Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Britney Saunders and welcome to Big Business, the
Speaker 1: place where business is far from boring.
Speaker 2: And today I'm recording on gadigal Land.
Speaker 1: I somehow manage to build an empire from the garage
Speaker 1: underneath my house, and I'm here on Big Business to
Speaker 1: share it all with you, from the wins, the huge mistakes,
Speaker 1: the challenging times and the funny moments in between. So
Speaker 1: whether you're in business already, you're not in the game
Speaker 1: at all, or you simply just want to hear some
Speaker 1: tea or get some inspiration, this is the podcast for you.
Speaker 1: Coming up on today's episode, I am joined by yet
Speaker 1: another special guest. Today I'm going to be chatting with
Speaker 1: Victoria Divine. Victoria is a multi award winning retired financial advisor,
Speaker 1: a best selling author of five books. She's a financial
Speaker 1: columnist for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald and she's
Speaker 1: host of Australia's number one finance podcast, She's On the Money.
Speaker 1: Victoria is also the founder of Zella Money, which is
Speaker 1: an Australia wide mortgage broking and asset finance company.
Speaker 2: She has been named in.
Speaker 1: The Forbes thirty Under thirty list in the past and
Speaker 1: is a driven entrepreneur who seeks to empower individuals on
Speaker 1: their financial journeys and make finance accessible for everyone. She's honest, relatable,
Speaker 1: and non judgmental. Victoria knows what millennial life is really
Speaker 1: like and where we can get.
Speaker 2: Stuck with money stuff.
Speaker 1: You're gonna want to get your notepads and pens all
Speaker 1: your phones out for this episode because she has shared
Speaker 1: a whole lot of wisdom and tips with us, and
Speaker 1: stick around to the end because she has given us
Speaker 1: all I think one of the most slay life hacks
Speaker 1: I have heard in a very long time.
Speaker 2: Victoria, Welcome to Big Business.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me. I'm really excited about this chat.
Speaker 1: I feel like we've taken terms because I came on
Speaker 1: your podcast a couple of weeks ago, but you weren't there.
Speaker 3: No, which is kind of funny, but like, thank you
Speaker 3: for being my maternity leaves cover. I feel like we
Speaker 3: picked really, really well. When we sat down my team
Speaker 3: a l V like, if you're going away, we could
Speaker 3: you know, have guest hosts And I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: that would be really fun, and they were like, write
Speaker 3: a list of who you'd want, and you were like,
Speaker 3: very close to the top, and I kind of did
Speaker 3: a little squeal when you said yes, because I was like,
Speaker 3: she actually said yes. How cool is that boys say yes?
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: And I had such a great time chatting with your team.
Speaker 1: And if any of you listening haven't heard that, feel
Speaker 1: free to go over after this. After you finished this episode,
Speaker 1: of course, head on over to She's on the Money
Speaker 1: and listen to my episode. I had a great time
Speaker 1: talking with your team. We could have chatted for hours.
Speaker 3: I'm biased, but my team are great. I mean, I
Speaker 3: was a little bit worried that i'd come back and
Speaker 3: then realized that they didn't need me on the show anymore.
Speaker 2: We've got this, We're fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So, I mean, I'm grateful that they've welcomed me
Speaker 3: back with open arms, but good. I did love the
Speaker 3: guest series.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I had such a blast. I'll have to come
Speaker 1: back on another time with you though, if any time.
Speaker 3: We are definitely revamping our business by episodes, and I
Speaker 3: feel like you and I are probably on the same
Speaker 3: page when it comes to business, hence me being on
Speaker 3: your business show. Yeah. So, I'm excited to have this chat.
Speaker 3: Feel like it will go really well.
Speaker 2: Oh awesome, well, let's just get straight into it.
Speaker 1: I thought I could start out by asking you a
Speaker 1: simple question, what motivated you to start She's on the
Speaker 1: Money podcast and the community.
