Shownotes
As business owners, the start of the New Year is an easy opportunity to reevaluate our businesses, reflecting back on what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what we’re focused on throughout the next 12 months.
And that goes for your business finances too.
In this episode, Sydney and Kristen dive into the 12 things every business owner should do at the start of the year to help understand their finances, evaluate their income and spending, and plot goals for the year ahead.
These 12 focus areas will allow you to get a full understanding of your business finances and help you see what’s needed to achieve your financial goals in the New Year.
02:08 – Financial planning
02:14 – Tax planning
02:39 – Reflect on the previous year
06:29 – Set clear goals
10:29 – Review and update your business plan
12:01 – Evaluate your marketing strategies
14:42 – Employee review and development
16:42 – Technology
17:56 – Customer feedback
19:44 – Risk management
22:58 – Networking
31:14 – Personal and professional development
33:14 – Share your 2024 goals with us!
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Website: https://knowyourworthpgh.com/
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Transcripts
It's really a good time again to start implementing and evaluating
Speaker:those at the beginning of the year because it's very easy to say to your
Speaker:clients and to your team, Hey, the new year, we're changing this process.
Speaker:We're implementing this system.
Speaker:We're getting new softwares, Hey, bear with us for a minute.
Speaker:The new year, this starts.
Speaker:Welcome to the Know Your Worth Show, where we teach you how to think about
Speaker:your money differently so that you can achieve your sexy money goals.
Speaker:I'm Sydnee your money Maven and owner of Know Your Worth.
Speaker:And I'm Kristen Sid's Dimepiece bestie team member and busy mama
Speaker:twins here to make sure that those of us without a financial degree can
Speaker:still level up with each episode.
Speaker:Let's get started on reaching your next goal.
Speaker:2024.
Speaker:Everybody.
Speaker:Welcome to the know your worth podcast.
Speaker:I am one of your hosts, Sydney or money Maven.
Speaker:And I am Sid's dime piece bestie and assistant and all the things.
Speaker:Kristen.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:. We are in the new year.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:How does it feel?
Speaker:God, I like a fresh start.
Speaker:Me too.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I love New Year.
Speaker:It's just makes me so happy.
Speaker:I love a good planning session.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I'll crash.
Speaker:You set?
Speaker:Burned by February right now I'm just going to ride that new field.
Speaker:No, you're going to just ride the high all year.
Speaker:Long year.
Speaker:All year.
Speaker:All year.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:It's going to be so good.
Speaker:It's going to be the best year there ever was.
Speaker:So what do you have for us today?
Speaker:So in the theme of the new year and starting fresh, we are going
Speaker:to talk about the 12 things that every business owner should do
Speaker:in the beginning of the new year.
Speaker:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I thought it would be a good way to start fresh.
Speaker:We're not going to dive in too deep with anything.
Speaker:You know, sticky like taxes just yet.
Speaker:Yeah, just dip into the new year.
Speaker:We're going to stay positive for a little bit.
Speaker:We're not going to worry about taxes just yet.
Speaker:We're going to be all, light and glowy and think about all the positive things
Speaker:and all the growth mindset we have before we Go down that rabbit hole.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Start us off.
Speaker:So the 12 things So should I go through the whole list of 12 things first
Speaker:or should we just get right into it?
Speaker:I think we get right into it okay.
Speaker:The first two we're just going to touch on because we go very in depth
Speaker:with these in the coming episodes.
Speaker:So a financial planning for the year and tax planning for the year.
Speaker:The first two
Speaker:financial planning for the year is going to be things like retirement
Speaker:planning, investment planning structuring your finances and things like that.
Speaker:And then tax planning is obviously.
Speaker:A little bit more in depth tax planning.
Speaker:That's going to be your business and your personal stuff.
Speaker:So we're going to get into both of those really heavily in the coming episodes.
Speaker:We're not going to dig into too much to those right now.
Speaker:We're going to just leave it right there, actually.
Speaker:All right, and we're going to have guests for those, too.
Speaker:We are, yes.
Speaker:We will have our first.
Speaker:So exciting.
Speaker:Who do you think it's going to be?
Speaker:You'll find out.
Speaker:We're not going to tell you right now.
Speaker:But, we are going to go on to number three.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Number three is going to be Reflect on the Previous Year.
Speaker:Okay pretty simple start, makes sense, sort of self explanatory here, but there
Speaker:are some good tips to this that we have.
Speaker:So when you're reflecting on the previous year, you want to evaluate your business's
Speaker:performance over the last year, so having those relevant financial statements
Speaker:are going to be crucial for this.
Speaker:You want to identify what worked well and what didn't work so well, and
Speaker:then consider some of the financial metrics that are important to you.
Speaker:So do you have any KPIs for your business that are, really particular
Speaker:to you that you want to really drill into or take some oversight there.
Speaker:Okay, so let me ask you a question as I know you're worth.
Speaker:Can your clients schedule a meeting with you and be like, Hey, I just want to
Speaker:talk about like everything that happened last year and how I can move forward.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Do you like doing that with people?
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:It feels like something you like.
Speaker:I really do.
Speaker:So I love to do those meetings with business owners that have
Speaker:especially the ones that are like as giddy as I am to go through it.
