[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Hi, I'm Vicki Wright Hamilton and welcome to Ignite. Are you ready to spark your passion and fuel your leadership journey?
This is where ambition meets action and transformation begins. Let's light that fire and keep it burning.
Today I am so excited to have a guest that's going to help us do just that. Burning and igniting through knowledge. It is my pleasure and honor to have Joseph Raise, a CPA and the founder of JL Raise Accounting and Tax CPO CPAs.
He has over 15 years of practical and decades of more in the world numbers, the things that a lot of business owners struggle with, understanding the numbers. He holds multiple degrees, including a master's in theology and is licensed in both life Insurance and Series 65. And we're going to find out a little bit more about that. He's helped countless business owners move from financial fog to freedom. So let's dive in. Welcome, Joseph.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: Hi, Vicki, how are you? Thank you for having me on.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Oh, it's my pleasure. And thank you for being here. You know, this is a very, very important topic. And you know, all business owners, we all got to get to that point where we begin to understand business numbers. And that's all the stuff, statements, the different kinds of statements, how they're made. And sometimes it feels like business owners may be guessing instead of truly leading and understanding. So I want to ask you, why do so many business owners avoid looking at their financial statements and what happens when they finally do, from your perspective?
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Well, if a business owner is flush with cash and they're making, they know they're making a profit, they're probably likely to be wanting to look at their financial statements to revel in their success. Right. So those are not the guys to worry about or the gals to worry about.
Yeah. You know, it's. Especially if you're a startup, the one thing you probably know is that the money's going out the door a whole lot faster and harder than it's coming in the door. And that is absolutely terrifying. It's terrifying when you're not well capitalized, well financed. Maybe you don't have a line of credit in place, maybe you're, you know, you've had to cash out your 401k. I see that all the time.
And people get fully extended and maybe their family is on board, maybe their family is not on board. And the stakes are super high and frankly, quite dangerous because, you know, owning a business, like if you have a storefront business, have a lot of startup capital that you have to go through.
So for Some people, it's better to.
They don't want to see it. They just don't want to see it. They're just going to say, I hope this works. I hope this works. I hope this works. And so they go through their business, their early business career, you know, just figuring, if something's wrong, I'll know it in the numbers. Right. But that is not the mindset of a business owner.
Right. I do tell. I do tell people don't go into business if you're not ready to go into business.
Stakes are too high. Right?
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: You may be great at what you do, but if you're not ready to pay attention to all the details that you have to pay attention to to keep from, like, imploding, don't do it, you know, bide your time, you know, save more money, you know, prepare more things of that nature.
So sometimes it's better just. Some people just want to stick their heads in the sand. I have a client that hasn't bought this tax return. And, well, he's not really my client because we're not doing anything for him anymore. But over 10 years, and we did his bookkeeping, we're like, okay, let's pull the trigger. Let's get your tax return done. But he's petrified of the IRS and he's afraid of an unknown, and he. And he just won't file his tax return. So we may be reading about him in the newspapers, you know, the crime section. Because tax evasion is a crime. Right. So not a good idea. Business owner must know the numbers.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Well, you know, you're absolutely right. It's about knowing the numbers. But it's also, wouldn't you agree about understanding the distinction between the statements and the numbers? I know from my experience a lot of people can relate to a budget. Right. I get so much revenue in, I pay my expenses. I have so much left. But there's so much more to a business and what you have to understand in those numbers and really understanding the impacts of how your business flows, you know, especially if you have things like cost of goods sold and you have all these other dynamics that are part of it, really understanding those variable costs to fixed costs and those kind of numbers, you know, as you're moving forward. So as we talk about that, what has been your experience on how that clarity and the. And understanding the numbers, know where they come from, understand what they mean, actually gives the business owner more power and peace as a leader?
[00:05:47] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, that's a very good question. Right. So if you don't know what your business is doing. That's a massive amount of insecurity that you're carrying on your shoulders.
And you don't know if you're making right decisions or wrong decisions.
So understanding what the numbers are telling you is super, super important. For instance, you mentioned cost of goods sold, right? So let's say you have a deli and you're selling coffee. And let's say you don't know what the proper cost of that cup of coffee is and maybe you're underpricing it by a penny. Let's say every time you sell that cup of coffee, you're one penny closer to going into bankruptcy, right? So you know, it may not be pleasant figuring out how to get to that number. But if you don't know that number and certain numbers, then you know, the one thing you can be sure of, you're in for a really bad ride, especially if you're under capitalized.
