Proof to Product

Does the thought of bookkeeping make you feel uneasy? I know that for so many creatives, knowing your numbers and doing your bookkeeping can feel a bit overwhelming. That's why I brought on today's guest because let's face it... The reality is that even though numbers aren't always our favorite, they are essential for knowing your business' financial health and profitability.

Today you'll hear from Greg Higdon, founder of Grow the Books, a bookkeeping company for small businesses. Greg helps entrepreneurs with a done for you service but he also helps those who want to DIY to understand what they need to know about reconciling their numbers.

We explore the topic of bookkeeping and how you'll know when it's time to outsource this task to someone else. We also talk about what questions you should ask before hiring a bookkeeper, the importance of setting aside time to do your bookkeeping and why sometimes you need to have someone outside of your business looking at the numbers.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:

• Misconceptions that small business owners have on bookkeeping and knowing their numbers
• How often a bookkeeper reconciles for their clients
• Programs and systems that Greg recommends for bookkeeping
• Having extra reconciliation to verify transactions are correct
• Problems that can occur when you don't reconcile with the bookkeeping software
• What you should have in place before hiring a bookkeeper
• Knowing your numbers so you can get a good idea on your return on investment
• Questions you should ask before hiring a bookkeeper
• Greg's advice for people who want to DIY their books
• Setting aside time to do your own bookkeeping
• Why it's beneficial to have someone outside of your business looking at the numbers
• Leaning into your weaknesses and asking for help in those areas
• What's next for Grow the Books

KEY TAKE-AWAYS:

"A bookkeeper is the one that does the day to day, like categorizing your transactions. Anything going in and out of your bank accounts or credit card counts is what a bookkeeper does." - Greg Higdon

"It's good to have that extra reconciliation in there just to make sure you're verifying everything's correct." - Greg Higdon

"Looking at where the money's coming in and going allowed me to make better decisions in my business and I put it off because I was intimidated by it. I didn't want to deal with it. I had other things that felt like they were more important. But the minute I did start paying attention to it, I felt like my business grew." - Katie Hunt

"I definitely recommend bookkeeping software." - Greg Higdon

"I think it's very helpful to have someone just kind of walk you through the steps of what you need to be doing monthly." - Greg Higdon

"Once you have the technology and once you've got the training on how to do it, then it's about leveraging that and making sure, well, doing the work and making sure you've got it all there, but then leveraging it for your business so that you're making smarter better decisions." - Katie Hunt

"I know even with my own business, what I've realized is just putting something on my calendar is big." - Greg Higdon

"We make time for all of our clients and all of our customers and yet we have a tough time making time to do these things for ourselves." - Katie Hunt

"I know that as a business owner there are a lot of things that you have to do. I know that from my own business and it's hard to get to certain things in your business." - Greg Higdon

"When I hired a bookkeeper, it opened my eyes to the possibilities of how I could grow my business better. It opened my eyes to where my money was truly coming from revenue-wise and which portions of my business were most profitable." - Katie Hunt

RESOURCES:

Quickbooks Online

Xero

MEET GREG:

Greg Higdon is the Founder of Grow the Books, a bookkeeping company for small businesses. With over 13 years of experience in education, he teaches his clients so they are empowered and armed with a clearer understanding of what their numbers mean for their business decisions. When he isn't balancing books and helping clients you can find him roasting coffee, drinking coffee, and reading about coffee.

CONNECT WITH GREG:

Website: http://www.growthebooks.com

Facebook: @growthebooks

Instagram: @growthebooks

Pinterest: @growthebooks

Email: [email protected]

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Today we're so happy to have Robin Long on for Episode 141 of Proof to Product. Robin is the founder of The Balanced Life, a website that provides quick and effective Pilates workouts for busy women. Robin made the transition from the traditional teaching model of working in studios, gyms and training private clients to serve her clients online.

On today's episode, Robin shares how she shifted from the more traditional service offering into a successful membership model for her service based business. She tells us why she has decided to grow her business slowly and organically - ensuring that she's building a business that fits her lifestyle and brings her joy.

