Summary

Wayne Richard, a financial expert, joins the podcast to discuss the importance of understanding the financial side of your business. He shares his own journey and how money has shaped his life. Wayne emphasizes the need to be proactive with your finances and make informed decisions based on your financial reports. He also highlights the significance of identifying money leaks and money fountains in your business. By taking control of your numbers and making small changes, you can create a more profitable and successful business.

Chapters

| **Timestamp** | **Summary** |
| ————- | ———– |
| 0:00 | Introduction |
| 0:05 | Topic A |
| 1:10 | Topic B |
| 2:25 | Topic C |
| 3:40 | Topic D |
| 4:55 | Topic E |
| 6:00 | Topic F |
| 7:15 | Topic G |
| 8:30 | Conclusion |
| 00:00:00 | Introduction to the podcast and the importance of money |
| 00:01:01 | Personal experience growing up poor and the motivation to make money |
| 00:02:06 | Homelessness and bouncing around different living situations |
| 00:03:21 | The impact of money on choices and opportunities |
| 00:04:06 | The ability to serve more customers with more money |
| 00:05:00 | Reminder about Black Friday and the importance of preparing |
| 00:07:16 | Introduction of guest Wayne Richard and his background in finance |
| 00:08:25 | Wayne’s journey into finance and the decision to pursue it |
| 00:09:57 | The opportunity for freedom and career growth in the finance industry |
| 00:11:03 | Personal experiences with family and career changes |
| 00:10:57 | Speaker 2 talks about having children and making a life-changing decision. |
| 00:11:28 | Speaker 2 discusses his decision to start his own business. |
| 00:12:15 | Speaker 2 talks about finding a business partner and growing their business. |
| 00:13:01 | Speaker 2 reflects on their journey of supporting e-commerce brands. |
| 00:13:14 | Speaker 1 jokes about Speaker 2 being more like a sports manager than a finance guy. |
| 00:13:35 | Speaker 1 asks if Speaker 2 ever considered working with professional athletes. |
| 00:14:13 | Speaker 2 talks about the satisfaction of working with e-commerce brands. |
| 00:15:12 | Speaker 1 asks about money leaks and money fountains in businesses. |
| 00:18:30 | Speaker 1 shares her personal experience with understanding the power of financials. |
| 00:19:19 | Speaker 2 discusses the importance of being proactive with financials. |
| 00:21:48 | Speaker 2 questions the expenses and profitability of a product. |
| 00:22:16 | Speaker 2 suggests raising the price to make the product profitable. |
| 00:23:12 | Speaker 2 emphasizes the importance of understanding the story behind the numbers. |
| 00:23:41 | Speaker 2 encourages testing different scenarios to unlock potential profits. |
| 00:24:05 | Speaker 1 shares examples of clients who turned money leaks into money fountains. |
| 00:25:00 | Speaker 1 highlights the importance of tracking profitability and cash flow. |
| 00:26:02 | Speaker 1 discusses the tendency to avoid dealing with money issues. |
| 00:26:28 | Speaker 2 validates retailers’ awareness of their business stories. |
| 00:29:02 | Speaker 2 advises retailers to understand the effort required in bookkeeping. |
| 00:30:16 | Speaker 1 emphasizes the importance of accurate financial reports and inventory management. |
| 00:33:23 | Anxiety around money and the importance of understanding numbers. |
| 00:34:14 | The unfamiliarity of scale and fast-paced growth for retailers. |
| 00:35:01 | The benefits of cloud-based tools, AI, and machine learning for accountants. |
| 00:35:36 | Using forecasts and financial projections to advise retailers. |
| 00:36:31 | The importance of KPIs and embracing tools like Clavio. |
| 00:39:10 | Adding personality and unique branding to accounting conversations. |
| 00:40:00 | Changing the story by making small changes in the business. |
| 00:40:41 | The concept of making more money without changing the business model. |
| 00:42:13 | Overcoming mindset barriers and giving permission to make changes. |
| 00:43:36 | Contact information for Wayne and Bean Ninjas. |
| 00:44:26 | Making money becomes fun once you have enough in the bank. |
| 00:44:45 | Episode wrap-up. |
| 00:45:08 | Insight from the episode and taking action. |
| 00:45:25 | Leaving a review helps independent retail and ecommerce stores. |
| 00:45:37 | Ending of the episode. |

Quotes

1. **Speaker 1-(00:04:06)**
> “Money gives us the opportunities that we may not have, whether it is giving to charity or giving you back time like you can buy time.”

2. **Speaker 1-(00:08:25)**
> “Money represents having choices, being able to give me breathing space.”

3. **Speaker 2-(00:19:19)**
> “Those sellers that have the most success are those that are proactive with their numbers.”

4. **Speaker 2-(00:20:33)**
> “Finding those levers that you can begin to test, what if scenarios? What if we didn’t invest in marketing on Facebook this month?”

5. **Speaker 1-(00:25:19)**
> “Money leaks are those things that you may be avoiding or you’re spending the money on things that are just falling through.”

6. **Speaker 2-(00:29:04)**
> “It’s really important for the leadership teams and retailers to have the opportunity to step in the shoes of many of these functions that they’re looking to outsource.”

7. **Speaker 1-(00:32:47)**
> “If you’re too busy working in the business, how is that helping anyone? It’s just not when all these tools are there and the expertise is there to help you build something that gives you freedom.”

8. **Speaker 2-(00:36:11)**
> “The more informed, the more certain you are, and then the more comfortable you will be in making these larger decisions.”

9. **Speaker 1-(00:40:00)**
> “If it’s a story you don’t like, then it’s up to you to identify what pieces of the story are within your control that you have influence over.”

10. **Speaker 2-(00:44:20)**
> “Get intentional about understanding the story that’s being told through numbers about your business.”

Show Notes

**About The Guest(s):**
Wayne Richard is a financial expert and co-founder of Bean Ninjas, an accounting and bookkeeping firm that specializes in helping e-commerce businesses scale past seven figures. With over 16 years of experience in finance and accounting, Wayne is passionate about helping entrepreneurs understand their numbers and make informed business decisions.

