Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners by Kelsa Dickey

Introduction

Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners is Specialty Area 6 from the Financial Coaching Toolkit, created by Kelsa Dickey, CEO of the Financial Coach Academy and founder of Fiscal Fitness Phoenix. With an MBA in Business, a background as a licensed financial advisor (Series 7 and Series 66), and over a decade of experience coaching business owners since 2010, Kelsa delivers a comprehensive training program specifically designed to help financial coaches guide small business owners through the complexities of managing business cash flow. This specialized toolkit contains 13 video lessons covering everything from separating business and personal finances to preparing for business emergencies and working with tax professionals.

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Here's Everything You'll Receive

Course Stats:

15 video lessons | 28 downloadable PDFs | 4 spreadsheets | 8h 56m of content | 1.87 GB total

✅ Complete Video Training Library: All 13 recorded training sessions covering cash flow planning fundamentals, revenue management strategies, business owner compensation, tax preparation, and emergency planning.

✅ Toolkit Workbook: Comprehensive PDF workbook (Toolkit Handout 6.0) containing the complete methodology and frameworks for coaching business owners through cash flow challenges.

✅ Client Worksheets and Templates: 28 PDF handouts including preparation worksheets, privacy release notices, cash flow control questions, revenue fluctuation guides, and business emergency planning documents.

✅ Interactive Spreadsheet Tools: 4 Excel client spreadsheets including the Plan Ahead Method business templates and examples, business savings tracker, prep worksheet, and investing quick sheet.

✅ Welcome Video and Orientation Materials: Introduction to the Financial Coaching Toolkit with specialty area branding materials and course navigation guidance.

> Note: This includes all recorded training content, video lessons, workbooks, client handouts, and downloadable spreadsheet tools from the Financial Coaching Toolkit – Specialty Area 6. Live coaching sessions, private community membership, and direct access to Kelsa Dickey are available exclusively through the official Financial Coach Academy program.

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What You Will Master in Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners

✅ Master the foundational principles of cash flow planning and control specifically for small business owners, enabling you to coach clients through the unique financial challenges of entrepreneurship.

✅ Guide business owners through the critical process of separating business and personal finances to create clarity and prevent the common pitfall of commingled accounts that leads to cash flow confusion.

✅ Interpret business financial statements to quickly determine your coaching focus and identify the specific cash flow issues requiring immediate attention versus long-term strategic planning.

✅ Coach business owners to pay themselves confidently using proven frameworks that balance personal income needs with business reinvestment requirements, eliminating the guilt and uncertainty around owner compensation.

✅ Navigate revenue shortfalls with your clients using systematic approaches that prioritize expenses, protect essential business functions, and maintain owner compensation during challenging periods.

✅ Implement control systems for business cash flow that prevent the “feast or famine” cycle many small business owners experience, creating predictable income patterns.

✅ Apply Kelsa's proprietary Plan Ahead Method to business cash flow management, using spreadsheet-based templates that forecast expenses and allocate revenue strategically across business and personal needs.

✅ Guide clients through the unique challenge of fluctuating revenue streams, helping them understand seasonal patterns and build cash reserves during high-income periods to sustain operations during slower months.

✅ Collaborate effectively with tax professionals on behalf of your clients using privacy release protocols and communication frameworks that ensure coordinated financial guidance.

✅ Establish organizing strategies for business owners that simplify bookkeeping, receipt management, and financial documentation, reducing the overwhelm that prevents many entrepreneurs from maintaining cash flow visibility.

✅ Coach business owners on investing and saving for the future using business savings trackers and investment worksheets tailored to entrepreneurial income patterns and risk profiles.

✅ Prepare clients for business emergencies by creating financial contingency plans that protect both the business and the owner's personal financial stability during unexpected disruptions.

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Who Is This Course For?

• Financial Coaches Expanding Into Business Coaching — You've successfully coached personal finance clients but want to serve the growing market of entrepreneurs and small business owners who struggle with cash flow management. This toolkit gives you the specialized frameworks and client worksheets needed to confidently coach business finances without crossing into accounting or financial planning territory.

• Accountants and Bookkeepers Adding Coaching Services — You handle the numbers for small business clients but see them repeatedly making the same cash flow mistakes despite accurate financial statements. You need coaching methodologies that complement your technical services, helping clients understand their numbers and make better financial decisions between your quarterly meetings.