Speaker:It's such a fun time and especially the clients that we have that are excited to
Speaker:bounce ideas off of other people, because that's where I think I get a lot of the
Speaker:satisfaction out of being involved in lots of businesses is I get to help them
Speaker:with parts that I wouldn't normally.
Speaker:So like, do we have marketing ideas?
Speaker:Do we have, yeah.
Speaker:Sales strategy ideas.
Speaker:Do we have more things and how can we then build that into their financial
Speaker:statements and their budget for the year?
Speaker:So I love doing those.
Speaker:I love doing those meetings.
Speaker:I think they're really fun.
Speaker:I was just thinking too as you're talking, you have such a wide range
Speaker:of businesses that you work with.
Speaker:You have florists and boutiques and then you have Law firms and construction.
Speaker:Yeah, so you get to see the whole spectrum of it.
Speaker:That's pretty neat.
Speaker:It is cool it's definitely scratches all the itches for me of not needing
Speaker:to go and find a new job because I can just Pick a different industry
Speaker:for a day or a week and feel like I'm in like a totally different spot.
Speaker:So as much as I can, but yeah, I really enjoyed that part of it.
Speaker:It is really fun.
Speaker:When you're reflecting on your previous year, one of the big tips that I got
Speaker:from a couple of different books and podcasts that I've listened to is again,
Speaker:when you're doing this review, try to get as specific as possible with your time.
Speaker:If you are not someone that tracks your time, that's fine.
Speaker:You can do what's called a calendar audit.
Speaker:If you do have a calendar, I know I do.
Speaker:I'm obsessed with my calendar.
Speaker:You mean like a Google calendar It can be anything.
Speaker:It can be a written calendar, a Google calendar, just any way that
Speaker:you keep track of your schedule.
Speaker:So if it's a Google calendar, see if you can go and export your 2023.
Speaker:And see all of the meetings that you had, all the events, the plans, and highlight
Speaker:what days went well or were planned out and highlight what days weren't, or that
Speaker:if you see a meeting and you were like, this was terrible, or give yourself that
Speaker:overview of What sticks out as pain points and what sticks out as really high points
Speaker:or if you're looking at it, when was it periods of like really intense pressure?
Speaker:What were periods of just like easier times that felt really good?
Speaker:And did you do something specific during those time frames that
Speaker:you can either mimic or avoid?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I really like doing that.
Speaker:This is probably not the first year, but this is the most in depth my
Speaker:calendar has ever been this past year.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I'm really excited to do it this year because I think I also probably
Speaker:should set a timer for myself for thisbecause I could probably go really,
Speaker:really deep into some of this stuff.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I should probably set a limit for how long I go into it.
Speaker:But the calendar audit is something that's really fun just to give you a little Kind
Speaker:of immediate pain points of like, when do you remember feeling really stressed?
Speaker:When do you remember feeling really great?
Speaker:Were there periods where like you felt really healthy?
Speaker:Were there periods where you really didn't feel very healthy?
Speaker:And then look at the meetings around those times.
Speaker:Look at what was booked around those times.
Speaker:See, is it a recurring person that you were around during that time?
Speaker:Was it a recurring client that you were around during that time?
Speaker:Was it something that you didn't get to the gym during this whole time frame?
Speaker:Figure out what was the cause of the feelings and then that will
Speaker:help you process for the new year and plan a little bit better.
Speaker:Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I always enjoy doing that.
Speaker:I'm very excited to do that one this year.
Speaker:And the next one is to set clear goals.
Speaker:We're always setting goals over here.
Speaker:I think that's one of my favorite things to constantly do is have goals for the
Speaker:minute, the day, the hour, no I'm kidding.
Speaker:But I do have a lot of goals.
Speaker:I will write down my to do list every day.
Speaker:I will write down my to do list every week.
Speaker:I have monthly goals, I have quarterly goals, I have yearly goals, and I
Speaker:have my five, ten, twenty, whatever goals that are always changing around.
Speaker:But I love to track and set goals.
Speaker:I feel like I'm a very goal oriented person.
Speaker:Was it your pap or somebody that said what's next or now what?
Speaker:Always, yeah.
Speaker:Or was it, what is it?
Speaker:Always.
Speaker:He was like, okay, what next?
Speaker:What next?
Speaker:Always, yeah.
Speaker:Or now what?
Speaker:It was one of the other things.
Speaker:Alright, so what are you going to do about it now?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Great, it worked.
Speaker:But what are you going to do?
Speaker:What are you going to do next?
Speaker:I wanted you to tell everybody what you and Alex do with your goal
Speaker:setting and the champagne bottle.
Speaker:Because I think goal setting can get like a little, overwhelming.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Or sometimes when you're somebody who is so gore inted, when you accomplish one,
Speaker:you just zoom past it and go to the next thing and forget to celebrate yourself.
Speaker:So I love this.
Speaker:So tell them.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:So what Alex started doing for me a couple years ago, and we've carried it
Speaker:to a couple different pieces now, is every year for Christmas, one of the
Speaker:presents that he gets me is a, like a really nice bottle of champagne.
Speaker:So every year it's just a really cool bottle.
Speaker:It's either a really pretty bottle, a really different bottle, one
Speaker:we've never had maybe a pricier one, maybe a highly recommended one.
Speaker:Last year it was like a really pretty multicolored one that the box like
Speaker:rotated around when you pulled a tab and it was like oranges and reds.
Speaker:It was like really vibrant box.
Speaker:It was super cool.