**Summary:**
In this episode, Wayne Richard shares his personal journey from growing up in a blue-collar family to becoming a financial expert and co-founder of Bean Ninjas. He emphasizes the importance of money and how it can provide freedom and choices in life. Wayne also discusses the common money leaks and money fountains that e-commerce businesses face and provides insights on how to identify and address them. He highlights the need for proactive financial management and the power of understanding the story that your numbers are telling. Wayne encourages business owners to embrace technology and tools that can streamline financial processes and provide real-time insights. He also emphasizes the importance of being intentional about understanding and leveraging your financial reports to drive growth and profitability in your business.

**Key Takeaways:**
– Money provides freedom and choices in life, and it is important to be proactive in managing your finances.
– Understanding the story that your numbers are telling is crucial for making informed business decisions.
– Identifying money leaks and money fountains in your business can help you optimize profitability and growth.
– Embracing technology and tools can streamline financial processes and provide real-time insights.
– Being intentional about understanding and leveraging your financial reports can drive growth and profitability in your business.

**Quotes:**
– “Money gives us the opportunities that we may not have, whether it is giving to charity or giving you back time.” – Wayne Richard
– “The numbers purely are based on the spend, the money that’s gone out and come into the business.” – Wayne Richard
– “Find those levers that you can begin to test, what-if scenarios, and continue to explore and pump money into those areas where the returns can be maximized.” – Wayne Richard

