Jennifer Yousem
All right, let’s start with the basics. Who are you?
Brent Bardales
How in-depth do you want me to go?
Jennifer Yousem
Well, first of all, people love a good origin story. You weren’t exactly born into a revenue accelerator business. So how did you get to Rev Your Business? Why did you start it?
Brent Bardales
I’m Brent Bardales. I’ve really been an entrepreneur my whole life. It started when I was about 11 or 12 years old. I got into shoes and sneakers — buying, trading up, flipping them. It turned into a ridiculous obsession.
At one point, my room was filled with sneakers from floor to ceiling.
Jennifer Yousem
Love it! I had no idea you were a sneakerhead.
Brent Bardales
That was in my younger years, yeah. But it really did turn into a business. I started with $250, bought a pair of shoes, sold them for more, bought a few more pairs, and just kept reinvesting. It compounded.
Fast forward into my actual business career: I ended up acquiring a medical business — an outpatient medical imaging center, MRI and CT — here in South Florida. I came into the company in 2014 and bought it in 2016. It was actually a family business, and it was struggling massively.
I originally came in because the business needed help generating revenue.
Jennifer Yousem
Did you come in in a sales position?
Brent Bardales
I came in in an everything position.
Jennifer Yousem
As many small business employees do, right?
Brent Bardales
Exactly. I wore a lot of hats. It eventually evolved into business development and sales — generating more patient referrals. Then, about nine months in, I ended up taking over operations. The person who had been running it left, and my father pulled me aside and said, “You’re running the company now.”
At the time, I was 20 or 21 and I had no idea what I was doing.
He was retired — he owned the company but wasn’t operating it. So I stepped in and when I started digging, I realized there were serious problems.
The company was doing just under $2 million in annual revenue. I walked into the office one day and saw a couple pieces of paper stapled together — it was almost $500,000 in past-due vendor bills.
In a $2 million company, that’s a lot of money.
I very quickly realized we had a real issue. I had to figure out how to turn this thing around — through cash flow management, expense control, and restructuring — the whole thing.
To make a long story short, we initially tried to put the company on the market because we couldn’t sustain it as it was. But instead, at 23 years old, I ended up taking out a loan and buying the company myself.
This was April 2016.
I got denied by five or six banks before I finally put together a compelling enough story for one to approve the loan. I had already paid down about 65% of the outstanding debt before securing financing. With the loan, I cashed out my father, paid off the remaining debt, and fully took ownership.
Three and a half years later, I completed a successful turnaround and sold the company. That was my first big windfall.
During that period — while preparing for the sale — I also started a digital marketing agency.
Jennifer Yousem
Because?
Brent Bardales
Because I love marketing. I don’t know — it was just something new and exciting.
I started that in 2018 and sold it in January 2022. During that same period, I also launched a manufacturing and distribution business, scaled it quickly, and exited in 2024.
After that, I asked myself, “What do I actually want to do next?”
I realized I love building companies — creating value and positioning them for a successful exit. So I thought, why not build a business that helps other people do exactly that?
And that’s how Rev Your Business was born.
Jennifer Yousem
Wow! Normally, my next question would be: There are a lot of people who say they do what you do — help businesses in some way, shape, or form. How do you differentiate yourself?
But honestly, I think your story kind of answers that. At a very young age, you stepped into a turnaround situation and have done that multiple times. You really know what it takes.
Brent Bardales
Absolutely.
Jennifer Yousem
Other than having done it multiple times, what else differentiates your process? What has made you successful in turning around not only your own businesses but others’ businesses as well?
Brent Bardales
And just to clarify — not everything we do is a turnaround situation. Many of our clients are already successful, they’ve just hit a plateau. They’ve gotten to a certain level and don’t know what the next step is. We help them break through that ceiling as well.
But whether it’s a startup, a plateaued company, or a true turnaround, the biggest challenge is this: it’s very difficult to make clear, strategic decisions when you’re in the middle of chaos.
