Episode 198: Partnering with a Profit First Professional with Ramona Rice

Hey, y' all, it's Mike Michalowicz here, and we're sharing some of our best of episodes right now. This one's a classic. You know, someone starts a business, her name is Ramona Rice, and guess what? She's not profitable. I know you know that story, but she decided to make a new story. Specifically, she implemented profit first in her business by using a profit first professional and within one quarter had brought permanent profitability to her business. Maybe she's the exception. Or I think maybe she's the rule. Well, you decide for yourself when you listen to this episode. And I hope you do the same, you know, drive profit in your business permanently. So, Kels, where'd you go to college again?

St. Michael's College.

Who was the arch rival of St. Michael's in Vermont? Who is your competing school?

We don't have arch rivals.

There must have been someone in Vermont.

They're very peaceful.

Oh. Cause we're Saint Michael.

Get it?

Yeah. It's cute. So here's the deal where I. So I went to Virginia Tech. Our guests went to uva. And we are like, we're destined to be arch enemies.

We have to be. That's the Southern thing.

It's kind of like Russia. Us Even. Even when things are good, things are bad.

Or like Clemson and usc.

Clemson. Usc. No, Clemson is in South Carolina. Oh, yeah. I thought you meant University of Southern California. Very much like Clemson. Usc. You nailed it. Yeah.

Yeah, it's a very Southern. Have to have that rivalry thing. Yeah, Vermonters aren't so much like that.

Yeah, Vermonters are kind of like loving, but they carry a lot more weapons around. I was in New Hampshire recently and, like, people are packing heat and like, you know, don't tread on Me, which is a state logo of New Jersey.

But also that's a state logo of New Jersey.

The state flag used to say don't tread on Me.

I didn't realize that that was New Jersey.

I think you say Don't Tread on Me and then they remove. They remove that. But look up the old New Jersey state flag. That logo. Flag and logo. Guess it's a curled snake.

Yeah.

This is Don't Tread on Me.

See it all the time.

Yeah, that's what it is.

Yeah.

Texas don't met. Oh. Do you know the background of how Texas came out with don't mess with Texas? No, that was their anti littering logo.

Oh, makes sense.

So, yeah, so Texas came out with this about 30 years ago. Don't mess with Texas. Which means please don't Litter. And then the Texas people took it on. He's like, don't f with me.

Yeah.

And we're bigger than you. Yeah, well, they go big. You know, Texas goes big in so many ways. They're like, you know, we own this logo and dominated on it. I. My hat's off to them. My 10 gallon hat is off to them.

I like the original usage, though.

I do like the original uses too. And here's what else I like. I like that we're starting a brand new episode. So. Welcome to the Profit first podcast. Episode 152. That's right. Come on. Always by myself. All right, well, everyone, welcome to the Private first podcast. I'm Mike Michalowicz, the author of Profit first and some other books, and your host. Here on the Private first podcast, I'm joined in studio by Kelsey Ayers.

Hey, everybody.

Does anyone call you Ayers?

No, just you.

Just me. Okay, I'm sorry. I apologize for that. And Christine's out. She's out ill this week, so. And she will be for the entire month because we're recording four episodes or three episodes, so she's basically out. But here's where we're always. We may be out sick, but we're always, always on itunes. We're always on stitcher, we're always on tunein radio, Google Play, the Profit first podcast. Quite frankly, any podcatcher, anywhere you listen to any podcast, we're there. So make sure you subscribe because we do some fun stuff. Plus, I got a fun little test coming up soon for Ms. Kelsey Ayers. So, Kelsey, what have you been up to?

Oh, you know what I've been doing.

No, that's why I asked.

So I have this dream of having a nice piece of property kind of in the middle of nowhere so I can go outside and just be in my own world. And I just want to build kind of like a two story garage with a studio space underneath and a small apartment above.

Nice.

So I just look at property all the time and I actually went this weekend to look at a piece of property. It had an old farmhouse on it, but it was nine acres. But it turned out that the nine acres was of marshland, so it wasn't usable, which is awesome because a lot of birds go there and it's.

Was there any usable land?

There was very little usable land.

Where do you look? In Pennsylvania.

In Pennsylvania and in. In like one age.

I gotta know these dreams. We gotta make this happen.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So you want property for property's sake, and then you May won't put a modest house on it at one point.

Yes. Yeah, yeah. So I want, like, I want a place where people can come so I can do jewelry parties and art classes and just have a nice kind of open space.

Beautiful.

So, yeah, that's my dream, is have that nice little piece of heaven.

That's awesome. So I have.

Oh, I'm sorry. What have you been up to, Mike?

No, I just feel so. Comparatively. I feel like such a lame. Oh, now you have, like, this great vision. You want to serve people. Me?

You have a huge vision.

Oh, no, no. Mine is this thing, Voxer. This is my biggest discovery. So this app has been out for a while. V o xer. And I was talking with Amber Dugger, whose name will come up in a little bit, and we're going back and forth, and she said, instead of calling me in email, use Voxer. It's like a walkie talkie, but with a recorder.

Oh, cool.

So I can walkie talkie to you, and if you decide not to hear it right away, you don't have to, but they'll store it and you can walkie talkie back, but it will follow the thread. So we can have a conversation and you can push play and you can listen to the whole conversation from the top to the bottom so you don't get lost. Oh, cool. Boxer. Yeah, it's a Cool.

I've never heard of that.

I never heard of it either.

Awesome.

And I was telling someone like, oh.

You gotta try Amber Duggar.

