Getting to the Bottom Line: Helping business owners maximize revenue, profit, and cash flow

Have you ever posted on LinkedIn, waited a few days, heard nothing back, and decided marketing just doesn't work for your business? You're not the only one. In this episode of Getting to the Bottom Line, Stephanie sits down with Tashana Thompson of Beyond Business Solutions. Tashana has been in marketing for over 20 years and will hit 20 years in business for herself this January. She he...

What do you do when your revenue disappears for half the year? In this episode of Cash Flow Confessions, Stephanie talks with Steve Barton, a coach, author, and creator of the Game of 10, about the 30 years he spent running his family's flower shop in Portland, Maine. Steve was three days away from leaving for Europe to study floral design when his father had a stroke. At 22, he was suddenly...

When you want more profit in your business, what's the first thing you think of? For most business owners, it's "I need to sell more." Selling more can help. But it's one lever out of many. In this solo episode of Getting to the Bottom Line, Stephanie grabs her cup of coffee and walks through 5 things that drive your profit and 5 things that can eat away at it without you...

Here's the thing about real estate investing: most people imagine you save up, buy local, and watch the property yourself. Jullion Cooper did none of that. He built a six-property portfolio from overseas. He's only seen one of them in person. And his latest deal was an apartment complex worth over a million dollars that he needed to close in 60 days. The problem? He didn't have $345...

Ever handed money to someone to run ads for your business and had nothing to show for it? You're in good company. A lot of small business owners spend five or ten thousand dollars on paid ads, watch it disappear, and walk away wondering where it all went. In this episode of Getting to the Bottom Line, Stephanie sits down with Jeremy Yang, founder of Digital Goliath, a Sydney-based ads agency...

What if the biggest part of your business... the one bringing in the most revenue... turns out to be one of the least profitable? That's the money moment Derek Fredrickson, founder and CEO of The COO Solution, is working through right now. And he was honest enough to talk about it while he's still in the middle of it. In this Cash Flow Confessions episode, Stephanie sits down with Derek,...

You're staring at a decision. Hire another person. Buy the truck. Pour more money into ads. And two questions start circling in your head... "Can I afford this?" and "Is now the right time?" Those are good questions. But most business owners are asking them about the wrong thing. In this solo episode of Getting to the Bottom Line, Stephanie walks through what she calls the...

One month you have a steady paycheck coming in. The next, it's gone... and the small business you've been building on the side suddenly has to carry everything. In this solo episode of Cash Flow Confessions, Stephanie Smith, owner of New Light Financial Solutions, gets honest about her own money moment. Last year she was laid off from the corporate job that had been her family's mai...

Have you tried using AI in your business, but it's felt like more effort than payoff? You're not alone. A lot of business owners jump in, sign their team up for a tool, and then wonder why they're not seeing the traction they hoped for. In this episode of Getting to the Bottom Line, Stephanie sits down with Jason Van Orden, who helps business owners use AI to grow their revenue and...

You land the work. You put your head down and deliver it. And a few months later you look at the bank balance and think... where did all the money go? In this episode of Cash Flow Confessions, Stephanie sits down with Trevor Stevenson, an executive coach and experience designer who's spent two decades in leadership development, to talk about what he calls the cash flow roller coaster. It&apos...

You made the Inc. 5000. You grew 40% in a year. On paper, business looks great. So why does it feel like there's no money left at the end of the month? In this episode of Cash Flow Confessions, Stephanie sits down with Tom Malesic, founder of EZSolution in Lancaster, PA, and a certified EOS implementer. Tom built a company that grows fast, doing IT support, cybersecurity, and digital marketin...

What if the thing keeping your profit stuck isn't your pricing or your marketing, but the fact that you're still doing everything yourself? In this episode of Getting to the Bottom Line, Stephanie sits down with Kirsten Graham, who helps business owners increase profit and improve cash flow through strategic outsourcing. Kirsten and her business partner Jeanne interview, vet, hire, and t...

