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Building a business shouldn't mean losing your mind.
Strategy, Solutions, & Sanity is the real-world business podcast for owners and leaders who are serious about scaling β but don't want to drown in chaos while doing it.
Host Samantha C. Prestidge cuts through the noise with practical insights on hiring, delegation, team building, operations, and leadership for family businesses and second-stage entrepreneurs.
(No vague "10x your mindset" fluff here β just the strategies, systems, and sanity moves you actually need.)
Each week, you'll get short, actionable episodes that help you untangle the bottlenecks, lead with more confidence, and build a company that runs smoother β without losing the heart, hustle, and humanity that made you successful in the first place.
Whether you're navigating early team growth or getting ready to finally step out of the daily grind, this podcast gives you the tactical tools and real-world advice to build your business the smart, sustainable way.
π Follow Strategy, Solutions, & Sanity for practical strategies to help you lead, grow, and actually enjoy your business again.
β π π Hi everyone. Welcome to another week of Strategy Solutions and Sanity. This show is all about showing how business can sometimes be messy and vulnerable, and sometimes you don't fail forward. But there's still some really good lessons and wisdom we can learn from our amazing guests. And this week's guest is Ms.
Megan Schwan. Hi Megan. Thanks for
joining.
Hi, Samantha. Excited to be here.
Yeah, so, okay.
For people that don't know Megan, I'm gonna let you kind of share your story a little bit, but I wanted to kind of hype it up a bit and mention like, Megan's one of those amazing financial people that has never made me feel like any of my questions are dumb.
Every single, every single time we talk. In the back of my head, I'm like, this is gonna sound like such a dumb question and you never make me feel that way. And I feel like that's such a rare gift and I really appreciate that.
That's awesome. I'm really glad to hear that. We do strive as an organization and me especially personally, like to not make people feel like that because I, you know, you don't know what you don't know most of the time. Yeah. And like, yeah. What right do I have to like make somebody feel dumb
and plus two, I think the other part is because like I'm an expert that wants people to be successful. Like, I want you to ask questions, you know, because mm-hmm. The more questions you ask, the more clarity you're gonna get and the more clarity I'm gonna get so that I can help you, you know? And so like, I think it's really goofy when.
Experts, like make people feel dumb, especially like in this area that's already hard to like talk about in general and people already have like feelings and mindsets around like money and finance and things like that. So I'm, I'm really honored that you feel, feel that you felt that way. Absolutely. I'm not able to provide that.
Yes. Feel good. Give yourself a pat on the back. Yeah, I think like we're in similar. Situation. So like when I focus on, okay, how is this person, how are our clients going to delegate to an assistant? Or how are we gonna clean up processes? I think some clients, they sometimes feel like it's the principal office with me, and they're like scared to tell me things or scared to ask questions, and I'm like, I need to know, it's okay. If it's a shit show, I just need to know that that's what it is so we can move forward. You know? Exactly, exactly. Yeah. So, um, I'm like, why are we holding things back? But, okay, let me go, let's, let me rewind. Intro. Megan, tell us a little bit more about yourself. She's been in bus, you've been in business for almost 12 years.
Give us a breakdown of how you, why you started and what you've been doing over the past 12 years.
Yeah, so the short version of this story, um, is basically, um, I was a teen mom and in one of my classes in school I had a teacher that from an an accounting 1 0 1. She just kind of poured into me and was like, you really have a knack for this.
So when I got pregnant and had to figure out my career, accounting was where I went to. I went to school for that. And I went to school. I graduated, got a job met during that time. I met my husband at the time, got pregnant, and I decided not to go back to work full time when I had my son. And, I had to figure out like what I was gonna do.
I got a job as a bookkeeper at a landscaping company, and then my full-time job actually called me back. They made a part-time position 'cause the person they hired replaced me, didn't work out. So then I was working basically two part-time jobs from home and did that for about two years. And then I got laid off of both of those jobs within like a month of each other.
One of them got bought out, the other one needed to restructure and couldn't afford to keep me and this other person. So, I was left like trying to figure out what was I gonna do because my family needed two incomes. And so I needed to work. But I was used to working at home and so I figured I was working for that landscaping company as a bookkeeper.
I had already been doing like taxes on the side for friends and family. So I, I guess I just had this brilliant idea to start my own thing and started networking and here we are, 11, almost 12 years later, and, we serve clients across the us. I have a team of nine employees and two contractors that work regularly for us, and we're just.
Continuing to help businesses be successful. And all of the midst of that, I guess you're talking about like our why or my why and like why we keep doing this and growing is, um, in the midst of the 11 years, we, I went through, a lot of different things. We, I got unexpectedly divorced. Well before that I, I had two babies, two more babies back to back.
