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Financial Education for Entrepreneurs with Candy Messer · The One Small Change Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome everybody again to the One Small Change. As always, I
• 0:04
  am thrilled that you're here to be on this journey of exploration and
• 0:08
  transformation with me. I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I
• 0:11
  bring almost 30 years of entrepreneurial experience and passion
• 0:16
  for discovering how growth can come from even the most
• 0:19
  seemingly small change. So if you're on the
• 0:23
  entrepreneurial journey, whether you're at the beginning or the end, I think you're
• 0:26
  gonna find some great insights because we are
• 0:30
  talking to the amazing Candi Messer. Candi.
• 0:34
  Hello. It is so good that we get to swap podcasts.
• 0:38
  Mhmm. It's been a little bit, but I'm glad to see you again. Yes. So
• 0:42
  when I did your podcast, I did not have a podcast. So I am so
• 0:45
  happy that I can reciprocate. But even more than that, I
• 0:49
  am excited about what you can tell entrepreneurs.
• 0:53
  Because I remember when we talked, we had so many things that we clicked on
• 0:57
  and agreed on in the entrepreneurial journey and
• 1:00
  why what you do is so important. So tell us how you got started
• 1:04
  and, you know, what made you do what you do. Sure. Actually, I
• 1:08
  never intended to be an entrepreneur. I was, you know,
• 1:11
  in retail for most of my career, up to
• 1:15
  the time from when I first started, a a real job, let's
• 1:19
  say, until I had my second child. And I thought thought at first
• 1:23
  I was gonna go back and do that. But then I just decided it didn't
• 1:26
  make sense with my kids. I wanted to be able to be home with them,
• 1:29
  and so I was home. I was at home mom for 3 years.
• 1:33
  And then someone asked me, like, to help out at a preschool,
• 1:37
  and that's kinda when I started doing the accounting things. I was, you know, keeping
• 1:41
  track of, you know, the parents having to pay for their child and all of
• 1:45
  those kind of things. And one that led one thing led to another. You
• 1:49
  know, had a corporate job after that, for about 6
• 1:52
  years as a full charge bookkeeper. And so someone knew what I
• 1:56
  did with the numbers reconciling, and her
• 2:00
  husband had a business. And she said, I hate reconciling.
• 2:04
  Like, I will invoice the clients. I'll pay the bills, but I hate reconciling the
• 2:07
  books and making sure everything's accurate. Will you please help? And so that's how
• 2:11
  I got started. She she bugged me for, like, 3 or 4 months before I
• 2:15
  said yes. And then I thought, well, now I need to get some
• 2:19
  additional clients because I have to do everything legally. I have to have a business
• 2:22
  license. I have to buy equipment. I have to buy the software. And
• 2:26
  so I was doing my, quote, unquote, real job, and then I
• 2:30
  had on the side, you know, this one until about a year and
• 2:34
  a half later, my husband said, quit your job and focus on your
• 2:38
  business. You're good at it. People love what you do. You provide a great
• 2:41
  service. You know? So so convinced me.
• 2:45
  So like a lot of entrepreneurs, you kind of,
• 2:49
  you know, you you didn't wake up one morning and go, I'm gonna be an
• 2:52
  entrepreneur. Right. And, you know, you kind of found
• 2:56
  your way there by by hit or by miss. And the thing that's so
• 3:00
  funny is that you're very lucky that you had your
• 3:03
  spouse say, quit your job and do this. Mhmm. You know, many times it's
• 3:07
  the opposite kind of reaction. And I know
• 3:11
  that, you know, my mother would
• 3:15
  call me on a regular basis and say, what? You know, get a job.
