Small Practical Ways to Manage Your Money in Your Business With Jordan Ilderton

In this episode with Jordan Ilderton, we're talking about money, tracking your expenses, your income, and how important it is to do so. I PROMISE, this isn't a stuffy money conversation, it's fun to listen to and you're going to have some great practical steps to take as soon as you're done listening!

Jordan’s bio:

What you track increases.  What you focus on expands.  What you are grateful for flourishes.

Hey there- I’m Jordan. My mission is to be your Holistic CFO!  My approach is different than that of most CPAs and bookkeepers.  I partner with a handful of business owners who want to grow and expand their businesses.  I believe this is a more comprehensive and holistic bookkeeping/CPA experience.

Why the change from typical bookkeeping?  I work with so many business owners who truly give their heart and soul to their business and they do not see the returns they deserve.  They receive reports but do not know how to read them.  They hear numbers and percentages, but do not know what to do with the information.  They spin their wheels and are not where they thought they would be.

I see this frequently and see the frustration these business owners experience.  Because this is so important, I decided to use my training and experience to partner with entrepreneurs to increase profitability and to grow their businesses.

Let’s get to work- your success is inevitable!

Jordan’s website: www.ildertonbookkeepingllc.com

Social media handle: @ildertonbookkeepingllc

Episode Transcript:

[00:00:00] Lindsay: Jordan, thank you so much for being on the book, your dream clients podcast. I'm so excited to have you.

Jordan: Thank you, Lindsay. I'm so excited too. This is fun. Yes. S

Lindsay: So Jordan is going to explain what she does and don't get afraid because I know that a lot of people don't like to talk about money, especially when they're building their business or they're just starting to feel like it is a subject in the future that they should concentrate on. And I want you to erase that mindset because we need to listen to somebody like Jordan. So we're not ignoring the really big, important things as we're building our business. It doesn't matter if you haven't made a dime in your business. This is a very important episode to listen to. So Jordan, you go ahead and take it away. Let us know what you do and we'll go from there.

[00:01:15] Jordan: Yes, thank you. I am a growth and profitability coach, so I'm a CPA and bookkeeper, but I do kind of a totally different role than most CPAs and bookkeepers. I work with business owners who really want to grow and improve their businesses. So instead of just sending them a profit and loss and a balance sheet each month, we really talk about their goals and each month deep dive into some of the deeper reports and KPIs and making sure they're staying on track to reach their goals.

[00:01:46] And so, you know, money is one of those things that it's so easy to ignore or get overwhelmed. And so, you know, my goal today is just to really. Ease that tension and ease that stress and make it not so scary. And just talk about kind of some, you know, small, practical things that we can do every month to just kind of stay on track and keep an eye 

[00:02:05] Lindsay: on everything.

[00:02:07] I love the small practical things we can do every month. I'll just give my personal experience. When I first started my business 10 years ago, I was not tracking anything at all. Like random cash. Cause I was a personal trainer from my home. And so I had just random $10 bills laying everywhere and I wasn't tracking anything.

[00:02:31] And then when I went online and I would make income from, you know, small little services that I did, I wasn't tracking them anywhere. Cause I thought, well, it's not, it's not big enough to track it. And someday I'll track it. But I'll just remember where this money came from. So talk, talk to that person who is just starting and they don't even have services bills out on our website yet, or maybe they're new or they haven't sold yet.

[00:02:59] Should they? What can they do now to move forward? Because I know it's scary and you don't even know what to do first. If this is a total different wheelhouse for you, let's get them started with some baby steps. 

[00:03:11] Jordan: Yes. So. Basic basic thing for me is to get some software going. And I know sometimes people are like, I don't want to spend the money, but you can get like a QuickBooks basic subscription for, you know, like 20 something dollars a month and you can set it up yourself.

[00:03:28] You know, it'll have like a basic chart of accounts. You can actually link your. Bank and credit card accounts to it. And so it can flow through with the transactions and you enter those in and then reconcile to your bank and credit card statements every month. And so that just makes sure that your books have everything in there that you did because we think we'll remember.

[00:03:49] But like, I can't remember. I don't even remember what I had for dinner on Wednesday. So, you know, you think you can remember, but you just don't and then, you know, I've heard of people say, well, I'll just do it in a spreadsheet. You know, as long as you make sure you reconcile the spreadsheet every month, you know, that is kind of a free option, but you do have to go through and check your bank statement and make sure that you didn't forget something because you might do a coffee with somebody or something, and forget to put that on your spreadsheet.

