EP 52: Financial Fridays

00:00:00 [Melissa]
I taught her Google Tasks because we both got tired of forgetting to pay our sales taxes.

00:00:03 [Alison]
Yep.
00:00:04 [Alison]
At the same time.
00:00:05 [Alison]
Exactly.
00:00:06 [Alison]
Hey, I’m Allison, family photographer, military spouse, and business mentor for photographers.

00:00:12 [Melissa]
And I’m Melissa, also a military spouse, lifestyle newborn photographer, and SEO expert for photographers.
00:00:18 [Melissa]
Between the two of us, we have a combined twenty seven years in photographer, lived through nine business relocations.

00:00:23 [Alison]
We’ve coached each other through all these challenges privately on Marco Polo, and now we’re bringing our polos public.
00:00:28 [Alison]
On this podcast, we’ll give you actionable steps to help you keep it moving.
00:00:34 [Alison]
Alright, guys.
00:00:35 [Alison]
Welcome back.
00:00:35 [Alison]
Thanks for being here.

00:00:36 [Alison]
So today, we’re talking all about Financial Fridays.
00:00:39 [Alison]
Last episode was all about those marketing Mondays and batch automating some of our marketing.
00:00:44 [Alison]
Today, we’re talking about money and all the things I am probably not doing correctly.

00:00:49 [Melissa]
I love money.

00:00:49 [Alison]
I need to hire a bookkeeper.
00:00:51 [Alison]
So for we are gonna be talking about a bunch of things, and this is a topic we are not afraid of money over here.
00:00:56 [Alison]
So we’ve got three episodes that you might want to go back and listen to or refresh, listen to a second time.
00:01:01 [Alison]
So episode 30, all about Profit First.
00:01:04 [Alison]
That’s a book that we reference in both Melissa and I.

00:01:06 [Alison]
Short book, and we execute.
00:01:08 [Alison]
That’s how we do our accounting and all of our businesses.
00:01:11 [Alison]
Episode 38 is money mistakes, very common money mistakes that people are making.
00:01:16 [Alison]
I even am currently making this as we recorded that.
00:01:19 [Alison]
Still probably doing them.

00:01:20 [Alison]
And then episode 44 is all about let’s with Akira.
00:01:24 [Alison]
She is a female Yeah.
00:01:26 [Alison]
Financial coach.
00:01:27 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:01:29 [Alison]
She’s better equipped at all that than us.

00:01:30 [Alison]
So keep in mind, neither one of our store accountants.
00:01:34 [Alison]
We are not CPAs.
00:01:35 [Alison]
Don’t take financial advice from us.
00:01:37 [Alison]
We are just sharing our experiences and best practices.
00:01:41 [Alison]
There you have it.

00:01:41 [Alison]
So there’s our disclaimer.
00:01:43 [Alison]
So let’s get into it.
00:01:44 [Alison]
What are Financial Fridays, Melissa?

00:01:46 [Melissa]
I, again, like the alliteration, like, Marketing Monday is a Financial Fridays, but basically, it’s setting down one day, whether it’s a week, you know, every other week, once a month, and actually looking at your finances.
00:01:59 [Melissa]
I think that we get really scared, and we don’t wanna look at our bank accounts, and we wanna put our head in the sand.
00:02:05 [Melissa]
And the thing is, I think, you know, Akira would agree with this of, like, you’ve gotta face it.
00:02:10 [Melissa]
You’ve got to look at it and face it and either fix it or realize it’s not as bad as you think it is sometimes.
00:02:16 [Melissa]
But and that’s it’s all the tasks too.

00:02:18 [Alison]
That’s the reason my regular monthly task goes undone.
00:02:22 [Alison]
I don’t want to look at it.
00:02:24 [Alison]
I just don’t want to Well, and the

00:02:26 [Melissa]
thing is, since we don’t wanna look at it and then there’s some months we’re too busy, it feels like to look at it.
00:02:31 [Melissa]
That’s where it starts

00:02:32 [Alison]
and then it become it snowballs.
00:02:33 [Alison]
And if you don’t, it just gets bigger and bigger and then it’s too big to you feel like to face and then you just gotta rip the band aid off and get over it.

00:02:41 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:02:41 [Melissa]
And I feel like I used to not look at it, and then now I am always up in it.
00:02:46 [Melissa]
Like, I’m always paying attention.
00:02:48 [Melissa]
And I think I looked at that from the book Get Rich Lucky Bitch.
00:02:51 [Melissa]
And she talked about, like, you should be looking at your money and and touching your money and looking at your accounts all the time.

