Before We Get It Right
Real moms. Real conversations. A safe corner for the messy middle- where moms can exhale, find connection, and the courage to lead with intuition.
Before We Get It Right
Let's Talk About Money (The Messy Middle of Business Finances)
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In this episode, we’re talking about something every business owner thinks about constantly… but rarely says out loud: money.
Not in a “how to make more” kind of way
but in a real, behind-the-scenes look at what it actually feels like to navigate finances through every phase of building a business.
The no-money phase.
The “why is all my money gone?” phase.
The “are we doing well… or just moving money around?” phase.
And even the phase where things look good on paper—but still feel tight.
We’re sharing honest conversations about:
• Starting a business when you don’t have the money
• The different ways people actually fund their businesses (and the tradeoffs that come with each)
• The emotional side of money that no one prepares you for
• And what it really looks like to figure it out as you go
This isn’t about cutting out lattes or pretending it’s easy.
It’s about understanding the reality of business finances so you can make decisions that actually make sense for you.
If you’ve ever felt confused, stretched, or quietly stressed about money in your business… you’re not alone.
Be sure to like and hit subscribe! We'd love to go deeper with you on SUBSTACK HERE.
You're listening to Before We Get It Right.
SPEAKER_01Real moms, real conversations for the messy middle. I'm Leah and I'm Catherine. And this is a space for honesty, not perfection, before we get it right. You can't ever leave me for a week again. You came home from Florida and I'm a mess.
SPEAKER_00Girl, I felt the same way in Florida. I was like coming back. I'm exhausted. All right, let's do it.
SPEAKER_01We're ready. Let's do it.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so today we're talking about something that I think every business owner is thinking about constantly, but not actually saying out loud.
SPEAKER_01This is like behind the scenes stress that we don't see people posting about or talking about. Exactly. And we are talking about money.
SPEAKER_00Not in a how to make money way, but more of a how are we actually navigating finances through every phase of business kind of way.
SPEAKER_01I mean the no money phase, the wow, why is all of my money gone phase? The wait, are we doing well or are we just moving money around phase? And then the phase where on paper things look great, but it actually still feels pretty tight.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think the biggest thing that stops people from starting is this idea that you actually need a ton of money up front.
SPEAKER_01Totally. It feels like you need this big official funded moment before you can even begin. And in some cases, that is true.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Like I'll talk about.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. And I think, you know, with that being said, like there really are so many different ways people fund their businesses. Like some people are self-funded, some people take out loans, some people bring on investors, some people use platforms like Kickstarter or they do pre-orders. Some people put everything on a credit card and they just figure it out.
SPEAKER_01A lot of those sound stressful. I mean, I they all are stressful in their own way, but none of those are the right way. They're just different ways with different consequences.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Like we are not here to tell you to stop buying coffee and magically fund a business.
SPEAKER_01No, this is not it. Cut out your lattes and you're gonna save at $50,000. That's yeah, not gonna happen. I mean, maybe if that works for you, great, but we're not telling you to do that.
SPEAKER_00No. Classic millennial criticism that we are not bringing into this episode, just a forewarning. This is about understanding how people actually do this and using it to make strategic decisions.
SPEAKER_01And I think just in general, the lessons that we've learned.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So when I started Polish Prints, I had zero capital. So everything I did was made to order. Somebody would place an order online and then I would go make it. So I wasn't buying bulk inventory up front and investing a lot of money up front. It really was just like a pay as you go type of thing, which felt a lot safer to me.
