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9 Bookkeeping and Business Finance with Frances Aronhalt · The Rave Social Podcast

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we're good.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome back to the Rave Social Podcast.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Jaden, and today we have an awesome guest.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We have Frances.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: She is a bookkeeper.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: She's a CFO.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: She's literally incredible.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: I just found her on social media one day.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know how, but I can't imagine my life without her.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've learned so much just from her content that's literally free.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: So we're really excited to have her on the podcast today.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing I really love about her is you um your content is very like bold and it's honest, but it's like what you needed to hear.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm always like, oh, I had no idea about that.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then I see your post and I'm like, oh, I think I figured it out now.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I just love that about you.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And why don't you introduce yourself and let us know kind of like how you got started doing what you're doing?
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, I'm Francis.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I oh, how I got started.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: That is a fantastic question.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: You want me to go like all the way to the beginning or like how I got started in my business?
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, how you got started in your business.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Just give us a little background.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I've been I've been bookkeeping since I was 13 because my parents owned a small business.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so they asked, like, I was bored one summer and I had the audacity to be like, I'm bored.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: And they were like, okay, cool, here's bookkeeping, you do it.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I didn't ever tell them that I actually didn't hate it.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so every job that I've had in my adult life was in finance in one way, shape, or form.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then in 2020, when you know things happened, I was sent home from my job in finance.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I had a one-year-old at the time and a newborn.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, it was a blessing because I got to be home with them.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: And especially for my baby who was four months old at the time, he never he doesn't remember me ever having left the house to go work.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: My one-year-old kind of remembers a little bit because he was almost two, but I felt like this sense of relief like, oh my God, I get to be home and I get to work from home.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, the year went on and things got crazy being in a corporate nine to five job, and they kept talking about going back to work.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, ooh, I don't want to.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't want to go back to the office.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like you guys that much.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um exactly.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I I mean I had been there for a long time, almost a decade at that point with that particular job.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: But I was like, my kids come first, and if there's a way that I can make it so that I'm home with them, I'm gonna do that.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's when the business was born.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I have the skills, I've been doing this for a very long time, and I know that I can help business owners do the same.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like whether it's somebody who wants to be home with their kids and is starting their business, or somebody who has just this passion within them to be an entrepreneur and do what they want to do, like my service is needed.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's how recorded bookkeeping was born.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Although it wasn't called recorded bookkeeping back then, but that's a story for another day.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, that is cool, and that's a really good story.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like a lot of people can like connect with that and resonate with that story.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like a very similar thing happened to me.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Got sent home from work, it was awesome.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: I loved working from home, and then yeah, they started to be like, we need to come into the office.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I don't want to, and I had to commute, not super far, but I was like, it's just a waste of my time.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I spend an hour of my day in the car.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't I don't have kids or anything, but I just it was just the fact that like I had given myself such a balanced life of like slow mornings, but still starting on time, you know, not rushing to the office, not like having that freaking adrenaline when you're driving to the office in the morning in the traffic or whatever.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so, same thing.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I don't want to, and I kind of like phased myself out of that.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I actually got a job with an agency that was fully remote, and then I eventually quit that and do what I'm doing now, but very similar.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I I bet it's very nice that you get to be home with your kids.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, a lot of the times they see me sit down to work, and that's the exact moment they need something.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, when they didn't need anything for an hour before that.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: But it is it is definitely a blessing to be able to be home with them and be the primary caregiver to them and not like ship them off to some stranger who I don't know and is you know has 30 other kids to care for also.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just it's been really nice.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: That is awesome.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then what do you do now for business owners?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I when I first started my business, I was uh gearing toward people who were also starting their businesses, right?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because I was like, I see how they need the help, but the problem is that they didn't know they needed the help yet, and that makes it difficult to actually sit there and try to convince people.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, you know what?
