Mastering Your Money with Guest Meg Wheeler

Her course Biz Money Blueprint covers how to set up and manage the money stuff from accounting to taxes to pay on yourself while her one-on-one group coaching programs help entrepreneurs build scalable and profitable digital products. Now, I am super excited because Megan is a friend of mine. She's also a student who just enrolled in Speak Up to Level Up.

She's got a lot of really great insights between the connection of money, understanding your money and how that actually impacts your ability to become magnetic with your audience. So listen up.

So. Are you ready to become magnetic? I thought so. I'm Heather Sager and I'd like to welcome you to Finding Your It Factor. Alright, Welcome back to find in your it factor. I am so thrilled to have our second guest

Why don't you introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about what it is that you do.

I worked with big corporations to save them lots of money and now I work with my clients to really help them run what I call financially fit businesses so that they're not stressing about the accounting or the taxes or you know, which revenue streams are profitable or any of that stuff. Trying to figure that out.

But still to this day, I'm sitting here and I do not have a bookkeeper or an accountant and I'm super embarrassed by that because I feel like I need to have much better control of my money. And I think it started with I was making money in my business, which meant I didn't have to think much about it, but I'm at the point where I really need to be thinking and I'm kicking myself for not thinking about it sooner.

So , um , let's, I want to talk into that a little bit, but first kind of call out the who's this for today and on how talking about money in the financial health of your business, how that really connects to the topic of the show, which is helping the entrepreneurs listening to become more magnetic with their audience. So chat a little bit about that for me.

Whether that's certain things to do with the accounting or the taxes or from a legal entity perspective or even just making it easier for people to actually pay you money. All of those things should be in place, whether you're making $0 or whether you've already hit six figures. So I just want to throw that out there. And for anyone who is like you, who is sitting here sort of feeling like, Oh no, I have been ignoring this as well.

A lot of my clients are in the same spot and they come to me and they say, you know, I got so busy with the business, I just never got around to doing this stuff. And that's okay. Now is a good time to start. But I'm glad you asked the question you asked because I actually think this stuff goes well beyond whether or not you know you're in a good spot to file your taxes.

I always like to say that the way that you treat your business and the way that you put your business out in the world is how other people are going to treat your business. So if you're out there treating it seriously, you know, believing in the value that you provide, then other people are going to believe in that value as well. If you're not, if you don't put yourself out there and say, I'm worth it and I'm offering a lot, then why would other people ever pay for what you're offering?

So I think it really actually starts more with this mindset about putting yourself out there and saying, this business is real. It's serious. I'm here and I have a lot of value to offer.

So, okay, let me go into like simple foundational question, but when you talk about money and getting like financially fit and all the things within the business, like what are the actual things we're talking about here?

And within that bucket we're talking about figuring out what legal entity is right for you. And while you might be thinking, why are we talking about legal, you're a finance person, what entity you choose for your business or if you decide not to choose one and just be a sole proprietor by default absolutely affects the money stuff because it'll affect your tax situation, how you pay yourself and just lots of things like that.

And it also affects your personal liability, which can very much be a financial consequence. So that's one of the things. The second thing is to actually get a separate business bank account. This is such an easy thing, but it's so critically important in business. I work with a lot of people who come to me and they are just depositing everything in their personal bank account. And there are a whole host of reasons not to do that.

But I think the biggest one is you cannot track the numbers in your business and you cannot make sound business decisions if you aren't able to really understand the financials behind the business. And one of the best ways to do that is to have a separate business bank account. It literally takes you five minutes. I recommend AZLO, which is an online bank, a super simple, it's free. Um, and I , it's just, it's the easiest thing you can do right off the bat. So that's kind of the first bucket.

The second bucket is to actually set up systems, have a really good system for your accounting. Um, I talked to a lot of people who tell me that they're still using Excel or they're not tracking things at all. And I always like to say that if you track the numbers in your business, you can truly the financial health of your business and you'll get the critical data so that you can actually make better decisions.

And so, again, this is a pretty simple step, but I think people get really overwhelmed because there are so many options out there. One of my favorite systems for tracking me accounting is a system called Wave W, A, V, E and it's completely free and it's so easy to set up. So that's the second thing that I would recommend you do. And then the last is to actually start paying attention to your numbers. You've got to know your numbers.

If you're going to do three things, one, identify and correct errors or issues to find opportunities to save or make more money, and three, to have the data you need to make those better business decisions.

