Shine Podcast with Shanna Star

From Side Hustle To Sustainable: Mastering Pricing, Profit, And Taxes with Megan Schwan

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We sit down with Megan Schwan, CEO of Sidekick Accounting Services, to turn financial overwhelm into simple, repeatable habits that build profit and peace. From clean accounts to confident pricing and tax planning, we map out practical steps you can use today.

• separating business and personal money to shift mindset
• reading profit and loss to guide decisions
• setting 40% gross margins and valuing time
• reframing profit as generosity and impact
• using conversion rates to focus marketing
• avoiding red flags with receipts and taxes
• adopting profit first cash flow habits
• building buffers, retirement, and high yield savings
• leaning on community, discernment, and grace

Are you ready to streamline your business and elevate your client experience? Right now you can get 30% off with my discount code: https://share.honeybook.com/shannastar

You can try Pic Time for free with my code and get an extra free month when you upgrade to a paid plan: head to the notes and click the link to start your beautiful galleries today

https://davistaphotography.pic-time.com/referral


Find Megan: chatwithmeg.com and Your Accounting Sidekick Facebook group


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Keep Shining- Shanna Star

Shanna Star:

Hello and welcome back to the Shine Podcast. I'm your host, Shauna Star. Today we are going to be talking about finances again, but don't skip to the next one. I promise it is important, it's wonderful, and it can be fun. Just stay tuned. Today I have Megan Schwan as a wonderful guest with me. She is the CEO and founder of Sidekick Accounting Services, a national virtual accounting firm working to change the statistic that every eight out of ten small businesses fail. We want to change that. For over a decade, her and her team have educated thousands of owners and their businesses and accounting and taxes in order to create sustainable and successful businesses. Today, yes, we are talking about finances, and you know it is one of my favorite topics to bring up because there is always more to learn. We get to jump in today about different accounts and investing and red flags and how we can run our finances at first. So let's get right to the conversation with Megan. Welcome, Megan, to the Shine Podcast. I'm so excited to have you here today.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks, Shauna. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm excited for the conversation.

Shanna Star:

Yeah, I know that finances are something that I love talking about, and of course you do as well. So we're gonna hear a little bit about your story in a little while, but let's jump right into. I know entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs, some sometimes feel overwhelmed by finances. It's the first thing that, you know, we kind of don't want to look at right away. We're just like, oh no, it's okay, it'll come. So, what are some steps that you always suggest to first gain control of finances and start to feel not like a hobby, but a business?

SPEAKER_00:

That's a that's a great question. And yes, it can be really scary topic. Lots of times people feel like they're they don't know enough or that they don't have the education behind it. But the truth is that the more that you pay attention to your own numbers, the more you're gonna understand them. And then the less scary they become. So, first thing you know, you want to do is make sure that when you have a business, even if it's a side gig or just something you're starting out, that you have a separate bank account for that business. Like it's gonna help you keep things organized. It's gonna help it become a lot less scary. And even if you have to pull your personal funds into your business to like pay for business expenses, I get it. Startups, you know, a lot of time we're pulling from our own money. Just put that in your business account and then use your business account to pay for those expenses. But just like doing that, it's gonna help separate business and personal, which from a mindset level is gonna help you start treating your business as a business, right? And that's gonna be really important as you start to grow because you know, where we think is where we kind of go, right? So treating it from the beginning as a separate business, a separate entity from yourself is gonna help in the long run to really keep those financials separate, but then also help you to lean in a little bit more to what's happening with your business and your finances. And it becomes a lot less scary the more you kind of do it.

Shanna Star:

Yes. It's so funny you say that. That's the first thing that I suggest to people too. I'm like, just get another account. It doesn't cost you anything. It doesn't, or time takes three seconds. And so many people, and I know I was the same, was like, I don't need to separate it. I'm good with my money in there, I know how to do it. But it makes it so much easier to figure out where the money's going and all of that. And then the I remember the first time that I got a credit card, and I use a credit card like a debit card. I'm not going to use it unless I've got those funds in that other account. Yeah. But the first time when I did like my end of the year for my finances and I got like the report from it was American Express, I was like, oh, this makes my life even so much easier. It categorizes it. And I was the first time flabbergasted. I was like, oh, there are easier ways to do this than spending hours. So yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Having it separate definitely makes it a lot easier to sort out, you know, whether it's monthly or at the end of the year.

