How To Get Back In The Driver’s Seat Of Your Business Finances & Taxes with Shannon Weinstein, Founder of Fitnancial Solutions

Get a good bookkeeper, because this is the time when you should be gathering data. You need the data. I need to know if what I'm doing is making me progress toward or away from my goal and how I can tweak my behavior based on that data.

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Earn your happy podcast. Today's gonna be a good one for you if you're taking the big leap into a business. If you already have a business, these are things that you're not going to want to. You're going to learn the fundamentals of your business that most people get wrong. This is like the most important foundation that you can lay along with how to scale, how to know your numbers, how to make sure that you're getting the help that you need in your business around the things that maybe you.

Are not good at.

I know that I needed this help. I know I hired this help out. I know that this podcast is going.

To be exactly what you.

You need to make sure that you feel good about every aspect of your business and your finances. And you guys, Shannon Weinstein is on my show today, who I absolutely love talking to. She's like a total comedian, which is so much fun and so rare for somebody in her position. You guys. Shannon is a cpa, CFO, and strategist for small business owners who want more perspective and less paperwork when it comes to their finances. Her company, Fit Nanchel Solutions, offers accounting, tax strategy, and coaching delivered from the.

Heart of a teacher.

Her real life relatable examples make the financial side of business less daunting so you can focus on serving your customers, which is exactly what you do best, so you can get in your zone of genius.

She's the host of Keep what you.

Earn podcast and a frequent speaker in masterminds and business communities. Don't skip this one, you guys. Truly, if this is something that kind of freaks you out or makes you nervous, I promise you we're going to.

Get all of your power back today. Are you ready? Let's go. Shannon, I'm so excited to have you on the show. Thank you so much for coming on.

Oh, of course. I'm excited to be here, Laurie, and talk to you.

Oh, my God, you guys, today is going to be such a great, empowering day for you and your business because I don't care what your background is. I'm pretty sure that we all want more money, want to make more money, and want to keep more of our money. And the only way to do that is to work with and listen to experts. So Today we have an expert on Shannon who has just helped so many of the people that we know as well, who have an incredible podcast called keep what you earn. I love that title. And you're doing like five episodes a week now.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing. It's honestly my favorite part of my business now.

Oh, my God. Like, why do you think that is?

A. I'm a verbal processor. I do much better talking through stuff. But it's also like, my tone and my, like, sense of humor comes across on the platform because most accountants are not funny or have a personality. So it's actually really fun to not just have to have the word speak, but to actually add tonality and humor and other things into it and infuse that and have people listen to the way I would explain it and teach it. So it's really. It's my favorite way to deliver content.

Okay, I love this. So why don't we start by telling everybody exactly what it is that you do?

So, I mean, obviously I help entrepreneurs keep more of what they earn, grow their business. And how I do that is I'm a fractional CFO and tax strategist working with entrepreneurs. And I also have a complete arm of my business on education to make financial education more accessible to early stage entrepreneurs. And that's honestly one of the most favorite things I do because I'm totally a teacher at heart.

Okay. So, you know, the idea of a fractional CFO was new to me, and I use a fractional CFO and I absolutely love it. And I know that you are freaking epic as well, and I have friends who use you as well. But let's explain that concept, what that is even, because some people, I still don't think people know what it is. And I can't honestly say I would have known what it was either if I didn't ask.

And I don't think most accountants know what it is. Some people self identify as a fractional cfo. Someone says, what? What is that? And we go, I do stuff. I don't. So here's how I explain it. So a fractional CFO is somebody who you consider on your board of directors, at the table, someone who is an influence in your business from a financial perspective, can look at things through a financial lens and advise you. So if you look around the room, if the people you surround yourself in this kind of boardroom of your business, you want to have somebody who is a financial expert. So that is the seat that I would fill, and it basically includes high level Overview of looking at the data and figuring out how to turn that into decisions. So it's more of the strategic oversight of your business finances. Yes, it can include the tactical, the bookkeeping, the accounting, the reporting and those types of deliverables. But the real deliverable is in strategy. And frankly, a lot of mindset and coaching, which I think goes unnoticed in that profession is I've turned into a business life coach sometimes with. When it comes to money and finances.

I can definitely say that that is. That was the most surprising and delightful part of hiring a fractional CFO sooner than I actually thought that I needed one. And it has been how involved you guys are in the process. Like, it's. Honestly, I don't think people can afford to wait to do it, truly, especially if you really have hopes of scaling your business quickly. I think it's one of the quickest things you can do. I think I want to start there because people listening to this might be like, well, I'm not ready for that. Or I'm not a numbers person. Like, you know, when do I. It's almost intimidating sometimes if you're in the beginning or even if you're in the first couple of years to be like, well, now I'm almost embarrassed about my numbers because I don't know them. Like, there's so many things that stop people. So tell me about when should we hire someone and why hiring someone is so powerful towards the beginning, 100%.

I'm going to share a quick story with you about someone who hired me and lied to me on their form. So it was really funny.

You're not gonna find. I love this.