[00:04:17] So at the end of the month, really comparing that to what happened, you know, on your statements is really important, but, you know, $26 investment in something like https://quickbooks.intuit.com, a super easy it's not expensive. And then you can give your CPA access. If you have someone filing your taxes so they can go in you're no, you're not like sending them a file or anything.

[00:04:38] Like they can literally go into your books and pull what they need for your taxes. 

[00:04:43] Lindsay: I, I guess I'm still an old-fashioned girl and I still do spreadsheets, but I do reconcile every Monday. So I am doing, I am today. My job. So you talked about QuickBase. What is some other software? Because I know QuickBooks, sorry.

[00:05:00] I'm thinking of something totally different. What are some other software that people can try? I've heard of Wave. I know there are some other ones.

[00:05:09] Jordan: Quickbooks is definitely my favorite. I've looked at Xero and Xero. X E R O. And it's kind of the same thing as QuickBooks. I don't think the price is very different.

[00:05:19] I think it's kind of similar. And you know, there are free software out there. And my question is why is it free? You know, I would look into that because you know, most of the CPAs that I work with, I've asked them the same thing. Like, what do you think about the free software? And they're like, I would just be a little wary of it, you know?

[00:05:37] You know, if you have a business and you're making money and you, it's a business expense, so, you know, it's lowering your net, you know, it's lowering the taxes that you'll pay. You know, I think it's worth the money to pay it. You know, obviously that's my opinion. I'm a bookkeeper. But, you know, just having some way to track it.

[00:05:55] And then I love how you do that. Every Monday. I think people should make a money date, you know, once a week and make it fun. Look at their bank account, look at what's coming in and coming out and just making sure that you're keeping your eyes on everything. So I love that you do that. That's great. I 

[00:06:11] Lindsay: used to write in an old fashioned ledger.

[00:06:14] Well, because I just couldn't get. Get the concept of putting it online. So I had this ledger, I still keep it because I'm like, what am I a hundred? But I really liked writing in it. It was mostly expenses. There was no income in there, back in the day, but that's okay. At least I was tracking everything. So let's talk about that.

[00:06:33] You're just starting your business. There's a lot of expenses. You have your website, all of those little things, they start to add up when we're not tracking those things. And we're kind of, I remember just waiting for, well, when I make the money, then I'll 

[00:06:45] Jordan: be, I'll be serious about my business. What's the dangers of waiting.

[00:06:50] Well, the danger is that you're going to over pay and taxes. You know, you want to make sure you capture all of the expenses that you, even, if you don't have income, you know, making sure you get all the expenses that will flow through to your taxes, or if you have just a little bit of income and then also you don't want to under-report that income.

[00:07:09] The IRS doesn't like that, you know, they don't like you under reporting income or over reporting expenses. So making sure that you are clean and tight you know, from the beginning, especially if you grow and then you want someone else to work with you and come in and take over this stuff, having your stuff clean from the get-go makes it so much 

[00:07:27] Lindsay: easier.

[00:07:28] Come tax day. If you do your own taxes. You will thank yourself because if you wait to get your, you know what together, but on that day, you're, you're gonna have the worst headache ever. 

[00:07:39] Jordan: Yeah. Yes. And I've had people come to me and that's like been a sticking point within their relationship. Like their husband filed their taxes, they had their business and they were like, She was like, you saved our marriage because, you know, we just, I didn't have my stuff together.

[00:07:53] And, and then if you're paying other people for professional expenses, you should be sending them 10 99, you know, instead of a W2, they should get a 10 99. If everything's set up in the software, then you can just do it through QuickBooks. It's so easy, you know, a lot of times when you start up as a business and you maybe don't have a business checking account yet, and you're paying stuff out of your personal expenses, but you do kind of have the business set up.

[00:08:21] You know, I see that a lot with new clients that I take on with bookkeeping and, you know, there is a way to get that into them. Because you want to capture those expenses. And so, you know, for anyone who's in that situation, I'd recommend looking into a journal entry to record that. And then also in QuickBooks, you can attach, you can do attachments to journal entries and to the expenses.

[00:08:44] So if you have a picture of the receipt, you can upload it into your software. So that's another way. To keep that as backup because the IRS, you know, wants to see, or they might want to see that one day. So having that backup in there is really important. 

[00:08:59] Lindsay: Okay. So it's important to track all of our expenses, all of our income, what other things can our people do that will make their life easier.

[00:09:07] Com I'm just going to say, come tax season. Yeah. I 

[00:09:10] Jordan: mean, you know, those are kind of my big things, you know, saving the receipts. It's big. Having it all tracked and reconciled is big. And this doesn't really come into tax time, I guess. But having, you know, your big goals set out how you want to grow your business like three years, one year 90 days, like have those goals so that, you know, you know, when you're doing your weekly or however, often you look at your money, you kind of know like, are you on track or not?

