Confessions of an Entrepreneur

and I walked, Yeah, but I mean it was. It was a good thing. I interviewed for some new staff, and I had an interview with like Reader's Digest and like a few other calls. But like it it just for some reason, they exhausted me today. I don't know if it was the walk or what. But I'm taught it's.

management training and last December. It's almost been a year now, and the people that I met there have been just like this phenomenal source of support. So I went out for drinks with a few of them on Monday night and it was exactly what I needed. Just like some non friend, like non like regular friends, non husband, non coworker, just like objective kind of peers to kind of talk about and bounce ideas off and just vent about what's

happening and it was. It was really great. It was like the perfect use of my time after work on Monday. And I feel like that really gave me some motivation and some energy to carry me through the rest.

So now I've got like a rule for myself where like I talked on the phone with my my friends and stuff every day, which is good because I'm like, Okay, you have to talk to at least one or two friends today, non work related, just the key key check. But like the FaceTime part was hard, and so I've been telling myself at least once a week, I have to you know, dinner, lunch, whatever, walk in the park with with like you know, a friend and get some

face them in like, you know, just connecting. And so I'm probably gonna go to dinner tonight with my my friend Cabrel. But I I had a meeting with It was an older friend of mine who I had seen in a while. That's why I walked, and I was like, you know, let me go actually go see her for this meeting, because it would be nice to get some FaceTime because it when you're an entrepreneur, especially if you're in a digital space, it's very easy to just be like you and your computer, you know.

And yeah, and sometimes I'm like, Okay, I understand there's a season, there's a time when you don't see each other as often as you want to, but as far as like not so when I kind of put them in those different buckets, like the close friends who actually see more sparingly, I feel like, so when I see them, I try and play like special, Like I'm actually having my best best friend who I haven't seen in a

month because she's been traveling. I've been traveling. We're having a girls' night, We're gonna have a sleepover, We're gonna have quality, you know, time to catch up tomorrow night. And that's like a once every couple months type thing. But then when I get together with people from like my industry, like my peers, I try and do that once a month because they're they have crazy schedules. And also I like to let like enough, I like to let enough days go by so you have stuff to

talk about. So you think about that, I'm like, what are we gonna talk about? Let me let some life go by and let me have something to bring to the table, you know. And it's nice to check in with them every month or so.

my really great friends. We talk all the times. So I've got like a core group of friends who I talk to and typically see more. But what I'm seeing is the FaceTime rule has create we did this great opportunity to like hang out with friends who I don't talk to and I never see. So it was it was just it's just been really nice and it's not a chore. It's just like I'm wanting to, like, you know, make a more I hate the word balance, so I

call it harmonized, like harmony over balance. So instead of trying to hold all things the equal measure, which was what balance means to me, more like, okay, how do I make sure that all things are working collectively together for the greater good of me? And so a more harmoniziced life. So yeah, so today it was nice to get like a little harmony in.

It was crazy. I was like, oh, a website's not waking great, like like literally everything started to crumble. And Danielle she came in originally to help us get more organized as a team, but she spent the first three or four months saving us because our tech started to to break and you know, like through no fault of like anyone. It was just like, oh, the rules are changing here, or this has expired, or you know, like the websites that you're using no longer can for what

you're doing. And Danielle saved us. So it took a few months to get our tech kind of like updated. And then she made a suggestion of us switching from go Daddy, which is what we were using, to this other hosting platform called name Cheap because it was gonna save us, you know, hundreds of hundreds of dollars a year, thousands of dollars in our in our business lifetime. And so that transition was not an easy one because we had so many domains and all this other stuff. So

that took like another a couple of weeks. We finally made the transition. She made sure that all of our websites were you know how like those uh uh they made us. You changed from https to h or from http to HTTPS. So when you're on a website, there's like this law now where they're like it has to be secure, so you have to get basically the S added and and that was a whole other thing, and I'm like, I don't know what these things mean. So Danielle did so well that I ended up hiring her

full time. Actually made her offer today.

so she fixed that. She said, so the way that we handle passwords is like causing it. It creates more work, So she fixed that. So she fixed more so our systems versus like me like personally as Tiffany. And so I hired her today to come on as my executive admin because I said, Okay, now that our systems are fixed, now I want you to help me, you know, because it took just this long to get our systems shick. I didn't think we I didn't realize that we had

like a technical systems issue. I just thought like, oh, taking really disorganized. And she's like, no, you guys are not as unorganized as you think. It was more of a systems issue, like you know, like your your your foundation, you know. And so I was like, oh, yes, exactly, process is issue. And I said I didn't realize because like I had built the team and the company sans

technology because I didn't have it. So I was like, well, I was building around technology because I was like I don't know how to use that, so we'll just do it like this, you know, like I'll give you an example, which is so terrible, Like all of our if you needed a password, we had a Google doc with every password of like all hundreds of our passwords. So anybody could have had this and be like, oh I own your company.