If you can bring on an accountant, great, but even if you are able to bring someone at , you've got to understand this stuff yourself because you're still the business owner. You are still effectively functioning as the CFO, the chief financial officer of your business. You need to understand this stuff so that you can properly oversee that function of your business.

That was one thing I did out of the gate. But is there a difference between just opening up a second checking account that's personal versus opening up an actual technical business account?

And I say most I, I honestly think it's all but I'm sure if whenever I say, you know all, someone proves me wrong with one example, but pretty much all banks do that and I actually was talking with someone who is a Bay who used to be in the banking regulation industry and I actually believe that there are laws that require banks to actually do that. So don't just go out and get a separate personal account. Now I want to just expand on that a little bit more.

I say get a separate business bank account for your business. Okay . I also actually recommend getting a separate bank account to save for your taxes and that way you know when money comes in, you can take out whatever percentage you decide is necessary. You can take that out and put that directly into a separate bank account so that when it comes to pay those quarterly taxes, you've already got that money saved up. I would not keep that money in your business operating checking account.

I wouldn't keep it in your personal account. I would keep it completely separate. So it's actually opening two business bank accounts.

You have to pretend like it's not there.

It's just one way that we compensate each other for the services or products we're providing. And I think we need to remember that there's nothing inherently good or bad about money. So the example I often give is, you know, if I have, you know, you've got a podcast and I have a podcast. So if I say, Hey, I'll come on yours if you come on mine , that's not what we did here. But what if we did talk about that later . We'll talk about that later.

Yeah. Um, you know, mine has nothing to do with business, but yeah, we know. But if that's what we did, that's the same thing as me paying you to coach me for an hour. It's just another way that I'm compensating you and you're compensating me for what? For the time that we're providing. So there's nothing inherently good or bad about it.

So the first principle that I want people to understand, the second principle that I want people to understand, and this is the one that people who say, I don't like to talk about the numbers. This is the one that I really need you to understand. Your financial numbers in your business provide crucial business insights.

I talked to so many entrepreneurs who can tell me without taking a breath how many Instagram followers they have or website visitors or you know what their email open rate is or their click through rate. They know these numbers like the back of their hand because they understand that these metrics provide them with crucial data to tell them what people are doing and how people and how many people are interacting with our business on a daily basis.

But when I asked them, well, what's your profit margin? What's your customer acquisition costs? They sort of look at me like I have four heads . These financial numbers are exactly like all of those other metrics they are going to provide you with crucial business insights because they're going to tell you a couple of things.

One, they're going to tell you how financially healthier businesses, if you're not turning a profit in your business, you need to know that so that you can make adjustments, whether it's to your pricing or your expenses or some other aspect of your model. You're not going to know that until you know what your profit margin is.

If you don't know your client acquisition costs , how much it costs you to bring on every client to get that client, then how can you ever make decisions about how much to spend on Facebook ads or whether or not you should host, you know , this event or travel to that event or do this type of marketing if you don't know what it actually costs you to get that client and what you can spend to get that client.

So these metrics, and those are just two , there's a ton of them are going to give you the insight and the data that you need to make these types of decisions in your business.

And, I think if anyone's listening to this kind of scared to know what is there , what are their rates in those areas that you talked , right ? They don't want to know, they're just going to hide from them. Um , and a lot of times I see in Facebook groups, so we all know we're all part of those big Facebook groups where we're talking about other business owners who are doing things similar. And everybody's always asking questions around what other people's numbers are.

How much should I be spending on Facebook ads? What should be my earnings per lead for a Facebook ad? What should be my, whatever the metric is, right? And while it's important to get benchmarks from other, like to know what other people are doing, if you don't have your own information and your own numbers to reference I mean other people's numbers, don't really matter unless you know where you're starting from and what your results have been in the past.

So I think that's a really powerful thing to talk about is the like if you don't know your numbers, you shouldn't even be worried asking about what other people's numbers are. Like the only question you should be answering is where you stand today.

And that gives me a better sense for what I need to make from an event or what I can afford to spend in order to get those people. And if I don't know those numbers then I'm just going to be all over the place guessing and hoping it works out and hoping I make enough money to sort of earn back my time and my investment I've put into that. And so you've really got to know those things.