They submitted the form on my website and they knew that on my website it says, you know, it's ideal for business owners making 750k and above. Because I realized that this is when people can theoretically, quote, unquote, afford it, right? So she had not even made her first hundred k yet, but she wrote what her aspiration was on the form. And I took the call and I knew this person through a friend of a friend, right? And she took the call and she said, I'm going to hire you and I needed you to take this call because I just started my business and I want to be a half a million. I want to be a million dollar business and I want the advice that is in the ears of 500k business owners right now. Wow. And I was like, that is epic mindset. Like, wow. So she said, I hired a business coach, a fractional CFO and a lawyer. And I am just going all in. I'm prepaid all of them for a year. And I said, this is what we're going to do. We're going to commit and I'm going to have the advice in my ears that people that are higher level than me are getting. And I was like, wow, okay, I support this. And I've been working with her for a year now and it's been amazing. And to answer your question, Lori, I think how do you know you're ready, right? Like for her, she was ready and it was a mindset thing. There wasn't a dollar sign. It was when you are ready. So for me, it's when you want to make it a priority. And that is up to you and that is up to where you see your business. But on a more tactical level, I would say you want to have an offer that's proven. Like, I have an auto offer, I'm monetizing, it's doing well. I just feel like I need to unlock a next level. I feel like I'm. I've exhausted a lot of things I know how to do and I need someone to tell me what I don't know. I need somebody to reveal to me what I'm not seeing, cover my blind spots. Maybe I'm wasting a lot of money in certain types of costs and I don't see it. Or maybe I'm not prioritizing my time effectively and that's costing me money. Like, it's not just about the money, it's about all the things that contribute to your financial performance and how do we actually diagnose and treat what's happening in your business? And I think that as soon as you know you want to grow in scale and that's your goal, that's when you have to start entertaining the idea of who can I get on board that will advise me on the number side so I can make sure I'm measuring my success and my progress.

I love this too, because in the beginning, a lot of times maybe we don't have a lot of team members around us. And I really love how you can act a bit as a confidant, as a team member, as someone to process with, as someone as well. What is really cool about the fractional part is that you're also in other amazing businesses, like you're learning about what they're doing simultaneously to also helping them. And that's what I find about the fractional part to be so cool, is that it's not just that this person is working with you, I find it to be a superpower strength that they are also in other businesses, because we get to take like, hey, this is working over here, or we found this shortcut, or we found this awesome way to save money. And, you know, we think that it could cross over into what you're doing, and so you're really getting, like, the best of. It's a little bit like having a little bit of a business mastermind without having it when you hire different fractional people, is what my experience has been.

Yeah, you have an accidental spy.

Mm, so true. It's so true. And it's funny because you can share those secrets without sharing about people's businesses. Like, you can know what's helping people and know that this could be. You know, that this could work over here without having to reveal, well, this person's business is doing this or that. Like, you can. You can be able to share some trade secrets without sharing about those people's businesses, which is so awesome.

Exactly.

So there's a myth that it is literally gonna cost you an arm and a leg to get really good help. So can you tell me, like, somebody right now is listening and they're like, that's it. I've got mindset. I totally feel abundant. I want to work with you. I know that, you know, I'm going to be able to scale, but.

But the invoice comes.

What is. Yes, that's literally the voice that always comes in no matter what. What does it even look like to a business to work with someone like you?

Yeah, it varies so greatly. And I think that one thing that people always assume, especially when you're a newer entrepreneur, if you're in your first couple years, you think, oh, hiring an accountant, that is out of my reach. That is for the future. I'll do that when I make money, I'll do that when I insert milestone here, Right. And the. It's this chicken and the egg thing where I'm like, well, how are you going to get there if you don't know how to measure what you're doing? Right. So it's this back and forth, but there. There is an easier way. So, number one, for the first couple years at least, you have to have a really good bookkeeper, because you have to have really good data. Otherwise, if you want to make that data into decisions, you're not going to have good data. Therefore, the CFO is not going to be of much use to you, and we're not going to have really good decisions out of that. So the foundation is always really good bookkeeping. So you're hiring a professional, you know, getting somebody in your corner as soon as possible. Like you said, Lori, you want to have somebody as soon as possible. Building a relationship with you, understanding your business, understanding the direction you're going in, your mission, your values, the things that make you you. And then it makes their job so much easier as you get bigger and as you grow that they can grow with you and they're already in the rhythm, they know exactly what you're doing. And then you can layer that. People don't, they think they, oh, I'm hire a fractional CFO from day one and that's going to cost me an arm and a leg. It doesn't have to. You can just layer it with a bookkeeper. Maybe it's a bookkeeper reviewing your stuff quarterly. Maybe it's you doing it yourself with a little bit of training. And they look at it quarterly, then they start looking at it monthly. Then you know, you add a tax pro on top of that to advise you because now you have tax situations to control and to you have to strategize and minimize your taxes. Then it's okay, I'm ready to grow. I've got the infrastructure, I've got the elements here. I'm ready to grow and scale. What people think is, oh, I'm not ready to, to do all that yet. But you can start smaller and you can grow into it.

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Okay. And there's so many. I feel like we should touch on just a couple more things that I feel like you guys really do well.

Do you also help?

Let's say someone hires you and they're like, hey, I don' know where to start with my numbers. Like, I don't even know what a normal goal would be like.

Right?

Do you help people kind of lay that whole foundation of okay, well what would feel reasonable? Like, can you kind of tell me what that all looks like when you're first getting set up? If they're like, look, I'm, I'm actually intimidated by the thought of hiring you. Because I wouldn't even know what to tell you my first goal is or based on what we're doing. Let's talk about that.

That's my favorite. I actually just got off a call for 90 minutes with a goals discussion because we're entered at the end of 2022. And my favorite part of the year is goal sett for the new year because it gets the entrepreneurs to ideate and to sit in there like, okay, this is what I want to do, this is what I want to accomplish. And one of the things I challenge people on and this is fun is I say, what's your goal? And they're like 2 million in revenue. Like why? And they're, I don't know, I just feel like I should be able to say that. Like, I just want to be able to say I made that. And I go, no, no, what's the goal? Right? That might be the metric. What's the goal? And they're like, oh, and we really unpack it. And what we really unpacked was I want to spend more time with my kids. Okay, that's the goal. So how can we measure progress towards that? And then what has to happen for that needle to move? And then what has to happen until we get to the what is the five whys? And then we finally get into how much revenue do you have to make in order to accomplish this, in order to be able to do this? And when you can connect a real life goal that you can see, feel and touch with a financial goal that it becomes way more powerful than the vanity metric of. I just want to say I have a seven figure business. And I'm like, well then if you don't achieve that, you're not going to be heartbroken. Nothing's going to change about your life. You're going to go, we'll try again next year. What is something where you have stakes? What is something where you where it matters to you? And let's quantify that and measure that in terms of what can you do on a day to day basis and what can we turn dollar signs into about that that will connect this goal? Because that's what it's about is helping the entrepreneur reach their goals. But people don't realize that the goals I'm talking about are spending more time with their kids or being able to volunteer more, being able to donate x percent to charity. You know, these are the types of goals that we're talking about and we're actually planning out in forecasts.