• Career Changers From Corporate Finance — You spent years as a financial advisor, corporate accountant, or business analyst and want to launch a coaching business serving entrepreneurs. This program translates your technical knowledge into a coaching framework, teaching you how to guide rather than advise, and how to work with business owners' emotional money relationships.

• Established Business Coaches Lacking Financial Expertise — You coach entrepreneurs on strategy, operations, or marketing but repeatedly encounter clients whose business growth is blocked by cash flow chaos. You need practical tools to help clients achieve basic financial stability without becoming their accountant or requiring extensive financial education yourself.

• Solo Practitioners Serving Entrepreneur Clients — You're a therapist, life coach, or consultant working with business owners who consistently report financial stress as their primary concern. This toolkit gives you concrete financial coaching tools to integrate into your existing practice, addressing the money anxiety that underlies many of your clients' presenting issues.

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A Lesson-by-Lesson Breakdown of the Curriculum

Module 6.1: Introduction to Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners

Duration: 2m 4s

This opening lesson establishes the foundation for Specialty Area 6 of the Financial Coaching Toolkit, introducing the unique challenges of coaching small business owners on cash flow management. Kelsa outlines the key competencies financial coaches need to guide entrepreneurial clients and previews the 13-lesson curriculum structure.

• Lesson 6.1: Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners
• Resources: Toolkit Workbook (Handout 6.0 – complete methodology guide)

Module 6.2: Separating Business and Personal Finances to Create Clarity

Duration: 50m 12s

Learn the fundamental principle of financial clarity for business owners: complete separation between business and personal accounts. This lesson teaches you how to coach clients through setting up proper account structures, transitioning from commingled finances, and maintaining boundaries that enable accurate cash flow tracking.

• Lesson 6.2: Separating Business and Personal Finances to Create Clarity
• Resources: Prep Worksheet Client Spreadsheet (Handout 6.2a)

Module 6.3: Interpreting the Finances to Determine Your Coaching Focus

Duration: 25m 39s

Discover how to quickly analyze a business owner's financial situation to identify the highest-impact coaching priorities. This lesson provides a systematic approach to reviewing profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow patterns to determine whether your focus should be on revenue generation, expense control, owner compensation, or emergency planning.

• Lesson 6.3: Interpreting the Finances to Determine Your Coaching Focus
• Resources: Interpreting the Finances guide (Handout 6.3)

Module 6.4: Helping Business Owners Pay Themselves Confidently

Duration: 40m 10s

Master the sensitive topic of owner compensation with proven frameworks for determining appropriate pay levels. This lesson addresses the common guilt, confusion, and inconsistency around business owner salaries, teaching you how to coach clients to establish regular, sustainable personal income from their business while maintaining adequate cash reserves.

• Lesson 6.4: Helping Business Owners Pay Themselves Confidently
• Resources: Helping Business Owners Pay Themselves Confidently guide (Handout 6.4)

Module 6.5: Navigating a Revenue Shortfall

Duration: 48m 0s

Develop crisis management skills for coaching clients through revenue downturns. This critical lesson provides step-by-step protocols for prioritizing expenses, making strategic cuts, communicating with vendors and creditors, and protecting essential business functions when income drops unexpectedly.

• Lesson 6.5: Navigating a Revenue Shortfall
• Resources: Navigating a Revenue Shortfall guide (Handout 6.5)

Module 6.6: Controlling a Business Cash Flow

Duration: 57m 2s

Learn the questioning frameworks that help business owners gain control over chaotic cash flow. This lesson teaches you how to guide discovery conversations that reveal spending patterns, identify leak points, and uncover the behavioral and systemic issues preventing clients from maintaining positive cash flow.

• Lesson 6.6: Controlling a Business Cash Flow
• Resources: Questions to Help Control a Business Cash Flow (Handout 6.6)

Module 6.7: Using the Plan Ahead Method to Control Business Cash Flow

Duration: 47m 1s

Discover Kelsa's proprietary Plan Ahead Method adapted specifically for business cash flow management. This lesson introduces spreadsheet-based forecasting tools that help business owners allocate revenue across multiple time periods, plan for irregular expenses, and eliminate the stress of wondering whether they can afford upcoming costs.

• Lesson 6.7: Using the Plan Ahead Method to Control Business Cash Flow
• Resources: Plan Ahead Method Business Templates Client Spreadsheet (Handout 6.7a), Plan Ahead Method Business Examples Client Spreadsheet (Handout 6.7b)

Module 6.8: Coaching on Planning Ahead as a Business Owner

Duration: 38m 21s

Master the coaching conversations and behavioral change techniques that help business owners consistently implement the Plan Ahead Method. This lesson addresses the resistance, overwhelm, and avoidance patterns that prevent entrepreneurs from planning ahead, giving you scripts and strategies to support sustainable habit change.

