0:40

Hello, and

0:40

welcome to being boss,

0:43

a podcast for

0:43

creative entrepreneurs. I'm

0:45

Emily Thompson.

0:47

And I'm Kathleen Shannon. Today we are talking all about

0:57

managing your money. And as

1:02

always, we're mentioning lots of

1:02

tools and resources and books

1:05

and links. You can find those on

1:05

our show notes at WWW dot being

1:09

boss club. You guys fresh books

1:09

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by going to freshbooks comm

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slash being boss and enter being

1:47

boss in the How did you hear

1:50

about us section. In today's

1:50

episode, we are going to be

1:55

talking about planning your new

1:55

year looking at your money

1:59

cleaning house, the tools that

1:59

we use to manage our money.

2:02

We're going to be talking about

2:02

big expenses and investing and

2:05

even retirement. So let's get

2:05

into it.

2:16

All right, so

2:17

what it's the

2:17

beginning of the year? Well,

2:20

Lisa's when this podcast coming

2:20

out, it's the end of the year

2:22

for us still like totally

2:22

thinking about money. I like I

2:26

think money is my favorite part

2:26

about doing business. I love

2:29

doing like financial planning,

2:29

and looking at like income

2:33

projections like this is when I

2:33

get really nerdy.

2:35

And you know, I think that we talk a lot about money mindset. And we talk a lot

2:37

about creating abundance in our

2:42

lives and living rich lives. But

2:42

you always follow it up by

2:47

knowing your numbers, you've got

2:47

to crunch your numbers, you have

2:50

to know your numbers, you can't

2:50

improve what you don't measure.

2:54

And I think that the best way to

2:54

do that, like you've mentioned

2:58

many times before Emily is

2:58

looking at your numbers. So in

3:01

this episode, we're really going

3:01

to get into how to look at your

3:04

numbers. And even if you are on

3:04

top of it, you are going to

3:10

learn something here today.

3:11

Yeah, so

3:13

let's start by

3:13

planning out the new year, I

3:15

think that this is a really

3:15

good, fresh start to start

3:20

looking at numbers and really

3:20

getting organized. How do you

3:23

guys go about it, Emily, in your

3:23

household?

3:27

Sure. So we

3:27

track income, just in our

3:30

accounting software, David uses

3:30

zero for our business stuff. And

3:36

that's x er, oh, just so we

3:36

know. And so he just tracks

3:42

everything that comes in, and he

3:42

tracks it via our bank account.

3:45

So it all like automatically

3:45

feeds in, and he categorizes

3:48

things as needed. And then like

3:48

the software just does all the

3:52

things. So um, so the thing that

3:52

we recommend you do first is

3:56

getting an income statement for

3:56

the year. And that comes from

3:59

tracking your numbers throughout

3:59

the year. Or if you want to be

4:02

that person spending some good

4:02

time at the end of the year

4:05

doing it all at once. But that's

4:05

not fun for anyone. Before David

4:10

was doing it for me, I was doing

4:10

it myself on Fridays, Friday

4:15

mornings, I would get up and do

4:15

my bookkeeping for the week. And

4:20

I also separately kept a very

4:20

unofficial spreadsheet, where

4:25

every single day as income would

4:25

come in, I would go in and just

4:28

put it in no one ever saw this,

4:28

this was literally just for my

4:31

own benefit of really having my

4:31

finger on the pulse of my

4:36

business's income at any given

4:36

moment. So it wasn't official,

4:39

no one ever saw it, it probably

4:39

wasn't the most Best Kept thing

4:43

ever, but I could read it and

4:43

that was what was really

4:45

important to me. So um, that's

4:45

the ways we've done it, both

4:50

just sort of weakly doing it as

4:50

a solopreneur. David does it

4:54

probably two or three times a

4:54

week as part of his as part of

4:57

his job as our financial

4:57

manager. And, but you can also

5:02

if you want like more ongoing

5:02

peaks, just keep something

5:05

really simple for yourself like

5:05

a spreadsheet. I even at one

5:08

point and before I really got

5:08

into this really crazy

5:10

spreadsheet that I built for

5:10

myself once I had these

5:13

worksheets that I had designed

5:13

up, that would keep on my desk

5:16

and every day I would come in

5:16

and whatever pay point of

5:20

PayPal, PayPal emails I had in

5:20

my inbox, I would simply write

5:24

them down that worksheet at the

5:24

end of every sheet, I would add

5:27

it up. And so I could go through

5:27

and just sort of add up all the

5:31

sheets if I ever want to know

5:31

what my annual income was. That

5:35

was obviously a very manual way

5:35

of doing it, but it's just

5:38

keeping track of your income is

5:38

knowing how much money you're

5:41

bringing in at any given time,

5:41

but really at the end of the

5:45

year, because that's where

5:45

planning the new year comes from

5:48

is knowing what you did in your

5:48

previous year.

5:51

I think that this is where it's really helpful to say, if you don't

5:53

already have a business banking

5:56

account, you need to go ahead

5:56

and get one of those set up. And

5:59

so at braid creative, we use

5:59

fresh books. And we have been

6:03

since the very beginning. And

6:03

like you were mentioning, with

6:06

those auto importing of

6:06

expenses, and even income, no

6:11

income is a little bit more of a

6:11

manual transaction, because

6:15

we're usually moving money over

6:15

from PayPal into our bank

6:18

account, or someone is paying us

6:18

directly into our bank account,

6:22

like by sending us a check. But

6:22

um, we have a separate bank

6:27

account for our business, which

6:27

you have to have to have an LLC

6:31

or to get incorporated. And what

6:31

I do like about that is how

6:37

automated you can get the

6:37

expenses. So again, we use fresh

6:40

books, obviously, fresh books is

6:40

a being boss sponsor, but it's

6:44

because we use them and we love

6:44

them. So one of the things I

6:49

love about it is being able to

6:49

pull that profit and loss

6:53

report. And we typically do this

6:53

every single quarter. So we're

6:56

staying on top of our income and

6:56

expenses quarterly. But then at

7:01

the end of the year, definitely

7:01

pulling that one big income

7:05

statement. And we're always

7:05

asked to take a look at how much

7:08

cash we have in the bank as

7:08

well. So we both have, we both

7:14

have software that we use to

7:14

keep track of our finances. But

7:17

we also have an accountant to

7:17

help us just really get things

7:21

organized at the end of the year

7:21

and kind of organize things for

7:24

us quarterly, I think we're in a

7:24

unique situation, where we have

7:29

employees, we have contractors,

7:29

we have lots of expenses, we

7:33

have lots of income coming from

7:33

various different places. So for

7:37

us getting an accountant to help

7:37

us even organized further was

7:41

super important. But I also

7:41

think that you can do it by

7:47

yourself if you are a

7:47

solopreneur. Or if you don't

7:50

have a ton of complicated things

7:50

happening in your finances.

7:54

Yeah, simple

7:54

business things are really easy

7:57

to handle, we looked into

7:57

getting more help whenever our

8:00

business was growing. And we got

8:00

to a place where you know, taxes

8:05

were getting a little more

8:05

complicated. We were looking at

8:07

moving and we just needed

8:07

someone to help us help us feel

8:10

more secure. And David is still

8:10

doing all the bookkeeping, in

8:13

terms of just the daily tracking

8:13

of all of the things. But we do

8:17

have someone, an accountant that

8:17

we get with either once a month,

8:21

or once a quarter to do some of

8:21

that more like legit business

8:25

chatter about your income and

8:25

expenses. So let's move on

8:30

though with like planning out

8:30

your year. So you know what your

8:33

income and your expenses have

8:33

been for the year. And you want

8:37

to do some projections for the

8:37

next year. I feel like I get

8:39

this question all the time

8:39

people like how can I plan my

8:42

revenue goals for the next year.

8:42

And like there are a couple it's

8:45

like, I think it's like equal

8:45

parts art and science, you have

8:49

to do some good guesstimating

8:49

just based on like feeling and

8:52

planning. And then there's also

8:52

science in terms of like, look

8:55

at what your records have been.

