The Exit Gal. Follow for posts on business and leadership. Helping entrepreneurs turn their business into wealth & legacy. [3x CEO, 1x Exit, SMU lecturer, author & speaker, ex private equity consultant.]

Chief Rebel began because small business owners were left to figure everything out alone.
7 out of 10 SMBs fail to sell. Buyers walk away. Owners burn out. 
And the systems that should help them were built for another world.

Most founders do not have a valuation problem.
They have an operations problem.
They have a clarity problem.
They have a business that only works when they do.

I lived this across acquisitions, turnarounds, and exits.
I know what it feels like to run a company that performs well on paper but falls apart the moment you step away.
And I know what it takes to rebuild a business into an asset someone else actually wants to own.

AI made analysis faster.
It did not make decisions better.
And it did not make selling a business any easier.

Founders do not need more noise.
They need visibility.
They need a co pilot.
They need a path from chaos to a premium exit.

So I built Chief Rebel.

We experimented, learned, iterated, and now the platform is live with real owners, real valuations, and real pull from the market.

Chief Rebel is the first platform built to help owners
• understand what their business is worth in real time
• fix the operational blockers that drag value down
• model their dream exit with actual data
• become exit ready long before they think about selling
• operate like someone who owns an asset, not someone trapped inside a job

What we do not have
• generic AI advice
• one size fits all coaching
• hype, noise, or empty promises

Just a straighter path to a business that runs without the owner and sells for what it’s truly worth.

We are onboarding founders, expanding integrations, and building the default ops and exit platform for 33 million SMBs. Our pre seed SAFE round is now open.

If you want more information, message investor@thechiefrebel.com

Operate smart. Value accurately. Exit well.
Chief Rebel.

Kinza Azmat

High-EQ leaders build high-performance teams.

Here are 13 reasons why: 

1/ They regulate, not react.
↳ When the leader stays steady, the team does too.

2/ They do not micromanage.
↳ High performers do not need hand-holding, they need space and clarity.

3/ They make honesty safe.
↳ No guessing, no walking on eggshells, real talk is welcome.

4/ They ask how you are first.
↳ People show up better when they feel seen.

5/ They give tough feedback with respect.
↳ Direct lands better when the person still feels valued.

6/ They do not take everything personally.
↳ Not every bump is an attack, sometimes it is just business.

7/ They protect focus.
↳ No random fires just because someone raised their voice.

8/ They own their part when things break.
↳ Accountability at the top sets the tone for everyone else.

9/ They stay calm in the messy moments.
↳ Emotional stability spreads fast through a team.

10/ They do not punish smart risks.
↳ Innovation needs room for mistakes and learning.

11/ They respect different communication styles.
↳ Not everyone talks or processes the same and that is okay.

12/ They are willing to say when they are not okay.
↳ Real honesty builds trust faster than pretending everything is perfect.

13/ They build teams that can run without them.
↳ Real leadership is not being the hero, it is creating a system that works even when you step away.

Emotional intelligence is not soft.

It is practical.
It is strategic.
It is how you build a team that does not fall apart the moment you take a week off.

Which one hits you today? 
Drop it below 👇

♻ Repost this if it resonated with you.
✅ Follow Kinza Azmat for more on building a business that grows without you.

Strong leaders are not threatened by pushback.

They grow because of it.

Real talk,
The best leaders I know are not the loudest in the room
They are the ones who make space for ideas, 
even the ideas that challenge them.

They do not shut people down.
They do not flex their title.
They do not pretend they have all the answers.

They do this instead:

1️⃣ They listen before they react
2️⃣ They ask for clarity, not comfort
3️⃣ They treat feedback like data, not drama
4️⃣ They guide the team, not control it
5️⃣ They make decisions that serve the entire organization, not their ego
6️⃣ They help people grow, even when it requires patience
7️⃣ They stay steady when things get messy
8️⃣ They inspire through their actions every single day

Strong leaders do not fear pushback

They use it to become:
- Better
- Sharper
- Clearer

If you want a team that trusts you,

Let them challenge you
Let them speak
Let them think

That is how real leadership happens.

What is one quality you think every leader needs right now?
Drop it below 👇

♻️ Repost to help more leaders build teams
✅ Follow Kinza Azmat for more on growing, leading, and scaling smarter.

Founder of Chief Rebel | The Ops Co-Pilot for Main Street SMBs (Closing Pre-Seed) | 3x CEO 1x Exit | SMU Lecturer & Speaker | Follow for Business, Exits, Leadership

Recognition costs nothing.

But it drives results like nothing else.

People wanna feel seen.
It is a basic human need.
And when folks feel valued, they just work differently.

More effort. 
More trust. 
Less stress all around.

Here are 7 simple ways to show real appreciation that actually lands:

1/ Say their win out loud
↳ Call out the exact thing they did
↳ Keep it short so it feels natural

2/ Notice the small stuff
↳ Mention the thing they thought no one saw
↳ Tie it back to how it helped the team

3/ Send a quick note
↳ Two sentences max, so it feels real
↳ Be specific, not generic

4/ Ask for their take
↳ Give them space to talk without rushing
↳ Apply at least one thing they suggest

5/ Give credit fast
↳ Name the person in the room, not after the meeting
↳ Tell others how their work helped you

6/ Celebrate progress
↳ Call out effort, not perfection
↳ Highlight how far they came

7/ Do the real check in
↳ Put your phone down and listen
↳ Ask one simple question: “What do you need right now?”

People do their best work when they feel recognized, not ignored.
A team that feels valued stays longer, shows up better, and works with more heart.

Which one are you trying this week?
Share it in the comments 👇

♻ Repost this if it resonated.
✅ Follow Kinza Azmat for real strategies to grow, scale, and sell smarter.

