September 11, 2025 • 46 mins
In this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy, and Smart Podcast, host Dr. Karen Litzy welcomes Lauren Schoenfeld, founder of Active Core Consulting, to discuss the importance of understanding finances in business. Lauren, a self-proclaimed numbers nerd, specializes in providing fractional CFO services, bookkeeping, and operational coaching for health and wellness entrepreneurs. The conversation kicks off with Lauren explaining what a fractional CFO is, using a relatable pizza analogy to illustrate the concept. Listeners will learn how to manage their finances more effectively, prioritize profit, and move away from the hustle culture as they navigate their entrepreneurial journeys. Tune in for valuable insights that can help transform your approach to business finances!
Time Stamps:
[00:01:21] Fractional CFO explained.
[00:07:06] Money goals for new businesses.
[00:09:46] Delayed rent negotiations for startups.
[00:12:56] Owner's salary importance in business.
[00:18:59] Subscription audit for entrepreneurs.
[00:24:04] Ability to generate income quickly.
[00:25:52] Limiting beliefs around money.
[00:29:29] Questioning limiting beliefs.
[00:34:10] Key Performance Indicators in Business.
[00:39:13] Churn and attrition rates.
[00:42:09] Enjoying the entrepreneurial journey.
More About Lauren:
Lauren Schoenfeld is the founder of Active Core Consulting, a one-stop shop for entrepreneurs in the health and wellness industry who need a fractional CFO, bookkeeping, sales, or operations coach. Lauren empowers CEO's to have confidence in their finances to put them in the driver's seat of their dream company. She’s a self-proclaimed numbers nerd and athlete who helps owners develop a financial plan and execute on the strategy that puts their profit first.
Lauren started at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she learned the consulting framework. She then mastered the do’s and don'ts of scaling a rapidly growing company from her time at WeWork. At her final corporate job, Lauren helped Equinox Fitness Clubs grow from 80 to 105 locations, enter into new international markets, and incubated nine of the most well-known wellness-focused ventures, including Equinox Hotel, Precision Run Studios, and SoulCycle On-Demand. Her final corporate project was to consolidate SoulCycle and Blink Fitness back office into the Equinox processes and systems.
On a personal note, Lauren suffered from burnout working in the corporate world which led to developing a chronic illness. She has grown her business while healing her body through nontraditional modalities and is on a mission to end hustle culture for entrepreneurs!
Resources from this Episode:
Active Core Consulting Website
Active Core Consulting on Instagram
Jane Sponsorship Information:
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Healthy, Wealthy, and Smart Podcast. I
am your host, Dr. Karen Litzy, owner of Karen Litzy Physical Therapy located
in New York City. And today we are going to be talking about
finances as it relates to your business.
Because as my guest and I, who I will Introduced
in a moment said right before this, you're running a business. It's not a
(00:25):
401c3. It's not a charity. It's a business. You want to make sure that you
understand how to use your finances to your best advantage. So
I'm really happy to have on the podcast today, Lauren Schoenfeld. She
is the founder of active core consulting, offering
fractional CFO, bookkeeping sales and operations
coaching for health and wellness entrepreneurs. a self-proclaimed numbers
(00:50):
nerd and athlete, Lauren empowers CEOs to
confidently manage their finances and prioritize profit. She
has grown her business while healing her body through nontraditional modalities
and is on a mission to end hustle culture for
(01:11):
It's great to have you. And like I said, we're going to be talking about
finances for our businesses. But before
we get into the meat of that topic, can
you define for the audience what a
fractional CFO is? I'm sure a lot
of people hear that term and are like, I
(01:33):
Sure. So I also live in New York City for a minute, so
I'm going to take us back to our New York City roots and use a good pizza
So when you have a big corporate company and they have their
C-suite, they have their CFO, their CEO, their CMO, they
are one person for an entire pie, which
is their business. But in the small business world, somebody
(01:57):
like me doesn't need to be in one company
unless I wanted to go back to my corporate job, which I don't want to do because I
love coaching small business owners and the impact that we have. So
if we think of a pie, each client would be like a slice
of the pie. So instead of splitting one
person's time for an entire business, each
(02:20):
client is a fraction of the pie. Bigger
clients might have a bigger slice of the pie, like
you're really hungry and you need half a pie. So bigger clients, you
know, get more of our time. But in a fractional standpoint,
we're working for three
to five clients at one time. And the
(02:41):
benefit of this for our small business clients is
that A, you don't need somebody full time at my level. nor
does your financial plan support hiring a full-time person
at any of our levels because you
just don't need it. So the fractional component gives
business owners the opportunity to work with
(03:03):
a expert in finance and operations that
has experience in the wellness and fitness industry. And
you only have to pay for a fraction of our time rather than
Got it. And what is, again, this may
seem like a stupid question, but let's get into
the nitty gritty, is what does a fractional
(03:27):
CFO do for a small business? What
are you taking off the plate of that small business owner?
Yep, good question. So with our fractional CFO clients, we
take over all of their bookkeeping and all of their finances.
So we do bookkeeping like a normal small
business bookkeeper would, and then we take it a next
(03:49):
step further and we help you create business projections. We
help you manage your cashflow. We make sure all business decisions
that you're making are through the lens of your
profit plan. meaning we take that decision, we run
it through the model so we could understand what the bottom line
impact could have of that decision. We
(04:11):
also help you set goals. So for a brick
and mortar facility, I do a lot of fitness industry,
but I know your clients are a lot of PT, we'll help you set monthly
goals for how many new members or
new PT clients you need. What is our goal retention
rate? How many class packs
(04:33):
or membership models or, you know, drop-in sessions do
you need in order to hit the different goals that
you have for your business? And the goals might be, you know,
really extreme, like you want to open five to ten studios
or PT facilities. Or your goal might be, I want
to be able to support my family and take my
(04:54):
kids to college without them going into student loan debt. Like both are
equally as important. And so we want to make sure we're creating
a business plan that's going to help you achieve those goals.
And then how do we help you stay accountable? in a
cadence that makes sense. We can't go from zero to 100 in
two months. So, but how can we get you zero to 100 and
(05:16):
maybe four months or six months or eight months, just depending on
where your business has capacity for. The
big thing that I like to say is we are an outside lens
to help you identify opportunities to
make changes in your business for optimal growth and
efficiency. So I believe as entrepreneurs, more
(05:41):
or less, there are no bad decisions that can be made because we
are all just testing it out and figuring out what to
do in real time. And so a lot of our clients have
done this kind of trial and error process as much
as they can, and they've hit their limit or their ceiling on
their capacity of what they know can work in their business. So
(06:01):
they bring our team on and we have a proven, Proven
track record of how to do this. So you're going to
get to where you want to be a little bit faster and you're
going to have somebody to bounce ideas off of that's
been where you have been and knows what works and what
(06:24):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So you're sort of helping to set
those goals, reverse engineer those goals based on
that individual business, and then guide
Thank you so much. Cause I know a lot of people hear fractional CFO
(06:49):
Right. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Thank
Yeah, I know. I know. I know. I would, I would
probably say the same. Um, so Today,
we're having a talk centered around our finances, centered
around money. So when you're working with your clients, how
(07:11):
do you define those money goals, especially,
let's say, especially for people who are new to business? They're
just starting out, maybe they're in their first year or less. How
do you help your clients define and hit those
Yeah, good question. So we really start
(07:31):
with your business plan. So mapping out all
of your revenue offers, all of the expenses that you
have, and then again, reverse engineering those goals to
hit the overall bigger picture in your goal. I would say if
you're in your first six to 12 months of a brick and mortar
facility, we just want to
(07:53):
get you profitable. We
want to make sure that we're covering all of our expenses. We're able
to cover any loan payments that we have. So
we can reduce that burn each month. And when I say
burn, I mean the amount of cash
that you're losing each month. And
(08:14):
something really common to make sure that we're aware of
is when you're looking at your P&L and you make a
$5,000 profit, that is so wonderful. But what is your loan
payments? And so if your loan payments are seven
grand each month, then we're operating at
a burn or like a negative cashflow. So it's
(08:35):
really understanding what our expenses are and
what we need to cover and how do we start making
monthly goals that are attainable for you and the team
to start chipping away at this. So for me, the
biggest thing that I look at in a new business is
what are your cash flow needs each month, and
(08:58):
how can we get you profitable? And
in our ideal use case, we have a client that
comes to us before they've even opened their studio
or their fitness business. And we're able to do
that new opening checklist
and make sure we have a strong pre-sale. So you are
(09:20):
opening with members and with revenue already
coming in. So, you know, I work in a traditional fitness space so
that you have people to come in to fill those classes on
the first week of opening and we don't have a delay in a lab. Yeah.
