Runway ≠ Vibes: How Creative Businesses Stay Free to Grow
When venture investor and entrepreneur Arian Simone announced Fearless Freedom—a new push for real economic access for underrepresented founders—it hit me.
We love momentum. We live for launch days, press features, sold-out drops, and the rush of new clients. But here’s the truth: momentum without a money map is just noise.
I’ve seen it too many times—creative founders, brands, and studios pushing at full speed without knowing:
How many months of oxygen (aka cash runway) they actually have
Which number decides if they can pay themselves next quarter
What happens to payroll if their main sales channel slows down for 30 days
Your mission matters. Your brand matters. But without a clear, stress-tested runway, your freedom to grow is fragile.
So, what’s “runway” anyway?
Think of it like this: runway is how long your business can keep moving forward if new money stopped coming in tomorrow.
Runway = Cash in bank ÷ Average monthly spend
If you’ve got $60k in the bank and spend $15k a month, you’ve got about 4 months of oxygen. Not 4 months to panic—4 months to plan.
Quick gut-check for your runway
You can do this in 10 minutes:
Look at your cash on hand today.
Average the last 3 months of spend.
Divide cash by spend = months of runway.
Now you know your number.
If sales slow down next month…
Pause “nice-to-have” spend for one week (yes, even the pretty packaging).
Delay reorders on anything that isn’t a true best-seller.
Send a clean, time-bound offer to your best customers to pull in cash.
Pick an owner pay number you can definitely keep for one month—steady is better than high-then-zero.
For product businesses
(Think: beauty, apparel, CPG)
Buy smart: Order what your current cash can cover and time deliveries to when you’ll actually get paid. Adds months to your runway.
Price with purpose: Make sure free shipping or promos don’t wipe out your profit after shipping and fees. Adds months to your runway.
Know your retail terms: Understand store marketing cuts, penalties, and returns so your cash expectations match reality. Adds months to your runway.
For service businesses
(Think: creative agencies, studios, consultants)
Set the scope: Spell out what’s in, what’s out, and deadlines in writing.
Bill in milestones: Deposit to start, partial payment during the project, final payment before delivery.
Handle changes: If the project grows, so does the fee—get it in writing before doing the extra work.
Why “profit” can still leave you broke
You can be profitable on paper and still be gasping for air. Why?
Clients haven’t paid yet.
Inventory is eating your cash.
Loan and credit payments aren’t in your P&L.
Big annual bills drop all at once.
The bottom line
Vibes don’t pay payroll.
Hype won’t keep the lights on.
But a clear, stress-tested runway? That’s freedom to grow.
This is exactly what I do in my Financial Reset Diagnostic—turning “I think we’re fine” into:
Your exact runway (with a slow-down test)
A 30-day cash plan you can actually run
An owner pay number you can keep without stress
