I genuinely believe that the first step to addressing any negative feelings you have about money as a business owner is to look at your financial situation head-on. Without looking at data and hearing feedback, you will never have a real understanding of your actual financial situation. That being said, I cannot deny the fact that despite all we do for our clients to make them feel financially empowered, there is a psychological and emotional component to how they relate to money that can stop t...
May 04, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast 509…that’s the number of online entrepreneurs who have reached out to us about our bookkeeping services. Across all of these email conversations and discovery calls, there is one big theme that keeps coming up. These entrepreneurs feel shame, guilt, frustration, or stress over how they manage their finances. It doesn’t matter if they have been managing their books themselves or if they’ve been using a bookkeeper—they still don’t feel like they have a grip on their numbers. Why do so many online ...
Apr 27, 2020•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Online entrepreneurs of all sizes love to complicate their businesses—why? Because they think it’s supposed to get more complicated, more sophisticated, more like a big corporation over time. After years of watching successful online businesses thrive, we’ve come to realize that simplifying and streamlining is the real path to building a business that operates smoothly and builds wealth for the owner over the long run. A foundational piece of this is having real clarity around your business mode...
Apr 20, 2020•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast If I were to start a new business right now, the first thing I would do is create a spreadsheet and map out its financial structure. What are our software expenses going in? Will we need to outsource or hire for initial projects? Do I need to go through any business training? Will there be any cost of goods associated with the product? If the numbers look good, then I’d move on to product development, marketing, operations, etc. If the numbers don’t seem to make sense, however, then I wouldn’t w...
Apr 13, 2020•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast What COVID-19 is teaching entrepreneurs about financial risk Being an entrepreneur is inherently risky. I honestly don’t think you can be an entrepreneur without being comfortable taking risks. It’s the primary reason EVERYONE isn’t starting a business. What many business owners realize too late, unfortunately, is that entrepreneurship is also about managing and mitigating that risk as much as possible. The COVID-19 situation is teaching us all a hard lesson about managing and mitigating risk ri...
Apr 06, 2020•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you’ve listened to this podcast for a while, then you know I’m a huge proponent of getting your personal finances in order. When you’re not clear on your household expenses and long-term goals you can put undue stress and pressure on your business. That’s why I broke away from our normal discussions around online business strategies and am sharing an interview I did with Colin Exelby, a Certified Financial Planner. Colin has 20 years of experience helping people navigate the stock market and ...
Mar 30, 2020•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast I don’t know about you, but last week shook me more than I was expecting. The reality of COVID-19 hit the US hard, both economically and socially. We’ve never really experienced anything like this before, and I think it shocked a lot of us to see our realities change so rapidly with school closures, offices shutdowns, and empty grocery aisles. This is the type of situation that can leave you feeling paralyzed. When you’re a business owner, you can’t afford to stay frozen in place, which is why f...
Mar 23, 2020•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you’ve been paying even just a little bit of attention to the news headlines over the last couple weeks, you’ll know that the US economy is not looking good. Between Coronavirus and a huge downturn in the US stock market, Americans are feeling a bit on edge about the immediate future. Economists are in agreement that a recession is on the way (I think it’s here already). What does that mean for your online business? It means you need to adapt and have a plan. That’s why in this episode, we di...
Mar 16, 2020•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast There is so much about running an online business that you just have to figure out as you go along. One of those things is learning how to protect your business from a legal standpoint. Like with finance and taxes, you can only get so far managing this aspect of your business without having to go and get a new degree. Unless you already have one, I don’t think most business owners are rushing out to apply to law school just to write a privacy policy for their website. That’s why for today’s epis...
Mar 09, 2020•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Running an online business can be crazy hectic. So much so that it often doesn’t feel like you can address all the needs of your business quickly enough. One of the first things online entrepreneurs neglect on that list of to-do items is their finances. Why? Because if you’re generating revenue, the numbers will work themselves out…right? Wrong! The numbers for a small business are just as important as the numbers for a huge corporation, and there are so many reasons why you need to have a grip ...
Mar 02, 2020•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast The internet is awesome! It’s connected the world in ways that very few could have ever predicted. The impact it’s had on entrepreneurship and business, in general, is monumental in its own right. However, despite all the benefits the web has had on our ability to find and connect with our customers, we’re seeing a growing number of our clients put an emphasis on getting in front of their customers and audiences in person. As a mega extrovert and all-around people lover, I’m very into the idea o...
Feb 24, 2020•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Making decisions is what being a business owner is all about. Sometimes those decisions can feel small and easy, and other times they can feel complicated and daunting. When the decisions start to revolve around money, many online entrepreneurs start to seize up and lose confidence. At the end of the day, you need to know where you stand before you can make a decision about which direction your business should take. That’s why in this episode, we discuss: What you need as an entrepreneur to make...
Feb 17, 2020•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s probably not surprising, but most business coaches would not recommend starting your business with a business partner. Do I feel the same way? Yes and no. Yes, in that we’ve seen several business partnerships go sour due to the relationship complexities that come from running a business together. No, in that my personal experience of participating in a business partnership has been extremely positive. So much so that I can’t imagine ever starting a business without a partner. So for this ep...
Feb 10, 2020•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you’ve been listening to our podcast for a while, then you know how much I talk about how profit is underrated while revenue is overrated. Going into 2020, I still stand by that sentiment. However, with the online business space changing so much with each passing year, what will it take to make your business as profitable as possible in 2020? That’s why in this episode, we discuss: The key expenses all entrepreneurs will need to watch closely in 2020 Why your business model is going to have a...
Jan 27, 2020•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast I recently joined a Facebook group that one of our new clients hosts (a group for course creators), and one of the top posts was a Youtube video from an entrepreneur named Alex Becker (apparently he’s pretty well known, but I’m not familiar with him). In this particular video , Alex shares his thoughts on why he thinks the online business industry is collapsing and why it’s going to get worse. I thought Alex made some good points, but I also feel it’s a bit extreme to say the online business wor...
Jan 20, 2020•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Everyone wants to grow their businesses. It’s kind of the point of entrepreneurship. We’re also always looking for easier ways to drive revenue for our businesses. If we’re going to make more sales, why not take the easiest route possible? That’s where revenue sharing relationships can come into play. It can seem like an easy way to create a new revenue stream or grow a revenue stream that already exists without having to do all the work yourself, but based on what we’ve seen with our clients, y...
Jan 13, 2020•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s been a great year for Evolved Finance. Our business has grown, our clients’ businesses have grown, and our podcast has grown… so much growth! As we’ve grown, one challenge that has emerged is figuring out how to hire the right people to expand our team and scale our bookkeeping business. Doing the books for so many online businesses, we also see patterns in how our clients are approaching their own growth and what investments they’re making as they look to the future. For this episode, I wa...
Dec 25, 2019•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast The more experience I get as an entrepreneur, the more I realize that I’m playing a weird and complicated game. And while it can be a frustrating and scary game, it can also be highly rewarding and lucrative if played properly. If we break down the core functions involved in running a business of any kind, then we’re actually playing two games at once. Game #1 is all about generating revenue and income. Game #2 is all about managing and utilizing that revenue as effectively as possible. All entr...
Dec 16, 2019•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast I’m getting down to brass tacks this week. We’re already into December, which means a new year is around the corner. And with the end of the old year, tax season is just around the corner. As we step into 2020, NOW is the time to start prepping for your 2019 taxes. For this episode, I wanted to urge everyone listening to take action on their tax prep NOW: Why you should be reaching out to your current accountant NOW Why you need to get your books in order NOW Why you need to find a new accountan...
Dec 09, 2019•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s getting close to the end of the year, which means business owners across the country are freaking out about their tax bills. When it comes to taxes, there is a misconception in the entrepreneur community that you should spend a bunch of money at the end of the year to reduce your tax bill. That somehow getting a bunch of new stuff you don’t need is better because you’re maximizing your deductions. We are not a fan of this strategy at all, but for reasons that we think every online entrepren...
