Construction Pals
Construction Pals
Financial Savvy: An Important Tool in Your Tool Belt
On this episode of Construction Pals, we're joined by Matt DiBara, owner of the Contractor Consultants and fourth-generation mason.
Matt is joined by Rick Butler, Senior Sales Manager at BlueTape, to discuss his personal experiences managing his construction business, as well as his predictions for 2023. He also covers the importance of financial savvy in the construction world, the ins and outs of modernizing your cash flow, its importance to growth, and different ways to finance, including trade credit.
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For more information on this podcast and BlueTape, please visit BlueTape.com.
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Announcer 0:00
Welcome to the Construction Pals podcast. Brought to you by BlueTape, your source for the latest in the construction world. Hard hats off, headphones on, and let's get started.
Rick Butler 0:15
And I'm your host, Rick Butler from BlueTape. Our guest today is Matt DiBara, owner of the Contractor Consultants. In this episode, we talked about the importance of financial savvy in the construction world, especially when it comes to cash flow and trade credit.
Matt, how you doing, man? Glad you're here. Appreciate you being on with us.
Matt DiBara 0:38
Yeah, thanks for having me, Rick, I'm excited. I'm really looking forward to this episode.
Rick Butler 0:43
Yeah, yeah, we are too, I'm looking forward to learning from him myself. And then you know, being able to have folks, you know, glean your expertise. So tell me a little bit about that in terms of expertise, your background. Well, start with you just, you know, you as- you as a man, you as a person, where are you? Kids, family, wife, dog? Yeah, a little about you, man.
Matt DiBara 1:07
I did it backwards. I had the kid before the dog. I've got a one-year-old daughter, you know, a little little family. So very, very fortunate about that. And I think that's where a lot of my motivation comes from, but my start in construction specifically was with these two hands right here. My family comes from a long lineage of construction. We've been in the industry 103 years now, so four generations. I'm the fourth, and started from the ground up. So, great grandfathers came here from Italy. They built their homes from the ground up and started working for neighbors, and I started from a young age. I started actually, first day, I was nine years old on the job. My dad wanted me to start younger and my mom's like, "He's too young!" And then, you know, I was a kid, I had a lot of energy, and she was like, "Fine, take him." Started picking up trash on job sites working with dad and then, you know, really quickly learned how to run crews, predominantly masonry concrete, but we did a lot of other things too. But that was what we enjoyed and did most of, and now I run, I was, you know, run the company here in Los Angeles, grew the business, and I've done a lot of exciting things along the way.
Rick Butler 2:14
So you're- I was gonna say, what part of the country are you in? And where did you get... did you get to do all that? Be on job sites. Or was it all in the Southern California area?
Matt DiBara 2:23
A lot of it was on the East Coast. So I grew up outside of Boston, and so that was really where the roots were established. I went to a vocational high school so I was bricklaying while most kids were tossing a football or kicking a soccer ball. And so that was really, I mean, I was fully immersed in the business. I used to every other week we would do what we call shop. So I was laying brick and blocking stone. And then the summers I was working with my dad. So I was working, whatever it is, like, eight months out of the year, even in high school, because of the alternating weeks during the year plus the summer months. So I mean, I was running projects, you know, 6, 7, 8 people on our team at 15, 16. My dad would leave me with a set of plans, be "Alright, you figure it out, I'm going to the next one, and I'll stop in at three o'clock." And that was how he was, he was just as much as you can handle. And it certainly made me a better person because of it.
Rick Butler 3:12
I bet you got some great stories, like some old salty, you know, guys that are out there on the project. Some old salty Bostonians, you know, "Hey, man," you know, whatever. The whole Boston accent, I bet you had to grow up fast in terms of leadership.
Matt DiBara 3:29
You did, you did. And the hardest part is melding the old with the new, right, because a lot's changed nowadays. But I mean, where I grew up, I remember I was up on probably six or seven frames and scaffoldings, so we're up 60, 70 feet in the air, and I'm dumping the mortar in the-we used mortar boards at the time, so dumping it. The mason my dad had puts his trowel on it, he goes, "This?" and he just flips it over, doesn't look below anything. You know, thing drops 70 feet, splashes everywhere. I gotta go carry new buckets. I mean, that was the industry 20 years ago, I mean, that's what you had. And now it's certainly different. We care a lot more about you know, longevity and how people feel and safety and some of those things. But boy, the early days were something different.