8:55

How has your business performed

8:59

in the past, if you've been open

8:59

for a year or two, you were

9:02

starting to recognize the ebbs

9:02

and flows in your business, some

9:05

seasonality to how it is that

9:05

you're able to sell what it is

9:09

that you do. So what we like to

9:09

do, and before we get into

9:14

selling and seasonality, and all

9:14

of that, I'm looking at

9:17

expenses, I think is really

9:17

important for being able to

9:21

project future revenue and also

9:21

future expenses. So look at the

9:26

year that you just got done with

9:26

and where did the whole of your

9:29

money go? Basically? Did you

9:29

hire an expensive coach? Did you

9:33

get your website redone? Did you

9:33

decide to invest in lots of

9:37

education, look at your big

9:37

expenses where all of your money

9:41

went? And in terms of projecting

9:41

for the next year? Will any of

9:45

those expenses carry over?

9:45

Because a lot of time, a lot of

9:49

times some of the bigger

9:49

expenses in your business are

9:52

just one off expenses. Or maybe

9:52

it's a coach that you invested

9:56

in for like six months, or

9:56

something like that, or it may

9:59

be something like employees,

9:59

which will be an ongoing

10:02

expense. So looking at your big

10:02

expenses, and recognizing if any

10:06

of them will carry over into

10:06

your next year or not.

10:10

Do you consider PayPal fees and expense?

10:15

Yes, we consider

10:15

I think we categorize those as

10:18

like bank fees and like in that

10:18

sort of category. I'm not

10:23

positive of that because I don't

10:23

do that personally myself, but

10:27

it is an expense. It's a it's a

10:27

literally a cost of doing

10:29

business. It is an expense that

10:29

cuts into your overall revenue.

10:36

Okay, so we

10:36

also want to look at where You

10:39

made your most money, or where

10:39

you make most of your money or

10:43

all your streams of revenue. So

10:43

here at being boss, it might be

10:48

looking at the clubhouse for our

10:48

individual businesses, it will

10:51

be looking at our digital

10:51

products, it will also be

10:54

looking at our one on one

10:54

services. So all the different

10:58

ways that we make money, we like

10:58

to look at those, and really

11:01

almost break it down into a pie

11:01

chart. So how much what

11:05

percentage of our income was

11:05

from one on one work, what

11:08

percentage of our income was

11:08

from subscriptions, or digital

11:13

product. So I think that's

11:13

really important as well, as far

11:16

as projecting into the new year

11:16

how much money you plan on

11:20

making,

11:21

right. And it also will help you make some smart decisions around what it

11:23

is that your business is

11:25

offering if you have a couple of

11:25

pieces in your pie chart. And

11:29

there are things that you're

11:29

putting tons of energy into, but

11:31

you're not seeing that much of a

11:31

return. Like maybe those are

11:35

things that you need to think

11:35

about letting go or repackaging

11:38

in some way so that you're

11:38

getting more bang for your buck,

11:41

I think getting really clear

11:41

about where your income is

11:43

coming from, is what allows you

11:43

to really invest your energy

11:47

into places that's going to give

11:47

you a fruitful business. This is

11:50

something like it sounds super

11:50

basic. But I don't think people

11:54

do it often enough, look at

11:54

where your money is coming from

11:57

and make educated decisions

11:57

around how your business model

12:00

may shift in the new year. Just

12:00

because you've been offering one

12:04

thing for however long does it

12:04

mean, you have to keep it going,

12:07

you can certainly use these

12:07

numbers to help you make really

12:11

smart decisions about how you

12:11

grow and manage your business. I

12:16

think

12:16

also once you

12:16

start looking at your streams of

12:19

revenue, and where you're making

12:19

money, you can start to uncover

12:22

the monthly trends in your

12:22

business, you can start to see

12:25

what months you have more

12:25

expenses and wet months, you

12:28

have more income. I think one of

12:28

all of us who have done one on

12:31

one client work, see those like

12:31

kind of peaks and valleys and

12:35

when people are interested in

12:35

hiring, but also with digital

12:38

product and retail. I mean, we

12:38

know that all of our friends in

12:41

retail are really busy right

12:41

around Christmas time and

12:45

Mother's Day, Mother's Day, and

12:45

then maybe a little bit slower

12:50

in the summer, or maybe even in

12:50

February. So look at the monthly

12:55

trends in your business. But

12:55

also looking at your launch

12:58

schedule. I think that this is

12:58

maybe one of the first times

13:01

I've been able to look into the

13:01

next year and know exactly when

13:05

I'm launching every single thing

13:05

I'm launching,

13:09

I've been doing this for years.

13:11

And I've done

13:11

well for myself, it hasn't been

13:14

bad. But really doubling down on

13:14

my focusing on what I'm

13:20

launching at any given time, I

13:20

know will help increase my

13:24

revenue by just putting my

13:24

intention in those places. But

13:27

what's cool about it is, I think

13:27

it's easiest to plan a launch

13:31

schedule around digital

13:31

products, and really holding

13:35

yourself accountable to putting

13:35

the time and effort into

13:38

promoting this thing and

13:38

marketing this thing that you've

13:40

really made. And we'll talk

13:40

about setting goals for those

13:43

launches. But then what I like

13:43

about it is coming back to braid

13:47

creative, for example, and

13:47

really figuring out a promotion

13:51

cycle for our one on one client

13:51

work. I feel like it's just kind

13:55

of a given that we always do

13:55

that. But we can kind of fit

13:59

that into launch cycles as well

13:59

and really push our one on one

14:03

work when we're not promoting

14:03

the E course, for example.

14:08

Yeah, I think

14:08

the way that I like to do this,

14:10

and this does work for product

14:10

and service businesses, I've

14:14

done it for both kinds of

14:14

businesses for myself, where

14:17

like I literally will sit down

14:17

with a piece of paper. And I'll

14:21

divide it into two columns, and

14:21

have six sections in each column

14:25

where I put a month of the year,

14:25

so January, February, March,

14:28

April, May all the way through

14:28

to the end of the year. And then

14:30

I just start like brainstorming

14:30

what's coming, what's coming up

14:33

for me, maybe you have a trade

14:33

show in one given month that you

14:37

need to write down as like

14:37

that's going to be a busier

14:40

month for you both in prepping

14:40

for it and hopefully also in

14:43

cells. Or maybe you are

14:43

launching a digital product or

14:47

you're going to be launching a

14:47

digital product once a quarter.

14:50

Like mapping that out in terms

14:50

of months is really important.

14:53

But also holidays like if you do

14:53

have big sells during Mother's

14:57

Day. Or maybe you sell barbecue

14:57

sauce in the fourth of July.

15:00

It's just amazing for you or

15:00

whatever it may be writing down

15:04

on that under the month that

15:04

coincides with this bump that

15:08

you expect in your business. And

15:08

this will give you so much

15:11

information not just around like

15:11

when you can expect revenue, but

15:14

what when and where you need to

15:14

be putting your marketing

15:17

efforts when you may need to

15:17

think about growing your team,

15:21

when you may need to think about

15:21

making your team smaller, those

15:24

sorts of things. And then if

15:24

there are months were there any

15:27

holes, that's where your

15:27

vacation comes in. Or that's

15:31

where you could think about adding something new in your business and launching something

15:33

new. Maybe if you're in a

15:36

product business and you do like

15:36

seasonal life. Have something

15:39

you can put those things down on

15:39

as well. Something as simple as

15:43

just writing this out on a piece

15:43

of paper, I do it actually, I

15:46

usually do it a couple of times

15:46

a year, I definitely do it at

15:49

the beginning of the year. But

15:49

I'll usually do it every

15:52

quarter, every six months, just

15:52

to get an idea of the next six

15:55

to 12 months of my business,

15:55

it's a really good practice for

15:58

being really clear about how

15:58

you're moving your business

16:01

ahead every month, over the

16:01

course of a year, and what it

16:06

looks like in terms of what

16:06

you're going to be responsible

16:08

for, or how and when you need to

16:08

take hold of opportunities that

16:13

could be coming your way in

16:13

terms of holidays, or launch

16:16

cycles, or whatever it should,

16:16

or whatever it could be. So I

16:19

love doing that just looking at

16:19

my monthly trends in the past,

16:24

and then looking forward for the

16:24

next 12 months and sort of

16:27

replicating that, for as a web

16:27

designer, I know that January

16:30

and February are dead,

16:30

absolutely dead. So those are

16:34

going to be the times where I'm

16:34

going to be working on something

16:37

in house. But I might do a

16:37

really big like client to launch

16:42

like a big drive to get one on

16:42

one clients in March and April.

