Shownotes
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
RESOURCES
- The Mom CEO Suite Masterclass Collection https://www.themomceosuite.com/masterclass
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This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
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Transcripts
You are now tuned in to the mom CEO suite podcast.
Speaker:I'm your host, Felicia, wife, mom, and
Speaker:entrepreneur. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my mompreneur
Speaker:journey along with strategies that will help you build your online
Speaker:business operations in a sustainable way. The goal is
Speaker:to help you build a business that fits into your lifestyle as a mom who
Speaker:values putting family first. We will also hear the
Speaker:experiences and expertise of other moms with service
Speaker:based businesses. You'll get a peek into our journeys so you'll
Speaker:know that you aren't alone. Motherhood gets hard.
Speaker:Entrepreneurship gets hard. But together we can
Speaker:do hard things. Welcome to the suite.
Speaker:All right. Hey, friends, welcome to another episode. Thank you so much
Speaker:for being here with us today. Um, today we have another guest and
Speaker:our guest is Ayanna Vaughn and she knows numbers.
Speaker:The CEO and founder of a lovely financials
Speaker:group, which is her Metro Atlanta based CFO firm.
Speaker:Which aims to provide the support needed to aid women, business owners and brands
Speaker:at any scale, recognize and optimize key
Speaker:opportunities for wealth acquisition and management.
Speaker:In applying her methods, clients have been able to see an increase in
Speaker:their overall profit margins and the maintenance of healthy
Speaker:revenue streams. While she has seen her clients exceed
Speaker:seven figure margins by implementing her teachings, she understands
Speaker:that true fulfillment comes with the accompaniment of much more.
Speaker:Her journey of healing through faith Faith and spiritual awakening has
Speaker:emboldened her creativity and strengthened her confidence
Speaker:beyond the numbers, a reality she seeks to see
Speaker:every woman achieve. That is so beautiful. Hi, Ayana.
Speaker:Welcome to the suite. How are you? I'm doing so good, Felicia. Thank you so
Speaker:much for having me on. It's so interesting. Like hearing you read the bio because
Speaker:it was like, Oh, okay. This sounds really good. Right. That's always how I am.
Speaker:I'm like, Oh wow. They're talking about me. Right? Like, Oh, okay. That's
Speaker:so funny. So, so glad that you are here today. And just a
Speaker:quick plug. I met or connected with Ayana on.
Speaker:Threads actually. it's just a different atmosphere and you're able to connect with, just
Speaker:people who you haven't come in contact with. So, uh, connect with us over
Speaker:on threads, but I gotta tell us a little bit more about
Speaker:you and really, how did you get into the work that you're doing
Speaker:today? Oh my goodness. So, um, my
Speaker:story is not the typical like accounting major
Speaker:to corporate to entrepreneurship pipeline. It's like,
Speaker:I went to college for originally healthcare management, but if we go
Speaker:further back, I wanted to be a psychologist. I
Speaker:wanted to help people understand themselves. A lot of my
Speaker:friendships developed with like deep conversations. So I was
Speaker:keen to learn about psychology in college. And then my family was
Speaker:like, Do nursing. I'm like, I don't trust, I don't have good hand eye coordination.
Speaker:Y'all call me butterfingers. I'm always dropping things. Why would you
Speaker:expect that I would be a nurse? Absolutely not. So I got
Speaker:into healthcare management, which is the business behind healthcare. And
Speaker:I took a few accounting classes and I fell in love with accounting. And
Speaker:then I told myself, I want to be a CFO at a hospital one day
Speaker:and come to find out towards the end of my college career, I was
Speaker:expecting. So I told myself, okay, I'm not going to change my
Speaker:major just yet. Let me get through this, this bachelor degree
Speaker:so that I can come, come back to school after I have my daughter. And,
Speaker:um, long story short, after I had her literally,
Speaker:I walked across the stage, December of 2013. I had her
Speaker:January 2nd of 2014. So it was
Speaker:right there. And while I was in school, I had
Speaker:technically graduated in the summer of 2013. And
Speaker:at that point, every trimester I was adding on a job. I was working
Speaker:like three jobs. It was a lot. And, um, when I
Speaker:had her, instead of going back to three jobs,
Speaker:I decided to be a host parent, which is kind of like a
Speaker:foster mom to adults, but. Um, special needs or
Speaker:developmental disabilities. So I know really,
Speaker:really different story. So as I was
Speaker:essentially a mom of three overnight, I was overwhelmed at this
Speaker:point, I was a few years in, I was going on 25. I was like,
Speaker:what kind of creative outlet can I do for myself? And that's when I got
Speaker:into like crafts. I got into like blogging. Like I had a
Speaker:blog, it was cute. It was a great community. Um, but
Speaker:the, the sauce was when I joined, I was,
Speaker:I saw so many women have online businesses and they were crushing their goals, but
Speaker:they were really afraid to talk about money. So I was like, wait, you know,
Speaker:I love accounting at the time. I would like tutors, like other students on the
Speaker:weekends. Like my professor was like, change your major, change them. I'm like, Oh, wait,
Speaker:wait, wait. But. Fast forward to this point, I was
Speaker:like, Okay, how can I conceptualize everything that I learned in school about
Speaker:accounting to create a business? So that's when I came across the
Speaker:bookkeeping. Um, it was basically bookkeeping in a box like type of
Speaker:course, So I invested in that course. I invested in myself. I was,
Speaker:I never thought I would be a, an entrepreneur or a business owner.