00:02:57 [Melissa]
Like, you should know what’s in your accounts.
00:02:59 [Melissa]
It should not be a surprise.
00:03:00 [Melissa]
And I look at that also of, like, how can I you know, for financial forecasting and stuff like that, like, paying attention?
00:03:06 [Melissa]
Because if I’m not marketing this month, I’m not gonna next month or the month after that.
00:03:11 [Melissa]
So the longer you, you know, put your head in the sand like an ostrich, like, the longer you’re gonna ignore the problem.

00:03:17 [Melissa]
So to me, setting a day, whether it’s once a month, once a week, and even, like, the once a week could just be touching base on things of, like, okay.
00:03:24 [Melissa]
Just making sure I’ve got enough money in the right accounts to pay the bills, all the way to, like I typically do at least once a month is when I sit down and I do all of my transfers for paychecks, for taxes, for all of that kind of stuff.
00:03:37 [Melissa]
I sit down and I close out my books, you know, the first day the first day of the month for the previous month kind of thing.
00:03:42 [Melissa]
Okay.
00:03:43 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:03:43 [Melissa]
So it’s pretty guaranteed.
00:03:44 [Melissa]
That’s where I’m sending myself my paycheck so that my mortgage can get paid in a timely manner.

00:03:48 [Alison]
You know?
00:03:49 [Alison]
Important.
00:03:49 [Alison]
It’s important stuff.
00:03:51 [Alison]
Those kind of things.

00:03:52 [Melissa]
And then also, you know, really too, guys, thinking about taxes.
00:03:56 [Melissa]
Like, coming up, I think this will probably air sometime in tax season, I believe.
00:03:59 [Melissa]
But I cannot tell you how many years I, like, put off until the last minute categorizing a year’s worth of business transactions because taxes were due.
00:04:09 [Melissa]
And Alice is making a face right now.

00:04:11 [Alison]
My eyes big because I may or may not have done that.
00:04:15 [Alison]
It’s not a year.
00:04:15 [Alison]
It’s six months.
00:04:16 [Alison]
It’s about it’s I think I’ve got July.
00:04:19 [Alison]
Here’s my plan.

00:04:19 [Alison]
Here’s what happened.
00:04:21 [Alison]
I got busy.
00:04:21 [Alison]
I got overwhelmed.
00:04:23 [Alison]
Exactly what we were just talking about.
00:04:24 [Alison]
It was on my calendar.

00:04:25 [Alison]
I didn’t do it now.
00:04:26 [Alison]
It’s a fricking huge monster that’s tearing me down.
00:04:29 [Alison]
So at the time of recording, it is the January.
00:04:32 [Alison]
My plan, all of November, December was to pay one of my children to do it for me over Christmas free.
00:04:39 [Alison]
Okay.

00:04:39 [Alison]
I’ve got two teenagers who need to learn how to do this crap.
00:04:43 [Alison]
And it just straightened my, I was like, Hey, I’m going to pay them.
00:04:45 [Alison]
That’s going to be its own write off its own expense.
00:04:48 [Alison]
I’m going to teach them how to do it.
00:04:49 [Alison]
We’re going to have time.

00:04:50 [Alison]
It’ll be great.
00:04:53 [Alison]
Nope.
00:04:53 [Alison]
Didn’t happen.
00:04:54 [Alison]
And so now I have an extra month to go through and do myself.

00:04:58 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:04:58 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:04:58 [Melissa]
And there were so many years that I did that.
00:05:00 [Melissa]
And every time I did it, I was like, I hate this.
00:05:02 [Melissa]
Why am I doing this to myself?

00:05:04 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:05:05 [Alison]
And 2024 is pretty good.
00:05:06 [Alison]
So now I’m on the prowl for a bookkeeper, so I don’t have to do it.

00:05:09 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:05:09 [Melissa]
And I that is one thing that I did.
00:05:11 [Melissa]
I ended up getting a bookkeeper because I just did not wanna do it anymore.
00:05:14 [Melissa]
I she goes in every month, and she reconciles everything out.
00:05:18 [Melissa]
I send her bank statements and everything.

