Know Your Numbers – Make your Business Sustainable for Years to Come!

Carla Titus: 00:00:00

Go look at your last year's numbers and say, Why was April so good? What did we do in April? Or where do we do march for April to be so good? And then start to kind of think about what were the activities that drove that increase? And then say to yourself, can I do double of that triple of that? What does it look like? 10x that activity.

Unknown: 00:00:25

This is the Entrepreneur School podcast where we believe you can run a thriving business and still make your family a priority. This show is all about supporting you the emerging or early stage Entrepreneur on your journey from solopreneur. To CEO, while wearing all of the other hats in your life. My name is Kelly Sinclair and I'm a brand and marketing strategist who started a business with two kids under 3am, a corporate PR girl turned entrepreneur after I learned the hard way that life is too short to waste doing things that burn you out. On this show, you'll hear inspiring stories from other business owners on their journey, and learn strategies to help you grow a profitable business, while making it all fit into the life that you want. Welcome to entrepreneur school.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:01:13

Welcome back to entrepreneur school, my friend, I have a wonderful guest to share with you today. Her name is Karla Titus. And she is a finance expert with over 15 years of combined corporate financial planning, analysis strategy and online business experience. And I was scared to have this conversation. And I admitted that right at the beginning when I was talking to her because so many of us, we experience fears around our numbers and looking at our numbers, and what we think our numbers mean about us as individuals. And oh my gosh, I'm so glad that we unpacked all of that. And particularly a lot of important mindset shifts to make in your business when it comes to your numbers, and how to make your business numbers less intimidating. We even talked about four key numbers to look at even if you hate spreadsheets. Also the best way to assess how to plan for profit, and a critical question to ask that helps you assess the ROI of your business investments. So if you are hesitant to listen to this episode, it probably means that you need to listen to this episode because I know that this is a conversation that I needed to have. And I'm really glad that I did. And by the end of it, I was feeling a lot better about a lot of things that go on. Because we can get just so down on ourselves. If we are not hitting our financial goal, you feel me. So dive in. Enjoy this conversation and make sure that you connect with Carla, her contact information is all in the show notes below. Enjoy. Welcome to entrepreneur school Carla. I'm very excited and also terrified about this conversation. Because we're talking all things numbers, and myself included, lots of us are a little bit nervous to discuss the financial side of our business, to acknowledge that it exists to use the word budget or any of these things. But you're going to you're going to help shift our minds about this. So I am excited. For that reason, nervous, because I'm gonna probably admit some things here that are embarrassing for me. So welcome, welcome. Let's start there.

Carla Titus: 00:03:27

Thanks for having me, it will be a total confession episode. So stay tuned, because it's gonna get Juicy Fried at the same time. We're gonna offer some reframing and our you know, some actionable things you could do to kind of start maybe thinking that the numbers out of your business could be fun, and it's full of potential. And it can help you shape the future that you want to have in your business.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:03:50

Yes, so important. And like we were sort of saying before, like, everybody's the expert in their own thing, and not the expert at everything. And I teach people how to promote themselves. And they also feel that nervous and kind of afraid of doing that. And so your version of that is to talk all things, finances. So like, let's hit the top, the top fears and like, where people are at that you have to help shift them to so that they can really get a hold of the numbers. Because it's it's such an important part of running a business. Absolutely.

Carla Titus: 00:04:25

It's the thing that will get you out of business fastest. And people don't realize that. Because if you don't have the runway, and you don't have money coming in, you'll be out of business before you even got started or you even had the impact you wanted to have. That's why the numbers are such an important aspect of what we do. But does anybody actually teach you how to do numbers in our business? No, they don't. But somehow we're expected to be good at it. How is that possible? It's just like everything that we need to learn. We got to invest time and put some effort into it in order to get better at it. And there's ways that you can easily start to shape a different financial future for your company by still Learning to think forward instead of just backwards, or in the past. Now, you asked me, What are some of the common things that people come to us for that are maybe issues or like they're in their head, you know, thinking I can do this. One of them is really like mindset around their personal finances, and they're bringing that to their business. So it's maybe about habits or things that are no longer serving them. And then well, that's how I manage my money personally. So I'm going to manage the same way in the business. And they realize, oh, this is not actually working well for me. So how do we start to shape a different direction and offer some reframing around, you know, money management or money habits? What can be as simple as just looking at your numbers? And I know that that's a big one. People don't want to even look right, because they're afraid what they're going to see what if we reframe that as at least now we know the starting point and whether or not we're actually going to make progress going forward? If something changes, but if you didn't know where you started? How would you know if you're doing better or worse than you were before?