00:00:00 Speaker 1
Hey there and welcome to.
00:00:01 Speaker 1
Today’s episode of the bringing business to retail podcast.
00:00:05 Speaker 1
Now, if you’ve been hanging around for a while, then the story I’m about to tell you isn’t new to you. But if you have just tuned in, if you are new to the podcast, well, first of all, welcome. I’m super excited that you have chosen to spend a little time with me and most grateful for the fact that you have allowed me to.
00:00:25 Speaker 1
Take this time because time is something that we never, ever get back, so it is extremely precious in fact.
00:00:33 Speaker 1
Time is one of the things that I talk well, my guest and I talk a lot about.
00:00:39 Speaker 1
In today’s podcast.
00:00:41 Speaker 1
But it starts off talking about money and if you have been around, you will know that I grew up pretty poor, which is probably why, let’s be honest, money is my motivator, money and helping people make money so that they don’t have to relive the situations that I’ve lived.
00:01:01 Speaker 1
That is my driver.
00:01:03 Speaker 1
When you’re a kid and you’re 12 years old and you can’t go to school because you don’t have suitable or lunch box food, realistically there’s just some stale bread and peanut butter. Then those things weigh heavily on you and those things really shape who you are and how you look.
00:01:24 Speaker 1
That money.
00:01:25 Speaker 1
And so for me, growing up in a situation like that was always going to be the driver was I don’t want to live my adult life like this so Fast forward and a whole bunch of situations kind of convened to mean that when I was 14, I had to leave.
00:01:46 Speaker 1
And having that opportunity, I say opportunity because that’s exactly what it was, even though it was extremely traumatic at the time, having that opportunity to escape the life that I was living literally changed my entire future. And so for a little while.
00:02:06 Speaker 1
Was homeless. I didn’t actually have anywhere to go and I bounced around from friends houses to grandparents houses to finally ending up being shipped into state to live with my dad’s elderly.
00:02:21 Speaker 1
Parents now, as you can imagine, most people.
00:02:24 Speaker 1
Who are retired?
00:02:27 Speaker 1
Don’t really want a 14 year old to.
00:02:29 Speaker 1
Look after. Now I am going.
00:02:31 Speaker 1
To say I was a pretty.
00:02:32 Speaker 1
Good kid. I was very bookish.
00:02:34 Speaker 1
So in my room we didn’t have.
00:02:36 Speaker 1
Signs back then.
00:02:37 Speaker 1
They were attached to the wall, but I.
00:02:39 Speaker 1
Would sit in my room, I.
00:02:40 Speaker 1
Would read my book.
00:02:41 Speaker 1
And kind of hang out. I only had a couple of.
00:02:43 Speaker 1
Close friends so.
00:02:44 Speaker 1
I was not the raucous kid rebellious teenager getting into a lot of trouble.
00:02:50 Speaker 1
But regardless of the.
00:02:51 Speaker 1
Fact it didn’t really work out.
00:02:53 Speaker 1
And so I ended.
00:02:54 Speaker 1
Up moving in with my boyfriend’s parents.
00:02:58 Speaker 1
Now let’s be honest.
00:03:00 Speaker 1
Your boyfriend at 15, which is how old I was.
00:03:02 Speaker 1
When this happened?
00:03:04 Speaker 1
Is kind of not your forever boyfriend, right? So I am eternally grateful to his mum for taking me in, I mean.
00:03:12 Speaker 1
There, she had a lot of slaws, as we all do, but the fact that she was so selfless.
00:03:19 Speaker 1
To be able to take.
00:03:21 Speaker 1
Is your boyfriend.
00:03:22 Speaker 1
‘S girlfriend in at the age of 15 like that.
00:03:26 Speaker 1
Again, put me in a situation of seeing that money changes everything because she didn’t have an awful lot of money, and by this point I was actually looking after myself. I was Leo supporting myself, so whilst I was living there and paying her rent, I was kind of essentially, you know, working and doing school work and.
00:03:46 Speaker 1
All that kind of stuff. So.
00:03:48 Speaker 1
I think it was inevitable that I was always going to focus on money.
00:03:54 Speaker 1
And for me, yes, I want money because money gives me choices. But more importantly, I want you to have money. And even though you might not feel like money is your driver.
00:04:06 Speaker 1
We can change the.
00:04:07 Speaker 1
World with money.
00:04:09 Speaker 1
Money gives us the opportunities.
00:04:11 Speaker 1
That we may not have, whether it is giving to charity or giving you back time like you can buy time. It’s one of the few resources that will allow you to get more time because if you can pay someone to do the stuff that you’re doing, you free up your time.
00:04:29 Speaker 1
So if I can help you to make more money, then I can.
00:04:33 Speaker 1
Help you to serve more customers because the.
00:04:35 Speaker 1
More money we make.
00:04:36 Speaker 1
The more customers we serve and today’s guest, Wayne Richard is going to help you do that as well. But before we get into today’s episode just.
00:04:46 Speaker 1
A quick reminder that on the subject of money.
00:04:50 Speaker 1
Black Friday summer Monday is coming up fast as I look over to my calendar, I think we have 12345.
00:05:00 Speaker 1
5-6 and a bit weeks until Black Friday. Cyber Monday, which means you cannot waste any more time putting your promos together. And with that in mind, I have put together my ultimate Black Friday sales bundle and in there I’m going to show you how to create a crazy successful.
00:05:20 Speaker 1
Wales campaign really quickly I’m going to give you the same run sheet that if you’ve been listening to the podcast Dion used Ashley used and Cynthia used to bring in crazy amounts of money into their busy.
00:05:32 Speaker 1
Prices plus a whole bunch of extra resources that will allow you to build out a Black Friday Cyber Monday campaign that brings in the dollars.
00:05:42 Speaker 1
So if you.
00:05:43 Speaker 1
Want to grab?
00:05:44 Speaker 1
That before it’s gone head on over to selenanight.com/BF short for not best friends, but Black Friday, Selena night.
00:05:53 Speaker 1
Com slash BS and grab my ultimate sales bundle for Black Friday before it is gone. Alrighty. Let’s jump into today’s episode with Wayne Richard and make you some more money.
00:06:08 Speaker 1
Hey there and welcome to the bringing business to retail podcast. If you’re looking to get more sales, more customers, master your marketing and ultimately take control of your retail or e-commerce business.
00:06:24 Speaker 1
Then you’re in.
00:06:25 Speaker 1
The right place. I’m Celina knight.
00:06:28 Speaker 1
A retail growth strategist and multi award-winning store owner whose superpower is uncovering exactly what your business requires to move to the next level, I’ll provide you with the strategies, the tools and the insight you need.
00:06:44 Speaker 1
To scale your store.
00:06:46 Speaker 1
Ohh you.
00:06:46 Speaker 1
To do is take action.
00:06:50 Speaker 1
Ready to get started?
00:06:57 Speaker 1
It is no surprise to anyone who listens quite often that I am a big fan of money. I grew up very, very poor. So for me money represents having choices, being able to give me breathing space like gives me the opportunity to take time to look.
00:07:16 Speaker 1
What I really want versus knee jerk reaction to how much money is in the bank and realistically I will have to say that my whole business is built on making people more money for that reason, not because money is greedy, but because money gives. We have a we have a metro in our business. You’ve probably heard this before if you.
00:07:32 Speaker 1
Listen to the podcast.
00:07:34 Speaker 1