Speaker 3: I want to say that it was like this massive
Speaker 3: lack of financial literacy and I could see it, and
Speaker 3: you know, it was palpable, but it was a little
Speaker 3: bit selfish. Historically, I have gotten myself into a massive
Speaker 3: amount of debt, so like from a personal perspective, and
Speaker 3: this is you know, common knowledge. I got into just
Speaker 3: over thirty five thousand dollars worth of personal debt when
Speaker 3: I was really young, and so I started learning about
Speaker 3: finance and trying to get myself out of that. And
Speaker 3: I guess She's on the Money is a culmination of
Speaker 3: all of that, not knowing where to go, having really
Speaker 3: bad experiences with males in the industry, being overlooked when
Speaker 3: it came to being and seriously, when I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: I want to learn about investing in people, being like, oh,
Speaker 3: you're a girl, what would you know? So I just
Speaker 3: it was a lot of things that kind of came
Speaker 3: together for me to create She's on the Money. And yes,
Speaker 3: a lack of financial literacy was absolutely the driving motivator,
Speaker 3: but I didn't know it at the time. I feel
Speaker 3: like when you talk to lots of people, they're not like, oh,
Speaker 3: I had this really great, really clean business idea and
Speaker 3: it just worked. I didn't know that She's on the
Speaker 3: Money would become a business. Like at the time, I
Speaker 3: was running my financial advice business and She's on the
Speaker 3: Money was this like love project on the side that
Speaker 3: I was like, Oh, if I invest a little bit
Speaker 3: of money, I don't expect it to come back, but
Speaker 3: I expect to have a good time doing it. And
Speaker 3: so it was a beautiful experience pulling it all together.
Speaker 3: And it definitely comes from a lack of financial literacy
Speaker 3: in Australia and me seeing that gap. But I guess
Speaker 3: in hindsight it's a lot clearer than what it was
Speaker 3: at the time. At the time, I was like, I
Speaker 3: want to put out content that I would want to experience,
Speaker 3: and I guess that's where we ended.
Speaker 2: I absolutely love that.
Speaker 1: I think what you're doing is so importan because I
Speaker 1: totally agree that there isn't enough out there, especially for
Speaker 1: women when it comes to understanding their finances. And I
Speaker 1: even say to this day, like my partner aj he
Speaker 1: does a lot of the finance side of our business,
Speaker 1: and sometimes people ask me questions, you know, people in
Speaker 1: our workplace.
Speaker 2: I'm like, ohkay j I don't freaking know how any
Speaker 2: of that works.
Speaker 1: So I feel like I am even going to take
Speaker 1: a lot away from this episode with you. And I
Speaker 1: love that you mentioned that, you know, when you started
Speaker 1: Cheese on the Money, it was just this little side
Speaker 1: thing that you didn't really think that much about, and
Speaker 1: now you've got this, you know, booming business and community.
Speaker 1: And this is something that I always talk about here
Speaker 1: on big businesses. When you start a business, it doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be this fantastic, amazing, big grand plan idea.
Speaker 1: It can be something quite small that you think not
Speaker 1: that much of and it very well may just turn
Speaker 1: into a big business pun intended.
Speaker 3: Yeah, literally, I didn't think it would make money. And
Speaker 3: I mean, if we go back five years podcasting, like,
Speaker 3: what is that like, it wasn't really a thing, the
Speaker 3: idea that even you know, radio networks would pick you up. No,
Speaker 3: that was insane at the time, Like I couldn't foresee
Speaker 3: what this industry would become when it comes to podcasting
Speaker 3: and content creation. But I'm just I'm glad that I
Speaker 3: was there from the beginning because I don't know if
Speaker 3: it would work today.
Speaker 2: I love it. Well, I guess.
Speaker 1: To kick things off, I'm going to ask you the question,
Speaker 1: why is financial planning so important when it comes to
Speaker 1: starting a business?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, it's it's like the foundations of what
Speaker 3: you're going to create, right, And I feel like so
Speaker 3: many of us, especially when we get into business, we're
Speaker 3: a little bit creative. We are really passionate about our ideas,
Speaker 3: and we want to focus on the output, not necessarily
Speaker 3: those like foundational steps, like no one that I know,
Speaker 3: and perhaps I need a different group of friends who knows.
Speaker 3: No one that I know that has a business has
Speaker 3: actually had a really solid business plan from the start.