Now like some clients I have, they have millions of dollars in the bank, you know, and you can tell they don't care, you know, but for family owned business, a small business owner who's putting everything on the line, you have to understand what the numbers are. Now it's not just mathematics. Some people think that, you know, bookkeeping and accounting and taxes are math, but it's not. It's like certain things have certain categories. You have to know what the categories are. If you do not know what the categories are, you have to have somebody to come by your side and explain it to you. And the best thing you could do is make sure you have a financial professional who understands your business or understands basic business and can tell you this is what the sales number is, this is what the cost of goods, goods sold is, this is what your gross profit is. This is what the percentages, this is what the businesses in your industry do. The standard in your industry is X, abc, whatever. Well, if you don't know all that, you might be overpaying employees, underpaying employees. You may be spending too much on paper cups or product or whatever it is. So if you don't know, you know, if you don't have these metrics, you're flying blind. And sure, flying blind can get you killed. Right?
[00:07:58] Speaker B: Well, you know, that's, that brings up very, very good points. Because I know as I deal with clients and we start talking about the financial aspects, it's like, well, I just want to give it a CPA and let it run it and let them do it, but they don't understand what their CPA is doing, they don't understand the impacts of it. They don't understand the decisions that the CPA is asking them to make and the impacts to that business with those numbers. And it's so important that you understand all those ramifications because at the, at the end of the day, the business owner is accountable for all those financial outcomes and what happens. And the other thing is, is that it's, you know, I don't know if you've seen this, but I have. Where people understand revenue, but they don't understand profit. Right. It's like, I pay my bills every month, I'm good.
But when you think about profit and that take home and what it means, that's a totally different story. And so helping them to understand you care about the profit, not the revenue. Right. Your revenue is your baseline. Your profit is what you get to take and keep.
And so it's. I find it very interesting because, you know, I know when I was going to school, there were a lot of people said, oh, I hate numbers. I don't want to do math, I don't want to do accounting. I just hate numbers. I'm scared of them. What have you found that is a good habit for a leader to begin to overcome that fear, to begin to start to understand their numbers. Where do they start? From your experience?
How should they start to gain that confidence and to be able to lead with conviction and understanding their business?
[00:09:43] Speaker A: Yeah. So if you're going into business, what I reckon when I talk to people, some people, they want to start a business or they started the business, they come to me, they want to talk.
What I tell people is, look, you know, this is not the, you know, 1800s where you can get massive books to read through and try to understand stuff. You know, an hour on a YouTube video about basic business finances, boom, you, you'll learn a boatload, right? So instead of watching the news and watching some comedy show, you're going into business. You got to be serious about it. You have to understand basic numbers, you know, so getting somebody to prepare the numbers for you, easy, right? You could hire somebody, but how do you know what questions to ask a bookkeeper or ask a cpa? You have to have something to bring to the table. It's your business, you know, And I like to tell people, it's not how much you make, it's how much you keep. Right? And the more the better. Right? So basic understanding, you just, you know, just go to YouTube, take one or two classes, and you'll be Good to go. And then you just start to think about your own household, right? You know, your money coming in, money going out, savings, you know, socking away for the future. What's my cash flow looking like? Well, same concept, right? Also like, you know, if you have a home, right, that's an asset, do you owe money on that home? That's a liability.
What's the difference? Everybody knows the answer to that question. Oh, that's my equity in the house. Well, it's the same thing with a business, right? So understanding simple concepts, applying them to the business, and just having that logical mindset. But you got to run away from that fear because this is your baby, it's your business.
You're responsible for bringing that baby to adulthood.
Profitability and, and good organization, is it easy to do. So for some people, it is. For some people, not so much.
But you cannot run away from this critical, critical piece of your business. And that's the finances and how they work. Now, you don't have to get into the details, you don't have to get into the weeds, but that's another story.
[00:11:53] Speaker B: Well, you know, you don't have to get into the weeds if you have somebody who can get in the weeds for you. If you don't, then you need to get into the weeds to make sure that whatever seeds are being planted are the right seeds. Right?