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: They'll get there.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: I know that they need to go through that struggle on their own at first, as much as I want to spare them that struggle.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: I know that that's something that they need to go through, and that's like a rite of passage.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so I said, I would love to work with the people who are maybe a few steps ahead of that.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, you know, my parents owned an advertising agency.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's the small business that they had.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I grew up around it.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: I grew up around graphic design, I grew up around people constantly in the house, you know, their employees and watching them grow this business.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, that's who I want to work with.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: I want to work with the creative agency owners who have already kind of established their name, um, but maybe just need a little help in growing their business and finally want that partner to help them through that.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's that's who I help now.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: That is amazing.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like you're so right.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm about, I'm just over a year in from when I like actually started.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like this is the point where I'm like, oh, I know now what I've done wrong.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's my first tax season, you know.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, okay, I think I get it now.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm kind of entering that phase where like I'm I might need some help with this, just knowing, and like it's kind of scary on your own to be like, am I making the right investments?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like, does this make sense for my business?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's kind of scary.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, do you I know you do like bookkeeping, but you also do a little bit of like people can ask you, like, should I invest in this?
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you can kind of give them an idea.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I actually don't offer just bookkeeping anymore because it was doing a disservice to my clients.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: I would see these holes in their plan and be like, but I can help you because I think you're gonna be making a mistake if you do that.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, I just want you to categorize my transactions.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, that's fine.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's what you hired me to do, but like I can help you.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I I only offer now bookkeeping with CFO services.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: And essentially what that means is that I take it a step further and I analyze the data that I put in.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I can't get to the analysis without the bookkeeping.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: But with just bookkeeping alone, you're getting an organized tax return and no headache at tax time, which is amazing in and of itself.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: But you're not getting the business growth and you're not getting to know what your numbers are doing for you or maybe what needs to change.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's the part that I've added in that has made this huge shift for my clients.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: And it's I take the data, I analyze it, and I say, where are we doing well?
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: What's going great?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: What is not going so great?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: How can we fix it?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then depending on that business owner's goals or agency owner's goals, that's where I kind of help guide them as to what to do next.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love that.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you're 100% right.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: You you are amazing at graphic design.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: It makes sense that your family is an advertising agency because your marketing is just like so good.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I love how you found the hole of like, yeah, I can do your bookkeeping, but that's not gonna help you get where you want to go.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and now I can see these patterns or these mistakes, or a potential mistake, or a potential place for you to invest, or whatever, and like I want to tell you about it.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's so genuine, and I that's what business owners need, you know?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: And the yeah, you're yes, you're right.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's funny too.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is a little bit of a side note, but like I feel like as business owners, a lot of times like we want to check a box.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we did our social media check, we did our bookkeeping check.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like, right, but really how you grow and how you scale is when you dig deeper than that.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what's your social media strategy?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: What is your financial strategy and your tax strategy?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And like, where can you optimize?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's where you see like massive business growth.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: A hundred percent.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: A hundred percent because you can go and like wing it, sure, but is that gonna get you the results that you actually want?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe in a year or two, it's gonna be a lot slower of a process, yeah.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you have way more potential for making big mistakes, or like it will take longer, you can make big mistakes, you don't have that big picture, and it's like you got you gotta optimize for sure.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I do have a question for you.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: What is the biggest mistake you you see?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: And there may be a couple mistakes, that's fine too.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: But what mistakes do you see people make that kind of like get them off course, get them to not be headed towards their goals?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: There are a few that I see, but I would say the biggest one is chasing a monetary goal without having a plan in place for how to use the money once you get there.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it's very popular right now to see even on social media, or especially on social media, people are like, oh, the 10k months, oh, the hundred thousand dollar years, oh, this, this, this, this, this, chase the money, chase the money.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: But if you don't have a plan for that money once you get it, it's gonna be gone just as quickly as it came or even faster.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, let's all remember MC Hammer and the mistakes that he made, and let's not do that.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: For real.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: So when you say like having a plan to you basically saying like have a plan to spend that money or invest that money.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: So what do you suggest?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: People write down, like, when I reach this goal, I want to hire this person.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what do you so that's also mistake number two is growing too quickly and kind of just, oh, I have all this money now, I need to spend it all.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not necessarily the right way to go about it either.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: It might be, it just it's very dependent on the business and the rate at which it's growing.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: But I would say the very first step once money starts flowing, it a great investment to make is to hire your first employee.