Speaker:But what we do on it is we pick a goal for the year, or mostly I pick a goal for
Speaker:the year But I do want it to be something that's going to benefit both of us for
Speaker:the most part Because when I open this bottle, we're both going to drink it.
Speaker:So I want it to be for both of us so we have done this every year for
Speaker:the past like six years, I think and Yeah, it is a really fun process.
Speaker:So we either put a post it note on the box or we'll put a bow on the box with
Speaker:what we're doing, or we then got a little bit more, we're doing this throughout
Speaker:the year with maybe just regular bottles of champagne too, like your Classic, you
Speaker:know, Lamarca or, you know, some, the Andre, you know, go get your Andre bottle.
Speaker:That's fine too.
Speaker:And get out your silver Sharpie and you can write right on the bottle.
Speaker:And those ones are really fun too.
Speaker:And sometimes we'll put the bottles out on like our bookshelf or at like
Speaker:our house, we'll have them on our countertop with what the goal is.
Speaker:And then whenever we hit that goal, we drink the bottle of champagne.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:That's so much fun.
Speaker:Yeah, it is really fun.
Speaker:So this past year was Alex quitting his job.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we had Alex quitting his job and a 30 under 30.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:30 under 30, but we got 30 under 30.
Speaker:Really fast.
Speaker:So it happened like in January.
Speaker:Yeah, I think we got the call in January and that's always been a big goal of mine.
Speaker:So I won Pittsburgh 30 under 30 and we, yeah, we got the call in January.
Speaker:So I'm like this was my goal, but I can't open it yet.
Speaker:Like I need something else.
Speaker:So then the goal was for Alex to quit his job and be full time at OUYA Worth.
Speaker:And we did that in April.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So that was fun.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:That was pretty fun.
Speaker:It was really cool.
Speaker:So any ways that you can make.
Speaker:Set the goal, but then how am I going to stop and recognize
Speaker:myself, too, when it happens?
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:Yeah, and that's always tough.
Speaker:I'm someone that loves to celebrate.
Speaker:I'm a big fan of celebrations and fun.
Speaker:But I do have to stop myself and actually soak it in sometimes,
Speaker:because I am very quick to move to, okay, what's the next one?
Speaker:What's the next step?
Speaker:What's the next tier?
Speaker:And make sure you enjoy it there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I feel like you could stay and celebrate somebody else for a really long time,
Speaker:but when it's you, you're just like, meh.
Speaker:Yep, move on.
Speaker:Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker:I love a celebration.
Speaker:Yeah, you do.
Speaker:It's like Kristen got me a pair of champagne bottle earrings for
Speaker:Christmas last year, I think, right?
Speaker:Or my birthday?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I love them.
Speaker:I wear them all the time.because life's a party, man.
Speaker:Life's a party.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Life is a party.
Speaker:It's great.
Speaker:So yeah, setting clear goals is huge.
Speaker:Make sure that they have a time bound to them.
Speaker:You set the plan, you do a smart goal planning session but setting those
Speaker:clear goals for yourself and for your business is going to be a big part
Speaker:of kicking off the new year, right?
Speaker:That one's sort of a no brainer there.
Speaker:Don't know where you're going if you don't decide.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:So the next one is review and update your business plan.
Speaker:If you have a business plan and I would highly recommend this activity
Speaker:for everybody if you've had a business and you don't have a business plan.
Speaker:What are you in business for?
Speaker:What's your business plan?
Speaker:What's the point of your business?
Speaker:Where do you want to go with it?
Speaker:What do you want to do with it?
Speaker:So review and update that business plan or create the business plan.
Speaker:If you have never had one it will just guide you along to make sure that
Speaker:whenever opportunities come, that they are in line with your values for your
Speaker:business and your values for yourself.
Speaker:And they're in line with what the ultimate goal is for the business.
Speaker:It'll help you keep on the path.
Speaker:Yeah, is there like a template for a business plan?
Speaker:There's a bunch actually, but some of them are really like not unnecessary,
Speaker:but if you were submitting like a business plan to like an investor
Speaker:or a bank, they're really built out.
Speaker:So you can go onto Canva and make a business plan.
Speaker:You can go to chat GTP now and make a business plan.
Speaker:So if you went into chat GTP and said, I have this business, I
Speaker:want to make this much money in one year, three year, five years.
Speaker:I want to have kind of five employees down the road.
Speaker:This is the product that we offer.
Speaker:Develop and say, can you write me a business plan and just see what comes
Speaker:out and then tailor it from there.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I never thought about doing it on chat GTP.
Speaker:Love chat GTP.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Do you have a business plan?
Speaker:Have you ever created a business plan?
Speaker:I don't think I have.
Speaker:We should put one together.
Speaker:Like me and you should have a day where we retool and make our business plan.
Speaker:Hey, if we can have snacks and like champagne, celebrate
Speaker:making a business plan.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We're going to do it.
Speaker:So then the next step to that is evaluate your marketing strategies.
Speaker:So how did you gain sales last year?
Speaker:Where did your sales come from and what's the plan for this year?
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So sitting and thinking about what was the effectiveness of the.
Speaker:Marketing strategy that you did last year.
Speaker:Did you do ads on Facebook?
Speaker:Did you do Google ads?
Speaker:Did you track on Google analytics?
Speaker:Did you, you know, have a referral program?