More money we make, the more people we can serve and so I am more than happy to help you serve more people and today’s guest, Wayne Richard is going to help you to make more money in your business. Welcome to the show, Wayne.
00:07:48 Speaker 2
Thank you so much for having me.
00:07:49 Speaker 1
Sal, look, I have to say, if you guys are not watching the video, Wayne, you do not look like a typical financial guy. You are not bad looking. You got the bald head. You clearly look like you go to the gym on a regular basis, like people who are listening. Think of financial people, especially financial men. There’s a stereotype.
00:08:09 Speaker 1
You know some weedy guy who’s slightly balding, you know, sitting in the corner, introvert.
00:08:15 Speaker 2
Has not quite embraced it yet.
00:08:17 Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, you are none of those things. So tell us, how did you get into the world of finance and making?
00:08:25 Speaker 2
Sure, I’d love to share. So my journey in story with money that I told myself for a long time was very similar. I grew up in a blue collar manufacturing town. Both of my parents were machine operators, and we grew up under the premise that in order to make a lot of money, you have to work physically very hard.
00:08:46 Speaker 2
And I had that similar mindset till I reached college and here I entered college with an idea that I would work in the money of sports. So my major was sports management. I thought I would be.
00:09:03 Speaker 2
The team owner.
00:09:04 Speaker 2
Or some big shot role within a professional sports organization. And in that first class, the instructor told us a Horror Story that many of us would not ever find jobs in the industry, that those that did may work for free or for little money.
00:09:21 Speaker 2
For their entire career and my second class happened to be the intro to accounting course. I had taken a bookkeeping class in high school so thought it would be an easy grade for me in class to take in my first year of university.
00:09:37 Speaker 2
So in that class the lecture went the opposite direction. They shared the. It could work in any industry imaginable. You would make a very healthy wage, and that after the first two years of working extremely hard, you could have an opportunity to be a manager, a partner in.
00:09:57 Speaker 2
Organizations and not have to commit your life and livelihood, and that idea initially of that.
00:10:04 Speaker 2
Opportunity for freedom. Because of this, money made a lot of sense to me, so I changed my major in the first few weeks of school. That then led into opportunities after university to work for one of the world’s best finance organizations at Hewlett-Packard, where I moved the time.
00:10:25 Speaker 2
About the importance of leading teams being proactive in your management of your finances, how to truly understand financial reports in the use.
00:10:37 Speaker 2
Out of those reports and making more insightful and informed business decisions and that then led me after a career of about 16 years as a corporate climber, to really look for other paths for myself. On the personal side, my wife and I had gone from having two to five.
00:10:57 Speaker 2
Children, we had trucks.
00:11:00 Speaker 1
You went back for the third.
00:11:01 Speaker 1
And got 3.
00:11:03 Speaker 2
The bonus too? That’s right. It was like the Costco of babies.
00:11:08 Speaker 2
But that was truly life changing. You know, I started to look at those things that meant a lot to me in my life and being intentionally present and involved with my children. I am very much interested in fitness and maintaining and being active. So a lot of these interest in a decision to either reload.
00:11:28 Speaker 2
Gate alongside HP and move my family or essentially take the severance as runway to start something on my own became very appealing. I spent some time doing some moonlighting efforts for a medical practice in the role of a bookkeeper.
00:11:48 Speaker 2
Some connections I’ve made and I quickly put the numbers together. It’s like, wow, if I worked 4 hours and made this much money.
00:11:55 Speaker 2
If I had five clients that were similar, I could almost replace my income and much less time use that time to then be here and involved in supporting my wife and my family. And fortunately I had a partner that was very much interested in supporting me and active in supporting me at Shreve. What was.
00:12:15 Speaker 2
Our collective collective dream together that turned into a horrible.
00:12:21 Speaker 2
Solo Preneur opportunity where I worked with many clients. I’ve never had an issue selling business, but it was more on delivering to so many people without a team and by myself that I began to search for partners. In that search, I came across my now business partner. We organized an arrangement.
00:12:41 Speaker 2
Where I would be more focused on growth in the US.
00:12:45 Speaker 2
And my partner would continue to grow our business offering in Australia and that was eight years ago yesterday, so.
00:12:53 Speaker 1
What a journey.
00:12:54 Speaker 2
Yeah. So, so now the journey to think back has been quite amazing in supporting now exclusive.
00:13:01 Speaker 2
The e-commerce brands in their path towards scaling past seven figures.
00:13:07 Speaker 1
OK, I have to take a little fun side note here because hearing this story, which I didn’t know and looking at you.
00:13:14 Speaker 1
I feel like.
00:13:15 Speaker 1
You would be much better hanging out with the team of Ballers with the rock rather than the typical stereotype finance guy, so sports management.
00:13:27 Speaker 1
Accounting, I have to ask you, did you ever think of doing what the rock does on the TV series Ballers?
00:13:35 Speaker 2
Yeah, only after seeing the series, I think it became interesting. There’s actually I it.
00:13:41 Speaker 2
The idea has passed my mind. I had an opportunity to meet at an industry conference of other accountants with accounting firm partner that does support professional athletes in their personal bookkeeping, payroll and investment.
00:14:03 Speaker 2
His prior career had been spent with a firm that supported R and Grammy Award winners, and it was just a sexy niche talk about niche focus. E-commerce is amazing and the people I’ve been able to meet and the the how I built this stories.
00:14:13 Speaker 1
Yeah, really nice.
00:14:22 Speaker 2
That I’m able to hear in my day-to-day conversations with merchants has been very fulfilling, and I’m so.
00:14:30 Speaker 2
Pleased that we created a niche in the area of e-commerce accounting to support these sellers, but if I were to have to choose again, perhaps supporting professional ballplayers and Grammy award-winning musicians would be my next choice.
00:14:48 Speaker 1
I think it’s very sexy, but I think the.
00:14:52 Speaker 1
Pool is so much.
00:14:54 Speaker 1
Smaller than e-commerce brands because e-commerce is always going to be something that continues to grow as technology gets better as we want our ability to get things all over the world. But there are only so many ball players, right? There’s only so many teams and so many people on those teams.
00:15:12 Speaker 2
That’s right.
00:15:14 Speaker 1
So I think you.
00:15:15 Speaker 2
Great. You’ve talked me out of it.
00:15:16 Speaker 1
Already in terms of growth, I think it’s like the fun thing like, imagine if. But realistically, when it comes to someone who is focused on.
00:15:17 Speaker 1
I think.
00:15:24 Speaker 1
Growth, I think you picked the better niche.
00:15:26 Speaker 2
