Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to the FICO Diva Show. I'm Al Diva Rubelkava and today we're taking control of your financial future. You're watching now Media Television.
Good morning and welcome to the FICO Diva Show. I'm Al Diva Gratadal. On this show we talk about credit, wealth, building financial independence and what it really takes to take control of your money. And for entrepreneurs, that conversation has to go beyond how much the business sells. It has to include what the business keeps, what it owes, what it can invest, and whether the owner actually understands the financial story behind the company.
Today we're talking about the difference between having a busy business and having a financially healthy business.
Because revenue can look impressive while cash flow flat. While cash flow is tight, taxes are unplanned, margins are weak, and the owner still feels financially uncertain.
My guest is Olga Hurtado, ea, mba, founder of Neat Books. Olga built her business from a solar venture into a multi million dollar business and now helps entrepreneurs improve financial clarity, profitability and strategic decision making through accounting, analytics, mentorship and practical financial guidance. Olga, welcome to the FICO Diva Show.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: Thank you for having me, Aldiba.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Of course. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Well, as you mentioned, I'm an EA which is an enrolled agent and I also pursued my master's, my mba, but I'm also pursuing my second master's. I know, I'm crazy.
Yes, it's a master's in accounting so I can be know more prepared, more ready for our clients. So I come from Colombia originally and I'm the proud mom of twin girls. So that's me.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: How old are your twin girls?
[00:02:06] Speaker B: Well, they are not little anymore. They are 17.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: So.
You look so young. That's awesome.
Thank you.
Well, you built Neat Books from solar operation into a multi million dollar business.
What financial lesson had the biggest impact on your ability to grow without losing control of the company?
[00:02:29] Speaker B: Hi Leva. That.
I think I'm thinking about just one word. Visibility.
Okay.
Because when you are building a business you need like the visibility, like the zoom out of everything so you can understand where your business is going, going.
And also you need systems. So what I did, I built systems that I detached myself from the business so I can, I could zoom out and be more strategic while planning and pursuing the goals I was aiming to because you know, when you grow without any visibility of your business is very dangerous. It's like going to the woods and having no, you know, like compass with you without, without any phones, anything. So you need that visibility and you need that guidance in order for you to build a business and to create those lessons for you and to learn from them. Aliba.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: I agree 100% because I feel that a lot of our business owners, they do everything blindly. They're so focused on what's coming in and that. Focused on what's leaving their pocketbook.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Exactly. I totally agree with you.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: So many entrepreneurs know that their sales never cannot be clearly explained, or they cannot clearly explain their profit, cash position, or tax exposure.
What number should every business owner know every month?
[00:04:07] Speaker B: You know, in my experience, when I talk to clients, they're always, like, focused on revenue. Oh, this is my revenue. I, Olga, these are my sales. I did amazing. I'm growing so fast. And then when I asked them about cash flow, they're like, wow, yeah, it's good. And when we do the review for the cash flow and, you know, inflows, outflows, they realize they are so short on cash that if another pandemic hits, they will be, you know, living paycheck by paycheck.
So if I were you, if I were in your shoes, every day I will look at my cash flow. I will control my cash in, my cash out.
But also if you sell, like, for credit to clients, I will also review my accounts receivables. Sometimes you're leaving money on the table. If you don't collect the money that for the services or, you know, the products that you sell, you're basically working for free.
So if you ask me, in my experience, the things that I see every day with my clients, the numbers I will definitely suggest you to look at every day, it's cash and your accounts receivable.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: I agree. Because a lot of us, you know, well, not us, but a lot of our entrepreneurs are focused on the gross and they forget that we live off the net.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: I wish we could live off the gross. That would be amazing.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: That would be the perfect business.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: Exactly.
So what are speaking of that, because you mentioned, you know, sometimes people, they're not paying attention. What are some common financial blind spots that you see? Business owners that appear to be successful from the outside, but they're really feeling stressed on the inside.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: Well, again, I think the most common financial blind spot, it's confusing profits with cash or confusing the revenue with profitability.