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that doesn't mean go hire 10 new employees or go create departments within your agency and like have a HR department and a this department and a that department.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we don't need to get there so quickly.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: But hiring that first person is the best investment that you can make for your agency.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel like that's a good investment for like just growing the business, but also for like taxes and stuff like that?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Or like why do you why do you say that?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Just because um people need to spend more time doing other stuff in their business?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So all of the above.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, number one, you can't do everything.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're not a robot, you're not a machine.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like none of us are, and we all try to be, I think.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think that that's part of being an entrepreneur is like we have this, and I I don't want to speak for you, but I definitely have this thing in my brain that's like, how hard can it be?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: I can do it.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, well, no, you can't, or maybe you shouldn't.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but that's where my brain goes first.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like, how hard can that be?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: I I can figure it out.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I feel like that's like an entrepreneurial thing because we have that want to figure it out mentality.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it's hard for us to be like, okay, well, maybe that's not the thing I'm best at.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: Let me give that to somebody else, or maybe I am okay at doing this, but I don't enjoy doing this, or it's not the best use of my time.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think definitely making that first hire is going to make growth more sustainable because we can't do it all.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: We can't do everything.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: And uh essentially we have to make the decisions for the business because we're we're the founders, we're the owners, we're the CEO.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: And we can't make those decisions if we're doing all client work all the time.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that's one reason.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, it is a great business expense because that person is making you money, it's helping you make more money, and you're getting a tax deduction on it, which is amazing.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um what was the third thing that you said?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: I can't remember now.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was just wondering if it was like a like more of like a personal thing, like you should hire someone because like you can't do it all, or if it's like you should hire someone because it's a tax deduction, or like it's a good business investment.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's yeah, it's all of those.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great business investment because a person hiring a person means you can take on more work.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: So that they're yeah, basically usually gonna pay for themselves at that point because you're bringing in more revenue.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a tax write-off, and it's good for your well-being as a business owner.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I completely agree.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: When I hired my first person, I mean, the first person I hired was an assistant, and so they weren't like a full-time person, but huge step in my business because I was just like, I can't do this all.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I am like this, I can't scale from here because there's no way.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I can't handle my client work.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then after that, I eventually hired someone full-time, and yeah, it was the same thing.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was like a breath of fresh air.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, now you have your own clients, and like I can still oversee them and be a part of the process, but like I don't have to do those, like put in those hours of actual like content creation, and it was huge.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: It helped me like literally start this podcast.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I couldn't do this if I didn't have that because I was just booked all the way up.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: There is no way.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we only have a certain amount of hours in the day, and of those hours, there's only a few that were productive enough to get things done, you know.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: And true we want to do other things too, like you with the podcast.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure this was like a passion project that you wanted to do, which is amazing that now you get to do it.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's just so many benefits, but I don't ever want anybody to feel like it's a checkbox that they have to check, like we were saying, of hiring somebody.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's like that's just the next step once you feel like you have got your your mojo down and you've got your flow, and now you're getting to that point where you're like, Well, shoot, I can't continue on this trajectory.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: That should be your first investment.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um okay, so what do you see businesses that are doing well?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And let's say doing well means like they have a good cash flow, they're you know, they're able to scale, they're able to do kind of what they want to do.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: What are they doing differently?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they're they're outsourcing, and that's the truth, and that that's not me trying to convince anybody to outsource because I think that that's a very big step, and that's something that needs to be thought of very carefully.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: But that's that's what these people are doing.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: I have a client who, when I first started working with her, was in the$300,000 revenue range, hadn't hired any employees yet.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: And she came to me and she said, Frances, can you run the numbers?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Is it feasible for me to hire on these three people that I would like to hire?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: I ran the numbers for her and I said, as of right now, no, you can't afford three people.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: But if we take into consideration the revenue that those three people are gonna bring in, absolutely you can.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: So she did.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then she hired three more after that, and then she hired two more after that.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: And this year she had almost a$900,000 year.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my God.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and that was two years.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: In two years, she scaled from$300,000 in revenue to$900,000 in revenue.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it's all because she hired the right people and she had the numbers and the data to back the decision.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, that is like so cool.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: I love to hear that.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I do think I feel like outsourcing is just so important.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we just literally talked about it, but it's like you just you can't like get you can't grow.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't want to say you can't because I guess there are some businesses that are like really super passive and like maybe you will just need someone to like, I don't know, manage your email marketing.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that's it.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: But for the most part, I feel like that one-on-one service is the most popular in probably any industry in any business.