Shownotes
In this two-part episode, Sydney and Kristen share their journey to achieve one of the first Sexy Money Goals entrepreneurs have — quitting their 9-to-5 jobs.
In this episode, Sydney details her journey from working in the financial industry with a secure job to starting her first three businesses and being able to quit and work for herself.
They discuss how Sydney's upbringing made her confident to be able to lead a business, the mindset required to take the leap into entrepreneurship, and a few of the key numbers and financial considerations that went into the planning.
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👋 CONNECT WITH SYDNEY & KRISTEN
Website: https://knowyourworthpgh.com/
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3wzOVSDSC-xsmLg8JJ8MJg/
Transcripts
I sent it over to him and I was out skiing with two of my friends and we
Speaker:were on the chairlift and I got the email that said, great, let's start Monday.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Yeah, I can't.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I was like, oh my gosh, I'm quitting my job on Friday.
Speaker:Like I'm going to quit my job on Friday.
Speaker:Welcome to the Know Your Worth Show, where we teach you how to think about
Speaker:your money differently so that you can achieve your sexy money goals.
Speaker:I'm Sydnee your money Maven and owner of Know Your Worth.
Speaker:And I'm Kristen Sid's Dimepiece bestie team member and busy mama
Speaker:twins here to make sure that those of us without a financial degree can
Speaker:still level up with each episode.
Speaker:Let's get started on reaching your next goal.
Speaker:welcome to the Know Your Worth Podcast.
Speaker:I am Sydnee Your Money Maven.
Speaker:I am kristen Sid's.
Speaker:Dimepiece Bestie.
Speaker:Whoop, whoop.
Speaker:So today is one of our early episodes.
Speaker:We are on episode three, and we are going to be talking a little
Speaker:bit more today about our sexy money goals, specifically us quitting our
Speaker:corporate jobs, us exiting corporate.
Speaker:I would define corporate as like you working a standard defined
Speaker:set of hours for someone else.
Speaker:For someone else.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's a good definition.
Speaker:Because when I think of corporate too, and like even a corporate
Speaker:mentality now, whenever I think about that's what I think of.
Speaker:because even people that start off as entrepreneurs, eventually
Speaker:they could be back in corporate if their companies get big enough.
Speaker:So true.
Speaker:Working in corporate, working for someone else on their terms, not on your terms.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That was always a big goal for me.
Speaker:Was to work for myself to leave corporate work for myself.
Speaker:I've kind of known, not my whole life, but pretty much my whole life,
Speaker:I wanted to have my own business.
Speaker:I always knew that.
Speaker:I always felt that way.
Speaker:How did you know that from such a young age?
Speaker:I had a lot of people in my family that did.
Speaker:And so my grandpa did my dad started his own business and He, I guess
Speaker:he started a little bit later from a growing up I knew that's what I
Speaker:wanted to do, but my dad started his business when I was in my senior year.
Speaker:I just had finished my senior year of high school.
Speaker:But my grandpa had always had his own business.
Speaker:I've watched a lot of my aunts and uncles have their own businesses and then I
Speaker:think just from seeing the flexibility and from kind of what my grandpa would
Speaker:say of you being your own boss and being able to dictate your own schedule.
Speaker:And I've always been money focused though, whether that's
Speaker:a good thing or a bad thing.
Speaker:Growing up I was very money focused.
Speaker:So if my parents, wanted me to stay on something, or if there was like
Speaker:a motivating factor, a lot of the times it would come from money.
Speaker:I got my first job when I was 14 or 15.
Speaker:And just couldn't wait to work and make money.
Speaker:That's always been a big goal of mine was to have money and to
Speaker:be able to provide for myself.
Speaker:So knowing I wanted to start my own business happened a while ago.
Speaker:How did that happen at such a young age as like a female?
Speaker:I'm only asking because I was brought up like, you don't talk about money.
Speaker:And Especially girls don't talk about money like it's unbecoming.
Speaker:Like I think that's badass.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like how did you, oh, that's cool.
Speaker:I didn't mean to no.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:I love it, but it's just so different from like how I was raised.
Speaker:So I'm just, I want to know where that came from.
Speaker:My dad has never treated my sister and I, like we were.
Speaker:His daughters, you know his girl?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like girls in the stereotypical way.
Speaker:Same with my mom.
Speaker:But when I look back at my family and how my dad grew up in a
Speaker:very, large Catholic family.
Speaker:He's one of 11 four girls and seven boys and what their
Speaker:mentality was, it's very different.
Speaker:So it is kind of funny that my dad's mentality towards my sister
Speaker:and I was like, Total opposite.
