Series 1 Recap | Ep 020

Kacie: What's up guys? Welcome to the Business Project podcast. We are excited about this week because we have something super special for you guys that we have not done before. Mm. 

John: It's gonna be good. 

Kacie: It's gonna be good. Yeah. We're gonna save you lots and lots of time. We're giving you a complete quick like flashback of all the important things that we went over in our first series.

Siri series. Siri Series, not Siri, . The very first series that we did, we went. Start to finish on your business. So we went through, um, getting your business license and branding and creating your social media and mm-hmm. . 

John: Yep. The registration process, contracts, basically everything to make, to establish your business 

Kacie: properly.

Yes. And we're just gonna give that to you in like 15 or 20 minutes. Actually have no idea how long this is gonna be, but we're gonna take the meat and potatoes out of every single episode that we did in that series, and we're just gonna give it to you all in one 

John: podcast. Clip it together so you can just binge watch it through.

Yes. And then you'll be ready to go. 

Kacie: You will be. And if you want more information on any of those topics, then you can go back and just find that one podcast episode. Say you want more on accounting, then you can go back to the accounting podcast episode and you can watch that full one. But we are here to save you some time to give you some good information and to help you get successful in your 

John: business.

So grab your popcorn, grab your hot C. Or your wine, whatever floats your boat and enjoy. 

Kacie: Yes, let's get into it. Let's.

The Business Project podcast business can be complicated. We break it down to regular people like us can 

John: understand and find success. I'm John Crespo, accountant and consultant. I'm Casey 

Kacie: Bryant, marketer and event planner. If you run a business or want to run 

John: a business, welcome to the show.

So what's the first thing that has to be done when creating the business? 

Kacie: The first thing is picking a name. Picking a name is you're very, for me, that's my very first step that I like to do because I feel like nothing starts until you have the official name of the business. Right? 

John: Very true. Yeah, very true.

And I think that that can be, um, very, Right. Because you wanna make sure you're picking the name that is, is going to last. Yep. Right? And, and something that people can relate to maybe. Yep. So there's a lot of, um, there's a lot of research that goes involved in picking 

Kacie: a name Yeah. And making sure that it is scalable also.

That's a really important thing. So there's two things that you can do. You can either name the business based on describing the business, right? Mm-hmm. . So the, the business project, that's what we do, is we help you. With your business project. So our name describes what we do, right? So that's one strategy that you could take.

Another strategy is to come up with something that's catchy. And, you know, uh, probably the most famous example of that is Google. Like Google doesn't really describe anything, but it has become a verb almost. Um, you know, they, they created a name and a brand and, and that is really challenging to do because right, to come up with just, a name and have it be, um, be, uh, catchy and describe what you do without anybody having idea, any idea about you and your business as you start up.

Um, so that's a little bit more challenging way to do it, researching your industry. Mm-hmm. , this is my least favorite. Yeah. I, well, accounting too. Accounting is my least favorite, but this is one of my least favorite is the research cuz I feel like I have a vision. I know what I wanna do, I know where I wanna go.

Why does it matter what other people are? . 

John: Right? But you know, researching is important, right? Yeah. Because what if you're putting a business or think you have a business idea in mind, but there's no one interested or there's nothing out there about it. 

Kacie: Or there's already a thousand people doing 

John: it right.

Or a thousand people doing it. Yeah. You know, or may maybe, you know, there's a lot, there's a huge cost involved in starting that business that you weren't aware of. Yep. Um, so I guess doing the research is something that will help in making sure you understand everything that's involved in. creating that business.

So what's a company description? 

Kacie: A company description is basically who you are, what you do, how you do it, and why you do it. Who, what, when, or why love it, and how you don't want people's eyes to be rolling in the back of their head whenever they're listening to you. Like short, sweet, to the point. What problem are you solving for them?

Yep. That's what your company description should include is what problem are you solving? Because really that's all they care about. Yeah. In the end anyway, they're like, how can you. . 

John: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's important for like your website, for social media and, and all of that. You don't want like a 10 page novel as a business description.