So I have four children. I got unexpectedly divorced and I moved across the country with my kids and my business helped sus. To support all of that, it was the conduit that was able to give me options to be able to take care of my family and put them in the best positions. And so that really is the driving passion.
Now, behind what we do is we help business owners grow their businesses, be more strategic, understand their numbers, so they can make better decisions to be successful and sustainable, but ultimately so that they also have options. We work with a lot of minority and women owned businesses that are usually undereducated and under supported.
And that's the passion behind what we do and why we keep driving forward. So,
man, there's a lot of chaos that can happen over a decade. What's cool though is it sounds like you kind of. Grew up with the business, like your business matured while you were also maturing and figuring out this thing called life.
Right. Um, wow. Okay. And so now you, okay, so you moved across country. We've got four kiddos. What are the age ranges there?
Um, my daughter is 19, um, and then I have a 13-year-old and a six and 7-year-old, although they're gonna be seven and eight, uh, here in the fall. Sure.
The, the chaos,
I mean the fun and love, but also the chaos.
Yes. That really exists in your house. I'm right there. I mean, I'm not right there with you. I don't have four kiddos. I've got a five and 3-year-old. Sometimes it does feel like they've quadrupled.
I know
everywhere. But I, I also, I really appreciate what you're saying about the why here. Like, I, I remember when my mom joined my team and now it wasn't just like a, oh, well, I wanna have options for me, but now it's like, okay, well I want to make sure this grows and like, because now my why includes her and now my why includes my kids, right?
And all those things. And then being able to have that empathy with clients as well of like, I see the things you're going through. I promise you, I've Seen dark stuff too. We're gonna figure it out together. Yeah. So how did that really feel for you? Like. Okay. We're maturing. We're still figuring out life.
We're kind of an adult, but sometimes we don't feel like an adult. And now we've got two more kids in the mix that happen kind of halfway through. Yeah. This, the business growth so far, how did that feel?
It's been, it's been a really interesting but great experience. I would say. Like when I started my business I didn't have the greatest self-esteem.
That was something I had struggled with at since I was a teenager, and, I think my business though, it really helped me boost that. I was able to show up. I had people who were way more successful on the outside than I was listening to me, and just like seeing me as the expert.
And so like, I think there was a whole level of confidence that came. I was also kind of, I, well. Still kind of am a little bit more introverted, you know, but you have to network, you have to talk to new people. So growing as an individual, like my business helped me, uh, significantly with that.
And then adding team members, you you have to be a leader and you have to show up and you have to have hard conversations, and you gotta be strategic and mindful and like all these different characteristics if you wanna be successful and build a really good culture. Really proud to say like we've got employees that have been with me from almost the beginning.
So 10, 11 years that they've been on my team and they are, they love it. You know, they are, because I've been able to foster this culture and within our organization that really helps to support them as individuals and their families as well. Which is really, really special.
Like a lot of times we hear like, I've never worked for any place like this. You're the best boss. Like I, sometimes it's hard to say it because I'm not really the type of person to boast, but at the same time, like I wanna step in and acknowledge that as well. And I think that's really the beauty of being able business owners that you can create what maybe you haven't experienced yourself, you or create what you envision in terms of your culture and your team and how all of that works.
So I've had to grow as a person, still am very much growing through like growth as a person. But it's been a really rewarding journey. And really. I think special because I don't think it would've happened unless I had my business, you know? So it's, it's, that's been really, really cool. So I,
I, I know you said you don't like to boast, but it's awesome to see like how much fulfillment and we could just feel that in like how you're describing this.
That's awesome. Now you mentioned. One of, or some of these employees of the nine that you have been with you since that like 10 year, like mm-hmm. For 10 years-ish. Right. So they joined about a year or two into you being in business. Now a lot of service-based business owners are not hiring in that first year or two.
And at that point you had two kids. Mm-hmm. So what was like the trigger point for you of okay, yeah, we need to bring someone on.
Yeah, and I guess for me, 'cause I actually, during that first year, I went back and got like a part-time job at a school for like a year as well. So like in that. Interim, I had brought on a contractor to kind of just like help me with, like data entry stuff.
So like real basic stuff. And it was because , that stuff usually takes longer amounts of time and I just couldn't do everything right. It was like at that point where it was like I needed my job, so I had that steady stream of, income coming in, but at the same time I needed help in the business.
And so like for me at that time, that was kind of what worked. And I guess the other caveat to that is. It was my sister. So like she also needed something. Okay. So like, it was kind of like helping her out, her helping me out, kind of a thing. But after that year, uh, I got to a place where it was like I have to choose, like I was spending 20 hours working for somebody else, and I knew at that point.
What it would take. Like I knew if I, if I hit the ground and was like networking and prospecting and all that, like I was gonna be able to bring on enough clients to replace that income. But it was that calculated risk. Like I wasn't quite there, but I knew if I spent that time. On my business, I could get there really fast and that is what ended up happening.
