070 The Pay Yourself First Playbook: Strategies for Business Profitability with Cortney Kaveh
linktree.com/AllEaseAccounting
In this episode, Cortney Kaveh shares practical tips and insights on how to establish effective daily money management in your business. She introduces her online course, "The Pay Yourself First Playbook," which helps entrepreneurs gain awareness of their financial habits, set up proper budgeting, and establish a routine for paying themselves. Cortney emphasizes the importance of understanding your business's financial data and implementing strategies to increase profitability.
Connect with Cortney Kaveh here:
Instagram.com/cortney.kaveh
Company of One by Paul Jarvis, mentioned in episode (not an affiliate link) https://www.harpercollins.com/products/company-of-one-paul-jarvis?variant=39935488426018
_________________________________
Enroll in my entrepreneurial bookkeeping course, Mind the Gap here. Limited-time bonus: you get a free VIP strategy call with me to dive deep into your business finances and goals.
Schedule a free consultation with me to learn about Mind the Gap: https://alleaseaccounting.as.me/mtg
Download my free receipt organization guide here:
Book a consultation with me to learn which of my offers is right for you 👇🏻
00:00:00 Regan Bashara
It's 2024 and if you want to get your **** together in your business, then you need to mind the gap right now. You can grab an early bird bonus when you enroll in my digital bookkeeping course. Mind the gap, visit my link tree in the show notes to enroll and you'll be invited to book a one-on-one virtual call with me. We're going to strategize.
00:00:21 Regan Bashara
And set you on the path for financial success in your business. This call is free for new students of mind the gap, and it's currently a $500 value.
00:00:30 Regan Bashara
The course will be available starting in May 2024, but don't wait to grab your free bonus and get into our online community. Everyone who enrolls in mind the gap right now will receive an exclusive invitation to join our virtual community. I'm going live in there twice a month to teach you valuable financial content.
00:00:50 Regan Bashara
Answer your business questions for Co working together and you'll be able to network with other entrepreneurs who are doing this work too. All of my clients are there.
00:01:00 Regan Bashara
Ready. And we're so excited to meet you.
00:01:02 Regan Bashara
Visit the show.
00:01:03 Regan Bashara
Notes to get enrolled and mind the gap today. All right, welcome everybody to another episode of Money. Through ease. I have a guest with me today. It's Cortney Kaveh from northwest of money coaching. Hi, Cortney. Welcome to the podcast.
00:01:16 Cortney Kaveh
Hi. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah, tell.
00:01:18 Regan Bashara
Us a little bit about who you are and what you do because we have a little bit of overlap going on between what I do for my business and what.
00:01:24 Cortney Kaveh
You do. So tell us who you are. Yes. I was so excited to chat today and just get to talk to your audience. So because I know they'll get a lot of value. Us having such a crossover. So I'm very much in the world of daily money management.
00:01:37 Cortney Kaveh
With business finances so all those.
00:01:39 Cortney Kaveh
Habits and behaviors that contribute to our profitability or not right? Making sure that business owners are and I know you do this too, not commingling. They're paying themselves first. They're setting aside money for taxes, you know, doing all the things that will help keep help them keep loving their business because.
00:01:44
Yeah.
00:01:59 Cortney Kaveh
Sometimes our businesses start out as a dream and it's our passion and then we get going and there's all these things that we have to do and.
00:02:06 Cortney Kaveh
If we aren't set up with a firm foundation, it can quickly become something that burns us out. So I'm super passionate about helping business owners not burn out, keep loving their business, and do it through effective daily money management. Excellent. Yeah. I don't do a lot of, like, day-to-day money management. The most that I do for my clients.
00:02:11 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:02:27 Regan Bashara
Who hire me to do their bookkeeping for the.
00:02:29 Regan Bashara
And it's like month monthly done for you. But like I also will provide like accounts receivable support and receipt management during the month. But people either come to me when they're established and they're hustling and they've got money coming in and they're just wild about, they're just totally.
00:02:50 Regan Bashara
Eating up with their business or I have people come to me in the very beginning stages of their business and they're like, I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm not really making that much money. And so I don't really get anybody.
00:03:01 Regan Bashara
That falls in between.
00:03:03 Regan Bashara
But yeah, it's so important as business owners to pay ourselves first. I have been in business for almost 2 years now and I'm just getting to the point where I can.
00:03:11 Regan Bashara
Pay my son on a regular basis, like my cash flow was not supporting that for most of last year like it was OK if I need to pay a bill. Hopefully there's money in the business account that I can take out and then pay myself. So do you find that there is that kind of time at the very beginning of your business?
00:03:29 Regan Bashara
Where you know, some people don't have like a savings or they don't have a full time job or they quit their full time job and they don't have like other funding to support their business and themselves. And so, you know, it sometimes winds up being like a grind for a little bit. Is that your experience with your clients too?
00:03:47 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So you know you, you start a business and you it is a grind because you may be pressed on time, whether you were a stay at home mom and now you're a work at home Mom and you're trying to find time to work on.