Speaker:We could do anything we wanted to.
Speaker:We were powerful enough to do anything we wanted to do.
Speaker:There was like absolutely nothing.
Speaker:The only thing I remember being told I wasn't allowed to do was mow the lawn
Speaker:like my, that was just afraid you're going to like chop your foot off because his
Speaker:neighbor, Was, she was mowing her lawn growing up and she chopped her toes off.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:I didn't mean to make, that's really what happened.
Speaker:And he was like, you need to be an athlete.
Speaker:You need your toes.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:You need to be an athlete and you need to have all of your toes in order to do that.
Speaker:That is yeah.
Speaker:Funny and what a gift from your dad.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Really.
Speaker:And my mom fully supported it too because my pap was very much, he didn't care
Speaker:if you were a woman or a man at all.
Speaker:There was nothing that he would say about, women are supposed to do this,
Speaker:or women are supposed to do that, ever.
Speaker:And it's kind of funny so I think I grew up with this mentality of not
Speaker:really understanding where people would come from when they said
Speaker:that, because that was so not how I.
Speaker:My whole family was the only person that was really like that in my life,
Speaker:was like my dad's dad, my, granddad.
Speaker:And we weren't around him all that often either.
Speaker:It was like, at a family party.
Speaker:But honestly, those were so overwhelming.
Speaker:I don't really think I'd ever, I ever absorbed it, yeah, no, that makes sense.
Speaker:I never had anybody else directly in my family that was like,
Speaker:women are supposed to do this, or women are supposed to do that.
Speaker:Looking back, I definitely have the.
Speaker:Feelings of guilt.
Speaker:A little bit of I should always have my house clean.
Speaker:I should always have, dinner made, but that's kind of my own thing.
Speaker:But my mom was very much like that.
Speaker:But because she loves it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It wasn't because she felt that it was her role as a woman.
Speaker:Like she really loved being in that role.
Speaker:And her and my dad were very much a team in that with money, it
Speaker:was always an open conversation.
Speaker:There was never any negative conversations about money in my house growing up.
Speaker:It was always very planned and secure and safe, but open.
Speaker:Like it wasn't, like I didn't know about it, it would be like, oh, Hey,
Speaker:Michelle, I'm going to go buy this.
Speaker:Should I use checking one or checking two?
Speaker:She'd be like, oh, checking two.
Speaker:And so there was always like an open discussion on them, like where their
Speaker:money was flowing, where it needed to come from, and it was just like normal.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it was all very calm.
Speaker:There was never anything negative around it.
Speaker:So I never grew up with a mentality that I couldn't.
Speaker:Be rich and I've been saying since I was little, I wanted to be a millionaire.
Speaker:That's, I love that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I've always said that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I never knew it was, that was something that didn't happen.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Just from my perspective, and I'll share that later, but I love that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So pretty fun.
Speaker:You grew up wanting to be your own boss.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:What happened after college?
Speaker:I also think that I got a lot of wanting to be my own boss whenever I really
Speaker:got into leadership and self-help and development books, and business books,
Speaker:and I started doing that in college.
Speaker:So my freshman year of college, and I'm sure we'll get into this way deeper
Speaker:in another episode too down the road.
Speaker:But long story short, my freshman year, my coach, I played division
Speaker:one softball at Niagara University.
Speaker:My coach was put on investigation and fired after eight months
Speaker:for her treatment of the team.
Speaker:And she just had the worst leadership skills and it was really a difficult time.
Speaker:We can look back now and really learn from it and kind of laugh a
Speaker:little bit at just how ridiculous some of the things that she did were.
Speaker:But that really stuck with me of okay, if I'm ever a leader or if I'm ever in
Speaker:charge, this is not how I want to be.
Speaker:How could she have.
Speaker:Read that or said that or talked about that.
Speaker:So that kind of started my like leadership side of I want to be a good leader.
Speaker:If I can be, I can educate myself and teach myself to be a good leader
Speaker:because I want to one day own my company and I want to one day be
Speaker:somewhere that people want to work.
Speaker:So then from there I went into my first corporate job.
Speaker:I worked at a large regional Accounting firm, and I was an auditor, an
Speaker:external auditor for medium to large sized businesses in Pittsburgh.
Speaker:And, And then the surrounding areas, I did a lot of traveling actually
Speaker:to link West Virginia and Florida.
Speaker:But from there, I loved what I did.
Speaker:I loved where I worked, I loved the company, I loved my clients.
Speaker:But there was just, again, some of this leadership that was like,
Speaker:this is not how I would do this.