so you see what I mean. So a lot of what Danielle did was like it's almost like when you're renovating a house. She fixed our plumbing and our electrical and the things that you don't see in a home. But so now we're running so much more smoothly. And now that that's kind of we can kind of close up the walls. Now she's coming on board. Actually helped meet Tiffany, and so, like I said, I just made her an offer today. I was like Danielle, She's like, I know, I came to this one thing. Tiffany. I'm

so sorry. I'm like, no, a girl. I mean, I'm so happy that you fixed our processes because we can't build on a shaky house, and so now we can we can build from there. And so much has happened. Like one of the things that we've gotten better at, Like so I have my online academy, the literature academy.

We redid one of our websites, and our churn rate, which is the rate that people leave the academy, was got as high as twenty one percent at one point, meaning like for every hundred people that signed up, twenty one canceled because we weren't as organized as we needed to be. Within this six month span, our turnd rate went down to six percent. That's tremendous. That means instead of twenty one people leaving, only six people are leaving

for every hundred. That's tremendous. Like, you know, our lifetime value of a customer, so before somebody would join with us the academy is like ten bucks a month, and each person would spend about one hundred and fifty dollars with us before leaving. Now our lifetime value per customer it's almost three hundred dollars, So people are spending twice as long with us. And so like all of these, like the processes and the organization behind the scenes, I mean,

it has translated into real changes in actual money. And as a result, I've been able to give higher two new people full time. I've been able to give raises because I always tell the team that like, as the company does better, so should you. So, you know, Danielle being here, it's it's it's it's it's been transformational, and that it's not just helped me personally to have a smoother, better running like you know, team, it means that my team can make more and I can actually hire more people.

And it's all Brown Girl Magic book up in here. In Jabrill, my business partner, I always say, I'm like, yeah, it's brown Girls and Gebro Andbrill. No.

make suggestions on how to make them better. And that's something that any business manager, like whether you're an entrepreneur or you work for a company, Like anybody can do that, you know, just having someone from another department that you don't work with every day come and take a look at how you do things and then make and like they'll point out things that you never thought of, like man,

why are you doing this this way? And that's part of the reason I love having those those peer like those peer meetups with people I know who are working in media and other companies because I can tell them how I do things and learn how they do things, and then seal ideas from them and try and incorporate

them into what I'm doing. And it also it's nice when they, you know, either compliment something that you're doing or they take one of your ideas, and that that idea exchange is so so crucial to success.

different company. I'm hoping to triple, it's not quadruple what we make because I want to be able to My goal is to be able to hire everyone full time to be able to our twenty twenty goal is to make the average income six figures. So we have like a goal sheet and a goal chart and like a specific like a game plan of getting there, and to be able to offer health insurance as well as retirement benefits.

So that's our twenty twenty goal. So health insurance, retirement benefits will go on to effect early next year, and we should be like halfway to our goal by early next year, because we're about I want to say, thirty

percent to our goal now. And so this is a goal that we set forth earlier on in the year because I feel like this that I want to run a company and just my life and that everyone that I touch should benefit, meaning that if so dream Catchers, you know, y'all your benefit because we give away financial information for free or super low cost on purpose. But the people that help make that goal reality, they should

benefit too. They should be paid well, and you know, and so and any partner that I'm like, hey, you know, I love your tool, you should benefit. I just feel like that I want to create a win win win environment where everyone involved in the process, everyone receiving and everyone giving benefits. And my team is so amazing, and I want them to say I make more than enough to support myself and my family. Most of them are moms,

with a lot of them have young kids. When I first started, like really building my team last year, honestly, Mandy, I was paying eleven dollars an hour out of pocket because the business wasn't making any money. Like the budget Nista was making some but the academy wasn't making any money. It was failing. But I believed in it because I was like, no, there has to be a way to offer next level services to women, especially women of color, and not charge your arm and alike I refuse to

charge more than ten bucks a month. I's like, no, there has to be a way. I hadn't figured it out yet, so I was paying people from my savings account, and I was like, all I could afford was eleven dollars an hour, and people worked for me like people work for me. And now those same people make five figures, you know, like a decent five figure salary within a year, and so we are approaching that goal of six figures.