So I ended up quitting that job and I've been full-time in my business since.
Well the interesting thing that caught my ear there was that you said calculated risk and I, my cyberstalking, I think I saw you had a post of, you mentioned that you don't like, it's not about helping clients avoid risk, it's about helping them make smarter.
Yeah, risk choices, I think, and I'm probably butchering the language you used in that, in that post, but kind of break that down. 'cause also I'm, I'm, I'm curious here, 'cause most introverts are not risky people that, that is. Um, but you, yeah. You speak about calculated risk with. A, a level of groundedness and confidence there.
Yeah. So break that down for me.
Yeah, that, that's really interesting. I've, I actually never been, um, asked this perspective, I guess, so, so this is the first time explaining this from my perspective. So yes, I am an introvert. In some respect, I would say I'm kind of like in the middle. I'm not like super extroverted, but I'm not fully introverted either.
But regardless I think for me, the thing is, is that even though I'm an introvert, I am a business owner, I'm a visionary. I have the dream and that push and that drive. Um, I've always been an overachiever, even like at that full-time job that I had, I'd run out work they sent me in the back to count inventory because I just wouldn't, I wouldn't have, I would be fast, about getting things done.
So I've always been that person. Despite being an introvert. So I think that is probably part of why risk doesn't completely scare me. But the other part too is I think when you are a business owner, risk has. To be part of what you embrace. Like you can't grow, you can't scale, you can't grow as a person, right?
We gotta get out of our comfort zone zones in order to be in order to grow as individuals and as leaders and as business owners and grow our business. So I think that's a big part of it too, is like risk. Risk because it's uncomfortable. It's un, you know, it's something we're not used to doing. It's maybe something that's a little bit against the norms, right?
Or something maybe that we don't feel like we're ready for. Like I think that's kind of like the definition of risk, right? When we're talking about what risk means. Mm-hmm. So I think you need to embrace that as a business owner. And then the calculated part is incredibly important, like you have to.
Weigh the pros and cons because every risk is not gonna be a beneficial risk, right? And sometimes, like there are risks that you take and you fail, and that's okay because you can learn a lot in failure. But you also wanna be thoughtful about the moves that you make as a business owner as well, because it can often impact a lot of other things or people.
Or whatnot. So when I say calculated risk, like I mentioned, I had already known how much time I was spending on getting sales. I kind of knew like the conversations that I needed to have, the number of conversations I needed to have. I already had some numbers like attached to some of those things.
So for me it was like if I took that 20 hours. and did you know, all of all of the things that I knew are gonna bring in sales, that I was gonna be able to bring on those clients. 'cause I knew like in 20 hours I can have a hundred conversations or whatever it was, you know, and be able to convert, you know, 20 of those conversations and be able to make up the income that I was leaving.
It's really important to put some thought, put some data behind decisions, especially big decisions like that. And that's what I mean by calculated, but it needs to be a little bit of a risk too, because it's not guaranteed. Right? It wasn't guaranteed that even if I did all those right things, I was gonna get those clients.
Right. Yeah. So it was still like an element of risk to it. But at the same time, like I knew the data. Behind that decision as well. And I think you have to have a little bit of both. Like you gotta have some intuition you gotta have a little bit of that data, but at the end of the day, you gotta just like be determined I think is like the other aspect of that.
Like you gotta be determined to make it work. And that's kind of where I was at. I was like, I wanted to be back home at my, with my kids. And as a matter of fact, um, right as I was quitting that job, my son who is. I think he was three at the time. He broke his femur. So like I quit my job. I was like on my two weeks notice.
So it was like God had perfect timing because I didn't have to worry about like calling into work. I could work from home. But he was in a, he was in a almost full body cast for seven weeks and so it was just like, it was crazy timing, but it worked out. Oh my gosh.
And sometimes like that's part of it too.
Gosh. Sometimes God is like, you thought you had a plan, let me show you. Right. Yeah. Okay. Some really interesting things there and whenever someone brings up risk, I always think of like how I do not like to gamble. I remember like my husband took me to south, like some casinos in South Dakota and we're at like, not like a dive.
Hotel, but like, you know, it's just kind of like in the kind ofish in the middle of nowhere and there's $1 craps or something. This is cool. And then like we went across the street to another table and they're like, it's a $5 buy-in.
And I was like, immediately, no, that's way too much risk for me. Like, no. Right. But what's also interesting there is like, I. I'm kind of like the, the cobblers kids have no shoes. So with other people, with my clients, I'm like, yeah, let's look at these metrics, we'll make it not scary, but we gotta look at this data to make these decisions.
And then my husband, who is a little bit riskier, he is also still very data focused. So he will ask me some questions about certain metrics in my business. I'm like, why are you attacking me? Like, why are you asking me things? You know, like, but okay. Toward the end there, you also mentioned that having that intuition with the risk, right?
