Your business made money, but did you? In this episode, Brian Thompson walks through three numbers that reveal the financial health of your business before the year ends: profit margin, owner's compensation, and cash reserves.

Brian has worked with many entrepreneurs who bring in impressive revenue and still feel anxious about money. They wonder whether they can afford to pay themselves, whether they will have enough for taxes, and how they will cover expenses at the end of the month. This episode gives you a simple way to look past the revenue total and understand how much of it actually supports you.

In this episode you will learn:

• How to calculate your profit margin and what it tells you about your financial health

• Why revenue alone does not show whether your business supports the life you want

• How to set an owner's compensation target and identify the gap between what you need and what the business pays

• How the Profit First system helps you pay yourself intentionally

• How to calculate your cash runway and why three to six months is a useful starting point

• How cash reserves give you the flexibility to say no to the wrong projects

• A 15-minute profitability checkup you can complete before the end of November

• How to choose one specific action to strengthen your financial foundation before 2027

A healthy profit margin, a fair owner's compensation, and strong cash reserves give you options. They let you make decisions based on your mission, vision, and values rather than on what you need to survive. Whether you are just getting started or have been in business for years, grab your financial statements and follow along.

Next up in the series, Brian takes a broader look at 2026 with five questions to ask yourself before starting another year in business.

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Brian Thompson, JD/CFP®, is a tax attorney and Certified Financial Planner® who specializes in providing comprehensive financial planning to LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs who run mission-driven businesses. The Mission Driven Business podcast was born out of his passion for helping social entrepreneurs create businesses with purpose and profit.

On the podcast, Brian talks with diverse entrepreneurs and the people who support them. Listeners hear stories of experiences, strength, and hope and get practical advice to help them build businesses that might just change the world, too.

Every entrepreneur hears the same message when they start a business: grow, grow, grow. More revenue, more clients, more recognition. In this episode, Brian Thompson asks a different question. How much is enough?

Drawing from a presentation he gave at a conference for independent financial advisors called The Business of Enough, Brian shares his personal journey toward defining enough, three mantras that have shaped his business decisions over a decade, and a practical three-step framework for pursuing enough in your own intentional business.

In this episode you will learn:

• Why the default message of more, more, more may not be serving your business or your life

• How Brian's divorce changed the way he thought about entrepreneurship and what he needed his business to provide

• Three mantras for building an intentional business: there is no there, you can build whatever you want, and build, measure, learn

• Why comparison is one of the biggest obstacles to defining enough and how to reframe it

• Why enough changes over time and what to do when your definition evolves

• A three-step framework for defining, building, and revisiting your own version of enough

• Three questions every entrepreneur should sit with when thinking about what success actually means to them

Entrepreneurship gives you the freedom to build whatever you want. The challenge is deciding what that actually is, on your own terms, in this season of your life, rather than following a script someone else wrote for what success is supposed to look like.

This episode is for every mission-driven entrepreneur who started their business for reasons that had very little to do with maximizing revenue, and who wants a framework for staying connected to those reasons as the business grows.

• Newsletter Sign Up
• Follow Brian Thompson Online: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X, Forbes
• Follow & review the podcast: on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

Brian Thompson, JD/CFP®, is a tax attorney and Certified Financial Planner® who specializes in providing comprehensive financial planning to LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs who run mission-driven businesses. The Mission Driven Business podcast was born out of his passion for helping social entrepreneurs create businesses with purpose and profit.

On the podcast, Brian talks with diverse entrepreneurs and the people who support them. Listeners hear stories of experiences, strength, and hope and get practical advice to help them build businesses that might just change the world, too.