Rick Butler 4:12
I'll bet, I'll bet, I bet your hands are still feeling the calluses. So, in terms of, like, Contractor Consultants, your expertise and basically paying it forward from what your dad did for you, what was the impetus for getting started to help more people? Not just on the job site, but helping folks, you know, build their business. Tell me the impetus, the progression that went there, Matt.
Matt DiBara 4:39
Yeah, so right around 2018, I felt like I was on top of the world. You know, business was great, we're doing... I had at the same time I was doing celebrity couple celebrity homes. So people I watch on TV, I'm working at their house. I'm doing some commercial work. I'm doing government work. So I have this business. It's grown so much. We're in three verticals, residential, commercial, and government work. And I felt like you couldn't get any higher. I was like, this is the American dream that my great grandfathers wanted when they came over to this country, like, this is what they worked for, and we did it. And right around 2018, same thing. At the pinnacle of all of that, we had a hiring issue. We just couldn't hire, and I was ignoring it. I was so sales focused, right? We were closing these deals, the relationships, the accolades of the company, and I wasn't paying attention. My team, my management team was like, "Hey, Matt, we don't know if we can staff these projects. We're having trouble finding people." I'm like, "We'll just post another ad on Craigslist, you know, post another ad on... what do you mean?" Because we always knew where to get people. And it just came to a boiling head at that time. And I remember being brought into a meeting, my managers brought me in this meeting. And they were like, "Matt, we need you to come in here and see this." Big whiteboard, right? On one side was basically all the clients that were canceling agreements, name, name, name, name, name, price, hundreds of 1000s of dollars of work. The next column was all the jobs that were running over schedule. And what prompted this meeting was somebody called in, somebody was late to the job site, like an hour. And I was like, "Well, you know, the deal. Look at the handbook, it's third time, they gotta go, we've done, we've done our escalation process." And they're like, "Well, let me explain you what's going to happen if we let this person go." And that's what prompted that meeting. I left the meeting losing about $700,000. And I was like, I was, it was one of the lowest points in my life. And shortly thereafter, you know, I found out I had a daughter on the way, so I wasn't, I certainly wasn't in my highest, you know, highest morale. And anyone who has kids can probably relate to how that changes your life. And so at that moment, I said, "You know what? I need to figure out how to solve this labor issue. I don't care what it costs, I don't care what it takes, I'm going to do..." Because I had the brand, I had the sales, I had the company, I had the passion. I had, you know, a good team at its core, but we couldn't grow. And every time we tried to grow, we'd bring people in, and they weren't the type of people that fit the culture. And we had no control, you know, they show up late and they're like, "What are you going to do?" You know? "John showed up late yesterday, you didn't do anything to him." So we lost control. And I set out on this wild journey of basically, I called my bookkeeper, I said, "What's the most amount of cash I can spend without, you know, sinking the ship?" She gave me the number, I put it in an account, I'm like, "I'm gonna spend all of it if I have to." And I just went on this journey, I booked consultants, seminars, hiring, I had at one time, probably, 40, 50 recruiters working, I just, I became obsessed with what actually works, because I felt like if you don't, if you can't control growing your team, you have no, you have no true control of your business, you can't enforce your culture, number one. Number two, you can't take on and grow more projects. It was such a constraint. And I'm fortunate enough to say that, you know, I spent a lot of time, a lot of money, and I found little nuggets, I found little things, "Oh, this works over here in big tech, I could take that idea. Oh, you know, this is something my grandfather taught me that I stopped doing, let's use that." And I basically came up with, with the help of our team, a system, how to find, vet, hire, and retain people, and we put it in a course, and that company really, it grew out of necessity. I just did it for me. And then I helped those contractors that I grew up with that I knew really well. And then it just grew into a system, and I had to put it together because Marjorie, my other half, was like, "Look, you can't be going to coffee shops Saturday and Sunday, and just, you know, you got a baby now!" So that, she's like, "You got to find a way to get this information out to your friends, your contractor friends, without, you know, spending four hours sitting with them every Saturday, Sunday, because we got a little family here." So that's kind of the impetus and the trajectory.