Yeah. So we've got this data so we can make informed decisions, but there's some level of intuition there. So can you expand on that a little bit? Like, is that you like. We're taking things in prayer. Is this just like gut feelings? Yeah. What is that that allows you to then say, I'm ready to take this step?
Yeah. For me personally, there is a lot of prayer because my faith is a big strong part of my, my being and who I am as well. But I think in addition to that is that we often just don't trust ourselves enough. So I was actually talking to a client about that and we've been working through her numbers and her profit first.
Process and implementation that she in system that she has in her business. And sometimes the numbers aren't super black and white, because there are things that come up and there's unexpected things ahead. And she was just really having a hard time with like, trying to make a decision.
And I was just like, you know. You have, we've set up this system. The system is working, and you know your business. Like she's been in business for like eight years. And I'm like, you have to be okay with trusting that, you know what thoughts you're having. Like she wanted to make an adjustment on an allocation and move some things around and I'm like, do it.
Because you're the one that knows your business at this point, and even though you might not be able to tie back the logic to, whatever that thought is. A lot of times that thought is valid because there's so many subliminal things that we take in on a daily basis.
Mm-hmm. And I think that's part of it too, is we know our business, we know our clients, we know our services, we know our packages. When we start setting up systems, we can see things that on the service level, surface level, we can't always like. Explain, but you know what I'm saying? Like when systems get set up in our business, like they start doing what they're supposed to do, which is like make things more clear, like less chaotic.
And I think because of that we get more clarity even when we can't tie it back to logic or like exactly pinpoint what that is. We start to see things as business owners intuitively, where we can make decisions even though we may be. We might not be able to tie it back to something that's black and white.
So I guess that's kind of what I'm saying about intuition and IRI don't know if that made sense or not, but there's something that happens. It does. I'm following. Yeah. There's something that happens when you've been a business owner for a long time and you start to really understand your business and then you set these systems up to like kind of, reinforce what you know, or like clarify what you know.
And you, that's why it's so important to set those things up. Like I know you know that. Being like in the operations, you start setting up systems and your business starts working better.
It's kind of like how we as moms, like, we could look at our kids sometimes and they could be making, what other people would assume is like no facial expression.
They could be doing nothing. Yes. But we like Exactly who did, you know? Like, oh, I know something's about to happen, you know? Yeah. That's a great
analogy. Yes, it's, it's exactly like that. Like you can't Explain it, but because you know it so well and you know, like the processes and this, you know, like your kids like, you know their tendencies and you know their reactions and you know, a lot of times like what their thought process is behind, like, so it's the same thing with business.
Like you might not be able to pinpoint it exactly, but because you know it, because you've set up the systems to catch flags before they become issues. That's what gives you that power and that intuition to be able to make those risky decisions because. There's an element of knowledge you have, even if you can't quantify it.
And that's the really cool part, about being able to like dig more into your business.
I think you and I have a similar thing here because we're just, we're in like the vulnerable side of people's businesses, right? Like we are there to support and help them clean up so they can go shine, right?
Whether that's with numbers or it's delegation and ops. What's interesting of clients when we're in that position is they oftentimes can't find the words. And it sounds like that's kind of the position you're in as well of how do I help this person move forward when they know the answer, but they don't have the words for the answer.
So also when you were breaking down, like why you were able to take this calculated risk, you also said that. Not only do you have the intuition and data to make the decision, you then had this level of determination to make it work.
Yeah. Where does that stem from? Did that stem from, not to get like too messy here, unless you wanna get messy, I can roll with it, but did that stem from okay, Hey, we're getting divorced. This is a clean start. We're gonna like, make things happen. Is that stem from I'm a mom, I'm strong. Where is that really coming from?
Of I'm determined?
Yeah. Yeah. That's a great question. Um, I think, you know, just kind of being, like having a personality of being a overachiever or a perfectionist in some ways my personality, just like drives to being successful.
But I think the other part of it is 'cause there's been opportunities, right? Like, especially when I first got divorced, I had the thought of like, maybe it would be easier to just go get a job, right? Versus trying to run a business. But for me, one thing that's. Been able to create that grit, and determination to just like keep going no matter what is, because the pros for me outweigh the cons, with having my own business, even though it's like more than I've ever worked in my whole life, trying running a business and you're on like almost all the time, it's hard to turn off. I've been able to have so much flexibility to provide for my family, been there, like to take time off and to pull, to scale back.
Like when I had my two youngest back to back, they're 12 months apart. So it was like baby, and then baby and I I had to like, pull back a little bit, you know, and hire more people. But I was able to have that flexibility and then we had COVID and then in 2021, really, really bad. And then I'm moving across the country in 2022.
