Today we’re going to talk about bridging the gap between personal and business finances and creating habits and systems that are sustainable across both, because they’re not completely separate things. 

• What is your actual end goal? Hint: it’s different for everyone!
• Are your offerings aligned with what you’re good at, what you like to do, and what is profitable?
• What feelings come up around money? Is your energy calm and collected towards both your personal and business finances?

Having clarity, ease, and comfort with your personal and business finances are really important because they are so interconnected.  Once you’re all set up the way I’ve outlined here (and if you already have, I’m so proud of you!), there’s a constancy, predictability, and confidence that comes with that. 

I challenge you to go do one small thing, right now, that moves your finances forward. 

We cover ALL of this in the “Get Your Finance Sh*t Together” self-study course at confidentmoneypodcast.com!

Join our community at confidentmoneypodcast.com where we’ll share tips and resources, and you can suggest topics for future episodes.

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FTC/Affiliate Disclaimer: By using some of these links, at no extra cost to you, I may earn a small commission or referral fee, which helps me continue to produce content like this, support my business, and my team.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a financial advisor and this is not financial advice. My podcast is for educational purposes and is my personal opinion only. To make the best financial decision for your situation, please do your own research and if needed, seek the advice of a fee-based, fiduciary.

Music credit: Neon Fairies by Wolves 

A Podcast Launch Bestie production

on today's episode, we're going to talk all about the

idea of bridging your business and personal finances and how we can set

these up so that you have money habits that integrate with one another.

Instead of looking at your business and looking at your personal

as two totally separate things.

Now I want you to understand that the way that we work, the way that I work

with our company, there's no shame.

So if you're listening to this podcast, you're already taking a massive step

towards improving your financial knowledge and your overall financial wellbeing.

But listening and learning willing to use so far.

So we need to talk about.

Getting the support, taking the steps, taking the action that you

need to actually implement these.

So we're going to chat in this episode about what that action can look like

and how to set up money habits that are sustainable for you personally,

and for your business systems, money, habits, and behaviors, and give you

some really good food for thought.

So if you're a note taker, I know that a lot of these have had.

Some pretty heavy notes, but if you're a note taker, get your notebook out

or your notes app on your phone and jot some of these down as we go.

But more importantly, writing all of these down is great.

You need to do something with them, whether it's working with me, whether

it's working with our team, whether it's buying one of our courses or more of our

courses, or whether it's working with someone completely differently, or putting

some of these into action yourself, maybe you have enough knowledge for what you

need to do, and you feel really confident.

I challenge you while you're listening to this episode, or

immediately after go do one thing.

Whether it's from this or something else that moves your finances forward.

Take action.

Even if it's small, even if it takes you, you know, five minutes and

it doesn't make a huge difference, those little tiny actions.

And I know it's so cliche, those little tiny actions add up to make

such a big difference over a month, three months, six months, five years.

So take it now take a small step to do.

Literally when you're done listening to this, I don't care if it's moving

some money to a savings account.

If it's making an extra payment to some debt, if it's automating

a bill that you haven't had on autopay one small thing today.

Okay.

Again, we're going to rewind a little bit because you want to be taking

action, but do we want to just be shooting from the hip or taking

action that doesn't serve our highest.

No, we want to be taking action that is moving us towards our end goal.

That end goal may look differently for each of us.

And I would hope it kind of does look differently for each of us.

Maybe that's retiring a spouse, maybe that's leaving a day job.

And this is your side hustle right now.

Maybe it's working the bare minimum hours that you can work in a week

while providing the financial needs that you or your family needs to get.

Or maybe it's living your most luxurious yacht, you know,

Mediterranean Amalfi coast life.

I can't hate on any of those.

Um, I'm a little bit more of the latter.

I I'm, I'm combined re really with the last two.

Um, but think about for a minute, what you want, because if you don't

want to be climbing the ladder or making a ton of money, if you have a

smaller budget and if you can get by.

And fuck it.

Why like, why, why are you on a hamster wheel?

Why are you trying to put out new offering after new offering, after new offering, if

you have some really good core offerings.

And I actually think this goes for established business owners as well,

find what you're really good at find what you really like to do, find

what sells, you know, there's that intersection on a Venn diagram, right?

