The CASH FIGHT Decision Model
Before your next big CPG decision, know if the math actually works.
This is a one-time engagement for CPG founders who need to understand their cash, margins, pricing, channel strategy, marketing spend, inventory, or launch plans before spending more money.
If you’re staring at a big opportunity and wondering, “Can we actually afford this?” CASH FIGHT helps you put real numbers around the decision so you can move forward with more confidence and less guessing.
For the CPG Founder thinking, "Where did our cash go?" or "Can we afford to do this?"
Sometimes you need someone to sit down with you, look at the actual numbers, and help you understand what is happening before you make the next big decision.
That might mean figuring out:
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What your monthly cash burn really is
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Where your cash is going
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How much capital you have left
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What revenue goal you’re trying to hit
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How much you can responsibly spend on marketing
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Whether your growth goals are ambitious-but-reasonable or put you at risk of going out of business
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What you need to put in place before fundraising, launching, hiring, scaling, etc.
For the decision you’re scared to make before knowing (or trusting) your numbers.
You do not need perfect numbers to start. You need enough of the right numbers to understand what matters, what can be estimated, and what needs better data.
You might be asking:
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Can I afford to launch this new SKU?
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Does this retail account actually make money after distributor margin, retailer margin, broker fees, trade spend, slotting, freight, and COGS?
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Should I focus on DTC, wholesale, Amazon, partnerships, or one channel first?
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What price do I need for this product to work?
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How much cash do I need before I say yes?
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Can we afford this marketing budget?
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Am I ready for a fractional or full-time CFO, or do I need bookkeeping, cleanup, or a simpler model first?
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Is my growth goal realistic based on my cash, team, and current traction?
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Where is my cash going every month?
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What should I fix before I raise money?
This is where CASH FIGHT comes in.
What is CASH FIGHT?
CPG is harder than it looks. Founders aren't usually dealing with one isolated finance question...
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A pricing decision affects your margin.
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A retail decision affects your cash.
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A marketing decision affects your burn.
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An inventory decision affects how much money is tied up before the revenue comes back.
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A growth goal affects all of it.
Our CASH FIGHT Framework helps you break down the mechanics of CPG cash. It's a way of looking at and evaluating your business to identify any weak points and were cash may be leaking.
The CASH FIGHT Decision Model helps with what to do about it, surfacing the cash solutions available to you. Together, we look at the financial levers that determine whether your next move actually works:
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Conversion Cycle
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Alert Level
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Shelf Pricing
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sHipping & Fulfillment
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Financing
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Inventory
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Goods Sold (COGS)
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overHead
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Trade Spend & Marketing
The goal is not to analyze every part of your business continually - it's to see which parts matter most for the decision in front of you now.
Once you understand how the pieces connect, you can stop asking, “is this a good or bad choice?” and start asking better questions:
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What needs to be true for this to work?
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Where does the cash break first?
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What should I fix before I say "yes"?
That's the CASH FIGHT Decision Model.
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What to expect
We start with a short intake call to understand your business, the decision to be made or what you’re trying to solve.
Before the session, you’ll share the numbers and context you already have. Don’t worry if your inputs are imperfect or if you don’t know exactly where everything belongs. Part of the work is helping you understand which numbers matter and what they mean.
During, we will:
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Walk through your real numbers together
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Pressure-test the assumptions behind your upcoming decision
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Look at cash timing, margins, pricing, channel economics, inventory, burn, and risk
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Use the CASH FIGHT Framework to see how the decision affects the rest of the business
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Explain what the numbers are telling you (in simple terms, not finance-speak)
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Identify the next few moves you should make to ensure things go to plan
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Confirm what financial foundations you are - and are not - ready for (bookkeeping, accounting, a more complex model, forecasting, CFO support, etc.)
This is not just someone running numbers for you in the background. You’ll understand the model, the decision, and the tradeoffs.
What you leave with
After CASH FIGHT Decision modeling, you’ll walk away with:
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A working decision model for scenario-planning and pressure-testing, built using your own numbers
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An understanding of whether the business mechanics work
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A clearer view of your cash, margins, pricing, and/or channel economics
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A short list of what to fix first based on where cash is at risk or where it may break first
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A better sense of whether you need a bookkeeper, CFO, advisor, financing, or just a better operating rhythm
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A recording/recap so you’re not trying to remember everything afterward
Our goal is to help you understand what is happening in your business so you can make an important business decision with confidence and a sense of the downstream impacts to prepare for.
Real decisions CPG founders have brought to CASH FIGHT
“Can this stateside retail launch actually work?”
A beverage founder had strong local traction, but moving into broader US retail meant adding distributor margin, retailer margin, broker fees, trade spend, slotting, freight, and other costs.
He needed to know whether his price point could still work, what profitability could look like, and whether he was setting himself up for failure before investing more money into the launch.
CASH FIGHT helped him pressure-test the numbers, understand the margin reality, and determine pricing.
“I’m trying to do everything at once. What should I focus on first?”
A pre-launch founder was preparing to sell both DTC and B2B. She was overwhelmed, trying to make the launch work, and knew she needed to be more clear on the finances before building toward investment.
CASH FIGHT helped her see that trying to execute both channels at once would be difficult with her current resources. She left with a clearer sales focus, a mini model, and a better understanding of the road to profitability.
“How did we spend this much money, and what can we afford next?”
An emerging brand came into the session trying to understand where the money had gone, how to budget for the upcoming year, and how to prepare for a future VC round.
After the session, they had a clearer view of their monthly burn, remaining capital, revenue goals, and what marketing spend could support those goals.
They left feeling more enabled, not more restricted.
Who this is for
A CASH FIGHT Decision Model is a good fit for:
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Early stage AND scaling CPG founders
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Answering a specific question about your business, or making a specific decision
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Addressing confusion around cash, margins, pricing, channel economics, or spend
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Preparing for a launch, retail expansion, new SKU, marketing push, or fundraise
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Founders in need of someone who understands CPG to look at the math alongside them
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Those wanting education, not just a spreadsheet or report
It is especially helpful if you are brand, sales, or product-led - and finance is not your first language.
Who this is not for
CASH FIGHT is not a replacement for ongoing bookkeeping, accounting, or full-service CFO support.
It is also not a magic answer if your numbers are incomplete, your books are unusable, or the business needs deeper finance infrastructure.
If that is the case, we’ll help you understand the next best step. CASH FIGHT is designed to help you figure out what kind of finance problem you have before you overbuy services or opt-in to the wrong support.
Why CPG founders work with The CPG CFO
CPG is harder than it looks. The math is different than other industries.
Retail margin, distributor margin, trade spend, freight, inventory, slotting, broker fees, chargebacks, production runs, cash timing, and marketing spend all collide.
A general finance person understands a P&L. But you need someone who understands how CPG decisions actually show up in your cash, margins, and growth plans.
CASH FIGHT gives you a CPG-specific financial foundation before you make a big decision.
Ready to pressure-test that upcoming decision?
Bring us the decision you’re hesitating on - let's talk through it on an short intake call and go from there.
We’ll put real numbers around it, walk through the tradeoffs, and help you understand what needs to be true for your next move to be the right one.