#17 Nimaj Driscoll: Mastering business credit with a Nav coach

Learn how to build wealth and use financing strategically as a small business owner with Nimaj Driscoll, a Nav business credit coach and owner of Driscoll Family Insurance and Wealth Solutions. Nimaj delves into the intricacies of business credit, offering strategic advice on how entrepreneurs can leverage credit to build wealth and manage risk. Discover the essential steps to establishing business credit and the common pitfalls to avoid.

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Nav Technologies, Inc. (“Nav”) makes no assurances or representations regarding the accuracy or sufficiency of the information included in this podcast. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and is not legal or financial advice. If you have questions, consult a trusted professional to help you make specific decisions about your business. The views, opinions, and statements expressed by the host and guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Nav.

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Chapters

• 0:00 How Nimaj started his business and became a business credit coach
• 5:04 Transitioning from lender to business credit coach
• 9:24 The importance of building wealth through financial education
• 10:36 How to borrow and use debt wisely
• 13:17 When (and why) to use business financing
• 15:36 How to build and maintain strong business credit
• 18:03 How tradelines can help your cash flow
• 22:16 Common business credit mistakes (and how to fix them)
• 26:37 How long it really takes to build business credit independence
• 29:55 Building systems and support as a small business owner

Transcript

Nimaj Driscoll (00:01)

You talk to people who are just getting started. And then you talk to people who have multi-million dollar companies who never knew business credit existed, was a thing, or something that they should actually care about or utilize, right? 

So I get excited talking to those people. For example, a lot of times, we tell people to establish the net-30 payment terms with certain vendors and suppliers and things like that. But I think sometimes what gets lost is the strategy behind it or the reason why. So your payment terms are what helps you manage your cash flow. So if you need to purchase supplies or some type of equipment or things like that, you being able to buy now and pay later gives you that power and control.

Catherine Giese (00:48)

Welcome to Main Street Makers, a bi-weekly podcast that features real, local small business owners who have transformed their passions into profitable businesses. Learn from fellow small business owners on how they overcome challenges, find opportunities, and create thriving operations that make our neighborhoods more vibrant, connected places to live. I'm Catherine, and this podcast is brought to you by Nav, the business credit platform that believes every small business owner deserves the chance to succeed.

Now, let's get to this week's show.

Catherine Giese (01:16)

Welcome to this week's episode of Main Street Makers. I'm excited to welcome Nimaj Driscoll, who's the owner of Driscoll Family Insurance and Wealth Solutions. It's a consulting firm that helps entrepreneurs and business owners build wealth and manage their risk. 

He's also a business credit coach here at Nav. So he has a really wide range of experience working with lots of different kinds of business owners in addition to owning his own business. So I'm very much looking forward to talking through how he manages and things through his business and then how he helps others think through theirs. I think he's going to have a wealth of insights, so welcome.

Nimaj Driscoll (01:50)

Thank you for having me, Catherine, I'm glad to be a part of this.

Catherine Giese (01:54)

Awesome. Well, I'd love for you to just talk to us about your business and how you started it.

Nimaj Driscoll (02:01)

Yeah, so my business is actually taking off really well. It's new. So I started in February.

Although my business is new, I think the plan for it is something that's just kind of been culminating for, you know, over the past, you know, 10-plus years. So just to give a little background about myself, I'm from Detroit. I got my start in the financial services industry back in 2012. So I began working at a local bank, and just continued to stay curious. 

You know, as an insurance producer some years ago and remain licensed in everything ever since and worked for credit unions and everything under the sun. Just in the community here. It's been my anchor. It's been what I've been doing.

Fast forward to the thing that really changed for me was getting into commercial lending. So, you know a lot of my background prior to the last four years has been in consumer finance so I had an opportunity to you know join a national CDC that was creating a product to you know help, black business owners in Detroit get access to financing on just more favorable terms and and be more character focused than traditional lending models. So that was something that was exciting to me and had a strong connection to what I'm all about here. So that took shape and it's been great ever since.

My business started this year as more of me just stepping out and deciding that I wanted to be a part of the solution from a different angle. So instead of being the person that's helping people with their loan application or actually securing the capital, being a person that is the educator.

And that's the part that gives me the most fulfillment and excitement. You know, through all of my time and working with, you know, clients and people, it's always made me feel good to be able to give them knowledge and information or strategy on things that they then weren't taught, didn't know about, have seen no precedence of. And for me, having all of the experience in all of the different realms under finance, it just made sense for me to step out and become an educator versus the, you know, practitioner of, you know, lending.

