The challenge
Joe Coughlin spent 15 years working for a local newspaper publisher before the company went out of business. He founded The Record with two other journalists to fill the gap and serve his community in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Two years later, Joe is proud of his startup’s growing impact on the area, but knew he needed a better plan to increase revenue from readers and sponsors.
Joe also wanted to improve his ability to project the company’s finances at the beginning of the year and develop a better understanding of the templates and tools he could use to forecast revenue swings. His budget projections at the beginning of the year were often incorrect, which led the organization to play “catch up” for the remainder of the year. Joe knew that there had to be a better way.
“Back At The Other Company, I Looked At Budgets, And I Helped – But I Wasn'T Building Them. I Wasn'T Forecasting, None Of That. All Of That Stuff I Just Kept Trying To Google And Learn On The Fly And Just Figure It Out. I Definitely Needed, And Wanted, Help Understanding The Best Practices.”
Joe Coughlin
Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Record Community News