SPEAKER_01And honestly, speaking from experience, it is a very smart way to start if you, especially if you don't have funding.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but it also comes with trade-offs, right? My margins weren't great, my cost per item was higher, and I was doing everything manually. So I mean it did work until it didn't.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yours looked that way. Mine looked really different, especially with Cozy Hearted, because I couldn't sell anything until the product existed and I had it in hand. I actually did do pre-orders, which helped a little bit for that first bulk order of blankets, but that came with stress too, because you give people this date of when they're gonna get this product that they've been waiting forever for. And then remember when I ran into that huge shipping delay? Yes, yeah. Pre-orders, I couldn't even promise, I couldn't even get it to the people who are first-time customers because I'm just starting this business. I couldn't even get it to them on the date that I promised them. And I thought I put in enough wiggle room, but I didn't. Anyways, I had to invest in development first. You know, I had to pay for samples, materials, working with manufacturers. I spent a lot of money right away. And I was trying to think about that minimum order quantity. I want to say it was between it was at least 100 to 150 blankets in each color, and I did two sizes. So, I mean, we're talking between the organic cotton. I had three to four hundred big ones, and then the baby loves as well. And I remember my second bulk order, I had to buy a hundred of each. We did four colors in two sizes, and so my first order, I want to say, gosh, and I could even be downplaying this a little bit, but I want to say it was around twenty thousand dollars. That did not include the branding, the website, packaging materials, just the blankets, like right off the bat. And there were a ton of unexpected shipping duty costs that were a huge surprise to me once they got to America from India that I was not planning for. So I had to like scrape together more personal money um to be able to pay for that. And that's just a whole different story that I could talk about. But for me, when people say like, well, where did you get that money? I'm very honest and upfront. Like, I was very fortunate that my husband gave me a business loan. Like, from when I say his money, it's our money because we're married. But he was on board with giving me $20,000. And I still say, poor Brad, he has not seen a return on investment, but he does have a lot of nice blankets to choose from around our house.
SPEAKER_00Which I can really attest to because it was so funny when I did go visit Catherine, and everywhere you looked, there was another cozy-hearted blanket. I had to make a video about it.
SPEAKER_01We have a lot, but for me, when I was starting, I didn't know what other way to get this business up and running since I needed the product in hand. I had to buy a ton of blankets, and when you're talking organic cotton, custom made blankets, it was just really expensive to make. And so I needed that kind of big wad of cash to start.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And I think that phase for you is kind of where I got several years in, right? Like, but that's because I also one t-shirts are different. You have access to blank t-shirts, a lot of people do. So then if you can print them yourself, and if you're the graphic designer like I was in my case, then you don't have a lot of those upfront costs. But later on, I experienced that same thing. So when you come into a product that you can't necessarily create yourself, you have to put a lot of faith into what you're building. And you it's there is a lot more risk. And I feel like it's so important and I love that you do share that experience transparently because I think from the outside, so many people don't understand how that happens, or they're looking at it like, oh, well, you know, she must have sold so many blankets right up front, or whatever. You know, they may not fully understand. And then those who are trying to get started may stop them from getting started because they don't, again, they don't know how to move in that direction. So I feel like transparency around that is so important. And so for you, I feel like that was such a different kind of pressure because you were spending that money before you have the proof that that's going to be a successful product.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you're trusting that people are gonna want it and that you're just gonna sell them all. So then you get to this point where you have the product or whatever it is that you're selling, and you're like, okay, things are working.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but then suddenly you realize you have no money.
SPEAKER_01None. Because it is all sitting in your inventory. I know what it was like to have all my blanket inventory, but you have a story that I think people can learn a lot from.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So for me, I hit this point where the made to order was actually holding the business back. And even at that point, I wasn't actually doing it all myself. I was outsourcing the printing, but I was ordering the blanks, and there was a lot of logistics and planning and all these things on the back end. And I couldn't scale, I couldn't keep up. And I knew I needed inventory sitting at the same time. I also knew that by creating our own product that was going to level up our brand. So that was also a part of the equation, too. But my problem was like I didn't have the cash to just go and place those orders. So I started looking into different options out there for small businesses. And guys, I went into this completely blind. I had absolutely no idea how people started their businesses. I had no idea that people really take out a lot of loans. Like I really was blind in that. So I actually reached out to the Small Business Development Center and talked to them, and they were able to help me connect with a lender who started showing me what it would look like to take out an SBA loan. So that's a small business administrative loan. Those loans tend to be hard to get, but they do tend to offer like a lower, lower interest rate. And a lot of times you have to work through approved lenders to get it. And I think when people do hear that and think it's like you apply online and get approved, like I said, that's not that's not at all what happens.
