A fractional CFO/COO walks you through the warning signs most owners miss — and how to fix the drift before it becomes a crisis.
GROWTH PILLAR: Leadership & Ops
WHO THIS IS FOR: SMB owners / Solopreneurs / Nonprofit leaders / Leaders building systems
WHAT THEY'LL GAIN: Practical warning signs to watch for, a realistic turnaround timeline, and the financial habits that keep a business stable long before things feel broken.
Most businesses don't fail overnight. They drift, slowly, quietly, until the cash is gone and the options are few.
Diesha Cooper is the founder of Execuly and a fractional CFO/COO who embeds herself inside small businesses and nonprofits to stabilize them before — or during — crisis. She doesn't just advise and walk away. She becomes part of the team, builds the systems, and stays until the business can stand on its own.
In this episode, Diesha breaks down what actually causes a business to need a turnaround — and what owners can do right now to prevent one. She shares the warning signs that get ignored, why your financial reports can look healthy while your cash account runs dry, and how most small businesses collapse from the same small mistakes: too much debt too early, siloed bookkeeping, and no real go-to-market strategy.
She also talks about what a realistic stabilization looks like — typically three to six months to break even, another two to three to reach profitability — and what you can start doing this week to lead with clarity instead of reacting under pressure.
And because Diesha is someone who learns by doing, she shares the story behind Siplux — her microplastic-free double-walled glass travel cup — a product she launched specifically to learn marketing from the ground up.
Key topics covered:
Listener offer: Visit siplux.com and use code BERNIE for 25% off.
Connect with Diesha Cooper:
Execuly website | Execuly blog | LinkedIn — Diesha Cooper | LinkedIn — Execuly | Facebook — Execuly | Email: diesha@execuly.com
Browse all episodes: Past K4B / ETW / CGN episodes
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Bernie (00:22)
a question to the audience. How do you stop your business from quietly drifting towards crisis? Our guest will break down what actually causes businesses to need a turnaround, the actual warning signs most owners miss.
And how preventative leadership, clear financial structure, and smart operational habits keep a business stable long before things feel broken. If you want to lead with clarity instead of reacting under pressure, lean in, take notes, and listen closely. This conversation is about building a business that never needs saving. Our guest today is Diesha Cooper
From Execuly
she serves as a fractional financial and administrative officer providing embedded executive leadership to small businesses and non-for-profits. She specializes in guiding organizations through change, stabilization, and when needed turnaround.
helping leadership teams untangle on complexity, regain clarity and strong financial and operational foundations for long-term resilience. Known for a kind yet effective approach, Desha Bridges Finance, Operations and Leadership so organizations can move forward with confidence and intention. In 2025, she also launched Siplux a double-walled glass travel cup. That's basically
It's proof that disciplined execution and thoughtful design can live side by side. Nisha, it's an absolute pleasure having you here today. Welcome, and do you have a favorite quote or saying?
Diesha (01:42)
If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.
Bernie (01:44)
True. if it's, if haven't done it and it's still easy, everybody will be doing it eventually.
Diesha (01:49)
So that
Bernie (01:49)
what brought you into this work of stabilizing people's workspace and making it run smoother? It wasn't like, you know, in grade eight, I'm going to do that.
Diesha (01:59)
No, turnarounds chose me. It's kind of the way it goes, right? I have to back up and give you a little history to understand how I got into it. I a small business with my dad in the industrial space when I was 17. I ran that company in the back office. was the bookkeeper and the welder as a teenager. learned hands-on with the business and also ran the back office in
Diesha (02:02)
.
Diesha (02:23)
And I pretty much taken over that running that business for my dad after about 11 years. And we went through the massive church feud where my dad owed a lot of money to a private lender who was the leader of this organization. And church is a little loose. It's more a cult. It was, you know, one of those Christian cult situations. And my dad ended up cash stripping the business and moving out of state. ⁓
Diesha (02:29)
Yes.
it.
be right back.
it.