Being able to do mission-based work is what I'm all about. If there's no mission to it, it's probably not gonna be something that I'll take to. So it's actually what I love about Nav is our mission to be able to help small business owners get access to business credit, understanding what is used for, how to build it, how to navigate lending, and all of the resources. Being a business credit coach at Nav has really been complimentary to my business. And I'm able to combine the education, because I'm an education first company, but also with my love for insurance. So making sure that people are protected, that they have the right foundation is just paramount.

That’s what I'm all about in a nutshell.

Catherine Giese (05:04)

Yeah, that's great. I love that kind of switch from the tactical part of just helping people get money to really educating them and making sure that it's like the right fit for them. Was there like a moment or a story that you can tell us where that switch happened in your head where you were like, really need to do this in a different capacity and start my own thing?

Nimaj Driscoll (05:30)

Yeah, I've always had this positive feedback from all of the people that I worked with. And they would say, man, why don't you just teach this? And it's just like, yeah, yeah, well, I kind of do through my natural course of work.

So not necessarily a specific story or instance, but I will say this, there's one organization that's really special to me here in Detroit and they have a program where they teach business owners, you know, how to put together a business plan, how to pitch, how to put together financial projections. And, you know, being one of the lenders that finance the majority of the graduates from the program, just seeing, you know, you know, doing the instruction, I think that's what really led to Spark. 

So it's serendipitous in a way, but the CEO of that organization called earlier this year, I just like, you know, I would like to use you for this special project. What do you think? Is it something that you want to do and bring you in on a contract basis? And I said, I would love to, I would love to, you know, to help, help in that capacity. And it actually is a thing that really sparked me to go out on my own. And it allowed me to be an instructor. So I'm teaching and I'm teaching. My first contract is actually with the very organization that I got started with when I became a commercial lender. It's exciting for everything just to come together.

Catherine Giese (07:02)

Yeah, that's great. And then you also mentioned that you have this approach where it's like wealth building, but then there's also the protection that comes in through insurance. What problem were you seeing that kind of informed you that that would be your approach as a business and as an educator?

Nimaj Driscoll (07:19)

One of the main things is just the basics. And I think a lot of times we get away from the basics because we want to get to the end result, you know, so quickly. And, you know, for one, insurance is the foundation for any strong financial plan. You know, so you have to protect what you're building. But the thing that was most eye-opening for me is just, you know, in all of the things that I've done, like personal credit has always been an issue. 

So people often don't know the science behind how to have a good credit score and understanding that there's a difference between not just your credit score but what does your credit profile look like to, you know, lenders, right? How do you look? know, what type of risk do you project, right? So being able to help people understand how to budget is very important. So beyond being licensed as an insurance agent, I'm a certified financial education instructor. 

I'm a certified credit counselor. And the credit counseling piece is something that is very important because helping people budget, helping people understand, well, are you tracking? How much money is coming in? What's going out? Do you need to make more money? Do you need to spend less? How to manage debt.

Because debt is the thing that can rob you from wealth if you don't manage it appropriately. So just making sure that your behaviors, you have the right behaviors to achieve the goals that you want to do. And a lot of times, the mystery behind credit, whether it's personal credit or business credit or just the things that we weren't often taught are the things that get away from us having that clear pathway. 

So my firm is an education-first firm and we educate people on building personal credit, how to maintain a proper budget, how to have the proper relationship with debt, how to make sure that you have life insurance, and the importance of that. Understanding that your income is your biggest asset in most cases, your ability to earn income.

We focus on all of these things in addition to business coaching, making sure that entrepreneurs or small business owners understand what they need to be able to access lending. And bust myths and make sure that people really know what the true rules of engagement are when it comes to finance. Through all of those things, that's how I help people build wealth. 

And if someone was looking to do something that's more traditional, where it kind of comes to start at some type of investment product or something, because I'm not licensed, that's something that I will refer out to my network. So the foundational financial tools and helping people and small business owners get that, especially those who come from underserved communities, is what I'm passionate about and that's what I do.

Catherine Giese (10:10)

Yeah, it sounds like a really holistic approach, which is really healthy. One thing I'm interested in that you were talking about was debt and having a good relationship with debt. I think people have very different relationships with debt. Some people are really gung-ho about financing. Some people are really cautious. How do you coach people through the process of thinking about whether they should take on financing?