Nobody's gonna read that. Yeah. You know, you wanna be able to hit the main points of what your business is and what it does, and, and who you're supporting. Mm-hmm. , right? So people get a good understanding of your business. And then they move on to the, to the next step. A 

Kacie: lot of people get the mission and the vision, I think mixed up, right?

It's, it, this is another step that can be very intimidating and I think a lot of people don't do because they don't understand it. Yeah. And, but your mission and vision is so important. So let's explain a little bit, um, about the difference between a mission and vision. 

John: Here we go. This is simple, right?

Yeah. You know how when you are writing, um, a. and you have the five Ws. It's who, what, when, where, why, why, who, what, when, where, why. Yeah. That's five, right? Yep. Uhhuh, . You got the five 

Kacie: Ws, how sometimes sneaked in there, but that's an H. . 

John: So you got the who, what, when, where, and why. Your mission statement is the who, what, when, and where.

Your vision statement is the why. So if there's an easy way to remember the difference between the two, think of the five W. and think of your mission as a who, what, when, where. So what is a market analysis? A market 

Kacie: analysis is looking at the businesses in your industry, even sometimes the businesses that aren't under industry.

Mm-hmm. and figuring out, um, what they're offering, what their prices are. How they are unique in your market, how, what their branding looks like. Mm-hmm. , pretty much everything involved with a company's overall strategy. Right. 

John: That's really good. And I think that's, I mean, how important is that, right? To know what.

your industry is all about before you 

Kacie: get into it. Yeah. So important, and I think we talked about before it, this isn't to copy anybody. Mm-hmm. . This isn't to feel, get intimidated. The, I think the whole point in doing your market analysis is learning what is out there, what is your competition doing, and how can you stand out?

What can you do to stand out? Right? How can you price yourself? And what, um, do you wanna offer value? Do you wanna offer the best pricing? Do you wanna offer the best customer service? What strategy are you gonna take in selling your products or services? 

John: So the next one, this is a good one, right? Yeah.

Pick your products and your services. Well, you gotta pick it now. . 

Kacie: I think a lot of people, when they get into business, they get really, really excited about business and they think, oh, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do this, and they end up doing too many things. Mm-hmm. , this is one of those areas where simple is better.

Mm-hmm. and less is more. Yep. When you start out, you don't want to offer a million things and do it halfway. It's a lot better to offer a couple of things and do it with. 

John: Smart goals is broken down, right? We spell smart s m a r and T, and we're gonna start step by step. So s. , right? What is the S in the smart goals?

Kacie: S is specific. Yeah. They have to be specific, right? If you're not specific, if you don't know specifically what you want to do, it's almost like shooting blindfolded at a target, right? I mean, if you don't, if you can't see the target and you don't know where you're trying to go, you're not gonna hit it.

And so that can go, I mean, losing weight, if you lose weight, you don't wanna just make a goal and. I, I wanna lose weight. Exactly. How much do you wanna lose? And we're gonna get into the rest of it. Very true. You need to be very specific on what you wanna accomplish. All right. And then the m is the next SM measurable.

We're spelling out smart. Measurable. Measurable. 

John: Yeah. You want to make sure that you can see the bent that, that you are accomplishing something, right? Mm-hmm. , you wanna measure the success of your goal. There's tools that you can put into place to help to measure. , 

Kacie: if you're not measuring mm-hmm. your goals, then you don't know where you're, where you are in the process.

Right. 

John: So the, as the ace, what's your a, your mine? Uhhuh. is achievable. Tell us about achievable. Achievable. I think it kind of speaks for itself, but if you are creating a goal, so I, I had the example of starting a business in the commercial space and automatically thinking you can build that skyscraper.

Right? That's not an achievable. Goal in the beginning. So achievable is when you're coming up with your goal, you're coming up with something that you can actually, you know, you can accomplish it. So you're putting yourself in a situation that is going to bring success by figuring out a goal that you can actually reach.

So it's like it's reachable. All right, 

Kacie: so we have S M A R. 

John: Realistic. Realistic. Mm. . Yeah. Again, I'm going back to building the skyscraper. Yeah. . You can't start a business and build a skyscraper the next 

Kacie: day. And some, just like we talked about just a second ago, you might not know right now what is realistic and achievable.

Mm-hmm. , it might take you some time getting into your business before you can figure out exactly what you can do. 

