From Banking to Branding: Totavi’s Top 3 Tips for Long-Term Small Business Growth

When you’re starting a business, it’s easy to get caught up in the fun stuff—designing your brand, launching your site, or landing that first client. But behind every business is a foundation that’s built to scale.

Recently, we had the pleasure of speaking with Matthew Goldman, Founder of Totavi, a boutique consulting firm that helps startups, fintechs, and non-fintech companies build and launch complex financial products, about his approach to business growth. With nearly two decades of experience as a founder and operator, Matthew knows what it takes to build something sustainable and common pitfalls that hold growing businesses back.

Here are three underrated (but crucial) tips Matthew shared for small business owners who want to start strong, avoid costly missteps, and position their business for long-term growth.

1. Separate Your Finances—Early

Mixing personal and business finances is one of the most common mistakes and one of the most painful to untangle later. Matthew recommends separating your accounts from day one not only to stay organized and compliant, but also confident in your cash flow. It doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive.

“It is very important to have your house in order. Have a separate business bank. Have a separate business credit card. Have separate everything.”

While it might seem like a small detail in the early days, choosing the wrong banking setup—or delaying it altogether—can slow you down when it’s time to grow. Confusing account statements, messy tax reporting, and unclear business performance can become costly distractions. Worse, high fees and clunky processes can make new founders hesitant to even get started. “You don’t want to pay $35 a month for a bank account that has no money in it,” Matthew emphasizes. “That alone can dissuade people from even trying to grow.” Instead, look for no-fee small business checking accounts that make it easy to set up and work the way you do.

2. Start Before You “Start”

Matthew credits Totavi’s early momentum to the work he did before launching. Rather than waiting until day one to sell, he spent 90–120 days talking to potential clients, validating his idea, and building relationships. As a result, when he was ready to open up shop, he wasn’t starting from scratch.

“It’s really important to spend as much time as possible before you actually start trying to lay groundwork. Some of my early customers I was talking to for 3, 4, 5, or 6 months before they signed,” Matthew explains.  “Most sales cycles are pretty long—especially in B2B. So if you wait to start until launch day, it’s going to be a tough first few months.”

That early work paid off. By the time Totavi opened for business, Matthew already had warm leads in the pipeline, trusted relationships in place, and real market feedback that shaped his service offerings. He wasn’t guessing—he was delivering what potential clients had already told him they needed. The takeaway? Use your pre-launch time wisely. Build your network, pressure test your value prop, and start building trust before you ever send an invoice.

3. Don’t Be a Generalist—Be Known for Something

In a crowded market, being good at everything often means being remembered for nothing. That’s why one of the smartest moves Matthew made early on was choosing to specialize. Rather than trying to appeal broadly, he positioned himself as an expert in one specific, high-value space.

“If I went to market as ‘I can help your tech company with products,’ I’d be competing with a lot of other people all the time. It’d be very hard to have a viewpoint.”

Rather than trying to appeal broadly and marketing himself as a generalist consultant, he leaned into a focused niche where his expertise could shine. That sharp positioning not only helped him differentiate in a crowded market, but also it built credibility with the right audience. Content marketing also played a key role in reinforcing that identity. Matthew writes a niche newsletter and consistently shares insights to spark conversations, build trust, and stay top of mind even with people he hasn’t met yet. As a result, many of his inbound opportunities come from prospects who already understand his value before the first call.

“If you can pick a niche and do it really well, people will start coming to you. It’s much more sustainable than outbound.”

Even if your business serves a broader market, leading with a focused message can help you gain traction faster and build credibility within your space. Specialization signals expertise, telling potential clients that you understand their specific challenges and have real solutions. It also makes it easier for people to refer you, remember you, and trust your perspective. Once you’ve established that credibility in a niche, it becomes a launchpad for expanding into adjacent markets or taking on broader opportunities without diluting your brand early on.

Build Your Foundation Like It’s Built to Grow

Every successful business starts with a strong foundation—one that’s designed not just to support the early days, but to scale alongside your goals. From banking to branding, the decisions you make in the beginning can either create momentum or hold you back. As Totavi’s Founder Matthew Goldman shared, putting the right structure in place from day one—especially when it comes to your finances—can help you unlock the freedom to move faster, think bigger, and grow on your own terms.

Whether you’re launching a new business, growing a service-based company, or scaling a boutique consultancy, success starts with a solid financial foundation, sharp focus, and the right support behind the scenes. Let Grasshopper take care of the banking, so you can stay focused on building and growing your business. Join thousands of consultants, founders and small business owners who are using Grasshopper to simplify their finances and scale with confidence by opening a business bank account today!