Founder, Get Your Life Back: Business Strategy for Better Profit and More Life

Jennifer Todd, CPA | Profit + Performance Advisor
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Weekly

Founder, Get Your Life Back, is a podcast for owner-operators of founder-led businesses who are trapped by the very business they thought would give them freedom. Hosted by Jennifer Todd, CPA, MBA, a business advisor with 28 years of experience, this show provides founders with the integrated answer most advisors never deliver: financial clarity and a team framework that works together to get you out of the weeds and into an actual leadership role in your own business. This podcast covers the full picture of what it takes to stop being Chief Everything Officer and start leading like a CEO: conversations about small business cash flow problems and what your numbers are really telling you, the reason business owner burnout isn't a personal failing, how to raise prices without losing customers, how to delegate as a leader without watching quality fall apart, and what it takes to build a business that can run without you. We'll answer questions like: How do I stop being the bottleneck in my business? How do I delegate without losing control? How do I build a business that doesn’t depend on me? How do I get out of the day-to-day of my business? Why can’t I take a vacation as a business owner?  How do I hire my first employee? How do I create systems in a small business? How to scale a small business without burning out?  This show gives founders in skilled trades, personal services, professional services, and care businesses the financial grounding and structural framework to stop being the bottleneck and start building something they could someday step back from, sell, or hand off with confidence. If you're a founder who's tired of being the last line of defense in your own business, Jennifer built this show for you. Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn to continue the conversation between episodes https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferltoddcpa/

  1. 2d ago ·  Video

    15: Stop Funding Offers That Aren't Profitable

    If a business profitability analysis shows that none of your offers earn what you hoped, you’re probably covering the gap with your own time and money. This episode is for the founder who wants offers that pay for themselves and a business that no longer leans on them to deliver every part of it. I talk about what I look at first when nothing is profitable, and why founders who built their business from scratch have the hardest time seeing it. I also share why a business can show a profit on paper while the founder is still the one paying for it. If you want to find where your offers are costing you, book a 90-minute strategy session with me. It’s open only to podcast listeners and YouTube viewers. 00:00 - Introduction to Founder Subsidy and Profitability Visibility 01:03 - Identifying Profit Leaks and Analyzing Business Performance 02:05 - Finding Your Sweet Spot: Business Strengths vs. Customer Needs 03:47 - Eliminating Founder Overwork and Redefining Business Roles 08:14 - Reverse Engineering Offers for Sustainable Profit Send me a text or voice note! Ready to stop being the bottleneck in your own business? Book a Strategy Session: https://futureviewcpa.com/strategy-session Looking for advisory support or ready to work with Jennifer? Check out the website: https://futureviewcpa.com Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferltoddcpa/

  2. Oct 12 ·  Video

    14: Roadblocks Keeping Your Business Dependent

    If your business still depends on you after the new software and the extra hires, a founder mindset habit you can’t see may be the reason. This episode is for the founder who wants a business that runs without draining their cash and calendar, and who is willing to look at what keeps them in the weeds. I talk about what happens when you take every lost client personally, and how a zone you feel safe in can quietly keep your team waiting on you. I also share why I dreaded Mondays at my own CPA firm, even though the work paid well. If you want to find where your business leans on you, book a 90-minute strategy session with me. 00:00 – The Mindset Mistakes Keeping Founders Stuck 01:22 – Separating Your Identity from Your Business 05:36 – Comfort Zone vs. Genius Zone for Founders 07:02 – Gatekeeping and Team Empowerment Challenges 10:41 – Finding and Fixing the Root Causes Before Your Next Business "Fix" Send me a text or voice note! Ready to stop being the bottleneck in your own business? Book a Strategy Session: https://futureviewcpa.com/strategy-session Looking for advisory support or ready to work with Jennifer? Check out the website: https://futureviewcpa.com Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferltoddcpa/

