RDTFM Ep07 final: DTFM the podcast is on Big off business come right along Welcome back to another episode of the RDTFM podcast. It is deadline day, baby. 1015. We are all ready for some beer here. We've got a good episode for you. Chris has got our approach. we got that membership round. We are all still trying to figure out how the Eagles lost in London. Make it make sense, Chris. Dude. We what do we we're gonna let Chris marinate on that for a minute. Chad, what are you drinking over there? Let's crack open these beers. Shot the shots fired right out of the gate. I can't believe you just did that. Believable. Okay. so like like last time, these are these are ones I bought like two or three weeks ago and I've forgotten what they are. I can't find my keys most mornings, let alone remember what beers I bought three weeks ago. So this is something called Tasty Jams. It's an IPA again. six and a half percent. This is from Bricks City B R I X. Brie bricks. I don't know. My apologies if I'm screwing this up. from New Haven, Connecticut. How the hell did that get here? So don't know anything about it. Colorful can. Beautiful. which nobody can see if they're listening. But kind of kinda psychedelic almost looking can, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it might have some we might get really weird here. I don't know. But looks cool. So anyway. Chris, how about you? I have got actually one of my one of my favorites. So this is not new to me, but it is bound by time. It is Edmonds Ed Edmonds Oast Brewing in Charleston, South Carolina. It is an IPA. No shock there. We really need to wrench out, to be honest. This is getting ridiculous. it is seven percent and it's I can tell you that the the rating is gonna be pretty good for me. Dalton. You're up. So I did my homework. I've got a an American wheat beer from Hamilton Family Brewery at a Rancho Cucamonga. That's real close to me. it's called their cactus jack. It's a pineapple orange wheat, six and a half percent. this is one I've had as well. and I know it's pretty tasty. So we'll see what the rating comes in at. But So at least one understood the assignment. Yeah, we got we got one one non IPA. I'm in my defense, that's my second non IPA so far. So I don't know about you guys. But Yeah. We don't know what we're doing. I thought I thought our rules were we're trying new beers, but apparently I didn't I didn't read the bylaws. New to the show. New to the show. New to the show. Okay. That's fair. Gotcha. I'm gonna have a heck of a time next week because I've got I've got to find a I've gotta fly into Nashville, find a beer, hop on our podcast, and then I'm gonna be a couple of I know a I know a couple Nashville ones you should try. They're IPAs. But they're like local Nashville, so probably IPAs. Maybe you go find like find like a Nashville like lager or something. Something like that. Yeah. I think Something bourbon infused or something. Aged in a bourbon barrel oak something. Yeah. Anyways. all right, Chris, you were in London. Went to that game. I don't know if you want to spend your time Unpacking that or the trip in general. No golf for you though, I don't think. No, no golf. a bird's lost. that was absolutely in shocking fashion, really. Yeah, it really It was like hands in the air. What what just happened? I do it. I don't I don't know. It was really it was really kind of bizarre. The highlight of the trip, I would say. so we flew in like Thursday, red eyes, we get there Friday morning. And then they do this whole chain the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, right? It's like this whole thing, there's a whole bunch of people. It's great. so we're staying in Westminster. You get off of the get off the tube, as it were, and you're like right there by West Coaster Abbey and you know all that stuff. It's all Eagles fans. Which is you know, it's as somebody who's been displaced from the Philadelphia area, South Carolina, it's very just heartwarming to see. And so we go to the changing of the guard, bunch of people, bunch of Eagles fans, and then wouldn't you know it, they started an Eagles champ. Actually several at the changing of the guard, which is just like peak Eagles fans. Yeah, that fits. Yep, that fits. Yeah. Right, right. Very on Brian. Yeah, and it was just like that for several days until they got well until what happened happened with the Jags on on Sunday, which was incredibly disappointing. Super fun game though. Can confirm that the beer was not super great at the stadium. The English beer, I don't get it, man. It's like, you know, 4.6, 4.8, somewhere in that neighborhood, no matter what you get, and it's just not, you know. But the Guinness is good, so there's that. a lapse no golf. So that's where I'm at. Dalton, I kind of want to hear about this membership non-asshole round. Or was it an asshole round? Yeah. May maybe. No, no. I I texted him afterwards and I was like, all right, so like, did I pass? Like what happened? And he said he's like, You pass the golf part. You gotta hold out for dinner still. And I was like, All right, that's fair. no, super nice guy. I showed up. I think our round was gonna start like around eleven. I showed up ten, twenty. in the locker room, did not change my shoes in the parking lot. So thank you guys for that. so showed up. Which is a