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like you can only take on a certain number of one-on-one people if you're just by yourself.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's a different story if you're like an e-commerce business and you've got you're selling product, like yeah, sure, you can scale that pretty easily just on your own.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: You might have to hire people to come help you package and inventory and stuff like that.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: But when you are a service-based business who's doing done for you work, there's only so much one person can do.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so that comes with an income limit.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're fine with that, then if you're fine with making X dollars and you don't want to go beyond that, that's there's nothing wrong with that.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: But if there's more that you want, then there's something's gotta give.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I feel like on social media, we were talking about this earlier, but people are freaking obsessed with income.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: They're like 10k months, whatever, 100k.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, in my experience, your business can make 100k honestly, pretty easily.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like most businesses can get to that$100,000 mark pretty easily.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's only like what is it,$9,000 or something a month?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: $8,333.33 a month.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like a lot of businesses can get there, but that doesn't mean you're making$100,000.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if somebody wants to make a hundred, they themselves want to bring in$100,000, paid on whatever a W 2, what do you recommend for that?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like how what where does your revenue need to be?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, it's not gonna be on a W-2 because unless you're an S-Corp, you're not gonna be on payroll.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but if you want to withdraw$100,000 from your business to your personal bank account, roughly your business needs to make about$250,000 for you, the owner, to take home$100,000.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because I always want my business owners to be taking about 40% of revenue.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to take into consideration that the money your business makes is not your money.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: That we have to separate ourselves from our business in the sense of like we can't just take all that for ourselves.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's hard because then when you're filing taxes, it kind of all is together, but let's not think of that yet.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um so you have to think of that$250,000 that you make right off the top, 15% is what I like to put away for taxes off gross.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna do it off of net, then it's about 30%.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: But off your gross income, 15%.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Don't even do not pass go to not collect$200, just stick it in a savings account.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Don't ever look at it again.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's not yours.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't exist.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: I've got them.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, that is not yours.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so that right off the top, there you go.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: 15% gone.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Then you have to take into consideration you have business expenses to pay.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I know that Profit First seems to be very popular in the online community, and I honestly can't stand it because Profit First tells you that your expenses should be variable based on what you've made in the month, and that's unrealistic, super unrealistic.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're not gonna go cancel Kajabi for a month because it doesn't fit in your you know, schedule of expenses and profit.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: And no, like come on.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: Whoever designed that, I don't know what they were thinking.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: They might be dealing with multi million dollar agencies who have the cash flow and it doesn't matter.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um but if we're in starting out in multi six figures in six figures and the multi six figures, it doesn't work.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's unrealistic.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: So uh you have to take into consideration.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: That your expenses come right after taxes.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: So that's going to be about 30%.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: So right there, we've got 45% of that gone.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Then we got to leave some profit in the business because profit is what lets you make bigger decisions.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: Profit is what lets you have a little cushion.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Profit is what lets you give yourself a bonus at the end of the year.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Or if you have a staff member, give them a bonus at the end of the year.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: Profit is there if you have a slow month and you're like, oh no, I didn't make the revenue I was planning for this month.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: No problem.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: We've got profit to cover it.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I always recommend leaving a little bit of profit.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then the rest is yours to take.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a process.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot I see that's another mistake I see is a lot of people will just pay themselves everything and not take into consideration anything else.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that makes a lot of sense.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And and so, like after your taxes, after your expenses, all of that, you're saying then there's a little bit left, but you should never really take more than like 40% of that gross number.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: I that's so smart.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel that way even if you're in a business?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like some people's businesses have just extremely low overhead.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's like they don't, you know, they don't need really much.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Their expenses are super low.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do you still recommend that for businesses like that?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I adjust the percentages based on individual businesses.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: So usually 40%, 35 to 40% is what I want my business owners to take.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: But if we have a scenario like that where it's very low overhead, then sure you could take more.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: I don't see why not.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: As long as taxes are covered and business expenses are covered and we're leaving some in the business.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like if you've got extra, go for it.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Love it.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's so cool.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I love that.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: So then how do you feel about business debt?
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is like, I feel like this is such a touchy subject, and no one talks about it.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like, literally, no one talks about it.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: I just barely saw someone mention it on TikTok, like, I don't know, two weeks ago, and I was like, oh my gosh, I feel like you're gonna get canceled for this.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, no one talks about it.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: What do you feel like?