Kelly Sinclair: 00:05:57

Yeah, that's such a good point, actually. Because I feel like sometimes, like myself, I can get in my own head feeling like I suck or something is going badly. And I might not even be true. Right? And I don't even like today, I today, I feel like a crappy business owner. So therefore I suck. And I must not be making enough money. And all of this comes in. And it's like, where did that come from? It wasn't because I looked at a spreadsheet, because I'm not doing that right now.

Carla Titus: 00:06:27

Yeah, it's like your fear of looking is taking over it rather than actually looking at numbers and be like, Oh, maybe it's not as bad as I thought, actually, this happens all the time. With clients, I start to show them like, you know, that year over a year, you actually grew and did this so much better than you did last year. And they're like, What? They're like surprised, because they're like, Oh, I thought it was doing more stuff. And I'm like, we didn't look at the numbers, how will we know? And so then we start to bring them like all this aha moments, because in reviewing the numbers, we're like, by the way, this month, compared to last month, actually was a lot better. And seasonally speaking, if next month, we expect to be down because seasonally, we have a business that may be performed worse in the next month. We know that because we look at the numbers for last two, three years. And we're like, oh, yeah, that happens every time. We're not surprised when it happens. So we start to give them the storytelling behind the numbers and start to show them the trends and things that maybe they haven't noticed, because they haven't looked. And that gives us an advantage. Because now we know what to expect. We know what path to take, we know how to also make progress. If we want to increase the numbers over time, if we want to start to set goals that are appropriate for that growth, we want to experience and we tie that to very actionable executable steps to take in the business section make it happen. It's not just, oh, I want to make a million dollars and like good luck. And then you look back and like why didn't make a million is what happened? No, it's like we're gonna do this 10 things to achieve XYZ revenue goal. That could be $50,000. It could be an increase of $10,000 in your overall business. But what are the 10? Things you're going to do in order to achieve that? Are you going to miss a marketing? Are you going to go you know more referrals? Are you going to go do an ad campaign? Are you going to, you know, get some podcasts like what is your actual actions and things that you're in control of in order to make this happen, rather than just putting a number on there and wishing and hoping which will say winging is not a plan, hope is not a strategy. And execution is where all dreams go to die, or lack of execution is where all dreams go to die. So keeping that in mind, we want to know what are we doing? How are we going to achieve the goal? And it's a realistic once we take all those action steps?

Kelly Sinclair: 00:08:31

Yes, that is golden right there. And like going to make a note of that quote that you just said, because I like it a lot. And now I'm thinking like, okay, how can we unpack this a little bit more in terms of translating your goals into the spreadsheets and the financial side of things? Because I picked up on a couple of examples that you just shared. Like, if you're going to hit your goals, maybe you're actually needing to invest in marketing or do something that's going to cost you money as well as planning for revenue generation. So can you share a little bit about what that might look like?

