Scale Smarter, Not Harder: Ahuva Gruen Reveals The CFO Secrets To Maximize Value Before Exit (#437)

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“Believe in your dreams and go for it!” - Ahuva Gruen
Exclusive Insights from This Week's Episodes
In this powerhouse episode, fractional CFO Ahuva Gruen joins the Deep Wealth Podcast to pull back the curtain on what’s really happening in your books—and how to fix it before it’s too late. Ahuva brings over two decades of CFO experience, exposing the silent killers of business valuation and how smart entrepreneurs can turn things around fast.
03:15 Why most entrepreneurs are flying blind with their numbers
06:45 What a fractional CFO actually does—and why it’s a game-changer
17:10 Why mixing personal and business expenses will destroy your valuation
25:15 What investors and buyers actually want to see in your financials
30:45 Why clarity—not more revenue—is the ultimate growth driver
34:10 How expenses silently destroy your business if left unchecked
36:00 Ahuva’s life lesson: Believe in your dreams and finish what you start
Click here for full show notes, transcript, and resources:
https://podcast.deepwealth.com/437
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437 Ahuva Gruen
Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Ahuva Gruen is a seasoned fractional CFO dedicated to transforming businesses and unlocking their full financial potential. With over 20 years of experience, she specializes in providing clarity and insights to entrepreneurs struggling with their finances. As a former CFO of a large corporation, she has a proven track record of significantly increasing revenue, securing financing, and expanding services.
Now as a founder of her own business uh, have uh, leverages her CPA and CFO background to guide companies towards growth and profitability With a focus on strategic analysis she collaborates with clients to make informed decisions, optimize pricing, and eliminate financial obstacles. By joining clients in the C-Suite as a visionary advisor, Ahuva empowers businesses to soar to new heights and achieve their long-term goals.
And before we hop into the podcast, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. We have William, a graduate of Deep Both Mastery, and he says, I didn't have [00:01:00] the time for Deep Both Mastery, but I made the time and I'm glad I did.
What I learned goes far beyond any other executive program or coach I've ever experienced. Or how about Bruce? Bruce says, before Deep Wealth Mastery, the challenge I had with most business programs, coaches, or blogs was that they were one dimensional. Through Deep Wealth Mastery, I'm part of a richer community of other successful business owners.
The idea shared forever changed the trajectory of the business and best of all, the experience was fun. And we'll round things out with Stacey.
Stacey said, I wish I had access to the Deep Wealth Mastery before my liquidity event, as it would have been extremely helpful. Deep Wealth Mastery exceeded my expectations in terms of content and quality.
And you know what, my Deep Wealth Nation, why they're saying this is because Deep Wealth Mastery, it's the only system based on a nine figure deal. That was my deal. And as you know, I said no to a seven figure offer, and I created a system that we now call Deep Wealth Mastery that helped myself and my business partners, welcome from a different buyer, a different offer, a [00:02:00] nine figure exit.
So if you're interested in growing your profits, preparing for a future liquidity event, if that's two years away or 20 years away, and you want to optimize your post exit life, Deep Wealth Mastery is for you. Please email success at deepwealth. com. Again, that's success, S U C C E S S, at deepwealth. com. We'll send you all the information about Deep Wealth Mastery, otherwise known as Scale for Ultimate Sale. That's where you want to be. You want to be with other successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and founders just like you who are looking to create market disruptions.
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Deep Wealth Nation welcome to another episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast. Well, you know me, I love my rhetorical questions. Let me ask you this when it comes to your financial numbers, your KPIs, where you're at versus where you should be. Do you have a pulse on that? Do you know what that's looking like? Or are you just [00:03:00] flying by the seat of your pants?
And I know going back to my entrepreneurial days, I was more the latter than the former. Well, not today. We have a very special guest in the house of deep wealth. I have a welcome to the deep podcast, an absolute pleasure to have you with us. And I'm curious, there's always a story behind the story. So what's your story?