Rick Butler 8:30
Wow. So I mean, taking a $700,000 haircut was an eye opener to say the least. I gotta saying. "Life isn't what happens to me. It's what happens for me." And if you look at it as an educational or a process, I've talked to so many people, Matt, that, "Hey, everything's fine." I just think those, that's the death of progress. "Everything's fine. We're okay. We've been doing it this way forever." And it sounds like you took that $700,000 haircut, and it was broke. You went and fixed it, you actually put your nose to the grindstone and did something about it.
Matt DiBara 9:12
Well, I built the company with my dad, my own two hands, right? So I was like, I'm gonna be the generation... You know, we took a lot of pride in our work and our reputation. You know, my grandfather sat me down at nine years old, and he said, "Listen, kid, you know, before you go out in the field, I want to tell you two things. Number one, if you want to get rich, go into finance, not construction. You got to love this stuff. Number two," I'll never forget this, sat me down on the couch. "Number two, he said, honest day's work for an honest day's pay, you'll never retire off one customer." He said, "If you can remember these two things for the rest of your life, you'll always do well in this business." And here I am now. You know, I got a family on the, you know, family, and it's really my time to shine, we're at the pinnacle. and I'm like, "I could be the one to ruin this deal. Like, I could be the one. A hundred and three years." You know, they came over on a rickety boat, you know, to build this thing, and I'm the one, so I took it seriously, I went out and I'm fortunate and very, very fortunate to say we ended up with a good result. But it wasn't always clear waters.
Rick Butler 10:05
Yeah, no. I hope everybody that's listening is taking notes, because I think this is about to even get better. So you know, I like your style, Matt, you go point one, point two, point three. So y'all listening, get ready to take more notes here. So let's speed up five years, 2023 as we speak right now, what do you see in the construction industry? Puts your crystal ball hat on, you know, and what are you seeing in that crystal ball for, you know, the folks here in 2023? And for the rest of the 10 months that we've got here in this calendar year?
Matt DiBara 10:42
Yeah, this is all I think about. So this is my favorite question. You don't want to take me to a cocktail party, because I got nothing else to talk about.
Rick Butler 10:52
No, no, no, no, I got other things on my mind at a cocktail party. Let's don't do that. Let's keep it to the podcast. Yeah.
Matt DiBara 11:00
No, this is all I know. I think, I think the construction industry, so... look, I'm very fortunate, I started in this business at what I think was the best time, right? I started when there was no Internet, there was barely cell phones, the only advertising decision was the Yellow Pages. That was my dad, early on. So I've seen the progression. So I have a, I have a good kind of point, a good data point where I saw what we call the old-timers, my dad would be like, "Yo, go train with Joe, he's an old-timer." That's what he used to say. So I saw all that, right? You know, Joe's in his, it was in his late 70s when I was, you know, 10 years old. So I mean, you know, you think where he learned and what he had, now that was 20 years ago, he'd been 90 and change today. So I saw that. And I could see where we're going, and what I think is the biggest thing in construction right now: labor shortage, one of the biggest problems. I think the need to really, let's look even higher level, it's the need to modernize and change. The construction industry in a lot of ways, I think, has lagged other industries. And I think we are gonna, in the next few years, go through this shift, we're going to be forced to. There's AI, there's... the distance now between where we are relative to other industries is becoming so big. It's like an elastic brand that's stretching. And I think we're going to snap into that. So labor shortage and what you can do there. I think it's no longer who controls the work, it's who controls the team, right? It used to be who controls the work, the GC is like, "Hey, I got work, you don't want to do it? See you later." Now it's who has the great team, the great culture, that's what a lot of... I talked to a lot of venture capital companies, they're like, "Look, we're doing strategic buyouts, we don't care how much work you have, we don't even really care about your brand. We're doing, we're buying companies for people." When I heard that, I was like, "Okay, something's changing." I think on the on the cash flow side, I heard a saying, it was a