Like through all of these like major life challenges. There's been so much flexibility that I've been able to take from my business and, or that my business has been able to give me, I guess I should say I, that like, for me it's priceless. Like, I just can't imagine going back to work for somebody. And I'm like, you know, even now it's like, well, if everything like blows up or you know.
We continue in this, downward trajectory that a lot of people have been feeling this year. Um, for me it's like, well, I'll just keep, my best clients and mindset where it's like, I'm still not gonna stop. Like no matter what happens, like there's gonna be an answer that goes even back to my business.
It's just like that grit, but. If you look at like successful businesses that have, achieved high levels of success, that's the same thing for them. You gotta have a grit and determination that no matter what happens, you're gonna figure out a solution to it. And I think that's really powerful because you're able to
as co the COVID word was pivot, but I like to say evolve because Exactly. I don't like pivot. I think it's more evolve because as you know, things come up in life and business. We have to evolve. We have to either get stronger or more clear as people and individuals, or we have to adjust to the wants and needs of our client base or whatever, , type of thing.
You have to always be like moving forward. There's countless examples of this, like Netflix versus best, you know, um,
blockbuster.
Thank you. Yeah. You know, like Kodak and, all those examples that we hear all the time of not being innovative, the same is true for business.
Like you have to have this grounding of , I'm gonna figure it out and I'm gonna make it work and I'm gonna be determined. Otherwise I don't think you're gonna get. To longevity of business. Like it has to be part of the formula to success. Yeah,
I mean, I, I appreciate that and that, I think I, I wanna do a segue here.
I wanna go a little off script because. I think lately I've been feeling like, we are in a world that is saturated with options, right? Yeah. It's part of why we see, more and more younger relationships, people not moving to marriage and people cheating and all those things, and.
But also like in business, you're saturated in like your software options. And you're saturated also in like the ways that you can innovate and the ways that you might pivot or evolve. Mm-hmm. Really just wanna have like a overlay of like, π Ross and friends yelling, pivot, like, yeah.
I can never say the word pivot without thinking about that. Right. Um, but I was just thinking about this because, you know, you mentioned net. And Blockbuster. And I was on Netflix the other day and I'm like, you know what? Like there's too many damn choices for me. Like, I'm like, yeah, can I just have five choices?
And then if I don't like those, then okay, I'll walk away. Right. But the fact that I could scroll and look forever to find that perfect TV show, it's keeps me on the app, but then I never watch anything. Yeah. And I would love to have a blockbuster back in my life where I can go and like physically touch the DVD and I want that for my kids too.
Like, I mean, we're pretty strict with what they watch. They're five and three. Yeah. But I'm like, I don't need them like scrolling on the Disney app. I just want 'em to have like three physical DVDs in front of them. Yeah. Uh, but anyway, let me stop my WR and go back to like, do you feel that saturation or do you feel like your why gives you clear guardrails on how to innovate?
Like what is that bringing up for you?
Yeah, that's,
if anything,
that's a great question. I think the why is definitely important and I do think focus is really important. You know, like, like you said, there's a lot of saturation, there's a lot of noise, there's a lot of shiny pennies these days.
But I think doubling down on the area or client or service that you wanna focus on is what's helping businesses get through, , this period of time. And I don't know, it could be like this forever. Another thing is like figuring out, like listening to the market, listening to your clients, networking and talking to people I think is so important because you're able to take things from that, right? You're able to see like, how are people talking,, what are their concerns? What are their pain points? What are they looking for? So then you are able to, nail down that focus on what you should be focusing on and moving towards and then just really sticking to that.
And I think another big part though too, is like we have to remember that a lot of business is trial and error and I think sometimes people get really discouraged when something doesn't work. They don't go back to the drawing board and. You know, they just kind of like give up. And now, don't get me wrong, because not everybody's cut out to be a business owner.
And I know some really fantastic people that operated their business for several years, four or five years even, and they've decided to go back to a job and they're super happy doing that. So there's no shade at all if somebody is like, this isn't for me. Or I got out of my business what I wanted to get out and now I wanna go back to a job.
There's nothing wrong with that. But for the people that are like, this is the life I wanna live and this is what I wanna do and I wanna create this legacy, you have to be flexible and you have to be okay with failing and go back to the drawing board and adjust and like try again.
And there's nothing wrong with that. But I would just encourage, and I know I'm speaking to myself too, because it's really easy to get caught up in, in all of the things that's happening in AI especially, and social media and all of these different methodologies and, and things that people are throwing at everybody about, like how to be successful and how to get sales and all this kind of thing.
Mm-hmm. What I would encourage people to do and what I've been encouraging myself to do is to focus on one or two things max, you know, and just like really go hard on those for a couple of months, see if there's any traction, see if there's any results, and if not, then go back to the drawing board and try something different.
