GrowCFO Show
The GrowCFO Show is the podcast produced for finance leaders by finance leaders
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Understanding why some companies run short of the one resource they simply cannot operate without, cash in the bank, even when they are hitting revenue and profit targets has become an essential leadership skill. Cash flow problems rarely appear in the headline numbers, yet they can quietly derail growth plans, strain supplier relationships, and, in the worst cases, threaten the survival of an otherwise profitable business. For founders, CEOs, and finance leaders, success depends on looking beyond the profit and loss statement to understand the timing, predictability, and movement of cash. Organisations that master cash flow are better equipped to scale with confidence, navigate uncertainty, and seize opportunities while competitors struggle to meet their obligations.
In this episode of The GrowCFO Show, host Kevin Appleby is joined by Scotty Palmer, Fractional CFO and Founder of Palmer’s Strategic Advisors, to explore one of the most common challenges facing growing businesses: why profitable companies still run out of cash. Scotty explains how tight margins, hidden costs, and rapid growth without effective cash flow planning can quickly create a liquidity crisis, even when the profit and loss statement looks healthy. Drawing on his experience advising small and mid-sized businesses in the food and beverage sector, he shares practical examples of how cash constraints can emerge despite strong financial performance.
The conversation also explores the tools and disciplines that help businesses strengthen cash flow and improve decision-making. Scotty discusses the role of financial modelling, KPI tracking, and AI-powered forecasting in creating greater visibility over future cash needs. He explains how a better understanding of unit economics, more accurate cost allocation, and challenging assumptions about seemingly profitable product lines can uncover hidden value and improve financial resilience. Throughout the discussion, he demonstrates how a fractional CFO can act as a strategic partner, helping founders balance ambitious growth with the financial discipline needed to build a sustainable business.
Key topics covered:
- How a fractional CFO helps profitable businesses avoid cash crunches by improving visibility into true costs and cash conversion
- Why food and beverage businesses are especially vulnerable to cash-flow problems due to thin margins and complex cost structures
- A client case where disciplined financial modeling and KPI tracking helped increase business performance 10x
- Practical strategies to balance passion for product with commercial viability, including pricing, cost allocation, and product mix decisions
- How Scotty uses AI tools and spreadsheets to build agile financial models and improve decision-making speed for clients
- Scotty’s longer-term vision of building a specialist team of food and beverage advisors to support more founders at scale
Links
Timestamps:
- 0:00:01 – Scotty’s background and journey from corporate accounting at Honey Baked Hams to becoming a fractional CFO for food and beverage businesses
- 0:02:57 – The personal and financial challenges of leaving a stable corporate role to build a fractional CFO practice, and the central importance of predictable cash flow
- 0:07:14 – Why the food and beverage sector is high-risk for cash shortages despite apparent profitability, and how thin margins amplify operational missteps
- 0:08:39 – Case study: managing a large retailer opportunity, understanding true costs, and avoiding overextending cash to chase volume
- 0:22:37 – Using cost analysis, pricing strategy, and product-level profitability to turn around a struggling taproom restaurant
- 0:29:21 – Leveraging AI (Claude, Gemini, Google Sheets) to power financial modeling and scenario analysis without heavy financial systems
- 0:40:05 – Advice for corporate finance professionals considering a move into fractional CFO work, including risk, reward, and impact
Find out more about GrowCFO
If you enjoyed this podcast, you can subscribe to the GrowCFO Show with your favorite podcast app. The GrowCFO show is listed in the Apple podcast directory, Spotify and many others. Why not subscribe there today? That way, you never miss an episode.
GrowCFO is a great place to extend your professional network. Join GrowCFO as a free member today and participate in our regular networking events and webinars. Premium members can also access our extensive training center and CFO Digital Toolkit. You can enroll in our flagship Future CFO or Finance Leader programs here.
You can find out more and join today at growcfo.net
The Next 100 Days
The Next 100 Days Podcast is a leading UK business show. Through this podcast, Kevin and Graham reveal strategies you can use to improve your business and take it to the next level. In addition to featuring their own advice, Kevin and Graham host amazing guests from across the business world. Often the guests are successful, but lesser-known business owners and entrepreneurs, enabling the show to bring fresh content and stand out from many of the US based business shows.