mentor of mine, he said, "Businesses don't go out of business because they run out of money, they go out of business because they run out of cash." And I thought, "Wow, I didn't know that." You know, I had to go, I'm not, I'm a field guy at heart, I grew up in the field. So I had to go elsewhere to learn all these things about business, and you know, how to read a balance sheet and how to run, you know, the financials of a business. And I remember him telling me that. And so I think modernizing our cash flows, modernizing our marketing, and our CRMs and how we reach clients. But I think it all stems from a need to lift and become more modern, to use technology. And to think different. I think construction is one of those things where we get stuck in our ways sometimes, I'm guilty of it, I have the same trowel I used for 20 years, I still have the same darn thing. You know, good luck switching me to a different brand, you'll never do it, right? But there's certain areas in our businesses where I think we really need to take a hard look and say, it's not a necessity right now, but it will soon become that. I saw that with the Yellow Pages, right? It was like, "Well, I don't need to, I'm still getting clients from there. I'm still getting clients" and then it was like boom, websites take off. And it's like, if you were in the Yellow Pages, and you didn't have that headstart, you were struggling. And I've seen that time and time again, that pattern be repeated in construction.
Rick Butler 14:04
So let's land on, all great points. And I hear those, and I think you're right there at the forefront of seeing it and feeling it. But let's land on, I believe it was your second point, modernizing cash flow. Explain that a little bit. And tell me what that looks like in your view as you're communicating that to a business contractor or supplier, etcetera.
Matt DiBara 14:31
Well, I think, you know, I grew up, right, my grandfather lived through the Great Depression. So he taught me a little bit about money from his lens and the importance of having cash and liquidity. And then I saw that with businesses as I got older and understood business and how it works. Financials are the language of business, right? And cash is the fuel. The car is no good without fuel. And so really understanding... When I went from primarily a residential model, which cash flow, right, we show up, we get a check, to a commercial model, which was net 60 or net 90, or government work, which is net whenever, right? "Oh, we didn't get the, you know, we didn't get the payout this month, we're sorry, Joe's out," whatever the case may be. You know, it was understanding, oh, there's an issue here, if I don't, number one, understand my cash flow, meaning how much cash is going out relative to how much is coming in and a duration of time. So forecasting, so in the next 30, 60, or 90 days, what projects do I have? What cash am I outlying, specifically labor and materials are the big ones for us contractors. And then how long is it going to take for that money to come in? Because if I'm paying $1 out, and I'm only getting 50 cents back each month, there's a problem here, more is going out then is coming in. And so I was able to understand that. And I think if us contractors spent more time... cash is leverage, especially now in this current climate, because, frankly, I don't think the banks want to lend. I don't think that they want to lend. I've seen, you know, I saw when COVID happened, lines of credit get frozen, I saw contractors panic. And so it was just another reminder of managing your cash flow and how important that is because it also, there's two parts, one is cash flow as it relates to your business and your function. But the other part is, I think cash flow, if you manage it well makes you more attractive as an acquisition because your business is kicking off cash, which is what investors want. They don't want profits, they want cash, cash is in your hand. Profits are theory, you can profit money and have no cash in the business. Right? It can be sitting all on your AR sheet. Oh, I profited a million dollars. Well, what's your AR? Oh, it's a million. So you have no money in your account right now? No, I don't. But I made a million dollars. Well, that feels great, right? But if the money is not in your account, how are you making payroll next month? So I think it's important for investors. And then the last one is, I think it's a growth advantage for you as a contractor, because you have the ability to invest when others might not. So if you have that nice cash reserve, or you are able to manage your cash flow, you can spend money on hiring, you can spend money to acquire customers when other contractors might have to contract.
