Broke or Bad at Budgeting? The Financial Wake-Up Call Every Entrepreneur Needs

Ever looked at your bank account after a "successful" month and wondered where all the money went? You're not alone. Financial chaos isn't just common among entrepreneurs – it's practically a rite of passage. But it doesn't have to be.

Truth bomb: most entrepreneurs don't have business problems, they have money mismanagement problems. Behind those Instagram-worthy business moments – the invoicing, branding, and fancy coffees – lurks a different reality. You're robbing Peter to pay Paul. Your income swings wildly from month to month. And let's be honest, you probably couldn't name your monthly business expenses if your life depended on it.

The P.A.I.D.S method changed everything for me when I was making more money than ever but somehow ended up nearly broke by year-end. This simple framework (Pay yourself first, Automate your tracking, Invest in expertise, Divide your income strategically, and Set monthly financial goals) provides the financial foundation so many of us were never taught. Combine this with practical tools like Wave for bookkeeping, Google Sheets for budgeting, and weekly money check-ins, and you'll transform your relationship with business finances.

Remember, wealth isn't about how much you make – it's about how much you keep, protect, and multiply. This isn't just about surviving as an entrepreneur; it's about creating true freedom through financial discipline. Download our free financial reset checklist at notjustcandletalk.me and join the conversation about the financial realities we all face. Your future self (and bank account) will thank you.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up y'all?
This is not just Candle Talk,the raw, unfiltered podcast for
creators, small business ownersand entrepreneurs who are sick
of playing by the rules that nolonger serve us.
And today we're talking aboutmoney.
Yeah, that part nobody wants totalk about, but everyone

(00:22):
struggles with.
This episode is called Broke orBad at Budgeting the financial
wake-up call every entrepreneurneeds, because I'm not going to
keep it.
I'm going to keep it real.
Most people don't have businessproblems.
They have a money mismanagementproblem.

(00:44):
Okay, so we're going to getinto it.
Let's start here.
Being a small business owner orcontractor looks cute on social
media, invoicing, branding,fancy coffee and co-worker
spaces, but behind the scenes,what are we doing?

(01:06):
You're robbing Peter to payPaul.
You get paid on the 15th andit's gone by the 17th.
You're making 5k one month and500 the next, and, let's be
honest, you don't even know whatyour monthly business expense
expenses are.

(01:27):
Here's a truth bomb If youdon't respect your money, guess
what?
Your money won't respect you.
So let me hit you with fivefinancial mistakes I've seen
over and over from entrepreneurs.
Okay, number one no separationbetween business and personal.

(01:53):
If your business and yourpersonal accounts are the same,
your business is already inchaos.
So today, or when you get asecond or some time whenever,
open a separate account.
It's vital, it's absolutelyvital to have separate accounts.

(02:13):
Okay, number two no emergencyfund, aka the shit happens funds
, if a client bails or if Stripefreezes your account.
Do you ask yourself do you havetwo months of expenses ready to
float you?
Because most don't.

(02:35):
Ok.
Number three not paying yourselfa salary because you deserve a
check.
Right, stop treating yourselflike the unpaid intern in your
own company.
Ok, find a way to pay yourself.

(02:56):
It's important, ok, and it'shard to do.
Ok, it's hard to find your,your, your, your little piece of
the profit in a small businessor doing contract work, but you
have to make that a priority foryourself.
Okay, number four only planningfor the good months.

(03:20):
Okay, planning your budgetaround a 6k month is cute until
you have a 2k month, all right,build your, build your budget
based on your lowest predictablemonth.
Right, I had, I had to learnthis the hard way.
Okay, I um, always was goingbig, big, big and finally I

(03:46):
realized let me always lowerwhat my budget is At least a
couple thousand under what itshould be.
Right, because it was a badhabit.
I always went big, big, big andthat's not reality.
It's not reality.
Especially when you're startingoff, you always want to give

(04:12):
yourself a little wiggle room,as you will, or when the good
revenue starts to pick up, youwill eventually see where your
money is actually going.

(04:32):
Okay, number five no financialSOPs.
If you don't know your revenue,your expenses, your debt and
your profit margin, then youdon't run a business, you run
chaos.
Okay, um, I have a friend, amentor, a business mentor.

(04:52):
She has had a business for overa small business.
She she's ran for over 20, 25years.
I always go to her and get herviews on these types of things.
She's open, she's open andalways honest with me.

(05:14):
I go to her for this because Ifyou don't know where your debt
is, where your expenses are andyour profit margin, you can't
predict year to year, you can'tpredict six months, not even six
months down the road.
You can't predict it and youhave to have those numbers for a

(05:40):
year to year basis, somethingyou can look back on, right, and
that's really how you grow.
You don't want to.
It's nice to look forward,right, but real businesses
actually look behind, they dotheir research, they look what
happened the year after, becausethings change, I mean the year

(06:00):
before that.
Everything changes year to year, so you always want to go back
and see what you did.
Uh, what was your numberslooking like?
How much debt did you?
Because you're going to havedebt, right, everyone has debt.
You always want to go back andlook at that debt, look at that
revenue, and then that's reallyhow you plan, that's how you

(06:22):
plan for, and then that's reallyhow you plan.
That's how you plan for six.
I like to plan for myself.
I like to plan six months inadvance.
That's just.
That's just a safe, safe havenfor me.
Let me tell you a story realquick.
In 2022, I made more money thanI ever had more money than I

(06:49):
ever had but by Q4, I was damnnear broke.
No savings, tax bills due,burnt out from overworking just
to keep up an image.
Right, the candle business.
The candle business.
You know why?
Because I never planned for aback end.
I didn't set boundaries.
I was making revenue, but notmaking wealth and wealth.