Speaker:And there were certain people that I really didn't like working with
Speaker:or working for, and I knew that.
Speaker:It just was going to be a difference of opinion forever.
Speaker:The goal was the same, but the method was so different and that really bothered me
Speaker:because if I had a different approach or an idea from certain people I worked with
Speaker:was never going to be the option ever.
Speaker:And I didn't like that.
Speaker:I know that never sat well with me.
Speaker:You know what my favorite part is about you being an auditor.
Speaker:When you said that you didn't realize that people didn't
Speaker:like auditors, I had no idea.
Speaker:It just, Fits your personality.
Speaker:I well, no idea.
Speaker:We just showed up hey here, audit.
Speaker:Hi, I'm ready.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And no.
Speaker:Yeah, it was like my second week of work, so I picked audit over tax
Speaker:because I didn't want to have a busy season, which is hilarious if there
Speaker:are any auditors out there because your whole year is a busy season.
Speaker:Not to, dis on any tax accountants out there.
Speaker:But the tax season had a very clearly defined.
Speaker:Beginning and end.
Speaker:Beginning and end.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It changed, if you were in nonprofit or higher education
Speaker:or, regular fiscal year ends.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:You had a little bit more of a push and then a deadline where
Speaker:audit just went on and on.
Speaker:And it was the same multiple busy seasons, just like tax.
Speaker:But it, I, it was funny.
Speaker:So that's why I went into audit.
Speaker:And I thought, people, you could talk more in audit.
Speaker:That's what I always heard, if you were a people person, you went into audit.
Speaker:Because tax accountants kind of just stay within their own circle.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They stay in their own cube.
Speaker:So I picked audit.
Speaker:And I got to work on like my second weekend.
Speaker:I had no idea that people didn't like auditors.
Speaker:And one of our clients told me that he'd rather go get a root canal than
Speaker:talk to me because he was literally on his way to go get a root canal.
Speaker:And he was serious.
Speaker:It was not a joke.
Speaker:He was not being funny.
Speaker:And he was like, oh, who are you?
Speaker:They sent another new person out to waste my time.
Speaker:Well, good thing I'm going to get a root canal because I'd
Speaker:rather do that than talk to you.
Speaker:Geez.
Speaker:And I was like, oh my gosh, I would've cried.
Speaker:Cried in the bathroom.
Speaker:But I'm so nice.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:Swear.
Speaker:So the next day I baked cupcakes and took them mother, me as, who
Speaker:doesn't want a cupcake after a root.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:So I, I started baking for all my clients because I just, I wanted them to like me.
Speaker:So I, I was truly known as Makes sense.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That would like bring in baked goods and then, when I moved near Oakmont
Speaker:Bakery, if anybody's from Pittsburgh and familiar, it's like one of
Speaker:the best bakeries in Pittsburgh.
Speaker:I, we live right by there.
Speaker:So then I made it a point that I would always bring Oakmont cookies
Speaker:and like really, sugar up all of our clients so that they would be
Speaker:excited for when I would show up.
Speaker:That's really cute.
Speaker:Try to soften the blow a little bit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It looks suck, but have a cookie.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You are bankrupt.
Speaker:We have to issue this.
Speaker:Fine.
Speaker:Please don't be mad at me because it's not my fault.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:Technically it's yours.
Speaker:I'm just kidding.
Speaker:But have 7,000 calories.
Speaker:But we found it.
Speaker:Here you go.
Speaker:Eat up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's truly what happened.
Speaker:That's exactly how it worked.
Speaker:Oh, I love it.
Speaker:Okay, so.
Speaker:you did that?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, I did that.
Speaker:That happened.
Speaker:And then from there, again, like I knew I was really starting to realize I wanted
Speaker:to have my own business at some point.
Speaker:I was really starting to not feel an end at the firm that I
Speaker:was at, but I was having a hard time seeing myself in the middle.
Speaker:Role, which some people might judge me for that, and that's fine.
Speaker:But I wanted to be the shareholder already, because I had a lot of the
Speaker:skills then for the shareholder of the communication side, not necessarily
Speaker:the foundation at that point for the, regulatory conversations and,
Speaker:all the big accounting adjustments.
Speaker:So I definitely had a lot more to learn, of course, until I
Speaker:even got close to that point.
Speaker:I didn't end up passing my C p a the first.
Speaker:Two times I took a test, and then after that I just decided
Speaker:it wasn't going to be for me.
Speaker:I wasn't going to sit and finish the c p A test because I knew I was
Speaker:going to leave public accounting and I wouldn't need it at that point.