Rick Butler 17:20
So let's take this down to a granular level and give a, you know, some tips. I'm a, I'm a contractor, I've been in business for a little over a year, got a four-man crew. At any given time, we've got two projects. Marketing, Facebook must be doing well, because I'm getting a lot of calls. But I'm just stuck in that two-project zone. You know, I want to see that go to four, six, I want to, you know, 10x it, I've got ambitions, but it's me in a year, four-man crew, stuck in that two projects and really can't expand. Give me some, give me some ideas, like, where I can go, you know, I need, I need more supplies, I need more materials, because, like you said, $1 is going out and only 50 cents, maybe 25 cents, is coming in. Give me some, like, "Here you go, Rick. Rick, truck, and the four guys. Let's go."
Matt DiBara 18:19
Yeah, I mean, there's a couple of things, just fundamentals that never go away. One is trying to work the cash flows right away, try and negotiate those terms, "Hey, I show up, I want to check or I want a check after the first week," you can't always do that, right? I mean, that's a pipe dream. I have some commercial clients that we can, but it's sub 5%. But that's one thing you want to lean towards. So, and if you can't get it right away, negotiate the most favorable payment terms for you, is one thing. The second thing I would do is like what you do on your end is I would get, I would basically try and leverage the materials because it's a physical item. Right? So you're more, you're more likely to get, basically, to get debt on those materials than you are, say, payroll or working capital or those things, because they're not, they're not tangibles, like, you can lien a project for materials, it's much easier than it is to chase down payroll money. So I would look at leveraging debt on my material projects, I'd look at that for sure. Which makes up typically 30 to 45% of, you know, a project scope. So I'd look at, you know, working with you guys. I mean, what you do is a huge tool. I mean, we recommend that because you need the ability to manage the cash flow, to then reinvest in hiring and payroll and all these other things. And it's, you know, if you go and try and get working capital, or even lines of credit, they're great, but the problem with them is that it's not, it's not job specific, and it's not always tangible. I see a lot of contractors rely on lines of credit. COVID was a great example of a concern there because they relied on it, and they were like, "Hey, we're pulling your line of credit." It's like, "But that's the lifeblood of my business." It's like, "Well, not anymore." But if you're basing it around your materials, here's the benefit, those materials don't change, meaning it's a part of the job. So nobody's, nobody's pulling that, right? You can go, "Alright, I've sold this project, here's the materials that I have, I buy it from my supplier, and I want to get, I want to get that money back from those materials as fast as possible." And it's easier to do it than getting it for, say, payroll, or some other kind of less tangible costs.
Rick Butler 20:23
So let's go back to my imaginary business, and some of the nuggets that you just threw out. All I know is the local bank, maybe it's a big branch, maybe it's a local branch. So I think bank, I think, line of credit, you know, that type thing. What's the difference? And you even said it, banks are getting more hesitant to lend. What's the difference between line of credit, going to my bank the way I think, you know, that I pass on the main street every day, and trade credit? What's the difference of utilizing those two things, if you could delineate line of credit and trade credit from a financing company?
Matt DiBara 21:06
Yeah, so contractors have typically three main ways of, of utilizing debt, if you will, or getting access to cash or money. One is credit cards, right? One is a line of credit, and one is trade credit. So credit cards are dangerous. We know why. Because if you think you can pay it off in 30 days, and you can't, you get hit with really high interest. So I don't recommend using a credit card. A line of credit is a bank saying, "Here's an amount of money that you can pull or have access to that you're going to start paying back." And typically you have a year term, there's different terms, you can negotiate for how long that comes back. And there's interest around it. But the biggest problem I see with the line of credit is, number one, the inconsistency, the fact that you don't really own it, it's not, it's more, it's more routed in how your business is doing at that time. I have a banker friend, and he told me, he said, he... this is from a banker, very successful banker, he said, "Banks are great at lending you umbrellas when it's sun- when it's shining sun and it's not raining, and then taking the umbrella back when it's pouring." And so, if you're really trying to manage cash flow over a long term, I would look at trade credit first. And the reason for that is because it's more associated with the project. It's a credit, it's a form of credit based on the materials of the project, which is a tangible asset. So everybody wins. Meaning it's physical. When you pull a line of credit, you could go out and spend 100 grand on marketing or hire the wrong person, and it's gone. And so the bank is taking more risk on you. But when you lock into trade credit, everybody has lower risk. So it's more favorable for everybody. It's more favorable for you as the contractor because it's job specific, right? So you can work the cost of that trade credit into your job. It's more beneficial to the bank, because they go, I would rather loan on something physical than give you money, you spend it on something that I could never see or take back or lien. So it's less risk for them. And then it's obviously beneficial to the supplier as well.
