She called numbers “hugely intimidating.” Working with a fractional CFO, she grew The Salt Market’s monthly profit from $19,000 to $107,000 anyway.

In this episode of The Good Food CFO Podcast, Sarah Delevan sits down with Maude Kusserow, founder and CEO of The Salt Market and Good Wolf in Bar Harbor, Maine, for a rare, in-depth look back at three years of working together - from the recipe-cost work that reset her menu & pricing, to realizing she was spending way too much on labor, to the educated gambles she takes each year to keep her business growing.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

* The weekly check-in habit that became Maude’s early-warning system, no matter how busy the season got.

* How Maude found her real product costs and what it changed about her menu & profits.

* Why Sarah refuses to make revenue projections for her clients.

* Maude’s approach to increasing revenue and expanding production.

* Why Maude calls her boldest decisions “educated gambles,” not just risks.

The recipe-cost work and weekly forecasts that got Maude here are the same tools now built into the Good Food CFO software — as the COGS Calculator, Financial Insights, and Growth Scenarios — plus free CFO Office Hours with Sarah every week. If numbers still feel hugely intimidating to you too, start at thegoodfoodcfo.com/software.

The Good Food CFO offers independent food businesses a low-cost and partnered approach to financial strategy and day-to-day financial management. Our mission is to create innovative tools and resources that provide founders critical financial insights, education and support to build profitable businesses.