Speaker:Like what did you use for your marketing strategy last year?
Speaker:Think about how you can gain new sales.
Speaker:I think a lot of the time we want our sales to come from one spot.
Speaker:And they don't like somewhere we don't expect.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And I think that Instagram is a little, not a trap, but Instagram can be like
Speaker:the thing that you think you need to spend a lot of money on is social
Speaker:media and really investing there.
Speaker:It might not be the best option for you.
Speaker:So thinking about not necessarily what everyone else in the market's doing, but.
Speaker:What do you need to do for your business?
Speaker:The golf academy is a really hyper local business.
Speaker:So like advertising on Instagram is one thing, but if somebody in
Speaker:the South hills of Pittsburgh sees it, they're probably not going to
Speaker:drive their kid to the North hills.
Speaker:So we're probably better off posting in the neighbors of, Gibsonia pages or the
Speaker:neighbors of Alison park or, specific.
Speaker:neighborhood group pages, and if we do ads, that's where we should maybe do our
Speaker:ads so that they just see it literally every day rather than getting the whole
Speaker:of Pittsburgh, for a couple weeks.
Speaker:But we get this hyper local group a couple times, so think
Speaker:about it from that perspective.
Speaker:And what is your business?
Speaker:Like my sister in law with her boutique, Instagram is huge for her
Speaker:because she gets on and makes videos and shows what she has in stock.
Speaker:All these people see it, but for us at Know Your Worth, Instagram is more of a,
Speaker:I'm going to use this person, but I want to just go do a deep dive on what kind of
Speaker:business they have or what do they know?
Speaker:What do they share?
Speaker:So ours is more like a catalog of here's all the things we know and do.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:We're reputable.
Speaker:This is real.
Speaker:It's educational.
Speaker:It's informational.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:You get a little bit of our personality, a little bit of our
Speaker:business background, but we're not necessarily selling on Instagram.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And we probably could do a little bit more this year, especially with
Speaker:the podcast I could probably put my face on stories a little bit
Speaker:more.because when I did do that, it was helpful, but sometimes that's hard.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Did you really?
Speaker:That's how Danny and I found you through your content days.
Speaker:No way.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I'm going to get back on.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I take it back.
Speaker:I'm like, I know I'm going to get back on Instagram.
Speaker:I'm going to get back on Instagram.
Speaker:I'm going to put my face on there.
Speaker:Don't find No new friends public threats on podcasts anyways, too funny Yeah.
Speaker:So evaluate those marketing strategies, see where people are coming from,
Speaker:make sure you're asking your current clients how they found you.
Speaker:Did they find you through referrals or Instagram, social media
Speaker:just searching on the internet?
Speaker:How did they find you?
Speaker:And lean into that a little bit.
Speaker:Number seven.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Number seven.
Speaker:Number seven.
Speaker:It's a big one.
Speaker:It's a, it's fine.
Speaker:It's a, it's employee review and development.
Speaker:It's review your employees see what their kind of workload is, see
Speaker:what their happiness levels are at, see what their development's at.
Speaker:Do you need to provide more training opportunities?
Speaker:Do you need more?
Speaker:Do you need more staffing?
Speaker:Are they overworked?
Speaker:Are they underperforming?
Speaker:Do a deep dive, look at those employees and see where.
Speaker:Maybe you could have some room for improvement with your employees.
Speaker:And I would say that when you said that, Kristen, I'm just getting internal dread.
Speaker:Get out of here.
Speaker:I don't want an employee.
Speaker:So I I did my employee review yesterday and Kristen passed with flying colors.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:That's right there.
Speaker:So my employee review this year was.
Speaker:Pretty quick.
Speaker:It was fantastic.
Speaker:Our team is really wonderful and we have such a great group of people.
Speaker:So this year, what I want to do is really see what everybody's personal goals are
Speaker:and how can know you're worth help with personal goals and also career goals.
Speaker:So can we go to more?
Speaker:Conferences or trainings, or does anybody want to do any more continuing education
Speaker:or get certifications in anything?
Speaker:That's one of my big goals for this year.
Speaker:And then the 401k plan we were talking about so that they have some benefits too.
Speaker:Nice.
Speaker:But we just onboarded a couple people to Know Your Worth.
Speaker:And we're really excited to dig in deeper with a lot of the new
Speaker:people that we have starting.
Speaker:So my employee review and development happened a little bit last month,
Speaker:but then we were going to true it up even more as we hit the ground
Speaker:running with these new people.
Speaker:I think a new year is always a good time to, if you do have a sticky
Speaker:situation with an employee or something just to say Hey, we're all starting
Speaker:fresh and you can address those issues.
Speaker:And it's not like weird.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's a good clear cutoff, but yeah, it's just like the same thing goes for clients.
Speaker:Yeah, you're right.
Speaker:The same thing goes for clients.
Speaker:It's it just gives you a nice.
Speaker:Hey, in the new year, this is what's going to change.
Speaker:In the new year, we're reevaluating things.
Speaker:This is a new priority for us.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:No, it's, that's absolutely true.
Speaker:For number eight, we're going to do a technology and systems check.
Speaker:Your technology and your systems take a look.
Speaker:Are there any processes that you feel like are really slow?
Speaker:Are there any technologies that you have that you feel like
Speaker:really are detrimental to you?
Speaker:Do you have a really old laptop that just like crashes every other day?
