Preview Mode Links will not work in preview mode

Pep Talks for Side Hustlers


Get motivation, strategies and actionable advice to help you grow your side hustle!

If you need a website for your side hustle, sign up for my Free 5 Day Website Challenge at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com and I'll show you how to build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie)!

Already have a website? Take my Free Jumpstart Your Website Traffic Marketing Mini-Course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com

Apr 1, 2020

Build a website in just 5 days (even if you're not techie) at www.free5daywebsitechallenge.com

Already have a website?

Take the Free "Jumpstart Your Website Traffic" marketing mini-course at www.jumpstartyourwebsitetraffic.com

Leave a Review!

Today’s interview with Danielle Hayden from Profit Planner is all about helping you take home a bigger paycheck from your side hustle is so timely for me, it’s kinda eerie!

Danielle and I actually did our interview back in November of 2019 and it’s just now coming out because of my production schedule, and as I was pulling together the show notes for today, I’m like… “This is crazy that this interview with Danielle is even coming up right now about focusing on being profitable and keeping more of your money over growing.

And here’s why:

Because my husband and I are on our second attempt at building a new house.

And you might be thinking… “Um, thanks for sharing? But what does this have to do with me?

When you are self-employed, and you go to a bank to ask them for a loan, they want to see proof that your business actually makes money.

Two years worth of proof to be exact.

So about a year ago, my husband Floyd and I met with our lender to get preapproved for a construction loan.

They asked for our 2018 tax return and my business profit and loss statements from 2017 and 2018.

“Do you need my W2 from 2017 also?” I asked. “I had a day job and the business back then,” I offered.

“No, since you don’t work there anymore it doesn’t matter,” said Bob.

Crap,” I thought. When I quit my day job in 2017 I was making $100,000 a year. And it wasn’t going to count.

In 2017 my business had made $73,500 dollars in revenue, but…

...wait for it…

$12,000 in profit.

And no, this isn’t some creative accounting where I show minimal profit to avoid taxes.

This was legit me spending $61,000 on business expenses:

Pinterest experts. Facebook Ads. Online courses that promised to reveal the secret explode my business or teach me how to do Instagram. Virtual assistants and subcontractors to work on marketing strategies and projects that I didn’t need to be doing in the first place. Conferences and travel. Expensive software that I justified as being cheaper than hiring another VA but whose features I barely used. Branding. Rebranding. I could go on.

It pains me to even tell you that.

I’d honestly been avoiding looking at it until I started looking at the numbers to write a totally different blog post.

But I have to tell you this part of the story, because while my business has always technically been profitable (it makes more money than it spends and has zero debt) and while I’ve been sharing with full transparency on this podcast my income AND expenses in 2018 and 2019, I’ve never told you what the money looked like for me in the earlier years.

So let me rectify that right now:

Bottom line: there’s absolutely no reason that I should have ever spent that much money on expenses in my business.

It DOES NOT cost thousands upon thousands of dollars to market yourself and run your business online!!!

Know how I know?

If I went through every single expense in my business from 2015 - 2019, knowing what I believe NOW about what it takes market myself online and make money, I would have spent at least $100,000 LESS in business expenses.

And I’m not just pulling that number out of thin air.

No, I didn’t go through all my expenses line by line so that I could get in a time machine and see every dumb money decision I’ve ever made in my business…

But I did calculate my average profit margin in my business from 2015 to 2018 to be 34% (meaning, on average I kept 34% of what I made BEFORE taxes).

By contrast, my profit margin in 2019 was 71% (meaning I kept 71% of what I made BEFORE taxes).

Had I kept 71% of what I made from 2015 to 2018, I would have kept close to an additional $100,000.

Sigh.

The proof is right there in black and white:

I know how to make money.

So why did I always think there was something more I needed to be doing or using or learning?  And why did I spend thousands and thousands of dollars trying to uncover it?

The answer to that question took me WAY longer to figure out.

Anyway, last year, long story short, we tried to get this construction loan but because of my profit in 2017 being only $12,000, they wanted us to put down a ginormous down payment to make it happen, and we weren’t willing to do it.