And you know, at the beginning you're not going to know them, you're going to have to kind of figure them out as you go along. But that's why it's also important to keep checking back in and keep updating them and you know, continuing to dive into that data to really get a sense for where your business is at, because that's what's going to give you the information you need to make these decisions.

So you know, if you are the kind of person who doesn't check your bank account for a while because you just don't want to see where it's at or you know, open, it doesn't open up that credit card bill because you're terrified what it's gonna look like. You know when you, or you put it off for months and months and months, maybe you haven't been doing your accounting, you're like, Oh, I'll worry about that in April when it's tax time.

Honestly the harder, or sorry, the longer you push it off, the harder this stuff gets both because do you then have a lot of work to do to catch up, but also because if you wait, you know, a couple of months and then you check your bank account and realize that things aren't as good as maybe you were hoping they were. Now you have so much less time to mitigate that and course correct and make some adjustments.

So as uncomfortable as it is for me, and I don't want anyone to think that like I love this stuff. I don't love checking my bank account always. You know, I get those same anxieties too, but I do it every week because I know that that allows me to catch things you know as quickly as possible and correct them so that I'm never putting myself or my business in jeopardy of something, you know, of some deeper consequences.

And especially in those times I need to be on top of my numbers because if I make one misstep, you know, I might be in a tough situation in my business. And so I've got to make sure that everything is kind of flowing the way that it should be.

They provide you with important data so that you can make better business decisions. And the third is that the more you ignore your numbers or the longer you ignore your numbers, the harder it gets. So it's better to just not push off the inevitable. Stay on top of checking them, even if it feels uncomfortable because it's going to save you a lot of time, money, and hassle down the road.

Number two is to open that separate business bank account that we talked about and ideally actually opening to one for your regular operating expenses and then a second one for your tax savings for when you make those quarterly tax payments. The third is to choose an accounting system that works for you.

Focus on choosing one that's easy, automates as much as possible and um, and integrates well with your bank, your credit card, your, you know, if you sell things through Stripe or PayPal or whatever it is that it can integrate well with those systems as well. The fourth, and we haven't talked about this one yet, but this is make it easy for people to give you money. So no matter what you're selling, don't make them jump through hoops to actually pay you.

Take credit card payments, make your payment links really easy. Use systems that people are already set up on, like square, like Stripe that already has their information in there . Don't make them jump through hoops to actually pay you. The fifth is to save for and pay your quarterly estimated taxes. This is something that a lot of the entrepreneurs I work with either aren't doing or just don't have a good system for.

Um, and it's, it's something that will absolutely save you a lot of hassle down the road, but it will also save you money too. Because if you're not making those payments come April when you have to file your tax return, you might get hit with fines and penalties if you owe money. And the F the six is to actually create a budget, but understand that a budget is a working document and refine it on a regular basis. So don't feel like just because you didn't hit it right the first month you failed.

That's not it at all. It's an ongoing project that you're continually getting closer and closer to your goal every month. And then my seventh is to set up what I call money meetings. I like to recommend that you do these every other week for about 30 to 60 minutes. And this is where you're actually checking in with your money stuff. You're looking at your revenues, your expenses, what you owe people, what people owe you. You're looking at your cashflow for the next couple of months.

You know, we were talking about those ebbs and flows. You know, do you have enough cash to pay your bills over the next few months? Do you need to do something differently? So those money meetings are going to be really critical to get you in that habit of just constantly checking in again to spot issues and errors, to find opportunities to save and make money and to give you the data you need to make better business decisions. So those are my seven.

But even if you don't grab that toolkit , one of the things that I would do when you sit down for these Monday meetings is just focus on observations . So even if it's 15 minutes every other week, just pull up your accounting system, pull up your numbers and just start to notice what you see. Have your revenues gone up or down, have your expenses gone up or down? Um , calculate your profit, which is your revenues minus your expenses. You know, what does that look like?

And just start to notice things between each meeting. And I think you'll start to see how your business is trending and things will start to pop out for you. And I think it's then that people start to get curious like, Oh, that's really interesting. I wonder why that went down. Let me dig into that. And it's at that point that money meetings can, can start to spiral for some people because they've actually, they're hooked now. Now they're like, Oh , I got to know what's going on.

Let me, let me check into this. So that's my tip is really to focus on those observations. And I think you're going to find that you get pretty curious pretty quickly and all of a sudden those money meetings aren't so boring anymore.