7 Simple Ways To Appreciate Your Team

Most people wait for the perfect moment.
I moved because there isn’t one.

Fresh off the immigrant boat.
No family capital.
No favors to call in.

Just the sense that staying put meant shrinking.

I could’ve waited for the “right time.”
I could’ve convinced myself I needed more experience.
I could’ve played it safe.

But comfort is what keeps us stuck.

The traps:

❌ Thinking you need to feel ready.
Readiness comes after you start.

❌ Treating uncertainty like danger.
Most of the risk exists in your head.

❌ Waiting for confidence.
Confidence shows up once you do.

The reality:
✅ You learn faster under pressure.
✅ The bar is lower than you think.
✅ Motion creates opportunities.

Here's the 3 shifts you need to make:
1/ Take the smallest uncomfortable step.
2/ Leverage what you already know.
3/ Develop your "figure it out" muscle.

You don’t get handed certainty.
You earn it by moving.

If someone you know is waiting to be “ready,” send this to them.
They’ll get the point.

Follow Kinza Azmat for more founder truths.

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Katie Ng-Mak - Private eCommerce Business in Air & Water Purification | LinkedIn

How to Delegate Like a Fortune 500 CEO

(Without Burning Out Your Team)

Delegation is the basics of running and scaling a business.
If you want your company to grow, 
You cannot be the only one holding the steering wheel.

If you want delegation that actually works in real life…

Here are the practical Do’s and Don’ts:

✅ Tell them exactly what you want
❌ Don’t give confusing tasks that feel like a puzzle
Eg: “Send me a 1-page update on deadlines by 3pm.”

✅ Explain why the task matters
❌ Don’t say “just do it” and walk away
Eg: “This helps us plan the launch properly.”

✅ Show you trust them
❌ Don’t check every minute like you are waiting for bad news
Eg: “Ping me only if something blocks you.”

✅ Let them do it their way
❌ Don’t force your way every single time
Eg: “Use whatever format works best for you.”

✅ Ask what they think
❌ Don’t act like you know everything in the room
Eg: “What do you suggest we do next?”

✅ Let them make small decisions
❌ Don’t make them wait for approval on every tiny choice
Eg: “Choose the design you prefer.”

✅ Praise good work
❌ Don’t take the credit yourself
Eg: “You nailed this, well done.”

✅ Give chances to grow
❌ Don’t keep all the big work for yourself
Eg: “You lead the client call this time.”

✅ Allow mistakes
❌ Don’t get angry when they are trying to improve
Eg: “Good try, what’s the improvement for the next round?”

✅ Help when they truly need it
❌Don’t jump in the moment that looks messy
Eg: “Tell me if you need backup.”

✅ Tell them the goal clearly
❌ Don’t control every step
Eg: “Target: 10% increase by Friday.”

✅ Support them through challenges
❌ Don’t rescue them from every problem
Eg: “What options do you see to fix this?”

✅ Give real responsibility
❌ Don’t give only boring or easy tasks
Eg: “You own delivery and timeline.”

✅ Step back once you assign it
❌ Don’t stand over their shoulder like a spotlight
Eg: “Show me when you have the first version.”

Delegation is not about pushing work onto others.
It is about building people who can help the business grow without you doing everything.

Which one do you need to work on next?
Tell me in the comments 👇

♻ Repost this to help someone who wants to scale
✅ Follow Kinza Azmat for real strategies to grow, scale, and sell smarter.

66% of employees would quit tomorrow.
Not for more money.
But for more appreciation.

Every exit sets your systems back months.

Knowledge lost.
Projects stalled.
Clients unsettled.
Momentum gone.

Most founders think retention sits with HR.
But it’s a leadership responsibility.

Because underappreciated people don’t just leave jobs.
They leave leaders.

Appreciation isn’t pizza Fridays or gift cards.
It’s how you treat your best people when no one’s watching.

Here’s what strong founders do instead 👇

1️⃣ Pay them what they’ve earned without waiting to be asked.
2️⃣ Ask for their input on big calls, not just updates.
3️⃣ Celebrate wins their way, some want quiet, some want spotlight.
4️⃣ Give space for their ideas, not just the loudest voices.
5️⃣ Protect them from burnout before they even mention it.

Your best people don’t want constant praise.

They want to feel - 

↳ Seen.
↳ Valued.
↳ Trusted.

Appreciation costs nothing.
Losing them costs everything.

What’s one way you make your team feel valued?
Drop it below 👇

♻️ Repost if this hit home.
✅ Follow Kinza Azmat for posts on building businesses that grow without you.

What does it take to build a strong team?

Start by understanding what your people need.

Here is the breakdown:

1/ Basic Needs
↳ Fair pay, safe space, steady hours
↳ When this is met, people stop missing work from stress

2/ Security
↳ Clear roles, job stability, and honest communication
↳ People work better when they are not worried about sudden changes

3/ Belonging
↳ Real connection, trust, feeling included
↳ This is when people begin to enjoy the work and each other

4/ Recognition + Growth
↳ Appreciation, development, and clear next steps
↳ Motivation stays strong when people feel seen and supported

5/ Purpose
↳ Why the work matters, why the team exists
↳ This is where loyalty grows and good people stay long term

When these needs are met at work:

✅ They feel happier.
✅ Motivation stays high.
✅ Hiring becomes easier.
✅ People miss fewer days.
✅ Good employees stay longer.

And with the right tools and remote support, everyone gets more done with less stress.

Strong teams are not built by accident.

They are built by leaders who understand what people need, 
Not just what the job requires.

