Smarter Online Business - Tech, Tools & Truths for Websites that Sell

Small Business Finances: Year-End Moves and Fresh Starts with Michelle Mitchell

• Carrie Saunders • Episode 144

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Money mindset, messy books, missed reports—sound familiar? 

Whether you're wrapping up your year or planning ahead, financial clarity is the move for smarter business growth. 

In this episode, I’m joined by Michelle Mitchell—financial strategist and founder of Mitchell Consulting—who’s known for helping powerhouse women stop being the bottleneck in their business. 

Michelle doesn’t sugarcoat when it comes to money. She’s here to share real talk on: 
✅ What to do before the year ends 
✅ How to set yourself up financially for the new year 
✅ And what most people get wrong about tools like QuickBooks 

If you're ready for more clarity and a whole lot of sparkle—this is your episode. 


Connect with Michelle Mitchell

Michelle Mitchell is a financial strategist and founder of Mitchell Consulting, where she helps powerhouse women stop being the bottleneck in their business. She’s known for getting real about money, calling out the patterns behind your decisions, and sparking powerful confidence through strategy and truth-telling. 

Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram | Website

Increase Your Business Profits with 3 Simple Financial Habits: https://learn.mitchellconsultingservice.com/3-habits 

Is Your QuickBooks Lying to You?Fix Your Numbers Before Tax Season!  Webinar: https://go.mitchellconsultingservice.com/fixmyqbo


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Carrie Saunders:

Money mindset, messy books, missed reports. Does any of that sound familiar? Whether you're wrapping up your year end or planning ahead, financial clarity is the move for smarter business growth. In this episode, I'm joined by Michelle Mitchell, financial strategist and founder of Michelle Coaching, who is known for helping powerhouse women stop being the bottleneck in their business. Michelle doesn't sugarcoat it when it comes to money. She is so much fun. She's here to share real talk on what to do before the year ends, how to set yourself up financially for the new year, and what most people get wrong with tools like QuickBooks. If you're ready for more clarity and a whole lot of sparkle, this is your episode. Let's dive in. Struggling to turn website traffic into real sales, you're not alone and you don't have to figure it out all yourself. Welcome to Smarter Online Business, the podcast for course creators, coaches, and e-commerce entrepreneurs who want their websites to convert visitors into buyers without the tech overwhelm. I'm your host, Carrie Saunders, a website strategist and conversion expert with over 20 years of experience. Each episode delivers simple, proven strategies to help you generate more revenue and make your website your smartest sales tool. All right, welcome back to the show. Today we have a special guest with us, and her name is Michelle Mitchell. Michelle Mitchell is a financial strategist and founder of Mitchell Coaching, where she helps powerhouse women stop being the bottleneck in their business. She's known for getting real about money, calling out the patterns behind your decisions, and sparking powerful confidence through strategy and truth telling. Welcome to the show, Michelle. Welcome to the show, Michelle. I am so excited to have you. We know each other through a business group that we're in, and I'm just so excited to hear what we get to talk about today.

Michelle Mitchell:

Thank you for having me today, Carrie. I appreciate you your invites.

Carrie Saunders:

So I said a little bit about who Michelle is, but I know there's a lot more to Michelle. So why don't you tell us a little bit more about you?

Michelle Mitchell:

Sure. Um, Michelle is like I'm married. I I'm a mom of two adult children. And I started this business 15 years ago when my children were little. Um so the business is an accounting firm, and I've worked with small business owners, um, primarily founders, um, in the service space. And now we are at the point where I have a team of five who help with delivering the actual service to the clients, and I get to work with the leaders themselves and building leadership um skills and getting out of their own way about the growth of their business. So that's that's a bit about me.

Carrie Saunders:

I just love that, and I feel like most of the people listening can relate because we all seem to be the bottleneck and get in the way of our business. Yes. And it's it's so hard to unwind ourselves because it's like, you know, seeing the trees for the forest of the forest for the trees, however way you want to look at it. Like it's just hard to see what we're missing when when we're in it.

Speaker:

Yes.