Robin and I dive into how she's used drop shipping to add additional income streams to her business and why she decided to create physical products for her service based business. She opens up about her experience with building her team including why going on maternity leave has helped her to put more strategic systems in place. We talk about setting boundaries, hesitations she had before moving to a membership model and her advice for someone who is just getting started in business.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:

• Why Robin shifted from the traditional teaching model of pilates to serving clients online
• How she came to have a membership model, community-based program
• Hesitations that Robin faced when moving to a membership model
• Setting boundaries for yourself as an entrepreneur
• How Robin uses the drop shipping method in her business
• Robin's thought process behind adding products to her service-based business
• Using products as a membership perk
• Challenges she's had since adding products to her business
• Why Robin believes in slow, intentional growth for her company
• Robin's experience of growing from a solo entrepreneur to building a team
• How being forced to give up control has been a blessing for her
• Taking a sabbatical and putting systems in place for a seamless workflow
• Robin's advice for the business owner who is just getting started
• Gaining inspiration from other industries and taking that into the fitness world to do her own thing
• What's next for The Balanced Life

RESOURCES:

Clockwork: Design Your Business to Run Itself

MEET ROBIN:

Robin Long lives and works in sunny Santa Barbara, CA as the founder and CEO of The Balanced Life – a website that provides quick & effective Pilates workouts for busy women. She is a certified Pilates instructor and passionate about creating programs that empower, strengthen, restore, and rejuvenate her clients from the inside out. She believes in a guilt-free, balanced approach to health & fitness and is passionate about helping women love and care for their bodies in the midst of busy lives. Outside of The Balanced Life, she can be found chasing her 6- year-old daughter, 3-year-old son, and 1-year-old twins, sneaking in 10-minute workouts during the kids' bath time, and spending time at the beach.

CONNECT WITH ROBIN:

Website: https://thebalancedlifeonline.com/

Facebook: @thebalancedlife

Instagram: @thebalancedlife

Pinterest: @robinlong

SUBSCRIBE

To subscribe on iOS, go to the iTunes page and subscribe to Proof to Product. On Android, you can listen using your favorite podcast app.

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Writing a review on iTunes will help other product based business owners find Proof to Product as they are working to up level, scale, and build profitable and sustainable companies.

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ABOUT PROOF TO PRODUCT:

Proof to Product is hosted by Katie Hunt. Since 2011, Proof to Product has worked with thousands of product based businesses to help them up level, scale, and build profitable sustainable companies. You can find our show notes and additional resources at ProofToProduct.com. If you like what you heard today, please head over to Apple Podcast to leave a five star review and subscribe. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode!

Mentioned in this episode:

Take the free quiz!

Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

Hey Friends! Winter show season is kicking off so we thought we would re-run this episode from last year. We have alumni going to Atlanta, Japan, Las Vegas and of course NY Now and NSS in February. It is show season so we wanted to get this front and center for you so you could get ready for your show or just here what is going on at market. Enjoy!

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Hey Friends! I just got back from NY Now and the National Stationery Show in New York where more than 39 Tradeshow Bootcamp alumni and speakers exhibited this year. It was an incredible trip, for everyone from first timers to seasoned pros, and I'm so excited to share the highlights with you on the Podcast this week!

This year is the first time that these two shows have run at the same time. The National Stationery Show has typically been held in May, but moved for February to co-locate with NY Now. The move of NSS caused a bit of a stir within our industry, and our Tradeshow Bootcamp community and the move of the show is one of the topics we're addressing on the episodes this week.

We had alumni exhibiting at both NY Now and the National Stationery show, so we decided to break up this week's episode into two parts.

On Part 1, airing today, we revisit the best parts of the National Stationery Show with Cecily Moore of The Paper Curator, Jenna Puente of Paper Wilderness, Rosanna Kvernmo of Iron Curtain Press, Genesis Duncan of Graphic Anthology, Krystal Whitten of Krystal Whitten Studio and Joe Mihalow of XOU.

Mentioned in this episode:

Take the free quiz!

Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

Happy 2020 friends! For our first episode back in the New Year, my friend Kristen Ley of Thimblepress is back on the show. Kristen was first featured on Episode 4 of Proof to Product back where we talked about how she fell into business backwards and discussed tips on partnerships and collaborations. That episode was recorded back in early 2017 and since then, Kristen has done a lot of soul searching and ridden the waves of transition and upheaval in both her business and personal life.

On today's episode, Kristen bravely shares what she learned from her journey. She talks about why she decided to let go of all her sales reps, say goodbye to 15 employees, downsize her warehouse and office space and discontinue over a hundred SKUs in the Thimblepress line. Kristen not only shares her journey of reevaluating what she wanted to get out of her business, but also how she implemented those changes.

Today's episode is a heartfelt one full of advice, wisdom and encouragement for anyone feeling stuck in their business or worried about the changes they need to make. Friends, remember this is your business. You set the rules and at any time you can decide to go a different way. I hope Kristen's story helps you and I hope you enjoy it.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:

- What external success can look like from an internal perspective

- Big wake-up calls and dealing with worse case scenarios

- Differentiating personal success from society

- Advice for individuals and business owners walking through tough times

- Getting back to the basics & reevaluating the model

- How to avoid social media comparison traps

- Why Kristen decided to cut all her sales reps and get back to the drawing board

- The importance of keeping direct communication with wholesale & retail partners

- Having the courage to say goodbye

- The heart-wise money tool

- How to deal with feelings of imposter syndrome

- What's selling and how to deal with what's not

- Balancing wellness and business

- Kristen's big plans for 2020

KEY TAKE-AWAYS:

"It was keep going, go, go, go, go, keep achieving, keep achieving, keep achieving. And I don't think I even registered how I was functioning in my daily life until I had a really big wake up." – Kristen Ley

"I got to a point I was so sad that I was like, "All I can do is pray and move forward." – Kristen Ley

"I really looked to the world to define what is successful. I looked at others to define what I should be doing. I looked at everybody else except for me to say what do you want? So I had to redefine what I wanted." – Kristen Ley

"I just love to make products. I love to draw art. I love to create. And I love to create joy in other people's lives. That was my why. " – Kristen Ley

"In the world we live in, we get so caught up in what other people are doing on social media. It's just the world we live in. We see the beautiful pictures, but we don't see the things behind those photos." – Kristen Ley

"It is easy to get wrapped up in feeling like you're chasing the next thing in your business, especially when you're just hustling and growing." – Katie Hunt

"It's not about getting off the phone quickly, it's about asking, "What's going on in our world, in our economy? Tell me about your life." Because at the end of the day it's all about relationships." – Kristen Ley

"We need to regularly be reassessing why we're doing this. To make sure that we are on the right path and we're focused on the right things." – Katie Hunt

"If it's not taking up a whole lot of time and it's not draining you emotionally, and it's still making good money. That's where you need to be spending your time." – Katie Hunt

"Working with female entrepreneurs has been one of my most cherished heart passion projects of my life. It brings me so much joy, and if I can prevent one person from walking through that struggle that I walked through, let's rock and roll." – Kristen Ley

"Don't put yourself into shock by trying to do all the changes at once. Give yourself grace." – Kristen Ley

"Don't go just dumping energy into things without walking through the journey of how it will impact your person." – Kristen Ley

"Running a business is hard work. You can't change that, but you can change your mentality of how you approach things, and you get to choose." – Katie Hunt

LINKS

Website: https://kristenley.com/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/thimblepress

Https://instagram.com/kristen_ley

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Follow Proof to Product on Instagram for the latest updates.

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ABOUT PROOF TO PRODUCT:

Proof to Product is hosted by Katie Hunt. Since 2011, Proof to Product has worked with thousands of product based businesses to help them up level, scale, and build profitable sustainable companies. You can find our show notes and additional resources at ProofToProduct.com. If you like what you heard today, please head over to Apple Podcast to leave a five star review and subscribe. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode!

Mentioned in this episode:

Take the free quiz!

Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

As we head into the holidays, I want to take a moment to reflect back on 2019 and look forward to what's in store for 2020. I encourage you to do the same! 2019 was an amazing year around here. We published 58 podcast episodes this year and surpassed 400,000 downloads. This show has been live for almost 3 years and during that time we've taken very few breaks. We bring you fresh, new content weekly and sometimes multiple times a week and I have a small team of highly talented people that ensure each episode gets to your ears — and I'm eternally grateful for each and every one of them. This podcast wouldn't exist if it weren't for them. We welcomed over 150 new students to the Paper Camp family through our conference and online course. Our conference moved to a new venue that gave us more room to spread out both inside & outside — and lots of amazing natural light. I often joke that I want people that come to Paper Camp to feel like they are being welcomed into my home and surrounded by new friends — this venue is a great spot for us to connect, learn and grow together. And, this year, we underwent a major rebrand transitioning my 8 year old business from its original name Tradeshow Bootcamp to our new name Proof to Product. This project stretched me in so many ways as a business owner — I re-evaluated our audience, our programming and we made some major shifts to ensure that we're serving our audience and making the biggest impact possible. We built out a new website that has a ton of resources specifically for product based businesses — we have three free masterclasses, the blog, podcast episodes, case studies & alumni highlights, plus our favorite tools & vendors that we love. 2019 was a year of reflection and stripping away the things that were no longer working for me, the business and all of you so that we can bring you even more in 2020. Looking ahead — We have some incredible things lined up for all of you in 2020. For the podcast, we'll be back on January 7th with a new episode featuring my friend and Paper Camp alumni, Kristen Ley of Thimblepress. Kristen has made some incredible and intentional shifts in her business Ince the last time she was on the show. She let go of her national sales reps, downsized her product line and reduced her team of employees. She re-evaluated what she wanted in her life & her business, then made changes that have led to beautiful results. I'm excited for you to hear her story. We'll host our Paper Camp conference February 25-26th in Los Angeles to talk about product development, selling wholesale, sales & marketing strategies as well as exhibiting at trade shows. This is more of a workshop vibe than a conference — we cap the program at 30 people so that you can get to know everyone there and we have time dedicated to 1-1 time with our speakers. February will be the only time we offer our Paper Camp program in-person. But, we will have the 4-week online course available twice in 2020 — once in the Spring and once in the Fall. Stay tuned for more detail there. And, we're bringing you something brand new in 2020 that we're still working on and I can't share, yet. But it will involve live trainings with me and guest experts on things like marketing, sales and scaling your business, regular office hours where you can pick my brain and ask me questions and access to a wider community of product developers across multiple industries. I'm not quite ready to spill the beans on this one, but we'll share more details as its ready. And, lastly as we head into the holidays I want to thank all of you for being here and making Proof to Product what it is. I firmly believe that by sharing our stories, our expertise and resources — all of our businesses will thrive. So, thank you for being here, thank you for listening, for sharing the show with your friends. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season surrounded by family and friends. I'll see you in 2020!

Mentioned in this episode:

Take the free quiz!

Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

When we first start our businesses, more often than not, we don't have the big picture idea of what our brand or business will look like down the road. So many of us embark on this so-called maker's journey, where we truly discover our strengths, opportunities, and long term vision for our business. Lucky for us, one of our talented Paper Camp alumni, Genesis Duncan of Graphic Anthology, is joining us today on Episode 138 of Proof to Product to share her experience and advice for other makers on the path.

Based in Portland, Oregon, Genesis started Graphic Anthology in 2010 with just three art prints and an Etsy shop. Almost a decade later, her product line has grown to include a wide range of greeting cards and gift items that focus on joy, simplicity, and strengthening relationships with those you love most.