And I'm just always grateful that people stuck with it, and obviously they weren't there for the money because I wasn't able to pay much. And now we pay a decent salary, but not as much as I want. And I just can't wait for the day where I'm like, I can pay one hundred thousand dollars like on average to the people on my team, you know, like that would make me feel like just awesome, knowing that you get to do good work, you know, you get to make good money, and you get to help good people.

And so that's my ultimate goal for everyone involved.

can save money on headcount and stuff. And I mean, I think that that's extraordinary and unique, and it's not something that all business owners think about, especially when you're you know, most everybody is worried about the bottom line and how to do that. But that's an awesome goal, Like how can you run a profitable business but also make the people who work for you profitable and successful as well?

CFO whatever. These are just regular, regular people with regular jobs. But the average worker makes seventy five thousand and I thought to myself, and he said he did it perfect because he came from a blue blue collar, working class family. And he was like, I wanted to have good jobs for good people. And I remember thinking like, well, what does that look like for you, Tiffany, how do I do that for your team? And so I'm obsessed with

our numbers. Honestly, like my CFO and I we talk two or three times a week, like I'm the numbers and numbers, because one of the ways you do that is that you have to figure out for your industry what percentage of your payroll what's what's safe. So for a service industry, thirty percent of where gross income can go toward payroll. That's kind of like the max. Now, if you've got like a like let's just say you have glasses, so you can't do thirty percent of your payroll.

It might be fifteen percent of your payroll because you have also buy inventory for glasses. But we don't have to buy inventory. So knowing that, I hover our payroll amount at about twenty twenty five percent maximum, because what that means is that I never miss I have never missed a payroll if even have to pay for it out of pocket. And so I'm always very strategic and that as we grow, we're not going to go above that twenty twenty five percent mark because that guarantees that

we don't miss payroll. It guarantees that I, if I make your promise that now you're making fifty thousand dollars a year, that I'm not over extending myself because maybe maybe we could afford sixty, but that would put us on the edge. So I much rather say one hundred percent fifty than sixty percent sixty, you know, And like I make That's the way I think when we're as I elevate and grow businesses that I don't make a payroll promise that we can't keep one hundred and ten percent.

And two. One of the things I tell Rachel my CFO is I want us to have and we have this now, a year's worth of payroll saved, because I'm like the biggest worry where I remember what it felt like when my school closed and they told us three days before school was supposed to open, and we want I had no money. The summertime was just wrapping up, so I had already spent all of my summertime savings.

And we're supposed to start school September third, and it was September first, and they're like, oh yeah, so no school. And I'm like, but what am I supposed to do about my bills? What am I supposed to be about my mortgage? It was so disruptive and that stuck with me and I said, I will never ever do that to someone. So we keep a year's worth of savings. So let's just say the federal government changes the law and says no more financial education online, or the budget needs to

has a scandal, or the academy closes. I can still pay employees for a year until we figure out what to do, or until we wrap up the company and say, unfortunately we're out of business, but you have a year to feed your families, figure out what to do, figure out that you're going to tell you how you know, whatever it is that you're going to do, because I

said I would never put somebody else through that. But so yeah, we're just really careful because I use what it felt like being an employee to be like, well, how do I how do I give my employees what I needed as an employee to feel financially secure and safe? And that's why having like the processes and the systems and all the other stuff, because I if something were to happen to me, I want to make sure that

they're okay if I'm not here anymore. We have things in place that they'll still be able to run the company and be okay with without me. It's a lot, honestly, being an entrepreneur. I just thought I was gonna help people with budgets you know, I thought I was gonna come to your house and say hey, Mandy, And this is how you say I didn't think. I didn't. I didn't know what was going to be all of that. And I'm grateful for the for the ability to do this,

but it's so much more than just that. It's the people who are involved. It's just so much more and it's fulfilling. But it's also a little scary because when I talk to Rachel on the phone and I hear her baby crying, you know, I'm like, oh my god, it's not just at ch'all. I just has to work for all of us, and Tamar and her her nine year olds in the background. It's not just it's just not just Tamra. It's her nine year old. It's not just YadA Les, it's her, you know, a one year old.

It's just so many people, you know, are dependent on this working, and so it's a lot of pressure. But it's also like, really, like I said, a lot of fulfillment to be able to do this work.

