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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Solopreneur Spotlight: Bri Crabtree on Adapting as a Professional Performer to COVID-19

Bri Crabtree is a professional circus performer. She juggles, unicycles, and entertains people of many different ages with silly antics. Typically, she performs at a variety of events. When COVID-19 hit, her work for the foreseeable future was cancelled. Bri quickly pivoted both her business tasks and personal finances to address this new challenge. Here are some of the insights she shared with me in a recent video interview.

Making Connections & Staying Connected

Bri told me that as soon COVID-19 began impacting her work, she started making personal connections and reaching out for opportunities. She also spoke about her social media strategy during this time. She told me she’s become more active on social media in order to maintain a presence in her clients’ minds. Through online offerings like her Silly Circus Show virtual parties, posts to her Instagram, Facebook, and her newly created Patreon account, she’s staying connected to fans. These accounts give her a chance to do a lot of behind the scenes work and show her clients what those processes look like. Making content like this also gives her more time to work on the many costuming, puppet-making, and other prop-related projects involved in her business. I loved this video from her costume closet!

Opening Income Streams & Applying for Aid

When Bri reached out to others looking for opportunities to make up for her lost work, she found solutions in the form of new income streams. She was offered a babysitting job and directed to a place where she could take paid surveys.

She also applied for aid in a couple different forms. She applied for unemployment early on, although she didn’t get good results. She also applied for EBT, and applied for and received a grant from the Bay Area Safety Net Fund.

Her new virtual party offerings, stickers, and her Patreon account are also new income streams that she has opened during COVID. All of this combined shows Bri’s flexible and diverse approach to adapting her business during this time.

Zeroing In

Bri talked about how important it was for her to “zero in” on essentials and pare down her budget. One thing that’s been particularly helpful is going out to eat less, and cooking more at home. She’s been buying staple foods in bulk, for economic reasons and to keep herself well-stocked. Many people are trying to stay focused on essentials right now. Bri and I worked to establish a comfortable spending plan for her life. Here’s some ideas on how to do that for yourself.

Keeping A Good Mindset

Maintaining a good mindset through these challenges has been key for Bri. Much like my interview with Jennifer Graham, Bri shared some specific things that have been helping her out. She’s been learning to play the ukulele (and sharing her progress!). She also works out four times a week, citing Ground Up Fitness Home Workouts as one of her favorite resources.To keep track of both of these projects, each day she uses a motivational sticker calendar.

Finally, she spoke to me about feeling financially confident during these challenging times, because of the work we’ve done together on her finances in the past. As a coach, it’s good to hear that work is paying off.

Flexible Thinking

The many ways Bri has adapted her business to the conditions of COVID-19 show a lot of flexible thinking. She problem-solved in a number of ways, from adapting her offerings to the digital realm, to pursuing income streams unrelated to her talents, to applying for aid and creating healthy routines for herself. Her new approaches to her business have not only kept her afloat, but also created new opportunities. The fact that she has created a Patreon and gotten to create more behind-the-scenes content for her clients is a wonderful use of her time. It allows her to work on those projects, and create more interest in her work.

You can watch our full video interview here. You can also follow Bri on her site, check out her Silly Circus Show, support her on Patreon, and see what she posts on Facebook and Instagram. If you enjoyed this article, you might also like the two I wrote about how Jennifer Graham, a photographer in the Bay Area, has adapted to COVID.

☮

Angela

By |2020-06-02T13:43:54-07:00June 2nd, 2020|Categories: Money Mindset, Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Solopreneur Spotlight: Jennifer Graham On Coping With Business Changes During COVID-19

Jennifer Graham made a number of pivots in her business to adapt to COVID-19. While we discussed her business strategies last week, this week I want to highlight the emotional strategies she discussed with me. Being a business owner during this time has been hard on many of us, and the thoughts she shared about taking care of her own wellbeing were full of insights we can all use. Taking care of our emotions allows us to be smarter with our finances, so I believe prioritizing our feelings during this time is key to preserving our businesses.

Acknowledging Grief

The first thing Jennifer mentioned doing once shelter in place went into effect, was acknowledging and holding the grief that came along with it. In addition to all the other abrupt changes, Jennifer lost a lot of photoshoot work, and experienced a total change-up in her calendar. Many people have been experiencing grief during this period, and Jennifer took time to acknowledge and care for hers.

Taking Care

During our interview, Jennifer brought up a couple other practices that have helped her take better care emotionally. First, she said making a practice of acknowledging her feelings, and asking herself “What would bring you joy right now?” has helped her stay centered. Sometimes that might be stepping away from her work to nap or take a walk, and she allows herself to do that. She also mentioned that really acknowledging the work she is doing has been helpful. Many people are currently describing their days as blurs, so perhaps this practice can help remedy that feeling.

Lastly, she mentioned working with a team of people, namely her therapist, business coach, and myself, as being particularly helpful during this time. I’ve written a few articles about how relying on a money team or money buddy can ease the decision making process and alleviate hard times. It’s great to see that Jennifer is leaning on others when it comes to making decisions for her business.

Making Space for Ideas

All this emotional self-care is part of what made it possible for Jennifer to adapt her offerings to current conditions. She relayed to me that “about 3 weeks in, the ideas just started coming,” and from there she was able to create new services that were shelter-in-place-compliant. This nimble and creative thinking is especially valuable at a time like this. Because Jennifer is able to acknowledge her feelings and tend to them, she has more mental space available when it’s time to get to work.

You can read part one of this series on Jennifer’s business here, and watch the full video interview too. You can also visit her site, her Facebook page, and her Instagram feed to learn more about what she offers. If you’re interested in a guide for business owners on adapting COVID-19, my Cash Flow Reboot Guide is available for a free download here.

☮

Angela

By |2020-05-21T16:41:26-07:00May 21st, 2020|Categories: Money Mindset, Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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