Which level do you think most workplaces skip?
Drop it below 👇

♻ Repost if you believe strong teams start with real human needs.
✅ Follow Kinza Azmat for real strategies to grow, scale, and sell smarter.

Motivation is a scam.
That’s not how you build a great company.

When things get hard, motivation disappears.
What keeps you going is mindset... the kind forged in repetition, not adrenaline.

Three lessons that changed how I build:

1. Discipline beats motivation.
 -> Motivation is mood-based. Systems are survival.
 -> If your business depends on inspiration, it’s already unstable.

2. Hard choices make an easier life.
 -> Every shortcut becomes tomorrow’s crisis.
 -> Do the hard thing now. It costs less later.

3. Done beats perfect.
 -> Perfection is fear in disguise.
 -> Progress happens when you ship, learn, and adjust.

The founders who last don’t chase motivation.
They build companies that run when they’re tired.

Follow Kinza Azmat for lessons from the trenches.
Repost if you’re building something that outlasts motivation.

Most micromanagers are just scared.

Scared of things slipping.
Scared of looking irrelevant.
Scared that if they step back, everything falls apart.

A business owner told me this week,
“Look, if I don’t double-check the work, my crew’s gonna mess it up.”
And honestly? I get it.

Most founders don’t wake up wanting to hover.
They just don’t trust the system to catch mistakes yet.

Micromanagement usually isn’t about control.
It’s about fear and unclear expectations.

You hover when:
 → You haven’t defined what “done right” looks like.
 → You’re sprinting without time to teach.
 → You secretly believe, no one will do it like I would.

The fix isn’t to “let go.”
It’s to build clarity so tight you don’t have to.

Start with this:
1) Write down what “good” actually means.
2) Share how decisions get made when you’re not around.
3) Let people learn through small failures instead of big disasters.

You’ll stop micromanaging the minute your team can predict what you’d want without asking.

Follow Kinza Azmat for more leadership truths. 
Repost if you forgive a leader's mistakes.

AI is the new unfair advantage for entrepreneurs. 

Use these 9 free resources to level up.

Founders keep chasing shiny tools
But AI is not about tools.

It is about learning the skills that help you:

- Improve margins
- Tighten operations
- Make faster decisions
- Reduce founder dependence
- Build a business that feels smoother and calmer

Here are 9 free AI resources worth your time:

1/ OpenAI Academy (Self paced)
↳ Learn directly from the team behind ChatGpt
↳ Helps you think in systems so your operations do not rely on you

2/ Google AI Essentials (5 hours)
↳ Remove wasted steps across your team with simple automations
↳ Perfect for founders who switch tasks a hundred times a day

3/ AWS Prompt Engineering Course (4 hours)
↳ Teaches you how to structure prompts that get real results
↳ Helpful if you want faster decisions without endless back and forth

4/ MIT Introduction to Generative AI (Self paced)
↳ Makes AI strategy easy to understand
↳ Helps you build a smoother business without adding stress

5/ Y Combinator AI Talks (Self paced)
↳ Insights from founders actually using AI
↳ Helps you avoid early mistakes while building a business that slow growth

6/ Perplexity Academy (2 hours)
↳ Teaches you how to research much faster
↳ A strong resource for founders overwhelmed by information

7/ Ideabrowser AI Case Studies (Self paced)
↳ Real examples of AI inside small businesses
↳ Cuts months of trial and error and steal what already works

8/ Google AI Business Applications (3 hours)
↳ Shows how AI improves operations inside large companies
↳ Use the same ideas to tighten workflows in your own business

9/ Microsoft AI Fundamentals (3 hours)
↳ Strong foundation without the technical overload
↳ Great for cleaner handoffs and stronger systems

AI is not here to replace your team.
It is here to make your business smoother, calmer, and more profitable.

Which one are you starting with?
Share it below 👇

♻ Repost this to help your network.
✅ follow Kinza Azmat for real strategies to grow, scale, and sell smarter

9 Free AI Resources Every Founders Should Master

Not everyone is built for business acquisition.

But the ones who win share these 12 traits:

1/ They stay coachable
↳ They take feedback quickly and apply it without letting pride get in the way.

2/ They work past the clock
↳ Deals fall apart when effort stops the moment the workday ends.

3/ They search for the right business, not just any
↳ The wrong fit drains money, energy, and time faster than expected.

4/ They make decisions before doubt builds up
↳ Winners understand that hesitation can cost them the entire opportunity.

5/ They adjust quickly when markets shift
↳ They stay flexible so changes do not throw their plans off track.

6/ They run operations with real discipline
↳ Strong systems and steady leadership keep a business healthy long term.

7/ They protect their downside at every step
↳ Smart deal structure shields them when unexpected problems show up.

8/ They understand their numbers fully
↳ Clear financial insight helps them avoid surprises after the deal closes.

9/ They build dependable relationships
↳ Trust with brokers and sellers leads to better deals and smoother talks.

10/ They rely on systems, not endless effort
↳ Clear processes allow growth without burning out the entire team.

11/ They think far beyond the short term
↳ Real wealth comes from choices that compound over many years.

12/ They lead with confidence instead of ego
↳ Calm leadership allows the deal to move forward even in tough moments.

Buying a business is not just buying a business.
It is taking on pressure, people, and problems.
The ones who win know how to handle all of it.

Which trait lands the hardest for you today?
Let’s discuss in the comments 👇

♻️ Repost if this resonated
✅ Follow Kinza Azmat for more on growing, leading, and scaling smarter.

10 AI Skills Every Founder Must Learn

(If you want to scale faster in 2026)

Most founders still treat AI like a nice-to-have skill.
But forget it’s the easiest way to save time, cut stress, and run your biz smoother.