16:46

So you can make some really good

16:46

educated plans by looking at how

16:51

your business has been

16:51

performing and thinking about

16:54

the things that you can do in

16:54

your business moving forward.

16:58

Okay, so we're

16:58

looking at the trends we're

17:01

looking at are launching, we're

17:01

looking at marketing those

17:04

things, I think now is a good

17:04

time to look at revenue and

17:08

profit goals. So I want to talk

17:08

a little bit about the

17:10

difference between revenue and

17:10

profit.

17:14

Right, because

17:14

they are very different things.

17:17

So just to get super business

17:17

one on one with you guys, your

17:20

revenue is how much money your

17:20

business brings in period, just

17:24

flat out cash in your business

17:24

revenue. Your profit is when you

17:29

have your revenue, and you

17:29

subtract your expenses. So all

17:32

the money that leaves your

17:32

business for anything that you

17:34

could be paying for what's left

17:34

over is your profit. As a

17:39

service provider with relatively

17:39

little overhead, I rarely make

17:44

profit goals. I usually just

17:44

stick to revenue. But especially

17:48

if you're in a product business,

17:48

or if you have a brick and

17:50

mortar store or those sorts of

17:50

things, you're going to also

17:53

want to make a profit goal, how

17:53

much do you want left over at

17:57

the end of the year, after

17:57

you've paid all of your

17:59

expenses? Those two are really

17:59

important.

18:02

I typically

18:02

think about profit goals first.

18:05

So I usually think about what do

18:05

I want my yearly salary to be.

18:09

And that's probably leftover

18:09

from my days of working a day

18:11

job, because that's how you get

18:11

paid. You just have your yearly

18:15

salary. So I still very much

18:15

think about how much money do I

18:19

want to make this year? Like how

18:19

much money do I want to be

18:23

paying personal income taxes on.

18:23

So that's kind of what I think

18:28

of as my salary, which I also

18:28

kind of think of as profit

18:32

because I own my companies. And

18:32

I don't really think about

18:36

revenue very much, because for

18:36

me, it doesn't matter. Like

18:40

let's say I'm running a million

18:40

dollar company, but I have

18:43

$900,000 in expenses. It's not

18:43

that impressive.

18:48

Right? Right, well, but I think for our business, because we know that

18:50

our overhead is so relatively

18:53

small like we don't, I'm glad

18:53

that you don't think of it that

18:57

way. But you don't have to think

18:57

of it that way in terms of

19:00

you're never going to have 90%

19:00

of your revenue being expenses.

19:04

If that's the case, we need to

19:04

rethink our business model. For

19:08

sure. Um, so I do think that at

19:08

least knowing the difference

19:12

there, I always set revenue, you

19:12

always set profit. I think

19:17

together, they work out pretty

19:17

well. But knowing what that goal

19:20

is both what it is that you want

19:20

to take home because that is

19:22

something that I do think about,

19:22

like if this is my revenue goal,

19:26

then this is how much I want to

19:26

be taking home every year. And

19:30

then there's some other expenses

19:30

that will play into that as

19:33

well. But revenue and profit

19:33

goals are really important

19:36

before and setting it for the

19:36

entire year. And you can do

19:38

this, you can do this two ways.

19:38

I tend to do them both ways. But

19:44

you've written down this like

19:44

monthly chart of what you have

19:47

going on. Maybe you have a year

19:47

revenue goal, maybe you don't

19:52

even know where to start because

19:52

sometimes that happens. What you

19:55

can do is this breakdown of the

19:55

months that you have go through

19:59

and make revenue goals for each

19:59

month. So if Mother's Day when

20:02

is Mother's Day is that in May.

20:05

Yeah, is that

20:05

is that when it is middle of

20:07

May.

20:08

So if you have a

20:08

big Mother's Day, like make a

20:13

revenue goal for me. And then

20:13

you can do that for each month

20:18

based on what you see ahead of

20:18

you and your calendar and then

20:21

you can add that up to be your

20:21

yearly goal. Or you can like do

20:26

it the other way around where

20:26

you have a yearly goal and then

20:29

divide it into the 12 months I

20:29

usually do a little bit of both

20:31

like the other day I was doing

20:31

this for myself for 2017 and I

20:36

made a yearly goal and then I

20:36

went through and made My plan

20:39

for the year, like each month of

20:39

the year, and then I went and

20:41

like wrote out, alright, this

20:41

launch, I want to make this much

20:43

money because they want this

20:43

many students in this digital

20:45

product. And here's what it'll

20:45

look like. And then he went

20:48

through and added up those 12

20:48

months. And it was actually more

20:51

than the revenue goal that I had

20:51

initially initially set for the

20:54

entire year. So you can do it

20:54

both ways just to do some good

20:58

checking for yourself. But by

20:58

doing this, you're not just

21:02

picking an arbitrary number out

21:02

of the clouds and hoping that

21:05

you can get it, you actually are

21:05

putting a plan in place to get

21:08

it by having these events that

21:08

happen every month to get you to

21:12

those revenue goals.

21:14

Yeah, I want

21:14

to mention that sometimes we get

21:17

asked a lot, how do I price my

21:17

product? Well, once you set your

21:20

goals, you did you just do the

21:20

math, you divide it by 12. And

21:24

then that's how much you need to

21:24

make per month, then divide that

21:28

number by how many projects you

21:28

want to work, or how many things

21:31

you want to sell, it's really

21:31

pretty simple. And I want to

21:35

talk a little bit about paying

21:35

yourself and how to avoid kind

21:41

of that feast or famine whenever

21:41

it comes to owning your own

21:44

business. Because both of us get

21:44

a monthly paycheck, it feels

21:47

very much like we work a job. So

21:47

I want to talk a little bit

21:50

about how we avoid feast or

21:50

famine and how we stay really

21:54

steady in our businesses.

21:56

Yeah, and I, the

21:56

way we do that is we cut

21:58

ourselves a paycheck like we've

21:58

we've looked at our numbers that

22:01

we have some income projections,

22:01

we know we have some projections

22:06

as to what our expenses will be,

22:06

because we have a really good

22:09

handle on what our expenses have

22:09

been. We know when we want to

22:13

launch and what we want to do.

22:13

And so we can look at those

22:15

things and say, all right, we

22:15

can afford to pay ourselves this

22:19

amount of money every single

22:19

month. And absolutely, the idea

22:23

is that at the end of the year,

22:23

there's some leftover profit

22:25

that we can then like split, and

22:25

like have a nice end of your

22:29

bonus. But we're not going to be

22:29

paying ourselves so much that

22:34

we're not going to be able to

22:34

cover all of our expenses

22:39

throughout the year and

22:39

especially like as we begin

22:41

wrapping up the year. So having

22:41

that paycheck so that you're not

22:45

overpaying yourself, and then

22:45

not having enough money the next

22:49

month, or whatever it may be is

22:49

really important. I think a good

22:53

idea is maybe start small.