Carrie Saunders:

It's you know, it's so much easier for me to help um analyze in, you know, somebody else's website than my own because I'm too much in it.

Michelle Mitchell:

Yes, I'm guilty of the same thing. I'm so close to my business that I can't even see where I'm getting hung up, which is why it's always good to have an outside person like the objective to help you see those things that you don't even see because you're just so close. Um, one time I was doing a talk and I mentioned that you are so close to your business. It's like being on the inside of a jar trying to read the label on the outside. And you can't because you're on the inside, you don't even see the label. So, you know, sometimes you just need that person to give you that perspective that's right in front of you, but you just don't see it.

Carrie Saunders:

That's a really great analogy. I think I've heard that one before, but it's been a really long time since I thought about it. And that's such a good, good analogy. And I know that you work with powerhouse women. That's part of the things I've seen you do. And, you know, we talked about them often being the bottleneck and especially in their own finances. Yes. So, what patterns do you see the whole business owners back from financial clarity and that confidence they need?

Michelle Mitchell:

Yeah. So I I think of people typically in two different camps, right? One person will say, Well, I'm not big enough yet to hire a professional, or you know, I can handle this on my own. And then you have the other woman who is um, she was like, I don't know what I'm doing. I need somebody to give me some guidance. And sometimes that's all you need is just a little bit of guidance. But, you know, people are usually in one camp or the other, and it impacts your confidence because when you do have that trusted advisor to help you navigate the pitfalls of the finances, then you know you're just that much further ahead than the person who's still trying to do it themselves, and then they may have a tool like QuickBooks or Xero, and they get in there and they screw it up so that they can't even pretend to rely on the reports that the system is actually giving them. So, you know, there are two typically two types of people that I see. And we just try to help encourage, empower you to make a decision that's gonna help you get to clarity much faster.

Carrie Saunders:

That makes a lot of sense, especially as being a business over for over 20 years, is you know, if if we don't know what to look for or how to, you know, put things in properly, then those reports are just not gonna be reliable and they're not gonna help us. It's like trying to run your yes, it's trying to run your business blindfolded.

Michelle Mitchell:

You are running your business blindfolded when you don't, you don't have clarity in those reports. So the first step is really to fix what that problem is, and then we can work on you as the CEO and you stepping into that CFO role without having to learn software or learn accounting jargon or things like that. So that's what we try to help uh guide our clients to.

Carrie Saunders:

Well, and I feel like a lot of business owners sometimes kind of like they're afraid of technology, they're afraid of finances too. And they shouldn't be like, you know, I try to help explain technology in simple terms, and I'm sure you help try to learn, you know, teach somebody financials in simple terms so that they know just enough of what, you know, only enough and not like overwhelmed.

Michelle Mitchell:

Right, exactly. So a lot of times people bring baggage into their business and it's financial baggage. Like you have a money story as a human, as a person. And when you start a business, you are just putting fire on that baggage you already have, you know. So if you are not good with money in your personal life and you avoid making financial decisions or having discipline with your money in your personal life, it is exponential in your business. Exponential. Because if you don't address those habits that are holding you back, it is definitely bleeding into your business. And a lot of times what I see most is avoidance. If I don't look at it, it ain't there, right? Or if I just look at my bank account balance, I can go ahead and spend that money without having a plan for it. You know, I always talk about having telling your money what to do for you. And that means being proactive in your personal life and in your business, telling your money what to do for you. Because otherwise, it it can have a mind of its own and just do whatever the heck it wants to do.

Carrie Saunders:

I can still relate to a couple of those points there because I I know in like a lot of my you know growth and learning I've done over the past couple of years is our money mindset many times comes from our family experiences as a child, even as a child. Yes. Those little words that our parent or parents or grandparents, like I grew up with my grandmother from fourth grade on, would say, you know, she would be like, Oh, we can't afford that, even though she had she was very comfortable. She wasn't like rich, but she was very well off for who she was. And she, yes, she could afford that, right? But it's still that mindset of what she had versus like my parents, they were poor, you know, they had absolutely no money. So I saw I have a couple different family stories going in my head, which then creates that conflict. And I think we need to recognize that we start this from a young age and learning the money mindset for mine.