So the reason that I am so obsessed with that is because I have had years where I have gone, I've made this huge goal that actually does not align with the way that I want to lead my life. And it's taken outside people to ask me those, like, that exact question. Like, because those aren't necessarily the things that we ask ourselves. We set this goal because we're like, that sounds good. This person's doing that. And then I've had years where I have way under, set the bar for myself. And people are like, okay, let's assess where you're at. Let's assess your audience size, your email size, your, like, what you've done before. And I'm like, oh, my God, that was one of the most empowering experiences of my life. To go. I set this bar so low because I didn't take into account, no pun intended, like, all of the things that you take into account. And that's why I hope anybody listening who isn't maybe like detailed in this arena can see why having an outsider perspective can really help you just feel more grounded and grow a more sustainable business. And maybe even see the places that even if they, if you do want to set the bar lower for any reason, for more time with the kids or whatever that looks like, or if someone's goal is less time with the kids, just kidding, we're going to move that up. If you want less time with the kids, okay.

Yeah.

But that's why this is just like, it's quite mind blowing to me because if it's not, if having a CPA or an accountant has, like, not been in your realm before, just from personal experience, from going from not being in that arena at all to now, making sure that that's like, in every step and plan that I take, it's a very different approach and I feel so much more empowered. And I can't believe that I went years feeling as freaking scared as I did around money.

So I totally get it. And there's another thing too. So I know, okay, like, hashtag, not sponsored, nothing. I love Growth Day. Okay, listen, I love Growth Day and I love the journal prompts. And here's the thing that Brendan does excellent with the journal prompts is I took those questions because they're brilliant and I flipped them into business for my clients. Like, what would you tell yourself if you were your own coach today? What did you appreciate about today? What did, like those evening reviews that he does, right? I said, that's a perfect year in review for my clients. What did you do? Well, this year what do we want to change next year? And what you do is, again, it turns into life coaching. And when you have that outside perspective, just to ask the one question you needed to poke that needle in the nerve and go, oh, that's the question. Like, that's what we're trying to accomplish. So I totally get that.

Oh, my God. So just better questions, you guys. Like, just. Even from the things that you just said, I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, there's so much underneath there that we're not looking at that can make us feel really disempowered, that just by having somebody else kind of hold your hand in a friendly way, like, hey, we're gonna go look at this together. I know that you haven't been wanting to, and it's scary, but we're literally. That's what it feels like. It just feels like, okay, we're going in together, and I've got somebody that no matter how ug the situation is, that's how you begin to get, you know, your arms around it. So it's one of my absolute favorite things. And I love this podcast for that reason. Okay, so let's break another myth. All you need is a tax person once a year. Let's talk about this.

Oh, yeah, the April 15th one night stand. Yeah. Spoiler. Accountants don't like the U up text on April 14th. Guys, I've gotten one too many of those before. No, seriously, I went through a phase, and I think we all do. I actually called it my attacks ho phase. Because, like, you actually go through this like. Like this. Yes. To everyone. I will do your taxes. I will do your taxes. But here's the thing, guys. I mean, like, real talk from somebody who does it. And accountants will never tell you this. They're not saving you any money when they do do your tax return. They're just publishing the story. They're not co authoring it. They're just publishing it so that you hand them all those documents and they put those numbers onto their software, and that spits out a tax return that you sign. And it's very transactional, right?

Yep.

And most people just do that, and they think they have an accountant that is supposed to be there to save them money, but all you've paid for is that April 15th hookup. Like, that's all you're invested in. You are not wifey material. You are not. Right. You are just that person that they are gonna do the taxes for and then move on. Most of the time, hopefully you have somebody who you can Meet with year round and you have a better relationship. But my whole mission is like, you deserve better than that. Like, you can have an advisor in your pocket, you can call, you can text. Text. It's possible. And a lot more accountants are moving to that model where it's year round strategy, planning and actually co authoring the story while the ink is still wet. And you can change the ending. So that's the whole idea, is minimize your taxes by actually changing the ending, not just by publishing the story year after year that you're writing. Okay.

I'm gonna put you on the spot. And you probably can't talk numbers, but do you feel like most people who hire accountants or. Yeah, cpa, accountants, same thing, right?

Kind of. CPA is licensed. Right. But accountants is kind of broad. Yeah.

What is the difference? First, before I ask this question, great question.

People confuse this all the time. Accountants is like saying doctors, okay. And then a CPAS is like surgeons.

Okay.

Or something. So like it's like doctors is the most broad term. But it's like, what do you need? A dermatologist, a podiatrist, a pediatrician, a plastic surgeon, a brain surgeon? Like, there's different specialties. You can be a CPA and never do taxes. You can be. It doesn't matter. Matter. It's all about specialties. Like, there's only so much we can learn in four years, guys. So you have to uniquely look for what you're trying to find. So saying I need an accountant is like the most broad based general. You have to niche down into what problem are you trying to solve? And we can find someone to solve that for you. So I'm really glad you asked that.

Oh, I mean, that's a major difference. I'm not going to go to my, my family physician for my facelift, you know? Is that right? Okay. So, okay, for the question around hiring a cpa, do you feel like within the first year that it's, it's usually a really good one can kind of be a wash for what you pay them, can they save you the money or help you make more money? And I know you can't make claims, but that is a curious statement.