• Lesson 6.8: Coaching on Planning Ahead as a Business Owner
• Resources: Business Savings Tracker Example Client Spreadsheet (Handout 6.8a)

Module 6.9: Helping a Client Understand Their Fluctuating Revenue

Duration: 33m 23s

Develop specialized skills for coaching clients with variable income patterns. This lesson teaches you how to help business owners identify seasonal trends, calculate average monthly income, build cash reserves during high-revenue periods, and maintain financial stability despite unpredictable income streams.

• Lesson 6.9: Helping a Client Understand Their Fluctuating Revenue
• Resources: Helping a Client Understand Their Fluctuating Revenue guide (Handout 6.9)

Module 6.10: Working With Tax Professionals

Duration: 30m 10s

Learn the protocols for collaborating with your clients' CPAs, tax preparers, and accountants. This lesson covers privacy releases, appropriate communication boundaries, how to coordinate coaching with tax planning, and when to refer clients for specialized tax advice beyond your coaching scope.

• Lesson 6.10: Working With Tax Professionals
• Resources: Working With Tax Professionals guide (Handout 6.10), Privacy Release Notice Client Worksheet (Handout 6.10a)

Module 6.11: Organizing Strategies for Business Owners

Duration: 15m 32s

Master the practical systems that prevent financial chaos for busy entrepreneurs. This lesson provides simple organizing frameworks for receipts, invoices, financial documents, and bookkeeping that even the most disorganized business owner can maintain, creating the foundation for effective cash flow management.

• Lesson 6.11: Organizing Strategies for Business Owners
• Resources: Organizing Strategies for Business Owners guide (Handout 6.11)

Module 6.12: Helping a Business Owner Save for the Future

Duration: 1h 9m 33s

Explore investment and retirement planning specifically for entrepreneurs with irregular income. This comprehensive lesson covers business owner retirement account options, investment strategies for variable cash flow, balancing business reinvestment with personal wealth building, and coaching clients to prioritize long-term security alongside business growth.

• Lesson 6.12: Helping a Business Owner Save for the Future
• Resources: Coaching on Investing guide (Handout 6.12), Investing Quick Sheet Client Worksheet (Handout 6.12a)

Module 6.13: Preparing for Business Emergencies

Duration: 38m 26s

Develop emergency preparedness frameworks for business owners facing potential disruptions. This final lesson teaches you how to coach clients through creating business continuity plans, establishing adequate emergency reserves, protecting personal finances from business failures, and maintaining resilience during economic downturns or personal crises.

• Lesson 6.13: Preparing for Business Emergencies
• Resources: Preparing for Business Emergencies guide (Handout 6.13)

Bonus: Financial Coaching Toolkit Welcome Video

Duration: 23m 23s

Orientation to the complete Financial Coaching Toolkit program structure, how to navigate the specialty areas, and how to integrate these tools into your financial coaching practice.

Bonus: Toolkit Quick Reference Materials

Additional resources included throughout the program:

• Toolkit Seal graphics (white and transparent versions) for professional branding
• Multiple archived reference pages from the Financial Coach Academy platform for offline access

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Included Bonus Materials to Accelerate Your Results

✅ Complete Toolkit Workbook (PDF) — The comprehensive 2.7 MB workbook containing all frameworks, methodologies, and coaching scripts for Specialty Area 6, serving as your reference guide for every client situation you'll encounter.

✅ 13 Client-Ready Handout PDFs — Pre-formatted educational materials you can provide directly to business owner clients, covering topics from revenue shortfalls to business emergencies, saving you hours of content creation.

✅ 4 Interactive Excel Spreadsheets — Plug-and-play client tools including the Plan Ahead Method templates, business savings trackers, and investment worksheets that your clients can immediately implement.

✅ Privacy Release Notice Template — Legal documentation for collaborating with clients' tax professionals and accountants, ensuring compliant three-way communication.

✅ Financial Coach Academy Platform Archive Pages — Saved reference materials from the original course platform for offline access to all toolkit resources.

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About Your Instructor: Kelsa Dickey

Kelsa Dickey is the CEO and founder of the Financial Coach Academy, the leading training program for financial coaches worldwide, which she launched in 2016 after successfully coaching hundreds of individual clients. She is also the founder of Fiscal Fitness Phoenix, the financial coaching practice she started in 2010 after walking away from her corporate career and financial planning licenses.

