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You are now tuned in to the mom CEO suite podcast.

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I'm your host, Felicia, wife, mom, and

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entrepreneur. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my mompreneur

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journey along with strategies that will help you build your online

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business operations in a sustainable way. The goal is

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to help you build a business that fits into your lifestyle as a mom who

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values putting family first. We will also hear the

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experiences and expertise of other moms with service

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based businesses. You'll get a peek into our journeys so you'll

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know that you aren't alone. Motherhood gets hard.

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Entrepreneurship gets hard. But together we can

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do hard things. Welcome to the suite.

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All right. Hey, friends, welcome to another episode. Thank you so much

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for being here with us today. Um, today we have another guest and

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our guest is Ayanna Vaughn and she knows numbers.

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The CEO and founder of a lovely financials

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group, which is her Metro Atlanta based CFO firm.

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Which aims to provide the support needed to aid women, business owners and brands

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at any scale, recognize and optimize key

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opportunities for wealth acquisition and management.

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In applying her methods, clients have been able to see an increase in

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their overall profit margins and the maintenance of healthy

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revenue streams. While she has seen her clients exceed

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seven figure margins by implementing her teachings, she understands

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that true fulfillment comes with the accompaniment of much more.

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Her journey of healing through faith Faith and spiritual awakening has

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emboldened her creativity and strengthened her confidence

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beyond the numbers, a reality she seeks to see

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every woman achieve. That is so beautiful. Hi, Ayana.

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Welcome to the suite. How are you? I'm doing so good, Felicia. Thank you so

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much for having me on. It's so interesting. Like hearing you read the bio because

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it was like, Oh, okay. This sounds really good. Right. That's always how I am.

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I'm like, Oh wow. They're talking about me. Right? Like, Oh, okay. That's

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so funny. So, so glad that you are here today. And just a

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quick plug. I met or connected with Ayana on.

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Threads actually. it's just a different atmosphere and you're able to connect with, just

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people who you haven't come in contact with. So, uh, connect with us over

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on threads, but I gotta tell us a little bit more about

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you and really, how did you get into the work that you're doing

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today? Oh my goodness. So, um, my

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story is not the typical like accounting major

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to corporate to entrepreneurship pipeline. It's like,

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I went to college for originally healthcare management, but if we go

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further back, I wanted to be a psychologist. I

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wanted to help people understand themselves. A lot of my

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friendships developed with like deep conversations. So I was

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keen to learn about psychology in college. And then my family was

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like, Do nursing. I'm like, I don't trust, I don't have good hand eye coordination.

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Y'all call me butterfingers. I'm always dropping things. Why would you

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expect that I would be a nurse? Absolutely not. So I got

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into healthcare management, which is the business behind healthcare. And

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I took a few accounting classes and I fell in love with accounting. And

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then I told myself, I want to be a CFO at a hospital one day

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and come to find out towards the end of my college career, I was

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expecting. So I told myself, okay, I'm not going to change my

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major just yet. Let me get through this, this bachelor degree

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so that I can come, come back to school after I have my daughter. And,

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um, long story short, after I had her literally,

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I walked across the stage, December of 2013. I had her

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January 2nd of 2014. So it was

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right there. And while I was in school, I had

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technically graduated in the summer of 2013. And

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at that point, every trimester I was adding on a job. I was working

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like three jobs. It was a lot. And, um, when I

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had her, instead of going back to three jobs,

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I decided to be a host parent, which is kind of like a

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foster mom to adults, but. Um, special needs or

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developmental disabilities. So I know really,

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really different story. So as I was

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essentially a mom of three overnight, I was overwhelmed at this

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point, I was a few years in, I was going on 25. I was like,

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what kind of creative outlet can I do for myself? And that's when I got

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into like crafts. I got into like blogging. Like I had a

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blog, it was cute. It was a great community. Um, but

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the, the sauce was when I joined, I was,

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I saw so many women have online businesses and they were crushing their goals, but

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they were really afraid to talk about money. So I was like, wait, you know,

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I love accounting at the time. I would like tutors, like other students on the

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weekends. Like my professor was like, change your major, change them. I'm like, Oh, wait,

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wait, wait. But. Fast forward to this point, I was

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like, Okay, how can I conceptualize everything that I learned in school about

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accounting to create a business? So that's when I came across the

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bookkeeping. Um, it was basically bookkeeping in a box like type of

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course, So I invested in that course. I invested in myself. I was,

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I never thought I would be a, an entrepreneur or a business owner.

