Stop Running Your Company from Your Checking Account | Bud McDonald
36m | Aug 25, 2026Your bank account cannot tell you what next month looks like. A forecast can. Bud McDonald has spent 35 years proving the difference is the whole ballgame.
Most small business owners manage by their bank balance. Bud McDonald, founder of McMay Business Services, spent more than three decades leading turnarounds, managing P&Ls, and running large teams before he started helping small businesses do the one thing that separates the ones that grow from the ones that stall: see their money before it arrives.
In this episode, Bud and Chelsea get into the 13-week cash flow forecast, why a four-page business plan beats no plan, the receivables conversation every founder dreads, how to price the outcome instead of the hour, and the real signal that tells you when it is time to make your first hire. Practical, unglamorous, and exactly the kind of thing nobody hands you when you start a company.
Timestamps:
00:00Ā Intro
01:00Ā 35 years of turnarounds, and why Bud started McMay
02:00Ā The business plan that fits on four pages
03:00Ā Budget, forecast, and the 13-week cash flow
04:00Ā The bank-balance trap
06:00Ā Chelseaās spreadsheet lesson
07:00Ā Bookkeeping as the foundation
08:00Ā QuickBooks, Wave, and picking a scalable tool
10:00Ā The mistake behind most turnarounds: processes nobody uses
13:00Ā A turnaround story: communication first
20:00Ā Receivables, and the conversation nobody wants
22:00Ā When to fire a customer
25:00Ā Pricing: value your time, then price the outcome
30:00Ā There is no magic number for your first hire
34:00Ā Working on the business vs in the business
36:00Ā Where to find Bud
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