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Better Business for Small Business Leaders
Better Business for Small Business is the go-to podcast for entrepreneurs looking to get 1% better in their business every day. Hosted by Chrissy Myers, CEO of AUI and Clarity HR, each episode dives into real-world stories and expert insights from resilient small business owners who blend passion, purpose, and philanthropy to drive success.
Better Business for Small Business Leaders
How Jim Barlett Broke The $3M Ceiling With Forward-Looking Finance
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Growth feels great until it starts to choke your cash and your calendar. We sit down with Jim Bartlett, Navy mission commander turned e-commerce founder and now Area President at Focus CFO, to unpack how owners stop firefighting and start leading with forward-looking finance. Jim’s path from scaling a sporting goods brand on early AdWords to exiting as Amazon rose gives him a rare operator’s lens on what actually moves a business past the $3M ceiling.
We dig into the first habit every founder needs: a rolling 13-week cash flow forecast. Jim shows how this simple discipline, paired with a practical “DNA model” of your operations, turns instinct into insight—linking pricing, pipeline, margins, inventory, AR, and AP to real cash outcomes. He explains why many small businesses think bookkeeper plus CPA equals coverage, and where the true gap lives: strategic, proactive financial leadership. That’s the sweet spot for a fractional CFO who’s been inside operating companies, not just advising from the sidelines.
From navigating cash crunch during high growth to speaking “bank” with clear risk and mitigation plans, Jim shares how operator-CFOs act like Sherpas—carrying the analytical load while helping the owner climb. We talk delegation, coachability, and the moment some leaders realize they’re the bottleneck. Jim also offers a simple 1% daily practice: calendar a non-negotiable 30-minute outreach block to keep revenue motion consistent.
If you’re feeling stuck near seven figures, worried about payroll despite rising sales, or unsure how to win your bank’s confidence, this conversation gives you a roadmap. You’ll leave with concrete steps to forecast cash, tighten your cash conversion cycle, translate vision into banker-ready numbers, and free up your time to lead again. If this resonates, subscribe, share with a founder friend, and leave a quick review telling us your top cash or delegation challenge.
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Owner-Dependent Growth Hits A Wall
SPEAKER_00Smaller business tend to be owner dependent. Yeah. And so the owner entrepreneur, you know, they had a great idea, they're a good salesperson. Uh, you know, whatever that skill is that they have, they use it and they have great success growing a business. But there comes this point, and it can be different depending on the business, but there's this point where they just can't do it all.
SPEAKER_04Our guest today is someone who has flown missions over the ocean and scaled e-commerce brands from the ground up. Jim Bartlett is an area president of Focus CFO, where he helps founders move on from reactive to strategic using forward-thinking financial systems. Jim, thank you for coming on the podcast today.
SPEAKER_00Oh, thank you, Chrissy. I'm glad to be here.
From Navy Commander To Entrepreneur
SPEAKER_04So before Focus CFO, I mean, I know you were at Staples before Staples, before Vineyard Fresh, which I know is another organization, you were a Navy mission commander and then an entrepreneur. So, what was your first real step into entrepreneurship and what pulled you in?
SPEAKER_00So uh this is back in 2004. And I had done the military thing for a while and then the corporate thing for a while. And when my fourth daughter was born, fourth child was born, my wife and I at the time were like, okay, what's next? And I decided at that time uh I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do something on my own. Okay. So in 2004, I started up an e-commerce retail business in the sporting goods space. And that's what it began. And I had that business for about 12 years.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_04And you exited?
Scaling With AdWords Then Exiting To Amazon
SPEAKER_00I did. Uh, went through the, you know, so you know, replay the tape. 2004, there's this thing called Google AdWords. Oh, and that's what I used to grow the business. 12 years later, this thing called Amazon had really become dominant in that space. So uh, you know, in 2016, decided to exit the business and sold it to a larger distributor.
SPEAKER_04What moved you to focus?