22:53

Whenever we started paying

22:58

ourselves from being boss,

22:58

because it took us a little

23:00

while to actually get to a place

23:00

where we were getting paid to do

23:02

this. We started small in terms

23:02

of how much we were we were

23:07

paying ourselves. And then as

23:07

things became more steady as we

23:11

were able to really finalize a

23:11

business model and how we were

23:14

going to get paid. And we could

23:14

really anticipate that money and

23:17

doing some good income

23:17

projections and really getting a

23:20

good handle what our expenses

23:20

were. Because as a new business,

23:23

you don't know you don't know

23:23

lots of things, you have to

23:27

start out slow and start

23:27

familiarizing yourself with,

23:32

with everything that's going to

23:32

be going into your business. And

23:35

for this reason, I really do

23:35

encourage people to begin doing

23:39

your own bookkeeping, like for

23:39

the first year or two of your

23:42

business, even if you hate it,

23:42

like I almost don't care. I

23:47

think it is so powerful,

23:47

powerful for you to have your

23:51

hands in it really seeing where

23:51

the numbers are going. It gives

23:56

you the ability to make smarter

23:56

decisions around how much you

24:00

can pay yourself. And if you can

24:00

afford that new thing that you

24:03

want, whether it be a website or

24:03

a coach, or some course or

24:06

whatever it may be, you will

24:06

know that if you're feeling your

24:10

money every day or every week, I

24:10

would recommend I think that

24:15

that's my case for everyone just

24:15

sticking out some bookkeeping

24:19

for themselves for the first

24:19

year. So

24:22

when I first started working for myself, there would be some months

24:24

whenever I would pay myself $300

24:28

for the month and other months

24:28

whenever I would pay myself

24:30

$6,000 for the month. And I

24:30

always felt like a total baller

24:35

on those $6,000 months. And so

24:35

whenever I partnered up with my

24:40

sister, and we created great

24:40

creative together, I was

24:43

managing the money at first. So

24:43

I had already had the freshbooks

24:47

account set up I was already

24:47

used to running my business

24:51

account and paying myself but

24:51

then after the first like few

24:55

months of giving us either a

24:55

$600 paycheck or an $8,000

25:00

paycheck, just kind of crazy,

25:00

wildly different paychecks. My

25:06

sister was having none of it. So

25:06

she took over and again, it was

25:11

simple math, it was making

25:11

projections of over even a

25:16

quarter how much money we can

25:16

make and then dividing that by

25:21

three. So each month we would

25:21

get our paycheck based on the

25:25

average mean of the quarter, and

25:25

it usually really evens out and

25:31

that was a really great way of

25:31

just paying ourselves

25:34

consistently and steady and it

25:34

does start out small And I think

25:39

that that's really important.

25:39

And a really good thing to do is

25:42

start paying yourself. But even

25:42

if you are just paying yourself,

25:45

like you've just started your

25:45

business, and you're only paying

25:48

yourself $300 a month for a

25:48

while, go ahead and do that.

25:52

Because I think it's really

25:52

important to get in the habit of

25:54

moving money from your business

25:54

account, to your personal

25:57

checking account, I think it

25:57

starts to get systems in place,

26:00

and it starts to really set the

26:00

habit and standard and precedent

26:07

for creating a business that is

26:07

paying you.

26:12

Amen to that. I

26:12

know, and I feel like so many

26:15

people wait far too long, and

26:15

then they get burnt out. And

26:18

they're not enjoying their business because their business isn't paying them. I think doing

26:19

that physical pain like and

26:22

again, even if it's just $300,

26:22

the first month or the first

26:25

year of months. I mean, that's

26:25

really powerful for just getting

26:29

you in this mindset that your

26:29

business is paying you and it

26:31

should be paying you. Even if

26:31

it's just a little bit. In the

26:35

beginning, the goal is to make

26:35

it more as you grow.

26:39

I want to talk about cleaning house a little bit and just doing some kind of

26:41

beginning of year things that

26:45

will help you set up for the new

26:45

year. So one of the things that

26:48

we just did at being boss was we

26:48

took a look at all of our

26:52

contractors and employees. And

26:52

we started to figure out how

26:56

much we wanted to give and

26:56

raises, and what the New Year

27:00

might look like for our team and

27:00

expenses there. But we've also

27:04

accrued a lot of subscriptions

27:04

over the last couple of years.

27:09

And I know it breed creative, we

27:09

need to do this as well. But the

27:12

little things add up like that

27:12

crowdcast account, that

27:17

subscription to the stock

27:17

photos. And there are quite a

27:21

few things that we could

27:21

probably take a look at and see

27:24

if we're actually using them.

27:24

And seeing if there's anything

27:29

that we can kind of cut.

27:30

This is David's

27:30

favorite thing on the face of

27:33

the planet. I swear it is

27:33

hysterical and also very painful

27:36

for me every now and then I'll

27:36

hear him like yell at me like,

27:39

Hey, are you still using that

27:39

whatever account and I'm like,

27:41

Yes, David, leave it alone, or

27:41

no, feel free to cancel it. I

27:45

think that's that's a really

27:45

good thing. And David is always

27:47

on top of it. But I think it

27:47

could be I think it is a very

27:52

good practice to do every year,

27:52

absolutely. Or every six months,

27:57

or maybe even more frequently,

27:57

if you want to make it a monthly

27:59

thing or a quarterly thing that

27:59

you look into. Because you do

28:03

like I'm so bad. Uh, not yet Oh,

28:03

I am bad about it. I love like

28:07

signing up for like free trials

28:07

of things for 30 days to test it

28:11

and I log in and I use it, and I

28:11

never log back in and then it

28:15

starts charging me. And because

28:15

I'm not physically looking at it

28:19

anymore. And this is same for

28:19

anyone who has an accountant or

28:23

isn't doing consistent

28:23

bookkeeping for themselves,

28:26

there are probably things that

28:26

you're paying for on a monthly

28:29

basis that you're not even

28:29

using. So cleaning house in this

28:32

way, really looking at all of

28:32

those recurring payments that

28:35

you you may not be using is

28:35

really important for gaining

28:40

some cash flow back in your

28:40

business. Another thing that you

28:44

can do around these subscriptions, and I think this is a good thing to do every six

28:46

months as well, is to look at

28:50

anything that you could start

28:50

paying annually. So I'm one of

28:54

those people that will sign up

28:54

for a subscription to something

28:56

and then choose monthly because

28:56

I don't know if I'm going to

28:59

actually use it like I want to

28:59

test it out and see if I use it.

29:02

And then six months later, I'm

29:02

using it like I really love and

29:05

it's really helpful, but I'm

29:05

still just paying monthly.

29:08

Whereas if I were to upgrade to

29:08

paying yearly, I could save 10

29:12

to 20%, or sometimes even more

29:12

by paying annually as opposed to

29:17

monthly. So that's something

29:17

that David really loves doing as

29:19

well as checking in with me to

29:19

see if I am using the thing, if

29:22

it makes sense to pay annually

29:22

so that you're just saving a

29:25

little bit more cash every year

29:25

to checking in with those

29:28

subscriptions is a really good

29:28

way to be a lot more proactive

29:32

about all the dollars that are

29:32

going in and out of your

29:35

business.

29:36

I think it's also not a bad idea to check your credit score, I think you

29:38

get it for free every year. Do

29:42

you guys do that?

29:43

I think David does it.

29:45

And I can't

29:45

remember what all there are

29:48

three different resources for

29:48

getting your credit score for

29:53

free. And we'll be sure to link

29:53

those in the show notes. Because

29:57

there are some that are not for

29:57

free or are totally fraudulent,

30:01

and will screw you if you put

30:01

your information into them. But

30:04

we end up doing it like if you

30:04

ever buy a car or buy a house,

30:08

they're going to run your credit

30:08

report for you. So you don't

30:13

have to say so you don't have to

30:13

worry about it, you do have to

30:15

worry about it. But that's also

30:15

going to help you see what

30:18

credit cards have been opened in

30:18

your name. A lot of times, you

30:22

might be accidentally opening a

30:22

credit card whenever you're

30:25

making a purchase at Lowe's for

30:25

something for discount, and then

30:29

that might be dinging your

30:29

credit score. So it's also a

30:32

really good idea to look at what

30:32

credit cards you have open and

30:35

what your credit score is, and

30:35

how you can maybe start to Stay

30:39

on top of that, to get that in

30:39

shape, and good to go. And we

30:45

also in my household, we use

30:45

some tools for budgeting. So I

30:50

know that you guys use wine AB,

30:50

which is you need

30:53

a budget, David

30:53

swears by wine AB.