Speaker:Would it be really helpful to have an iPad for people to sign in or register when
Speaker:they come into your place of business?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Do you have a good CRM to manage your clients in and are you getting that
Speaker:information accurately, efficiently, and is it helping your business or
Speaker:is that something that's hurting you or holding you back in your business?
Speaker:Are there new systems that could be implemented?
Speaker:So for bookkeeping, there's a couple of different systems that are like
Speaker:extremely helpful for our month end processes and closes and our client
Speaker:management and It's really a good time again to start implementing and
Speaker:evaluating those at the beginning of the year because it's very easy to say to
Speaker:your clients and to your team, Hey, the new year, we're changing this process.
Speaker:We're implementing this system.
Speaker:We're getting new softwares, Hey, bear with us for a minute.
Speaker:The new year, this starts.
Speaker:So it's the perfect time for that too, because I think everybody's
Speaker:a little bit more willing to.
Speaker:Work with people on new systems and processes and implementations too, right?
Speaker:for number nine, we're going to do some customer feedback.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I would recommend reaching out to your clients and getting
Speaker:some feedback from them.
Speaker:Send surveys you can get insights testimonials.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:And I think those are really good spots too.
Speaker:hear from your clients to then make changes there.
Speaker:So what are they happy with?
Speaker:What are they not happy with?
Speaker:You might learn some new things that you didn't know your
Speaker:clients cared about these things.
Speaker:And they could be really good things that you're doing that maybe you
Speaker:weren't going to continue that service.
Speaker:And if you don't ask your clients for some of that feedback, you
Speaker:might not continue to do it.
Speaker:So again, it's a perfect time.
Speaker:No client is going to be shocked by an end of year survey.
Speaker:It's pretty standard.
Speaker:It's pretty normal.
Speaker:So I think that's a great way to kick off the New Year's with one of those two.
Speaker:I think on the spin side of that is your own Satisfaction with the clients that
Speaker:you work with and are you billing them?
Speaker:What is appropriate for the workload that you're doing for them?
Speaker:And does that need to be changed in the new year?because that's a good time
Speaker:to like, we're changing our prices.
Speaker:This is your new proposal.
Speaker:This is the work we did for you last year.
Speaker:And we're severely undercharging you.
Speaker:But without doing that.
Speaker:Yeah, just like how happy am I with the people that I work with?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:It's definitely a good thing to do internally.
Speaker:Yeah, we did that at Know Your Worth a few few days ago.
Speaker:That was fun.
Speaker:Yep, it's fine.
Speaker:No there was some oversight on my part on one of our client's bills.
Speaker:I hadn't set up the recurring bill in the system.
Speaker:So it was a really good check for me to see Oh crap.
Speaker:I didn't set up the recurring bill.
Speaker:So we had to get that set up and email the client to just let
Speaker:them know that nothing was wrong.
Speaker:We weren't, it was just an oversight on our part.
Speaker:We're going to start it now.
Speaker:You know, we're not going to go back and make them pay
Speaker:for the oversight on my part.
Speaker:yeah, so it's, that's a great time to do it.
Speaker:It's a great spot to be in as evaluating the current clients that you have and
Speaker:your satisfaction with them, and then also getting some of their feedback for you.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:Number 10.
Speaker:Number 10 is risk management.
Speaker:Oh, it gives us a little bit of a chill here.
Speaker:so whenever I think about this, I look back and I try to think of all of the
Speaker:struggles that my clients had this year.
Speaker:So what were any of the like dumpster fires, you know, like that's truly what
Speaker:I try to say is like friends and family who went through it this year, like
Speaker:who had something that they were like.
Speaker:I do not want this to happen to me or wow, if I was in this
Speaker:position, that would stink.
Speaker:And if you don't have anybody around you that went through
Speaker:anything like that's great.
Speaker:Bless, you know, your family, your friends are all good.
Speaker:Please, like you were good.
Speaker:But so maybe think about what are some of the scariest parts of your business?
Speaker:What are you the most worried about?
Speaker:And how can you Mitigate those risks.
Speaker:So is it getting insurance?
Speaker:Isn't updating your contracts?
Speaker:Is it reaching out to certain vendors or certain people that you know are
Speaker:you're behind on, or you haven't heard back from them, just getting ahead of
Speaker:those things to mitigate any of the risky things that your business might
Speaker:be not necessarily doing if you're doing risky things, but just the
Speaker:operations are making you uncomfortable.
Speaker:You know, what can you do to.
Speaker:Sleep better at night.
Speaker:Sleep better at night.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:That makes sense.
Speaker:So consulting with a lawyer, consulting with your bookkeeper
Speaker:and your tax accountant.
Speaker:Talking to other business owners.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:ask them what did they go through?
Speaker:What was really hard for them this year?
Speaker:I know I've talked about some of the things that were really hard
Speaker:for me this year, but making sure you file things with the IRS on
Speaker:time and getting tracking for it.
Speaker:Because even if you do, you want to make sure.
Speaker:So what's risk mitigation?
Speaker:Anytime you send something to the IRS.
Speaker:Get a timestamp for it.
Speaker:Make sure that you know all the deadlines, put them in your calendar
Speaker:ahead of time so that you're well in advance of the deadlines on things.
Speaker:That was one of the things I went through this year that was really annoying
Speaker:that I don't want to have to do again.