Nov 25, 2019•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bookkeepers for entrepreneurs are a lot like mechanics for people that don’t know anything about cars. As a car owner, you trust that your mechanic is doing the work they say they’re doing because you don’t really have an easy way to double-check it. Bookkeeping is ultimately pretty similar. Your bookkeeper tells you they’ve done the work each month, but you don’t know if it’s been done properly or if they’re even working on the right things at all. In our experience, the work we see other bookk...
Nov 18, 2019•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Starting a business has some inherent risks that I think most entrepreneurs are aware of. You risk investing your own money in a business that doesn’t end up making a profit. With online businesses, the initial investment to get them off the ground is so low, that the financial loss of a failed business isn’t that ground shaking. Especially when you compare it to the capital needed to open restaurants, retail stores, and other more classic brick-and-mortar businesses. These businesses usually in...
Nov 11, 2019•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast There is something about finance and money that makes entrepreneurs feel like they’re never doing enough. It’s the same feeling they get when they don’t feel like they’re working out enough or haven’t been eating as healthy as they would like to. Often, these feelings can get so overwhelming that it feels like you’re better off doing nothing than risking the chance you’ll get bad news. But it’s important as an entrepreneur to understand which numbers are worth looking at a lot and which ones onl...
Nov 04, 2019•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast I don’t know how to say this gently, so I’m just going to say it. Very few accountants are good at bookkeeping. I share this because many entrepreneurs believe that it would make sense to have the person filing their taxes also be the person that’s managing their bookkeeping. This arrangement would seem both convenient and logical, right? Unfortunately for online entrepreneurs, they usually end up disappointed with the experience because they realize that the bookkeeping service they’re receivin...
Oct 28, 2019•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’re in a unique position at Evolved Finance. We get to see behind the scenes of some of the most successful online businesses in the industry. After years of serving online entrepreneurs with their bookkeeping, it’s almost inevitable that we’ve started to see patterns in not just our client’s numbers, but also in the decisions they make in their businesses. While all our clients have reached a level of success that most aspiring entrepreneurs wish to achieve, our most successful clients seem t...
Oct 21, 2019•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast As human beings, our relationships with money can be diverse and complicated, particularly for those of us raised and working in the US. Regardless of your outlook on money, materialism, consumerism, etc, it’s still important to understand what a healthy relationship with money looks like for you. This is one of those cases where what you don’t know can hurt you. The only thing worse than not knowing about your finances is running into an unexpected “surprise.” As entrepreneurs, our relationship...
Oct 14, 2019•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’ve been in the fortunate position to see a lot of online businesses go from moderate success to massive success in less than a year. In fact, most of our new clients see their businesses grow after the first 12 months of working with us, so we’ve come to expect some sort of growth for all our clients each year, even if it’s just a little bit. The one thing that is not guaranteed with a growing business is profit. There are a lot of expenses that come into running an online business that you m...
Oct 07, 2019•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast In last week’s episode, we began our discussion around what it takes to invest in the long-term success of an online business. In today’s episode, we dive deeper into the strategies and actions we’ve seen our clients embrace to build businesses that will be thriving years from now. Models have changed from even a few years ago, and it’s not just about making a quick buck but building something sustainable. That means that even if your business is reliant on one main offer, you find other ways to...
Sep 30, 2019•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Running a business online is still a relatively new frontier. It feels like only 10-15 years ago, people were still uncomfortable typing in their credit card info to buy a used book on Amazon. Consumers have come a long way when it comes to being comfortable doing business online, but we still see many entrepreneurs operating like they’re trying to make a quick buck and cash out instead of aiming to build sustainable businesses. Building an online business that’s in it for the long run goes far ...
Sep 23, 2019•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is one of the most important leadership positions in an organization. But are they really necessary for most online businesses? A CFO, with the help of their finance team, is ultimately responsible for tracking, organizing, reporting, and analyzing all the financial data in a company. A business is only as successful as its profit and loss statement, and when you’re doing things like managing inventory or multiple payments in and out of a business with millions ...
Sep 16, 2019•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
