Insights hub

Insights

Practical financial strategy for ambitious business leaders - written by CFOs.

Get weekly insights and podcast episodes detailing real business challenges, and exactly how we solved them.

Follow on LinkedIn

Filter by topic

Cash Flow

8 Cash Flow Moves Every Business Should Make

Jul 24, 20268 min readRead article

Featured

Cash Flow8 min read

8 Cash Flow Moves Every Business Should Make

Cash flow isn't something you forecast once and revisit at month-end. It needs to be worked on every week, refreshed against what actually happened and constantly adjusted.

Jul 24, 2026Read article

Profit & Margin7 min read

How to Find Hidden Margin in Your Existing Business

Before you raise prices or spend more money finding new customers, look inside the business you already have. There may be profit sitting there that you're simply not collecting.

Aug 10, 2026Read article

Planning & Forecasting6 min read

Your Budget Shouldn't Drive Your Business Plan

Most businesses build the budget and then work backwards to an operating plan. The businesses that plan well do it the other way around.

Aug 15, 2026Read article

Profit & Margin7 min read

How to Find Hidden Margin in Your Existing Business

Before you raise prices or spend more money finding new customers, look inside the business you already have. There may be profit sitting there that you're simply not collecting.

Mike Barnes

Aug 10, 2026

Read article

All insights

7 articles

Cash Flow8 min read · Ireland

8 Cash Flow Moves Every Business Should Make

Cash flow isn't something you forecast once and revisit at month-end. It needs to be worked on every week, refreshed against what actually happened and constantly adjusted.

Mike Barnes

Jul 24, 2026

Read article

Cash Flow8 min read

8 Cash Flow Moves Every Business Should Make

Cash flow isn't something you forecast once and revisit at month-end. It needs to be worked on every week, refreshed against what actually happened and constantly adjusted for what comes next. Most cash flow problems could be avoided. By the time a founder or CEO is asking, "Why don't we have more cash?", the decisions that caused the problem were usually made three to six months earlier - a hiring plan, a stock order, a payment-terms concession to a large customer or an investment made when the outlook looked very different.

Read full article →

Profit & Margin7 min read · Ireland

How to Find Hidden Margin in Your Existing Business

Before you raise prices or spend more money finding new customers, look inside the business you already have. There may be profit sitting there that you're simply not collecting.

Mike Barnes

Aug 10, 2026

Read article

Profit & Margin7 min read

How to Find Hidden Margin in Your Existing Business

Before you raise prices or spend more money finding new customers, look inside the business you already have. There may be profit sitting there that you're simply not collecting. When a CEO wants to improve profit, the conversation usually goes quickly to one of two places: sell more or increase prices.

Read full article →

Planning & Forecasting6 min read · Ireland

Your Budget Shouldn't Drive Your Business Plan

Most businesses build the budget and then work backwards to an operating plan. The businesses that plan well do it the other way around.

Mike Barnes

Aug 15, 2026

Read article

Planning & Forecasting6 min read

Your Budget Shouldn't Drive Your Business Plan

Most businesses build the budget and then work backwards to an operating plan. The businesses that plan well do it the other way around. Most annual budget processes are political theatre. Departments pad their asks knowing they'll be cut. Leadership cuts by an arbitrary percentage, expecting the padding. Everyone ends up with a number nobody believes in by February.

Read full article →

Exit & Succession7 min read · Ireland

If You Want to Sell Your Business One Day, Start Building Its Value Now

The best time to prepare a business for sale isn't when a buyer appears. The decisions that determine what your business is worth are often made years earlier.

Mike Barnes

Aug 22, 2026

Read article

Exit & Succession7 min read

If You Want to Sell Your Business One Day, Start Building Its Value Now

The best time to prepare a business for sale isn't when a buyer appears. The decisions that determine what your business is worth are often made years earlier. Business owners naturally tend to think about value through revenue and profit. "We're making €1m. Businesses like ours sell for six times earnings. Therefore, we're worth €6m."

Read full article →

Most SMEs don't have a cash flow problem - they have a visibility problem. Here's how to fix it in 30 days.

28 Jul214

The 3-year plan that changed everything for a €4m manufacturer struggling with margin compression.

19 Jul187

Why your accountant can't save your business, and what a fractional CFO does differently.

11 Jul302