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…

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…

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…

When I invited Paul Sippil to join Ask the CFO, I expected an interesting conversation about retirement plans.

What I didn't expect was how many assumptions—even my own—would be challenged.

As CFOs and business owners, we spend a lot of time managing costs that directly affect our organizations. We negotiate health insurance renewals, review vendor contracts, and scrutinize operating expenses.

But when it comes to 401(k) plans, many of us assume that because they're highly regulated, everythi…

Insights from Ask the CFO with John Gies

In our most recent Ask the CFO session, I had the opportunity to sit down with John Gies, founder of Resonant Business Solutions, to talk about something most business owners rely on—but very few truly manage well:

Referrals.

Before we get into it, here’s where you can connect with John and learn more about his work:

• Website: https://johngies.com
• Company: https://resonantbusinesssolutions.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrgies/ (he’s…

In this session of Ask the CFO, I sat down with Ken Scales to talk about AI.

It’s everywhere right now. Every company feels like they need an AI strategy. Boards are asking about it. Leadership teams feel like they’re behind if they don’t have an answer.

But most of the conversations I’m having with business owners aren’t about strategy—they’re about pressure. It usually comes out like this: “What are we supposed to be doing with AI?”

So instead of trying to cover everything, we focused on wh…