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February 22, 2025 17 mins

In this episode of Peace Luv Biz, hosts Steve, the business growth guy, and Mary, the accounting guru, tackle a fundamental question for entrepreneurs: Are you truly running a business, or is it just a hobby? They break down the mindset, commitment, and financial habits that separate thriving business owners from those just dabbling.

Steve and Mary share real-world insights on the effort required to build a sustainable business, the misconceptions that hold people back, and why passion alone isn’t enough to succeed. Mary also brings her no-nonsense accounting perspective to the table, emphasizing the importance of treating your business like a business, especially when it comes to finances, time investment, and long-term strategy.

Key takeaways:

✅ A real business requires real commitment, consistency is key.
✅ Just because you love what you do doesn’t mean it’s a profitable business.
✅ Financial clarity is essential: track income, expenses, and profitability.
✅ Shifting from a hobbyist mindset to a CEO mindset changes everything.

Be sure to subscribe and visit www.peaceluvbiz.com for free resources, business tips, and updates. Until next time, stay committed and grow your business with peace and love!

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Peace Love Biz.
This is Steve, today's Salt Manager, and I am with Mary, who we are calling Utah becauseshe is salty today.
And, Mary, what's going on?
How are you feeling?
I feel, so many things.

(00:22):
I feel I have purpose.
I'm gonna find solutions to stuff.
However, yeah, people need to just understand what it is about business.
That's where I'm at today.
It's work.
It is work.
That's been my preaching from my soapbox all day today.
And everybody listening, feel bad for Steven, because Steven has to put up with thisattitude.

(00:47):
And it's a hundred times worse when I'm on a day like today.
Yeah, well, what we're gonna do is we're at least gonna make it constructive because wehave been constructive all day, but we thought that it might actually be nice to get a
more raw and, you know, channel some energy into what people really need to hear.

(01:09):
So let's face it, how many times do people need that wake up call, that come to Mary,Joseph, Jesus moment?
and just, you know, hear what they really actually need to hear rather than what they wantto hear.
So, first question really is, kind of identifying the problem and, you know, there's anage old question is, are you working on a business or are you working on a hobby?

(01:40):
A lot of it comes down to the commitment level and how truly invested you are in this.
Are you working on this and
morning night noon and after dark or are you just dabbling here or there so you know foryou Mary what do you look out when it comes to a time check the financial aspect or even

(02:04):
you know what do you think about that type of angle
Well, for me, the commitment, the financial aspect of it is if you're not fully committed,if this is not what drives you, if your purpose isn't behind this, you're wasting time.
Wasting time is wasting money.
My time is valuable.
Everybody's time is valuable.

(02:26):
I can put a dollar amount on my time and everybody should be able to do that.
Everybody should be able to put a dollar amount of how much they should be earning
And so for example, am I gonna get my hair cut?
Am I gonna cut my own hair?
Am I gonna change my own tire?
Or am I gonna hire someone else to do that?

(02:47):
Because somebody else does it.
I know that in all likelihood, I make more money than them.
It doesn't benefit me.
So I'd rather work and make more money and pay them the difference.
if you're not, if you can't understand that part of it,
Really, you should not be going into business and you need to go back.

(03:09):
It doesn't mean that you can't ever go into business.
Go back to school and take some intro business courses.
Really simple or listen to, you know, Mary.
Maybe understand it that way because that's a good solution.
but yeah, I'm really fired up about this today.
This is definitely where I'm at today.

(03:30):
Well, I think that a lot of it comes down to a direction for a business.
Obviously you need to know where you want to go to, where you want to get to in business.
What are your goals for the business?
And then you kind of work back and, you know, as you're scaling a business, you kind offigure out those key markers.
Do you need specific processes?

(03:53):
Do you need more people?
That type of question.
And realistically, everybody's on a different journey.
But what's funny is that it seems to be a lot of the same types of people, same types ofmindsets are coming out at the moment.

(04:16):
Which, some people want to just play with their business and sound like they know whatthey're doing.
They see it as something of a popularity contest or...
You know, they're just gonna...
...operate...
I'm not gonna say without integrity, but they're gonna say that they wanna do one thing...

(04:39):
...act in another way, and ultimately...
...not get anywhere quickly.
Have the best...
Yeah.
though integrity to your point, but I think it definitely part of integrity, but more soaccountability.
There's the age old adage of find a profession or a job you love and you'll never work aday in your life.

