EntreLeadership - Seasonal Revenue Is Crushing My Cash Flow (What Should I Do?)

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

🎯 Figure out your business's next steps in a free consult call with an EntreLeadership® team member.   Holding on too tightly can keep your business stuck.  In this episode, John Felkins coaches a business owner through the tension between tradition and profitability, helping you make smarter decisions that create year-round stability.   Next Steps: ·      📞 Have a question for the show? Call 844-944-1070 or send us a message. ·      ✉️ Become a better leader in six minutes a week. Get tactical tips sent to your inbox every Friday. ·      📌 Don’t wing it. Get a coach that helps you lead and grow with confidence.  ·      🏢 Attend EntreLeadership Summit. ·      🎤 Attend EntreLeadership Master Series. ·      📖 Order Dave’s book, Build a Business You Love.   Connect With Our Sponsors: ·      Go to Belay Solutions or text ENTRE to 55123 for their free resource! Plus, in celebration of America's 250th anniversary, get started with BELAY for just $250 (regularly $995) through July 17. ·      Go to Christian Healthcare Ministries and use code ENTRE for a 50% credit toward your first month of membership. ·      Visit NetSuite today to learn more.   Listen to More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💰 George Kamel   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A lot of business owners think they have a cash problem. Most of the time, it's an identity problem. Siba Kupman runs a $2.2 million bakery and bistro with 31 team members. He's passionate about his craft, passionate about tradition, passionate about doing things a certain way, and that passion built something really special. But when predictable slow seasons hit, and the real question services, are you building a business around your identity or are you building a business that can actually sustain you? Today, Entree Leadership's head coach

John Falcons sits down with Siba to unpack what happens when tradition, pride, and profitability collide. If you've ever wrestled with letting go of how you've always done it, this one's gonna challenge you. Listen in. Well, Siva, thanks for being here today. Tell me what's on your mind. Our business is a little bit of a seasonal business where most of our money gets made in November, December with Christmas sales in the bakery. We bake a lot more.

We get in a lot more imports from the Netherlands to sell at the bakery. And so that means that January, especially July, are our slow months. And I've learned to be a little bit stubborn, I think, with untrue leadership. Instead of believing that we can only have our profits in those two months, I just want to be profitable every month. And so if I look at the weekly sales and want to budget according to that, then we often have to spend more money to keep the shelves full. For example, one month, our customers were saying, like, see, what's going on? Are you going on a business? Like, are you, what's happening? Like, there's nothing on your shelves. And so we were just trying to keep our stock as little as possible to be able to just use as little cash as possible.

And so my question is a little bit around, like how we need to spend money to make money. But if we keep spending more than we make, then there's not enough money. So, yeah. We'll make more money. I know people who make more money. Well, all kidding aside, do you think there is, even though you haven't done it to date, do you think there might be opportunity to diversify what you offer? So to make those lower time?

I mean, can you make an apple pie? Yeah. That's too North American. We're Dutch. Yeah, okay. So, okay, that's a good comment. Let me ask you. Do you want to be Dutch or do you want to be successful?

Yeah, that's a good question. We've definitely tried to diversify and try so much, almost to the point where we're going, like we got way too big of an assortment and we want to stay in a niche area and do that well so that we're known for that. Otherwise, you become this Walmart where everyone goes to. So I want to stay niche. So I thought by being Dutch, I could be successful. Okay, good answer, because that's a hard, I tossed you a hard question. But can you not be niche and known for being higher quality than Walmart? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe part of the answer is margin as well that we work that better and are more proud of ourselves in presenting that and having the customers come that actually want to buy it.

And so, yeah. I got to ask you, like, what is a Dutch? What's the number one selling item that you produce? In the products that we make, so about 60% is the bakery, bread and pastries. And about 40% is the import. So we order everything from candies to cheeses to. All of that. And is there a big Dutch population where you are? Yeah, there's 40 to 50,000 people in the Edmonton area. Okay.

Yeah, that are Dutch from Dutch descent. All right. And so the idea of not being Dutch probably isn't a good idea, but still in other months, are there other celebrations besides Christmas in the Dutch calendar that you could lean on? Yeah, there's the Kings Day. When the Dutch king has his birthday, everything is orange. So we have an outside party. And we get a live music out there.

And yeah, we make that a celebration. And so, yeah, yeah, we work with that. What, when is that in the year? End of April. The end of April. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

What's your worst month? Probably July. Yeah, people go on holidays. Edmonton is not really a holiday vacation town that people come to. Okay. People are not in school. They don't need sandwiches. And so, yeah, it's definitely a low month.

Okay. Are there any other holiday, are there any national holidays in July? July? You're not in the U.S. just so everybody understands that, right? Everybody's going, fourth of July, fourth of July. But that's not, you're in Edmonton, so that's not the thing. Yeah. July 1st is Canada Day. And so there are a lot of barbecues and outside celebration. So yeah, that could be something we could try to tap in more. But again, we're like this Dutch bakery. Yeah. But if it's really good, you know, I don't care if it came from a Dutch bakery. It's just really good, you know. you can be known for that too.

We'll get right back to our episode. You run a business so you already know that bad information leads to bad decisions. And everyone is talking about AI, but AI is only as good as the data behind it. The best AI is built on the best data. That's why I recommend NetSuite. NetSuite is the number one AI cloud ERP and more than 43,000 businesses run on it. including us here at Ramsey Solutions. Their AI isn't bolted on.

It's built in. And it connects everything that runs your business, accounting, inventory, customer data, all in one place. Because when your numbers are connected, AI actually works like it's supposed to. NetSuite's AI helps flag cash flow problems, spot inventory issues, close your books faster, and cut down on manual reporting.