Graham and Kevin believe that business change comes about when a business owner focusses on just one thing that will make a real difference to his business. That might be product development, a new product launch or a marketing campaign. Focussing for less than 100 days, or focussing on too many things generally won’t deliver the results you need, Equally, its difficult to maintain effective focus for much longer than 100 days without re-assessing priorities.
The Next 100 Days Podcast is your source to learn how to move your business forward, with practical advice and guidance that you can put into action and make a difference in your own organisation within the next 100 days.
Dr Amanda Gummer, founder of FUNdamentally Children, is a renowned child development expert, and often features in media discussing the role of play in learning. Through FUNdamentally Children and the Good Play Guide, she offers valuable insights on educational toys and parenting, helping families make informed choices for their children’s development and well-being.
This podcast explores play’s role in child development and brand strategy.
Summary of the Podcast
Key Takeaways
- Mission: FUNdamentally Children translates academic research into practical advice for kids’ brands (toys, media, education) to improve products and policy.
- Method: Research uses naturalistic observation in familiar settings to capture meaningful data, avoiding the “strange kids in strange places” bias of traditional lab studies.
- Impact: Services de-risk product launches (e.g., preventing a faulty toy release) and sharpen marketing (e.g., identifying a “pizza delivery boy” character as the licensing driver).
- Challenge: The biggest barrier is the perception of play as frivolous, which hinders its recognition as a powerful tool for developing critical life skills.
The Problem: A Gap Between Research & Practice
- FUNdamentally Children bridges the gap between academic research and practical application for kids’ brands.
- Clients: Toy companies, digital game developers, TV content creators, playground designers, and policymakers.
- Core Principle: The Maya Angelou quote, “When you know better, do better.” The company provides the “better” knowledge.
The Solution: Naturalistic, Child-Centred Research
- Research avoids the “strange kids in strange places” bias of traditional lab studies.
- Method: Observe children in familiar settings with trusted people to capture authentic behavior.
- Quality Control: Rigorously vets other research papers (e.g., for the Children’s Media Association) to ensure data validity.
The Business Model: De-Risking & Sharpening Strategy
- Funding comes from corporate clients paying for research and workshops.
- De-Risking Product Launches:
- Identified a faulty Thomas the Tank Engine toy (pegs too small for holes) in playtesting, preventing a negative launch and PR.
- Provided evidence to defend a toy train from a “toy train makes kid bald” headline, proving it was a user accident, not a product fault.
- Sharpening Marketing & Licensing:
- Research for a kids’ TV show about motorbikes found the “pizza delivery boy” character was the most popular.
- Insight: Kids were focused on the pizza, not the bike’s design or the show’s friendship theme.
- Action: This insight redirected the licensing strategy to focus on the pizza theme.
The Philosophy: Play as a Tool for Development
- Play is a powerful tool for developing critical skills (critical thinking, self-reliance, social skills) that traditional education often misses.
- DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion):
- Focuses on practical accessibility (e.g., wheelchair ramps in playgrounds) to ensure all children can participate.
- Distinguishes this from political debates like transgender athletes in sports, which are separate biological issues.
- Play Commission:
- Amanda was a commissioner on this year-long project, which produced the “Raising the Nation” report.
- Goal: Provide evidence to government on play’s impact across education, health, and youth justice.
The Next 100 Days Podcast Co-Hosts
Graham Arrowsmith
Graham founded Finely Fettled in 2014 to provide data from The UK High Net Worth Database to marketers targeting affluent and high-net-worth customers. He’s the founder of MicroYES, a Partner for MeclabsAI, creating lead generation AI Agents & Workflows and introducing the MeclabsAI Platform. Graham also provides an Answer Engine Optimisation solution to get your website in shape to be found by LLMs.
Kevin Appleby
Kevin specialises in finance transformation and implementing business change. He’s the COO of GrowCFO, which provides both community and CPD-accredited training designed to grow the next generation of finance leaders. You can find Kevin on LinkedIn and at kevinappleby.com