Speaker:And, um, that's when I had my first few clients who were
Speaker:bloggers. And during that time, they were able to like,
Speaker:understand, well, first. They had bookkeeping done for
Speaker:tax season. I was first and foremost getting the books done right. And then
Speaker:as I would meet with clients, I would prepare financial statements
Speaker:and I would educate them on their financials. So it kind of was
Speaker:more of like a gradual inorganic filling in gaps
Speaker:as I've seen, like, First, let me help you at least
Speaker:get your bookkeeping done for tax season. Okay, now let me
Speaker:educate you. Now going beyond education and creating
Speaker:strategies to help them improve their financial picture was the next
Speaker:gap that I filled. So I went above and beyond.
Speaker:bookkeeping to more financial strategy. And now we do
Speaker:fractional CFO services with our clients. And what's so interesting is
Speaker:that because I bet on myself and I invested in
Speaker:myself during that time, I was able to witness and have the
Speaker:honor of witnessing like clients, like exploding in their businesses,
Speaker:like growing their businesses, even like helping them through growing pains or like.
Speaker:Pivoting and things of that nature. So it's been a beautiful journey. And
Speaker:again, it's not the typical, but it's, it's a little unique story.
Speaker:No, I love that. I don't think anybody's story ends up being typical, right?
Speaker:Because it's just so different pieces that all at
Speaker:some point kind of combined to get you to where you are today.
Speaker:But I love that you said you invested in yourself. And then because of that,
Speaker:other people were able to kind of see their growth and
Speaker:develop in their way. And that just kind of goes to the point. I know
Speaker:a lot of times we, we might be second guessing ourselves or,
Speaker:you know, afraid to invest in ourselves or just do the thing that we feel
Speaker:like we're supposed to be doing, but it's literally. You know, you
Speaker:hear it a lot, there's people attached to you and people are waiting for you
Speaker:to kind of walk into what you're supposed to be doing so that they can
Speaker:experience their, their freedom, their growth and all those things. So
Speaker:I absolutely love that about your story. I do agree with that.
Speaker:Sometimes, you know, we don't like to talk about the numbers, but we're going to
Speaker:talk about it a little bit today. Um, so one
Speaker:of the things that can kind of get, I won't say
Speaker:confusing, but It's a little muddy sometimes in the
Speaker:online space. Can you explain to us the difference
Speaker:between what a bookkeeper is? Because you did mention the
Speaker:bookkeeping, um, between a bookkeeper and
Speaker:accountant and a CFO, how do their roles differ?
