In this episode with CFO, Iyanna Vaughn of Lovely Financials Group, we talk about what it means to create harmonious wealth as a mom in business. In the conversation, Iyanna shares about her journey to the intersection of motherhood and entrepreneurship, how she went from rock bottom to a multiple six figure business.

She also explains to us the difference between the role of Bookkeeper, Accountant & CFO along with how to create a legacy plan.

About Iyanna

Iyanna Vaughn is the CEO and founder of Lovely Financials Group, which is her Metro Atlanta based CFO firm, which aims to provide the support needed to aid women, business owners and brands at any scale, recognize and optimize key opportunities for wealth acquisition and management.

In applying her methods, clients have been able to see an increase in their overall profit margins and the maintenance of healthy revenue streams. While she has seen her clients exceed seven figure margins by implementing her teachings, she understands that true fulfillment comes with the accompaniment of much more.

Her journey of healing through faith Faith and spiritual awakening has emboldened her creativity and strengthened her confidence beyond the numbers, a reality she seeks to see every woman achieve

LINKS & MENTIONS

• The Harmonious Wealth Podcast: Profit vs. Cash Flow vs. Cash on Hand — The Differences You Need to Know to Reach Your Goals | E8
• Join The Wealth Within Weekly

Connect with Iyanna

• Website, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube
• Email: hello@lovelyfinancials.com

RESOURCES

• The Mom CEO Suite Masterclass Collection https://www.themomceosuite.com/masterclass
• CRM: Dubsado - Get 20% off your 1st month (if paying monthly) or 1st year (if paying annually)
• Livestreaming: Streamyard - Get a $10 credit
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You are now tuned in to the mom CEO suite podcast.

I'm your host, Felicia, wife, mom, and

entrepreneur. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my mompreneur

journey along with strategies that will help you build your online

business operations in a sustainable way. The goal is

to help you build a business that fits into your lifestyle as a mom who

values putting family first. We will also hear the

experiences and expertise of other moms with service

based businesses. You'll get a peek into our journeys so you'll

know that you aren't alone. Motherhood gets hard.

Entrepreneurship gets hard. But together we can

do hard things. Welcome to the suite.

All right. Hey, friends, welcome to another episode. Thank you so much

for being here with us today. Um, today we have another guest and

our guest is Ayanna Vaughn and she knows numbers.

The CEO and founder of a lovely financials

group, which is her Metro Atlanta based CFO firm.

Which aims to provide the support needed to aid women, business owners and brands

at any scale, recognize and optimize key

opportunities for wealth acquisition and management.

In applying her methods, clients have been able to see an increase in

their overall profit margins and the maintenance of healthy

revenue streams. While she has seen her clients exceed

seven figure margins by implementing her teachings, she understands

that true fulfillment comes with the accompaniment of much more.

Her journey of healing through faith Faith and spiritual awakening has

emboldened her creativity and strengthened her confidence

beyond the numbers, a reality she seeks to see

every woman achieve. That is so beautiful. Hi, Ayana.

Welcome to the suite. How are you? I'm doing so good, Felicia. Thank you so

much for having me on. It's so interesting. Like hearing you read the bio because

it was like, Oh, okay. This sounds really good. Right. That's always how I am.

I'm like, Oh wow. They're talking about me. Right? Like, Oh, okay. That's

so funny. So, so glad that you are here today. And just a

quick plug. I met or connected with Ayana on.

Threads actually. it's just a different atmosphere and you're able to connect with, just

people who you haven't come in contact with. So, uh, connect with us over

on threads, but I gotta tell us a little bit more about

you and really, how did you get into the work that you're doing

today? Oh my goodness. So, um, my

story is not the typical like accounting major

to corporate to entrepreneurship pipeline. It's like,

I went to college for originally healthcare management, but if we go

further back, I wanted to be a psychologist. I

wanted to help people understand themselves. A lot of my

friendships developed with like deep conversations. So I was

keen to learn about psychology in college. And then my family was

like, Do nursing. I'm like, I don't trust, I don't have good hand eye coordination.