dumb rule that I don't understand why it's a rule, but apparently Apparently it's a rule. Yeah. I saw a guy changing his freaking shirt in ours one time and I was like, I that's we we do it at my club. We actually got people who tailgate my club. Like that's how it should be. Yeah. The clubhouse is in the neighbor their clubhouse is in the neighborhood. We've got people who like literally will tailgate in the parking lot of the clubhouse, you know, after the channel. Instead of their living room? Yeah, I guess. Like, how does that work? I don't know, but whatever. Too funny. Yeah. So it showed up, good timing, met the guy right away. So that was cool. We checked in, met the golf pros a little bit more, got situated, walked me up to the locker room, got to use just a locker, put my stuff in there, shoes in there. went down, hit some balls. and then we went out. and it was like pretty open. It was there were like consistent busyness, but not too bad. They had just overseated. So it's cart path only, which was fine. It wasn't too bad still. the rough was up. So I feel like we spent half of our time just like looking for balls. And if you weren't like literally on top of them, you couldn't see it. so that was like it put a little bit of a damper on the day, right? Just because you're like, where the heck is this? And I lost the very first T shot. I hit what I thought was a perfect shot, like barely into the rough, couldn't find it. So, like, literally for a shot, gone. I was like, okay, well. but grass are we talking about here? Is this like a Bermuda situation or is this something else? These are good questions. I I wish I was a more of an expert in grass. What do they typically put in in Southern California for winter grass? It was not winter would be like dry overseas. It's very thin and like stringy. It's not the stuff that's like really dense and like meshy. would be the yeah, I think you're talking about Bermuda. It's probably rye. Is it like a brighter kind of green? Yes, very green. None of the like undertone yellowy stuff. none of that. Yeah, so probably rye. And it was probably six to eight inches, which isn't crazy, but like if you're looking for a ball, like it's six to eight inches, like US open like the seventies. It was it like it was really high. so Anyways, but they're growing it all out. They were doing some experimental stuff where they're like it's like a different blend. And so those roughs, you couldn't even hit out of it. It free relief. So if you went into the rough, you got to put it in the fairway. But those ones were like much thinner and like, okay, this feels like I can see my ball. It's still a harder challenge to hit out of, but it's not like I can't find my ball. So hopefully they that maybe that's next year. but we finished that round in three hours and seventeen minutes, even though it was cart path only, even though we spent like half of our time looking for balls. So I'm like, And this guy was like taking work calls throughout. So he would be like on the T waiting for two minutes, finishing up a phone call. So I'm like, Yeah, I could for sure play here under three hours, like very easily. And I'm like, that's awesome. Right. Like that's and it didn't feel like rush. We weren't taking like I was setting up doing everything. and I didn't play that well. It's not like I didn't hit that many shots, which is why it went so fast. That was not the case. so yeah, that was super cool. everybody we interacted with was really welcoming, friendly. yeah. Just an easy time. Course was immaculate. The greens were just like so nice. fairways, tea boxes, everything was good. It it felt like the right challenge because that's the first time I've played the course. Felt like the right challenge of if you if you missed a fairway and you're in the rough, sometimes it's like, okay, not really a consequence. And then other times it's like, there's like five trees in my way. Like I I have no choice other than like pitching sideways. So like that's kind of nice, right? It's not just one of these wide open courses where you can just smash a ball and it doesn't matter. and I ever once. because often it's like the landing zone for my driver was so narrow or there was some sort of trouble or something like that. so yeah, it was like a thinking course where different angles and small areas you're gonna land into and all that kind of stuff, which I kinda like. I feel like I'll get stimulated pretty well throughout. it's not like a course I'll get bored on. So Yeah, Sounds like it's a place that sounds like a place that puts the course first, which is a big deal when you're looking for one and not one that dumps all their money into, you know, clubhouse and restaurant and whatever and everything but so Yeah. Yeah, it seems like they took pride in it in the course, which was really nice. I get i it holds up to anything we've put. Maybe maybe not shadow. but in terms of like in terms of green quality And fairways, all that all of that stuff. Like it it it was really good. r immaculate. one of the highlights for me was I I sent you guys that picture of John Daly having a walker there. I was like, that's pretty funny. That's pretty cool. So yeah, I guess he's good buddies with with a longtime member there. and so he comes out for a bunch of the tournaments and