Speaker:Yeah. So a bookkeeper does the day to day trend. Like they,
Speaker:all the transactions that come in. And your bank account,
Speaker:your credit cards, or they're coding the transactions
Speaker:and they may or may not produce financial statements. But if they do, they
Speaker:are overseen typically by an accountant who's able to
Speaker:collect that data. Just make sure like, do a quality check
Speaker:and then they're able to. Report the findings to a
Speaker:client and then a CFO does more of like,
Speaker:okay, let's get out of the weeds of the day to day. Let's look at
Speaker:the future. What are the next 3 to 5 years? Like, what are your
Speaker:goals? And how do we get from point A to point B? So to
Speaker:summarize again, bookkeeping is like day to day operations, like
Speaker:the This came in here, revenue came in expenses,
Speaker:and then we're computing your profit, creating your financial
Speaker:statements. And those financial statements are typically the income
Speaker:statement, aka known as the profit and loss statement, the balance
Speaker:sheet. Which it tells your assets, which, which is what you
Speaker:own liabilities, which is what you owe an equity, which is
Speaker:what's left over. And then we have that statement of cash flows. You may, you
Speaker:may not get this if you have a bookkeeper, but this is important because it
Speaker:tells you how your cash flows in your business. So
Speaker:a lot of these terms, right? Bookkeepers have definitely
Speaker:evolved. As of late, right? They're doing more than just
Speaker:reconciling transactions, which is just making sure that the
Speaker:bank statements, the credit card statements matches up with what's in the
Speaker:accounting platform. They're doing more these days, right? They're doing more
Speaker:advisement. But, um, typically when you are
Speaker:working with any of these professionals, right? You want to ensure that the
Speaker:scope of service matches and going
Speaker:back to an accountant. Not only do they prepare the statements and Give you
Speaker:an analysis. They might do tax accounting, right? they might
Speaker:do payroll for you. They might do,
Speaker:um, sales tax, different, different areas,
Speaker:right? So essentially, the main important thing is
Speaker:making sure that you have the right scope of service.
Speaker:With whoever you're working with because they, they do different things. some accountants don't
Speaker:do taxes. Some do some only work with specific
Speaker:industries. That's such a good breakdown and
Speaker:good advisement too, right? Because just know who you're
Speaker:working with and what the scope of work is going to be. Um, so you
Speaker:did mention profit as well. And I know you just released a podcast
Speaker:episode by the time this airs, it'll be one of your past episodes.
Speaker:But again, it's kind of differentiating and
Speaker:explaining these different financial terms. And
Speaker:so I'm going to put the link to that episode in the show description. But
Speaker:you're talking about what. The profit is versus cashflow
Speaker:versus cash one hand. And again, I think sometimes
Speaker:we hear this stuff and it's like, well, what is this? Or I'll just let
Speaker:my, my, my accountant take care of that. Right. But we do need to kind
Speaker:of know what these things mean. So we're not going to dig into it
Speaker:today, but I'm going to link it in the show description so that you all
Speaker:can listen to that episode and kind of get the information that you need.
Speaker:But having said that, you know, I mentioned you have a podcast and your podcast
Speaker:is called, uh, Harmonious wealth. And I love that
Speaker:title, right? We talk about work life harmony here at the mom CEO suite.
Speaker:And so can you explain to us though, what does that mean for
Speaker:you? and for your brand, what is harmonious wealth?
Speaker:Mm. Well, first, thank you. I do appreciate that. And
Speaker:when I saw that you have like work life harmony, I'm like, Oh yeah, we,
Speaker:we, we here, we here. But to me, harmonious wealth
Speaker:is having more than just the financial wealth, but more
Speaker:so your inner wealth, more so like having harmony between
Speaker:different areas of your life, especially as a mom business owner.
Speaker:Especially, especially right. Because you have, you want to have wealth
Speaker:spiritually, mentally, physically, your
Speaker:health, right. So with harmonious wealth, I wanted to showcase
Speaker:online entrepreneurs, especially moms who strive to
Speaker:build their businesses and they're stressing themselves out. And
Speaker:instead of having you working for your business, flipping
Speaker:it and having your business work for you. So I'm a major
Speaker:advocate for making sure that your business, not only are you
Speaker:serving God's children, not only are you serving community, but your business must
Speaker:also serve you. And that is through accomplishing both your immediate
Speaker:lifestyle goals, as well as your legacy goals. And harmonious wealth
Speaker:talks about all those different things while educating you on your
Speaker:financial picture and understanding finances as a whole. You mentioned the
Speaker:legacy goals, right? And I don't think we talk about
Speaker:this enough in our community. Um, just the legacy.
Speaker:What's going to happen when you're not here? What do you want to happen
Speaker:after? You know, are you going to close your business? are you going to pass
Speaker:your business down? I know you talk a lot about legacy
Speaker:plans. So can you explain to us what a
Speaker:legacy plan is? And then you started talking about it a little bit, but
Speaker:why it's important for female, especially mom entrepreneurs to
Speaker:create one. Yeah. So first a legacy goal,
Speaker:it encompasses so much, right? But from the scope of service that we
Speaker:work with our clients, we're the first step to like actually
Speaker:talking about your personal goals and your future goals. So I
Speaker:want to kind of gather as much information for clients to say, okay,
Speaker:if I know your personal goals, I know where you want to be in the
Speaker:future. I know what you want to do when you retire. I can kind of
Speaker:grasp that picture with you. Now, how can we move
Speaker:forward to Execute on it as well as
Speaker:accelerate it. But overall, a legacy goal is essentially having a
Speaker:plan for not only yourself, but for your family
Speaker:generations to come. So it involves like your estate
Speaker:plan, right? And involves like making sure that you have a business
Speaker:success. Succession plan. Like you mentioned, like, are you going to close the business? Are
Speaker:you going to pass it on? Are you going to sell it? Whatever have you,
Speaker:what is your personal legacy going to look like? What would you want to be
Speaker:your most successful accomplishment? What does that mean for you? You know, is it
Speaker:like raising, um, well rounded children?