Y'all call me butterfingers. I'm always dropping things. Why would you

expect that I would be a nurse? Absolutely not. So I got

into healthcare management, which is the business behind healthcare. And

I took a few accounting classes and I fell in love with accounting. And

then I told myself, I want to be a CFO at a hospital one day

and come to find out towards the end of my college career, I was

expecting. So I told myself, okay, I'm not going to change my

major just yet. Let me get through this, this bachelor degree

so that I can come, come back to school after I have my daughter. And,

um, long story short, after I had her literally,

I walked across the stage, December of 2013. I had her

January 2nd of 2014. So it was

right there. And while I was in school, I had

technically graduated in the summer of 2013. And

at that point, every trimester I was adding on a job. I was working

like three jobs. It was a lot. And, um, when I

had her, instead of going back to three jobs,

I decided to be a host parent, which is kind of like a

foster mom to adults, but. Um, special needs or

developmental disabilities. So I know really,

really different story. So as I was

essentially a mom of three overnight, I was overwhelmed at this

point, I was a few years in, I was going on 25. I was like,

what kind of creative outlet can I do for myself? And that's when I got

into like crafts. I got into like blogging. Like I had a

blog, it was cute. It was a great community. Um, but

the, the sauce was when I joined, I was,

I saw so many women have online businesses and they were crushing their goals, but

they were really afraid to talk about money. So I was like, wait, you know,

I love accounting at the time. I would like tutors, like other students on the

weekends. Like my professor was like, change your major, change them. I'm like, Oh, wait,

wait, wait. But. Fast forward to this point, I was

like, Okay, how can I conceptualize everything that I learned in school about

accounting to create a business? So that's when I came across the

bookkeeping. Um, it was basically bookkeeping in a box like type of

course, So I invested in that course. I invested in myself. I was,

I never thought I would be a, an entrepreneur or a business owner.

And, um, that's when I had my first few clients who were

bloggers. And during that time, they were able to like,

understand, well, first. They had bookkeeping done for

tax season. I was first and foremost getting the books done right. And then

as I would meet with clients, I would prepare financial statements

and I would educate them on their financials. So it kind of was

more of like a gradual inorganic filling in gaps

as I've seen, like, First, let me help you at least

get your bookkeeping done for tax season. Okay, now let me

educate you. Now going beyond education and creating

strategies to help them improve their financial picture was the next

gap that I filled. So I went above and beyond.

bookkeeping to more financial strategy. And now we do

fractional CFO services with our clients. And what's so interesting is

that because I bet on myself and I invested in

myself during that time, I was able to witness and have the

honor of witnessing like clients, like exploding in their businesses,

like growing their businesses, even like helping them through growing pains or like.

Pivoting and things of that nature. So it's been a beautiful journey. And

again, it's not the typical, but it's, it's a little unique story.

No, I love that. I don't think anybody's story ends up being typical, right?

Because it's just so different pieces that all at

some point kind of combined to get you to where you are today.

But I love that you said you invested in yourself. And then because of that,

other people were able to kind of see their growth and

develop in their way. And that just kind of goes to the point. I know

a lot of times we, we might be second guessing ourselves or,

you know, afraid to invest in ourselves or just do the thing that we feel

like we're supposed to be doing, but it's literally. You know, you

hear it a lot, there's people attached to you and people are waiting for you

to kind of walk into what you're supposed to be doing so that they can

experience their, their freedom, their growth and all those things. So

I absolutely love that about your story. I do agree with that.

Sometimes, you know, we don't like to talk about the numbers, but we're going to

talk about it a little bit today. Um, so one

of the things that can kind of get, I won't say

confusing, but It's a little muddy sometimes in the

online space. Can you explain to us the difference

between what a bookkeeper is? Because you did mention the

bookkeeping, um, between a bookkeeper and

accountant and a CFO, how do their roles differ?

