Businesses can counteract inflationary forces and scale more successfully by focusing on Cash.
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Do you know if you are growing broke? Some of the faster-growing companies in this historic world of AI are waking up and finding that, despite accelerating revenue and profits, they are short of cash. Focusing just on the topline, though exciting, is not where we think leaders should direct their attention right now. Growth sucks cash. Even if your company is profitable on paper, it can “grow broke,” run out of money, and have to close.
Meanwhile, the pressures of inflation, high interest rates, and tariffs have combined and snuck up on many companies. For some firms, this combination has been followed by a reduction in business. As of Q2 2026, 57% of small business owners say inflation is their biggest challenge, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Index. That is followed by revenue, cited by 26%, and affording employee benefits or healthcare, mentioned by 20%.
You can counteract these forces and scale your company more successfully by focusing on Cash, one of the Four Decisions every company must get right (the other three being People, Strategy, and Execution).
Improving Cash + Valuation
Putting the right performance platform in place to optimize Cash will help you sleep better at night and age more slowly. At the same time, building a financially sound company will help you improve your company’s valuation, making it easier to invest in the top talent you need to grow (See Optimize Your Human Capital as You Start to Scale), secure low-cost bank financing, and achieve the financial stability to grow through acquisitions.
Use the CASh Acceleration Solution
By identifying where cash gets stuck in your business, you can get it flowing faster. If cash feels tight despite growing revenue, you’re funding growth with debt or outside capital, you don’t know how long it takes to get a dollar back after spending it, or you want to break free from banks or investors, your first step should be determining your Cash Conversation Cycle. This is how many days it takes for a dollar you spend to make its way back to your bank account.
Once you know how long it takes, you can take steps to accelerate the process. If customers and suppliers are more focused on cash flow than you—with customers paying slower and suppliers demanding more upfront, partial, or full payments—you’re serving as a bank for both at a zero interest rate! And you’re not in the banking business. Negotiating better payment terms and stepping up your performance in accounts payable and collections can greatly improve the financial health of your company.
Understanding the Cash Conversation Cycle
Your cash conversation cycle consists of your sales cycle, the process of producing or securing inventory, your delivery cycle, and billing and payment. Shortening cycle times, eliminating mistakes, and fine-tuning your business model can all help you improve your cash conversation cycle while doing a better job of living by your Core Values (see Core Values: The Rules of Your Game), as I’ve discussed in my Start to Scale workbook and audiobook.
Tap the “Power of One”
There are seven financial levers that can improve your cash flow (shared by chartered accountant Alan Miltz and his colleagues at Cash Flow Story in my book Scaling Up): price, volume, cost of goods sold, operating expenses, accounts receivable, inventory/work in progress, and accounts payable.
As with your golf swing, a few small moves can make all the difference. Improving any one of them by 1%, or one day, can significantly improve your cash flow. That might mean raising your prices by 1%, for instance, or reducing the cost of goods sold or operating expenses by 1%. This is known as the Power of One.
A SaaS called Cash Flow Story makes it easy to calculate how you are doing on each of the seven levers and identify opportunities for improvement. (Our coaches can run a free, 15-page Cash Flow Story report to show where cash is leaking, or pouring, out of your firm, as well as simple ways to plug the leaks and pour in more cash). There are also exercises in the Start to Scale workbook and audiobook to help you.
The bottom line: Daily attention to Cash will position your company for growth. It will also help you build a more valuable company—one that is highly marketable if you ever decide to sell it someday.
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