Well, so that made that make. That has assumptions, right? Like the first year, how well did you do? Because if the first year you made like 500k, that happens, right? The first year you can blow up and make multiple millions. And I'm like, okay, now we're, now we're playing. I look at the revenue and the profit as like clay to mold. I Go. I can make more things out of more clay. But when you give me this little play doh. I'm like, okay, there's only so much I can do with this. I can do something with it, but it won't be worth the time. So we gotta have stuff to play with. So I usually say, if you're making. Here's what I'll tell you. If you are making $50,000 or more in your business, profit, which is revenue minus expenses. So after expenses, if you're making $50,000 or more, then there is a tax strategy that you can take advantage of that will save you four or five figures. So that is the threshold where I go, you have to start calling people and getting on board with some tax strategy. Because that's really the point where I would stage an intervention and say, hey, you need to talk to someone, because you could be leaving money on the table.

Okay, that is. That is so good to know and so clear. Okay. Okay. So one more myth. You can afford to wait until you're making money to lay the financial pieces in place.

Yeah, that's the big one, is I'm not making enough money yet to, you know, to hire the accountant or to set up a separate bank account or to get the LLC or to get the. The building blocks all in place, or to have, like, QuickBooks. Right? And it's so funny, because I'm like, QuickBooks is 25 to 40 bucks a month. The accountant is probably going to be a couple hundred bucks a month. If they're really involved, it could just be a couple hundred bucks a quarter. And then it's like. It's so funny because the myth is that all this stuff costs a lot of money, and you want to wait. And I think there's more to it than that. I think there's actually a block in there that it's not just the price point, because in the grand scheme of things, people spend way more money in their first year on other stuff. It's not a priority. And the thing is, people blame the prices, people blame all this other stuff. And I go, it's just not a priority for you. And I get that. But there's an order of operations here where I go, but if you had, like, if you understood what this would give you in terms of a superpower or in terms of a. A weapon in your business, then it would be worth it. Everyone always looks back and goes, I wish I hired that person sooner. And there's a reason, because they realize what the value is, and they go, oh, if I had only gotten this value 6 months sooner or 12 months sooner in my business, I could have unlocked a lot more. I think that's a lot of like what you said, Lori, Had I known sooner that this person existed or what they could do for me, I would definitely have brought them on board.

There are so many challenges to business that I don't want starting to be.

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Oh, man, it's. I'm so glad everybody's listening to this now. Hopefully they cannot make the same mistakes that we made. And now Chris and I are all about, like, as much help as we can bring in around our money. The more just. I mean, it is. It's actually crazy. What is out there to help you save money, invest money, learn more about money that. That, like, we would never have access to unless we had hired people. And then those people introduce us to other people that are doing cool, unique things, investments or ways to save or. Oh, my gosh. It's actually. It's crazy because the more money that you make, the more you have to know about this, and the more money that you make, the more money you're probably wasting. Yeah. The more money you make, the more is at stake. I like that. That's so good. Okay, so let's talk about some of the blocks. Like, when I'm sure there are people listening who've maybe had, like, a past bad experience, or they're like, oh, I didn't really, like, experience that to be good or save money, or I felt like that person didn't really offer the help that I need. Or maybe they didn't even help that much. What are some of the things that you feel now? Because I do think that there's. I think you're a very new school cpa. Like, I really. You don't operate. You don't talk like what we expect. You. You do a whole lot more. In my personal opinion, it's very, like, holistic from a business perspective of what you do. So let's kind of talk about maybe someone's past beliefs. Beliefs and how we can. We can bust those around, you know, having this in your life.

Yeah, I. I think so. What I see most often is the token story I hear is I went to a guy who looks like my dad or knows my dad or went to school with my dad and, like, has a. An office that's full of 1970s furniture and a suit. Like, we all can picture who this person is, right?

Yep.

And it's like, that's my accountant. Like, we trust their expertise. So, like. Like, I want to as we're kind of uncovering the block here, I want to, like, just open your eyes up to the fact that up until now, accountants sold information. We used to sell information. I was trained up until, like, maybe when I was in college, it was, accountants sell information. My dad was an accountant, and he sold information. So it was, like, for my dad's generation, it was, you're giving away information. Like, that's all you have. Like, that's what they buy.

Yep.

And it's shifted. And now they're buying implementation, they're buying results. They're buying the feeling of knowing that they feel better about all this stuff. So I will give away information all day, every day. And that's the whole philosophy of, like, the new school is all of us, like, millennial CPAs are going, sure, like, you can Google this crap, so why can't I just explain it to you in plain English? Because you can Google it and spend three hours trying to translate it into plain English, or I could just kind of give you the bullet points. And that's powerful. Like, that's valuable for people to save time and to create convenience. And I just think the value has shifted. And that's why it's different. When you say holistic approach. It's more like, let me meet you where you're at and kind of help you get on board with this. The law hasn't changed, but how we talk about it does and how we teach it does. And that's why it's really important to find someone that you can relate to, that you can have a conversation with and that you actually look forward to talking to. I know. It's like going to a root canal at the dentist. I know, but. But if you cannot set yourself up, assuming that. Actually put it out there, like, manifest it, whatever it is. Like, I'm going to find a CPA or an accountant that I would have coffee with, that I would have drinks with, that I would invite to a wine bar and chill with. We exist. We totally exist. And it doesn't have to be that guy or that, like, I say that guy. You know what I mean? But it doesn't have to be that personality or someone you don't look forward to or an obligatory meeting. It can be something you actually enjoy. So I just want to, like, shift that for people and say you can find an accountant that really jives with what you want, and you. And you have a choice on who you work with.