Speaker:Is it like making sure that your, your goal for your community
Speaker:is to serve X amount of people? and then also what are your
Speaker:philanthropic goals? Like, how are you going to give back to the community?
Speaker:So encompassing all of those things go into your legacy goal.
Speaker:And what I do is help clients identify or at least
Speaker:the first step of identifying it. Because up until that point, they're not
Speaker:talking about retirement. They're not talking about years in advance. They're talking about the next
Speaker:quarter, the next year and salary, right. Which are all great
Speaker:things, but how can we get out of just the weeds of our business and
Speaker:look. Three years in advance, at least. How can we look like, how
Speaker:can we place a specific date or age
Speaker:when you're going to retire? Like, what do you want to retire with things like
Speaker:that? so the legacy plan that I do with my clients
Speaker:goes into like, what do you love most about your life? What do you love
Speaker:most about your business? When do you want to retire? What does a day in
Speaker:a life look like when you retire? And most of the time, this is their
Speaker:first conversation. And I'm like, okay, let's, let's, let's kind of dig more
Speaker:into this. I'm curious. Like, how can we like make this a reality based off
Speaker:of your business? So I'm a big believer that your business should be
Speaker:one of the first or one of the top wealth generators for you, because
Speaker:if you read the book. The cashflow quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki.
Speaker:He talks about like the four different areas in which you earn money.
Speaker:First is through as an employee. The second is through
Speaker:like a self employed business owner, right? So now you go from one boss to
Speaker:many, but you're doing most of the work yourself. And then it goes to
Speaker:business. So my, I'm trying to help clients go from two to more. So
Speaker:three where their business. Runs like the business funds,
Speaker:their life and their wealth through their operations,
Speaker:having the right team in place. And then also like pouring out
Speaker:their, their intellectual property into like an offer. So
Speaker:then when they have like excess cash on
Speaker:hand, because they're increasing their profits, they become for an investor.
Speaker:And then they can work with like a financial advisor to kind of like have
Speaker:different investment strategies. But my job is to say, okay, let's go from two to
Speaker:three. Let's increase your profits. Let's increase your cash. Then you
Speaker:could go to your financial advisor to kind of go through everything else. So
Speaker:yeah. That was such a good breakdown. And just
Speaker:even the explanation of you talking about that, the, the quadrants
Speaker:going from two to three, that's so real, right? Because so
Speaker:many people start businesses and it just becomes like another job, right? But
Speaker:it's not really, financing the life or the lifestyle that they
Speaker:really desire. And so in talking about the legacy plan, you did
Speaker:kind of mention a lot of things to consider, which was really, really
Speaker:helpful because it's I know for some people thinking about legacy
Speaker:planning goals, it might be like, well, where do I start with this? Right.
Speaker:You gave us some things to consider, but do you have any like
Speaker:tangible steps for people if they're, you know, they're
Speaker:thinking, okay, I do want to start creating my legacy goals and
Speaker:plan. maybe like, what are the first few things that they really should do
Speaker:to get that started? Great question. So one of the
Speaker:first things is deciding, even if you're not married to the
Speaker:idea, like what age would you want to retire? And by the time
Speaker:that you retire, how would, how long will it take for
Speaker:you to grow a nest egg of at least 2 million by the time that
Speaker:you retire so that you live off of your investments? So what that
Speaker:means is like, say. I'm 34, right? And I haven't, I'm
Speaker:not 34 yet. Almost. I'll be 34
Speaker:this year, but say, let's, let's just use me as an example
Speaker:and say, I'm, I'm just starting out with retirement. I haven't
Speaker:started just yet. What you should do is
Speaker:look and see by the time, if you want to retire by 60 from
Speaker:34 to 60, how many years, how many years
Speaker:is that? Right? How, how much would you have to contribute until your
Speaker:retirement? So that you can have 2 million in your nest egg
Speaker:so that you can retire with that amount.