Speaker:So I left public accounting and I went to go be a senior financial analyst at a.
Speaker:Robotics manufacturer.
Speaker:And the parent company was in France and we had subsidiaries
Speaker:in Canada, US and Mexico.
Speaker:And so I was in charge of the reporting for those companies back
Speaker:to our parent company in France.
Speaker:And again, I loved my job, I loved the people I worked with, but it was very
Speaker:different going from, I think, the hustle and bustle of public accounting
Speaker:to working at a firm or a private company where these people had been
Speaker:in the exact same role for 15 years.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so that was just a very different mentality of I got there my first two
Speaker:weeks there, I had already booked a big training I was going to see a speaker in
Speaker:Toronto, I was going to see Tony Robbins.
Speaker:And I had never gone to an event that big before.
Speaker:And I remember telling the people I worked with, and they were
Speaker:like, Why are you doing that?
Speaker:And I was like, oh, I'm really passionate about self-development
Speaker:and like moving forward and I just, I want to go and see him.
Speaker:We're going with a couple friends.
Speaker:It's going to be a fun trip too.
Speaker:It's not just I'm going to go and listen to this guru.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Talk about all this.
Speaker:And so that was also shocking to hear that those people weren't ready to.
Speaker:Improve, yeah.
Speaker:So it didn't feel so, they were not like-minded and they were just like
Speaker:settled into that corporate very vibe.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Very.
Speaker:And a lot of them had a hard time thinking outside the box or just like
Speaker:accepting different ways of doing things.
Speaker:And it just felt very old school.
Speaker:And, then I was there through the beginning of COVID and there was
Speaker:leadership there that was saying, you're more likely to get struck
Speaker:by lightning than get covid.
Speaker:And no matter what your opinions are on the topic, it was just a very
Speaker:like black and white way of thinking.
Speaker:And to have that like public opinion there and just be like kind of
Speaker:shutting people down sometimes.
Speaker:Overall, it was a great company.
Speaker:I really loved my boss there.
Speaker:She was amazing.
Speaker:I still keep in touch with her.
Speaker:And the coworkers that had were awesome.
Speaker:But it was just the mindset of the whole company, just wasn't somewhere
Speaker:I wanted to be at long term.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Didn't feel like him.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So we were presented the option to buy the golf academy.
Speaker:And so my sister and I and my husband Alex and her husband Keith kind of
Speaker:all got together and said we want to do this, but Let's do it together.
Speaker:We want this to grow and we can take this over and make it really successful.
Speaker:So we bought that business and grew it.
Speaker:When we bought it, it was only generating maybe, $20,000 a year.
Speaker:It was a very like hobbyist business at the time.
Speaker:And within the first year we had it, it was six figure business.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:That's amazing.
Speaker:So that was really fun and that was really cool to see.
Speaker:And I was still working full-time at the private company that I was
Speaker:at, and I was still also doing a little bit of bookkeeping on the
Speaker:side for my friends' businesses.
Speaker:And I didn't have any concept of having the bookkeeping business yet, but that
Speaker:was kind of my first taste of wow, what I put into this is what I get out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What we put into, this is what we get out.
Speaker:We could grow this as big as we wanted to.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And then I was kind of hooked on when am I going to quit my job?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And either take this full-time or take something else full-time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that was kind of how I got to that point.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So when you told like the most important people in your life, Hey, I'm
Speaker:going to leave this private company.
Speaker:I want to be my own boss.
Speaker:I'm going to do this.
Speaker:What was your feedback from people?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we got the golf academy and that was all extremely positive.
Speaker:Everybody was so pumped about us buying the golf academy and
Speaker:growing that and expanding it and just how big that could be.
Speaker:It was really exciting.
Speaker:My parents were fully supportive, aunts and uncles.
Speaker:Everybody was really great.
Speaker:And so then after that, it was about a year later.
Speaker:I decided that I wanted to either grow the golf academy
Speaker:or find something that I could.
Speaker:Quit eventually.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Quit my full-time job.
Speaker:So I joined a networking and a mentorship group and in that group
Speaker:they were like, what are the least favorite parts of your business?
Speaker:And at the time I was talking about starting a golf, like
Speaker:blog vlog of like teaching.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That was why I joined.
Speaker:And they were like, oh, finances, bookkeeping, finances,
Speaker:bookkeeping, finances, bookkeeping.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I was like, Hey guys, I could help you with all this.
Speaker:And it was within two weeks is whenever I really.
Speaker:Laid the groundwork for doing it.
Speaker:And so I told my parents I was starting it and they were supportive.
Speaker:They thought it was a great idea but it was also.