What got you from where you were to where you are today?
Ahuva Gruen: First of all, thank you, Jeffrey, for having me on the show. I'm so excited. So where I was is from when I was five I had a business hat. I convinced my kindergarten teacher to buy Away from my mother's beauty salon by 10, I had a candy business in high school. I had different businesses.
I was always a business woman. So it was natural when I graduated high school to go to get accounting degree to become an accountant in a company to, to then get my CPA and be the CFO. And while I was a CFO a large company. Friends and family and neighbors would ask [00:04:00] my advice in the business world.
When I would speak to someone, it was natural to go in business, financial, they help, needed help. And I saw a trend that bothered me to no end. They were good at what they did, what services they provided, what they sold, but they weren't good at financials. And what I saw that it affects the bottom line, whatever goes and affects how much money they take home, how successful they are.
So in COVID, when I left my company and I thought what I want to do next, so I want to be a CFO another large company, a nursing home. What I want to do, I decided to follow my passion and become a fractional CFO to help businesses grow and succeed.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Love that entrepreneurial background that you've had all the way through. And I'm curious for someone in deep wealth nation. They've heard of a CFO. They may not have heard of a fractional CFO. So from your vantage point, [00:05:00] when you say fractional CFO, what does that mean? Okay.
Ahuva Gruen: Okay, CFO stands for Chief Financial Officer. CFO and fractional CFO is I'm as a consultant, they're not paying my full salary, my full benefits. If their company is not big enough to need a full time CFO, a fractional CFO is very effective, very financially effective, very, it really helps the company it's CFO is not only controlling the money, but it's also the strategic.
look at the four P's, the people, processes, profit, and products to really, besides, of course, the financial reports and making sure they have clean reports to really help them grow and succeed. If you ever want to sell your business, you have to really love it. You have to be doing well. You don't want to sell it for a loss.
You want to [00:06:00] sell it for a gain. You have to really love it and really do well and have successful. And if you want to be successful, you really have to have financial guidance.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah. There's so much there. What I love of what's going on, I mean, back in the day, it wasn't too far back for a company to bring on a chief financial officer, a CFO. That was a big deal. You have to write a big check to be able to do that. And just like so many other things, I mean, let's face it, who owns their own music collection today or their own movie collection today, we are subscribing to services and the same kind of thing subscriptions in this case, fractional services has happened for entrepreneurs and for business.
And so if I'm an entrepreneur and you can say, Jeffrey, you're on base or off base. Perhaps down the road, I could write the check for CFO, but if I can't do it right now, I can bring on someone like yourself, fractional. So I'm not taking the full brunt of what you would normally look to charge for your services.
I'm going to be doing for a set number of hours. And I know [00:07:00] every company is going to be different. And with the question I'm going to ask you say, well, Jeffrey, it depends on the company. Depends how organized or disorganized they are. But that said, generally speaking.
Ahuva Gruen: I charge it's by retainer, not by hour. So I could invest as much as I need into the business. I'm very hands on. I take a limited amount of clients. And I Batik style firm, and I really am very hands on, very invested into my client's success. So it's on a retainer basis on a monthly. I have over 20 years of experience, so they're not having to pay the few hundred thousand.
That uh, a CFO, in my experience, would charge plus benefits, plus, but it's, they're just paying a retainer, a monthly retainer, which is much more affordable and much more effective if they're not large enough to need a full time CFO, and they could get someone with much more experience than a new ish CPA, CFO, that they could [00:08:00] afford if they were going full time.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure. And so again, ballpark, how long or how many hours roughly per week or per month are you looking at for most companies?
Ahuva Gruen: it depends on the company, depends on the size and on the needs and the prices accordingly. when a lead comes in, I speak to them about the goals, about the structure, about what's going on, what's going wrong, and then I It's depending on their needs, what, the price,
Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay. Okay. Fair enough. And so depending where they're at is going to depend on how many hours depending how big they are.