John: Very true. And that, you know, it goes into, um, our previous podcasts and everything. Goes into building your foundation. You, when you do your research into the industry that you are want, that you're wanting to get into, in, in that research, you're going to know more or less what is a realistic number that you're looking at.

What's a realistic, um, service? What's a realistic product you're going to, you're, that research is gonna give you. Information so that you can then implement it into your goal. We're gonna 

Kacie: go into the T, which is kind of like this, but you want to set, you wanna set different timelines. Yeah. Right. Which kind of goes into the T talks about making a timeline, but you don't want just one timeline.

Mm-hmm. , you don't wanna just, Hey, let's just do goals for the next three months. You really wanna sit down and you wanna break it backwards. So start with 10 years. In 10 years, where do I want my business to be? How do I want it to be financially? How do I want it to be working? How do I wanna treat my employees?

How do I want my customers to feel about my business? There's a lot that goes into this besides just financial goals, right? And so just think about the way your business looks and feels in 10 years and what all that entails, and write it all down. And then you have to use your timeline to figure out how you can get to that.

John: So here we go. There's three, um, steps that we're gonna look at when it comes to branding, right? And the first one is define your message. The second one is color scheme, and the third one is logo. All fun, right? So let's kick it off with define your message. 

Kacie: Defining your message. Yeah. Yeah. So if you guys have been listening to any of our previous podcasts, we've gone over doing a market analysis, creating your mission and vision.

And so again, that's why it's kind of important that you go back and listen because we're building, building a foundation, right? Building blocks on top of each other. And if you have a mission and vision, and if you've gone over all of that, then you should know exactly who your business is, who you represent, what problem you're solving.

um, you should be able to give your little elevator pitch and you should basically know, um, the who, what, when, where, why, and how Right of your business, right? Yep. And so when you're defining your message, you're taking all of that and you're clumping it in one ball of like awesomeness. So you're color, color scheme.

you only wanna have a maximum of three colors. Okay. Unless you have a rainbow in your logo or something along those lines. You don't wanna have it be too busy with too many colors. Three colors is good. A main color. All of my logos actually are just one color or two. Wow. With white. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I'm a big, why is that?

I love simple cuz I just love the simplicity of it. It looks. Black. It looks good. White. It looks good. Gray. Um, I just, I love the simple. So what is a marketing plan? 

John: The marketing plan is the actual roadmap that takes all of that information and puts it into place. So it's the roadmap that you create, um, on how you're going to execute everything that you've built up until this, until this time exactly.

To put it in line. That's a good distinction. 

Kacie: Layman's terms. Mm-hmm. . And there's all types of marketing now, and I feel like it just keeps growing. There's five bazillion social media platforms. There's billboards, there's radio, there's uh, what else is there? There's magazines, there's newspaper. Do those still exist?

Newspapers, believe it or not, they do . Yeah, there's newspapers. Oops. Um, and so there's all kinds. places that you can spend your money and get, get the word out there. There's networking events, there's business cards. Mm-hmm. , there's your website. And once you start a business, you're gonna have a bazillion people knocking on your door wanting your advertising money.

Very wanting your marketing time. Very true. 

John: Yeah. And so, believe it or not, most small businesses do not create a marketing plan, so you go blindly. To ask for help from someone without really understanding what you are providing or the market that you're going after, or really you're, you're, you're going to search help without having that knowledge beforehand.

It's very important to take the time out in your business creation process to create this roadmap before speaking to someone, because then you'll have a better convers. and you'll have a better experience because the person that, or the company that you're going to for help, cuz you're gonna need to get help on this, right?

But the company you're going to for help will have a better understanding of how they can help you the most. I think that there's nothing wrong with when you're fresh out, just starting a business, right? You're boots trapped. Just super tight budget, um, with using something like Squarespace or wigs, right?

Those get you, you're off the ground, get you an online presence quickly and easily, but long-term, uh, you know, to have a successful business and really to cater a website to your audience, you know, and make sure that it speaks to your brand and you can keep building on it. And optimize it right. Over the years, um, those types of, like d i y builders just aren't good, you know, long-term.

