Jason Swenk was two weeks from closing his agency
Jason Swenk built a digital agency in Atlanta that would one day work with names like AT&T and Coca-Cola. But in the early days, with a small team and clients rolling in, he sat down to look at payroll and got a shock. The agency was growing fast, and it was about two weeks from running out of money.
The work was there. The invoices were there. The cash simply wasn't, because fast growth swallows cash before it hands any back. Jason fixed it by putting systems in place, went on to grow past $13 million, and sold the agency years later.
What went wrong
Growth costs money up front. You hire, you take on bigger jobs, and you pay for all of it before the client's money arrives. Profit on paper doesn't pay this week's wages.
The habit that prevents it
Always know how many weeks of payroll your cash can cover. Watch that number more closely than your revenue.
How you'd see this coming in Punctual
Your dashboard shows your cash and what's owed to you at any moment, so a payroll crunch is something you see coming, not something that ambushes you.