My newsletter is designed specifically to help business owners like you grow your companies with tried & applied bits of business knowledge, all communicated in actionable, bite-sized chunks. I will share insights and advice aimed at enhancing your business operations, boosting your success, and allowing you to focus more on what truly matters. Let's work together to achieve your goals and make your endeavors a reality.

Let’s talk about one of the biggest misconceptions in business—confusing booked revenue with actualized revenue. Just because money hits your account doesn’t mean you’ve earned it yet. And if you don’t understand that distinction, you’re playing a dangerous game.

Take the roofing industry, for example. When a roofing company collects the first check from a customer, many business owners immediately think they’ve made money. Wrong. That payment falls under deferred revenue. It’s booked, but it’s not earned until the job is completed.

Why does this matter? Because too many businesses spend money before they’ve actually made it. They operate under the illusion that cash flow equals profit, that deposits equal earnings. But in reality, until you’ve fulfilled your obligation, that money isn’t truly yours.

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) lay this out clearly—you can’t recognize income on your P&L until services have been rendered in totality. That roofing company could delay the build. The customer could request a refund. Or worse, the company could take the money, fail to deliver, and suddenly find themselves drowning in chargebacks, legal trouble, and financial chaos.

This isn’t just about roofing. This applies to every business. If you collect payment before delivering value, you’re holding a financial liability, not a profit. If you’re not accounting for this properly, you’re setting yourself up for a cash flow nightmare.

Here’s the challenge: Are you operating off real revenue or just booked revenue? Are you making spending decisions based on what’s actually earned, or are you gambling with money that could disappear tomorrow?

Winners understand this distinction. They don’t just look at the number in their bank account—they look at what’s truly theirs to keep. They build systems that ensure revenue is recognized properly, cash flow is managed wisely, and every dollar is accounted for with precision.

If you want to scale, if you want to build a company that lasts, you have to get serious about how you define income. Because if you don’t control your revenue, your revenue will control you.

Stay smart. Stay disciplined. And keep playing to win.

Stay tuned for more insights in our next newsletter. Remember, it's the small adjustments that often make the biggest impact on your business's profitability. Here's to your continued success!

Stay driven to push your business forward,
Ryan Niddel