So if you are so blinded with your revenue, you're not going to see everything else. Okay, so my advice is always look at the profits, but based on the cash flows, you're making money, but you're not making money on paper. You're making real Money that you see in your bank account that's for me, is like the, like the simplest way to work in your business to, you know, like, create all the processes around your business. And the main goal is for you to be able to have cash available so you can live right from your
[00:06:49] Speaker A: business of your business, of course, because, you know, we stopped working 40 hours for someone else to work 80 hours for ourselves. Hopefully we're making money, which doesn't make
[00:07:00] Speaker B: any sense to me. But, yeah, that's the life of entrepreneur.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: So how can business owners tell whether a cash flow problem is temporary or a sign that pricing, expenses, margins, or the business model itself needs attention? Because I feel that this one here is a really strong one.
A lot of people don't pay attention to their margins. So what's your opinion on that?
[00:07:25] Speaker B: Well, I think, you know, cash flow is usually the symptoms, but you need to find the root cause of the problem. So you need to look at patterns. For instance, you have a business and you see big revenues and you don't see cash. So you start aiming for those things that you might be suspicious about. And I'm talking about, for example, you have loans that you're paying or you are paying high interest rates in your credit cards and you're not seeing a lot of cash coming in because of, you know, all those monies are going out to pay interest rates. But also, you can also detect if someone is embezzling money from you. Any employee, for example. So if you control that cash flow very closely, you're going to be able to detect, to see the patterns in your business and detect and avoid any issues or any problems in the future.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: You know, it's funny that you say that because I'm someone who I open my eyes, I open my bank account and I look to see what went out and where do I stand. And a lot of business owners, they don't.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: No, they don't. They are. They are afraid of doing that.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: If they log into their bank account, they think that they're going to be scared by the monster. It's not a monster. It's your money. You have to control it. I think that's the only processing your business that should. You shouldn't be delegating that much. You should be focused on controlling your cash because that's the only way that you can actually use the money for investing and working capital and grow your business.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: You know, it's funny as I just met with a client who hadn't done their taxes for quite a few years and it was exactly for that reason. They were so focused on the gross that they didn't really pay attention to where their money's going. And now they're relying so much on their bookkeeper and that, like, you need to learn what your bookkeeper's inputting, because what if this check says this, but really it went to her and you have no idea.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. And, you know, you'd be surprised how many business owners lose a lot of money throughout the year just because of embezzlement from an employee that they consider it was a trustful person in their business. So it's a 15 minutes exercise every day. Log into your bank account and detect patterns. Verify that all the transactions that you see in the bank account are yours, are for your business and also for the credit card. If you start seeing your credit card piling up and increasing value month over month, then you should sit down and review the statement. Not the QuickBooks, not the any ledger that you're using your actual statement. If you do that, you will be surprised how many expenses you can actually cut or catch before something bigger happens to your business.
[00:10:29] Speaker A: And speaking of that, for entrepreneurs who avoid the numbers because they feel complicated or intimidating, what's the first step towards replacing fear with financial confidence?
[00:10:42] Speaker B: As I said, start looking at your numbers consistently and ask a lot of questions to your bookkeeper or your accountant or your CPA or the person you have internally in your company, because those are the questions that are going to lead you to the success of your business or the, you know, the problems in your business.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: I agree. And a lot of people, they're just running blind and they're scared, and it's like, I'd be more afraid to lose money than to know where my money's going.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. It's not the monster. Aldiba Cash flow is not the monster.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: No, the monster is actually the fear.
That's the monster.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: That is the monster.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Well, financial empowerment begins with visibility. When entrepreneurs understand what the numbers are actually saying, they stop reacting to surprises and the monster and start making decisions from a position of greater control.
After the break, we'll go deeper into cash flow, profitability, taxes, your favorite T word, and the financial habits that separate a growing business from a business that's actually building wealth. Stay tuned. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. With more strategies to elevate your credit, eliminate debt, and build lasting wealth. Stay tuned.
And we're back. I'm Al Diva Rubelgava, and this is the FICO Diva show on NOW Media Television. Let's continue building.
Welcome back to the FICO Diva Show. Stay connected to this show and every NOW Media TV favorite, live or on demand, anytime you like. Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS and unlock non stop bilingual programming in English and Spanish on the move. Catch the podcast version at www.nowmedia.tv.
from business and use to lifestyle, culture and beyond, Now Media TV is streaming around the clock. Ready whenever you are.