Another tip that has been instrumental
to our clients having success in the first six months is,
(09:44):
um, delayed rent. So
how can we negotiate your lease? So you have,
I would say at a minimum two months from
opening of free rent. So usually that means about a six
month period of free rent because you probably need two
to four months depending on your studio size to build it out.
(10:07):
And then first two months of operations. And
that can get a little bit tricky to understand how to do on
your own. So that's something that us and our partners support
Yeah. And that's huge. And I've learned that even in, I don't have a
brick and mortar space, but in working with other physical
(10:27):
therapists who do that delayed rent
is huge. Like I had one
woman who they were going to give her 10 months Delayed
rent, right? Isn't that amazing? But
it's something that I didn't even know was a thing. Like I
(10:48):
didn't even know that was a thing until this happened.
And I was like, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Because
to your point, if you just opened and
your income, your revenue was $5,000, but your rent is $4,000 a
month and your loan is set. It's like, how is this even going to work? Exactly.
(11:11):
And a quick tip for any of you who might be in the midst of
landlord discussions right now, if they're hard
pressed on not giving you the six months or whatever lead
time you need for free rent, I would even say give
the six months and tack it on to
(11:33):
the last couple years of your lease. So
over the five years of the lease, the
landlord's going to get the money that they need. It's just weighted
in the back half of the lease rather than the front half. And
obviously we can't make any promises, but as like a last ditch
(11:54):
effort, I've seen that one. work more
likely than not. Yeah, yeah. All the landlord cares about
is getting their money. They probably have loans with their banks who
are needing them to have a certain amount of cash flow. So
if you can show them that you're going to give them whatever cash flow
they want in that time, we're just kind of shifting the
(12:19):
Yeah, that's great advice. Thank you for that. Now,
as we're talking about setting your
goals, reverse engineering, paying rent, paying
loans, paying everything else that has to go into a
brick and mortar practice, which you would obviously have within your
budget, but there's one other thing that needs to be in
(12:40):
your budget, and that's how much should you
be paying yourself? It's a really hard question.
I know a lot of people struggle with this question.
So what what do you need as an owner? And
Yeah, great question. I think the owner's pay is
(13:00):
one of the most important things, one of the most important expenses
in your business. And traditionally, I've
seen that be one of the last items that the
owner will pay. And trust me, I get it like paying your
team, paying your rent, paying your loan is important,
but you are, in my opinion, the
(13:22):
most important asset in your business. If you
are not functioning at an optimal level
with your energy and your health, then you're
slowly going to burn out and your business is going to suffer.
So I know in month one, when you first opening, we probably can't pay
in on our salary. I totally get that. We need a little bit of traction. We need
(13:44):
to cover some expenses. Um, but the way
that we coach this is making sure that within
our business, our expenses are hitting certain, um,
percentages. So we're not blowing all of our
budget on rent. So if your rent is
like 20, 30 or more percent of your revenue,
(14:05):
that's, um, That's
challenging. And same with your payroll. Your payroll is over
30% of your revenue. I don't think it's a
problem. It's just, it's challenging to get over
that hump. So that's why it's really important when
we start with a new client is to like figure out what that business
(14:26):
plan is and do an analysis of what are
each of your expense buckets as a percentage of revenue. So
we know if you're overspending or underspending in
relation to the industry norms for
a brick and mortar. And so I say all of that because when
we do that, it might be we're spending way too much
(14:47):
money on marketing or we're spending too much money on
software and subscriptions. And we need to take some of that money
out and reinvest that into your owner salary. And
the way that we coach our clients on figuring out
what your owner's salary is, is we have a
template and it helps you identify what are your
(15:09):
bills, so your monthly reoccurring payments. What
are your habits? So this is any variable pay, your
groceries, your gas, food.
Restaurants, coffee, clothing, fun, concerts,
(15:30):
Life. Yes, exactly. Yeah. And then we want to make sure you're
saving a little bit of money for your emergency savings. So working
to get that three to six months of expenses saved for
a rainy day. And then how do you start preparing
and saving for your long-term goals? And
so by doing this, we want to look at what are we actually
(15:51):
spending in our personal life that's
helping or hurting us hit our other financial goals.
Because when you're a business owner, you spend money in your business, you spend money
in your personal life. And we want to make
sure that every dollar we're spending is worth the ROI that
you need. Because if you're spending all this money frivolously, then
(16:16):
we're never going to be able to save for our goals. So I'm never going
to tell you to not buy the $7 matcha or
the $7 latte from the coffee shop. I have
clients that do that every single day. It's part of their routine, and they love it. Great.
I'm so happy that you love that. But when we do this, for example,
when I do mine, I usually have about $2,000 in
(16:38):
my habits bucket each month. And so if I
want to spend $7 a day on coffee, totally fine.
We just have to cut out in other areas. So
it's less about how much money are we budgeting for coffee and
for going to happy hours and more so based on
my income goals, I have $2,000 that I can
(16:58):
spend on my habits. Where do I want that money to go? How
is that money going to best fuel me as the CEO to
live my happiest life and my most productive life
so I can grow my business and make more money and then we can increase that
2,000 to maybe 2,500. Um, so
I think a lot of times, and
(17:21):
I'm, I'm, um, privy
to doing this too. So permission, it's okay. If
you do this as well, sometimes when we're so busy with our business, we
just like spend, spend, spend, because we don't have time to
figure that out. But when we look at
all this stuff we're spending, or at least when I do it for myself, I'm
(17:41):
like, Oh my gosh, I same so much money.
And, you know, late night, you're like scrolling Instagram and
you always get those apps. And then you're like, oh, you did this free trial,
but you never canceled it. I did this exercise when I was going through our
last group coaching program with them at the beginning of the year. And
I was spending $300 a month on subscriptions that I
(18:04):
So it's like little things like that, that really add
up $300 over the course of a year. It's obviously a
Yeah. $3,600 a year. That's a really nice vacation. Absolutely.
Yeah. I did the same thing. I went through all my subscriptions and
I was like, what am I doing? Yeah. Like why
am I spending like one hundred fifty dollars on these like random things?
(18:27):
And as a matter of fact, I probably should do it again just to make sure
I'm still on the up and up. But yeah, I
do the same. I look around like, what is this? What is this? So in
the beginning of the year this year, not only did I like dump a whole bunch
of clothes and give it to Goodwill, but I dumped a whole lot of
subscriptions and like that and TV channels,
(18:48):
you know, streaming channels that like I don't need this channel. Like
what am I? I don't need a channel for one show.
I'll be okay. I'll survive. Absolutely. I'll
I'm not sure how many of your audiences are
making that transition from a corporate salary to an
entrepreneur, but that's pretty common with
(19:10):
some of our clients. I obviously did that a few years ago as well.