SPEAKER_01No, and I don't, you definitely know more about this than I do. Um, because like I said, I asked my husband for a loan and I did not have to go through that whole process of what you did with yours.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I really thank the Small Business Development Center for walking me through that because in order to get to that point, I had to build out a full business plan, which mind you, I had never done before. And this was before Chat GPT, guys. So this was not like uh you go in and do this, right? This was like I actually had to write it and figure it out. And at the time I was literally still shipping orders out of my garage. But now I'm writing this comprehensive plan about projections and growth and operations, which that really just feels insane when you are at that stage that you were in.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely insane. And it shows how far you've come.
SPEAKER_00Yes, exactly, exactly. And so after we wrote all that, we that was when we got connected with the lender. And my husband and I worked with him for about six months. So that was six months of paperwork, meetings, questions. And I mean, everything comes up in that. It really is like reliving all this trauma in your life, is kind of how I felt it. Because like every financial detail, every mistake, everything all comes up, like all the way down to the time when my husband didn't return our MediaCom router, and it showed up on our records as like a because it was under my name. So it was this big hit in my credit, like historically. Oh my gosh, stop.
SPEAKER_01I didn't even know that was a thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, nope, not kidding. They go through everything, yeah. So one, make sure to return your routers, guys, if you are buying them from your your provider. But yeah, that was a huge hit in our credit checks. And when they go everything, go through everything, it's because they want your full financial story. And I think that is why a lot of people don't go down that route because it is intense. But for me, it kind of was the only way to move forward. And the craziest part was that the loan got approved literally a week before I had to pay for my inventory. Because mind you, I'm over here planning, like, I'm okay, I'm gonna get this. Like, I just was going into it a little delusional. I'm like working, I'm developing all the product and getting ready to order. And I literally have to pay. Luckily, it got approved. So the timing couldn't have been tighter, but also it worked out. But here's the other side of that. When you take on a loan like that, you're not just getting money, you're taking on responsibility. There's collateral involved. Like if I don't make my payments, I could lose personal assets. My car at one point, our house was part of our collateral before we built up enough inventory. So it does change the way you think because the risk feels a lot greater. It doesn't just impact you. A lot of times, it impacts your your family, your personal life.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, you can't really go into it saying, oh, let's just try this. I mean, it has to work, which I also think is what has caused also a lot of stress, too.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And I do think this is the point where it's really important to talk about that stress and the messy middle of it all, because even when you feel like you're doing everything right, things can still go wrong. So during COVID, I placed the biggest order I had ever done before. And it got stuck in customs for six months.
SPEAKER_01Also, well, one, six months is wild, but also people need to know that the longer your stuff sits in customs, that doesn't just sit there for free. No, no, you pay for that. It racks up a bill the time that it sits there. And for you, it was out of your control why it was even sitting there in the first place.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. I've touched on this before about partnership gone wrong in the past that ended up with them not being accountable for it. And this was all wrapped up into that. So completely out of my control. Six months of having all this money tied up, no new inventory to sell, inventory had promised to a lot of customers that they weren't getting. Not there wasn't a way to generate revenue in the way that I needed. It was a huge financial wall. And then when it finally arrived, not only was it out of season, but trends had also shifted. So now that was in 2021, five years later, I still have some of that inventory that we are sitting on. And honestly, like that's the part that people don't plan for. You can be strategic, you can do the research, you can also have to build in space for things going wrong, but you also have to build in space for things going wrong because at the end of the day, they will.
SPEAKER_01You know, you can have all the product strategy in the world. I think, too, what you couldn't account for is other people. And that's like when you have these partnerships with other people, like you didn't know how to do what you were doing on your own yet. And so when you trust someone else that they're going to do what they say they're gonna do, and you're paying for that, and then it doesn't go that way, like there's so much out of your control. So, you know, product strategy does matter too. And but also there's so much out of your control that you can't really plan for.