Diesha (02:52)
And I was 28 years old at the time. had a 20 and 22 year old brother. The three of us out of 10 kids were working in the business. And I went to his private lender and gave him my one page plan of like, here's what I'm going to do different. And I want to say this business, will you transfer all my to me?
Diesha (03:00)
and
And he looked at me
Diesha (03:12)
I was crazy and I probably wasn't. You don't know what you don't know when you're a kid and really ambitious of let's do it this wrong. If you had just listened to me, we wouldn't be here. Um, and we bought that business and I led the turnaround on that and turn it into a multi-million dollar company, highly profitable over the next seven years. Working in 40 states across the U S and industrial services. That was like the.
Diesha (03:32)
years. ⁓
Diesha (03:38)
diving in head first. as you know, young, very young person taking on a massive amount of debt, was like a fire, like under me. was like, no, there was no backing out. It was make or break.
Diesha (03:42)
I
Bernie (03:54)
Wow. So it was it a from that is it from that experience that you recognize that if you know, I think when a ship sails and you're off two degrees off course, it doesn't seem that bad, you know, in the first mile or the first kilometer. But, you know, a thousand units later, it's like that's a big difference. Is that where you learn is that where you learn the,
Diesha (04:14)
Chris.
Bernie (04:17)
you're not doing 100 % right and if you keep doing it, you're going to be still off course.
Diesha (04:21)
I would say yes in some ways, but also, you when I sold out of that business end of 2021, and then I started my own firm consulting in the fractional executive space in end of 2022. So I had like a year gap there where I took off, some consulting. And I think I have definitely learned more in the last three years as I've worked with multiple clients.
Diesha (04:39)
Thanks
Thanks
Diesha (04:48)
I would say I've tripled my knowledge in these three years than the seven years prior where I was running one business. So I think like there's a lot of different warning signs and things you're going to look for and some of it's instinct and some of it's like checklist items where you can be like, is this in place? Is this in place? a little both.
Diesha (04:59)
Thank
Bernie (05:10)
Do you have any mentors along the way that help you like a having different clients? I get that. So you're getting you're people running into different circumstances and different setups. But did you have a mentor that kind of said, OK, for you this for them that.
Diesha (05:26)
No, I do have a lot of people I consider mentors and brainstorming partners and doing Harvard's leadership program as well, which I finished one of those this year. But like just one one mentor, know, it's more like a collaborative group of people around me that I can brainstorm with and bounce ideas off of.
Diesha (05:32)
I've been
Diesha (05:50)
other consultants who've done things. Yeah.
Bernie (05:54)
Well, that's perfect, you know, actually the many hands make light work.
Diesha (05:59)
Yes, 100%.
Bernie (06:01)
So when people are starting up their business, even the ones that are smart, and that sounds kind of like I'm belittling everybody else, is there something that people, and I'm not, is there something that people typically get wrong when they ramp up? If they're totally in a greenfield circumstance, I'm going to start me a flower stand. Here I am. Is there something that they kind of ball up or follow up on?
Or are they opening a restaurant or they're manufacturing whatever the case might be.
Diesha (06:29)
I think a really, probably the most common mistake is using too much financing right out of gate. So you have somebody who has a dream, they want to start a They want to start a flower shop. It's really small businesses that have high failure rates. And they go and borrow money from friends and family because it's not stable enough for the bank to give them money. Or if the bank gives them money, it's, 50,000 maybe.
Diesha (06:40)
picture.
This is
Diesha (06:55)
And you say, you know, even the smart ones like. And we often say smart by the people with business degrees or something like that. And then you have the people who are just really great at their job and they've never run a business before. I think across the board, there is. Increased optimism when you're when you're launching a business and. They often.
Diesha (06:58)
Okay, you know.
is this.
See
you then.
Diesha (07:20)
Like CFO person is like the negative Nancy, right? You're pouring water on all of our good ideas. Like people are going to love this. People are going to buy this. We're not going to have a problem generating revenue. And then you look at, you know, go to like well-funded startups where they have to really pitch and spend a lot of work perfecting the business model to get capital in the door and they're sharing equity with that. And seeing this difference of
People think it's so easy to just go get cash. There's so much money in the world. Why can't I have a little piece of the pie? And it's the biggest complaint of small business owners. They don't have enough capital to run their business. But also 90 % of solopreneurs never even reach 100,000 in revenue in a year in the U.S. ever in their lifetime. And 86 % of all small business entities never reach 100,000.
