up a good point about this thing I'm making (and why).

Almost anything I've ever looked for like this has just been thinly veiled lead gen and prospecting.

For example, there's a group in Dallas that puts on events where they bring in panelists and talk about pretty interesting topics and I usually get some really good info out of them. But VERY clearly the whole purpose of this thing is to get a bunch of business owners in the same room so all of the sales consultants, marketing agencies, PEO reps, and fractional CFOs that are putting on the event can try to sell you their services.

Look, I'm a business owner. I have no problem with this concept. And it's not like I didn't know what I was getting into going to these things. But when I'm there, I always have to be on guard and that doesn't make for a great learning environment.

And to your point, a lot of the online resources I've seen for stuff like this are just being funded by CFPs, insurance, real estate, etc. as the top of their sales funnel. And again, there's nothing wrong with this strategy. That's just not what this is.


I'm trying to make something that's a little different. I'm funding all of this myself (it's not expensive), it's not lead gen for my own business (I'm in industrial manufacturing), not looking for sponsors or anything like that.

"What to do if you find business boring, have no interest in it, and just want to commercialize your ideas because they're better than what's on the market and could make people's lives better."

bagger05 said:

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So cash flow is a big topic -- any advice on how you'd break that down into more manageable chunks?

Like if a podcast was about cash flow, what would some of the episodes be?

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Very quickly randomly off the top of my head:

- Fund raising and early stage cash resources. SBA, friends and family, personal assets, guarantors, etc.
- Early stage flexible cash budgeting and reserves. Rolling 24 month quarterly cash flow budgeting....analyzing it and reacting.
- Sources of cash flow: managing/factoring receivables, asset refinancing, asset acquisition financing, reasonable payable terms/stretching/working with vendors/creditors.
- Cash flow and tax planning...what can really be done.
- Collections/credit sale budgeting
- Secured inventory financing
- Cash flow contingencies: asset backed lines of credit, factoring again, asset sales, equity sales--continual valuation of business with potential buyers in wings/parachute plans.
- Hard money lending...when, how best.
- Reducing costs....what to consider first.
- Real cash needed for rapid growth...increases in net receivables....potential alternatives.
- Risks of customer/supplier concentrations impact on cash flow.
- Anticipating loan renewal opportunities/challenges.
- Negotiating credit squeezes.

Your working 14 hour days...6/7 days a week....business is successful and growing....but my cash balances are eroding and now creditors/suppliers are suddenly restricting my access to grow my successful business....how can this possibly be a problem when everything is taking off so well.

Cash is such a bigger king than most folks realize when they are just starting off.

Business and innovation are generally opposite-minded pursuits. How does someone with an innovative mind identify someone who's good at separating human beings from their money?