Shanna Star:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

For sure.

Shanna Star:

And I totally agree with what you said is, you know, that money's coming in and the more you know about it, the more you can tell it where to go rather than where did it go. Because I feel like that happens so often when we're not separating and starting that business. So talk a little about how you got to where you are. I know that you are the CEO and founder of Sidekick Accounting Services. Tell us your story and how you got here.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I fell into business ownership. The long story short is that I had two part-time jobs that I was working mostly from home. And I got laid off of both of those jobs within about about a month of each other. And so it was like, okay, now what? I had been doing that for about two years as well. And then um, sorry, my camera just got blurry. It's okay. Okay. Got laid off of both of those jobs, and then had to figure out what was next. I was married, had two young kids, and um, we needed two incomes in our household. And one of the jobs that I was working on was a bookkeeper at a landscaping company. So that was kind of my introduction into small business. And I was like, well, I was doing it for them. I could probably do it for other people. I had already been doing like taxes on the side for friends and family. And I guess I just was like, let's try it. Kind of a thing. And um, and here we are almost 12 years later, and I've got a team of uh team members. We work with hundreds of clients every year across the country. And I never, never thought when I started that it would grow to where it is now, but it's been a huge blessing um for me and my family. I've gone through a lot of life transitions since that time. I had two more babies back to back, so I have four kids. I got unexpectedly separated and then divorced, and then I moved across the country. So I was able to do a lot of those things though, because I had my business. It provided me the flexibility. It gave me the ability to choose, to have options on like what to do and where to go. And that's kind of the passion behind what we do now at Sidekick, is we really help business owners understand and use their numbers so that they can grow a business that works for them, that gives them what they need out of their business, whether that's you know, you staying a solopreneur or you scaling to multiple locations across the US, whatever that is. And I think that's the beauty of entrepreneurship, is we get to choose what that looks like for ourselves. But the thing is that you need to be successful and sustainable in order to get there. And so that's the other part of what we tell people with is how to use their numbers, but how to create that success and sustainability. So they have options, they have choices, and they can create a business that works for them.

Shanna Star:

I think it's wonderful that you said that you started doing this prior to getting a divorce. I was previously married as well, my first marriage, and he handled the money like so many families do, and he did it well. So I'm not taking that away, but I then just didn't care. It was being taken care of. And not until I got a divorce that I realized, like, oh crap, I have to learn this for myself. But it actually was really good for me because I've learned I really love it. I love telling my money where to go and how to do it. And of course, we want more to do more fun things with. But I think it's wonderful that you learned that prior because that is that was probably a huge advantage, like you said, to already have that built up. Yeah. Yes, for sure. So, how can then small business owners use their financial statements that they get to make those smarter decisions on a daily basis?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, what you might not realize is that all of your decisions go back to your numbers, whether you realize it or not. So when you start looking at your financial statements, especially like your profit and loss or your income statement is another term used for that. It shows you what income came in and then what your expenses are, and then what's left over. So the more you take a look at that, you can start to ask higher level questions like, why didn't I make more money? Especially if you have a budget kind of to compare it to. That's really helpful. And we do that with our clients as we do budget versus actual report because we can see like what was the goal, what actually happened, and then you can ask those questions, like what happened here? You know, why is this expense higher than I thought it was gonna be? Why didn't we hit these numbers? And you're gonna know the story because it's your business, of course. But being able to sit down and kind of start to analyze it is gonna be really helpful because then you can start to think, okay, do we need more sales? Do I need to cut some expenses? Was I able to, you know, pay myself? Do I have savings accounts? Another thing we do with uh financial reports as well, or recommend, especially for people starting out, a really great KPI to track is your monthly balance. So at the end of the month, what was your bank balance? Is your bank balance always going up or down? Is it is it steady? Because that's going to tell you a lot about where your cash flow is at. If it's always changing, you might have a cash flow issue or profitability issue. So you'll start to be able to identify red flags ahead of time the more you take a look at your numbers and kind of ask the why behind why those numbers look the way they do.