Yeah. So a bookkeeper does the day to day trend. Like they,

all the transactions that come in. And your bank account,

your credit cards, or they're coding the transactions

and they may or may not produce financial statements. But if they do, they

are overseen typically by an accountant who's able to

collect that data. Just make sure like, do a quality check

and then they're able to. Report the findings to a

client and then a CFO does more of like,

okay, let's get out of the weeds of the day to day. Let's look at

the future. What are the next 3 to 5 years? Like, what are your

goals? And how do we get from point A to point B? So to

summarize again, bookkeeping is like day to day operations, like

the This came in here, revenue came in expenses,

and then we're computing your profit, creating your financial

statements. And those financial statements are typically the income

statement, aka known as the profit and loss statement, the balance

sheet. Which it tells your assets, which, which is what you

own liabilities, which is what you owe an equity, which is

what's left over. And then we have that statement of cash flows. You may, you

may not get this if you have a bookkeeper, but this is important because it

tells you how your cash flows in your business. So

a lot of these terms, right? Bookkeepers have definitely

evolved. As of late, right? They're doing more than just

reconciling transactions, which is just making sure that the

bank statements, the credit card statements matches up with what's in the

accounting platform. They're doing more these days, right? They're doing more

advisement. But, um, typically when you are

working with any of these professionals, right? You want to ensure that the

scope of service matches and going

back to an accountant. Not only do they prepare the statements and Give you

an analysis. They might do tax accounting, right? they might

do payroll for you. They might do,

um, sales tax, different, different areas,

right? So essentially, the main important thing is

making sure that you have the right scope of service.

With whoever you're working with because they, they do different things. some accountants don't

do taxes. Some do some only work with specific

industries. That's such a good breakdown and

good advisement too, right? Because just know who you're

working with and what the scope of work is going to be. Um, so you

did mention profit as well. And I know you just released a podcast

episode by the time this airs, it'll be one of your past episodes.

But again, it's kind of differentiating and

explaining these different financial terms. And

so I'm going to put the link to that episode in the show description. But

you're talking about what. The profit is versus cashflow

versus cash one hand. And again, I think sometimes

we hear this stuff and it's like, well, what is this? Or I'll just let

my, my, my accountant take care of that. Right. But we do need to kind

of know what these things mean. So we're not going to dig into it

today, but I'm going to link it in the show description so that you all

can listen to that episode and kind of get the information that you need.

But having said that, you know, I mentioned you have a podcast and your podcast

is called, uh, Harmonious wealth. And I love that

title, right? We talk about work life harmony here at the mom CEO suite.

And so can you explain to us though, what does that mean for

you? and for your brand, what is harmonious wealth?

Mm. Well, first, thank you. I do appreciate that. And

when I saw that you have like work life harmony, I'm like, Oh yeah, we,

we, we here, we here. But to me, harmonious wealth

is having more than just the financial wealth, but more

so your inner wealth, more so like having harmony between

different areas of your life, especially as a mom business owner.

Especially, especially right. Because you have, you want to have wealth

spiritually, mentally, physically, your

health, right. So with harmonious wealth, I wanted to showcase

online entrepreneurs, especially moms who strive to

build their businesses and they're stressing themselves out. And

instead of having you working for your business, flipping

it and having your business work for you. So I'm a major

advocate for making sure that your business, not only are you

serving God's children, not only are you serving community, but your business must

also serve you. And that is through accomplishing both your immediate

lifestyle goals, as well as your legacy goals. And harmonious wealth

talks about all those different things while educating you on your

financial picture and understanding finances as a whole. You mentioned the

legacy goals, right? And I don't think we talk about

this enough in our community. Um, just the legacy.

What's going to happen when you're not here? What do you want to happen

after? You know, are you going to close your business? are you going to pass

your business down? I know you talk a lot about legacy

plans. So can you explain to us what a

legacy plan is? And then you started talking about it a little bit, but

why it's important for female, especially mom entrepreneurs to

create one. Yeah. So first a legacy goal,

it encompasses so much, right? But from the scope of service that we

work with our clients, we're the first step to like actually

talking about your personal goals and your future goals. So I

want to kind of gather as much information for clients to say, okay,

if I know your personal goals, I know where you want to be in the

future. I know what you want to do when you retire. I can kind of

grasp that picture with you. Now, how can we move

forward to Execute on it as well as

accelerate it. But overall, a legacy goal is essentially having a

plan for not only yourself, but for your family

generations to come. So it involves like your estate

plan, right? And involves like making sure that you have a business

success. Succession plan. Like you mentioned, like, are you going to close the business? Are

you going to pass it on? Are you going to sell it? Whatever have you,

what is your personal legacy going to look like? What would you want to be

your most successful accomplishment? What does that mean for you? You know, is it

like raising, um, well rounded children?