00:03:56
We're.
00:04:01 Cortney Kaveh
Business or you're working a full time job and now you're starting up this business and you reach a point where, oh, my gosh, I can't keep doing this working this many hours, it comes to that breaking.
00:04:13 Cortney Kaveh
Point of like.
00:04:13 Cortney Kaveh
When?
00:04:14 Cortney Kaveh
Do I jump and just go all in on my my side business and make it my full time business? So yeah, it's absolutely a grind in the beginning.
00:04:22 Cortney Kaveh
To get a new business off the ground for sure.
00:04:25 Regan Bashara
Yeah. And it's like, how do we know when is the right time? Sometimes you have a plan, sometimes you've got funding, sometimes the numbers make sense, but sometimes they don't. And you're put in that position where you make that decision anyways because it's what you need to do for other areas of your life. And like you brought up, like many stay at home moms or women who are.
00:04:46 Regan Bashara
Tasked with the child rearing in their families and like home making and taking care of the home and the kind of family economics.
00:04:53 Regan Bashara
Have it all are like, well, I could squeeze in like a side gig, even though, like child rearing homemaking are all kind of full time gigs already and they want to support their family financially as well. So they're like, well, I'm at home. I could do something here. Tell us what it's like to work with those folks. What kind of, like?
00:05:14 Regan Bashara
Advice. Would you have to give or you know what? What kind of journey does that look like for a stay at home Mom?
00:05:21 Cortney Kaveh
Well, that's exactly what I did. So I'm so glad you asked. You know, I when I first did all this, I was really passionate about helping others stay at home moms do this too, because what I found myself and what many other women find themselves in is or dads who stay at home. Right is sometimes there is this gap that's like, oh.
00:05:41 Cortney Kaveh
Yes, I could just bring in a few extra $100. That would be huge for my family. Just need a little more breathing room. That's a grocery bill nowadays. A couple, $100. That's inflation for groceries, right? Like that's what we need that money for. Yeah. And so you're right on the one hand.
00:05:44
Yeah.
00:05:46 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:05:48 Regan Bashara
And.
00:05:53 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:06:00 Cortney Kaveh
Being the household, the chief household officer, right, like to call that the Cho. That is a more than full time job you are wearing so many hats. And so finding the time to carve out, to build a business is like can I even do that? And the answer is you, you do it.
00:06:19 Cortney Kaveh
You do it if you can find if you can make the time. If you can carve out the time. And so I remember in the beginning stages of my business, it's been almost four years now. I had 7 hours a week to work on my business, so I got up at 5:00 AM before my kids were up. I do not like getting up early in the morning for the record.
00:06:23
MHM.
00:06:33 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:06:37 Cortney Kaveh
That was when I had to. I couldn't talk. I couldn't do a lot of work with them and and I was trying to find that balance of do I want to do work while I'm with them also.
00:06:47 Cortney Kaveh
Like how I want.
00:06:48 Cortney Kaveh
To be where my feet are too. Yeah. And so I was getting up super early in the morning to work on what?
00:06:56 Cortney Kaveh
You call silver hours, work. Your silver hours are like administrative work. You can do. It's not client facing. It's all the back end and my golden hours were the time that I am client facing that I had to protect the time to meet with clients and follow up with leads and all that and so.
00:07:01 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:07:05 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:07:15 Cortney Kaveh
I had to find time for my silver hours, my golden hours, and it was I, like I said in the beginning, probably 7 hours a week and you just start with what you've got. And I will say that having profit as a habit from day one is a total game changer for new business owners because.
00:07:24 Regan Bashara
Yes.
00:07:35 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:07:35 Cortney Kaveh
Absolutely cannot make the jump from what you were doing before to going all in on your business. If the profits not there, you can't just leave a full time job. If you can't replace your income though, profit must be there as a habit from and might if you can swing it from day one.
00:07:52 Cortney Kaveh
And help people do is take their profit 1st and build the business around what's left, not the other way around.
00:07:52 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:08:00 Regan Bashara
Yeah, that's so important to kind of know how of how all of those pieces work. When we're talking about profit, we're talking about like your business has revenue and then your business has expenses that you get to claim as tax deductions and whatever is leftover.
00:08:15 Regan Bashara
Is the profit.
00:08:17 Regan Bashara
But with I have not taken like the profit first credentialing or anything I basic I understand the concept but I'm not like a profit first accountant or professional or anything but my understanding of the concept is like most people sit there and think well I'm making this much and I'm spending this much. So what's left over? But when we're considering profit first or like you're talking about.
00:08:38 Regan Bashara
From day one, what do you want to be taking home like if you are the stay at home Mom that takes or wants to take home a couple of $100 a month to really help out with the grocery bills, childcare, car payments, all of that.
00:08:52 Regan Bashara
How do we work backwards from that number? And why do we want to work backwards from that number? Why?
00:08:58 Regan Bashara
Is that I thought.
