Hot Tip Tuesday's: Get Your Business Sh*t Together (Patreon)
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Hello my sweet love –
Welcome back to Hot Tip Tuesday! Where I share a tips that if I could go back in time, I would tell my younger self. Instead, I'm telling all ya'll!
This week's tip(s) is for you business owning baddies. The ones who are running your enterprise on your own, figuring everything out as you go, maybe sometimes crying at your key board, and probably (if you're like me) wanting to tear your hair out sometimes.
Sound like you?
Here's 3 things I wish I had done YEARS ago that literally would have saved me time, and THOUSANDS of dollars.
✦ #1: Get a separate business bank account.
If you already have one, congrats you are smarter than I was for 5 years too long. For the longest time I just had everything in one messy account, because I wasn't incorporated (forgive me if ya'll in the USA use different lingo). Because I was a sole proprietor I thought "eh I don't NEED a separate account". And no, I didn't need one. But when my book keeper sent me her bill every year I wanted to cry. And having a separate account to keep all my business transactions in would have saved me hundreds of dollars in her time.
✦ #2: Incorporate. Like. Now.
Ok my friends. You might think "but I don't make enough money to incorporate!" "It's expensive!" "It's hard!" Listen. I thought the same thing. And I was wrong, so, so, so wrong. I waited too long to incorporate and then one year my business grew 2x in revenue, and I owed $50,000 in taxes.
Yes.
$50,000. Make you wanna vomit/cry? That's ok, me too. I got my bill and I went to my accountant and begged her to start my incorporation process the next day.
If you are full-time, it's probably a good idea to start looking at incorporating. It's not nearly as hard or scary or expensive as people want you to believe. It was relatively easy, and it definitely has saved me thousands in taxes. Plus, your business is now legally protected separate from you. Which also is a beautiful thing!
✦ #3: Automate everything.
Can't afford to outsource yet? Automation is the next best thing. Hell, it's an even better thing imo. Automation is like having 3 different assistants working for you while you sleep. Leads come in? Automate the reply. Sending contracts? Automate it. Sending out address, preshoot guide, etc? Automate it.
It takes some serious time to set up, I won't lie to you.
But when I automated my systems (basically anything I sent out manually more than twice) my free time doubled, I was able to sit back and relax, AND I knew my clients were getting a better experience from me. Because I wasn't forgetting to send out vital information – a much more reliable brain (a computer) was sending it out for me. This allowed me to be much more present in my session, my social media, and my email correspondences I did still need to reply to.
Ok, ok, ok. I know this particular Hot Tip Tuesday isn't as sexy or exciting as the past ones. But I seriously wish I had done all of the above 3 in year 1. Because they are game changers.
And if you've done all of these already: you are a super star and I bow to you!
Thank you so much for being here!
With love,
M xx