Speaker:So I want to make sure this year we're like so far ahead of the deadline
Speaker:that there's not even the opportunity.
Speaker:we Did a lot of our contracts and updates last year, so I feel pretty good about
Speaker:our contracts going into this year, but I do want to go on and evaluate some
Speaker:of the one off services that we do.
Speaker:Should there be additional stipulations in there for certain consulting projects
Speaker:that we have, where are we using the right language and terminology and our
Speaker:deliverables and things like that, that we're making sure we're covered with some
Speaker:of the new segments that we're going into.
Speaker:So those are some of the ways that we're going through risk mitigation.
Speaker:The other way that you can also go through risk mitigation
Speaker:is credit versus debit card.
Speaker:All the banks say that credit cards are just the better thing to be
Speaker:using because if someone steals your information, the credit card
Speaker:company will refund you the money.
Speaker:If your debit card is stolen and someone swipes your debit card, it
Speaker:goes into an entire investigation that you might not get that money back.
Speaker:Oh wow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So credit card companies, if you claim fraud and someone stole that card
Speaker:information, you shut it off, the credit card company will give you the money back.
Speaker:The bank for the debit card might not give you the money back.
Speaker:So that's a scary thing sometimes to think about, but it's one of the ways
Speaker:that you can easily mitigate risk.
Speaker:If you are a credit averse person, you don't want to use credit cards, you don't
Speaker:want to use debt to finance your business.
Speaker:That's fine.
Speaker:See what your monthly transactions are and know that you can pay off that
Speaker:credit card every month or use and swipe the credit card just when you know
Speaker:you're in where are you ordering from?
Speaker:Where are you purchasing from?
Speaker:Is there a potential for someone to take your information in this capacity?
Speaker:Use the credit card over the debit card.
Speaker:Interesting.
Speaker:Good tips.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Number 11 is networking and relationship building.
Speaker:My favorite.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:This is high up on our list this year.
Speaker:So good.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You too.
Speaker:You're coming with me.
Speaker:I get to go to events with you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Fun.
Speaker:How do you feel about networking events?
Speaker:How do I feel about networking events?
Speaker:I'm like Sid's introverted counterpart.
Speaker:So I like the food and the drinks and I like to be alone in a corner or
Speaker:behind Sid as she just works the room.
Speaker:I love networking.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:There was a meme the other day and it was like, do you ever go out
Speaker:with your friend who feels like they're the mayor and you're just
Speaker:there like, holding their purse.
Speaker:Huh.
Speaker:Yes, that's me.
Speaker:Yeah, and it's funnybecause then when I say that out loud I hope that
Speaker:doesn't make me sound like an ass.
Speaker:Oh, sorry, am I allowed to swear on here?
Speaker:I guess I can't, it's my podcast.
Speaker:Yeah, it's your podcast.because it doesn't make me sound like an ass.
Speaker:But I do love, I love networking events.
Speaker:I love, it does.
Speaker:I love public speaking.
Speaker:I love chatting with people.
Speaker:I love to hear what they're doing and their businesses and what they're up to.
Speaker:And it really does.
Speaker:It makes me feel really good.
Speaker:And it's funny because like, when you say you have, are you ever with someone
Speaker:that you feel like they're the mayor?
Speaker:And that's like my dad to a T, you know, like anywhere I go with my dad,
Speaker:I'm like, he's the mayor, you know?
Speaker:So it's you feel that way about me when I'm with my dad.
Speaker:It's nah, I'm going to let him go.
Speaker:He's just going to walk around and know every single person in this room.
Speaker:Yep, and I'm just going to sit back and watch Yeah, I can't
Speaker:ever picture you sitting back and watching like a social situation.
Speaker:Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Oh my gosh walking around with my parents I mean like they always wanted us to
Speaker:interact and talk with everybody and that's probably why I Like it so much just
Speaker:because we were very much forced into it but Yeah, when my dad just goes around
Speaker:the room and just chats you just take a seat and just listen Yeah, you just nod.
Speaker:Yeah agree and go along with it.
Speaker:It's great.
Speaker:I love watching him He's really just loves being around people.
Speaker:He likes to talk more than anyone I've ever met including myself And it's great.
Speaker:I think that he's a big part of the reason why I really enjoy it, too so
Speaker:it is a lot of fun and my mom too she just loves chatting with everybody
Speaker:and hearing all their stories and but she's a really good listener too, so
Speaker:yeah, and they're business owners.
Speaker:You get the value of that and I understand the value of it.
Speaker:It's just not in my skill.
Speaker:Yeah, no, I totally get that.
Speaker:I totally get that.
Speaker:Once I'm comfortable and I can make friends and I can do those things.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It depletes my social battery.
Speaker:Whereas you go and you're like filled to the brim and excited and
Speaker:don't want to go to sleep at night.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And I'm like, get out of my way.
Speaker:I got to get to my bed.
Speaker:And there are certain networking events that I think are a lot
Speaker:more beneficial than other ones.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I went to a couple this past year that were, like, roundtable networking events
Speaker:or speed dating networking events.
Speaker:Oh!
Speaker:Yeah, so it was pretty neat.
Speaker:What we did was you came in and you got a piece of paper that said table
Speaker:numbers and for the first You know, 10 minutes you were at this table number
Speaker:and then a random number and then a random number and then a random number.
