Economics graduate · Data-driven builder · Las Vegas, NV
I turn raw data into decisions. By day I'm pursuing the CFA charter; by night I'm building automated analytics systems that monitor, measure, and report — because good analysis should run itself.
REAL DATA — HOME NETWORK SPEED, LAST 10 HOURLY TESTS · AS OF OCT 2, 2026, 6:00 AM PDT
Capabilities
Skills
A working toolkit, not a wishlist. Everything listed here is something I use in production on my own systems — or am actively building toward professional fluency.
Excel Building
PivotTables, INDEX/MATCH and XLOOKUP, conditional logic, data cleaning workflows. Currently working through structured daily practice toward financial modeling fluency.
SQL Building
SELECT, JOINs, aggregations, subqueries, window functions. Practicing against real datasets with a focus on the query patterns financial analysts use daily.
Financial Modeling Core
DCF fundamentals, three-statement mechanics, ratio analysis, and valuation multiples — grounded in an economics degree and CFA Level I curriculum.
Data Visualization Applied
Chart.js dashboards, KPI design, time-series charts. I build dashboards that answer one question fast — no chart junk, no vanity metrics.
Python (Automation) Applied
Scripting ETL-style pipelines, API integrations (Plaid, Telegram), scheduled jobs, log parsing. Every project below runs on Python I wrote and maintain.
Home Lab / Systems Applied
Mac mini M4 server: network-wide DNS ad blocking (AdGuard Home), automated backups with offsite pull, uptime monitoring, cron orchestration, Tailscale networking.
Selected Work
Projects
Financial models and operating systems built to turn messy business questions into decisions, with transparent assumptions and working outputs.
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The True Cost of a Late Invoice
FEATURED CASE STUDY · FINANCIAL MODELING · EXCEL
A cash-drag model for a $500K Las Vegas plumbing or HVAC shop. It translates late-paying customers into working capital, financing cost, lost owner time, and profit impact.
Models 30-, 60-, and 90-day lateness against Net-30 terms
Shows the cash shortfall building month by month
Includes a downloadable Excel workbook with live formulas
Focused on the insight gap: SMBs drown in software, starve for answers
5
KPIs per dashboard
0
Analysts required
Featured case study · Financial modeling
The True Cost of a Late Invoice
What does it actually cost a typical Las Vegas plumbing or HVAC shop when customers pay 30, 60, or 90 days late?
Every 30 days customers pay late costs a $500K shop about $4,100 a year — roughly 8% of its profit — just to finance its own receivables.
At 60 days late, the annual financing cost reaches $8,200: about one-sixth of the year's profit, gone to carrying customers.
01The model
A shop doing $500,000 in annual revenue at a 10% net margin earns $50,000 a year. With Net-30 terms, it already carries about $41,096 in average receivables. Each additional 30 days of lateness adds another month of revenue to the balance the shop must finance.
Scenario
DSO
Average receivables
Extra working capital
Annual financing cost
Share of profit
Paid on time
30 days
$41,096
$0
$0
0%
30 days late
60 days
$82,192
$41,096
$4,110
8.2%
60 days late
90 days
$123,288
$82,192
$8,219
16.4%
90 days late
120 days
$164,384
$123,288
$12,329
24.7%
Receivables = annual revenue × days sales outstanding ÷ 365. Financing cost = extra working capital × 10% APR.
02How the cash hole opens
The shortfall arrives one billing month at a time. Under 90-day-late payment behavior, the shop is carrying $125,000 of customer cash flow by month three. The balance remains tied up until collection speed improves.
CUMULATIVE CASH SHORTFALL VS. PAID-ON-TIME · 12 MONTHS
Assumes even monthly billings of $41,667. Each plateau is the steady-state cash drag while invoices remain late.
03The hidden second cost: chasing
Four hours a week × 52 weeks × $50 per hour = $10,400 a year of owner time spent following up on overdue invoices. Combined with the $8,219 financing cost, a shop paid 60 days late is out approximately $18,600 a year, or 37% of annual profit.
04Assumptions, stated plainly
$500K revenue and 10% net margin. CFMA's FY2024 specialty-trade benchmark puts firms under $10M at 6.5% net, with best performers at 14.2%; 10% represents a solid operator between those points.
Net-30 terms and even monthly billings. Seasonal shops will see larger swings, but the annual carrying-cost logic remains the same.
10% APR cost of capital. The Federal Reserve Q1 2026 small-business bank-rate range cited by NerdWallet was 6.37%–10.98%.
Conservative scope. The model excludes bad-debt write-offs, supplier late fees, and opportunities forgone because cash was unavailable.
05Built for analysis and sales
This case study also serves as sales collateral for PaidUp, my invoice-chasing software for trade businesses. It turns a vague operational frustration into a decision-ready estimate that an owner can challenge, customize, and use.
Download the working Excel model
Edit the blue input cells for revenue, margin, payment terms, APR, owner rate, and chasing time. The scenario table and monthly cash-shortfall chart recalculate from live formulas.
Federal Reserve via NerdWallet: Q1 2026 bank small-business borrowing-rate range.
Intuit QuickBooks UK: average weekly time small businesses spend dealing with overdue payments.
Background
About
I'm Blake Sanchez, an economics graduate from UNLV pursuing a career as a financial analyst. I'm currently a CFA Level I candidate, working through the curriculum while building the technical toolkit the role demands.
My approach to learning is to build real systems. Instead of just studying Excel formulas, I automated my personal finances. Instead of reading about monitoring, I built a network operations dashboard. Every skill I claim has a running system behind it.
I'm looking for an entry-level financial analyst or data analyst role where I can combine economic reasoning with hands-on data skills — and keep building from there.
Now
CFA Level I Candidate
Working through the CFA curriculum: ethics, quantitative methods, financial reporting, and valuation.
Now
Technical Skill Building
Daily structured practice in Excel and SQL, targeted at financial analyst workflows.
Ongoing
Home Lab & Automation
Self-hosted analytics infrastructure: monitoring, alerting, ETL pipelines, and reporting — all automated.
UNLV
B.A. Economics
Foundation in micro/macro theory, econometrics, and quantitative reasoning.
Get in touch
Let's talk
I'm actively pursuing financial analyst and data analyst opportunities in the Las Vegas area and remote. If you're hiring — or just want to talk data — I'd like to hear from you.