Listen to this if you want to be wealthy business owners.

Hey guys, so I just paid a tax bill and looking at those numbers in the past I probably would’ve wanted to throw up in my mouth a little bit.

 
But I’ve done a couple of really clever things from both a strategy and a systems perspective that have completely changed the way I look at money now.

I thought I’d record this episode because I know a lot of you are heading into business expense season, and honestly even if you’re not, it’s so useful to hear how other entrepreneurs actually deal with their money stuff behind the scenes.

Enjoy this one guys, and I’m so thrilled to have a new sponsor on board, truly such a dream company

👉 Sign up with pay.com.au using code FLOW10.

👉 DM me on Instagram 

Transcript

Guys, I have just paid the chunkiest amount of money to the tax office, and here we are now. We're about mid-May, heading into June. Now, June, for a lot of Aussie businesses, is end of financial year. So, we have an Australian business. We have a US-based business. With our Aussie business, most of our payments are really looked after by the end of May, by early June. I really hate smashing everything into the last week of June. I think because I came from the accounting world. It's never fun rushing our accountants and our bookkeepers and all the people that are looking after our financial sovereignty. I wanna make sure that I'm giving them as much runway as possible. So it's... Yeah, it's, it's interesting. I wanted to jump on the mic with this energy because, you know, I've been doing this for eight years. It's nothing new. There's always deadlines. There's always tax invoices to pay, and typically, you know, end of year, we're consolidating a lot of what are the big chunky costs so that we can get everything through for certain tax reasons and see what we can claim and see where we can, you know, pop in different line items and things like that. So, I wanted to, yeah, jump on. We do need an episode on this because so many of us are business owners, and we're... I know we're manifesting big income chunks and revenue coming in. We're manifesting million-dollar years. So, this is the other side. This is the straddling both sides of energy and, you know, calling in all of the big, big, beautiful money manifestations, but then also, you know, being a grown-up and knowing that there's a real part to running a business and having one foot on the ground, at least just, you know, during times of the year where it's really needed to make sovereign, clear financial decisions. Now, I wanna start with the fact that I used to really avoid looking at my business banking accounts, and I wanna talk about why that is, and I know a lot of you are gonna be able to relate to this. The craziest part, like I mentioned earlier, is that I actually came from the financial services industry. Like, this was my entire world. Had my diploma in financial advice. I worked on the financial advice team for some of Australia's biggest banks. I was also an accountant, so I did my undergrad in business and commerce, and then I came out, you know, doing some accounting studies. So, I worked with some of the largest retirement savings funds in the country. So, it's not like I had never seen a spreadsheet before or large money or big budgets. In fact, I managed budgets for my team as well, hiring and firing, and, like, the expenses of the department. So, it's not like numbers had really scared me. I was the woman other people called when they were panicking about their budgets, and I just knew what I was doing. And then it came to my money, and something switched because nobody prepares you, nobody tells you how different it is running your own financials for your own business. It's so easy to be calm and strategic and clear-headed when the numbers belong to a company or somebody else. Uh, even if it's for my clients, I can look at your P&L and go, "Oh, well, that's obviously where you're leaking a ton of funds." But when it's just figures rolling inside of a bank account that is yours, it's so hard to be clever about it. But where I really found it quite challenging is it's so hard to not emotionally charge that number. You know, like make it mean a certain thing, or fuse it with fear, or have certain, you know, uh, I don't know, like limitations come up around where you wanna get to. Like those numbers suddenly, when it's your business, they become yours, and the second your name is on the account and your livelihood is the thing those numbers represent, it obviously gets emotional and it gets really personal. And I think a lot of women in business are quietly experiencing exactly that, and feeling quite honestly stupid about it or, you know, they just don't feel confident about it because they think that they should know better. And I just wanna say like you do know better. Y- you haven't decided to start a business not knowing that you have financials to look after, right? Like, there's no way. So there's a part of you that has already decided that you're gonna be capable of making sales, and you're gonna be capable of earning your money, and you're gonna be capable of managing your money. But somehow, like when you get into the seat of let's look at where these finances are going, it's just, it starts to get confusing. And it's just