Shanna Star:

Yeah. And something that I'm sure you've seen too. But as I've spoken with friends and other small business owners, especially women, we tend to, when we're pricing ourselves, almost do it in a way that's like, oh, this is enough. I don't want to ask for more. I don't want to be greedy. I don't, you know, I don't need that. And so how do you kind of start talking to some of your clients about like you see their value or their uh their value in their service or product or them, and they're not even structuring price in a way that reflects that? Is there something that you kind of talk to them about to get them like on the go? Let's go, let's push up those. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, for sure. Like the first thing you got to do is make sure that you're profitable in your pricing. And so even if that's not like I'm gonna charge, you know, thousands of dollars for whatever I'm selling, you got to make sure that your pricing is at least covering your costs and then all of your overhead and you know, which includes paying yourself. So usually I recommend your profit margin to be around 40%. And that's basically like what you sell it for minus the direct cost and whatever's left over, that's how you figure out your profit margin. And you need to do that for every like individually for every product or every service and figure out what that is. Make sure you include your cost. So, like if you're a solopreneur, you still want to make sure that you're counting for your time. So I tell people related to that, like to figure that out. Think about if you were paying somebody to do whatever it is, maybe it's putting together um like a product, or you know, you're spending hours with a client or something like that. Like, figure out if you were to hire somebody for that position, what would you pay them and use that as like a bare minimum?

Shanna Star:

Bare minimum. Good. I'm glad you said that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, bare minimum. It's like a good starting point because, of course, you know, you're the owner and there's lots of things that go behind you as well. So eventually you want to be, you know, definitely accounting for more of that time of your own.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But that's a good starting place to just at least make sure that you're covering the bare minimum of things. But the other part of it that I usually encourage people to start thinking about is if your marg enough or if you're not reaching this income goal for yourself, what else is gonna struggle there? You know, a lot of times it's gonna show up in worry or, you know, like stress, which takes away from our family. And then, you know, it's kind of sometimes, you know, we think about like, oh, I can't charge this high amount or this higher amount because, like you said, I'm not, I don't want that or I'm getting enough. But think about what you could do with excess. You know, a lot of times like that helps people to start thinking about it a little bit differently. If you made more money and you have excess and you have this, you know, increase, you can start giving to initiatives to missions that you believe in. You can start providing pro bono services or you know, look discounted services or products or whatever it might be. So having more isn't bad. And I think that's definitely like a mindset or a limiting belief that we often have to unlearn. I know how to do that myself too, because I grew up, um, I'm a Christian, I grew up in the church, and a lot of times we learn like money's bad, right? But money's not bad. Yep. That's not how the that's not the saying. It's the money is not the root of all evil, it's the love of money. Yes, it is. I'm so glad you said that. I agree. The love of money, you know. So then it's like we don't have money, we can't give to missions, we can't put into our church, we can't give to our communities. So by being a business owner, we have the ability to to build that excess, to build that increase so that we can actually give back. And that's something to really think about when we're talking about pricing, when we're talking about our value, when we're talking about maybe building more than we need, because maybe that's true. And I know that's for me. It's like I don't need to make a million dollars a year. If I did, and that's my goal, you know, to strive for that, but it's not so I can keep it, it's so that I can give it away. Yeah. And that's the that's kind of the mindset shift and the limiting belief shift that you really need to think about or start internalizing so that you can move away from those other beliefs that that hinder you and hinder your purpose and your impact.