Nimaj Driscoll (10:36)

So in relation to business financing, since we're talking about Nav as well, it's really important to have a goal for the financing. So it's not just, well, I need to get a $100,000 line of credit or a loan or a credit card. Well, hey, as soon as you get these financial vehicles, the clock starts ticking, right? How do you pay this back? You have to service the interest, the payment, you have to figure out what is your plan. So having a plan is very important because you can be in the right situation with debt or quickly be in the wrong situation if you're in the wrong product.

So it's just the suitability is really important, right? As an example, if you are financing a very short term need, you need some working capital or say for example, you're looking to smooth over cash flow, humps, have a longer sale cycle or people just take a little bit longer to pay you, right? So your receivables.

A line of credit may make sense right, but it wouldn't be the best thing to get a term loan in which now I'm paying back two, three, four, or five years for some money that I spent yesterday. So term loans are better for hard assets, like equipment that depreciates. Or actually it makes sense to have that type of fee schedule a payment schedule for just helping people understand the differences and what to get.

Because you know like there's so many different loan products out there and it can be hard to navigate and confusing I mean there's merchant cash advances. There's lines of credit this term loans is equipment financing and You know a lot of people turn to a merchant cash advance because it's a quick source of capital You know the requirements might be a little bit easier to get but it's the wrong product and then now it feels predatory right so just making sure that business owners really like to have a plan to understand what's appropriate is one of the major things.

Catherine Giese (12:46)

Yeah, that makes a ton of sense. There are so many loans. And you're right. I think that's something we see a lot from customers just getting into the merchant cash advances and it's not always the best fit. And there's a lot of lore around those, in the broader sense.

I kind of want to run through a tactical example because you've said that you don't need financing right now. So how do you personally think about why you don't need financing? What's your thought process from end to end?

Nimaj Driscoll (13:17)

Yeah. I have business credit and I've established business credit, but when it comes to financing, I'm a consultant, right? So I really don't have a cash intensive operation, right? You know, my cost to do business or cost for client acquisition is fairly low. Okay. So, you know, the, money that I'm spending is more so on regulatory stuff, insurance, keeping up any type of licenses or continuing education, spending money on subscriptions and systems and things just to help you be more efficient as a business owner. with that being said, the need for financing to operate is not really there. 

I have a business credit card access to business lines and things if I were to need it. But really at this point, it's not something required just because a company is just myself that's it. So now if I wanted to hire an employee or something like that, before I would personally turn to financing, I would be reinvesting the actual revenue from the company and using that to be able to float the payroll or whatever it is for whatever type of staff.

I think that there's just understanding what's customary for the type of business that you operate and then what do need. So if you're doing a cash intensive business to where it's just like, well, hey, I have to spend a whole lot of money before I can get paid. I need to buy inventory. I have to buy supplies. I have to front the work on construction projects or whatever it be, then you may need financing in different ways than somebody like myself who gets paid to share knowledge and education.

Catherine Giese (15:03)

Yeah, thanks for running us through that. It's nice to kind of see like your very methodical strategic approach and the fact that it's pretty easily replicable once you know the steps to take, And it sounds like you, even though you don't need financing now, you're being proactive about having business credit, having your personal credit together, how did you kind of like discover business credit? How do you think about staying proactive on making sure that you're in a good spot so that if you need it in the future, you can get it?

Nimaj Driscoll (15:36)

So I think really a lot of that comes back to my start in commercial lending because working for one of the largest national CDCs, number one in SBA lending, what's key is the FICO SBSS score.

So having to understand that and learn that because that was like you're really before a lender will even take on considering your loan packet, you know, they're they want to see, okay, well, does this person, you know, pencil out credit wise? So before we pull your credit and everything, we'll run the SBSS and depending on what that score was that determine whether we would talk to you or not based on what I don't want to say that, but you know, usually if the score just wasn't like a 160 or 140, whatever the numbers were at the time, then and it probably wouldn't be a suitable loan application, right?

Having that understanding and you know that is really what gave me a lot of the foundation around like understanding the Dun & Bradstreet and really reviewing business credit reports and able to counsel those people who you know or maybe not quite there and helping them get to where they want to be. As an example the FICO SBSS score is a blended score so you see FICO you know FICO, they don't have the the governance over business credit as they they are on the consumer side but they created the score for primarily SBA-guaranteed lenders, right? 

So it's a blend of your personal experience and your business experience. It's a blended score. So helping people understand that and how they can look at both of those bureaus in addition to just their finances, their business finances and things being in line with their industry and risk profile just to influence the score has been really helpful. 