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what'd you see?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm curious to know what that TikTok said.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: It was like someone, it was someone saying, like, basically, she was like, it's okay to get into business debt.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you're some businesses can't scale without it.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like, she was kind of saying, like, yeah, like it might be right for you.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Oh my gosh, I've literally never heard someone say that.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I tend to agree.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: I tend to agree with that because it's not right for everybody.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Some businesses don't ever need to take out a loan or take out a line of credit, and some do.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it's okay, it's not it's a little bit taboo nowadays for some reason.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: But back in the day, people would take out business loans all the time just to be able to start their business because they didn't have the capital to be able to go and buy the computer or go and buy the printer or the things that they needed to be able to even start, and it's very commonplace still in product-based businesses to start the business with a business loan because they have to purchase the merchandise and they have to purchase the inventory, or for restaurants, for example, they have to do all this work to renovate their space and they have to get the um equipment and renovate kitchens.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of businesses start with debt.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not uncommon.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: And uh for service-based businesses, it it's a little less common to see.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I have even just recently given advice to a client I told them take out a line of credit because they were maxed out on hours that they could work, they could literally not take on another client and they were still struggling.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: And that she wanted so badly to be able to hire help to free up her time so she could get more clients in to bring on more um revenue and be in a better position.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I told her, your best bet is a line of credit.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's because a oh, sorry, I was just gonna go ahead.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: No, you keep keep going, you're good.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: I was just gonna say that a line of credit is different than a credit card in the sense that it's equal to cash when you take it out.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: So you can use it to pay somebody, and then when you get a little another client in or a little more cash flow in, you pay that back, and it's kind of like a back and forth in that sense.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you're you're saying maybe it's the right decision if it's going to get you to the next thing or if it's gonna bridge those gaps so that you're able to.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: I am like so scared of debt, so I don't know why.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: I honestly don't know why, but I'm like owing someone terrifies me.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, oh, I just don't know how I could do that.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I also see where it could be a benefit.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm like, uh for that exact same reason.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's like at some point you get to a point, and if you don't have the business savings or whatever, maybe you can't hire someone, and so then you're just kind of stuck in a holding pattern of like, I'm not gonna be able to grow from here.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't have the capacity.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: And for some people, it takes a little longer to scale to those 10K months, and it takes a little longer to bring on those higher ticket clients, and then like you said, they're stuck in this holding pattern, and it it literally feels like there's no way out.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so for those people, I say it makes sense for you to take on a little bit of debt in order to get out of that holding pattern, and that debt is not there forever, and that debt is not going to do anything bad, it's there to help accelerate you.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I I also don't hate credit cards.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: I actually use a credit card all the time because I don't like I literally never use a debit card ever for anything because I'm terrified that somebody's gonna steal my debit card and then all my money's actually gone.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas with a credit card, if somebody steals your credit card, you at least can fight those charges and your money's not gone.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I do the same thing, yeah.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Also for just the benefits of like the points and stuff.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I love that, like extra benefit.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm got a free flight or whatever.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I agree.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when is is there a situation when you would recommend someone doesn't go into business debt?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if you can avoid it, I would definitely tell you to avoid it.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, in most instances, I'm not gonna recommend going into debt.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it has to be a very specific situation for me to be like, yeah, it's the right move for you.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: But most of the time I'm gonna be like, if we can avoid going into debt, let's avoid it.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Let's do it.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: And that's I'm gonna go off on a little tangent here because it go for it.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: Bugs me so much on Instagram, these posts that I see that are like, I wasn't ready to invest$20,000 into a business coach, but I did it anyway, and it was great.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I'm certain that you didn't have$20,000 just laying around.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: So you deliberately went into debt not knowing if you were gonna get a return out of that.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: And some people might think that I'm not evolved enough or that I'm not in the manifestation mode, and that has nothing to do with it.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's about making smart business decisions, and that's not one of them.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's a hundred percent a balance.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm with you.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: I I believe in manifestation, like I am here for that.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, like you have to be grounded in some sort of like, does this make sense?