Michelle Mitchell:

Absolutely, absolutely. And I, you know, when I work with clients, I we we primarily discuss their money story first. So I can get a feel for what they have experienced that they're bringing into this business that may hinder them. Because if you always feel like you don't have enough, you don't know what to invest in. You don't know that you you can take a chance on yourself to say, I can invest $10,000 in X so that it can give me Y. But if you have a you know a scarcity money mindset, you wouldn't do, oh, I can't afford it. I can't afford it. But then I've run into clients that are complete opposites. They grew up affluent, they grew up being able to do whatever they wanted to do with money because they always have access. So when they start this business and you know, they're running this business and they're making their money decisions, they think they have more than what they have. And they're spending money on things that are not bringing a return into the business. So whether the business has, you know, a lot of cash flow or not, if you're investing in things that are not bringing a return, return to return to me means return of my time, return of my resources, increasing my actual bank account, like those returns. And if if you're the business owner, if you're the CEO and you're making decisions just because it's a shiny object, which a lot of us have, you know, we don't evaluate how did that impact my business after I spent that money, because it should make a return for you. Um, so I find a lot of people in both camps, whether it's scarcity or it's affluence and they they've grown up with affluence, but now that they have a business, they're not thinking about how that whatever it is they're purchasing is going to help them grow the business, free up their time, or give the business more resources that that it needs. So yeah, that's a big one.

Carrie Saunders:

Yeah. And the other thing that resonated with me too, that you'd said is, you know, kind of being like that ostrich and sticking your head in the sand and not looking at the books. Yeah. So, and I know I have done that before myself. I have seasons, I've had seasons where I've done that. So for those that might be feeling like, ooh, I don't, I don't look at them enough. I know I don't and I don't want to, I'm afraid. What advice would you give them to like get their eyes open and actually see that it's not that scary and and it really will help your business grow?

Michelle Mitchell:

Right. One of the things I like to teach um our clients or the audience in general is to set a CFO day for yourself. Like you are the CEO of the business, you need a date on your calendar where you are going to look at the money aspect of the business, right? And I encourage you to do it at least twice a month. So it's only two days out of 30. Two days. And we're only spending less than an hour, right? Less than an hour. Because as the CFO, you just need to understand the landscape of what your money is doing, not actually doing the doing of taking care of the money. You don't necessarily have to do that, right? So if you set aside that time and one, you want to look at what money is coming in in the next two weeks. Sorry, what money is going out in the next two weeks? Have I paid myself? Have I paid my taxes? Or set aside funds for taxes. That's what the CEO needs to be doing. Then you need to meet with your financial advisor, accountant, whoever, that trusted advisor, and then they can tell you the details. Hey, we're looking at this past month spending, and these are the things that stick out, stick out to us. That's what a good accountant should be doing for you. If you take it another step forward, now let's look at okay, what's happening in the next 90 to 180 days with my money? So that's planning for the future. These are the things that you as the CEO should be doing in your CFO time. Two days two days a month, at least an hour, and that's it. And let somebody else handle the actual details of it so that it frees you up from feeling overwhelmed and feeling like, oh, I can't look at the numbers.

unknown:

Yeah.

Carrie Saunders:

You really, really simplified that. And I actually have in my calendar once a month a you know, a couple hour block for that. So now I'm thinking of changing it to twice a month in about an hour each each. And um, and I will admit, sometimes I skip it. Sometimes I'm like, oh, I'm too busy to do that right now. So I need to make sure that I don't do that. Even though I'm good. Yeah, go ahead. I was gonna say, even though I might look at the numbers another time, it's it's supposed to be my focus time for doing it. And I just have to keep that appointment with myself.

