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.
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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 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...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Mission, vision, and values aren’t the problem, but stopping there is. In this episode, Steve explains why most companies mistake dreaming for strategy, how shrinking margins are really created, and what strategy actually looks like when it’s tied to numbers, cash flow, and real constraints. If your business feels busy but stuck, ...
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 why old-school strategy models don’t fully work in an AI world anymore. He explains how the real value drivers have shifted to human capital and intellectual assets, why most companies confuse planning with strategy, and how to actually pick and attack the right strategic problem in your business. _____________________...
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 sits down with Bob Logan, president of Plumbline, a $50M+ plumbing and HVAC company with over 150 techs on the road. They unpack how Bob scaled a residential service business, built a strong leadership team, deals with “poison” employees, uses numbers without a finance background, and navigates private equity in the trades. If you...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Thinking about buying a business or taking over someone else’s? Before you jump in, Steve breaks down the five things he looks at every single time he evaluates a deal. You’ll learn how he analyzes revenue quality, what he looks for in financials, how he decides if a business is worth the price, and why free cash flow—not profit—is 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 Elevate by Design: www.ebdstudios.com Nisho: www.studionisho.com Chris Turner walked away from a secure design job with no plan, just a feeling he wasn’t in the right place. That leap led him to co-found one of Denver’s top high-end landscape design studios. In this episode, Steve and Chris talk about what really happe...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit What if you could make more money without adding more work, more stress, or more customers? In this episode, Steve breaks down three overlooked levers that can grow your profit and cashflow without scaling your team or chasing more revenue. You’ll learn how just small tweaks can dramatically increase your bottom line, even if you don’t ...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Before you book that offsite or map out next quarter, listen to this. Steve breaks down the five mistakes that derail most “strategic planning” sessions: picking the wrong facilitator, ignoring communication styles, showing up without data, jumping to tactics before strategy, and avoiding the one real constraint hurting the business. Yo...
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 spend thousands on sales and marketing, but few know if it’s actually paying off. Steve breaks down how to measure the real return on your sales and marketing spend using three simple checks. He explains how to evaluate the effectiveness of your funnel, calculate your LTGP-to-CAC ratio, and use cash collection formu...
Ready to see how much cash is hiding in your business? Get your free Financial Health Check now: coltivar.com/check Financial Intelligence Toolkit Major moves and market momentum in this week’s top financial stories, including: Chipotle Stock Tanks as Young Customers Cut BackBlackRock Caught in a $500 Million Fraud ScandalMeta’s AI Spending Sparks Investor DoubtWhite-Collar Jobs Vanish as AI Takes OverGoogle’s Record Quarter Fueled by AITune in for smart commentary, sharp context,...
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