• 3:18
  Or if I would say to her, I'm working, she goes, you're not. You don't
• 3:21
  have a job. Mhmm. It's true. He
• 3:24
  actually had to convince me. I was nervous because maybe some of your listeners are
• 3:28
  in the same position, but I had a guaranteed paycheck that I knew. I went
• 3:32
  to work for so many hours. I came home with pay. Now if I quit
• 3:36
  that job and it's all on me to create this business, that
• 3:39
  can be a scary thing. So it took him just saying, I
• 3:43
  know you can do this. You're really good at it. You know? And it's
• 3:47
  like, what if something happens? Right? What's the worst that could happen? Right? You could
• 3:50
  go back and get a job. Right? You know? So So you're I
• 3:54
  mean, I think you hit on something else that entrepreneurship is not for
• 3:57
  everybody, because it definitely is is a life
• 4:01
  of uncertainty. For sure. And and I I mean, I had
• 4:05
  a client. She goes, I just wanna work so many hours, and I just wanna
• 4:08
  know that I'm gonna make this kind of pay. And I go, that's called a
• 4:11
  job. Mhmm. You know? So tell me more tell me
• 4:15
  more about, you know, what you've learned working with entrepreneurs
• 4:18
  and and why it's so important that we keep our our stuff
• 4:22
  together. Well, as I said, I, you know, I started helping
• 4:26
  this person and and slowly added some clients.
• 4:29
  And as I started working with people and adding additional services, at first,
• 4:33
  it was just the bookkeeping, and then it became payroll and sales tax
• 4:37
  and 10.99. It's like all the compliance. The a lot a lot of
• 4:40
  times, I would see business owners didn't know what they were supposed to be
• 4:44
  doing, and they'd end up with these penalty notices. Like, you should have done
• 4:48
  this, and because you didn't, now we're gonna charge you a penalty and
• 4:51
  then interest because you didn't pay this on time. And a lot of times,
• 4:55
  that interest was more than the amount they owed in the 1st place because it
• 4:59
  took the government so long to get to them. And so I
• 5:02
  decided, like, I wanna help educate entrepreneurs, let them know what they
• 5:06
  need to do. If they don't wanna do it, give them a resource where
• 5:10
  they can do what they love. So many people really hate this
• 5:14
  art part of the business. Right? But it it's necessary. If you're
• 5:17
  gonna be an entrepreneur, you can't just do the thing you love per
• 5:21
  se. You know, someone, whether it's you or someone else, has to do kind
• 5:25
  of the financials and the reporting and making sure you have your business license and
• 5:29
  all of those things. So that's kinda where I came in is I can
• 5:33
  teach you what you need to know, and you can do it on your own,
• 5:36
  or we can do it for you. So
• 5:39
  you're absolutely right. First of all, this shows that we absolutely are
• 5:43
  live, and then I have a dog. So if you have a pet, you know.
• 5:48
  But, you know, I think it real I think part of it
• 5:51
  is we feel like you have plenty of time to do it. I'll do it
• 5:55
  later. Mhmm. And second of all, you say something
• 5:58
  like, maybe I'm
• 6:02
  not making enough money or, you know, I need to spend more time making money.
• 6:06
  So then, you know, then you don't put people, you know,
• 6:10
  into it. So keep talking. Tell me more. Sure.
• 6:14
  Well, as you were even saying, a lot of times people put this part of
• 6:17
  the business off because they need to
• 6:21
  get the customers, right, to bring in the money, and they're working so many
• 6:25
  hours as it is. They're like, well, I'll get to that later. And then
• 6:28
  later becomes your CPA gives you a call and says, okay. I need your information
• 6:32
  now. We need to do your taxes. And then it's a completely
• 6:35
  overwhelming feeling because you have all of this information that has to be put
• 6:39
  together. You have to let your, you know, CPA know how much money
• 6:43
  did you make or hopefully not lose, but, you know,
• 6:46
  sometimes there's that negative profit and a loss. We
• 6:50
  don't wanna put it on paper if we're losing money. Right. It's so true.
• 6:54
  And a lot of times, people don't understand the difference between cash flow and profit.