Speaker 3: Like they don't sit down and go to the government
Speaker 3: website and download the business plan and ride out their
Speaker 3: formal documentation. And they also don't do the same stuff
Speaker 3: when it comes to financial planning either. You kind of
Speaker 3: just wing it. And a lot of small business owners
Speaker 3: start their business by using their personal accounts, and you know, going, oh, well,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't know if this will be a thing.
Speaker 3: You might, you know, start really small, and you're like, oh,
Speaker 3: it's fifty bucks here and there, like, Oh, I'm just
Speaker 3: going to sign up for a website. Oh, I haven't
Speaker 3: started my business accounts. I'm just going to fund it personally,
Speaker 3: and it just becomes really messy. So it's really important
Speaker 3: to start really cleanly. And I do feel like if
Speaker 3: you're going to start a business, one of the best
Speaker 3: ways to back yourself is to go, you know what,
Speaker 3: I am going to get a business banking account. I
Speaker 3: am going to separate this. I am going to care
Speaker 3: about tax from the start because albeit not sexy, like
Speaker 3: I'm trying so hard to make it sexy, like that's
Speaker 3: what she's on the money is about, but it's not
Speaker 3: sexy at the end of the day. But it's those
Speaker 3: foundations that you need to have a successful business long term,
Speaker 3: and finance is the thing that becomes the stumbling block
Speaker 3: to get from small business to big business. So I
Speaker 3: feel like if we start cleanly at the start, it
Speaker 3: doesn't mean you need to go pay for lots of
Speaker 3: financial advice and you're not paying thousands of dollars to
Speaker 3: an advisor, but you are going, all right, well, what
Speaker 3: does my financial planning look like? Am I going to
Speaker 3: get a business account. Don't get me wrong. You might
Speaker 3: have absolutely no cash because the business isn't making anything.
Speaker 3: But what that does is it means you can transfer
Speaker 3: personally still over to your business, but you can keep
Speaker 3: track of that money and pay it back to yourself,
Speaker 3: but also have a really clean outline of what that
Speaker 3: business is costing you, what are the incomings and outgoings
Speaker 3: for this business, so everything is just super clean from
Speaker 3: the beginning. Because that's going to make your life so
Speaker 3: much easier. But it's also going to make life easier
Speaker 3: when it comes to scaling. It's going to make life
Speaker 3: easier when it comes to making big business decisions because
Speaker 3: even if you don't have fancy accounting software, you can go, well,
Speaker 3: can I afford to make this decision? Like what would
Speaker 3: adding another product to our business actually look like? And
Speaker 3: you've got all the numbers in front of you, instead
Speaker 3: of going, oh, I need to sort through that. Oh
Speaker 3: there's a whole heap of vopber eats charges on this
Speaker 3: credit card as well as oh, yeah, I did pay
Speaker 3: you know that subscription to my website, and I did
Speaker 3: pay that subscription to you know, internet security or whatever
Speaker 3: it is. But like they become messy and messy is
Speaker 3: not good when it comes to trying to make a
Speaker 3: successful business.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I absolutely love that, and I think it's so
Speaker 1: true what you said. When someone is starting out a business,
Speaker 1: you are feeling really creative and passionate, and you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to do this, like you get that idea
Speaker 1: in your head, but it is so important to do
Speaker 1: all that unsexy stuff at the beginning.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're like, oh, I don't want to set up
Speaker 1: not in a register, my aba. Yeah. All like even
Speaker 1: as when we like open a new store, like we'll
Speaker 1: make a new bank account for that store so that
Speaker 1: we can keep all the stores funds separate. And we're
Speaker 1: opening a new store, like we're in the process now
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, I got to go to the
Speaker 1: bank and set up the new bank account.
Speaker 2: It's just those things.
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the bigger you get as a business, the more
Speaker 3: administration you have to do. Yes, And it's so annoying
Speaker 3: because you want to delegate it out as well, but
Speaker 3: like the business owner has.
Speaker 2: To do I know.