stuff, which is pretty cool. the guy I was playing with said, John Daly made his kids cry because he like joking with them or something. And I was like, that well, honestly, no, that tracks. Yeah, okay. That that that probab I believe that. That probably happened. so but yeah, all all good signs. I think dinner's the next thing on the docket with me and my wife and then some member, and then we'll get get an official vote, I think. So Yeah, all good. Chad, how about what have you been up to last week or so? Not a lot of actual playing of golf, a lot of golf related stuff, but Only I got I I I think I just did like nine holes or something last last weekend. it's like like I've mentioned, it's getting dark earlier here and and plus we've been going into this tax deadline. So work's been work's been a little hectic, so those don't marry in marry up very well for for getting a lot of golf in, but so only only played nine holes, but we did receive So I told you we were upgrading our our poor man's simulator that I've got out in the garage and I'm putting up a bigger, more of like an enclosure net so we can hit wedges and things like that without them not slamming into the roof of my metal building, scaring the living hell out of me. But so so we got ordered four sided kind of deal. yeah yeah. Yes. So like you've got like a top, two sides and then like the right the front back is that's cool. So my but my my son, the day after we ordered it, came to me and he said he said something about swing speed of seventy. And I and in my head I thought he was asking me if I had a swing speed of seventy or below. And I took great offense to this question. Like, what the what the hell did you just say to me? A swing speed of seventy? Well, he he says, Well, I I think we might have screwed up on the order of the net and that I took no offense to. I was like, Yeah, that probably that sounds right. Show me what you got here. So I went and looked at it and sure enough, there's like there's three options you pick from. One of is like the short story long, I think what I ended up buying was more like side netting into this framed out because it's all custom stuff that you do. So it's I think it's more intended to be side netting. so then the next day I got to get back online and order another chunk just to put in the back. So I've you know I paid some stupid tax on this thing. So I I ended up this is gonna cost me, you know, probably a hundred and fifty bucks more than it than it should have. But Whatever. It's on its way. So part part one of it's here and sitting out in the out in the garage. So haven't haven't had a chance to set it up yet. But but it's it's it's coming together a little bit. And then the other the other part of what we have is I so I use a a Rhapsoto, the MLM two pro for my launch monitor out there. It's kinda like a little portable type. It's not this isn't like the mounted type. This is one that works, you know, for For a home simulator, or you can take it to the range with you, stuff like that. So great little unit. I love it. and have had it for just almost exactly a year. Rap Soto was discontinuing their lifetime subscription to this thing. So and they're and the last day that they were gonna p let you pick was October fourteenth. Like we're like buried at work and and then I've got to like shut my door and carve out, you know, an hour in my life to try to figure out what do I want to do with my launch monitor situation. So this is the important stuff though. Yeah, right. First things first, right. So I ended up I ended up not not going that route. So I'm just gonna do the it takes like three years to pay for itself. I'm still gonna have something in three years, but I I'm sort of anything technology wise, that's a pretty long runway. Yeah. At this point, 'cause who knows what we're gonna have in four the fourth year by the time this starts to pay for itself. So did did not do that. Went with the went with the one year, but they did so they've upgraded their app though with this and a lot of the courses look pretty pretty legit that come with their pre pre program deals. So I'll be able to get a little more realistic feel for things on the on there. So so not not a ton of actual real golf, but my pretend golf stuff is is coming is coming together, which is, you know, just in time for winter. So yeah. Nice. That's all. Awesome. Cool. Yeah, let's let's transition over to the approach now. Chris, you've got it for us. What's the what's the deal? So this comes up a lot. It's been coming up a lot lately for me. But how do you determine how much cash a business should keep inside of the business? What's the cash reserve? Cash reserve. It's a good question. I know you know, this is a good one too, because I'm I'm coming at this from like the business operation lens, maybe. And Chad, I think you're probably gonna have like more of like a going concern. Like, you know, like when when when are my issues, like when am I like, yo, you guys are going out of business? banks don't don't give them more loans. So yeah, I'm I'm interested to hear kind of some you maybe have some different answers here. so I think in general, I like to say at least three months operating. now that can get really tricky when you have like seasonal type businesses. if you have like you're gonna get