Speaker:So that's where I would start. It was like, okay, who am I as a
Speaker:person? What do I love most about my life? But tangibly,
Speaker:what would it take for me to at least retire with 2 million in my
Speaker:nest egg? Then you can work backwards and say, okay, if that means I
Speaker:need to fund my retirement by 1500 a
Speaker:month, but I'm not there yet. What, what can I start with? What can I
Speaker:start with at least? 100, maybe
Speaker:maybe 100, maybe 200 going from there and then growing. Right.
Speaker:I think building momentum is better than just saying, you know, I
Speaker:can't do it right now because I can't fund the whole thing. But things
Speaker:change in businesses. So maybe it might be 100 or so
Speaker:a month this year, but maybe the next year because you've been really looking at
Speaker:your numbers like a fine tooth comb. It grows to 1000 plus.
Speaker:Right. So that's the first way that I would look,
Speaker:um, I would also look into getting like
Speaker:insurances in place to not only protect yourself, but your business.
Speaker:And that involves like, um, I'm going to talk about this in a
Speaker:future episode, but there were some things that I missed out on a couple of
Speaker:years ago when I experienced a personal life change. And if
Speaker:I would have had those insurances in place in my business and personal, then
Speaker:I would have been able to kind of like take some time to heal mentally.
Speaker:To kind of get back to things. So specifically for
Speaker:insurances, those are a lower barrier of entry because it's like a
Speaker:hundred, a hundred something dollars a month. Right. So that would be like disability
Speaker:insurance, definitely getting that so that you can support
Speaker:yourself if anything happens to you as a business owner, because you're not going to
Speaker:have that elsewhere. I would also look into, um,
Speaker:getting what is called a, an overhead insurance.
Speaker:I forget the name, but basically a cop, like if anything happens to you as
Speaker:a CEO, you're able to get coverage for your overhead
Speaker:to cover those overhead expenses. And then also
Speaker:find a potential replacement for you. So having those
Speaker:insurances in place, you're able to protect yourself just like you
Speaker:would be protected. If you were employed at a company, maybe
Speaker:even more because now you're kind of like looking into things.
Speaker:And I would also look into like, I'm going to talk about this
Speaker:next week, but by the time this launches, I'm sure it'll be posted.
Speaker:But What is your tax plan? You know, what is your tax plan for
Speaker:not only this year, but the next few years, if you're growing in business, you're
Speaker:growing your profits. How can you align your tax plan with your
Speaker:lifestyle goals? Right. So what that means is like, if you're
Speaker:wanting to buy a home, you know, you're not going to want to deduct every
Speaker:single thing from, from your business because you want to show
Speaker:taxable income that suits buying your home. Um,
Speaker:and then finally, just to kind of summarize this is you want to
Speaker:get. Um, legal support, you know, having a
Speaker:state plan, right. Or, or a will, or even talking to someone in your
Speaker:area that can say, Hey, you know, based off of what you have, like your
Speaker:assets that you have, we could at least start you with this. So then that
Speaker:way you at least have one step. It's all about one step. You
Speaker:don't need to have all the bells and whistles. One step.
Speaker:That was so good. You said so many good things and I love that you
Speaker:started talking about the insurance. Because I feel like I
Speaker:never see anybody talk about it in the online space. So
Speaker:I'm so glad you mentioned that. Um, but when you work with your clients, do
Speaker:you help them Navigate those areas when it comes to the business
Speaker:insurance and the legal estate planning piece.
Speaker:So I don't. Do it. But I am a person
Speaker:that loves to connect with others. So say if I know your goal
Speaker:and I'll ask like, do you have business insurance? I don't see on this
Speaker:statement here, let's get into it. And then if they're reluctant,
Speaker:I'm like, no, this is what happened to me. I could have been supported in
Speaker:a way, right? My personal story. And, um, I don't mind sharing,
Speaker:you know, trigger warning. I do want to say trigger warning. Um, in
Speaker:2022, I went through a pregnancy loss and, Changed my
Speaker:whole life. Everything changed about me. Right? And
Speaker:I just wasn't the same and I wasn't performing the same. And if I would've
Speaker:had insurances in place at the time, like disability insurance, like
Speaker:overhead coverage, type of insurance, things like that, I would've
Speaker:been able to support myself financially. Or. my business would
Speaker:be able to support itself with insurance. Right. And then I would have been able
Speaker:to take time off, take leave and still get paid the
Speaker:majority of my salary without it impacting the business as it did.