I absolutely love men. I'm the first person to say it, but sometimes when you're already intimidated around money we can have. I know that I have had old stories around men and money. So for me, being able to have my first, like, big experience and approach in my business of feeling empowered, one of the biggest things was to be able to talk with a woman. For me, because there were a lot more emotions involved for me than I even noticed when I talked to my husband. He can be very cut and dry. And because I was also working through, you know, money stories and just different things around. Around my business and being in a business now completely on my own, I really felt so empowered being able to talk to a woman and be able to. To include those feelings and process in a way that I could process all of my feelings and not separate them, because they do get intertwined.

Right.

They get intermixed. And. And that's been really powerful. Even just. Even just hearing you talk, like, looking at it from that perspective of, like, okay, let's look at everything. And that. That makes me want to kind of go into the next question of a lot of people give away their financial power. They just literally say, okay, I'm not a numbers person. I'm terrible with this. It stresses me out. Just take it, whatever. I'll go over here and do this thing. You go over here and do this. What do we need to do in order to truly have our arms around our business if we are freaked out by it?

Yeah. And the metaphor I always use is like, you're driving on the road, right. And you don't know where you're going because it's a business. And there's uncharted roads, unpaved roads ahead of you, Right. That you're like, I don't know where I'm going. And everyone. You know, there's probably a bunch of voices telling you what to do. Right. And you hire this person. You hire this financial person to, like, advise you, but you give them the steering wheel, and then you just jump in the trunk and shut it and you go, take me where I gotta go. Yep. And you don't. You don't even get involved. You're not even in the backseat. You're like, nothing. And then you come out the other side and you go, where the hell are we? And you're even more nervous because now you don't know where we've been. You don't know what's happened. You don't know the history. You haven't been along for the ride. I see this so often. People come to me and they'll say, I really haven't been involved, and I have no idea what my accountant did, but I just feel like I. It's. I feel like I don't get it. I feel like they're doing something I don't like, but I can't even tell you because I haven't even looked at it. And that is, I don't want anyone to be in that position. My best advice, and I'm not saying anyone's doing anything bad if you can't see it, but I'm saying you have to be engaged and involved in some degree so that you're along for the ride, too, because it is your business business at the end of the day. So what you want is to be on that steering wheel. You want somebody in the passenger seat with the gps, with the map going, hey, there's going to be a ton of speed bumps coming up here, so you might want to slow down a little bit. Hey, there's a cop about two miles away. So, like, take it easy. Right? So, like, if you had somebody to go, like, in the passenger seat telling you what was going to come up a mile or two down the road, like, that's insanely valuable. And that's what I'm talking about, is you have to keep the wheel, but, like, get a really good navigator.

Okay? So this is so huge, and I just want to share from, like, literally my experience of a couple things that have happened. So someone like you has the experience from helping someone else in another business to go, hey, this is what can come up after you, you know, launch. Have you thought about this? Because you're going to be wanting to be putting money over here for marketing or for, you know, certain things with marketing, or you're really. If you hit this number that you want, you're going to need to do another hire. Have you thought about what that's going to look like and how much you need for that? Like, yes, there's all of these things that you don't.

You.

I mean, there's a million things like that that they can get on your radar and then you can be prepared and you don't feel, you don't feel, like, sideswiped. Like, that's some of the ways that I've felt in different businesses is I'm like, wait a minute. But I wanted to do this. But we can't do that now because over here, I just wasn't even thinking that this was coming yet. So, yeah, there's a million reasons, whether you are not hitting your goals, that they can really help you through that or whether you're really. You're crushing it. Like, honestly, so many people think that they want to scale really quickly, but that is one of the scariest places to be without help is when you're scaling really fast and it's like, you don't have somebody to help you be like, hey, this could all get, you know, completely be torn from under your feet.

Exactly.

Know how to sustain this and what's coming. So, yeah, that is so huge. Okay, so for somebody. Oh, go ahead.

Oh, sorry. And, you know, one more thing is with tax savings, for example, too. Right. So what I've actually, this is a really crazy breakthrough I had this year was that I was selling tax strategy services and I was like, everyone's paying for tax savings. So I have to really focus on making sure I'm saving the most in taxes. And what I realized was nobody, nobody this year, Lori, has asked me, how much have you saved me so far in taxes? Nobody has asked me that. Of course we're saving. We're saving them a bunch, but nobody has been like, up my, you know what Asking, like, hey, how much have you saved me? How much have you saved me? What I realized was what they're doing is they are seeing a ton of value in me, just predicting and going, hey, this is where we're at, and this is how close we are to the target tax savings goal. And then this is what we need to do. And hey, by the way, you might want to pay yourself more in salary because we're getting a little low here, like, just giving them the dashboard of here's where we're at that and giving them a prediction of your tax bill is going to be, say, $4,000. If I tell you that right now, you're like, cool, yeah, I have to pay. But it'd be better to know that now, four months before the deadline than the night before it's due and be like, what the hell? It's taking the surprise out of the surprise tax bill. And I realized the surprise was the pain point, not the bill.

That's so interesting and so true because it's the difference between, wait, that money spent and, oh, I'm going to put it away now now.

Exactly, exactly.

Very, very different feeling than that one. So, okay, for anybody listening, let's see if we can give anybody just some, you know, if there's anything that if you sat down with somebody who's maybe newer in the business, one to two years, what's some advice that you feel like right now you could give Them that might even just, like, help them save money or look at something that they wouldn't think of looking at that could really help them.

Yeah, I go back to the grounding and, like, get a good bookkeeper, because this is the time when you should be gathering data. It's like trying to. I mean, you know this from fitness and. And me, I was in Fitness for 10 years. It's trying to do a competition or trying to do a weight loss journey without a food journal. Like, you need the data. I need to know if what I'm doing is making me progress toward or away from my goal and how I can tweak my behavior based on that data. It's the exact same discipline. So that type of same discipline, if you treat dollars like calories. And I always find it so ironic that people who are really good at the calorie side of this are not good at the dollar and vice versa, but it is the exact same discipline.