Yeah, I love Amber Dug. Yeah, I'm telling someone. You got to try out Voxer. He's like, that's been around for like, six years, dude. And he talks like that, too.

We all can't know everything all the time.

I know. I'm like, I found the greatest thing ever. And he's like, oh, it's been. Everyone knows that's been around. You know something that everyone else also knows about?

What?

Our sponsors.

Yeah.

Our corporate partners. They are Nextiva Receipt, Bank, Zero, Fund Box and Fund Dara. We'll give you more details about those fine folks at the end of the show. There's one more fine folk I want to talk about.

Fine folk.

Yeah, Fine folk. It's called Net payroll.

Ooh.

You know. You know net payroll because has your paycheck always been delivered on time? Every time?

Yeah.

Does it get transferred in, or do you get the. The paper ones?

No, I get direct deposit, but then there's a. You have your own kind of dashboard, I guess. So you can go and Check your pay stubs online.

Oh, really?

Yeah, it's so funny.

Like I.

So I could catch when something was amiss.

Okay, so we know we're an llc. So I don't get a paycheck. You get it as a distribution. When the company has the money, you just distribute it. And we, because we do private first, we, we're in a rhythm. We do this every two weeks, just like whenever else. Gets payroll. But I don't use Net Payroll because I can't. So I didn't even know they had that.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. Well, here's what's so great about Net Payroll. We moved from a large entity. I will not mention their name, but I'll tell you this. I can't think of any other large entity. And Net Payroll is an established company where the owners of the business give you direct access to them. Like literally home phone numbers. And it's not because it's a gimmick. It's because they, if there's an issue, they will be on top of it. Now, I don't work with the owner of Net Payroll. I work with the staff.

Right.

But if there's an issue, the owner wants to get involved right away. They're that focused on caring for the customer, even they offer a 60 day money back guarantee if you're not 100% satisfied with the service for any reason. Oh, this online app, it's just so, I don't know, it's so not cool. Voxer is way better. I wish this was like more like Voxer. They'd say, we're sorry, we're not Voxer. Here's your money back.

Yeah, Wonderful. Peace of mind.

Yeah. So check them out. We use them. We've used them now, I want to say a year, maybe two. Christina would know. It's netpayroll.net that's net payroll payroll.net. welcome to the show. Notes. But check them out. Definitely a company that you want to consider for your own payroll needs. Also, there's so much more I have to tell you. Is there a lot more?

Come on, man.

Yeah, there's more. The Shout out hotline. That shout out hotline.

Yeah.

How's that work? You tell me.

It's super simple.

Microphone.

All you have to do is call our toll free number.

Okay.

Which is 844-876-7221. And just give us your name, your business name and why Profit first has impacted your. How Profit first has impacted you.

And it's the Profit first shout out. So we want you shouting, it's the profit first yell. So you call that number 844-876-7221. You share your name, the business you're with, the business you founded, maybe a quick 10, 15 second version of your story. You only have 20 seconds, but at the end we want you yelling, I am profitable permanently. And scream it, scream it.

Just like that.

Yeah, that's pretty good.

Yeah. Yeah.

I would actually scream even more if I was really doing it. I think I covered everything I wanted to cover.

Well, can you play? There's a shout out that somebody actually left for us.

Okay. This is a sample one, I guess, right?

Yeah. So his name is Angus Prior and he's the founder and marketing manager of Dental Profit System. And you can find him at www.dentalprofitsystem.com.

So let's see what Angus has said. And this is before we even had the shout out. Kind of the founder. Yeah, here it is.

Hi, my name's Angus Pryor from Sydney, Australia. I've got a marketing business called profitleap.com and just last weekend, my wife and I had a fantastic time. We stayed in a luxury hotel, we went to the theater together, we went out for dinner. And all of that was paid for by the distributions from our profit account. So do yourself a favor, get the account set up because this profit first system, it really works. And we're going to do this again. And in thanks.

So you know Angus. Thank you, Angus, for saying that. Very modest voice. You know, he's very tempered. I called him up, said, you know, we're starting this line. I need you. I need you. Really yelling and feeling the energy. So I said, one more time, Angus, if you told people about Prophet first, what would you say? And he did one more recording. Here it is.

Do it.

Just do it. Yesterday you said tomorrow. Yeah. So just do it.

All right, now let's get to sound like his accent.

No, I know when he yells, he loses his accent.

He just gets so excited.

I don't know that about the Australians. When they yell, they get an American accent. Isn't that funny?

Yeah. Crazy weird that I never knew that either.

It's weird you didn't know. Listen to Croc Dundee, the next movie. You see that Croc Dundee's in it, which I think he's in one. He won't, probably won't be in any future. There's a couple scenes like he starts yelling and he loses his Australian accent. He goes totally American. Little known fact, her name is Ramona Rice and Ramona is an award winning content marketing professional who specializes in appointment based businesses like a dental business. Right. That's what Angus is. The same space season. She is also the owner of De Stress Express Massage therapy in Newport News, Virginia. And she's a. She went to Virginia. She's a. Who? Who? Did you see the voice? That's the chant.

Wahooa.

There she is. So a lot of people from Newport News, Ramona, are hokies. I don't know how easy it is to live there. Welcome to the show.

Welcome Ramona.

Thanks guys. It's easy to take their money. I have no problem with hokey money.

I love it. I love it. What did you study in college?

Actually sociology.

Me too. No way.

Yay.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

Cool.

Yes. So yeah, I finished actually as a proper adult in my 30s. So my tiny humans got to walk the lawn with me a little bit for graduate. For final exercises. Cause. Yeah, so that was kind of cool.