Michelle Mitchell:

Exactly. So when you're the CEO, you get to tell yourself what you can and cannot do, right? And when you put your money matters on the calendar and you choose not to abide by that space and time that you have set aside for yourself, because money is such an issue with most people, you are telling yourself, I don't trust you enough to hold that appointment with yourself to look at that money. That's what you're teaching yourself if you don't keep that date. Because money is a different, is it's different than anything else that we like deal with because we have a lot of baggage when it comes to money and our money mindset, our money story, all of that. So if you just start keeping the date with yourself, you will begin to trust yourself a bit more. Like it's not that scary. I can open, I can open up the bank account or QuickBooks or whatever. I can trust myself to do that consistently. And then all you got to do is write your questions down for your accountant, and then you send an email to the accountant and they can answer your questions. So build a habit of trusting yourself with money.

Carrie Saunders:

Love that. And I think everybody listening needs to take that huge tip right there, and even myself included, after we're done with this interview, I'm going to make it on my calendar where it's twice a month and it's an hour, and it's going to be in some color that I won't miss.

unknown:

Right.

Carrie Saunders:

So that I make sure I do it. Um, so we've talked some about, you know, how to deal with the money and how to get back into a better money mindset. So let's say we're getting there and it's, you know, somebody's wrapping up their year because this is we're gonna release this in February. And you what are the most due financial tasks or reports that they should be reviewing, you know, that at the end of January, early February to prepare for the new year as well as wrap up the previous year?

Michelle Mitchell:

Oh, good questions. Um, February is a little late to do anything about the prior year. The prior year is closed. You can't impact any of the finances at that point. But planning for the rest of the year, you know, you can make strides towards that. So at the end of the year, we have a couple tax deadlines coming up, right? So in January, which this will be released after the deadline. So I hope those who are listening made the deadline. Uh, we have a couple deadlines January 31st. One, if you have employees, all of your W-2s need to be out to your employees by uh January 31st. If you have had any contractors work for you in your business, your 1099 NECs need to be out by January 31st. So those are two dates that'll happen prior to this. After after um this airs, there's another date. So if you are an escort, um your tax filing is actually March 15th. Your tax deposits are also due March 15th. And then your personal tax return is due April 15th. So you kind of need to know who you're working with for as your CPA or your tax preparer prior to the end of the year. Because if you're on your tax preparers calendar before the end of the year, you will get the attention you deserve. If you do it afterwards, it's you're kind of scrambling a little bit in that first quarter. But maybe you can develop a relationship with someone later in the year. But up until April 15th, all tax prepayers are overwhelmed and extremely busy. I don't know why they have their job.

Carrie Saunders:

So makes total sense. So I do have a question on the date. Um, I we're an LLC, and but I remember that ours are usually due the March 15th, too. Would that be right?

Michelle Mitchell:

Yes, that's because you are an S Corp.

Carrie Saunders:

Oh, okay. I think we're a partnership though, but maybe for partnerships too. Okay, yeah, I just want to make sure we include that. And if you're happening to be watching on YouTube, you probably just saw one of our office cats go by. He he loves it when I'm talking to somebody, he wants to come in and get an attention. So make sure to jump over on YouTube if you're uh listening on the podcast. So those are some great things to keep in mind because I know they can creep up on you really fast, or at least I have found that before that they can be like, ooh, um, but we have thankfully worked with the same tax preparer for many years. I can't even remember how long. So that really helps because she's on top of it and sends this stuff early on. Um, but then when we want to plan forward for that new year, are there any things that we need to be keeping in mind as the year goes on that makes that tax preparation easier in you know in the next year?

Michelle Mitchell:

