E322 | Revenue is Vanity, Profit is Sanity and Cash is King: Lessons with Alan Miltz

Summary In this conversation, Alan Miltz, a renowned financial analysis and business strategy expert, shares insights into scaling up a business and improving its cash flow. He dives deep into the intricacies of financial management, from optimising cash flow and managing working capital to the fine art of pricing strategy. Alan keeps the conversation simple, outlining how small 1% changes in one day can revolutionise a company's financial health. He offers his understanding of The Magic Number 200 and practical tools for improving cash flow and sustaining growth, even in challenging economic climates. Finally, Alan provides some excellent book recommendations for anyone looking to find hidden value in their business segments. TakeawaysMastering the seven financial levers to enhance cash flow.Understand the power of incremental 1% improvements.Ensure your financial strategies are aligned with your bank's focus.Keep financial reports simple and relatable.Manage meetings so everyone understands the company’s story.Overcome the hesitation to raise prices.The Magic Number 200 explained simply. Chapters (00:00) Discussing Cash Flow, The Power of One and More With Alan Miltz (05:13) Cash Flow Is Crucial In The Current Economy (9:58) Seven Levers and Four Chapters In Business (13:53) Management Team Responsibilities (17:08) Cash Flow Burn  (20:42) Relationship of Price vs. Volume to Cash Flow and Profit (25:37) Identifying Profit Segments Using Cash Flow Ladder (34:12) Magic Number of 200 (38:58) Cash Flow Story Software Tool (41:02) Book Recommendations for Improving Business About Alan Miltz Alan Miltz has dedicated his life to helping business leaders and everyone in their team love the numbers. Revenue is vanity, Profit is sanity and Cash is king (or queen) are usually his opening words. Alan is a co-author of Verne Harnish’s global best-selling book Scaling Up (having written the financial component of the book). Alan believes that running a business is like managing a sports team: Everyone needs to know the score. Every business wants to scale up its profit, cash, and value. The Power of One, developed by Alan and the team at Cash Flow Story, is your company’s code. How many 1% or 1-day changes do you need to make to achieve your desired financial results? Everything Alan has developed has had one common theme – to make the complex simple. As a founder of Inmatrix (known as Optimist software) in 1998, which is now the global standard for over 500 banks in more than 90 countries. More recently co-founded Cash Flow Story allowing non-financial individuals to easily analyse and improve business Profit, Cash & Value. This has helped 1000’s of businesses to scale 2xProfit, 3xCash and 10xBusiness Value. Alan has been voted best speaker in Australia for TEC (the world’s largest CEO forum) and continues to speak at many CEO conferences globally, including the CEO syndicate in Australia, Entrepreneurs Organisation, and YPO. He also sits on the boards of 15 well-recognised companies globally. Follow Alan MiltzWebsiteLinkedIn Mentioned in this episode: Get Mind Your F**king Business