Smarter money moves for retail brands right now

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By Marcy Medina | for The SKUpe

As economic uncertainty continues to rattle retailers and consumers alike, financial consultant and former psychotherapist Megan Hale is on a mission to bring clarity and calm to the chaos. The founder of  DreamMoney, a fintech platform designed specifically for small business owners, Hale blends financial strategy with mindset work to help entrepreneurs make smart, sustainable decisions. In this conversation, she shares how DreamMoney evolved from a set of spreadsheets into a powerful SaaS tool—and how founders can stay grounded while navigating uncertain times. 

Describe DreamMoney and why you created it. 

DreamMoney started as three spreadsheets I created for myself to help me get a grasp on my revenue plan as a small business owner. It was so transformational for me, my revenue and building financial confidence, that I started teaching it to other small business owners. As I helped more people, I knew it’d make a great SaaS (software as a service) someday, but it took almost eight years for me to pursue the build.

We also launched our Minimum Lovable platform in March for helping small business owners get a grasp on their numbers, clarify meaningful (and profitable) revenue goals, map out sustainable revenue plans, cast financial projections and expertly manage their cash flow. With the addition of financial psychology, drawn from my background as a psychotherapist, we’ve truly created a holistic, smart, intuitive platform that helps small business owners step into their most empowered relationship with money.

There is nothing I love more than supporting small business owners, women especially. I do that through our DreamMoney software, one-on-one consulting, and speaking and training.  

With the economic uncertainty stressing retailers and consumers, what's your advice on how to navigate these challenging times?

We need to 1. know our numbers, 2. have a plan, and 3. be diligent about our mindset so we can stay grounded and make informed, strategic decisions.  

This is a time to deeply know your expenses and where you can cut costs. It’s an absolute must to have a good grasp on your cash flow projections, know your Minimum Viable Revenue that has to come in to keep things going (check out our free calculator here), and what key decisions you’ll make to shore up revenue in the event of a down season.

From a strategic lens, it may be a time to expand into new markets and bring new ideas to market that can support your customers in complementary ways, especially creative services that require little overhead.  

From a financial psychology perspective, our work is to remind ourselves that there are always a lot of variables outside of our control. But we also have a lot of agency for making solid contingency plans, being willing to experiment and leaning strongly into community and relationships (never do business alone!).

What's one thing you are experimenting with in your business?

We’re going to be offering a three-day free trial with DreamMoney in June, where users will get hands-on guidance for mapping out their strategic revenue plan, leveraging our software. You can sign up for free here.

From there, we’re excited to release our monthly reporting feature for our users that will offer key financial insights into the health and wealth of your business, CEO reflection questions to support your strategy for the next month, and capture any wins so we can reflect those back to you at the end of the year.

Edited for brevity and clarity.

Above: Hale meets with a client. (Courtesy)

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The SKUpe is curated and written  by Marcy Medina and edited by Bianca Prieto