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And, um, that's when I had my first few clients who were

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bloggers. And during that time, they were able to like,

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understand, well, first. They had bookkeeping done for

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tax season. I was first and foremost getting the books done right. And then

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as I would meet with clients, I would prepare financial statements

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and I would educate them on their financials. So it kind of was

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more of like a gradual inorganic filling in gaps

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as I've seen, like, First, let me help you at least

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get your bookkeeping done for tax season. Okay, now let me

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educate you. Now going beyond education and creating

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strategies to help them improve their financial picture was the next

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gap that I filled. So I went above and beyond.

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bookkeeping to more financial strategy. And now we do

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fractional CFO services with our clients. And what's so interesting is

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that because I bet on myself and I invested in

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myself during that time, I was able to witness and have the

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honor of witnessing like clients, like exploding in their businesses,

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like growing their businesses, even like helping them through growing pains or like.

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Pivoting and things of that nature. So it's been a beautiful journey. And

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again, it's not the typical, but it's, it's a little unique story.

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No, I love that. I don't think anybody's story ends up being typical, right?

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Because it's just so different pieces that all at

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some point kind of combined to get you to where you are today.

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But I love that you said you invested in yourself. And then because of that,

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other people were able to kind of see their growth and

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develop in their way. And that just kind of goes to the point. I know

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a lot of times we, we might be second guessing ourselves or,

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you know, afraid to invest in ourselves or just do the thing that we feel

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like we're supposed to be doing, but it's literally. You know, you

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hear it a lot, there's people attached to you and people are waiting for you

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to kind of walk into what you're supposed to be doing so that they can

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experience their, their freedom, their growth and all those things. So

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I absolutely love that about your story. I do agree with that.

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Sometimes, you know, we don't like to talk about the numbers, but we're going to

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talk about it a little bit today. Um, so one

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of the things that can kind of get, I won't say

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confusing, but It's a little muddy sometimes in the

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online space. Can you explain to us the difference

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between what a bookkeeper is? Because you did mention the

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bookkeeping, um, between a bookkeeper and

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accountant and a CFO, how do their roles differ?

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Yeah. So a bookkeeper does the day to day trend. Like they,

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all the transactions that come in. And your bank account,

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your credit cards, or they're coding the transactions

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and they may or may not produce financial statements. But if they do, they

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are overseen typically by an accountant who's able to

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collect that data. Just make sure like, do a quality check

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and then they're able to. Report the findings to a

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client and then a CFO does more of like,

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okay, let's get out of the weeds of the day to day. Let's look at

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the future. What are the next 3 to 5 years? Like, what are your

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goals? And how do we get from point A to point B? So to

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summarize again, bookkeeping is like day to day operations, like

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the This came in here, revenue came in expenses,

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and then we're computing your profit, creating your financial

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statements. And those financial statements are typically the income

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statement, aka known as the profit and loss statement, the balance

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sheet. Which it tells your assets, which, which is what you

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own liabilities, which is what you owe an equity, which is

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what's left over. And then we have that statement of cash flows. You may, you

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may not get this if you have a bookkeeper, but this is important because it

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tells you how your cash flows in your business. So

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a lot of these terms, right? Bookkeepers have definitely

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evolved. As of late, right? They're doing more than just

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reconciling transactions, which is just making sure that the

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bank statements, the credit card statements matches up with what's in the

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accounting platform. They're doing more these days, right? They're doing more

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advisement. But, um, typically when you are

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working with any of these professionals, right? You want to ensure that the

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scope of service matches and going

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back to an accountant. Not only do they prepare the statements and Give you

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an analysis. They might do tax accounting, right? they might

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do payroll for you. They might do,

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um, sales tax, different, different areas,

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right? So essentially, the main important thing is

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making sure that you have the right scope of service.