When you’re in the tornado — problems everywhere, cash flow pressure, team issues, operational fires — it’s hard to think objectively.
And you see this too, working with businesses. When you’re inside it, everything feels urgent. Everything feels emotional. It’s very hard to zoom out and make the right long-term decisions.
Jennifer Yousem
I see it in my own business.
Brent Bardales
Exactly — everybody deals with that. And it doesn’t stop, no matter what level you’re at. Whether you’re doing $100,000, $100 million, or $100 billion in revenue, you’re still going to have problems. They’re just different problems at different levels.
What differentiates me, I think, is that I’ve been there. I’ve been in the exact same position as these business owners — founders and operators trying to figure it out.
As you said, I’ve walked the walk. I’ve done it with companies as small as a few hundred thousand in revenue and with companies doing eight figures. And there are commonalities across all of them.
Knowing what to look for — whether it’s profitability issues, customer concentration issues, owner dependency issues — those patterns show up over and over again. I’ve personally navigated each of those situations, so I know what to look for through experience, not theory.
Jennifer Yousem
I want to dig deeper on that. Obviously, nobody reaches out for help when things are great. Whether it’s a turnaround or a successful business that’s plateaued — growth has stalled or cash generation has slowed — there’s usually something wrong.
One thing you mentioned was owner dependency. And I don’t know why, but that seems to be popping up a lot more lately. Maybe it’s because we saw so many businesses exit prematurely during COVID. Some weren’t set up for success, and others exited right after because they were just exhausted.
Owner dependency can mean a lot of things, and I think it’s probably one of the hardest problems to solve. So when that’s the impediment — whether to growth or to an exit — how do you approach it?
Brent Bardales
The most basic solution to owner dependency is documentation.
But what does that really mean?
It means documenting decisions, processes, workflows, authority levels — who can make what decisions and under what circumstances. If things aren’t documented, every question funnels back to the decision-maker. And in small businesses, that’s almost always the owner. That’s the number one reason owners can’t get out of their own way.
Either they don’t document because they don’t know how, they don’t have the right team member to help, or — and this is common — they don’t want to let go of control.
One of the first things I ask when I start consulting with a company is: “Send me all your SOPs. All your documented processes and workflows.”
About 50% of the time, they’ll say, “We don’t have anything.”
Jennifer Yousem
I’m surprised that number’s so low.
Brent Bardales
Well, another 30% have something — but it’s not sufficient. And maybe 20% have decent documentation. There’s still work to do, but they’re in better shape.
For example, I just started working with a client. In our discovery meeting, I asked, “Do you have SOPs?” They said, “Yes, everything’s documented.”
I said, “Great — send me access.”
He goes, “I’ll do one better.” He pulls out one of those foldable phones — flips it open like an iPad — pulls up Google Drive, and slides it across the table. Tons of folders. Super organized.
I’m thinking, wow, this is impressive.
So I click into one of the folders and open a random SOP. And it’s this really generic document. I ask, “Is this exactly how you do this?”
He says, “No, we need to edit them. They were given to us by a coach. This is what they suggested we have.”
That’s the point: some businesses think they have documentation, but they don’t have useful documentation.
If you’re the owner and you’re answering questions all day long, you don’t have things documented properly.
When a team member asks, “How do I handle this?” or “What do I do in this situation?” — your answer should be, “Go check the SOP and come back to me if you have questions.”
If that’s not your answer, either you don’t have documentation, or you haven’t trained your team to use it.
And if they do check the documentation and still have questions? Then the accountability is on you. That means the SOP wasn’t clear enough.
Jennifer Yousem
I’m so glad you brought that up. We’ve worked together on several clients now, and our first 90 days are all about SOP creation.
But it’s not enough to just document them. We stress-test them by having someone who’s not on the account read through them.
Because what I interpret as, “Click on the hamburger menu in the top right,” someone else might read and think, “What is she talking about?”
And then there’s technology. Interfaces change constantly. QuickBooks feels like it updates weekly. So even if you document something correctly today, it might not match the screen next month. And now we use videos for more complicated processes or when words won’t suffice.