So, um, like I said, starting out great, you know, that's what they're, they're there for and to help people get online. So I'm an advocate for WordPress, obviously. Casey, your website, the business project website is in WordPress. Um, there's just so much flexibility in. You know, being able to do what you want with it and not be confined to this box that those DIY builders put you in.

But, um, you know, when it comes to being able to set aside a budget, you just have to look at the website as a tool for your business. It really is a sales tool. So it's like investing in an employee. You know, your website is supposed to be an employee for you and, but this one's working for you 24 7.

Guarantee you you'd be paying a lot more if you were paying an action employee for 24 7 . Uh, so it's just investing in your business and making sure that you're capturing the right audience, you're capturing those leads, you know, and, and reaching the right people. Um, and then of course, just really letting your brand live and, and making sure your website is.

A representation of your brand. So there's just so many aspects and so many benefits to having your own website and investing in a website that I think a lot of business owners underestimate. In trying to do it themselves, where we're actually executing some steps in the pathway that we're following towards business success, where we know the importance of having a business card, creating the social media and attending networking events.

Believe it, or. business cards are important. They are, 

Kacie: and you can do this even before you launch your business. So even if you're not launched and ready to go yet, create some excitement about what you're doing. And I know of a local restaurant here, coffee Shop, pizza Shop, and even before they opened, they had like 10,000 followers on Facebook.

That's amazing. And it created some amazing hype. And so that way when they open, they sent out their grand opening thing and they were slammed. Yeah. Yeah. So you can do this even beforehand. You 

John: can, you can build the excitement. And I think that the business card piece of it, you know, if we go back to our episodes, the one on branding where we had to match the color and everything, that's a good time to say, okay, that's, now I know how my business card is supposed to.

And not only that, but it's not just the traditional business cards that are out there, but there's also some type of electronic cards that people can use, which are, yes, kind of weird. 

Kacie: I use Hi, hello. As an electronic one. I know there's a couple different apps out there for business cards, and I like it a lot because you can just send your electronic business and you can create several different.

I have several different businesses and so it doesn't confuse them cuz you can send them the one that goes with the business that you're doing. Three relationships, I feel like that you should have partnerships. Mm-hmm. That you should have as you're starting your business. And we're gonna talk about two of them today.

Yes. The CPA is the first one. One of 'em we're not gonna talk to about today. We're gonna save that for later. And that's your insurance agent? Yes. But today we're gonna talk about your CPA and we're gonna talk about your business attorney. 

John: So CPAs are very. very well trained on the tax side of, uh, keeping a business good.

Right. Um, they analyze the financials of a business as well. So they're, they provide strategy, um, consultations. They look at ways to mitigate tax burden. The, and so it, it, CPA's very involved in the. Um, tax savings, tax filings and strategy, um, sessions and conversations for businesses to be 

Kacie: successful. So why do you feel like people, businesses need a business attorney?

A lot of, I think this is something that a lot of businesses don't do. They start their business and they think, ah, you know, that's just later. Or, you know, I'll never need that. Yeah. Why do you think that they 

John: should? Well, I can answer that with this question, with this, um, example. . So you have, well, not really an example, but I'll, I'll, I'll list it out.

You have several different types of business entities. You have the sole proprietorship, which is just me, I'm John Crespo business, right? That's a sole proprietor. You have your llc, which is a limited liability company, which that is, you start separating yourself from your business. So as far as, uh, liability protect,

Kacie: We go over all these in a lot more detail next week, by the way. Yes. Yeah. Next week we'll just wait in there if you're wondering. Yep. We'll break 'em all down for you. Yep. 

John: And this is just, just to go right why you need an attorney and then you have corporation and corporation. You have S Corp and C corp, right?

So you need an attorney because depending on your entity type, you gotta have these particular agreements on how to run your. And attorneys help you draft those up. So to make sure that you are in compliance with state law, federal law, and you're meeting everything that's required to actually run your business, attorneys will draft those up to make sure it's done right.

That's just one reason why you need an attorney. Um, we're moving into another, the next section, which is business licenses, business permits and sales tax and all that stuff that businesses are scared of and stops them. completing the process. I 

Kacie: think this is a big reason that businesses are like, I'm not gonna start a business because that intimidates me.