• 6:57
  So they might have in their head, well, I don't have any money in the
• 7:01
  bank, so I'm not profitable. And that could be completely
• 7:04
  false because if you're living off of the earnings, the government
• 7:08
  says, well, that's taxable income. It's just like if you were at a job and
• 7:11
  you got your paycheck, you have your earnings, then they take out the taxes, and
• 7:15
  you go home with the net, and you live off the net. And that's where
• 7:18
  a lot of people get themselves into trouble too is because they're living off of
• 7:22
  their earnings, not realizing that that's taxable. And
• 7:25
  then now it's time to file your tax return, and the CPA says you owe
• 7:29
  this much, and they don't have the cash. Right? And so that gets
• 7:32
  themselves into a little bit of a problem as well. So
• 7:36
  so, you know, I I did taxes for 15
• 7:40
  years and seen the good, the bad,
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  and the ugly. And so
• 7:47
  for entrepreneurs, especially those
• 7:51
  that, you know, it's like, the this is not my
• 7:55
  forte. I'm not good with numbers. I you know, blah blah blah. I'll wait till
• 7:58
  I can hire somebody. Whatever whatever the excuse is,
• 8:02
  what are some of the very basic things
• 8:06
  that you can do to make this easier? And and I'm
• 8:10
  gonna maybe challenge you a little bit and ask you
• 8:13
  to start with a mindset piece
• 8:17
  that they need to get into the right mindset to do to make
• 8:21
  this work. Right. Well, if you're talking mindset, I
• 8:25
  think one of the things is to admit to yourself,
• 8:29
  you don't have to be a math expert to be able to do this, number
• 8:32
  1. And I think that's what a lot of times people avoid it because they're
• 8:35
  like, I'm not good at math. Right? You don't have to be good at math.
• 8:38
  You just have to have your paperwork organized. You can use a software
• 8:42
  that helps put the information in. If you learn how to use that properly,
• 8:46
  you can get good reports. Right? That's another thing, though, is actually learning how to
• 8:50
  use it because sometimes the software is so easy that you could put something
• 8:53
  in incorrectly as well. Right? But I would say number 1, don't
• 8:57
  think you have to be an expert and be, you know, fabulous at math
• 9:01
  because that's not true. That's a misnomer in terms of this field.
• 9:05
  I I think the other mindset is you need to know
• 9:09
  your numbers if you're running a business. And so
• 9:12
  if you, you know, if you don't wanna do your numbers or whatever, then you
• 9:16
  probably have a hobby. Mhmm. You know? And you need to know your
• 9:20
  numbers so that, for instance, you know, when I talk to clients,
• 9:23
  sometimes I'll say, which which one of your products has the biggest
• 9:27
  profit margin? Which do you make the most money from? Because that's the thing we
• 9:30
  should be doing more of. Mhmm. They're like, oh, I
• 9:34
  never thought of that before. Alright. So that's just that's just one
• 9:38
  thing. I have to tell you, and I apologize. Apparently, not only
• 9:41
  do I have a dog, but I have a grandchild that just walked in the
• 9:44
  house. That's alright. It's life.
• 9:48
  That life goes on. Right. So so tell me 2 other things
• 9:52
  Mhmm. That entrepreneurs need to know. Sure. Well, I agree with you in
• 9:56
  terms of the numbers and really understanding what those are. And
• 9:59
  so I would also say it's okay to tell someone that
• 10:03
  you're working with that you don't understand what they're trying to explain to you too.
• 10:06
  So if you're having a meeting to go over your finances and you don't
• 10:10
  understand something on the report, it's okay to say, like, I don't
• 10:14
  know that because, like, some of us are really good at that. We might
• 10:17
  think that we're being clear and maybe we're not. So it's
• 10:21
  okay to say, like, can you tell me this in a different way, or can
• 10:24
  you use another example? But like you said, it's important to know. And
• 10:28
  if you don't wanna look at those numbers all the time yourself
• 10:32
  and prepare them, then use someone like us that can put that
• 10:35
  financial information together for you and then have a meeting with you and say,
• 10:39
  you know, in comparison to before, this is how you're doing revenue wise,
• 10:43
  or are you aware that you have spent this percentage of this
• 10:47
  expense account from your revenue that might be too high? Right? Like,
• 10:50
  maybe advertising is a little bit out of whack or, you know,
• 10:54
  are you aware that you actually are losing money, like you
• 10:58
  said, on this product or things you know, there's things like that that they still
• 11:01
  don't have to do themselves. They can hire someone like us, but you still
• 11:05
  should look at the numbers. And one of the things that frustrates us is
• 11:08
  bookkeepers a lot of times too is if we wanna have time to sit
• 11:12
  down with someone and they think it's not important or,
• 11:16
  once again, like, well, I have other things I have to do, and maybe we'll
• 11:19
  get to it, and then that maybe never comes. And so put
• 11:22
  yourself first as well too in terms of, yes,
• 11:26
  you need to have your clients, but you also need to make sure that your
• 11:29
  business is gonna continue to run. Like, if you're not profitable, if you don't have
• 11:33
  cash flow, you know, if you don't have your business set up
• 11:36
  where it's going to be successful, then you're not ultimately helping your
• 11:40
  customer because you're gonna be gone, and then they don't have you as a service
• 11:43
  provider. Alright. So I'm I'm gonna kinda take a little left
• 11:47
  turn. You said something that I
• 11:50
  think I hadn't really thought of
• 11:54
  before, and that is what you're
• 11:58
  talking about is that your accountant can help you with
• 12:02
  trends in your business Mhmm. If you ask
• 12:05
  them. So so the first part of this is,
• 12:09
  ask questions and let
• 12:13
  the the, you know, the accountant know what's important to you and what you're
• 12:17
  trying to achieve so that they can be a resource for you
• 12:21
  and actually translate some of those numbers for you.