Shanna Star:

Yeah, I'm so glad you said I was writing it down a couple things. First of all, is that when you do have excess, it usually means so, like in my photography business, I know that that's probably not going to be forever because I'm not gonna be cool when I'm 80. No one's going to hire me then, unfortunately. But I'll have all that experience in business and whatever. And so I knew about five years ago when I started the podcast, this is where I can then share that. And if I didn't have acts like excess in my business, then I wouldn't be able to speak to more women. And so sometimes I think we think we won't be able to reach people. But if you have that little bit more or can strive for more or have more time, um, we can give back more in a bigger way and speak to more people on a larger scale. Um, the other thing I'm really glad that you said is the the love of money thing, because I was even in a a women's group for a while where we talked about money. And I completely agree. They're like, well, money is evil. And I immediately was like, um, so it's the love of money. And, you know, we're still supposed to work hard and sow, and that's what we will be reaping and and putting in that work. It's not yeah, I totally agree on that.

unknown:

Yeah.

Shanna Star:

And a lot of misconception around. Uh, and then the other thing was is to figure out your cost of doing business, of course, get that profitability in there and then see what you would pay for that. But that's not meaning that's what you're gonna pay. That's the minimum of what you should charge because so often we go, well, I wouldn't pay$200 for that. Well, that's fine, but you might not be your ideal client. And it doesn't mean it's not worth that. And that is something that I am guilty of as well. Um, I used to charge being like, well, I wouldn't pay for it. Well, that's fine, but that I'm not my ideal client. My ideal client is someone else and how I serve them. So I'm so important that you said that.

SPEAKER_00:

And kind of just to add to that, too, like there are some services and some clientele where they will not hire you because you're priced too low. Because a lot of times the like we just naturally assume quality with the value, right? So something is priced too low, people sometimes think that the quality is low, also. Yeah. So yeah, exactly, that it's cheap. So that's something to also keep in mind. Like, depending on what you're offering, like you have to make sure you're pricing it to your ideal client, like you said. And the truth is, is that pretty much any anything for any price is gonna be sellable to somebody. Like sometimes people will be like, nobody's gonna buy this. Not true. Like most of the time, people will. You just have to do maybe a little bit of research, test it out. Like, just because you set a price doesn't mean it needs to stay there either. Like, you know, you can see what the feedback is, but yeah, it all goes kind of intertwined together. So you want to start at like, what do I need for my family? Work it backwards, make sure you're charging at least a minimum to cover your profitability. Otherwise, you're gonna run your business into the ground. But all of those things need to be considered for sure.

Shanna Star:

And the other thing you said, which I want to go back to is time because so often I know so many, again, I say women just because that's who I talk to. Yeah. Is time is what we cut off of value, basically. And we go, oh, well, it costs me this much to get these products, therefore I'm going to sell it for that. And we overlook that time is money. That means you're not spending time with your family, you're spending time working on these things. And we cheapen that to think, well, it's okay. Like it's just my time. And really you should be charging much more the more time you put into it. So I know that like when facing adversity in business, what like mindset or tools can help entrepreneurs kind of stay focused and push through some of those um sticking points?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I've been in business for quite a while now. And I know for me, one thing that's really helped is always taking like failure or, like you said, adversity as an opportunity. But so when you start to look at, you know, the the mistakes or the the resistance, if you will, as an opportunity to grow, to learn, to improve, um, it really becomes less scary. And then you really learn a lot from that where you can you can really um, I guess, lean into those challenges and and and kind of use it as a springboard to like the next level or the next opportunity of what happens. So that's definitely like a big mindset shift that happens. Um, but the other thing too, you know, is sometimes adversity gives us the opportunity to kind of just take um account for what's happening, you know. So like, is there is it maybe not time to go fast? Maybe it's time to slow down and kind of take that that like we've had a lot of clients this year because this year's been really weird for a lot of people, where um in 2025, where you know, business didn't go as well as they thought, or things, you know, didn't move as quickly as they would in the past. But I, you know, we talked about a lot about how that was a great opportunity to kind of reassess, like look at their packages, look at their business model, look at um what expenses they had, you know, are all those things working together in alignment to where you're trying to go, or was it was it just creating more noise, you know? And that's kind of a big thing to take a look at as well as like adverse adversity or failures are opportunities if you're paying enough attention. And as a CEO, you have to pay attention to those things as well. Like a lot of times when there's friction, it's telling us something. Maybe it's that we need to improve or that we need to take a step back or we need to reassess, or maybe that we're going in the right direction, but we're just going through this position of growth, right? Because growth is is often in the uncomfort, right? So you got to kind of take clout of that as like, is this hard because it's uncomfortable, or is it like telling me and just being able to take a look at that? I think is a really great skill to have as a CEO, especially for the long run.