00:05:20 [Melissa]
And then that lets me just jump in and see, like, where are we on things?
00:05:24 [Melissa]
Do I have enough set aside for taxes?
00:05:25 [Melissa]
Am I paying enough?
00:05:26 [Melissa]
All of that kinda jazz.
00:05:27 [Melissa]
And it does make life a lot simpler on that aspect.

00:05:30 [Melissa]
And if you’re looking for a bookkeeper, I mean, I’ll drop her info in there.
00:05:33 [Melissa]
But I do think sitting down with somebody local to you can be a good idea just so that that way you can kinda get to know them a little bit.
00:05:40 [Melissa]
I actually met her through a networking group in South Florida, and so I did get to meet her in person.
00:05:46 [Melissa]
And, you know, about in that group, I was like, I’m gonna need you at some point.
00:05:49 [Melissa]
And I think the first year, I had a question, and I messaged her.

00:05:53 [Melissa]
I was like, can I ask you this specific tax question?
00:05:55 [Melissa]
And she was real quick to answer it, let me know I was on the right path.
00:05:58 [Melissa]
And so then the next year, I was like, you know what?
00:05:59 [Melissa]
I’m outsourcing this.
00:06:00 [Melissa]
I’m going to her.

00:06:01 [Melissa]
She, you know, she already taught me some advice.
00:06:04 [Melissa]
Let’s do this kind of thing.
00:06:05 [Melissa]
So if you’re on the fence for that, I highly recommend it.
00:06:09 [Melissa]
It just makes life so much simpler to not have to worry about it, and she keeps me on track for that kind of thing.
00:06:15 [Melissa]
But, yeah, I spent many years, like, avoiding it.

00:06:17 [Melissa]
And now, nope, I’m gonna embrace financial stuff.
00:06:19 [Melissa]
And that way I know what’s going on.
00:06:21 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:06:21 [Alison]
Reading a mindset book actually really helps there too.

00:06:24 [Melissa]
Yes.
00:06:24 [Melissa]
And that’s the whole thing.
00:06:25 [Melissa]
Like, the Get Rich Lucky Bitch is very much a mindset book.
00:06:27 [Melissa]
And then Profit First that we’ve talked about, that will teach you, you know, where your money needs to go, like, percentages.
00:06:34 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:06:34 [Melissa]
I mean, that’s gonna be really helpful.
00:06:36 [Melissa]
And so he even talks about in the book I think he talks about twice a month doing it.
00:06:39 [Melissa]
There was an accounting lady.
00:06:40 [Melissa]
I remember he was talking to some accounting lady in the book, and she was like, oh, yeah.
00:06:44 [Melissa]
You reconcile the accounts, like, twice a month or something.

00:06:46 [Melissa]
And he was like, oh, I learned something.
00:06:48 [Melissa]
Okay.
00:06:48 [Melissa]
And I haven’t gotten quite but I know I pay I have a spreadsheet of, like, all of the jobs we have, and I realize that sounds super old school.
00:06:55 [Melissa]
There are CRMs.
00:06:56 [Melissa]
I have a CRM too, but I like my spreadsheet because anytime anytime I make money, I hop into my spreadsheet and I put it in there because you know what feels good?

00:07:05 [Melissa]
Writing a big old fat number into a spreadsheet that you just made a sale.
00:07:09 [Melissa]
You know?
00:07:10 [Melissa]
It’s somebody just bought your top collection, and you’re like, yes.
00:07:14 [Melissa]
Put that number on the spreadsheet.

00:07:16 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:07:16 [Alison]
So wait.
00:07:17 [Alison]
Okay.
00:07:17 [Alison]
So that’s a good question.
00:07:18 [Alison]
You have a CRM because we use the same one, but then you pick time in simple sales.

00:07:23 [Alison]
Does that are they not connected?
00:07:24 [Alison]
So you don’t have that stuff auto

00:07:26 [Melissa]
I just I mean, it all can export out and all that kind of stuff, but you gotta think, I have sales coming in through ThriveCart.
00:07:31 [Melissa]
I have sales coming in through Pic Time, and I have sales coming in through Taube.
00:07:34 [Melissa]
So across all of those, like, it’s a big pain in the ass.
00:07:38 [Melissa]
So what I try to focus on is, you know, newborn client.
00:07:42 [Melissa]
And I know what my packages are.

00:07:44 [Melissa]
Like, for me, it’s pretty simple.
00:07:45 [Melissa]
I have some packages.
00:07:46 [Melissa]
So as soon as a newborn client books, if they book a membership or if they book, you know, a single session, that amount do my spreadsheet.
00:07:53 [Melissa]
And then that way, I also know that that’s in reserve.
00:07:56 [Melissa]
Like, I can’t touch that money.