And perhaps these athletes will look to invest in these sexy brands, so there will be.
00:15:32 Speaker 1
Well, that’s where you could merge the conversation. It’s like.
00:15:34 Speaker 2
That’s right.
00:15:35 Speaker 1
I think you would be a great brand.
00:15:37 Speaker 1
Ambassador or a collaborator?
00:15:39 Speaker 1
You could be part of this.
00:15:41 Speaker 2
That’s right.
00:15:42 Speaker 1
Just don’t go with Kanye, OK? Don’t choose Kanye.
00:15:47 Speaker 2
Well, he may be president, right?
00:15:50 Speaker 1
Ohh my gosh, let’s not even get into the politics, alright?
00:15:54 Speaker 1
So you’ve you’ve been doing this for a long time, and I’m sure that you have seen.
00:15:58 Speaker 1
Lots of success that ecommerce brands have achieved, but also a lot of I guess those we we call them in our business, money leaks and money fountains pretty obvious like money leaks are those things that.
00:16:12 Speaker 1
You may be avoiding or you’re spending the money.
00:16:15 Speaker 1
On things that.
00:16:16 Speaker 1
Because you’re not in charge of your money.
00:16:19 Speaker 1
And you’re not really looking at.
00:16:21 Speaker 1
Your business with a physical hat on stuff is just falling through the, but that money should be in your pocket. But it’s just kind of leaking away and then you have money. Fountains like those are those things that you could be doing to make more money but.
00:16:33 Speaker 1
Quite often you’re too.
00:16:34 Speaker 1
Busy working in the business that you actually neglect.
00:16:38 Speaker 1
Both of those things. So maybe we could hear some stories from you about like either of like, either of those things that you’ve seen in business and how do you maybe approach?
00:16:50 Speaker 1
The financial side, like I’m gonna call it the bookkeeping side, because I actually failed accounting twice in university, which is hilarious from someone who enjoys making money so much. Here’s my story, a failed accounting twice because the whole double. What’s it called? Double entry bookkeeping, yes.
00:17:10 Speaker 1
I didn’t get it. It was just numbers. No one could explain to me. Still, to this day I remember an accountant friend, an accountant, dad friend, a friend, friend’s dad saying to me, just remember debit value in credit value out and I’m like, huh, like that?
00:17:30 Speaker 1
But why would you?
00:17:32 Speaker 1
Debit something going in and I don’t it just sticks with me and I know it makes sense in bookkeeping, but I still have NFI what why that works, however.
00:17:43 Speaker 1
Fast forward 10 years later.
00:17:45 Speaker 1
When I opened my big.
00:17:47 Speaker 1
And I remember like I started with an Excel spreadsheet like.
00:17:50 Speaker 1
Many people do.
00:17:51 Speaker 1
And I just remember thinking.
00:17:53 Speaker 1
Oh my God. It’s money. Like it was like this revelation of it’s not just numbers, it’s money.
00:18:01 Speaker 1
I felt so stupid.
00:18:03 Speaker 1
At the time, just being like.
00:18:05 Speaker 1
It was always money, but when it.
00:18:06 Speaker 1
Was my money.
00:18:08 Speaker 1
Going into a bank account, paying a supplier interest, credit terms all it was like Ohh, it’s money like I get it now and it was just like it all fell into place. So if you ever think you guys listening ever think when we’re talking about this stuff that you feel so?
00:18:24 Speaker 1
Dumb. Trust me, I have been there and I really feel and I’m sure Wayne is going.
00:18:30 Speaker 1
To give us a.
00:18:30 Speaker 1
Lot more of this when you become confident in what’s inside the numbers and that they’re just numbers on a piece of paper like, yes, they’re money, but they’re just numbers. They don’t have any.
00:18:42 Speaker 1
Control over you. In fact, you have control over it. Then all of a sudden, like the power that financials and money has, that negative power and that negative hold on. You can’t. It just falls away. Do you? Do you see that way?
00:18:59 Speaker 2
I do and and I think what we’ve come across is the story that many people feel you need to react to the outcome that your financial reports are that the story that your numbers are telling you. And very often it’s the case that those sellers that have the most success or those that are.
00:19:19 Speaker 2
Proactive with.
00:19:20 Speaker 2
Their numbers, if you relate it to just the stories and teachings of the personal finance gurus.
00:19:27 Speaker 2
And where they.
00:19:28 Speaker 2
Very much are adamant that you tell your money where to go. You put a name to every dollar and you assign a place for it to be spent. As an example, those.
00:19:40 Speaker 2
Sellers are more successful than those that just continually ask, you know, why am I in this position? How did we get here? Right. I thought we were doing so well in sales, but I have no money in the bank account and this is a story we hear over and over again.
00:19:48 Speaker 1
Yeah. Where’s my money gone?
00:19:59 Speaker 2
Before we get into that mode of getting folks organized into a financial system, that’s yes, software, QuickBooks Online or 0 alongside the service and support of our being ninjas team of accountants, but also the conversations that come about.
00:20:19 Speaker 2
Within the system that help our customers truly understand the story that’s being told from their numbers, but then also identifying is this a story that you enjoy? Do you like the story that’s being?
00:20:33 Speaker 2
Hold because you have the ability to change that story. You have the opportunity, as you mentioned, to really focus in on what we call growth levers. These water, these money fountains and continue to explore and pump money into those areas where the returns then can be maximized.
00:20:54 Speaker 2
As opposed to.
00:20:57 Speaker 2
Putting money into the areas that will just continually provide those extensive losses that you’re continually questioning and for me, you know a story that relates to this is we had a customer particularly in the sales spike that came about.
00:21:16 Speaker 2
With COVID that was having trend.
00:21:17 Speaker 2
Success with that particular product set and we were continually evaluating their sales numbers and they were very much focused on top line sales top. My goal next month is this number and then it was a larger number the following month and the more we started seeing the history.
00:21:37 Speaker 2
And what those increased sales were doing, we decided to look into the unit economics and simply laying out the numbers. What is the price of a?
00:21:48 Speaker 2
This product, when sold, what is? How does that price break down to expenses required to get that product landed at the customer’s doorstep? How much are you paying Facebook to advertise this product? And we discovered what they were actually doing was scaling losses.
00:22:08 Speaker 2
They were simply pushing marketing toward a product that, at a price that was not profitable for their.
00:22:16 Speaker 2
Business. So the conversation then went about well, if this certainly is a product that uniquely serves your customer and you can continue to see the acceleration of sales, let’s consider your price, right. If you can raise your price and see a slight and absolutely make it profitable, then it makes sense to continue to.
00:22:31 Speaker 1
Make it possible.
00:22:36 Speaker 2
Push spends through paid media to amplify their ability to sell it in. You’re now selling it profitably so that then allows for you to cover your personal wages, your operating expenses, your team.
00:22:52 Speaker 2