Shanna Star:

Yeah. It it brought up something that I was chatting with someone yesterday about, and that was like discernment. And often when something happens negatively, we want to be like, oh, that means I shouldn't do it. And although that might be the case to pivot at some point, it's it's important to have good discernment to figure out oh, this is just a sticking point, this is a stretch position that I'm in, and I need To just change a few things or pivot a little bit, or like you said, um, and agreed on the year this year, uh, not just for myself, but like looking around, even like rentals here and every business I know it was a tricky year for a lot of people. And yes, yeah, there was a lot of sticking points even for myself. And I have been reflecting because it's the end of the year going into the new year, and it's more of a okay, 2025 could have been a year of just stretching me and learning how to do some of those pivots. But yeah, it's difficult in that moment to be like, okay, my discernment tells me this. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You get a lot of like, I know I we did too, where it was like, we didn't really have like a terrible year, but it definitely didn't move as fast as I thought it was going to. And that becomes really discouraging sometimes where you're like, Am I doing something wrong? Like there was a few times this year, in all honesty, that I was like, should I even be doing it? You know, like you get like all this negative like thought process. And I think, you know, kind of part of that adversity thing is like making sure that you're paying attention to who you're around as well, and making sure that you have like goodness, you know, poured into you, whether that's in your faith or in your community or with other business owners and your networks, um, because that can make a big difference as well to how you move past that adversity or how you use it to be a positive thing versus a negative thing.

Shanna Star:

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SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, protecting your energy and your peace is really important.

Shanna Star:

Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. What are then maybe some like a couple three key metrics that drive business growth and things that we can work on for our business?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, yeah, there's tons of them, right? Tons of metrics that you can put in place. What I would say are probably definitely the the top three would be your profit margin. So really having a good solid understanding of what's left over from a sale after you take out those direct costs, your net margins, which is what's left over on your PL after you take out all of your expenses. And then the other metric I would say, especially right now, I think it's probably gonna be your conversion rate. And what that means is like how many sales conversations, how many newsletters, how many do you need to have, and what or conversion rate is how many conversations have you had and how many converted into sales, you know, and then you can identify from there like how many touches and how many conversations did you need to have to get those meetings or conversations, um, because that's gonna help you identify like how many people do you need to talk to, especially in the service industry. This is more common for it to be able to understand that, because then you can work back your marketing on like what those goals need to be. And I think that's just if you want to have a sustainable business, you gotta have a sustainable sales and marketing process as well. Yeah.

Shanna Star:

So I I really like what you said about conversion rate because even looking at I'm kind of a nerd, I'm like a secret nerd on the computer, like trying to figure out my SEO and where all of my hits are coming from for my website. And the the ROI, the return on investment for me, I can have thousands of hits to my website from Pinterest, but I'm getting very little ROI on that, which is fine. I'm still getting hits on it, I'm still getting saves, you know, that's totally great. But my, you know, Instagram, in person, and Facebook, there's a lot less people going to my website, but the conversion rate is much higher. So it's it's good to yeah, look at those more closely and what is actually converting into a client and money coming into your business. And those are things to focus on. So now I know like Pinterest, that's lovely for me. I'm not getting much money. So I spend very little time doing it, which is fine, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but you can spend time, you can spend more time working on what works versus what doesn't. But first you gotta know what works, right? And that's where all of these numbers, when people talk about like paying attention to your numbers, or we talk about it, it's not just your financial numbers, it's like all these other numbers in business that matter too.

