Clicks and Giggles | Your Backstage Pass to Digital Marketing Strategies

From Tax Fears to Financial Cheers with Jackie Easterday

• Jordan Rothwell Perry • Episode 11

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Join us for an insightful and laughter-filled session with Jackie Easterday, a remarkable CPA and advocate for women entrepreneurs. From her personal journey to professional wisdom, Jackie shares practical advice on navigating the complexities of business finance. Discover how intentional budgeting can align your personal and business goals, revolutionizing your entrepreneurial path. Tune in for actionable tips and transformative insights that promise to empower your financial journey with laughter along the way.

Jackie is a CPA with over 10 years of experience working with small business owners to debunk their fears about their business finances and empowering them with financial confidence to grow and scale the business of their dreams!  She works with business owners across a wide array of industries from social media managers to hair stylists and Etsy shop owners!  Her true passion is partnering with business owners to make numbers, dare we say, fun!

Topics covered in this discussion with Jackie Easterday:

  • Importance of prioritizing expenses based on individual and business goals.
  • Strategies for staying organized financially.
  • The power of good bookkeeping.
  • Strategies to ease tax-time stress.
  • The psychological benefits of financial awareness.
  • Value of investing in professional services, such as hiring a bookkeeper or accountant.

CONNECT WITH JACKIE:
Instagram @jackie.easterday.cpa
Website www.easterdaygroup.com

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Clicks and Giggles podcast. I'm your host, jordan Rothwell-Perry, and I'm here to make your marketing click, connect and convert. My mission is to help good people with great offers make more money through paid digital marketing strategies. I truly believe that one ad can change everything for you and your business. Tune in weekly to unlearn what the bros and insert air quotes agency gurus have led you to believe about advertising and hear from inspiring women in my network who are making business a little more live, laugh, launch and a little less stuffy suit and tie, because nobody playing the long game is having a terrible time. Whether you're new to business making millions or you're just my mom tuning in for clicks and giggles, you are welcome here in the room. Get ready for a good time time. Welcome to the Clicks and Giggles podcast. Today I have my friend and my CPA, jackie Easterday, here and I'm so excited to have you.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I am so excited to be here. I'd love to tap any opportunity I get to talk money, taxes, bookkeeping, all the things no one wants to talk about.

Speaker 1:

I to talk about hey, and you know what before, like before I have you introduce yourself, your birthday is on tax day, which is just it's not, it's nauseating like I have it on my calendar and I also have tax down my calendar and I just messaged you a couple weeks ago. I text you. I'm like ha, okay.

Speaker 2:

God knew.

Speaker 1:

God knew when he brought you into this earth.

Speaker 2:

So yeah.

Speaker 1:

So will you give everyone just kind of your backstory and then how you got into owning your own?

Speaker 2:

business. Yeah, well, aside from the fact that I was obviously destined to CPA, do taxes I my undergrad is in finance. I spent a few years kind of in more of a financial analyst role, working through spreadsheets and all the things, and kind of realized that I was missing this piece of accounting. Like I can talk about what is coming down the pipeline and project out numbers, but if you don't know and have a really good, firm understanding of your historical numbers, things don't really make sense, right? So I went back to school, got my master's in accounting, did the public accounting thing for a while. You know 80 hour work weeks, came home at 11pm, all the things I learned so much, yeah.

Speaker 2:

But it was not obviously a lifestyle. As you know, I got married and we grew a family and it just wasn't the jam that I was looking for and so I scaled back a little bit. That's not doable. Everyone knows in corporate, like if you are a good employee and you scale back, you're not scaling back right, like you just can't really pull back. And so we had our son. I worked very minimal, like one or two days a week type of thing. Then we had twins two years later and I stepped back completely. But then I started doing some bookkeeping on the side for you know just some local businesses, a couple nonprofits, things like that and fell in love with that side of it. That was one thing. I didn't get in public accounting. I was working on taxes and big corporations and things like that and fell in love with working with these small business owners who, their taxes and these things were directly impacting them.