I'm curious because you work with so many different businesses, is it the 80 20 rule? Is it the Pareto's law where 80 percent of the same issues that you're seeing are coming from the same 20 percent of things that we're shouldn't be doing or things that we're doing or things that we're not doing?
Are there some kind of patterns that
you're seeing? Where are we getting it
wrong?
Ahuva Gruen: a hundred percent, because I [00:09:00] see the similar issues, for example, in a construction related business, as in a attorney, professional service business, very different businesses, but I see similar issues. So people say, what industry do you work in? It's not so much the industry, it's the size.
Yeah, there are common threads, but there's similarities all over. Accountability, tracking the hours, profit margins, cash flow, processes, it's the same issues. And I take my experience from my CFO days in a large company. My personal experience, my experience with my clients, and I take it and I can help other companies.
And this is my passion. When I speak to someone, I right away think about what could be done in business. Like problem solving. Like logical problem solving. That's who I am.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Got it. And I'm going to put you on the spot. And [00:10:00] again, you know what you could say, Jeffrey, it's too general. It's too generic out there, but generally speaking, you're speaking to an entrepreneur and they're doing okay, but they could be doing better. Is there one thing that they're probably not doing that they should start doing?
Are they doing something that they should stop doing? What kind of advice would you give us?
Ahuva Gruen: Well, anyone who knows me knows I say profit margins. And it, profit margins, but once you go look, there's also of course, budgets, cash flow, reports, but if you look at the profit margin, if you have a tool to make sure you're having proper profit margin, and then you look at the jobs afterwards, and you see, did you make correct profit margins?
Did you have a healthy profit margin? Did you make more or did you make less? Yes, of course you have to have clean books. You have to know what your overhead, you have to have a budget to know what profit margin you need, but once you know what your profit margin, once you know what you're aiming, [00:11:00] if you look at the jobs or products that you sold and you see, did I make a profit margin?
Is it your accountability tracking the hours of a job in a attorney? The attorneys need to track the hour in construction business in service business? Is it how many hours it took?
And if it didn't took too long, what happened? Did the employees get proper guidance, communication, what the job entails, did you get proper deposits, communication about the job, or if it's construction, it's the weather, then it, if it's a bad client that they're not ready for your service, you come to the, to do the service and they're not ready.
What it is? Is it the product that's something messed up? Is it the employees? Is it the customers that's also the people? Is it the processes? Is it profit margin? What really going on? From looking at [00:12:00] the job, you could really And of course, the financial reports also tell a story, but it's not just seeing the story, but digging in what could be improved and what needs to be improved.
What were you leaking out money in the world? Where are you leaving money on the table?
Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. So much going on there. It almost reminds me of, I'm going to date myself a little bit with this, but you're like a Sherlock Holmes. You're this detective, and you're going in, and sure, things on the surface may look okay. But you're going behind the scenes. You're seeing what's really happening. And Hey, maybe this job was doing well, but what's it really costing you?
Are you in fact having any profits? And I'm sure there's a lot of surprises that come out once you start Oh yes, But it's not just audits. I'm in it for the company. There is tax accountants. That are very focused on compliance, but I am CFO. I'm more focused on getting the company to make more money. It's not just coming in and doing [00:13:00] audit, but it's also helping them continue to grow, helping them continue to do well.
Ahuva Gruen: Really opening their eyes, like clients tell me. I open their eyes. And I have to Also add, if you're a manufacturer, if you're selling products, you still have to know what, maybe labor is not a big issue, but you still have to know all your direct costs. Labor and your direct cost, let's say e commerce, manufacturing, a store, and you have to know what's your overhead. Service and products, they have to know profit margin, they have to really watch it, not just do it once and that's it. You have to know which clients 80 20 most businesses make 80 percent of the profit from 20 percent of their fine. What products, what services make the most money?