SPEAKER_00Definitely. And I think that also could be a whole other episode about being more strategic and partnerships and contracts and making sure some of those things are outlined super clearly. But there are so many little things, especially when you are new and you are relying on other people and trusting other people, that you know, just to be a little bit more aware of.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think we could definitely do a whole episode on that. Oh my gosh, Leah. No, I know all the eagle shut the fuck us flew by my oh, and I'm recording this on my phone, just flew by my window in my closet in front of my house. Wild. Haven't seen it since you were here at my house in November. Oh my gosh. Okay, I'm so distracted.
SPEAKER_00I thought you were just gonna say it was a hop.
SPEAKER_01For anyone that doesn't know what we're talking about, go listen to our signs episode. Is this really absolutely crazy? All right, back to talking about product strategy, which is not as fun as bald eagles, but here we go. If not, just kidding. Okay, I so I feel like when it comes to product strategy, like I talked about with my blankets, where I'm ordering like 800 of them at one time. It was a lot, they were so expensive to produce, overhead costs were high, and I quickly realized my profit margins were never gonna be what I needed them to be. So, whatever my product strategy was, I'm not really sure what it was at that time, but I've definitely learned a lot, especially when you're doing organic cotton, shipping, the blankets are bigger, packaging. I put so much time and effort and money into making everything so pretty and custom. Like my boxes were beautiful, love them, but it was never gonna be what I needed to cover that and then make enough to be able to buy more. Something I don't think we've really talked about, and I don't even know. Maybe you have it in the show notes somewhere, but talking about when you are even thinking about pricing your product, right? We could probably have a whole episode on that, but just very short. What I would need to charge for my blanket to even come close to any type of margin would be $160 for one of my big organic cotton blankets. And that's a lot. Like I wouldn't even pay for that. So I could never expect other people to do that too, especially when I'm trying to donate some of the profits as well. Lessons learned there for me, I really took that moving forward when I started Memle and the Cozy Carry. I was like, I need a product. Not only did I run into the problem with carrying the car seat, but I wanted a product that was smaller, more lightweight, shipping costs are less, production costs are less. Like I really took all of that, my mistakes from the blankets into product strategy for my second business that I started. Okay, quick pause because I have something to share that I genuinely wish I had way sooner as a mom. If you've ever carried your baby in a car seat and felt that immediate arm pain, like the digging, the red marks, the why is this so heavy feeling, this is exactly why I created the Cozy Carry. It's a cushion handle that wraps around your car seat and actually makes it comfortable to carry. Not just slightly better, like actually better. It redistributes the weight and pressure, it doesn't slip, and it works no matter how you carry it because everyone does carry their car seat differently. I made this because I was so over that constant strain on my arm, and it's quickly become one of those why didn't this exist sooner products? If you're in that stage of motherhood or know someone who is, trust me, this is a game changer. You can check it out at memlemoms.com, M-E-M-L-E-M-O-M-S dot com. But mostly I just wanted you to know it exists because yeah, we don't need to suffer through that anymore. And I think that's really what you can do. I mean, you learned a lot of lessons from your situations, and we can look at them as mistakes, but we can also take that knowledge moving forward because we have both learned so much. So yeah, just doing things differently, and I'm still actually selling my remaining cozy hearted inventory, but luckily selling that has been enough for me to fund my first and second bulk of the cozy carries. So that has been helpful when it comes to inventory and you know, taking that into account.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And for me, I already had demand when I started ordering inventory. I had customers, I had proof, which I didn't. Yeah, you had none of that. Like you really went in double. Yeah, you it's total baseline scratch, which I think actually is probably one of the more I bet that happens more frequently than my situation. You know, like I think people probably are gonna be able to relate to you in that because you're gonna have an idea, you want to bring it to life, you're hoping that people are gonna love it, but at the same time, you are putting a lot of faith into your idea and what you think, you know, needs to happen. I think we all learn a lot of lessons from that. But I wasn't guessing what would sell. I was trying to amplify what was already working, get better consistency, better colors, better margins. And even with that, there's still risk.
SPEAKER_01I think this is where it's helpful to really zoom out again and look at funding because everyone really is doing it differently. Totally.
