Private cohort · January 2027 · Seven spots
The Fluent Founder.
Revenue is up. So why is the bank balance down?
A small, live 12-week decision cohort for established owners who want to understand what growth is really doing to their cash — and make the next decision from evidence, not instinct.
One-time payment · USD · No subscription · Seven owners, then the door closes
Chantal Schutz · CPA, CA
The part nobody says out loud
You're not bad at numbers. Your business outgrew the way you've been reading them.
When the business was smaller, you knew it by feel. You knew a good week from a bad one, you knew when to push and when to hold, and the bank account told you enough to keep moving.
That version of knowing doesn't scale with you. It isn't a character flaw and it isn't a math problem. The business got bigger than the way you were reading it — and nobody sat down with you to teach you the new way.
You check the account less than you used to, not more.
You can say last month's revenue with confidence. You can't say last month's profit.
You've made a hire or a buy on a feeling, then watched the next three months to find out whether it was right.
You have reports. You don't have a read.
Why this happens
A business can look stronger while becoming harder to read.
Revenue rises. The team grows. More locations, inventory, payroll and complexity follow. Nothing broke — the picture simply stopped holding together. Where cash is going, which parts of the business are earning their keep, and whether the next hire or expansion is supportable all get a little less visible at exactly the moment the decisions get bigger.
The reports didn't get worse
They got further from the decision. More lines, more entities, more lag between what happened and what you see.
Profit and cash split apart
A month can look excellent on paper and leave you short. Both things are true at once, and that is the part nobody warns you about.
The room gets quieter
Everyone else in the business has an opinion about the number they can see. Only you are carrying the whole picture.
What waiting costs
The expensive part isn't the wrong decision. It's making it twice.
Most owners don't lose a quarter to a bad call. They lose it to a call made on instinct, then quietly re-made six months later when the first one didn't work — and to the decision they never made at all because the evidence was never clear enough to move on.
This cohort exists to shorten that loop. One real decision, read properly, tested honestly, turned into a plan you can actually run.
The approach
This is not a course in becoming an accountant.
It is a guided working experience with your own business in front of you. You start with a decision you are actually carrying, learn to read the evidence around it, test the choice properly, and leave with a plan and a rhythm you can keep.
Start with a real decision
Not a syllabus. The hire, the price change, the second location, the inventory buy — the one already sitting with you.
Read the evidence you already produce
Income statement, balance sheet and cash flow together, in plain language, pointed at your question.
Test the choice properly
Assumptions, trade-offs, capacity, downside, and what would have to be true for this to work.
Turn judgment into action
A ninety-day plan, the few measures worth watching, and a weekly review you can hold onto in a busy quarter.
The 12-week experience
See clearly. Judge wisely. Lead the next quarter.
See the business
Weeks 1–3
Read the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow together. Establish your starting point, data gaps, and priority decision.
Trace cash & profit
Weeks 4–6
Understand collections, inventory, supplier terms, payroll, margins, and location or line differences where they matter.
Judge the choices
Weeks 7–9
Test your options. Examine assumptions, trade-offs, capacity, downside, and the evidence behind the decision.
Lead what comes next
Weeks 10–12
Turn judgment into action with a 90-day plan, practical measures, and a review rhythm you can sustain.
Week by week
Start with the decision
Name the live choice, what you know, and the evidence you're missing.
Balance sheet first
See what the business owns, owes, and has tied up.
Read growth through the P&L
Test whether growth is improving the economics or only increasing activity.
Follow the cash cycle
Trace where cash is delayed or absorbed.
Look ahead at cash
Build a 13-week view and find the pressure points before they arrive.
Find where contribution differs
Compare products, services, customers, or locations at the right level.
Connect results to operations
Choose the few operating signals that actually explain the result.
Test a live business choice
Compare what a hire, price change, purchase, or expansion would really do.
Weigh capital and capacity
Make the trade-offs explicit instead of feeling them.
Notice the pressure in the room
Look at what happens when the evidence conflicts with the story you'd prefer.
Make the decision clear
Set out the evidence, assumptions, options, and the decision itself.
Lead the next quarter
Turn the decision into a 90-day plan and a review rhythm you keep.
What you leave with
Something you can hold the following Monday.
A clearer operating picture
A prioritized next-quarter decision plan
Completed leadership tools
A practical weekly review rhythm
Included with your place
Two private sessions to make the cohort deeply yours.
Before the mastermind
A private 2-hour planning session with Chantal to identify the decision you most need to carry into the cohort.
The live cohort
Twelve weeks of live sessions, practical tools, and structured work grounded in your business.