Of like all of those things you like doing it, it sells well, it's profitable.

There's a need for.

Do that, do that thing.

And then as other things come up that you feel excited or inspired

about, then do them, but don't feel the need to do everything.

We don't at our firm.

We don't do everything.

You know, if someone wants us to, like, there are services we don't offer, um,

having boundaries standing your ground are really important for the long-term

not only for when it's just you, but if you hire team members for your

bottom line for your profitability, you cannot be everything to everyone.

That doesn't also mean that you have to niche or niche, whichever

down to, you know, the smallest.

I know the you'll hear all sorts of things thrown around by sales coaches.

And my whole thing is there's no one right way.

So you don't have to niche down to the smallest niche and you don't

have to serve, you know, every single client that comes your way.

You don't have to offer all of the service offerings.

You don't have to offer all of the products.

Remember my client earlier that we were talking about that was going to get rid

of her bestselling style simply because she was a little bit bored with it?

Everything that you've learned in this season has set you up to understand

your profitability, how your business should be being run so that you can

make decisions that will directly impact your personal finances.

So how you do one thing is how you do everything now.

Hold on.

Do you hide your head?

In the sand, when it comes to money, do you get a little bit sick to your stomach?

Do you find yourself with sort of an anxious attachment

style when it comes to money?

You're always wondering if it's going to be there, your excited

when it's here, but you're stressed out about it, about it leaving.

You feel like you need to control your money.

You aren't sure when it's going to be back.

I want you to identify the, some of the beliefs that you have about.

Because these will pop up again and again, in your business, in your personal

life, probably in your relationships, I'm not here to speak for that.

Um, that's a whole other season we could go and do as money in relationships.

So I want you to think about the energy that you're putting into your business.

Finances.

Is it calm?

Is it collected?

Is it empowering?

And compare that to the energy you're putting into your personal finances.

And I mean, honestly, is it, non-existent the whole point of you listening to

this right now is probably so that you can make some better decisions

and have some better choices laid out in front of you because you didn't

know that they necessarily existed or you didn't know what you didn't know.

And there's no shame in that.

So where can we be improving?

Where can we be moving forward?

Where can we be establishing confidence?

So that our money doesn't feel out of control.

You don't need to have a vice grip on your money, but you do need to feel competent

that it's working for you and with you.

When you're the size as a business owner.

Even if you've separated out your finances, your checking account,

you know, you've done all the things that we've laid out in here, right?

You have a separate checking account, you have a separate business account, you

know what you need to be making, you know how to be paying yourself the right way.

Fantastic.

I'm I could not be more proud of you.

Like literally, if you take nothing else away from this, that will

be a game changer for you in your business and in your personal life.

But.

It's literally directly impacting your personal finances.

If your business is, you know, one of your main sources of income, or maybe

it is your only source of income.

So how does this play into our personal finances?

And especially when it comes to things like automating bills, which

we're going to talk a lot about.

And next season, I can't believe we're already almost in season two.

but I want to touch on it.

Because having clarity, having ease and having comfort in your personal and your

business, finances are really important because they are so interconnected.

So you've done your pricing work, you know how you need to be pricing yourself.

You know what your bottom line is for what you need to be making.

You're making that relatively regularly.

Maybe some months you're over, maybe some months you're under, you're

not quite sure how to handle the seasonality or the fluctuation.

Keeping those initial ratios that you'd set up, assuming that you're

making what you need to be making will allow you to start to build

a buffer in your business account.

So great.

We're building a buffer in our business account.

We're not taking more on the months that we make more.

We're not taking less on the months that we may make less because you've

gotten this buffer established.

So you have constancy or predictable.

In your personal finances, which is one of the most peaceful things

I think we can give ourselves as self-employed individuals.

That doesn't mean it's boring.

That doesn't mean our income is capped.

That doesn't mean we don't take bonuses.

That doesn't mean we don't treat ourselves and do the trips and do

whatever you know is meaningful to us.

Do the trips, take a day, go somewhere, treat ourselves, do a spa day.

Throw a ton of it in retirement, you know, whatever makes you feel alive,

there's a time and a place for that.

So you're going along, you're living your life.