Yes, there are things that will help all along the year. Um one, it is so imperative that you grab your bank statements from your bank. They give them to you for free at first. But after a few years and you want to collect like a bunch of bank statements, they're gonna charge you for them. So just get them while they're free, right? So grab your bank statements, grab any like receipts of large purchases or anything like that you have. If you're hiring uh contractors or employees, make sure you have your independent contractor agreements signed and have a copy of their W9 form before you pay them. And then as you're going along, just maintaining your accounting records, uh, it's easier to do it as you go along the year instead of trying to go back and remembering what happened. The other thing is if you have an accounting system, making sure that you're reconciling um your records against your bank records every month. And that's typically what accountants do for small business owners. Um, and then reviewing those reports. If I were a business owner that didn't know anything about accounting, I would have my accountant walk me through what are the important numbers I need to look at. Because as the CEO, you're making decisions all along the year about your business. And typically they're financial. There's a financial impact, right? So if you don't know what to look at, then are you spending your wheels? Are you making as much profit as you need to be making as you're going along? Um, those are the types of things that having a guy or trusted advisor can help you do. And then I would also look at your tax liability. So a lot of times people are concerned when they file their tax return on April 15th, how much tax they owe. But let me tell you, if you didn't make some money, you're gonna owe some taxes. So making money is good, but people don't want to owe the taxes. So do you have a tax strategy in place to minimize your tax liability? You need to be doing that all year long, not just at the end of the year when it's a surprise. I also like to have my clients set aside funds every month for taxes because it's huge. The tax bill can be huge. And if you've ever heard of Profit First by Mike McAllow, it's the book. I do highly recommend that because our clients that use that framework typically have more cash. And when they're setting aside funds every month for taxes and they have a tax strategy at the end of the year, when you don't owe that much in tax, guess who gets to get a bonus? You, the CEO. So I'm like, have a little discipline and set up those uh those uh accounts so that it's easier on yourself.

unknown:

Yeah.

Carrie Saunders:

I think that makes, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And one of the things we did, um, especially being a partnership, is we keep track of the withdrawals separately so I can keep an eye on them as the year is going along and kind of then help estimate the profit of the business since usually you know a majority of the profit goes into distributions, and I want to make sure that I'm keeping a track of that to make sure there isn't any um big surprises tax-wise and making sure I'm saving back as I go.

Michelle Mitchell:

Yes, exactly. So when when Carrie is referring to distributions, distributions is how a business owner pays themselves within the LLC. So if you're not on payroll unless you're an S-corp, um if you're just an LLC owner, you're you take distributions, which means you pull money out of the business to pay yourself. And if those distributions are too high and you haven't withheld any tax on that, that causes a large tax liability. So um, you have to be careful as an LLC owner in pulling out too much in distributions. You know, sometimes it can strangle the cash flow of the business if the owner is pulling out too much in distribution and the business can't actually function with working capital. So then I would diagnose like looking at other things like revenue and profit margins, and we'll look at expenses and you know, all of your operating expenses and things like that to help get that under control. Because it makes sense. I just believe the business owner should be paid on a regular basis every month, regularly, no matter what the amount is. I believe you should be paid.

Carrie Saunders:

Yeah, and I think we've talked about this some in in our in our mastermind group. We're in together, which has always been fun to listen to your uh take on that. Um, and I know a lot of people might be thinking, okay, so what's your take on tools like QuickBooks or similar? Like, what do you wish people knew when they first set it up to make their lives easier and to make their accountants and the tax preparers' lives easier?

Michelle Mitchell:

Here's what I have to say: QuickBooks is a tool, and Intuit makes it sound like it's easy. But there is accounting happening on the back end. And for myself and my team, we have spent four to six years in school learning how to do accounting. Then you put the software on top of it, right? So, what business owner do you know who has gone to school for eight, six to eight years to learn about accounting and then add on a software. You're not equipped. That's all I'm gonna say. You're not equipped. So the first thing, especially if funds are tight, I would say have someone help you set it up first and teach you how to use it properly. And then you can have that person as a resource so that you can ask questions if money is tight. If you're at the point where you can hire someone, I would suggest that because it's just complicated and everyone's um business is a little bit different. Like for us, we have worked with hundreds of businesses and nonprofits. So we've seen the gamut of all different kinds of tools that integrate into um these software platforms and how people are using it. So we do have more expertise than you on how to set up and use QuickBooks, Xero, Fresh Books, any of those softwares.

Carrie Saunders:

I think that's a perfect answer because a lot of people try to do everything themselves, even on you know, that we see on technology-wise too. And I was I couldn't tell you how many times I've saved butts because they tried to change their DNS settings and didn't know what they were doing and took everything down. You know, you don't want to take all your money down, like that's almost worse, right? No, so I think it's perfect advice to like have a trusted person that does this for a living to help you and teach you or just do it for you. You know, we need to work in our zone of genius, we do, and usually business owner's zone of genius isn't accounting because it's not unless you're an accounting business owner.