Speaker:So if you're on the fence with getting business insurance or
Speaker:disability insurance as an entrepreneur. Don't hesitate. You don't know
Speaker:what what's going to happen. And also having the faith that
Speaker:nothing crazy or catastrophic will happen, but you just want to have something in
Speaker:place, you know, to protect yourself. Yeah, that's
Speaker:so good. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. Um, but you really
Speaker:gave some good advice. So I really would encourage you if you are listening
Speaker:to go ahead, pause, rewind, take some notes and just
Speaker:start taking, like Ayanna said, that one step, right? Even if you
Speaker:don't have, once you do your plan, if you don't have that
Speaker:1500 or whatever to start with. Start with where you're at and
Speaker:do what you can right now and then gain that momentum
Speaker:going forward. So that's, that's really good and encouraging. Reach
Speaker:out to Ayaan if you need support and assistance in that
Speaker:area. Um, so I want to ask because
Speaker:we did mention, you talked about, getting people from quadrant two to
Speaker:three. So when they're trying to scale their businesses though, what have been some
Speaker:of the biggest challenges that you've seen? when entrepreneurs are
Speaker:trying to go from, From two to
Speaker:three. The biggest thing is they're not paying
Speaker:themselves enough. And there's a lot of
Speaker:distrust that goes on when it comes to investing in your business.
Speaker:I'm a big believer in investing in your business, but if you're, but if your
Speaker:company pays your salary and it's impacting how
Speaker:you can pay yourself, you need to figure out how your
Speaker:business can support you while you're trying to grow your business.
Speaker:And a lot of that stems from underpricing one,
Speaker:um, scope creep, another one. And then,
Speaker:also. Understanding like
Speaker:guidelines and which, how to invest in your company.
Speaker:So say for instance, understanding, what you can afford
Speaker:to pay someone. Right. And I do, I have something called like
Speaker:a profit guideline, which it kind of, you map out your past six
Speaker:months and your revenue past six months and expenses. And then it kind
Speaker:of computes like your affordability to pay yourself.
Speaker:So. Coning back in on the biggest mistake I see is not
Speaker:being able to pay yourself from your business. I'm a big believer to eventually getting
Speaker:to 50 percent profit margin before paying yourself, because that allows you
Speaker:to pay yourself, you know, a decent salary. And, um,
Speaker:with that. You probably don't pay yourself enough,
Speaker:right? You're underpaying yourself. You're living stripe payout to stripe payout.
Speaker:Um, and then you're not able to understand what are the holes that you need
Speaker:and creating random revenue goals as well. So, it's like, once you
Speaker:understand exactly what you must pay yourself, then you have an idea of
Speaker:what your revenue goal should be. And once you have guidelines and how to
Speaker:spend your money, you're then able to say, okay, how can I
Speaker:without? Or objectively without a lot of emotion, say
Speaker:what I, what the business can or cannot afford at the moment. And if it's
Speaker:something that I do need to invest in, how can I create or
Speaker:take a calculated, a calculated risk? So that
Speaker:if I do take it i'm keeping myself accountable. I think
Speaker:you're so right. When you said strike payout to strike payouts, like some people,
Speaker:that's what we're, we're doing. Right. and I know a lot of people have not
Speaker:gotten to the point where they pay themselves a
Speaker:consistent amount. like every week or two weeks,
Speaker:um, it's just kind of based on whatever's coming in the business and sometimes that
Speaker:might not be what you need in order to
Speaker:sustain your lifestyle. Right. and then having that plan and knowing what the business
Speaker:can afford. All the things that you mentioned, super
Speaker:important. And so clearly as you guys are listening,
Speaker:Ayana knows what she's talking about. Okay. So go
Speaker:ahead. We'll put links to her, um, her, her
Speaker:website so you can check her out, schedule a call, get the
Speaker:information that you need, to better your business. So I
Speaker:want to switch gears and we have been talking about this a little bit, but.
Speaker:More about your mom journey. Um, really,
Speaker:how did you get to the intersection
Speaker:of motherhood and entrepreneurship? What was that journey like for you?
Speaker:Um, it was so interesting. So my daughter has like
Speaker:great memory. She has great memory. I say that because when she, when I
Speaker:started my business, she was, I started in.