SPEAKER_00Like some people are fully self-funded, some people take on investors, which I think has become more and more popular, especially publicly taking on investors, especially in the rise of social media and startup culture. Some people use credit, some people do loans like the SBA loan that I did. But all of those things, they do come with different pressures.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, investors, you're going to give up equity and control. I actually just started reading, I think I told you everyone, I'm reading a new book. It's called The Bootstrap Empire. I'm pretty sure that's what it's called. And it's from one of the co-founders of Bala, the weights, Bala like ankle weights, but they do more than that. And she really talks a lot about this. And they bootstrapped their whole business, and it's like uh over worth over, I think, hundred millions of dollars. And really, she tells stories of people that she knows that really did take on investors, probably a little bit too early. And just all the different ways that people do funding. Obviously, she would recommend bootstrapping, but not everyone can do that. And so it's just been a very interesting book of all the different ways that you actually can do that.
SPEAKER_00Not to dive too deep into the investor side, but I think that that's kind of common, right? Like you see companies that do bring on a lot of investors and the culture changes, the nature of the company changes, because a lot of times when you bring on investors, they're not doing it from this philanthropic standpoint. Of, oh, we just want this to support this great small brand. Like, I'm sure that does happen, but I think a lot of times they're like, I want to make money. Are you going to this what it's all about? That's the point. And so they're setting different expectations. And we found that with the partner that we had worked with. That company really did change when they brought on multi-million dollar investors who clearly had different expectations for the way that they were running. And when you see companies like that, they scale really fast a lot of times. There are so many bumps in the road. And it really shifts, I think, a lot of businesses away from their from their original values.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, I just I was reading a story in that book of a woman who got pushed out of her own business. I think that happened started. And I it does happen a lot. The only investors I'm taking on are the sharks on Shark Tank someday. Well, and Brad. And Brad. Yes. Well, yes, he he's invested, whether he wants to be or not.
SPEAKER_00Outside of investors, there's also credit, right? So people will start their businesses on that, which obviously means carrying personal risk. And I do think for that, not to give advice at all, I'm not in any way qualified to give people advice or tell them what to do. But what I'm saying is that if you have a company that the startup capital isn't very much, like it's a small amount and you can potentially see a return pretty quickly. You have good margins. You're like, I know I can sell. So you're starting off with hats and you have to buy these hats. You're buying these hats at $5 a piece. You're selling these hats for $32 a piece. You know, in order to make back what you put in, you just have to sell a hundred hats. I think taking out a credit like credit in that way is really smart because you can get 0% APR cards for 12 months, be able to flip that and then keep doing it to be able to build up enough reserve to fund yourself. So those I think are good options for smaller ventures. It's when you start getting into like, I mean, huge, huge amounts of money and you are still so early on, it can be that's a little bit different.
SPEAKER_01When you start taking out loans, that means repayment, which usually comes with timelines and like you said, and how your stuff is tied as collateral to like personal assets.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And the timeline of that is really challenging. I mean, just to shed a little bit of light too on our personal situation or I guess professional situation, what have you, is all the issues that I mentioned before. Like we haven't even come close to bouncing back from that. Our business has been in a lot of debt because of those things. And it's made it really challenging to be able to operate and move forward without feeling paralyzed for it. So I feel like this topic in general is something I feel really passionate about because one, I look back and see there are a lot of things we've done, we could have done differently. But two, you also see that the overall system can be a little bit flawed and that you see that sometimes things happen that are beyond your control and you can bounce back, you can learn, you can do things differently. But climbing out of that can also be really hard.