• 12:24
  Mhmm. Because it's a relationship. It's a
• 12:27
  partnership. Right? Mhmm. The other thing is
• 12:31
  the flip side of that is, I think and this is what I find that
• 12:35
  a lot of times women do, is they go,
• 12:38
  I'm gonna learn how to do this. And so, you know, their business is
• 12:42
  like here, and they take a totally different turn and you you know, like, I
• 12:46
  was talking to somebody about AI the other day, and I said, well, did you
• 12:49
  do this as and she goes, no. I decided to get AI
• 12:52
  certified. And I'm like, why? This is not
• 12:56
  Right. This is, like, so peripheral. So I think
• 13:00
  the one thing that I think I would really I mean, I probably knew this,
• 13:03
  but I don't think I knew it in the way that you're talking about it,
• 13:07
  that your accountant
• 13:11
  can be not only just somebody who crunches the numbers for
• 13:15
  you, but somebody who can give you insight into your
• 13:18
  numbers as you're growing and learning so that you can
• 13:22
  be more profitable and more stable. Right. Well, let me
• 13:26
  give you an example of what happened. So this happened many years ago.
• 13:29
  Someone came to me, and it started with she had a notice from
• 13:33
  the IRS that she owed taxes. The CPA had filed the
• 13:37
  return, and she was completely shocked to find, you know, that she
• 13:40
  owed because once again, she was living off of the earnings. So she came
• 13:44
  to me and she said, I need to understand, like, how this happened
• 13:48
  in the first place. How am I profitable? And talk to me like I'm
• 13:51
  5. Right? And because I don't understand numbers, I'm very creative. And
• 13:55
  so, like, these facts and figures are hard for me to understand.
• 14:00
  And so we started doing the bookkeeping for her. And then
• 14:04
  every quarter, we met, and we would look at where
• 14:07
  are you this quarter, and let's compare your figures to last quarter, and
• 14:11
  then let's look at your expenses. And so one of the things that we looked
• 14:15
  at for her was she was almost every day going out, grabbing
• 14:19
  a meal, and thinking that it was an expense, but you can't
• 14:22
  expense your lunch. Right? If you have a business meeting, that's another thing. But
• 14:26
  just because you're buying groceries or a lunch, you can't. So I started showing
• 14:30
  her you've spent this percentage of your revenue just on your
• 14:33
  groceries. Like, are you aware that you have spent this much? And she wasn't. Right?
• 14:37
  Because you just buy here or there. You don't realize how much. So when we
• 14:40
  sat down and I said, you've literally spent, you know, this
• 14:44
  percentage of your revenue on groceries and meals, and this
• 14:48
  isn't tax deductible because it's technically not a business expense.