00:07:57 [Melissa]
So because when you guys look at your bank accounts, you don’t know what money there is a deposit, what money you’ve already earned, or what money set aside for purchasing a cost of goods for something.
00:08:06 [Melissa]
So my spreadsheet helps me do that.
00:08:08 [Melissa]
And with that, like, I can keep track of, like, how much is setting aside in cost of goods because three clients haven’t used their print credit.
00:08:14 [Melissa]
Or this client has booked a membership, but I’m still setting aside some of the session fee for future sessions or whatever.
00:08:21 [Melissa]
And so it just for me, it just helps me keep track sales tax.

00:08:24 [Melissa]
Good lord.
00:08:25 [Melissa]
If I was to try and, like, go through those three things and try and figure out sales tax, I would wanna shoot myself, like, trying

00:08:31 [Alison]
to

00:08:31 [Melissa]
hold those feel.
00:08:32 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:08:33 [Melissa]
So instead, I just know.
00:08:35 [Melissa]
I know, like, this is what it’s gonna be.
00:08:37 [Melissa]
This is a sales tax because I keep it simple.

00:08:39 [Melissa]
Again, that’s a whole thing too.
00:08:41 [Melissa]
Keeping parts of your business simple make other parts of your business simple.

00:08:45 [Alison]
Triple down effect.
00:08:46 [Alison]
Of course.

00:08:46 [Melissa]
Pricing means simple things when it comes time to do, you know, sales tax and stuff like that.
00:08:52 [Melissa]
And there you go.
00:08:53 [Melissa]
There’s a financial Friday thing, paying your sales tax.
00:08:55 [Melissa]
As Allison and I talked about on marketing Monday, she uses Google Tasks for things.
00:08:59 [Melissa]
And I taught her Google Tasks because we both got tired of forgetting to pay our sales taxes.

00:09:04 [Alison]
Yep.
00:09:04 [Alison]
At the same time.

00:09:05 [Melissa]
Exactly.
00:09:05 [Melissa]
I feel like the twenty third of the month that she and I both are like, oh, did you pay your sales tax?
00:09:10 [Melissa]
No.
00:09:11 [Melissa]
I didn’t either.
00:09:12 [Melissa]
So I started doing the little task thing on, like, the first of the month.

00:09:15 [Melissa]
And like Allison said, it doesn’t go away.
00:09:17 [Melissa]
Doesn’t go away.
00:09:17 [Melissa]
And then you said it.

00:09:19 [Alison]
And it says and then the more tasks you miss every day, it gets that little number is 10 pending tasks, 11 pending.
00:09:25 [Alison]
Ask me how many tasks I have right now.
00:09:28 [Alison]
I have not Exactly.
00:09:29 [Alison]
Go in and it becomes like a, how do I get this number down?
00:09:31 [Alison]
Like, I need to gamify this.

00:09:33 [Alison]
Like, I need to complete something.
00:09:34 [Alison]
Right.
00:09:34 [Alison]
Right.

00:09:35 [Melissa]
So yeah.
00:09:35 [Melissa]
So, like, setting that that time aside, those reminders in place to do it is gonna help you avoid that, like, last minute panic before things are overdue.
00:09:44 [Melissa]
And penalty.

00:09:45 [Alison]
Girl, are you still struggling to get profitable?
00:09:48 [Alison]
Are you relaunching your business or trying to refine your profitability?
00:09:51 [Alison]
Allison here and I’ve been there.
00:09:52 [Alison]
As a military spouse for fifteen years, I’ve moved my photography business seven times, effectively launching a new business with each move.
00:09:59 [Alison]
I’ve never worked anywhere longer than three years.

00:10:01 [Alison]
I’ve had all inclusive hybrid and virtual IPS structures, and I know what it takes to adapt and thrive.
00:10:06 [Alison]
I went from barely supporting my hobby in the early years to consistent 6 figure sales, supporting my crazy family along the way.
00:10:13 [Alison]
If you’re ready to break through the roadblocks, attract dream clients, and finally see the profits you’ve longed for, let’s work together.
00:10:21 [Alison]
Visit alisonbell.co to learn more or DM me on the gram at keep it moving pod.
00:10:26 [Alison]
Links in the show notes.

00:10:27 [Alison]
Let’s do this.