Cuz it's a lot, right? Because it's, it's different for, it is every business, every state. It's different for every industry on what you need to do. There's not really one place that you can go and say, Hey, the, you need to do all of this. You have to 

John: research it. So true. And it's hard to give a step by step process.

Um, To this because like you said, every state is different. Um, some states charge income tax, some states don't. Some states you have to charge sales tax for something, some states don't. Um, so, uh, my recommendation is when we are speaking about our earlier podcast about the research. , part of the research we should be doing is visiting the secretary.

I don't know, we might have mentioned that as well previously, but I'll reiterate it. One of our first podcasts. Yeah, I, I think we did like visiting the Secretary of State website. Mm-hmm. . Um, and you can actually, I don't know if every state is like this, but you can actually visit your Secretary of State website, go to your in.

And it'll tell you the types of, um, accounts you need for that state. That's helpful. Yeah. So as, as you've consulted with your CP and your attorney, your, your discussion is what kind of business entity should we be? , um, you know, I'm not sure what are the business entities that are out there? 

Kacie: How do we know which one is best for what we're starting?

John: Yeah. I mean, do I need to be protected? Does it matter, does it not? What's 

Kacie: the, how do I do without getting all of my money taken away from 

John: me? Yeah. Some tax benefits, which one will provide me the most benefits? Mm-hmm. , and in all honesty, every everyone's situation is, so you don't, not ev. There's no cookie cutter answer to this question of what business entity you should be for your business.

What I think what I can say, let's talk about the different entities that are out there. Yeah, 

Kacie: for sure. There's a bunch of 'em. Yeah. And even deep within the entities, like a nonprofit. There's a 5 0 1 That's the only one I know. I know there's a bunch of other ones, right? So like, in with a corporation, there's S Corp or C corp.

Within each one of these there's different, and then within each state there's different regulations for each one, right? Correct. Yeah. So. We, that's why a business attorney or a CPA comes in helpful because then you can break it down even once you figure out which entity you want and have a general understanding of them, then you can make sure that you're doing the right, like subcategory underneath the category.

John: Right. So the purpose of this is to give you that kind of general knowledge so that when you approach your CPA attorney, you're, you're kind of like, you have an understanding of what the conversation should, should sound like and should go, like, should go about Exactly. So, . The first entity type is a sole proprietorship.

That's the most popular. The simplest, yeah. I believe 95% of the businesses, of the small businesses in our, in our country are sole proprietors. And what is a sole proprietor? It's you. 

Kacie: All right. So if they want a little bit more protection, what's the next level? 

John: You have limited liability corporation, so also known as a L l.

which is another, which is probably the second most popular. Mm-hmm. , because it's a, it's another easy one. Um, that does come with added costs because you have to register with the state as an llc and the state's charge fees for that. Um, every state is different as far as the process involved in creating your llc, but, um, you, you still have to register it with the state.

Yeah, the llc, 

Kacie: so it's separate. That's the first level of separation, right? You get a e i n number, which is like your business's own social social security number, and it puts like a, a wall in between you and your business. Right? 

John: There is that, that limited. Separation. So it's not fully separated. It's not a, so your business is not kind of like its own person just yet.

You still kind of like attack. You're maybe a Siamese twin, , .

Kacie: So then if they want full protection and they want a little bit more of a wall thicker wall than what's next 

John: corporation, you go to corporate route. So as a corporation, you are your. entity. So you cre you've just had a baby as a corporation, of all these analogies.

Right? Oh 

Kacie: my god, this comparison. No more Siamese twins. For real. 

John: Yeah. Now it's a total, you've detached separate hu extra human. Yeah. Um, and there's two types of corporations. You have your C Corp and you have your S Corp. And the way I like. compare the two is the S corp is the little brother of the C corp, right?

Kind of like a little brother of a C Corp. So, , each of them issue stock, so you have an opportunity to issue stock. Um, the C corp has more, uh, freedom in, in the kind of stock you can issue. This is why you gotta talk to your lawyer and your cpa. Yeah, I, I can get into the nitty gritty, but I'll be putting you to sleep.