00:08:59 Regan Bashara
The only way was just like, plus, minus whatever's left over. If it's a positive number, is what I've got.
00:09:06 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah, and that's what I would say. Most business owners do is they're like, alright, I got to, I got to.
00:09:12 Cortney Kaveh
Make money and and we we rush into that part because like either we put startup capital in, we've got an investment here. We need to make start making a return on our investment for this to be an actual business and not just a hobby. So we're urgent, the money making part, but then we've also got expenses and we're urgent to that because the business needs to keep.
00:09:29 Cortney Kaveh
The doors open and then.
00:09:30 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:09:31 Cortney Kaveh
Like uh, if there's something left over great.
00:09:33 Regan Bashara
I get to pay myself. I'll.
00:09:35 Cortney Kaveh
Work on that overtime and it'll be profitable. Yeah, yeah. And so. But also like if we worked at an employer and we allowed them to pay us in that manner, that would be unacceptable. Right. Like, we don't get the leftovers of the profit of the business.
00:09:36 Regan Bashara
Golly Gee, I've got a couple 100 bucks.
00:09:49 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:09:52 Cortney Kaveh
We get paid on payroll like we get checked and so when we we don't do that as business owners. So we don't treat it in the same way. And so I make the argument.
00:10:02 Cortney Kaveh
That.
00:10:03 Cortney Kaveh
We should be doing that like from day one, even if it's tiny. But we need to establish guardrails to our business spending. We need to set up a flow to save head for taxes so that we don't get stressed out at tax time, right.
00:10:09
Hmm.
00:10:17 Cortney Kaveh
And we need.
00:10:17 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:10:18 Cortney Kaveh
Routines and habits in place from day one. And if you're listening to this, you're like, hey, I've been in business.
00:10:23 Cortney Kaveh
Five years. Not do any of that. It's it's.
00:10:25 Cortney Kaveh
Way past day one sister, that's.
00:10:27 Cortney Kaveh
Day two. That is OK. There's always a way to start to shift in the direction you want to go with the right organization and structure.
00:10:28 Regan Bashara
Uh.
00:10:36 Regan Bashara
Yeah, I agree completely. I hear some from folks who are like my colleagues, not necessarily my clients. But then I hear people who come to me for assistance and they're.
00:10:46 Regan Bashara
Like I just.
00:10:47 Regan Bashara
I don't know what to do. Like I have a full time job I'm trying to work as much in my business as I can, but my business has expenses and I'm having to put my personal money into the business.
00:10:57 Regan Bashara
Like it doesn't make sense to pay myself like it would just turn around and I would just put it back into the business because.
00:11:03 Regan Bashara
Canvas coming due and my website domain needs to be renewed and just like all of those things that we can arguably need to have for a business to be operating like some would say like you really don't need a website, Facebook is free like all that. But what would you say to those folks that are like?
00:11:23 Regan Bashara
Yeah, I only put my personal money into the business. It's not. I'm not at a place that I can.
00:11:29 Regan Bashara
Pay myself like, how do we start to make that shift?
00:11:32 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah. The first question I was I would ask is, do you want this to be a business or do you want it to be a hobby? And by the way, there's no shame in wanting something to be a hobby, but if you're not profiting and you're always taking money out of your personal account, you're not really profiting, right? And so everyone has start up capital at some point like you have you pay for. I remember I paid for a financial coach.
00:11:55 Cortney Kaveh
Training program. So I learned how to coach people. That was my start up capital after that.
00:12:00 Cortney Kaveh
Point I I personally was committed to operating profitably from day one. All right, I'm. I'm only going to add in business expenses if the profits there. I I'm not going to add on. So I I operated from a very minimalistic standpoint. Just getting started company of one.
00:12:10 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:12:21 Cortney Kaveh
A book by Paul Jarvis that is one of my top favorite business books ever. He talks about this business minimalism.
00:12:27 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:12:28 Cortney Kaveh
And so yeah, I would. So, anyone listening, do your expenses make sense right now for this season of business sector? And if you are continually infusing personal funds into the business?
00:12:42 Cortney Kaveh
That should be like a one time few time thing and not an ongoing practice because then that tells me that the business is not profitable and that your expenses are too high or there's just no money coming in. So I would take another look at your ongoing operating expenses and what needs to change in order to start becoming profitable.
00:13:03 Regan Bashara
Yeah. I always tell folks like, well, I'm not going to tell somebody what to do, but me personally, if I'm having to put money into my business to pay for the business expenses and to keep it operating, I would much rather just go make more money than even cut my expenses like I'm the guy that's like, all right, let's go talk to some of these leads. Let's go like.
00:13:23 Regan Bashara
Reach out to my network. Let's make some direct offers to me, that just sounds more fun and also like less constraining. Like if I can open up my.
00:13:33 Regan Bashara
Revenue in my business income that gives me more room. So does restricting your expenses, cutting down on that kind of stuff, but the making more money part sounds way more fun to me. So I personally.