Speaker:One of the things that, not as hard in their business, because my mom
Speaker:handles a lot of the bookkeeping stuff for my dad's business, but she
Speaker:knew the magnitude of the work and my dad's business it does very well.
Speaker:So they have a lot to work with and a lot to go through and their process is
Speaker:very in depth for their bookkeeping.
Speaker:So I think she was a little bit weary of what my process was going to be.
Speaker:And also I'm absolutely a A D H D hobbyist.
Speaker:So I think there's always a little bit of concern from my parents is
Speaker:this something that's going to stick?
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And they never really expressed that to me growing up.
Speaker:Is this going to stick?
Speaker:But my husband has expressed this to me now, sure.
Speaker:Hey, you want to start this hobby?
Speaker:Are we going to commit to this?
Speaker:Or is this going to be like a week thing where you're like, you buy
Speaker:everything and then you give up on it?
Speaker:And so there was definitely I got that feedback from Alex, and I think
Speaker:my parents were very wary of that.
Speaker:So they were hesitant to be like, All in right away.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:because they wanted me to be safe.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And not to do anything rash.
Speaker:So I made a plan and I told my husband I wasn't going to tell my parents
Speaker:that I was planning on quitting until I was literally going to quit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like the decision had already been made for you.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Nobody talked about it and nobody could talk me out of it.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I.
Speaker:Made a budget.
Speaker:We've always had a budget for our household income of what
Speaker:we needed to make month to month to cover all of our bills.
Speaker:We didn't have joint bank accounts at this time, but we were
Speaker:really shared in our finances.
Speaker:We'd been married for two years at this point.
Speaker:But we'd been living together for three years and we'd be
Speaker:get together for much longer.
Speaker:So it was definitely, we were having.
Speaker:All the conversations about where our money stood, but we didn't yet have the
Speaker:joint bank account where both of our Sure.
Speaker:Incomes were being deposited into the same and all the bills coming out.
Speaker:So we made a budget altogether of all of our bills.
Speaker:We went through every one of our bank accounts to really fine tune how much
Speaker:money we needed on a month to month, how much money I was bringing in from my
Speaker:paycheck, and what the minimum I needed to make in order to quit my job was.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I made a goal that it was going to be six months from starting the
Speaker:business, so I started it in February.
Speaker:I really wanted to quit by June, like six 30.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But I told myself if I could quit in July or August, it would be a huge win too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But that I didn't want to go through another budget season at the company they
Speaker:worked with and another like year end.
Speaker:We made a plan and I just decided one morning that I
Speaker:needed to start talking about it.
Speaker:I had the business for three weeks at this point and was still had that
Speaker:discomfort of telling people that I was starting a bookkeeping business
Speaker:and like an imposter sense kind of.
Speaker:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker:And it it had only been three weeks, so like I could give myself a little
Speaker:bit of benefit from that like it.
Speaker:It didn't take me a year or anything, but it took me three weeks
Speaker:and I was really keeping quiet.
Speaker:I didn't tell my parents, I didn't tell my sister.
Speaker:I didn't tell really anybody yet at this point, three weeks is long in Sid time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Three weeks is long in Sid time.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:For my own secrets oh, I text everybody that day.
Speaker:But also when you decide to do something, like you do it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like one time we were going to take a boxing class and we went to a trial
Speaker:class and by the next day she had like boxing gloves and wraps for me.
Speaker:I did.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Everything is very like, oh, this is what we're doing.
Speaker:So for you to take three weeks to commit and tell people, I think that shows that's
Speaker:six months in another person's life.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It was a long time.
Speaker:It felt like a really long time.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So I finally decided I was going to really tell people about it
Speaker:and promote it in a good way.
Speaker:I had the Instagram page for it, but I hadn't put it on my own bio yet.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I was making the graphics for it, but I hadn't shared them
Speaker:or put them on my story yet.
Speaker:So that morning was the first day that I posted on my Instagram and I had brand
Speaker:photos taken because the mentorship group that I was in part of the group
Speaker:was that you got branded photos.
Speaker:So I had already had the branded photos.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:I had them like, ready to go on the page, but I hadn't shared them yet.
Speaker:So that morning I wrote the whole caption like I'm starting this business.
Speaker:I'm really excited about it.
Speaker:I shared it to my personal page for, you know, my, thousand
Speaker:followers to see or something.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:900 followers to see it was a really big deal at the time too.
Speaker:And it is a really big deal when you first take that plunge to do it.
Speaker:It's very scary because you think everybody's going to judge you.
Speaker:And all I got was just absolute positivity from all my.