Brent Bardales
Yes — recording is great. Tools like Loom are fantastic. You can even link directly to a timestamp within the video in your SOP. That’s powerful.
But two additional things:
First, every SOP should have one owner. Not multiple. One person. That person is accountable for whether it’s accurate or outdated.
Second, I recommend a quarterly review. Every quarter, during team meetings, anyone who owns an SOP is required to review every single one of theirs. If something needs updating, they update it. That happens four times a year.
Because like you said, technology changes. Menus move. Interfaces update. If the documentation doesn’t match reality, it’s useless.
And lastly — include screenshots in your SOPs.
Jennifer Yousem
150%. And to your point, that’s where Loom has been an absolute godsend. You’re relying less on someone’s interpretation.
And yes, the quarterly swaps — that’s been a total game changer for us.
What we’ve realized is that videos leave less room for interpretation. But when something hasn’t been recorded on video, it’s fascinating to watch two people document the exact same process completely differently.
Honestly, that’s been one of the most interesting things I’ve learned since we started living and dying by SOPs.
So yes — screenshots, Loom, quarterly reviews — all of it is incredibly important.
Brent Bardales
I could talk about owner dependency forever, so take me off this topic.
Jennifer Yousem
Okay, one last question on it — without giving away all your secret sauce.
Let’s say everything is documented. The business is humming along. Growth is steady — appropriate for its size.
But the owner is still responsible for business development. Or finance. Or sales. Owners tend to fall into their area of expertise, right? They become the de facto CFO if they love finance, or the de facto salesperson.
If it were as simple as “just hire someone to take that over,” everyone would do it. So is it really just that owners hold on too tightly? Or is there something more structural that has to change?
Or is the answer: “You’ve got to hire me to find out”?
Brent Bardales
So you’re referring to owners deciding when to hire?
Jennifer Yousem
More like — if the owner dependency is that they’re responsible for all sales or finance, and it’s clearly a bottleneck, why don’t they just hire someone? Is it really that simple? Or is it not?
Brent Bardales
Hiring people doesn’t fix broken systems.
You can hire as many people as you want — if it’s not systemized, you’re just adding chaos.
The real answer is: it depends on the level of the company.
If you’re doing $10 million in revenue, with a 10% net margin — so you’re clearing $1 million — and you’re still responsible for everything, that’s a problem. You clearly haven’t put the proper systems in place. And you’re probably the reason you’re not at $20 million yet. You’ve become the bottleneck.
Now, if you’re doing $250,000 in revenue and you don’t have the resources to hire a bunch of people, but you’re still the bottleneck — that’s tougher.
What you do in that situation is identify every single decision and workflow you handle daily. Write them down. List them out. Then estimate how much time you spend on each one.
Jennifer Yousem
That is a humbling exercise. I’ve done that before.
Brent Bardales
Very.
Then tag each task: Is this revenue-critical? Or just time-critical?
Whatever is taking most of your time and is revenue-critical — get it off your plate.
Because that means you could be generating more money if you weren’t spending time doing it. Someone else can handle that function while you focus on growth.
Why would you spend time doing something someone else could do — when you could be creating more revenue?
Jennifer Yousem
Amen to that.
So we’ve talked about why people come to you. Let’s talk about what an engagement actually looks like.
Are you aggressively embedded in the business for three months and then hand them a playbook and leave? Or are you in it for the long haul? What does it look like?
Brent Bardales
It depends on the client and the engagement.
For example, we have specific programs focused solely on increasing profitability and margins. It’s partially self-guided and partially done-with-you — working directly with me to accomplish one clear goal: improve margins.
Then we have longer-term engagements where we’re embedded in the business for a year or more. We’re aggressively involved — growth strategy, efficiency, systems — the whole thing.
And then there’s exit planning.
I’ve got a company right now that we’re taking to market next month, in February. We’ve been very actively involved with them for a little over a year.