Educational Background:

✅ Bachelor's degree in Personal Finance with a minor in Economics from Central Michigan University

✅ Master's degree in Accounting (MBA in Business) from the University of Phoenix (2005-2006)

Key Credentials & Accomplishments:

✅ Former licensed financial advisor holding Series 7 and Series 66 securities certifications, plus Health, Life, and Disability insurance licenses — credentials she voluntarily surrendered to focus exclusively on coaching rather than selling financial products

✅ 7 years of experience as a financial advisor and corporate accountant before transitioning to financial coaching in 2010

✅ Creator of the SpendFirst method, a personal finance management system now used by thousands of people and adopted by hundreds of other money coaches, financial planners, and personal finance experts

✅ Author of The Financial Coaching Playbook — the definitive guide to starting and running a financial coaching business

✅ Host of The Financial Coach Academy Podcast, a weekly educational podcast teaching financial professionals how to create and grow profitable coaching businesses

✅ Founder of the Financial Coaches Unite Facebook group, which has grown to thousands of members across the globe providing community support for practicing financial coaches

✅ Featured financial expert providing money insights for USA Today, CNN Money, Yahoo, and MSN Money

✅ Successfully paid off $32,000 in student loans, eliminated car payments and credit card debt, and achieved financial milestones including purchasing a lake home in Michigan and becoming a snowbird at age 41

✅ Built Fiscal Fitness Phoenix to a level that enabled her spouse Michael to retire from his Physical Therapy career, demonstrating the business success principles she teaches

✅ Has trained hundreds of financial coaches through the Financial Coach Academy online course, creating a global network of certified practitioners using her methodologies

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What Problems Does Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners Solve?

“I work with business owner clients but feel unqualified to coach them on their business finances” — This toolkit gives you the specialized frameworks, vocabulary, and client worksheets needed to confidently guide business owners through cash flow challenges without requiring an accounting degree or crossing into CPA territory.

“My business owner clients keep making the same cash flow mistakes despite having accurate bookkeeping” — Module 6.3 teaches you how to interpret financial statements to identify the behavioral and systemic issues behind cash flow problems, enabling you to coach the person rather than just analyzing the numbers.

“I don't know how to help clients who never know if they can afford to pay themselves” — Module 6.4 provides proven frameworks for determining appropriate owner compensation levels that balance personal income needs with business sustainability, eliminating the guilt and guesswork around business owner salaries.

“My entrepreneur clients panic every time revenue drops and I don't have tools to help them” — Module 6.5 delivers step-by-step crisis protocols for navigating revenue shortfalls, including expense prioritization systems, vendor communication scripts, and decision frameworks that reduce panic and enable strategic action.

“I need practical tools for clients with wildly fluctuating income who can't maintain consistent cash flow” — Module 6.9 specifically addresses variable revenue patterns, teaching you how to help clients identify seasonal trends, calculate usable averages, and build reserves during high-income periods to sustain operations year-round.

“Business owners come to me with complete financial chaos and I don't know where to start” — The toolkit provides a systematic diagnostic approach (Module 6.3) that quickly identifies whether your focus should be on organizing systems, owner compensation, expense control, or emergency planning, preventing overwhelm for both coach and client.

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What Makes Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners Different

• Coaching-Specific Methodology vs Technical Training — Unlike business finance courses designed for entrepreneurs themselves, this program trains coaches on how to guide, question, and support behavioral change in business owner clients, providing conversation frameworks and client worksheets rather than just financial education.

• The Proprietary Plan Ahead Method for Business — Kelsa's signature cash flow system adapted specifically for business finances, using spreadsheet-based forecasting that helps entrepreneurs allocate irregular income across multiple time periods and expense categories without requiring complex accounting software.

• Built by a Former Financial Advisor Who Walked Away — Kelsa voluntarily surrendered valuable securities and insurance licenses to focus exclusively on coaching rather than product sales, giving her unique credibility in teaching coaches how to serve clients powerfully without crossing into financial planning or accounting scope.

• Complete Client-Ready Materials Included — Every lesson includes pre-formatted handouts, worksheets, and spreadsheet tools you can immediately provide to clients, eliminating the need to create your own materials and ensuring proven frameworks rather than untested approaches.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners

What is Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners about?

Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners is Specialty Area 6 from the Financial Coaching Toolkit, created by Financial Coach Academy founder Kelsa Dickey. This specialized training program teaches financial coaches how to guide small business owner clients through the unique challenges of business cash flow management, including separating business and personal finances, navigating revenue fluctuations, determining owner compensation, and preparing for business emergencies.

Who created Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners?

This course was created by Kelsa Dickey, CEO of the Financial Coach Academy and founder of Fiscal Fitness Phoenix. Kelsa holds an MBA in Business and a Bachelor's degree in Personal Finance, spent 7 years as a licensed financial advisor (Series 7 and Series 66), and has coached financial professionals and individual clients since 2010. She is the author of The Financial Coaching Playbook and creator of the SpendFirst method used by thousands of people worldwide.

What is included in Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners?

The course includes 15 video lessons totaling 8 hours and 56 minutes of training content, 28 downloadable PDF handouts and worksheets, 4 Excel spreadsheet tools for clients, and 2 branding images. Specific components include the complete Toolkit Workbook, all 13 specialty area training videos (modules 6.1 through 6.13), client worksheets for revenue shortfalls, owner compensation, tax professional collaboration, the Plan Ahead Method business templates and examples, business savings trackers, and investing quick sheets. Total download size is 1.87 GB.

Who is Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners best suited for?

This program is ideal for financial coaches expanding into business coaching, accountants and bookkeepers adding coaching services to complement their technical work, career changers from corporate finance or financial advisory roles launching coaching practices, established business coaches lacking financial expertise, and solo practitioners (therapists, life coaches, consultants) serving entrepreneur clients who need practical tools for addressing clients' financial stress.

What will I learn in Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners?

You'll learn how to coach business owners to separate business and personal finances for clarity, interpret financial statements to determine coaching priorities, help clients pay themselves confidently using proven frameworks, navigate revenue shortfalls with crisis protocols, control chaotic cash flow through questioning techniques, implement Kelsa's proprietary Plan Ahead Method for business forecasting, manage fluctuating revenue patterns, collaborate with tax professionals using proper protocols, establish organizing systems for financial documents, guide investment and savings strategies for entrepreneurs, and prepare comprehensive business emergency plans.

What format is Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners delivered in?

The course is delivered as downloadable digital files including 15 video lessons in .ts and .mp4 formats totaling 8 hours and 56 minutes of content, 28 PDF documents containing handouts and worksheets, 4 Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx format) with client tools and templates, and 2 JPG branding images. Total download size is 1.87 GB. All materials are provided for offline access and can be used repeatedly with clients.

Does Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners include any bonus materials?

Yes, the course includes several bonus materials beyond the core 13 training modules: the Financial Coaching Toolkit Welcome Video (23 minutes) providing orientation to the complete toolkit structure, the comprehensive Toolkit Workbook (Handout 6.0) containing all frameworks and methodologies in a 2.7 MB PDF, Toolkit Seal branding graphics in both white and transparent versions for professional use, and archived Financial Coach Academy platform pages for offline reference access to all specialty area resources.

What is Kelsa Dickey known for?

Kelsa Dickey is known as the founder and CEO of the Financial Coach Academy, the leading training program for financial coaches that has trained hundreds of practitioners globally since 2016. She is recognized for creating the SpendFirst method used by thousands of people and hundreds of financial professionals, authoring The Financial Coaching Playbook, hosting The Financial Coach Academy Podcast, and founding the Financial Coaches Unite Facebook group. She has been featured as a financial expert on USA Today, CNN Money, Yahoo, and MSN Money, and is known for voluntarily walking away from her financial planning licenses to focus exclusively on coaching rather than product sales.

How is Cash Flow Planning and Control for Small Business Owners different from other business finance courses?

Unlike courses that teach business owners how to manage their own finances, this program trains coaches on how to guide business owner clients through behavioral change and implementation. It provides coaching-specific frameworks including questioning techniques, client conversation scripts, and facilitation methods rather than just financial education. The course includes Kelsa's proprietary Plan Ahead Method adapted specifically for business cash flow, complete client-ready materials (eliminating material creation time), and was built by a former financial advisor who understands the critical boundaries between coaching, financial planning, and accounting services.

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Sources:

• Kelsa Dickey | Financial Coach Academy CEO
• Kelsa Dickey – Financial Coach Academy | LinkedIn
• The Financial Coaching Playbook: How to Easily Launch & Grow Your Coaching Business
• Listen to the Financial Coach Academy Podcast
• Kelsa Dickey | Money Coach & CEO | Fiscal Fitness PHX