That is so funny.

It's really funny because the mindset has to be the same and the discipline is the same. But I. I have yet to. Maybe I'll do some type of thesis on this. Like, why can't someone master the both? Like, I don't understand it. But anyway, the advice I have for a new entrepreneur is getting a really good bookkeeper, getting your data really solid, and starting to look at it frequently so that you're normalizing the data and normalizing looking at it and the scorekeeping, if you will. If you're like me, I do like scorekeeping mentality all the time. But measuring progress, measuring results and measuring yourself and going, okay, I'm better than I was last month. I'm better than I was last quarter. And you won't know that until you have numbers in front of you that just tell you that. That story. And I think that that will help kind of minimize the overwhelm of looking at numbers and not knowing how to read them is just piece by piece, pick a metric, follow it, and then pick another one. And I think it just opens your mind up a lot more.

It's really huge. And I'll share that. I never tracked my podcast numbers ever before, probably this last year and a half. So it was always a shock to me when the once a year I was like, wait, we're growing. Except I was like, what would actually happen if I paid attention? And I'll tell you that when I started paying attention and asking and getting those updates, I did different actions in order to grow more. And we started growing more and we started growing faster as well. And it's because I know how to shift my actions according to the data that I'm getting back. And I think that I, I don't know if I was like, oh, I don't want to pay attention to it because I don't want to get caught up in that them. Well, of course that's like a bit of a dance, right? Is, is there anything that you have around that, like if people are like, oh, I don't like to look at it because I don't want to get caught up in them. Or do you have any exercises around that that can help people feel balanced around that?

Yeah, I mean like, and it depends what you mean by caught up in it. Right? Like we don't want you to obsess over it and then like assign worth to it and all this other stuff. Right? Because it literally is dollar worth. So you have to be really careful with assigning personal worth to those numbers just like you do with the scale, you know what I mean? You have to distance yourself from the metric and go, that is not my identity, that is a today number and it will change tomorrow. But you just have to look at it. Am I, how am I trending? How am I? And what does this mean? I think it's just asking the right questions to your point earlier of not just looking at why did this happen or what does this mean for me today it should be okay, does that make me happy or not? Like, am I moving toward my goal or away from it? And then what can I do to change that? If you, that's not the right answer or not the answer you want, it's truly the exact same thing that we do in coaching or in anything else. Like if you're a coach listening to this, it's like flip your own script back on yourself and in the context of that number, go, what would I change about my behavior? What could I have changed about my behavior that would have changed that? Or what can I change tomorrow that will positively affect that? And it's just really having that relationship with those numbers where you can distance yourself from the measurement of it on your self worth, but look at it as a indicator of the next plot point on your journey and going, do I need to make a turn? It doesn't mean you're going the wrong way. It's just like, this is the path we're going down now we have to go to the next one and where will the next one be? So I think it has to be forward looking and not try to dwell on the past of it, learn from it, and move on. I think that we can all get really caught up in all these different things and metrics and followers and dollars and all this stuff. But, like. Like, at the end of the day, these are just indicators of what direction you're moving in.

I think that is absolutely huge. Like, to be able to look at it and go, okay, this is really powerful for me to know where I'm at. Because the more that you avoid, you actually. I actually feel myself leaking that power. Like, I'm like, it's a feeling of fear. And at least when you know, at least when you look, you can be like, okay, don't love it. But I'm not scared of it anymore. And I do think that the awareness, even if you don't like it at first, is a higher vibration feeling and a more empowered, boring place than the fear and avoidance, like, way more.

And even if you don't like it. So I'll use myself as an example, because I hate weighing myself. Okay? So I'm literally. You guys with business numbers. I am with my weight. So it's the same thing where I'm like, I don't want to weigh myself, but if I look at it and I see I'm over £200, let's say I'm like, okay, at least I know that. And now I'm gonna do this, like, every week to see. Because you know what? Because then if I lose weight, and again, weight loss isn't always the goal. Disclaimer. Disclaimer. Right? But, like, let's say my goal is weight loss. And I go and I say, I want to weigh 180 from 200. And as I want to lose 20 pounds, well, you know what? I will feel damn effing proud if I know I've lost 20 pounds. Like, if I have something to say, hey, I went from A to B. I knew where I started. I took that photo, right? That before photo. Don't be afraid to take your before photo. Don't be afraid to take your before photo and know that there's going to be an after photo, because that's going to show the transformation and that's going to make you really proud and create momentum.

You know, I think that's so important whether it's. This is something that's not talked about a lot in, I think, in business and in health and all the things. Because that data, that first data, that first you step on the scale, you see that number, you're like, okay, if we could just go off the data, what you would have to say is, okay, clearly the actions I'm taking right now are not the actions that are going to get me to the place that I want. Because here's where I'm at and this is not what I wanted. So it's a. And all it is is a, what you're currently doing is not working for what you want because it's the definition of crazy.

Right.

Or insanity doing the same thing over and over again. And I have been in that place so many times because I wasn't willing to one look at the scale, look at my bank account, look at the data, and I spent years doing the same thing over and over again. And somehow in my mind thinking that tomorrow would be different and it's not. So to have the people, I'm telling you, if you do one thing, you get those people that you can look at it together and say, okay, what we're doing currently is not working. So here's the next plan. And I think that's what's so powerful about what you do, is the plan. It's the plan. Because we can't come sometimes when we're so disempowered, we can't even come up with a plan of we don't even know how to get out the of of it. We're just like, you know, I can give you the plan all day of how I'm going to spiral out and freak out, but I can't give you the plan of like, how I'm going to feel empowered again. So you have to go to the people who understand how to put that plan together and have helped other people do it. So really this is a money mentor. Like, it's a money mentor for your business, which I absolutely love. Okay, so I want to talk about. I know that you have a course especially for people who maybe are like, ah, shit, I can't work with you yet. But with that said said, let's talk a little bit about the course. So maybe we can give them some, a little bit of value from the course. And then I also want to go into like, how you go deeper in the course and who that's for.