Welcome back to the FICO Diva Show. I am Al Diva Grateral and I'm here with Olga Hurtado, founder of Neat Books, not to be confused with QuickBooks because she likes to keep your books neat. So Neat Books. Before the break, we talked about why entrepreneurs need more than revenue to feel financially secure. Now we're getting into systems that determine whether growth actually produces financial strength, cash flow, profit margins, tax planning, and disciplined use of money.
Olga works with business owners who need the numbers translated into decisions. The goal is not simply clean your books. It's knowing when to spend, when to save, when to hire, when to raise prices, and how to avoid financial decisions that create growth on paper, but pressure in real life.
So, Olga, what's the biggest mistake entrepreneurs make when they confuse money in the bank with actual profit?
[00:13:50] Speaker B: I love this one.
Because business owners, they think when, because the money is in the bank account, it's 100% available to be spent.
And that's part of the biggest mistake business owners make.
The bank account gives you. Yes, gives you a balance for the day, but most likely you have pending payments to be made that week or that part of, part of that cash belongs to taxes or belongs to payroll.
So the bank account, it gives you the balance. Yes, but it's today's balance.
So in order for you to be able to forecast your cash flow, you need to understand also your expenses and everything that it's, you know, process in your business throughout a period of time.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: I agree. And a lot of our entrepreneurs today, they don't even have an accounting software. They just keep the receipts and go. It's tax season. Merry Christmas.
[00:15:05] Speaker B: Yeah, they're, they're reactive. They're reactive. They always react to the, to the fact that you have to pay taxes, but they don't do the proactiveness of, of your, of preparing financials on a monthly or a quarterly basis, for example.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: Correct. They're not doing bank reconciliations. They're not paying attention to things. And this is where Olga comes in and helps you. So if you're watching this show, please take this advice so Olga, how should growing businesses think about cash reserves, owner compensation, reinvestment and debt so that growth does not create constant financial pressure?
[00:15:46] Speaker B: Well, I'm going to give my story of how I did it because when you help business owners, you have to do it and set it by example.
So when I started the business, I gave every dollar a purpose and I paid myself intentionally.
When I did that, my mindset and my business changed because I was able to reinvest the money for expected returns, but also not emotionally.
And building those reserves made me, I was able to create more wealth for my employees because at the end of the day, I was able to offer them benefits fully paid like health insurance and 401k.
So those cash reserves gave me the power and the ability to keep growing my business instead of just focusing on, oh, this is what I made as revenue and this is what the cash left.
So I gave every dollar a purpose. Al Diva. That's how I did it, you know,
[00:17:07] Speaker A: and that's a great way to think about things because a lot of business owners, they're just focused on making the dollar. They're not focused on the purpose of that dollar and we're what it's going to lead to.
So I really like that perspective.
What role should proactive tax planning play in wealth building for an entrepreneur?
Rather than treating taxes as something to think about only at filing time, which a lot of our entrepreneurs are like, oh, it's tax season and they're not even ready.
What advice would you give on that?
[00:17:43] Speaker B: First of all, tax season and people who prepare their books only for tax season is reaction.
There's nothing to plan there. So don't be creative because one thing is tax evasion and another thing is tax planning.
So if you are going to be working with a very good tax professional, keep in mind that they are compliance based.
And because tax preparation, of course it looks backward.
But if you talk to that tax preparer and you tell that tax preparer I want to start my tax planning ahead of time because I want to look forward, then that tax preparer can put you in a plan that can help you build that tax planning for the future and you stop being creative when filing your tax returns. Okay? Because I've seen this a lot of times, the goal for your business shouldn't be just, I have to pay less taxes.
That shouldn't be the goal.
It's more like making smarter decisions with the money you are creating from your business. And that's like a biggest mindset instead of just thinking about being a Solopreneur. If you start thinking big is when you start thinking about planning.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: I, I agree. And you know, it's funny that you say that because I feel that a lot of our entrepreneurs, they're so focused on, on I don't want to pay taxes. But they don't realize that when you pay taxes. Taxes because you made money.
[00:19:33] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: It's a good thing.
And a lot of our tax preparers nowadays, I don't know if you find this in Florida, but I find it here.