a ton like our my profession, my business, right? We get a ton of money March, April. And then it's like a mountain that we like chisel down, you know, that we like slide down throughout the rest of the year. So I think three months operating at your leanest time, it would be like my minimum. If you're dipping below that, I'd be like, ooh. if you're getting above six months operating and you're depending on the business again, if you've got big equipment you're trying to purchase and not finance or something like that, that can obviously change. I'm thinking more like maybe personal service type stuff, which is a lot of what the businesses I do. If you're getting above six months, I'm like, man, take some distributions. Like pay and pay pay yourself some more money. Like, take this money out of here. You don't need to leave it there. that's usually the guide I I stick behind. We've even in my business where I know, like, we get we do sign up, retainers, reserve your spot in December. So that's like big influx of cash. and then January, February, not a ton, and then March, April, it's an absolute mountain of ton of of cash. And then it comes down from that. So by November, we're like pretty lean. You know, it's like, yeah, we've got like about a month's worth of operating because we kind of bonus out at the end of that. but I know in December it's gonna like come all the way back up. So the more predictable the business and the cash flow model, I think the lower that three months can go. but if there's like we're consistently month over month, nothing's really changing, you're getting below three months. I'm getting a little a little nervous. Yeah. Yeah, and we're and we're that was kind of the first thing I was gonna t kind of talk about was our like our business and what we do. You know, we're the same situation. We don't we don't bill as much in advance like you do. We we kinda start out with the co and the cofers sort of not empty but low. We'll get, you know, spiked up by April, May and then we just kinda ride that wave. down, you know, through the rest of the year. So we have we have an amount that the the the trouble with that situation, well trouble, but the decision with that situation is what do you you know, where do we bring this down to in theory, if you have profits left over at year in, you know, how much how much can we take out and and not need to dip into the line of credit, you know, in February just to make payroll. So We've we've kind of decided, you know, after a couple of years of knowing what our, you know, cadence of cash needs are early in the season when we're when we're not getting as much in what we're gonna need. And then we've so we set kind of a number, whether that's, you know, a hundred thousand, fifty thousand, whatever it is, and we'll we'll kinda just draw down to that amount and then that stays there to kind of get us through until the roller coaster goes back up again. So You know, I think the biggest question on this stuff is really predicated on it's almost like a strategic planning question that you need to really think through as a as a as a leadership or management team or board, whatever you got. But it if you're more subscription based, you know, those kind of recurring revenues, then then that number is significantly lower, probably. Yeah. Yeah. the harder ones and what I do a lot of is contractors and that's a man, that's a really hard question to answer on contractors. It's it's because you can have, you know, some of our our gen our G Cl general contractor clients will have, you know, you can send out a couple of six figure checks, you know, yeah. Every every week and and then and then those come in too. So it's it's really unpredictable. Those kind of businesses you have to have a pretty robust cash flow forecast and And really know when with the timing and when stuff's coming in and out. you know, the stuff that's more subscription based or or you know, predictable flat revenue expense throughout the year, then I think it's a little more just a strategic decis decision. We you know, I get this question a ton from nonprofit clients, you know, especially that we audit things, things like that. And What I generally tell them is number one, this it's not a one size fit. I don't think there's a right number that fits right for everybody, but two months is kind of a good starting point. higher would be better. There's no nonprofit that I that I have ever worked with. It's like, man, we just got all this cash. We don't really how much how much can we draw this down to? So it's it's It's something that they you try to get to and then and then sort of manage around having, you know, emergency brick glass in case of emergency stuff like a like a line of credit and things like that can really make this a lot lower stakes of a decision. because if you do, you know, inevitably stuff happens. so even if you have a a well thought out strategic plan, Murphy's Law can come in. know at any at any point and and turn that thing upside down. So having some of some of those things plays a key role in it too. And that's that's a big part of, you know, in in the audit you mentioned, you know, this this goes into going concern. This is this is cash running out of cash is probably the main it sounds obvious, but that's the main