So by now y’all, I have been a full-time entrepreneur for 6 years (not the fake one where you secretly have a job). And figuring this money shit out has been HARD and confusing. There are so many different things that you have to focus on when it comes to understanding, juggling, and growing your finances as an entrepreneur. The reason I think it can be difficult is because you have to think with two minds all the time. You have to use the mind of the business owner and then the mind of the individual. In addition, how you manage money as a person with a steady job is different from how you manage it as a business owner. So I have organized my thoughts and insights on what has worked for me so that you can hit the ground running and get your money right.

If you ARE STILL AT YOUR JOB AND are thinking about leaping PLEASE watch this first:

Now, of course, we all want money. But that’s not enough to be able to earn and use money appropriately. You have to UNDERSTAND money first and foremost. You have to be able to view money as a tool and understand the mechanics of money.

For that you know my ass, always has a book recommendation.

I read this book on a flight to Philly and it was life-changing. Who knew the psychology of money was so intricate yet so simple? I swear this book made me stop stressing about money and understand that once I embody the psychology of money it will flow easier. This book was insane and a MUST-read.

Next, you have to be able to get into the energy of money.

So ima keep a 100. I did NOT think I was going to like this book. I also went with the audible version and Amanda Frances has the classic Valley girl accent. I turned it off like what the fuck is this? BUT BAYBEE I WAS WRONG. Amanda knows her shit. She will have you questioning the entire way you think about how to make ANY amount of money. One of my favorite takeaways from this book is that we all have energetic matches for certain amounts of money set for us already in our subconscious.

So when you’re manifesting a million dollars but your mind can not even conceive or accept making over 100k a year this is what blocks the manifestation process. You have to put yourself in alignment energetically with the amount of money you’re trying to receive. She gives so many different ways how get your energy to match the amount you want to receive that is TANGIBLE. I listen to this book once a week. It’s that good.

The reason why I say this is easier to tackle is that there are fewer stipulations on HOW you handle your own money vs your business money. You have way more flexibility.

Most of the time when it comes to personal finances people don’t know their numbers, don’t have a budget, have no systems, and lastly no financial goals.

When I say know your numbers I mean the following:

How can you make a plan for your finances when don’t even know your starting numbers?

Before I became a business owner I was already very aware of my numbers but becoming a full-time business owner made me hyper-aware of these things.

Over the years, I’ve learned that I do better being digitally organized than I do on paper. So I use Monarch to budget everything. If you’re someone who doesn’t know your budget the cool thing is once you connect all bank accounts, credit card, and student loan accounts it will total the numbers for you into a budget based on what you've historically spent and then you adjust from there.

I like Monarch because they do all the crunching numbers for me.

If you don’t like a digital solution you can also use the cash envelope system, which is you come up with a budget for each category and put money into the envelopes and when the money is gone that's it, until the next month.

Having money system allows for you to be on top of your personal finances.

Personal finance is the process of planning and managing personal financial activities such as income generation, spending, saving, investing, and protection.

Y’all I just KNEW I had a money system because I had a monarch! Shit!!! I read the book “ I Will Teach You How to Be Rich” by Ramit Sethi and it got me all the way together.

He walks you through like a 6-week week plan to create real systems in for personal finances. Some changes I had to make were the following:

What I love is he gives recommendations for who to choose and why and how to set it up.

I also reorganized my bank accounts. In the past, I was always dipping into my bill money on accident when I was shopping. WHEW, this saved me so many overdraft fees😂. Here’s a deeper breakdown here

I also reorganized my bank accounts. In the past, I was always dipping into my bill money on accident when I was shopping. WHEW, this saved me so many overdraft fees😂. Here’s a deeper breakdown here

Thanks to the “I Will Teach You How To Be Rich” book, it made me hyper-focus on retirement. This is NOT optional. You will not be able to work your entire life, the goal is to be able to enjoy the end of your life without working like a damn slave. But that won’t happen if you never started saving for this. I see too many beloved adults in my community working well into their 70s because they couldn’t or didn’t make retirement a priority.

BRO IF YOU DON’T SAVE FOR RETIREMENT YOU WON’T HAVE ANYTHING WHEN YOU’RE OLD, WE DON’T GET SOCIAL SECURITY WHEN WE GET OLD (plus social security won’t probably even be a thing when we’re old)

Okay, I’m done yelling.

So I recommend opening up a ROTH IRA at the minimum. I opened mine at Fidelity but again in Remit’s book he gives you some more options.

You can also look into a SEP IRA as well.

This is Dave Ramsey’s 7-baby-step method. I think Steps 1-3 should be done in the exact order and then people get a little liberal around the order of 4-7. But at least this gives you a starting point to create some financial goals.

When I first started I was a hot mess, I would just spend the money that I got. I never appropriately moved the money to the correct account. At a basic level, you want to transfer money from your business account to your account. DO NOT SWIPE FOR PERSONAL EXPENSES OUT OF YOUR BUSINESS ACCOUNT.

The money that’s being transferred for your personal use is called an owner's draw. That's the money you’re paying yourself. Try to at least transfer the same amount every month if you can, so you’re creating a pattern and paper trail with the bank of consistent revenue.

This will help if you ever need to get approved for an apartment or try to buy a home.

Now the same way that you want to set up and organize your finances is the same way you want to organize your business money. THE BEST method I have found is using the profit first method.

This book changed my life. I found this early on in my journey and it teaches you to make sure you’re putting money aside for actual profit in the BUSINESS not just profit for you to spend as the owner. See below:

The profit-first method will make sure you are training yourself to have profit IN your business and for yourself as well.

From the very start of business, you want to be tracking your expenses, which is why I structured the steps in this specific order. You need to be able to show a clear separation between what the business makes vs you. In the beginning, you can do your bookkeeping. Use Quickbooks or Wave (free) But over time you want to be able to delegate that to someone else. Then once you have stabilized the business you want to hire a CPA to oversee filling your taxes, tax strategy, and analyze the numbers for the future.

THIS IS SO IMPORTANT.

Also, the most important reason why you need to be doing your bookkeeping is because that information is used to create a Profit and Loss statement or P&L.

If you are a business that needs funding, they will ask you for a Profit and Loss statement, TWO YEARS of tax returns, and a business plan. So if you know that you will need to go after funding it’s best to start right away on the right foot. Going back and trying to retroactively create all these documents is a BITCH. Trust me.

If you have an LLC like I do, then taxes aren’t that complicated. Your business taxes for your LLC are filed as a disregarded entity along with your personal taxes.

So you file your personal taxes and then attach something called a Schedule C form (Form 1040) along with the tax return. ( I do not recommend trying to do this yourself).

This is why bookkeeping is imperative because those numbers will go directly here

If you are behind on your business taxes, reach out to this company Bench Accounting or Hannah Financial.

Boom! That’s really the bulk of how to get your personal and business finances in order heres some other bite-size tips:

My intention with this newsletter is just to make sure we have covered the basics and set you up correctly. I had to figure all this stuff out myself and made a lot of mistakes along the way.