00:13:44 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah. You're so right. There's two sides of the coin. It's not just about looking at your expenses, about looking at your income. And so having an abundance mindset into like, hey, alright, if the numbers aren't making sense over here, I gotta go make more.
00:13:56 Cortney Kaveh
Money or maybe?
00:13:56 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:13:57 Cortney Kaveh
Both. So I love that you pointed that out. There's really two sides of.
00:13:59 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:14:00 Regan Bashara
Coin. Yeah. And there's so many ways that you can approach that as like, I don't really want to call it a problem, but like, maybe a puzzle to solve, like, what pieces can we kind of move around here to start making that shift? But it's really important to have that mindset of like, my business needs to support me financially. Like, that's the point of the business.
00:14:20 Regan Bashara
Not only to serve my clients and like I have my mission and my vision statement that are like, you know where I want the business to go, what kind of impact I want to have on our entrepreneurial community, but also like I got those.
00:14:35 Regan Bashara
It costs money to be here, so like the mortgage people.
00:14:35 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah.
00:14:37 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah. And taking a look at like what you want, what you need your take home pay to be a super boring like you had said before reverse engineering it, OK, what do I want or need to be bringing home for my family. And then, you know, there's certain percentages you can set up for yourself. Like, OK, I'm going to set aside 15% for taxes or or I want to pay myself 50% for my business, which is what.
00:14:58 Cortney Kaveh
I help people do. OK, great. If I'm paying myself 50% for my business, then my take home pay. I need to double that and that's how much revenue I need to make every month.
00:15:06 Regan Bashara
Yeah, exactly, that's.
00:15:08 Regan Bashara
Such A and I love algebra and math. Curly. I love puzzle, so I'm like, alright, if I've got a puzzle like that to solve, I can also step back from it emotionally that, like has anything to do with like my worth or value as a person or a business owner or an accountant, bookkeeper, whatever. Like, it's just a puzzle to solve. It's just something that I can sit here.
00:15:29 Regan Bashara
And move some pieces around and work through it and figure out.
00:15:33 Regan Bashara
What are my options and that sounds like more fun than you know, telling myself that I'm not good enough or people don't want to hire me. And like all of those kind of mindset things that we can totally get stuck in sometimes that keeps us from making those good decisions. Do you help your clients with like mindset too?
00:15:49 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah, yeah.
00:15:53 Cortney Kaveh
Absolutely. Because you know, part of like you said, part of the equation is the income piece. So yeah, there are those moments where I'm working with someone. We're talking about the numbers and.
00:16:04 Cortney Kaveh
Just have imposter syndrome or oh, I couldn't charge that much. And or they don't think their service is worth that much or their services are not diversified enough. It's like, hey, you could be providing this service right now. What do you think about that? And so, yeah, definitely a lot of. I won't say everything is mindset.
00:16:18 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:16:19
Hmm.
00:16:24 Cortney Kaveh
But when you become a business owner, so much mind that work that needs to be done that you never would have known if you hadn't started a business.
00:16:33 Regan Bashara
Yeah. And here's the thing that I think people it might be helpful for people to kind of soak in. Is that like if you had, like, a funder or like an Angel investor or some sort of capital funding that, like, wasn't your money that you didn't have to pay back? Someone was just, like, here's 100 grand Go start a business. You would still have to do the mindset shift.
00:16:53 Regan Bashara
Even if you had money to like front a business and like get it going and also pay yourself and like, take care of yourself in the meantime, while it became profitable, you would still have the mindset work to do like that's so important to like take in and be like alright, you know, I want to start a business.
00:17:11 Regan Bashara
But I recognize that I've got maybe some mindset things that need to be worked on either before I take that step before I quit my job or even during the process of like getting it up and going.
00:17:23 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah, there's mindset work, but there's also a big logistical learning curve. I found just wearing every single hat and, you know, it's one thing if you've, like, managed someone else's business before, but then really taking on all those roles, bookkeeper, marketer sales.
00:17:36 Regan Bashara
M.
00:17:42 Cortney Kaveh
Customer service like on and on.
00:17:45 Cortney Kaveh
It's it's kind of a shock to the system. Like what? Oh, I gotta, I gotta beat all the things. So it's definitely a mindset work and logistical learning curve to contend with.
00:17:50 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:17:56 Regan Bashara
Yeah, I've had so many people that I've met that have, like business degrees or masters degrees and they're just like, I have no idea. Like I maybe know how all the pieces are supposed to play with each other, but.
00:18:09 Regan Bashara
Being in that role, wearing all the different hats most of us have had one, maybe two of those areas that we've worked in before, but all of a sudden it's all incumbent on you, even if you hire like a virtual assistant or somebody to help you with different pieces of that puzzle. It's still incumbent on you to make sure it gets done like you're still.
00:18:29 Regan Bashara
The passing of the buck stops with you.
00:18:32 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah, every entrepreneur.