30:57

And we

30:57

interviewed the founder of wine

30:59

app. So we'll be sure to link

30:59

that in the show notes. We love

31:02

talking to Jesse so much. And he

31:02

created this tool for his own

31:07

budgeting needs. Here at the

31:07

Shannon household, we use mint.

31:13

And I love it because my husband

31:13

does manage our finances. And

31:18

he's the engineer and the

31:18

numbers guy and the total nerd

31:22

about all of that stuff. He's

31:22

got a spreadsheet. So I was

31:25

gonna say this, Emily, you used

31:25

to have your spreadsheet, he

31:29

actually has a spreadsheet that

31:29

then converts to a graph. And we

31:32

can see we can make projections

31:32

as many years out as we want to

31:38

see not just how our money will

31:38

grow, but how our wealth will

31:42

grow. So we invest in real

31:42

estate, and I'll talk about that

31:45

in a second. Because I do want

31:45

to talk about investments and

31:47

retirement for creative

31:47

entrepreneurs. But I really like

31:52

having meant on my phone because

31:52

it helps me stay in touch with

31:56

our expenses and what we're

31:56

spending money on and kind of

31:59

what our household budget looks

31:59

like. And if we do need to

32:02

tighten the belt a little bit, I

32:02

can look at mint and really see

32:06

where that needs to happen.

32:06

Alright, so

32:10

let's let's talk

32:10

about big expenses, then because

32:12

budgeting is definitely one of

32:12

the things I've never been great

32:15

at budgeting like I I definitely

32:15

did our financial management

32:19

both at home and for our

32:19

business until David he

32:24

graduated from from graduate

32:24

school. And then he started

32:29

taking over at all. So I was

32:29

very like hands on in it, but

32:32

not great at it. David, on the

32:32

other hand, has did plenty of

32:37

finance in school, he always had

32:37

this dream of being like a

32:41

wealth manager, which I think is

32:41

amazing. He thought he was going

32:44

to be doing it for someone else.

32:44

And I think he enjoys more that

32:46

he can do it for himself, which

32:46

is really great. So he was much

32:50

better at the budgeting piece

32:50

than I have ever been like I

32:53

don't even here grew up understanding what the word budget meant. But David

32:55

supernatural, he loves wine AB

32:59

and him being so great at it has

32:59

really been very helpful for us

33:04

making lots of big purchases

33:04

over the past couple of years.

33:08

So whether it be some big

33:08

vacations or buying a house, or

33:12

those sorts of things. So big

33:12

expenses. Having budgets in

33:18

place to help you do that is

33:18

really important. It doesn't

33:20

have to even be as hard as

33:20

having like hardcore budget

33:23

software, though I think we're

33:23

in a day and age where like, use

33:27

your software to make your life

33:27

better. And I think budgeting is

33:30

one of those things that very

33:30

much so can help you in ways

33:34

that a spreadsheet or God bless

33:34

you if you use pen and paper

33:37

will ever do. So Mint is really

33:37

great. We use why NAB. But let's

33:42

talk about investments in

33:42

business or expenses in our

33:44

business.

33:45

I have a quick question

33:45

about personal expenses. Do you

33:47

guys use credit cards?

33:50

David recently

33:50

got our first credit card, like

33:53

very recently we've like within

33:53

the past six months, we don't, I

33:57

have never, we have never used

33:57

them. For the reason that just

34:03

not great at doing it. I don't

34:03

think I don't think I would have

34:08

now I'm much older and wiser and

34:08

wouldn't be an issue. But we did

34:11

just recently get our first

34:11

credit card.

34:13

So not having

34:13

a credit card is a great way to

34:16

avoid getting into debt. And I

34:16

don't think I mean, I think you

34:20

guys are smart listening to

34:20

this, like don't buy things that

34:23

you can't afford on your credit

34:23

card. And I feel like a lot of

34:27

my friends who are in serious

34:27

debt, it started with college,

34:30

they went into serious debt for

34:30

college. And then those numbers

34:34

just felt like no big deal like

34:34

being $80,000 in debt, what's

34:38

another $5,000 shopping spree on

34:38

top of that, like debt became

34:43

the norm.

34:45

As well as

34:45

seeing that it's like hitting so

34:47

home for me because I definitely

34:47

graduated college with you know,

34:52

mid five figures of debt.

34:52

Actually, maybe not quite mid

34:55

but lots of debt and was totally

34:55

overwhelmed by it in a way that

35:00

like Don't even mention credit

35:00

card to me, because I'm already

35:04

never going to be able to pay

35:04

back my student loans very

35:07

happily like I was asking David

35:07

earlier, it's so minimal what's

35:11

left like we're we're not paying

35:11

them off just because we don't

35:14

want to give them the pleasure

35:14

of having all of that money at

35:16

once. But we're almost done with

35:16

them. And that has definitely

35:21

been huge for me and really like

35:21

buying a house for me was the

35:25

most stressful thing like adding

35:25

debt to the like pile of debt

35:29

that I had already like paid off

35:29

like just sort of starting over

35:33

was really stressful for me. And

35:33

the idea of getting credit cards

35:37

just build on top of that has

35:37

always been really stressful for

35:39

me. So I agree that college that

35:39

thing I think plays into so much

35:44

of our money mindset, probably

35:44

in ways that we won't recognize

35:47

for the next 50 years, and then

35:47

it's gonna hit the fan.

35:51

So I sacrifice

35:51

my college experience a little

35:55

bit to not go into debt. And I

35:55

know that I'm kind of like seen

35:59

as the crazy, wacky creative,

35:59

who has no foresight, but I

36:03

really do think about the

36:03

numbers. And that does kind of

36:06

freak me out. But I've gotten

36:06

really good at creating debt in

36:11

places where it's to my benefit,

36:11

so I'll talk about that a little

36:16

bit. But um, I decided to stay

36:16

in Oklahoma and go to the

36:21

University of Oklahoma, my

36:21

tuition, I think, was right

36:25

around 15 $100 a semester. Yeah,

36:25

yeah, my college.

36:34

I like not

36:34

living on college or on campus

36:37

fees were raised.

36:39

My college

36:39

costs less than my child's

36:41

daycare, and I did graduate

36:41

college without any debt.

36:46

Whenever I was going through my

36:46

first divorce, I did manage to

36:49

rack up around $800 on my credit

36:49

card, and it stressed me out so

36:55

much that I borrowed money from

36:55

my parents to pay off the credit

36:59

card. So basically, I took out a

36:59

0% loan from my parents to pay

37:04

off the credit card, which had

37:04

basically 12% interest. And I

37:10

was able to pay my parents back

37:10

at 0%. And I think that they

37:13

gave that to me for like a year.

37:13

So I really like looking at

37:20

interest rates. And particularly

37:20

whenever it comes to buying a

37:24

house, I know a lot of my

37:24

friends went to put a ton of

37:28

money down on the house, and

37:28

we're recording this in 2017. So

37:32

if you're listening to this,

37:32

actually, we're recording this

37:34

in 2016, in November of 2016, to

37:34

be particular. So if the if the

37:41

market crashes in a month,

37:41

right, it very well could. Let

37:46

me come back around to credit

37:46

cards. This is like such I could

37:49

nerd out on this topic for a

37:49

long time. But I really like

37:52

using a credit card as a tool to

37:52

get more out of my money. So

37:57

what I do is I keep all of my

37:57

cash in a bank account that

38:02

yields like, a certain amount of

38:02

money back, I don't know if it's

38:07

like 3%. But it's a lot of

38:07

money. Like basically, I make 50

38:11

bucks a month by keeping a

38:11

certain amount of cash in my in

38:15

my checking account. And then

38:15

I'm putting all my purchases on

38:19

my credit card as much as

38:19

possible. Like even some of my

38:22

bills I put on my credit card,

38:22

because I have a united card.