Carla Titus: 00:09:07

Yeah, so in developing our plan forward looking, we want to start to consider the variables and inputs that will make that a reality. So we'll let's say we want to grow the business by $20,000. And whatever the timeframe is, doesn't matter. Just assume you have a timeframe in mind that you want to hit this fly. And then you say, Okay, I know what has worked in the past that's generating business for me. First of all, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. I think a lot of people are working too hard or not smarter. Go look at your last year's numbers and say, Why was April so good? What did we do in April? Or what do we do march for April to be so good? And then start to kind of think about what were the activities that drove that increase? And then say to yourself, can I do double of that triple of that? What does it look like 10x that activity or that investment I did or whatever was the drove that increase? And then will that help me get to the $20,000 increase goal that I have? And then you lay out the plan on what is it going to cost? shoe to invest in that activity, maybe you hire a coach or you, you know, invested in the ad strategy, or whatever it is, maybe you just went to more networking events, it could be as simple as using your time instead of your money. So it could be a component of I just took the time and maybe bought a few tickets to events and that yield business. So knowing about what are those steps? And what are you doing, that starts to tell you Okay, well, each, you know, event, they want to cost me $100 To get in, I'm going to do five of them, or now I'm going to do 10 of them, 15 of them. So now you know your cost of investing. Now the other piece that I find business owners forget about this whole thing is, where's the money to fund all this activities. If you haven't had money saved in the bank already, which we highly recommend that you do keep some kind of runway in your business doesn't matter how much but at least have something saved, then maybe you're pulling from that to you know, help support us activities. And if you don't, then that's where you need to start thinking about are my okay with having debt in the business or leveraging some sort of debt instrument in a responsible financial way that I know I'm going to pay back and off when I make this additional $20,000. And also, I have a plan that if I don't make the money, how am I going to pay this debt back, so that we're not carrying it over and over again, ideally, doing those activities have yielded results in the past. So you know, it's not as high risk because you have done it before, and so has worked. And maybe out of 10 conferences, two out of them actually raise you, you know, paying clients or unless you tell your products, fantastic, now you know that you at least will get at least a month and hopefully be able to pay off the debt, or have even more than you expected and maybe hit your $20,000 goal. But that's how we start to connect the dots and map out the activities and things that we need to do. And also not forget about the cashflow side of it, which I see a lot of times happens, they're just not saving for it not planning for it. And they're just spending the money nearly William thinks that honestly not moving the needle in their business, like there's no benefit or return on investment ROI coming from those activities. And therefore they're just getting farther and farther behind and further and further into debt and still not achieving that growth. Other wanting to see

Kelly Sinclair: 00:12:05

Oh, okay, there's so many things that you just said there for sure. And I want to say one thing like to address the like the willy nilly spending because I think from a marketing perspective, what we know to be true is that there are people who like, are a more emotional buyers and people who are more like informed, it takes you a long time to like make a decision, you probably actually did look at your spreadsheet or your credit card melons or something before you decided that is the thing that's going to work for me. And I'm the first one. So sometimes I can see the vision, like connect the dots between like, here's an opportunity and something that I want to invest in. And I've invested a lot in a lot of different things for my business, too. But and sometimes it's because the offer is such a almost no brainer, right? It's like a low ticket, and then But then you're stacking up these like 7747. And then for me, I'm converting all of that times 30% Because it's US dollars, and I like having Canadian dollars most of the time. So it all stacks up. And it's like, Oh, how did that like add $1,000 Just accumulate in a month when it wasn't like super intentional, like, you know, you could put that together to make one bigger investment that probably would have ROI. And so what I'm hearing you say there too, is part of the issue is that we're not actually evaluating those things that we're spending the money on. So because if if you are in a position where you don't have like last year to look back on and go, This is what worked well for making money at first, how do I allow myself to experiment with some new things? And like this is really aligning actually, with what I teach in a program I have called the visibility revolution, where actually essentially give you the guided strategy on how to experiment on what's going to bring you the most ROI, your marketing and your visibility. So is it going to be a networking event? Or what is it going to be right? And so like how do you allow yourself that, you know, space to invest in experiment? And I'm guessing your answers partly your own risk tolerance as well. But expand on that for me?

Carla Titus: 00:14:17

Absolutely. Is risk tolerance cash available? Honestly, like it? Let's be honest, another real conversation is, can you afford it? Like do you have the money to be able to go to these things? Or are you willing to take the risk and take the debt out to go try it out? And we was we're big on experimenting, we just don't find it helpful when people go all in and like they spend $20,000 on this one time thing. They never has proven results before and they're like, that will work. And it's great. And I'm going to make all this extra money above and beyond my investment. And we say well, there's a scaled down version of that we can do first to make sure it is actually driving some momentum or results and then we go invest a big amount once we know it actually works. And sometimes the answer is like no, we just have to do it and like See, and what I don't see happen often is people want to evaluate in between different options, which is, you know, scenario planning and ROI, return on investment expectations, and then setting up, what are those expectations when you make this investment, like, take a moment to think like pause before you hit purchase, and say, I expect this five things to be true about this investment, I want to gain this much visibility, I want to network with this type of people, whatever it is that your five things are, and then you need to track against that. Because in three months from now, if that investment has in yield a single one of your list items, you need to reassess whether or not you need to continue that investment. And I think this is where people are not thinking through like, Okay, how long do I give it to work? And if it doesn't work, how do I pivot? Do I exit this investment? Do I continue this investment, but you need to be very intentional when it comes to money decisions, and weighing the pros and cons of different programs. It's another aspect of doing that. And you said something really interesting around like, you're one of those like, impulsive kind of buyers, right? And I get it because when marketing is code, you're just like, Oh, I just have to buy it. Right? And I will say like, okay, give yourself one night of sleep, come back to it with fresh eyes. And then if you still think that it's the right thing for your business, because you've evaluated, you know, that ROI, go ahead and do it take the risk, it's okay. But I always say like sleep on it. And you'll be surprised how different of a perspective you might have the next morning.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:16:28