There was something about transitioning to being an entrepreneur and
literally having to make every dollar that I spend,
not only make it, I have to generate that income from a
client and then I have to keep the client. Like you do so much
more work to generate a dollar as an entrepreneur versus
(19:32):
what you had to generate a dollar in your corporate salary. So
that mindset for me was a huge shift
because it was like, okay, I have to work X
number of clients or X number of hours to pay
for This is this worth all
of this time and effort. And so even taking it
(19:54):
through the lens of what is that Marie
Kondo? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. The Marie Kondo has
you hold it in your hand and does this bring you joy?
I use that analogy with our clients. Look
at all of your expenses. Is this expense And
in the business, what I say, is this expense creating customer
(20:17):
happiness, which leads to retention? Or
Yeah, I think that's a great idea.
And hopefully everyone listening, if you are an entrepreneur, it's
time to do a quick audit. and
go through your business side and your personal side,
(20:39):
see what you need, see what you don't need. Sometimes you discover things
that you didn't know you had and you're paying for and you're like, what
is happening? I also like to look at some of my subscriptions
and think, hmm, do I need to pay this much
specifically for this? Is there another platform that might
be a little cheaper? That might be better. That might be, you know,
(21:01):
to your point, make my life easier from an ROI standpoint.
Is it making me happy? Is it making my life easier? Is
it making my patients happier? Is it contributing to
Doing that audit is a really smart thing. OK, so
(21:21):
just to recap how much you should pay yourself. You
have to look at your habits, and this is personal, personal
habits, personal bills. You need to build
up a short-term bucket, if you will, emergency
bucket. And then when we're talking about long-term, so
that, are we talking about what to put into an investment
(21:49):
Yeah, exactly. So whatever your long term goals are,
so retirement is definitely in this bucket for everyone.
But also maybe you want to buy a home in three
years. That's one of my long term buckets. Hopefully one day
we'll be able to buy some property. Um, you know, if
you have kids, putting your kids through college could be a long-term. So
(22:09):
anything above about three years, that's what
I consider a long-term investment. And with our
clients, what we do is help them build that long-term bucket.
And then we have a partner who was a financial planner for
entrepreneurs specifically. Um, and he
will help our clients invest that money. And one
(22:30):
thing I want to plug in here, because. A lot of
times with our CPA and our financial planner, Oh, we're
just using the guy that my dad used. Yeah. Which
is, could be totally fine. But also there is
a very different way of thinking about investing
when you're an entrepreneur, you don't have a steady paycheck. You
(22:51):
don't have a 401k match from your corporate job.
So how do we think about retirement short-term
and long-term savings when your income is
volatile, but hopefully when you look across a
three to five year period, it's consistently going up. And
so there's a very specific strategy that he helps our clients with
(23:15):
to make sure you're saving in a way that creates a
lot of liquidity. an opportunity to
invest in yourself because investing in yourself is going to
All right. Something that I'd love to say that I think would be fun to add in
here. As we talk about being an
(23:38):
entrepreneur, obviously there's a lot that comes with it.
There's a lot of costs overhead for our brick and mortar facility with
the payor team. Sometimes it can feel very overwhelming. But
on the flip side of being an entrepreneur is
you have the ability to literally print money
whenever you need it. And what do I mean by
(23:59):
that? Your car breaks down and you're like, oh, I
need an extra 10K to put down for this car
payment. If you're a corporate employee, there's no way
for you to generate 10K on the fly. But if you're an entrepreneur and
you have the systems in place, Okay, I
need to have four
(24:22):
more clients on this high ticket offer or like whatever your business
is. Um, and it's like a really beautiful way
to use entrepreneurship in that
lens. Like this happened to me. I got a car accident last year and
I had to buy a new car. I needed $10,000 in
addition to like my short term savings that I had been saving for. And
(24:43):
I really wanted the sunroom. And it was an extra $3,000. And
then my dad was like, you don't need the sunroof. And I was like, dad, I
live in Southern California. I live in San Diego. I need the sunroof. And
so he thought it was so ridiculous, but I was like, I'll just get a new client. And
I created a project, a one month offer. We
sold it to two different clients. And I got the money that I needed for
(25:05):
my new car and my sunroof. And I was like, Oh, that took two months. Amazing.
Right. Yeah. No, that's so true. It's, it's all about your
ingenuity and your drive. And I think
your ability to not be afraid to put things out there into the
world that people need. Right. And
that kind of leads me into, um, as
(25:28):
an entrepreneur, especially in the health and wellness space, we often think,
I mean, I don't, I don't, I feel weird taking
people's money when I'm helping them. That's
certainly a limiting belief
around money. These limited beliefs
(25:49):
around money, I have to think, lead to some
profitability issues. How
do you help your clients get
around these beliefs so that they feel confident, they
feel comfortable, and they are more profitable than
(26:10):
Yeah, it's been a really amazing journey witnessing in myself
and my clients, the impact of our thoughts
and beliefs about money on our ability to make
money. And what I mean by that is anytime we have a belief
about money, like the one you just shared is a great example that I think is very
common in the industry, We want to be at a
(26:31):
price point that's accessible to everyone, because we want everyone
to be included. We want to help everyone. We want to make a huge impact. And
I love all of those goals. But
by not pricing yourself at the correct price point,
it's not going to generate the profit that you need to sustain
(26:52):
your business or yourself and your family so
you can have a business to impact more lives. So
where we like to start with this, I
believe that I would say a majority of our
beliefs around money came from our
family or societal programming when we were
(27:13):
younger. So asking ourself the question around like,
where did this belief come from? And like thinking back to
potentially like our childhood, where and how did
your parents talk about money? What were their beliefs about
money? And even like taking the time, I
had this conversation with my dad recently just to ask him some
(27:35):
questions. How do you think about money?
Where did your beliefs come from? And just trying to ask him questions
to open up about how he has moved through
his life and his relationship with money gave me so
much insight into my limiting beliefs around money
because they're his beliefs. And once you realize they're
(27:59):
their beliefs and not your beliefs, it's one
step closer to being able to kind of like get rid of that.
Cause it's not yours to carry. It's not your belief. It's a learned belief.
So that's a really, really good place, really
Yeah. And it's hard. It's hard to overcome. And
(28:20):
I will say it doesn't just, you just don't turn a switch and it goes off.
It takes time and it takes work. And I think intentional work.
Yes. I would say a lot of intentional
somatic therapy around, where is this
limiting belief? Where do you feel it in your body? What
(28:42):
is the anxiety? Where is that anxiety present? to
try and help relieve that. And I would imagine a lot of your clients can
relate to this being in the PT world. And then,
you know, taking a step further, the whole like your body keeps the score. If
you're constantly holding that limiting belief in
your body, now you have back pain.
(29:08):
There's a series of questions that I started using recently
in my own life. Um, when I have a limiting belief around
money, my business, or really like any thought that isn't serving me,
I ask these four questions and this didn't come from me. I didn't create
it, but I can't remember the woman in the book that did. So I wish I
could give a shout out to the correct person, but I can't remember. Um, but the four questions
(29:32):
are, is this belief true? So,
um, I can't charge $150 a session. No, one's going
to pay for that. It's like a, I hear a lot. Yeah. Okay.