Speaker 1: I you go to the bank and I'm like, can't
Speaker 1: age I go like, you know, somebody who cares more
Speaker 1: about this do this for me, Yeah, but it is
Speaker 1: so important. I really want to stress to all of
Speaker 1: you entrepreneurs out there or new business owners, you really
Speaker 1: do need to get your finances in order. You're going
Speaker 1: to set yourself up for success in the future. As
Speaker 1: boring and annoying as it is in all the numbers,
Speaker 1: like you said, it is that foundation for your business.
Speaker 3: And if you're backing your business right, like if you
Speaker 3: are from the very get go going, I'm going to
Speaker 3: set up a business account, I'm going to get my
Speaker 3: ABN in order, I'm going to have a think about
Speaker 3: the structure. All these things are so unsexy, but what
Speaker 3: they're telling you internally is this is serious. This is
Speaker 3: actually legitimate. This is me going. No, I have every
Speaker 3: belief that this business is going to be successful. Whereas
Speaker 3: if you're just it with your personal bank accounts, you're
Speaker 3: kind of not backing the business in the way that
Speaker 3: it deserves to be backed to be successful because you're like, oh,
Speaker 3: it might not work out, Like I don't want to
Speaker 3: bother with that, Like that's not the mentality we want
Speaker 3: to have. No, you want to take it seriously from
Speaker 3: the get go, exactly serious business, ladies.
Speaker 2: We are absolutely well.
Speaker 1: This leads me on to my next question, which I
Speaker 1: have been asked a lot, and I feel like it's
Speaker 1: a really tricky one to answer it. Maybe with your
Speaker 1: financial literacy you might be able to give a better answer,
Speaker 1: but in your opinion, and I know it depends on
Speaker 1: the business, but how much do you think that entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: should save up before starting any business?
Speaker 3: So again, it's exactly what you said, it's a really good.
Speaker 2: Are you making ribbons at home or are you're opening
Speaker 2: a cafe?
Speaker 3: Like obviously it's going to be different, Like I can't
Speaker 3: say four dollars and I can't give you a certain amount,
Speaker 3: But what I would do is go back to the
Speaker 3: drawing board, Like, let's look at your lifestyle. Like, Britt,
Speaker 3: you don't have kids, so the amount that you need
Speaker 3: is probably very different to the amount that I would
Speaker 3: need if I was starting from scratch today, because if
Speaker 3: you look at my lifestyle, you go, well, Victoria, you
Speaker 3: have a husband, you have a mortgage, you have a child.
Speaker 3: That's a lot of responsibility. So for me to take
Speaker 3: that step and you know, be an entrepreneur and step
Speaker 3: out and back myself in business, I feel like I
Speaker 3: need a lot more of a safety net than someone
Speaker 3: who's like whatever, it's all good. Like I could be
Speaker 3: a young twenty two year old single female who has
Speaker 3: absolutely no dependence and I get to live at home.
Speaker 3: So the amount that you need to save up to
Speaker 3: start a business is going to be very different. One
Speaker 3: thing that I say to a lot of business owners
Speaker 3: is you can actually do so much research for free
Speaker 3: before you even spend a dollar. So go and do
Speaker 3: the research. Like, let's just be really basic about this.
Speaker 3: You're going to start a product based business and you're
Speaker 3: not making the product yourself. You're going to get a
Speaker 3: manufacturer in China to do it right, So you can
Speaker 3: go and do the research of what's it going to
Speaker 3: cost to establish your website, what's it going to cost
Speaker 3: you to potentially start social media, how's that going to work?
Speaker 3: And these are fickle things because you might be a
Speaker 3: wizard at social media on your own, or you might
Speaker 3: really suck at it and need a whole heap of
Speaker 3: budget behind paying someone to help you with that. So
Speaker 3: the amount that you need to save is different. You
Speaker 3: can reach out to manufacturers overseas and see what their
Speaker 3: costs are going to be. You can work out what
Speaker 3: a product is going to cost you to import. You
Speaker 3: can do all this research and create a beautiful spreadsheet,
Speaker 3: but then on the flip side, I need you to
Speaker 3: look at your living expenses and go, all right, well,
Speaker 3: if I'm going to start putting my all into this
Speaker 3: business that's not making any profit yet, how many savings
Speaker 3: do I need to the side. And that's where the
Speaker 3: difference between a twenty two year old single female and
Speaker 3: then Victoria in a thirties with a kid and a
Speaker 3: mortgage is going to come into it, because you could
Speaker 3: be living at home and your mum and dad are like,
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, slag queen, we'll look after and we'll
Speaker 3: look after you go live your best life. Whereas me,
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, well I would need to save enough
Speaker 3: to you know, kick this off for you know, six months,
Speaker 3: Like how long do I think it's going to take
Speaker 3: until this business creates enough profit for me to cover myself?