Speaker 2:

Fast forward a few years. My twins are going to kindergarten. It's COVID, kind of like. What do we do now? They're all in school but no one's working. So what happens? And so I started to get more active on social media and thought like I let me see if I can find other online business owners. And this thing just kind of escalated from there and I absolutely love what I do. I it's not lost on me that I get to work with people every day who, for whatever reason they're they everyone's got a different purpose and reason behind their business, but I get to help them grow that. I get to help them achieve those goals and be a direct impact in that, and that's my why. That's why I want to do it. I want to be able to be impactful and help them get to where they want to be.

Speaker 1:

So that's kind of where we're at Long story. No, I love it. So we met right before we got. We didn't get married, but but before Brad and I got married in 2021. Yeah, because I remember and I actually just had coffee and lunch with Chelsea Winstead the other day and I was like I remember calling Brad and be like I'm about to spend x on a mastermind but we're about to get married, right, so it's about to be like our money and what do you think about this?

Speaker 1:

And he was like you know, like make it count you know yeah, and so that was like, I mean, the mastermind literally kicked off the month we got married, and so that's when, when you and I met and then, you know, became friends through that and I got to see what you were doing, and, yeah, yeah, it's so. I wish I would have hired you then.

Speaker 1:

I will tell you that I hired you in 2024, not 2021, I should have because, um, it's funny like to think about I'm, I can make money. I can always say, like I can make you money, I can make your sister money, I love it. But when it comes to like where where did this money go? I'm getting better at that part. But the other part is like okay, now that we've made it, how much do we pay to the government, you know? And so Brad and I were laughing so hard at this. I mean, I'm sure you see all the tax memes, but it was like I want to know how to pay taxes when I'm older.

Speaker 1:

And it was like in high school, and it was like shut up and learn how to square dance, and so it's like exactly right or like I can play hot cross buns on the recorder but like you had me captive in a in a classroom for 12 years, eight hours a day and, like I have no you get out and you have no idea what to do.

Speaker 1:

you know, and so, no, I'm like so grateful for you as a, as a resource and so as far as like business goes, and so we can kind of talk more about my question is where are women leaving money on the table? So we can talk about that now, we can talk about it later. But what are you seeing? Kind of this is coming out before tax day, so obviously people can't make a ton of huge changes right before then. But if someone's like me and in the past, where I'm like, oh, I wish I would have tracked this better or done this, it's not that I don't, it's that I'm doing it two weeks before it's due and that's not the way to do it. What is if someone's like, okay, the taxes for 2023 are crazy, that's a wash. Pay them, we'll do them. What is something someone can do to kind of start fresh in April and beyond, if someone's listening to this later, to be more organized when the time comes, whether or not they hire you or someone?

Speaker 2:

else.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I think obviously having clear, clean books on a regular basis is a huge thing, but I think stepping back a piece and I see this all the time it's like a hamster wheel save for taxes, start saving now for your current profits, and so what?

Speaker 2:

What happens, I think, is, you know, people have a tax bill from two years they're paying on and then or they're paying on that and putting everything they can towards that, and then the next year that they get that paid down and then the next tax bill comes and it just is like a constant game of catch up. And I think that if you can get to a point where, okay, we've got this plan set with the IRS or whoever this payment plan pay that, that's in the background, that's happening. But let's start putting money aside for taxes now so that next year, even if this payment plan you have, you're not paying it off in the timeframe you want and it lasts two, three, four years or whatever start saving now so that next year when your tax bill comes, you've got the money, you pay that and you've just got the one payment plan. You get yourself off that hamster wheel.

Speaker 2:

And I think that's the biggest thing is people are like oh, I'll start next year, I'll get it together next year. Get it together now. Figure out what's happened in the past is the past. Set up a game plan for it. Roll forward, but start saving now to get yourself off of that hamster wheel.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I love that because that's what we decided. Like we're on a bit of a hamster wheel, we were doing it before we started.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's like. But it's also like so reassuring when we've met that you're like you're not the only one. You know like you're not. And so what I noticed, too, is like when we met for January, for y'all to take over, you're like this, you can start fresh now, and so it's so nice. Every month you've been saying, like, put aside this much.