So I just, uh, yes, this
belief is true. Okay. Are you sure
it's true? Do you have any evidence that tells
(29:54):
me otherwise? And then they say, you
know, oh yeah, I have one client that paid me $150 for
the session. Okay, great. So that is true. Somebody
will pay you for that. And then the other question I ask
is what does this belief do
for me? Why is this belief
(30:16):
true? And you're like, okay, I'm worried
that I'm not going to be able to make as much money because it
won't be as many people. who want to pay the $150 per
session for that. And then, okay, we know
where it's coming from. And then maybe if we can really dig
a little bit deeper, did we have somebody who
(30:39):
gave us a really strong objection when we, when we told
them our offer is 150, and they had some
reaction that was stark to us where we were like, Oh,
well, maybe this is too much. And now I shouldn't I shouldn't charge this.
We shouldn't make business decisions based on one person's input.
We need to make business decisions rooted in our data
(31:02):
and like what we need to make as a business owner so we can pay
our family and do all the fun things that we've talked about in this. And
the last question is what type of CEO
would I be if I didn't believe this? So
if I didn't believe that no one would pay for $150 and I
believed that there's people in this
(31:25):
universe that will pay me $150, what will that open up
for you? Like feel it in your body. Like it probably just created a
little bit of ease and like confidence that I
can charge $150. And then what is that going to
do for your business and your personal life with your family by
charging $150? Okay, well now my profit margins
are going to go up by 20%. I can bring home
(31:48):
the owner's pay that I need so I can start saving for my kids'
college fund. I can save for that car that we're
going to need in five years when we have three kids running around on the soccer field.
And really tying the reason and the why behind
your decision will help you step into your
(32:10):
Yeah, that's, I love all those questions and hopefully listeners
you were taking some notes there. If not, you'll have to
rewind and listen to it again. Because I think that was great.
And as you were saying that I'm in my head going through. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Someone, well, I know patients pay X
amount for physical therapy because I know five people who
(32:33):
are charging that much or more. Right. So
it's like, Oh yeah. So it is true. People would do
that. And it's kind of really makes you, uh, question
your beliefs, which is what this is all about. Right. To kind of question
that belief and see if there's a way to turn that around. And,
(32:54):
um, I remember having
this conversation with a money mindset coach
years ago. you
just reminded me, I feel like she might've said something similar.
So maybe it's from the same book. And to your point, I'm trying to, cause
it is very familiar and I can't think of it either. But if,
(33:15):
so if we find out who it is, Lauren can shoot
me an email and we'll put the book in the show notes. So whatever.
I have the book upstairs. So once I go upstairs,
Yeah, so we'll put the link, we'll put the link to the book in the
in the show notes along with everything else. So I
have one more question. Before we kind of wrap things
(33:38):
up, and that's, You talked a little bit
about what data and measuring and things like that.
And something that I think gets people all
up in arms are the KPIs, those key performance indicators.
And can you explain, number one, what a
KPI is, even though I've said it many times on this podcast, but
(33:59):
I feel like you can't say it enough. And what should we
Sure. So a KPI, Key Performance Indicator,
is a metric that tells you at a point in
time in your business how something is going,
(34:22):
progressing. There
are so many KPIs in this world that we can track.
And I think sometimes when we're tracking
more, I think like out of maximum seven
to 10. And even that can be a lot for some business owners can
be like a lot. And when you track so many things, you're
(34:44):
just tracking the numbers to track the numbers rather than tracking
some key metrics, and then learning how
to use that data to make better decisions in your business.
So if you're somebody that's just starting out, and you've not tracked any
KPIs, here are the top ones that I would
track. And this is for a brick and mortar
(35:06):
specific business. Number
of first timers. And
then depending what your business model is, if you have an intro offer.
So if you're like a fitness business, and you do like a two week, two
week unlimited for $69, or maybe in
a PT business, you do some sort of intro offer where
(35:28):
they can get a pack of two sessions or three sessions
for a preferred price. So
I want to know what the conversion from intro offer, or for first timer
to intro offer is. And then I want
to know the conversion from intro offer to client
or member. So whether that's a class pack, a
(35:50):
membership, or, you know, in a PT, depending
on what your business is, maybe they're, you know, committing to a pack of six or
eight, 12, you know. Yeah. So
I would say in the beginning, if you're only wanting to track three
metrics, track those. OK. Because once we
get a better idea of what your client journey and your client flow
(36:11):
looks like, then we have data to understand where
we need to add a little bit of support to your business.
So if you're bringing in, let's use easy
numbers, 100 first timers in the month, and
maybe they're coming in for a consultation call, or your
(36:32):
first class in a fitness facility is like 20 bucks. And
I'm saying that because I hope nobody is doing a free
offer. At least have some financial incentive for
them to show up. So 100 people coming in, and
then you're only selling 30 intro offers. That
(36:53):
would be a sign that there is something wrong
or I shouldn't say something wrong. I always try and say there's nothing wrong in
your business or just opportunity areas. So there's an
opportunity area to really dive into what that first
experience looks and feels like. What are the touch
points that the client is receiving or the customer is
(37:14):
receiving and where is the gap? Like what's happening? Maybe it's
in front of the sales communication. Maybe it's
in the actual experience or not, you're not delivering a
high enough quality experience for them to convert to intro offers. Like
that metric alone right there tells us a lot. Yeah.
Yeah. And then you get them on the intro offer. And then we want to know what the conversion is
(37:36):
to like a full paying client. And
again, if that is under 50%, that's also
a sign that there's something There's
something going on there that we need to address. So
those are three metrics. If you want to keep it super easy, I would start with
those. If you want to take it a bit
(37:58):
further, the metrics that I would add on top of
that are number of completed sessions
or like attendance, utilization in a
fitness class, and then some
sort of churn attrition percentage.
So this is like really big in fitness. We
(38:20):
want to understand what is our churn or
attrition rate. In a fitness business, I would say anywhere from like
3% to 5% is normal churn. Anything
above 5%, we really need to dig into. And it could be
as simple as it's the middle of August and everybody leaves
(38:42):
Yeah, but that's not the story for every single business. So it
really depends where your market is.
So I would say adding in some sort of utilization or number of sessions completed
if you're a PT and attrition.
Right, right. Great. Those are really easy, tangible
(39:07):
KPIs for people to track. So thank you for
that. You're welcome. Now, as we
finish up here, where can people find
you if they want to get more information about you, about the business, they
need a fractional CFO, they don't want to do all this themselves
because it's giving them a headache already, where can they find you? Great.
(39:29):
Um, you can find us on Instagram at active core consulting and
the, um, offer that we would love to share with your community.
So we talked a lot today about expenses and
knowing how much you should be paying for your expenses based
on how much revenue you're bringing in. And so we have a calculator that
helps you do that. So you enter in your
(39:52):
revenue, you enter in some basic information, And
the fancy formulas are going to do their thing and give you helpful
insights into where you might be spending too much,
where you might not be investing enough based
on where you're at in your business. And so this will
help you understand, OK, maybe you're spending 40% of your revenue
(40:15):
on payroll. And then
that will be a indicator that, okay, maybe we need to redefine
some of our roles and some of our compensation plans. Marketing
is another really good one. Sometimes we have business owners who
are spending 10, 15% on marketing, but
(40:35):
they're not getting the top line revenue results that they want.
That's a really good opportunity to be like, okay, I'm above the threshold on
what I should be spending on marketing. Is my marketing doing what
it should be doing? And my gut would be it's
probably not if you're spending that much money and your revenue isn't growing
to make that investment within the 10% range
(40:57):
for things. So a lot of good tips and tricks in
the calculator. And then you can always book a call with us
Perfect, and we'll have the link to the calculator. Again, whatever platform you're
listening on right now, just scroll down, you'll get to
the show notes and we'll have links to that
(41:17):
and also to your Instagram and to activecoreconsulting.com to
your website. So we'll have all of that there, one clip, one click, and
we'll take you right to it. So last question, it's
one I ask everyone, and knowing where you are now in your life and
Oh, just not to take things so seriously. Yeah, like
(41:42):
in my 20s. And I'm so grateful for all the opportunities
that I got because it led me to where I am today.
