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You can build the best product in the world, but if you can't manage money, your business won't survive long enough for anyone to care.

Most founders I talk to admit they're terrified of the finance side. The spreadsheets, the terms, the decisions that feel like they could bankrupt you if you get them wrong. One founder told me: "I can build a complex SaaS platform, but asking me to read a P&L feels like asking me to perform surgery."

Meet Sarah, founder of a 6-person design automation startup. Sarah was a brilliant product designer who landed her first $500K in ARR in 18 months. Customers loved the product. Growth was steady. But she kept having this gnawing feeling that something was off.

One day, her accountant sent over the quarterly financials with a note: "We need to talk." Turns out, despite growing revenue, the company was burning through cash faster than it was coming in. Sarah had been so focused on product and customers that she hadn't realized:

Sarah's moment of clarity came when she realized she'd been running her company like a product manager, not a CEO. "I thought if I just focused on making customers happy, the money would work itself out. Turns out, money doesn't work itself out. You have to work it out."

She spent the next 90 days systematically learning the money skills she'd been avoiding. Not to become a CFO, but to become financially literate enough to make confident decisions and ask the right questions.

Think of money skills like the electrical system in a house. You don't need to be an electrician, but you do need to know:

This is building those T-Shaped Skills we talked about in one of our first issues.

Most founders think they need an MBA to understand business finance. They don't. They need operational fluency: the ability to read the signals, make intelligent decisions, and know when they're out of their depth.

In a big company, you've got a finance team, controllers, FP&A analysts, and a CFO to handle this stuff. In a microteam, you've got... you. And maybe a part-time bookkeeper if you're lucky.

The financial decisions you make (or avoid) have outsized impact:

You need to be good enough at finance to not to accidentally kill your company.

Here's the minimum viable financial competence for running a microteam. Master these, and you'll make better decisions than 80% of founders out there.

What it is: A report showing Revenue - Expenses = Profit over a period of time.

Why it matters: This is your business scorecard. If you can't read this, you're flying blind.

What to look for:

Microteam application: Review your P&L monthly. Spot trends before they become problems.

What it is: Profit is accounting. Cash is reality. You can be "profitable" on paper and still run out of money.

Why it matters: Cash flow problems kill more businesses than lack of profitability.

The key insight: Watch your cash balance, not just your revenue. Know your burn rate. Build a 13-week cash flow forecast.

Microteam application: Every Monday, look at your bank balance and your cash forecast for the next 90 days. If it's trending toward zero, you need to act now, not later.

What it is:

Why it matters: These numbers tell you if your business model actually works.

The key insight: If LTV < 3x CAC, your business is unsustainable. If payback period > 12 months, you'll run out of cash scaling. If ACV is too low to recover CAC within 12 months, your growth will starve your cash flow even if LTV looks good on paper.

Microteam application: Calculate these quarterly. If the numbers are getting worse, pause growth and fix the model.

What it is: Pricing based on the value you deliver and your costs, not on what "feels fair" or what you'd personally pay.

Why it matters: Underpricing is the #1 way founders sabotage themselves. It limits runway, signals low value, and attracts bad-fit customers.

The key insight: Your price should reflect the outcome you deliver, not the time it takes you to deliver it.

Microteam application: If you're saving a customer $50K/year or generating $100K in value, you should be charging $10K-$25K, not $2K. Do the value math, then set your price at 10-25% of the value delivered.

What it is: A plan for how you'll spend money over the next 3-12 months, broken down by category.

Why it matters: Budgets aren't about restriction. They're about intention. Without one, spending decisions are reactive and emotional.

The key insight: A budget lets you say "yes" to strategic investments and "no" to everything else without guilt.

Microteam application: Create a simple monthly budget in a spreadsheet. Track actual vs. budgeted spend. Review quarterly and adjust.

What it is:

Why it matters: Fixed costs are your enemy when revenue drops. Variable costs give you flexibility.

The key insight: The more of your costs that are variable, the more resilient your business is to revenue swings.

Microteam application: Audit your cost structure. Can you convert fixed costs to variable? (Full-time hire → contractor, annual subscription → pay-as-you-go, office lease → coworking)

What it is: 3-5 core numbers that tell you if your business is healthy.

For most businesses:

Why it matters: You can't improve what you don't measure.

Microteam application: Put these 5 metrics on a simple dashboard. Review them weekly. Set targets and track progress.

What it is: Separate bank accounts, separate credit cards, and paying yourself a consistent salary (not just taking money whenever you need it).

Why it matters: Mixing personal and business finances makes it impossible to understand your real profitability, creates tax nightmares, and signals amateur hour to investors or partners.

The key insight: Your business isn't your personal piggy bank. Treat it like a separate entity.

Microteam application: Open a business checking account if you haven't. Set a monthly salary for yourself. Only take money out as salary or distributions, not random "owner draws."

What it is: Setting aside 25-35% of profit for taxes throughout the year, so you're not scrambling at tax time.

Why it matters: Tax bills feel like they come out of nowhere, but they're 100% predictable if you plan for them.

The key insight: If you're profitable, you owe taxes. Period. Set money aside every month, or you'll get crushed in April.

Microteam application: Open a separate "tax savings" account. Every month, move 30% of profit into that account. Don't touch it until tax time.

What it is: Recognizing the limits of your financial knowledge and bringing in a bookkeeper, accountant, or fractional CFO when needed.

Why it matters: DIY is great until you screw up your taxes, misread your financials, or make a strategic mistake that costs you 6 figures.

The key signals you need help:

Microteam application: Budget $500-$2K/month for financial help depending on complexity. A good bookkeeper + CPA will pay for themselves in time saved and mistakes avoided.

Here's what you can do today to start building financial competence:

Right now (10 minutes):

This week (60 minutes):

This month (2-3 hours):

Most founders avoid learning money skills because they're afraid of what they'll find. What if the numbers are bad? What if I've been doing it wrong? What if I'm not as profitable as I thought?

Here's the truth: The numbers are what they are. Avoiding them doesn't change them. It just means you'll find out later, when there's less time to fix things.

Sarah (from our earlier story) told me this after her 90-day financial literacy sprint: "Learning the money stuff didn't make my problems go away. But it made them visible. And visible problems can be solved. Invisible ones just kill you slowly."

You don't need to love finance. You just need to respect it enough to learn the basics.

Your business will thank you with survival.

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A plug-and-play finance dashboard that tracks all 10 critical money skills in one place: profit margins, cash flow, burn rate, unit economics, revenue per employee, and more. Includes pre-built formulas, automation recipes for importing data from Stripe/QuickBooks/banks, and monthly review templates.

You can't master money skills you're not measuring. Most founders have their financial data scattered across bank accounts, Stripe dashboards, spreadsheets, and their accountant's QuickBooks. This dashboard consolidates everything into one view so you can see your financial health at a glance and make smarter decisions.