Shanna Star:

So yeah, I had another conversation recently about that. Like, I know a lot of times maybe networking or maybe when you're first starting, you're doing a lot of like cold calls or cold emails reaching out. And it feels very, very personal when you hear no right away until you get into the business and then you're like, has nothing to do with me. And eventually you can turn those numbers. I like to like gamify it. So when I am doing a certain project and I'm reaching out to businesses or people, I like to see is it one in 20 people that say yes? And if so, how many do I need? That means I need to send out a hundred emails, whatever that looks like for you. And rather than taking it personal, using that data to make it a game to see how I can make a higher conversion rate within those.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And you almost, I think you really have to do it that way or the just kind of like switch your perspective, like a no, it doesn't, yeah, like you said, doesn't have anything to do with me. It is more of a game because yeah, those notes become really tough. But then you start getting the yeses and you're like, yes, like on cloud night type of thing. So when you gamify, you're like, okay, that's fine, that's fine. Like, how many, how many no's do I need to get before I get a yes? You know, and then like make that into game. Like, let's figure it out.

Shanna Star:

So yeah, definitely helps, but so I know you said at the beginning, like one of the first things is please have a separate account for your business, which I a hundred percent agree. Even if it's not a full, you're making tons of money, just have that separate account. It'll make life easier in the future. So, what are some other maybe red flags that you see? I'm sure you see a ton in businesses right away where you're like, okay, let's change some of these. What are some people like red flags that people tend to do in finances at first and how to change it?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that the bank account is definitely the first one. The other one I would or the one other ones that I would say is not having um any kind of money management or receipt management system in place because when it comes to taxes, you need to have receipts. So if you were to get audited, sometimes people are like, oh, well, I've got this separate bank statement or credit card statement. Isn't that enough? No, it's not. It's it's you it's important to have separate accounts, but you still need to have the backup of what was actually purchased when you made those um charges when you when you bought those things. So having some kind of receipts, and it doesn't have to be anything complicated. The IRS takes electronic records now, so you can have like a folder in your email, is usually the biggest one that we recommend because most people get emailed receipts now. Just have a receipts folder and just pop it in there, you know, or if you're using a system like QuickBooks, they have a receipt management function where you can upload your receipts or send your receipts to QuickBooks, and then it's attached to those transactions. So that makes it really easy to find and to document um in a system like that as well. So that's probably gonna be the one thing. And then the other thing that definitely is a financial pitfall is not planning for taxes, like the expense or the liability part of it. Um, and so many people miss this part, which is why I like profit first. We haven't talked about that at all, but it's a cash flow management system. We're a certified profit first professional. And one of the things we do as part of that system is prepare for taxes. So a percentage of all of your income goes into a separate bank account for taxes that you can have set aside so that when you get your tax bill at the end of the year, and tax bills are not bad. Like sometimes people are like, I don't want to pay taxes. But the truth is that if you made money, you're gonna pay taxes. So we don't want to not make taxes or not pay taxes necessarily. You're always gonna have to pay something. You don't want to overpay in taxes, but paying taxes means that you've made money, which is a good thing. So having money set aside for taxes and the tax bill that you're gonna get is important. Um, because when you don't, you know, that's where a lot of the stress comes from. The lot of the anxiety that we feel when it comes to tax time is because we're not prepared for it. So having money set aside for it is gonna solve a lot of that issue for you.

Shanna Star:

So definitely doing that. I have been in that position, as I'm sure most people listening have, where uh I have my tax guy, he does all the things, but he took me off quarterly one year. And I got a big old tax bill that it wasn't quite what we had discussed. And it's scary. So if you didn't have that money set aside, it's overwhelming. And even if you don't have it paid quarterly or paid how you should, depending on who you you know have helping you, right? It's still scary. You still see that number and you're like, ooh, that's a terrible number. So I will go back to that client management system. Um, I know you said, you know, you can have Excel or you can have uh QuickBooks or whatever that looks like. And I was another one, I was guilty for years that I was like, I don't need to pay for a client management system. I can do this on my own. And when I I got Honey Book, which is geared towards photographers and other small businesses, and I have loved it. And it makes my life so much easier, it makes things so much more professional. Everything is right there and how to pull numbers, how to pull clients. And for some reason, I always say, I know that there's a percentage taking out of credit cards when clients pay that way. But for some reason, they pay me more and on time, it means I'm actually getting paid.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, having some kind of an accounting system or process in place is really important for that invoicing piece as well as, yeah, just for your own money management.