SPEAKER_01We're in it, right? The messy, the messy middle of it. And I think even for you though, there was a period of time where I mean, you didn't really even talk to me about it. Like you held that stress in because again, it was so paralyzing. And there's like this shame and guilt that comes with that kind of stuff. But didn't you feel a little bit better about the situation when you did open up and like were able to talk about it a little bit more? Because you don't feel so alone in it.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And I think you start to realize one, how frequently this happens. This happens a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot. Because people do need capital to be able to get their businesses off the ground. And I think, especially when you take that on really early or have situations happen like what happened to us, you can spiral out of control really quickly. But I think for me, it made me feel like I was failing. Like the fact that I had gotten into this position meant I 100% it was my fault. I did something wrong, I made poor decisions, I did this, I did that. But then when you take a second to step back and look at it, that's not really what happened. And I think, you know, we've talked about signs, we've talked about kismet, we've talked about believing that there's a bigger plan or a purpose. Once I came to accept that this was the situation, I feel like I've been leaning more into sharing it because I think one, you start to see that it's not actually as scary as you think it is, that you can still move on, like with being in that, but at the same time, you you kind of get a clear picture on how to get out of it too.
SPEAKER_01You sound much better talking about it.
SPEAKER_00I think I've just accepted it. You're handling it. I am. I do, I will say too, I shared this with Catherine, but there was this company that I follow online and I used to shop from them so much. I even pitched them years ago to have PP in their on their website. It was just online based. And this um website was huge. She was making so much money. They were working with all these big brands, these huge influencers, and then they just like went away. And I hadn't really thought about it until they popped up on my Instagram last year. And it was the founder talking about it, and I guess they went under and she lost her home. She like got divorced. She, her, I mean, multi-million dollar company went into so much debt, was living in her brother's basement as a single mom with two kids, and was trying to rebuild what she had previously to get out of like her situation, but being really transparent along the way. And for me, when I looked at that and I saw where she was, and I was like, she's literally ended up in what I have always considered to be my worst case scenario, my biggest fear. And she's surviving and she's doing okay. So I think you start to realize that we've created these ideas of what these look like in our head. I'm not saying go out there and get a bunch of debt and just be crazy, but what I am saying is that you have to evaluate the risk of each situation. Might not be as bad as it seems. Exactly. Okay, quick pause. So if you're in your throw it on and go era, polished prints is for you. These are pieces that actually meet you in your real everyday life. No overthinking, just wear it and feel like yourself. You can shop everything at polished-prints.com. That's P-O-L-I-S-H-E-D-P-R-I-N-T-S dot com. All right, let's get back to it. So I also think something people don't talk about enough is where your money is actually going, like taxes. That alone can take a lot of people out. Yeah, one of the first places that I invested was in a CPA because I knew I didn't understand it well enough to manage it myself. And beyond that, there are fractional CFOs, financial advisors, people who can help you actually understand your numbers because there are so many places you can lose money without even realizing it. Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_01I shout out to my accountant. He's great. I mean, right now for me, I do like all the financial stuff myself because I I see everything that comes in and out, and then you know, give him my stuff at the end of the year. But, you know, as you grow and scale, you have to look at where where I should be outsourcing. We could have a whole nother episode on outsourcing too. Absolutely. I feel like we could have while I'm in the midst of my mental breakdown over here, where Leah's gonna have a meeting with me and bring me back down to life, which we might actually record for you guys. And Substack share. Yeah. Expect when you get so yeah, we could do that on Substack when you get so overwhelmed and uh trying to look at what you could outsource. But yeah, I think an accountant when you can do that is a great option.
SPEAKER_00Definitely. Because you know, we've talked a lot about different selling platforms, things like Fair, like money hides in weird places. So even something like wholesale has hidden costs that you may not anticipate. So while FAIR, for example, is an amazing platform, you also need to understand their fees, their payout timing, how it affects their cash flow. Because even though when you see things selling on there really well, that money may not come to you for weeks and weeks. So you can't really count on it. So it's all these moving parts and seeing them and being able to either hire somebody if you don't have those skills yourself, or you know, taking that on and recognizing that those are all things you need to pay attention to.
SPEAKER_01I think even just talking about wholesale in general, because when you're figuring out your pricing, like I was talking about, when I saw the blanket on fair for wholesale, I lost money between what I had to sell it for, the fees, the processing, all of that, I lost money selling. But you always told me from day one that wholesale is a great option because it you move a lot more product. You can move a lot more, but again, if your margins aren't there, you might lose money. So that might be where your money is going too. Definitely.