00:18:33 Cortney Kaveh
Their is they have their craft and then they have. They are the business owner and they are two totally separate things and that's why I think a lot of business owners struggle with the financial piece because they're really good at their craft, whether it's a product or a service. And now they're having to manage business finances.
00:18:54 Cortney Kaveh
I've worked with or even personal finances like I've worked with financial advisors who really needed help with their personal finances. It's like you do finances for.
00:19:04 Cortney Kaveh
A living, but not really. They were doing investments in portfolios and stock management, which is totally different from personal finance. So you know it really is a different animal like owning a business and doing your craft.
00:19:18 Regan Bashara
Yeah, totally. Can you tell us a little bit about what inspires you or what inspired your entrepreneurial journey? I mean, you've talked a little bit about being a stay at home Mom and also wanting to like financially provide for.
00:19:30 Regan Bashara
Your family? What?
00:19:31 Regan Bashara
Inspires you. What is your day-to-day? Kind of look like in your business?
00:19:36 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah. What inspired me was I worked in retail coffee for 11 years, and a lot of that time was in management, so I had run.
00:19:44 Cortney Kaveh
Super fun. Other people's businesses and.
00:19:48 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah, I know it just at that point that caffeine was just in my veins. Right? Like, it just was always caffeinated. And it didn't affect after time.
00:19:58 Cortney Kaveh
And I once I had my second son, you know, I had two under two. I decided to stay home. And I I wanted to be a stay at home Mom. You know, we have lived in Southern California. We moved to Oregon and that gave us the financial means to have that choice. Southern California is very much a dual income household.
00:20:18 Cortney Kaveh
Kind of kind of place to live. And so we were blessed to have that option for me to stay home. And so I did for a year. But to be totally honest, I felt so drained by doing that and I knew that the work was.
00:20:18 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:20:20
Yeah.
00:20:33 Cortney Kaveh
Is what I should be doing at the time and my kids needed me and that was precious time. But I also feel like God had given me some gifts that I wasn't able to exercise and like, serve others with and I just it. I ultimately felt really unfulfilled on, like, doing one and not doing both. I was like, I want to do both.
00:20:53 Cortney Kaveh
I want to my babies and I want to serve people in a professional way, like use what I felt like gifts that were given to me to help other people and so.
00:21:04 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:21:07 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah. So then I did. I found out about, you know, the training I did. I did the training. And yeah, I I just really wanted. I was just so passionate about personal finance. And it's funny because I used to be like an out of control spender and didn't know what to even meant. And so it helped. I could relate to my.
00:21:25 Regan Bashara
What's the budget? I don't know the budget? Yeah.
00:21:26
Well.
00:21:29 Cortney Kaveh
My husband would joke that I if I had $0.25 left in my bank account, I would take it out and get a gumball like I just had a full burning.
00:21:36 Cortney Kaveh
In my pocket, OK, so.
00:21:38 Cortney Kaveh
My mom still laughs to this day that I'm a financial coach like she just knows how I used to and I think it makes me really qualified to help people, you know? So my financial habits are much different these days. But yeah, I was motivated.
00:21:46 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:21:53 Cortney Kaveh
To serve others and to bring in and come to my family. And we get to do so much because of my income. These days, things that we wouldn't able be able to do otherwise. So that's what I'm motivated by is just, you know, using. Yes, I feel like God's given me and serving my family too, by bringing in income.
00:22:12 Regan Bashara
I love that and I I don't have children and I can't really.
00:22:16
To.
00:22:17 Regan Bashara
Relate to doing something that is necessary that you want to do like that, like childcare, which is skilled labor that never stops like you're 24/7 providing really a labor source and then wanting to kind of like not only be present with your children and like take care of them and provide that.
00:22:41 Regan Bashara
Just childcare, and, like homemaking and all of that.
00:22:44 Regan Bashara
Like it's hard job and then on top of that I love that you wanted to serve other people too and find a way to kind of make both of those parts of you mesh and work together and have time for each so that you feel fulfilled, right. Because that's very important. And if you had two children under 2 like.
00:23:05 Regan Bashara
Man, that is like saturated with caring for them and just having to constantly be watching them. That's a big job. So I love that story that, you know, it was still a calling that you recognize you are a mother, you want to be there and be.
00:23:06
Good.
00:23:25 Regan Bashara
Present for them.
00:23:25 Regan Bashara
But you also have other things that you want to accomplish in your.
00:23:28 Regan Bashara
Life. What kind of like tips would you give to yourself one year, five years, 10 years ago that you know, I don't like to look back on the past with, like any sort of regret and maybe lessons learned. Like if I could have done something differently, what would I have done differently 5-10 years ago?
00:23:48 Cortney Kaveh
Just in general or with the business or?
00:23:50 Regan Bashara
Yeah. In general or the business or with the clients, I mean anything that you can offer to the audience to like maybe repeat a lesson that they've already heard or drive a point home?