Speaker 3: So that amount is going to be very different based
Speaker 3: on personal circumstances. But I guess the answer there is
Speaker 3: do a budget, have a look at what your expenses
Speaker 3: are going to be. For me, like I own a
Speaker 3: mortgage broking company, right, so profit in my business actually
Speaker 3: takes a long time to come through, so lots of
Speaker 3: people don't know this, But from the day that my
Speaker 3: client settles, it's like three months before I get paid
Speaker 3: from the banks. So that needs to be taken into consideration.
Speaker 3: Whereas you know, I might have an online course and
Speaker 3: I actually get the money in my account every time
Speaker 3: a client makes a transaction, So those things need to
Speaker 3: be considered. Do I need a three month buffer? Do
Speaker 3: I need a six month buffer? Do I need to
Speaker 3: be planning to pay my expenses for twelve months while
Speaker 3: this starts off? Or am I planning on working part
Speaker 3: time while building a business on the side.
Speaker 2: So many factors exactly? So many?
Speaker 3: Am I saving a certain amount? Well, no, it would
Speaker 3: actually be wildly irresponsible of us to be like, actually
Speaker 3: the answer twenty thousand dollars, because that might not be
Speaker 3: what your business needs and it might not be what
Speaker 3: your lifestyle needs. So I would go back, do a
Speaker 3: budget for yourself and what that looks like. Do a
Speaker 3: budget for your business and what that's gonna look like,
Speaker 3: and then go from there. Solid advice I try.
Speaker 1: I hope everyone's taking notes, and I think it's also
Speaker 1: tricky for some people that are stepping into business or
Speaker 1: they have this entrepreneurial fire because you do see things
Speaker 1: online and it's one in a million that this would happen.
Speaker 1: But you do see things where people say I started
Speaker 1: my business with two hundred dollars, and you know, it
Speaker 1: can be entitle it can allude to the fact that
Speaker 1: all you need is two hundred dollars and nothing else.
Speaker 1: But like what you've said, there's so many other factors
Speaker 1: that come into play. And some people have gotten really
Speaker 1: lucky and just started with two hundred bucks and a
Speaker 1: small thing that's turned into a billion dollar company. But
Speaker 1: how often is that going to happen?
Speaker 2: Really?
Speaker 3: And also like what's the narrative there, Like what's their
Speaker 3: privilege behind that? Because I could say that, right, So
Speaker 3: I could come out and this is why I hate
Speaker 3: click baity titles. I could come out and be like
Speaker 3: brit I started my you know, seven figure podcast, she's
Speaker 3: on the money with a two hundred dollars microphone and
Speaker 3: a moving blanket. That's absolutely true, Like none of that
Speaker 3: is a lie. But I actually owned a financial advice
Speaker 3: company that was making profit, and I was using that
Speaker 3: profit to start my podcasting business and pay for production
Speaker 3: and pay for all of this other stuff. Is the
Speaker 3: fact that I had a two hundred dollar mic legitimate? Yeah,
Speaker 3: of course it is, And I mean that makes a
Speaker 3: really good story. But is it the reality of this situation?
Speaker 3: And I guess there's just so much that comes into
Speaker 3: it when reading into other people's stories. Where I value transparency,
Speaker 3: but I also think that we need to put our
Speaker 3: blinkers on a little bit and not look at other
Speaker 3: people's journeys as an indicator for what success looks like.