Because it's so hard to undo things that happen, especially when you made reasonable mistakes. We all are going to make mistakes. We're going to make bad business decisions. We're going to. Things are not going to go well. You know, it's kind of like I say, when you failed at that was a first attempt in learning. You learned a lesson. Let's pick it up, let's keep going and understand what mistakes we made so that we can correct them the next time. But I know that as we start to talk about, and we're talking about businesses, you talked a little bit about startups. And then there are businesses that are established that are moving a little bit further in terms of where they are, and they're getting to that growth trajectory. They're looking to get to that next step. Are there things you can do that you would advise clients in terms of moving to that growth step? What are the additional things from a financial perspective, you should begin to understand as a leader so you can have confidence going forward.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: So knowing the numbers and state and staying in control of what's going on will bring that confidence. You know, we can, we can have a whole hour to talk about that one question.
But the recommendation that I just bring to the table is you got to know what's going on inside your business. You're going to know what's going on. You can't delegate everything to everybody. But the financial part, you're at the top of the heap. You got to know what's going on. You cannot leave it to somebody else to, to run the financial show for you and then give you like a quick 30 second summary as you're passing by the hall with each other as to what's going on. Right. So you got to know what's in the bank. I'm, you know, I'm many years into my accounting firm. I check my bank accounts. First thing I get into the office. When the first thing I do, I check my bank account, you know, not only how much is in there, what went in, what went out. Did anybody take something they weren't supposed to take? You know, I, you know, Joe, you.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: Made me not feel so bad. They teased me because I checked my personal and my business.
It's part of my morning ritual.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: Every day, Every day. You got to know what's going on with the money because that's why you're in business.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: Exactly. Joseph, this has been incredibly insightful. And for viewers who want to get in touch with you, want to take the next steps, where can they find your website, your social media, LinkedIn, etc. To get in contact with you?
[00:14:34] Speaker A: Yeah, thank you. Website is www.reyesaccounting.com.
that's R E Y E S as in samraysaccounting.com. all my contact information's in there. Phone numbers 215-525-2976. And you'll get your. Everything that you need to know about me and find me is in there.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: Well, thank you and thank you for sharing that with our audience. And let me tell you, audience, if you're looking for somebody that's trustworthy, that really understands it, you want to go to that website and begin to do your research and understanding so that you can have someone you can depend on and that can help you to begin to learn and grow and take your business to the next level. We're going to take a station break and we'll be right back.
Welcome back. Thank you again for joining us on Ignite. If you missed that last segment, you definitely want to go back and check it out. Joe gave us a lot. Joseph gave us a lot of great information.
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Now I want to welcome back as we continue to move forward and I want to make sure that we're talking about a little bit more on the fear of hiring your help, hiring who's going to help you in your business to take it to the next level and who to delegate those finances to. How do you know you're getting the right cpa? How do you know you're getting the right financial help and what that looks like? And we want to make sure that you're getting what you need because after all, nobody loves your business like you do.
So Joseph, let me ask, what would you say to a founder who's holding on to bookkeeping or tax work because they don't trust anyone else to help them?
[00:16:50] Speaker A: Well, the first thing I would tell them is you better be a good accountant and bookkeeper because if you think it's just adding and subtracting, you're in for a rude awakening. You know, there's a saying that goes like this. For a lawyer who is being charged with a crime and has himself is representing himself as a fool for a client.
Well, something similar. Even though you're not being a fool, but if you, if you're not proficient in the accounting and bookkeeping world, you're making a huge mistake. Number one, you're probably going to leave that for the tail end of your day or your week or your month or two months or three months or four months. You know, you just keep pushing it aside and so you're not going to know how your business is doing. You're going to be too busy. You're in business to make money. Do what you love best, do what you're good at and let a financial person, a bookkeeper or whatever, take care of the books.
You have to delegate it. I don't do my own books and I, I can do bookkeeping with my eyes closed, right?
So, but I run a business. I, you know, I'm a cpa, I'm an accountant, I'm a professional tax person, planner and strategist. And I can show people how to save tons of money on taxes and I can get them to structure their finances in such a way to make, to optimize their take home pay, shall we say.