00:24:02 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah, it's funny because when I asked myself that, like what? What's my goal for the next five years? Like when I take any five year period of my life at all, I'm like and then look forward to like, I never knew I was going to be there in five years. Like every single slice.
00:24:15 Regan Bashara
Yeah, yeah.
00:24:18 Cortney Kaveh
And so it's just life is funny that way. But if I were. Yeah, it's it's funny because I don't have regrets on how I've operated my business necessarily. I guess there is one lesson I learned. You know, one time I invested in a program.
00:24:39 Cortney Kaveh
That was more money than I had spent on any business expense ever, really. And it promised a lot and under delivered and while I.
00:24:47 Cortney Kaveh
Did learn a lot.
00:24:49 Cortney Kaveh
Through that experience, it's so easy to emotionally spend in our business and personally right thinking that, oh, this is just going to be the thing that solves everything.
00:24:54 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:25:01 Cortney Kaveh
For me and so.
00:25:03 Cortney Kaveh
I would caution people if they are having those feelings about a purchase, whether on the personal side or business side to like, get some accountability in your life and talk to someone else who you trust about it first because you are in your own mind and you're isolated. Well, it could be a really good thing.
00:25:12
Hmm.
00:25:24 Cortney Kaveh
Sometimes these things are just too good to be true, and like they're just marketed so well and like marketing is not evil. It's just we want to make a decision from a place.
00:25:34 Cortney Kaveh
Where we have a solid financial foundation and my choice, I compromised my financial foundation by making that decision and I was really ashamed of that. And so looking back, I'm like, you know, it would have been better if I would have talked to more people about the decision not made a decision in isolation and reckon and and ran different scenarios for myself.
00:25:42 Regan Bashara
Yes.
00:25:55 Cortney Kaveh
How I could achieve a similar result in a less expensive way or in a way that wouldn't at least compromise my financial foundation? So that's that's really one of the biggest lessons I've learned in business in terms of like something that I may have changed or wanted to go back and do differently that would be.
00:26:07 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:26:11
Manually.
00:26:12 Regan Bashara
I appreciate you sharing that because regardless of whether we intend to move through life without regrets, there are going to be choices that we make when we look back and.
00:26:21 Regan Bashara
We're like that.
00:26:23 Regan Bashara
Could have been different and you know instead of like indulging in the shame about it. You know, even after the fact.
00:26:33 Regan Bashara
In the moment, like you said, we buy things emotionally and this is something that I've got coached on from my sales coach. It's.
00:26:42 Regan Bashara
People do buy a feeling that they want to have, like they're buying your they're spending money on your services or whatever value that you've communicated to them because they think it's gonna make them feel differently. And there's nothing wrong with that. But like, I always try to make sure that I have, like, an informed audience or an informed person on the other end.
00:27:02 Regan Bashara
Of a conversation with me so that like, I want them to make a good choice for their business and for themselves personally.
00:27:09 Regan Bashara
But it has nothing to do with me, really. And what would you recommend for like before, during or even after? Like, how do we find that sense of community as entrepreneurs? Because when we're solopreneurs, it can be a very isolated experience. Like you're talking about, how do we find that community? How do we build that?
00:27:29 Regan Bashara
Community with other entrepreneurs so that when we have those moments or even after the moment, we've made a decision, how can we lean on the support from that Community to help us do better next time?
00:27:41 Cortney Kaveh
That's a great question because you're so right. This work can be isolating when you're a solo printer. I don't have coworkers right next to me across the screen from me, and so all the introverts might hate me for saying this. I am an introvert myself, but find it you need to.
00:27:58 Cortney Kaveh
Go.
00:27:59 Cortney Kaveh
Hate your community and find your tribe.
00:28:01 Cortney Kaveh
And actively seek out that community and I think it can be hard to make friends as adults. It just it is I I feel that. But here's one thing that I did my city. It's a relatively small town and.
00:28:17 Cortney Kaveh
We did not have many women's networking groups like women owned businesses of my city group and so I.
00:28:21 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:28:25 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:28:26 Cortney Kaveh
Just started one.
00:28:27 Cortney Kaveh
Like I just rounded up some gals on Facebook and found some other business owners from other groups and like, hey, do you guys want to meet up like once a month, we'll network. We'll have a little talk.
00:28:33
Hmm.
00:28:38 Cortney Kaveh
You know, do you guys want to do that? We've been meeting for like a year and a half now and we've.
00:28:43 Cortney Kaveh
Well, and I yes, I hear all the introverts squirming when I'm talking.
00:28:51 Cortney Kaveh
But you gotta put yourself out there if you don't want to be lonely and you don't. You're not meant to do this work alone. So, so, and start with finding one person to talk to.
00:28:58
Yeah.
00:29:03 Cortney Kaveh
Ask if you can meet on a regular basis with them, like just to talk business and encourage each other. Talk shop maybe once a month, but put yourself.
00:29:13 Cortney Kaveh
Out.