Um, but it was a grind. And I
worked so much and was such on this like climbing
corporate ladder trajectory. And that there
were moments where I don't feel like I fully got to enjoy
(42:05):
being a young adult. Yeah. So
I think I would say, you know, don't take things too seriously. And
how I've applied that into being an entrepreneur is
like, you can't force growth. Yeah.
Like it takes a few years just to even figure out
what you, what are you selling? Who are you selling to? What
(42:26):
is your offer? And so every time I've tried to force growth
in the business, It has backfired. So that
has also helped me, um, the last couple of years in my business,
really take a step back and letting myself breathe
and letting the journey happen. I was so tied
to just getting to the end results that I wasn't enjoying the process.
(42:49):
And so when I got to step back, I actually just had fun growing
my business. Ironic that my business actually grew faster than I realized it
Funny how that works, right? Funny how that works, yeah. Yes. Well,
Lauren, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it.
All amazing, practical, useful tips that people can do
(43:11):
And everyone, thanks so much for tuning in. Again, if
you want to check out Lauren's website, it's activecoreconsulting.com. Thanks
for listening. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy,
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Healthy, Wealthy, and Smart Podcast. I
am your host, Dr. Karen Litzy, owner of Karen Litzy Physical Therapy located
in New York City. And today we are going to be talking about
finances as it relates to your business.
Because as my guest and I, who I will Introduced
in a moment said right before this, you're running a business. It's not a
(00:25):
401c3. It's not a charity. It's a business. You want to make sure that you
understand how to use your finances to your best advantage. So
I'm really happy to have on the podcast today, Lauren Schoenfeld. She
is the founder of active core consulting, offering
fractional CFO, bookkeeping sales and operations
coaching for health and wellness entrepreneurs. a self-proclaimed numbers
(00:50):
nerd and athlete, Lauren empowers CEOs to
confidently manage their finances and prioritize profit. She
has grown her business while healing her body through nontraditional modalities
and is on a mission to end hustle culture for
(01:11):
It's great to have you. And like I said, we're going to be talking about
finances for our businesses. But before
we get into the meat of that topic, can
you define for the audience what a
fractional CFO is? I'm sure a lot
of people hear that term and are like, I
(01:33):
Sure. So I also live in New York City for a minute, so
I'm going to take us back to our New York City roots and use a good pizza
So when you have a big corporate company and they have their
C-suite, they have their CFO, their CEO, their CMO, they
are one person for an entire pie, which
is their business. But in the small business world, somebody
(01:57):
like me doesn't need to be in one company
unless I wanted to go back to my corporate job, which I don't want to do because I
love coaching small business owners and the impact that we have. So
if we think of a pie, each client would be like a slice
of the pie. So instead of splitting one
person's time for an entire business, each
(02:20):
client is a fraction of the pie. Bigger
clients might have a bigger slice of the pie, like
you're really hungry and you need half a pie. So bigger clients, you
know, get more of our time. But in a fractional standpoint,
we're working for three
to five clients at one time. And the
(02:41):
benefit of this for our small business clients is
that A, you don't need somebody full time at my level. nor
does your financial plan support hiring a full-time person
at any of our levels because you
just don't need it. So the fractional component gives
business owners the opportunity to work with
(03:03):
a expert in finance and operations that
has experience in the wellness and fitness industry. And
you only have to pay for a fraction of our time rather than
Got it. And what is, again, this may
seem like a stupid question, but let's get into
the nitty gritty, is what does a fractional
(03:27):
CFO do for a small business? What
are you taking off the plate of that small business owner?
Yep, good question. So with our fractional CFO clients, we
take over all of their bookkeeping and all of their finances.
So we do bookkeeping like a normal small
business bookkeeper would, and then we take it a next
(03:49):
step further and we help you create business projections. We
help you manage your cashflow. We make sure all business decisions
that you're making are through the lens of your
profit plan. meaning we take that decision, we run
it through the model so we could understand what the bottom line
impact could have of that decision. We
(04:11):
also help you set goals. So for a brick
and mortar facility, I do a lot of fitness industry,
but I know your clients are a lot of PT, we'll help you set monthly
goals for how many new members or
new PT clients you need. What is our goal retention
rate? How many class packs
(04:33):
or membership models or, you know, drop-in sessions do
you need in order to hit the different goals that
you have for your business? And the goals might be, you know,
really extreme, like you want to open five to ten studios
or PT facilities. Or your goal might be, I want
to be able to support my family and take my
(04:54):
kids to college without them going into student loan debt. Like both are
equally as important. And so we want to make sure we're creating
a business plan that's going to help you achieve those goals.
And then how do we help you stay accountable? in a
cadence that makes sense. We can't go from zero to 100 in
two months. So, but how can we get you zero to 100 and
(05:16):
maybe four months or six months or eight months, just depending on
where your business has capacity for. The
big thing that I like to say is we are an outside lens
to help you identify opportunities to
make changes in your business for optimal growth and
efficiency. So I believe as entrepreneurs, more
(05:41):
or less, there are no bad decisions that can be made because we
are all just testing it out and figuring out what to
do in real time. And so a lot of our clients have
done this kind of trial and error process as much
as they can, and they've hit their limit or their ceiling on
their capacity of what they know can work in their business. So
(06:01):
they bring our team on and we have a proven, Proven
track record of how to do this. So you're going to
get to where you want to be a little bit faster and you're
going to have somebody to bounce ideas off of that's
been where you have been and knows what works and what
(06:24):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So you're sort of helping to set
those goals, reverse engineer those goals based on
that individual business, and then guide
Thank you so much. Cause I know a lot of people hear fractional CFO
(06:49):
Right. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Thank
Yeah, I know. I know. I know. I would, I would
probably say the same. Um, so Today,
we're having a talk centered around our finances, centered
around money. So when you're working with your clients, how
(07:11):
do you define those money goals, especially,
let's say, especially for people who are new to business? They're
just starting out, maybe they're in their first year or less. How
do you help your clients define and hit those
Yeah, good question. So we really start
(07:31):
with your business plan. So mapping out all
of your revenue offers, all of the expenses that you
have, and then again, reverse engineering those goals to
hit the overall bigger picture in your goal. I would say if
you're in your first six to 12 months of a brick and mortar
facility, we just want to
(07:53):
get you profitable. We
want to make sure that we're covering all of our expenses. We're able
to cover any loan payments that we have. So
we can reduce that burn each month. And when I say
burn, I mean the amount of cash
that you're losing each month. And
(08:14):
something really common to make sure that we're aware of
is when you're looking at your P&L and you make a
$5,000 profit, that is so wonderful. But what is your loan
payments? And so if your loan payments are seven
grand each month, then we're operating at
a burn or like a negative cashflow. So it's
(08:35):
really understanding what our expenses are and
what we need to cover and how do we start making
monthly goals that are attainable for you and the team
to start chipping away at this. So for me, the
biggest thing that I look at in a new business is
what are your cash flow needs each month, and
(08:58):
how can we get you profitable? And
in our ideal use case, we have a client that
comes to us before they've even opened their studio
or their fitness business. And we're able to do
that new opening checklist
and make sure we have a strong pre-sale. So you are
(09:20):
opening with members and with revenue already
coming in. So, you know, I work in a traditional fitness space so
that you have people to come in to fill those classes on
the first week of opening and we don't have a delay in a lab. Yeah.
Another tip that has been instrumental
to our clients having success in the first six months is,
(09:44):
um, delayed rent. So
how can we negotiate your lease? So you have,
I would say at a minimum two months from
opening of free rent. So usually that means about a six
month period of free rent because you probably need two
to four months depending on your studio size to build it out.