38:27

And I get mileage points for

38:27

every dollar I spend. So every

38:32

year I'm getting like two or

38:32

three flights for free a year

38:36

basically, because I'm putting

38:36

all of my purchases on my credit

38:40

card, but then I pay off that

38:40

credit card at the end of every

38:43

single month with the cash that

38:43

has been accruing interest

38:47

sitting in the bank account.

38:47

Anyway, I pay off my credit

38:51

card. And it's kind of like a

38:51

win win from both angles. So you

38:54

can kind of use your credit card

38:54

and your bank account as a tool

38:57

to actually make even more

38:57

money. So I'm like all about the

39:02

credit cards, and getting the

39:02

credit cards that get you free

39:05

trips places. Yeah, that

39:07

dance of money

39:07

freaks me out, which is why I

39:10

just let David do that. And I

39:10

don't even want to think about

39:12

it. Basically, because I this

39:12

gets me to about guys, if you

39:17

guys want to read a fucking

39:17

creepy book that will make you

39:20

think about money in a whole new

39:20

way. Go check out sacred

39:23

economics, and then think about

39:23

money and credit cards and debt

39:27

a little bit differently. Um,

39:27

or, actually, we're totally

39:32

doing what you're doing right

39:32

now we have an Amazon card.

39:34

David's racking up those Amazon

39:34

points are putting everything on

39:36

it. He's loving it, he's paying

39:36

it off every month and

39:39

everything it works out great.

39:39

But thinking that way. I just

39:42

have other things I want to put

39:42

my brain power to.

39:45

Personally, I

39:45

feel like David and I are the

39:48

dorks reading the Tony Robbins.

39:50

Oh, he's he read

39:50

it once. And I think you listen

39:52

to the audiobook at least once

39:52

like he loves that book a ton.

39:57

So let's talk about big

39:57

expenses, though, because one of

39:59

my very favorite things about

39:59

not having credit cards for you

40:02

know, as long as I haven't, is

40:02

that everything that I've done

40:06

in building my business, the big

40:06

investments that I've made, I've

40:08

done with cash money, and that

40:08

does take some budgeting. So

40:12

let's talk about big expenses,

40:12

whether you want to do the

40:15

credit card route, and if you

40:15

want to do that, it's still a

40:17

monthly expense that you need to

40:17

pay off at the end of the month.

40:20

So you're still needing to

40:20

accrue the cash to pay it off.

40:23

Or maybe you just want to

40:23

straight up pay it off with

40:25

straight cash. So the thing

40:25

about big expenses in your

40:29

business when you're looking at

40:29

looking at that profit and loss

40:32

sheet and you see that big

40:32

number that is your expenses.

40:35

And it may like give you a

40:35

freakout moment because that

40:37

usually gives me a little bit of

40:37

a freakout. moment, I'm like,

40:39

this could have been my

40:39

paycheck. If I hadn't paid

40:42

Adobe, however much money I do

40:42

in a year or whatever it may be,

40:47

it's really important to reframe

40:47

your mindset around at least the

40:50

majority of your expenses, all

40:50

of the smart expenses, into

40:54

investments into your business.

40:54

Everything that I spend money on

41:00

in my business has some sort of

41:00

return. And it may not be an

41:04

immediate return, I don't think

41:04

that is usually ever going to be

41:07

a thing. But the subscriptions

41:07

that I buy helped me work

41:10

smarter, not harder, my

41:10

employees would not trade them

41:14

for anything, all of these

41:14

things are investments that

41:17

allow me to build a better

41:17

business. And you need to think

41:21

of them that way. So that whenever you're looking at that number, you're not feeling

41:23

resentful for how much money you spend, because you have to spend

41:25

money in a business to make

41:28

money. But let's talk about like

41:28

planning expenses, because this

41:32

is one of my favorite things,

41:32

too. I like to look at my year

41:35

and think about all the money

41:35

I'm going to bring in and what

41:38

launches I'm going to have and

41:38

how much is going to bring me

41:40

but I also love thinking about

41:40

what I'm going to spend it on.

41:45

And in your business. This can

41:45

be I think even more fun things

41:48

maybe than personal. And this

41:48

may just be because I'm a nutso

41:51

entrepreneur, but you can do

41:51

things like coaching or getting

41:55

branding or website, investing

41:55

in things like community like we

42:00

have the clubhouse that people

42:00

who are joining that are are

42:03

investing in their business, but

42:03

it's an expense that they have

42:05

to have to plan for your

42:05

employees or hiring an

42:09

accountant or things like

42:09

trademarking things in your

42:12

business or traveling for

42:12

conferences, or doing

42:16

masterminds, those sorts of

42:16

things. These are all big

42:19

expenses, and you need to plan

42:19

for them so that you can handle

42:25

them a lot more responsibly,

42:25

especially if you're if your

42:29

resources are slow moving, or

42:29

still newly being accrued. What

42:35

are some of your favorite

42:35

expenses?

42:38

I mean, for

42:38

sure, traveling, and then

42:40

continued education. And I will

42:40

say, if just me alone, whenever

42:45

it comes to expenses, I would be

42:45

so slow to travel, to hire to do

42:50

all the things that have

42:50

ultimately helped me grow my

42:53

business. Coaching is another

42:53

huge one that I'm like, so

42:58

hesitant to do, but every time I

42:58

do it, I never regret it. And so

43:03

those are expenses that I really

43:03

like investing, and I mean,

43:08

their investments. But one of

43:08

the things I really like is

43:12

having business partners like

43:12

you and like my sister over at

43:15

braid creative to say, Hey, can

43:15

I afford this? And having an

43:19

objective person who can see the

43:19

value in that thing, and they're

43:23

not so emotionally attached to

43:23

the income? And the expensing?

43:27

Yeah, go for it. So we also do

43:27

this with our being boss

43:31

vacations and retreats, we're

43:31

really generous about how we

43:35

spend our money. If we have a

43:35

sponsor like freshbooks, hooking

43:40

us up, we're going to get our

43:40

entire vacation a yacht to have

43:45

dinner on instead of pocketing

43:45

that money, like let's create an

43:49

experience with that expense

43:49

versus hoarding it away. And so

43:55

for me, though, I will say

43:55

having someone who can see the

43:58

value of the expense, and tell

43:58

me to go for it has been super

44:02

helpful for me, I think

44:02

otherwise, I would just be a lot

44:05

more stingy or not even stingy

44:05

but scared, like scared to make

44:10

those investments.

44:12

I agree with

44:12

that. I mean, making bigger

44:14

expenses. I mean, both both of

44:14

us as service providers who sell

44:18

expensive investments for our

44:18

clients like having to deal with

44:23

those, those money

44:23

conversations, or even the

44:26

people that we talked to, who

44:26

are owning their own business,

44:29

who struggle with making

44:29

investments in themselves as

44:33

these sort of expenses. I love

44:33

that you find so much comfort in

44:38

talking it out with other people

44:38

because I do feel like this is

44:40

just like one of those boss

44:40

tenants of like, you having a

44:43

struggle chatted out with

44:43

someone, because you can create

44:47

all kinds of funny like things

44:47

around what it is that you're

44:50

spending money on. And one of

44:50

the things I was talking,

44:53

talking to David about this,

44:53

getting him to give us some some

44:57

money tips on how we do this.