So while we may be destined to be enemies in college sports, we are destined to be friends through a mutual friend. Amber Duggar.

Yes, she is divine goddess. I just. Your profit first coaching system is amazing, Mike. It's amazing because it's literally changed both my personal finances and my business finances in ways that just. I don't understand why people don't just hire them immediately. It was the best decision I've ever made for my. So just best decision.

Let's talk about the results and then I want to know about the process of where your business was, why Amber, and how she helped you. So tell us where you stand today now that you've implemented profit first.

So I implemented profit first starting in November and we worked both on our. My personal budget and my business budget. And since November we haven't added on an ounce of debt. We have streamlined all of my expenses both personally and professionally. So it's a really streamlined business. I've consistently given myself paycheck checks as the employee, the single employee of the business. And then I've taken my profit. I've gotten to take one profit, you know. Cause we've had one quarter go through. So I got to have one which was a fun outing with the kids. And it just grows from there. Yeah, it's just, it's amazing and I just. It's really exciting to keep going and seeing how much else I can do with the system.

Yeah, that's awesome.

So now you said you. This is the first time you've ever taken a profit. This was your quarterly profit distribution. Tell me about like the feelings and the emotions when your company's paying for that outing with your kids, well, you.

Know, it goes back to a lot of things. The reason that I am a business owner is my husband passed away February 2016, and I left. Thank you. I left my corporate job because I couldn't afford the health care and daycare. By the time I was done with that, I would have had, like, basically no money. And so my parents said, come move in with us, and we'll take care of you and the kids, and you. You start a business. And so to be able to take that profit share and go out with the kids to a really nice dinner and toast Mommy and our little family was amazing. Yeah.

Wow. The first time someone from Virginia made me cry, I'm like, oh, my God. I get emotional. I'm proud of you. So tell me about that toast. So you told your children that this is something that you've achieved through your company?

Yeah. And every time something comes up where they want to do something or anything, we talk about. We look at the. I have a little app that tracks all my spending, both business and personalized, and we look at it, and we talk about why. Why? You know, I'm like, well, like I was telling you off air, you know, I had to pumpkin plan a client, so that meant my revenue this past month was. Was down. But it was the better decision for the business. And so I. We explained why. And having them kind of part of it as kind of like junior little officers, it allows them, number one, to see that owning your own business is so much better than working for anybody typically. And it shows them at a young age. Like, this is how you manage money, and this is how, you know, we utilize money as a tool rather than, like, an emotional thing that's so effective.

So anyone listening that's not familiar with the pumpkin plan, read the book, for God's sake. But the pumpkin plan, a client can mean to remove an unfit client. That's actually slowing your business down. While they represent revenue, they're slowing your business down. Okay, so let's rewind to pre where you stand now, tell us a little bit about the two businesses that you have and what it was like running those businesses prior to Amber helping you out.

So the way I was earning money again, you know, left the corporate job June 2016 and took kind of the summer to kind of be with the kids and relax. And I had, like, I have a side hustle with podcast websites, which I know. You know, John Lee Dumas, he was on your show, and he Lives in Puerto Rico, works with him. Yes. Oh yeah. I'm a super fan of your show, Mike. I love this podcast. Yes. And so I actually work. He has a subsidiary called Podcast Websites which he partnered with a friend of mine, Mark Asquith. So I want. They're one of my clients. So I was getting money through them and then I came up with this idea with another friend of yours, Chris Ducker. I'm part of his mastermind community and I was telling him about my family owning this day spa. So my mom started a day Spa in 1996 with one massage room. And she left her corporate job when she was my age, 36. I'm. Well, I'm 37 now. And she left her day job because she was just sick of it. She wanted to own her own business and there were no other places in our area to like perform massages. So she became like the massage place. And she kept growing and growing very slowly. My stepdad is very conservative with money. We do not take debt on unless we absolutely have to. Unless it's, you know, it's got to be a really sound reason. So. And they just kind of piecemealed it. And while I was going back to the lovely Mr. Jefferson University, the UVA, I worked with them inside the business. And I kept seeing where we could do like, like systems and processes that would make it more cost effective to get more massages in, but not minimize client care. So I worked with them directly. And so I was telling Chris about this at a mastermind he was holding in San Diego and he goes, you need to do this for other spa owners. Why aren't you doing this? You're so passionate about this. And that's where Spa Preneur came from. And so it's a thing that my mom and I are doing together, but I'm the main person where we offer private coachings for people who are in the spa niche. So that's where that appointment based businesses come from. And how to get clients back to booked back in, how to really hire employees. Yeah. Because after 20 years we have some interesting stories.

Yeah, I got you. So you started helping your mother make her spa business more efficient. Chris Ducker, who's a real mother friend, he's a real friend of others. Yeah, I always do that to him, but he does not like it. So you need help. You help other spots do the exact same stuff. Ramona.

Yeah, exactly. So we, we offer things like we have guides that they could buy that are cheaper or then private coaching with me, you know, we really look at their business. I was just on a coaching call yesterday with. With a spa in New Orleans, and she was talking about how, you know, she. She was fine. She had a client employee quit because they weren't, like, keeping the rooms tidy and things like that. So it's a lot of me telling them, no, this is a good thing, and here's why. And this is what we're going to do next, because we've already been there. And so the way we get people to our site is we have a podcast, the Spa Preneur Podcast, where my mother and I are together and we. Most people think spas are like this. Serene, quiet places. Not us rooms. It's really quiet and relaxing and we give great therapy. But in the lobby, we're nuts. I mean, we are. We are insane. That doesn't sound like a. Clients love it.