that knowledge, right? Like that, where do you even begin? How do you... You can't even really think about how to be smart and savvy. Right now you're just like, "I just hope I don't fuck it up," to be honest, right? Like, that's really where it sat with me. And oh gosh, like I will tell you in a second exactly what I've done about it, the systems that I've built, and the habits that m- both Michael and I, because we run the business together, like what we do weekly, the thing that changed really for us this year, and how we look at everything around tax and expenses. But first I wanna tell you about who has made this episode so possible, and I'm squealing because oh my gosh, like we have a sponsor. Ah! Oh, I feel so grown up. The podcast is growing up. We have a sponsor for this episode. And, oh, it just honestly blows my mind, and I can't wait. So let me tell you all about today's sponsor. This episode is brought to you by pay.com.au. It is so relevant to the conversation we are having around financial habits. Pay.com.au is a business payments platform, and what it does is it lets me pay all of my business expenses, including subscriptions, invoices, insurances, tax, even international payments as well. You just can't use your Amex, so just always check your terms and conditions. But with so many payments coming up with the end of financial year, this is the perfect timing to talk about this platform. And basically, what I get to do is that I earn my full credit card points, plus optional pay rewards points on top of every single dollar and expenses that I spend. They are partnered with 16 plus travel partners, all ones that we know and love, including Qantas, Virgin Australia, Cafe, and more. You are going to actually enjoy paying the bills, right? Because you're paying them anyway, you may as well earn points on top of every payment. It really seems like such a no-brainer to me. Like I mentioned earlier, with end of financial year being June 30 for a lot of Australians, I'm being really intentional right now about running as much business spend as I can through pay.com.au before the financial year closes. Those points are going to fund something that I'm very excited about. I'll share more on that very soon. But I wanna say massive thank you to the pay.com.au team because they have given us an exclusive deal. My link is just for my community. It's so wild to see pay.com.au logo alongside Flow State Business. The link is in the show notes. Basically, when you sign up and you use the code FLOW10, you can earn up to 10,000 pay reward points when you process $10,000 or more within your first 30 days. Now, don't balk at that because I know a lot of you are gonna have massive expenses coming up during year-end. You're not gonna find this through a regular search. It is the pay.com.au/flowstatebusiness site only that you get this deal, and I'm gonna put this in the description. But for now, let's head back to the episode. Okay, let me take you back. When I started my business in 2018, I was ready to put my all into it. You know, I didn't wanna go back and work for a corporate. I really, really wanted to see if I had a chance to be an entrepreneur and a business owner. And this was like during the times of coaching was still very new and, you know, it was just a very strange online environment to be in. Nothing prepared me for the fact that I would be making my first $100,000 in the first 100 days of my business, and then I went on to make my first million dollars just shy of 18 months. No one prepares you around how to manage financials at that level. But even if I didn't have those numbers and that social proof to talk about, no one actually prepares you At the start anyway, with what to do with your first sales. Now, obviously now I really love talking about low ticket. So even if you are selling something at $7 or $27, I wanna talk about some clear financial habits that you absolutely, line in the sand, need to put into place when you are making sales. Because if you don't, honestly, you will feel so panicked during whenever your tax season is, and it's not a good feeling. But because when I started, right, I... Like, and I know I'm not, I'm not the only one. I've had so many conversations with so many women in my world who run really beautiful, successful businesses, and they quietly have no idea what is actually happening inside of their finances. I would 100% recommend, if that's you, please hire somebody who can help you with this. And I'm not talking about your general accounting partner who does your personal taxes. Please don't... We have these like, um, we have these companies that kind of sit around shopping centers here in Australia, like H&R Block and things. Look, I'm not having a go at them, but please, if you can, if you wanna go with those guys, find someone who can actually deal with business finances. That's what's gonna really set you apart in the long run when you're scaling out your company. Personal finances are completely different to business and entrepreneurship taxes and financial structures, so don't try and do this on your own. I promise you this is gonna be one of the best, like fees that you put aside when you actually get your finances correct with the right people on your team. They know the top line, right? They are going to really help you