Because it is, it is hard to keep pushing forward when it doesn't feel like anything's working. The other slow season or things have slowed down for you. Go back and look at your operations, look at your services.
Look at like your systems that you have in place. Like slow seasons are the perfect time to like work on your business. And too many people do not take advantage of but the people that do often are able to like create. Something new, they're able to take that evolution or that pivot to create something else.
That's why there was so much success during COVID, like a, I know a lot of businesses failed, but there was a lot of businesses that had some of the best years ever in the year 2020 and 2021 in 2022 after COVID, because they took the time to think about how they could adjust and how they could evolve as an organization.
Slow seasons are that opportunity for all of us
to be able to do the same thing.
Well, I would argue that goes back to knowing your data and knowing your numbers. Yeah. Like when you can look at your years, year over year and quarter, over quarter, you can start to see those patterns and then say, oh, okay, like this is not a random slow season.
This like Right. For us, usually, usually for us, end of Q2 is. Busy. And then beginning of Q3 is slow. Yeah, it was swapped this year. It's a weird, this is like the, okay. Buyer. Habits and trends have changed in 2025. Yes. 2025. So I, I do think some of our patterns, you know, at least for me and my business, can't give us like, as much insights this year.
But typically I would know like, like we're coming up on a slow period. That's okay. I know that we're gonna ramp up on some marketing and some business development. So we can prepare for a busy season, but then also we'll have those systems and we can kind of slow down on some projects there. Mm-hmm.
But I also really appreciated your encouragement around failing and being okay with that. 'cause I too am that overachiever. Personality there were times where I would just have like my, you know, fake mental breakdowns Right. Uh, with my husband.
And I'm like, why am I feeling this way? It's like, oh, you know, 'cause so much of life just felt like, not easy, but like I could figure it out. And then in business there's a shit ton, there's a plethora of challenges that are not easy to solve when they're first presented to you. Right. And that to me always felt like, oh, I'm failing.
I'm dumb. Someone else could do this. Maybe I shouldn't have a business. And my husband was just like, well just like chill out, dude. Like yeah, just take a day and think about this before you shut down, you know? Yeah. Um, I also, I wanna jump back to something you kind of sprinkled in and I do this in my business, but I re I realized a lot of people, it's not as common as we think it is, but you mentioned.
Profit first with one of your clients. Mm-hmm. And kind of going through that, and I implemented that maybe year two of my business. And I think it's so smart, but I am somewhat surprised maybe because i'm just like in that saturated content space Right. Of learning and development for business owners.
But I'm sometimes surprised that people don't know what this is and yeah. Not shaming anyone for not knowing. But let's kind of take that time to break it down a little bit. What exactly is profit first and why do you think it even matters for clients?
Yeah, great question and I love talking about this.
β π So Profit First βis a cashflow management system it's using people's normal behaviors and leveraging their habits and behaviors. And so the way it works is that we set up different bank accounts, which act as different buckets for some of the things in business that have to get prioritized.
Things like, saving for taxes, paying yourself, strategically reinvesting and planning, for the future as well. So we set up different accounts, bank accounts to act as these different buckets. And the reason why we use bank accounts is because. 75 plus percent of business owners look at their bank account to make decisions.
So they look, they log into their bank account, they look at what they have in their checking account, and they use that information to then make business decisions. Now, there's nothing per se, wrong with that, however for most people, they forgot about that quarterly payment that's gonna come out or that annual amount that's gonna come out.
Or , they know that they have money or they see they have money, but payroll's gonna run in a day and then that balance is gonna go down. So a lot of people use what we like to call bank balance accounting to run their businesses. So we lean into that habit by creating different bank accounts so that anytime income comes into your account, it gets dispersed.
Buy a percentage into these different buckets, and then you don't have to worry about something getting covered. And if you wanna be able to have money for travel or professional development, you just create different accounts for that. And so the way that we work the system and figure out the percentages is we look at the last 12 months worth of expenses and basically split that into buckets so we know what the percentages are.
And the reason why we look at the last 12 months is because for most people, whatever they did last year, most of the time, they can at least do that. In the current year, right? So like, yeah, you can at least match what you did the year before. So it acts as like that foundation. But then we go through and we reassess that on a quarterly basis.
And Mike Michalowicz is the author of Profit First and the founder of this methodology. And he has target percentages that we wanna get to based off of like the most elite businesses, the top performing businesses in each of the different. Revenue categories. So it just, it creates a system to manage your money.
It helps to stabilize your cashflow because instead of you, waiting to pay that annual expense, you're saving a little bit each month or week towards that amount. Same thing for taxes. Like most people don't save anything for taxes. They don't make quarterly estimated tax payments.
And then they get to tax season and they have this huge tax bill and it's super stressful. So like. Even just starting to do that, making a bank account just for taxes for most people, is worth all of the stress that they've been experiencing.