No more guessing. No more spreadsheet chaos, just clear numbers and real insights so you can lead with confidence. An investment in NetSuite is an investment in clarity. If your revenue is at least seven figures, go to NetSuite.com slash Ramsey for a free product tour. That's netsuite.com slash Ramsey. Let's get back to the episode. Well, okay, so obviously I'm asking you about diversifying a little bit and getting outside, And maybe there is some opportunity.

But operationally, your question still was around the margin. Let me make sure I understand you correctly. The margin is tight because you're having to pay overtime? Or it's the margin, you're concerned about the margin in other parts of the year. Help me with that. Yeah. We have been watching the finances the last two years a lot more. We've worked lots about making sure that we have this profit.

And so the last two years, we've been noticing more. So before that, we had one account and we kind of dipped in during those months and not really noticed we were actually eating into the profits during those months. And so now we're more aware of it. I'm going like, hey, I want to have a profit this month. So like, let's not spend it all. And so that's kind of where my question comes from. Maybe it is good to know that we are closing up a two-year-long expansion that we're

cash flowing. Okay. That's going to be done in a month. So that also should help. Yeah. Every dollar has been going there. So that's been part of it that we're watching the finance a lot more and we're closing up this expansion.

So, yeah. What are you not able to do that you want to do because of what you're talking about? I think we could get more product on the shelf if I were to spend that money. Okay. Does that make sense? So some of the shelves are looking more empty and we know that a good pile on the shelf just sells better. Sure.

Because it looks like we actually believe in the product. And so the customer fuels that. How often do you put baked goods on the shelves that you don't sell? With the baked goods, there are days where things don't sell. And that goes to nonprofits. Because that stuff has only one day, one day shelf life. With the groceries, there are items that don't always sell. We have been going through that to cut items that don't sell and keep the items that do sell.

So we're trying to, am I answering your question? Yeah, yeah, you are. I'm curious, are you tracking how much doesn't sell, like on the stuff that the bake goods? Do you have a sense of what the percentages are on that? Yeah, not on the top of my head that I could share. But we are tracking that and seeing like, hey, this item is not selling. It's not efficient. So we're skipping that item out.

And we'll keep the items that's selling because then we know we get the rotation and we get the money for it. Yeah. That makes sense. And I think just being a really good steward of all of that, inventory, keeping your eye on all of that. Totally makes sense. But I do want to challenge you a little bit to be more aggressive around how you're marketing what your bakery can do. I think obviously your brand is Dutch bakery. And at the same time, do you want to be Dutch and be in business or do you want to be a businessman that happens to own a Dutch bakery?

And if you're, if you kind of have that, that I'm a businessman. Yeah. And I want to succeed in business for all the good reasons. And my business is a Dutch bakery. I think that starts to free you up a little bit to say, okay, how can a Dutch bakery be successful in July? What could we go do? And I don't know that you have to betray your roots or become somebody that you're not

to make a really good product that sells at other times. the year. Okay. You know, I have to mention that the company that keeps coming on my mind, and I know that you might think, well, that doesn't connect, but, you know, Dutch Brothers coffee is, I don't know if there's a single Dutch person that works there, right? But it, I think maybe the owner probably was, but it's just good coffee. Yeah. And it's a good culture, and it's a good atmosphere, and I like going there every time I see one of them. Yeah. Let me ask you, Would that be a bad thing if it was a Dutch bakery? But people, in addition to it being a Dutch bakery, it was just a great place to get whatever it was that you wanted to get throughout the year.

Yeah. Yeah, even in our mission statement, we use European, we don't even use the word Dutch. And we focus on breaking bread together. So maybe that phrase will set me more free. Yeah. Creating that culture instead of sticking to Dutch. Tell me a little bit about breaking bread together. Where's that come in and why is that important?

Well, from about being five years of age, I wandered away from the table into the kitchen in restaurants. And so that love for food and a love for people has been from when I was about five years of age. And so that means a lot. There's more bakeries in Edmonton. And there's even more Dutch places, but I want people to come in here into my business, feel welcome, feel at home. And so that means the most. So that's what I want to stand for.

And that's what we talk about to my team all the time. So, yeah. Yeah. And is it in your mission statement? Like, how have you been intentional with that? Every weekly meeting, team meeting, we talk about it. It is on our company shirts. It, the mission statement and the core values are on the wall.

So, yeah, we've talked about that a lot. What's one thing you think maybe you could go back and do that might help you focus on breaking bread and that value and who you are at different times of the year when you're a little bit slower than you are today? We could probably market that better just to let people know the welcoming, because like you've, like you've. shared, you've seen the pictures of the food, but we could talk about that culture more and let people, let people know that we're intentional about that. I haven't ever been to your bakery, but I'm expecting, I would expect that walking in probably just feels good. Yeah.

And you feel welcome. And it's, it's not a suit Nazi situation where you're getting, you're not getting yelled at, you know, it just feels good to go there. Yeah. That's what you could, that's what you could be known for. Awesome. So thanks, Steve. Yeah, thanks, John.

Appreciate it. Likewise. If you're going to run a business, you've got to love your product, but you've got to love it so much that you allow it to change and to iterate. And that's how you run a business. What John challenged Siba on is something a lot of owners wrestle with. When your identity is tied to how you've always done it, change feels personal. At some point, you have to decide, are you protecting a preference or are you building something that can last. That shift isn't easy to see from the inside of your own head. That's why coaching

matters. If you're feeling tension between what you love and what your numbers are telling you, one of our coaches would love to help. We'll leave a link in the description for a free 30-minute consultation because strong owners don't just preserve tradition. They steward it wisely. I'm your host Dave Ramsey and this is Entree Leadership.