Speaker:

Even I don't want to, I don't want to do it for myself, you know.

Carrie Saunders:

Yeah, you could be doing more effective things for your business. I can. And I think we need to not be afraid to pass that off, yes, you know, and have somebody else work on it.

Michelle Mitchell:

Yeah, and you know, that's one of the things that um, like I you know that I talk about delegating, it's one of the things you can delegate off your plate, and it doesn't remove the responsibility from you, but you have someone who can do it quicker and faster than you and get you the answer you're looking for a lot more efficiently than you like trying to figure it out yourself, and you probably see that with people, you know, setting up their own websites. You can definitely do it much faster, yes, you know, but you have the expertise. I mean, I would piddle around, like, okay, who can I call? That's the first thing I'm I'm like, who can I call?

unknown:

Yeah.

Carrie Saunders:

So so then, like, uh, you know, we're this will be released about February 3rd. So like this still pretty early in quarter one and in 2026. Yes. Um, so what's one financial move a small business owner could make this week as they're listening to this podcast episode that would give them more clarity or confidence heading into this new year, heading into you know, whatever quarter they're heading into, whenever they listen to it, in case they'll listen to it, not when it releases. What step could they take next to really just help them, you know, move forward, right?

Michelle Mitchell:

Yes. So one of the things I would um look at, one, look at your revenue and your revenue mix. Like a lot of people don't, um, especially DIYers who do their own QuickBooks, they'll just say, okay, sales, sales, everything goes in sales, but what is the mix of revenue that you have coming in? Then I would look at how much does it cost for you to deliver that service, product, whatever it is, to get to your gross profit margin. And it's an accounting term, but how much did it cost me to generate that much revenue? And if it's costing me more than the revenue I'm generating, you need to let it go. You need to let it go. It's not bringing you any money if we're a nonprofit. If if we're a nonprofit, that's different. But if you're a for-profit, if it's not generating enough money from the top line, then you don't have enough to operate your business. That's why the cash always feels tight. So I would evaluate that um because sometimes it's not about doing more marketing, it's getting more efficient with the services you actually provide at a margin that generates profit. So that's the first thing. The second thing I would audit is where are you spending your money? Go through all your softwares. Are any of the softwares that you signed up for two or three years ago, are you using them? Or do they just keep charging you? Like you can help your net profit easily just by going through what am I paying for? What am I paying for? And then I would say, look towards the future. So a lot of times people don't understand that accounting is looking backwards at what has happened. But when you begin to look forward, and this goes back to what I said in the beginning about telling your money what to do for you, what is the plan moving forward so that you can, you know, pretty confidently predict where you're going to end up in six months, where your finances will be. So that's looking forward. So, what do you have planned in your business as activities to generate income? What do you have planned coming up that will bring in revenue for your business? That's planning forward. And then what expenses go along with what that plan is? So we're getting into like business planning kind of things, but not necessarily pulling that number out of the air. Think about your activities you're gonna do, your income-producing activities. What are they? And some, I don't know why, some people don't correlate their daily activities with income producing. I don't know why, but they don't. But if you put those two things together, you can start predicting like maybe six months is too far for you, maybe next month. Okay, what activities am I doing this month that's gonna actually generate the revenue I need to come in for my business next month? Those are the types of things I would tell someone early in the year to plan for.

Carrie Saunders:

Well, and I feel like that brings it all kind of full circle as to why the CEO needs to be looking at those finances regularly, because if you don't know what's going on, you don't know how to plan for the future and bring in the money you need in the future.

Michelle Mitchell:

Yes.

unknown:

Right.

Michelle Mitchell:

And if you're so tied up with doing uh non-income producing activities, how are you gonna get more income? Like, how are you gonna do that? But if you're not looking at, and this goes back to CEO, where are you spending your time? You know, are they not producing active income-producing activities or income-producing activities? As the CEO, that is your role until you get big enough and you can hire out a sales team, right?