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With whoever you're working with because they, they do different things. some accountants don't

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do taxes. Some do some only work with specific

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industries. That's such a good breakdown and

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good advisement too, right? Because just know who you're

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working with and what the scope of work is going to be. Um, so you

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did mention profit as well. And I know you just released a podcast

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episode by the time this airs, it'll be one of your past episodes.

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But again, it's kind of differentiating and

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explaining these different financial terms. And

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so I'm going to put the link to that episode in the show description. But

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you're talking about what. The profit is versus cashflow

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versus cash one hand. And again, I think sometimes

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we hear this stuff and it's like, well, what is this? Or I'll just let

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my, my, my accountant take care of that. Right. But we do need to kind

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of know what these things mean. So we're not going to dig into it

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today, but I'm going to link it in the show description so that you all

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can listen to that episode and kind of get the information that you need.

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But having said that, you know, I mentioned you have a podcast and your podcast

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is called, uh, Harmonious wealth. And I love that

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title, right? We talk about work life harmony here at the mom CEO suite.

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And so can you explain to us though, what does that mean for

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you? and for your brand, what is harmonious wealth?

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Mm. Well, first, thank you. I do appreciate that. And

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when I saw that you have like work life harmony, I'm like, Oh yeah, we,

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we, we here, we here. But to me, harmonious wealth

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is having more than just the financial wealth, but more

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so your inner wealth, more so like having harmony between

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different areas of your life, especially as a mom business owner.

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Especially, especially right. Because you have, you want to have wealth

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spiritually, mentally, physically, your

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health, right. So with harmonious wealth, I wanted to showcase

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online entrepreneurs, especially moms who strive to

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build their businesses and they're stressing themselves out. And

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instead of having you working for your business, flipping

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it and having your business work for you. So I'm a major

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advocate for making sure that your business, not only are you

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serving God's children, not only are you serving community, but your business must

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also serve you. And that is through accomplishing both your immediate

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lifestyle goals, as well as your legacy goals. And harmonious wealth

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talks about all those different things while educating you on your

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financial picture and understanding finances as a whole. You mentioned the

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legacy goals, right? And I don't think we talk about

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this enough in our community. Um, just the legacy.

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What's going to happen when you're not here? What do you want to happen

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after? You know, are you going to close your business? are you going to pass

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your business down? I know you talk a lot about legacy

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plans. So can you explain to us what a

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legacy plan is? And then you started talking about it a little bit, but

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why it's important for female, especially mom entrepreneurs to

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create one. Yeah. So first a legacy goal,

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it encompasses so much, right? But from the scope of service that we

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work with our clients, we're the first step to like actually

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talking about your personal goals and your future goals. So I

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want to kind of gather as much information for clients to say, okay,

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if I know your personal goals, I know where you want to be in the

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future. I know what you want to do when you retire. I can kind of

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grasp that picture with you. Now, how can we move

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forward to Execute on it as well as

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accelerate it. But overall, a legacy goal is essentially having a

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plan for not only yourself, but for your family

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generations to come. So it involves like your estate

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plan, right? And involves like making sure that you have a business

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success. Succession plan. Like you mentioned, like, are you going to close the business? Are

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you going to pass it on? Are you going to sell it? Whatever have you,

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what is your personal legacy going to look like? What would you want to be

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your most successful accomplishment? What does that mean for you? You know, is it

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like raising, um, well rounded children?

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Is it like making sure that your, your goal for your community

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is to serve X amount of people? and then also what are your

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philanthropic goals? Like, how are you going to give back to the community?

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So encompassing all of those things go into your legacy goal.