Shanna Star:

So I just wanted to say I'm guilty, but if you're thinking about doing a client management system, absolutely, it'll make your life so much easier for sure. And agreed. I know so many people listening might be in the start of their business, might be in that beginner phase, but a lot aren't. And so they're like, great, this isn't anything that I don't necessarily know. I don't have set up. So now, are there other strategic ways we can build our money? Is there anything you love to suggest once you've got the accounts, you've got the cards, you've got the uh systems, and now we have this money. Are there accounts that you love to suggest to clients to start investing? I know this is different for every person, but you know, things like high yield savings, Roth IRA, HA, HSAs, uh, is there something that you love to suggest right away for those?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, the ones you mentioned are really great. HSAs, especially if you have a high deductible insurance plan, is gonna be great to save you some tax money as well as, you know, kind of have that money set aside for health insurance needs. Um, but the other thing business owners often miss is retirement savings. So whether it's a Roth or an IRA simple or 401k, those are really great ways to invest for your future because most of us aren't working other jobs, right? It's just our business. So we're not planning actively planning for retirement. You don't want to get to you know, retirement age and be like, oh man, I didn't do anything. So and sometimes we just keep working as business owners, right? Because we're so involved in the day-to-day and the right now, we're not always thinking forward, but you need to start planning for that as well. So usually once we start working with clients and they're um somewhat stable, I wouldn't even say like you have to be a hundred percent stable to do this. You want to start doing it early so that as you plan, and you can start off really small, right? Like do a small thousand dollars. Yeah, exactly. Right, exactly, right? Like just it doesn't have to be anything major. You can do a simple IRA and put in whatever you want, or you know, a step that has different limitations to it. Talking to some kind of a financial planner is gonna help you figure out like what's your best move and what's your best but first step forward. I would just encourage you to work with somebody who's familiar and works with a lot of other small business owners so they know where you are and they can recommend the right products to you for those kinds of things. Otherwise, yeah, high yield savings, especially if you start um implementing like the cash flow management system, like Profit First, we put aside money for profit and taxes. That money just sits there. So, you know, put it to use, put it in a money market, put it in a high yield savings when you or if you have another savings type, you know, account that you're putting away, your nest egg for your business, which everybody should have. Like you want to make sure you have money set aside for emergencies or you know, something in life that happens. Um, but you can also do things like, especially if you have employees or team members, you can do supplemental benefits, they are really great. Um, you can do things like uh dependent care reimbursement or tuition reimbursement. So there's lots of different options that you can do to put your money to use and benefit both you and your team members or just you, but definitely learning more about that is gonna help you determine um, you know, what's the best thing for you. And I think that's where we kind of miss it as business owners is we're not sometimes curious enough or having enough of these conversations outside of our comfort zone or area of expertise to really be able to have the options, you know, of what is actually available for us.

Shanna Star:

Yeah. So and I would say too, you you know, you talked about financial planning, is so many times we think, well, I don't have eight million dollars to make a financial planner. And what's funny is that is something I did correctly is after the divorce, I didn't have a lot of money. I was trying to save money. I actually got a financial planner before any money. And she was like, This is all great, you're gonna do great, but you have no money to work with, you know. She's like, So you're on the right path. But even getting some advice prior to having the money, it doesn't hurt anything. And in fact, she can she or he can help guide you um into where to start. Like you said, it depends on whatever. I started with a high yield interest because just in case I needed to take that money back and use it, yeah. Yes, rather than then I got some stocks in Roth IRA so that it's like, okay, I don't need that money. I can say goodbye to that money for a while and put it in the market. Um, but yes, I totally agree with all that too. Just getting that financial planner's advice.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Yeah. And conversations never hurt, right? And that's I'm a big believer of that. Even if you're like looking to change insurance or, you know, at a location, like talk to people and get quotes. That way you can like plan for it, right? So, like just because you have a conversation doesn't mean you have to sign on the dotted line. Right. You know, it's just gathering information and research, which is a really great way to be proactive as a business owner.