I don't have time to Debucks, you know, by the time the day is over, the week is over, the last thing I want to do is start looking at QuickBooks and start doing financial statements. So a lot of financial, A lot of people, business owners, they just don't see it as the, the need that it really is. They look at bookkeeping and accounting as a, shall we say, an easy thing that anybody could do later on and can't be that difficult. You know, I added subtract and what's the problem? Right. So it really is a bit of, a bit of ignorance, if you will. They don't know what they don't know and they make a major blunder. So then when they go to do their books and everything, they may get some nasty surprises. So I just tell business owners, you know, hire a bookkeeper, they're not that expensive. You know, you can outsource it to overseas or in the, in the States, you could find somebody for $65 an hour. You could find bookkeepers at 25, $40 an hour. Money well spent. And they just keep everything going. You just got to watch the people who's watching the money. Right. So that's another story about controlling who does what. But the person who writes a check should not be the person reconciling the bank statement. Right. Because that's how theft happens. But other than something like that, give. Delegate that out to somebody who's going to take care of that really, really important administrative task. It cannot be understated.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: You know, I, I want to reiterate something that you said that is critically important.
A lot of business owners, especially when they're watching their budget, are like, okay, what can I do versus what I have to outsource. But when you talk about what you can do, you just said, I'm a cpa. I know how to do this. I could do it in my sleep. But you still hired somebody outside.
I'd love for you to go into more. Even with your own story of how hiring this. Right. Accounting team or outsourcing can actually be very strategic and actually help your business grow and that you're not wasting dollars just because you have the capabilities and skill sets to do it.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: Yeah. So, you know, accounting and bookkeeping are a skill. Right. And it's not the kind of skill you can pick up by going to the basketball court and shooting hoops. Right. Which I used to love to do. A lot of. You have to study, you have to hit the books. Right. You have to learn the rules and the principles behind preparing a standard set. Of financial statements. So it's not, it's not a skill that you can just, you know, get just by being good at something, right? Just you may be athletic, but you still, you know, and that may work well on the court, but you may be good with math and be a lousy bookkeeper. Right? You don't know what you're doing. So you need to hire somebody, hopefully somebody who's referred to you by somebody who's happy with the work, the business, another business owner is happy with the work that the bookkeeper is doing.
So doing that one thing every single month, having your books reconciled and updated. Now in my old age and arrogance, I can do this stuff in my head. Do I need to reconcile my books every month?
I know what's going on with my books. It's financial stuff. That's my forte. But the average business owner cannot do that. Right? So having a bookkeeper, somebody reconciling the books every single month, you know, just making sure that nothing walked out the door, you know, when you weren't looking. So theft, right?
And then look and then, and then understanding, you know, what is impacting these numbers. Right. So a business owner would want to hire somebody who's proficient in bookkeeping. And I have to tell you, there are a lot of good bookkeepers out there. There are also a whole lot of bad ones.
And a lot of these people don't know what they're doing. So just because somebody says, as you, I'm sure you know, I'm good at something, doesn't mean that they're good at something. Right? So you want to have a CPA or a high level tax professional help you find somebody to do basic bookkeeping because you don't want to pay a CPA firm 120, 150 an hour to do bookkeeping when you can pay somebody 25, 30 an hour to do bookkeeping. Right? So, but let the CPA help you hash out who's a good candidate for the bookkeeping and go and, and do it. You'll never regret it this way your mental energy is going to go towards, you know, negotiating deals. You have to go, you have to be a negotiator of your business.
Right?
[00:22:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: How to negotiate deals.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:52] Speaker A: Where to source your product, you know, getting terms, developing terms with vendors, terms with clients.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: You know, so you bring up a very, very good point. And that is, okay, So a CPA can help me hire my bookkeeper. How do I pick the right cpa? What should I be looking for? What are some of the things that you can tell me that a financial partner be able to do that I can validate so I don't make that mistake.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: Yeah. It's not uncommon for a business owner to get referrals from other business owners and then.
And then call the CPAs that are referred to you and ask them for some referrals, like, can you give me a name or two of a client that you're working with maybe in my industry, and see if they like you to get to see how they're doing other. Or you go to the website and see that they have a decent website. You know, do they have a good presentation or a reliable presentation.
Checking out, you know, the. The state licensing boards, you know, you go into a state licensing board and look up a particular cpa. Are they currently licensed? You know, have they had a lot of dings to their name? You know, so, you know, checking out the character of the person. Chamber of commerce, getting referrals from the chamber of commerce, being in a group. And by the way, when you're a business owner, you're probably very lonely.
So belonging to a group like a chamber of commerce or some networking group, and you talk amongst yourselves and you're going to get decent referrals, but getting somebody just right off the street that you don't know and you have no idea what they're capable of, you may learn the hard way what they're capable of. So I would say do a little due diligence. You know, you don't have to spend a ton of money on finding the cpa, but when you want to find a cpa, you want to find someone who is going to help you maximize your profits.