00:10:29 [Melissa]
Okay.
00:10:30 [Melissa]
So let’s talk about maybe like a little checklist.
00:10:32 [Melissa]
Like, what are some things that you need to be doing?
00:10:35 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:10:36 [Melissa]
Check-in on your bank accounts.

00:10:37 [Melissa]
Make sure you’ve got the right money in the right bank account.
00:10:40 [Melissa]
I know.
00:10:41 [Melissa]
Exactly.
00:10:42 [Melissa]
Exactly.
00:10:43 [Melissa]
Nobody likes to overdraft or get a decline and things like that.

00:10:46 [Melissa]
So checking in on your bank accounts, making sure you’ve got money for things and that money’s moved around in the right the right spots.
00:10:52 [Melissa]
And, also, is there anything going on?
00:10:54 [Melissa]
Like, you know, is there a transaction that’s missing?
00:10:56 [Melissa]
I just realized the other day by looking at my bank account, I was like, I paid one of my subcontractors from the wrong account.
00:11:02 [Melissa]
And I was like, now I gotta move money over because I picked the wrong one.

00:11:06 [Melissa]
So paying attention to that because I catch that now, and it’s not a problem.
00:11:09 [Melissa]
I don’t catch it later on.
00:11:10 [Melissa]
It can be a big problem.

00:11:11 [Alison]
Right.

00:11:11 [Melissa]
Transaction category you know, at the very least, y’all, if you’re not gonna hire a keeper, do this once a month.
00:11:17 [Melissa]
I know it’s a pain in the butt, but It is.
00:11:19 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:11:20 [Alison]
This is this is the bane of my existence at the moment.

00:11:22 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:11:23 [Melissa]
I mean, if you can set a reminder to do it every Friday, you’re probably I mean, it’s like I tell my kids with laundry.
00:11:28 [Melissa]
I’m like, if we wait until the end of the week, it’s a ginormous load.
00:11:31 [Melissa]
But if you bring me two loads during the week, it’s a lot smaller and less time to fold.

00:11:36 [Alison]
It is.
00:11:37 [Alison]
And some, and the importance of the categorization is, is not because you need to know month to month it’s because you need to know for your annuals guys.
00:11:44 [Alison]
So you need to talk to a CPA about what categories you need to be deducting and cause it’s all at different rates because income tax is not simple.
00:11:53 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:11:54 [Alison]
So that’s why you need to know, you need to know how much mileage you spent, how much you spent on meals for the year, how much was marketing and advertising.

00:12:00 [Alison]
That’s why you do that every month.

00:12:01 [Melissa]
Well, and I think too, this kind of goes, I’m going to skip ahead to like what I’ve got here for number six, but expense audits, Because if you’re not doing it once like, Allison may go back and she’s got six months, and she’s like, oh, no.
00:12:11 [Melissa]
I’ve been paying a subscription for six months that I forgot about.
00:12:14 [Melissa]
100%.

00:12:16 [Alison]
That’s happening.

00:12:18 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:12:18 [Melissa]
And it may also you know, I’ve gone through and audited my expenses because I’m like, oh, next month is looking a little tight on income, and I need to lower the business expenses.
00:12:27 [Melissa]
And that is something they teach you in profit first, which I a 100% believe in.
00:12:31 [Melissa]
Do not pay yourself last because you over you know, you spent too much in the business.
00:12:36 [Melissa]
Like, go in, be lethal, like, cut things.

00:12:39 [Melissa]
If your money’s getting tight and you’re like, I can’t do this subscription or that, go through and cut it out and say, okay.
00:12:44 [Melissa]
Hey.
00:12:44 [Melissa]
I mean, Alice and I were chatting one time, and I think we both sold, like, a couple things that we do.
00:12:49 [Melissa]
I think Calendly was one.

00:12:51 [Alison]
Like, I’m

00:12:52 [Melissa]
like, I

00:12:52 [Alison]
And then, you sessions.
00:12:54 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:12:54 [Alison]
I I turn on and off session as I’m doing mini sessions.

00:12:57 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:12:58 [Melissa]
Exactly.
00:12:58 [Melissa]
So those are things too that if you stay on top of it, you can turn those things on and off.
00:13:02 [Melissa]
You can say, okay.
00:13:03 [Melissa]
Hey.