Really? Give me an example. Like, I go to the spa, they put those. Those awkward sandals on. You. You. You. You put that robe on. You go to the room like the men. Actually, the last one I went to, the men and women were in the same room waiting. And like, when you're sitting in a robe, like, if that robe flutters open, like, no one needs to see what's going on here. Like. But that's what I expect of a spot. There's some. There's some Indian type of sound. Sounding guitar. What do you call it? That. That. The Indian guitar?

Like, guitar.

The. Yeah, the guitar. That's what a spa is like. You're saying you can get crazy?

Yeah, no, we. Because we've built a business where the clients. I mean, the clients grew up with me. You know, I was a sophomore in high school when they were seeing my mother. And now, you know, we have. What is it? 23 massage therapists, 15 massage rooms, 20,000 clients.

Clients?

Yeah. It's pretty big. Like, we're. We're awesome. You know, you can't help have that many people see you regularly and things don't go nuts. We've had. Again, we've had inappropriate clients where we're like, no, you cannot get a certain. No. No massage. We've had that.

Are you kidding?

Oh, yeah. It happens a lot, unfortunately.

So I'm actually surprised.

Is it always men, or do women ever ask for. It's always men. Right.

Very rarely do. It's always men. I. I would say 99 of it.

Okay, 99. It means what a woman's asked for. Has it ever. I'm just wondering, in world history, has a woman ever asked for an Inappropriate massage ever.

Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure it's. It's bound to happen. I mean, law of averages, it means that it's going to happen, but majority of them are going to be men.

Yeah. I apologize for all men. I just want to put it out there. It'll never be enough.

Never the one. And it's never the ones you want to sexually harass you, you know? Yeah, exactly. It's because they don't need to sexually harass women to get women's attention. Anyway, that's my.

My dermatologist can't identify what this rash is. Now, would you make it all right? Right. Like, those are the type guys that are asking for that. Okay, continue.

Yeah. So, you know, when I was telling Chris about the story about how proud I was about my mom, he's like, yeah, you need to do this. And that's what we've done. So November is when I officially finally got the nerve to start it and get the website going. And, you know, because, I mean, I've been really lucky because of my relationship with podcast websites. I don't have to pay for website hosting or podcast hosting.

They.

It's included my comp. And then, you know, I have access to Chris because I'm part of his youpreneur community. And so that. And. But the big thing was I was getting these checks, and I'm like, what do I do with this money? Like, I was putting everything in my personal account. It was just. It was a nightmare. And so I had actually heard about Profit first even before it was published many years ago. I don't know if you remember a woman named Michelle Pippen.

Yes, I know Michelle Pippen. Yes.

She's a super close friend of mine. She's amazing. And so you.

I was literally talking about her on Sunday because I haven't connected with her in a long time. I'd love to reconnect with her. That's a total aside, and we're wasting listener time, me explaining this, but I just want to reconnect.

Yeah, it's okay. So I had read the Prophet first before. So it was in the back of my mind before I was even, like, a really serious business owner going, I need to use that system. That made sense to me. So I bought the book again. I went to Barnes and Nobles, like, let me get the book. And I'm reading the book, and I'm just like, oh, I was getting it, but I wasn't getting it, you know, because everybody learns differently, and I'm one of Those I need to be shown. And then I discovered your podcast. And Chris, who used to be on your show, is a friend of mine in the podcasting space. So I was excited he was on and I was telling him, like, oh, my God, this is like the best, like, podcast ever. And then my friend Michael O' Neill was on your podcast and you know, Scott McCree, like, all these guys I know were on your podcast. I'm like, oh, my gosh. And that you guys kept saying, profit first professionals. And I'm like, you know what, what is it gonna hurt to go on this website? At least try to find a professional? Even if they can just walk me through steps of just setting up the bank accounts, I think that would help immensely. And luckily we got partnered up with Amber Duggar and I' all of your profit first coaches are fabulous. So I want to be really clear about that. Anybody you get placed with this program, because at this point, knowing, you know, Mike for this long, even though he had no idea I existed, but the quality he puts in his books and his podcast and that sort of thing. Yeah, his head's getting big like a turkey feather.

That hurt. But it was funny.

But Amber, when we did the initial call, I just opened up and talked about, you know, the fact that my husband was willing to always handle the bills. I didn't know what to do. I've got this money coming in and I was, I was, I have goals of, you know, I get money from my husband's estate for the kids. I really want to honor that and only use that money for the children and never myself. Like, like things that they need, like karate lessons and sleepaway camps and Girl Scouts and, you know, children are expensive. They're, they're, they never stop being expensive. So I want that money to go to them.

Tell me about it.

Yes. So I, that's why I want my business to be profitable. And I just didn't want the stress I hear from business owners. I wanted the business to work for me, not me work for my business. And so starting in the beginning, really with Amber has been like the best thing I've done for my business because she explained everything to me. And then because I signed up for her year long program, we meet every two weeks virtually for about an hour and a half to two hours. And she's basically my cfo. So when I have, like issues about money and decision making and what should I do? I have a person that is invested in me, but only invested in me because she's, you know, part of My business. You know, it's a better. It's better advice sometimes than what your parents may give you or friends, because they have a different relationship with you than a trusted professional. Yeah. And that's why. So it's basically, I've hired a CFO for my company. In other words, that's the way I look at it.