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: Or like, if I invest this money and I get nothing out of it, what's gonna happen to my business?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Not because you need to be scared, but because you need to be prepared.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it doesn't have to come from a place of scarcity, it can come from a place of feeling gratefulness and abundance because I I'm I'm here for the manifestation too.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: But let's do it in a smart way, people.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like let's not just spend money willy-nilly when it's not there to be spent.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's my soapbox for the day.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I agree with you.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: I also really just don't like I don't really like when people use numbers in their marketing.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's obviously a strategy that works.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like freaking Walmart does it, save money, live better.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, I'm like, it can be a little bit misleading.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's very emotional, which is why it works as a marketing strategy.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and money's a touchy subject, so people really are like, oh, I can make that much money.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like just I think it's both people's responsibility, like, be cautious what you believe.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And also, if you're using that in your marketing, like make sure you're doing it ethically.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there has to be integrity behind it because I can understand wanting to share a huge win and being like, look, I genuinely did this and I genuinely help somebody accomplish this goal.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: And as long as you're leading with integrity in that sense, I'm okay with it.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: But I've seen some really misleading posts out there that I'm like, oh no, no, let's not.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like one I see a lot is like 50k launches or like 10k launches or whatever.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Yeah, I get that.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: And you probably do have clients who have a 10k launcher, a 50k launch, but like not all of them.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: That is not a guarantee.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's not, and you might not even know what worked for that one client that got the 50k launch, like it might have been a fluke or something, you never know.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: I saw one the other day that was like, I have an$800,000 business, and it's like, well, no, you don't, because you're saying that you made$800,000 over the course of three years, and that does not mean that you have an$800,000 business.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: That means you have a$250,000 business.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Just Oh no, that one really gets me.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: That one really gets me.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no, that's not how it works, it's not cumulative, it's just that year.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like, maybe they just didn't know that that's how it works.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: True.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe don't make a marketing post out of it if you're not sure.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you're listening to this, now you know.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Don't do that, don't do that, please.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, what are some red flags in a business bank account?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what when you're bookkeeping, do you ever see red flags?
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh no, no, no.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: What are they?
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: All the time.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I once saw somebody out of their business account pay for a dating app, and I was like, mmm, a red flag.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: There it's not a business expense.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um unless your business is dating.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, if you own a dating app, then probably you could expense another dating app for market research.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um a job, job supplies.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: But no, I've seen like spanks come out of business checking accounts.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen like hair and nails, and that's fine if you have like a photo shoot coming up, totally fine to expense those things, but not like on a regular basis because the IRS is gonna be like, What the hell?
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: What why are you getting your nails done on your business checking account?
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I see red flags like that all the time.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and luckily those clients I no longer work with because I was like, listen, we can't do this, we can't have personal business mixed up, and they didn't like that answer.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's okay.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna move on to that.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's fine.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's fine.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like you do you, but I'm not gonna put my name on that.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um in regular people who are actually making an effort and really trying, I don't see as many red flags, but something that does catch my eye is a lot of transfers into the account.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_01: So transfers out of the account, no big deal.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: You obviously have to transfer to your personal account to pay yourself.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: I like to see a transfer to savings.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna see transfers to pay credit cards, totally fine.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: But when I see transfers in from the owner, that raises a flag for me.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because that tells me we didn't have enough cash flow in that month to pay for everything.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so that tells me I need to dig a little deeper and find out what happened.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like maybe somebody didn't pay their invoice and the owner had to pay, you know, transfer from savings over to cover all the expenses, or maybe expenses are too high and we need to look at something and try to cut something out.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe that's an instance where I need to recommend getting a line of credit or something for a temporary amount of time.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so those are the red flags that I look for is like were there transfers into the account during the month?
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_01: And if so, why?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's super interesting.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: I okay, this just made me think that there's a lot of shame, I feel like, around business finances.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know, maybe I'm projecting that, I don't know.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: But like I feel like are people nervous to hand over their finances to you because you're gonna know how they operate.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that that is a thing.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think that people, and I never judge anybody.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: I want to put that out there first and foremost.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: I would never judge anybody for what they've spent money on or how their finances are doing, but it is a personal thing.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a this deeply personal thing that people we've we've been conditioned like as a whole, as people, as humans, to kind of not talk about money and to keep it close and to just not discuss those things.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that mindset kind of creeps in sometimes when you're new at owning a business, or even if you have a couple years under your belt and you're not quite sure that you've been doing things right.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's like this, yeah, it can be a little bit of a sense of embarrassment, like, oh shoot, I don't know what this person's gonna think.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that that's one of the things that's important about when you go to hire a bookkeeper is it being somebody who you trust and who you have faith in, and somebody who you know is not gonna judge you in any way.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, I definitely don't judge people, even when I've seen the spanks and even when I've seen the dating apps, I don't judge them for that.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: I politely tell them that, hey, we need to separate person business and personal.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm not ever gonna say, Oh, you're a terrible business owner for doing that, or oh, I'm not, I don't care.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care why.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_01: I just let's correct the problem and move on.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's probably why you're literally so good at what you're doing.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you have a lot of experience too, but like I when I'm on your page, I'm always just like, she just gets it and like zero shame.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: She's just like, this is how you should probably do it.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very just straightforward and not like you don't feel bad.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: I well, thank you.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I I've been my intention with my Instagram page from the very beginning was always to have people not be afraid of their finances.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't want anybody to come to my page and feel like intimidated or feel like, ooh, I I can't ask Francis a question or oh, she's gonna judge me or shame me.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm that's not what I'm about.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not here to judge you or shame you.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm here to tell you the correct way to do things, but I'm not ever gonna make you feel bad about having done something incorrectly.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: You don't know what you don't know.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I just I don't know.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's always been my intention with the page, and so I hope that that's what people get out of it.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: It is, you're doing a great job with it.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually, when I found you, you had posted something about like, you know, getting your finances like in order or whatever, like book having good book keeping.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time I was just using a Google spreadsheet.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: I honestly don't know why, but I was just like, ah, whatever, like, not a big deal.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: I just export my things and put it in here, but then I was like, why am I not using QuickBooks?