Cost. So that’s just one example where probably more on the you know on the variety and visibility side, it’s really important to not just look at your numbers and you know do a scan over the PDF file that might get sent to you each month. But truly try and if you can’t.
00:23:12 Speaker 2
Understands on your own the story that these numbers are telling you because what your financial reports are.
00:23:20 Speaker 2
It’s simply the results of the decisions you’ve made in your business shown in the story of numbers. Yeah, in those numbers in the story are something that you entirely have control over. So finding those levers that you can begin to test, what if scenarios?
00:23:41 Speaker 2
What if we didn’t invest in marketing on Facebook this month? What impact might that have to our business? What if we did jump on the TikTok shops, train and tried to sell some of our product there? These little tests can really be those.
00:23:58 Speaker 2
Big unlocks that help you just really pump pump into that money fountain.
00:24:04 Speaker 1
It is we.
00:24:05 Speaker 1
I mean I.
00:24:06 Speaker 1
I can think of three of our clients, three of our retailers off the top of our head who that exact scenario we have uncovered within a.
00:24:13 Speaker 1
Week so it’s.
00:24:15 Speaker 1
But it’s where you’ve turned a money leak into a money fountain. So I know 11 client was spending.
00:24:23 Speaker 1
X amount let’s I don’t know $30,000, but actually only making $20,000 in sales and then?
00:24:29 Speaker 1
You’re like, oh.
00:24:30 Speaker 1
This doesn’t make sense like sure on the back end, you might have a great repeat business and you might have a great average order value, but if you’re not looking at that whole entire journey.
00:24:40 Speaker 1
Why? Why are you spending this much money to lose even more? Because you didn’t just lose the $10,000 in ad spend. You lost the cost of goods and the shipping and all the other things on the back end. So you’re actually paying people.
00:24:53 Speaker 1
To buy your stuff.
00:24:54 Speaker 1
Which sounds ridiculous when somebody lays it out, but when you are so busy just working.
00:25:00 Speaker 1
In your business.
00:25:02 Speaker 1
You know that you should be spending your money on marketing and you kind of hired an expert. So you think they’re doing the things in your best interest. But this is like we have a thing called a CEO dashboard. I know you have something very similar where we, we track all of that so you can see whether something is profitable because like.
00:25:19 Speaker 1
You said these are.
00:25:20 Speaker 1
Just decisions and you can change those decisions today.
00:25:23 Speaker 1
You can change them tomorrow and even something as simple as.
00:25:28 Speaker 1
What people waiting for the end of quarter to look at their numbers, it’s like, but if something breaks, if there’s a money leak on week one of the quarter, are you going to continue another 11 weeks of pumping money into something that is losing your money and by the same token, if there’s a money fountain like there, if there is something there that’s generating?
00:25:48 Speaker 1
Great cash flow for you and great profitability. Are you gonna wait another 11-11 weeks for to to go ohh, this thing works like that.
00:25:56 Speaker 1
Right. It sounds so silly when you and I.
00:25:59 Speaker 1
Talk about it, but the reality is.
00:26:02 Speaker 1
If money is the thing that you’re avoiding.
00:26:05 Speaker 1
You kind of find lots of excuses not to do this stuff.
00:26:08 Speaker 2
Yeah, in in these situations happen all the time. I think we were speaking in the intro prior to learning a little bit too about there’s so much technology and information available to retailers now that my goal as a support team.
00:26:28 Speaker 2
And trusted advisor to our customers is simply to validate the stories. They’re already aware of what are occurring in their business.
00:26:39 Speaker 2
Right. Once we get to a position where we’re able to set up the system and also inform them about how to utilize simple tools, Shopify has amazing dashboards that help for you in real time to understand your sales velocity. Some of your product margins, your effectiveness and conversions.
00:27:00 Speaker 1
Which channels are performing?
00:27:02 Speaker 2
Absolutely. Yeah. So these are daily checkpoints that it really intentional.
00:27:10 Speaker 2
Inform retailers should be utilizing and once it gets to the place where we’re able to do the work on our end to finalize the month and close and financial reports, it should really be confirmation of information you’ve already gathered from other sources. I know many of our customers.
00:27:30 Speaker 2
With media agencies to work through the growth, performance marketing and they’re providing to them metrics through channels via daily slack messages on how much was spent and the effectiveness of that spend and what’s great of those conversations where.
00:27:50 Speaker 2
Directionally, we can advise that those stories they’re being told are true and the.
00:27:56 Speaker 2
Do make sense for the numbers that we’re seeing, so the validation is certainly helpful in kind of a checkpoint, right? I think you can have cases where.
00:28:06 Speaker 1
Keeping everyone honest, isn’t it because every, let’s be honest, every employee, every agency that you work with?
00:28:15 Speaker 1
They’re trying to cover their own ***** like they want to present themselves in the best way possible to you, and if that means you can skew any data if that means skewing the data to make me.
00:28:25 Speaker 1
Look better then we’re gonna.
00:28:27 Speaker 1
Do that, and So what you’re doing is kind of saying.
00:28:30 Speaker 1
We’re getting. We’re taking all the emotion we’re taking. It doesn’t matter whether they’re nice people, doesn’t matter how much you’re paying them. The simple fact is the the data doesn’t lie the numbers. How much money is in the bank doesn’t lie.
00:28:40 Speaker 2
That’s right.
00:28:42 Speaker 2
And and there’s no magic into how we create the numbers. The numbers purely are based on the spend the money that’s gone out and come into the business. So there’s an ability for us to be impartial because simply we’re reporting upon factual data.
00:29:01 Speaker 2
That we have.
00:29:02 Speaker 2
Access to with.
00:29:04 Speaker 2
In the results, in decisions that have been made in that month, I think one thing we had that that speaks to this also is it’s really important for.
00:29:17 Speaker 2
The leadership teams and in our customers and retailers to have the opportunity, at least initially to step in the shoes of many of these functions that they’re looking to outsource. I think it’s critical and we advise some of the earlier stage brands that come to us for support that it might be better.
00:29:36 Speaker 2
Suited for them to dabble in doing their own bookkeeping for a period of time so that they understand the effort that’s required around validating their clearing accounts and coordinating information across Shopify and PayPal and their bank account so that.
00:29:56 Speaker 2
The value or perception of values more clearly understood, I think a lot of times the conversations like wow, you know, we’re going to have a bookkeeping system. You know, we plugged into QuickBooks Online and linked our bank account. So there’s.
00:30:12 Speaker 2
There’s our system.
00:30:12 Speaker 1
I just have to reconcile all these. I just have to reconcile everything and it’s like, no, no, no. Like I I’m physically shrinking right now because I I’ve seen this too many times where people just write everything off as an expense or a purchase. And it’s like, actually, that’s not what the tax office looks at.