You know, when it comes to parents and friends, I think they don't want to hurt our feelings. So there's some of that. Usually they don't want to hurt our feelings. My father has no problem with it. Your book is horrible. But. No, he's a wonderful man. But. But I think friends will say, oh, yeah, what you're doing is just fine. You're good. Everything's good. And they want you to feel comfortable. But that's the worst advice to give Amber. I assume Ramona is emotionally removed from what you're going through, and so the emotional component of the finances is not baggage she needs to carry. Plus, she can speak to truly what's in your best interest, because she doesn't. She's not trying to pursue you to be a friend. She's trying to care for you in this relationship. And do you feel that's an accurate assessment?

Yeah, exactly. And the best part is, is that, you know, I trust her opinion because she speaks the language of this program I want to use. If I went to my. If I went to my dad, my stepdad, you know, we run a profitable business, but it's done in a different way than profit first, if I try to explain the system to him, he. He would show me all the ways. It's. He's like, no, it doesn't make sense. And so for me, I really wanted to align myself with someone who understood this system, who lives the system, who loves the system, and because it works, it works.

So let's talk about it works again. You share that you took your first profit ever, and you're on a regular payroll. Right. Before bringing Amber on board, what was the financial situation like, and how did you transition to where you are now?

All of my credit cards were maxed out. Every single one.

Sorry. It sucks.

Some of them, and some of them.

Were over the limits.

Over the first, it wasn't that much. I mean, compared to most people, it was probably about 15,000. Okay, that's a lot. But for me, being a single mom, that was a lot, Right? It just felt like a lot because, again, I grew up in a household we don't believe in debt. So I already felt gross having it right and it just. Yeah. So it was already like, oh, God, I'm doing wrong things, which is a good thing to have. It's a good. That's a good thing to believe in. Debt is bad. It's a good principle.

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. But did you. Did you kind of hide that away when I. When I had. I had $50,000 of credit card debt, I wouldn't admit it to my wife. I would never tell my parents, you know, did you kind of hide that away, your debt from family or friends?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It was a big secret. Yeah. And it's never good to live like that. And just. I couldn't trust when I ran my debit card that there was money to pay for whatever. And so that's why. Because my business and personal banking was so mixed up. So that was the first thing we did, was separate them out and say, no, business is over here, personal's over there. And really what she did after talking to me, we fixed the personal first because I think she realized for me, making sure I had enough money for the kids and myself, living wise was good. And what we discovered was I get a salary because Distress Express is a llc. I get. I have to get an. I'm an officer of the company. I have to get a salary from them. So since it's pre tax, I don't include that in my business income. So that's that. And then also the estate for my husband, that's what the children I live on. So anything I make in my business right now is going straight to debt.

Good.

Which is. Yeah, it's going straight to credit card debt. And then that way when I take a profit first distribution. That's fun money. So like, we went to. I got to go to Nag's Head for free during their spring break, and we paid for a really cool dinner at nags. That's what we did in North Carolina.

But let's talk about the. A little bit further about the debt. So when did you start profit first? How long ago?

November. So seven months ago.

Okay. Seven months ago, you had $15,000 of debt. Some of these credit cards were over limit. Where do you stand today?

All of them are under the limit. Two are completely paid off. Yeah, yeah. And then we've got a strong payment plan. If I hit my numbers, I could probably pay them all off by the end of the year.

Oh, my God. Good for you.

Wow.

Because when that's all paid off, that all goes to you.

Yeah.

It all goes to you.

Yeah, exactly. And what's nice about it, Mike, is that because we did the personal budget first. And I think that sometimes you guys don't talk about that a lot, but it's important because if your personal budget's messed up, your business budget is gonna be messed up. You know, it really does. And because I knew what I needed to do for personal budget, I'm able to still honor things like I didn't have to cut kid karate lessons or girl Scouts. They've already lost enough with their father dying. I didn't want them to lose some of the things that were important to them, you know, so making the sacrifices of living with my parents, I work with my parents, I live with my parents, that could be a little much.

Ramona, like, if you're going out or something, like, where are you going this evening? When are you gonna be home? They still do that? I mean, you're in your mid-30s.

Not really.

Okay. Okay.

It's kind of like. It's kind of like joint custody of the kids. Like this past, like Memorial Day weekend, they went to their lake house in Lake Gaston, so I had the kids. And then this weekend they're taking them and I get to go.

That's nice.

I'm really lucky. Yeah. And it's great for the kids because they're just like, we're with people we love all the time, so that's good.

Okay.

This is the way it used to be. Yeah, exactly. So, yes.

So you were able to cut these costs. Your debt, you're crushing your debt. You normalized your budget personally, so you are now living within your means. Let me ask you this. I mean, that means you weren't spending money certain places, maybe it's not as happy. Maybe, you know, you don't get enjoy life as much now because you can't spend it on things. Have you compromised your experience around life? Have you compromise your happiness with doing these cuts?

Not really. You just have to reframe. And even like the business budget, I cut a lot of things. Like, I got rid of. I have an amazing virtual assistant. And because again, I pumpkin plan that one client, you know, I've got money in reserves for expenses. But I looked at it and saying, you know, for one month, I can avoid using my virtual assistant and not as much as I normally do. And while it stinks and I have may have to work a little bit harder right now, it's. I'm basically saying I'm going to utilize my money in a better way so I can earn more money down the line. It's just you have to reframe it. It's basically saying, yes, I may not have money, like, if you're talking about personal money in my personal budget to go out to eat every day, but you know what? I've got money to pay all these other things. And like, my, like, I'll give you example, Mike June. All of my personal bills and all of my business bills are already paid for. Like, I already have money in the bank for that.