take your revenue a lot further. That's really what I want you to do the most. No matter what country you're listening from, it's so important to have this in play, have this person in your team. I've had a lot of my clients, and they are the ones that are, like making a lot of sales. They're posting the screenshots and, you know, they're talking about big revenue numbers. But quite literally behind the scenes, when I'm having a one-to-one chat and I ask them, "Hey, what did you spend last month?" Because, you know, they're inevitably complaining about not having enough money. And I'll say, "What did you spend on last month?" And they're talking about groceries and they're talking about their personal hair appointments. I'm like, "No, girlfriend. I mean, like, what did you spend on in your business? And what is in your auto-renew, and what is your profit and loss? And what is your general, you know, revenue incomings and how are you looking at profitability?" I would honestly say that 80% of my clients don't know their numbers. Like, at, at least not even... They don't even know where to access it. And if that's you, I'm not saying this to call you out, although maybe kind of sort of like, let's do something about it. And honestly, like I'll say to those clients, "Hey-" You don't know your numbers, and that's not because, 'cause this is their words, not mine, they'll say, "Oh, I just feel so dumb around it." I'm like, "You're not dumb around it. It's because you're not actually giving it a shot to even look at it. It's because looking at it feels confronting in a way that other parts of your business don't." So I wanna be really honest with you today because you're sitting right at the end of the financial year, at least if you're here in Australia, and, you know, I've been doing my reflection and the difference between the end of financial year for us, like, in the early days versus end of financial year almost eight years or past eight years of business, and genuinely just feeling so good about end of financial year now. Like, we're all ... It's not a shocker, and it's no panic, and even though a big chunky amount of money leaves our accounts, like, it's, it's a staggering difference. And it's not because I made more money. I mean, yes, I have over the years, but that's not the part that I wanna talk about today. The part that I wanna talk about is the thing underneath that, which is that, you know, I and Michael, both of us, finally built really great financial habits around money that match the size of the business that we're currently running, and it has changed so much. So now I want it to be fair, right? Like, because the past me, we did have some systems. Like, Michael and I came both from corporate. We had been raised, so-called, inside of corporate budgets, and there's these habits that you form. Those of you that are in corporate and you've had credit cards or payments or, you know, like your accounts team are chasing you for certain things. Like, I was in sales, so I was always asked for my receipts and things like that, and then eventually they just got you to code yourself. Like, you know, put the right financial codes in and things like that. And we had to, like, track every single dollar. Like, these are the kind of habits that were ingrained in us. So, like, you know, to the point where I would take clients out for a really bougie dinner, and we would be drinking too much, and then at 11 o'clock at night when I'm in the cab home, I'm uploading my receipt to the Xero account, putting the, you know, the actual account numbers in and allocating it to the right line item in my budget. Like, that's how habitual it was. So I wanna be really clear that it wasn't like, you know, I didn't know what to do from the beginning of my business. I- I definitely already had those habits in place, but here is what the thing is that I get really, um, scared about, and this circles back around feeling as though sometimes because it's my numbers and not somebody else's numbers, that I'll do it later. Like, I'll deal with that later. You know that energy of almost avoidance of, ugh, this is just so low vibe. I've just made sales, and I don't wanna have to deal with my money. And yes, I need this, and I need this, and I'm gonna buy this, a new iPad. I need new subscriptions. And, you know, what would happen in the early days is that it would catch up with me, and I didn't know where the receipts were, and it just was so, so stressful. So, you know, I really want to just be clear with you around the fact that- I get it, and I know, like, sometimes it's hard to look at these things, but you need a system. And the system, I feel for me, is what has helped me not just make more sales, but it's made my money go a lot further. It's made my profitability go a lot further, and that's a very different conversation to have because it's not about being silly with money or being reckless with money. Like, I'm not reckless with money. I, I do not have that in me. But I guess I was just running a much bigger business on a much smaller system and infrastructure, and like, I think back to certain financial moves that we made that I'm like, "Oh, we could've been so much smarter with that. We could've allocated that differently. We could've talked to that differently with the accountants. We