If you want cleaner decisions and lighter days in 2026; 
Start with these 10 AI skills.

1️⃣ AI for Decision Support
↳ Ask AI to compare options with clear pros and cons.
↳ Check blind spots before you commit to a choice.

2️⃣ AI for Problem Solving
↳ Break tough problems into small, doable steps.
↳ Find faster paths instead of spinning your wheels.

3️⃣ Prompt Engineering
↳ Give AI context and examples so output stays sharp.
↳ Communicate clearly to get exactly what you need.

4️⃣ AI for Workflow Building
↳ Link tools so tasks run quietly in the background.
↳ Build routines that work even when you’re offline.

5️⃣ AI for Automation
↳ Remove repetitive tasks that drain your day.
↳ Free up time so you can focus on real growth.

6️⃣ AI for Customer Comms
↳ Draft support replies that keep your tone consistent.
↳ Build response templates so your team answers faster.

7️⃣ AI for Content Repurposing
↳ Turn one idea into a full week of content.
↳ Stay consistent without constant brainstorming.

8️⃣ AI for Research
↳ Pull insights and trends without long searches.
↳ Compare options quicker so decisions feel easy.

9️⃣ AI for Writing
↳ Turn rough drafts into clean, ready-to-send copy.
↳ Save hours by letting AI rewrite instead of you.

🔟 AI for Planning & Structuring
↳ Turn chaos into simple plans you can execute.
↳ Break big ideas into clear steps fast. 

Your days get lighter.
Your decisions get cleaner.
Your growth stops feeling like chaos.

Founders who use AI are not cutting corners.
They’re building smarter systems that scale w/o burning them out.

So founder to founder…

Which AI skill are you learning next?
Drop it below. 👇

♻ Repost to help another founder get their time back
✅ Follow Kinza Azmat for real strategies to grow, scale, and sell smarter.

You think messy books mean “I need better accounting.”
Buyers think it means “What else is broken?”

A business buyer I was coaching said this reviewing a seven-figure business: “It's just bank statements and vibes.”

No categorization.
No financial review cadence.
No real visibility…aside from bank balance.

I teach buyers how to interpret risk:
- Sloppy books signal sloppy operations
- Vague math means hidden problems
- If owners can’t explain numbers, surprises are guaranteed

But here’s the catch.
Messy books don’t kill deals.
They just give buyers ammo to cut price and shift risk to you.

Business owners, the message is clear.

Tighten your financials now: monthly closes, clean categories, clear docs.

And if not, take haircuts on price, terms, and let someone play with your legacy.

If a buyer can understand your books fast, they pay faster.

This is the first thing we fix in our exit readiness process for owners preparing to sell.

Repost to help more founders stop losing value over preventable chaos.

Follow Kinza for more

70% of small businesses can't sell. 
The market isn't the problem.

Investors see it constantly: 
 ⤷ unclear financials
 ⤷ owner dependency
 ⤷ businesses managed by bank balances

Most small businesses don't fail from lack of demand. 
They fail because owners operate without clean numbers, systems, or benchmarks. That creates risk investors won't touch.

It shows up three ways:
 1/ Financials that break down under scrutiny
 2/ Revenue that's concentrated, inconsistent, or tied to the owner
 3/ No repeatable processes, making growth impossible

What investors actually need:
 ⤷ Clean data & real answers
 ⤷ Teams & systems without the owner
 ⤷ Durable revenue & defensible brand

🏴‍☠ Chief Rebel fixes this at the source.

We make founder-led companies scalable and investable. 

Not consulting, a course, or another marketplace. 

But a platform for clarity and execution.

Backed by Antler in three weeks. Nearly $100M in business value on the platform since launch.

What we deliver:
 ⤷ Valuation in seconds, not weeks
 ⤷ A diagnostic that surfaces risk immediately
 ⤷ Strategic planning & tools to build a premium exit

The small business economy is huge, fragmented, and mispriced. 

Investors need better signals. Founders need control. 

Chief Rebel is the infrastructure for both.

This model comes from years on every side of the table: buying, operating, exiting, and coaching other owners through it.

Now we're raising our pre-seed.
Clean terms, strong pipeline, clear roadmap.

DM or reach out to investor@thechiefrebel.com.
Links in profile.

♻️ Share if you think American small business deserves better.

👉 Follow Kinza Azmat and stay tuned on Chief Rebel's raise.

Small Business America needs the truth.
And the tools to build with it.

Growth isn’t about speed. It’s about people. 

Profit follows when purpose leads. 

Because you can’t scale what your team doesn’t believe in.

Here are 7 ways people-first founders grow stronger businesses:

1️⃣ Listen before you fix
↳ When people feel heard, they go all in.

2️⃣ Give trust early
↳ Ownership builds faster than control ever will.

3️⃣ Celebrate small wins
↳ Progress beats perfection every time.

4️⃣ Make space for rest
↳ You don’t grow a company by burning out its builders.

5️⃣ Lead with context
↳ When people understand the “why,” they move with purpose.

6️⃣ Coach more than you correct
↳ Growth sticks when people feel guided, not judged.

7️⃣ Hire for heart, then skill
↳ You can teach skills. You can’t teach care.

The more founders lead with empathy and intention,
the stronger their culture... and the longer their growth lasts.

Because when people grow, the business follows.

Who’s one founder you’ve seen lead with people first?
Tag them below 👇

♻️ Repost this if it resonated with you.
✚ Follow Kinza Azmat for exit prep that builds businesses built to last.

Saying yes to everything is just a slow way to say no to yourself.

If you do not set the rules, everyone else will.

Real talk,

The strongest people I know are not the ones who say yes to every request.
They are the ones who know what matters
And protect it without guilt.