When we first started, they were ready to sell. I had to pump the brakes — and that turned out to be a great decision. Over the past year, we added a little over $1 million in value to the company.
They’re going to market next month, and they’re thrilled. God willing, they’ll realize that value on the exit and ride off into the sunset happy.
But to put that into perspective: when we first engaged, the company was worth less than $1 million. We added over $1 million in value. That’s almost a 150% increase — just by dialing in a few key things.
They were lucky in that it was an established company with solid foundations. We just had to tighten things up.
So sometimes we’re deeply embedded. Other times, we’re more on the periphery — available for strategic guidance, answering questions, and helping work toward a specific goal.
Jennifer Yousem
Have you ever been presented with an opportunity — or started conversations — where you realized you couldn’t help? And if so, why?
Brent Bardales
Yes. Actually, I had that exact conversation last Friday.
I would never formally engage with a client I can’t help. It’s not good for me, and it’s not good for them. It’s a waste of time.
This potential client was an architecture firm doing a little over $2.5 million in revenue. They primarily designed grocery stores.
They came to me because their margins were getting crushed. Their main customer — a large grocery chain — was cracking down on pricing.
About 20 minutes into the conversation, I realized something: they only had one client.
That one client was a massive grocery store chain called Whole Foods.
They were doing $2.5 million in revenue with one customer.
Their problem was, “We’re getting hammered on margins and we need to grow revenue.”
I told them, “You’ve got a much bigger problem. If you lose that one client, you have zero revenue.”
I can’t fix that. That’s not a systems problem — that’s a concentration risk problem.
I told them: go get into networking situations. Go build relationships. Go find new clients. You need a marketing engine, not me.
Where I can help is when there’s an established business model, diversified revenue streams, and a solid foundation to optimize and grow.
But before that? You need business coming in the door.
Jennifer Yousem
I love that. I talk to a lot of folks who say, “There’s no one I can’t help.”
And if that were true, I think everybody would have a lot more business.
There are just some problems that can’t be solved by what you do or what I do. To your point, customer concentration is a tough one. There’s no tightening of operational screws that can make up for having only one client.
Brent Bardales
Yeah, that’s crazy.
Jennifer Yousem
No one comes to us when things are great.
Occasionally it’s, “My bookkeeper is retiring, and the books are in okay shape.” But generally? It’s what my Director calls, “a state of spicy disaster.”
There’s cleanup. They don’t have COGS separated properly. They don’t know their margins.
Brent Bardales
Yeah. You’ve helped my clients with that.
Jennifer Yousem
Yes, because as you know, there’s a big difference between cost of goods sold and operating expenses. And knowing that difference helps you make better business decisions.
I was asked recently — and I thought it was such a great question — other than being in a hot mess, what are the early yellow flags?
Not red flags. Yellow flags.
Because by the time you’re reaching out for help, you already have a problem — it just takes longer to fix it.
So what are some early yellow flags where someone might think they’re not ready for Rev Your Business yet, but actually they should be calling you now?
Brent Bardales
Great question.
On the exit planning side: if you’re starting to feel burnt out, let’s talk. That’s number one.
Or if you plan on selling in the next three to five years — start the conversation now.
On the growth, efficiency, and profitability side, it’s a little harder to answer because usually people come to me with something specific they’re trying to solve.
But a big yellow flag is this: if you’re making financial decisions — hiring, expanding, launching new products, increasing inventory — without truly understanding your financials, that’s a major problem.
If you’re not making decisions based on real financial data, call Jennifer — and then call me. That’s a serious yellow flag.
From an efficiency standpoint, another one is this: if your business is growing, but your time isn’t freeing up — or worse, you’re working more and answering more questions — that’s a sign you need to get ahead of it.
Otherwise, it will become a bigger problem.
Jennifer Yousem
And it’s such a hard question to answer because the conversations you and I have in the beginning are usually similar.
We’ll look at something and ask, “How did we get here?”
I call it the “stumble up.” You have a successful business, profits are hiding bad processes, and then you hit a lull or a disruption — and suddenly all the flaws are exposed.