Speaker:Friends on social media, there was not one negative comment,
Speaker:not one negative feedback.
Speaker:Everybody went to go follow my business page.
Speaker:And then that day I was giving a private golf lesson and one of the guys that
Speaker:was in there, I'd been working with him for probably two months at this point.
Speaker:And he just kind of randomly was like, so what do you guys all do
Speaker:you know for work outside of this?
Speaker:And so I said, oh, I just started a bookkeeping business.
Speaker:I'm a bookkeeper, I'm an accountant.
Speaker:And he was like, are you kidding?
Speaker:I'm like, no, what do you mean?
Speaker:And he was like, I've just been complaining to my friend right here.
Speaker:For the past hour that I need a new bookkeeper.
Speaker:Oh, wow.
Speaker:And I was like, seriously?
Speaker:And he's yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he had seven franchise restaurant locations.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he asked me to put in a proposal on the bookkeeping for all seven stores.
Speaker:And when I put it together, it was my salary at my job.
Speaker:That's amazing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I sent the proposal over, I was skiing with my friends.
Speaker:This was a week later.
Speaker:I took the whole week to really think about it, really feel good about it.
Speaker:Validated, did all the language and the contracts and the proposals, and
Speaker:I was using just like the free Canva and like putting all that together.
Speaker:I sent it over to him and I was out skiing with two of my friends and we
Speaker:were on the chairlift and I got the email that said, great, let's start Monday.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Yeah, I can't.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I was like, oh my gosh, I'm quitting my job on Friday.
Speaker:Like I'm going to quit my job on Friday.
Speaker:So that next day I went over to my parents' house.
Speaker:And I said, hey I may have mentioned a few weeks ago that I was, starting
Speaker:this business and I, it's really gone well and I have these couple clients
Speaker:already, but I just got this one.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:This is my salary.
Speaker:I'm quitting my job, and my parents were like, oh, wow.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I commend them for staying level, like they stayed very neutral
Speaker:okay, Sydney tell us more.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know, What's the plan?
Speaker:What's the backup?
Speaker:Do you have your emergency fund?
Speaker:Do you know?
Speaker:They really went through, okay, so what's this and what's this and this, I
Speaker:was like, well, I set a goal that if I could get to this level, this number, I
Speaker:would quit, because I know if I'm doing this full-time, I can grow it even more,
Speaker:but there's no way with this client that I just got, there's no way I can
Speaker:work my full-time job and do this well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And they were like, well, what's your contract?
Speaker:I'm like, we're setting, a three month commitment.
Speaker:And then after that it's month to month, so I'll at least have a three month
Speaker:buffer to really give it this full effort.
Speaker:and I also said to my parents from day one, minute one, and anybody else
Speaker:that I talked to, I was not afraid.
Speaker:Of it not working or not getting enough clients, or if he would
Speaker:not be my client anymore.
Speaker:I had no issue going right down to McDonald's or going right down to the bar
Speaker:at the bottom of the hill and working.
Speaker:Supplementing, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There was no shame in that because if that's what it was going to
Speaker:take to get the goal, and those are great jobs, they pay really well.
Speaker:This was like 20, 21.
Speaker:So even, all the fast food restaurants near me were giving
Speaker:like, $2,000 bonuses for signing on.
Speaker:So it was like, great, we'll be totally fine.
Speaker:This'll be golden.
Speaker:I have no shame.
Speaker:I'm a hard worker.
Speaker:It's not a lack of work ethic.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I will not be, we won't go broke.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It just won't happen.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:There's no way that this will happen.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm going to do things by the book in the right way.
Speaker:I'm going to have insurance.
Speaker:So I'm covered from a business perspective here to start, there was little
Speaker:upfront cost of starting the business.
Speaker:I already had all the tools I needed.
Speaker:So then after that I kind of just went through that whole checklist with my
Speaker:parents and they were like, alright, yeah.
Speaker:I mean, What are they going to say?
Speaker:Yeah, you're a grown ass adult woman who is married and has thought it out
Speaker:and has scored a client bigger than probably you could have expected.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the fact that I went into it with all of that prepared kind of nipped
Speaker:all of their arguments in the butt.
Speaker:You know what, if it doesn't work great, I'll go work down the street.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I have no problem.
Speaker:Walking to the bottom of my hill.
Speaker:I'm working at this bar restaurant that's right there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I eat there all the time anyway, so I'll just go work it.
Speaker:I already know the menu, like I'll be golden.
Speaker:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker:So I think because I was so prepared with what the backup was and then
Speaker:what the backup to the backup was, and that, they knew Alex was on
Speaker:board and I had the support there.