00:29:14 Cortney Kaveh
That's how you do it. It's not. It's not just magically going to happen proper.
00:29:17 Cortney Kaveh
Probably.
00:29:18 Regan Bashara
Yeah, totally. I live in the South. I live in Louisiana and.
00:29:24 Regan Bashara
There is at least one kind of women's business group that I'm aware of, but I'm like.
00:29:31 Regan Bashara
Not really my vibe.
00:29:34 Cortney Kaveh
And that's OK, because the gal that I Co created this group.
00:29:39 Cortney Kaveh
Says the Chamber of Commerce was not really her vibe, you know, or like, whatever it was, she was a part of before. And she's like, I wish we could create this. I'm like, hey, I want to create that group, too. And so we Co created it together. So if if there's something out there that's not your vibe, start your own group. Like, yeah, there's nothing wrong with that because. Yeah.
00:29:42 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:29:59 Cortney Kaveh
Chances are what's out there might not be appealing to you. So what is? And then go do it. Easier said than done, but I did.
00:30:06 Cortney Kaveh
It, yeah.
00:30:07 Regan Bashara
I think if you approach it really with like a solid intention that you've examined and evaluated for yourself, like why do I want to start this and then go into it with that intention that you'll automatically kind of call in the people who share that, you know, mission with you or who want that experience for themselves. And I agree the Chambers of Commerce.
00:30:27 Regan Bashara
To be a little old and stuffy in a suit, kind of like vibes. Although there are, like younger people coming up and, you know, getting into those organizations and kind of revamping a little bit, but also like the Internet exists y'all and like, ever since COVID like, we have all become so much more connected online I feel.
00:30:47 Regan Bashara
And even if you are in a small town or you don't know a lot of people who live around you who own businesses like you can go online and find people very quickly who want to be a part.
00:30:59 Regan Bashara
Of whatever it is that you.
00:31:00 Cortney Kaveh
Doing exactly, yeah, and make it how you like it. Like, if you're starting a group, you get to call the shots. So, like, we dress casually, we bring a snack and wine and we have fun talk plan that everyone's actually really interested in hearing about, you know, so make it your own thing.
00:31:07 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:31:11 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:31:18 Regan Bashara
Yeah. Bring us your criteria board. Like, bring a bottle of wine. Make it happen. What would you like to share with the audience? That would be like a practical tip or something that they can take home today to really start to shift their mindset, start to move towards taking home what they want to take.
00:31:20
Yes.
00:31:37 Regan Bashara
Home or being a profitable business?
00:31:39 Regan Bashara
This and share maybe a little bit about how your services and the coaching that you do can help people make that shift in their lives and their businesses?
00:31:48 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah. So if you've been listening to us and you're like that all sounds great. But on a practical level, like step by step, how do I put something like this into place? And I have created a online course, you know, self-paced option to really start putting the structure in place for yourself and.
00:31:55
Yeah.
00:32:08 Cortney Kaveh
Essentially, it's made of three main parts. The first part is.
00:32:15 Cortney Kaveh
Like you need to stop commingling. You know, it walks you through. How unmingled I know, right? It's exciting.
00:32:20 Regan Bashara
Yeah, yeah, I love the separation of church and.
00:32:24 Regan Bashara
State in the book and states separate.
00:32:24 Cortney Kaveh
Yes, unmingled. So we walk you through how to do that. What business bank accounts should you even have? We walk you through that, taking a look at your cash flow there.
00:32:31 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:32:35 Cortney Kaveh
There are so many business owner owners I talk to who don't know what they're making in one month or how much they're spending in one.
00:32:41 Cortney Kaveh
So gaining awareness into your habits is really important. The second main part.
00:32:47 Regan Bashara
Y'all know that I agree with that message too.
00:32:49
Yes.
00:32:49 Regan Bashara
You gotta be.
00:32:51 Regan Bashara
Aware of what's going on before you can.
00:32:52 Regan Bashara
Make any choices.
00:32:54 Cortney Kaveh
Exactly, and to the point of what we were talking about earlier in terms of accounting and bookkeeping and all that, this is different. This is budgeting like I help you.
00:33:05 Regan Bashara
Hmm.
00:33:06 Cortney Kaveh
Stay accounting is so important, I won't under. I want to under score the importance of accounting and accurate record keeping for taxes and all that budgeting is going.
00:33:16 Cortney Kaveh
To help you.
00:33:16 Cortney Kaveh
Stay aware all month long and not just get to the end of the month and be.
00:33:19 Cortney Kaveh
Like, oh crap.
00:33:20 Cortney Kaveh
You know.
00:33:21 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah. So that's really the heart behind what all this is on my end is daily money management and so.
00:33:30 Cortney Kaveh
Part 2. It's picking percentages to start setting aside for taxes, which you need to talk to your tax pro to know that number. Want to pay yourself for the guardrails you want to put around your business spending. We determine what those numbers should be, because if we're not, if we're not putting guardrails around any of those things.
00:33:37
Yeah.