Speaker:Officially 2016 and got started for real
Speaker:2017. so she was three going on four. And at the time,
Speaker:single mother, I got into our first apartment and
Speaker:I was hustling. Okay. I was working so much. I
Speaker:did. I went from pregnant working three jobs to now having a business
Speaker:doing the job of three people, essentially. So that journey
Speaker:was really tough. Um, and. What
Speaker:was disheartening was I was ignoring my own financials
Speaker:while paying attention to everyone else's. I know that there's like some, when you have
Speaker:a business, right, your trauma shows up in your business. The,
Speaker:your mindset shows up in your business. Your business is a mirror of who
Speaker:you are at that moment. And I had to face a lot of things. I
Speaker:was still, you know, navigating my twenties, navigating motherhood, navigating a
Speaker:whole, a whole business. And because I
Speaker:was ignoring my own financials, right. I
Speaker:suffered financial rock bottom in 2018.
Speaker:And, um, thankfully my daughter didn't like
Speaker:feel right. Feel that thankfully, but I felt it
Speaker:and it was extremely stressful. And I,
Speaker:and at the time when I mentioned that she has great memories, she,
Speaker:She understood that I wasn't as attentive as I was today.
Speaker:I really wasn't. And she knew that I was
Speaker:always working. You know, I was always like, she was three, four when you, when
Speaker:your child turns three, if anyone has a three year old, you know, it's hard
Speaker:to go to sleep. Okay. She was very,
Speaker:um, I wouldn't say outspoken, but she definitely spoke her mind not
Speaker:in like a crazy way, but she, because I would talk to
Speaker:her and like, um, Even as a baby, as I would anyone else,
Speaker:she was, she had a high vocabulary, so she was able to
Speaker:articulate her thoughts really well. So that was
Speaker:interesting because, you know, here I am, single mother,
Speaker:um, with financial rock bottom, like struggling to kind of get
Speaker:her to Really making enough to pay the bills and to get her through
Speaker:daycare and thank God when she went to pre k
Speaker:that was free, right? so
Speaker:So, um as I went through financial rock bottom in 2018
Speaker:I promised myself that I would never go to that low point
Speaker:again, and I would treat my financials like I would a client
Speaker:So I was doing my, I was acting like I was my own
Speaker:accountant, my own CFO doing my numbers every single
Speaker:week. And, um, that next year I made six figures. I
Speaker:doubled my income that following year and I was, I, I
Speaker:saved, bought my baby and I a home,
Speaker:got myself a new car and everything. So it was just,
Speaker:I was able to understand with motherhood some,
Speaker:it was a whole nother step, right? I wasn't just focused on myself. I
Speaker:had to switch my life to be life first
Speaker:versus having my business and whatever time was left over
Speaker:was for my family. I had to switch that around. And, um,
Speaker:honestly, Even when I, um,
Speaker:shifted in business and I was more successful, I
Speaker:still worked a lot. And then when I went through spiritual rock
Speaker:bottom in 2022 is when I was like, okay, something has to
Speaker:change. And that's
Speaker:when now I live a much softer life in a
Speaker:way. You know, I still am, I have more energy to kind of work hard
Speaker:in sprints, but I'm really, um,
Speaker:Focused on how can I actually create a life
Speaker:first business, right? My hours are now from like 10 to three. My daughter
Speaker:comes home typically at three, sometimes a little bit earlier from the bus.
Speaker:So I'm able to like, focus on her. She's 10 at this point now. So
Speaker:she does have her little life where she has her social life going out with
Speaker:friends, hanging outside. Um, so those times
Speaker:I used to kind of like focus on other things in the business or even
Speaker:my own personal wellness. And that's a part of, uh,
Speaker:What I believe in harmonious both is like, how can you have,
Speaker:uh, not necessarily balanced, but a life of harmony where all
Speaker:areas of your life is tended to versus just one.
Speaker:Right. And then also how can you avoid idolizing
Speaker:your business and idolizing selling? Right? Because.
Speaker:While having a business as a major milestone is not the only thing,
Speaker:it doesn't define you. And that's what I had to learn,
Speaker:heal from my own trauma, heal from all these different things, right? Go through
Speaker:the breakdowns, the, the rock bottoms and all those things to come
Speaker:in the end of like, you know what? I need to
Speaker:really put God first. I need to really put family first. I need to really
Speaker:like shift how I'm thinking and how, how I'm operating business.
Speaker:And you know, if you're as my, as a mom.