So my husband tells our mortgage guy:

“Looks like we’ll have to wait til next year when Shannon has two full-time years in the business behind her.”

I felt so ashamed of myself at that moment that I didn’t bother to correct my husband.

I couldn’t bring myself to say, “Oh yeah Floyd… about that… it wasn’t my full-time job that prevented me from keeping more than $12,000 of the $73,000 I made… it’s all the BS I believed about myself and what it takes to run a business online that caused me to spend a crap-ton of money on things I thought I needed but really didn’t need...

No, instead of telling the truth, I stuffed down my shame and put my nose to the grindstone, determined to work even harder this year and determined to keep more of the money I make. I slashed expenses, made more offers, and made and kept more money in 2019 than ever before.

So right now, we’re in the midst of our second attempt to build this house.

And as if his ears were burning as I was writing the intro for this podcast, Bob literally just called me to ask for a couple more documents, break down the numbers and let me know that we’re on track to close in three weeks if all the appraisals come back as he expects.

“You had a great year in 2019, didn’t you?” he said.

And I go, “Yeah, it’s pretty amazing what you can do when it’s your full-time I gig.” I literally just went with the lie, because I’m STILL ashamed to admit the truth - well, to everyone but you guys…

To you guys, I’m like, “Oh, they need to hear this so they don’t do what I did. So that they’re vulnerable and lured by shiny objects like I was, and so that they value and trust themselves like I didn’t.

But to people close to me, I’m like “Oh, I don’t want them to know how bad I had no clue what I was doing…

Yes, I know it sounds crazy. Anyway.

That’s why you need to hear from today’s guest, so that you can get a handle on the numbers in your business, make sure you’re PROFITABLE so that you can keep more of your money and give yourself a bigger paycheck.

Danielle Hayden is a reformed corporate CFO (chief financial officer) who is on a mission to help rule-breaking female entrepreneurs understand their numbers so they can gain the confidence needed to create sustainable profits.

After spending 10+ years in the board room as a corporate finance officer, Danielle is now in her sweet spot as the co-owner of Kickstart Accounting, Inc. where she helps business owners with bookkeeping, financial analysis, and education and as the author of the Profit Planner book series.

Today we’re talking about:

  • How Danielle can help you take home a bigger paycheck.
  • Why she’s on a mission to help entrepreneurs overcome the fear of looking at their financials
  • How to let go of the shame around numbers in our businesses.
  • Exactly how Danielle and her partner got their very first clients.
  • The three most important numbers to know in your business and how to use them to grow.
  • Danielle’s best advice for you if you’re struggling to grow your side hustle.
  • The one belief Danielle had to change about herself to get where she is today.

My favorite quotes from Danielle:

  • “I want every entrepreneur to know that they deserve a CFO. They deserve to have bookkeeping. They need to know their numbers in order to grow their business.”
  • “What built our business is talking to people and building relationships.”
  • “Growing is not always the best. It is figuring out what is making you the most money and honing in on that. So at the end of the day you want to be profitable.”
  • “Figure out what's working, what isn't working, learn from it and then try something else because that's what entrepreneurship is.”

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Bio:

Danielle Hayden is a reformed corporate CFO (chief financial officer) who is on a mission to help rule-breaking female entrepreneurs understand their numbers so they can gain the confidence needed to create sustainable profits.

After spending 10+ years in the board room as a corporate finance officer, Danielle is now in her sweet spot as the co-owner of Kickstart Accounting, Inc. where she helps business owners with bookkeeping, financial analysis, and education and as the author of the Profit Planner book series.

When Danielle isn’t crunching numbers on her clients’ behalf or crafting the next iteration of the Profit Planner, you can find her hanging with her two kids as she inspires them to lead their fullest lives or doing any, and almost every fitness-related activity ranging from Spartan races to pilates.

Connect with Danielle:

Profit Planner Website

Instagram @kickstartaccounting

Instagram @daniellehayden_oh

Facebook