What's up everyone. Welcome back to my channel, the number one place for new coaches, content
creators and entrepreneurs. In today's video, I really want to answer a question that I
got over here on my Instagram all about how to manage money as a new entrepreneur because
I completely get it. When you are first starting out your business, it's not like you're necessarily
swimming in cash and therefore it's really hard to take the advice of investing in your
business and investing in yourself when you have barely any cash to start off with. That's
why if you find yourself in this position, I want you to keep watching this video because
I'm going to share with you some of my strategies and also some personal advice on how I was
able to grow my business from zero to six figures without having much money to start
off with.
So if you're interested in diving deep into this topic, then keep on watching. Now, if
you're someone who's watching this video, you're trying to start your business up full
time, you don't have another job on this side or any income coming in. Then the first recommendation
that I have for you is to get a part time job. Now I know that this might sound like
a shocker to you, especially since majority of us, we start our business to not work for
anyone else. However, what I learned in my experience of leaving my nine to five without
a backup plan and trying to start my business from scratch is that not having cashflow coming
in can really affect your abilities to make good decisions in business. Let me explain.
When I was first starting my business from scratch and this youtube channel from scratch
as well, I had some money saved up and I thought that I would be a okay.
However, slowly but surely when I saw my bank account basically draining every single day,
it started to make me super uncomfortable and that uncomfort translated to me making
poor decisions in business. I was constantly cheaping out on essential services that I
needed to grow. And by the way, if you want to learn about what softwares you might need
or the softwares that I use to build my business, make sure you check out this video right here
where I cover it all, but basically I was cheaping out a lot and that was doing a huge
disservice to my business. Not only this, by seeing my bank account draining, I was
now operating my business in fear and that's definitely not the mindset that you want to
go into when you're trying to build your empire. If you're trying to build your business out
of fear, then you're always going to add unnecessary stress on yourself.
That's why in order to protect your own mental health and your wellbeing, I highly recommend
that you get a part time job that's super simple, that doesn't take too much of your
mental energy in order for you to get a steady paycheck coming in. For example, for me when
I was building my business and also building this channel from scratch, I eventually got
a part time job working as a coffee Barista and even though I was getting compensated
minimum wage working, that job allowed me the flexibility, especially because it was
part time for me to go home and work on my business without thinking about all the things
that were happening in that coffee shop. For example, back when I worked nine to five in
corporate, I definitely would not have been able to build this business because it was
a high stress environment and I was constantly bringing work home versus by taking an entry
level minimum wage job, I didn't have that type of responsibility.
All I did was clock in, clock out and take a paycheck and that was okay with me. Not
only this, by seeing that I was at least getting money to feed myself, to grab a coffee, to
live comfortably and to not stress so much about money and seeing my bank account dwindle,
it gave me a lot of peace of mind and therefore I was able to operate more confidently. In
my business. That's why I highly recommend that you drop your ego. You've take that sacrifice
and you get a part time job to support yourself as you're growing this business. Now, obviously
everyone's financial and life situation is different. You might have kids to feed a mortgage
to pay and therefore it's not that easy to just get a minimum wage part time job. That's
why if you are someone who already has a full time job and you can't necessarily quit and
go all in on your business, then at least to use the portion of the paycheck that you
receive from your company to invest back into your business, really treat that company that
you work for currently as your biggest investor.
That is definitely something that I highly recommend if you are someone who has to stay
within the nine to five regardless. The bottom line is is that there are sacrifices that
you need to make in order to run your business. It's not just peaches and rainbows for me.
Did you think that I wanted to work as a coffee Barista making minimum wage when in fact I
was making 65 k a year at my corporate job. Absolutely not. But it was a sacrifice that
I was willing to make in order to free up mental energy in order to not stress about
money and in order for me to stay focused and building my business with barely any distractions.
Now moving onto the next piece of advice that I have for you, especially when it comes to
choosing what you'd like to invest in in your business is to first ask yourself, can I do
this myself?
Now I'm going to give you another personal example. Coming from my journey in business,
when I was first starting out, I almost spent over $2,000 to hire someone to do my branding,
my logo, my website, and my photography. And thankfully, and my boyfriend, who is also
an entrepreneur, stopped me from making this investment. And what he told me was that there
are plenty of other things that that money could be used for other than pretty logos
and pretty branding. And guess what? I completely agree and the reason why I agree with this
is because when you're first starting out, you don't really have proof of concept of
what you're building is actually going to stick. Who's to say that a year later you
might completely change your business direction or you might not get any traction in your
business and therefore you're going to have to make a big pivot.
Now, only this, you probably don't have an audience yet that's actually going to give
you feedback on your positioning, on your niche, on your personal brand and all of that.
You don't really know yourself yet. That's why I highly do not recommend that you invest
in pretty branding someone to develop your website until you actually have proof of concept
for your business. That's why I'm really glad that I took my boyfriend's advice because
instead of hiring someone to do my website and do my photography and all of that, I ended
up using that money for more important things like incorporating my business and protecting
my business legally. Not only this because I knew I wasn't going to invest in having
my own website and doing photography. I went the DIY route, meaning that I downloaded a
plugin called elementary, which by the way, if you're interested in it, you can definitely
check it out in the link below.
My website was entirely built just using this drag and drop plugin and I ended up learning
this awesome skill of making websites, not only this in terms of photography, I ended
up actually recruiting my friend Swana who was also starting up her business and I actually
got free surfaces from her in exchange for a shout out, so I actually was able to develop
my website and get the photography for quite cheap. That's why when it comes to making
investments in your business, really be honest with yourself. If you're truly being the most
resourceful that you can be. If there's something that you can't do, for example, legally incorporating
your business, that is definitely something that is worth investing in versus if it's
something that you can probably do, like creating your website, making a logo on Canva, then
it's probably not the best investment. Now, the next question that you want to ask yourself
when you're on the fence of whether or not you should invest or buy something is this,
does this have the potential to generate me future income?