What clients? Are you doing well? It's really like Sherlock Holmes and then really going with it and doing better.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. My goodness. [00:14:00] There's so much there again, very high level. And I completely understand it. Every company is different. They're on their own particular journey. Generally speaking, though, when you begin to work with a company, there's probably a lot of common myths that as entrepreneurs, we're believing that we shouldn't and so big picture wise, when it comes to tax strategy, even financial planning.
What would be some of the more common myths that as entrepreneurs we're just buying into, but it's wrong. We shouldn't be doing that. Okay,
Ahuva Gruen: Oh my gosh, tax planning. Besides for tax planning, if you're scared of gonna pay high taxes, do not just ignore the tax return. File a tax return, get a payment plan. As you do well, your taxes are gonna go up. Put aside every month money, put aside money for taxes. Like how there's no money at the end of the year.
And I just want to bring to awareness. If a business is not doing well, I had this with a client that came in. I came [00:15:00] in, I turned around the business making. Nice profit. and then he owes taxes. And I said, yes, you have to put money aside. But like, why am I paying taxes?
Where's my money? I didn't take home that much money. If you're in debt from before, if you owed debt from before or were, or accounts payable or you took out a loan and you weren't making money because you didn't have by profit margin, you didn't have by processes, then even when you're, making money, you have to pay down your debt, your accounts payable, your loans. But you still have to pay taxes on that money, it's still your income, even, it's not how much money it's in your, you took out, it's how much profit your business made. and on that topic, I see this all the time, and people are scared, or they didn't do well, and then they didn't file taxes.
Then you're going to pay interest and penalties. it is not a good idea to just [00:16:00] ignore taxes. no one wants to pay Uncle Sam. But part of being successful is paying Uncle Sam, paying the IRS. And another thing is, which I see all the time is, Businesses, keep your personal expenses and business separate.
It's important for taxes and it's important also to have a clear picture of what's going on in your company.
Jeffrey Feldberg: quote and degree more. In fact, what you're talking about in the default nine step roadmap, we're talking step four. This is you're doing an internal audit, due diligence, EBITDA adjustments. Whereas a business owner, maybe I put lifestyle expenses through, or heaven forbid, maybe I'm putting some personal expenses through that I shouldn't, but when it comes time to either raise capital or have your exit, Well, I'm showing a lower profit and now that's going to mean a lower enterprise value, and you can say, Jeffrey on base off base, we advise our clients going through our flagship program, the 98 default mastery program, stop these personal expenses.
Stop these lifestyle [00:17:00] expenses. Take them out of the business. Yes. You'll pay more taxes. But you'll have a more valuable company. You'll And You'll have
Ahuva Gruen: a clear picture of what's going on for yourself, for others. Clarity is number one. You have to know what's going on. I hear business says I didn't take any money out. I didn't take any money out when I started with them. But when you really clean up the books and you get clarity, then they see what they took out or what they didn't.
number one, a business needs clarity to exit, but needs also clarity while they're running the business. You have to know what's going on in your business.
Jeffrey Feldberg: absolutely. And so let me ask you this. When it comes time to give that business clarity, generally speaking, back of the envelope, how long does it take you to sort through everything, get everything in order? Okay. Now we have some clarity from this point forward. We have some transparency. We know exactly what's going on.
Ballpark. Roughly how long would that take you?
Ahuva Gruen: It's all depends on how messy the books are
what's going [00:18:00] on. It's all, it depends if they had someone running the books, did they do it right or not. I see a range from a month or two to two, three years. I usually don't go back two, three years. I usually will go back to the beginning of the physical year,
But if they didn't file taxes. They have to build some type, minimum books to file taxes, because like I said, the longer you wait, the more you'll get penalties, interest, it doesn't go away. Uncle Sam is not going away.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah. I, unfortunately for better force couldn't agree more, but you know, on the flip side of how I like to look at it, I know people grown, all my goodness, I got to pay this tax. But to me, if I'm paying taxes, it means my company's profitable and that's always a good thing. I hopefully I'm paying a lot of taxes because I have a lot of profits and this is a very good thing that I'm able to
Ahuva Gruen: Exactly.