Diesha (07:50)
Thank
⁓
So.
Diesha (08:11)
So
there's a massive failure rate for small businesses. then we see these small business owners going out of business and being just strapped with debt to their family and friends because they signed with notes to them and it was not equity infusion. They wanted to keep it all because it was going to be their future retirement, kind of thing. So say this like across the board, too optimistic. Yeah. It's what
makes us, know, entrepreneurs great is their optimism and their belief in themselves. There needs to be like a little grain of salt with that when it comes to their debt that they will have to pay off in the future.
Bernie (08:46)
I recall one time in a corporate world and the CEO is up talking to everybody in the crowd. He says, asks people why they didn't do certain things. says, well, they told us we can't. on goes the conversation. And he says, was kind of, kind of minimum do this. He says, I finally figured out who they were. And he looked over at the CFO. It's you. He did a good recovery. The money's not there.
You know, it's not there. So that's the pragmatic side.
Diesha (09:13)
Yeah.
Bernie (09:14)
what led you to found Execuly?
Diesha (09:16)
So, you when I first exited my business, I wasn't sure, you know, what the next phase was for me. I knew it was time to be done with family business. couldn't be the, the CFO at the Thanksgiving dinner table. It was just too much. to move on from that business and look for new ventures. And at first I took time off. I took like a four month sabbatical to study.
Diesha (09:22)
Thanks
It was,
Diesha (09:41)
You know those things and then I came back to work working for a consulting firm that picked me up from Chicago. Six months with them and realized I don't like giving advice and walking away. It was not high. I mean, I wouldn't say it didn't help my client. But I felt like it wasn't nearly as high impact as if I could be integrated into their business and be much more hands on and spend more time.
Diesha (09:47)
I did see.
Diesha (10:06)
inside their business, especially when it comes to mentorship of managers who need a lot of handholding and day-to-day work side by side. So during that phase, I met other people who were in the fractional executive space, which I've never heard of. And I was like, wait, you're a part-time CFO. Okay, maybe that's what I should be doing. So I quit the corporate thing after a few months and just put up my own shingle and said, you know what? I've always been a
partner in a business, why not just run my own freelance practice? I know how to structure a business. know how to run a business. I know I'm to have to do sales work to go get clients and you can do this. So I gave myself a little pep talk and launched Execuli and it's been very successful.
Bernie (10:49)
So you touched on it when you mentioned, I'm working for a consulting firm. And I go in and go, here's your advice. And now I walk away. Is that it's reactive versus preventative? are you also saying, you have a gaping hole in your strategy or your funding.
Let me, here's the advice and then let's walk through it. Is that what you're doing now in your company? It's like you're actually going, assessment, here are some solution paths, but I'm also here. Make sure you stay true.
Diesha (11:23)
Some of both, so like reactive versus preventative, think about it like patch the hole in the ship or steer the ship kind of situation. And in turnaround situations, I'm also often coming in and just fighting fires. Like it's taking on massive amount of debt. ⁓ And this is a big thing I see. It's like maybe the second most popular is that established businesses will take on debt for growth.
Diesha (11:37)
We
Diesha (11:47)
And I'm not talking about M &A, I'm talking about like, oh, we need $100,000 to push this new product with marketing campaign, or we're going to launch this new venture like inside their business and they'll go get, you know, they're small, two, three million, they'll go get half a million dollars for this growth idea. And then, you know, 2 % increase in revenue and they're just so wrapped with that. And they're on the edge of bankruptcy. This is really classic, unfortunately.
Diesha (12:15)
Bye.