Carrie Saunders:

Right. And I will say one thing that I do a few times a year, and I actually did this at the end of December, right before the holidays, is I literally took a week or two, you know, five to ten business days, and I wrote down everything I did and put the timestamp, you know, 9 a.m. I checked email, you know, 9.10, I did this. You know, it sounds tedious, but it's a really good way to audit what you're doing to see if you're doing enough of the income-producing activities. Are you spinning your wheels? Should you delegate something on the list? So I was using it to, you know, see where am I actually spending all my time? What can I delegate? What do I need to do more of and less of? Um, so it that's just one simple thing I feel like you know, those listening could do to help, you know, implement some of the tactics you're talking about here.

Michelle Mitchell:

Yeah. Yeah, a good time audit of yourself is a good audit. Like, you know, I know you and I are in a visibility group, and a lot of things we do are online. So, but when you pick up your phone to do that visibility, like be a part of groups and things like that, are you getting distracted on other things? And you're like, oh, 30 minutes have passed. I didn't do any of the things I I I went on here to do, you know, but that's auditing your time and be honest with yourself. You're not fooling anybody. Be honest with yourself. Where's your time going?

Carrie Saunders:

Yeah. Right. And I feel like auditing without judgment too. We're trying to discover what's going on here. Yes. We're not trying to judge, we're just trying to help our future self change and you know, work on the things they're supposed to be working on.

Michelle Mitchell:

Yeah, exactly.

Carrie Saunders:

Yeah. So so as we wrap up here, Michelle, is there any other tip you'd like to give us or um any resource that you'd like to mention that uh you'd love to help our audience with?

Michelle Mitchell:

Sure. Um, first off, I want your audience to know you are the CEO, whether or not you think you are or not. You are. Some of these things I've talked about, they may, they may be over your head. You may not be there yet. It is okay. It is okay. We learn step by step. And the more you know, the more you can change, right? The more you can go in the direction that of your desire. So don't think that, oh, I gotta do all this at one time. No, you don't. Just take the first step. And I don't remember which resource I gave you to give to your audience, but I do have a webinar that talks about this. Um, I can give you that in addition to whatever else I gave you. You need to understand your finances as the CEO of your business. It is your responsibility. It's nobody else's. Even if you have someone that you've delegated some task to, ultimately it is still your responsibility. When you stand, if if you get audited and stand before the IRS, your accountant is not standing there. You are. They're auditing you. So just take the first next step that feels right for you to get your finances in order. And if you want your future to be different than your past, then look at where you're spending your time. What are you doing on a daily basis that's impacting your income generation? Right. Because if you're not doing that, then you're spending time on the wrong things and it's not getting you to the financial place that. You have desired to be.

Carrie Saunders:

Those are some great wrap-up points, and I feel like it really creates some actionable steps for those listening. So if anybody listening wants to get more in touch with Michelle, we will definitely have all those links in the show notes. But if you want to let us know, where's the best place to reach you online?

Michelle Mitchell:

I would say LinkedIn is the best place to reach me. Or you can go to our website, Mitchell Consulting Service.com, and you can see all the things that Mitchell Consulting does. Um but yeah, I'm out here in in the ethers, you know, talking and educating uh and doing those types of things for entrepreneurs.

Carrie Saunders:

Well, thank you so much, Michelle, for being here with us today. I've relearned and learned stuff, you know, during the whole conversation. And I'm going to be putting some things into action. So I really appreciate you sharing your story and how you help people with us today.

Michelle Mitchell:

Thank you so much, Carrie.

Carrie Saunders:

Don't you just love Michelle's no-nonsense sparkle-filled approach to finance? Whether January flew a blind in a flash or you're still finding your rhythm, there's no wrong time to get financially clear and confident in your business. From QuickBooks cleanup to forward-focused planning, Michelle dropped some serious wisdom to help you step into your role as a CEO who knows their numbers. Want to connect with Michelle or grab her financial resources? Check out the show notes for links and next steps. And if your website needs a conversion refresh to support your goals this year, head on over to SmarterOnline Business.com forward slash Facebook and join the conversation. We're here to help, and we will see you next week.