Jeffrey Feldberg: And so big picture wise, again, when you begin to work with the companies, and I know you're doing a lot of things, my goodness, you're helping. Well, what's the business model like? Are we charging too little? Which you probably are. Should we be charging a little [00:19:00] bit more? Are we? In some areas that we simply shouldn't be in.
So you're doing all those different kinds of things, but walk us through, again, where would be some of the biggest pitfalls that I'm probably not aware of as a business owner that you're coming in. Hey, Jeffrey, probably didn't know this, but here's what you should know.
Ahuva Gruen: Accountability.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay, talk to us. Accountability.
What's going on with
Ahuva Gruen: Accounting is accountability. And discipline is the choice what I want now to what I want most. You could have processes, but are you following? You could have software, are you following? Are you using it? Are your staff using it? I had a meeting with a client last week, he was supposed, for example, to get insurance.
Liability Insurance talk is cheap. Did you follow through? Did you get the insurance? When you give proposals or estimate, are you following the profit margin tool? Are you giving discount too much on the [00:20:00] processes? Do if the process is to give it to deposit. Did you make sure to get a deposit before? Did you get the final payment before you get the last product or end service?
Jeffrey Feldberg: And I have a when, when you're doing this, because I know there's a lot of incorrect information that's out there, and some people in DeepAuthNation may be thinking, Okay. If I bring you on as a fractional CFO, does that mean I'm now telling my accountants or my bookkeeper that I'm no longer working with them?
And I know that's not the case. Can you share with us how you actually make the accountants and the bookkeepers, you make their jobs and lives so much easier. Can you share with us how as a fractional CFO, you're fitting in to what we already have?
Ahuva Gruen: sure. So as I said, the compliance accountants, what everyone thinks as accountants, CPA, the taxes, they love it. They love when I'm involved because they're getting clean books. They're getting it not the last day. They're getting it earlier. They have someone to talk to, someone to answer. They're getting [00:21:00] clean books.
To do taxes, you're getting clean books. They also want the business owners to be making more money and doing well. So they're also seeing the business make more money. And on the other hand, the bookkeeper is data entry, but the bookkeeper love it too, because they have someone who understands financial, who understands the business and to guide them to ask questions I teach them about how to put things in or answer questions or I'm there to do the more the strategic And to help them and to guide them.
I'm not taking away the bookkeeper job. I'm not do, I don't do taxes, but I'm in the middle to help make sure the business is running well financially. I also believe in very much in a team approach. When I go into a business, I asked the bookkeeper, I asked the staff members that I speak to, is anything that's going right?
What's [00:22:00] going right? What's going wrong? I asked their input. I make them feel valued. I take into account. One of my clients the bookkeeper and the staff love it when I'm there, depending where they are, if I'm at Zoom or in person, but they love it. It's an address, a way to talk to.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, my goodness. There's so much going on there, but really you're an extension of the team. You're an additional resource. And here at deep wealth, we're really all about a few things. We're all about, okay, how do I increase my profits today while I prepare down the road for either a future exit, or maybe I'm going to be doing a capital raise to get some investors to invest in the business.
And what we've already spoken about, well, Jeffrey, I'm going to come in. I'm going to help increase your profits because I'm going to look at the transparency. I'm going to be looking at what you're doing, what you're not doing, where maybe you're charging too little
or what you need to do on that Side.
Ahuva Gruen: And also number one, even before anything strategic, in order to get capital fund loan from the bank, a loan from private investors or exit, you have to [00:23:00] have clean books. You have to have clean processes. Number one is clarity to know what's going on, what services you're making money, what services you're not, if you're not making money, is it a lead magnet, or why you're doing it, and then it's the strategic.