A lot of times people say, “My bookkeeper left a few months ago, and I’ve just been lagging.” That one’s easy — you can literally see where the books fell off.
But here’s the bigger issue: not everybody loves finance. A lot of people are allergic to numbers. So they outsource finance entirely. But you have to have a fundamental understanding of your business.
You can outsource the doing — but you can’t outsource the knowing.
So what do you do with clients who say, “I just don’t get it”? How do you get that through to them?
Brent Bardales
That’s a great question.
I was actually having this exact conversation last week with one of our clients.
We’ve been working through repricing conversations because of profitability pressures and cost increases coming in 2026. Then we shifted into cost control — as they grow, when can they responsibly increase operating expenses?
To answer that, we had to look at a few things: owner’s draws, operating expenses, cost structure — all of it.
So I pull up the balance sheet.
And honestly? It was like walking into a maze. Where am I? Do I turn left? Right?
This is a very successful company. They know how to build products and deliver services. But building a product and building a financial structure are two very different skill sets.
So I spent 20–25 minutes just walking through the fundamentals.
What is a P&L? What affects the top line? What’s considered cost of goods sold versus operating expenses? What lives above the line versus below it?
Then the balance sheet — why doesn’t owner’s draw show up on the P&L? Why is it on the balance sheet?
Just breaking it down to basics.
Because before I make changes, I need them to understand why we’re making those changes.
If they don’t understand the reasoning, they can’t meaningfully disagree with me. They’ll just trust me.
And I don’t want blind trust.
I want informed agreement. And if they disagree, great — let’s have the conversation.
But they need to understand the mechanics first.
Jennifer Yousem
I am with you. I always say—at the risk of sounding like a terrible salesperson—I really want the people I deliver financials to understand them when I’m not in the room.
The goal is to create reporting and tools that are actually useful, not to create a dependency on me. And I see so many people in my line of work who intentionally maintain that dependency because it keeps them employed.
That’s just… not a good look for us.
Brent Bardales
Even in the repricing exercises we go through, we’re working inside spreadsheets so clients can see how margins are affected. They have the spreadsheet. They can play with the numbers and watch what happens.
“Does this price us out of the market? What does it do to our margins?”
You don’t need to know how to calculate gross profit margin from scratch. But you do need to understand why you’re targeting a specific margin.
You can’t just price something because you think you’re making a couple dollars. Are you really making a couple dollars?
No. You have a target margin you need to hit. And if you go below that, you’re losing money—even if it looks like you’re making money on the top line—because you still have all that overhead.
Jennifer Yousem
So what’s something you’d tell new business owners? Not “the one magic thing,” because that makes it sound like there’s some secret out there. But what’s one thing they can do now to set themselves up for success before they ever get to you?
For example, I tell people to set up their chart of accounts correctly from the beginning. It’s worth the investment to bring someone in—even if you can’t afford ongoing bookkeeping—just to build a solid foundation that will actually give you useful information.
So what’s the biggest mistake you see before people get to you?
Brent Bardales
Document everything. The earlier you start, the easier it will be to grow and scale.
And from a financial standpoint, don’t race to the bottom. Don’t price as low as possible just to get revenue—because not all revenue is good revenue.
Jennifer Yousem
One of my favorite sayings.
Brent Bardales
Focus on the value you deliver and price for that value—rather than selling an undervalued service or product just to win business.
Jennifer Yousem
To wrap things up, is there anything I didn’t ask about you or your business that you want people to know?
Brent Bardales (Rev Your Business)
My goal this year is to directly impact a thousand people—within their businesses and/or their personal growth initiatives. However I can help—whether that’s a one-on-one conversation or speaking to a room full of people about growth, efficiency, profitability, or selling their company—I want to help a thousand people get one step closer to achieving what they’re working toward.
From any of those angles, I’d be honored to do so.
Jennifer Yousem (iheartebitda.com)
Awesome and I want to help you do that.
