Welcome to Built by Margin, the podcast where strategy meets the spreadsheet. I'm your host, Laurie Chen fractional CFO and tax strategist, here to help you make smarter financial decisions, build a profitable business, and keep more of what you earn. Let's dive into the numbers that actually move the needle. Welcome to the very first episode of Built by Margin. I'm Laurie Chen your host, and I'm so excited that you're here. This podcast is really about building smarter businesses with financial clarity and strategy. If you're tired of guessing when it comes to your numbers, then this show is for you. I spent the last 17 years as a CPA and have spent the last six years working with founders, CEOs, and small business owners as a fractional CFO and tax strategist. When I started my business, I had no idea how many people I would impact and how much I would learn and grow along the way. Being a business owner myself has taught me so much about the game of life and the game of business. I absolutely love what I do, working with numbers and working with people to grow startups and businesses to profitability. I discovered my passion for working with startups while completing my MBA at Duke University. I worked for an EdTech startup that ended up getting acquired by a large tech company in Silicon Valley. I loved the experience of building a whole finance and accounting function from the ground up and seeing it exit for millions. Shortly after exiting, I launched Advanced Accountant, which is now known as Advanced CFO. Because we do more than just crunching numbers here, we advise clients on financial strategy, growth, and tax strategy. Advanced CFO has services in fractional CFO, tax strategy, and profit-first planning. My clients are typically startup founders, online entrepreneurs, coaches, and service-based businesses. Our clients see real impacts, real results. Whether it's saving six figures on taxes, building a scalable financial system, or helping founders sleep at night knowing their cash flow is handled and managed, we bring clarity to the chaos. We have worked with bootstrap founders and all the way up to millions of dollars of angel and VC funding. I love seeing how the numbers shape the businesses that I work with. Now, why is this podcast called Built by Margin? Well, I love numbers and I love building. Our core focuses are financial strategy, profitability, tax planning, and sustainable growth. Listeners can expect weekly episodes and expert entrepreneurs and guests. We'll talk about tax hacks, cashflow management, pricing strategy, hiring decisions, how every decision you make impacts numbers in your business. We'll break down complex topics in a way that's actually useful and clear for you, the entrepreneur and business owner. Why did I start this podcast? I saw a gap in the market. So many business podcasts talk about growth, but not enough talk about sustainable, profitable growth and really get into the numbers. My mission is to empower founders with financial confidence. This podcast will be different. We'll give you actionable insights that will be really useful for your growing business. Now we have an amazing lineup of entrepreneurs that have all been successful growing their business ventures. And we're going to dive into the common mistakes that founder make with our money. After that, we'll also talk about how to plan for taxes before tax season hits. Our first episode is gonna be Robin Penner Thiessen, and I'm so excited to share my conversation with her with you. I'd like to ask you to subscribe, leave a review, and share with other founders. Also connect with me on my website, www.advancecfo.co, and with me on Instagram, laurichencpamba. And of course, feel free to find me on LinkedIn. I'd like to leave you with a final note of encouragement. You don't have to be a financial expert in order to run a wildly profitable business. You just need the right strategies. And that's exactly what we're going to build together. Thanks for tuning in to Built by Margin. If you're ready to turn insights into income, subscribe and join me each week as we break down the numbers behind smart business growth. I'm Laurie Chen. See you next time.