Rick Butler 23:18
So let's go back. Based on what you just told me, let's look at just, you know, trade credit, and going through a financing company like BlueTape, as an example. And my original premise is I'm just, I'm stuck in this two-project zone. And we're hungry. And we want to expand that to four. Four projects going on at the same time. It's a cash flow issue. You're seeing this as my playbook to get me started to get to that 4, 6, 8, and start expanding my projects. This is a good fundamental. You're the coach, man, I'm the player. Tell me, is this, is this like the ABCs of my first part of my playbook herem, Matt? Utilizing it?
Matt DiBara 24:01
That's what I would look at. Absolutely. Because at the end of the day, the more you can associate things to specific jobs, the more you can channel your growth. Like if you look at some of the biggest companies in the world, right, let's go opposite for a minute here. They take, they line item everything in the job. So they typically rent equipment, right? Everything is, it'd be like financing charge. I mean, I've seen the bid sheets on multibillion dollar projects, and it's fascinating, because, you know, they had to do something, right, to get that big. And the big companies manage cash flow very well. Right? Payment terms are always in favor of them. So what can we as the smaller companies glean from these multibillion dollar companies? Cash flow is extremely important. You want to get cash as fast as possible, and you want to do it in the most controllable way. So again, if I'm that small contractor, you know, I've got two jobs, I want to get to four, well, or let's say I want to do one really big job. Let's say I'm working for a GC, and they go, "Hey, you know, I know that normal you are doing 15, 20,000 dollar jobs, I just got a 200,000 dollar job. And I'd like I'd like you to do it." And you, you look and you say, "Okay, 30% material costs, I'm shelling out 60 grand?" Well, you can try it, you know, you can pull a line of credit to try and fund that project. But again, there's the risk associated with... I personally like lines of credit as more of a fallback, I would go trade credit. I keep my credit cards for an emergency or things that I know I can pay off within 30 days, and then I'd have my line of credit as a fallback behind that is how I would, I would manage that. But the materials are nice, because what's the first thing you typically do on a project? You know, let's say it's a custom project, you got to fork out the money for that custom material before the project starts. And you have that risk. So if I can get trade credit, I'm getting that cash back into my business, I'm lowering the amount of money that I'm putting out early on, which is more beneficial for me. Now, I can afford to do that. Maybe I couldn't afford that 60 grand if I didn't do that.
Rick Butler 25:59
Is this also helping-this just popped into my head in terms of cash flow, is this also helping with the slowdown in the supply chain, like doors and windows? You know, I'm waiting for them to be delivered to the project site. Three months, four months out, maybe sometimes longer, but let's just utilize that. Then I'm not getting paid until installation. Is trade credit something that can alleviate the supply chain? Do you see the supply chain getting faster, getting slower, is it staying just stale?
Matt DiBara 26:34
I think it's compartmentalized, so it's very specific. There's niches like doors, windows that are really tough, like concrete, masonry has gotten better. You know, cabinets, I hear, have gotten better. A lot of the basic finishes have gotten better, some stuff is as bad if not worse. So I think it's compartmentalize. But absolutely, I mean, you know, we have, we have a big project, a big custom fencing project, building a massive wall and fence and we've ordered this fence, I'm going on a year and a half now we're waiting for it. And we forked out a lot of money. You know, we had to pay 35% upfront on this project. So a six figure, six figure bill for this custom fencing. And, you know, year and a half that cash is just out of the business.
Rick Butler 27:19
Wow. Well, it'll help. Well, your passion comes through in the way you communicate and you share, and you're so knowledgeable, Matt. Let's go back to I'm that guy. I've been in this thing a year, I want to stay in it longer. I've got a small family, I see growth, I'm good with my hands. The business side, my business acumen is not as high. Give me that last piece of advice, you know, before we leave here and go, "Hey, this is what I really want to share with my heart, from my heart to make you guys as successful as you can be."