Yeah. You know, I, I love to find analogies for people here.
Yeah. And I actually, the analogy that's coming up for me is imagine that you went grocery shopping and you also, you planned your groceries. So imagine you're like, okay, I'm gonna make this for dinner. I'm gonna make this for dinner, and we're gonna buy all these groceries. And you put 'em in your fridge, in your pantry, and then someone comes in.
This is a little triggering 'cause it's been recent for me. Maybe that's why I'm thinking of it. My husband comes in and he, you know, gives some cheese to the dogs. Yeah. Or take this little ingredient and uses it for that. And I'm like, I was gonna make a sandwich today. I was gonna do this. Right. Like where are my ingredients?
Right. And that's kind of how it feels sometimes if you're not planning out your expenses. Let me go on a little bit of a monologue. 'cause I also, sometimes I hear awesome strategies on podcasts and I'm like, wait, like I want what the actual thing that you do is. And so I know you did a great job of explaining the different bank accounts.
I wanna give a different perspective and I'll share what I do in my business. So we have three bank account. One of these bank accounts, you can have reserves. So it's an online bank, Novo, and you can have, you can set up the different accounts in it. Okay. So for us, we have a bank that is tax savings.
That is, I don't even, that is the only thing that account is for. I rarely log into it. I don't like, I'm like, I check the balance when we're doing like some monthly accounting reviews. Yeah. But I don't even touch that account. Okay. That is not, that's not money to be used, y'all. You save it for tax stuff.
Yeah. And then if you have a little extra, the way my business is set up, I just kind of use that as my tax refund if I don't have to pay taxes. Yeah. Um, so then we have, then there's a checking account. And so money gets from our main online account. Novo money goes into our checking account and my operations manager knows.
All of our expenses are our monthly subscriptions, quarterly stuff that's coming up. All those things are on a spreadsheet for her. And so she can see, okay, this next week we have this amount coming up in expenses. Does the operating account have the money for this? If not, money has to go into it.
Right? And there's usually a certain percentage that's already set aside in a reserve to go into that. But then our online reserve. Has all the different things that we want, like where it'll have my payroll, it'll have what's fun profit like. Okay. If you wanna have a cool project or some kind of cool investment, that's what that is.
It'll have like a, like bonus account for myself or for team members. And so you can set this up in a lot of different ways. The point is just that there's a, a plan and there's percentages set up for it. So I do go a little off script from the actual book. Yeah. So, uh, don't do what I do.
If you are more a by the book person, go do what Megan does. Yeah. It's a, that's
a great point though too, and I tell people that because sometimes people do struggle with like this multiple bank accounts thing. But I always tell people, it really comes down to your personality. If you're the type of person.
That can manage off of a spreadsheet or like I know you need a budget is like another thing that people sometimes use for that. If you can do that, that's great, but a lot of people can't. And they might tell themselves they can't, but they really can't. And having like the actual like physical different buckets.
In the form of bank accounts. Mm-hmm. Just kind of helps bring a little bit more clarity because again, when you look at your checking account, it's one whole number. Mm-hmm. But if you have separate bank accounts set up, you might have one for payroll and you might have one for the fun profit, and then you can see what the balance is and each of those accounts by just looking at your bank without having to look at a spreadsheet.
So sometimes people like that aspect of it a little bit by having multiple bank accounts. I always tell people, do what works for you. Like that's the whole point is like you, this is setting up a system to manage your cash flow and like how it's coming in, but then also making sure that you're prioritizing profitability.
'cause that's the other thing is like if you aren't profitable, if your business isn't bringing in enough. True profit to cover your taxes and to cover your owner's comp. , Then you have an issue that needs to be solved. Maybe your pricing structure's off, maybe your business model's wrong.
Maybe you have too many expenses that don't have a purpose and an explanation. You know, and we dig into all the nuts and bolts of that kind of stuff. But setting up this system is that first step, because it's gonna help you catch the issues or see the issues ahead of time.
Before they become bigger issues and that's the purpose of it is like, yeah, having a better handle on your money and what it is and what it's doing, and also prioritizing like what your goals are, right? As the business owner, because so many people don't pay themselves and they get burned out.
No matter how much grit you have, if you're not making money and you're not able to pay yourself, you're gonna get burnt out of your business, even if you wanted to create something that was long-term, so that part of it is really important. Your business should be working for you, not the other way around.
And if you are an employee to your business and not a owner to your business, then something has to get adjusted, and that this system helps to solve that. That's been really helpful for people that we've worked with is that, your monthly reports are super important.
You need to make sure you're looking at those and analyzing them and asking questions related to that. But the hard part is a lot of times people don't understand their reports fully. Um, and they gotta lean into that a little bit more. Profit first kind of helps bridge the gap between your reports
and what happens on a day-to-day basis. And so it makes people's money more tangible. And that's a very empowering thing. And that's what we've seen a lot with the business owners that we've worked with, um, in setting up the system and helping them
work with them. Yeah. And well then they can make decisions based on like the actual cash that's available to them.