Speaker 1:

So last night, brad and I were looking at January and February books and like we have a number and we're like, okay, like this is how much money right now we need to move over so that we can be ready. And at this point we were like laughing Cause. We were, if we don't, like, we're just being ignorant, you know, I mean, obviously there's stuff in life that comes up that you may have to use cash for 100, but also we were like we know now, like we know better compared to in the past. It truly was a guessing game like, oh my gosh, I was at a retreat, we were talking about taxes and you would have this conversation was so funny because we were talking about turbo tax and the highs and lows, lows as you're doing it.

Speaker 1:

And then and the number, it's like you owe a million dollars, you're getting a million dollars, you owe 500,000, you owe $82. Like, truly, the high and low and like now it's so nice because I am an S-corp, so that gets taken out every month.

Speaker 2:

Shout out to Gusto, my payroll is running today, so so I was like let's make sure everything's good to go in there and then and then also, like you have that money coming out, love it.

Speaker 1:

It's a, it's a chunk of it, it's not the main right amount, uh. And then it's like to have that number. It's not going to be so scary come next year. I just I'm like it's the least fun part of business for me and it's the most important part well, and I think too there's there's two kind of ways of looking at it.

Speaker 2:

If you've got your books in order and every month you're like this is how much I? You know, this was my net income, this was my profit last month, this is what I brought in, and it was nine thousand dollars. Okay, 20, 25 percent of that is what's going to go to taxes. One, just, I think just knowing, just knowing. Even if you don't do anything with that, even if you don't actually save the money, the knowing takes a huge part of the anxiety off, like, oh yeah, there's so much behind it, and then you know, if you get to that point where you're putting the money aside, literally almost all the anxiety can be gone.

Speaker 2:

Right, like you're. You know, okay, okay, it sucks. I'm probably gonna have to pay a $14,000 tax bill in March. But you know what? I've got that money saved and the more you see that frequency of seeing that, it eliminates it's like you know you you're in therapy and people talk about like the things that make you anxious and nervous, like bring those to light, talk to people about those, and the more you expose yourself to it, the less fearful and anxiety driving it is. And I think that's totally true with the financial side of your business. That financial report hits your inbox every month. You're going to see it, you're not ignoring it and it can feel kind of like a oh shit, look how much I spent on professional development or client gifts or whatever.

Speaker 2:

Once you see that you get a handle on, it's not so scary anymore after a couple months and then it's all of a sudden shifts from being really scary, it's really empowering.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that shift is what I love seeing with business owners I'm so transparent that, like, literally, I have to restrain myself from or restrain, refrain either one, being like let's look at my numbers, I got my P&L, yes. Like it's so empowering to know. And like I just joined another, since, you know, last month for March you'll see, I joined another mastermind and it's more to help with my course and program and evergreening it and turning it into like the best possible program for people to learn ads if they can't afford a retainer. And so I'm like, yeah, I'm adding X amount per month in personal development, but it's like in my mind, being so clear on the numbers we've looked at, I'm like, oh well, this is a no brainer because, yes, I'm going to 10x this, this mastermind next month. Like I know it, I just I can go do it and so.

Speaker 1:

But if I didn't know, like, when I saw I was like, oh, I mean, I'll transparent. I was like, okay, we spent like $5,500 on personal development last month. Well, yeah, I make use of every single room I'm in, so that's fine compared to like if the numbers weren't making sense and you, you weren't seeing growth in my business. Like you, you may be like, hey, I'm noticing this and I love. Oh my gosh. I was telling someone about, like you know, I pay for Slack, we use let's see what's our tech stack that's a sexy way to say it we use Slack, we use Asana, we use Google Drive, all that right and you were like, hey, this is really like similar to what other people I work with are paying, and that made me feel so good because you have to pay for tech Unless you want to, literally run your business on.