If the answer is no to that question, then don't buy it. This was a question that I constantly
had to ask myself to prevent me from going crazy with online shopping, buy new clothes,
buying new shoes, buying new makeup. I always had to ask myself, if I buy this lipstick,
will it actually generate me more income in the future? And truth be told the answer was
no. We're on the flip side. When I was considering to buy books, to buy courses, to hire a mentor,
I asked myself the same question. Will investing in this have the potential to generate me
more income and most times it was, yes, if I buy this Facebook ads course, I'm then going
to learn how to do Facebook ads and by having this new skill I have the potential to generate
more income that I didn't have before. These are definitely considerations that you want
to make within your business to make sure that you are truly making the most out of
your money.
Now the third question that you want to ask yourself when you're thinking of investing
or buying things in your business is will this save me more time? What you need to realize,
especially as you grow in your business, is that your time becomes more and more valuable
and if you are able to invest in things that are going to save you time and actually make
your life way more easier and way more efficient than it is probably something worth investing
in. For example, hiring a mentor or buying courses, although it can seem like a hefty
investment in the long run, you are actually saving yourself so much more time. I'm a firm
believer that if I didn't invest in the courses that I invested in or hire the mentor that
I hired, I probably would not be where I'm at today. I probably wouldn't have that necessary
clarity and that necessary action step to actually move forward in business.
That's why investments like these are well worth it and beyond just courses and mentors.
Something as simple as software can also save you a lot of time as well. Let me give you
another example of something that I personally struggled with when I was starting out my
business at some point in my business, I knew that I wanted to launch a course. I wanted
to create a program that was scalable and I was really debating between using softwares
like Kajabi versus doing it the DIY route and simply downloading a wordpress plugin
that could also host the course as well and through my research. And what I found is that
even though downloading a simple free plugin on wordpress could have probably saved me
hundreds of dollars, what I realize is that by downloading this plugin, I wouldn't get
customer support. I wouldn't get the necessary resources that I need in order to actually
run my course efficiently and therefore I would actually be spending way more time dealing
with tech issues versus if I actually just invested in something like Kajabi that would
do everything for me.
And that was super user friendly. So as you can see here, obviously I spent more money
to invest in the software, but I was also able to save a lot of headache in the short
term and in the longterm as well. Now moving onto the next tip that I have for you when
it comes to saving money and managing money within your business is to see your expenses
as a percentage. Now I'm going to get super real and honest with you. I used to be the
type of girl where my biggest goal was to buy a Chanel bag. And I remember really clearly
in my business made about $40,000 in revenue already. And I was like, oh my gosh, I have
money now I'm going to buy a Chanel bag and this is where my boyfriend comes in again
and stops me. Or at least he gave me a really good wake up call.
He asked me, okay, your Chanel bag currently costs $10,000 and you've made $40,000 in your
business. Have you realize that if you buy this Chanel bag, this actually represents
25% of your total revenue, meaning you're going to be spending a quarter of the money
that you've already earned on this one bag, and my mind was blown. It shook me to my core
and it was definitely the wake up call that I needed. That's why I always see my expenses
in percentages. Now, to really understand whether or not it's truly worth it and to
understand the true weight of that purchase, because what you need to realize is just because
you have money, does it mean and makes sense for you to spend it? Now, this all brings
me to the next tip that I have for you when you're thinking about managing your money
and that is to track your expenses.
Now if you're just starting out in your business and you don't have the money to necessarily
invest in better software than a highly recommend you using the app wave wave is a really great
platform for you to track your expenses, track your revenue, and also invoice your clients
or your customers. Now eventually you might want to actually upgrade your software and
the next software that I recommend is actually bench accounting. Benji accounting is a bookkeeping
software where you actually work with real bookkeepers to manage your expenses and track
your revenue and they also partner with your accountant in order to do your year end and
all of that. It's as if you're basically having real bookkeepers because you actually have
real bookkeepers. Now as you can see with bench accounting, you can message your bookkeeper
whenever you want. You can track your revenue, track your expenses, and one of my favorite
features is actually being able to see everything in percentages so that I can manage my finances
accordingly.
So I cannot recommend them enough. And again, the link to sign up for a free trial is in
my description box below. Now on the topic of working with bookkeepers and all of that.
The next tip that I have for you when it comes to managing your money is to make sure you
are seeking out experts. Now obviously if you're watching this video and you are at
the very beginning of starting your business and you don't necessarily have the capital
yet to invest in hiring experts, at least what you can do is to make sure you are self
educating. Now whether you choose to seek out experts, which is what I recommend or
you're at least self-educating by visiting forums and chatting with other entrepreneurs,
you have to understand that there are a lot of little things within business that not
a lot of people talk about like how do you pay yourself?
What is the most tax efficient way to operate your business? What can you expense or not
expense? What platforms or merchants can you use to have the least transaction fees? There
are so many little things. That's why if you're interested in me covering these smaller topics
on little hacks and tricks on how you can actually save money and be more cost efficient
in business, make sure you thumbs up this video. So I know in the meantime I also would
love it if you hit that notification bell because in my next video I'm going to be also
talking about money and income. Specifically. I'm going to share what I've learned that
has helped me generate a six figure income by the age of 25 so make sure you smash that
notification bell so you don't miss that video. Also, while you're waiting for all of that
goodness, make sure you also check out these two videos that I have here as well. I talk
a lot about social media, marketing, entrepreneurship, and all of that, so make sure you check out
these videos here as well. As always, guys, I appreciate you. I hope you guys have a great
day, a great week, and a great life, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye guys.