Today's episode is a powerful one and I know it will resonate with many of you. We talk about how Genesis started her business as a creative outlet and hobby, and why she had to shift her mindset and step into her role and title as an entrepreneur and business owner. Genesis also shares how adding a line of Spanish greeting cards was not only beneficial to her business, but also her personal development.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:

• What products Genesis makes and sells
• The sales channels she utilizes
• How she decided to start her own business
• Life's hurdles and how they led Genesis to where she is today
• Finding silver linings and following your heart
• Advice for shifting your mindset from maker to business owner
• How Genesis manages the tactical aspects of Graphic Anthology
• The importance of picking deadlines and sticking with them
• How Paper Camp helped solidify her business mindset
• What Genesis does to differentiate her products in the market
• Testing products, taking risks, and discovering new segments
• Advice for other small business owners and creative CEOs

KEY TAKE-AWAYS:

"I think in the back of my mind I always wanted to run my own business, but I will say I resisted it a lot in the beginning." - Genesis Duncan

"I am a child of entrepreneurs. Both my parents had their own businesses, so from an early age knew what I would want to do." - Genesis Duncan

"I became an entrepreneur by accident actually." - Genesis Duncan

"Business started to dry up and stuff, and so I kind of really was like, "I need to do something. I need to do something creative, I need to do something for me."- Genesis Duncan

"People come to greeting cards because they're trying to say things or they are trying to feel more connected." - Genesis Duncan

"I am a firm believer that all of the different things we experience in life are there for a reason." - Katie Hunt

"There is this shift, where you go from making something for someone to asking how can I do that efficiently? How can I do that sustainably? Yeah, it was the game changer." - Genesis Duncan

"I know a lot of us with small businesses don't really resonate with the title, CEO. It just feels so corporate and so big. But really, but we are. We're the visionaries for these brands, and that sometimes means the creative aspect of our business becomes a smaller piece of what we do on a day to day basis." - Katie Hunt

"After doing Paper Camp, it just really gelled a lot of things in my mind. I realized, "All right. We got to get serious here." Like this is happening." - Genesis Duncan

"Paper Camp made me realize how hungry I was to grow my business. I met other people who were ahead of me and they weren't in suits and ties. They were very fun people talking about how they were making their business work and they were starting families or whatever." - Genesis Duncan

"My favorite thing is that we don't have to follow the same path. We can make this whatever we want.

We can make things fit with the life we want to have." - Katie Hunt

"There's always going to be more opportunities that are going to come down the pipeline." - Genesis Duncan

LINKS

Website: http://graphicanthology.com

Instagram: http://instagram.com/graphicanthology

Facebook: http://facebook.com/graphicanthology

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Those old-school, clunky payroll providers just weren't built for the way modern small businesses work. But Gusto is. Now is the best time to get set up for the new year. Don't wait.

Proof to Product listeners get 3 free months of Gusto when they run their first payroll. Try a demo and see for yourself at http://www.gusto.com/proof

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To subscribe on iOS, go to the iTunes page and subscribe to Proof to Product. On Android, you can listen using your favorite podcast app.

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Writing a review on iTunes will help other product based business owners find Proof to Product as they are working to up level, scale, and build profitable and sustainable companies.

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ABOUT PROOF TO PRODUCT:

Proof to Product is hosted by Katie Hunt. Since 2011, Proof to Product has worked with thousands of product based businesses to help them up level, scale, and build profitable sustainable companies. You can find our show notes and additional resources at ProofToProduct.com. If you like what you heard today, please head over to Apple Podcast to leave a five star review and subscribe. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode!

Mentioned in this episode:

Take the free quiz!

Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

Hey Friends, in episode 136 I walked you through how I do my annual strategic planning for the business. I got into the weeds sharing what reports I look at, how I analyze that data and then how I schedule things out to ensure that I'm not overloading myself, my team or my family with my grand plans! Ha!

Now that we've covered the question about big-picture planning, I want to circle back on the requests I received to share how I manage my day to day flow of family life & business life. For episode 137, I'm sharing what my day to day looks like with four young children (currently ages 3 to 9 years old), a growing business and an active family life.

I talk about strategies I use to make my shortened workdays more productive including batching tasks, delegating more and not checking my email a million times a day. And, the biggest tip I can offer is to remain flexible -- because my day to day is constantly changing and I'm guessing yours is too. What works for me now, wouldn't have worked a few years ago and may not work for us one year from now. But, give yourself space and permission to make changes as you go.