Moving Founders From Reactive To Strategic
SPEAKER_00So this is about a year ago now. Okay. And uh I'd had two other entrepreneurial experiences in between those two. And the last one was this vineyard fresh that you had mentioned. And uh that's a whole separate story. We can go down that road. But I decided to uh with my partner and I to shut that down. And I was like, okay, well, I've done the military thing, I've done the corporate thing, I've done entrepreneurial thing. Like, what's next for me? Yes. And, you know, I'm at a point in my life, got some gray hair, right? And I was like, you know, I don't know if I'm want to go back to the entrepreneurial. I feel like I've that chapter of my life is closed. And I thought about, well, how can I help entrepreneurs? Because I just love, I love stories about small businesses and what they do. And uh I ended up having this conversation with a gentleman in Columbus named Brad Martin.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Brad's the founder of Focus CFO. Uh, he founded the business in 2001. And so I haven't a conversation with Brad, hey, you know, um, is there a way that I can help your clients? And he said, well, you know what? We have this role called area president. And somebody with your background and entrepreneurial space would be terrific because the role is to go out and meet business owners, talk to them, see what challenges they're having, what pains they have, and see if we can help solve them. And that's what began the conversation. Uh I had no idea a year ago that I'd be sitting here uh as an area president with Focus CFO.
The First Habit: Cash Forecasting
SPEAKER_04And now you're in the consulting space where you're helping businesses figure out, you know, how to continue to move forward. So I've heard you say a common mistake business owners make is driving while looking in the rearview mirror, checking numbers only at tax time. So what's the very first forward-looking financial habit you encourage those founders that you work with to build?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean, I think it's, you know, job one for our CFOs when they begin is to, you know, like you said, start looking forward. Cash flow forecast is probably the number one thing. So developing a 13-week cash forecast and then what we call a DNA model. So how does the business operate? What metrics are there? And how do they relate to each other so that you can understand the business? Those two things I think help the owner kind of get their head up. And instead of looking at a financial statement of last month's performance, thinking, okay, you know, I have a potential cash issue eight weeks from now, 12 weeks from now, what can I do about it so that it doesn't become something that's real serious? So just getting that head up and looking forward.
The $3M Stall And Delegation
SPEAKER_04Now, and you work with organizations between like 3 million to 30 million, helping with strategic focus around specifically financials, financial management, the things that they need to make, make good decisions to grow their business. What is it about that 3 million mark in revenue that causes so many businesses to get stuck?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I, you know, and I can I can relate personally. You know, my my e-commerce business, uh, you know, we our top was 2.5 million. And so I think I saw what happened, and I see this happen every day with people I'm talking to. You know, smaller business tend to be owner dependent. Yeah. And so the owner entrepreneur, you know, they had a great idea, they're a good salesperson. Uh, you know, whatever that skill is that they have, they use it and they have great success growing a business. But there comes this point, and it can be different depending on the business, but there's this point where they just can't do it all, right? And that's this inflection point where kind of well, one of three things happen. One is that it goes south. The other is it just kind of goes sideways.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Uh, and the third is if the owner can begin to do things, to, you know, delegate, to develop the organization, to get themselves back out of everything that goes on in the business. That's when they have time to refocus back on growth, what caught them there, you know, what they're good at. Uh those are the types of things that that, you know, a two to three million point where uh a lot of owners get stuck and they need help getting out of that.
What Fractional CFOs Actually Do
SPEAKER_04Yeah. You know, a lot of business owners think, you know, I've got a bookkeeper, I've got the CPA, I'm covered. It seems like the the main small business mentality, but you say there's still a gap. So what does fractional CFO work? What does focus CFO? How do they play and do the things that others can't? So tell us why it's important.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, so you know, I mean, a business has got to have some sort of an accounting function to pay their bills, right? And or collect money from customers and, you know, just do general accounting work. Yes. So that exists, right? And they also have to comply with tax codes and tax law. So they have a CPA that helps them do that. Uh the gap that I see comes in when, you know, who is doing the real strategic level, forward-looking financial analysis, strategic analysis. And more often than not, that's the owner themselves. And so, you know, you've got the owner who has certain capabilities, and there's this huge gap down to kind of the uh administrative level of the organization.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
Operators Not Consultants
SPEAKER_00And so, you know, the owner is the one who has to do it. And one of two things happens either, you know, they do it, in which case they're spending a lot of their time and energy in that space, as opposed to growing revenue, or it doesn't get done at all. And more often than not, it just doesn't get done at all. So the react there, the reality ends up being that the owner is, you know, it's involved in the day-to-day firefighting, you know, working real hard, and nobody's doing the forward-looking strategic level thought. So in a fractional space, you know, fractional CFO can play that role. So they can fill that gap between the owner and the rest of the organization. And it does two things. It frees up a bunch of time that the owner can then do what they do best. And uh, in some cases where that work isn't being done at all, now all of a sudden there is uh work being done in a real thoughtful and strategic way, and that allows the business to go forward.
SPEAKER_04So, Jim, you're you you're unique in the the fractional CFO space because you've got a lot of entrepreneurial and operational experience. And so how does a CFO with operations experience shift that conversation? And why does it matter when it comes to building a real strategy for an organization?