00:13:03 [Melissa]
Let me cancel this because I don’t wanna keep paying this.
00:13:06 [Melissa]
Obviously, bill payments and planning, you know, making sure people get paid on time.
00:13:09 [Melissa]
I guess on one hand, I do have Financial Friday because every Friday, my subcontractors send me their invoices.
00:13:15 [Melissa]
So I always have to make sure, you know, I’m paying them.
00:13:17 [Melissa]
Reviewing, listing income, like, to me, that’s a huge one.

00:13:21 [Melissa]
I have talked about before I operate that all the money like, you know how you work two weeks and then it’s another two weeks before you get paid?
00:13:28 [Melissa]
That’s how I operate my business.
00:13:29 [Melissa]
So whatever I make in January covers February’s bills, which means I have a heads up that if January’s slow, that I need to start making some changes for February, like, ahead of time.
00:13:41 [Melissa]
And so being able to forecast that or I can look at February and go, you know, we don’t really have a lot of clients on the books.
00:13:48 [Melissa]
Maybe I should get my butt hitting side of things right now.

00:13:51 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:13:51 [Alison]
Right?
00:13:52 [Alison]
Looking ahead in that calendar.

00:13:54 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:13:54 [Melissa]
And forecasting too.
00:13:55 [Melissa]
You know, if you have a busy fall and you know you’re gonna have a slow November, December, January, like, forecast that out, adjust your income so that it can cover that kind of stuff.
00:14:04 [Melissa]
Like, don’t spend everything as soon as you get it.
00:14:06 [Melissa]
You may need it to get you through those other months.

00:14:08 [Melissa]
Sales tax, we talked about that.
00:14:10 [Melissa]
Quarterly taxes.
00:14:11 [Melissa]
Mhmm.
00:14:12 [Melissa]
That’s a big one.
00:14:13 [Melissa]
If you’re paying your taxes and all that kind of stuff, you’re supposed to pay your estimated quarterly taxes.

00:14:17 [Melissa]
So making sure that that’s taken care of.
00:14:20 [Melissa]
Like, I always have to go in and check on that and make sure I’ve got money going That

00:14:23 [Alison]
can be really I actually haven’t even set that up, here in Hawaii yet because this is my first calendar year here.
00:14:28 [Alison]
And so I have a ginormous tax account.
00:14:32 [Alison]
It’s going to be paid out of that we’ve been saving for.
00:14:34 [Alison]
But, you know, when you’re relocating and moving your business, you may take eighteen months to figure that out.

00:14:40 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:14:40 [Melissa]
It takes a little bit.
00:14:41 [Melissa]
And we talked about expense audits and then just future planning and everything.
00:14:44 [Melissa]
Just really looking ahead at at the calendar.
00:14:46 [Melissa]
I know I kinda talked about that with forecasting income, but I think also future planning on, I wanna save up for this camera gear or I wanna save up for this new lens.

00:14:55 [Melissa]
That’s the fun stuff.
00:14:56 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:14:57 [Alison]
And speaking speaking of that, if you’re using profit first and you are setting aside a profit for yourself and your business to believe, it’s really fun to not to just leave it in there and not pay out quarterly and watch it grow.
00:15:09 [Alison]
If you’re saving for something really big, like this fall, I bought a giant lens, dollars 2,000 lens that I’ve wanted for my entire parental career as a mom, but I never bought because it doesn’t have any use, any monetary advantage for my business.
00:15:23 [Alison]
Mhmm.
00:15:23 [Alison]
Well, I had so much of my profit, I was able to do that easily.

00:15:26 [Melissa]
What lens did you get?

00:15:27 [Alison]
I got the 70 to $202.08.
00:15:30 [Alison]
Oh, okay.
00:15:31 [Alison]
It’s for all my, my kids’ sports.
00:15:33 [Alison]
Gotcha.
00:15:33 [Alison]
Like, I it’s way too far away to ever use

00:15:36 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:15:36 [Alison]
In my client work.
00:15:37 [Alison]
But, so I was super excited.
00:15:39 [Alison]
And it’s like I, like, I bought that in the fall and I’ve had such a great year.
00:15:43 [Alison]
It’s like I never bought anything and I bought this I custom ordered a piece of furniture.
00:15:48 [Alison]
I’m so excited to, like, get it in.

00:15:50 [Alison]
It’s not gonna be here for four months, but because I’m using Profit First and I’m in my money and we’re doing okay.
00:15:55 [Alison]
Like, so Yeah.
00:15:56 [Alison]
You know, sometimes it’s fun to just leave it in there and watch it get bigger and bigger.
00:15:59 [Alison]
And then you can do fun things with your money.
00:16:01 [Alison]
Right?