Shanna Star:

Yeah. And when I actually talked with that gal, oh gosh, it was seven, eight years ago, eight years ago. And she was like, Okay, well, call me in a few years. And it was the same thing. We had a great conversation. She looked at my numbers. It didn't cost me anything, it was just her helping me, guiding me. And then she realized, like, when you have it, please call me back and we'll we'll have something to do, you know. Right, exactly. Love that. So, will you talk a little bit about then how we can find you, follow you? I know you got a few goodies and a free Facebook page. Tell us how all the things we can follow you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so I'm on all of the social media channels, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. Um, you can go to chatwithmeg.com, which will take you to my website and it has all the links. And then my Facebook group is called Your Accounting Sidekick, um, which you can just do your accounting sidekick.com, and that will shortlink you to the Facebook group as well. Perfect. So well, and I'll have those in the links too.

Shanna Star:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I do lots of trainings and have lots of freebies in the group as well.

Shanna Star:

So wonderful. And now before I let you go, I do want to know is there anything that's been maybe coming up for you on your heart that you feel like, especially in this season, it's been a difficult year, but whatever comes to mind for you that you would like to share that maybe we didn't touch on.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, I would say that business ownership has a lot of layers to it and a lot of steps to it. And I think sometimes we get so overwhelmed by what we don't have that sometimes we forget what we already have in place. And so I like to always encourage people when I have conversations, especially with startups or even businesses, as they're growing and scaling and trying to figure out all these pieces. I give yourself a lot of grace because nobody does this perfectly. A lot of times we're learning in the process and in the journey, but giving yourself grace is gonna take a lot of the pressure off of yourself to be that perfect person, especially as women, because you know, we hear, oh, we got to be superwoman, or you know, for moms and parents, like, you know, that's there's a lot of pressure on us, I think, in society that the reality is that we can't do it all ourselves. And as we're working through things, we got to give ourselves grace. We're never gonna be perfect. But as long as you're just making one step at a time forward, you know, you're you're doing great. So just remember that, especially in a year like this year where it can be really discouraging. If you've moved any kind of anything forward, like you did amazing this year, and just keep that in mind.

Shanna Star:

Yeah, I really love that. And it kind of brought up again another conversation where where you can look back and yes, we look to the new year of okay, how can I pivot my money? What can I do with my money? How can I make more money? But it's also important to look back and say, uh, what did my money do for me? Let's look at all the good things that it did and I was able to do, whether it's travel or just spend time with family or whatever it looks like. And so that's important to do. So yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for all of your wisdom today. I appreciate you. We'll have all the links in the notes. So they can go find you and follow you. And I just thank you so much for being on the Shine podcast. Thanks, Shauna. Thanks for having me. Are you ready to streamline your business and elevate your client experience? I have been using HoneyBook for over two and a half years, and it transforms the way I work. With Honeybook, you can manage all your projects from start to finish all in one place. In fact, this is how I scheduled these podcast episodes today. Say goodbye to scattered emails and unorganized files. With its user-friendly interface, Honeybook allows you to create professional proposals, contracts, and invoices that impress clients and make you stand out in your field. Automate your workflows and spend less time on tasks, freeing up time to focus on what you do best. Honeybook's client management tools help you keep communication clear and consistent, ensuring that every client feels valued, informed through the entire process. Plus, with the ability to accept online payments, you get paid faster and more securely. Right now you can get 30% off with my discount code. You simply just go to share.honeybook.com forward slash Shauna Star. That's S H A N N A S T A R. It will also be in the notes for you. I love Honeybook and can't wait for you to use it too.