Yeah, that's really great advice. Because if anybody's putting too much pressure on you for like a deadline of when something needs to be purchased, then that's just poor marketing etiquette, as far as I'm concerned. So the deal will still be there tomorrow. So

Carla Titus: 00:16:45

The scopes are great, I rather pay full price, knowing that I am for sure invested in this. Also, I have the time to commit and devote to executing whatever the things are telling me I need to do in order to get my ROI back. And that's a big one. I don't know about you. But time is such a precious resource, and sometimes is even more precious than money. And if you haven't properly carved out the time to work through the program, do the things they tell you, you have to do, you probably will not see an ROI on that anyways, totally.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:17:11

And actually, that's so funny, because right before I got on this recording with you, I got a message from someone who purchased a program for me two years ago. And he was like, Hey, I haven't actually logged in, and this link isn't working anymore. So could you could you reset it because I like to actually do the program. Now I'm like, well, good, because I was feeling badly because I want people to consume my stuff and get the value out of it and get the ROI out of it. But if you purchase something, and you don't actually have time to do it, but you were like, oh, I'll just do it now. Because it's a good deal. Or it's a discount right now then maybe? Well, thank you, I appreciate it on my end as the seller, but yes, that's that's such a good point. And it's totally fair to and we should like I almost want to like have the both sides of this conversation. Because as people who are creating products and offers, we also should feel very, you know, good and okay about people evaluating spending their money with us, because it makes it really easy to do that.

Carla Titus: 00:18:13

Yeah, I mean, you want them to have that ROI. You want them to have that good experience, but they got to do the work, you're not going to do it for them, you're not going to go to their house, knock on the door and be like, Hey, sit down, do the work. Like that's not for you to do, you're selling them something of value. Ideally, they're working through it and seeing and generating the value for themselves. But if they're not committed, because they didn't properly plan, again, going back to plan, it's all about planning at the end of the day for as long as you didn't plan for the time it takes. And I always ask that question all the time of any programs, I'm evaluating what is the time commitment expected in order for me to get results? And if you're not asking that question, I suggest you put it all over whenever you're evaluating those options, because that's going to be a key component of how invested do I need to be in this for us to generate results. And if a program goes back into is 20 hours a week, I was like, well, maybe that's not the right program for me right now. Because I don't have those 20 hours to devote to it. Or maybe I am Yes, absolutely. Because I've been waiting for the right thing to invest my time in that will help drive, you know, exponential results for me, and I'm committed to spending the 20 hours it takes to get there. And that's an exaggeration, but my point being like whatever that number is, you need to say to yourself, yes, I actually do have that time to invest in this to get those results I'm looking for

Kelly Sinclair: 00:19:25

Yes, this is all very good. Can you give some tips and tips and tricks for like getting started if you're, if I know there's like a scale of people who are listening to this that are like on one end, when you think of the word spreadsheet you like hide underneath the blanket, and you don't look at it ever to the other end or you're like okay, I I incorporate this into my life at least once a month or something like that, because that you know, I'm actually following along. So for those of us on, you know, the end of the spectrum we're we're hiding under the blank Get, how do we get started with getting reacquainted with our numbers?