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And what I do is help clients identify or at least

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the first step of identifying it. Because up until that point, they're not

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talking about retirement. They're not talking about years in advance. They're talking about the next

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quarter, the next year and salary, right. Which are all great

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things, but how can we get out of just the weeds of our business and

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look. Three years in advance, at least. How can we look like, how

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can we place a specific date or age

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when you're going to retire? Like, what do you want to retire with things like

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that? so the legacy plan that I do with my clients

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goes into like, what do you love most about your life? What do you love

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most about your business? When do you want to retire? What does a day in

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a life look like when you retire? And most of the time, this is their

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first conversation. And I'm like, okay, let's, let's, let's kind of dig more

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into this. I'm curious. Like, how can we like make this a reality based off

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of your business? So I'm a big believer that your business should be

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one of the first or one of the top wealth generators for you, because

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if you read the book. The cashflow quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki.

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He talks about like the four different areas in which you earn money.

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First is through as an employee. The second is through

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like a self employed business owner, right? So now you go from one boss to

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many, but you're doing most of the work yourself. And then it goes to

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business. So my, I'm trying to help clients go from two to more. So

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three where their business. Runs like the business funds,

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their life and their wealth through their operations,

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having the right team in place. And then also like pouring out

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their, their intellectual property into like an offer. So

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then when they have like excess cash on

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hand, because they're increasing their profits, they become for an investor.

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And then they can work with like a financial advisor to kind of like have

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different investment strategies. But my job is to say, okay, let's go from two to

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three. Let's increase your profits. Let's increase your cash. Then you

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could go to your financial advisor to kind of go through everything else. So

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yeah. That was such a good breakdown. And just

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even the explanation of you talking about that, the, the quadrants

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going from two to three, that's so real, right? Because so

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many people start businesses and it just becomes like another job, right? But

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it's not really, financing the life or the lifestyle that they

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really desire. And so in talking about the legacy plan, you did

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kind of mention a lot of things to consider, which was really, really

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helpful because it's I know for some people thinking about legacy

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planning goals, it might be like, well, where do I start with this? Right.

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You gave us some things to consider, but do you have any like

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tangible steps for people if they're, you know, they're

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thinking, okay, I do want to start creating my legacy goals and

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plan. maybe like, what are the first few things that they really should do

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to get that started? Great question. So one of the

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first things is deciding, even if you're not married to the

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idea, like what age would you want to retire? And by the time

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that you retire, how would, how long will it take for

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you to grow a nest egg of at least 2 million by the time that

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you retire so that you live off of your investments? So what that

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means is like, say. I'm 34, right? And I haven't, I'm

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not 34 yet. Almost. I'll be 34

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this year, but say, let's, let's just use me as an example

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and say, I'm, I'm just starting out with retirement. I haven't

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started just yet. What you should do is

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look and see by the time, if you want to retire by 60 from

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34 to 60, how many years, how many years

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is that? Right? How, how much would you have to contribute until your

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retirement? So that you can have 2 million in your nest egg

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so that you can retire with that amount.

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So that's where I would start. It was like, okay, who am I as a

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person? What do I love most about my life? But tangibly,

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what would it take for me to at least retire with 2 million in my

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nest egg? Then you can work backwards and say, okay, if that means I

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need to fund my retirement by 1500 a

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month, but I'm not there yet. What, what can I start with? What can I

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start with at least? 100, maybe

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maybe 100, maybe 200 going from there and then growing. Right.

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I think building momentum is better than just saying, you know, I

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can't do it right now because I can't fund the whole thing. But things

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change in businesses. So maybe it might be 100 or so

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a month this year, but maybe the next year because you've been really looking at

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your numbers like a fine tooth comb. It grows to 1000 plus.

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Right. So that's the first way that I would look,

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um, I would also look into getting like

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insurances in place to not only protect yourself, but your business.

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And that involves like, um, I'm going to talk about this in a

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future episode, but there were some things that I missed out on a couple of

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years ago when I experienced a personal life change. And if

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I would have had those insurances in place in my business and personal, then

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I would have been able to kind of like take some time to heal mentally.