Kacie: And it's the different, the amount of stock that you can give, the amount of people that you can incorporate into your corporation too, right. Is different. Yeah. And a little bit how the. Works is a little bit different. Yep. And corporations are a lot more complex. I mean, there's a lot, there's a lot more rules and regulations and the way you like handle your money and you have to have, um, yearly meetings.

Mm-hmm. and just the regulations that go on with the corporation is definitely more complex. So when would a business wanna be a nonprofit? 

John: Well, a nonprofit is a business that doesn't. , um, that's not for profit. So you're not looking to make, uh, profit in your business. Everything goes right back into the business.

Everything, every re, all the revenue that the business makes goes right back into it. And it's meant to support, uh, the community. So it's really supposed to be community focused, is not supposed to be, uh, for-profit driven. Everything goes right back into it. There's another form you gotta file with the irs, the 5 0 1 you mentioned you have to request.

5 0 1 status with the IRS and the state, right. To even be able to function as a nonprofit. So it, it's, there's a, it's a lot more intricate parts. So if you have a community I, uh, focused type of business idea that you wanna start, then. Um, nonprofit is probably a good way 

Kacie: to go with that. So setting up your accounting system.

Um, I think a lot of people don't do this, and it is actually pretty simple. And I'm gonna put the camera over to you so you can talk about how to set up your accounting system like, you know, QuickBooks or Wave Apps or whatever the tool you use. Tell us all about it, John. Yeah, 

John: there we go, for sure. , this is a fun episode, , but you, by now, you should have already had a conversation with your c.

You should have already had a conversation with the lawyer. So you, you have an understanding of what is needed to set your business up right, and, um, and really just to make sure it's moving in the right direction. So now with, after those conversations, it's time to set up what's called an accounting system.

A business has. , right? You sell stuff, you sell a product or a service, and you're gonna get money for it. You're gonna get paid for it, but you also have expenses. So you're gonna pay rent, you're gonna pay utilities, you're gonna pay marketing expenses, you're gonna pay subscription plans, whatever programs you need to run your business.

That's cost to the business. for. So in order for a business to be able to track that, you have to have a system in place. And there's a bunch of accounting systems out there. You can have everything from QuickBooks to Wave to Zero, you name it. Um, and I, I highly recommend, you know, just taking some time and, and visiting the sites and seeing which one is the best fit for you.

Because, you know, QuickBooks is not necessarily the best for everyone, although it's the most popular, really, you know, understanding how to create that budget will be, I. . So you've done your research on your market analysis. You know how much it's gonna cost to buy supplies. You know how much it's you, you know how much you're anticipating on selling.

You've done all that research already. You have those numbers already. That's what you use to create that budget, right? You're gonna, you're gonna say, okay, we need to bring in, and actually your budget will it. It's, it's a living, it's a living, um, document, right? It's a living process because, , your budget has to change as your business is operating cuz you're gonna see how you move, how things move, right?

So you're gonna know when it's time to purchase, know when it's time to increase sales, and know when it's time to save, right? So you gotta start, but you start with an estimate. . 

Kacie: Yeah. You're not gonna get your budget right the first time. Yeah, it's absolutely, it's absolutely impossible. There are gonna be things, expenses that you miss.

There are gonna be things that you over budget, things that you under budget and just like we talk about with pretty much everything you do starting a business, is you really want to make sure that you just start somewhere. Cuz you're not gonna get anywhere if you don't start. So this is just a starting place, right?

Make it adjustable and it just gets you headed in the right direction and then you make those adjustments as you go. 

John: And the, the accounting system that you have is gonna help you in creating that budget because you're gonna be able to see, um, where. Where, how much you're spending on particular categories of expenses, and you're gonna be able to see which one, what inventory items are moving quicker than others as well.

So it'll help you determine, okay, how to create a budget to meet the needs of those specific categories. 

Kacie: Let's go, let's go ahead and get going into the systems and the processes. You wanna start out with 

John: systems? Yeah, let's, let's define what these things are, right? So systems. Systems, systems, systems can be, uh, programs, tools, or just, um, a set of rules that are put into place that, so that people know how to do what they have to do to make your business run efficiently.