(07:10):
That's not about how much youmake.
It's about how much you keep,protect and then multiply.
Okay, it's a learning curve.
It's always a learning curve.
That's why I do these podcasts,because if you're not learning
from your mistakes, it's alwaysgoing to be chaos, and that's
why people give up most of thetime.

(07:33):
Okay, so let me give you asimple blueprint.
You can, you can have it today,you can steal it today.
I call it the P A I, d, s-d-smethod.
Okay, I'm going to run downeach letter and I repeat it it's
called the P-A-I-D-S method.
I'm going to break down eachletter for you.

(07:55):
Okay, here we go.
Pay yourself first, even ifit's a hundred dollars a month.
Build the habit.
Okay, that's the p pay yourselffirst.
A.
Automate your money.
Use tools like quickbooks.
You can use wave or even agoogle sheet.

(08:16):
Every transaction should betracked.
Okay, I invest in a bookkeeperor a CPA?
Okay, uh, if you're not greatwith numbers, hire someone who
is, even if you have to hirethem part-time.
D.
Divide your income.

(08:37):
So try, try this breakdown, ifyou will 30% on taxes, 30%
expenses, 30% in your savingsand 10% in reinvesting in your
business.
Okay, that was D.

(08:57):
Divide your income.
S.
Set financial goals monthly.
Don't just track income.
Set actual goals.
Okay, so how you do that?
You pay off the $500 a debtthis month.
Then save a thousand dollarstoward emergency funds.
So set goals, uh, monthly, okay.

(09:19):
Um, your business is not a vibe, it's a machine treated like
one.
Ok, so I want to real talk.
Here's what.
Here's what helped me.
I'm going to give you the tea,ok, as they say.
Here's what helped me.
A few things the wave app is a.
It's a free invoicing andbookkeeping app app.

(09:41):
It's a free invoicing andbookkeeping app, something
called K Capital, that's with aQ Q-A-P-I-T-A capital, l.
So auto savings goal.
Use those Google Sheets mymonthly budget Bible OK, the

(10:03):
Google Sheets is my monthlymonthly Bible notion finance
dashboard.
You could track your goals andyou could see your, your income,
uh, visually.
Okay, these are things that Iuse.
Um, these are things that thathelp me.

(10:24):
Um, and then cash stuffingmethod.
If you love visuals, tryenvelope budgeting digitally or
physically, okay, that's.
If you like, the, if you like,if you're a visual person, ok,
so use these tools that I justand I'll put all this stuff in

(10:46):
the show notes Use these toolsand you know they will work.
They can work, ok.
So every Sunday, what I did wasI spent 30 minutes doing a money
meeting with myself.
I looked at what came in whatwent out and then what's next.
Okay, so those are just sometips I wanted to to to throw out

(11:11):
there because it's important,like a lot of people just don't
talk about they're not randomlytalking about money, about money
, the small business with otherentrepreneurs.
They're not.
They're not doing that Right,they're suffering, and I'm here
to try to to to open upconversations about these things
because it's needed.

(11:33):
So if you're listening to thisand feeling overwhelmed, broke
or even embarrassed, I get it,but don't let shame keep you
stuck.
You are not bad at business.
You just haven't had the rightfinancial foundation and no one
taught us this stuff growing up,especially not in our

(11:55):
communities, right, but this isyour financial wake-up call.
Okay, this is it.
And I had to do this episodebecause, like I said, I always
say in all of my episodes, Ithink it's worth talking about,
especially this year, especiallynow.
It's worthy of a conversationor two, okay, um.

(12:19):
So if this episode hits home,share it with someone who needs
it, who needs to hear it.
You can also leave a review,and what I'm going to do is I'm
going to download the?
Um, the free financial resetchecklist for entrepreneurs, and
you can get that I'll put thatlink in the um on the website of

(12:41):
uh www not just candle talk,dot me and you can just download
that free uh free downloadchecklist and and use it right.
Use it as a reference guidebecause visually it's important
to see these things, not justhearing me talk, but if you see
these things, uh and I, it'simportant to see these things,
not just hearing me talk, but ifyou see these things and it's a

(13:25):
few downloads that I have, butlooking at these things just for
a couple of minutes throughoutyour week or once a month, have
these just to check in withyourself and check in with if
you have employees or thingslike that, to always keep the
goal in mind and remember moneyis not the goal, it's not the
goal.
Freedom is, and freedomrequires discipline.
Let's get our, let's get ourhouse in order, so to speak,

(13:46):
let's build real wealth andlet's talk about the hard stuff
so we can actually all winbecause it's it's doable, right.
So, like I said, until nexttime, keep it raw, keep it real
and keep it moving.
I'm going to end this episoderight here and keep it moving.
I'm going to end this episoderight here.
I just wanted to come on anddrop a few things on here for
you to reference, to use, tohelp, if you know any way I can,

(14:09):
and, of course, if I find somemore things that's worth
discussing, I will do a part twoof this.
Maybe I can bring some peopleon and have these discussions,
have a roundtable sort of speak,do a webinar or Zoom, have a
Zoom call and we can talk aboutit because it's worthy of a

(14:31):
conversation.
So until next time, thank youso much for listening.
Until next time.
Thank you so much for listening.
And uh, and, like I said before, all the downloads I'm putting
in the show notes, uh, right atthe bottom of the um of the show
notes, and you can, and you can, download all of them for free.
All of our downloads are free,as as always.
And until next time, thank youfor listening.

(14:51):
Talk to you soon.
Bye.