So knowing that, going into the more character-based lending that I was doing. A lot of it wasn't often based off of business credit. It's personally guaranteed. But I would always take it a step further and make sure that I would educate people on all of the options that they had and helping them understand how to establish business credit. So I'm more of the type to where if it's something I know whether it's in my scope or not, I'm gonna give it to you. And that's what has helped me just be successful and helped me really be connected, stay connected to the people and get the satisfaction out of the work that I do.

Catherine Giese (18:03)

Yeah, I think that's a really nice approach because I've definitely talked to bankers that don't actually know about business credit and don't think that it's real because when you're a big lender, often they're, you know, just working off of personal guarantees, which is personal credit. But there are so many options that do require business credit.

Nimaj Driscoll (18:26)

So many, so many. you know, with the beautiful thing about Nav and being a business credit coach here is that I get to talk to hundreds of people a month. You know, if you really quantify that over the course of a year, I mean, we're talking about thousands of people, you know, whether it's the first call or second, third, you know, just follow up calls and appointments that they book would be, it's always a different scenario and it keeps you sharp and you cover a lot of ground and learn a lot of things really quickly.

And two, you talk to people who are just getting started. And then you talk to people who have multi-million dollar companies who never knew business credit existed, was a thing, or something that they should actually care about or utilize, right? So I get excited talking to those people too. So for example, a lot of times, a business credit establishment, it's the easiest credit to get from another business before a bank, right? So that's why we tell people to establish the net 30 payment terms with certain vendors and suppliers and things like that. Those are more tier one or tier two easier to qualify for, right? But I think sometimes what gets lost is the strategy behind it or the reason why. So your payment terms is what helps you, you know, manage your cash flow. So if you need to purchase supplies or some type of like equipment

or things like that, you being able to buy now and pay later essentially within whatever terms gives you that power and control. So it's not just, buy these items from this particular vendor so you can have that on your credit report. So I'm really big on making sure that people have strategy for what they do. There’s a lot of mystery to it, right? 

Because the names of the companies, vendors, the creditors don't show up. So you look at a business credit report, you don't know who this is. I have people who will say, that's not mine, that's not mine. Well, let's look at it. It says account type building materials. 

I just had this call yesterday. You're a builder, okay? Usually building materials is like Home Depot or Lowe's or something like this, or some supplier for this type of industry. It says net-30, let's look at this: August the 1st, you had this balance, what do you think? You think, okay. It's my Home Depot card, right? 

So that type of association, these are the strategies and things that I use to help people understand what they actually have when they don't know what they have. 

While we're on the subject, like other strategies, one of the favorite net-30 accounts of the tier-ones is Quill. You can buy office supplies from them. You can buy everything under the sun, whatever you can think of, type it in, usually they have it. So instead of buying things from places and stores that don't show up on your credit report, which is another thing with business credit, business credit reporting is not mandatory. 

So you might purchase things, and I’m trying not to use too many names. They’re places that don't really help you in any type of way when you're trying to strategically build out business credit, shift your spending to those places that do, right? So the paper towel, the soap, the trash bags, the things that you would naturally buy for your office, buy it from Quill or whoever that may be versus buying it from the other place or just using a general purpose credit card. 

So now you have established a tradeline that actually has use. You'll keep it active. You have, you know, recent activity and you don't feel like you're just buying things just to build business credit, right? So I'm big on strategy when it comes to personal credit, business credit and just strategy in general for finance.

Catherine Giese (22:16)

Yeah, I love that. Everything has to serve a purpose. It's a really nice way to think about things. Related to this, you obviously talk to a lot of different kinds of business owners. What is the biggest challenge that you see them face, and how do you help them overcome that?

Nimaj Driscoll (22:37)

The main thing that people say is that, “I want to separate myself from the business. Everything, personal guarantee, everything on the EIN only, business only, business only.” 

And although that is great, a lot of times businesses are in those earlier phases to where the business is not strong enough to really like guarantee itself, you know. So sometimes that can be a hard conversation for people to, you know, to take or accept because they have a certain idea behind business credit and the reason why they're trying to establish it. 

So once you help somebody understand the true rules of engagement and how sometimes, you know, people may be actually more ready for certain forms of business lending that may be no personal guarantee than they think because a lot of that stuff is going to be based on revenue and time in business, you know, that's a huge factor, you know, so, you know, the business is not making money and it hasn't really shown any history of paying anything back on time or at all or even length of time, you know, actually, you know, operating then it's going to be hard to have that separation. 

