Stellar Solopreneurs: How Aby’s Upholstery Does Money

Custom upholstery adds amazing pop and custom flair to any space. This special skill is a great way to add to a space or refresh a furniture piece, and with the right money management techniques, it can also produce a thriving business.

That’s just what founder and CEO Abigail Figueroa-Vera has done through Aby’s Upholstery, the custom upholstery shop in San Jose she founded in 2003. The business provides beautiful custom upholstery services for residential and commercial spaces in the Bay Area of Northern California. Along with excellent craftsmanship, her business has also financially sustained itself for 20 years. She has some great tips to share on her own business money system, and how other small business owners can adopt her successful habits.

What are some financial habits you use in your business that help you stay calm and confident about money?

When business is great, aside from saving, I have worked to maximize my credit to gain access to capital. This way when times are slow we have the necessary cushion to help us ride out the waves. When you are paralyzed in financial fear it really deters you from focusing on what you can control today.

How do you make decisions on what to spend on for your business, and what are some things that help you do that?

We spend on what is needed to facilitate our jobs. If a tool or device allows us to be more efficient we don’t think twice about the purchase.

How do you prepare for taxes in your business?

I think one of the key elements is having the right people on your financial team. Working with a bookkeeper is what has ultimately helped the company stay up to date monthly. Doing so facilitates my CPA in helping me better prepare for tax payments, etc.

 

Are there any tips for financial record-keeping you want to share with other small business owners?

Every business expense is on a company card or corporate account so that we can track every transaction.

What are some financial goals in your personal life that your business income has helped you reach, and how do you make sure that’s happening?

Here are a few: children having a private education, financing club athletics for my kids, driving safe vehicles, purchasing a building for the company and purchasing a home.

My next personal goals are to scale my company in such a way to make these dreams possible for my staff. I also want to own a company that can function without me being at the center of it all in order to create a solid infrastructure. Setting new goals for your company will always assure that your personal goals are met!

What’s something you wish you’d known about the financial side of running your own business when you got started?

The importance of knowing how to create your financial team – the investment is worth its weight in gold and even twenty years later I am still learning – each chapter will lead you into the next!

Want to connect with Aby’s Upholstery? Check out the website to see her menu of services, from pillows and cushions to full custom projects,  and join her mailing list. You can also take a visual tour of La Casita, her showroom, and connect with her on Instagram to see more beautiful images of her work.

If you enjoyed Aby’s thoughts on business finance, you might also like to check out our free resource, Reach Your Life Goals: A Business Owner’s Guide. Click here or below to get your free download.

By |2023-09-27T13:46:49-07:00September 20th, 2023|Categories: Bookkeeping Business, Small Business, solopreneurs, Taxes|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Stellar Solopreneurs: How a Digital Marketing Consultant Does Money

Digital marketing is a valuable and sought-after skill, and with more and more businesses trying to reach their audiences online these days, there’s usually plenty of clientele. But how do marketing consultants turn bustling businesses into a money systems that sustain and support their lives?

In our second installment in Stellar Solopreneurs this month, we’re hearing about just that from Tracey Lee Davis of ZingPop Social Media. Not only does Tracey deliver professional excellence (I can personally attest to this as a happy former client), but she also has a lot of wonderful words of wisdom for solopreneurs looking to build confidence around their money systems in their businesses. She is one of my bookkeeping clients, and one whose sterling money habits I continually admire! Check out what she has to say:

What are some financial habits you use in your business that help you stay calm

and confident about money?

VERY early in my career, a cohort in a networking group shared with us that she owed over $10K in taxes that year, and she didn’t have it. That absolutely terrified me. I already had a plan for saving for taxes, but that moment solidified that I would never “fudge the numbers” with that account. So every week, I make sure that I am dividing up my income based on paying me, paying my taxes, and paying my business. I have never had an issue paying my taxes in my almost ten years of business! Whew!

How do you prepare for taxes in your business?

I used to painstakingly create an Excel spreadsheet that was many tabs in total. I would scour through emails and receipts to make sure I got everything listed correctly. And I relied heavily on my calendar to track medical appointments and volunteer miles. It took me hours to do all of this. Now that I am using Angela’s services, it is ridiculously simple to do my taxes every year. I really just need to keep track of my mileage, which compared to what I was doing before, is a breeze!

Are there any tips for financial record-keeping you want to share with other small

business owners?

While I am so happy using QBO for my bookkeeping, I started out using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my invoices. That early system really helped me with divvying up my income, and honestly, I couldn’t wrap my brain around how to easily continue to do that without that spreadsheet when I started using QBO. So I still use it, more for making the math easy and keeping track of my invoice numbers rather than for official bookkeeping purposes. Having that redundancy gives me an easy way to keep everything straight; I can leave myself notes, and it makes moving money into different accounts on my weekly money day so simple.