Speaker 2:

Like what is it? The Flintstones like stone and chisel.

Speaker 1:

It has to happen and so it just was so nice to hear that from you and be like this is okay, Because it's like I mean, I think it's like $1, like 13 or $1,400 a month I spend on tech things and it's like when I have raised prices or do raise prices, it's like that is factored into that client cost, Like I don't just make 100% off a retainer in my pocket. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, and I think too that's one of the the huge kind of unseen benefits of working with somebody on a regular basis that sees tons of people's books across industries, like when I was in business school, like they will, you know, there's industry metrics for these huge, you know Fortune 500 companies, right, and like, here's what you know people are spending in this and all these like standards, but there aren't standards.

Speaker 2:

We're all small business owners. We're all running things for different reasons, for different purposes, in different ways. But it does help to know like, okay, five $600 a month in your software charges and your tech is not astronomical If your revenue is supporting that, right, like you're like, okay, I don't know if I should upgrade to the next version to click up or something like that. But then knowing like, hey, this is like a drop in the bucket and it's saving me time 15 minutes of my time that saved for that 50 bucks is beyond worth it, you know yes, yes, and that's that's a thing is like when figuring out the expenses, like it doesn't make sense, right?

Speaker 1:

or is it just like oh gosh, I mean, I had Riz, had Riz. Well, if she listens to this she'll laugh. But like, I had ClickUp and Asana, because I, like, was not using ClickUp but I wasn't also using Asana, I was using, like fricking sticky notes.

Speaker 1:

And so I had to bring Riz back on and be like help. And so now we're all, we're in Asana, it's like humming. And I finally was like, okay, I've got to, I've got to cancel ClickUp, because I'm the type that would see a charge and be like, oh, I have to do that, you know.

Speaker 1:

But it's like now you like also look at it and you're like what makes the most sense, Like 100%, and I think it's the freedom and I don't know if you feel this way as a business owner like everyone's using ClickUp and I so desperately wanted to and wanted to love it. But I'm like I'm going from like literally a note on my phone to a platform with a ton of retainer clients. Let's go to Asana where, like, I've worked in it before and then if I need more functionality, then do it.

Speaker 2:

You know, like I was, I was like hopping on everyone's doing this and it's like you don't have to do that just because someone else know, I confession, I had calendly, like I'd been paying for that for like six or seven months last year because I was like I'm eventually going to get to this point where I've got people looking and it's going here, and it's going here and doing all those like fantastic things we can do but I never spent the time to get it rolling and I'm like you know what?

Speaker 2:

what I'm working, it's time Like I can always come back to that, but I think just having a handle on those things is so incredibly important.

Speaker 1:

Yes, otherwise you're like, uh, oopsies. So yeah, it's very interesting and I'm going to have to book a separate. This is reminding me to book a separate call with you to like go through my monthly charges and be like, how, cause I, brad laughs like with our even family budget. Like he's like you don't track. Like you track what you spend. You don't track, like you, you have a plan. But it's not like we're like super strategic. He's also taking over the family finances in Q2, praise the Lord. Shout out Brad Perry, cause it's necessary. I'm like just tell me how much money I can spend. Like that was our conversation the other day. I'm like I cannot, you know. And he's like, hey, can you do an owner's draw to checking? Like can you do? I'm like you just need to do it all, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I need like what's a debit card that you give like eight year olds? You know that has like your kids probably have it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I told him I'm like I just want like a budget that we agreed to and I do my thing and you make sure it's all set.

Speaker 2:

I think that also, like I could talk about personal budgeting and it's not like that is totally a personal thing, but I think it is you've got to find what works. I think there's a structure that needs to happen for your business finances and then I think, personally, it's got to be the right thing that works for you and your family. You know I have one of my sisters that like swears by mint up and down around like they're going to go in and she's going to see exactly, like how much they spend on eating out and this and that. And personally, like I don't budget for our family, I know how much we need to say I these, these, I like. Look at my growth, almost like.

