A 401(k) Is More Than a Benefit: What Business Owners Need to Understand Now

For many business owners, a 401(k) plan sits in the category of things they know they should probably consider but expect to be expensive, complicated, and administratively burdensome.

That perception may be keeping businesses from taking advantage of a tool that can support recruiting, retention, tax planning, and the long-term financial health of both employees and owners.

In this episode of Ask the CFO, I spoke wi…

If Your Marketing Isn’t Generating Revenue, Here’s What May Be Missing

There are more ways to market a business today than there have ever been.

You can automate outreach. You can build targeted prospect lists. You can use AI to research potential clients, optimize your website, create content, build spreadsheets, write emails, and handle work that used to take hours—or days.

And yet, plenty of businesses are still asking the same question:

Why isn’t our marketing actually generating revenue…

Most high-achieving business leaders eventually hit a moment where they stop and ask, is this it.

Not because anything is broken. The revenue is there. The team is growing. The milestones are getting checked off on schedule. And something still feels unresolved.

I have felt that. I would guess most owners reading this have felt it too, even if they have never said it out loud to anyone, including themselves.

That was the focus of a recent Ask the CFO conversation with Diana B. Patel, founder …

Putting AI to Work Without Losing the Human Side of Business

AI is not coming someday.

It is already sitting inside our organizations, helping people write faster, analyze information, build models, organize processes, and complete work that used to take hours.

The real question is no longer whether businesses will use AI.

The question is whether we will use it thoughtfully.

That was the focus of our recent Ask the CFO conversation with Dolores Hirschmann, founder of Masters in Clarity. Dol…

I think mentorship is sometimes misunderstood.

People assume mentorship is for someone who is early in their career, uncertain, or not quite ready. Sometimes that is true. But the best leaders I know do not look for guidance because they are weak. They look for guidance because they understand the responsibility they are carrying.

From a CFO perspective, that makes sense to me.

Good leadership is not only about making the right decision today. It is about preparing the business for the decisi…

Selling a business is rarely as simple as agreeing on a number, signing a contract and depositing a check.

The number at the top of the offer is not necessarily the amount you will keep. Taxes, debt, transaction structure, seller financing and other obligations can significantly change the outcome. By the time an offer arrives, many of the strategies that could have improved that outcome may no longer be available.

That was the focus of a recent Ask the CFO conversation with Chris Clepp, found…

One of the things I have learned as a CFO is that change is not the exception. It is part of the job.

Sometimes it is planned. A founder starts thinking about succession. A business begins preparing for a future sale. A leadership team knows the company is entering a new stage of growth and the structure has to change with it.

But a lot of change does not arrive that neatly. A key person leaves. A role shifts. A customer relationship changes. The business outgrows a process that used to work. …

Last week I wrote about fulfillment, and how for me, a lot of fulfillment comes from being a guide. I like being at the table with business owners and leadership teams when the questions are complicated, the next step is not obvious, and the numbers need to be translated into decisions the business can actually act on.

This week, I want to talk about what happens when you are the person in that seat.

There is a moment that most CFOs -- and most people preparing to become one -- do not fully an…

On this week’s Ask the CFO, I had a great conversation with Carl Kutsmode of B2B-VIP Executive Alliance about something every growing company eventually has to face:

What does it really cost when you put the wrong executive in the wrong seat?

Most people think about the obvious cost first. Salary. Search fees. Time spent interviewing. Maybe some onboarding expenses.

Those matter.

But they are not usually the real cost.

The real cost shows up later, in delayed initiatives, missed revenue tar…

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to be featured in Diana Patel’s newsletter. Diana is the Founder and President of Resonant LLC, and her work focuses on something that does not always get enough attention in business conversations: fulfillment.

In her article, Diana wrote about working with high-achieving people who had the titles, accomplishments, and external success, but still found themselves asking, “Is this it?” That question matters because fulfillment is not something that automaticall…