They do not rush to agree.
They do not give away their time to avoid tension.
They do not treat their schedule like it belongs to everyone else.

They do this instead:

1️⃣ They define their non-negotiables
↳ The things that stay on the calendar no matter what

2️⃣ They set clear office hours
↳ No late-night replies, no constant availability

3️⃣ They say “Let me check” before committing
↳ A pause that protects them from automatic yeses

4️⃣ They block focus time
↳ If it is not blocked, it gets taken

5️⃣ They create a simple no-script
↳ Clear, kind, and firm, without over-explaining.

6️⃣ They choose opportunities based on return, not pressure
↳ Only say yes to what clearly moves them forward.

7️⃣ They delegate what drains their energy
↳ Refuse to carry what others can own.

8️⃣ They protect their weekends
↳ Rest is scheduled as fuel, not treated as a luxury.

Strong people do not avoid boundaries.
They build them so they can think, grow, and lead with clarity.

If you want a life that feels lighter,

Let people adjust.
Let people wait.
Let people figure things out without you.

You cannot build your future if everyone else is writing your schedule.

What is one boundary you are learning to hold right now?
Share it below 👇

♻️ Repost to help someone protect their time
✅ Follow Kinza Azmat for more on growing, leading, and scaling smarter.

Sellers try to lock in a number.
Banks decide whether it holds.

A friend trying to buy a business shared her frustrations with the seller:
“He insisted no more price changes. ”

A week later, updated financials changed the whole deal.
Buyers can’t protect your price from new facts.
They inherit the consequences.

So she told him what he didn't expect to hear:
“I can’t promise I’ll protect your price. New information changes the deal.”
Price confidence means nothing if the numbers shift under pressure.

Stress-test your numbers now.
If you can’t explain a fluctuation simply, you need to fix it before diligence...
not during it.

And if you want your future price to hold through bank diligence, our exit readiness process is built for that.

Repost this so more founders understand how deals actually get priced.
Follow Kinza for grounded advice on building sellable companies.

Profit ≠ Success.

Unless you want to be scaling losses.

I see founders celebrate profit...
While their cash quietly bleeds out the back door.

The P&L says growth.
The bank balance says otherwise.

Here’s what’s really happening 

1. OpEx: what it costs to run the business
↳ Salaries, rent, software. These are the essentials that keep operations alive.
↳ Cut too deep, and your systems, people, and productivity can collapse overnight.

2. CapEx: what it costs to build the business
↳ New equipment, infrastructure, or assets that strengthen your long-term foundation.
↳ They can become strategic bets that compound over years or heavy drains if timing or execution is off.

3. RevEx: what it costs to earn revenue
↳ Ads, commissions and delivery costs. All the moving parts that bring money in the door.
↳ When this category spikes faster than revenue, your “profit” on paper hides a dangerous cash illusion..

4. FinEx: what it costs to borrow money
↳ Loan interest, investor payouts and bank fees. The silent taxes of scaling through leverage.
↳ Ignore them too long, and your growing debt quietly consumes every bit of real cash you earn.

One founder I worked with had 30% margins on paper...
But was losing $18K a month in RevEx and FinEx leaks.
Same revenue, negative cash flow.

We rebuilt their expense model.
Six months later, same top line, positive cash.

That’s real profit.

3 reminders for every founder chasing “growth”:

→ Cash flow is truth.
→ Know your 4 expense buckets.
→ Scale cash, not chaos.

So founder to founder,

When was the last time you checked where your money actually goes?
Let’s discuss in the comments. 👇

♻ Repost this to help another founder spot their cash leaks.
✅ Follow Kinza Azmat for real strategies to grow, scale, and sell smarter.

Your business is not your retirement plan.

It’s your leverage to build one.

A business can change fast.

Markets shift.
Clients pause.
Cash flow dips.

But here’s what most founders forget…

Your business gives you income.
Your financial plan gives you freedom.

Two different jobs.
Same mission.

Most folks I meet aren’t struggling with growth.
But, they struggle with concentration risk.

They pour everything back into the business…

Ride the highs…
Absorb the lows…
And hope it all pays off someday.

But hope is not a plan.
Especially when your whole life sits on one source of income.

Here’s what the smartest founders do instead:

1️⃣ They treat saving like payroll.
2️⃣They build wealth outside the business.
3️⃣ They keep their lifestyle safe even when revenue wobbles.

Your business can fund your future.
But it shouldn’t be the only future you have.

Make money in the business.
Build wealth outside it.

What’s one thing you’re doing now to take pressure off your business income?
Drop it below 👇

♻ Repost this if it resonated with you.
✅ Follow Kinza Azmat for real strategies to grow, scale, and sell smarter.

10 EBITDA mistakes most CEOs still make.

And they do not realize how risky they are.

EBITDA looks, 

→ Clean.
→ Simple.
→ Comforting even.

But it can fool you so fast if you treat it like the full story.

Here are the mistakes that get CEOs into trouble:

1️⃣ Treating EBITDA like cash
↳ A company can show strong EBITDA and still have very little money.
Fix: Check cash flow first. Then check EBITDA.

2️⃣ Ignoring one time gains
↳ A random boost makes the number look better than it really is.
Fix: Strip out anything that does not happen every month.

3️⃣ Forgetting upcoming big costs
↳ Repairs, taxes, upgrades... EBITDA does not warn you at all.
Fix: Build a simple list of future cash hits and review it weekly.

4️⃣ Taking on more debt because EBITDA looks solid
↳ The number stays pretty while debt climbs all the way up.
Fix: Track debt payments and interest as real cash outflows.