00:30:16 Speaker 2
Yeah, all you’re.
00:30:16 Speaker 2
Doing is hitting.
00:30:32 Speaker 1
Like they there are things that you might have spent money on, but they’re not classified as an expense. Your inventory is not an expense. Your inventory is an asset and assets have liabilities.
00:30:45 Speaker 2
Yeah, and I think.
00:30:46 Speaker 2
That’s why we loved the complexity of the e-commerce niche, specifically because it is challenging. There’s so many factors that involve that are involved in getting to a place where you have an ability to have accurate financial reports in the.
00:31:05 Speaker 2
Inventory cost of goods sold.
00:31:09 Speaker 2
Workflow is is really one of those that is often misunderstood. Very common is the case that we see brands come to us and they’re simply as they’re sending deposits to suppliers, recognizing that as expense, as they’re paying their 70% on Bill of lading.
00:31:30 Speaker 2
Recognizing that as expense as opposed to working in a fashion that’s more best in class, more clearly visible in matching your sales with your expenses.
00:31:43 Speaker 2
And that’s what’s called the accrual basis of accounting. It’s just a technical term in accounting to say, match your expense timing for when that product was actually sold and it allows for you that ability to really understand the profitability of those products.
00:32:03 Speaker 2
That you’re selling because you’re just not clouded by these big lump sum of spin that occurs when you’re procuring and executing your purchase orders against the.
00:32:17 Speaker 2
More than likely hope the consistent volume of sales dollars that come about many months later.
00:32:26 Speaker 1
Sometimes you’re doing a pre-order an indent order and you have to send the supplier money three months, six months in advance, but you have nothing to sell it against. So like you said, the numbers are.
00:32:37 Speaker 1
Actually very very out. And what people don’t realize is it could end up costing you a lot more money because you’re you’re you’re realizing tax.
00:32:47 Speaker 1
And assets at different points in storage costs, all those kinds of things like that. Like I said, they’re not happening at the time when you physically have the product to sell. And so just writing things off as an expense or a purchase doesn’t reflect what your business is doing and it could mean you end up paying more tax. It could mean that.
00:32:49 Speaker 2
Storage cost, right?
00:33:08 Speaker 1
You have what your cash flow is, what cash flow forecasting sounds so scary. But when people understand that it’s just understanding when the money’s gonna hit your bank account and when the money’s gonna leave your bank.
00:33:21 Speaker 1
Account then it gives you the ability.
00:33:23 Speaker 1
To say Ohh wow, we have we’re going to spend $40,000 on an indent order. Let’s do a promotion. Let’s get that money coming in. Let’s do the promotion to make sure that we have the cash to pay for that thing. And then there’s not that anxiety. So many people have anxiety around money.
00:33:40 Speaker 1
And so if we can, but it’s it, it’s just understanding the numbers and being in control of them. So the anxiety disappears if you know in advance that you have an expense that needs to be paid because now we can do something about it.
00:33:53 Speaker 2
That’s right. Yeah, I often advise too. It’s it’s scary when it’s unfamiliar. I think often times scale and fast-paced growth is unfamiliar to many retailers. They’ve just not naturally been in an experience where they’ve ridden a rocket ship of growth. So making these decisions.
00:34:14 Speaker 2
That the multiples of scale that are required.
00:34:17 Speaker 2
Support that growth becomes scary. Naturally. In e-commerce, you’re spending a lot of money well before you have a chance to earn that profit, and where that cash can actually be kept and perhaps provide you a livable wage or a a meaningful salary. So I think.
00:34:38 Speaker 2
When getting to that place.
00:34:40 Speaker 2
And historically, accountants are historians, right? We have talked quite a bit today about the role we play in helping understand the story that’s been told. What’s exciting to me is where the industry is headed with the birth of cloud based tools, with AI, with machine learning.
00:35:01 Speaker 2
Where it’s able to take repeatable tasks that often took lots of time and condense them so that there’s offerings now that are pretty close to real time in terms of providing you feedback and numbers.
00:35:15 Speaker 2
But what that allows for us as accountants to do is invest more time in conversations about what’s ahead. How can we begin to create forecast, whether it be cash flow or financial projection models that can better advise these retailers around?
00:35:36 Speaker 2
One where the gaps are between the baseline of where they stand today and where they hope to be in the future so that you can then begin to build plans, but then also just that Peace of Mind that, OK, there’s certain levers that if I pull, I can reliably say that.
00:35:56 Speaker 2
This investment is going to yield this return because I have a history that shows me that that’s been the case. There’s there’s been many of those in the past, I think where folks have found success.
00:36:11 Speaker 2
Across e-mail marketing across Facebook ads, certainly those have their peaks and valleys these. But as long as you’re reasonable about what the returns could look like, but then you’re also aware of what the risk may be if it goes sideways, the more informed the more certain you are.
00:36:31 Speaker 2
And then the more comfortable you will be in making these larger decisions?
00:36:36 Speaker 1
I know a lot of you just said something that made me think about we talk. We talk so often about KPI’s and everyone thinks I’m not. Well, not everyone, but lots of people think I’m not, you know.
00:36:46 Speaker 1
I’m not at.
00:36:47 Speaker 1
That level yet, but KPI’s is.
00:36:49 Speaker 1
Just a set of.
00:36:51 Speaker 1
Rules where you go. At this point I say yes or I say no at this. Yeah, this is something that we’re working towards. And I mean advertising and and and my my marketing company gives me a set of KPI’s and the minute that an ad set gets out of that KPI, it’s out, it’s gone and so.
00:37:10 Speaker 1
What that does is help those decisions get made so much quicker, like you were just saying, AI love how AI is just streamlining everything. You’ve been in the business for eight years. I’ve been in the business.
00:37:25 Speaker 1
Like 17 many many more, but I I still to this day am amazed and also so frustrated at how people don’t embrace the tools that we have. Like what Clavio e-mail marketing can do. We, like you said we had people.
00:37:45 Speaker 1
You were writing in a diary to send specific emails and we were hosting videos on our website and all this kind of.
00:37:52 Speaker 1
Stuff like now.
00:37:54 Speaker 1
You just shared your stuff in, being able to see whether someone is likely to purchase again and where they’re.
00:38:00 Speaker 1
Like you know, in their the customer analytics like where they’re at in the buying journey, are they going to churn like they should have bought by now and doing something about it, they’re so easy. They’re easy ways to make more money and create a better customer journey. And I love that Shopify is now putting AI into product descriptions, anything.
00:38:20 Speaker 1
That can make your life easier and better for the customer is a no brainer, but if.
00:38:26 Speaker 1
You’re too busy working.