44:57

And he was like, he's like, you

45:00

know how you guys always say

45:00

that you should never make money

45:02

assumptions about other people,

45:02

like whenever you're trying to

45:04

sell your thing. If you're not

45:04

going to do that, why would you

45:08

ever do it about yourself? So

45:08

like, a lot of times people have

45:12

a hard time imagining that they

45:12

can ever afford this thing. And

45:16

the moment you say I can never

45:16

afford this thing, you will

45:19

never afford this thing. So if

45:19

you're wanting to invest in a

45:23

new website, or if you're

45:23

wanting to invest in a coach or

45:26

whatever, like change the money

45:26

mindset around around the

45:30

assumptions you're making around

45:30

your own skills to come up with

45:34

that money. I think that that

45:34

holds a lot of people back

45:37

because here's the thing About

45:37

investments like this in your

45:40

business is every time I've made

45:40

one, I have seen so much growth

45:46

in my business, whether that was

45:46

the first computer I ever

45:49

bought, because I guess about

45:49

three months after I started

45:52

doing websites, my computer

45:52

crashed. So the first big

45:55

project that I got, I had to

45:55

immediately take that money and

45:58

I bought my first iMac. And that

45:58

iMac like fed me back multiple

46:04

times over by proving my

46:04

productivity by giving me like a

46:08

better features and control over

46:08

what I could create. or whenever

46:11

I think about investing in

46:11

travel, like I always come back

46:14

with more relationships and

46:14

ideas for moving forward, or

46:17

investing in coaches, like all

46:17

kinds of crazy, amazing shit

46:21

comes from that. Every time I

46:21

invest in something I see huge

46:25

explosive growth in my business.

46:27

Yeah, I was so

46:27

nervous about investing in the

46:30

mastermind group that we did

46:30

with terrigen Tilly, and it was

46:34

a huge confidence boost to come

46:34

out the other side, having seen

46:39

the return on that investment,

46:39

like we definitely came out of

46:42

that more organized, motivated

46:42

and ready to do this thing. And

46:48

so I think that also kind of

46:48

dipping your toe into

46:52

investments is a great way to

46:52

start. So we talked about this

46:57

with paying yourself with a

46:57

paycheck, practice making

47:00

investments and practice going

47:00

into making those investments

47:03

with very strong intentions on

47:03

seeing a return. And if you can

47:07

get really intentional about how

47:07

you're going to see the return,

47:11

you're actually going to do the

47:11

work to make that expense, pay

47:17

for itself. So the computer is a

47:17

really easy example like I can't

47:21

make money if I don't have a

47:21

computer to do my work on.

47:25

That's easy. But I think it's

47:25

these kind of more intangible

47:29

investments, like coaching and

47:29

education, and travel that are a

47:35

little more like, is this

47:35

indulgent? Or is this an

47:38

investment? Yeah, I

47:40

think going into

47:40

those those occasions with

47:42

intention, your plans of what

47:42

you want to get out of it, one

47:45

will make you more focused in

47:45

actually making that thing

47:47

happen. But two will give you

47:47

some sort of guideline, like

47:50

when you're done to see if it

47:50

was actually worth it to you or

47:53

not. I mean, that's really huge.

47:53

So yeah,

47:57

okay, can we talk a little bit about retirement for creatives? I

47:59

know, we don't have a whole lot

48:02

of time. But I think that this

48:02

is something that gives a lot of

48:05

creatives, a lot of anxiety. And

48:05

a lot of people are working day

48:08

jobs for health insurance and

48:08

for retirement benefits. So I

48:12

want to talk about ways that you

48:12

can start to build your own

48:15

retirement into your business

48:15

model. What are you and David

48:18

doing over there for retirement,

48:21

David has set us

48:21

up with some IRAs, and I don't

48:23

know the extent of what he's

48:23

done. But I know that has been

48:26

part of what he's been doing.

48:26

Literally, this is the stuff he

48:29

does geek out about it. It's

48:29

amazing. I'm so lucky. Um, so,

48:33

you know, obviously, as a

48:33

creative business owner, no one

48:38

is setting me up a retirement

48:38

plan, like I don't have money

48:41

just automatically coming out of

48:41

my check, someone else hasn't

48:43

set this up for us. And so David

48:43

took that into his own hands.

48:48

And he set us up some IRAs that

48:48

we're putting into every single

48:52

month. It's a budget item on our

48:52

like, it's a list, or it's a

48:56

list item on our budget, every

48:56

month, we're saving, you know,

49:00

some money. And then once we get

49:00

however much we need, he puts it

49:03

into it. And and so it's just

49:03

become like the utility bill

49:07

like this thing you have to pay

49:07

every month. And we did set some

49:11

goals for next year that we're

49:11

going to max out our IRA. So

49:14

that's like part of our money

49:14

goals is like not only do we

49:17

want to have this much like

49:17

salary for the year, but we will

49:21

also be putting this much money

49:21

in our IRAs. So it is possible

49:25

to set that stuff up that Tony

49:25

Robbins book was huge for David.

49:30

And then there are also people

49:30

out there who do some financial

49:33

planning for creatives that can

49:33

help you or maybe not for

49:38

creatives with small business owners.

49:40

Yeah, I can

49:40

jump in here because I read the

49:42

Tony Robbins book, you want to

49:42

find a fiduciary. I think that's

49:46

how you say that

49:48

word

49:49

that you want

49:49

to find a fiduciary. These are

49:51

basically people who are legally

49:51

obligated to having your best

49:57

interest front of mind. So

49:57

they're not trying to get you to

50:00

pay for something that has fees

50:00

that they take a commission on.

50:04

They are purely there to help

50:04

you make the best possible

50:07

decision available. So be sure

50:07

to speak with a fiduciary. I did

50:12

end up meeting with a financial

50:12

planner, through a bank, through

50:16

the bank that we do our small

50:16

business banking through and I

50:19

was not super impressed. And

50:19

whenever he told me I had a 0%

50:23

probability of reaching my

50:23

retirement goals. I was like,

50:26

Okay, I need to invest

50:26

elsewhere. So I actually buy

50:30

real estate. That's how that's

50:30

kind of my retirement plan. And

50:34

really, it's all the same like

50:34

you want to invest in areas that

50:37

you feel really comfortable. I

50:37

feel really comfortable buying

50:40

homes and then renting them out.

50:40

One of the, one of the pros of

50:47

living in Oklahoma is that I can

50:47

buy homes for really super

50:51

cheap, and rent them out at a

50:51

market rate and be making

50:55

basically 100% profit. So it's

50:55

kind of insane. So I really like

51:02

doing that. Basically, every

51:02

time we save up enough money to

51:06

put 25% down on a small home,

51:06

here we do it. So if you I want

51:13

to get on a podcast and talk

51:13

just about investing in real

51:16

estate, I can right nerd out on

51:16

that

51:18

you should and that's something that we've thought about too. And that's

51:20

that's also like, The fun thing

51:22

about doing what it is that we

51:22

do, we're not locked in to

51:25

whatever our like company

51:25

decides is our retirement plan.

51:28

Like we can invest in whatever

51:28

we want. We have some stocks,

51:31

and we have some CDs, and like

51:31

we have some of those sorts of

51:34

things. And, but also the sky's

51:34

the limit, like we can put our

51:38

money wherever we want. I think

51:38

I might be bearing mine in my

51:42

backyard. Soon, we'll see us

51:42

buying some gold bars or some

51:47

shit. But I do I do love that we

51:47

do you have the opportunity to

51:51

do it. And I do super love that

51:51

I have someone who loves doing

51:56

it for me. But retirement has

51:56

absolutely been part of my plan.

52:02

It took me six years to get to a

52:02

point to where having retirement

52:06

be part of my like business plan

52:06

was was a thing. But I got there

52:12

and I got there because it was

52:12

always a priority. I just had to

52:15

get there. And now and now that

52:15

it is a possibility. It's

52:19

happening. And it's something

52:19

that I do want to max out, I

52:23

want to I do want to retire

52:23

early. I want I want to be in

52:28

control of my money. And I think

52:28

that is one of my very favorite

52:32

things about doing what we do.

52:32

But make retirement a priority.