Diesha (12:16)
Because again, that optimism, like really deep belief in a product or the new venture. So when I come in, first it's reactive, like we got to fix all these things. We got to get, be able to service our debt, get cash flow again, restructure people, all these things. But then at the same time, it's preventative because often these people are looking for money to bail themselves out. And it's not Rob Peter to pay Paul.
that just snowballs and snowballs. So it's also saying, we're not going to take more financing right now unless it's for inventory or it's for one of these like really key pieces, but we're not going to take funding to finance payroll or marketing efforts. Like at this point, we're going to cut back and giving them this really strong leadership that says, yes, no, yes. And being able to delineate it also
clearly explain what. Like, here's what we did in the past, here's where it got us, here's what we're going to do in the future because of that, and it's not going to be forever. This is a three-year plan, here's our five-year plan. Those are like, it's, would say, definitely a mix for me of both reactive and preventative and giving them clear guidance for future operations while also fixing massive problems.
Diesha (13:13)
care.
Yeah. ⁓
If
Bernie (13:35)
So what are the warning signs that people tend to, ah, don't worry about it, right? Just plow through it. It's almost like you're driving on a winter road, there's snow there. Ah, just drive through it. It's still a solid road. Nope, you forgot the corner and you're in the field now.
Diesha (13:51)
Cash flow. This is like the big thing. Like if you, if your financials look good and you're out of cash, there's a big problem that you don't know about. And this, this is something that I have unfortunately seen several times now. When I come in and they're like, accountants are sending us these great reports saying we're doing good, but we don't have money.
Bernie (13:54)
Yeah, go ahead.
Diesha (14:16)
We can't make payroll this week. Like what's wrong? And usually there's an accounting issue. They've, you know, put deferred revenue to sales right away or, you know, something. They've fucked up accounts receivable and, and collectibles are being held for long periods of time. Expired inventory are still in the books. It's a whole collage of things where you can be getting great reports, making decisions based on your accounting reports. And yet,
Diesha (14:26)
the chat.
Diesha (14:35)
hole
Diesha (14:42)
Cash isn't making sense and in that situation, you need to get help right away from an expert. If you're running out of cash, well, your financial reports look good, but you've got a problem.
Bernie (14:53)
Well, often do you revisit a review within a company? What I'm thinking of, obviously when things were set up, the accountant or the bookkeeper in this case is probably the bookkeeper. All they're doing is, I get A, I do B, you get C. And if you're siloed, you're not cognizant of all of a sudden, well,
you know, the product you just counted has expired. I find that happening in the fridge every once in I'm like, ah, we're not going to eat that. It's a grown hair and it's got eyes and it's winking at me. No, out you go. how often do you revisit what your process is inside that space?
Diesha (15:29)
That, early on, if we're doing a turnaround, we're constantly updating process. You know, it's like weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, you know, we're constantly looking at the process, making sure things are, we have the safety nets in place. But I also would add that I think we're seeing a lot more of this siloing.
As outsourced bookkeeping is being pushed as the way to do it. Like people hiring in-house bookkeeper accounting department or like an office manager slash bookkeeper, which was yesterday's solution to bookkeeping has just really gone down. And these outsourced bookkeepers are just soaring, right? Where they promise like, we'll do your books for 500 bucks a month, you know, and, or.
Diesha (15:58)
it.
Diesha (16:21)
thousand dollars a month, know, economy accounting. But then you get McDonald's style accounting and you're running your whole business based on those, those financial reports, right? That they're doing and they have no visibility into the backend operations of your business. And from a historical perspective, like if you're a small service based business, okay, that's not necessarily a thing.
Diesha (16:38)
you
Thank
Diesha (16:45)
When you're
a very complex business working like e-commerce with high inventory or multiple products, accounting needs to be a lot more robust and have a pretty good site into operations and understand what's going on and be connecting with fulfillment managers, things like this, to make sure what's on the floors, what's in the books. So I think that some of this is just simply our
for automation and outsourcing. And it's one of those things I think some businesses need to reconsider and bring back a house, especially once they hit that two, $3 million mark. It might be time for you to say, need to have somebody in-house that's a little more invested in this process.