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I just gen, I genuinely don't understand why I would be doing this to myself.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: So after I started following, I was like, I'm getting QuickBooks, and I got it, and I was like, oh my gosh, like all of a sudden everything in my business made way more sense.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was just so much more clear to me.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, you and then my my tax friend, tax savvy.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like Savannah is awesome.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, she teaches me my tax stuff, and then from you, I'm like, okay, bookkeeping, CFO, investments, we got this.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much that goes into it, but it doesn't have to get overly complicated, you know, especially for the business owner.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: If you have partners in your business who are there to have your back, like it doesn't have to be this all-consuming thing.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that you said that you were using a spreadsheet, and there are so many people out there that are like, buy my spreadsheet template, pay me money for my spreadsheet template.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, please don't do that.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna just waste that money.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, you can if you want to do it in a spreadsheet, by all means, do it in a spreadsheet.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_01: But you have access to free ones, you don't need to purchase a template.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like, no.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: And second of all, if it's something that somebody doesn't enjoy doing in the first place, the chances of that person taking time out of their day to manually enter data is slim.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so the fact that you were even doing it is like astonishing.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's amazing.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: I just hated it, you know.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: I hated it.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: And as soon as I got QuickBooks, I was like, okay, this is so much easier.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, all I have to do is like be like, yep, that's where that went.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yep, that's where that went.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like, just so much easier.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, why didn't I do this sooner?
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: But that makes me want to ask you a question.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do most of your clients use QuickBooks, or are there any other obviously a spreadsheet, but like, are there any other things that you recommend?
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is there an app?
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: Is there trackers?
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you recommend?
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_01: I always recommend QuickBooks Online.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: There are others, and I know a lot of bookkeepers that use Xero and some that use FreshBooks, and I know business owners that you use Wave, but I think that for a bookkeeper-client relationship, QuickBooks Online is the best source because it's the easiest for the business owner to navigate and understand.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: Zero is great if you're a bookkeeper and you your client has zero interaction with the platform because it's more the platform is more is made for a bookkeeper's brain and it's more on that side of it.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_01: But it a business owner trying to navigate that would be completely lost, and they like it's just not not right.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't ever want my clients to not have access to their things.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm not like the gatekeeper of reports and stuff.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: If they want to access one, go for it.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but yeah, I always recommend QuickBooks Online because it's the easiest to navigate for the business owner.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love that.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything else?
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do you have any advice or recommendations for business owners?
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: Just general advice for bookkeeping, finance, the wellness of the money part of their business?
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: Keep up with it.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's my biggest advice and don't overcomplicate it.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's I always give this analogy because it's the easiest, but like I freaking hate going to the dentist.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's literally the worst thing on the planet for me.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: I loathe it.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_01: But do I still brush my teeth?
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: Do I still floss my teeth?
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because if I didn't do those things, going to the dentist would be a thousand times worse than it already is.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so when you keep up with things and you do them regularly, especially with your finances, because finances are so easy to just like ignore it and pretend that it doesn't exist and it'll all just all be fine.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_01: But then when it comes time to actually sit down and do it, it's so much and it gets so overwhelming that it's like it causes this sense of panic in people.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it I don't ever want anybody to feel that way.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: So my best advice is to keep on top of it, like on a monthly basis at the very least.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's what I was gonna ask.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is monthly good or quarterly or weekly?