Is it like making sure that your, your goal for your community

is to serve X amount of people? and then also what are your

philanthropic goals? Like, how are you going to give back to the community?

So encompassing all of those things go into your legacy goal.

And what I do is help clients identify or at least

the first step of identifying it. Because up until that point, they're not

talking about retirement. They're not talking about years in advance. They're talking about the next

quarter, the next year and salary, right. Which are all great

things, but how can we get out of just the weeds of our business and

look. Three years in advance, at least. How can we look like, how

can we place a specific date or age

when you're going to retire? Like, what do you want to retire with things like

that? so the legacy plan that I do with my clients

goes into like, what do you love most about your life? What do you love

most about your business? When do you want to retire? What does a day in

a life look like when you retire? And most of the time, this is their

first conversation. And I'm like, okay, let's, let's, let's kind of dig more

into this. I'm curious. Like, how can we like make this a reality based off

of your business? So I'm a big believer that your business should be

one of the first or one of the top wealth generators for you, because

if you read the book. The cashflow quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki.

He talks about like the four different areas in which you earn money.

First is through as an employee. The second is through

like a self employed business owner, right? So now you go from one boss to

many, but you're doing most of the work yourself. And then it goes to

business. So my, I'm trying to help clients go from two to more. So

three where their business. Runs like the business funds,

their life and their wealth through their operations,

having the right team in place. And then also like pouring out

their, their intellectual property into like an offer. So

then when they have like excess cash on

hand, because they're increasing their profits, they become for an investor.

And then they can work with like a financial advisor to kind of like have

different investment strategies. But my job is to say, okay, let's go from two to

three. Let's increase your profits. Let's increase your cash. Then you

could go to your financial advisor to kind of go through everything else. So

yeah. That was such a good breakdown. And just

even the explanation of you talking about that, the, the quadrants

going from two to three, that's so real, right? Because so

many people start businesses and it just becomes like another job, right? But

it's not really, financing the life or the lifestyle that they

really desire. And so in talking about the legacy plan, you did

kind of mention a lot of things to consider, which was really, really

helpful because it's I know for some people thinking about legacy

planning goals, it might be like, well, where do I start with this? Right.

You gave us some things to consider, but do you have any like

tangible steps for people if they're, you know, they're

thinking, okay, I do want to start creating my legacy goals and

plan. maybe like, what are the first few things that they really should do

to get that started? Great question. So one of the

first things is deciding, even if you're not married to the

idea, like what age would you want to retire? And by the time

that you retire, how would, how long will it take for

you to grow a nest egg of at least 2 million by the time that

you retire so that you live off of your investments? So what that

means is like, say. I'm 34, right? And I haven't, I'm

not 34 yet. Almost. I'll be 34

this year, but say, let's, let's just use me as an example

and say, I'm, I'm just starting out with retirement. I haven't

started just yet. What you should do is

look and see by the time, if you want to retire by 60 from

34 to 60, how many years, how many years

is that? Right? How, how much would you have to contribute until your

retirement? So that you can have 2 million in your nest egg

so that you can retire with that amount.

So that's where I would start. It was like, okay, who am I as a

person? What do I love most about my life? But tangibly,

what would it take for me to at least retire with 2 million in my

nest egg? Then you can work backwards and say, okay, if that means I

need to fund my retirement by 1500 a

month, but I'm not there yet. What, what can I start with? What can I

start with at least? 100, maybe

maybe 100, maybe 200 going from there and then growing. Right.

I think building momentum is better than just saying, you know, I

can't do it right now because I can't fund the whole thing. But things

change in businesses. So maybe it might be 100 or so

a month this year, but maybe the next year because you've been really looking at

your numbers like a fine tooth comb. It grows to 1000 plus.

Right. So that's the first way that I would look,

um, I would also look into getting like

insurances in place to not only protect yourself, but your business.

And that involves like, um, I'm going to talk about this in a

future episode, but there were some things that I missed out on a couple of

years ago when I experienced a personal life change. And if

I would have had those insurances in place in my business and personal, then

I would have been able to kind of like take some time to heal mentally.

To kind of get back to things. So specifically for

insurances, those are a lower barrier of entry because it's like a

hundred, a hundred something dollars a month. Right. So that would be like disability

insurance, definitely getting that so that you can support

yourself if anything happens to you as a business owner, because you're not going to

have that elsewhere. I would also look into, um,

getting what is called a, an overhead insurance.