Solving Cash Crunch And CCC
SPEAKER_00Well, I think this is one of the things that uh, you know, one of Brad Martin's insights was that we want CFOs that are part of our organization to have experience as CFOs inside operating companies. So what you won't see within our group of CFOs are consultants or CPAs. What they are are their operating company CFOs. So they have 10, 20, 30 user experience inside the business dealing with these things, whether it's the shop floor or a service business. And we look for that. And that's part of our core values, is we look for CFOs that can talk to the board and create a board presentation, but then later that afternoon be walking on the floor and talking nuts and bolts and boxes with the folks on the floor. So that's just a it's a crucial part of what we offer.
SPEAKER_04Nice. Let's talk about cash flow crunch. So I know as an entrepreneur, there have been times where I've experienced cash flow crunch. I don't know if you as an entrepreneur have ever experienced that either. Um, but it happens. And you know, growing revenue doesn't always mean having cash in the bank. So, how do you teach founders, how do you teach business leaders to manage that gap so they can grow and hopefully sleep at night?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, you know, I remember very distinctly uh growing 30% a year and wondering how I'm gonna make payroll next week. I mean, it's this like really uh kind of ironic situation, uh, but it's it's fairly common.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, but we don't always talk about it either.
Speaking Bank: Translating Risk
SPEAKER_00No, because it's it almost feels a little embarrassing, right? You know, I'm growing so fast and that's really sexy and all that stuff. But you know, cash is king, cash is what goes to payroll, and uh that's a different story. And and you know, so for us, the key is again back to this kind of cash flow forecast, right? So let's get in there, let's start building. And a lot of times it just simply does not exist. So we go in there and we build this forecast and it looks at things like inventory. It looks like AR, AP, you know, that cash conversion cycle. What is the business doing with the cash? Where is it going? Yeah. And a lot of times, you know, the owner, they may have a bit of an instinctual sense, but they don't necessarily have the facts of where it's going. And specifically, you know, uh let's say it's an AR. What's the process that they have? How are they managing it? How are they collecting, you know, these kinds of blocking and tackling, and you know, there's a big pile of inventory out back that's not turning, these things that's all cash sitting there. So, you know, our guys, they go in, they'll develop that forecast, they'll look at the plan and go, oh my gosh, you know, we've got an issue over here. You know, how we're managing AR needs work, and we need to be more diligent. We need to have different processes on it. And uh, so we look for those opportunities to get the cash back in the business.
SPEAKER_04You know, let's talk about another undervalued role of CFO, and that is, you know, banking relationships, relationships that you have with bankers. How do you translate founders' vision, small business leader, into the kind of risk language that banks trust and fund? Because I think a lot of times business owners can be afraid of communicating with the bank.
SPEAKER_00Well, again, I think it's it's scary, right? And this is people that are loaning you money. So it's all it's kind of scary. And they talk a whole different language. Um, so you know, uh, the role of the CFO is this liaison, right? And so, you know, we develop this trusted relationship with the owner. So the CFO, he or she will understand where the business is going, what it's trying to do, but they also understand, you know, what's the language of a commercial banker and what are they looking for? You know, whether it's the accuracy and timeliness of the report, you know, the substance of the package, risk identification, mitigation strategies, these things that the CFO can then, you know, sit with a business owner, learn, and then turn around and say, okay, well, I know the banker's going to want to hear it in this kind of language and let me develop the package for the bank that kind of sets them up for success so that it can get through underwriting and ultimately a yes or you know, a better rate.
SPEAKER_04I like what you're talking about because it's giving the perspective of you have the expertise, but you're walking the business owner through the process, making it less scary, helping them understand. And it's going from just, you know, explaining the finances and this is how it works to building relationships and truly leading them through their organization. So let's talk a little bit about leadership if you're you're okay with that. All right.
The Sherpa Mindset
SPEAKER_00So you're not before we do that, though, so I'm just saying, so one of our core values, we call it uh we want to be sherpas. Yes. So if you think of the term Sherpa, right? It's you know, we want to be the ones carrying the burden, the heavy load, right, of financial analysis, financial planning, reporting. Uh uh, but we're not, you know, up at the top of the mountain taking the selfie, right? We're helping the client climb the mountain and we're back there kind of carrying the load. And that's one of our core values. It's important to us.