Speaker:Yeah, so you know, after 10 minutes you got up and you walked around.
Speaker:And so what was really easy was you were just around in a circle.
Speaker:Everybody had their business cards in front of them and you did your
Speaker:little elevator pitch to the table.
Speaker:And so you went and you were with different people.
Speaker:Every table was new people and it was just like a quick elevator pitch
Speaker:So you didn't have to get into more small talk than you wanted to.
Speaker:Yeah Exactly.
Speaker:Oh, how about this weather this week?
Speaker:How about those stillers?
Speaker:because then you can see Do I like this person's vibe?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And I need their service.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So that's somebody I would get in touch with.
Speaker:Didn't you have a way that you were tracking people at networking events
Speaker:that you like, I met this person at golf.
Speaker:They have two kids.
Speaker:Talk about that.
Speaker:Talk about your stalker.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:That's a little bit of a stalker system, huh?
Speaker:But you know, it's funny.
Speaker:I got this tip from Bill Clinton.
Speaker:But I I remember listening to a podcaster book.
Speaker:I've actually heard it in multiple spots that like Bill Clinton used
Speaker:to like, he knew everybody's name.
Speaker:It was one of the many reasons why people loved him when he, was becoming the
Speaker:president was because he knew your name.
Speaker:He knew where he knew you from.
Speaker:He knew everything.
Speaker:He remembered every conversation that he had with everybody.
Speaker:So he'd walk up to you and ask, how are you doing?
Speaker:How are your kids?
Speaker:How's this?
Speaker:Like he just was so charismatic.
Speaker:And he would take notes or he would really remember things.
Speaker:So the tips that I've always gotten and that I started doing was whenever I would
Speaker:go to a networking event or I'd go to any social situation where I was meeting
Speaker:new people, I have the app ClickUp.
Speaker:So we use, and now we're using it as our like full blown CRM for our business.
Speaker:So I have a space in ClickUp or a page in ClickUp that is like people, just people.
Speaker:And so I've made categories of like.
Speaker:name what event did I meet them at, and where do they work, what's their
Speaker:email, if I have that information I don't necessarily make them fill out the
Speaker:checklist with me right then and there.
Speaker:Can I have your social security number please, I just need it for my records.
Speaker:You know, please give me access to your calendar.
Speaker:I'd like to schedule our future event.
Speaker:But so I, I'd keep their name.
Speaker:If they said their spouse's name, I'd try to have a column for their spouse.
Speaker:If they said their kid's names, I would try to call them for their kid's names.
Speaker:And then I had a little column for just like areas of interest,
Speaker:like things we talked about.
Speaker:So did we talk about golf?
Speaker:Did we talk about bookkeeping finance?
Speaker:Did we, are they a business owner?
Speaker:Do they despise certain things, you know, are they allergic to certain things?
Speaker:And I would just try to note like really high level, quick things.
Speaker:And so walking away, it would maybe take 20 seconds to fill out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Especially if you had their business card, but it's one of those
Speaker:things that if you leave, then you forget the names, you forget the
Speaker:people, you forget all this stuff.
Speaker:And I used to be really bad at names.
Speaker:I would hear someone say their name and go one in one ear and out the other.
Speaker:Like I was horrible at names.
Speaker:And the golf Academy is actually what made me really good at remembering names
Speaker:because I had to be in a lesson with.
Speaker:Eight women at a time and then the very next week, remember all of their
Speaker:names or else I would feel rude and I didn't want to not remember their names.
Speaker:So in the beginning, like kind of the first session, I would
Speaker:say, Hey I'm really bad at names.
Speaker:I need to say them out loud a couple of times tonight.
Speaker:I'm sorry if you feel weird that I'm saying your name so many times, but
Speaker:I have to say them to remember them.
Speaker:So what I've done with this kind of click up app is if I go and talk to
Speaker:somebody in a networking event and I write down their name, I'll just, you
Speaker:know, if I had a really good conversation with them and I really want to write
Speaker:it down right away, I'll go to the bathroom and just write it down or
Speaker:just write it down on a little piece of paper and then put it in the app later.
Speaker:It doesn't need to be like, you know, you're on your phone typing things
Speaker:in like a nerd, or if you just have their business card and maybe just
Speaker:on their business card, you write down their wife's name or their
Speaker:husband's name or something like that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Especially if it's somebody that you're like, I would really
Speaker:love to work with this person.
Speaker:Yes exactly.
Speaker:If you have no desire to work with that person then you probably should
Speaker:still write it down and write, I have no desire to work with this person.
Speaker:You know, you don't get wrapped into it another time.
Speaker:But exactly.
Speaker:That was one that then, okay, so then by the end of the session of the event,
Speaker:I would try to maybe then go up and say bye to them and say their name again.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, it was so nice to meet you.
Speaker:We'll have to get on the golf course soon.
Speaker:I hope you and your, husband, John, have a great weekend here.
Speaker:Like I would try to repeat some of the thingsbecause then I'll remember it.
Speaker:If I say it again and I make a point to go and look at them again
Speaker:and say it again, I'll remember it.
Speaker:And so I've become a lot better at saying names or, remembering
Speaker:names from that, but ClickUp is the app that I use for all that.
Speaker:Do you see me almost laughing?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Have you ever seen House Funny?
Speaker:Oh my, she's such a fan.
Speaker:That's a name.