Totally. So, okay, so here's. I designed this course for a very, very clear reason, which is that a lot of early stage entrepreneurs don't have access to this information. Like, you didn't get a pamphlet when you started your business that was like, by the way, you need to go open a bank account, you need an llc, you need this, you need that, right? So. And honestly, a lot of the information out there is very scattered and very like conflicting. So what I did was I put it into a linear way that like over X number of weeks, maybe it's three weeks in this order. Like, here's your first three weeks in business, right? Your first six weeks in business. However, what is awesome, what pace you want to go through? And it's mostly toolkits and templates. Like there's a comparison chart to figure out which bank or credit card you should use. There's a checklist for your bookkeeping that's like, hey, you, like, you don't have to hire it out, but someone's got to do it. And here's all the stuff you got to do. So if you don't want to do it, you hire it out. There's no third option. So it's kind of like your checklist of here are your new responsibilities. Business owner in the pamphlet, to say, here's the stuff that they don't tell you until you learn the hard way. And most people listening probably go, yeah, I learned that the hard way. I learned it by mistake. I learned it because I got a big tax bill or because I hired someone and they asked me about this and I had no idea. Like, we learn everything accidentally. And I just decided enough is enough. I want to put something out there that's going to take them through their first few months in business from a financial standpoint. So that's exactly what it is. It's called Business Financial Quickstarter. I call it BfQ. And it basically walks you through. Let's see, the modules are basically the entity setup, ein, getting an ein bank account and credit card, setting up your payment systems and then doing basic bookkeeping and the untaxed. There's an entire tax deduction guide in there on like, what can you deduct in your business? What, how should you be recording everything? And then on the back end, there's actually the option to do a call with me if they want to go deeper so we can implement everything and get some expert advice and answer questions. So it's really designed to be that one stop shop.

Why did you create it? Was it like, were you just seeing the same thing over and over again? I know that. Well, what's so cool about you, Shannon, is you've been in rooms with some. So many entrepreneurs. Like, you've been in some of our rooms. You know that we have different groups that we've taught into with tons of different entrepreneurs and I feel like you're always one of the most popular people in there because people are like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I need to learn from you. Okay, wait, what am I missing? Am I doing it right? Because something that I saw when you would be, you know, on our. Our different zoom calls and things like that was people wanting to know from you, they have a lot of fear around if they're doing it right, if they're going to get in trouble. Like, that's a big stressor. That was a huge stressor for me. I was like, okay, I've made money. But now I'm like, freaked out. Like, am I doing something wrong?

Am I going to jail?

Yeah.

I'm like, why would you go to jail? And they're like, I don't know. I don't know.

Am I supposed to be paying something I don't know about? Like, yeah, totally. Tell me some of those things that you've seen in those groups where you're like, oh, my God, I just need to get in here and help people with this.

Oh, my God. Like, every one of them. Like, three years. Three years I was in. I was in Fast Foundations with you guys for like three rounds, every one of those. And then I worked with Jess Glaser for now 13 of her cycles, 13 classes of her business coaching, and the same questions come up. And I do a Q and A with them every single cycle, and it's the same questions. And I just, I accumulated, like, the FAQs and my. My popular podcast episodes and the stuff people kept asking me and my community. And I just said, you know what? And I built a version of this before, but we just, like kicked it into gear this year. And I said, I know exactly what they need to hear and I know exactly how much they want to hear me talk, which is no more than 90 minutes total. So it's. We don't need to be teaching accounting. We're not going to make you an accountant. I just want to equip you with enough to know. And, like, take the blindfold off just so that you're aware of a couple of key terms, a couple of things you need to know as a new entrepreneur. Because if you don't know these things, then you won't unlock next level stuff. You won't. These strategies you're hearing about on TikTok and Instagram and all this stuff, you will not be able to do that if you don't have these basics down. So you have to be able to, like, plank before you can push up. You can all that type of stuff. We got to make sure your form is good and then you can go play in all the advanced stuff. So that's the biggest thing is I heard all these entrepreneurs in these communities asking questions and they were very, very good questions. Like, but what I was realizing through the course of hearing this is, wow, no one's taught this. They don't know this. And I was lucky enough to be taught this very, very young. My dad was a cpa and I learned a lot of this when I was 12, 13, 14 years old. Old. Like, instead of getting a toy, instead of getting a toy from Toys R Us, I got a stock in Toys R Us.

That's amazing.

Oh, yeah. My dad was like, I'll buy you a piece of the whole store. I was like, cool. And then I was, oh, that's what that is.

Oh, that's a horrible present. And so amazing. Thank you.

I so amazing to 30 year old Shannon, but like to 12 year old, I was like, this is a bunch of crap. I know. So I, I basically, yeah, I just decided that when I learned this, when I was younger, this is why I use analogies, metaphors and stories, because that, this is how I learned it, because my dad had to Sesame street it to me. So I gotta find a way to Sesame street it to them. But it works because this is the language we all speak. And I don't get paid to sound smart. I don't care if I sound smart. Some other people care if they do. And I'm going, I just care that you get it.

Yeah.

And no matter how smart I try to sound, if you're not getting it, then I'm not doing my job.

It's so true. If they're not getting it, like, I've been with people where I'm like, oh, my God. I actually feel really disempowered. And I didn't actually like how I felt around that person because I felt that, that way, like you have to have that space to feel like you can ask anything or ask any question.

No judgment.

Yes.

Okay, so you've got like this incredible offer that you're going to be offering everybody who's listening, which I'm so excited about, you guys, is why I wanted to have her on, is because she is going to give you such a amazing offer for anybody who's feeling like maybe you can't hire her, but you're really like floundering or you don't want to feel disempowered around your numbers anymore. So this is like the most insane offer.