Bernie (17:26)
So it also sounds like that certain parts have to be in place. Like there's a commercial realtor I deal with and he says, listen, you're going to look at a property. That's great. You want to own property, cetera. You need your mortgage broker. You need your lawyer. You need your accountant. All these components have to be in place. if it's a rental property, then you're going to need the maintenance support piece.
There's a whole building assessment, you know, what you're buying. Is it brand new or she got some miles on her in which case you might be replacing stuff like everything from the HVAC and on. What should a business have in your opinion? I'm going to start a business and then what are the other things people should think of? Okay, I need to tap these resources or have these components in place. Regardless which one you're in, whether you're a service industry or you're
of making products, widgets.
Diesha (18:17)
Any pieces of their business strategy?
Diesha (18:18)
election.
Bernie (18:21)
Yeah, yeah.
Diesha (18:22)
The biggest one missing, I will say, is usually a sales, like, go-to-market strategy. And that's the biggest thing when I walk in and I'm like, and there's, it's a turnaround situation. It's messy. There's not a, here is how we're going to generate revenue. Here's our progress the last three months. Here's how we're going to build on that. I would say that is, if you don't have a great sales strategy and marketing strategy, you don't have business.
It's like that key pillar that a lot of businesses are missing.
Bernie (18:53)
My last corporate structure, there is a non-for-profit, so a lot of components are already built in. And not coming from an accounting background, my VP of finance, is ⁓ a great guy.
He said, you're the business on a cash flow basis. How much money is in the bank? Can't do that. And this is why, right? Because you got to map everything out, et cetera. the business had a lot of components in there. So I learned by absorption of what worked. Every once in a while, I did have questions because it was attached to a hospital. they were doing finance for a health care facility.
And what I was running is a separate corp, but attached and it was not funded by the state. it generated my, there were interesting conversations that popped up every once in a while, but it was a good learning curve, right? So it helped me understand a few things.
Diesha (19:45)
I think when it comes to base structure or things like that, the thing that I love the most in the small under 20 million space is escorts that are accrual based. Because they're still passed through entities, so there's some flexibility. ⁓ But when you're accrual, you can use your accounts receivable, accounts payable to help manage tax liability and things like that.
Diesha (19:59)
.
Diesha (20:08)
So like that's my favorite, I would say that's my favorite structure.
Bernie (20:12)
Are there any resources people should be tapping into? sometimes it could be grants, because whatever you're doing, the community, the, in this case, the province here is the state or federally, they want to see more of that type of thing. Are there resources that people don't tap into? Or other benefits, tax benefits that can be instant on now or defer later?
Diesha (20:34)
In a small space, feels like, and you have micro business and small business, they say micro is under five million. Unfortunately, there's less. Now, once you get over five million, like that five to 20, now you have a lot of tax credits where you can be investing in R &D and things like that. And one of the things I actually work on is legislation. It's to help with tax incentive renewals for the small space.
Diesha (20:56)
Thank
So,
Diesha (21:01)
There's quite a bit there if you're in new products, new technology. There's less if you're in more classic Main Street business. Main Street incentives have dried up quite a bit. And then the nonprofit space is kind of taking over with some grants, but there's very high application.
volume for those grants. And there's even some large corporate grants from like AT &T or Verizon where they're out like 10, $50,000. But they're very well utilized. So it's a pretty long wait list. And it feels like the lottery. If you apply for them, you have no idea if you're going to get the grant or not. And a lot of them are also focusing on DEI. So say you're
a Caucasian male, your chance of getting that grant could be really low. You're kind of on your own, right? And it's sad that it's that way because it's not a current 25-year-old's Caucasian male. It's not his fault that men have historically gotten better funding than everyone else. But we are seeing some shift in that. So it's harder for them to get the financing. Now, it could be easier still for them at the bank.
Diesha (22:06)
you
Diesha (22:16)
I think it's a funny, it's not going to be grant funny. But I do think like every small business should be putting in grant applications because it's like buying a lottery ticket. Maybe you'll get that grant and it does cost you maybe 10 or 15 bucks to put in your hat into the ring, which also helps funds the grants going out into the community. I definitely would encourage that.