So systems are for efficiency, 

Kacie: processes and systems go in together really well because all of them, both of. Just make it easier to create consistency within your business and make sure that, um, what you're doing is like the people that are buying from you, whether it be a product or service, they're getting the same thing every time.

Whether that be how you handle your customer service, whether that be how you make your donuts, whether that be how you, um, open your store in the morning or close your store at night, all of. Revolve around having good systems and processes put in place. Yeah. So should we start off with the contracts?

John: Yeah, so I guess the good question is what are contracts and why do we, why do we need them? You're so 

Kacie: good at the definitions, 

John: and I like that we bring it up. All right, so let me, let me put this out there. If you hire an employee, you need a contact. If you are working with another business to accomplish something together, you need a contract.

If you're, if your business has partners, has multiple owners, you need a contract. Um, what else? What else do you need a contract for? If you're doing a service, did I say this already for someone else? Like if you're, I don't know, getting business, you need a 

Kacie: contract, you do. So basically what you're saying is anytime your business is interacting with somebody, You need a contract, whether that you need a contract, be another person, or, um, a business.

Another business, right? 

John: Yeah. So what, what is risk management? You know, risk management is the safety and the viability. Maintaining the safety and viability of your company, right? So that, um, if something happens, the, the, let's just say the damage is, So mitigating as much damage to your business as you can.

That's risk management. Business has our cycl, our cyclical, right? You have some, you have your good months where you're selling like crazy and then you have your months where like you, there's crickets. How do you navigate those? Um, ebbs and flows. Without the proper planning in place and without the proper reporting to help you do that.

And that's where the financial statements come 

Kacie: in. They also help you cut the fat. Exactly when, when you are an established business and you're offering several different products or services. They can help you see which ones are taking away from the success of others. Yes. Because you know, say you have four different things that you offer and your top one is doing really, really, really well, but your bottom one is actually costing you money, then it's taking away from the profit of the top one.

Exactly. And when you can be banging it and making some big dough. So what are some ways that businesses can get financing to start their business besides obvious? , and you might have this on your list, but I know for ours to get started, we did a HeLOCK on our house mm-hmm. and took the HeLOCK and used that money, which is a home equit land credit, by the way.

Yes. Which I learned. And we took that money and put it into starting up our business. And I think that's a popular one, but it's not really business specific. Right. That's just kind of Correct. 

John: Random. It, it, it's like self-funding. So you, that's a self-funding way and it's. The self-funding way is the most common way to fund the business, whether it's a home equity line of credit, whether it's a savings account that you're taking from a retirement account that you're taking from, um, you know, that's self-funding your business.

So, you know, a lot of people actually, it's a good. to fund your business because, um, you've created that cushion and probably you created it for the purpose of starting a business. So, um, self-funding is not a, is not a bad way. 

Kacie: We hope that you really enjoyed that summary of our very first season. We hope that it was super helpful and just encouraging to you guys and gives you the confidence that you need in order to just take whatever next step it is that you're taking.

It was 

John: enjoyable to me with my caramel, uh, pecan popcorn that I was eating while I was watching it. So you enjoyed it as well? Yeah. I'm still picking it out, but it was, it was great. I. 

Kacie: So after the first series, we did the second series on finances, um, funding for your business, business credit, business credit, all of that.

Yep. And, um, so we'll do a summary on that series after this next, um, series that we do, which is branding. 

John: Hmm. Everything you need to make your business, get out there, build awareness, drive traffic, and just. This is 

Kacie: gonna be good. Branding is so fun. This is 

John: my, this is your house favorite? Yeah. This is your wheelhouse.

So I'm gonna be, I'm gonna enjoy asking questions and just, just soaking up all the knowledge. 

Kacie: Yeah. So next week we'll be back with a brand new series all about branding. , 

John: and don't forget, just like share, share this to the world because the information here is priceless. 

Kacie: Yep. If you're watching on Spotify or Apple Podcast or iHeartRadio, any of those, it is very helpful if you download the episode.

Yeah, very helpful. That's apparently, that's like what is the biggest, 

John: it helps the algorithm, I guess that's the, the algorithm is the, the termin. help us help the al the algorithm so we can get out there to the masses. Yes, 

Kacie: please. We love you guys. We will see you back here next week. See 

John: ya.