764. How to Pay Yourself Consistently From Your Product Business

Dear Jacqueline, episode 5. I'm profitable on paper, but I still can't pay myself consistently. What should I fix? Hey, I'm Jacqueline Snyder and I'm the host of The Product Boss. In this Dear Jacqueline episode, this is the place that you ask the questions that you've been afraid to ask anyone else about your product business and the life you're actually trying to build around it. So I wanna start today with a story. I had a client, I'll call her Michelle. And Michelle had a product business that on paper was working. She had customers, she had sales, she had inventory moving, and her tax accountant had told her she was profitable. And yet every single month she could not consistently pay herself. She could not figure out where the money went, and she did not look at her bank account because looking at it made her sick to her stomach and caused anxiety. You know, you're out there. That was me. That was me too, right? So she was ashamed of debt that she had accumulated. She was ashamed of looking at the bank account, and she believed deep down that she was just bad at numbers. So she had built a real business and was secretly broke inside of it. So if any part of that hits you, this episode is for you, and we're going to talk about why profitable on paper does not always mean cash in your account, the numbers you actually have to look at, and the one move I'd have you make this week even if numbers make you want to throw your laptop out the window.

So let's get into it. Hi, I'm Jacqueline Snyder, and this is the Product Boss Podcast. I've helped launch and grow thousands of product-based businesses, even one of my own. And over the last 20 years, I've seen behind the scenes of businesses just like yours, whether they are makers, manufacturers, artists, or food and beverage businesses. I have spent so many hours studying it all. I've discovered what makes them successful, what mistakes they could have avoided? How did they turn their ideas into successful business? And what are the strategies that they have used to make more sales and be discovered by more customers? And this is what this show is all about. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to become a million-dollar product boss, I'm here to give you the permission to chase your dreams no matter how big or small. All you need is the right mindset, a little courage, strategy, and support, and you too can be the next million-dollar product boss. Let's do this.

Here's the question that came in. Dear Jacqueline, I'm profitable on paper, but I still can't pay myself consistently no matter what I do and no matter how much money I make. So what should I fix first? So real quick, before I answer this, if you want me to answer your questions in a future episode, make sure to follow me over on Instagram at The Product Boss. Okay, I can pause for a hot sec. Just head over to Instagram, follow The Product Boss, and all you have to do, as the kids say, slide into my DMs and ask me the question, "Dear Jacqueline," with your question. I read every single one of them that comes in from people who follow the show and follow me on Instagram. All right, let's get into it. First, I want you to hear something really important. Profitable on paper and cash in your account are not the same thing, and almost nobody teaches the difference. Profit is a math problem. Cash flow is a relationship. And if you can't pay yourself, it is almost never the math, it's the relationship. So stay with me. You can be perfectly profitable on paper and still be broke.

Why?