Most new business owners start the same way: funding the business out of their own pocket, putting expenses on personal credit cards, and figuring out the rest as they go. What they don't realize is that every dollar spent on a personal card is a missed opportunity to build something that could actually help the business grow. In this episode of Cash Flow Confessions, Stephanie talks with Ant...

Running a business is hard. Understanding your finances on top of that? That's where a lot of business owners hit a wall. In this episode of Getting to the Bottom Line, Stephanie sits down with her husband and business partner Kris to talk about who they are, how New Light Financial Solutions got started, and the four services they offer to help business owners at every stage of their journey...

What happens when your biggest clients stop paying you... and then go out of business altogether? In this episode of Cash Flow Confessions, Stephanie talks with Rachel Minion, founder of Rockstar and Moon, about the financial collapse that closed her family's printing business after 20 years, and the small side hustle that eventually became her real career. Rachel's family ran a printing...

What would it mean for your business if you could double your output without hiring a single new person? In this episode of Getting to the Bottom Line, Stephanie sits down with Hunter Jensen, founder and CEO of Barefoot Solutions and Barefoot Labs, a digital agency specializing in artificial intelligence, data science, and digital transformation. Hunter has been building custom software and AI sol...

What happens when four years of incredible growth convinces you that nothing can touch you? In this episode of Cash Flow Confessions, Stephanie talks with Alan Lazaros, CEO and founder of Next Level University, about the financial scare that almost ended his company. For four years straight, his business grew by an average of 115% a year, peaking at 119% in one year alone. Growth like that feels u...

Most business owners only look at their numbers once a year. Usually at tax time. They hand everything over to their CPA, find out if they owe money or they're getting a refund, and then tuck it all away until the next year. But your financials are more than a tax obligation. They're a conversation your business is having with you every single month... whether you're paying attentio...

What happens when your clients love you, your retention is solid, and your close rate is strong... but there just aren't enough people in the pipeline? In this episode of Cash Flow Confessions, Stephanie sits down with Scott Maderer, stewardship coach and founder of Inspired Stewardship, who opens up about the client acquisition challenge that quietly affects everything downstream, from reven...

What if you could save thousands every year just by renegotiating the contracts you already have? In this episode of Getting to the Bottom Line, Stephanie sits down with Kathryn Rowell, a cost optimization consultant with over 36 years of experience in budgeting, vendor management, and operational efficiency. Kathryn spent her career in law enforcement managing multi-million dollar budgets and neg...

What do you do when it's Thursday night, payroll hits Friday morning, and the money just isn't there? In this episode of Cash Flow Confessions, Stephanie sits down with Dennis "DM" Meador, founder of the Legal Podcast Network, who shares the kind of payroll nightmare every bootstrapped business owner secretly fears. A single complaint to his credit card company froze $30,000 of...

You might be spending thousands on marketing and still leaving money on the table, not because your product isn't good, but because you're talking to people you don't really know. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Kristin Zhivago, revenue systems architect and president of Zhivago Partners, to talk about what's actually getting in the way of your sales. Kristin has spen...

What if the biggest thing holding your business back… is your relationship with money? In this powerful Cash Flow Confession, Renee Hastings shares a deeply personal journey of confronting a hidden poverty mindset that was limiting her ability to receive financial success, even as her business was growing. As the founder of a successful virtual assistant agency serving entrepreneurs, private equit...

What if the biggest thing holding your business back… isn’t your strategy, but your assumptions? In this episode of Getting to the Bottom Line , Stephanie Smith sits down with entrepreneur and neurodivergent business advocate Avy Schondorf to unpack why so many business owners feel stuck, overwhelmed, and unsure of their next move, and how to fix it. Avy shares how she accidentally built her compa...

Many entrepreneurs believe the only way to grow their business is by purchasing expensive leads. But what if the real growth strategy was already sitting in your own community? In this episode of Cash Flow Confessions on Getting to the Bottom Line, host Stephanie Smith sits down with warm marketing strategist Billy Sammons to unpack a powerful shift in mindset: moving from cold lead generation to...