Claim OwnershipStrategy Meets Finance
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Welcome to Strategy Meets Finance, the podcast for business owners and entrepreneurs who want to start, grow, and run a business that lasts.
Most business owners struggle because they treat strategy and finance as separate. But without a clear strategy, your finances won’t support long-term growth. And without strong financial planning, even the best business ideas fall flat.
On this show, we bring both sides together—so you can grow your business with confidence, improve cash flow, increase profit, and make better decisions.
Hosted by Steve Coughran, a former CFO and founder of Coltivar, each episode shares simple tools, real examples, and practical advice from working with companies of all different sizes. You’ll learn how to set smart goals, fix money leaks, build stronger teams, and create lasting value.
300 Episodes
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Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Most businesses don’t fail overnight. They go through the same three phases, and most owners don’t realize what’s happening until it’s too late. It starts with a strategy that quietly stops working, then margins get squeezed, and eventually cash runs out. Steve breaks down these three phases and shows how to spot them early so you can f...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Your income statement says you made money, but your bank account says something else. This happens in more businesses than you think. Steve explains why profitable companies can still feel cash-strapped and where the money actually goes. Most of the time it disappears in just 3 places: margin problems, working capital, and owner distrib...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit There is a lot of noise in the economy right now. Inflation, labor shortages, geopolitical tension, and constant disruption. In times like this, guessing in your business can get dangerous fast. Steve explains the 3 numbers every business owner should understand to stay in control. When you understand these numbers together, you c...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit A lot of companies are profitable on paper but still run out of cash. The problem usually comes down to something most owners never measure called the cash conversion cycle. Steve explains why profit and cash flow are different, how working capital traps cash inside a business, and why growing too fast can actually make the problem wors...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit It’s not cash. It’s not strategy. It’s not training. The thing that holds most businesses back is the story the owner tells themselves. Steve shares real examples of companies with clear roadmaps to millions in upside who still did nothing. Not because they lacked tools, but because they resisted change. Fear, old narratives, self-doubt...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Working 60 hours a week. Missing dinners. Grinding nonstop. And still losing money. Steve shares a story about a frustrated president who was doing everything he could to turn around his division, but nothing was changing. The harder he worked, the worse it felt. The real issue was not effort. It was a lack of clarity around what ...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Growth does not automatically create cash flow. A lot of businesses learn that the hard way. Steve explains how strategy is supposed to turn growth into real free cash flow, not just more revenue and more chaos. He connects the dots between free cash flow, return on invested capital, and the three generic strategies so you can see...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Most business owners think they have a profit problem. What they really have is a cash flow problem. Steve breaks down the eight cash flow levers that actually control how much money stays in your business. He walks through the four levers tied to profit and the four tied to invested capital. He also explains the order to look at ...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Steve breaks down Michael Porter’s three generic strategies and explains what they really mean. More importantly, he walks through the numbers that reveal whether your strategy is producing real financial results or just sounding good in meetings. If you think you’re different, your margins should prove it. If you think you’re low cost,...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit If you’ve ever laid awake at night wondering if your business is about to collapse, this one will feel real. Steve shares the story of stepping into a company that was quietly running out of cash, losing money, and far closer to failure than most people knew. Jobs were on the line. Lenders were watching. The pressure was constant....
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Most businesses don’t fail overnight. They fail because a hard decision keeps gets delayed. In this episode, Steve shares real stories from business owners who were one decision away from saving their company and didn’t act in time. He talks about what actually puts everything at risk, why smart people freeze when they know someth...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Most people think finance is someone else’s job. The CFO. The CPA. The controller. Steve doesn’t see it that way. In this episode, he explains why every single person in a business affects the financial outcome, whether they realize it or not. He shares a story from early in his career that completely changed how he views money, respons...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Want more cash flow? This episode is for you. Steve breaks down why taking on more debt usually makes cash flow worse, not better. He shares a real example of a business that got buried by high-interest loans and explains how cash problems actually start much earlier than most owners think. You’ll hear a simple way to change how you pri...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Most business owners are confident their strategy is solid. Then they get asked a few simple questions and everything gets uncomfortable. In this episode, Steve shares five questions that quickly expose whether your strategy is actually working or just sounds good in meetings. These questions reveal where teams are misaligned, where mon...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit The biggest mistake business owners make isn’t marketing, hiring, or growth. It’s ignoring financial literacy. In this episode, Steve explains how misunderstanding your numbers can quietly lock in a bad year before it even starts. He breaks down why profit doesn’t equal cash flow, how bad assumptions lead to bad decisions, and why...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Most business owners think they’re profitable. Most are wrong. In this episode, Steve breaks down why even companies with CPAs and clean-looking financials often misunderstand their real margins. He explains how messy books distort gross profit, lead to bad pricing decisions, and quietly drain cash. You’ll also learn why profit al...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Why do profitable businesses still run out of cash? In this episode, Steve breaks down why cash flow, not revenue or profit, is what actually keeps a business alive. He explains what free cash flow really is, why most owners misunderstand it, and how bad strategy, poor measurement, and the wrong priorities quietly drain cash. If y...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit You probably think you have a strategy. But is it actually working? Steve breaks down how to tell if your strategy is helping you win or quietly holding you back. He explains why most teams can’t clearly explain the strategy, why the numbers don’t lie, and how profits, cash flow, and return on invested capital reveal the truth. If your ...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Most companies track KPIs. Very few actually change behavior because of them. In this episode, Steve explains when KPIs stop helping, and why staring at dashboards doesn’t fix margin, profit, or cash flow. If your numbers keep sliding but nothing changes, this episode will show you what’s missing and how to make KPIs actually matter. __...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit AI and energy demand are quietly reshaping construction, and most people don’t see it yet. Steve speaks with Maja Ericksen, Executive Vice President at Mortenson, to talk about why data centers and power projects are booming, how rural builds are changing the industry, and what these shifts mean for margins, talent, and long-term career...
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