[00:09:39] Because, you know, obviously you want to be set up and have everything cleaned. Seasoned, but you also want to know what's going on in your business and want to know if you are reaching your goals or, you know, oh, my expenses were a little high, you know, kind of comparing things like that, I think is a really good thing to do, not just looking at like the one month at a time, but kind of looking at overall progression.

[00:10:02] Lindsay: Okay, let's talk about the goals. I get that question quite a bit. What kind of goals should I have if I don't even know where I'm placing myself, if 

[00:10:09] Jordan: I'm just starting, where do I even 

[00:10:12] Lindsay: start with a goal? Like that seems unfathomable to me to have a goal and I'm not making any money. 

[00:10:18] Jordan: I agree. I mean, when I started my business, My daughter was two weeks old and I was like, I just know I need to work.

[00:10:24] And I know I need to make money. And so, you know, I totally get it. There wasn't a grand scheme goal and I wish I had, you know, even if you don't really know, you know, think about your life in three years, you know, what do you want that to look like? Because. My mistake was not making the goals. And so I took on clients and was, you know, doing this and that.

[00:10:44] And then after a few years, yes, I was busy and yes, I was making money, but it felt so monkey brained and felt so all over the place. And so, you know, thinking about what do you want your life to look like? Not just your business, not just your income, but what are you. You know, how are you prioritizing your time?

[00:11:01] Are you working in the business every single day? And if you want to, that's great. But if you're like, I kind of want it to run itself and I want to be with my family on these days and have these things taken care of, you know, You can think about the income you want and the life that you want. And you may not know exactly the details of getting there, but at least you have a bigger picture to keep you on track.

[00:11:24] And then, you know, you can back that into the next year. Okay. So in the next year, what I wanted to happen, I think if you don't have clarity, that's right. Kind of making you get clarity. Like how many clients do you want? What kind of services are you offering? And then back that into, okay. What can I do in the next 90 days?

[00:11:43] If I want to have, you know, this much income a month, how many clients do I need to have for that? Or how many. Services do I need to sell or whatever your income or revenue is, you know, figuring out the details of, well, practically, what do I need to get there? And then, you know, doing the things to move the needle in that direction.

[00:12:06] Lindsay: That's such a great point. And I think it's also a reality check to set your goals. I don't know how many times I'll talk to people and they'll say. I want to have 10 K months and I say, okay, great, totally possible for you. How much are you charging for your coaching? A hundred dollars. Okay. So that would mean you'd have to work with thousands of clients every single month to make that $10,000.

[00:12:30] And they're like, oh my gosh, I never even thought about that. And we get into this like dreamy fantasy world from listening to everyone else online, talking about five figure months or whatever that is. And we think, okay, that's what I want to. But you, you don't even have the vehicle to get you to that point.

[00:12:47] So it's a reality check and maybe sometimes a downer, but it's actually, it, you should turn it around into something like, okay, I can shoot for this. That might mean I have to raise my prices. That might mean I have to do this and that. But when we don't set 

[00:13:00] Jordan: some sort of thing to shoot for, 

[00:13:02] Lindsay: we're just left in like in limbo land and we don't know where we're headed.

[00:13:06] Does that make sense? Yes, 

[00:13:07] Jordan: I totally agree. Cause you see that out there all the time. Yes. I made this every month and I'm a huge proponent of, you know, there's nothing off the table. Like your goals, dream as big as you want, but you do have to think about, okay, how am I going to get there? Yeah. And it might be raising your prices or offering a new program or something, but yeah, just thinking about.

[00:13:30] How can you realistically get there with the life that you want to live? Because, you know, you don't want to have a thousand clients. So, you know, looking at your pricing and also knowing how much, you know, this is another thing with tracking your expenses, knowing how much it costs you to provide that service.

[00:13:48] So, you know, that's how you know that you're pricing correctly is because you know that your expenses are covered. Plus. 

[00:13:56] Lindsay: Oh, yes. And that is okay. It cost me a hundred dollars to run my business every single month and I'm making a thousand dollars a month. What what other ways can I spend my money to make sure that my business is always growing?

[00:14:07] And I think that's another big question people get is what percentage should be business expenses. What percentage should be paying myself those things? Can you break that down? Yeah. There's 

[00:14:18] Jordan: actually a book that I love called profit first. Oh, I love that book. Yes. So I kind of, I recommend that for people because there's no set, like you should spend this amount.