Speaker:It wasn't going to be an argument between the two of us.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He had my back for that phase, that onboarding phase and that, maybe for
Speaker:the first couple months it was going to be tight, but then we were going to
Speaker:do what we need to do to make it work.
Speaker:They were supportive possibly.
Speaker:You had so much belief in yourself.
Speaker:What were they going to say?
Speaker:You don't think you can do it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because then they're going to be shitting on your dreams.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And on you.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Like it just isn't in there.
Speaker:That's not even in the scope of their personalities.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Was there anyone who.
Speaker:Who said and you don't have to name the person.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But how did that go?
Speaker:I don't think I had anybody that was like the most I got from people right
Speaker:away was, don't hire any employees.
Speaker:Do it yourself Only work to what your capacity is.
Speaker:Don't hire employees.
Speaker:Employees are the worst.
Speaker:You don't want to deal with other people.
Speaker:They'll call off, they're unreliable.
Speaker:So that made me nervous because I felt like I was already getting to a
Speaker:point where I like needed more help.
Speaker:So I think that was one of the things I could have done better in my first
Speaker:year was to get a little bit more help so that I wasn't so overwhelmed.
Speaker:Because it grew very fast, which I was very blessed with, but that
Speaker:initial feedback kind of scared me.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And don't get in over your head and, don't do anything more than what you can handle.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And in my head I was like, I can handle all of this.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I really was about to not be able to handle Right.
Speaker:Any of that.
Speaker:I was about to have a heart attack I think at one point.
Speaker:You never show your cards, but Yeah.
Speaker:So is that when I met you?
Speaker:Yeah, that was when I was like crying in the kitchen because I was here every
Speaker:day till two o'clock in the morning.
Speaker:We're like, I'll get it done, it'll be fine.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:But I don't think I realized how.
Speaker:How soon into your journey of this business that I met you?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I feel like I thought you had this business for a lot longer.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:So I'm just having that realization right now.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:2021 is when the bookkeeping business fully started, and I'd been doing
Speaker:bookkeeping for five years before then, so I knew the business, but having
Speaker:the business by myself was like 2021.
Speaker:I quit my job March, 2021 and it was the first year of operation.
Speaker:It was a six figure business.
Speaker:Sid.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's unbelievable.
Speaker:It was really cool.
Speaker:It was, it's awesome.
Speaker:I'm really proud of us and now we have a really good team.
Speaker:We've doubled that since then.
Speaker:And so it's just really, it's really fun.
Speaker:And it's going really well.
Speaker:And so now I feel like I have really high level conversations
Speaker:with my parents about it too.
Speaker:With how they operate their business, how we can all save for taxes.
Speaker:They ask for my feedback.
Speaker:You now.
Speaker:So now it's really fun.
Speaker:It's a really.
Speaker:Fun, relationship with them.
Speaker:And with my aunts and uncles that have their own businesses.
Speaker:And with my pap right before he passed away, it was like, really the
Speaker:conversations I always wanted to have.
Speaker:So it, it was really like immediately rewarding.
Speaker:You're like at that family table Yes.
Speaker:Of entrepreneurs.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And were considered as such by them.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And that was really awesome.
Speaker:Really awesome.
Speaker:Yeah, it was really cool.
Speaker:It was really cool.
Speaker:It's a lot of fun.
Speaker:I've definitely had a couple people give me some weird feedback since of maybe
Speaker:they doubted it and they didn't tell me they were going to, they were doubting it.
Speaker:I have had, a couple people say, oh, so it's a real business now, after I,
Speaker:I had my first employee and they're like, oh, so it's a real business.
Speaker:Or I was like, oh, well it's been a real business this whole time.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:I'm sure.
Speaker:But thanks for recognizing research.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:They're like, oh wow, so you do know what you're doing.
Speaker:Because I answered like the one tax question they had, and I was like, you
Speaker:were the person to decide this, yeah.
Speaker:Really.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Those are the ones you just have to laugh off a little bit, but so
Speaker:I've had some comments like that, but yeah, it's, that always says
Speaker:more about the other person's right?
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Insecurities and fears about themselves than it does about Exactly.
Speaker:But still so interesting when they reveal themselves.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And you're like, oh, okay.
Speaker:Oh, got it.
Speaker:So That's what you were thinking.
Speaker:I know what box to put you in.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:For my next big decision.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:No, exactly.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So when you left corporate, it was very calculated and thought
Speaker:out from a money perspective.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And you did it like a grownup.
Speaker:I yes.