I forget the name, but basically a cop, like if anything happens to you as

a CEO, you're able to get coverage for your overhead

to cover those overhead expenses. And then also

find a potential replacement for you. So having those

insurances in place, you're able to protect yourself just like you

would be protected. If you were employed at a company, maybe

even more because now you're kind of like looking into things.

And I would also look into like, I'm going to talk about this

next week, but by the time this launches, I'm sure it'll be posted.

But What is your tax plan? You know, what is your tax plan for

not only this year, but the next few years, if you're growing in business, you're

growing your profits. How can you align your tax plan with your

lifestyle goals? Right. So what that means is like, if you're

wanting to buy a home, you know, you're not going to want to deduct every

single thing from, from your business because you want to show

taxable income that suits buying your home. Um,

and then finally, just to kind of summarize this is you want to

get. Um, legal support, you know, having a

state plan, right. Or, or a will, or even talking to someone in your

area that can say, Hey, you know, based off of what you have, like your

assets that you have, we could at least start you with this. So then that

way you at least have one step. It's all about one step. You

don't need to have all the bells and whistles. One step.

That was so good. You said so many good things and I love that you

started talking about the insurance. Because I feel like I

never see anybody talk about it in the online space. So

I'm so glad you mentioned that. Um, but when you work with your clients, do

you help them Navigate those areas when it comes to the business

insurance and the legal estate planning piece.

So I don't. Do it. But I am a person

that loves to connect with others. So say if I know your goal

and I'll ask like, do you have business insurance? I don't see on this

statement here, let's get into it. And then if they're reluctant,

I'm like, no, this is what happened to me. I could have been supported in

a way, right? My personal story. And, um, I don't mind sharing,

you know, trigger warning. I do want to say trigger warning. Um, in

2022, I went through a pregnancy loss and, Changed my

whole life. Everything changed about me. Right? And

I just wasn't the same and I wasn't performing the same. And if I would've

had insurances in place at the time, like disability insurance, like

overhead coverage, type of insurance, things like that, I would've

been able to support myself financially. Or. my business would

be able to support itself with insurance. Right. And then I would have been able

to take time off, take leave and still get paid the

majority of my salary without it impacting the business as it did.

So if you're on the fence with getting business insurance or

disability insurance as an entrepreneur. Don't hesitate. You don't know

what what's going to happen. And also having the faith that

nothing crazy or catastrophic will happen, but you just want to have something in

place, you know, to protect yourself. Yeah, that's

so good. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. Um, but you really

gave some good advice. So I really would encourage you if you are listening

to go ahead, pause, rewind, take some notes and just

start taking, like Ayanna said, that one step, right? Even if you

don't have, once you do your plan, if you don't have that

1500 or whatever to start with. Start with where you're at and

do what you can right now and then gain that momentum

going forward. So that's, that's really good and encouraging. Reach

out to Ayaan if you need support and assistance in that

area. Um, so I want to ask because

we did mention, you talked about, getting people from quadrant two to

three. So when they're trying to scale their businesses though, what have been some

of the biggest challenges that you've seen? when entrepreneurs are

trying to go from, From two to

three. The biggest thing is they're not paying

themselves enough. And there's a lot of

distrust that goes on when it comes to investing in your business.

I'm a big believer in investing in your business, but if you're, but if your

company pays your salary and it's impacting how

you can pay yourself, you need to figure out how your

business can support you while you're trying to grow your business.

And a lot of that stems from underpricing one,

um, scope creep, another one. And then,

also. Understanding like

guidelines and which, how to invest in your company.

So say for instance, understanding, what you can afford

to pay someone. Right. And I do, I have something called like

a profit guideline, which it kind of, you map out your past six

months and your revenue past six months and expenses. And then it kind

of computes like your affordability to pay yourself.

So. Coning back in on the biggest mistake I see is not

being able to pay yourself from your business. I'm a big believer to eventually getting

to 50 percent profit margin before paying yourself, because that allows you

to pay yourself, you know, a decent salary. And, um,

with that. You probably don't pay yourself enough,

right? You're underpaying yourself. You're living stripe payout to stripe payout.