(05:03):
I love accounting and numbers.
Friday night and Steven jokes about this, but when he says that it comes off joking andit's not a joke.
On a Friday night, you will find me and my front patio with my laptop doing QuickBooks.
That's what I do.
And I enjoy it because I get to shut down and just enjoy what I do.

(05:25):
Classifications and financial reports.
I absolutely love that part of my job.
Do I work?
Yes, I do work.
Absolutely.
But it's the time that I've got to go, hey, listen.
It's not just enough to say, I don't know what I don't know.
You have to go, okay, I don't know this and I'm gonna find the answer.

(05:49):
My clients know I am brutally honest.
And if they ask me a question I don't have a clue about, I'll go, I have no idea, but I'lleither find someone that does or I'm gonna look into it and get an answer for you.
Yeah, and that always goes back to my key thing is, I may have mentioned this on episodeone, but it was if you want to be an expert in what you do, you get the people in that are

(06:16):
experts at what they do so you can focus on your area of expertise.
There's a reason that you are an expert in accounting.
And it's that type of level of maturity as a person.
to acknowledge that, see that and act on it.
Some people will act on it, but sometimes they won't take the advice or listen, which iskind of tough.

(06:44):
And a lot of that does, you can look at it and say, well, you know, when do they trulytransition into that CEO stage?
When are they truly looking for that growth mindset where they're looking to minimize andmaximize in their business?
For me, it starts with...

(07:06):
Creating...
First off, you need a sales funnel.
Like...
Because without sales and leads and opportunities to make money, you are literally justplaying at that point.
But really, that then comes with SOPs.
So, you know, what kind of operating procedures are you looking to get in place?

(07:26):
Do you...
Yeah.
I must be on the brain a lot of that on the brain lately yeah but the you know it goesback to getting yourself organized getting yourself straight knowing the procedure what

(07:47):
happens when I get a sale do I get with the vendor do I provide ex-service obviously thisis more of a service type business that I'm talking about
but it really applies pretty much anywhere.
What do you do next?
yourself.
The best thing you can do is be honest.
You may not like it all.

(08:08):
You don't have to.
But if you don't like it and aren't looking to change it, you need to accept it.
You need to accept the certain realities that come as a result of that.
If you don't like it and you're changing it, good for you.
But I think to our point this week, definitely.

(08:31):
people going into business, you need to be really aware that business is hard work.
I I'm 50 years old.
We've joked before that I've been an accountant as long as Steven's been alive.
I balanced my first checkbook when I was like eight years old.
I always wanted to be an accountant and I knew I'd have to bust my butt to do what we'redoing now.

(08:55):
Absolutely, but the statistics are there though.
Why if you've had the You know if you've had a good year What did that year come down toyou know and you can back it up people that?
people that want to play with their business or Play with any type of thing even if it isa hobby.

(09:19):
How serious are you hot?
serious, are you about that activity like
you can measure the performance and pretty much the correlation between activity andsuccess is pretty much always on an upward trajectory.
The more activity you have, the better off you'll be.

(09:41):
I know where we're you know, our brand is peace, love and biz.
Honestly, this this whole thing ties back to peace.
Because if you have this much inner conflict that you aren't owning, recognizing, beingaccountable to, and just hoping things fall into place, there's no way on earth you have

(10:01):
any type of inner peace or outer peace.
That means you're living in chaos.
That's not good for anybody.
It's just not it's not healthy.
I go look at statistics.
I'm not a doctor, but you know, you're causing stress on yourself that impacts not justyour physical state, but your mental state.
I've been there.

(10:22):
You know, I put myself under so much pressure just from a regular old sales job.
So much pressure on myself that I literally...
my body broke down, my mind broke down and it took me two or three months to really getback on to check and I wonder if I've actually truly fully recovered from that.

(10:43):
I know that you've said I haven't.
And sometimes.
think it takes time because even it took us eight years for us to figure out why don't wework together and here we are.
And even in the beginning stages, and we have busted our butt for the last six months toreally overhaul and just come up with a new everything.

(11:03):
And the first couple months you were beating yourself up and I was like, dude, nobody'sdying.
We're fine.
We're going to be fine.
We're going to be fine.
And you
beating yourself up a lot, the pressure, but also look at where we're at.
So it's like, okay.
sometimes we were going to talk about investing in the right areas in terms of a business.