52:35

I think that's the one thing

52:35

that sort of freaks the most

52:38

people out, it shouldn't because

52:38

you can have complete and utter

52:41

control over it. And you can do

52:41

it if you make it a priority. So

52:46

make retirement a priority for

52:46

yourself and use your like

52:50

unlimited earning potential as

52:50

just like, what is it called

52:55

fuel to your flame to you know,

52:55

have as much retirement as you

52:59

want. But you do have to make it

52:59

a priority and actually do it.

53:02

Yeah, one of the things I love about being an entrepreneur is I used to watch

53:04

a what's her name that money,

53:09

lady.

53:11

Sell No,

53:13

bitch. What is her name?

53:17

I don't know you're talking about

53:19

Anyway, she

53:19

basically tells young people to

53:22

stop buying coffee and stop

53:22

taking trips.

53:24

Oh, that woman?

53:24

Yeah, I'm talking I know you're

53:27

talking about but I can't

53:27

Susanna.

53:30

Susie Orman.

53:30

Suzy Orman.

53:35

There we go. I

53:35

think so. Sue? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

53:38

Yes, Susie ormy.

53:39

Sorry to call

53:39

you out. Susie, we'd love to

53:42

have you on the show. But um,

53:42

she talks about, you know, don't

53:46

buy coffee, don't go on the

53:46

trip. And I just don't believe

53:49

in that. I feel like I would

53:49

rather hustle to make an extra

53:54

five bucks a week to earn that

53:54

latte than I would cutting it

53:59

out. Right? So

54:00

well. And I think that's the difference between those who are

54:01

traditionally employed who can't

54:05

make more money unless they

54:05

negotiate really great raises

54:08

for themselves consistently.

54:08

That's the difference between

54:12

those people. And those of us

54:12

who do have unlimited earning

54:14

potential, like, I can work as

54:14

much as I want, I can create

54:19

whatever I want, I can sell it

54:19

to whoever I want. And I can

54:23

make as much money as I want to

54:23

like as long as I'm doing the

54:25

work and giving value and all

54:25

those good things. Whereas if I

54:28

was in a day job, and I was like

54:28

stuck at $45,000 a year, then if

54:33

I wanted to do something extra I

54:33

would have to cut back. And I'm

54:38

glad that's not something we

54:38

have to worry about. I will just

54:41

hustle an extra 30 minutes every

54:41

week to make however much more

54:47

money and buy as many lattes as

54:47

I want.

54:51

I will also

54:51

say though, there is something

54:53

to be said for living below your

54:53

means as a creative and that's

54:57

what really gives me a lot of

54:57

financial comfort and security

55:01

is that I feel like I live about

55:01

the same lifestyle as I did

55:06

whenever I was making $30,000 a

55:06

year.

55:09

Same I mean, I

55:09

mean the fact that we bought a

55:12

house which is not a like

55:12

nonsense investment and by any

55:16

means, other than the fact that

55:16

like our rent became a twice

55:20

expensive mortgage. We're about

55:20

the same as well. I mean, I feel

55:23

like we're traveling, traveling

55:23

a little bit more. But like I

55:26

don't travel extensively, like

55:26

David and I were both out of

55:29

town and we came back and talked

55:29

about how neither of us spent

55:31

any money. We didn't buy

55:31

anything. We didn't go anywhere

55:35

ridiculous. Like we both just

55:35

sort of chilled out where we

55:37

were So same like I don't feel

55:37

like I live any differently now,

55:42

or much differently now than I

55:42

did you know, three or four

55:45

years ago when I was making a

55:45

quarter as much money. And I

55:48

think I think that is a powerful

55:48

thing like, that's where people

55:52

run into really big financial

55:52

issues is one not knowing their

55:56

numbers. They don't know how

55:56

much they're allowed to spend,

55:59

and two is overspending, even if

55:59

they do know what the numbers

56:03

are, I think both of those

56:03

things can be really detrimental

56:06

for a business. And you and I

56:06

are really gubbins when my

56:08

favorite things about working

56:08

with you is you're right there

56:11

with me in terms of like

56:11

bootstrapping, and putting

56:15

energy into it and saving your

56:15

money for things that really

56:19

require that money, like we will

56:19

DIY whatever we have to DIY. But

56:25

we also know when and where to

56:25

put our money into something,

56:28

which I think is is a really

56:28

powerful trait for people who

56:31

want to start and run businesses

56:31

that are successful.

56:36

Yeah, I will

56:36

say leveling up for us feels

56:39

like learning how to let go of

56:39

some of that bootstrapping

56:43

mentality. And it's really easy

56:43

to stay in it. But I feel more

56:48

boss, as I can hire more people

56:48

to do the things that they're

56:53

best at. And oftentimes, they're

56:53

better than me at it sounds

56:58

really like type a controlling,

56:58

but I think we

57:01

are we're

57:01

creatives for sure.

57:05

When you've been bootstrapping for so long, it's hard to give up some of

57:07

that control. But that is what

57:10

makes me feel boss is giving up

57:10

some of that control and letting

57:12

other people do it and doing it

57:12

better.

57:15

Right. And I

57:15

just want to plug in here too,

57:18

especially around employees,

57:18

because I know a lot of folks

57:20

who are probably listening to

57:20

this, like hiring a VA, like

57:23

just getting started, or you

57:23

know, hiring a designer or a

57:26

developer or like just

57:26

contracting someone to do a

57:29

single project for you, or

57:29

whatever it may be. I think that

57:33

I think that or I think about

57:33

someone in the clubhouse

57:38

recently who we got on because

57:38

she had already hired her first

57:41

VA and we're like, you know, how

57:41

did it feel to like, make that

57:44

scary commitment of bringing

57:44

someone into your business, like

57:47

making that investment, and

57:47

running and how it is that you

57:51

run your business. And it was

57:51

just she like she was like, it's

57:53

kind of addictive. Like I

57:53

immediately hired someone to

57:56

clean my house. And then I'm

57:56

looking for someone to do you

57:58

know, some other specialized

57:58

work for her. And I was like,

58:01

Yes, like, once you get over the

58:01

fear of making that initial

58:05

investment, it can be so much

58:05

easier because you see the

58:08

return on it, you see what it

58:08

gives you she had so much more

58:12

time to do the work that she

58:12

wanted to be doing in her

58:15

business. And I think that any

58:15

investment, any smart investment

58:19

will give you that. So um, I

58:19

guess to wrap this up in a

58:23

pretty little bow. whenever it

58:23

comes to you know what your

58:26

plans are for the new year, like

58:26

make money a big part of it,

58:29

you're a business owner. This is

58:29

this is what makes you a

58:33

business owner is not only

58:33

knowing your numbers, but

58:35

knowing what you're going to do

58:35

with them how it is you're going

58:37

to make them so do some good

58:37

hardcore planning. Look at how

58:41

you did last year. Think about

58:41

what you want to do in the

58:44

coming year. Make some plans

58:44

around some expenses you want to

58:49

invest in to better your

58:49

business or and or yourself and

58:54

make it do I'm excited now I

58:54

want to go spend some cash to

58:59

hire someone or something.

59:01

I just want to scroll

59:01

through my mint all day and see

59:03

where I'm spending all my money right

59:05

check your

59:05

subscriptions. That's a big one.

59:10

Thank you for

59:10

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59:12

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59:12

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David Austin, with support from

1:00:00

braid creative and indicia biography.

1:00:03

Do the work, be

1:00:03

boss and we'll see you next

1:00:06

week. What's due it dealt with is in

1:00:23

their court but I'm very

1:00:26

impressed with your ability to

1:00:26

say www that was clean. I liked

1:00:33

it.

1:00:35

So I always

1:00:35

wanted to be a voice actor.

1:00:39

So you're just practicing w,

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I can't do it very long.

1:00:48

Good. w, w w w w

1:00:48

w

1:00:54

dubba dubba dubba

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dubba dubba

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debit dot clubhouse comm three

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being bass club.

1:01:05

That's it. Good job,

1:01:05

Kathleen.

1:01:08

Oh man