And more importantly, this is my specialty, is minimize the tax.
And what I teach people is the tax that you pay is cash flow going out the door.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: Yes, yes, yes. And it can be big, large numbers.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: Control the tax because that. That controls cash going out the door, which then you turn into, you know, a purchase of a large batch of product that you could, you have more money, you can buy a bigger batch and get a discount, you know, things like that. So. Or you might have more money that you can invest in another employee or, you know, pay a bonus to your key employee or key employees.
So why give the IRS or the government more money than it requires legally? So taxes are a profit center in my mind.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: You got that right. You know, Joe, you give some. Joseph, you give some great information in terms of things we can do to move forward. And as people, you know, are looking to move in that direction. First, I want to thank you for helping shift their mindset in terms of what it really means. But for those that are watching and are ready to move forward but don't really know how to start, where can they reach you online?
[00:26:19] Speaker A: Yeah, my website is raysaccounting.com that's R E Y E S accounting, one word dot com. And my phone number is 215-525-2976. Everything you need to know about how to find me is on raiseaccounting.com.
[00:26:36] Speaker B: Well, thank you so much. We're going to take a station break and we'll be right back.
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So welcome back to Ignite. We're talking to Joseph Rays. He's a CPA financial guide. He's a person that can help us to truly understand the numbers, the business, the accountability, and the profit.
So as we begin to talk about profit in this segment, I really want to help those entrepreneurs who are financially stuck.
They're trying to get a balance between their passion and making that profit.
So, Joseph, as we begin to think about that and we think about how audiences love what they do, they're passionate about what they do, you know, but they feel like I'm not making enough money. The money just isn't there for what I'm doing.
How do you help passionate entrepreneurs turn their love of what they do into something that can actually be truly profitable?
[00:28:45] Speaker A: Well, the first thing I would say is that sometimes what you, what you love to do maybe is not marketable, you know, and you may have to, I may have to tell somebody. You need, you need to rethink what it is you're trying to sell. Right? Something's, you know, nobody's buying rotary phones anymore, Right. So you have to consider that. You know, in an MBA program, I have a master's in finance from Drexel University, bachelor's degree from Pace University. We take a Lot of courses on, you know, what it takes to start a business and you know, economics, marketing are two things that you can overlook.
Rule number one, is there a demand for your product or service? Just because you love to do it does not mean that everybody else is going to see it the way you see it. So what I tell people if they're looking to start a business and I'm a sounding board, Listen, I love being a sounding board. I love my, my master's in theology. I love talking to people and advising and consulting and stuff like that. And I could use it every once in a while myself.
But I just tell people, you know, let's talk about this. You know, what is the demand for your product nowadays? You and I are very fortunate to live in a technology world. We have artificial intelligence now. We have AI agents, we have all kinds of things. It's products and technologies available to us that can help make, help us make a decision. Something as simple as Chat GPT, the free version, you know, you can ask it. Well, I, I love fooling around with widgets. I would love to sell widgets and ask Chad, Chat GPT. And Chat GPT is probably going to tell you that's probably not a good idea. Right?
[00:30:25] Speaker B: Right.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: So there has to be that demand. You can do some research nowadays to the nth degree and figure out is there a demand for this product? There was a time years ago, I don't know if they're still doing this, but there was a time years ago, as I understand it, that if you want to start a business but they didn't know what to, what to sell, you were able to buy like from Google because Google's number one search engine in the world.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:30:50] Speaker A: You can buy from Google and ask, and ask them to sell you a list of what people are most googling for products to buy or services to buy.
And you could see, and they would have that data and then you could figure out from that data, let's go into that, into that business. You know, if you have that entrepreneurial competitive streak, you know, otherwise, you know, what are you good at? Right? What, what do you love to do? If you, if you're doing something you, if you, if you start a business with something that you'd love to do, you're probably going to get recharged from doing it. But if you start a business doing something you hate to do, it's going to, it's just going to, the electrical charge is going to be leaving you. It's not going to be coming in and That's a drain. So I just tell people, I tell them the truth. Listen, you might want to rethink that.
But if they have an angle that nobody ever thought of, and you're like, okay, this is a different type of widget, and we're resurrecting widgets and like, okay, that might work, but be ready for the challenges ahead.