Any investor, anyone wants to see clean reports.
Jeffrey Feldberg: And so walk us through that because it's one thing that I'm going to be increasing profits. That's really internal. I'm not necessarily dealing with the outside investor or buyer. But when future investors and buyers are now looking at a company, can you share with us what you're doing that makes the future buyer, the future investor, they're excited to want to be a part of this company.
What would be some of the things on the backend that you're doing to help the company on the front end look really good?
Ahuva Gruen: All I'm doing is a strategic and everything. It drives. Everything I do in the company, the four piece, it drives the profit margin. It drives the reports. When an investor or someone to [00:24:00] buy the business, when they come in, they're seeing higher profit margin. They're seeing an organized, well structured business that's doing well.
Not a business that they have to come and take over. I had a client in the past who bought a business. He thought he was buying a great Yeah, but the business was so not well structured, all their processes, their pricing and everything. He ended up he tried too late and it was the second business, so it was like not his main focus.
He ended up not doing well. An investor coming in, a smart investor to buy a business, he wants the business to be running well. He wants the business to see nice profit margin.
That means there's processes and issues of cash flow. We talked a lot about profit margin. But cash flow You can't run your business just how much money is in your bank. But if you have high sales and you can't afford to pay the materials to pay the labor up front, [00:25:00] you're going to run into problems too.
You have to have good processes with your accounts payable, good processes with your accounts receivable in order to do well, in order to be able to sell your company if that's where you're going.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay. And talk to us about cashflow because I know for many entrepreneurs, they hear cashflow and sure I'm hearing it, but it may mean something different to them. So as a fractional CFO, when you're talking cashflow, what does that really mean to you? And then the followup to that is ideally what should it look like?
Ahuva Gruen: Is the money coming into your accounts and out of your accounts? There's different type of assets. There's acid like long term asset like a property like equipment and then there's liquid asset, which is like cash money in the bank you have to have good profits But you also have to have the money in the bank if you give two three months For clients to pay up, maybe in the long run you'll get the money, but meantime you have to pay your overhead, you have [00:26:00] to pay rent, you have to pay your payroll, you have to pay your vendors.
So it's important not only to have profit margin, but it's important to also have money, how fast the money comes back into your account. Terms with your vendors. How, do you have 30 days, or do you have COD? You have COD, and you're buying now material to, to use, to sell in a month, and you have to pay for it up front, then you're gonna run into issues.
Another thing is if you have inventory, you have to have cash to pay for the inventory. Do you have your own cash? Are you taking out a line of credit? At what terms are you taking out a line of credit? If you have slow months, are you putting money aside in the good months for the slow months or then you're going and not paying your credit card?
Credit card interest is really bad. It's like you have to have a budget, you have to plan in advance if you lose a big client. if God forbid you can't work a week, then you have to [00:27:00] have a cash reserves for small months, cash reserves for taxes.
Jeffrey Feldberg: So a lot going on there, but it's planning and it's looking forward and seeing where we are now, where we're going to need to be. I'd also suspect that as a fractional CFO, when you're working with a business, As they're growing, they're going to need more capital. So you're looking at, okay, cash in the bank today.
How much do we have versus what we actually need to finance our growth? Do we have enough cash in the bank? Are we going to need to get some outside financing? What that's looking like. talk to us about that. What are some of the typical, both opportunities and challenges that you see?
Ahuva Gruen: When you're looking to invest in a new product or you have to look at the return on investment, how much profit we'll make, what's the risk and how much cash do you need? You take a huge job. Let's say a you job painting a building, for example, you have, and you're only going to get a deposit upfront. You have to have the cash flow the [00:28:00] cash to pay the labor all along to pay for the material.