Carla Titus: 00:20:08

What I find fascinating, we work with all of our clients who definitely shy away from the numbers like this very common. And that's why they seek support, you know, because sometimes you just can't do it alone. And that's okay, we were here for them. If you're doing this on your own, I think my job or my golf are used really to not be looking at your numbers that often because you actually know you need to take the action on the steps and execute on your plan, because you clear on what the plan is. But if you didn't take that initial time to make the plan, that's where it becomes harder, because now you have to look at your numbers more. So if you just want to like stay away from the spreadsheets like, make sure you make that upfront investment instead. And then you can just look for five minutes and move on. But for those of you who like even the word spreadsheet just makes you crawl out of your skin, I say you might want to try different versions of looking at a spreadsheet, for example, we do a lot of visual dashboards for our clients, because we know that not everybody loves to look at, you know, 200 numbers on a spreadsheet. But they might want to look at a graph that tells them a lot about what's happening. And they actually might enjoy a better and might be able to see even more trends and things that are useful for them. Because they are not shying away from the graph. And so that's one thing that you could start to think about, like what systems or programs are giving me what I need to, you know, encourage me to look at my numbers, because it's a little bit easier. And we're all about making it easy and simple around here, we do not want to complicate finances are already complex enough, we didn't need to add to that. And that is one of the ways that we do it. Another way you can kind of simplify things maybe is just look at this afford numbers for your profit and loss statement. And that is the revenue line. That cost of goods sold if you have a product based business or maybe some labor that you know, helps you deliver services for your clients and paying customers, your expense line and your profit. And if nothing else, just look at the profit. Like that's the one thing that we want to be understanding and knowing what's happening with, it's all the money you generated. But how much of it actually was left behind. This is a conversation that a lot of times it's not happening out there, especially not in social media, you hear people saying I made a million dollars. And I'm like, well did it cost you a million dollars to make the million dollars, if so I'm not interested because I'm breakeven business, I don't want it. So that's the piece of where we need to flip the conversation and like what is left behind after we pay everything. And if we're at currently at a loss, we need a plan to shift over to being positive breakeven first and then positive in our profitability. So we can stay in business longer and have the impact we want to have. And if you don't know how to do that, that at some point absolutely can help support. But just know that this are the important numbers that you need to be looking at. So if you look at nothing else, start to you know, baby steps towards it, right? Do not shy completely away from it.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:22:56

Yeah, I love that you are like, first of all, I love the idea of the visual graphics instead of just even the spreadsheets. Because that and of itself, like the actual way it's presented can be a big huge, like a determining factor. But the other determining factor is just like the fact that you think that you're faced with some sort of failure, if you're if your customers aren't what you want them to be. Right?

Carla Titus: 00:23:24

Yeah, that's a big one we deal with a lot. And we give this refrain to clients, sometimes we say there is this over here does the entity of your company, your business that might not be performing as well as we want it to be? Does that mean you as a person are terrible or don't know how to run a business, not necessarily. There's something situations and things that happen, you know, around us that we don't have control over that makes our business look like crap. And we just like Ill like, we don't like that. And then there's things you as a person can do to help move the business forward in a different direction and try new things and do the tests that we talked about invest in new areas, to help the business move forward, and be happier and be looking better as far as results go. That then gives you back you know, a salary and things that we want you to have cash in the bank, being yourself while having good profits. But I just want to encourage you to think about your business as its own little entity and then you happen to work for it and you happen to own it. But that is not a reflection of who you are as a person good bad, you know, amazing are not like you still you and then you happen to own this business that again, might be good might be bad doesn't you know, as long as we have a plan to fix it. That's kind of where I want to go with the numbers side of it.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:24:43

That's such a good one because we can tie our personal worth and value so much up into the results that our business is financially creating. But you know what I actually heard the other day that like Uber is not has never been profitable. Right, so

Carla Titus: 00:25:00

shocking to you, like?

Kelly Sinclair: 00:25:02

Not really, but but because you think of it as it's a recognizable brand.

Carla Titus: 00:25:07

totally right. And it doesn't mean they're making money.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:25:09

Exactly. And so that doesn't mean like, like, we're making some associations without looking at the back end of something, not that you have to look at the back end of every business. But that, to me, I was like, Huh. And like, they don't plan on being profitable for like, 20 some years, until they're actually

Carla Titus: 00:25:27

Crazy, right? Like, how do they survive? They have a lot of investors. But you know, that's a separate conversation. But yeah, exactly. Because there's someone funneling cash into the business to kill, keep it surviving. And, you know, we know it's a recognizable brand, there's other components in that, but you as a business owner, we just don't have that kind of access. And that's okay. Because, you know, you want to make sure that you're focused on that profit, and as why I want to shift the conversation from revenue to profit and not seeing the revenues, but we want to grow revenue over time. But if we're growing revenue, and then Gordon expenses at the same rate or higher, and we're making less profit than when we were smaller, making less revenue, this is really worth it, you know, times that scaling can be hard. And on the other side of it, there's absolutely reward a higher profits, you know, in the can maybe sustain a certain lifestyle. But you got to be careful about managing that, to make sure that you're not worse off than where where you started, that was so much better, because you were way more profitable. And so something we measure very carefully. And again, we just want to go back to shifting the conversation, especially around social media, right of revenue, revenue revenue. And I'm like, tell me, what's your profit? And tell me, are you paying yourself from your business? Because those are the type of things we need to be thinking about when we're running a business?