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To kind of get back to things. So specifically for

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insurances, those are a lower barrier of entry because it's like a

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hundred, a hundred something dollars a month. Right. So that would be like disability

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insurance, definitely getting that so that you can support

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yourself if anything happens to you as a business owner, because you're not going to

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have that elsewhere. I would also look into, um,

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getting what is called a, an overhead insurance.

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I forget the name, but basically a cop, like if anything happens to you as

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a CEO, you're able to get coverage for your overhead

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to cover those overhead expenses. And then also

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find a potential replacement for you. So having those

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insurances in place, you're able to protect yourself just like you

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would be protected. If you were employed at a company, maybe

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even more because now you're kind of like looking into things.

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And I would also look into like, I'm going to talk about this

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next week, but by the time this launches, I'm sure it'll be posted.

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But What is your tax plan? You know, what is your tax plan for

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not only this year, but the next few years, if you're growing in business, you're

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growing your profits. How can you align your tax plan with your

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lifestyle goals? Right. So what that means is like, if you're

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wanting to buy a home, you know, you're not going to want to deduct every

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single thing from, from your business because you want to show

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taxable income that suits buying your home. Um,

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and then finally, just to kind of summarize this is you want to

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get. Um, legal support, you know, having a

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state plan, right. Or, or a will, or even talking to someone in your

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area that can say, Hey, you know, based off of what you have, like your

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assets that you have, we could at least start you with this. So then that

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way you at least have one step. It's all about one step. You

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don't need to have all the bells and whistles. One step.

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That was so good. You said so many good things and I love that you

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started talking about the insurance. Because I feel like I

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never see anybody talk about it in the online space. So

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I'm so glad you mentioned that. Um, but when you work with your clients, do

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you help them Navigate those areas when it comes to the business

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insurance and the legal estate planning piece.

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So I don't. Do it. But I am a person

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that loves to connect with others. So say if I know your goal

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and I'll ask like, do you have business insurance? I don't see on this

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statement here, let's get into it. And then if they're reluctant,

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I'm like, no, this is what happened to me. I could have been supported in

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a way, right? My personal story. And, um, I don't mind sharing,

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you know, trigger warning. I do want to say trigger warning. Um, in

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2022, I went through a pregnancy loss and, Changed my

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whole life. Everything changed about me. Right? And

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I just wasn't the same and I wasn't performing the same. And if I would've

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had insurances in place at the time, like disability insurance, like

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overhead coverage, type of insurance, things like that, I would've

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been able to support myself financially. Or. my business would

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be able to support itself with insurance. Right. And then I would have been able

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to take time off, take leave and still get paid the

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majority of my salary without it impacting the business as it did.

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So if you're on the fence with getting business insurance or

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disability insurance as an entrepreneur. Don't hesitate. You don't know

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what what's going to happen. And also having the faith that

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nothing crazy or catastrophic will happen, but you just want to have something in

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place, you know, to protect yourself. Yeah, that's

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so good. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. Um, but you really

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gave some good advice. So I really would encourage you if you are listening

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to go ahead, pause, rewind, take some notes and just

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start taking, like Ayanna said, that one step, right? Even if you

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don't have, once you do your plan, if you don't have that

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1500 or whatever to start with. Start with where you're at and

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do what you can right now and then gain that momentum

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going forward. So that's, that's really good and encouraging. Reach

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out to Ayaan if you need support and assistance in that

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area. Um, so I want to ask because

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we did mention, you talked about, getting people from quadrant two to

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three. So when they're trying to scale their businesses though, what have been some

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of the biggest challenges that you've seen? when entrepreneurs are

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trying to go from, From two to

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three. The biggest thing is they're not paying

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themselves enough. And there's a lot of

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distrust that goes on when it comes to investing in your business.

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I'm a big believer in investing in your business, but if you're, but if your

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company pays your salary and it's impacting how

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you can pay yourself, you need to figure out how your

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business can support you while you're trying to grow your business.

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And a lot of that stems from underpricing one,

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um, scope creep, another one. And then,

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also. Understanding like

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guidelines and which, how to invest in your company.