How do you make decisions on what to spend on for your business, and what are some

things that help you do that?

I am a very frugal person by nature, so I generally am very cautious when it comes to spending money. One of the biggest considerations is, “Will this investment ultimately save me time in the long run or make my life easier in some way?” So getting a bookkeeper, getting a VA, getting a CPA, all of these are smart investments for me because they do their job so much better than I can, and they do it faster, too. So it frees up my time to work on the things only I can do and the things I love to do. Also, if I am spending my free time doing something business-related because I don’t want to take away from my time for client work, it is absolutely worth investing in having someone help me with that task. Our free time is so valuable!

Another thing that has made a difference in making decisions on what to spend was getting a business credit card. I functioned for many years in my business without one, and that was fairly limiting if I didn’t have enough cash in the bank for a big purchase. My business credit card has definitely made a difference in that regard!

What are some financial goals in your personal life that your business income has

helped you reach, and how do you make sure that’s happening?

Travel is important to me. I have friends all over the world and seeing them in person is balm for my soul. When I finally took the plunge to get a business credit card, I made sure to get one that gave me travel rewards. This has allowed me to take a number of trips that I wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise.

What’s something you wish you’d known about the financial side of running your own

business when you got started?

I started my business in December/January. I didn’t think at all that a lot of annual costs would need to be renewed in those months. I also didn’t know they would be the slowest months in my business. So while I wouldn’t change when I started my business, I am glad to be able to let people who are starting to think about opening their own consider when you will have other big expenses in your life and when your business will have natural lulls. There have been a number of years when the holidays, my recurring business costs, and slow business have been a bit uncomfortable, but hallelujah for that business credit card!

Want to connect with Tracey’s wonderful digital marketing services? Check out her website and join her mailing list. You can see a full list of her offerings, from webinars to memberships to 1:1 coaching, right here. I highly recommend her membership – my business benefited greatly when I was in it!

If you enjoyed Tracey’s thoughts on small business finance, you might also like to check out our free resource, The Cashflow Reboot Guide. Download your free copy here or by clicking below.

By |2023-05-25T11:58:26-07:00May 25th, 2023|Categories: Bookkeeping Business, Small Business, solopreneurs, Taxes|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Stellar Solopreneurs: How an Herbalist Does Money

Have you ever wondered how an herbalist makes money? This month on the blog, I’m running an interview series called “Stellar Solopreneurs!” We’ll hear from a couple different small business owners about their own financial insights and how they set up their money systems for financial success.

Today we’re hearing from Madeleine (aka Magic), who is the Head Content Creator for At Peace With Money, but also the herbalist extraordinaire of Roots in the Cracks Herbal Hub! Magic teaches online and local classes on herbal medicine making and identifying medicinal plants, and also runs an online educational membership, The Autonomous Herbalism Learning Community. Check out what they have to share about the financial side of their business:

Are there any tips for financial record-keeping you want to share with other small business owners?

I run a very simple business that’s service-based, so although I sometimes purchase supplies, I don’t typically have many transactions. I do all my financial record-keeping in a spreadsheet with a couple different tabs. Maybe I’ll outgrow this at some point, but for now, it works really well. I want to share this because I want other people to know you don’t have to overcomplicate things. As long as I stay on top of my record keeping and do it regularly, this very simple spreadsheet system works for me.

How do you prepare for taxes in your business?

My main strategy for this is that I have a tax savings account, very similar to what’s suggested by Profit First. I make sure that I factor in how much I need to save for taxes into my prices. This has been especially helpful when I’m preparing a new class series and figuring out how to price it. I know that a certain percentage will get taken off the top for taxes, so I price with that in mind. It’s really helpful to have the money on hand when it comes time to pay and helps me avoid emergencies.

How do you make decisions on what to spend on for your business, and what are some things that help you do that?

One time Angela gave me the advice to think about spending decisions in my business by asking the question “Will this help me make more money?” It seems like a simple question but it’s really helped me prioritize and think about what to invest in.

This advice helped me make the decision to hire PedX Courier & Cargo, a local bike courier co-op, to put up flyers for me, because paper flyering seems to be the best way to market my classes. Doing this increased enrollment and also freed up a lot of time for me because I wasn’t the one pasting up flyers all over the county! (I highly recommend PedX for people in the Santa Cruz area, by the way!)

What’s something you wish you’d known about the financial side of running your own business when you got started?

I wish I’d known better how to price my classes and membership. In the last year or so, I’ve had to reconcile with the fact that in some ways, I was running my business at a deficit to myself.