00:33:49 Cortney Kaveh
It's just a free for all right? And then where we get to tax time and panic because we haven't said anything aside or we realize that our business is a hobby because we haven't been paying ourselves and we're infusing it with personal money every month. So we have to put that's just the best word for it. Guardrails into place, yeah.
00:34:07 Cortney Kaveh
That starts with knowing what you've been doing and measuring that, and then working towards your ideal state too, creating a.
00:34:11 Regan Bashara
Mm-hmm.
00:34:14 Cortney Kaveh
Business budget for.
00:34:14
Yeah.
00:34:15 Cortney Kaveh
Your expenses, that's super important. And then the last kind of main part to all this is.
00:34:21 Cortney Kaveh
Establishing your new payday like I'm going to pay myself now, you know. Pay. So you have all the account you pay yourself. Set aside money for taxes, put money into your expenses account so you develop this new monthly routine where you are in control, which is so, so important. So that is called the pay yourself first playbook. And that is my online.
00:34:25 Regan Bashara
Yeah.
00:34:41 Cortney Kaveh
Self-paced course.
00:34:44 Cortney Kaveh
Regan, since you're having me on here, I, you know, an idea popped into my head just for your listeners. They actually will. If they wanted to check out the course and enroll in the course. I will also include A1 on one one hour setup call to help them with their business budget because there's so many.
00:34:59
Awesome.
00:35:03 Cortney Kaveh
Questions and factors. When you get going with putting this structure into place for yourself, and I know that can be hard if you're completely on your own doing this course and you're not really sure like you might get stuck on something. So I'd love to be able to sit down and help you with the setup so that you can fly through this.
00:35:20 Cortney Kaveh
Just and put this structure into place for yourself, so we'll include a link in the show notes to that. But that's really a step by step guide into how to put the structure in place for yourself, for effective daily money management in your business to be more profitable, take home more money from your business and.
00:35:37 Cortney Kaveh
Pocket and pay yourself first.
00:35:37 Regan Bashara
Get.
00:35:39 Regan Bashara
Establish a payday. Love to hear that. And I think the work that you do and the work that I do actually does mesh so well together because, like you said, you kind of have to know what you've been doing.
00:35:50 Regan Bashara
In order to make changes and that is the work that I do is like establishing that record of like what happened, you know, what did you spend money on? And then you come over to Cortney and she's gonna tell you, OK, we're gonna. We're gonna put up these guardrails. We're going to decide on a payday for you. And that is truly.
00:36:10 Regan Bashara
What it boils down to with business finances is like knowing what's been going on in your business.
00:36:16 Regan Bashara
Establishing a plan and doing your best to stick with it. You know developing habits and I love a good routine. So happy to hear that you help people establish a routine because when we can get on those habits, I think it just winds up being so much easier and it be it's it just becomes like you become a creature of habit.
00:36:36 Regan Bashara
Like you're just not having to spend so much time thinking about those decisions when you have a plan in place.
00:36:43 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, you can have the best intentions. You can set up this beautiful business budget. But if if we don't know your historical data from accounting from bookkeeping, we can't make a realistic plan. So that is an integral piece to this puzzle. Is knowing where you're starting so that you can turn the dial slightly into the direction you want to go because.
00:37:06 Cortney Kaveh
We can't just say, alright, I'm going to start doing this, but you've been doing this for perhaps a decade or like there's going to be habits in there. So we need to be realistic about our starting point and then turn the dial in the direction you want to go over.
00:37:21 Regan Bashara
Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing with our listeners the opportunity not only to sign up for your course, but providing them access to get a call with you. That's really great and I love that and go ahead and share anything else you want listeners to know like where we can come find you and follow you and.
00:37:41 Regan Bashara
In your orbit and see all of that you've got.
00:37:44 Regan Bashara
Come on.
00:37:44 Cortney Kaveh
Yeah. So I hang out mostly on Instagram. That's where you're going to find me. My handle is Cortney dot Kaveh, and it's Cortney without a U dot KAV, as in Victor H. And then my website is Northwest money coaching.com. So that's where.
00:38:00 Cortney Kaveh
You can find me.
00:38:01 Regan Bashara
Amazing. And we'll have all of her links in the show notes. They'll get signed up for her course and get on a call with her. If you need to seriously change up your money habits in your business. Thank you, Cortney. So much for being on the episode.
00:38:12 Cortney Kaveh
Thanks.
00:38:15 Cortney Kaveh
Thank you so much.
00:38:16 Regan Bashara
Thank you for joining me on this episode of Money. Through ease. If you found value in today's discussion, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and review your feedback really does mean a lot to me. And if you're ready to take the first step towards organized finances, be sure to download my free receipt.
00:38:35 Regan Bashara
Organization guide to chaos. To calm, visit the link in the show notes to grab your free copy. Now remember your financial journey starts with small steps. I'm here to support you every step of the way until next time. This is Regan bashara from money through ease. Stay empowered.