So making sure people know business credit is largely going to be tied to your personal credit and the health of your personal credit can take you far quickly with business credit. And if you don't have strong personal credit, then hey, you have to work on that simultaneously. You have to do two things at the same time. 

So it definitely takes a little bit more of a hands on approach, more of an investment of time and also resources, you know, like you may need to spend a little bit of money. You may have to do some things that you may not have done. So that's why I'm really big on finding every way that you can to shift your spending to things that actually report to the three major business credit bureaus. 

Fuel cards, for example, I love those. You gotta put gas in your car. You don't have to be a trucker to benefit from a fuel card, right? That reports to the business credit bureau. You naturally do it, now you have another tradeline. So these are the things that I have. I help people build from the floor up or help people that have million dollar companies actually take a look at their report and see what's holding the score back. So some people may not realize that they have established a business credit report at all.

And also to zoom out a little bit, how your business actually looks as a entity is important. So when someone pulls your business credit report, you you don't want to be in a position to where your industry codes aren't there.

I spend a lot of time counseling people or coaching people on industry codes because those can vary per bureau depending on what the bureau thinks. They're taking guesses, they're using data that's out there. Like a lot of times business credit information is just not accurate. So you got to take that into your own hands. So making sure that, you know, your address is correct. Imagine if someone pulls, you know, your business credit report or multiple reports or different sources and it says you're at this one

address here. It says you are a painter but you really are a landscaper, right? all of these different inconsistencies that harms you or lowers your approvability with certain application systems. So making sure that people stop to actually focus on the foundational things before we get so excited on I need to add tradelines, I need to add tradelines, I need to get to the money. So you need a plan for the money, you need to have the right profile, and you need to make sure that the tradelines that you have, you actually be able to keep track of them and pay them on time, right? 

The sequence in which you do things is important too. And that's something I really try to get across as a business credit coach.

Catherine Giese (26:25)

So many rich insights there and such a common desire for people to just want the business to kind of stand on its own from a financial perspective. I'm curious, like, I know everyone's path is so different, and you've kind of described how to start building that path.

Nimaj Driscoll (26:37)

Yes.

Catherine Giese (26:44)

But when can people start to expect that their business might start standing on its own, just to give people maybe a more realistic view of what that timeline looks like?

Nimaj Driscoll (26:53)

Yeah. So that's one of those things where it's such a unique thing — it’s case by case. So it's really hard to give blanket rules of thumb. 

But I will say that, strong business financials, right? So your cash flow is consistent. So that's important because oftentimes, you know, there are some loans that are no documentation, there are some loans that actually will verify this, right? So when you have consistent cash flow, I think that's a sign that you're doing good. Being able to have multiple years of tax filings and things, because it really depends on the type of loan that you're going after. 

For example, I have experience doing SBA, worked on the 7(a) and the Community Advantage Loan. Still personally guaranteed you have to submit three years of tax returns and it's people who you know may have a thriving business but maybe don't keep up with their taxes.

So making sure that you have all of your compliance and all of that stuff in order with the business that is growing year over year. So if your business — your top line — is growing, if you are able to grow in profit because your NOI (your net operating income) is important too. So just making sure that those things are doing well, your margins are improving if possible. Then also the amount of debt that you have that you work really good to have low balances or no balances. So being able to show almost that you don't need the money, but you're good with the money that you do use, that you get extended to as a form of credit.

And then, most of the lenders, they have their qualifications and baseline like, you rubric on their website. So it's easy to see, OK, this particular one is $100,000, being in business two years, having a minimum personal credit score of 625 or whatever it may be. So just utilize that information as well. 

I love that about Nav — I really look at it as this education before lending or anything like that. I tell people in between talking to me, “Go to our resource section.” Our resource section has a ton of blogs and articles and things that you can actually take into action to use and put into action immediately. So, you know, never stop learning. So you have to have a commitment to, you know, anything that you want to do right, especially with business credit, being that it's a lot different than consumer credit.

Catherine Giese (29:34)

It sounds like it's really just about having a solid history of good habits and a solid financial foundation, which, yeah, could take you three years. It could take you 10 plus years. So it's really hard to kind of give a timeline. That makes a lot of sense. But the earlier you start, the better, which is good.

Nimaj Driscoll (29:54)

Yeah, the sooner you start the better. Start where you are. Like when I talk to people who just started a business, I'm excited for them. The first thing I tell them is, you know, “Hey, congratulations. You're doing something that's great.” And just make sure that they take the proper steps. Like, do you have a business bank account? You know, a lot of people still use their personal account. 