I can't because it's like at some point I have to be a wife, Like at some point, I've got to make dinner for Supergirl, like I have to save something for like my niece, my nephew, my sisters, my cousins, my you know. And I don't even say it as much as I ought to, quite honestly. I I'm always feeling guilty about not spending enough time on like real Tiffany life because I give so much to everybody on the outside. So yeah, it's a lot of pressure. And I, you know, I was like a C student. I don't

know where all this is coming from. I don't know.

a loyal team. And one way it sounds like you're doing that is by giving them like a stretch, like letting them know what your vision is like for their futures in the future of the Budgetista and you know, or Tiffany Incorporated or whatever it's going to be, and how they fit into that overall picture. Because that's something that that's something that drives me every day at my job.

Is not just the paycheck that I get. I mean, that's nice, but it's also the fact that I'm constantly being challenged, fact that you know, my my my boss and manager keeps me in the loop about what's coming up, that coming down the road and what I can expect, and that motivates me. And it's not always just tied

to pay. And also I think it creates loyalty, especially in this job market, Like there's articles in the paper about how some employers can't even get people to show up for interviews because the job market is so good right now, people are just not showing up. They can take any job that they want. I mean some places they can't even fill positions because everyone is so highly educated now, or there's just all these jobs out there, so it's it's it's definitely like an employee an employees

market at this point in time all that. Oh yeah, yeah, it seems I mean, I don't think in all industries, but personally, I know I've struggled to hire editors and writers when I've had open positions because it seems like everyone in their mom is hiring a content team right now to do to writing, to you know, to be a writer and editor. And I've had so many headhunters reach out to me about open executive editor positions at other at other companies, and I'm like, oh, well, I'm fine.

It just seems like, yeah, the judge, the economy is doing really well and people are hiring, so to retain employees, it takes so much more. That's why you see these

companies have to compete. I mean, that's why you see these companies offering crazy maternity and family lief benefits now, because not because they have to, obviously, they don't because not the federal government requires it, but as a recruitment effort, you know, conference budgets like extra stuff, the sprinkles, the you know, and as it and I'm talking to anyone who's a full time employee, I mean, I think that's you have to look at those tangential benefits and if

you're not getting them from an employer, start looking elsewhere or start asking for them, or you know, it's you know, if you're an employee, excuse me, if you're an employer and not finding other ways to add value to your employees experience. You can't take for granted that they're just going to show up because they need a paycheck, you know.

manages it with like grace and poise and humor. And when like one time she switched positions to something else in the in the group fell apart in like three days, and I was like Sylvia, and she is just hilarious and funny. And somehow, because literally the face Facebook, social media can be very place, and somehow she keeps that place light and when she's there, the negativity is down to next to nothing. And I'm like wow. And you know, I think about yad aleast when she came out. She

was an intern. She's like twenty, like twenty three, twenty four years old, and she was like her millennial eyes were like, why do courses look like this? This is not it's not cute, it's not it's not easy to navigate. And she came and totally transformed the way we deliver some of our coursework and it's beautiful now. And she's amazing.

And I think of Rachel, who like, Yo, Rachel, I've got three companies that she manages the finances for and somehow keeps it all together and has every number that could ever dream of. I'm like, Rachel, what about the on the fifth of November at two pm? How did we do?

you help me today? So Karen is my buddy, and so she has to know how to do all that I know how to do, except for like the financial education piece, like standing on stage. But so Karen is like she just started. And when I say sometimes she's more tivity than Tiffany. She's amazing and Jabrell, my business partner, who I am so blessed and had. He took us from six figures to seven figures in a matter of

a few years. And yeah, the team is I don't even know what I would do without them, honestly, and they worked tirelessly. I mean, I'm like, you think I don't sleep, I'm like, do you guys sleep? And I don't even have a kid. I mean, I have Supergirl,

but Supergirl's grown, she's like twenty five. I mean she's eleven, but you know, girl in adult years, an eleven year old girl as a twenty five year old man basically, And so like, yeah, no, it's just And then at the same time, you know, trying to renovate the house and you know we're still newly wets all the other stuff. But yeah, no, but that was a good I know, that was a deep dieting. Really how much I did get off my chest? Sorry guys for the rant. No, no more business talk for a while.

I mean, obviously I knew that you have such a great mind for business, but not just business, but people first, and that people first orientation because I've worked for a lot of companies and a lot of different you know, and I've seen a lot, and I feel like that I understand why they're working so hard for you, because you care about them and you're working just as hard as they are, and you know, you have all the everything I think that people will be looking for in

a like a quick growing where you can come in on the ground floor, like be a part of something that's growing and see that growth is so like, nothing's more rewarding than that. So as long as you don't screw it up, I'm kidding, I love you.