Decision-Making Under Uncertainty
SPEAKER_04I love it. So let's go back to your time in the Navy. Because I feel like some of your conversation around you know, being the Sherpa probably comes a little bit from your experience in the Navy. You've had to make high-stakes decisions with incomplete information in your life in the past. So how does that uh mindset show up in part as you're being a Sherpa, but then also as you're helping business owners manage risk that they may not understand or may not see?
Picking Niches And Founder Self-Awareness
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I I think that, you know, the reality is like the information is never going to be complete, right? You're never gonna know the whole story. And if you do know the whole story, it's the story of today or yesterday or the day before. It's not the story of tomorrow, right? So there's always risk, there's always uncertainty that you're dealing with. And then I think the, you know, I mentioned earlier this DNA model, right? And this is a, you know, I think of this big, you know, honk and excel with all sorts of inputs that are attempting to describe how the business function. And this is, you know, it's invaluable information for the owner because it gives the owner knowledge about, okay, you know what, if I do X, the consequence is gonna be Y. And so they're able to link these decisions to outcomes. And that helps, you know, yes, okay, I I may not be able to predict interest rates six months into the future, but I know that if they do this, here's a result that's gonna be, you know, my cash position. And if they do that, it's gonna be a different cash position. Well, what can I do in the next month, next two months to prepare for that?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So you've taken some big swings in different things that you've done within your career from, you know, action sports gear, you know, you did some wine preservation systems. When you're evaluating new business opportunities, whether it's for you or for your clients, what's your go-to filter for deciding whether a niche is worth pursuing?
Are You Coachable
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. So uh part of this is a little mea culpa on my part, right? So, you know, I think I've learned I had three entrepreneurial journeys. Uh, one of them was pretty successful, one was meh, and one was not successful. And the last one was not particularly successful. And I think, you know, when I look back on it, I was like, wow, what what happened? What did it, you know, what didn't I do? And this back to your question, I think there's two things that I think about and I look for. And one is is the entrepreneur self-aware? Right? Because if they're not self-aware, that's a problem. So do they have good self-awareness? And rixoma related, can they be brutally honest with themselves? That's hard. And I think back to my my experience, it didn't go so well. Uh the signs were there. Uh I was not honest with myself. And so I guess again, deny all the signs, keep working this thing, and finally after a couple years, you just can't deny it anymore. So when I look at, you know, whether it's a client or even kind of with myself, you know, what do I look for? You know, are you aware of what your strengths are and what your blind spots are? And can you be really honest with yourself? And sometimes that may not be, I just gotta look in the mirror and be honest with myself. You may reach out to a trusted advisor, ask them for perspective, and they come back and say, Hey, you know, Jim, this isn't such a good idea. You got to be willing to listen to that, right? Yeah. And say, okay, I, you know, something's not right here. Somebody's telling me uh this may not be a great idea, and I need to listen to that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. We talk about that at Clarity when we're talking about, you know, when we vet H our clients, we want them to be coachable and open to change. And as business owners, sometimes it's hard. Oh, yeah. It's really hard. Really? Because I am I am the person that handles all the things. You're gonna tell me I have to be coachable. And sometimes it's really hard to look in the mirror and and and admit that you're doing it wrong.
SPEAKER_00And and kind of you you've earned a little bit of that, right? Because I mean, obviously you're you're owning a successful business. So that comes with a lot of credibility.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Right. And and your own kind of, you know, hey, look, my instincts were good here. But have somebody else tell you that, uh, something's not right. Yeah. It takes a lot to, you know, step back and say, you know what, I I need to rethink this.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. So, you know, a lot of business owners, you know, they know they need more strategic help, but they don't always want to admit it. So they hesitate. Um, what would you say to someone, to a business leader that thinks they're not big enough or ready for some of that strategic help, especially as it relates to a CFO. What do you tell them when they're like, I'm not big enough, I don't need a CFO?