You're moving money into your account.

You have that baseline established, everything's going relatively well.

And you get to the end of the year.

And you're like, okay, I made $30,000 more than I needed to to make my bills.

Like I have extra, I want to treat myself, what do we do?

How do you do that?

How do you know that you actually have the money to do that?

Well, one you've been using the quarterly estimated tax calculator.

So you have an idea of either what you have left to owe

or what you've paid so far.

And you, you just, you know, where you're sitting number two.

You wait until your taxes get prepped for that year.

I really recommend so like we prep most of our client's taxes in February and March.

So they have an idea and normally a pretty firm idea of what they're

going to owe around that time.

Then you can take a distribution, you can pay yourself out a bonus,

whatever you want to call it.

That's the time to do.

From that money that was set aside or earmarked for the prior year.

Take it go wild.

Now, if you're getting to the point where your business is growing,

and it's really, really profitable.

If we have some clients that are in like a 70 to 80% profit margin

range, which is not the norm 50%, which is what we base all of this

around 50% is really much more normal.

But they take quarterly distributions because they know that they have

the additional buffer in there.

There's no reason you can't be doing that.

I just caution you to be really careful because nothing can make you feel

so out of, or more out of control, I should say, then getting to the

end of the year and owing money when you had extra money during the year.

And I think that's where so many of us.

Stuck in this hamster wheel.

If you want to be able to take money out of your business account, it's

yours, you've earned it, but you don't know if you've paid your taxes and

that just causes this constant loop of like, can I take it, can I spend it?

Is it money that's mine?

That plays over into your.

So again, making sure you're not shortchanging yourself in what you

need to be making personally is really important because if you were

constantly looking to your business to fund your personal and looking at

your business to be your personal piggy bank, it's going to be exhausting.

It's going to be unsustainable.

It's going to be stressful and it's going to cause a lot of additional work.

Now, is there a time and a place?

We are still living through a pandemic and incomes can be really unpredictable

at times, especially during all of this.

That's why we have some of these savings options set up because in a pinch, you do.

You have extra savings in your business or you should you'll have some savings

personally.

All of these are to set you up to feel safer, to be more secure and to

have a better buffer for when you have fluctuations, because as a business owner,

you may absolutely have fluctuations.

You may want to take time away.

You may need to take unplanned time away, maternity leave, paternity,

leave, parental leave, you know, vacation, burnout, exhaustion.

All of these things are things that come up for entrepreneurs.

So getting your business finances together, getting them

organized will directly impact your personal and vice versa.

Having an idea of, you know, every Friday, you're moving a thousand dollars

from your business to your personal.

You have that to count on fantastic.

That's your system.

That's getting you into a money groove, and then it lets you go and

tackle your personal finances because.

There's no reason that you need to have all of your bills at

the beginning of the month.

You can, and you may not know this.

And again, we're going to go into it a lot more in season two, you

can actually call the majority of your bill providers and you can

move your bills around accordingly.

So for example, I've moved a bunch of mine, my mortgage and utilities,

and a few other payments come out in the first half of the month.

And my credit card tractor cause we have a tractor payment because we live

in the woods, credit card, tractor and car payment come out the second half of

the month and I have other miscellaneous bills in there, but I called and actually

moved several of those so that I had more predictable expenses for cashflow.

So that will, you don't have to have $4,000 at the beginning

of the month, getting it every week will be totally sufficient.

And again, establishing a buffer in your checking account for the business and

for your personal is super beneficial.

But that starts to give you a system.

You get into a rhythm, you know, money's coming in, you know, money's going out

and you've gotten it set up so that you constantly have this ebb and flow

in a good way, in a way that's filled with ease, which it feels really nice.

Um, having been in multiple different situations over the years, it's a

good feeling to know that the money is there, that the money is coming in.

And that your bills have been spread out to work for you and with your

lifestyle which can make a really big difference because a lot of people that

I work with don't know that you can move your bills to make things easier.

Now, I want you, we're going to get just a little bit into the Wu on this.

I want you to think for a minute about your buying or your spending habits,

when your thinking about a big purchase.

And that can be totally different for all of us.

That might be $500.

That might be a hundred dollars.