  3. Oct 6 ·  Video

    13: Stop Founder Dependence: Why the Usual Business Fixes Don't Last

    If you've already tried a dashboard, a price increase, a new hire, and some cost-cutting, and your business still depends on you, the fixes didn't fail by accident. Each one left the root cause of founder dependence untouched, so the same problem keeps coming back in a new form. This episode is for the founder who wants a profitable business that runs without draining their cash and calendar. I walk through why each fix falls short, from KPI dashboards to raising prices without losing customers, and what to settle first, including which of your founder subsidies hurts most before you hire anyone.  Book a 90-minute strategy session with me to find out which root cause keeps your business dependent on you.  00:00 – Why Your Business Still Relies on You: The Founder Subsidy Problem 05:02 – The Dashboard Trap: What Metrics Really Matter 11:05 – Raising Prices and Profit Leaks: Why More Revenue Doesn’t Fix Everything 16:16 – Effectiveness Over Efficiency: Avoiding Cost-Cutting Mistakes 21:44 – When Hiring Doesn’t Solve Founder Burnout or Profitability Not sure which kind of dependence is costing you the most? Take the Founder Subsidy Check, ten yes-or-no questions that show whether your business still leans on your money, your time, or your expertise. There's no form to fill out, and nobody sees your answers but you. Send me a text or voice note! Ready to stop being the bottleneck in your own business? Book a Strategy Session: https://futureviewcpa.com/strategy-session Looking for advisory support or ready to work with Jennifer? Check out the website: https://futureviewcpa.com Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferltoddcpa/

  4. Sep 21 ·  Video

    12: How to Make Your Team and Systems Work Without You

    If your business can't run without you in the room, that's not a compliment. It means profit, customer experience, or your team's decisions still run through you, and you're the one absorbing the cost. This episode is for the founder who's holding the whole thing together and wondering why that's starting to feel like the problem. I break down the three places that dependency usually lives: profit visibility, the customer deliverable, and team autonomy, plus the GovCon story about what happens when a system built for 20 people never gets rebuilt for 70.  00:00 – Identifying Founder Dependency and Business Bottlenecks 01:37 – Evaluating Profitability and Your Ability to Step Back 05:02 – Assessing Your Involvement in Customer Deliverables 08:10 – Empowering Your Team to Make Decisions Without You 12:27 – Aligning To-Do Lists with Strategic Goals for Success 16:55 – Optimizing Systems and Adapting Processes for Growth Send me a text or voice note! Ready to stop being the bottleneck in your own business? Book a Strategy Session: https://futureviewcpa.com/strategy-session Looking for advisory support or ready to work with Jennifer? Check out the website: https://futureviewcpa.com Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferltoddcpa/

  5. Sep 14 ·  Video

    11: What Smart CEOs Do Differently to Build Profitable, Stress-Free Businesses

    You made the call fast because that's what a strong leader does, and you're still cleaning up what it cost. Fast and right aren't the same thing. This episode is for the founder who decides in the moment and pays for it later. I walk through the CEO decision making process she runs every call through: three checkpoints, one story about what happens when a checkpoint gets skipped, and the fourth factor she adds specifically for founders. 00:00 – What Successful CEOs Do Differently 01:20 – The Power of Thoughtful, Long-Term Decision Making 02:13 – Three Key Criteria for Smart Business Decisions 08:19 – How Business Choices Affect Your Customers and Stakeholders 12:21 – Leveraging AI and Avoiding Over-Optimism in Decision Making Send me a text or voice note! Ready to stop being the bottleneck in your own business? Book a Strategy Session: https://futureviewcpa.com/strategy-session Looking for advisory support or ready to work with Jennifer? Check out the website: https://futureviewcpa.com Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferltoddcpa/