SUBSCRIBE

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WRITE A REVIEW

Writing a review on iTunes will help other product based business owners find Proof to Product as they are working to up level, scale, and build profitable and sustainable companies.

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If you'd like to receive more information about our upcoming episodes of Proof to Product including show notes and information about our guests, head over to www.prooftoproduct.com and sign up for our email list.

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Be sure to share Proof to Product with all of the product based business owners that you know!

ABOUT PROOF TO PRODUCT:

Proof to Product is hosted by Katie Hunt. Since 2011, Proof to Product has worked with thousands of product based businesses to help them up level, scale, and build profitable sustainable companies. You can find our show notes and additional resources at ProofToProduct.com. If you like what you heard today, please head over to Apple Podcast to leave a five star review and subscribe. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode!

Mentioned in this episode:

Take the free quiz!

Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

Hey friends, I have been getting a lot of requests from people curious about how I map out my annual plan for the business, and how I work my family schedule into that. I'm going to be honest, balancing a busy family schedule and a very busy business schedule can be hard. There's a number of things that I need to consider and weigh in on when I'm making decisions in my business. And that really ties into how I plan my year because I don't want to overload myself with too many things, only to do all of them less than stellar. I want to do my best at everything.

In this episode, I get granular about how I do my big picture, strategic planning each year for my business so that I'm not overloading myself, my team or my family. I talk about what reports I look at, how I analyze what's working and what's not working to decide which programs, products and services we'll offer the following year.

Reports I pull:

2019 YTD Profit & Loss statement

2018 Profit & Loss for year over year comparison

2019 Marketing calendar so I can see where income coordinated with program sales

Things I look at for each revenue stream (including any sub-categories):

Profitability

Time spent

Excitement / Passion Level

Impact

Tools I use:

Quickbooks online

Downloadable Calendar from MaylemMade on Etsy

Huge wall post-its

Quick links to thinks I talked about:

Paper Camp

Mastermind

Friends of Proof to Product Facebook group

Proof to Product on Instagram

SPECIAL OFFER: 3 Free Months of Gusto!

Gusto makes payroll, taxes, and HR actually easy for small businesses. Fast, simple payroll processing, benefits, and expert HR support all in one place. Gusto automatically pays and files your federal, state, and local taxes so you don't have to worry about it. Plus they make it easy to add on health benefits and even 401(k)s for your team.

Those old-school, clunky payroll providers just weren't built for the way modern small businesses work. But Gusto is. Now is the best time to get set up for the new year. Don't wait.

Proof to Product listeners get 3 free months of Gusto when they run their first payroll. Try a demo and see for yourself at http://www.gusto.com/proof

SUBSCRIBE

To subscribe on iOS, go to the iTunes page and subscribe to Proof to Product. On Android, you can listen using your favorite podcast app.

WRITE A REVIEW

Writing a review on iTunes will help other product based business owners find Proof to Product as they are working to up level, scale, and build profitable and sustainable companies.

FOLLOW PROOF TO PRODUCT

Follow Proof to Product on Instagram for the latest updates.

JOIN OUR EMAIL LIST

If you'd like to receive more information about our upcoming episodes of Proof to Product including show notes and information about our guests, head over to www.prooftoproduct.com and sign up for our email list.

SHARE

Be sure to share Proof to Product with all of the product based business owners that you know!

ABOUT PROOF TO PRODUCT:

Proof to Product is hosted by Katie Hunt. Since 2011, Proof to Product has worked with thousands of product based businesses to help them up level, scale, and build profitable sustainable companies. You can find our show notes and additional resources at ProofToProduct.com. If you like what you heard today, please head over to Apple Podcast to leave a five star review and subscribe. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode!

Mentioned in this episode:

Take the free quiz!

Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz

Remember your high-school economics class? Okay good, because today's episode is going to be nothing like that. Today we're making numbers, margins, pricing and market metrics fun with Michelle Loretta, a business consultant, financial strategist and founder of Sage Wedding Pros. Before launching her own business, Michelle worked as an accountant for Deloitte, sales and marketing manager for DDLA and merchandiser for Coach. Since then, she's applied her corporate and entrepreneurial expertise to wedding businesses worldwide and launched herself onto the live-event space as a frequent speaker at professional conferences.