Yeah. That's awesome.

That's great.

Doesn't that feel so good?

It's very freeing.

Let's talk about the stress. You know what I pictured you said, you know, there's times, like, you don't know if there's enough money in your debit card to make a purchase. I remember when I maxed out my credit cards going to the food store right here in Boonton, actually, and going up, buying food, and they ring it up and like, I don't know if my debit card will take this. It just shakes you to your soul. How's the stress level for you now? Now financially.

As far as that goes, there's no stress level for that. I know exactly how much is in for each category because we use a system where, you know, we divvy out, like, this is how much we have for. And then we do it for the business too. Like, this is how much I have for Facebook ads, this is how much I have for podcast editing, this is how much. And. And you just do it line by line item. And if you don't have the money, you don't have the money shifted to somewhere else.

Are you stressful over something else now?

No, not really. Not business wise. I mean, I'm always stressful. You know, I want to get more clients for spa preneur and trying to grow that. But the same time, and Amber believes this too, is that I would rather grow a little bit slower and do it the right way and get the right clients. The client I actually let go of this past month wasn't even a day spa client. It was. It was a friend of a family, and they weren't even in my wheelhouse. And I'm like, I'm wasting so much time with this. This isn't my audience. This isn't where I need to be. And while the money is wonderful, it's more freeing to say, you know what? No. And so because of that, I had freedom to do a webinar. Just what was it this past Thursday that had 200 day spot owners on it? And now I'M getting calls about coaching because I had time to work on that. So there's the difference.

So we have about six, seven minutes left together. I want to learn about your profit first setup so other folks listening in can maybe emulate. Tell me the breakdown of how you have your account set up, what's the rhythm, all that stuff so we can share that.

Sure. So when I get an invoice in, like, you know, from one of my clients, I immediately. Amber set up a Google spreadsheet so that I just plug in the number, and it just magically does the distributions. And again, we're always constantly adjusting those because we want my distribution to be larger than anything else's. So it constantly gets adjusted. I immediately put those things into the various accounts. So I have a tax account that's in a credit union that I don't have online access to and that I would have to drive, have, like, 30 minutes. Yeah. So. So I did that on purpose because I don't tend to. Yeah. And then the profit is in my. And then all my other accounts are with the count that I have with my checking account. So, like, my business kind of like budget account where, you know, like, I pay for, like, you know, business expenses. That's at the same bank as my personal checking account because it just was easier for me. And then the profit distribution, kind of the same thing instead. Another bank. Bank. I just kept them separate because it was just easier.

So the tax account and profit count are separate banks. Your operating account and your pay, your regular pay is at your current bank, Your. Your main bank?

Yes, my local. My local bank. And they were so nice to work with me. And then I convinced them to waive all my fees for the first year. Like, I'm a small business. Let me do this. They'll do that.

You can go to your banker and say, I can't use these. I can't handle these fees. Can you do something? And they do something, right, the local ones? Yeah.

Especially if you go to a local bank. Yeah.

All right. You get a hallelujah just for that.

So.

All right, here's the tax and the profit accounts you've removed. The idea is to remove temptation. Right. So that's why we set these accounts so that you don't see the money. Tell me, how has it affected you when that tax money's put aside? Do you notice it's not even that that money's quote, unquote missing? Does it improve your confidence that, you know, you can pay your taxes? How's that affected?

Oh, I love the fact I'll be able to pay my taxes. I don't ever want to go to jail over something stupid like not pay taxes.

I know, I know.

I just, I mean, it just. It's a no brainer thing. If you work for a company, they take your taxes out anyway. So, you know, just take your taxes out, people. It's not hard. You know, they're going to want the money. They will be able to find you. Okay. That you can't escape Uncle Sam. They're everywhere. So just pay the money now.

Every business is different. What percentage are you putting toward your taxes? What's working for you right now?

Now I do 20%.

Oh. Which means you're very profitable, by the way.

Yes, but I do that as an extra cushion too, so I can prepay taxes and things like that. So I'd rather just get in the habit of a higher percentage now that. That's just the way I thought.

That's awesome. Yeah. So most businesses, Kelsey, we set to 15% as a starting point of your top line. So if you make $100,000, set $15,000 away for profit for your taxes. But more profitable businesses actually have to do more or less profitable. Less. So that's interesting. How often are you adjusting your percentages, Ramona, to fine tune them?

Probably monthly.

Nice. Okay, and how often do you go through the allocation? You said you have the spreadsheet deposit comes in. Do you do it ad hoc, meaning as it comes in, or do you do it well, as a who, you would know that means ad hoc means as it comes in or do you do it bi weekly or how do you do it?

No, I do it as well. It depends if I have a month where I have a bunch of them come in that I'll pick. Like I usually do them on the 15th and just do it. And then. And because again, I'm buffered a month ahead for business expenses, I don't need that money right away. So that's what's nice about buffering is that, you know, I get money in like from May work and then June's already paid for, so I will distribute them when I need to and then it's tucked away for July so I don't have to think about it anymore. So you can do like your bookkeeping like once a month, basically.

And what's your suggestion for folks listening to this show? I hopefully inspired by just your raw enthusiasm for overcoming horrific challenges, for becoming profitable. What's your suggestion that people do to do what you've done?