And then finally to knowing your numbers and setting up these money meetings. And going back to our conversation earlier, we even talk about in the course whether or not you should hire a bookkeeper and a CPA and/or a CPA and you know when to do that and how to know which one is the right one for you. And what I love so much about this course is, you know, my goal is to get all of you to having this stuff set up as quickly and painlessly as possible.

So in every lesson of the course, I'm giving you very tangible action steps. I'm giving you a very clear path, you know, do A, B and C so that you can really check these things off your list, get through the program and then feel confident that you've got everything set up and you don't have to worry about this stuff anymore. So it's, I just, I, I created this because I was so excited to simplify this for people because I think this stuff gets really overwhelming and it doesn't need to be

You know, you dove in, you were making a lot of money and you just didn't have the time or you set up some of this stuff, but you're not totally sure that you did it in the right way or that it's the right fit for your business. So I like to say it's good to both set up and clean up the money stuff in your business.

But there comes a point where maybe it would be a good idea to get on an actual like proven plan that can help you get to your results. And it just reminded me of that is like we all know that looking at the numbers and a lot of things we talked about today, it all makes sense, but sometimes even if we've been at this for a while , having a program to help us make sure that we're doing the right things in the most efficient way will help us get to our results faster.

So weird analogy, but I feel like it totally fits here.

And the thing that I want to give you kudos for is I had no idea who you were for quite a while , but I remember seeing your name pop up consistently in these different Facebook groups. You asking questions, or you jumping on to give other people advice and value. And I just want to give you big props for being visible and getting yourself out there. Because I think a lot of times for people listening

So I, I'm just kind of curious, can you share with us a little bit about your journey in growing your business over the last year and what that's looked like for you of getting more confident stepping into the spotlight?

I was still kind of figuring out what I was going to offer and how I was gonna work with people and what people wanted. But I knew that what I could bring to the table was to be supportive of other people and to cheer people on. And the way that I was able to do that confidently and you know , in a way that made me want to keep doing it is I found a way to do it being myself.

So as you may know, because you're in the groups with me, I am a huge fan of gifs , GIF, not GIFTs, although I liked gifts too, but I'm a huge fan of gifs. I think they bring a little humor to the situation. I don't think there's anything we need to say in life that cannot be said with a gif. So for me, showing up and kind of giving my support in that way and picking, you know, something funny or appropriate to respond to, people helped me stand out.

But it also helped me show up in a way that didn't feel overwhelming. Like, Oh, I've got to show up and I got to write all these comments and you know, what am I going to say? And you know, it , it felt, it wasn't as hard to put myself out there when I was able to do it in a way that was really comfortable for me. So I think it's just finding your thing, you know, whether it's that you like to be really helpful with something or you just like to be supportive and cheer people on.

It's just finding the way that you feel comfortable showing up and then doing more of that and people will notice it.

I'm glad we're really, really touching on this, but number two, like it's, you're a really, really great example of this, this unassuming way of showing up and getting seen without raising your hands over your head, screaming, look at me like it's going up and being present. And a lot of times that's just being in Facebook groups could actually lead to a lot of really big things for you and for your business. And look, here we are. Now you're a guest on the show.

So having not only that presence about you and doing the gifs, but also being able to slide in your words of wisdom when it's relevant around what you do, people will start coming up with that name association.

When you go to the link, she's promised me there'll be a waitlist so you can get on that for the next time it comes around. Um , but before we say goodbye, Meg , anything else that you would like to share with the audience related to money or becoming more magnetic or any words from your heart?

Thank you so much for having me on. This was fun. Of course. All right , and thank you all for listening. If you liked what you heard today, don't forget to click that five star review on iTunes, leave a comment and of course please go tell Meg you heard her. Leave her a direct message on Instagram. She'd love to hear from you. We'll see you guys next week.

guys, thanks so much for listening to Finding Your It Factor and Hey, if you have a talk coming up, you have to check out my free resource. It's called Nail Your Next Talk 10 must ask questions before taking the stage so you can show up as an authority and turn that talk into future business. These are the questions that I use myself to prepare for my live talks, and they're going to help you ask the right questions of the person who booked you for the event.

So the meeting planner or the client, and it's going to help you serve your audience to the best way possible. It's going to help you anticipate potential tech or AV snags. Turn the Q and A time into a strategic place for content and make this speaking opportunity, a lead generator for your business. So go get it now. What are you waiting for? It's over at heathersager.com forward slash 10 questions [inaudible] .