Matt DiBara 27:57
Yeah, I mean, I can frame it from the sense of what would I tell me, you know, years ago. The biggest regret I have, the biggest regret I have is not understanding financials. I used to rush my, in terms of this conversation, there's obviously other ones, like I said, the labor issue. But in terms of what we're specifically talking about, one of the things I struggled with, I didn't have a formal background in business, you know, I learned on the field, I didn't, you know, nobody in my family was a a business person, if you will, right? We were contractors, it's how we viewed ourselves, very, very blue collar. So the biggest thing that I think contractors need to spend time on, and I've seen it, that separates the small companies who don't grow from the big ones, is understanding your financials. When you understand your financials in your business, when you understand your cash flow, when you understand your P&L, when you understand the money coming in, the money coming out. Where you're making it and where you're losing it. And I know it's not fun. I mean, I, for many years, I would sit with the bookkeeper, it was a mess. I didn't understand the numbers, the columns, they'd explain it to me and go too fast. And I would get frustrated. But that is one of the biggest lever pulls at the end of the day. I mean, here's a simple way to look at it. Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, okay, buys companies based off of... He's on record for buying companies and seeing nothing more than their financials. Let that sink in. Making billion dollar deals off of 10 or 12 sheets of paper, right? How much money is coming in. He's able to see... My mentor told me, he said, "Financials are the language of business.' That's your business talking back to you and saying, "I'm hurt, I'm sick, I'm in trouble or I'm very happy. I'm well fed." And we have to be able to understand those numbers. And so that's at a high level. And then when we understand it, usually the first takeaway is, and this was my epiphany going back now, seven, eight years ago, was oh, wow, businesses don't go out of business because we run out of money, we run out of cash. And if I can manage my cash flow, meaning I can get paid more money than what I'm putting out, and trade credit's a great way to do that, then I have runway, I can make some mistakes, I can not be perfect, I can grow, is what I'm talking about here. Because to grow is to not be perfect. Every time we've ever grown in my family business, we've slipped up, we've made mistakes, they've taken longer, we've learned. And so if you can do that, understand your financials, you will come to the conclusion, like every other contractor I've ever met, that cash flow is the lifeblood of the business. And then you'll start to prioritize it. And it'll give you a buffer, you'll feel more confident, knowing that you're making decisions to grow based on the numbers and based on what your business can really do.
Rick Butler 30:53
That's wise, man. Appreciate that wisdom, you know, in terms of learning, getting more wisdom. Tell the folks, you know, that are listening, where can we find you? Where's the most, you know, I know the social media, however that people want to, you know, pick your brain to what you do, let us know how we can find you, man.
Matt DiBara 31:14
Yeah, and my email's md...so m as in Michael, d as in delta, at the contractor consultants, plural, or just head on over the website, TheContractorConsultants.com.
Rick Butler 31:25
See it right there over his left shoulder, the Contractors Consultants. Are you going to be at any trade shows, any big events coming up where somebody can maybe find ya, shake your hand, and trade cards with ya anywhere coming up?
Matt DiBara 31:40
You know, I don't even know. I just got back from International Builders' Show and World of Concrete. I was in Vegas, I think, two and a half weeks out of the month there. I got some stuff coming up. But I'll yeah, I'll make that on social media that I'll make sure to...
Rick Butler 31:53
So, you guys find Matt there at the Contractor Consultants. And again, I appreciate your wisdom. Appreciate your passion. Your communicative style of teaching, folks, I could just hear it come through, so many thanks, and tip of the cap to you, man.
Matt DiBara 32:13
Yeah, thank you, Rick, appreciate it. You prompted me with all the good questions there, I just, I just followed your lead.
Rick Butler 32:18
It was just teeing it up, man. Just like baseball, if you're a baseball... Red Sox fan, I'll bet, but, but yeah, just teeing it up and you just knocking it out of the park. So I appreciate you, brother. Thank you.
Announcer 32:30
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai