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So say for instance, understanding, what you can afford

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to pay someone. Right. And I do, I have something called like

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a profit guideline, which it kind of, you map out your past six

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months and your revenue past six months and expenses. And then it kind

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of computes like your affordability to pay yourself.

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So. Coning back in on the biggest mistake I see is not

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being able to pay yourself from your business. I'm a big believer to eventually getting

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to 50 percent profit margin before paying yourself, because that allows you

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to pay yourself, you know, a decent salary. And, um,

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with that. You probably don't pay yourself enough,

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right? You're underpaying yourself. You're living stripe payout to stripe payout.

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Um, and then you're not able to understand what are the holes that you need

Speaker: 00:25:14

and creating random revenue goals as well. So, it's like, once you

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understand exactly what you must pay yourself, then you have an idea of

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what your revenue goal should be. And once you have guidelines and how to

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spend your money, you're then able to say, okay, how can I

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without? Or objectively without a lot of emotion, say

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what I, what the business can or cannot afford at the moment. And if it's

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something that I do need to invest in, how can I create or

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take a calculated, a calculated risk? So that

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if I do take it i'm keeping myself accountable. I think

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you're so right. When you said strike payout to strike payouts, like some people,

Speaker: 00:25:52

that's what we're, we're doing. Right. and I know a lot of people have not

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gotten to the point where they pay themselves a

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consistent amount. like every week or two weeks,

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um, it's just kind of based on whatever's coming in the business and sometimes that

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might not be what you need in order to

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sustain your lifestyle. Right. and then having that plan and knowing what the business

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can afford. All the things that you mentioned, super

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important. And so clearly as you guys are listening,

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Ayana knows what she's talking about. Okay. So go

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ahead. We'll put links to her, um, her, her

Speaker: 00:26:29

website so you can check her out, schedule a call, get the

Speaker: 00:26:32

information that you need, to better your business. So I

Speaker: 00:26:36

want to switch gears and we have been talking about this a little bit, but.

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More about your mom journey. Um, really,

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how did you get to the intersection

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of motherhood and entrepreneurship? What was that journey like for you?

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Um, it was so interesting. So my daughter has like

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great memory. She has great memory. I say that because when she, when I

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started my business, she was, I started in.

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Officially 2016 and got started for real

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2017. so she was three going on four. And at the time,

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single mother, I got into our first apartment and

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I was hustling. Okay. I was working so much. I

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did. I went from pregnant working three jobs to now having a business

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doing the job of three people, essentially. So that journey

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was really tough. Um, and. What

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was disheartening was I was ignoring my own financials

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while paying attention to everyone else's. I know that there's like some, when you have

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a business, right, your trauma shows up in your business. The,

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your mindset shows up in your business. Your business is a mirror of who

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you are at that moment. And I had to face a lot of things. I

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was still, you know, navigating my twenties, navigating motherhood, navigating a

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whole, a whole business. And because I

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was ignoring my own financials, right. I

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suffered financial rock bottom in 2018.

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And, um, thankfully my daughter didn't like

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feel right. Feel that thankfully, but I felt it

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and it was extremely stressful. And I,

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and at the time when I mentioned that she has great memories, she,

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She understood that I wasn't as attentive as I was today.

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I really wasn't. And she knew that I was

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always working. You know, I was always like, she was three, four when you, when

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your child turns three, if anyone has a three year old, you know, it's hard

Speaker: 00:28:35

to go to sleep. Okay. She was very,

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um, I wouldn't say outspoken, but she definitely spoke her mind not

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in like a crazy way, but she, because I would talk to

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her and like, um, Even as a baby, as I would anyone else,

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she was, she had a high vocabulary, so she was able to

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articulate her thoughts really well. So that was

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interesting because, you know, here I am, single mother,

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um, with financial rock bottom, like struggling to kind of get

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her to Really making enough to pay the bills and to get her through

Speaker: 00:29:08

daycare and thank God when she went to pre k

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that was free, right? so

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So, um as I went through financial rock bottom in 2018