Right. It's like, it's the, the envelope system for personal Right. Budgeting Exactly. That you're doing that for your business, like I am not allowed to make. fun decisions for the business based off of what's in the operating account, right? Because that cash is already used, right? Like even if the expenses haven't hit, that cash is planned and used for and used, right.
Um, and so, oh man. So is there, not to put you too much on the spot but is there like a really cool case study about someone that maybe was resistant to profit first or just hadn't heard of it and like now they're using it and something cool that's happened for them in their business?
Uh, well, I guess that would
probably be me, so,
perfect.
So, um, I read Profit First, probably like. I think it was probably like six or seven years ago, and when I first read it, I understood it and I got it. But for me, like the multiple bank accounts thing was like a big, deterrent for me as well because I had seen clients struggle with, having multiple bank accounts and I just thought it was.
It was messy and, all that kind of stuff. So I was really resistant to it until I became, a certified profit first professional. And the reason why I decided to pursue that was because I had heard Mike speak again, and he was just talking about eradicating entrepreneurial poverty. And by this time I was several years into business and,
Had worked with a lot of people where I saw that firsthand, despite what we tried to help with people make their own decisions in their business, but a lot of times they're making them off the cuff or without that data, or, without the strategic piece behind it.
And so we were seeing businesses that often would be in this entrepreneurial poverty. Cycle, where they would be surviving month to month and they wouldn't have tax savings put aside. And maybe they weren't paying themselves very well, their businesses weren't profitable even though they were bringing in sales, so we were seeing these issues and I was like, that's right.
In line of what we were trying to accomplish as an organization as well. So I decided to do the certification. And as part of the certification process, you have to implement profit first in your own business. So I went through the steps of doing that and it was very eye-opening, because when you read the book sometimes it does sound like that, but when you actually put it into practice, it's just like anything, like I teach QuickBooks all the time and we talk about chart of accounts and I always tell people
you have to set up your chart of accounts to what's gonna make sense for you, as a business owner, because it's gonna be what's on your reports and it has to make sense. So same thing like when you implement this system, you can read it and it sounds great, or maybe it doesn't sound as great, but when you start actually putting into practice, it becomes.
More tangible, like you start to become more empowered. A lot of times, like we like to joke the Profit First professionals, we like to joke that it becomes addicting because, uh, making these bank accounts, because the more you make these accounts, the more empowered you feel because now you know those areas are covered because you're.
Planning for each specific area of business that you wanna be able to do. And so for me that was kind of the case. And last year I was able to buy a home, as a single woman in the market that we had, I was able to buy a house, you know, for my, for me and my kids. And I wanna say that a lot of that is because we implemented profit first.
Because I really got. Clear on my strategy, what I was paying myself, where my money was going and being strategic about that. And so I would say that I am my own case study for like being resistant to profit first. But utilizing it and really being able to create a business that was profitable.
And the other part of that too is last year was the first year in Probably like six years that we didn't have an increase in sales, but my profit was way higher than it had been in previous years. So my profit,
yes ma'am.
Up? Yes. It's an amazing tool. It's an amazing process and methodology and system and any.
Successful business has to have systems. This is the money management system that in some respects, like you were saying, Samantha, whether it's the way Samantha's doing it or if it's just having an account set aside for reserves and taxes, even those small moves are gonna make a huge difference. You gotta have a money management system in your business in some way, shape, or form.
I highly recommend Profit first, but I know it's. Sometimes isn't for everybody.
Oh, uh, yeah. I mean like pick something and start there. Yeah. Pick something and then be like, okay, it's a lot to manage this. I'm gonna get Megan. Yeah, exactly. And her team of nine amazing employees to come do this. Mm-hmm. Wow.
Megan, I. I know that, I mean, you've got what, uh, you've got a teenager and a preteen, or I guess 13 is official teenager. And I hope that you're all, your kids can just look up to you, but I'm guessing we maybe have some teenage angst and they can't let mom know how cool she is.
Is my, my general assumption here, but this was, is such a, a humbling and enlightening conversation. Like humbled in the idea of, wow, look at all Megan has been through, but also look at how awesome and cool and grounded as she's doing things in business.
And the fact that you're able to buy a house and you've got four kids and you moved across the country I think is just an amazing story. And I am very grateful and appreciative that you blessed us with your time and wisdom today.
Thank you. It's, it was a fun conversation. I've had some, new questions, which was super fun to answer.
So thank you, Samantha.
That is always, when someone tells me, I've never been asked that before. The back of my head is like, oh yeah. So thanks so much for joining us, Megan.
Thank you.