So you can get bfq. So anyone who listens to earn your happy, you're an extension of the keep what you earn family. We literally share a word in our details. So as. As extensions of my family, as. As earn your happy listeners, which I am one of you as well, I would love to offer you 50 off with code LORI. It's keepwhatyouearn.com Lori. And you can get a copy of the business financial quickstarter, which is normally only 199. You guys, like, like, come on. It's only 199 to get the access to that. And then we're going to knock 50 off. Because I just want to get this in more people's hands. It's less about making the money. It's more about just having a generation of better business owners.

I love that. And you guys, if you really want to kick off your year, you know, in a way that you have a great foundation, this is such a great.

Way to do it.

I mean, if you have friends who are business owners, do it together. Like, do it so that it's different than what you think it looks like. It can be different than what we used to think it looked like. It can feel very different. It can actually feel fun. Like this stuff. Even though sometimes I get a little nervous around it, it actually ends up feeling really fun. And even after every single meeting that I have or conversation, I feel so empowered and so much better because I have a plan and a direction. And I think that's what really makes us feel super empowered. Right? Is that plan, that direction demystifying things that you're worried about? Like, we're walking around worried for no reason. Like, we could just look at it with somebody. We could just learn from somebody and feel so much better. So before, I also just have a question for you because it's like, I think what you're doing, you know, you guys have been listening to this from the standpoint of, oh my gosh, she's the financial expert, she's this incredible cpa. But I want to take a second to like, stand in another spot, like another perspective. And you know, when you were in Fast foundations for all that, all of those rounds, it was kind of like we were. We were looking at ways to build businesses, especially around unique businesses. Or maybe, let's just be honest, boring businesses like that people may not think are sexy, right? Like, maybe they don't feel the help right away. Or you, you can't market it in a super Sexy way. And I just want to, like, have everybody listening go, oh, my God. I just listened to a financial podcast from a CPA that was totally entertaining. That made me feel excited, drawn in, empowered. And I want you guys to look at your business and say, okay, it doesn't matter what it is. Like, you've created a podcast off of it. That's crushing it.

Oh, my God. It's amazing.

An epic podcast, an incredible brand. You get to work with people you love. And it didn't start out this year way, like, you have put in the time and effort. So can you just give us, like, a minute rundown of kind of what you think? How did you get to where you are right now?

Oh, my God. Because I realized that no matter what you do and no matter what you do for other people, if you can build trust and people trust you to guide them, that. That's the whole game. So I'm not selling information. I'm not doing any of this stuff. I'm not just trying to preach at people. I'm not talking at people. I just want you to trust me that I'm going to guide you in the right direction. Direction. And the. The whole. The whole thing with the podcast was, let me just put what I need to say to everyone out there, the advice I want to give, and see if people will receive it. And I'm so grateful that, like, we just crossed a hundred thousand downloads this year. Insanity. And it's grown so much. We're not doing five a week, and people are fans of it. And I just never thought. It still blows my mind, Laurie, that people electively listen to an accountant on their morning walk or at the gym or whatever, and I'm like, I can't believe I'm in your ear. And you actually enjoy it.

It.

But I'm sure you think that all the time, too. It's like you.

I do, like, really, really came back. So weird.

Yeah. But, you know, it's been so cool because people have. Have come back to me and said, this stuff is so not approachable. And then I hear you talk about it, and I'm like, oh, I get it. And. And I realize that that's what I'm. I'm here to do and how I'm gonna serve. So I say, if you run a business where you're like, this isn't the traditional thing, or, you know, this isn't how I've always done it in my career and go, exactly, exactly. You have to do it your way. You have to just show up in your way, authentically. And if you want to, you know, like, for me, if you want to have, like, a podcast talking about accounting, where I swear on occasion, then go for it. Like, why not just be you and show up?

I love that so much. Okay, where do we go? Where do we go if we want this?

Anywhere you get your podcast. We are now on Apple, Spotify, Google, and Amazon Music. Keep what you earn. Pretty simple. Keep what you earn. You can find it anywhere. You get podcasts, and on top of that, you'll see links in the show notes. But we also have a community of listeners where you can ask questions, and we do one call a month. So I actually have a live podcast recording every single month with people in the room, and you can ask me questions after. So I'd love to see you there.

Oh, my God, that's so fun. I'm literally like, oh, my God, what a great idea. Maybe we'll do that. Awesome.

Thank you. Live studio recording. It's so fun. It's like Conan fun.

Oh, my gosh, I love that. Okay, we might see that on here.

Okay.

And how about to get your business financial quickstarter.

Oh, absolutely. It's keep what you earn.com Lori. Use code LORI for $50 off. Pretty memorable. I think you'll get it, but we'll make sure it's in the show notes, too, right?

Yep. It's all in the show notes. You guys, thank you so much for making this so fun. Truly, it's. I think some of the most fun things come from the most scary or boring things. Truly, when you can feel empowered because it is. It's growth, right? It's really big growth, and this is something to be able to grow with someone always feels really good.

And.

And just it's. You guys, it's. It's how your business grows. There's no way around it. There is no way around it. So. All right. Sending you guys so much love, and thank you so much for coming on. And, you guys, one of the biggest things that we can do for our guests, number one, is obviously, if you want to go buy your stuff, like, literally, go buy your stuff. Number two, is to let her know what your biggest takeaway was like. It's. It's huge to know that, you know, all of this information that she is putting out into the world and on this show that it's resonating with you. So give her a tag on Instagram. Shannon, what's your Instagram at?

Shannon K. Weinstein on Instagram.

Okay. And you give tons of amazing info there too. So go follow her on Instagram, but give her a shout out. Let her know what your biggest takeaway was from this. And until next time, earn your happy. Bye everyone. Sam.