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I promised myself that I would never go to that low point

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again, and I would treat my financials like I would a client

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So I was doing my, I was acting like I was my own

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accountant, my own CFO doing my numbers every single

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week. And, um, that next year I made six figures. I

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doubled my income that following year and I was, I, I

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saved, bought my baby and I a home,

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got myself a new car and everything. So it was just,

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I was able to understand with motherhood some,

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it was a whole nother step, right? I wasn't just focused on myself. I

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had to switch my life to be life first

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versus having my business and whatever time was left over

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was for my family. I had to switch that around. And, um,

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honestly, Even when I, um,

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shifted in business and I was more successful, I

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still worked a lot. And then when I went through spiritual rock

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bottom in 2022 is when I was like, okay, something has to

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change. And that's

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when now I live a much softer life in a

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way. You know, I still am, I have more energy to kind of work hard

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in sprints, but I'm really, um,

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Focused on how can I actually create a life

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first business, right? My hours are now from like 10 to three. My daughter

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comes home typically at three, sometimes a little bit earlier from the bus.

Speaker: 00:30:49

So I'm able to like, focus on her. She's 10 at this point now. So

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she does have her little life where she has her social life going out with

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friends, hanging outside. Um, so those times

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I used to kind of like focus on other things in the business or even

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my own personal wellness. And that's a part of, uh,

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What I believe in harmonious both is like, how can you have,

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uh, not necessarily balanced, but a life of harmony where all

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areas of your life is tended to versus just one.

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Right. And then also how can you avoid idolizing

Speaker: 00:31:20

your business and idolizing selling? Right? Because.

Speaker: 00:31:24

While having a business as a major milestone is not the only thing,

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it doesn't define you. And that's what I had to learn,

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heal from my own trauma, heal from all these different things, right? Go through

Speaker: 00:31:36

the breakdowns, the, the rock bottoms and all those things to come

Speaker: 00:31:40

in the end of like, you know what? I need to

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really put God first. I need to really put family first. I need to really

Speaker: 00:31:47

like shift how I'm thinking and how, how I'm operating business.

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And you know, if you're as my, as a mom.

Speaker: 00:31:55

It's going to be the best option for you is creating a

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life first business.

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Yeah.

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so many good things. And of course, it's such an alignment with

Speaker: 00:32:08

what we believe here at the mom CEO suite. Um,

Speaker: 00:32:12

but if you could, you mentioned how you were at, you know, rock bottom kind

Speaker: 00:32:16

of in your life and business. And then you mentioned you

Speaker: 00:32:19

really looked at your financials. But then after that, the next year,

Speaker: 00:32:23

you had a really successful year. And I know there's people

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listening who maybe they're not at rock bottom, but they're still trying to get

Speaker: 00:32:30

to that success that they know is

Speaker: 00:32:34

possible, but there it's been a struggle for them to get there. Right.

Speaker: 00:32:37

Um, so do you have any, just from your experience, um,

Speaker: 00:32:42

just tangible advice for someone who might be in that transition

Speaker: 00:32:46

and were there other things that you did to get to that, um, uh, Um,

Speaker: 00:32:49

place of success, what that looked like for you.

Speaker: 00:32:53

So I did bookkeeping for both my personal finances, right?

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Have we have to create, I like to call it a personal

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spending plan. If you don't like the word budget, have a personal

Speaker: 00:33:04

spending plan. Look at your numbers every single

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week, if not day, but don't put too much pressure on

Speaker: 00:33:11

yourself. Do it every week. And then I did my business

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bookkeeping. And with that, I looked

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at if my goal, if I have a goal

Speaker: 00:33:22

for revenue, I'm building momentum every single week.