Diesha (22:37)
and I
Diesha (22:40)
And then once you get into that above five million space or even over a million, you can start playing around with federal tax credits and those things that become available to you if you're in the right industry.
Bernie (22:52)
This is kind of a segue. You know, birds of a feather tend to flock together is the adage. Do you recommend that say someone who's starting a company and get involved again, depending on the size of it and the nature of the beast, like a BIA, Business Improvement Association or business networking group. They're different ones here in Canada. And this one's in throughout the US is called TIE, the Indus entrepreneurs. They're global and
But so I'll go into this one session in 2019, I retired from one job and someone says, oh, have you ever heard? And no. And what's this all about? Right. And he was doing a presentation. That's why I went. And it seems like it was a network of mixed bag of different people in the, or on the tech sector in this particular instance. Some were in pharma, some were in, I make widgets that, you know, go glow in the dark, whatever the case might be.
Do you ever recommend someone a network and not so much to you for sales, but also to find out what's going on in the tempo in the market?
Diesha (23:54)
100%. I think, you know, you're everyone uses this little cliche thing of like, your network is your net worth. And like, there's a reason we've come up with that cliche saying, like, you have to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you people who have more experience than you. 100 % like every one of I do have about 10 coaching clients, like women who are under a million.
And one of the first things I would work with them on is, who do you know? Like get out there, become a member of a local chambers of commerce, local networking groups, get out there, put in the time, go be friendly, ask people for lunch and coffee and build a network around yourself and do some sales work, but also find, know, figure out what you don't know.
Diesha (24:33)
the
Diesha (24:44)
and then ask people to teach you. People always want to share their knowledge. It makes them look smart. It makes them feel burning nose because he runs a podcast helping people showcase their knowledge, right? And people want to come and talk about what they know. And it's the same in networking where you say, I have this problem. Like, do you know how to fix this? No, but I know somebody. Go talk to them, right? People are very generous with their time and know incredibly important.
Diesha (24:51)
it.
Diesha (25:13)
to spend that time.
Bernie (25:14)
So if someone's sitting in their company and they're kind of going, they know something's off, what are the flags they should be looking at that says, you know what, I'm have to reach out to Diesha. Because sometimes, until you actually have a true toothache, do I need a dentist? Do I really? Little ache? Not so bad? What's that dark spot on my white porcelain teeth?
What should be their trigger mechanism to get a hold you?
Diesha (25:42)
I would say lack of financial clarity, confusion, long answers from accounting that they don't understand. If they don't have their mind around the numbers, that's the big red flag. Obviously, that's like the first sign of like, I'm not making my business decisions based on financial outcomes. Okay, we need to talk because
Diesha (25:52)
.
Next. Oops.
Diesha (26:07)
That's like the first sign that there's something going wrong. The cavity lives in chaos. And before you know it, you're going to have something big that's erupting because the first sign is just shrouding it right here. And this happens with fraud cases like, ⁓ we don't know. I'm not sure. Let me get back to you.
Diesha (26:15)
Thanks
Diesha (26:29)
Oh, we can't give you a cash flow forecast because you know, if there's having a high and confusion and finance is not open on the table, we can say, let me go investigate that I'll be back to back to you tomorrow, right? Then we have a problem. And then it's like the next phase is like, where's the cash? And now we know you've progressed. So if we go from confusion to limited cash flow,
Diesha (26:52)
Thank
Diesha (26:54)
Now we're in stage two. Now we need to start bells and whistles like it's time to get help.
Diesha (26:58)
Okay.
Bernie (27:00)
So for a turnaround cycle for a typical company, that like months? Is that six months? Is that a year? Or does it depend on catastrophic situation there in the middle of?
Diesha (27:14)
That, yeah, depends on how intense it is. ⁓ but in my not so long experience having done a couple of the stabilization, it usually takes me three to six months of like, say if I'm going into like a negative, profit and loss situation. they're bleeding money, month over month on operation, you know, two to three months to get us to where we're.
breaking even another two to three to profit. Just a pretty aggressive timeline for, and it feels like it for the business where we're changing over people and changing expenses, technologies, things like that pretty rapidly. And then once we get through that first six months where we actually have profit, then it's like a stabilization. Okay, we're not gonna try and throw.