(10:07):
And then first two months of operations. And
that can get a little bit tricky to understand how to do on
your own. So that's something that us and our partners support
Yeah. And that's huge. And I've learned that even in, I don't have a
brick and mortar space, but in working with other physical
(10:27):
therapists who do that delayed rent
is huge. Like I had one
woman who they were going to give her 10 months Delayed
rent, right? Isn't that amazing? But
it's something that I didn't even know was a thing. Like I
(10:48):
didn't even know that was a thing until this happened.
And I was like, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Because
to your point, if you just opened and
your income, your revenue was $5,000, but your rent is $4,000 a
month and your loan is set. It's like, how is this even going to work? Exactly.
(11:11):
And a quick tip for any of you who might be in the midst of
landlord discussions right now, if they're hard
pressed on not giving you the six months or whatever lead
time you need for free rent, I would even say give
the six months and tack it on to
(11:33):
the last couple years of your lease. So
over the five years of the lease, the
landlord's going to get the money that they need. It's just weighted
in the back half of the lease rather than the front half. And
obviously we can't make any promises, but as like a last ditch
(11:54):
effort, I've seen that one. work more
likely than not. Yeah, yeah. All the landlord cares about
is getting their money. They probably have loans with their banks who
are needing them to have a certain amount of cash flow. So
if you can show them that you're going to give them whatever cash flow
they want in that time, we're just kind of shifting the
(12:19):
Yeah, that's great advice. Thank you for that. Now,
as we're talking about setting your
goals, reverse engineering, paying rent, paying
loans, paying everything else that has to go into a
brick and mortar practice, which you would obviously have within your
budget, but there's one other thing that needs to be in
(12:40):
your budget, and that's how much should you
be paying yourself? It's a really hard question.
I know a lot of people struggle with this question.
So what what do you need as an owner? And
Yeah, great question. I think the owner's pay is
(13:00):
one of the most important things, one of the most important expenses
in your business. And traditionally, I've
seen that be one of the last items that the
owner will pay. And trust me, I get it like paying your
team, paying your rent, paying your loan is important,
but you are, in my opinion, the
(13:22):
most important asset in your business. If you
are not functioning at an optimal level
with your energy and your health, then you're
slowly going to burn out and your business is going to suffer.
So I know in month one, when you first opening, we probably can't pay
in on our salary. I totally get that. We need a little bit of traction. We need
(13:44):
to cover some expenses. Um, but the way
that we coach this is making sure that within
our business, our expenses are hitting certain, um,
percentages. So we're not blowing all of our
budget on rent. So if your rent is
like 20, 30 or more percent of your revenue,
(14:05):
that's, um, That's
challenging. And same with your payroll. Your payroll is over
30% of your revenue. I don't think it's a
problem. It's just, it's challenging to get over
that hump. So that's why it's really important when
we start with a new client is to like figure out what that business
(14:26):
plan is and do an analysis of what are
each of your expense buckets as a percentage of revenue. So
we know if you're overspending or underspending in
relation to the industry norms for
a brick and mortar. And so I say all of that because when
we do that, it might be we're spending way too much
(14:47):
money on marketing or we're spending too much money on
software and subscriptions. And we need to take some of that money
out and reinvest that into your owner salary. And
the way that we coach our clients on figuring out
what your owner's salary is, is we have a
template and it helps you identify what are your
(15:09):
bills, so your monthly reoccurring payments. What
are your habits? So this is any variable pay, your
groceries, your gas, food.
Restaurants, coffee, clothing, fun, concerts,
(15:30):
Life. Yes, exactly. Yeah. And then we want to make sure you're
saving a little bit of money for your emergency savings. So working
to get that three to six months of expenses saved for
a rainy day. And then how do you start preparing
and saving for your long-term goals? And
so by doing this, we want to look at what are we actually
(15:51):
spending in our personal life that's
helping or hurting us hit our other financial goals.
Because when you're a business owner, you spend money in your business, you spend money
in your personal life. And we want to make
sure that every dollar we're spending is worth the ROI that
you need. Because if you're spending all this money frivolously, then
(16:16):
we're never going to be able to save for our goals. So I'm never going
to tell you to not buy the $7 matcha or
the $7 latte from the coffee shop. I have
clients that do that every single day. It's part of their routine, and they love it. Great.
I'm so happy that you love that. But when we do this, for example,
when I do mine, I usually have about $2,000 in
(16:38):
my habits bucket each month. And so if I
want to spend $7 a day on coffee, totally fine.
We just have to cut out in other areas. So
it's less about how much money are we budgeting for coffee and
for going to happy hours and more so based on
my income goals, I have $2,000 that I can
(16:58):
spend on my habits. Where do I want that money to go? How
is that money going to best fuel me as the CEO to
live my happiest life and my most productive life
so I can grow my business and make more money and then we can increase that
2,000 to maybe 2,500. Um, so
I think a lot of times, and
(17:21):
I'm, I'm, um, privy
to doing this too. So permission, it's okay. If
you do this as well, sometimes when we're so busy with our business, we
just like spend, spend, spend, because we don't have time to
figure that out. But when we look at
all this stuff we're spending, or at least when I do it for myself, I'm
(17:41):
like, Oh my gosh, I same so much money.
And, you know, late night, you're like scrolling Instagram and
you always get those apps. And then you're like, oh, you did this free trial,
but you never canceled it. I did this exercise when I was going through our
last group coaching program with them at the beginning of the year. And
I was spending $300 a month on subscriptions that I
(18:04):
So it's like little things like that, that really add
up $300 over the course of a year. It's obviously a
Yeah. $3,600 a year. That's a really nice vacation. Absolutely.
Yeah. I did the same thing. I went through all my subscriptions and
I was like, what am I doing? Yeah. Like why
am I spending like one hundred fifty dollars on these like random things?
(18:27):
And as a matter of fact, I probably should do it again just to make sure
I'm still on the up and up. But yeah, I
do the same. I look around like, what is this? What is this? So in
the beginning of the year this year, not only did I like dump a whole bunch
of clothes and give it to Goodwill, but I dumped a whole lot of
subscriptions and like that and TV channels,
(18:48):
you know, streaming channels that like I don't need this channel. Like
what am I? I don't need a channel for one show.
I'll be okay. I'll survive. Absolutely. I'll
I'm not sure how many of your audiences are
making that transition from a corporate salary to an
entrepreneur, but that's pretty common with
(19:10):
some of our clients. I obviously did that a few years ago as well.
There was something about transitioning to being an entrepreneur and
literally having to make every dollar that I spend,
not only make it, I have to generate that income from a
client and then I have to keep the client. Like you do so much
more work to generate a dollar as an entrepreneur versus
(19:32):
what you had to generate a dollar in your corporate salary. So
that mindset for me was a huge shift
because it was like, okay, I have to work X
number of clients or X number of hours to pay
for This is this worth all
of this time and effort. And so even taking it
(19:54):
through the lens of what is that Marie
Kondo? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. The Marie Kondo has
you hold it in your hand and does this bring you joy?
I use that analogy with our clients. Look
at all of your expenses. Is this expense And
in the business, what I say, is this expense creating customer
(20:17):
happiness, which leads to retention? Or
Yeah, I think that's a great idea.
And hopefully everyone listening, if you are an entrepreneur, it's
time to do a quick audit. and
go through your business side and your personal side,
(20:39):
see what you need, see what you don't need. Sometimes you discover things
that you didn't know you had and you're paying for and you're like, what
is happening? I also like to look at some of my subscriptions
and think, hmm, do I need to pay this much
specifically for this? Is there another platform that might
be a little cheaper? That might be better. That might be, you know,
(21:01):
to your point, make my life easier from an ROI standpoint.