[00:31:51] Speaker B: And there's nothing like the proof in the pudding when you get a focus group together or the audience that you believe is your target and finding out the thoughts, the feelings, etc. You know, I had some clients that were like, well, AI is general, and it doesn't necessarily give the emotional from the, the buying because people buy emotionally. And so I really want to test it out. Okay, test it out with a small focus group. Nothing says you have to do either or. The only thing is, is that AI will reach a lot further than what we can do individually as we can, as we move forward. Joseph, can you share a time when a small shift in a financial strategy made a huge difference in a struggling business?
[00:32:37] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I, I give you two. But one, one easy one is, you know, if you're, if you're buying product from a vendor and they give you terms of, let's say, 15 days to pay on the delivery, but you're selling, you're turning around that product, developing it into another product or whatever it is you're doing, and selling it to customers, and you're asking the customers to pay you within 30 days. Well, the money's going out in 15 days, and then it's coming back in after 30 days.
So one very simple trick is try to condense the time, the amount of time between paying the vendor and getting paid by the, by the client. Something as simple as that can go a long way. You'd be surprised how many times something as simple as that has dramatically increased and improved the cash flow. And without cash flow, you're dead, you have no business. Right? And then going back to taxes, you know, like doing a little bit of tax planning, like, it's December, it's December, and you know, December 31st, two weeks away, and you're trying to figure out, how do I reduce my taxes? You know, and you can do simple things like, you know, buy a lot of equipment at the end of the year that you're going to need next year, or prepay your rent in December, which will be tax deductible, you know, in December. But it's really the due is the rent that's due for January or February. If you prepay your rent. If you're a cash basis business taxpayer, you can deduct that. And so now when tax season comes, you're going to have a lower tax bill.
[00:34:18] Speaker B: You know, you're bringing up so much information. It's those kinds of things, secrets, those kinds of antidotes that give a business owner, when they work with a professional a way to actually succeed, to see the, the value of that cash in their pocket faster, right. In terms of doing that. And I think that's why it's so important, what you mentioned before, that a CPA that's working for you is not just doing numbers. They know the rules, they know the regulations, they know the tips, the techniques, things that you can utilize to keep that money in your pocket and moving forward. And as we begin to talk about that, Joseph, one last question I'd like to ask you before we take a station break is why is it important that we treat our passion just like a business?
[00:35:12] Speaker A: Or if that passion is, if you want to live off that passion, you have to develop a discipline for it. You know, it's one thing to have a passion and just enjoy it. And you enjoy it so much you, you know, you just do it whenever, ad hoc, you know, oh, I've got a couple hours to kill, let me go do this, let me go do that. I enjoy that. I used to love playing basketball, right? I wanted to be a professional basketball player, but I wasn't good enough. But I, it's all I ever did. You know, everybody had girlfriends, had a basketball, right? So. But that passion could not turn into a money making business, right? Same thing. If you, if you're, if you love something, if you love art, playing the piano, whatever it is, the question becomes, is, is, is that what if what you're doing somehow marketable to the general public and not just to a small public audience, a large public audience.
And, and when, and if you're going to go forward, you have to be disciplined. They just have to be disciplined. You're not going to succeed in business if you're not disciplined. And you don't go all in. Especially in the beginning years, you have to go all in. It's a baby. You got to get it to adolescence, you got to get it to adulthood. And you got to get it to the place where it's self fulfilling. And sometimes it doesn't happen. Sometimes it takes 20 years. You know, it can take a very long time depending on the business of the industry. You're in the flux of the business. What's going on in the industry, in the country, you know, you know, Covid, you know, delayed a lot of people's dreams and Right. Killed others, you know, so. Right. But I would say discipline, just because it's your passion does not mean that you can be lazy about and just do it whenever you please. Once you have a business, you got to set the time. You gotta say I'm devoting 12 hours a day.
You're lucky if it's that little and I'm gonna make this happen. It's a decision, hardcore decision that you're going to make it with discipline.
[00:37:03] Speaker B: And you know, the thing is, is that you know, you have to have, you have to live your passion in order want to get up and do what, go to work, as you mentioned before. But I also think, you know, from my experience, it's very important that when we start talking about putting our passion with our profit is that you have to be creative with that passion. Use your journey and your experience to make that creativity so you can show the difference in the marketplace, why it is a different in different to your competitors and how it works etc. If it is a market that is merit that people are going to look at and if not, how do we create it to be so. So you know Joseph, it's been a wake up call for a lot of people watching, I'm sure in terms of looking at passion with profit and how we make that happen. If someone is looking to make that connection and is looking for your help, how can they connect with you?