Now I try to ask myself questions like “Ok, how much am I getting paid to teach this class/run this membership? Is that enough for me to sustain myself and not feel scarce or burnt out?” Pricing is a much bigger part of the process of producing each class I teach, because I put a lot more time into thinking about how I can be financially accessible but also sustainable. There’s a lot of math involved, but it’s worth it because I get to still offer classes on a sliding scale, something that’s really important to me.

Want to connect with Magic’s herbalism work? Check out their website and join their mailing list, Herbal Magic Notes, to receive free recordings of the herbal workshops. If you liked their thoughts on small business finances and want some more ideas, check out my eBook, Reach Your Life Goals: A Business Owner’s Guide! Click here or below to download your copy.

By |2023-05-11T12:06:24-07:00May 11th, 2023|Categories: Small Business, solopreneurs, Taxes|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Estimated Taxes: A Complete Guide for the Small Business Owner

What are estimated taxes?

Estimated taxes, which are also called estimates or quarterly taxes, are basically the IRS’s way of collecting tax on the money that self-employed people and small businesses earn throughout the year. Since you’re not an employee with tax withholding taken out of your paycheck, estimated taxes are the DIY version of this. 

The payments are made throughout the year and they go toward your final tax bill. Think of these payments as estimated installments. The great thing about paying in installments is that your tax bill is spread throughout the year, making it easier on your finances than one big payment!

Who has to pay?

According to the IRS, “Individuals, including sole proprietors, partners, and S corporation shareholders, generally have to make estimated tax payments if they expect to owe tax of $1,000 or more when their return is filed.”

Generally, if your business is relatively profitable and you are self-employed, you can bank on paying estimated taxes. 

How do they work?

You make four payments at four different times throughout the year. At the end of the year, you file your taxes. Once you do this, you find out how much you owe, and whether you under- or over-paid in your installment payments. 

If you underpaid, you need to pay to make up the difference at tax time. If you overpaid, you can opt for a refund, or apply the overage to your next installment. 

How much do I owe?

The first option is to base your payments on the previous year’s taxes. After filing, you should receive a form that tells you how much your installments should be. This works well if you have consistent income year to year. 

However, many people experience fluctuations in income. If this is the case for you, calculating your payments in real time is a better option. This can help you avoid vastly underpaying on your installment payments and ending up with a huge bill at tax time. 

How do you calculate in real-time? First, figure out your net income for the period of your estimated taxes. If you use bookkeeping software, you can run a Profit & Loss report to figure this out. If you don’t, subtract your expenses from your total revenue, like this: 

Revenue – Expenses = Net Income

Next, divide your net income by 30%. You might ask, why so high? 

A portion of your estimated tax payments cover your self-employment tax, which is 15.3% (read more on the IRS website). Your payments also cover your income tax. Your exact income tax will depend on your tax bracket, but 15% is a good estimate for most people. If you use Profit First or money mapping, then this is the amount that you save in your tax account. 

However, if you know you’re in a higher (or lower) tax bracket, you can adjust your percentage accordingly. For people in higher brackets, try dividing by 35% instead. For people in lower brackets, 25% may suffice. 

Let’s look at an example: A photographer has a net income of $20,000 for the first quarter of the year. They divide their net income by by 30% and get $6,000. That’s their estimated tax payment for the first quarter. 

$20,000 x .30 = $6,000

You might be wondering how somebody can make sure they have $6,000 laying around every quarter. The answer is to save for your taxes incrementally. 

This is where a strong money system comes in. The Profit First methodology and money mapping are both methods of ensuring that you’re regularly saving for taxes, ideally every month. 

How much should you save each month? We recommend saving 10-15% of all revenue and setting it aside in a separate account.  If you are just getting started and this doesn’t feel feasible, even 5% will help you avoid the surprise of a large tax bill.

When the quarterly deadline rolls around, all you need to do is transfer the money in this account into your checking account and make your payment. 

How to pay?

You can pay online or write a check. Here’s more information from the Franchise Tax Board (California-specific) and the IRS. 

When are payments due? 

It’s important to pay estimated taxes on or before the due date. Otherwise, you may receive a penalty. 

Check with your state requirements to see when your payments are due and how much they should be (in terms of percentage of your income). If you are in California, I have the Franchise Tax Board link for you right here. 

Want further reading? Here are two great articles I recommend for further reading and resources: 

You can also get in touch and schedule a free 15-minute Financial Self Care Consultation with me if you’d like to work with a guide to get your business finances on track. 

By |2023-03-28T17:24:35-07:00March 28th, 2023|Categories: Bookkeeping Business, Small Business|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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