Diesha (27:52)
Okay.
Diesha (28:01)
We're just gonna try and hold the revenue and keep our profitability and cash back into the business. After that, like year, two, year and a half, then you can start thinking about how are we gonna scale this? Like start optimistic scaling, you know, carefully with the allocating small amounts of our excess cash to growth activity again. Then at first it's just like time to heal and recover, step back, take a breath, get cash flow.
Diesha (28:12)
So.
Thank you.
Diesha (28:27)
This timeline can be anywhere from that year and a half to two, three years. It really depends on the business.
Bernie (28:35)
What's the most expensive small problem you've ever seen that was ignored?
Diesha (28:39)
it's gotta be technology subscriptions.
that just month over month, 150 here, 200 there, 75 there. And suddenly we got like thousand dollars of just, no, who's using this? Oh, nobody. Oh, we have five users of this AI, whatever. And has anybody used this in the last quarter? No. Oh, but we've spent $3,000 on it. I would say the thing that bleeds you dry, it just like in your normal,
Diesha (29:03)
It's great.
Diesha (29:10)
family budget, it's the eating out, it's the little card swipes, the 30 and the $50 transaction. It's similar in business because we are very intentional about signing larger contracts and we're thinking about it and we want to get our return on investment. And then we say, oh, that's just a hundred bucks. Oh, that's just 50 bucks, you know, and they swipe our card and we sign up for subscriptions. And before you know it, you know, you're going to be a million dollar company spending 60, $70,000 just on.
Diesha (29:16)
It's very
Thank
Diesha (29:38)
subscriptions that aren't being used.
Bernie (29:40)
Death by a thousand cuts. Is there a particular vertical that you see that is in need of your services more than others? Or is it universal and it's more how new you are?
Diesha (29:41)
Yes.
I feel like I can answer that in two pieces. One is like in need of me as a person. I come with this like advanced inventory and more complex accounting ground after years in industrial sector. So the companies that are trapped like are in distress that need my skill set are going to be more in that inventory based more.
complex accounting. Those are the ones that are going to come and they're going to want to pay a premium for my service. There doesn't mean that there aren't service based businesses that never get distressed, but the cleanups a little bit easier for them. And there's a lot of consultants and fractals in the service based space. So I don't even.
Diesha (30:23)
Thanks
Diesha (30:39)
I don't actively go out and compete to bring in a distress service based business. Now, if they would come to me and ask for my help, that's fine. I tend to get them more complex. have multiple entities with more complex reporting requirements, things like that is pretty much what I end up bringing in as far as clients.
Diesha (30:48)
VOTES!
Bernie (31:02)
You know what, just as you described that, you know what, we've been focusing on just a given entity with one person or, you know, a team, not multiples. So that, could be a whole different podcast right there. Oh yeah. I've got a small herd of businesses and, uh, I'm kind of rocking the boat. Speaking of other businesses, SipLux, what's, what's the scoop on that? Tell me a story.
Diesha (31:26)
Yes. Okay. So you want to hear this story? Now I'm going to act like a kid and laugh and like talk.
Diesha (31:32)
because this is like my baby, right?
Diesha (31:33)
You saw it online, So early last year, and I'm the finance brain, that's very obvious. And it's like this certain rigid structure where yes, I educate myself, but I feel like I'm always in this like, a little bit of a straight jacket of like, there's so much compliance and complexity and like the creative side of
Diesha (31:55)
Show
some love.
