Libsyn Directory

Ep 296 Simple Numbers, Big Profits with Greg Crabtree: How to Scale Without Debt or Chaos

Profit Answer Man: Scaling with Profit First & Beyond

Release Date: 11/12/2025

Ep 314 From High Revenue to High Profit: The Missing Piece in Your Business with Chris Hallberg, EOS

Profit Answer Man: Scaling with Profit First & Beyond

From High Revenue to High Profit: The Missing Piece in Your Business with Chris Hallberg, EOS Find Rocky Lalvani @   or email him at  Make more, work less video: Hire a Green Beret: Why Veterans Transform Your Business In this episode, Rocky Lalvani sits down with Chris Hallberg, ranked #9 on Inc. Magazine's Top 50 Leadership & Management Experts, to discuss why hiring the right people and implementing disciplined systems are the real keys to building a profitable business. Chris shares insights from his...

Ep 313 Numbers Don't Lie- Why Your Finances Are Your Best Strategy with Nate Littlewood

Profit Answer Man: Scaling with Profit First & Beyond

Numbers Don't Lie- Why Your Finances Are Your Best Strategy with Nate Littlewood Find Rocky Lalvani @  or email him at  Make more work less video: From Denial to Enlightenment: The 4 Stages of Financial Mindset In this episode, Rocky Lalvani sits down with Nate Littlewood, founder of Future Ready CFO, to explore why 80% of business owners avoid their finances and how to break free from that pattern. They discuss the psychological barriers to financial engagement, the framework for moving from denial to enlightenment, and why your...

Ep 312 Why Your Business Is Always Short on Cash (Even When You’re Busy)with John Scott

Profit Answer Man: Scaling with Profit First & Beyond

Why Your Business Is Always Short on Cash (Even When You’re Busy)with John Scott Find Rocky Lalvani @   or email him at  Make more, work less video: Your business is busy. Revenue is coming in. The team is working hard. So why does cash still feel tight? In this episode of Profit Answer Man, Rocky Lalvani sits down with John Scott, Partner at Anders and leader of their Virtual CFO services for law firms, to unpack why profitable businesses still struggle with cash flow. This conversation goes beyond theory....

Ep 311 Become a Pattern Hunter: Own Your Revenue or Remove the Chaos, Grow Your Profit with Rion Westfall

Profit Answer Man: Scaling with Profit First & Beyond

Become a Pattern Hunter: Own Your Revenue or Remove the Chaos, Grow Your Profit with Rion Westfall Find Rocky Lalvani @ or email him at Feeling busy but the business isn’t getting more profitable? In this episode, Rocky sits down with Rion Westfall, founder of the Own Your Revenue program, to break down why most SMBs struggle to scale, and how to fix it with systems, SOPs, and a healthier definition of accountability. You’ll hear practical frameworks to reduce chaos, get your team engaged (without micromanaging), and...

Ep 310 From Chaos to Control: Simple Systems That Actually Scale with Tim Martinez

Profit Answer Man: Scaling with Profit First & Beyond

From Chaos to Control: Simple Systems That Actually Scale with Tim Martinez Find Rocky Lalvani @ or email him at If your business feels like it’s growing… but also getting messier, heavier, and more dependent on you, this conversation will hit home. Rocky Lalvani sits down with Tim Martinez, a seasoned operator and advisor with 20+ years of experience helping founders, CEOs, and executive teams build companies that actually scale. Tim has worked across software, media, retail, gaming, and finance, and he’s also owned,...

Ep 309 How to Scale a Business Without Killing Profit and Cash Flow with Aaron Trahan

Profit Answer Man: Scaling with Profit First & Beyond

How to Scale a Business Without Killing Profit and Cash Flow with Aaron Trahan Find Rocky Lalvani @ or email him at Most businesses don’t fail because they can’t grow; they fail because growth exposes weak priorities, sloppy execution, and fragile cash flow. In this episode, Rocky Lalvani talks with Aaron Trahan about why revenue can be a “vanity metric,” how companies “grow into insolvency,” and what to install so scaling improves profit and cash not just topline numbers. Rocky Lalvani interviews Aaron Trahan, a seasoned...

Ep 308 Contractor Cash Flow Fix — The 4 Numbers Every Subcontractor Must Track with Dustin Young

Profit Answer Man: Scaling with Profit First & Beyond

Contractor Cash Flow Fix — The 4 Numbers Every Subcontractor Must Track with Dustin Young Find Rocky Lalvani @ or email him at Pay-When-Paid Cash Flow: How Subcontractors Survive Long Payment Terms Subcontractors and GCs don’t usually go broke because they don’t have work—they go broke because cash timing, contract terms, and decision-making lag quietly squeeze them until payroll becomes a crisis. In this episode, Rocky Lalvani sits down with Dustin Young, a fractional CFO who works specifically with...

Ep 307 Outgrowing Your Team: The Loyal “Mike” Problem Every Business Owner Faces with Kurt Wilkin

Profit Answer Man: Scaling with Profit First & Beyond

Outgrowing Your Team: The Loyal “Mike” Problem Every Business Owner Faces with Kurt Wilkin Find Rocky Lalvani @ or email him at “Every growing business has a ‘Mike’—the loyal early employee who quietly becomes your biggest bottleneck.” Most entrepreneurs don’t fail because they lack hustle. They get stuck because the team that got them here… can’t get them there. In this episode of Profit Answer Man, Rocky Lalvani talks with Kurt Wilkin—entrepreneur, former founder of HireBetter (a recruiting...