They're just pencil pushers. They just plug in the numbers and get your, your taxes done for compliancy reasons. And like you said, they're not really strategizing or telling you, hey, based on your taxes or based on your profit and loss, you are missing these expenses. Did you have these so they can lower liability? And that's where having neat books take care of things for you makes a big difference.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: It does. And just to piggyback on what you said, sometimes people don't want to pay for that.
And if you want to really invest in your tax planning, you need to understand that those are the kind of strategies that you need to evaluate with a professional, not by the person you find you found scrolling on Instagram or TikTok that gave you the wrong advice. And then you're going to be chased by the IRS with a beautiful letter that is going to get to you and no one is going to be responsible, only you.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: What are you saying that TikTokers are giving bad advice?
Never.
No.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: There are some that they do that they do give good advice, but there are others that you are like, oh my God, what is this person talking about?
[00:21:06] Speaker A: But anyway, exactly like, show me that code. I want to see that.
So when margins are too thin, how do you help an owner decide whether the solution pricing, whether the solution is pricing, cost control, service mix, productivity, or something else?
[00:21:26] Speaker B: Well, don't guess.
It's my simple advice. Just don't guess.
Is pricing wrong or costs are too high or the service that is dragging everything down, or it's a productivity problem.
So I think that's handling a business.
It's so simple. Sometimes we just overcomplicate it.
So my first advice is don't guess.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: And you know something I feel is that a lot of people try to keep up with. I say keep up with the Joneses. Right. They're trying to keep up with their competitors instead of setting themselves apart from their competitors.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah, totally.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: You know, so what financial habit, if practiced consistently every month, would make the biggest difference for most small business owners.
[00:22:25] Speaker B: My advice for you to start doing something because sometimes you will receive a lot of information.
Just have one monthly meeting with your numbers.
Sit down and review your numbers. Put it in your calendar like financial review for XYZ Co.
And dedicate that part of your day to review your numbers and to understand what you're doing. If you do that, let me tell you something. Your business is going to start changing.
Not overnight, but it's going to start changing. You're going to start seeing the change in your business and ask yourself what has changed in my business, why that has changed in my business and what do I need to do differently so I can keep growing? And that will be a habit that if you incorporate in your daily life, in your monthly life as an entrepreneur, you will start understanding the business even better because you will go to the core. And regardless of whoever you hire as a bookkeeper, as an accountant, they will not like, they will not tell you what to do with your business because you will be in full control because you will understand what's going on there.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: I agree. And the goal is not simply to make more money. It is to build the system that lets owners keep more, plan better and use business success to create greater personal and financial stability.
Next, we'll talk about Olga's own entrepreneurial journey, the resilience, the mindset and leadership changes required to move from operating alone to building a multimillion dollar company. Stay tuned. We'll be right back. We'll be right back with more strategies to elevate your credit, eliminate debt and build lasting wealth. Stay tuned.
And we're back. I'm Aldeva Rupalgava and this is the FICO Diva show on NOW Media Television. Let's continue building.
Welcome back to the FICO Diva Show. We've been talking about financial systems behind a healthy business.
Now I want to talk about the person behind those systems. Because scaling a company also requires the founder to grow.
Olga's journey began with perseverance. Originally from Colombia, she navigated significant personal and professional challenges, built neat books from the ground up, and learned how to how financial discipline, education and resilience and strategic mentorship can change both the business and the life of the person leading it.
Olga, before we get started in the questions, can you let our audience know how to reach you? If they want to get more information about neat books, of course.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: Well, you can find us at www.neatbooksllc. do.
There you go. We have a super fun website.
You can also learn more about me and my story. If you go to the meet the team, you will see a little bit more and get to know me a little bit better.
But also you can see our services, our team members.
We have grown from one person to 24 already.
And also you can find me on LinkedIn, you can find me by Olga Hurtado, and we can connect there as well. You can send me DMs and we can talk.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: That's awesome. Well, now let's get into these wonderful questions. So what was one period in your entrepreneurial journey where you had to make a difficult financial or leadership decision without having complete certainty about the outcome?
[00:26:27] Speaker B: That's a good question, El Diva.
So I think my, my decision, like the most difficult decision I took, was choosing entrepreneurship over a traditional job, because that will be the easiest way.
Okay. After I was fired, I realized that I wanted to spend time with my girls. I have twin girls, so I wanted to spend time with them.