Do you have the process? Do you have the cash? If you're e commerce, if you're manufacturing, you need to buy parts. Oh, you want to expand? Do you have the cash available? What's the risk? Is what's the demand? What is it going to cost you? The marketing? Really? Not to be impulsive, but really not to take forever to do research, but really to do proper research, not act impulsively.
Make sure you're getting at a good price. Make sure you'll be able to sell. How fast will it be picking up? How much money is going to tie down until it picks up?
Jeffrey Feldberg: And I'm wondering, and again, I know you could say, well, Jeffrey, listen, every company is going to be different and granted that's the case, but generally speaking, what would be the biggest mistake that you're seeing most businesses make?
Ahuva Gruen: The biggest mistakes it depends profit margins cash flow accountability really having like knowing [00:29:00] opening their eyes I'll tell you the biggest mistake that businesses make is closing their eyes to the financial that is the biggest mistakes. I business owners. I see a lot of time are willing to admit and to get the help with sales with operation, but they're not willing to open the eyes to what's going on financially and to get the guidance and help.
I met with the business owner and he's talking to him and he's painting a nice rosy picture. But he's not so happy with his bookkeeper and he can't take money out and yet. Oh 5 million in sales last year, and I said to him, one minute, you can't afford to have proper guidance, you can't afford to have a proper bookkeeper, you're not taking money home for your business, and you're paying for You had 5 million in sales and you're painting that everything is okay.
Something is really off. [00:30:00] The picture does not make sense. And then he admitted what his issue was and we spoke about it. But, you have to open your eyes. just like you can't close your eyes to taxes, you cannot close your eyes to financials. That is the biggest issue I see in general. Open your eyes to what's going on in financials.
If you're too busy, if it's not your strong point, you get the help you need. Get the guidance you need. Don't try to do everything yourself. Who, not how. It's a great book. It talks about delegating. If you procrastinate, what are you procrastinating? What's holding you back? Could you do it yourself, or is it better to delegate?
Jeffrey Feldberg: absolutely. Wow. So much in there, but I love what you're saying. And interestingly enough, you're talking about accountability. What's interesting about accountability. It doesn't show up on a profit and loss. It doesn't show up on a balance sheet. So now we're talking mindset, but accountability, and I couldn't agree with you more.
Is really everything.
Ahuva Gruen: Oh, it [00:31:00] shows up on the count, on the profit and loss because it affects the numbers.
Everything
Affects the numbers, and
accounting can stand for accountability, not just accounts. It affects it because all those four Ps affect the bottom line.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Yes, absolutely. Well, all of that said we're about to go into wrap up mode and my goodness, there are a lot of questions, so many questions I didn't have a chance to ask. Let me ask you this before we go into wrap up mode. Is there a question I didn't ask that you'd like to put out there? Is there a topic that we haven't yet covered?
That you'd like to share with a deep automation or even a message that you'd like to get out there.
Ahuva Gruen: Yes, I, we didn't discuss, we discussed about profits, we discussed about cash flow. We didn't discuss about the expense side.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay. Talk to me.
Ahuva Gruen: It's so important when I look at the profit and loss after I clean it up and after we look into what services, what location, what products, how much we're making, how we're now, we also have [00:32:00] to look at the expenses, the overhead, the direct costs.
Where could we save money, where, what do, we should spend more on, what should we spend less on? Are you overpaying your staff, are you paying too much research development, are you have an office too big that you don't need and you're paying so much rent? Where are you leaking out money? And that I find is so important.
How much money you spending on meals and entertainment. It's so important in businesses. It's so important and personal. for example, in personal, you could be making a million dollars taking out, but if you. Spending money and you just wasting it or not watching, you could blow it. If you take out too much money for your business, for all your expenditures, you want to be able to milk your cow, your business for years to come or until you sell it and not just have a big barbecue.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, I love that. And what is particularly interesting about this with [00:33:00] you coming in as a fractional CFO, it's not personal. You are seeing the trees from the forest where as so often the entrepreneurs, business owners, we're not able to see that. And you're coming in, Hey, Jeffrey. Have you thought about this or why are you doing that?