SPEAKER_00And I think when we when you first started making the blankets, that was a big topic of conversation, is like you want to make sure and be able to price them to be able to wholesale, especially when you have to buy in bulk and you're not in a place where you can invest all this money into marketing. Because in order to build a good direct to consumer brand right now, you have to put money into marketing. It is not organic reach anymore. And that also could be a whole other conversation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, something we definitely need to talk about because I need marketing and something I took forward with the cozy carry from Emle when figuring out my pricing. The another thing I need to talk to you about too. Yeah. People uh I get my brain dump list right over here that we're gonna go through. So much. But I really think okay, when it comes to financials, one of the biggest misconceptions is that there is this point where you just feel financially good. Oh, yeah, it's like you arrive. And it's not that simple. I mean, what you're you've been in this for what, how many years? I there's no timeline on that, and I don't think it's something you ever actually arrive at, especially if you keep scaling.
SPEAKER_00No, because revenue doesn't equal profit. And that's something that I really realized this year, as all pricing has changed. Anyone who's in any type of product-based business will tell you every single thing has gotten more expensive. I mean, we all know it as people. You go right now, gas is over $4 a gallon, $4.30 here. I don't know what it's like where you live, but it is fucking the high threes. Yeah. So it's very expensive, and that impacts everything. So I think you're seeing costs increase across the board. You have to increase your pricing, and like that's something we did pretty recently is just changing everything to make sure we're accounting for all these hidden fees that maybe didn't exist five years ago. Because profit doesn't equal cash in your account. You can be doing the best you've ever done, and even at that point, you can still feel tight. Okay, so if someone is listening to this, they may be feeling a little overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_01We did go through a lot and we went down some rabbit holes, but thanks for sticking with us. There's just, I feel like so many things we could talk about when it comes to finances.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. And I think the relationship that we all have with money can be so complicated for everybody, both professionally and personally. So I think the more we talk about it, the more we normalize these conversations, the more honest we become, the easier it feels. So here's everybody's favorite part of every episode are tangible takeaways. So what are things that you actually need to think about?
SPEAKER_01First, like we've mentioned, just know that there is not one right way to fund your business.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Remember that woman I mentioned who had restarted her business and I found her on Instagram and she gave me a little closure after having to shut down and go through bankruptcy. She's doing a Kickstarter too, as part of her new venture getting restarted. So that is another way. You know, that's something that I don't think a lot of people even talk about. There are so many different paths you can take. And the biggest thing is that you need to understand the trade-offs of whatever path you choose.
SPEAKER_01And you need to understand your cash flow, not just your sales, which I learned the hard way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And if you're dealing with inventory, really think about timing, trends, and risk. Also get help when you need it and where you need it. Yes, CPA, financial support, whatever that looks like, because guessing can be very expensive.
SPEAKER_01Which I have also learned. And give yourself margin for things to go wrong because they will, especially when it comes to timing. We were talking with a woman who is starting her own business. And I know we've both kind of have talked to her about different areas and given some advice. And I did my number one thing I told her is whenever you think you're gonna launch your business, add at least like six months to that because there will be delays with samples, there will be delays with shipping, there's just going to be delays. And when you go into it, like I went into it with the cozy carry. Once I hit those delays, I didn't even cry because I was already expecting them. Can you hear Brad talking? He's talking so loud. I can't.
SPEAKER_00I think the biggest thing is if you're in the messy middle, just know that you're not doing it wrong. You're just in it, just like us. Yeah, most people are in it with you. They may just not be saying it out loud. So, one thing that I challenge everyone to do the next week is if there is something that you're struggling with, maybe find somebody who you've seen online, who you know in your life, who you feel like could be a safe space. Maybe just ask to pick their brain a little bit. I think people are moving back into a way where they're more open to sharing and helping and being there for one another. And you never know, you might find exactly what you're looking for.
SPEAKER_01And if this episode resonated, or if you know someone that talks to you about their business, send it to another business owner who might need to hear all of this. Yeah, and we'll see you next time, right in the middle of it. Dun dun dun.