Is it making me happy? Is it making my life easier? Is
it making my patients happier? Is it contributing to
Doing that audit is a really smart thing. OK, so
(21:21):
just to recap how much you should pay yourself. You
have to look at your habits, and this is personal, personal
habits, personal bills. You need to build
up a short-term bucket, if you will, emergency
bucket. And then when we're talking about long-term, so
that, are we talking about what to put into an investment
(21:49):
Yeah, exactly. So whatever your long term goals are,
so retirement is definitely in this bucket for everyone.
But also maybe you want to buy a home in three
years. That's one of my long term buckets. Hopefully one day
we'll be able to buy some property. Um, you know, if
you have kids, putting your kids through college could be a long-term. So
(22:09):
anything above about three years, that's what
I consider a long-term investment. And with our
clients, what we do is help them build that long-term bucket.
And then we have a partner who was a financial planner for
entrepreneurs specifically. Um, and he
will help our clients invest that money. And one
(22:30):
thing I want to plug in here, because. A lot of
times with our CPA and our financial planner, Oh, we're
just using the guy that my dad used. Yeah. Which
is, could be totally fine. But also there is
a very different way of thinking about investing
when you're an entrepreneur, you don't have a steady paycheck. You
(22:51):
don't have a 401k match from your corporate job.
So how do we think about retirement short-term
and long-term savings when your income is
volatile, but hopefully when you look across a
three to five year period, it's consistently going up. And
so there's a very specific strategy that he helps our clients with
(23:15):
to make sure you're saving in a way that creates a
lot of liquidity. an opportunity to
invest in yourself because investing in yourself is going to
All right. Something that I'd love to say that I think would be fun to add in
here. As we talk about being an
(23:38):
entrepreneur, obviously there's a lot that comes with it.
There's a lot of costs overhead for our brick and mortar facility with
the payor team. Sometimes it can feel very overwhelming. But
on the flip side of being an entrepreneur is
you have the ability to literally print money
whenever you need it. And what do I mean by
(23:59):
that? Your car breaks down and you're like, oh, I
need an extra 10K to put down for this car
payment. If you're a corporate employee, there's no way
for you to generate 10K on the fly. But if you're an entrepreneur and
you have the systems in place, Okay, I
need to have four
(24:22):
more clients on this high ticket offer or like whatever your business
is. Um, and it's like a really beautiful way
to use entrepreneurship in that
lens. Like this happened to me. I got a car accident last year and
I had to buy a new car. I needed $10,000 in
addition to like my short term savings that I had been saving for. And
(24:43):
I really wanted the sunroom. And it was an extra $3,000. And
then my dad was like, you don't need the sunroof. And I was like, dad, I
live in Southern California. I live in San Diego. I need the sunroof. And
so he thought it was so ridiculous, but I was like, I'll just get a new client. And
I created a project, a one month offer. We
sold it to two different clients. And I got the money that I needed for
(25:05):
my new car and my sunroof. And I was like, Oh, that took two months. Amazing.
Right. Yeah. No, that's so true. It's, it's all about your
ingenuity and your drive. And I think
your ability to not be afraid to put things out there into the
world that people need. Right. And
that kind of leads me into, um, as
(25:28):
an entrepreneur, especially in the health and wellness space, we often think,
I mean, I don't, I don't, I feel weird taking
people's money when I'm helping them. That's
certainly a limiting belief
around money. These limited beliefs
(25:49):
around money, I have to think, lead to some
profitability issues. How
do you help your clients get
around these beliefs so that they feel confident, they
feel comfortable, and they are more profitable than
(26:10):
Yeah, it's been a really amazing journey witnessing in myself
and my clients, the impact of our thoughts
and beliefs about money on our ability to make
money. And what I mean by that is anytime we have a belief
about money, like the one you just shared is a great example that I think is very
common in the industry, We want to be at a
(26:31):
price point that's accessible to everyone, because we want everyone
to be included. We want to help everyone. We want to make a huge impact. And
I love all of those goals. But
by not pricing yourself at the correct price point,
it's not going to generate the profit that you need to sustain
(26:52):
your business or yourself and your family so
you can have a business to impact more lives. So
where we like to start with this, I
believe that I would say a majority of our
beliefs around money came from our
family or societal programming when we were
(27:13):
younger. So asking ourself the question around like,
where did this belief come from? And like thinking back to
potentially like our childhood, where and how did
your parents talk about money? What were their beliefs about
money? And even like taking the time, I
had this conversation with my dad recently just to ask him some
(27:35):
questions. How do you think about money?
Where did your beliefs come from? And just trying to ask him questions
to open up about how he has moved through
his life and his relationship with money gave me so
much insight into my limiting beliefs around money
because they're his beliefs. And once you realize they're
(27:59):
their beliefs and not your beliefs, it's one
step closer to being able to kind of like get rid of that.
Cause it's not yours to carry. It's not your belief. It's a learned belief.
So that's a really, really good place, really
Yeah. And it's hard. It's hard to overcome. And
(28:20):
I will say it doesn't just, you just don't turn a switch and it goes off.
It takes time and it takes work. And I think intentional work.
Yes. I would say a lot of intentional
somatic therapy around, where is this
limiting belief? Where do you feel it in your body? What
(28:42):
is the anxiety? Where is that anxiety present? to
try and help relieve that. And I would imagine a lot of your clients can
relate to this being in the PT world. And then,
you know, taking a step further, the whole like your body keeps the score. If
you're constantly holding that limiting belief in
your body, now you have back pain.
(29:08):
There's a series of questions that I started using recently
in my own life. Um, when I have a limiting belief around
money, my business, or really like any thought that isn't serving me,
I ask these four questions and this didn't come from me. I didn't create
it, but I can't remember the woman in the book that did. So I wish I
could give a shout out to the correct person, but I can't remember. Um, but the four questions
(29:32):
are, is this belief true? So,
um, I can't charge $150 a session. No, one's going
to pay for that. It's like a, I hear a lot. Yeah. Okay.
So I just, uh, yes, this
belief is true. Okay. Are you sure
it's true? Do you have any evidence that tells
(29:54):
me otherwise? And then they say, you
know, oh yeah, I have one client that paid me $150 for
the session. Okay, great. So that is true. Somebody
will pay you for that. And then the other question I ask
is what does this belief do
for me? Why is this belief
(30:16):
true? And you're like, okay, I'm worried
that I'm not going to be able to make as much money because it
won't be as many people. who want to pay the $150 per
session for that. And then, okay, we know
where it's coming from. And then maybe if we can really dig
a little bit deeper, did we have somebody who
(30:39):
gave us a really strong objection when we, when we told
them our offer is 150, and they had some
reaction that was stark to us where we were like, Oh,
well, maybe this is too much. And now I shouldn't I shouldn't charge this.
We shouldn't make business decisions based on one person's input.
We need to make business decisions rooted in our data
(31:02):
and like what we need to make as a business owner so we can pay
our family and do all the fun things that we've talked about in this. And
the last question is what type of CEO
would I be if I didn't believe this? So
if I didn't believe that no one would pay for $150 and I
believed that there's people in this
(31:25):
universe that will pay me $150, what will that open up
for you? Like feel it in your body. Like it probably just created a
little bit of ease and like confidence that I
can charge $150. And then what is that going to
do for your business and your personal life with your family by
charging $150? Okay, well now my profit margins
are going to go up by 20%. I can bring home
(31:48):
the owner's pay that I need so I can start saving for my kids'
college fund. I can save for that car that we're
going to need in five years when we have three kids running around on the soccer field.