could've waited a little bit." Like, timing is everything when you, you know, are dealing with tax and the strategies around it. So everywhere, like, things were leaking, and kind of everyday things too. You know, subscriptions were the worst for me because I'm someone who signs up for yearly subscriptions. I don't do month on month. Like, I like the chunky, the yearly, I'm in, I don't need to think about it, and obviously yearly is always cheaper, right? And at the time, I thought I was being really smart, and then the year would roll around, and out of nowhere like, bam, I'd be hit with a $400 charge for a tool that I used twice in 12 months. I know some of you have experienced that. It's so annoying. And I would feel that little flash of shame and, you know, I would cancel it, and I'd ask for the refund from that company, and some of them would give it to you, some of them wouldn't. But you know, it, it's all these things where habitually where are you leaking money? And then, you know, like I would do it again, and it would be a habit. It would be a different tool, same story, different year, same charge. And it'd be appearing out of nowhere, reminding me that I had not actually looked closely enough when I signed up. And then, you know, bring tax into it because this one genuinely used to make me feel really sick. Like, I said that we had a system, but the system was not scaled for the kind of revenue that was suddenly flowing through the business. We also didn't really have the right accounting team in place, so money was coming in faster than I knew how to allocate it. And then BAS time, which is business taxes time, would roll around, and I would be staring at a bill that was so much bigger than I had mentally prepared for, and every single time th- this would kind of happen again and again. And you know, when I say that again and again, it was like the first year Michael and I were finding our feet. I did have visibility, but not the kind of visibility a business this size probably really needed. And when your visibility doesn't match the size of your business, you can't make good financial decisions inside it. You can only react to it, and reacting is so exhausting 'cause it's usually a cry or you feel frustrated and you're emotionally charged, and then you take it out on somebody else. And, you know, reacting is honestly what burns a lot of entrepreneurs out in business. It's not the actual money itself, it's how you've chosen to create habits around it that protect your energy. So, you know, the end of quarter was when it would all catch up with me. Like, my accountant would ask for things, and I'd be scrambling through inboxes trying to find receipts. I'd be double-checking categories at 11 o'clock at night because the categorization I had been doing was not granular enough for a business at this stage. And every time I did it, I swear it would be the last time, and then, yeah, pattern again. So one day I genuinely... Like, I cannot tell you the exact moment because it was more of like this slow build than a lightning strike, but I just decided that I was done with it. Like, I was done with avoidance, I was done with the panic, I was done with running a multiple six-figure business on infrastructure that I had built when I thought, like, I was happy enough to make $50 a day, like, quite honestly. And the thing that actually shifted everything for me was deciding to just stop treating my expenses and my obligations as this annoying, painful thing that I had to deal with, and actually start treating it like a strategic move, like an actual part of my business that deserved attention, as much as I spent an hour and a half crafting an Instagram post type of attention. And that intention started to change the way that I really looked at wealth and I really looked at looking after my financial integrity. Because, you know, when I realized that, like money goes out of my business every single month no matter what. Uh, that's not an option. Tax is gonna happen. We need subscriptions. I need my Canva subscription. I need my Zoom subscription. Things like that. You know, I pay my assistant. The question is not whether any of this is gonna happen, the question is whether I'm going to meet it consciously or unconsciously, and whether the systems I have are actually supporting the big enough business that I'm actually running. Like, I've told this story before. When we finally switched accountants, I told the new accountant, uh, which is not the one I have now, I had another one for many, many years when I was living in Melbourne. And I said to him, "You know, I'm gonna make a million dollars this year." Now, at the time I had only made 30 grand, and he kind of like was like, "Ha ha ha. Yeah. Okay, Ruby." I'm like, "No, seriously. I'm gonna make a million dollars this year, so I need to make sure that you guys are prepared for that, and if you've got enough people on your team to manage that." He goes, "Yep, yep. We'll be all right. We'll be fine." That's the kind of decision. Like, I wanted systems that were big enough for the business that I was building. None of this like, "Oh, scrap it together at the end of the year." You're not acting as if. You're not choosing to believe that your business is going to get that big. So I rebuilt the whole thing from the ground