Or why aren't we doing this where you're not even doing that? So I love the, not only the accountability that you're bringing, but it's really an independent point of view that you're sharing that I may not be able to get otherwise.
Ahuva Gruen: A lot of entrepreneurs are go getters. They have ideas. They run, they jump from thing to thing, but I'm like the grounding. financial like voice of accountability of grounding. Don't just jump in, look at it, know what's going on. Don't just run and expand your business or spin your wheels really to really move the company, not just you working to live a lifestyle to take home money for yourself, for your family, not just to suspend your wealth.
It's not just a hobby.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, couldn't [00:34:00] agree more. Very well said and actually from that great advice is a perfect segue into our wrap up And it's a tradition here on the default podcast We're really it's a privilege just an honor for me to ask every guest the same question So I'm gonna set this question up for you It's a fun one when you think of the movie back to the future You have that magical DeLorean car that can take you to any point in time.
So I have I imagine now is tomorrow morning You look outside your window, not only do you see the DeLorean car, it's curbside, the door is open, it's waiting for you to hop on in, which you do, and you're now going to go to any point in time, perhaps it's as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be, what are you telling your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom, or you have to do this, but don't do that, what would that sound like?
Ahuva Gruen: You could do it. Believe in your dreams. Go for it. Don't let anyone stop you. Even if you're not perfect, go for it. Once you start, don't [00:35:00] stop.
Jeffrey Feldberg: I love that. Go for it. Believe in
Ahuva Gruen: Once you
start, you finish. My father said to me when I was starting for the CPA and I wanted to drop out.
He said to me, Ahuva, you started, you finished. And I'm so grateful.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely love that. And just believe in yourself. Go for it. You can do it. It's, you know what? We don't hear that often enough today. And let me ask you this. Before we officially wrap things up, as a listener in DeepAlp Nation, if I have a question, I want to reach out to you, I want to speak with you, where would be the best place online to reach you?
Ahuva Gruen: The best place is either LinkedIn or HooverGruin. You can DM me on my website, ahoovercfo for short, agfinancialcpa. com. And I have a freebie for the listeners of the show. The 10 biggest mistakes businesses make and more important, how to avoid them.
Jeffrey Feldberg: Love that. Okay. And how would someone in Deep Wealth Nation get that? Do they go to our website? Are they [00:36:00] emailing you? What does
Ahuva Gruen: Either they could get it on my website or they could DM me on LinkedIn, whichever one is easier for them.
Jeffrey Feldberg: And Deep Wealth Nation, great news here. It doesn't get any easier. It's all in the show notes. It's a point and click. Well, Ahuva, congratulations. It's official. This is a wrap. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much.
Ahuva Gruen: Thank you so much. It was a pleasure to be on your show.
Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think?
So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.
Actually, it's more of a personal favor.
Did you find this episode helpful?
Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey?
And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.
Are you ready for it?
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So all that said. Thank you so much for listening. And remember your wealth isn't just about the money in the bank. It's about the depth of your journey and the impact that you're creating. So let's continue this journey together. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening to this episode.
And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe.
Thank you so much.
God bless.

Ahuva Gruen
Fractional CFO
Ahuva is a seasoned Fractional CFO dedicated to transforming businesses and unlocking their full financial potential. With over 20 years of experience, she specializes in providing clarity and insight to entrepreneurs struggling with their finances. As a former CFO of a large organization, she has a proven track record of significantly increasing revenue, securing financing, and expanding services.
Now, as the founder of her own business, Ahuva leverages her CPA and CFO background to guide companies toward growth and profitability. With a focus on strategic analysis, she collaborates with clients to make informed decisions, optimize pricing, and eliminate financial obstacles. By joining clients in the C-suite as a visionary advisor, Ahuva empowers businesses to soar to new heights and achieve their long-term goals.