Because your money is tied up in inventory that hasn't sold yet. Maybe it's sitting in receivables from wholesale buyers who owe you and who haven't paid. Maybe it's been spent on the next season's product. That's 6 months before that product will actually earn the money back. And it's leaking through small operational decisions that you haven't seen because you have not been looking. So profit and cash are not enemies, but they are not the same thing. And when you cannot pay yourself, it's a cash problem, even when the books say profit. So today we're gonna talk about the 3 things to do, why your relationship with money is what's actually broken, and the number you have to start looking at to be the one move to make this week that even if your numbers terrify you, like, we're going to get into it. So here's the belief: you believe that you are bad at numbers. I've had this belief too. You believe money is somebody else's job, and you believe that the accountant will figure it out, or maybe it'll just figure it out itself. And maybe you're believing that if you just keep selling, eventually it's going to work itself out. And it's not gonna work itself out. Money does not respond to avoidance. Money responds to attention. It's worthy of that. And the women I have watched build 7 and 8-figure product-based businesses are not necessarily better at numbers than you. They are not smarter than you. They're not less afraid. The only difference between them and you is that they look every single week, even when it scares them, especially when it scares them. Because the truth is, is what you avoid in your business, your business punishes you for. I know it's kind of harsh, but it's the truth. What you look at in your business, your business starts cooperating with, right? Money is energy. It moves towards attention. It moves away from shame. The fix is not a better spreadsheet. The fix is your willingness to look. Which brings me to the second thing. Your business is your mirror, and right now the cash flow problem is showing you exactly where you have to grow. It is showing you that you have been outsourcing your relationship to money. You've been hoping someone else—your accountant, your bookkeeper, your partner, the universe, God only knows—will manage the part of this business that is supposed to be your responsibility. And so your business is reflecting back to you that you have to become the kind of woman who can hold money, who trusts herself with money, who can look at the bank account and not flinch, whatever the number says, and who can read a profit and loss statement and understand it, and who can call a creditor and negotiate, who can charge what she is worth and what her products are worth and not apologize for it. This is not about being a math person. This is about being the boss of your business. So now let's get tactical. There are 3 numbers that you have to start looking at every single week, and there are just 3, not more, and not just one, right? We get to talk about this. So number 1, your cash on hand. What is actually in your business bank account right now, today? Not last month, not on paper, right now. And then number 2, your accounts receivable. Who owes you money? How much? And how long has it been outstanding? Is it wholesale buyers? Do they have net 30 invoices? Anyone who owes you that has not paid. And then number 3, accounts payable. Who you owe money to, how much, and when is it due? And that's it. 3 numbers, 5 minutes a week. And when you start tracking those 3 numbers, 2 things will happen. One, you're going to start noticing patterns. You'll see, oh, I have $40,000 in receivables outstanding for 60 days. That's $40,000 you can collect. Two, your nervous system will start to regulate around money because the unknown is more scary than the known. So once you know the number, you can do something about it. The owner who looks weekly builds a different business than the owner who looks once a quarter when she has to, or just avoids the whole thing. So I wanna come back to Michelle. When Michelle and I started working together inside The Collective, she had not looked at her bank account in months. And we started with one thing. We just looked at the number every Monday morning, 5 minutes. The first week she did it, she cried. Then the second week she did it, she made a list of all the recurring expenses she had been paying without thinking about it. And then she cut 3 of them. That alone was $800 a month back into her pocket. Then she called her vendors and renegotiated some payment terms. Net 30 became net 60 for who she had to pay out. And that bought her cash flow, and that's when she called her credit card companies and negotiated her balances down. Then she renegotiated her warehouse lease, and none of these moves required new revenue. None of them required a launch. They just required her to look and take action. And 6 weeks in, Michelle had her first profitable cash flow month, meaning that the cash actually showed up where the profit said it should. And she told me, I thought I was bad at numbers. I just had not been looking at them. And looking at them is the whole thing. So if you take nothing else from today, take these 3 things. 1, profit and cash are not the same thing, and you can be profitable on paper and broke in real life. So most product-based business owners are losing money in places they have stopped looking. 2, money responds to attention. The relationship you have to money is the actual fix. And the only way to repair it is to look, to face it head-on weekly, right? To do the mindset work around it, even when it scares you. And 3, you do not have to be good at numbers. You just have to be willing to look at them. 3 numbers a week, 5 minutes a week. That's the minimum bar. So here's your homework this week, whatever the next Monday is, Open your business bank account and write down the number, just the number, right? Don't judge it. Just don't try and fix it. Just look at it. Then do it again next Monday and the Monday after that, right? 8 weeks from now, your relationship to money will be different and so will your bank account because you're willing to look and then take action. So 2 quick things before you go. Every single week on Mondays, I host a free training called How to Scale Your Product Business to $1 Million and Past It Without Becoming the Bottleneck. And I walk you through the strategy, the belief shift, and the next moves, and it happens all in one session. It's the same place I'd start you if you were a brand new client of mine. So all you have to do is go to theproductbossworkshops.com to grab your seat. And we also have a million dollar playbook that you get when you show up live. All right. Two, if you are past the workshop phase and you're ready to actually sit down and talk about where you're stuck, about the money side of your business and what it's doing, you can book a free 1-hour call with one of my product business growth advisors, and we'll walk you through your numbers, find the leaks, and figure out what your next move should be by working with us at The Product Boss. Just head to theproductboss.com/bookacall or click the link in the show notes. I'm gonna drop 'em all there for you. All right, that's it for today's episode. I will see you next Thursday, same time, same Jacqueline Snyder. Please keep growing your businesses and I'll see you soon. Take care of yourself.

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