After the mastermind
A private 2-hour integration session with Chantal to turn your insight into the next-quarter plan.
Two private two-hour sessions with a CPA, CA and former CFO — taken on their own, would cost more than the full twelve weeks. They're included because the cohort is only useful if the work is specific to your business.
Private numbers. Shared wisdom.
You will never be asked to present your financials to the room.
You work with your real numbers, privately, with Chantal. The group works on decisions, patterns, and the leadership pressure that makes clear evidence hard to act on. Nobody is asked to prove how well they are doing, and nobody is given advice they didn't ask for.
Your figures stay between you and Chantal.
Group conversations use decisions and patterns, not your numbers.
There is no cold-calling, no exposure, no performance.
You can pass in any session, without explanation.
Is this you?
Seven spots means some of you shouldn't take one.
This is built for you if
- You've been in business long enough that the problem isn't survival — it's judgment.
- You're carrying one real decision and you'd rather settle it with evidence.
- You want to understand your numbers well enough to disagree intelligently with your accountant.
- You can commit a few hours a week for twelve weeks, and show up.
- You'd rather be told something uncomfortable early than find it out late.
It isn't the right use of your money if
- You want a passive course you can leave half-finished in a library.
- You want someone to hand you the answer without doing the work on your own business.
- You'd rather have your books done for you than learn to read them — that's bookkeeping, and we do that too.
- You're hoping a cohort will fix a system that hasn't been built yet.
- You need specific tax advice; this is education, and your own advisor should give that.
Who's running it
Chantal Schutz — CPA, CA, and the owner who had to learn this the hard way.
Chantal is a CPA, CA and former CFO who built and ran a seven-figure salon business — and knows exactly what it feels like to make a big call with more confidence than evidence. She now runs Power in Numbers, a finance firm for growing businesses, and teaches owners to read their own numbers rather than depend on someone else's summary of them.
She is the person who will tell you plainly when the evidence doesn't support the plan you're attached to. That's the whole point of the room.
Open to qualified owners of all genders, with women owners' realities central to the work.
Founding cohort
$497 USD. Seven spots. One decisive quarter.
- 12 weeks of live cohort sessions
- Structured individual work grounded in your business
- A private 2-hour planning session before the mastermind
- A private 2-hour integration session after the mastermind
What this isn't
No subscription, no upsell ladder, no membership you have to cancel. One payment, twelve weeks, then the cohort ends and you take the plan with you.
One-time payment · USD · Taxes not applicable
The honest bit
We won't guarantee your results.
Anyone who promises you a number from a room like this is selling you something else. What we can promise: seven owners who were chosen on fit, twelve weeks with a CPA, CA and former CFO who will not let you hide, and two private sessions on your actual business.
What we'd rather do is tell you this isn't right for you before you pay. So we do that — twenty minutes, no pitch, and if the answer is no, we'll say so and point you somewhere better.
Before you decide
The questions owners actually ask.
I've always been bad at math. Will I be lost?+
No. This isn't arithmetic — it's reading. You already read your business every day in other ways. We're adding the part where the reports say the same thing in a language you can follow. No formulas to memorise.
I don't have time for a twelve-week program.+
That's the argument for doing this and not buying another course. A few hours a week, applied to a decision you're already carrying, on a fixed schedule with seven other people. The rhythm is the point — it's designed to fit inside a running business, not replace one.
How big does my business need to be?+
This is built for owners whose business has outgrown instinct — typically around $5M+ in revenue, with payroll, inventory, locations or product lines making the picture harder to read. If that isn't you yet, the fit call will say so, and Know Your Numbers is likely the better $97.
What if I fall behind?+
Life happens. Tell Chantal early and the private sessions are where you catch up — that's part of why they're included. What doesn't work is quietly disappearing for six weeks, so we'd rather hear from you in week four.
Do I have to share my numbers with the group?+
No. You work privately with Chantal on your real figures. Group sessions are about decisions, patterns and pressure. You are never asked to present, prove, or explain your financials to anyone.
Is this tax or accounting advice?+
It's education and judgment work. For specifics on your tax position, your own advisor should give that — and after twelve weeks you'll be a considerably better client to have that conversation with.
What happens after I pay?+
You get a confirmation straight away, then Chantal is in touch to schedule your private planning session and set up the work before January. Seven places, one cohort, then the door closes.
January 2027 · Seven owners
Twelve weeks from now you'll be making the next decision differently.
The only real question is whether you'll be making it with evidence in front of you, or the way you've been making them lately.
One-time payment · USD · No subscription · Seven places only