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how involved do we need to be?
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: If you have a lot of transactions happening and you have invoices going out that you need monitored, then I would say weekly or bi weekly.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but if you have a very not, I don't want to say passive, but a very um a business where people are paying their invoices on auto pay and things are coming out and it's the same kind of expenses every month, then once a month should be sufficient.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: What do you feel like is the best way for business owners to make sure?
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Get paid.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm sure invoicing is a big thing.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: What do you recommend?
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: I okay.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: I personally for my own business, I use Honeybook and I have all my retainer clients have auto pay on.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_01: So they get billed the same every month, and the credit card just goes through on the same day every month.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I rarely have an issue.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's like if somebody's credit card expired or something, that's the only time I ever have to be like, hey, there's an issue.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: But I understand that a lot of people have retainer clients whose services might be need to be tweaked on a monthly basis, like they had an add-on this month or they didn't have that the next month.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: And in those cases, I would say having them recurring.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: I actually just did a post about that this week.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_01: Having your um, I would recommend doing that in QuickBooks and not in something like Honey Book, but having invoices on a recurring basis so that they automatically are created by QuickBooks every month with the base things in them.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_01: So like if you always do social media management for a client every month, but let's say one month they added on engagement for the month or something like that.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_01: You have the invoice created with a social media package that you always do for them, and then all you have to do is go in and add engagement and send it off.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_01: And QuickBooks is so easy for the person to enter their credit card information and just pay you.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I know there's so many people out there that want to avoid credit card fees, and that's like a whole nother topic that I could go into depth into, but it's not something to be afraid of.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: They suck.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, agreed.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_01: Credit card fees.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just like it's yeah, it's just a business expense.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: It's just a thing that you have to endure if you want to get paid.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's the end of it.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a tax deduction, it's a write-off, and it's gonna be okay.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's gonna be Why do you say if it's if it's not an auto-pay one, why do you recommend QuickBooks over Honey Book?
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: Is Honey Book just harder to pay?
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's not that it's harder to pay, it's that then you have to monitor it in two places because then you have to monitor it in Honey Book and then in QuickBooks when it comes through.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas I like to simplify things as much as possible.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_01: So if I have to create an invoice for somebody, I'm gonna do it in my bookkeeping platform.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm not gonna go in one place and then have to go match it.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just so it like it's just automatically like it's already in QuickBooks, you don't have to think about it again.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: I love that actually.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and they actually make it really easy.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's not difficult to do at all.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, thank you so much.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly, this has been so awesome.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: You are so helpful.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, do you have anything else you want to add?
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my, I think I covered a lot.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_01: I got on a couple of tangents and soapboxes there.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I hope that's okay.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: I love them.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we're here.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we're doing a podcast.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: So before I let you go, I just wanted to ask you what's one piece of advice you wish you could give your younger self?
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I really love this question.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a very thought-provoking question.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it can go one of two ways.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: It can go the very superficial Instagram social media thing of like, oh, I wish I would have told myself to be more patient, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 47:30
  unknown: Yeah.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_01: But the truth of the matter is, I wish I had told myself that I was worthy.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_01: Because for many years I thought I wasn't.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_01: And for many years I was told by peers that I wasn't.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so I wish that I had figured that out sooner.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I wish I could go back and tell myself that I am worth it, and I am helpful, and I am here to help people, and that I have a skill that I can actually help people with.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's my real answer and not my Instagram answer.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: I love that answer, and I feel like you could post that on Instagram.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: People would be like, I agree.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: That is something that's so hard.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is hard to feel like you have a purpose and you are worthy, and you're worthy of your success, and you're worthy to have these clients, and you're worthy of being a mom and all of these things.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's hard to feel like you're deserving or yeah, or worthy of that.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I love that.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for asking that.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: That was a great question.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, of course.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: I love I love to ask that at the end because I feel like, yeah, we can talk business, we can talk all these logistical things, but it's like you're also a human, and like I love that's that's why I love social media.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I do it before the connection, for the humanness.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just love that.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_00: I love to just ask that.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm literally so excited for this episode, and I really appreciate your time.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for having me.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_01: You are wonderful, and I love following you, and I've learned so much from you.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.