Speaker 1:

I treat the same way. I'm like.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I know I want to put this much into the boys college funds and this much into, you know, this fund and I want to save for this and these are what I want to hit for savings and like, if we can do that and everything else, like I don't really care what I spent. Yeah, like the chip.

Speaker 1:

What do they say? Let the chips fall. Yeah, it's like. These are my main goals.

Speaker 2:

And this is what I want to be doing and I don't want to track every Amazon purchase. If we can't hit those goals and I've got to like reel it in and skim back, or whatever. Yeah, and so I think it's just figuring out what works best. But, like I mean, some people it does. They want to see. I do not want to see how much money we spent eating out Like I don't don't tell me, don't tell me, but if it's affecting how our long-term goals, then I am going to need to look at it.

Speaker 2:

So I think there's just a way of looking at it. I think that does not necessarily work for a business. You're growing a business. You're really like your family is your family and what's going to work for one isn't going to work for the next. But for businesses there is a standard. But I think personally, like you've got to find what jives for like your long-term, like family goals and like mold your. You know your process around that, because some people do, they want to see every charge and they want to sit down and have a quarterly family meeting about it. I do not, I just want. I do not, yeah.

Speaker 1:

You want your kids to go to college and you want to enjoy a good meal.

Speaker 2:

And I want to retire and I want to do all the things and I will spend within a parameter. But if it is a month where we're eating out heavily like, I'll reel in my you know purchases, whatever, but yeah, something it's different for everybody and I think it's in seasons too right like 100, it's um it.

Speaker 1:

I have like such good conversations with Becca and Marley from mine her business about like the, the like budgeting side and like what matters, because they're like, because for a while I was getting conversations with Becca and Marley from mine, her business about like the, the like budgeting side and like what matters because they're like cause, for a while I was getting kava delivered like at least once a week, and that charge is so good.

Speaker 1:

It's so depressing, like seeing what, how much it costs if I'm like lazy and don't pick it up. But they were like you. Their kind of philosophy is also like what are you prioritizing right now? And so that's helped me not order it as much because I'm like that isn't a priority to me. It's just like I've let myself get too busy.

Speaker 1:

So like instead, before our call today, like I had a rotisserie chicken in the fridge, I had a Caesar salad like bagged Caesar salad and I just whipped up a meal because I know if I don't come like 2 pm, I'm more than calm right and so it's like I don't, that's not a priority, priority to me right now, so I can make that shift and shout out to them for like coaching me through it, because what does matter to me is like Brad only has one day off this week.

Speaker 1:

I'm traveling and I want to do a nice dinner with him, like that matters to me and I'm gonna spend money on that, and so I think that has been so. Freeing too is like looking at the priorities versus like I'm very I'm moving so fast that I am more like reactive than proactive, so that that has helped too. But no, I love yeah, everything that like you have done for us, like since working together. It was so cool Cause like January you were like hey, here's your percentage of profit for the month. And like I was launching my course, I traveled, I taught my course live at a program. Like my lawyer was doing some contracts for it, I paid people to put my course together. So it was like not only was I happy with my profit and I was like, oh, it's only going to get better from here as I sell this. You, you know, and so I feel like you. I don't know.

Speaker 1:

I think the perspective and having eyeballs on it like I guarantee you people listening to this right now and it could be working corporately too is like they go out and make money, they spend money, they make money again. It's just like this cycle versus like having the spreadsheet and then having the profit and loss statement sent to me to look through the categories. It really does like I do think about the counseling. You know where. You're like brought back to earth, like you could be spiraling, thinking of so many things, but like once you look at it, you're like, oh, this isn't that bad, I just need to like tweak this or do this. And something I love that you've been doing and people should think about doing for themselves is you were like, okay, especially for your client facing you were like, of these meta ad charges, how many are for your clients and how many are for you? I'm like, oh, I've never categorized that. I've always just been like, oh, I've paid Facebook $1,000 this month on ads. And so it's funny because I don't even know if I've even told you why I pay for my client's ads.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes it's only if their ads manager gets shut down because they're like Amex flags it as a fraud. And then I immediately go in and I'm like I don't want this account getting shut down because it could take a day or it could take 12 weeks to fix. And so I put in my PayPal and for some reason, paypal and Meta play really nicely together, but I really should then get the client to put their card back in, you know. And so I actually have Sydney on my team having a client call today to test running the Amex, so that the client can like call the bank right then.