Fractional Fit And Flexible Models
SPEAKER_00Well, so you know, as part of our initial conversations, right? It's really heavy into kind of qualifying. Yeah. Right. And you mentioned earlier, you know, one of you one of your qualifications is coachability. Same, right? And so part of my challenge is, all right, uh, I'm hearing this from a prospective client, right? And part of it is are are they just struggling with it? Like are they just not quite sure, or are they like belligerent with it? And you know, if if they're not coachable, then you know, we just have to walk away. Uh, but if if I get a sense that, you know, they're just kind of struggling with whether this is the right thing to do or not, then we can have a conversation. And that conversation can span from, you know, legitimately you may be too small. Like if it's, you know, if it's a half million dollar business and you know, we're not for everybody, right? So we're an expensive resource, even on a fractional basis. Sometimes it just doesn't, the economics don't make sense. Okay. But if we're in this kind of two to three million dollar range, and you're like, you know, I think I'm a little bit too small, it's just a great opportunity for us to have this conversation of what is a fractional model? What does that mean? Um, you know, how do you get access to this resource? And, you know, similar, I'm sure, to your business, we can flex up and flex down. Yes. Depending on the circumstance, right? Um, sometimes you don't need somebody. I mean, typically our most common engagement is one day a week. Okay. That's what, you know, vast majority of our engagement. Sometimes they don't need that much. So maybe it's a half day week uh or two days a month. And sometimes maybe even one day a month. I mean, we can flex that. So we try to make the economics make sense to the to the business owner. But sometimes the solution simply isn't us. We're just not right. And it might be, hey, you know, you really need an accounting manager or maybe a part-time controller. And so, you know, our job as being Sherpas is to, hey, look, we want to solve your problem. That may not be me. And if it's not me, you know, I have people in my network that I think I can introduce you to that are just a better solution for where you're at.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I love that because I think, especially as, you know, as consultants and advisors, and I love how you put it as Sherpas, it's really important to have, you know, strength of network, being able to, you know, connect a business owner to the right resource and knowing that we're not always going to be the right fit. And sometimes that's because it's budget, sometimes it's personality, and that's okay. Because no one, I don't think anybody wants to be a hostage in an engagement in dealing with the situation. So we want to be able to work together and provide value.
Trust, Candor, And Hard Truths
SPEAKER_00Well, and I think it, you know, uh, it just makes sense, right? We're not in the we're not in the contract CFO business where we're looking for two two month engagements. You know, we want to be an embedded, trusted advisor for years. And so you, you know, you have to go into it for the right reasons. Yeah. And if, you know, if I try to oversell or I make promises that aren't realistic, two months down the road, three months down the road, the business owner's gonna look at us and go, Well, you know, what am I paying you for? Yes. Right. And I don't want to be there and I don't want to put a CFO there, and I don't want the business owner to do that. So you just have to be, you know, honest.
SPEAKER_04No, and I think it's it is a mistake that often if we don't educate well in the fractional space, but also if the if the c the business owner doesn't understand, like our goal is to be within the organization and stay for a while. We're not there for like 90 days and then we exit. It's, you know, your the expectation is that we're in your accountability chart or we're in your org chart and we're a we're a value and extension of your leadership team. We're a part of your leadership team, similar to what what you're doing. I mean, I think that that's something that is often undervalued in fractional expertise, is that, you know, while we may be there for only a a short period of time during the week, we're really there to carry a lot more weight and have value of expertise and continue to be with the organization while they grow. Because that's the the goal, is that we're here to help you grow too.
The 1% Daily Improvement
How To Connect With Jim
SPEAKER_00And I and you know, that trusted advisor language is spot on, right? Because that's, you know, that's our goal. We want to be trusted advisor. And obviously in in the HR space, you're dealing with, you know, highly confidential stuff. In the financial space, we're dealing with highly confidential stuff. And these aren't, you know, they're not uh parts of the business that uh people take lightly. No. And so you have to earn that trust. And uh, you know, it takes time. You know, I we don't expect to go in on day one and and to have really hard conversations about why certain things are hitting the the you know, P and L. No, you've got to learn for a few minutes. Yes. You gotta understand, you know, what's the owner's communication style? What are they sensitive to? What's important to them? Can we build that trust over a period of months? Yes. Then this wonderful thing happens, right? Is that all of a sudden the owner is like, all right, where's Jim? You know, I've got an issue. I need a conversation. Where's Jim? And you know, that's a great situation to be in, and that's where we want to be, right? And we you're absolutely right. We may only be in there on Wednesdays, but we have this relationship with the owner that's built on that trust. And one of the things I love about the fractional space is, you know, we're embedded in the client, you know, we want him to succeed, uh, but there's just enough emotional separation that you can speak truth. Yes. And and so, you know, we don't we although we work for the owner, we kind of don't work for the owner, all right? And so we understand that our job is to speak truth, and we have enough of that emotional distance to speak truth. And it's really a cool space to be in because you you know, our CFOs just love it because they can have really, really tough conversations with the owner. Um, that, you know, if if if you reported to them and they were doing your performance review and you know you had to worry about your merit increase, just might not quite be as honest, you know, or open about it. So it's a really cool space to be in.