Speaker:But also I had the benefit of not having a lot.
Speaker:Of other things to think about.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And know I didn't have kids at the time.
Speaker:I don't have kids now.
Speaker:Alex and I had moved into our house like three years ago, so we were really leveled
Speaker:and settled in where we were at too.
Speaker:I was very blessed to have a manageable, the opportunity came at the right time.
Speaker:Yes, exactly.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:But I don't think we're open to opportunities unless, as.
Speaker:If it has to feel like the right time, it has to feel like that time.
Speaker:It can feel a lot more like the right time when you're, make the
Speaker:budget and you're prepared and you know what the dollar amounts are.
Speaker:And I agree with that.
Speaker:So yeah, that was a lot of like my background there.
Speaker:It definitely worked out.
Speaker:Really well, and I'm really blessed for how it worked out.
Speaker:I definitely had the plan and I worked really hard for that too.
Speaker:I put in the hours when the business started, and I think that's what's
Speaker:really important when you're going to quick corporate, when you're going to
Speaker:take your business full time, you can't kid yourself and thinking, If you're
Speaker:going to do it or not, if you're going to to it, you have to commit to it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it was a scary decision when I went to go in to quit my
Speaker:job when I quit my first job.
Speaker:That was really scary.
Speaker:And I think that my parents were a little bit more upset about me quitting that job
Speaker:than they were me quitting my second job.
Speaker:My mom used to work at the firm that I worked at.
Speaker:So she felt like that was kind of like a home place for her personal reflect too.
Speaker:Ion maybe.
Speaker:But the company had changed so much since she had been there.
Speaker:So it just wasn't the same anymore.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So whenever she would give me feedback, I'd be like, yeah, it is.
Speaker:But it's not like that, it is that it's not, there are people like that, but the
Speaker:firm as a whole wasn't like that anymore.
Speaker:So it was hard to go through that.
Speaker:And I think that, accounting it's like the safest job of all time.
Speaker:And accountants are always in demand and the company that I worked at had
Speaker:a lot of really like great recognition in the city and they still do.
Speaker:Like I said, it's a wonderful firm and I loved it.
Speaker:So I think my parents really saw me climbing that corporate ladder and
Speaker:having this really like lovely safe life and career, but also that I
Speaker:could be really wealthy from that too.
Speaker:So I think that they didn't understand where I was coming from and Alex
Speaker:and I go back to this all the time, that we just want it to be that what
Speaker:we put into it, we get out of it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What, but without having the, the commission only jobs or the total
Speaker:sales jobs from the beginning, we wanted that safety and security
Speaker:of having a salary to start.
Speaker:But then when you're ready to take that leap to corporate, I think you just really
Speaker:need to know that you need to be prepared.
Speaker:To not sleep.
Speaker:If you have to, if you build systems out and you have good people around you and
Speaker:you have some funding or you have systems that you in place, then you're good.
Speaker:You might not need to do that so much, but in your head, you need to be
Speaker:prepared to, if that's what it came to.
Speaker:And you need to just be willing to go and supplement.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And not feel any shame surrounding that either.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that was that was my sexy money goal, quitting my corporate, starting
Speaker:my own business, and being the leader and the boss eventually,
Speaker:that I always wanted to have.
Speaker:And now with our team, she's a great leader.
Speaker:I try to be, but I also I want to recognize I don't
Speaker:know what I don't know either.
Speaker:Yeah, some of us too.
Speaker:So I'm always trying to learn and grow and that's what I want our firm to always be.
Speaker:So I appreciate you saying that.
Speaker:I love you.
Speaker:Yeah, I love you.
Speaker:This is so fun.
Speaker:It's great to be here now, and now we have a podcast.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Hopefully we have listeners.
Speaker:If not, we're having fun.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:But yeah, so that was my goal.
Speaker:Quitting corporate, starting my own business, and now we've, now I have
Speaker:three businesses, it's been great.
Speaker:It's been a great ride.
Speaker:And because we went a little bit more in depth on mine I think we're going to spend
Speaker:a whole episode on Kristen now and the next episode, and I was less prepared.
Speaker:So if you are somebody who just.
Speaker:Flies by the seat of your pants.
Speaker:Here we go.
Speaker:And how it still works out.
Speaker:It still works out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it still is a the best move for you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it was.
Speaker:We're going to hit it hard.
Speaker:Yeah, it was great.
Speaker:It is great.
Speaker:So we're going to talk about that in the next episode.
Speaker:So every time you say next episode, I think of Dr.
Speaker:Dre 42.
Speaker:Alright, love you guys bye bye-bye.