Speaker 1:

But it's like if I wouldn't have known that I would have truly thought like, oh, I just spent X on freaking you know ads all month and it was like no half are for my clients. And then something we're starting to do is and other people listening can do this too for their team is like okay, for graphic design. We're looking at like how much of the design is for my business, how much is for clients, which client are? And then what comes?

Speaker 2:

next, raising prices if it's not profitable, or cutting expenses or removing services or something to make sure, because as service providers, we are just like. We have these bleeding hearts and we're like I'll do it, I'll do it, I'll do it Right and like at some point, yeah sure, help them. And if it's and I'm a huge proponent of like, I'm not going to charge you for something now, because I think this is gonna solidify like your trust in me and you're gonna be around longer and things like that but right, there's a time and a place for, like, your personal profitability. And I think all of this goes kind of like around to what you had initially asked, like where are women leaving money on the table? And to me it is they're leaving money on the table by not spending money, like they, we, I think, as women, especially like business owners and moms and service providers, like we are just like I should do it, should, should, should, I should do it myself. I should be able to do this. I should be able to do track my own finances. We should be able to do our own taxes and turning around and like investing in people, and it's like those things that like open up your time and your mental capacity is where I think money is being left on the table. Because if we are free, like mentally, but then also like our time, like literally our time, like we're going to sell differently, we're going to have time to start looking into our profitability of our clients, projects and our contracts and things like that, right.

Speaker 2:

But then I think it also goes there's, like you said, seasonality, like sometimes it's not even just investing in business expenses. Sometimes, like during tax season, for me it's make. We up our cleaning lady she comes twice a week because I'm just not doing it, you know and we are upping our meal service, that you know, our, you know we get more meals, you know, and they're prep yourself type of things. But like things like that, that aren't deductions but it's freeing up my time to work during this busier time and season for us. But also it frees up time that I would be not be able to spend with the kids because I'm busy with work and I'm doing laundry and I'm doing these other things. And so I think it's also taking a step back and realizing maybe it's not a business expense but it's still going to impact your business, you know, and I think not, yeah, and so not spending money. Sometimes I think it's leaving money on the table, truthfully.

Speaker 1:

I really do have to say I'm so grateful that you encourage women to spend, or anyone to spend right in their business in a smart way, because you have people out there who are like you know you're bootstrapping, you're doing this and like, probably not until the last year I didn't ask people what their marketing budget was. I just sent a proposal, we got ads going, we did that, and now I have these conversations on sales calls or just in general, like what is your marketing budget? And like people don't know and also they're like they're. Some people teach them to like just freaking, like be scrappy and do that, and I'm like, yeah, 100%, but be scrappy elsewhere If you know your product or service or offer needs to get in front of more people. So no, I just love that. And and so do you encourage people to like spend a certain percentage on marketing or what's kind of your philosophy on that?

Speaker 2:

So, honestly, it's going to be different for everybody, but the rule of thumb for me is anything you're investing in, especially within your business. If you don't start seeing revenue growth within like 60 to 90 days of that investment, you may want to rethink about it. So there's not maybe a hard and fast rule for a specific business. There may be. But, for example, hiring a new employee to start taking over some of your stuff In an ideal world, yes, those first couple months they're going to be training, getting ramped up and things like that and you're going to start to see your profit dropping a little bit because you've incurred this new expense. By month three, by 90 days, your revenue should be increasing to the extent that it is covering their expense because you should be having more time to sell and do the other things. If it's not, you're just spending.

