Crystal's Blog

I wish I could tell you that after 18 years of entrepreneurship, eight businesses, three exits, and years of helping business owners understand their finances, imposter syndrome eventually packs its b...

If I can see a way to make someone’s life easier, it is incredibly hard for me not to help. A client asks for one little thing, I know exactly how to solve it, and saying, “Sure, I can take care of th...

Would you agree that there is something incredibly uncomfortable about telling a client who trusts you that their price is going up?

Especially when you genuinely care about them.

You start thinking...

The most common phrases I hear from business owners:

“I’m sorry I’m so behind. Let me just catch it up, and then you can take over.”

“I’m so embarrassed. This is really personal to me.”

“I know jus...

Did you know that before we can talk about profit, growth, or how much revenue you want to make, you need to start with what it actually costs to run your business?

That starts with two things: COGS ...

I have spent most of my life being really good at figuring things out at the last minute.

I think a lot of entrepreneurs are like this. We’re built for chaos and procrastination. We see an opportunit...

Sunday Funday. There I was, standing ringside, watching Littlest Duck on a horse, surrounded by a world I knew absolutely NOTHING about a few years ago. And I had one of those moments. You know the on...

Grateful and hopeful today. I've had debilitating pain for more days than not over the last 2 months. Days I was so nauseous from pain, Eric had to drive Littlest Duck places while I slept. 4 days of ...

Owning a business takes a kind of grit that doesn’t get celebrated enough. You didn’t just build something from nothing. You carried it through uncertainty, fear, and seasons where there was no safety...

Five years ago, my dad was in the ICU. During that time, a client “fired” me, having absolutely no idea what I was going through. An employee negotiated her 401k benefits package, also completely in t...

If your business cannot function without you approving every expense, fixing every problem, and constantly holding everything together, you don’t own a business. You own a job. And it is probably the ...

There is a clear pattern in healthy, well-led businesses. If you retain great talent, it is not because you constantly negotiate pay, delay raises, or try to get more output for less money. You retain...