Speaker: 00:33:25

Right. And how can I increase my monthly recurring

Speaker: 00:33:29

revenue as much as possible so that I'm not starting from

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zero revenue every single month? I'm building on what I already

Speaker: 00:33:36

have. And then how can I ensure that I'm pricing for

Speaker: 00:33:40

profit? So pricing for profit means your, your

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price. And then after your expenses, so say, if you have a

Speaker: 00:33:47

team after your team calls for every

Speaker: 00:33:50

unit, Of sale. So say if I have CFO

Speaker: 00:33:53

services 2000 a month, I need to know exactly how much it

Speaker: 00:33:57

costs per client for the digital

Speaker: 00:34:00

software. I need to know how much it costs per team member. And we

Speaker: 00:34:04

have, um, specific budgeted hours. So

Speaker: 00:34:08

then I know, okay, this is what my profitability looks like for

Speaker: 00:34:12

every single client. And then that way, when you're pricing

Speaker: 00:34:16

for profit, you're able to go. Then focus on how do you

Speaker: 00:34:19

deliver the best service. It's like, of course you're focusing on that, but

Speaker: 00:34:23

it's like you're at least making profit in that offer.

Speaker: 00:34:27

And, um, looking at your expenses is going to

Speaker: 00:34:31

be important. I talked about like, Understanding like

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what each line item is is against your

Speaker: 00:34:39

revenue. So I call it percentage of revenue. Um, so what,

Speaker: 00:34:42

what is your software according to your total revenue? If it's over

Speaker: 00:34:46

5%, you need to consider decreasing it. If your

Speaker: 00:34:50

team is over 30 percent of your revenue, then that means you need to consider

Speaker: 00:34:53

decreasing your team because we know we love to pay our team, but what are

Speaker: 00:34:57

some things that we can do with automations or our processes that can

Speaker: 00:35:01

eliminate having To do it, but then only

Speaker: 00:35:04

focusing the work right that you absolutely need

Speaker: 00:35:08

and concising it so that you're saving your business money. You're saving

Speaker: 00:35:12

someone's time and you're not underpaying someone because you can't

Speaker: 00:35:16

afford it. And you're paying them a couple of dollars an hour. Right?

Speaker: 00:35:20

So, um, and also patients, you know, having patients

Speaker: 00:35:24

and I've read James 1,

Speaker: 00:35:27

4 last night and I was like meditating on it and it was like

Speaker: 00:35:31

having a patience and not grumbling and

Speaker: 00:35:35

not complaining and how you can show up in your business in that way.

Speaker: 00:35:39

Um, so I hope this helps like tangible, but then

Speaker: 00:35:43

also your mind understanding

Speaker: 00:35:46

that this can happen for you and having that faith without

Speaker: 00:35:50

complaint. So, so good. A wealth

Speaker: 00:35:53

of just knowledge, resources,

Speaker: 00:35:56

wisdom, things to think about and consider. And so I definitely

Speaker: 00:36:00

would encourage you all to take a listen, subscribe to her

Speaker: 00:36:04

podcast because it's going to be the same type of thing. Right. And you all

Speaker: 00:36:07

need this in your life. You need this in your life. So Ayana,

Speaker: 00:36:10

let people know how they can connect with you. And if you have anything coming

Speaker: 00:36:14

up that you want to share, share that as well. Yes. So you can

Speaker: 00:36:17

connect with me on Instagram at lovely

Speaker: 00:36:21

financials. Also my website, lovely financials.

Speaker: 00:36:24

com. And if you want weekly emails about

Speaker: 00:36:28

topics like this, as well as understanding how to harness

Speaker: 00:36:31

your wealth within go to lovely financials. com slash

Speaker: 00:36:35

wealth, and you'll be a part of the community.

Speaker: 00:36:39

Absolutely amazing. And we will link all of that in our

Speaker: 00:36:42

show descriptions. Ayana, thank you again so much for being here

Speaker: 00:36:46

with us today and we'll see you in the next episode.

Speaker: 00:36:50

Thank you thank you for listening to the Mom CEO

Speaker: 00:36:54

Suite Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, can you do us a

Speaker: 00:36:57

favor? Leave a review on iTunes and share with other

Speaker: 00:37:01

moms in business like you. Help us spread our message and empower

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others who are at this intersection of motherhood and

Speaker: 00:37:08

entrepreneurship.