reason. It's not because it's not because people have profit and loss statements that show you know, losses for for several years. There's been a lot of companies that are showing profits but then can't make payroll. Right. So just quick quick sidebar, going concern for for those non CPA listeners, that means there is a concern you cannot keep going. Like that that's kind of the layman's terms of like you're you may run out of business. Going out of business. Yeah. And if and if we say you're going out of business, it's pretty much a self fulfilling prophecy. Pro probably going out of middle. He's going to give you any money at that point. So so yeah, I mean it's it's it's a strategic decision. It's it's nothing obviously nothing that has the a right and consistent answer across the board. but it's but it's something you really I think you have to lay this out individually as a company and and get together with your you know, as a as a group and figure out what our what our cash flow needs look like throughout the year. Sort of you know, look s look at some of your historical results. and if you don't have those, if you're a new business, kinda lay out what you your best guess of what it what you think it's gonna look like. And if if there's gonna be tight spots, then having some of those relief valves that you can turn to when needed. the one the one thing you don't want to do though is pull it, pull down your cash so far that you have to get into your line of credit. Like that's the thing that we try to avoid going, you know, pulling into our line of credit because we just took a distribution, you know, three weeks ago that now we don't have the cash to make payroll and we gotta borrow for it. So you gotta be smart about it. But but those things can help help you get through some some leaner times. I've I've got auditors to real quick, Chris, to to that To your last comment, Chad, about like drawing down and then having to get into this. I I had just had a conversation with a client within the last month that things were going real good and she took too much money out of the business and spent it. and then some big unexpected expense at the business came and she didn't have the cash. So she had to get debt. And then that snowballed. And this didn't happen within the last month, but I just found out about it within the last month. And now I'm looking, she's like, I am losing money left and right. And I'm looking at them like you are literally like breaking even apart from your interest number. Like the amount of interest you're having to pay is driving your profitability so far negative. Like you got to make all of these cuts, and that's like firing people and raising prices and right, like all these like horrible things you don't want to do. because the interest, like the debt service has gotten so expensive. So yeah, so that is a great point, Jad, that that we see in small businesses. If you draw things down and spend that money, you don't have that reserve. Murphy's Law, like you said, can absolutely put you in a horrible place. All right, Chris, what what were you gonna add? Yeah, I'm just kinda curious from the auditors' perspective, like, how do you kind of distinguish between cash and access to cash? And the whole kind of going concern. Conversation. Yeah. You've like you've maybe you've got access to a huge line of credit. That's great. Like you're probably not going to go out of business, but there's no cash to the bank. Well, I mean, so I don't know I don't know if anybody wants me to get too inside baseball on on how it works, but but that's the going concern from the audit standpoint. The going concern is essentially are you going to be in business one year from now? Not one year from your financial statement date, but from the day you release your financial. So if you're if you're just now doing, you know, it's October fifteenth, if you're just now doing the previous December thirty first financial statement, you gotta demonstrate that you're still gonna be able to be around a year from now. Which makes sense because if you're you know, if your your lenders that's that's what this all boils down to from the audit standpoint. Is if you go out of business, I probably get sued whether I did anything wrong or not. so So really the only thing anybody cares about is whether you go out of you go bankrupt or not. But so from that standpoint, access to to cash, line of credit, you know, whether the owners have the capacity and intent to put more money in if if needed, those things all factor in. Like you just you just need to be able to demonstrate you can get, you know, at least a year out. and and survive. So if if you have to do that on the back of a line of credit, like that can that can answer the question for one year. Now year two, when you come back and, you know, you drew six hundred thousand on it last year and now it's up to a a million. You you're going the wrong way on everything. Eventually th this whole thing catches up with you eventually. But yeah from the audit and and going concern standpoint, it's access to cash and and having actual cash that you can stack up in the corner of your office. That's all it's it's sort of the same thing, from some for some in some regard. But yeah, it's a good question. And it's and it's just it's one is