Diesha (31:56)
a little
bit in being able to look at scenarios and what might happen and what's going to happen with our marketing budget. But it always feels a little stifling, if that makes sense. And I'm not complaining because it's my primary passion and my day-to-day work. But one of the things I've been finding over this consulting for years is that I don't truly understand marketing in a really deep way. And so I was thinking about going and
Diesha (32:24)
and I'll
Diesha (32:24)
taking
a class and maybe doing some marketing classes or product classes to kind of expand my knowledge and a deeper way on like human behavior, prediction, and these kinds of pieces that go into the marketing. And I started looking at different classes and I was like, 10,000 for that one, 15,000 for that one. Then I said, what if I launched a product
Diesha (32:31)
Don't forget to
Diesha (32:50)
and learn marketing on that product and spend the money to build a new business that I have to market from the ground up. And I was like, oh, well, what would you do? And I was like, well, there's this thing I've been looking for. And that is, as this middle aged woman, I'm trying to get microplastics out of diet. And when you go to the coffee shop and you buy this paper cup lined with plastic with a hot coffee, the statistics say 25 %
thousand particles of microplastic in that beverage within 10 minutes and none of us are chugging down our coffee in less than 10 minutes. It's hot. So by the time it's cool enough to drink, it's basically just infused with microplastic product. And so I've been looking for like a glass alternative and I'm well, I like a Yeti for when I'm camping. I don't
Diesha (33:26)
Right.
Diesha (33:42)
I particularly enjoy the feeling of drinking out of that thick, clunky, and it leaks on the side, and kind of situation as like, we need something better. So I started this whole product research phase and reaching out to manufacturers, explaining what I was looking for, and talking about, I want this glass top, I want this mouth feel. Anyways, collaborative design process. We now have CEPLA. So I've gone through this.
product development and discovery phase. And then I brought it to market and got my first inventory batch in August last year. then, and you see like the whole build a Shopify site and go tech platform and now social media and learn to use to create and generate social media ads and to get to its first show to pick up, you know, coffee shops that want to purchase it. So
Diesha (34:22)
didn't get it.
How do you?
Diesha (34:35)
It's on shelves now and a few boutique coffee shops. So we have some retail customers coming in. So it's been incredibly fun for me because I'm using this entirely different side of me. And I'm also in the learner seat in this. So I get to use curiosity and this piece that I just don't, unless I'm taking a course, I don't really get to sit in that seat of like, let me learn this.
and you know spending hours on my Shopify site and YouTube University of like how I do that. Oh I could do like oh let's try that and friends giving me input like my first love and they're like that's looks bad. I was like okay well Canva.
Diesha (35:06)
I can do this
Let's try again, know, re-designing the logo. That's better.
Diesha (35:19)
What do
you guys think? yeah, that's a good one. All right, we'll stick with that for now. know, just being able to play around with it and have it like this sandbox product. Also, it's a great product and people love it. And I've, everyone who has one is like, how did nobody make this before? This is amazing. So I'm having a lot of fun with it.
Diesha (35:29)
But
Bernie (35:40)
Well, Diesha, got to tell you my wife already bought one and I'm looking at it and going totally unbeknownst to me. I'm looking at it and then looking at the product that you have online, I'm going, that's the same thing. You have a special promo, by the way. What's a promo about in regards to that?
Diesha (35:57)
If you go to siplux.com, S-I-P-L-U-X dot com and use code BERNIE, you'll get 25 % off as a reward for listening to this podcast
Bernie (36:07)
Thank you so much. Now, two other quick important things. What areas do you service on this globe and how do we reach you if you're going, you know what, I need Diesha.
Diesha (36:17)
I tend to work inside the US for fractional work because I know the US tax code and things like that. And the way to reach me is either LinkedIn, I'm easy to find because I'm the only Diesha Cooper, or you can email me at Diesha at execuly.com. So either way, it's pretty easy to get my handles.
Bernie (36:36)
I want to say thank you to Diesha Cooper I really appreciate your time. And you know what? Reach out to Diesha. She's seen too many strong leaders blindsided by problems they didn't know were building up. And you you can't know all things. And sometimes you don't want to learn them the hard way either. And she decided to work upstream where small changes prevent big damage. So that's kind of a key.
Whether you're a non-for-profit or for-profit or you want to understand about the coffee cup and why the double-hulled glass container is really handy and useful, reach out to Diesha and I think you'll have a good conversation.