Key insights
📈 Scaling a business without proper financial planning and tracking can lead to cash flow issues and missed opportunities for partnerships and growth.
📈 Profit helps you be successful in business, because if you're not making money, it's just an expensive hobby.
🌍 Balancing income, impact, and lifestyle is crucial for long-term success and fulfillment.
📈 Understanding your revenue, costs, and profit is essential for figuring out how to maintain the same level of profit while working fewer hours.
💰 "We shouldn't be hoping for profit, we should be projecting it."
🗺️ Having a plan for profit is like using a GPS for a road trip - it's better to have projections and be wrong than to be lost without them.
💡 Instead of just focusing on getting more customers, consider upsells and add-ons to increase revenue without significantly increasing costs.
💰 Classify every expense as need to have, nice to have, or not needed to identify profit leaks and cut unnecessary costs.
Proper financial planning and tracking are essential for scaling a business and maintaining long-term profitability and success.
00:00 💡 As a business strategist, Christy Varner emphasizes the importance of tracking cash flow and planning for growth, acknowledging the need for better accounting practices.
The speaker admits to not being good at tracking accounting for their business, particularly cash flow, and acknowledges the need for more planning as they scale and add new services, products, and partnerships.
Christy Varner, The Accidental CPA, is a business strategist who focuses on cash flow to create more opportunities for businesses.
Christie discusses her core values and how she became an accidental accountant.
03:08 💼 Understanding business numbers is crucial for success and profit, and simplifying finances can help people achieve that.
The speaker pursued a degree in international business due to their love of travel and spent a year in France during high school, leading to a double major in college.
The speaker became an accountant by chance and ended up sticking with it despite not thinking like a typical accountant.
The speaker accidentally became an accountant and loves simplifying business finances to help people understand.
Understanding your business numbers is crucial for achieving success and profit, as it provides valuable insight and reveals important information.
07:28 📈 Focus on four key financial numbers to achieve business goals, integrate faith into business, and take actionable steps with support and straight talk.
Understanding and using a few key financial numbers can help you achieve your goals.
Helping business owners achieve their goals by focusing on four key numbers in their business.
The speaker integrates their faith into their business and relationships, emphasizing the importance of good values and being true to oneself.
The speaker prays for God to speak through them, encourages the audience to take actionable steps, and provides both support and straight talk as a CPA and cheerleader.
11:26 💡 Trusting in God and prioritizing impact, income, and lifestyle can lead to maintaining profit while working fewer hours by increasing revenue and cutting costs.
The speaker discusses the importance of giving back and being led by their faith in their business practices.
Trusting God to help you say no to a sale that is not the right fit creates a ripple effect of impact in business and in life.
Success is a combination of income, impact, and lifestyle, and it's important to prioritize all three rather than just focusing on income.
The speaker discusses how to maintain the same profit while working fewer hours by increasing revenue and cutting costs.
Efficiency and motivation can lead to working fewer hours without sacrificing income by adjusting prices and finding upsell opportunities.
Identify the key levers that impact income and work backwards to achieve the desired impact, even though it may not be easy.
20:13 💡 Small business owners can access financial expertise through fractional services, realistic financial planning and projections are important to anticipate revenue shortfalls, and planning for failure is crucial in the financial world.
God didn't make things hard for us, but we have to rely on him, and projections are meant to be wrong.
Hope is not a strategy for small business owners, and they can access the same financial expertise as big companies through fractional services, and planning for failure is important in the financial world.
The speaker emphasizes the importance of realistic financial planning and projections to anticipate and adjust for potential revenue shortfalls.
23:39 💡 Plan and project for profit, prioritize personal success, and use GPS-like planning to navigate the journey of starting a business.
Hope is not a strategy for profit, so instead of hoping for it, we should plan and project for it.
Many business owners, including those in the nonprofit sector, struggle with the mentality of prioritizing profit over personal financial stability, but it is important to prioritize personal success in order to create a successful business.
Starting a business can be stressful and expensive, but most people do it for the freedom it can provide in terms of time, finances, and travel.
Plan for profit like using a GPS for a road trip, knowing that projections may be wrong but it's better to be wrong than lost.
27:38 💡 Focus on mindset, know your numbers, classify expenses, and identify profit leaks to improve profit margins in your business.
Focus on mindset and decide to be profitable, know your numbers and take action to improve profit margins.
Know your numbers, focus on the main drivers of profit, and look for opportunities to increase revenue through upsells.
Classify expenses as need to have, nice to have, and not needed, and immediately cancel unnecessary services to increase profit.
Identify profit leaks in your business by regularly reviewing your services and conducting a treasure hunt for cash.
31:19 📢 Christy shares valuable insights and resources for business owners, so check out her website and connect with her on LinkedIn.
Want to get the cashflow worksheet Christie uses with everyone of her clients? Subcribe to the podcast for 5 more minutes of VIP advice from Christie and a copy of her cashflow worksheet.