Persistence Beats Resistance

It was summer 2022, Siera was running dangerously low on cash...

The markets were bad and Investor's weren't willing to help.

We had less than a few weeks to save our ass, or potentially wind down the business.

They were the worst weeks of my life. By far.

But we figured it out somehow...

In less than 5 minutes today you will get the:

1. The top 3 founder money challenges

2. (deep dive) How Ali killed his money problems with my 3-step system

Let's go 🚀

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The top 3 founder money challenges

Challenge 1: Poor relationship with money

Most founders have a screwed up relationship with money, and they loosely fall into 2 categories:

1. The Miserable Miser: This founder is too afraid to spend their money because they fear running out of it. They waste hours taking even the most minuscule of decisions. They forget that it takes money to make money.
2. The Lavish Splurger: This founder spends on whatever they think makes sense at the moment without planning on how it affects their burn rate and zero-cash date. The zero cash date usually creeps up on them out of nowhere and screws their life. They forget that throwing money at a problem won't fix it.

Don't be a Miserable Miser or a Lavish Splurger. Be a Calculated Spender.

A calculated spender:

1. Plans expenses using cashflow tracking
2. Spends money on what really moves the needle
3. Always stays on top of the zero-cash date

Challenge 2: Using an oversimplistic financial management system

Founders without an accounting or business background are likely to fall into this trap.

What oversimplistic manage looks like:

1. Check the bank account once a month.
2. Put all bills on autopay with credit cards.
3. Not tracking the zero cash date like a hawk

End Result: Running out of money and no clue how to fix it

Challenge 3: Using an overcomplicated financial management system

This is the trap I fell into. Here's what it looks like:

1. A fancy fractional CFO who builds master spreadsheets that require a PhD to understand
2. The founder relies on the CFO to tell him/her the true picture
3. The accountant and the CFO work for 2 different companies and don't get along

End result: Running out of money and no clue how to fix it

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How Ali killed his money problems with my 5-step system

Ali (name changed due to NDA) is the founder of a high-tech engineering services and software company that helps car companies build the next generation of intelligent connected vehicles.

As a solo founder, he oversees everything from finance and sales to engineering and customer service.

Ali and I had been working for ~2 months when he came to me with a challenge.

"I am tired of the stress and mess of managing finances, I need predictability!"

I was excited to jump in... I had seen how hard money can be when managed poorly in my own journey and how easy it can be when managed well with a few simple systems.

My 3-Step Persistent Financial Management strategy:

Step 1: Use a simple cash flow tracker to predict cash on hand

If you don't know what cash flow means. Think of it as the difference between how much cash came into your bank and how much cash went out of your bank. Here's an excellent definition of cash flow on Investopedia.

A cashflow tracker is a simple Excel sheet (or Google sheet) that allows you to add your upcoming expenses and income in time so that you can see how much cash you will have left over at the end of the tracking period.

Here is a cute little 7-minute video explaining how you can make your cash flow tracker. I recommend tracking each week in the cash flow tracker as a column.

Step 2: Schedule two 60-minute meetings (Monday and Friday) to review cash flows

Agenda for the Monday meeting:

1. Does my starting balance match my bank account? If yes proceed, if no fix it.
2. Are all planned expenses and income for the next 4 weeks added to the planner? If yes proceed.
3. Can I meet my obligations for the next 4 weeks? If no, create a plan to meet critical obligations like payroll by pushing out low-priority bill payments.

Agenda for the Friday meeting:

1. Did we meet our planned obligations for this week? If not, why not? How do we fix it?
2. Were we able to execute our new spending plan from step 3 of the Monday meeting? If not why not? How do we unblock it?

Step 3: Lump your bill payments into 2 chunks for the 1st and 15th of each month

Inexperienced founders will usually pay bills as they become due. That is a naive strategy. It works when you have only a few bills to pay.As the business grows and you will have 10s, maybe 100s of bills to pay.

You need a system to make cash outflow predictable and in your control.

Here is my simple bill payments framework:

1. Do not allow automatic bank withdrawals. Instead, make everything manually payable.
2. Pay all the bills due between 1st and the 15th on the 15th of the month, pay all bills due between 16th to 30th of the month on the 30th of the month.
3. Inform every vendor about this in advance so that there is no confusion.

Note: Financial discipline is key to being successful in business. Money often makes people afraid. Don't be. Money management is easy once you follow the system above.

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Are you starting a new business or feeling challenged in your current business? Here's how I can help:

1. If you're a founder in the early stages of launching a business (just curious/have an idea/planning phase/tight budget):

→ I recommend my low-cost digital course on How to Build a Tech Startup with No Experience. This course gives founders like you the ultimate library of proven playbooks to build a business from scratch. All my best content is already in there and more is being added each month 👉 Get your course access here.

2. If you're a founder currently building a business and want to work 1on1 with me to unlock growth:

→ I run a 1on1 coaching program to help growth-mindset founders like you accelerate their business (read testimonials). In my program, I teach you the exact systems I used to raise $7M in VC funding, launch cutting-edge AI & Robotics products, build a high-velocity B2B go-to-market program where we sold $300,000+ deals, and collaborated with global Fortune 500 brands like Pepsi and John Deere. Let's set up a quick 30-minute strategy session to see if my coaching program is right for you 👉 Click here to book your strategy call.

That's it for today. I'll see you next Sunday at the same time.

Cheers

Sawruv

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