Unknown: 00:26:43

Yes. And just to wrap up, what you're saying there, that message that a lot of coaches are particularly touting around their business is they're often talking about revenue and not profit and not getting paid. And so, like you said, a lot of them especially spend money on ads, and they spend like 75% of their revenue on app. And then there's other expenses. So yeah, if you're looking to buy something from someone who is telling you how to make money, and they're not actually making profit, then that's an issue, red flag, red flag,

Carla Titus: 00:27:19

Well and worse off, because a lot of those coaches, you know, are saying, come to our program is expensive, because there's good or high quality. And actually what we see behind the scenes, a lot of programs really fall short. And you feel like, Why did I spend all this money for so I just want you to be cautious. Talk to other people get their honest experience around programs and things, especially when they're expensive, because not every program out there is expensive is good. They're just really good at marketing.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:27:45

Yeah.

Carla Titus: 00:27:46

Yeah, unfortunately.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:27:49

And then I'm like, I fell in market, but not like that.

Carla Titus: 00:27:52

But if you're getting your clients results, and it's actually helping them move the needle, that's different, you know, that's not what I'm talking about.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:27:58

Yeah. And I think what you're saying to around having, like, I think there's been another another round of trend that I'm seeing in people's businesses, who people who I've looked at as mentors before as well, they've scaled back in terms of team size, and all of that, because they just want increased profits was point like they have done what they needed to do, they built something, they have a reputation, they can create the results. And now they're like, how do I do this, like on my own, are like completely almost, you know, automated, so that I'm just making profit.

Carla Titus: 00:28:33

Yeah, because a lot of them realize, Oh, my God, I've made it, quote, unquote, made it and then nothing to show for it. And I'd much rather have a smaller business as keeping 50% in profit, or like, you know, if your service base because we can have that kind of high margins, or even 20% profit as you're scaling, then just scale it for the sake of scaling and, and having all this money, go out the door and pay everyone else, you're not paying yourself, you're unhappy, you want to quit, and you feel you can't see off this whole team, you have to pay for it. It's like this vicious cycle. So if we just start with a good financial habits in the first place where we prioritize profits, owners pay, and making sure that we have a healthy, sustainable, long term business that's making the impact we want to make, then we don't have to worry about fixing issues down the road, because we already have the right structure in place.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:29:18

Yes, I've also been there and had the team and then I've not got the team now. So and it's again, it's another like mental block to to allow yourself to scale back when you look at that scaling as the sign of success and growth like that you want it to be and then again, like it's just this message that comes into our minds of like this feeling of failure. So I love all of these reframes that you're providing here and like what's the actual important thing?

Carla Titus: 00:29:48

Yeah, exactly. Um, like, to me, it's that we build personal wealth outside of our businesses. We're told the idea that one day will sell for millions of dollars because if we grow it, you know, someone want to buy it. And that's Right, that's a path for some business owners, the 80% of the business owners out there just want to have their business, they want to make money, they want to pay themselves, they want to be here long term to continue to have that impact they want to have, because they have the money to do so. And those businesses never get sold. And so that realization that one day you'll hit it for millions is not necessarily what the sustainable long term business is, in making sure that you understand that what are you right? Are you going for the big exit? Great, and, you know, go for it up off, nothing wrong with that. And you might have to sacrifice paying yourself for the next five years in order to get there. And that's okay. And some people wanting to do that. Fantastic. And the rest of us, maybe you just want to have a long term sustainable business, paying ourselves and having profit, and that's totally okay, too.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:30:45

Yeah, so really getting clear on what your own personal goals are. Exactly. And allowing, allowing your version of success to be your version of success.