00:16:01 [Melissa]
Yes.

00:16:01 [Alison]
That’s the point of that.

00:16:02 [Melissa]
Exactly.
00:16:03 [Melissa]
If you’re paying attention and you’re you’re doing your profit.
00:16:05 [Melissa]
I know I have like a painting that was paid for out of my profit account because Mhmm.
00:16:06 [Melissa]
Because I wanted to give profit account because Mhmm.
00:16:09 [Melissa]
I wanted to gift myself for doing a good job and stuff.

00:16:12 [Melissa]
Like so when you’re paying attention to your money and you can put it in the right buckets, again, profit first.
00:16:17 [Melissa]
Allison and I both Yep.
00:16:18 [Melissa]
Like, huge change to our business just implementing that system and telling our money where to go instead of, like, watching it walk away and wondering

00:16:25 [Alison]
where it’s going.
00:16:26 [Alison]
100%.
00:16:26 [Alison]
So that the book is called Profit First by Mike The Michalowicz.
00:16:31 [Alison]
Michalowicz.

00:16:31 [Melissa]
I only know that because I listen to his, books on tape, so I hear him say his last name a lot.
00:16:35 [Melissa]
Oh, yeah.
00:16:36 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:16:36 [Melissa]
So, yeah.

00:16:37 [Alison]
So if you need support, mindset, mental support, this is stressful to you.
00:16:41 [Alison]
You don’t like it.
00:16:42 [Alison]
It’s okay.
00:16:43 [Alison]
Own it.
00:16:44 [Alison]
It’s fine.

00:16:44 [Alison]
Don’t beat yourself up, but, you know, do one thing to be incrementally better, you know, work towards a financial Friday if you need to.
00:16:51 [Alison]
Maybe it’s reading a book, a mindset book.
00:16:53 [Alison]
I know Melissa’s talked about Get Rich Like You Bitch, which is I need to read that.
00:16:56 [Alison]
That’s been on my list for a long time.
00:16:58 [Alison]
You’ve talked about that book for years.

00:17:00 [Alison]
Read Profit First if you need some nuts and bolts about how to execute all this.
00:17:04 [Alison]
And then the book that changed made everything easier for me was you’re a badass at making money.
00:17:09 [Alison]
It’s a 100% of mindset book, a 100%, like going to the mental gym to like, just quote unquote increase your vibrations around money.

00:17:22 [Melissa]
It’s a little woo woo.

00:17:24 [Alison]
I saw it, you know, so take, take it or leave it, but highly recommend all three of those books.
00:17:28 [Alison]
If you just need to change your mind and have a little uplift, mental uplift about all things money.
00:17:35 [Alison]
So, yeah.
00:17:35 [Alison]
So, yeah, that was our conversation about financial Fridays.
00:17:38 [Alison]
Guys, if you have any questions about it, feel free to read.

00:17:41 [Alison]
All our links are in the show notes.

00:17:43 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:17:44 [Melissa]
Thanks so much, guys.
00:17:45 [Melissa]
It was great talking about this, and, hopefully hopefully, we make some changes in people’s lives.
00:17:49 [Melissa]
You know, I feel like financial stuff can be so overwhelming.
00:17:51 [Melissa]
And so, hopefully, you know, a 100% listening to us talk about it.

00:17:54 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:17:55 [Alison]
Alright, guys.
00:17:55 [Alison]
Have a good one.
00:17:56 [Alison]
Till next time.
00:17:56 [Alison]
Alright.

00:17:57 [Alison]
Bye bye.

00:17:59 [Melissa]
Thank you so much for listening.
00:18:00 [Melissa]
If you’re enjoying the show, would you do two things for us?
00:18:03 [Melissa]
First, leave a review.
00:18:05 [Melissa]
Just stars would be awesome.
00:18:06 [Melissa]
And two, forward this episode to a biz bestie, no spouse, or anyone facing moving their business.

00:18:11 [Melissa]
We’d love it if you shared with even just one person.
00:18:14 [Melissa]
If you have questions, you can reach out to Allison on Instagram at alison belle photog, or you can find me, Melissa, in my Facebook group, Picture Perfect Rankings.
00:18:23 [Melissa]
Check the show notes for links, and we’re so excited to have you guys here.