[00:14:28] I mean, people might tell you, like, you should write yourself this percentage or this percentage. But I really think it's what works for you. And some businesses have higher operating expenses and some businesses don't, you know, like just for like a single coach working who doesn't have employees and just has, you know, a website and some software, you know, the overhead is very low.

[00:14:49] And so. It kinda just depends on each business. I really recommend that book and, you know, making a spreadsheet and figuring out, okay, I'm going to save maybe 30% for taxes. Maybe I'll do 50% for operating expenses. Okay. So now I've got 20% left and maybe that'll be 10% to pay myself and 10% to save. And so, you know, it's kind of what works for you and then looking at those operating expenses and you might not get it right at first, you might be like, Ooh, realistically, 30% I was using for operating expenses.

[00:15:22] It needs to be a little higher and you can kind of tweak it or you, you know, say I can actually lower it. And so it doesn't have to be set in stone, but I think trying it for a few months to really see what works for you is really beneficial. And, you know, you can just do it in a little spreadsheet, but I think that book is just super helpful.

[00:15:40] And it's just a great way to think about paying yourself first. Obviously, you know, it's called profit first, but you know, thinking about your expenses and okay. It sounds great. Like there's so many things we could spend our money on, like, okay, this sounds great. And this sounds great, but if you just keep it within a certain threshold, then you really start questioning, do I need this?

[00:16:00] So that's what I recommend, you know, I think that's a great, and you don't have to follow that book. I mean, he says in the book follow it exactly, but I think a lot of people just need kind of a loose guidance and they can make it work for them. 

[00:16:13] Lindsay: It's probably a great resource to come back to every so often.

[00:16:16] I know I read it a few years ago and I would say, you know, maybe now that your business changes so much over the years, revisiting it and okay, what can I do differently? How can I make this tighter or whatever it is, because I think the, the problem with growing a business and listening to everyone else, you know, by you got to always invest in your business and all of that.

[00:16:40] That chatter out there can get really dangerous. Cause you always feel like you have to invest in somebody or invest in a program. And you're constantly soaking in so much information and you're never really focusing on how to manage your business for a longterm. And that that subject might not sound very fancy and fun.

[00:17:00] Long-term what's the long-term goal of your business? Like seriously? Like where do you want your business to be in 2030? How come nobody talks about. Do you, do you feel that way too? Yeah. 

[00:17:11] Jordan: I, you know that it's such an unsexy thing to talk about, you know, as like the practical pieces of it. But yeah, everything, you know, I think of the, was a, it.

[00:17:23] Episode. And he's like, just write it off, just write it off, you know? And it's like, yeah, all of these expenses sounds so fun and you can just ride it off, but then, you know, you might get a little bit of a deduction with your taxes, but is it worth having that money versus the deduction? So that's the trade off we have to think about.

[00:17:42] And yeah, it doesn't move the needle where I want it to go. Cause there's so much decision overload. Like we have so many decisions to make. And so if know where you're trying to go and what you're trying to do, then that just kind of. Simplifies it. And you're like, actually this is not on track with what I'm trying to do at all.

[00:17:57] So just no, forget it. And I think it just makes the decision-making a little 

[00:18:00] Lindsay: easier. Well, that, and we also have to think about things when we're at a certain, I feel it's weird to say this now when we're at a certain age. We're probably not going to be doing this right. So we need to think about how we can still live our life in a way that is the same or better than what we're doing now.

[00:18:21] So having that mindset of long-term goals, how do I want my business to be? But then, like Jordan said in the beginning, how do you want your life to be not only now, but way in the future and prepare for that. So do you kind of have a, a overall theme on how you can prepare for that? The far future. 

[00:18:41] Jordan: Yeah, I think it's just knowing, you know, setting those goals.

[00:18:45] And I do, I don't do it as often, you know, I'll probably do twice a year, so that like my five and 10 year goals. And then I, you know, I focus on the shorter goals more than I do the longer term, but I definitely still have that. Long-term goal in the back of my mind and, you know, kind of update that every now and then.

[00:19:03] And I like to tick things off the list. I'm like, Ooh, good. All right. I met that one, but yeah, you do. You're like, I don't want to be like working every night for the next five years and it was fine. My kids were small and I was working around their naps at nighttime, and now it's like, okay, that needs to change.

[00:19:19] And so as you grow, you know, you, you do all these things and then. Get more clients and more money, and then you just need to step back and be like, whoa, this is not where I wanted to go. I didn't want to work every Saturday afternoon. So, you know, stepping back and really reassessing, I think is so empowering.

