Last week I announced that enrollment was open for my latest cohort, SMB Financial Fundamentals. We had a number of you sign up, which I'm thrilled about!

If you didn't...shame on you. Kidding, but you can no longer use the code I shared last week.

But, as a newsletter subscriber, you can still get $100 with the code EMAILCREW.

Not sure if it's for you?

This course was created for business owners and leaders who:

• Feels anxious about your financials and wants to stop leaving money on the table due to preventable mistakes
• Are looking to grow your business responsibly and confidently
• Finds financial statements confusing but knows you need to understand them to make informed decisions
• Find your finances are in bad shape and looking for financial systems to transform your business

If this is you, then SMB Financial Fundamentals is designed for you.

Over 5 weeks, you'll learn to:

• Decode your financial statements
• Identify key performance drivers specific to your business
• Select and track meaningful metrics
• Use your numbers to make confident, data-driven decisions

It's practical, hands-on, and focused on your numbers... not generic case studies.

It starts July 14 and we'd love to have you!

Secure your spot today and gain the financial confidence your business deserves.

ENROLL NOW

SHORTCUTS CUT LONG RUNS SHORT

On June 22, 2025 the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Indiana Pacers 103-91 in Game 7 to lift their first Larry O’Brien Trophy and become NBA Champs.

As I sat in the Paycom Center and took it all in, this moment was something that was unimaginable just a few short years ago.

The impact of this was seen at the championship parade, where 500,000 Oklahomans celebrated and this picture, showing the OKC bombing Memorial behind a Championship Parade bus, couldn’t show that more starkly.

The birth of that moment started in 2007, when Seattle chose not to renew the SuperSonics arena lease, which resulted in a Seattle ownership group selling the team to an Oklahoma-based one.

That group hired a 30-year-old Sam Presti as General Manager.

Over the next decade he treated every outgoing star as seed capital for the future. Immediately upon taking over as GM, Presti did a sign-and-trade with the Orlando Magic for the SuperSonics star Rashard Lewis. One of those picks turned into Serge Ibaka.

Eventually Serge Ibaka was traded for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis, who were subsequently traded for Paul George. Paul George was then traded for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and FIVE first-round picks.

Other trades netted more picks, and by the summer of 2021 the Thunder controlled an NBA-record 36 draft picks through 2027 and an arsenal that soon became Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, and a still-growing core around MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

All that optionality set the stage for Presti’s 2021 press conference, where he distilled his philosophy into five words: “Shortcuts cut long runs short.”

He followed it up by saying he wanted the return to the postseason feel like “an arrival, not an appearance.” Meaning when they got back, they were there to stay… not just on a one or two year run.

The focus? Longevity, consistency, and excellence.

Four seasons later, that slow-cooked strategy delivered a 68-win team, the youngest champion in nearly half a century, and a core that is locked up for the foreseeable future and primed for more runs.

Most NBA teams treat GMs and coaches as dispensable. But not the Thunder. The Thunder ownership, along with Sam Presti, viewed their journey as a life-long one.

They collected assets, developed players, and took advantage of other teams trying to make runs.

This all came because of their clear identity, which Presti published internally: defense-first, low-ego, high-motor players who fit Oklahoma’s “blue-collar hospitality” ethos (si.com). Values weren’t a branding exercise; they were a recruiting filter that kept shortcuts off-limits.

CONSISTENCY → COMPOUNDING → DYNASTY

As I grow my business, Bison CFO, I get a front row seat to getting to see inside a lot of different businesses. And while there is a lot to admire about most businesses, there is often a lot missing too, especially from the finance side.

And as I’ve celebrated this OKC Thunder NBA Championship over the past few days, I couldn’t help but see the business parallels between what Sam Presti and the OKC Thunder did and what the best businesses do.

Businesses, like basketball teams, aren’t built by flashy moves. They’re built by an alignment of values acted out consistently over a long period of time.

As a newish business owner (since 2023), I find that I’m consistently in a rush. And while that rush can sometimes help, it can also hurt. The rush can lead to mistakes.

But, as I’ve matured a little, I’ve found that I can overcome those mistakes by just focusing on executing consistently.

This same execution I was so focused on in the finance areas of the businesses I was a CFO for was the same thing that would help me find more businesses success.

That consistency creates repeated small wins, which in turn, leads to compounding. That compounding then creates an unbeatable and UNCOMMON force that others can’t easily match.

So what does this look like in your businesses finances? Let’s take a look.

FOUR FINANCIAL PARALLELS

STOCKPILING

Sam Presti’s first sacrificial lamb was James Harden. Re-signing him after OKC’s 2012 Finals run would have shoved a small-market roster into the repeater luxury-tax bracket, an annual bill so steep it would have forced a fire-sale by 2015. Presti flipped Harden for assets, swallowed the backlash, and kept the balance sheet liquid.

