Mastering The Financial Side Of Your Business with Justin Krane and Tommy Mello

Free cash flow — the cash left after you pay yourself, taxes, and expenses — is the number to watch; most owners wrongly assume cash flow just equals sales.

Know where the money goes: track daily spending and audit recurring expenses (Justin even cancels his credit cards once a year to force a reset).

Compete on context, not price — offer two or three tiered price options so buyers choose value instead of defaulting to the cheapest number.

Pay yourself a real salary; a business run at zero profit just to dodge taxes has no verifiable value and can't qualify for a loan — and a write-off is not cash in the bank.

Recurring revenue wins: service agreements can run 80%+ profitability and create income that reproduces monthly or yearly, unlike one-time jobs.

Keep payroll under about 30% of revenue — at 40% you're heading toward going out of business fast.

Scale by doing one thing at a time — hire a few people, get them productive, let profits catch up, then reinvest — and share infrastructure like call centers and dispatch across markets so growth stays cheap.