Don't be afraid to ask for help. You know, Amber is probably one of my most expensive purchases. I'm not gonna lie. It's well worth it because it's an investment in my business. It's an investment in my children's future. That mommy understands. You know, it. No, as much as this is a good deal, whatever it is out there, if we don't have the cash for it, we don't need it. And it simplifies things. So if you're reading the book, because sometimes, you know, you get numbers and there's percentages, you're like, oh, my God, I have to add, you know, I may have gone to a university, but I was not a math major. So I, you know, I asked for help and got it. And, you know, the nice thing is this isn't like most business books, where they just give you the business book and that's it. He's created an entire, like, group of professionals that this is what they do. And they talk your language so, you know, at least reach out. You never know what's going to happen. It's completely changed again. Personal finances and business finances. It's the best money I've ever spent.

So with. With Amber, because I know her very well, too. She was up at our offices last weekend, and I'm like, amber, everyone thinks you have a heart of gold. I mean, you do. And she looked at me, she goes, I don't have a heart of gold. I have a heart of aluminum. Gold's too expensive. She's like, so, Ramona, I got one more question to ask you. But first, I would like to know, where can people learn about Spa Preneur, the great services you're providing, all that stuff?

Sure, they can go to spa preneur.com and just go on there and you'll see. My mom and I, you can listen to podcasts, you can hear crazy stories, and just get really good business advice for day spas. Things like, again, I have a theory about customer service. That custom, you know, the whole nonsense that customers right is wrong because the customer's job is to get the product or service at the least expensive price possible. So if they're always right, that means you as the business owner, always wrong. So instead, you know, we. We talk about that kind of thing. And it really helps people who are independent business owners go, wait a minute. I can price correctly and I can put my foot down when I have horrible clients. And it just. It's an outlet for people in this niche industry to go, I. I ha I can be a successful business person like my mom's been.

So here's my last question for you. If you're willing to do this, and I'm asking you on the air so you can't back out of it. We. We've. You don't know that. You may not know this, but. But maybe you heard in the intro, we set up a 800 number or an 844 number for people to give shoutouts once they've achieved profitability. You've had your first profit. Would you be willing, Ramona, to call us on the line, leave us a message about your profit? First shout out. And what I mean is, like, we want you shouting on the line, I am profitable forever. Like, something like that. Would you be willing to do that?

I am willing to do that for you.

Okay, so the number. Make a note of this. 844-87-6-722, 2, 1. And do do it, but don't do it for me, do it for you, because you deserve all the profitability in the world. Thanks so much for coming on the show today.

Thank you, Ramona.

Thank you, guys. This is a great podcast. Thank you so much for having me.

Thanks. You rock. We'll see you later. And I'm actually wishing her team wins every game they play except against Virginia Tech. Like, I love her that much. I hope they beat everyone, but never beat our school.

It's very big of you.

It is me, right? Right. Just one loss is all I'm asking for. I'm wishing you great things. Here's the deal, Kels. We're going to recap what we learned. We are going to recap what we learned. I already said that. And my notes. I'm looking in the wrong spot, so I'm just trying to buy time here. Oh. We're gonna share our corporate partners and we're gonna do some other fun stuff. But first, we will do the corporate partners part.

Okay.

All right, so here's a deal. Deal. I want you to think of some trivia. I'm going to start reading off the corporate partners and sharing some details on them. I know you have some trivia in your mind there.

Are you sure about that?

Yeah, I'm sure you do. You just ask anything you something from the jewelry industry to me, that's trivia. You can say, you know, most gold is what, carrot? And I'll be like, the orange carrot. Like, you know, like, just give me one trip. That was good. That was good. So I'm gonna read off our core partners, but when it hits you I want you to ask me the trivia question and our listeners, that way they don't skip over this part because this is the most important part. You heard about Private First Professionals. That's. We'll share a little more about them and how it's affecting Ramona Rice. But let me talk about nextiva first. Nextiva, the voiceover IP phone system. That's awesome. It's right here. My phone's right here. Listen, I'll pick it up and hang it up. Did you hear? I even had to slam it down. I don't know if you heard that. That was me picking up my nextiva phone, hanging it up. It's actually based on the Polycom system. The phones, high end, great phones over a very affordable reliable network. We now have. I just saw the bill this morning. We now have 17 phones for companies. Yeah, we're out of control with our phones. But we're.

Well, I just added that toll free one.

Oh my God. 18 phones. We just don't stop because it's so good. It's the ultimate communication tool. But I'll tell you, it's cheaper than staying up with the old fashioned phone system with the PBX in your office. Office. Better, faster, more sophisticated and cheaper. I think that's the definition of excellence. All right. Receipt Bank. You know, you, you talk about efficiency. You know those receipts are piling up and you got to report them in to reduce your taxes, right? You got to track your receipts. Well, now you can receive Receipt Bank. Scan it. It'll scan right into your accounting system. It'll reconcile for you practically. That's Receipt Bank. Check them out. It ties into things like Xero, QuickBooks, fashion books. But zero is what I want to talk about. Xero is a cloud accounting software system. It's a system that we grew our business on. Was Xero literally used them for two years. Then we hired a new bookkeeper and we had to make a transition internally but would love zero. I don't supposed to say that. You're shaking head. Why? Why can't I say that's the truth? It's the truth. I don't supposed to say that. Did someone say they shouldn't say that? Does 00? Did 0 say I shouldn't say that?

No.

Oh no, it was. It was our gentleman friend from New Zealand.

Exactly.

But I think there's. Listen, I can't lie and say we're still using zero. I want to. I want to go back. Yeah, I want to go back. What's that song?

I don't I don't know. Did you make that up?

No. I'm gonna try to pull it up while you give me trivia. Do you have the trivia for me?

Okay, so my question is, what's the most popular ice cream flavor?