• 14:51
  It was eye opening for her, so she was able to see, like, okay. I
• 14:55
  need to change that. And she was able to reduce the spending
• 14:59
  on on that category. And then we looked at another one, which was
• 15:03
  her professional development, which professional development's great, but it's like,
• 15:06
  are you aware you've spent, like, this year, 25% of your revenue,
• 15:10
  right, on professional development? And she was like, no. But she just
• 15:14
  saw something like, this is a great class. I think I should do this and
• 15:18
  didn't realize how much she was spending. So we literally would sit down every
• 15:21
  quarter, and I would review those expenses with her, and then she would make
• 15:25
  changes. And over time, she did become much more
• 15:28
  profitable because it became something she thought about
• 15:32
  and focused on, like, should I be spending this money on this
• 15:36
  right now, and how much is it really costing me? And
• 15:40
  she learned not to eat lunch by herself, but to take a business friend with
• 15:43
  her. Have a business purpose. The IRS wants
• 15:47
  you to have, you know, a person, a purpose. Like, why are you talk
• 15:51
  you know, talking business? Yes. So
• 15:55
  so I think, you know, the biggest takeaway is
• 15:59
  this is a part of your business that you have to do. If it's a
• 16:03
  part of your business that you dread doing, you still
• 16:07
  have to do it. Mhmm. So why not do it with a partner that can
• 16:10
  help you and then understand it and make it easier? I mean,
• 16:14
  you know, because I you know, one of the things that is
• 16:19
  the earlier you start on this, the better the less you have to dig yourself
• 16:23
  out. And if you set up the systems and where you know, that
• 16:27
  so they work for you, do you know, then your
• 16:30
  results are gonna be much better. This has been amazing
• 16:34
  and and, you know, very eventful.
• 16:39
  So the other thing is
• 16:43
  just a couple of practical steps and then also what what you're gonna give
• 16:47
  people. So, you know, we're we're in that
• 16:50
  transit. You know, it doesn't it doesn't people need to start
• 16:54
  today whether today is at the end of the year, the beginning of the year,
• 16:57
  where if you haven't done anything, you need to start today. So with that
• 17:01
  in mind, what are the first things that people need to do?
• 17:04
  Well, I would say number 1 is find out what you need to do to
• 17:07
  be in compliance for your business. You know, make sure you have your business license.
• 17:11
  You issue 10.90 nines if you're supposed to do that, if you're supposed
• 17:15
  to make estimated tax payments. Like, really find those things that you should
• 17:19
  be doing. And if you're not sure what those are, I do share a lot
• 17:22
  on my YouTube channel too. I have my own podcast, like you said, or I
• 17:26
  have videos that I will record. I have blogs. You know? So
• 17:30
  because, again, I'm trying to educate those entrepreneurs, but I'd say
• 17:33
  really look at compliance because if you don't do what you're supposed to, those
• 17:37
  government penalties can really, really hurt you
• 17:40
  financially. And so that would be first
• 17:44
  step, I believe. Number 2 okay. I was just saying
• 17:48
  go ahead. I I think we need something easier than that. So,
• 17:51
  like, we you need to put aside some time every week or month
• 17:55
  to to start collecting your go
• 17:58
  ahead. Well, I'd say I always say too, put reminders on your
• 18:02
  calendar. Right? So whether it's, you know, a digital calendar
• 18:05
  or some people still use written, you know, documents on their little
• 18:09
  desktop or something. But put in there when things are due
• 18:13
  because, again, you get so busy. You think you're gonna remember,
• 18:17
  like, my estimated tax payment is due in April. Right? You're gonna think you're gonna
• 18:20
  remember, but then you might get so busy you forget. So whatever it
• 18:24
  is as a reminder for you, put those reminders in there so that,
• 18:28
  again, you don't lose track and end up into
• 18:31
  some place you don't wanna be. Right? Right.
• 18:36
  So what is your gift? You we obviously, we're gonna put the link to your
• 18:40
  YouTube channel in there, and your podcast, but you've got
• 18:44
  something else. Right? Well, I have a few different things I could offer.
• 18:47
  I didn't know when this was gonna air, be because we're recording towards the end
• 18:51
  of the year. But if it airs before the 10/99 deadline, if anyone
• 18:55
  is unsure how they should be filing because there's 2 different
• 18:58
  forms, there's different deadlines, I do have a free guide, to that
• 19:02
  as well. And I believe if you go to affordable bookkeeping and
• 19:06
  payroll dot com, I think it's, free dash
• 19:10
  guide, but I what I could do is send you the link. Notes. We'll we'll
• 19:13
  we'll give you a resource. We'll give you a resource that that's
• 19:17
  evergreen that you know, where you can find information.
• 19:20
  So, you know, I I
• 19:24
  just find that when I talk to you, I mean, there's so many things that
• 19:27
  I see, you know, that entrepreneurs are doing and why they could use
• 19:31
  their service. So I know that you're you're always into the
• 19:35
  numbers and the deadlines and stuff like that. So but so let me ask
• 19:39
  you. When was the last time you did something new for the first time?