Through Sage Wedding Pros, Michelle also produces her own next-level summit known as The Be Sage Conference. I have had the privilege of attending twice, once as a speaker, and it truly is an amazing program. For those of you who don't want to miss it, Michelle's next conference is coming up in Austin in February of 2020.

On today's episode, Michelle and I talk about business planning, the economics of selling products and how financial decisions in your business affect your operational plans. We promise, whether you're creative or business minded, this episode will inspire you to start drafting all of your next big business plans.

ON TODAY'S EPISODE:

• Michelle's journey and background
• What inspired her to start her own stationery business
• How blogging evolved into hosting workshops
• Benefits of getting your business plan on paper
• Reframing your financial goals as business milestones
• The economics of selling products
• Trading margins for volume
• Considerations for pricing physical vs digital products
• Common mistakes made during go-to-market
• Tips for pricing your products
• Numbers. Numbers. Numbers.
• What's up next for Michelle & the Be Sage Conference

KEY TAKE-AWAYS:

"Everyone has a backstory that we weave into the businesses we're creating and in that way we can help one another." - Katie Hunt

"The wonderful thing about the traditional business plan is that it really forces you to look at all aspects of your business, not just the ones that come comfortably." - Michelle Loretta

"You can't make a marketing decision without thinking of the financial aspects. Every financial decision links to an operational and marketing decision." - Michelle Loretta

"Every decision needs to come back to how does this fit with the overall goals, the overall focus." - Katie Hunt

"When you're selling direct to consumer, that's one thing, but moving from 5,000 to 15,000 orders you have to ask, 'do I have an operational structure that can support that?' - Michelle Loretta

"If you price it too low, you won't make any money on your products. If you price it too high, you'll price yourself out of the market and nobody's going to buy. So you really need to know your personal numbers." - Katie Hunt

"Pricing is actually a marketing decision. It's not a financial decision. It's a marketing decision that you test financially." - Michelle Loretta

"Knowing what your numbers are doing is so critical from season to season, month to month, quarter to quarter, year to year." - Michelle Loretta

"It's hard to be good at all things. My recommendation is create your first channel, and then only after you're profiting and you're thriving with it, expand into the second channel." - Michelle Loretta

"If you're not happy with what you're earning, that's the red flag that you need to be aware of. That's when you need to boost profit margins by 2% to 5% in the next year." - Michelle Loretta

"You need to know your margins, you need to create benchmarks. You need to try to best your benchmarks." - Michelle Loretta

LINKS

Conference: besageconference.com

Website: http://www.sageweddingpros.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SageWeddingPros

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sageweddingpros/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/sageweddingpros/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SageWeddingPros

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ABOUT PROOF TO PRODUCT:

Proof to Product is hosted by Katie Hunt. Since 2011, Proof to Product has worked with thousands of product based businesses to help them up level, scale, and build profitable sustainable companies. You can find our show notes and additional resources at ProofToProduct.com. If you like what you heard today, please head over to Apple Podcast to leave a five star review and subscribe. Thanks so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a new episode!

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Happy almost-Thanksgiving Proof to Product Friends! This week we're taking a break to spend time with loved ones and we hope you are all able to do the same. In case you find yourself on a road trip, waiting to catch an airplane or with some much-needed downtime, we're sharing three great episodes from the archives.

It's a binge-worthy week starting on-

Tuesday you'll hear how Johnny & Joanna at Letterfolk reinvented the Letterboard

Wednesday Nicole Walters will remind us why we can't rely on social media for sales

And on Thursday, I'll talk with Kelly Parker Smith about prioritizing profitable projects.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our listeners in the United States. I'm grateful for all of you and I hope you have a wonderful week. Thank you for listening and supporting Proof to Product. We'll be back with a new episode on December 3rd!

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Map out your next 90 days here: http://prooftoproduct.com/quiz