Carla Titus: 00:30:54

Yeah, I like profits, I don't know about you. And I like being myself. So like, that's my definition of success. And, and I wanted the freedom with it too, right? Like, I as long as I'm checking those boxes, I'm good. Now, that might not be your definition of success. And that's okay, too, we all get to have one.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:31:09

Yeah, and I mean, like, I like to wrap in a little bit of, you know, my time and my relationships, like with my family, and placing value on that as well. Because sometimes that is something that I don't want to see like conflicts with, but like, it takes my time to do those things to be able to take my kids to activities and put them in, you know, give them the life that we want them to have and to be here to walk them to school and to be here when they get home from school and 20 minutes, and all those kinds of things. And that may be time that I'm not able to work on my business or for clients. And so I've limited capacity as a result of that, which can affect my potential income. And I'm okay with that.

Carla Titus: 00:31:53

Right, yeah. And those are conscious trade offs she made to have the life that you want to have and still have another full career or business that helps others. And I think we have to be very conscious of the season in life we're in. Sometimes we have to take a mortar family. So that is a priority. And then you just bake it into your business to do that. Maybe you leave early, but you work a night or the weekends to trade off. But you get to choose than nothing is, you know, a half to everything is a choice. And we get to do that and the flexibility, if that's what's important to you, and is key not to have 20 other clients because you want to have the flexibility, totally an option.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:32:30

Yeah, exactly. And I love your your mission with your business around empowering business owners to achieve financial clarity and peace of mind. So thank you for bringing this conversation with that perspective. And not like one, I don't feel bad about myself, I was worried I was gonna,

Carla Titus: 00:32:51

You see, I told you it was gonna be great.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:32:54

We made it if you all made it. If you were worried here like I was at the beginning, we made it through, we have a new perspective, I feel better about a lot of things that I was worried about yesterday, to be honest with you. So I appreciate this so much. Thank you, Carla.

Carla Titus: 00:33:09

Thank you for sharing that. Because I think a lot of the work that we do, people, you know, are having those reservations. And it's great to hear that in the conversation. Were able to pull you out that piece and give you that clarity that you're seeking probably around your numbers and and how do you get started? And how do you make improvements, without having to stress about it all the time. We want your businesses to be happy fulfilling vehicles to fuel your life and your dream goals. And you can't do that if you're not paying attention to what's happening in your numbers. So just, you know, offering that as a perspective as a refund. We love what we do we leave with educational law for that reason, because we want to close that knowledge gap. A lot of business owners do not get proper training or financial management of their business. And that is not their fault. Now are the resources are there of course, we want you to connect with us so that we can help support you in that way. But just know you're not alone. And it is hard. And we do this for a living. So for us, it's just very enjoyable. We want you all to kind of, you know, come to that bandwagon and like enjoy with us because numbers can be final and it can be great for your business if they start to produce the results you want to see.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:34:17

Hmm, absolutely. Well, I hope that everyone listening and was very enlightened by this conversation and desires to connect with you, Carla. So please let us know all of the places and any resources that you have to share.

Carla Titus: 00:34:31

Yeah, you can go to our website at wealthworthwithin.com There's a contact page. If you're ready to hire a CFO, we would love to talk to you about your needs and how we might be able to meet them. If you're not quite ready to hire a CFO. We have a newsletter with actionable steps and insights that we share. So make sure to sign up for that on our homepage. And then if nothing else, we put a ton of educational video content and resources on social media, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. You can find us at wealth worth within and Tell us what you think about it, like what kind of content you want to see. And we will love to produce that and just help empower your on your financial management of the business.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:35:09

Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing. I appreciate you coming in and sharing your gifts in this realm that is definitely not my area of expertise. And that's what we're all about here at all entrepreneurs school is showcasing all of the different strategies, and different pieces of your business and the experts that people can find to connect with to get the support that they need.

Carla Titus: 00:35:31

Thanks for having me. I really appreciate having this conversation. Hopefully people enjoy it and start to get tuned into your numbers even more. So.

Kelly Sinclair: 00:35:40

You did it you just listen to another episode of the Entrepreneur School Podcast. It's like you just went to business school while you folded your laundry, prep dinner or picked up your kids at school. Thank you so much for being here. I want to personally celebrate your commitment to growing your business. You can imagine I'm throwing confetti for you right now. If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a review. Make sure you're subscribed and let us know you're listening by screenshotting this episode, and tagging us on Instagram, head to entrepreneurschool.ca for tons of tools and resources to help you grow your business while keeping your family a priority. You can subscribe to our email list and join our community. And until next time, go out there and do the thing.