• 19:43
  Actually, in October, I went to see
• 19:47
  someone who's been working with my company for a long time,
• 19:51
  and she lives about 4 or so hours
• 19:54
  away from where I am. So I actually went to visit her, and they love
• 19:58
  to play games. So I learned 2 new games that, they were
• 20:02
  really fun. And so I've actually decided, I
• 20:06
  would like to have those in my own home at some point so I could
• 20:08
  play some games too, but that was really fun. It is. It is fine
• 20:12
  when you you break up the the routine. I mean, we need structure, but
• 20:16
  we also need some spontaneity. Right? Mhmm. So let me
• 20:20
  let me, you know, pay the bills. So if you're
• 20:24
  listening to this, I would love it if you would, you know,
• 20:27
  subscribe and share and and engage in some of the conversation.
• 20:31
  And, you know, the one of the reasons I do this and bring you different
• 20:34
  kinds of of guests is so that you can supercharge your business.
• 20:38
  This is a way for me to give back to the community so that you
• 20:41
  can have a bigger impact. And I hope that you
• 20:45
  will continue to join me because we're gonna have all kinds of interesting
• 20:49
  guests. Because the entrepreneurial journey is not a
• 20:52
  straight line. There's a lot of things that can happen, and even the 10 year
• 20:56
  shift, you know, can give you a transformation that you
• 21:00
  weren't expecting. So if you haven't done it, you might wanna listen
• 21:04
  go to the podcast page and listen to some of the other podcasts that are
• 21:07
  there. So, Candy, give us some
• 21:11
  words of wisdom. What are your last words? You know,
• 21:15
  I would just say for the entrepreneur, if you are, like,
• 21:18
  struggling financially too, I would recommend a resource by Mike Michalowicz
• 21:22
  too. I love reading his books, but Profit First.
• 21:26
  So if you really want to figure out your finances, make sure you're
• 21:30
  putting money away for yourself first and not just paying all the
• 21:33
  expenses. So I would just recommend reading that, as a book,
• 21:37
  and then I would just love for you to follow, you know, my channel as
• 21:41
  well too where I share tips. My passion is really to educate
• 21:45
  entrepreneurs so they'd be successful because too many fail. And
• 21:49
  so my goal is to really help you succeed. So I would love if you
• 21:52
  would just follow that. Let me know if there's a topic you would enjoy as
• 21:56
  well. I'd be happy to share that too. That's fantastic. And and and I
• 22:00
  think the thing is when you when you say pay yourself first,
• 22:04
  that is so important. And the the the thing that I always found
• 22:08
  when I was, teaching money management
• 22:11
  is that it's so much easier to say, I'm gonna
• 22:15
  use percentages instead of dollars. Mhmm. Because you
• 22:19
  when you start out, you go, well, this is such a little bit. Mhmm. You
• 22:22
  know, that it's not worth doing. And then when you get you're actually
• 22:26
  making money, it's like, this is so much. I don't so it's it's
• 22:30
  before you make your money, it's a really good thing, I think, to
• 22:34
  say, I'm gonna put this percentage here. I'm gonna put this percentage here. I'm
• 22:37
  gonna put this percentage here. And, you know, if you need to adjust
• 22:41
  it as you go along but it it's a way to get started,
• 22:45
  and it's a way you know, I always say it's a way to say, I
• 22:48
  manage my money. Mhmm. You know, even if it's just a little
• 22:52
  bit of money, and then by the time you're making a lot of money, it
• 22:56
  it's a habit. Exactly. Ugh.
• 23:00
  I'm sorry. We have to stop. So
• 23:04
  talking about habits, you know, remember change can be simple, but
• 23:08
  it's not always easy. And it requires an effort. It
• 23:11
  requires courage, resilience, and a willingness to step outside your comfort
• 23:15
  zone, so it's not always fun. So I hope that as you're
• 23:19
  making changes, you'll join me again for the one small change as we embark
• 23:23
  on a journey of bold vision and innovative possibilities.
• 23:27
  And I will see you next time. And until then, stay curious.
• 23:31
  Candy, thank you so much.