And really tying the reason and the why behind
your decision will help you step into your
(32:10):
Yeah, that's, I love all those questions and hopefully listeners
you were taking some notes there. If not, you'll have to
rewind and listen to it again. Because I think that was great.
And as you were saying that I'm in my head going through. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Someone, well, I know patients pay X
amount for physical therapy because I know five people who
(32:33):
are charging that much or more. Right. So
it's like, Oh yeah. So it is true. People would do
that. And it's kind of really makes you, uh, question
your beliefs, which is what this is all about. Right. To kind of question
that belief and see if there's a way to turn that around. And,
(32:54):
um, I remember having
this conversation with a money mindset coach
years ago. you
just reminded me, I feel like she might've said something similar.
So maybe it's from the same book. And to your point, I'm trying to, cause
it is very familiar and I can't think of it either. But if,
(33:15):
so if we find out who it is, Lauren can shoot
me an email and we'll put the book in the show notes. So whatever.
I have the book upstairs. So once I go upstairs,
Yeah, so we'll put the link, we'll put the link to the book in the
in the show notes along with everything else. So I
have one more question. Before we kind of wrap things
(33:38):
up, and that's, You talked a little bit
about what data and measuring and things like that.
And something that I think gets people all
up in arms are the KPIs, those key performance indicators.
And can you explain, number one, what a
KPI is, even though I've said it many times on this podcast, but
(33:59):
I feel like you can't say it enough. And what should we
Sure. So a KPI, Key Performance Indicator,
is a metric that tells you at a point in
time in your business how something is going,
(34:22):
progressing. There
are so many KPIs in this world that we can track.
And I think sometimes when we're tracking
more, I think like out of maximum seven
to 10. And even that can be a lot for some business owners can
be like a lot. And when you track so many things, you're
(34:44):
just tracking the numbers to track the numbers rather than tracking
some key metrics, and then learning how
to use that data to make better decisions in your business.
So if you're somebody that's just starting out, and you've not tracked any
KPIs, here are the top ones that I would
track. And this is for a brick and mortar
(35:06):
specific business. Number
of first timers. And
then depending what your business model is, if you have an intro offer.
So if you're like a fitness business, and you do like a two week, two
week unlimited for $69, or maybe in
a PT business, you do some sort of intro offer where
(35:28):
they can get a pack of two sessions or three sessions
for a preferred price. So
I want to know what the conversion from intro offer, or for first timer
to intro offer is. And then I want
to know the conversion from intro offer to client
or member. So whether that's a class pack, a
(35:50):
membership, or, you know, in a PT, depending
on what your business is, maybe they're, you know, committing to a pack of six or
eight, 12, you know. Yeah. So
I would say in the beginning, if you're only wanting to track three
metrics, track those. OK. Because once we
get a better idea of what your client journey and your client flow
(36:11):
looks like, then we have data to understand where
we need to add a little bit of support to your business.
So if you're bringing in, let's use easy
numbers, 100 first timers in the month, and
maybe they're coming in for a consultation call, or your
(36:32):
first class in a fitness facility is like 20 bucks. And
I'm saying that because I hope nobody is doing a free
offer. At least have some financial incentive for
them to show up. So 100 people coming in, and
then you're only selling 30 intro offers. That
(36:53):
would be a sign that there is something wrong
or I shouldn't say something wrong. I always try and say there's nothing wrong in
your business or just opportunity areas. So there's an
opportunity area to really dive into what that first
experience looks and feels like. What are the touch
points that the client is receiving or the customer is
(37:14):
receiving and where is the gap? Like what's happening? Maybe it's
in front of the sales communication. Maybe it's
in the actual experience or not, you're not delivering a
high enough quality experience for them to convert to intro offers. Like
that metric alone right there tells us a lot. Yeah.
Yeah. And then you get them on the intro offer. And then we want to know what the conversion is
(37:36):
to like a full paying client. And
again, if that is under 50%, that's also
a sign that there's something There's
something going on there that we need to address. So
those are three metrics. If you want to keep it super easy, I would start with
those. If you want to take it a bit
(37:58):
further, the metrics that I would add on top of
that are number of completed sessions
or like attendance, utilization in a
fitness class, and then some
sort of churn attrition percentage.
So this is like really big in fitness. We
(38:20):
want to understand what is our churn or
attrition rate. In a fitness business, I would say anywhere from like
3% to 5% is normal churn. Anything
above 5%, we really need to dig into. And it could be
as simple as it's the middle of August and everybody leaves
(38:42):
Yeah, but that's not the story for every single business. So it
really depends where your market is.
So I would say adding in some sort of utilization or number of sessions completed
if you're a PT and attrition.
Right, right. Great. Those are really easy, tangible
(39:07):
KPIs for people to track. So thank you for
that. You're welcome. Now, as we
finish up here, where can people find
you if they want to get more information about you, about the business, they
need a fractional CFO, they don't want to do all this themselves
because it's giving them a headache already, where can they find you? Great.
(39:29):
Um, you can find us on Instagram at active core consulting and
the, um, offer that we would love to share with your community.
So we talked a lot today about expenses and
knowing how much you should be paying for your expenses based
on how much revenue you're bringing in. And so we have a calculator that
helps you do that. So you enter in your
(39:52):
revenue, you enter in some basic information, And
the fancy formulas are going to do their thing and give you helpful
insights into where you might be spending too much,
where you might not be investing enough based
on where you're at in your business. And so this will
help you understand, OK, maybe you're spending 40% of your revenue
(40:15):
on payroll. And then
that will be a indicator that, okay, maybe we need to redefine
some of our roles and some of our compensation plans. Marketing
is another really good one. Sometimes we have business owners who
are spending 10, 15% on marketing, but
(40:35):
they're not getting the top line revenue results that they want.
That's a really good opportunity to be like, okay, I'm above the threshold on
what I should be spending on marketing. Is my marketing doing what
it should be doing? And my gut would be it's
probably not if you're spending that much money and your revenue isn't growing
to make that investment within the 10% range
(40:57):
for things. So a lot of good tips and tricks in
the calculator. And then you can always book a call with us
Perfect, and we'll have the link to the calculator. Again, whatever platform you're
listening on right now, just scroll down, you'll get to
the show notes and we'll have links to that
(41:17):
and also to your Instagram and to activecoreconsulting.com to
your website. So we'll have all of that there, one clip, one click, and
we'll take you right to it. So last question, it's
one I ask everyone, and knowing where you are now in your life and
Oh, just not to take things so seriously. Yeah, like
(41:42):
in my 20s. And I'm so grateful for all the opportunities
that I got because it led me to where I am today.
Um, but it was a grind. And I
worked so much and was such on this like climbing
corporate ladder trajectory. And that there
were moments where I don't feel like I fully got to enjoy
(42:05):
being a young adult. Yeah. So
I think I would say, you know, don't take things too seriously. And
how I've applied that into being an entrepreneur is
like, you can't force growth. Yeah.
Like it takes a few years just to even figure out
what you, what are you selling? Who are you selling to? What
(42:26):
is your offer? And so every time I've tried to force growth
in the business, It has backfired. So that
has also helped me, um, the last couple of years in my business,
really take a step back and letting myself breathe
and letting the journey happen. I was so tied
to just getting to the end results that I wasn't enjoying the process.
(42:49):
And so when I got to step back, I actually just had fun growing
my business. Ironic that my business actually grew faster than I realized it
Funny how that works, right? Funny how that works, yeah. Yes. Well,
Lauren, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it.
All amazing, practical, useful tips that people can do
(43:11):
And everyone, thanks so much for tuning in. Again, if
you want to check out Lauren's website, it's activecoreconsulting.com. Thanks
for listening. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy,
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