And, and I was thinking, what do I do? Should I go alone solo and build something or should I find a job? So the difficult decision for me was to be able to sacrifice, quote, unquote, the stability and follow the path of entrepreneurship, of course, with the support of my family, my husband. Because there were moments, Aldiva, that I had no idea how things were gonna be or if they're gonna work out for me or not.
So that's a difficult decision to make when you are in that uncertainty.
[00:27:42] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, it's, it's very difficult. I, I went through that myself. I had a construction company. Then I 2008 happened and then we had to, you know, start working for someone else and it's, it's hard to go. Yeah. So I, I applaud you for taking that step and not being afraid and, and moving forward. Because look at you today. A multi billion dollar company. Yeah. That's amazing.
As Neat books grew, what did you have to change about the way you managed your own time, money, your team, or any decision making?
[00:28:24] Speaker B: Well, I think my biggest change as an entrepreneur was realizing that I didn't have to be involved in everything.
It's kind of like let go control and building systems within our company that I was able to delegate and of course trust my team for them to be able to perform those systems. You know, like you, when you are a business owner, you think you do everything perfect.
No one else is going to do it like you do.
So I had to understand that and learn from that and let it go.
Just let it go and trust the team. If you are Hiring.
And you're in the process of hiring people, you need to understand that. That people are going to be part of your DNA as a business.
So make sure that you train them with that DNA,
[00:29:29] Speaker A: you know, and you're, you're absolutely right on that statement, because a lot of business owners feel that no one's going to have the same level of passion that they have for the business, so. Or they feel that, what if I overtrain and then they leave me and they start their own thing? You know, like, there's always that level of fear. Of course, everyone goes through that, you know, and so entrepreneurs often tie their identity to the business.
How did you learn to separate personal confidence from the inevitable ups and downs of revenue, clients, and growth?
[00:30:09] Speaker B: Well, a difficult month. It's, it's not.
It doesn't erase everything you have built throughout the time you had the business or you have had the business.
So learning to look at problems as teaching situations for me, and instead of making those problems personal, I think it was like a success, part of the success.
Separating that and being able to just, I don't know, get over it.
When you have a difficult month or a difficult situation in your business and that leads you the whole day, it's. It's going to eat you inside. You just have to let go and trust what you're doing. There are going to be good days, there are going to be bad days. That's for sure.
[00:31:10] Speaker A: Oh, yes.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: But it doesn't define you. If you, if you only see the success 100%, what that means is that you are minimizing the failures that you needed to have or you had in your business life just for you to be able to be successful today.
So I think that separation of the problems and that one problem doesn't define your success.
That will be key for me.
That was key for me.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: I agree. And entrepreneurs need to remember that we're human too.
You know, we're all. We have the same emotions as everyone else, sometimes more. Because we have more stress.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: Yes, exactly.
That's what I say. Oh. That's what I always say to clients. Like, don't forget where you come from, where you're going, and where you're at right now. Yeah, that doesn't. The past didn't define you. The future hasn't defined you. So it's the present. You need to leave the present today and what you need to do to go there. That's. That's your goal.
[00:32:25] Speaker A: Exactly, exactly. And never let someone's. No. Stop you. Because the words, the letters no means opportunity.
So let that know. Become a new opportunity for you.
[00:32:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I heard that from my mentor. He told me that he taught me that. He told me, Olga. No, it's next opportunity.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: Exactly. So speaking of mentors, what role did mentorship, education, or outside expertise play in helping you move beyond the limits of what you could build alone?
[00:33:01] Speaker B: You know, it's funny you asked me that, because when I started the business, I was 100% by myself, and I thought I was going to be able to do everything by myself.
And then when I realized that, yes, the education gave me tools, like technical and analytical tools.
But when I hired my first mentor and I was immersed in a tribe of accounting and colleagues and peers, that they embraced me so much, and I learned so much from them, that's when my eyes got open.
If you ask me today what the role of mentorship is, for me, it's crucial. It's been crucial for the. For the past four years when I decided I needed someone who could make me accountable of what I wanted to do with my business. And sometimes people think mentors are like a waste of money, and they're actually like a great investment for you and for your business because they're telling you things that you're not seeing objectively, and they put themselves in your shoes, and they give you some perspectives that you can follow.