obviously more risky than the other. It's so I think this also ties back to the the approach that you brought maybe last week or the week before about client diversification. So if you've got super high client concentration, you need to have more cash in the business. If you've got lower than less, that's another factor in there too that's probably worth mentioning. Yeah. Have you guys I I've had to do this personally. As a business owner, I've had to do this. Have you ever had to put cash into either of your businesses where you took too much out and then you had to take like personal savings or funds and put back in? No, I haven't, but but I'm only I mean I've we I've became a an actual owner like eight years ago. So it's you know, we've we've kind of held the line on that. There's there's been years we've we've utilized the line of credit, you know, early on and things like that. And we're paying on the back I was the line of credit in our paying off like acquisition debt, things like that, you know, to to acquire the business. But where it's a little tougher to manage. But No, but I but I think I think that's part and parcel with being a business owner is right. If if some sometimes you gotta do stuff that sucks and that's one that sucks for sure. Right. You might have to. Like if you're not I I'll put it this way, if you're not prepared and willing to do that, I'm not sure that ownership is right for you. Right. Like I think in in any role and any job you need to be prepared and willing to do some of the worst stuff that comes with it because if you're not prepared and willing Right. things can go south very quickly. So that so yeah, you may be in a position sometime you gotta put in money to to make apparel. Yeah. You know, there's a th there's a million other business owners out there that that have done the same thing. So that doesn't that doesn't make it any easier, but it you gotta do what you gotta do sometimes. So it's I I I say it's like a marriage, right? In sickness and in health. Right. So like in the good times it's great, right? Like pulling money out is great. But in the bad times it's like you got to keep this thing up to get back to the good times. hundred percent. That's the big difference between being an employee and being an owner. It is. Right. When you're being when you're an owner, like yep, you've got to do some stuff that really sucks from time to time. Yeah. Yeah. And then when it's good, you you you enjoy it, right? Like you gotta you you really enjoy it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's the risk. The good the good better be at least fifty one percent of the time. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Some sometimes I'm I'm, you know, toe in the line of fifty one percent. But so far it's it it has been fifty one percent. But Chris, what's your what what's your take on this? I know so you and I have similar similar scope of services, I think that we do, but I think our clientele are are kind of different in nature. What do you what's your bullpen? so we tell clients between two and six months. Okay. We tell we tell them and then I'll kind of get to like how I quantify what that should be here in second. and then I always refer to it as the can you sleep at night index? So How much cash do you have? You should have enough cash in the business where you can literally sleep at night, right? So we can kind of guide you as far as what that number should be roughly. But can you sleep at night? I think that's a good barometer. So we say between two and six months of op ex, op ex being operating expenses, fixed expenses, right? So that's gonna be your payroll, it's gonna be your rent, it's gonna be, you know, software costs, things like that. So things that need to actually operate the business that are not gonna go away, regardless of whether you have revenue or not. And then Like we've got a little survey that we go through. It's I think it's about nine questions, but it's you know, is your revenue project based or is it all if it's project based, you probably need more cash in business. how well do you collect on AR? So do you have AR that tends to get really old? If you if it if it tends to get old, you're gonna need to have more cash in the business. How do you feel about the revenue growth? How's the pipeline look? If it's stronger, you need less cash. If it's weaker, you need more cash. How do you feel about client diversification? We already talked about that. Current staffing levels, or you need to hire. If you're going to need to hire at some point in the near future, that's going to drive up op ex, whatever your op ex number is right now, like it's irrelevant if you're going to have to make investment into the business. And that includes like in equipment, RD, that sort of stuff. And then think of like when he said, like personal liquidity. Like if you have personal cash that you can just kick in at a whim. You know, you don't need to keep as much cash in the business. If you don't, then you should probably keep it in the business to avoid having to make that hard decision. So we kind of rate all those things one to five and then, you know, do a little math and it just and it'll basically spits out a number. It says it's, you know, two point five or two point six. And then we take three months of average op ex, multiply that by the number of months, then that's your cash part, basically. So you've got so you've got like an actual quantifiable number that you go through with them and say, This is our target cash on hand. We do. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Very cool. I might have you do that for me. I do it for my business. I mean, we don't always hit it. Like, you know, our firm is a little bit different. everything's built up front. We're for the most part, we're monthly subscription. It's very, very predictable. You know, if I'm keeping three payrolls worth of cash in the business, then like that's more than sufficient. it's very easy to manage from a cash perspective. But, you know, we've got clients who are dealing with larger corporate clients and they're doing project based work. So if you're doing project based work, you know, cash is going to be lumpy. Or if you're working with larger corporates, those AP departments are no joke. They're going to do whatever it is that they want to do, which means they're going to pay you whenever they want to pay you. And you know, those businesses for the most part are super profitable, but they've got like no cash in the business and they're stressed out about it. It's like, yeah, yeah. That's the nature of your business. You've got to keep, you know, closer to six months worth of cash, even though you're super profitable and it looks great. But yeah. It's just one of those things you got to manage. Yeah, I think you you made a good point too about this this being opex stuff. Like I I think all of us all of us have done who've done this for at least a few years remember the COVID years where where this was kind of front and center with everything, where there was all you had was your your fixed costs really coming through to to take care of. So this you you don't I'm we don't typically factor in, you know, cost of goods sold types of things on this because if you're if your revenue is tanking, those are gonna tank with it. in theory. But the but the it's the other stuff that that we're that we kind of focus on and look at when we when we do this. So that's a really good distinction too. Like there's a number of businesses who factor in payroll into cost of goods sold or cost of sales or whatever you want to call it. And you know that's it's like direct labor. Like that's appropriate, right? But yeah the fact of the matter is like you're not gonna run around firing people if you know, revenue dries up for a short period of time or something like that. So they Yeah, you factor them into your to your margins to kind of d understand the project profitability and things like that. But those are really more fixed costs than not. Yeah. I agree. And I'm and I'm when I say cost of goods sold, I'm talking about buying the widgets that you sell. Yeah. The those type of costs. But but what you're what what you're talking about though, that's part of the strategic process. I think that's kind of the some of the stuff that you need to think about. as a as a business leader before it happens to be like, you know, if this if we ever get in this situation, we probably gotta cut it down to two warehouse guys instead of the four we've got. You know, make those decisions ahead of time so they're not emotional when you get into it. so you're not going too far one way or the other, be like, We gotta fire everybody, we don't have any money. Or can't I can't I can't let anybody go, you know, those those are hard decisions and I think it's best to make those when you're in clear mind and and conscious and not in chaos. So some of those kind of things, maybe some of those people maybe you do shave down your staff if you ever if that ever happens. But I don't know. It's it this so that it's part of a whole strategic decision and and conversation and thought process and not so it's not impulsive. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's a that's a great point. With the labor side, I mean, there's are are you an employer that says, Hey, we gotta cut twenty percent of payroll? Does that mean you fire ten people? Or does that mean everybody gets a twenty percent pay cut? You know, and like you're saying, Chad, like having that decision kind of made before things are hitting the fan, right? Like that you can like know, like, you know what, culturally, now we gotta get rid of 10 people because these these 50 people are so critical, I need to keep them at their levels. Or no, given our culture, we all are kind of collaborative and we're all in this together and we're all gonna take it that twenty percent cut, right? Like identifying that first. when things are good and you're not like up all night with no sleep and trying to make decisions. super valuable. Yeah. Yeah. I usually tell clients the the last thing you should cut should be payroll. Yes. Try to cut everything else before you cut payroll. Payrolls. Yeah. Super expensive and not just monetarily. Yep. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's that's emotionally that when I talk about the hardest thing to do as a business owner, like laying people off has got to if it's not at the top, it's I don't know what would be above it. So that's the worst. Yeah. Everything you can do to avoid that. In my theory. I mean, there's others out there that don't agree with this, obviously. So some of the some of the some of the folks I've worked for are like, yeah, no. If if if I'm a if I can't pay for my Porsche, we're just cutting some staff. So it's because we're good natured CPAs. We're the honest type. We make it something like that. All right. Let's let's get back to these beers. What do we Chad, what's that psychedelic one doing over there? Hopefully it wasn't too too edgy for you. No, it's it's good. This is the tasty jams bricks, brie I don't know, B R I X City from New Haven, Connecticut. I like this a lot. This I at first it was pretty it was a little tamer than I like. Like I really enjoy the like punch you in the face sort of IPAs. You know what I mean? A little abuse. This is not that. Yeah, a little being punched in the face. Abuse of IPAs. Yeah. Right, right. Right. this is not that, but It is it is solid and it's smooth and it's good and I I like it a lot. I think my rating has actually gone up the more I've the more I've had and not and not because it's getting me sideways, but it's I d I do enjoy it. It's it's it's a solid one. So I'm gonna go seven seven on this. I really like it. Nice. Nice. Good work. With Chris, what you got? So I have got What is this? bound by time. IPA. Edmonds O's Brewing. Charleston, South Carolina. Seven percent. this is an eight six. Wow. That's pretty high. That should be highest. I it is, actually. I told you I like this beer. it's so it's also a little bit sentimental because it's the IPA at the clubhouse. there you go. Yeah. So you know. I drink quite a bit of it, but it's an eight sex. Yeah. some yeah, something like that. But it's good. It's it's not quite punch you in the face. Not quite abusive. It's like one notch below that, you know? If it was a little bit more abusive, it's like an opening. It's like a open hand slap. You know? Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. If it was a punch in the face, it'd be like an eight eight, eight nine somewhere in that neighborhood. Right. Yeah. That's too funny. You're gonna get 50%. You're not gonna get thrown out. Yeah. Yep. yeah, the non IPA is pretty freaking good. When we when we had this conversation, I think it was last episode or a couple ago, like non IPAs. I was like, I got a pretty good non-IPA. this is Cactus Jack from Hamilton Brewery, family brewery, at a rancho cook among which just one town over for me. six, what was it? Six and a half percent an American wheat. man, I I'm gonna go eight three. which for a non IPA, really good. I it and the way to describe it, I mean, if if if you're thinking like a wheat beer, the most accessible one, probably like a blue moon, right? Like that's probably like the most popular wheat beer. Yeah. And they do they do pretty good with their orange accents, right? Like you can kind of pick up that orange undertone coming through it. The thing I don't like about Blue Moons is they're like it's pretty monotone in taste. You know, like you get a tiny pop of orange and then it's like not it's just kind of like dirty, like like beer pong water. Like it's just like not good, right? and then it's like super it's super filling, right? Like I have one or two of those and I'm like, my god, like this is yeah, I feel like I had like a four course meal. I'm so full already. And man, this thing has more depth of flavor. The the pineapple's really good, gives a really nice tart element that finishes with the sweeter orange. it is not filling at all. yeah, this this one's really good. I think on a hot day it would be extra good. it's it's great. So eight three for me. so mine's the lowest, but I I wanna point out that I I feel like I walked up to the first tee and you guys both brought ringers because you you You knew that you liked the ones. So mine mine finished last today, but I I But it was seven seven. That was the score? I f I feel like we should have got like ten strokes because we were we were at a disadvantage here. Seven seven's pretty good as far as our rate. That's a this was a good week. We did pretty well. This was this was a good week. Nothing will top the marshmallow week. That was that's all time folklore. I don't know if we'll have a worse beer. I hope we don't have a worse beer than that. That was that was tough to get through, but Well, I can I can promise you I'm never picking anything out of a cooler that says marshmallow flavor. Don't yeah, run run around since you did. Yeah, grab a water. Yeah, that's it's not worth it. Yeah. I can't imagine what would have to go wrong in order to have a beer worse than the marshmallow bunny beer that rated a three point two. That y that actually you you said that you overrated. Overrated. Yeah. It was disappointed. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know what would have to go wrong in order for that to happen again, but three two asterisk, probably one eight. On that thing by this point, but all we're saying is marshmallows and bunnies do not mix with beer. Just if you see that combo, steer clear. That that's it. No, that's all. Leave it there. Leave it there and get the Iron Maiden beer. That's what you should. There you go. Yeah, that's fine. That's acceptable. All right. bunch of knuckleheads. We'll that's another episode of RDT FM. Thanks for joining us. We'll catch you all next time.