Speaker:Wait.
Speaker:That's a name.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:You can't get that well.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:But she repeats their names like the exercise.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:you doing.
Speaker:Oh, that is the greatest.
Speaker:Yeah, that is the greatest.
Speaker:I've done that in my head once or twice, but it just is like a,
Speaker:you know, it's an internal joke.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I've never done it out loud.
Speaker:I try to look at key things, too, and I'm looking at people
Speaker:like, Oh, their name's Michelle.
Speaker:My mom's name's Michelle.
Speaker:What about this person reminds me of my mom, you know?
Speaker:She's a teacher as well.
Speaker:Exactly.
Speaker:But yeah, so then it's not as creepy as repeating their name like the devil.
Speaker:Like the devil, yeah.
Speaker:Anyways, so networking and relationship building.
Speaker:Networking and relationship building.
Speaker:That's going to be a big one for Know Your Worth this year, too, is I really
Speaker:want to go to A lot of events this year.
Speaker:So not necessarily solely networking events, but I want to go to a couple of
Speaker:conferences this year and a couple of women in business events and so whether
Speaker:it's networking, whether it's vendor fairs, whether it's a conference, a
Speaker:presentation, things like that, I want to go to a lot more of those this year.
Speaker:Cause I want to grow the podcast.
Speaker:I want to be talking a lot more to just, different groups of people.
Speaker:So that's a big one for Know Your Worth this year.
Speaker:And for myself personally is to get to a lot of those events.
Speaker:Grab me a ticket and I will drive us, sweet, or fly us.
Speaker:I did just buy a ticket to one in Dallas.
Speaker:Oh God.
Speaker:I know.
Speaker:Who's going?
Speaker:Right now, just me.
Speaker:Would you like to join?
Speaker:Yeah, I would.
Speaker:Yeah, so that one's not till the fall, but there's one in Florida in March, too.
Speaker:We'll see.
Speaker:yEah, and then you build this into your budget, too, because
Speaker:then you have to price all it out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we're doing some networking and relationship building.
Speaker:And the final one kind of goes along with some of this conferences
Speaker:of what I've been saying, but it's personal and professional development.
Speaker:What are your goals for the current year?
Speaker:And how are you going to get them?
Speaker:What do you need to do to get to that next level?
Speaker:Do you need to get better at public speaking so that when you're in live
Speaker:meetings with your clients, you're able to dictate what you want to say?
Speaker:So should you go to I don't know if this is a national thing or not.
Speaker:It might be.
Speaker:It's called Toastmasters.
Speaker:I feel like that is national.
Speaker:I feel like I've heard of that before.
Speaker:So they have it where like you practice giving speeches and talking to people
Speaker:and networking and interacting and it's meant for practicing and it's
Speaker:also a networking situation itself too.
Speaker:So that's a fun one, some personal professional development.
Speaker:Some, like I said earlier with our team for Know Your Worth, I want
Speaker:to make sure that anybody that wants a certification can get a
Speaker:certification and different things.
Speaker:We want our new people to become QuickBooks certified.
Speaker:And kind of work on some of that stuff.
Speaker:I love personal professional development.
Speaker:So I create a long list of like books that I want to read this year and have
Speaker:my like TBR for my, my fiction books that I want to read on my own time.
Speaker:And then, what business books do I want to read or personal development
Speaker:books that I want to read too.
Speaker:Awesome.
Speaker:What are you going to do for some of your stuff?
Speaker:I feel like you've been quiet towards the end here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'm going to put you on the spot.
Speaker:I've just been really enjoying it.
Speaker:What are you going to do for some of your personal and
Speaker:professional development this year?
Speaker:Off the top of my head, I feel like my kids are a little bit older now and I
Speaker:was really into personal and professional development before I had them.
Speaker:And then they suck my soul away and my identity became like wiping their butts,
Speaker:but now they can wipe their own butts.
Speaker:So I feel like super helpful.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Super helpful.
Speaker:I just really encourage you to get to that spot in parenting
Speaker:before you decide if you like it.
Speaker:But I think that maybe I'm going to get back to what makes Kristen
Speaker:and how do I want to improve as an individual now, not just As a mom.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's awesome.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So just off the top of my head, . Yeah.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:I think that's great.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:Cool.
Speaker:I think that's great.
Speaker:So yeah, that's our top 12 things to do for your business in the New Year.
Speaker:. And I think that was really comprehensive.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think if you can get through this checklist, you're going to be really on
Speaker:your way to a good start for the new year.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we want to hear your goals.
Speaker:We want to hear what you're working on, what your business is.
Speaker:So always reach out to us at know your Worth.
Speaker:PGH.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Knowyourworthpgh.
Speaker:com is our website.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then we got our email is info at knowyourworthpgh.
Speaker:com so you can reach out there or our Instagram handle is
Speaker:knowyourworth underscore PGH.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So give us a shout out.
Speaker:Tell us you like the episode or what didn't work for you
Speaker:for planning or what does.
Speaker:So let us know.
Speaker:We would love to hear from you and we're like the people who, if you're
Speaker:leaving our house, we're going to follow you out to the driveway
Speaker:and say goodbye like 12 times.
Speaker:We can never just end it.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So we're just going to end it.
Speaker:Have a good January.
Speaker:Happy New Year.
Speaker:Happy New Year.
Speaker:See you next week.