00:38:28 Speaker 1
In the business just trying to, you know, turn up every day and stand behind the counter or pack the orders.
00:38:34 Speaker 1
How is that helping anyone? It’s just it’s just not when all these tools are there and the expertise is there to help you build something that gives you freedom. You said right back at the beginning, the whole reason you started this business was the free.
00:38:49 Speaker 2
Absolutely. And and that to me means time, you know, the ability for me to dictate where my time is spent at any given moment. But I think, too, one thing that’s important to understand is I think people use AI as a shortcut. Right. I think I’m seeing, particularly in my space, where I follow a lot of accounting firms and.
00:39:10 Speaker 2
You’re seeing very similar content. I think what’s going to become unnecessary.
00:39:17 Speaker 2
Task for business owners going forward is really adding your personality, your unique take on content on, you know, some of your opinions adding you know your branding to white, what might be a particularly boring product set?
00:39:36 Speaker 2
Or piece of information.
00:39:37 Speaker 2
I’m I’m talking about inventory and I’m talking about supplier terms. They’re not exactly sexy conversation topics or things that really are interactive conversations, but I feel like with our unique brand around using the insights from this information.
00:39:58 Speaker 2
To help support our customer.
00:40:00 Speaker 2
Members achieve their own definition of freedom. For many of that’s financial freedom. For some, that becomes time. Freedom as well makes it a compelling conversation, and one that you’re able to find a bit more of a commonality in as opposed to just slapping down a profit and loss statement and saying.
00:40:20 Speaker 2
Here’s what the numbers here’s what the numbers are, right?
00:40:24 Speaker 1
And that’s.
00:40:25 Speaker 1
I think that is such a fitting kind of wrap up of this conversation you and I could talk for ages because we like making people money, but that concept of here’s what the numbers are. That’s the story you have to rewrite.
00:40:39 Speaker 1
Because that is the one you get to take.
00:40:41 Speaker 1
Control over. It’s like, here’s what the numbers were.
00:40:46 Speaker 1
What are we going to do to change them?
00:40:48 Speaker 2
Right. Do you like it? If I love the story, I’m just going to continue to repeat the habits I’ve been doing to continue the story until the the story changes. If it’s a story you don’t like, then it’s up to you. Identify what pieces of the story are within your control that you have influence over, that you can begin to make small changes.
00:40:50 Speaker 1
Yeah. Do you like?
00:40:50 Speaker 1
It yeah, yes.
00:41:10 Speaker 2
Within your business to tell a different story in the future.
00:41:15 Speaker 1
And those changes you just said something so pertinent, so we’re not wrapping this conversation up just yet. You just said make those small changes in your business and that is the whole premise that we work on in our business, which is growing exponentially, making exponentially more money.
00:41:36 Speaker 1
Is not changing your entire business model. It is simply finding these money leaks and these money fountain.
00:41:43 Speaker 1
And tweaking.
00:41:43 Speaker 1
And sometimes they are so ridiculously small they might be getting trade terms. We just had somebody tell us that they’re we you’re talking about channels earlier, they said they sell on Etsy and they’ve had a 13% increase in orders on Etsy. It’s like so spend some more money advertising on Etsy like this is not rocket science.
00:42:03 Speaker 1
We just need someone with with an unbiased view to say great, pull that lever it it’s we’re not talking about changing your entire business. We’re like, spend an extra 20 bucks on Earth.
00:42:04 Speaker 2
Right.
00:42:13 Speaker 1
Let’s see what?
00:42:13 Speaker 1
Happens so that kind of.
00:42:17 Speaker 1
Conversation where if you want more from your business, it doesn’t have to be this.
00:42:23 Speaker 1
Meticulous upheaval, it might be a bit of a mental upheaval because you have to get out of your.
00:42:28 Speaker 1
Own head and.
00:42:29 Speaker 1
Go. Oh my God. I can actually make.
00:42:31 Speaker 1
This thing work.
00:42:31 Speaker 1
Without having to work 18 hours a day.
00:42:35 Speaker 1
Because, like you, my grandmother and my mum and Dad worked two jobs and we were still poor as heck, like they were working 16 hours. It didn’t make us any richer. And so getting out of that mindset, getting out of our own headspace and just going ohh, I could just make this one little tweak and let’s just see what.
00:42:54 Speaker 2
And sometimes it is just that permission from someone on the outside saying. Yeah, you’re right. Go for it.
00:42:59 Speaker 1
There we go. Yeah. What’s what’s?
00:43:01 Speaker 1
The worst that can happen.
00:43:03 Speaker 2
Absolutely. Yeah. You get 10% more sales, you know.
00:43:10
I love it. I love.
00:43:11 Speaker 1
It alrighty. I think we have confidently.
00:43:15 Speaker 1
Put it on the table that you know what you’re talking about and that your team, as much as we love making you money, you can also help people make money. So Wayne, if people are listening in and they are thinking, I kind of wanna hang out with this guy, I wanna really see if he looks like he could be the rock’s brother in bowlers.
00:43:32 Speaker 1
And whether he can actually manage my money, where can?
00:43:35 Speaker 1
I’ll find you.
00:43:36 Speaker 2
Or you can find me on bean ninjas.com. Also I’m available on LinkedIn for conversations we have free toolkits available on our website as well and amazing content in terms of guides that can help inform retailers on how to manage certain key workflows within their accounting and bookkeeping.
00:43:58 Speaker 1
Alrighty. We will make sure to pop all those links into the show notes Wayne if there is one thing that you could leave us with one piece of advice, what will it be?
00:44:08 Speaker 2
Get intentional about understanding the story that’s being told through numbers about your business.
00:44:14 Speaker 1
Don’t be scared.
00:44:16 Speaker 1
It’s just words on a piece of paper.
00:44:20 Speaker 2
Sal, I certainly appreciate the opportunity in the conversation today. Thanks so much for having me.
00:44:26 Speaker 1
Thank you. Thanks for making money. Fun. Actually, before we wrap up, there’s another quote that I quite often say to our retailers and I’m sure you say this and you maybe don’t even realise that once you can get past the the drudgery of making sure that there’s enough money in the bank actually making money becomes quite fun.
00:44:45 Speaker 1
Alrighty, thanks, Wayne.
00:44:47 Speaker 2
Thank you. So that’s a wrap.
00:44:50 Speaker 1
I’d love to hear what insight you’ve gotten from this episode and how you’re going to put it into action if you’re a social kind of person, follow me at the Selena night and make sure to leave a comment and let me know. And if this episode made you think a little bit differently.
00:45:08 Speaker 1
Or gave you some inspiration, or perhaps gave you the kick that you needed to take action. Then please take a couple of minutes to leave me a review on your platform of choice, because the more reviews the show gets, the more independent retail and ecommerce stores just like.
00:45:25 Speaker 1
Yours that we can help to scale and when that happens, it’s a win for you. A win for your community and a win for your customers. I’ll see you in the.
00:45:37 Speaker 1
Next episode.