5️⃣ Adding back everything
↳ If every cost becomes an “add back,” the number stops being real.
Fix: Only add back items that truly are non recurring.

6️⃣ Ignoring margin drop
↳ Flat EBITDA with falling margins is a quiet red flag.
Fix: Watch margin trend every month, not just the final number.

7️⃣ Comparing to companies that do not match
↳ Bad comparisons create bad decisions.
Fix: Compare only to similar size, industry, and model.

8️⃣ Forgetting working capital
↳ Inventory, receivables, payables... EBITDA misses all of it.
Fix: Track working capital like it is vital. Because it is.

9️⃣ Thinking EBITDA equals valuation
↳ Buyers look at cash, debt, and risk. Not just one clean number.
Fix: Use EBITDA as a signal, not a final price.

🔟 Trusting EBITDA as the truth
↳ It is a tool. Not the full picture.
Fix: Pair EBITDA with cash flow, margins, and debt health.

EBITDA is helpful, but it is only one piece.

Smart CEOs check the parts of the business that actually move money.

Which of these mistakes do you see founders make the most?
Drop it below. 👇

♻️ Repost this if it helped you.
✅ Follow Kinza Azmat for real strategies to grow, scale, and sell smarter.

Corner Alliance

Founder

Working with government and non-profit leaders to innovate, communicate, and build better programs, including the Department of Homeland Security, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Department of Commerce.

OwnerRx.com

Building the always on AI-enabled strategic copilot for SMB owners.

Owner

Entrepreneurly

Board Member

OwnerInstitute

Owner Institute helps owners grow their businesses while achieving independence.

Entrepreneurs'​ Organization

James Lee Witt Associates

Director

SRA Touchstone Consulting Group

Principal

The Touchstone Consulting Group, SRA International, Inc.

extreme blue intern

US Senator Max Baucus

Speechwriter

CEO @ Corner Alliance | Author @ The Small Business Mentor

I spent 17 years and $200K+ hunting through every business course, mastermind, and guru to find the nuggets that actually work.

EOS? Implemented it. Scaling Up? Read it. EO/YPO? Joined both.

The result? 10,000+ hours distilled into OwnerRx - the AI coach that knows every framework, every playbook, every shortcut.

What it took me years and big dollars to learn, OwnerRx delivers in seconds for a fraction of the cost.

Alan Pentz

A consulting firm came to me at 15% margins.

Target: 20%.

Five years ago, I had a playbook for this:

Old playbook:

- Better hiring → get 1-2% back (maybe)
- Global talent → squeeze out 3-5% (with cultural pain)
- Cut overhead → another 1-2% (one-time gain)

We'd grind our way to 20% over 18-24 months.

Today? That playbook is obsolete.

Here's what I'm seeing with AI agents:

Get 10% margin expansion by holding back office costs constant and growing topline.

Not cutting. Not offshoring. Not grinding.

Growing revenue without scaling headcount.

The new math:

Professional services firm:

- Revenue: $5M
- Back office: 8 people
- Margin: 15%

Deploy AI agents for:

-Financial Analysis
-Client Reporting
-Marketing
-Proposals and Quoting
-Quality Control
-Meeting analysis and follow ups
-Employee onboarding and HR 
-Client research (80% faster)
-Hiring

Result:

- Same 8 back office people
- Revenue grows to $7M (+40%)
- Margin: 25%

Owner @ OwnerRx.com | OwnerRx uses battle-tested playbooks from decades of building and coaching SMBs to create AI agents that run your business for you. | Read my newsletter: newsletter.ownerrx.com

I spent 10 hours a day for 4 days in a row re-building all my AI workflows last week.

3 months ago, I was building OwnerRx, the newsletter, and my Linkedin. I had 4 vendors helping with each aspect. Spend was out of control at $30k a month.

Now I've replaced them all with AI agents. That saves $360k a year.

First came the client tracker agent - every interaction, deadline, and renewal date monitored automatically. 

Then the meeting analyzer that turns Zoom recordings into 5 different artifacts to track and follow up on the meeting content.

The content pipeline was the game-changer. What took 2 hours to write now takes 3 minutes to generate and 15 minutes to polish.

Total investment: 100+ hours of my nights and weekends. 
ROI: 20 hours a week saved and $360k

But there's a downside: the exhaustion is real.

Every improvement reveals 10 more possibilities. Fix the client tracker? Now you see how broken your invoicing is. Automate content? Your distribution system looks ancient.

Last week's 4-day marathon started as "quick workflow optimization." 

The shift from doing work to building tools that do work isn't optional anymore. Teams still manually tracking clients in spreadsheets are losing 15-20 hours weekly that automated teams invest in growth.

My clients now run smoother with zero employees than they would with 5. 

But the pace is picking up. Some people spend all day building tools to make their tools work more effectively.

I'm not sure how many of us can handle it but the productivity increases are real and some people are achieving breakout.

One of biggest PE firms just allocated $1.5B to buy businesses like yours at traditional multiples, deploy AI, and watch margins expand.

Their thesis? You won't adapt fast enough.

I keep having the same conversation. Four owners last month asked me: "Should I sell before AI disrupts my business?"

Meanwhile, I invested in a metal fabrication company. The owner was spending 20-30 hours per week processing purchase orders. Not sustainable when you're trying to grow.

We built an AI system in two weeks. PO processing now takes 5 minutes. He got 25 hours of his week back.

We're closing on our second acquisition next month. Same playbook: build the AI capability once, plug each new company into the same operating system.

That's exactly what the PE firms are doing. At scale.

Here's the data that matters:

95% of AI pilots fail. But the 5% who break through? 91% see revenue boost. 86% improve margins.