He repeated the pattern when Kevin Durant bolted in 2016 and again in 2019 with the twin trades of Russell Westbrook and Paul George. Each time, outgoing stars became draft picks and cap flexibility, never future payroll handcuffs. The result: 36 first-round “options” and zero panic loans against tomorrow.

Business parallel: Treat cash like Presti treated picks. Keep a Reserve Bucket, 3-6 months of operating expenses, in treasuries or a sweep account. In a downturn it buys survival; in an upturn it buys bargains no one else can afford. Liquidity isn’t lazy money; it’s optionality with interest.

​Click here to read more about it​

RHYTHMS & DEVELOPMENT

The organization focuses on drafting players withe right mindset and then internally developing players through training regiments and consistency. The compounding shows up in sudden “leaps” like Jalen Williams’ sophomore breakout.

Your equivalent is a rolling 13-week cash-flow forecast. Update it weeklyy, even when the numbers look fine. The repetition trains your eye to spot micro-patterns such as an invoice aging out or a supplier creeping terms that would otherwise ambush you two payrolls from now.

Action step: Block 30 minutes each week for a forecast refresh. Like a shooting form, it feels tedious until the game’s on the line and muscle memory saves you.

​Click here to read more about it​

DISCIPLINE TO THE PLAN

Thunder never trap themselves with one giant balloon payment. Rookie-scale contracts (SGA’s max aside) roll off in alternating years, and veteran add-ons come with graceful outs. That laddered cost structure keeps their Weighted Average Cost of Talent (like my made up metric?) low while preserving space for opportunistic signings.

Translate that to spending discipline: separate maintenance CapEx (roofs that must be fixed) from growth CapEx (a new production line). Fund the first out of steady cash, the second only when the projected ROI beats your cost of capital. No fuzzy “it’ll pay for itself eventually” math, just clear tiers, staggered timelines, and built-in escape hatches.

​Click here to read more about it​

LONG-TERM FOCUS

From 2021 to 2025 the Thunder’s net rating (points scored minus points allowed per 100 possessions) climbed from –7.3 to +8.9. That wasn’t luck; it was the predictable output of all those picks, reps, and salary tiers feeding each other. By the time OKC entered the 2025 playoffs, winning wasn’t a surprise, it was statistical gravity.

Businesses have a similar “gravity metric”: Steady-State Cash Flow (SSC), the recurring cash left after payroll, maintenance CapEx, and taxes. Grow SSC 5% a quarter and your war chest, credit terms, and enterprise value snowball without heroic one-offs.

Action step: Track SSC on the same dashboard as revenue and profit. Celebrate its climb the way Presti celebrates net rating because once the baseline rises, everything above it is pure upside.

​Click here to read more about it​

—

I’ve provided an image for quick digestion:

While these are a bit goofy, they drive home the point: we all need these consistent habits to find the success we want.

So I wanted to put together a list of questions that can help you consider what the Thunder levers might be in your business.

PROMPTS

(Pick the ones that hit, ignore the rest, and tweak freely.)

CASHOS PROMPTS

• Which piece of your cash-conversion cycle (AR, AP, inventory) could lose one day this quarter?
• What weekly ritual would warn you of a cash pinch two weeks earlier?
• If sales froze for 30 days, which expense would you cut first without hurting future revenue?
• Are your payment terms still “just what the industry does,” or have you renegotiated them in the last 18 months?
• How many days of cash do you want on hand next December and what’s the smallest weekly transfer that will get you there?

CAPITALOS PROMPTS

• Where could you automatically reinvest 10% of free cash each quarter instead of letting it leak into lifestyle spend?
• If a strategic asset hit the market tomorrow, do you have the reserves, or credit head-room, to strike?
• Which CapEx item on your wishlist could earn its own payment in < 24 months?
• Could you ladder debt maturities so no more than 25% comes due in any single year?
• What’s your “owner dividend” formula and does it flex up and down with steady-state cash flow?

VALUES ALIGNMENT PROMPTS

• List three non-negotiable traits for hires or partners. How do they support the financial goals you set five years out?
• Which customer segment looks lucrative, but violates a core value, and are you willing to walk away?
• Does every employee know which behaviors earn a bonus and which ones get a hard pass, even if they juice this quarter’s numbers?
• What’s a recent decision where a stated value cost you money, and would you “pay” that cost again tomorrow?

BRING IT HOME

Take ten minutes to review those questions and jot down answers to the one that cause a reaction for you.

Then consider: what consistent rep do I need to start this week? System should reflect vision, so consider what your vision is and what a consistent system reflects that.

Sam Presti’s blueprint wasn’t a secret; it was a defined values, discipline, and consistency. Clear values filtered every decision. Discipline and consistency compounded into option-rich flexibility. The championship was simply the math catching up.

Your business doesn’t need NBA-sized payrolls to copy the pattern:

Choose patience over panic. Install small, boring rhythms. Let the interest on those rhythms earn its own interest.

Because shortcuts cut long runs short and but consistency compounds forever.

(Banner not included… yet.)