(11:28):
But when you look at investing in the right areas from a person and a human perspective,it really all starts with your brain.
And if you're not feeding your brain in the right way, if you're not feeding your body inthe right way, you're going to crash.
And it's the same for a business.
It's the same for a business.
If you get the wrong people in that are toxic for the environment, it will start tospiral.

(11:51):
Same with any vendors that you bring in.
As soon as you start to recognize that, you know, people will cauterize a wound or just,you know, cut right through.
So, um...
Well, and you know I'm famous for that.
Like I'll be the first one to say it doesn't work.
doesn't work.
You got to cut it by get rid of it.

(12:11):
But on the other side of the positive side of that, like I know we spend more time witheach other virtually than we spend in face to face with our spouses.
And yeah, I mean, I drive you absolutely insane and I absolutely love doing it.
But at the same time, it really
doesn't feel that the 80 hours or whatever we put in does not feel like 80 hours to me.

(12:37):
I mean, maybe it feels like 120 to you because I can be exhausting, but.
Yeah, I mean there's definitely a weight to the time balance.
But no.
But honestly, like you said, if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in yourlife.
That's the art of being an entrepreneur.
You will find yourself...

(12:58):
I say it myself every day.
I'm in the lab, which is my office, as soon as everybody goes to bed.
And I'm in here until my brain starts to shut down.
I'm like, alright, I'm done.
I'm in here, I'm developing strategy, I'm redoing stuff, I'm...
My brain just constantly is in development mode.

(13:21):
Even if it's not for us, it's...
I'll be the host for a second.
Why is that?
How many years have you dedicated to doing this and then finding the right fit?
mean, do your credit.
Yeah, I think that it's because...
I went into a sales role where it really kind of opened my brain.

(13:44):
It's like, well, what really is in it for the customer and the client to get involved?
What is the benefit to them?
So that just kind of gave a kind of switch in my brain where it's like, okay, it's what'sbeautiful about it is it's business.
It's not supposed to be sexy.
It's not supposed to be, you know, supposed to be about money.

(14:07):
But I get to be creative in what I do, which is really weird for an accounting businessservices company.
And I can do it for anybody.
So that's really what keeps me going.
It gives me that enthusiasm and it kinda gives me hope that even though people do strugglea lot, they do need a lot of help and they are problem children.

(14:31):
They're problem children for a reason because they need that adult.
to guide them through it and get them out of adolescence.
yeah.
we, you know, we've been, I grew up in a big family.
There were troublemakers and there were saints.
There were saints and sinners.
Everybody, there's a saint and a sinner everywhere.
But you know, at some point, get you on the track, listen, you'll be okay.

(14:56):
But you got to come in and be honest with yourself and go, do I really want to do this?
Do I want to be a business owner or do I want to be an employee?
That's question number one.
You want to be a business owner.
Do you want to just sit back and not work?
Then you've got to go to the other option or marry money.

(15:16):
I don't know the other solution because business business owners work.
You work.
You have to work.
That's it.
Love the craft, love the grind, and get used to it.
If you find yourself spinning your wheels, don't let the...
don't let great be the enemy of good.

(15:37):
Do something well, rather than doing something perfect.
Like, is the enemy of production.
I don't...
That was kinda weird how that came to me then.
But it was...
It was good!
as we were wrapping all this up.
That was just perfect.

(15:59):
You've been on it today.
You're normally on it, but you've gotten a couple good zingers on me today, so that wasgood.
And then that one just sealed the deal.
I should be a little bit more salty more often, inspire you a little bit more.
Maybe not.
It does.
the energy up and it makes us...

(16:20):
combative-ly creative?
Solutions-orientated?
Yeah, so, yeah.
Either way, we'll keep talking about this, we'll keep discussing options and ways forpeople to keep growing and helping out.
If anybody is dealing with mental health issues, please reach out to us.

(16:40):
Yeah, and a professional.
We'll connect you to a professional.
Yeah, we can be an ear.
ear that you need but you know check us out if you need help with your accounting yourbusiness side anything like that go to peacelovebiz.com and we will see you next time

(17:02):
Awesome.
Thanks, Stephen.
Thank you, everybody.
Have a great day.
Peaceful.
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