That might be $5,000.

It might be more, what do you do?

How do you think, like what process do you go through before you buy a large

purchase or make a large purchase?

Now I'm going to walk you through mine for a minute and some thoughts.

So, and again, we're going to go into this a lot in season two, but because

we're going to, we're going to dip a little bit into, I think, spousal or

partnered relationships with money and responsibility that comes along with that.

But my spouse and I have separate finances.

So there are things that we'll touch base with each other on, but at the end

of the day, we're autonomous adults.

And if there's something that we want to buy, that we are able to finance a for.

Pay for we're going to do it.

Which might be a little bit novel to people sometimes.

And there's there's input taken, but before I make a big

purchase and in my business, it's sitting with it for a minute.

I don't care if there's a fast action bonus.

I don't care if there's a massive pay-in-full discount.

If I still want it tomorrow.

That's okay.

Even if the price has changed.

So for me in my business, because this comes up a lot, I spend a

lot more in my business generally than I do in my personal life.

I will sit on it for a day, maybe longer and think about it.

Is this coming from a place of insecurity?

Is this coming from a place of imposter syndrome?

Is this coming from a place of.

I feel like I need this, but I need this because there's

something that feels inadequate.

Or I feel like I need this or someone on our team would really benefit

from this because this is something I've been actively thinking about and

this would move our goals forward.

And sometimes the answer is the first one.

Sometimes, you know, it's something that's triggering.

It's something that I'm like, oh, that's, that's the thing.

Other times it's something that's like, oh my God, this is so perfectly aligned.

For what we were wanting, what we were looking for, this is so fortuitous.

This is exactly what we wanted and I'll move forward if it's the second one.

And if it's the first one or I don't have a really strong feeling

that it's the second one, or that I'll really benefit from it.

I don't do it.

Chances are it'll launch again.

And if I want it then great, nine times out of 10, I don't end up buying it.

Even if it's a higher price, like none of, none of that factors in for me, because

if the value is there and I'm not saying that these are not invaluable, I'm just

saying that they may not be as valuable to me at the time because of the intention.

And I use something similar in my personal life.

So Thinking about buying clothes.

So not a big shop.

But I love really nice clothes, really nice statement pieces.

I will absolutely buy quality over quantity.

And a few years ago I started paying attention to how my clothes felt.

So I'd get, you know, a shipment from revolve or Nordstrom or

something, and I'd try everything.

And then I give it a day or two.

I had sort of winnow it down.

I go, yep.

These are absolutely keeps.

These are maybe for keeping these are nos.

And then I try the keeping and the maybe for keeping again a day or two later, and

then I'd make my final call and I'd return everything that I didn't absolutely love.

And I think that we should be using that a lot more in our spending in our personal

lives and really not even just in our spending, but in how we're doing things.

If you don't really love what you're doing, where can we make some changes,

even if you're not, you know, leaving the industry or totally uprooting your life,

where can you be making changes so that you can be enjoying what you're doing more

or doing less of what you don't enjoy.

So sitting with that intention.

And understanding that when you've made your decision, you can feel really

good, really rooted, really grounded in that decision in your business and

your personal life will bring you so much peace and a sense of wellbeing.

And I've told you, we were going to get a little bit woo on this, but.

It's so nice.

And now when I go look at my closet, or when I look at what I've purchased

for my business, I feel really good.

I feel that I can trust my intuition.

I can trust my gut.

I'm making with each passing year.

I'm making decisions that are a little bit more ruthless, but ruthless in their

importance, ruthless in their quality for where I'm currently at in my life.

And my.

So just to recap your business and your personal finances are generally going to

be a direct reflection of one another.

So I want you to.

As you're getting your business finances together to understand that it's

not going to be just your business, finances that are getting together.

We might want to be working, or at least looking into our personal

finances where some things aren't great there, an understanding that the

two of these together can be such a powerhouse or they can be such a source

of dysfunction, stress, and anxiety.

And I really want the first for all of.

I want you to feel aligned in the purchases that you're making.

I want you to feel excited for the choices that you're making, and I want you to feel

empowered that all of these are working for your highest good and moving forward

towards your purpose, towards your goals, towards what matters to you in your life.