Maybe she is the one who sits down to send invoices and suddenly finds a hundred other things that need her attention first. She will do it tomorrow. And then she will do it tomorrow again. From the outside she has it all together, a successful business, a great reputation, and people who assume she knows exactly where she stands. On the inside she feels a little like a girl who is scared to pull back the covers, because she was never taught this, and she is not sure she is smart enough to learn it now.

If someone asked how much revenue she brought in last year, she could probably guess, but profit, who knows. She knows the number she wants the bank account to be at, and gets anxious when it goes below that number. Even when a large deposit lands, she cannot get excited about it, because she knows it means a lot of bills and a lot of checks to be cut, but has no idea if it will cover them or what should be left after.

It starts with curiosity. One day she gets open enough, and brave enough, to look. Not at everything, just at one report. Her face might go white and her chest might tighten, because looking takes courage, but she realizes it’s time to stop sticking her head in the sand. It’s still hard for her to know her numbers are not there to judge or shame her. Hard to believe they are only information, but she tries to embrace that. She also realizes she does not need to be good at math, because there is no math involved, the computers do all the work these days. The excuses that kept her from looking start to fall away, little by little the fear starts to dissolve, and she begins to think about educating herself, about growing her financial team, maybe it’s a good time to talk to a CFO so she can begin to grow more.

Then comes perspective. She has a bookkeeper and a CPA, and she assumed that meant she was covered, until she finally realizes she’s not. So she makes a decision to talk to a CFO, and realizes a CFO is someone who will typically pay for themselves over time as her business grows, and who makes sure the rest of her financial team is doing their jobs accurately and effectively. With her CFO beside her, she learns to click in, open, and understand what she is looking at, while her bookkeeper and her CFO work together to re-categorize things. Her bookkeeper, who has been with her for years, tells her, “I am so glad you are finally on this. I have been waiting for you.” She sees that her bookkeeper and CPA, as wonderful as they are, were never meant to be the people who help her use the numbers to move forward. Now she has someone on her team who can help her become a true CEO of her business.

With perspective comes clarity. She finally sees the difference between revenue, profit, and cash flow, and why that large deposit never felt like a win. She knows the number it takes to run her business each month, she knows what should be left after the bills are paid, and she has a plan for the month that does not go as expected.

Then discovery. With her CFO, she finds out how many of the numbers that matter she had never been shown. When she sees her revenue history on paper, it turns out she brought in 30 to 35 percent more than she thought. She stares at it and thinks, “I built this. I did this.” She now feels empowered by the same numbers she was originally afraid to look at.

And then insight. She opens her Profit and Loss Statement in QuickBooks, reads it line by line, and sees where the leaks are and how to plug them. She learns to navigate her financial software and answer her own questions quickly.

Something changes each time she looks again. The first time her confidence is shaky. The next time it goes up a little, and then a little more. By the third time, she is the one asking to pull up her Profit and Loss Statement. It becomes less overwhelming, simpler, and eventually something she looks forward to.

That is when she steps fully into her leadership. She finally starts to see that she never had a business problem, she had a capacity problem. She had been working harder and putting in more hours because she believed that was the only way to be successful, but with her numbers in front of her, she can see exactly what it takes to bring on the right team. She hires the team member she had been hesitating on, even though the salary was more than she was expecting to pay, and she sees that the right person does not cost her money, they make her money. She says yes to fewer clients and only the right ones, and the opposite of what she expected happens, her revenue grows, it actually doubles. She prices with confidence, and a business that once made her feel like she was always doing something wrong now runs on clear expectations and a process her whole team can follow. She lets go of being the one who has to know all the things about all the things, and the business runs smoother without her so involved.

The decision paralysis she carried for so long softens. She still does a little research, and then she presses play. She is no longer afraid to develop a strategy, and she does not want to run away from it. She has excitement around it. Making decisions is easier because the emotion is out of it, and it is right there in black and white. It’s in the numbers she couldn’t understand or look at before.

And then her business starts growing, and it grows faster now. The million dollar year came so quickly, and not only that, her profit is soaring. She can see the multi million dollar year so clearly now, with a multi six figure profit, something she never thought was possible, something that only a year ago felt unattainable without working herself into the ground. Business is easier now, and life is easier now. That dream trip to Europe is becoming a reality, and as it gets closer she feels a great sense of pride in being able to do it for her family.

Knowing her business’s financial information is what creates a strong CEO. She stops waiting to feel confident before she looks, because she has learned that confidence is what happens when she keeps looking. And maybe, just maybe, she actually learns to like it, to embrace it, and to use it to help her business grow.

If this is the woman you want to become, I would love for you to take the first step. It all starts here. Join me for Where Is All My Money Going! I am an expert CFO who has spent my entire 25+ year career working with multi six and multi seven figure business owners, and I will walk you through a sample company in QuickBooks. There is plenty of time for questions, and there are no dumb questions. This is a live only session, with no replay sent out afterward, so whatever you ask stays right there in the room, between us. Seats are limited, so save your spot now.

Register Here for Where Is All My Money Going?! https://www.audreyfaustconsulting.com/money