SPEAKER_04We talk about that too in the HR space and that, you know, we are here, we're here for the organization. We're not always here. We we want to keep our job, but yeah, our job is also to make the hard calls and to give the information that sometimes isn't going to be warm and fuzzy. Like there may be times where we have to look at an organization owner and say, you are the problem in your culture. And if you want people to stay, these are the things we need you to do. And similar to you, I mean, often a general W-2 employee is going to be fearful of their job. And that's why we we're here for you. We want to keep you as a client, but we also know that we don't need you as a client to be able to feed our families because we have other clients that we work with. So there's integrity, solid integrity in really how we do our work. And we can move the business forward or say these are the things that we think will really help you move your business forward. You get to choose. Um, but we get to have a little bit, we get to be a little more brave in some of our decision making and our conversations. That's another, yeah, I agree with you. That's why I love fractional.
SPEAKER_00I know I don't know if I'm sure you've had these circumstances, right? Where it's like this moment of truth. Yeah. You've got a real heavy decision and you present it to the owner, and you're not sure which way it's going to go. And, you know, you hope you've built enough credibility and trust to influence them. Yes. But sometimes that's the first moment you realize I thought they were coachable, but maybe they're not. Maybe they're not. And they're not willing to change. Yeah. And and that's okay. You know, they can do what they want. And then there's a decision back to us, which is okay, well, uh, we understand now what the limit is. And we make a conscious decision. Is do we continue to, you know, do this, or does it not make sense to do this? Yeah. Are they really coachable? Because everybody says they're coachable, right? Yes. You go through the, you know, discovery and how are you coachable. Of course, of course I am. Of course, I think it's like interviewing, right? Yes. Uh but when the real meat hits, then you find out. And then sometimes it's great. Yeah. Uh, and it's so rewarding. And then other times it's it's tough.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04And I think that's a good question to ask yourself as a business leader, especially when you're when you're the owner, when you're the driver, is you know, how do I take feedback, not just from my team members? Like, am I willing to take feedback from my employees? But then when I when I'm paying for coaching, I'm paying for consulting, I'm paying for someone to occupy a seat that has more experience and depth and breadth. Am I coachable and do I listen? It doesn't mean that I'm always going to do everything that they say, but am I even willing to listen and kind of take some of those hard lessons or that hard advice in? So I would I encourage you if if that's something that's been a challenge for you as a business leader, that you would, you know, kind of ask yourself that question, think about it. And when someone like Gemini is having a conversation with you, and are you coachable as we're talking about fractional services? You really think about, you know, what is the real answer? Because yeah, just like what you said, just like in an interview, everybody says they're coachable.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I I would say even if if you're a small business owner out there now and you don't know who that person is that's going to ask you those questions and and and really kind of force you to evaluate a self-assess. You don't have that person find them. Yes. Right. And it doesn't have to be us, it doesn't have to be a fractional. Nope. Certainly that's part of our role, but it might be, you know, just uh a friend, a peer, uh, an advisor of some sort, somebody that challenges you. Because if if nobody's challenging you, uh you might be perfect, but you know, probably not. And you're just not getting challenged when you should. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So, Jim, as we're wrapping up the podcast, we asked the same question to all of our um guests that are here. And it is, you know, what is one thing that a business owner can do to get 1% better in their business every day?
SPEAKER_00Well, so this is something I've learned in the last year. Okay. And I was challenged, you know, we uh we use Sandler for our sales coaching methods. And one of his challenges was put on your calendar, because I'm a slave to my calendar, right? Put on your calendar every day, block out time to, in our case, cold call, you know, or email or whatever, LinkedIn. Put it on your calendar. And to me, that's been, I think, a significant behavioral change for me. Because I typically I'm like, ah, you know, I'll get to it, I'll get to it. And you don't. It's Friday afternoon, and you're like, I'm tired. I want a glass of wine. Uh so literally every day on my calendar of a 30-minute block, and I flex that block if I need to, but it's in front of me every day. That alone has uh helped me commit to it. So it's just a small behavioral tool that keeps me, you know, on task.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_04How can people connect with you, Jim?
SPEAKER_00Ah, well, great. Uh LinkedIn.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_00Uh so Jim Bartlett at FocusCFO. Um, you can also go to focuscfo.com and I have my own personalized landing page if you want to go see my background. Um, or uh email me at j.bartlett at focuscfo.com.
SPEAKER_04Jim, thank you for your time today. Thank you for sharing what focus CFO does and the role that a fractional advisor can can have in a business. Thank you for your time.
SPEAKER_00Uh, thank you for having me. I enjoyed it.