  6. Sep 7 ·  Video

    10: Stop Fixing Weaknesses: Lead With Your Strengths

    You're doing every job in the business and calling it leadership. Chief Everything Officer is what happens when a founder never draws the line between running the business and running every part of it. This episode is for the founder ready to stop measuring the business by what it's bad at. I break down the difference between a weakness and a missing strength, how a SWOT analysis gets misused, and why building around what your company already does well changes what it can become. 00:00 – Why Trying to Be Everything to Everyone Holds Your Business Back 01:16 – Identifying and Maximizing Founders’ and Company Strengths 03:44 – Strengths-Based Organizational Design for Teams 06:33 – Aligning Strengths with Customer Value and Profitability 10:33 – Avoiding the Trap of Over-Focusing on Weaknesses and Opportunities Send me a text or voice note! Ready to stop being the bottleneck in your own business? Book a Strategy Session: https://futureviewcpa.com/strategy-session Looking for advisory support or ready to work with Jennifer? Check out the website: https://futureviewcpa.com Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferltoddcpa/

  7. Aug 31 ·  Video

    9: Protect Your Time and Escape Founder Burnout

    You're the last one paid, the last one to take a day off, and the first one still working when everyone else has logged off. Founder burnout is a business running out of room to grow. This episode is for the founder-led business owner ready to stop treating exhaustion as the cost of doing business. I break down the four-way win she uses to evaluate every decision, what boundaries actually protect, and why putting yourself first changes what the business can become. 00:00 – Why Founders Need to Prioritize Themselves 01:34 – The Hidden Costs of Putting Yourself Last 04:21 – The Founder-First Approach: Transforming Your Business Model 08:25 – The Four-Way Win: Customers, Team, Business, and You 17:04 – Invisible Stakeholders: The Ripple Effect of Your Choices 24:29 – Setting Boundaries: The Key to Sustainable Success Send me a text or voice note! Ready to stop being the bottleneck in your own business? Book a Strategy Session: https://futureviewcpa.com/strategy-session Looking for advisory support or ready to work with Jennifer? Check out the website: https://futureviewcpa.com Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferltoddcpa/

  8. Aug 24 ·  Video

    8: Stop Paying for Your Business With Your Own Time and Money

    You log into your bank account every morning, trying to decide whether you can afford to hire, and the numbers never quite add up. You're overworked, underpaid, and stuck answering a question your bank balance was never built to answer. This episode is for the founder-led business owner who wants a straight answer on whether their business can afford to replace them. I break down the founder subsidy, the personal effort and unpaid hours you're pouring into your business that never show up on a P&L, and the three questions that reveal what it would actually cost to buy your time back. 00:00 – The Illusion of "I Can't Afford to Replace Myself" 02:19 – Founder Subsidy: How Overwork Masks True Business Costs 05:47 – Calculating the Real Cost to Replace the Founder 13:19 – Choosing Your Role: Steering vs. Rowing 17:48 – Three Questions Every Founder Must Answer to End the Subsidy Send me a text or voice note! Ready to stop being the bottleneck in your own business? Book a Strategy Session: https://futureviewcpa.com/strategy-session Looking for advisory support or ready to work with Jennifer? Check out the website: https://futureviewcpa.com Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferltoddcpa/

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Founder, Get Your Life Back, is a podcast for owner-operators of founder-led businesses who are trapped by the very business they thought would give them freedom. Hosted by Jennifer Todd, CPA, MBA, a business advisor with 28 years of experience, this show provides founders with the integrated answer most advisors never deliver: financial clarity and a team framework that works together to get you out of the weeds and into an actual leadership role in your own business. This podcast covers the full picture of what it takes to stop being Chief Everything Officer and start leading like a CEO: conversations about small business cash flow problems and what your numbers are really telling you, the reason business owner burnout isn't a personal failing, how to raise prices without losing customers, how to delegate as a leader without watching quality fall apart, and what it takes to build a business that can run without you. We'll answer questions like: How do I stop being the bottleneck in my business? How do I delegate without losing control? How do I build a business that doesn’t depend on me? How do I get out of the day-to-day of my business? Why can’t I take a vacation as a business owner?  How do I hire my first employee? How do I create systems in a small business? How to scale a small business without burning out?  This show gives founders in skilled trades, personal services, professional services, and care businesses the financial grounding and structural framework to stop being the bottleneck and start building something they could someday step back from, sell, or hand off with confidence. If you're a founder who's tired of being the last line of defense in your own business, Jennifer built this show for you. Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn to continue the conversation between episodes https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferltoddcpa/

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