Um, and then you're not able to understand what are the holes that you need

and creating random revenue goals as well. So, it's like, once you

understand exactly what you must pay yourself, then you have an idea of

what your revenue goal should be. And once you have guidelines and how to

spend your money, you're then able to say, okay, how can I

without? Or objectively without a lot of emotion, say

what I, what the business can or cannot afford at the moment. And if it's

something that I do need to invest in, how can I create or

take a calculated, a calculated risk? So that

if I do take it i'm keeping myself accountable. I think

you're so right. When you said strike payout to strike payouts, like some people,

that's what we're, we're doing. Right. and I know a lot of people have not

gotten to the point where they pay themselves a

consistent amount. like every week or two weeks,

um, it's just kind of based on whatever's coming in the business and sometimes that

might not be what you need in order to

sustain your lifestyle. Right. and then having that plan and knowing what the business

can afford. All the things that you mentioned, super

important. And so clearly as you guys are listening,

Ayana knows what she's talking about. Okay. So go

ahead. We'll put links to her, um, her, her

website so you can check her out, schedule a call, get the

information that you need, to better your business. So I

want to switch gears and we have been talking about this a little bit, but.

More about your mom journey. Um, really,

how did you get to the intersection

of motherhood and entrepreneurship? What was that journey like for you?

Um, it was so interesting. So my daughter has like

great memory. She has great memory. I say that because when she, when I

started my business, she was, I started in.

Officially 2016 and got started for real

2017. so she was three going on four. And at the time,

single mother, I got into our first apartment and

I was hustling. Okay. I was working so much. I

did. I went from pregnant working three jobs to now having a business

doing the job of three people, essentially. So that journey

was really tough. Um, and. What

was disheartening was I was ignoring my own financials

while paying attention to everyone else's. I know that there's like some, when you have

a business, right, your trauma shows up in your business. The,

your mindset shows up in your business. Your business is a mirror of who

you are at that moment. And I had to face a lot of things. I

was still, you know, navigating my twenties, navigating motherhood, navigating a

whole, a whole business. And because I

was ignoring my own financials, right. I

suffered financial rock bottom in 2018.

And, um, thankfully my daughter didn't like

feel right. Feel that thankfully, but I felt it

and it was extremely stressful. And I,

and at the time when I mentioned that she has great memories, she,

She understood that I wasn't as attentive as I was today.

I really wasn't. And she knew that I was

always working. You know, I was always like, she was three, four when you, when

your child turns three, if anyone has a three year old, you know, it's hard

to go to sleep. Okay. She was very,

um, I wouldn't say outspoken, but she definitely spoke her mind not

in like a crazy way, but she, because I would talk to

her and like, um, Even as a baby, as I would anyone else,

she was, she had a high vocabulary, so she was able to

articulate her thoughts really well. So that was

interesting because, you know, here I am, single mother,

um, with financial rock bottom, like struggling to kind of get

her to Really making enough to pay the bills and to get her through

daycare and thank God when she went to pre k

that was free, right? so

So, um as I went through financial rock bottom in 2018

I promised myself that I would never go to that low point

again, and I would treat my financials like I would a client

So I was doing my, I was acting like I was my own

accountant, my own CFO doing my numbers every single

week. And, um, that next year I made six figures. I

doubled my income that following year and I was, I, I

saved, bought my baby and I a home,

got myself a new car and everything. So it was just,

I was able to understand with motherhood some,

it was a whole nother step, right? I wasn't just focused on myself. I

had to switch my life to be life first

versus having my business and whatever time was left over

was for my family. I had to switch that around. And, um,

honestly, Even when I, um,

shifted in business and I was more successful, I

still worked a lot. And then when I went through spiritual rock

bottom in 2022 is when I was like, okay, something has to

change. And that's

when now I live a much softer life in a

way. You know, I still am, I have more energy to kind of work hard

in sprints, but I'm really, um,

Focused on how can I actually create a life

first business, right? My hours are now from like 10 to three. My daughter

comes home typically at three, sometimes a little bit earlier from the bus.