This isn't a technology problem. It's a commitment problem. Pilots are experiments nobody owns. The winners pick one process, assign ownership, and measure results until it works.

The rinse and repeat.

The gap between "wanting to use AI" and "actually transforming your business" is where most owners get stuck.

That's exactly the gap PE firms are exploiting.

I'm not going to pretend I'm not doing the same thing PE firms are. The difference: I'm showing you exactly how it works so you can do it yourself.

Build the capability yourself, or become someone else's margin expansion play.

What's the one process eating 20+ hours of your week that you keep saying you'll fix "next quarter"?

$300K.

That's what each failed sales hire costs when you add: salary + lost deals + operational chaos + owner time back in the weeds.

The owner I talked with last week had just gone through his third failed sales hire. 

The pattern?

"We hired for product knowledge... failed to look at character."

But here's the deeper mistake:

They were trying to hire ONE person who could do everything the founder does.

Product expertise + all the relationships + sales nuance + operations + strategy.

That's not a job description. That's a unicorn.

And unicorns don't exist.

Here's what happens when you track your sales process with AI and ask: "What am I actually doing?"

AI breaks it down:

- Marketing: 9 hours/week (lead gen and qualification)
- Admin: 5 hours/week (Writing and sending followups, updating the CRM and dashboards)
- Selling: 7 hours/week (actual conversations with buyers)
- Meetings and Reporting: 5 hours/week (in internal meetings and preparing for those meetings)
-Customer Service: 10 hours/week (Talking recent sales through onboarding issues)

You're not hiring for one role. You're trying to get one person to do a bunch of different stuff.

The AI insight:

Don't hire 1 "unicorn" at $150K who'll fail in 18 months.

Engineer it into 3 achievable roles:

- Sales Rep ($75K) - hire for relationship skills and ability to close
- Operations Coordinator ($55K) - hire for ability to track actions, update the CRM, and do follow ups.
- Customer Service Rep ($60K) - hire for deep product knowledge and ability to answer customer questions 

Then AI generates hiring scorecards for each:

- 5 character traits (integrity, ownership, learning ability, culture fit, resilience)
- 5 technical competencies (specific to THAT role, not "do everything")
- Interview questions revealing both dimensions
- Red flags from your past failed hires

The real problem:

You're not bad at hiring.

You're trying to hire another version of yourself.

The solution:

Stop looking for unicorns.

Start engineering roles AI can help you fill.

Drop your calendar export in ChatGPT and ask:

"What am I actually doing, and should this be 1 role or 3?"

OpenAI just launched ChatGPT Shopping 3 days before Black Friday. It's built for products.

But if you run a professional services firm, the behavior change matters more than the feature.

People are getting trained to ask AI for recommendations instead of searching Google. "What do I need?" "Who can help me?" "Who's best for my situation?"

Right now, that's mostly products. But the habit is forming.

So I ran an experiment.

I asked ChatGPT: "Who are the best fractional CFOs in Austin for manufacturing companies doing $5-10M?" (Congrats to vcfo Austin, you won)

What showed up varied each time I asked with a slightly different query (AI results aren't consistent like Google). But patterns emerged in what seemed to influence recommendations:

- Firms with clear website positioning about who they serve
- Those with substantial Google reviews
- People mentioned in industry publications
- Content that directly answered the type of question I asked

The firms with vague "we serve everyone" messaging? Didn't appear.

Here's my hypothesis for professional services:

Your next client might never Google you. They might ask AI. And AI appears to synthesize everything it finds about you into a recommendation. Or not.

This isn't proven science yet. But it's worth investigating.

Three things worth trying this week:

1. Ask ChatGPT who the best [your profession] in [your city] are for [your ideal client type]. Run it 3-4 times. See patterns in who shows up and what signals seem to matter.

2. Look at your Google reviews. Not just the star rating. The actual words clients use. AI reads those.

3. Check if your website clearly states who you serve and what problems you solve. Specificity seems to beat vagueness.

The shopping feature is for products. The behavior shift affects all of us.

What patterns did you notice when you ran the search for your profession?

Last month I had the same conversation with four different owners. All professional services - consulting, marketing, accounting. All asking the same question: "Should I sell before AI disrupts my business?"

Not one of them is failing. They're all profitable. But they see what's coming.

I asked each of them the same questions: 

-Are you willing to learn this yourself - not delegate it? 
-Can you force organizational change even when your team resists? 
-Will you commit 2-3 years to rebuilding how work gets done?

One went quiet. Then honest: "I'm 5 years from retirement. I don't want to spend them becoming a technologist."

That's not weakness. That's clarity.

Here's what's interesting: these are all knowledge work businesses. The consulting firm owner is more worried than the metal fabrication company I invested in. 

Professional services feels the threat more acutely because their product IS knowledge work - exactly what AI does well.

Here's what I'm seeing: Owners who built great businesses over 20 years are struggling because they can't make themselves learn new systems. 

PE-backed competitors are acquiring AI capability through rollups. Multiples that look reasonable today won't in 18 months.

So I've started having a different conversation. Three paths:

BUILD: Learn deeply, force change, create proprietary AI workflows that competitors can't copy. 2-3 year commitment minimum.

PARTNER: Bring in PE or an operator who already has AI capability. Trade some equity for transformation capacity.

EXIT: Sell while you can get 5-8x EBITDA instead of waiting until AI-enabled competitors compress your margins to 2-3x.

No wrong answer. The only wrong choice is "wait and see."

This isn't pessimism. It's strategic honesty.

Do you have an AI strategy yet ?

For the last year, I've been watching a founder I coach hold onto a toxic performer. 

He wasn't great to work with and grumbled about how he could run the business better. 

So fire him? Problem was he was bringing in $1m in revenue.