Speaker 2:

And the same thing I think is true of, like you know, coaching programs and masterminds and things like that. Like, if you're not, you know if you're in a mastermind really one of two things you're revamping your business to hopefully start bringing in more revenue. You're networking. You're networking and bringing in people and so any of those bigger expenses. Same thing with marketing, like if you're investing in a marketing service and I think this is probably, I mean, you as a marketing expert can say it but like you're not going to see results in a week, you're not going to see results necessarily in a month, right, so you've got to give it time. But if you're 90 days in and you're not seeing any fluctuation with your revenue, you got to think about kind of what and it's not jiving Shoot.

Speaker 1:

That's so good because I have. So the way my retainers are structured now is it's 90 days and 30 days notice. And so we, the first month's onboarding, so like we're diving into the business, we're building ads, they're recording videos, we're doing all that good stuff. Ads start by month two or in month two, and then month three is really when I'm reevaluating everything with them, and by month three I can tell them hey, there's a problem with your offer, hey, this is hitting. But they're confused here and we've tested enough and done enough. And so that's why I work with people for at least a quarter, because by 90-ish days, 100-ish days, I can tell you is this going to work right now? Right, and so I had someone ask me like who, who is it? That normally doesn't work out with you, which is such an interesting question. But like they can ask that.

Speaker 1:

And I said you know, I just off-boarded someone who has a brick and mortar who's going to run ads and house. We figured out what works. But like they have rent and so, like when you're an online business owner, like if you are making enough, you, you know, online business the margins are a lot better, but brick and mortar. If you're coming to me and you're already spending like, let's just say, $6,000 a month on rent, well, between me and good ad spend and different other marketing things, like that is a hit. And so I'm like we're like we're still great, we're in good communication, just off-boarded them and they'll be in working with me for tune-ups, but like they have someone in-house and that makes sense when you have that high of rent, right.

Speaker 1:

But then you know someone else. It's like okay, they are selling a product like their offers $33. Well, to cover my retainer, you have to sell a lot of $33 intro products, you know. And so that's where I always have people look at their offer suites. But I'm like ads can work for anyone but you have to decide what's worth it for you. Or, like what you're talking about, are you going to be able to have a, you know, lead generation or sales cycle that is 90 days and you know by day 90 or 120 people are buying or are people buying right off the bat. So I agree with that 100% and like even this, this new mastermind I joined, there's been family stuff going on, life stuff going on like we talked about, and I haven't dove in it as much granted. Tomorrow is literally.

Speaker 1:

I've been in it for three weeks like it's not, it's not that long not even actually Friday is like three weeks, and so I'm like you know they had reached out and like, so sweet, want to bring me through. You know, what do you need from us? And I'm like my mindset too is like, hey, month two and month three, I'm implementing what we're working on for this program and so, right, the first month it's really just like getting dipping your toes in the water, like what is this going to be? So I love that mindset to have, like if someone is bringing on a new person and is struggling with you know, oh my gosh, I like I'm hiring this person but they're freeing up my time, but I'm teaching them so much. It's like, yeah, you have to onboard someone or you have to get someone to understand and spend the time with them. So I like that so pretty much like a 90 day ish assessment.

Speaker 2:

I. That's what that's. My rule of thumb is looking back on those expenses and has my revenue increased enough to statiate that expense? And if it hasn't, what's going wrong? And it might not. You know, like it may, you may bring out an employee and in 90 days you're like this is not, it may not be them, it may be you. You know what I mean. And so when people say there's like a right and a wrong time to spend, I think using that 90 days as an investment time period in your brain and so thinking okay, for the next 90 days, can I sustain this expense without bringing any more money and still do the things I need? Can I still pay the bills, do the things I need to do if the answer is no, you may need to grind a little bit more to get to

Speaker 2:

that point and then kind of go but if you're able, you know, say it's a two thousand dollar, you're gonna bring on. You know somebody do ads for two grand. You're like, okay, can my monthly profit sustain this two2,000 expense for the next three months and I can still pay myself when I need to, to pay the bills and do all the things? And if the answer is yes, then bring it on and then reevaluate in 90 days. If it's not, and that's going to cause you to not be able to like pay a contractor or cover this, then it's not the right time and you may need to buckle down, bring more in house and then kind of get to that point. So it's not perfect, but it's a rule of thumb and just a different way I think of thinking about it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that and that's part of why I made my program, so that they could have, like the course to dive into and the calls to troubleshoot because it may not be the right season. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't have an ad running, you know because the awareness is good, and so no, I love that this has been so good.

