Though there are seemingly endless ways to improve your profitability and cash flow, most relate to either growing revenue or cutting costs and so we asked some very wise business owners and creatives to talk to us about how they think about which matter more.

Roger Tower

In my marketing consulting business, it is easy to quickly get more overhead than you have revenue. Gaining long-term clients is the goal as that will lock in more consistent and dependable revenue. Bringing on new business is expensive and time consuming. It is best to try to grow revenue with the current client base while scaling overhead to meet this demand. Read more>>

Marie Torossian

As a CPA and a CFO, I’ve worked with many businesses over the past 12 years. I’ve noticed that business owners always try to cut costs in uncertain situations or maneuver during difficult periods. This reaction is a result of poor planning for the future. There are only so many costs a business can cut before it fails. Let me put this in perspective. If a business curbs or negotiates new terms for certain necessary expenses, will it sustain or grow the business in the long run? The answer is “NO”! Read more>>

Brooks Trabold

When it comes to running a true grassroots startup – you have to spend money to make money. Sitting on cash (in excess of a reasonable reserve) is as useless as sitting on unsold inventory, neither of which are viable options for our company if we want to continue to grow. Running a successful boutique wine distribution (startup) company means, outside of reinvesting almost all of our profits in inventory (did I forget to mention that importing/distribution is an EXTREMELY capital-intensive business?), Read more>>