[00:38:01] Speaker A: Yeah, my website is the best place to go. It's reyesaccounting.com that's R E Y E S as in Sam. So reyesaccounting.com got all my contact information in there and.
And I'm very responsive.
[00:38:15] Speaker B: Well, thank you so much for that. We're going to take a station break and we'll be right back.
[00:38:20] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:38:25] Speaker B: Welcome back. Are you enjoying the show of Ignite? Are you loving these episodes? I just want you to know that you can download the Now Media app. It's on iOS, it's on Roku where you can watch us at any time. If you like to listen, we got you there too. So you know, now Media TV goes from business and breaking news to lifestyle, culture and everything in between.
So now Media TV is streaming 247 ready wherever and whenever you are.
So as we begin our continuing our conversation with Joseph, I want to talk about planning for growth and not running into all that traditional chaos that we normally have as we're talking about growth because we know growth can be difficult.
And I want, I would love, Joe, for you to help us to understand the signs, the symptoms and some of the smart strategies that keep growth exciting but not overwhelming, because we know it can be.
So as we begin to talk about that, I'd love to understand from you what are some signs that a business is ready for growth and what happens if they try to grow before they truly are ready?
[00:39:49] Speaker A: Well, as I've said before, and I've said it many times to business owners, cash flow is the lifeblood of your business.
So how do you know your business may be poised for growth and ready to explode? Well, is, is the place busy? Are you very, very busy? Is money coming in and out hard and fast?
You know the numbers which you should be managing and watching every single month. Are the numbers starting to rise? Do you, is your accountant a bookkeeper? Telling you, look, you know, sales are climbing, sales are climbing, you know, and nowadays in the, in the, in the age of social media, you know, are you starting to get some traction on social media? Right. So, but I would say that as product coming in and going out quickly, is money coming in and going out quickly? You know, is everybody really busy? Is it a fast paced environment?
Are you in an industry that is not flash in the pan, as they say? You know, is it an industry that, from the looks of it, you know, it's, it could be here for quite a while.
Those are signs that you're poised for growth. And you may want to get with a mentor, a business coach who can walk you through the things you should be looking for on a day to day basis. But if you find yourself, you know, just stressed out and you're just, it's going so fast, you know, that you're growing.
That's the good news. The bad news is it is going to come with chaos and stress, you know, so you have to, can you manage that? Everybody's different. There's no, there's no rule that tells us that you do this. Everybody's going to manage this stress. Some people just were born stressed out, you know, it's never going to work for them. So. But I certainly a fast paced environment, money coming in, money going out, just making sure that more is coming in than it's going out. So that you eat, you're eking out some profits from the business. And then also, you know, that money can, are you using it for buying equipment or expanding? Are you finding that I can't meet this demand, I need another, whatever it is, Right? That's those are good signs that your business is growing. But there is going to be some chaos, there's going to be some stress, because that's just life and we're just human beings and we're fallible. Right?
[00:42:12] Speaker B: Right. And you know, I know as a business coach, as I deal with a lot of my clients and I talk to them a lot about when you're getting ready to look at growth, it's important to plan for it. Right. I'm ready to grow. But you don't want to grow too fast because you can grow so fast that you're putting yourself back at risk. So you need to make sure that you're doing it in a timely fashion and your CPA and financial partner are the best ones to be with. You say, well, wait a minute, you get ready to spend too much money here. We're not ready for this. We can't go that quickly. We got to keep perspective. We've got to look at contingencies. We got to learn to understand how we're moving forward.
Now, a lot of business owners will say, I'm ready to scale.
And after doing that, I'm really looking to not fall apart with all the things that I regularly have to do in terms of moving forward, but grow at the same time. What do you find are smart, are smart financial planning things they should do so they can keep both trajectories going at once?
[00:43:14] Speaker A: Yeah. So what I would say is make sure you have a line of credit with the bank because the business may be growing and you want to control that growth.
But what do you do when that juicy client comes through the door?
And you know that if you pull this off, you're gonna have a really great business relationship, you're gonna make a bunch of money. Right.