Speaker 1:

So, so, because this is the clicks and giggles podcast, we will end with this. So what um are you? You know you're in tax season, so you're probably not having like so much fun right now, but uh, what do you do in tax season? To unwind and then post taxes? I think you do have a girl's trip plan, cause I know we're all trying to plan something too.

Speaker 2:

My, where I'm going to the lake with a bunch of girlfriends at the end of beginning of May. So that's kind of like my thing. But honestly, tax season when it ends, it's like summers around the corner. Like it to me like the beginning of or the end of tax season is like the sun is shining, like it's like summer's around the corner. Like it to me like the beginning or the end of tax season is like the sun is shining, like it's outside it's patio weather, it's everything kind of starts to like jive and collect and I just honestly, I just like being outside.

Speaker 2:

Like it sounds silly, but if it's a patio lunch with my girlfriends and having a margarita, if it's sitting outside watching March Madness, that I don't have a huge investment in, but my kids are all you know, yeah, and so I think for me, it's just being outside and like taking and leaning into the slow stuff.

Speaker 1:

You know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

I think, that's another thing that you know. I can talk about this forever, but knowing your numbers and your books and your trends in your business allows you to lean into your slow seasons and plan for those, as opposed to stress out during your slow seasons and be like crap, it comes down a little bit but if you've saved a little, you kind of cover that and you can like lean into that and slow down a little bit and rejuvenate yourself and take these purposeful, like you know breaks and things like that. So, honestly, I just I want to take a nap, yes, Okay.

Speaker 1:

I love it. No, Well, I think I like that too, especially the outdoors and y'all being in Texas and just enjoying that summertime. Well, and I and the show notes will have your Instagram linked, your website linked and any resources. Is there any freebie in particular that we're going to link that you want people to check out if they're interested in learning more about you?

Speaker 2:

We have so many different freebies on the website that are perfect If you're looking at projecting your income or you just need a place to start to track your profits, or if you do want more info on S-Corps. So I would say, just check out any of the freebies. And we also offer VIP calls with me, which are 30 minutes. They're paid calls, but pick my brain, get some immediate clarity. So kind of going back to like who isn't ready to work with you? It's still time, Like you still need to get the things in order so that you can get to that point, and so all of that stuff's on the website. But always reach out to in DMS Like I love chatting numbers, obviously with people and things like that and, um, just helping people grow the business they want to grow and the way they want to grow it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I will say if you're interested in her tax services for next year, cause you are booked and you're busy, get get information, get on the wait list for the roster. I'm like I will put a deposit down on next year's roster because I'm like let's freaking go. But no, I'm so glad you were here today and thank you for sharing your knowledge. And give Jackie a follow. Check in the show notes for more resources. She has some great things on her site and I can't wait to have you back on here down the road.

Speaker 2:

There's so much to talk about.

Speaker 1:

Yes, well, happy tax season, happy early birthday, and we'll see you on here soon.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, thank you.

Speaker 1:

And that's a wrap. Thank you for listening. If you were inspired by this episode, be sure to check out the show notes for the linked resources and my free guide three ways to know you're ready for ads. If weekly episodes aren't enough for you and you want more of your favorite click magnet, you can connect with me over on Instagram. At launch with Jordan, I host regular challenges and drop valuable tips that will help make your marketing click, connect and convert. And if you think it would inspire a friend, send it, share it, just for clicks and giggles.