Since 2017, I’ve worked with business owners, leadership teams, nonprofits, and organizations across the country on financial planning, forecasting, cash flow, profitability, capital strategy, business growth, and organizational development.

Today, through Hayseed Collective, my work sits somewhere between finance, operations, and leadership.

Sometimes that means building a financial model.

Sometimes it means figuring out why a business with strong sales still has no cash.

Sometimes it means helping a leadership team establish budgets, KPIs, and accountability.

Sometimes it means preparing for a lender, an investor, an expansion, or a business transition.

And sometimes it simply means sitting down together, sorting through the mess, and figuring out what the numbers are actually saying.

Good financial information should make your life easier.

I don't believe business owners should have to become accountants to understand their businesses.

And I definitely don't believe anyone should feel embarrassed because they don't know what EBITDA means, how a balance sheet works, or why QuickBooks is doing something ridiculous.

My job is to take complicated financial information and make it useful.

We can build the sophisticated model when you need one. We can talk debt, margins, capital, working capital, COGS, forecasting, and KPIs.

But we can also start with:

“Okay, Elaine. I have no idea where my money is going.”

That is a perfectly good place to begin.

Why I still love working with farmers

Someone once asked me why I care so much about this work.

The answer came pretty quickly.

Farmers are steeped in optimism.

You put something in the ground believing it will grow. You invest in animals, equipment, employees, land, infrastructure, and ideas before you can possibly know exactly how everything will turn out.

And you keep doing it even when it's really damn hard.

There is something extraordinary about being trusted by people doing that work and being invited into the parts of their businesses that are often the hardest to talk about.

I don't take that trust lightly.

What I bring to the table

I bring 15 years of experience as an owner/operator and more than nine years helping other businesses solve financial and organizational problems.

That includes financial planning and forecasting, cash-flow strategy, COGS and profitability analysis, pricing, capital and debt strategy, lender readiness, financial modeling, KPIs and dashboards, strategic planning, management systems, leadership coaching, and financial education.

The tools change depending on the business.

The goal doesn't:

Clearer numbers. Better decisions. A stronger business.

If you’re trying to figure out what comes next — or you know something in the business isn’t working and you can’t quite put your finger on it — let’s talk.

Let’s chat

Tell me a little about your business and what you're trying to figure out.

You do not need to have everything organized before we talk.

That’s part of what I’m here for.