[00:19:40] Lindsay: I think also really taking notice of how much time you're sitting in front of your computer. And if you're, if you're sitting there working for 12 hours a day and you're only charging a hundred dollars for a client session or things like that, is that going to get to get you to your goal, a monthly goal goal, 

[00:20:00] Jordan: or a quarterly 

[00:20:01] Lindsay: goal?

[00:20:02] Doing the math is going to be empowering to you. It's not going to be like a gross reality check is going to feel empowering to actually make the changes to meet those goals. It's okay to have a goal, like Jordan 

[00:20:15] Jordan: said, that might feel way out of your league. But 

[00:20:18] Lindsay: it's something to go for. I live, I left quarterly goals because they give me a little bit more relaxation.

[00:20:25] If something comes up in the month where, you know, a kid is sick or you have, you know, all the checkups are that month and you're, you can't even like focus on a lot of things. That's how our summers kind of go. Then I feel like, okay, well in September that's when everything can kind of fluff up and freshen up again, quarterly goals feel really good for me.

[00:20:43] How 

[00:20:43] Jordan: do you feel about quarterly? Yeah, I think it's so important to look at the next 90 days and think about where you want to go. And then think about what's getting in the way, you know, I want to do this, why haven't I already done it? Or, you know, who needs to do this? You know, maybe it's someone on your team or just you and, you know, map it out.

[00:21:05] And I love when you were talking about sitting at your desk for a long time, I love time-blocking. I'm a big advocate of that. And you know, for anyone who doesn't know what it is, First, you kind of track your time and see where you're spending it, and then you create how you want to spend it. So, you know, instead of checking your email constantly all day, you're like, okay, these times during the day, I'll check my email and these times of the day are for client work.

[00:21:29] And this time of the day is for me to go out on a kayak ride once a week, you know? So you make sure that everything that's important is on your schedule. And you're not just like. Flipping around between different things. And you're like, okay, I'll work all day. But like, what did I do? And so, you know, I think that's so important for like creating part of that 90 day roadmap is okay, well, you know, maybe I don't have a six hour chunk to work on this project, but I'm going to break it up into one hour each day and I'll get there after a week.

[00:22:00] And so. You know, really like making those goals, breaking them up into manageable pieces. 

[00:22:07] Lindsay: Well, it's better than having to stare at a gigantic list of things to do and feeling like you're all over the place. I mean, we are the masters of multitasking, but we don't need to always be doing that. And now I just want to say how many.

[00:22:22] How many times do you leave your desk everyday to get a snack? How come we're not logging all that stuff in a snack or extra water for the little ones? 

[00:22:30] Jordan: Yeah. That time. Yeah. Like my work time and then the other times, and it's like, yeah, you just have to block everything or it just all runs together. And I know that.

[00:22:42] Terrible at multitasking. And so, you know, it's just better for me to be like, okay, this time is I'm going to check my social media and respond, you know, and not get like step into the downward spiral of social media or, you know, thinking this project is so big. I don't have time to start on it, but just piecing it out.

[00:23:02] It's going to be worth 

[00:23:03] Lindsay: your money. You operate your business. If you are more focused, you will bring in more income to your business. Don't think of it as I'm, I'm restricted to only working on this for the next hour. Think of it as if I was an employee of myself. I would want them to just focus for an hour on this and not have 20 tabs open because that is not bringing our company any income or profits because you are all 

[00:23:29] Jordan: over the place.

[00:23:30] So think of it that way. Yes, exactly. 

[00:23:34] Lindsay: Okay, Jordan, why don't you go ahead and share with everyone where they can find more about you? 

[00:23:39] Jordan: Yes. So I am on social media at Ilderton Bookkeeping, LLC. I do Instagram and Facebook, and then my website is Ilderton Bookkeeping, LLC. And I have a couple of resources there.

[00:23:52] I've got a time blocking spreadsheet. That's just very basic people can use. And I'm also working now on a break-even point. Spreadsheet to put up there too, just to help people, you know, know their fixed costs and their variable costs and kind of how many things or items they have to sell to, you know, make a profit.

[00:24:10] And so I'm trying to put resources up there for people to use too genius. 

[00:24:15] Lindsay: So I'm so glad we got into time blocking so everyone can go and grab that it is so important and it definitely is. A game changer. I think with every season, as you grow your business, as your kids get older, the nap times go away, or, you know, I remember I had a really revisit my time when we started homeschooling last year and it made me much more productive when I.

[00:24:37] Focused direction every day. So go and check out Jordan's resource. We'll put it in the show notes, go follow her on social media and let her know how much he loved the episode. And Jordan, thank you so much for being on and sharing all of that good 

[00:24:49] Jordan: stuff with us. Thank you, Lindsay. That was fun. I appreciate it.