So I'm able to like, focus on her. She's 10 at this point now. So

she does have her little life where she has her social life going out with

friends, hanging outside. Um, so those times

I used to kind of like focus on other things in the business or even

my own personal wellness. And that's a part of, uh,

What I believe in harmonious both is like, how can you have,

uh, not necessarily balanced, but a life of harmony where all

areas of your life is tended to versus just one.

Right. And then also how can you avoid idolizing

your business and idolizing selling? Right? Because.

While having a business as a major milestone is not the only thing,

it doesn't define you. And that's what I had to learn,

heal from my own trauma, heal from all these different things, right? Go through

the breakdowns, the, the rock bottoms and all those things to come

in the end of like, you know what? I need to

really put God first. I need to really put family first. I need to really

like shift how I'm thinking and how, how I'm operating business.

And you know, if you're as my, as a mom.

It's going to be the best option for you is creating a

life first business.

Yeah.

so many good things. And of course, it's such an alignment with

what we believe here at the mom CEO suite. Um,

but if you could, you mentioned how you were at, you know, rock bottom kind

of in your life and business. And then you mentioned you

really looked at your financials. But then after that, the next year,

you had a really successful year. And I know there's people

listening who maybe they're not at rock bottom, but they're still trying to get

to that success that they know is

possible, but there it's been a struggle for them to get there. Right.

Um, so do you have any, just from your experience, um,

just tangible advice for someone who might be in that transition

and were there other things that you did to get to that, um, uh, Um,

place of success, what that looked like for you.

So I did bookkeeping for both my personal finances, right?

Have we have to create, I like to call it a personal

spending plan. If you don't like the word budget, have a personal

spending plan. Look at your numbers every single

week, if not day, but don't put too much pressure on

yourself. Do it every week. And then I did my business

bookkeeping. And with that, I looked

at if my goal, if I have a goal

for revenue, I'm building momentum every single week.

Right. And how can I increase my monthly recurring

revenue as much as possible so that I'm not starting from

zero revenue every single month? I'm building on what I already

have. And then how can I ensure that I'm pricing for

profit? So pricing for profit means your, your

price. And then after your expenses, so say, if you have a

team after your team calls for every

unit, Of sale. So say if I have CFO

services 2000 a month, I need to know exactly how much it

costs per client for the digital

software. I need to know how much it costs per team member. And we

have, um, specific budgeted hours. So

then I know, okay, this is what my profitability looks like for

every single client. And then that way, when you're pricing

for profit, you're able to go. Then focus on how do you

deliver the best service. It's like, of course you're focusing on that, but

it's like you're at least making profit in that offer.

And, um, looking at your expenses is going to

be important. I talked about like, Understanding like

what each line item is is against your

revenue. So I call it percentage of revenue. Um, so what,

what is your software according to your total revenue? If it's over

5%, you need to consider decreasing it. If your

team is over 30 percent of your revenue, then that means you need to consider

decreasing your team because we know we love to pay our team, but what are

some things that we can do with automations or our processes that can

eliminate having To do it, but then only

focusing the work right that you absolutely need

and concising it so that you're saving your business money. You're saving

someone's time and you're not underpaying someone because you can't

afford it. And you're paying them a couple of dollars an hour. Right?

So, um, and also patients, you know, having patients

and I've read James 1,

4 last night and I was like meditating on it and it was like

having a patience and not grumbling and

not complaining and how you can show up in your business in that way.

Um, so I hope this helps like tangible, but then

also your mind understanding

that this can happen for you and having that faith without

complaint. So, so good. A wealth

of just knowledge, resources,

wisdom, things to think about and consider. And so I definitely

would encourage you all to take a listen, subscribe to her

podcast because it's going to be the same type of thing. Right. And you all

need this in your life. You need this in your life. So Ayana,

let people know how they can connect with you. And if you have anything coming

up that you want to share, share that as well. Yes. So you can

connect with me on Instagram at lovely

financials. Also my website, lovely financials.

com. And if you want weekly emails about

topics like this, as well as understanding how to harness

your wealth within go to lovely financials. com slash

wealth, and you'll be a part of the community.

Absolutely amazing. And we will link all of that in our

show descriptions. Ayana, thank you again so much for being here

with us today and we'll see you in the next episode.

Thank you thank you for listening to the Mom CEO

Suite Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, can you do us a

favor? Leave a review on iTunes and share with other

moms in business like you. Help us spread our message and empower

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