Speaker:It's going to be the best option for you is creating a
Speaker:life first business.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:so many good things. And of course, it's such an alignment with
Speaker:what we believe here at the mom CEO suite. Um,
Speaker:but if you could, you mentioned how you were at, you know, rock bottom kind
Speaker:of in your life and business. And then you mentioned you
Speaker:really looked at your financials. But then after that, the next year,
Speaker:you had a really successful year. And I know there's people
Speaker:listening who maybe they're not at rock bottom, but they're still trying to get
Speaker:to that success that they know is
Speaker:possible, but there it's been a struggle for them to get there. Right.
Speaker:Um, so do you have any, just from your experience, um,
Speaker:just tangible advice for someone who might be in that transition
Speaker:and were there other things that you did to get to that, um, uh, Um,
Speaker:place of success, what that looked like for you.
Speaker:So I did bookkeeping for both my personal finances, right?
Speaker:Have we have to create, I like to call it a personal
Speaker:spending plan. If you don't like the word budget, have a personal
Speaker:spending plan. Look at your numbers every single
Speaker:week, if not day, but don't put too much pressure on
Speaker:yourself. Do it every week. And then I did my business
Speaker:bookkeeping. And with that, I looked
Speaker:at if my goal, if I have a goal
Speaker:for revenue, I'm building momentum every single week.
Speaker:Right. And how can I increase my monthly recurring
Speaker:revenue as much as possible so that I'm not starting from
Speaker:zero revenue every single month? I'm building on what I already
Speaker:have. And then how can I ensure that I'm pricing for
Speaker:profit? So pricing for profit means your, your
Speaker:price. And then after your expenses, so say, if you have a
Speaker:team after your team calls for every
Speaker:unit, Of sale. So say if I have CFO
Speaker:services 2000 a month, I need to know exactly how much it
Speaker:costs per client for the digital
Speaker:software. I need to know how much it costs per team member. And we
Speaker:have, um, specific budgeted hours. So
Speaker:then I know, okay, this is what my profitability looks like for
Speaker:every single client. And then that way, when you're pricing
Speaker:for profit, you're able to go. Then focus on how do you
Speaker:deliver the best service. It's like, of course you're focusing on that, but
Speaker:it's like you're at least making profit in that offer.
Speaker:And, um, looking at your expenses is going to
Speaker:be important. I talked about like, Understanding like
Speaker:what each line item is is against your
Speaker:revenue. So I call it percentage of revenue. Um, so what,
Speaker:what is your software according to your total revenue? If it's over
Speaker:5%, you need to consider decreasing it. If your
Speaker:team is over 30 percent of your revenue, then that means you need to consider
Speaker:decreasing your team because we know we love to pay our team, but what are
Speaker:some things that we can do with automations or our processes that can
Speaker:eliminate having To do it, but then only
Speaker:focusing the work right that you absolutely need
Speaker:and concising it so that you're saving your business money. You're saving
Speaker:someone's time and you're not underpaying someone because you can't
Speaker:afford it. And you're paying them a couple of dollars an hour. Right?
Speaker:So, um, and also patients, you know, having patients
Speaker:and I've read James 1,
Speaker:4 last night and I was like meditating on it and it was like
Speaker:having a patience and not grumbling and
Speaker:not complaining and how you can show up in your business in that way.
Speaker:Um, so I hope this helps like tangible, but then
Speaker:also your mind understanding
Speaker:that this can happen for you and having that faith without
Speaker:complaint. So, so good. A wealth
Speaker:of just knowledge, resources,
Speaker:wisdom, things to think about and consider. And so I definitely
Speaker:would encourage you all to take a listen, subscribe to her
Speaker:podcast because it's going to be the same type of thing. Right. And you all
Speaker:need this in your life. You need this in your life. So Ayana,
Speaker:let people know how they can connect with you. And if you have anything coming
Speaker:up that you want to share, share that as well. Yes. So you can
Speaker:connect with me on Instagram at lovely
Speaker:financials. Also my website, lovely financials.
Speaker:com. And if you want weekly emails about
Speaker:topics like this, as well as understanding how to harness
Speaker:your wealth within go to lovely financials. com slash
Speaker:wealth, and you'll be a part of the community.
Speaker:Absolutely amazing. And we will link all of that in our
Speaker:show descriptions. Ayana, thank you again so much for being here
Speaker:with us today and we'll see you in the next episode.
Speaker:Thank you thank you for listening to the Mom CEO
Speaker:Suite Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, can you do us a
Speaker:favor? Leave a review on iTunes and share with other
Speaker:moms in business like you. Help us spread our message and empower
Speaker:others who are at this intersection of motherhood and
Speaker:entrepreneurship.