up, like, and, and especially looking at my habits. So I wanna talk about what those habits are. The first one is, and this was actually a game changer, every single sale that comes in, we now put between 15 and 20% of it straight away into a separate account for tax. Every sale. I'm not talking about every month, I'm talking about every sale. And that's gonna be different depending on your tax, you know, um, brackets and then wherever you are in the world, but I just wanted to share with you what that looked like. And it's, it really has changed for us, and I wanna tell you what that's done because it's so simple and so basic, but the impact has been wild. So we are now sitting with so much money set aside for tax that our obligations are fully covered for the whole year. I do not even flinch when a tax statement comes around anymore because that money is already there, and honestly, it was never really mine to spend in the first place. Please get that in your head, business owners. That tax money is never, ever yours to spend in the first place. It's temporarily in your account on its way to where it was always going to go, paying taxes. And the peace that that has brought me is something that I cannot even put a price on, okay? So please just think about that truly. The second habit is that every Monday, um, me and Mike, we sit down and we do our bookkeeping. Well, mostly it's Michael, to be honest, but if I haven't done something or allocated it right, he's just double-checking receipts and expenses that I get to my emails and things like that. So every single Monday. It's Monday now. Guess what he's doing? Bookkeeping. So, you know, we know exactly what is coming in and what is going out before the week even starts, so there's no surprises. Now, you may choose to outsource your bookkeeping, so again, I wanna bring that back into play. We like in-housing it because we come from that background. We're good with money. We, we understand it. Um, we also like to see our expenses. I just... Yeah, I, I don't wanna not know until the end of the month, and that weekly rhythm has made our business feel like an actual business at the size that it is, not a business pretending to know what their numbers are, okay? The third habit is that we pay off our credit card every single month. So we love using our credit card all the time. Again, for pay.com.au and the reward points we get with our credit cards and then the reward points we get through pay.com.au, it just makes sense, but we always pay it down so there's never any interest. We just basically use it for the points. So there's no carrying balances over, there's no interest. Whatever went out and whatever goes on it comes off it, and it's a fresh start. You know what I mean? So the second you start carrying balances on a business credit card, the points game stops working in your favor, truly. The minute you start paying interest, credit card points mean jack all, truly. Okay? So please remember that. Um, obviously not financial advice, but I just realized from my accounts that that's just what has made sense. You do the calculations. Paying everything through a system that also gives you extra rewards, like pay.com.au, we've used it for ages. Like, we just love this platform so much. Then clearing the card every month is genuinely what has made the points side of this work for us. So whenever you see us flying business class or traveling, most of the time it's points, to be honest, and it doesn't come out of our personal savings, which is great. It doesn't come out of the, the business, you know, accounts as much because so much of it is already sitting there in points, and it compounds, right? So yeah. Anyhow, here is what I want those habits to mean for you, and I really want you to think about this in a way that, um, is gonna help serve you in the long run. I genuinely, genuinely want you to think about putting aside a percentage of sales for tax. Secondly, I want you to look at the systems supporting the business that you're manifesting, including what's your Monday morning habits, what's your monthly habits, what's your quarterly habits to do with payments, expenses, and tax, okay? Um, sounds so boring. Probably is the most boring episode I've ever recorded, but it's needed. It's needed. Can you come to Instagram? Let me know if you made it this far, and I a- am very happy to answer any questions, truly. But it's... We have to have this in here, and you can probably hear from my tone of voice, it's something that I can talk about forever and ever, and I don't mind talking about it, but it's plain, it's black and white, it's textbook, but sometimes we need to hear the textbook, okay? Go set up your tax transfer. Go check on what is on auto-renew. Go do the boring thing. Go open the account that you've been avoiding. Pay off your credit cards. The version of you on the other side of those small decisions is the version of you that gets to feel proud that you've got not just a thriving business making millions of bucks, but also knowing how to manage that so that your wealth actually sticks around and it's not just disappeared at the end of the whole run and you're like, "Oh, what's even the point?" So I know that you are much closer than you think, and I love you so much, and I'll catch you in the next episode. Bye, guys.