Vanilla.

But the post that I pulled up, you have to scroll through all of them. Like you have to keep clicking. Next. So I don't know vanilla and chocolate. But yeah, my guess would be vanilla too.

Yeah, it's. It's. Yeah. Vanilla or chocolate could be it. What's your favorite, by the way?

Peanut butter ripple.

Oh, yeah, I think. You know what, I asked you this on different episodes because I remember you were saying that. Response.

Yeah.

So kudos to you for being consistent. Mine's still pistachio. Yeah. All right, back to our sponsors. Fundera. You know you need to get a loan for your business. Fundera is a one stop shop loan source. You go there, they don't provide the loans. They shop it for you. They give you some details on which one's the best choice. Usually within 24 hours they get the first loans available to you. So if your business needs a loan, you find that and 1, 2 more net payroll. We talked about them earlier. Go to netpayroll.net, there are payroll company that we recommend and then there's one more. But first, I want to play a song. The. I want to go back. Back. This is it.

Vanilla is the number one, by the way.

Oh, I listened to a commercial World travel. So everyone's going to hear this commercial. Let me just skip over that. That's my YouTube screen. It was vanilla. Yeah, here it is. You know who this is? No, no, I can play only a few more seconds before we. We impede on rights sharing. You got three more seconds. All right, that's. That's all I can play. You know it's Eddie Mun. Oh, I love anybody. I love it.

I don't know that song though.

Really?

Yeah, no, I wanna go back.

Go back.

Okay.

To the place I was before or the. I don't know. And the last company is called Fundbox. You know, Funbox does it's cash flow accelerator. If you have an invoice due to you, Fundbox will give you the funds today, right here, right now. So you don't have to stalk your clients for that money. All right, that's our sponsors. That was the fun bit. See, if you fast. If you fast forward to that, you missed some great stuff. Kelse, what'd you learn today?

I mean overall, I just Love hearing how effective profit first is. More so for peace of mind purposes, obviously for profitability purposes. But from her perspective, to hear how it's brought ease in her life.

Yeah.

Is really huge for me. And I love that she implemented it in her personal finances first and then her business, because I do think that's really important.

Yeah. Yeah. I think her story is nothing short of remarkable. To lose a spouse. I can't actually. I don't even want to think about it because I can't imagine it. And then to designate so they. I don't know how it's structured, but clearly there was thought put into it that there wasn't a state to serve her children, and she quarantined or protected that money for the kids. You know, this is for the kids activities and so forth. I think that's really smart.

Yeah.

Is that the source is designated to an outcome. It's not a source of money that we can use any way we want. This source of money is designated for this purpose. So she already started doing kind of this compartmentalization or allocation like profit first right from the get go. So that was wildly impressive. You know, the fact that she's eradicating Debt went from $15,000 and she has it down substantially already. And by the end of the year, she projects she'll be totally out of debt, but is still celebrating. See, that's the key.

Yeah.

A lot of us are told, and it's a good belief that we need to get rid of debt at all costs. And my only tweak to that is it's not at all costs. We need to prioritize the eradication of debt, but without compromising our soul. We need to still experience life.

Exactly.

And the fact that she's still going out these activities with her children, she called them her junior partners. I love that term. They're celebrating. She's going down to Nags Head. She's still living life. And it sounds like financially, with these adjustments, that her happiness hasn't been compromised. More money, less money. It sounds to me that the happiness quotient stayed. The way she's supporting her kids has stayed. But she's eradicating debt. So the stress is being dropped.

Exactly.

So that's what I learned. And now I learned I actually like Virginia, which is just. I feel bad about it. All my hokey friends, hard pill to swallow. It is a very hard pill to swallow. All my hokey friends, like, dude, what the hell? Well, Ramona represents very well. Very well. All right, we gotta start wrapping things up here. So let me hit the right button to do that. Whoops.

That's not it.

That was not. Here it is. Here it is. Here's the deal, Kelly.

Yeah.

We want to know what you, the listeners, have heard from today's episode. We want you to comment. So go to itunes, Stitch, or wherever you listen, wherever your podcaster is, go there. Please rate the show. We want it. And I think this is a five star. I really like this one. Rate it. I would give it 5 stars personally. I'll accept that. Or if you feel different, you can give a higher rating, but leave your rating and then share comments. What did you learn? Where's your. What about your story? We want to hear your story too. And you know what? You can start sharing it. Maybe we can get you on the podcast. Sharing it.

Yeah.

Go to 8. Go to dial 844-876-7221 and give a profit first shout. I am profitable. And one more place you got to go. It's profit first professionals dot com. I don't know. I. This was not staged to be a testimonial, but it was.

Yeah, it worked out that way. Interesting.

It was. I mean, she did say that she works with Amber Duggar. I didn't realize she was such a fan. I was like, whatever you do, don't criticize Amber. And she's like, no, Are you kidding me? Amber's amazing. Because Amber is amazing. Amber is one of 143 members that we have throughout the globe who teach profit first. These are people who are really concerned with the most important number in your business, Profitability. We'll hook you up with someone, maybe Amber herself. You can request requester, but we'll find someone who specializes in your niche. That's the key. Who specializes in addressing your needs. That's the key. And how do we do it? Well, you go to profitfirstprofessionals.com Step two, click on the find button. And then once you click on find, fill out the quick form. We'll just click on submit. We'll hook you up with a prop first professional, and you're off to the races. It's that simple.

Yeah. Change your life.

Anything else you wanted to share for the day?

That's it.

All right, let's get out of here. Chiefy bye here.