And this is the dreamed client. Right. Do you say, no, or do you say, yeah, let's do this, you sign the contract or whatever and. But you know that you have a hundred thousand dollars, a million dollars in a line of credit that you can tap into and you know you can deploy that credit into a sales cycle that's going to produce a profit.
But this kind of thinking is not for the faint of heart. You know, it's just not for the faint of heart. Don't go into business if you don't have that internal grit and toughness and risk taking that is going to happen sooner or later. Right. If you say if your business is growing. So I would say making sure that you have a good line of credit, some money that you have, if you have to, you can go get your hands on it so you could buy that piece of equipment to, to, you know, a service, that really important client that once you get it, if you do a good job, you know you're going to be in good shape for a while. And then if you do a good shape with that client, guess what? Guess what the executives or the managers of that client are doing. They're talking to other people in their industry and you get a, you'll get a string of referrals. And that happened to us, you know, and sometimes, sometimes you bite off more than you can chew. Well, that means you don't go away for the fourth of July holiday.
[00:45:04] Speaker B: You know.
And I think all of us that you know that are, that have been in business.
You talk about risk.
I'll never forget being in business and being in full transparency is getting started and really doing that investment strategy and looking at my checking account and going, oh my God, not only can I not pay a salary, but what am I going to do to make the bills meet? Because I am in a growth spurt and I need to move forward. And to your point, a line of credit to be able to go and get that money says, okay, I can keep afloat and keep going and still make things happen. But it's only based on the fact that you can look down the road and say, I can see money coming in the door. The worst thing we can do is go get line of credit that we can't then pay our bills and then put ourselves at a, at a risk when it comes to credit ratings and things like that and moving forward.
So one of the things, Joseph, when you asked, you know, when business owners come to you and they say, look, I need you to give me just one piece of advice that when I'm scaling my business is one of the most important things that I need to think about to keep my sanity from a financial perspective. What is that top thing?
[00:46:25] Speaker A: Yeah. So one of the things I know about entrepreneurs is I've dealt with many entrepreneurs hours and this rings true. I've never heard it not ring true.
Starting business owners, they wake up in the, at 2:00 clock in the morning, anxiety and sweats, terrified, but the day is going to bring and also excited about what the day is going to bring. Right. So how do you deal with stress? Well, I, I get easily stressed out myself. And so what I would say is I'm 67 years old, but thank God I'm healthy, I've learned how to change my diet. I've learned how to. I've learned about nutrition.
Right. I've learned about things that can offset anxiety and stress. And you'd be surprised at the link between the body and the mind. And so poor nutrition will translate into really a bad time. But I would say that aside, because some people are going to say, joe, that's crazy, but I get that. But I would say have some money socked away. You know, don't put your house up for a mortgage or a line of credit in the event the business go. Business flops. You can risk your house.
I just tell people, don't do that. You know, you're not ready if that's what you're going for. Unless, you know, unless, you know, bitcoin is going to go from 100 to 250 in a month, then maybe you could do that. Right? But I would just tell people, be very careful with, you know, the cash flow. Sock money away. We're doing okay in my business, right? But guess what? I got line of credit socked away. I got cash locked away. I have an investment account just for the business, you know, so, yeah, if something like another covet hits or something dramatic.
[00:48:12] Speaker B: Right.
[00:48:12] Speaker A: You know, I keep paying the bills for quite a while.
[00:48:16] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. And that. That's a benefit. You know, Joe, this has truly been a masterclass in growing with intention. And for those that want to build without burnout, where can they connect with you and your team?
[00:48:30] Speaker A: Yeah, we'
[email protected] that's R E Y E S accounting.com. it's got all my contact information there. I'm very responsive and we'd love to help entrepreneurs.
[00:48:43] Speaker B: Well, thank you so much for that. And like I said, if you're loving what you're watching, don't miss a moment with Ignite. Go and download that now media app and see it when you want it, where you want it, and. And in the time that you want it. And even if you want to listen, we have the. The ability for you to listen to the. The contents of this show as well.
So, Joseph, thank you so much, so much for sharing not only the financial wisdom, but your heart and your honesty because that's what relates to the audience.
This episode reminded me that strong Leaders doesn't just come from guessing. It comes from knowing your numbers and understanding your financials, getting the right team and partnerships and treating your passion like a powerhouse as it was meant to be. I'm Vicki Wright Hamilton, and this is Ignite, where we light the path to leadership at last.
See you next time.