So, to me, mentors have played a crucial role. And I have. I have had different mentors. I had a mentor for pricing. I had a mentor for branding. I had. Because every single part of your business is like a. Like an isolated department that you need to attack in different ways, and that's how you grew as an entrepreneur.
[00:34:40] Speaker A: And that's such a wonderful point, because it's true. It takes a village to get to build an empire. And if we think that we have to do everything ourselves, we're hurting ourselves.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And you're gonna get burned out.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: You'll be at home crying in the pillow at night.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: I don't want to do that.
[00:35:02] Speaker A: So what would you say to the entrepreneur who's working harder every year, but still does not feel that the business is creating the financial freedom they expected?
[00:35:16] Speaker B: My first thing I would say to them is, stop measuring your success because of how busy you are.
Being busy is not the real answer of the success of your business.
And the second thing I would say to them is, start building systems.
When you create systems and you build systems within your company, that's you transferring that judgment and that knowledge to other people. So just imagine you being sick and this happened to me this year. I had to, I had to have two surgeries at the same time. One got complicated and the other one was to fix the first one.
And I was bed rest, five weeks. I couldn't do anything okay and I couldn't sit down.
It was awful. If I hadn't had those systems built for the firm, all my business would have stopped or I wouldn't have the chance to have had the chance to recover myself fully.
To me, building those systems few years ago, and let me tell you something, I invested a lot of hours doing that.
It got paid off this year after being five weeks in bed rest.
So if you're listening to this, start building systems for every single process you have in your business. I know it sounds crazy, but just start with one who's going to be doing your invoicing.
Transfer that knowledge to one person. Because guess what? Invoicing is the most important process in your business. If you delegate that, if you transfer that knowledge, that's one thing less for you to worry about.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: I agree. And you know, business growth becomes more sustainable when the founder grows alongside the company. Financial skills matter, but so do resilience, leadership, and the willingness to seek help and the discipline to make decisions based on facts instead of fear. After the break, we'll close with the bigger question, how entrepreneurs can turn better financial information into smarter strategy, stronger personal wealth, and a business designed to create long term freedom. Stay tuned. We'll be right back. We'll be right back with more strategies to elevate your credit, eliminate debt and build lasting wealth.
Stay tuned.
And we're back. I'm Al Diva Rubelgava and this is the FICO Diva show on NOW Media Television. Let's continue building.
Welcome back to the FICO Diva Show. Stay connected to this show and every NOW Media TV favorite live or on demand, anytime you like. Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS and unlock non stop bilingual programming in English and Spanish on the move. Catch the podcast version at www.nowmedia tv. From business and news to lifestyle, culture and beyond, Now Media TV is streaming around the clock. Ready whenever you are.
So welcome back to the FICO Diva Show. I'm Al Diva Gratadal and we're closing today's conversation with Olga Hurtado of now of Neat Books. Of Neat Books. We talked about how financial clarity, cash flow, profitability, taxes, resilience and the founder journey. Now we're bringing it all together around the purpose of financial empowerment, using better information to make decisions that strengthen both Businesses and the owner's long term financial future.
Olga combines practical entrepreneurship with business analytics, tax expertise, continuing accounting education.
Her approach is centered on helping leaders move from financial confusion to measurable insight and from short term reaction to intentional strategy.
So Olga, how should entrepreneurs connect the financial goals of the business with their personal goals for saving, investing, retirement, family security or long term wealth or all the above?
[00:39:53] Speaker B: Well, the first thing they need to understand is that the business is just the vehicle.
If you see the business as the final destination, then your purpose, it's lost.
Every time you would like to connect your business goal with any financial goal, you need to know what you want for retirement. What do you want for your family? Do you want to travel or do you want to get to more investments? Or do you just want to have security for when you get older?
And then after you analyze that, you build those financial goals and the company will help you get there.
So the company is not the purpose of your life, the company is going to help you achieve that purpose that you build the business in the first place. For example,
[00:41:00] Speaker A: I agree, I agree with you so much. And which metrics tell you that a business is truly ready to hire, expand or invest in a new opportunity or take on any additional risk?
[00:41:15] Speaker B: Well, first of all, your healthy cash flow, as I mentioned in the previous segments, you need to focus on cash flow instead of being only focused on revenues. And second of all, make sure you have enough reserves for you to be able to hire or to expand or to invest in another venture. If you don't have enough reserves that then you will be sacrificing your business cash flow to pursue anything that you would like to do.
