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.

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• 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.

Most entrepreneurs make major business decisions without a reliable framework to guide them. In this episode, Brian Thompson sits down with Dawn Kennedy, attorney, entrepreneur, and author of Before You Decide, to explore the pre-decision tools she developed after losing her first business overnight and spending years translating enterprise-level decision frameworks for small and mid-sized business owners.

Dawn's story is both practical and deeply personal. After her husband suffered a catastrophic accident in 2013 that ended their consulting business instantly, she realized how much she did not know. What came next was decades of developing decision tools that help entrepreneurs see the full picture before they say yes, no, or not yet.

In this episode you will learn:

• Why decision-making in business requires a framework tailored to your specific business
• How the CLARITY framework helps entrepreneurs evaluate decisions before they leap
• Why cash matters more than EBITDA when evaluating whether a decision is sound
• What the pendulum problem is and how it keeps entrepreneurs from making good decisions
• What most entrepreneurs don't know they don't know when starting or growing a business
• Why forming an LLC is easier than understanding what it actually requires
• How losing a business shaped the way Dawn built her second one more intentionally
• Why not every decision needs deep analysis and how to tell the difference

Good decision-making is not about eliminating risk. It is about understanding what you are volunteering to carry before you commit.

Whether you are just starting out or navigating a major growth decision, this episode will help you slow down in the right places and move forward with more clarity and confidence.

• Connect with Dawn Kennedy: LinkedIn
• Explore Dawn's book Before You Decide: The Field Manual for Durable Decisions Under Pressure
• Convoy Road Coffee Roasters
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• 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.

Ten years into building a business, the questions you ask yourself need to change.

In this episode, Brian Thompson wraps up the BTF tenth anniversary series by looking forward, sharing five questions every entrepreneur should ask about the future of their business, and the power of writing a letter to your future self.

This is not a strategic planning session. There are no revenue projections or growth targets. It is an honest and personal reflection on what intentional entrepreneurship looks like when survival is no longer the primary question.

In this episode you will learn:

• Why the shift from survival to sustainability is one every entrepreneur eventually faces

• Five questions worth asking about the future of your business and your life

• How to think about what you want to keep, what you are ready to leave behind, and where you can create more impact

• Why asking what kind of life you want should come before any business planning

• How writing a letter to your future self can serve as a compass for the next chapter of your business

• Why business growth and personal growth are not separate journeys

Entrepreneurship has a way of teaching you things that no business plan can anticipate. After ten years of building BTF, the most important question Brian is asking is not what he wants his business to become. It is who he wants to become while building it.

Whether you are in your first year of business or your tenth, these five questions will point you in the right direction.

• Anniversary Ep #1: A Decade in Business: Lessons, Gratitude, and What Comes Next
• Anniversary Ep #2: What I Believed About Business in 2016 and What I Know Now
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• 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.

Ten years of entrepreneurship changes the way you think about almost everything. In this episode, Brian Thompson shares ten belief shifts that shaped his journey from 2016 to 2026, and what they might mean for wherever you are in building your own business.

Brian introduces two versions of himself: 2016 Brian, the guy who just walked away from a comfortable legal career with a vision and a lot of assumptions, and 2026 Brian, someone who has spent a decade building a business, serving clients, making mistakes, and learning along the way. The result is an honest and personal reflection on what entrepreneurship actually teaches you over time.

In this episode you will learn:

• Why confidence is a byproduct of action, not a prerequisite for it

• How expertise alone does not create lasting client relationships

• Why planning creates more peace of mind than money ever will

• How the definition of success shifts from growth to alignment over time

• Why authenticity and niching down are about belonging, not just marketing strategy

• What productivity actually means when you are building a mission-driven business

• Why there is no finish line in entrepreneurship and why that is a good thing

Ten years of entrepreneurship teaches you that authenticity is not a brand strategy. It is the foundation of everything. The clients who stay, the work that energizes you, the business that lasts, all of it comes back to knowing who you are and building something that reflects that.

Whether you are in your first year or your tenth, this episode is a reminder that the business you are dreaming about will not turn out exactly how you imagined. It will become something better.

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• 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.

Ten years ago, Brian Thompson walked out of his law firm for the last time with a vision, a lot of fear, and no guaranteed paycheck. In this episode, he reflects on a decade of entrepreneurship, the lessons that shaped him, the people who made it possible, and what the next ten years of mission-driven financial planning looks like.

This is not a strategy episode. It is a personal and heartfelt thank you to everyone who has been part of the BTF journey, and a reminder that meaningful businesses are not built overnight. They are built one conversation, one client, one courageous decision, and one ordinary Tuesday at a time.

In this episode you will learn:

• The business lessons Brian has carried through a full decade of building BTF

• Why financial planning has always been about helping people build lives, not just balance sheets

• How community and connection have shaped the growth of a mission-driven business

• Why the podcast became one of the most unexpected and meaningful parts of the journey

• What Brian believes about mission-driven entrepreneurship going into the next decade

• Why celebrating milestones matters and how to start doing it more intentionally

A decade of entrepreneurship teaches you things that no business book can. It teaches you that mission matters more than metrics, that community sustains what strategy alone cannot, and that the businesses that last are the ones that know why they exist.

Whether you are just starting out, somewhere in the middle, or celebrating your own milestone, this episode is a reminder of how far one courageous step can take you.

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• 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.

The halfway point of the year is one of the best moments to review your business finances, and most entrepreneurs let it pass without taking action.

In this episode, Brian Thompson shares the CASH framework, a simple mid-year review you can complete in under an hour, that helps you understand where your business stands and make better decisions for the second half of the year.

Brian gets honest about his own relationship with numbers and why most entrepreneurs avoid their finances, not because the news is bad, but because looking feels uncomfortable. This episode is a practical and compassionate guide to changing that relationship, one question at a time.

In this episode you will learn:

1. What your financial statements are really saying

2. How to complete a mid-year review using the four-step CASH framework

3. What questions to ask when reviewing your revenue, expenses, and cash flow

4. How to assess your spending and whether it reflects your values

5. Why cash flow creates peace of mind and how to strengthen it before year end

6. How to head into the second half of the year with three clear financial intentions

7. Why small adjustments made consistently over six months can completely change your year

A good mid-year review is about gathering the information you need to make better decisions going forward. When you understand your cash flow, your spending patterns, and your financial position, the second half of the year becomes much easier to navigate with clarity and confidence.

Whether your numbers are better than expected or worse than expected, this episode will help you turn what you find into a plan.

• 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.