So if you want to be a business, you want to take the proper steps to legitimize yourself. Having a business bank account. Making sure that you aren't co-mingling your funds. So your personal funds are separate, your business funds are your business funds. 

Have some sort of bookkeeping. So a great thing about Nav is our Cash Flow Tool access that. So you can create a profit and loss statement. You can connect your business operating accounts and things like that to it. And it will tell you, will help actually send you a text message and say, “Hey, you spent this on this date, what category is this?” 

So it gets people involved in a different type of way, in a simple way. And I love what we're doing with that. Just for one, with Nav, know, being, leveraging technology and being a fintech, in addition to this great educational tool and give you, you know, the ability to check, manage and monitor your business credit, it's something that's really not in the marketplace. 

And to have a live person that you can talk to. Because that's a game changer. People like to have a human connection, a human element. And it's only so deep that you can go in the email or you might get an AI response, But having that person that can help you understand different things about business credit or just business in general. So I really look at myself as a business credit coach, but as a business coach because that's what I do outside of Nav. So Nav is really an extension to Driscoll Family Insurance and Wealth Solutions. Everything coaching is my wealth solutions umbrella arm, right? So Nav definitely has been great because it strengthens my work and I get to introduce people to Nav that never knew about Nav in my community. And that's exciting.

Catherine Giese (32:15)

Yeah, and it sounds too like you have your business and the work that you do with Nav is almost like an additional program or an additional revenue stream that kind of feeds into the business. How do you think about that?

Nimaj Driscoll (32:31)

Yeah, that's actually one of the reasons why I decided to do Nav when I made the decision to leave my position as a director for a local community development financial institution, it required some planning. But I made sure that I had something that would not just support or anchor my income, but also be additive to my goal as to be, know, Nimaj as the founder and CEO of Driscoll Family Insurance and Wealth Solutions. 

So it was beautiful because it was right at the right time. You know, I had all of the signs of confirmation from, the community and then it just all came together. So it's really beautiful. So I feel blessed to be in this position. And also I love being able to talk to so many people per day because I learned things from them. yes, I'm a subject matter expert, but the more people you talk to, that's the experience. 

So experience is not always quantified in just years, but what are your experiences? And I have multiple people from all over the place who are doing different things and you learn so much and cool industries and you know, so just having just conversations. I'm really just interested about them, learning about them and what they're doing. And then it just evolves from there. So that's how, you know, the, coaching has just manifested itself.

Catherine Giese (33:56)

Yeah, it sounds like such an exciting time to be building something. Those early years are always so fun. So you've shared a lot of great advice with us, that's normally how we end. So instead of that, I'm going to end on you've shared that building systems has been your biggest challenge. How have you been working through that?

Nimaj Driscoll (34:00)

Yeah, so for one, you need to know what you don't know and what you're not good at, right? So, you I am not the most, I don't wanna say I'm not tech savvy, but you know, I really focus on the deliverance of the product and I would rather use my time there versus figuring out, okay, well, what's the hottest tool or what's the best way for me to optimize and do things so I can stay organized. 

So I think what it is is that, and you mentioned this earlier about balancing working for Nav… and although I view Nav in this extension of my business, it does take a lot of my time and trying to build all of this stuff around, which is also time intensive… is my fiance. She's been a huge part of just making sure that my scheduling tools are together, making sure that I'm optimizing my use and every ability within my calendar or my website, my platform Wix that I use. have a Wix site and all of the functionality there and everything. 

So literally, you know, the family is me and her, right? So I think for one, when you talk about people, that's important, right? So, you know, it's just like, “Hey, I'm taking these calls, I'm doing this, I'm setting up these meetings.” But when you have somebody that can — she’s just so multi-talented — she does graphic design and all type of things, right? So I don't have time to do graphic design and design, all of that stuff, you know, and she's busy. 

She's a business consultant and does a ton of incredible, you know, philanthropic work and things in the community. So it's just like being able to have that has been helpful to me. So my situation is a little bit different, but all in all, the things that you don't do well, outsource them if you can. And you know, yeah, so that's one thing. But yeah, definitely my calendar is a huge tool. And if it's not on my calendar, I don't know where my mind would be.

Catherine Giese (36:27)

Yeah, I love that to end really solid support systems and people who can kind of balance you out are so important. I love that message. Well, thank you so much for joining us and for sharing all of your years and years and years of knowledge about business finances and strategy. I think there's a lot to take away here. So thank you so much.

Nimaj Driscoll (36:48)

No, thank you.