Are there any loans with low interest for two years? Help? I just don't want to ask my mom for help.

you know, two or three years, that's another thing. I don't want you to choose credit cards over student loans because honestly, I'm I'm assuming the credit card interest rate is gonna be higher than the student loans on interest rate. You know, Like if you're gonna borrow anyway, I wouldn't choose a credit card, you know. But if you're saying I could do it, it would just be really tight, honestly, like knowing what I know now, because I didn't. My

undergrad student loans were like next to nothing. I think it was all a sudden that maybe like a fifteen hundred I had to pay off because my parents paid for a lot of it. But then I went on to get my I went to graduate school and I got like a real grown women suitent loans. Fifty thousand dollars later, I have not you know, I wasn't well they've now since been paid off, but I wasn't able to pay them off right away because the things happen

in the economy that we're out of my control. Yeah, so I if you absolutely cannot make it without some sort of loan, then I would look into it. But if you can, then I I would try to not get any loan and not relying on credit cards because those Yeah, that's not a good idea either.

look at the number. So right now, if you were to take out unsubsidized student loan federal student loan for grad school, the interest rates the fixed interest rate is six point six percent for twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, and that's significantly lower than credit card debt. Obviously, So if you're looking like apples to apple, apples to oranges, you know which one's a better idea. Yes, a federal student

loan is a low interest form of borrowing. But if you can avoid borrowing altogether, how much better is that?

even think about going to private school. Debt first and foremost, But federal student loans you should be able to get about. You could get up potentially up to twenty thousand dollars per year for grad school, but you may not need that much, So don't take it just because you're eligible for it. It's what I'll say. You know, if you really only want a cushion, you only need a few months.

If you're just looking for an emergency fund of some kind, then you may just want to think, Okay, what do I need to live for a few months, and then that's the max that you borrow to be to be your source of emergency fund while you're in school. It's only two years, you.

for a student loans. One thing I did do, Mandy, though, like you said, is like my student loans for graduate school were federal student loans, say goodness, And I didn't get private student loans.

And of course they'll have higher interest rates than what you can find through federal loans, but definitely, and you have to fill out the FASTPA to see if you're eligible the same way you did an the same way you might have done an undergrad to see how much federal aid, which includes federal loans, you may qualify for.

And I don't, I can't, I don't know this. I'm not an expert in this, but the FASTPA is also a way to see if you're eligible for federal grants or other sort of aid options that may be offer it maybe possible for you to take advantage of that may help you the same way that you're looking for a loan to help you with extra expenses. So it may be worth just filling out the FASTA to see what types of aid you qualify for in addition to to you know, traditional student loan.

on my card. The only thing is that for that year I can't use the card and I can only do this maybe once every other year, which is the best option. I want to do the right thing and get much and get as much paid off this Discover

card as I can in a year. So she's almost out this Discover card and she's wondering if she should try and do a balance transfer with this little Visa card that she has with two thousand dollars limit and then enroll in this Discover This is an interesting and I mean, I've never heard of this Discover plan, but either if they're seriously going to give you a year to pay off your card with no interest so long all you have to do is agree not to spend any money on it, Yes, do that.

So there's no need to make that transfer, especially since the transfer would only be because what are you going to transfer two thousands? And then we maxed down on the second card, you know, so if Discover has that, go for it. And then it's actually a really good thing that they're like, and you can't use the card, Oh that's excellent. Put that card up, cut it up, and just focus on paying it off. I remember I literally at one point have you ever done this, Mandy?

When you're like you have to really take a look at yourself in the mirror and you're like what are you doing and you just have to cut your card up? I was like, what are we doing? Tiffany? So I like, you are in a ditch. You have to shovel in

your hand, and you're still digging. So I finally had to put my shovel down, which is my credit card, and I honestly I put it away, and for like six months to almost a year, I didn't use any credit because I was trying to dig my way out of debt while still digging my way into a hole. And so there's nothing wrong with saying I'm going to put the shovel down.

me know put it in big bold fonts. If I don't put you on blast on the podcast, I try not to do that, so let me know. If you want to remain anonymous, that's perfectly fine. And uh, that's how you reach us.

it to make it better. We're for new students. If you sign up and you join us, it is we're giving you the first month free just to basically to try it out. So if you like it and then you know, because like I said, it's my mission to take us from the budgeting and saving to really the next level. And the only thing is that it's only free until for like I think you only have the opportunity to like Sunday or Saturday or something. So I

just wanted to share that. So if you wanted to learn more, you can go to join l R A for Literature Academy dot com. That's join LRA dot com. And yeah, I mean, it doesn't hurt you try it for free. You don't like it, then you can leave us.