Ep 306 Hourly Billing Is Nuts: How to Boost Profits with Value Pricing with Jonathan Stark

Profit Answer Man: Scaling with Profit First & Beyond

Hourly Billing Is Nuts: How to Boost Profits with Value Pricing with Jonathan Stark Find Rocky Lalvani @ or email him at Most business owners don’t realize the hidden cost of hourly billing. It’s not just that it can feel annoying. It’s that it can cap your income, misalign incentives, and create friction and distrust with clients—especially when estimates blow up. In this episode of Profit Answer Man, Rocky Lalvani sits down with Jonathan Stark, former software developer and author of Hourly...

Ep 305 Mid 8-Figure Exit Lessons: How to Avoid Millions in Taxes and Regret After the Sale with Nathan Collins

Profit Answer Man: Scaling with Profit First & Beyond

Mid 8-Figure Exit Lessons: How to Avoid Millions in Taxes and Regret After the Sale with Nathan Collins Find Rocky Lalvani @ or email him at Most business owners think the hardest part of selling a business is the deal. But the real danger often shows up after the sale: the taxes you didn’t plan for and the identity shift you didn’t expect In this episode of Profit Answer Man, Rocky Lalvani sits down with , a former CEO who sold his business for a mid-eight-figure exit—and then realized he wasn’t personally...

More Episodes

Simple Numbers, Big Profits with Greg Crabtree: How to Scale Without Debt or Chaos

Most business owners chase revenue—and lose sight of profit. In this episode of Profit Answer Man, Rocky Lalvani sits down with Greg Crabtree, author of Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits, to cut through the noise and talk about what really drives a successful business. A self-described “recovering accountant,” Greg shares how data—not opinions—can transform how entrepreneurs see their numbers, make decisions, and grow sustainably.

If you’ve ever felt like your financial reports are confusing or your growth isn’t showing up in profit, this conversation will show you exactly where to look and what to fix.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

Why accounting data is often misleading—and how to use “simple numbers” instead.
How to measure labor efficiency so your team drives profit, not just revenue.
The power of gross margin as the real top line of your business.
Why debt-free growth is possible with strong cash discipline.
What Greg’s 100-company study reveals about the real state of today’s economy.

Key Takeaways:

Gross Margin is King – Stop paying attention to revenue. Profit lives in the margin.
Know Your Labor Efficiency Ratio – Every $1 in labor should create $2 in gross margin.
Cash is a Strategy – Keep two months of operating expenses in the bank—your safety net for growth.
The Economy is Shifting – Growth won’t come from the market; it’ll come from taking share from weaker competitors.
Simplify Your Dashboard – If a number doesn’t drive a decision, take it off the report.

Bio:

Greg Crabtree, speaker, author, entrepreneur and financial expert. Greg founded his own firm Crabtree, Rowe and Berger to focus on helping entrepreneurs build their economic engine. After being named to the INC 5000 list for 2019, Greg’s firm merged with Carr, Riggs & Ingram CPA’s and Advisors, a top 20 U.S. Accounting firm to help broaden their impact on the entrepreneur community. Greg serves as the Partner in Charge of the Simple Numbers Consulting unit.

In 2011, Greg’s first book “Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits” shares his core principles of how to turn your business into a wealth building engine. In 2014, Greg contributed a chapter to Verne Harnish’s book, “Scaling Up” on how to improve profits though labor efficiency. In 2020, Greg released his newest book, “Simple Numbers 2.0: Rules for Smart Scaling”. Greg is a frequent speaker to groups like EO, Scaling Up (Gazelles), Metronomics, Bloom Growth, Vistage, ACETECH and many Mastermind groups and has presented in over 15 countries.

Greg also chairs the EO@Wharton Executive Education program for the last 7 years and serves as an EO Accelerator trainer since inception of the Accelerator program.

Both books are available on Amazon, Kindle and Audible.

Links:

Simple Numbers - https://www.simplenumberscri.com/

Greg Speaking - https://gregcrabtree.net/

Conclusion:

Greg Crabtree reminds us that business success isn’t about how much you sell—it’s about how efficiently you turn effort into profit. The future belongs to entrepreneurs who understand their numbers, make decisions from data, and lead with discipline. As Greg says, “You don’t need more data—you need the right data.”

Whether you’re running a $1M or $10M business, this episode will help you stop guessing, start measuring, and finally take control of your profits.

#ProfitFirst #SimpleNumbers #GregCrabtree #BusinessProfitability #CashFlow #Entrepreneurship #FinancialClarity #FractionalCFO #ProfitAnswerMan #SmallBusinessFinance #GrossMargin #BusinessGrowth #CashManagement #LaborEfficiency #ProfitabilityMatters

Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@profitanswerman

Profit First Toolkit: https://lp.profitcomesfirst.com/landing-page-page

Relay Bank (affiliate link): https://relayfi.com/?referralcode=profitcomesfirst

Profit Answer Man Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/profitanswerman/

My podcast about living a richer more meaningful life: http://richersoul.com/

Music provided by Junan from Junan Podcast

Any financial advice is for educational purposes only and you should consult with an expert for your specific needs.

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