So those are for me, the two most important ones.
[00:41:53] Speaker A: Yeah, and stop living paycheck to paycheck. You're a business owner
[00:41:58] Speaker B: among that.
[00:42:00] Speaker A: How can business owners use data to make faster decisions without becoming overwhelmed by dashboards, reports and information they don't really understand or know how to interpret?
[00:42:14] Speaker B: This is a funny question because right now everything is so data, data, AI and people are getting overwhelmed. If you ask me, less is more.
And the data, first of all, the data that you're going to use, it has to be clean.
You cannot measure anything without clean data.
Without clean data. Yes.
If you are going to build a dashboard, build a dashboard that can help you guide yourself towards the goal of your business. It's not building a dashboard just for the purpose of building a dashboard. And that's something I'm seeing with clients nowadays using AI. Everyone knows how to use Claude and they Build beautiful dashboards. But hey, are you going to make any decision with that dashboard? So the data that you need to measure is the data that is going to help you achieve the goal. Cash flow, how much your revenue is and how much your employee is costing you or how much cost you have in your business.
Other than that, if you're going to measure something, make sure that that's the North Star. You need that data in order for you to achieve the main goal for your business.
[00:43:35] Speaker A: I agree. And you need to be aware and understand. Don't just be paying for things and going, I'll get to it later.
All done it.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: Focus on that first.
[00:43:48] Speaker A: So when you look at entrepreneurs who successfully build both a strong company and personal financial security, what behaviors or disciplines do they tend to have in common?
[00:44:01] Speaker B: I've seen two things.
The first one, they ask for help.
If you don't ask for help, you know where you're going and you think that you do everything yourself so good that you don't need help.
So ask for help. And the second one is they know their numbers and they don't know their numbers. Like a bookkeeper does they actually understand the North Star of their business?
If you know that, that's when you start being financially successful for your business.
[00:44:38] Speaker A: I agree.
And also be, in my opinion, be aware of bookkeepers who are just constantly doing general entries.
Yeah, because I see that a lot.
[00:44:50] Speaker B: Yeah. But that's a more technical part of that.
[00:44:54] Speaker A: If you could Give every entrepreneur one financial rule to follow for the next 12 months, what would it be?
[00:45:06] Speaker B: Well, know and understand where every dollar is going.
Follow the money.
That will be my one financial rule. Follow the money that you're seeing in your bank statements. Because, and I think this is something that most people are doing right now, they go out, they buy the coffee, they buy that, you know, beautiful and delicious breakfast.
And one coffee is like eight or nine dollars.
Then you multiply that. And not only that, the subscriptions, you get full of subscriptions. And when you add up all those subscriptions throughout the year, you end up paying like $3,000 in subscription you're barely using.
So know where every dollar is going and that will help you understand your financials better. And even it can help you save money that you can actually use next year for working capital if you want to expand, invest or hire someone.
[00:46:13] Speaker A: I agree. I agree with you so much. You know, I and for I am a coffeeaholic. That is my weakness.
So for viewers who want to learn more about your work, connect with you, explore neat books. Where should they go?
[00:46:30] Speaker B: They can go to our website www.neatbooksllc.com. they will learn so much about our business. It's a super fun website that we have there.
They also can learn more about me in the Meet the Team. We have a team of 24 people already and we have been growing so fast and you can learn more about our business and if you would like to connect with me, you can go to LinkedIn and look for me. Olga Hurtado we can connect and have great conversations in LinkedIn.
[00:47:05] Speaker A: Sounds great. Well, financial freedom is rarely the result of one perfect decision. It's built through clarity, consistent habits, informed choices, and the discipline to use business as a tool for creating lasting value than simply more work. Olga thank you so much for joining us on the FICO Diva show and for sharing your journey from entrepreneurship and resilience to financial strategy, profitability and data driven growth. For everyone watching, the message is simple. You cannot build financial independence around numbers you do not understand.
Know where your money's going, build systems that protect what you earn and make decisions and move both your business and your personal financial life forward. I'm Aldeva Grateral. Thank you for watching the FICO Diva show on NOW Media Television. See you next time.