But he cost the company too. They lost 2 good employees because of Mr. Toxic.

The founder didn't want to pull the trigger and risk the revenue.

So he waited. And waited. His behavior would improve for a few months, then get worse again.

Until he started actively undermining the owner with other employees.

That finally made it unbearable.

He got fired and guess what happened?

They didn't lose any revenue. In fact, they just kept growing.

The real cost of KEEPING him? Two good people gone. $50k in recruiting and rehiring costs. And 3-4 years of stunted growth because nobody wanted to work on his team.

the founder thought he was making a business decision by keeping the million-dollar producer.

He was actually making an emotional decision driven by fear.

What I learned: Track your performance conversations.

If you're using AI to transcribe meetings, run those transcripts through an LLM to track relationship health and accountability patterns.

It will highlight the problems earlier—before you lose good people, before someone poisons the culture, before you waste years tolerating what you know needs to change.

My founder waited 3 years and racked up $50k plus in costs.

AI would have shown me the pattern in month 3.

What high performer are you tolerating because you're afraid of the revenue loss?

Talked with an owner last week who runs a $10M compliance consulting firm for large construction projects.

$3M EBITDA. Niche expertise. Regulatory moat.

But AI is coming for the core deliverable. The environmental studies his team spends weeks researching and writing? AI can now draft those in hours. Not perfectly—but good enough to commoditize the work.

His question: When do I sell?

He's the sixth owner in two months who's asked me some version of this.

The trap: Actual disruption might be 3-5 years out. But buyers see the writing on the wall earlier. By the time your industry is visibly changing, your multiple has already dropped.

You're not racing disruption. You're racing the perception of disruption.

His business trades at 5-6x EBITDA today. If buyers start pricing in AI risk, that becomes 3-4x. That's a $6M swing on the same business.

My advice to most owners: Go BE the AI change. Use AI to produce studies faster and cheaper. Become the consolidator, not the consolidated.

But that's not everyone's game. Some owners are 5 years from retirement. Some don't want to bet a 20-year business on a tech transition.

Both paths are valid. What's not valid is deciding without understanding what AI can actually do today.

I've watched owners dismiss AI while competitors train it on exactly their workflows.

I've also watched owners panic-sell businesses with 10+ years of runway.

The only way to know which camp you're in? Get your hands dirty. Not reading headlines. Actually testing AI against your deliverables.

Then you can decide instead of guess.

Are you building toward disruption or planning your exit?

How to win as a business onwer:

Just focus on the most important thing.

I know owners who spend 10 hours getting the best pricing on a service or product that makes up 5% of their cost.

You know what they’re not doing during that 10 hours? 

Selling a service or product that’s worth 100x that cost savings to them.

I see owners who read a book or hear a podcast about some new marketing technique then try to pivot their whole company to it.

What aren’t they doing? Doubling down on a tactic that is already bringing in leads.

Stop what you are doing and think about this one question: what single thing will guarantee that I won’t reach my goal? 

Then go solve that thing. Rinse and repeat and ignore everything else.

24,000 hours.

That's how much client interaction one consulting company records per year.

Most would say: "That's expensive storage."

They're thinking: "This is our competitive moat."

Here's what they discovered:

AI analyzed those recordings and found something competitors can never replicate:

Their methods deliver outcomes 1.5 standard deviations better than industry average.

Not "we think we're better."

Data-proven superiority from analyzing thousands of real sessions.

Now they can:

- Prove results to justify premium pricing
- Train new staff 3x faster using what actually works
- Continuously improve by spotting patterns in top performer sessions
- Show clients exactly why their approach works

*his is happening across industries:

A coaching business recording sales calls:

- AI identified: Top closer uses these 3 questions, bottom performers don't
- Automated quality coaching for entire sales team
- Conversion rate: 30% → 40% in 90 days

The dark data problem:

Right now, every meeting in your company contains:

- What actually works (buried in someone's memory and an unprocessed transcript)
- What clients really care about (mentioned once, forgotten)
- Patterns that predict success/failure (invisible without AI)
- Your team's best moves (can't scale what you can't see)

It evaporates the moment the meeting ends.

What AI can do with recordings:

1. Pattern recognition: What do top performers do that others don't?
2. Outcome correlation: Which approaches actually drive results?
3. Training acceleration: New hires learn from 100s of real scenarios
4. Competitive proof: Data-backed claims vs. competitor marketing fluff
5. Continuous improvement: Spot quality drift before it costs you clients

The 10x value play:

Companies recording systematically are building:

- Proprietary methodology (competitors can't copy)
- Pricing power (proven better outcomes)
- Faster onboarding (new hires effective in weeks vs. months)
- Quality consistency (AI catches drift)
- Category leadership (your data becomes industry benchmark)

First-movers are building 2-3 year leads.

The objections I hear:

"Storage is expensive" → Storage is $50/month. Lost knowledge costs $50K+
"No one will review it" → AI reviews it. Humans get the insights.
"Compliance nightmare" → SOC 2 + consent frameworks exist. Not harder than current QA.
"Clients won't consent" → Position as "quality improvement" + show benefit. 95%+ consent.

Most SMB owners think:
"We're too small for this."

Reality:
You're the perfect size. Big enough to have volume. Small enough to move fast.

The companies doing this wrong:

Recording but not analyzing. Terabytes of dark data, zero insights.

The companies doing this right:

Every recording becomes training data. AI finds patterns. Insights improve delivery. Better results justify premium pricing. Category domination.

Do you really want to share good content during Thanksgiving week?

I've got some gems saved up but kind of feel like everyone's still talking to their family at this point.

Maybe by Friday they are back on linkedin trying to do anything but talk with their family?

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