Speaker 3: See it and be like, well, if she can, I
Speaker 3: can do something too. Be inspired, Yeah, be inspired, but
Speaker 3: don't be Yeah, don't think that that's going to be
Speaker 3: your trajectory.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: That's another thing that I always talk about on this
Speaker 1: podcast is and I say to people, you know, if
Speaker 1: you're in the start of your business journey, don't look
Speaker 1: at me and where I am now and be like, oh,
Speaker 1: like and make that comparison, especially now where we're living
Speaker 1: in this world where there are obviously so many established
Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and businesses online, we have so much to look at.
Speaker 1: It would be tough starting today, like looking and comparing.
Speaker 1: But what people don't see is all the shit at.
Speaker 3: The start, Oh my gosh, yes, and like I'm so
Speaker 3: embarrassed of so much that I got out historically. Absolutely,
Speaker 3: Oh it's awful. Like sometimes I'm like to my team,
Speaker 3: should we delete that? Should we just get rid of
Speaker 3: it that.
Speaker 2: They're like, video is embarrassing archive?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and they're like, no v it still gets
Speaker 3: good views, and I'm like, yeah, that's the problem.
Speaker 1: What would you say are some common financial mistakes that
Speaker 1: new business owners make not.
Speaker 3: Setting themselves up from this when it comes to having
Speaker 3: that clean banking system. So when I talk about clean
Speaker 3: banking systems, I'm not just talking about having one bank
Speaker 3: account for your business. I don't know how you do it.
Speaker 3: I've got opinions that we need multiple bank accounts. And
Speaker 3: the reason we need a multiple bank accounts is because
Speaker 3: I never want anyone to be stiff with like tax
Speaker 3: or you know, having to pay salary. So I am
Speaker 3: very much a buckets lady. I like having all my
Speaker 3: income going into one and then I take income out
Speaker 3: and put it into my tax bucket, knowing that when
Speaker 3: my bass is coming up, I need to pay that
Speaker 3: every month. And then when you know, other expenses come up.
Speaker 3: I've even got an emergency fund for my business because
Speaker 3: I'm like, well, what would happen, Yeah, if I, you know,
Speaker 3: for some reason, didn't get paid for a long period
Speaker 3: of time. I don't know why that would happen, but
Speaker 3: if it did, I know that I have three months
Speaker 3: worth of expenses so that I can cover my team's salary,
Speaker 3: and that makes me feel really safe. So I feel
Speaker 3: like not setting yourself up properly from the start and
Speaker 3: not doing enough research into what things is it going
Speaker 3: to cost you? Business is mind blowingly expensive, Like it
Speaker 3: just adds up, and I feel like so many people go, oh,
Speaker 3: it's not that expensive, and I'm like I sometimes and
Speaker 3: just shocked at how much I spend on things, oh
Speaker 3: like whether that is you know, staff wages and how
Speaker 3: they add up in addition to like super and tax.
Speaker 3: And that's not me complaining, Like I am not complaining
Speaker 3: about this. I am so privileged to be able to
Speaker 3: pay all of this. Then I've got, you know, all
Speaker 3: the insurances I need to pay for my business, which
Speaker 3: I think lots of people forget to put into the budget.
Speaker 3: I pay thousands of dollars in insurance. I feel you
Speaker 3: then you've got rent, and I feel like so many
Speaker 3: people are like, oh cool, it's listed. I don't know
Speaker 3: a shop's like fifty thousand dollars. What's your fit out
Speaker 3: going to be? What are the insurances on that shop?
Speaker 3: What are the ongoing costs? Because when you rent a shop,
Speaker 3: you're taking over every single expense. It's not like renting
Speaker 3: a house and you know if it's shared water, your
Speaker 3: landlord's got it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you got the going, You've got commercial real estate, all.
Speaker 3: Of the outgoings, and now your responsibility. Like, there are
Speaker 3: so many I want to say hidden expenses. Oh they're
Speaker 3: not that hidden, like everyone quote knows about them, but
Speaker 3: I feel like they were hidden to me. So there
Speaker 3: are so many. What are those other expenses that we're
Speaker 3: going to incur? And then all of the stuff along
Speaker 3: the way, Like I know that we've got a content
Speaker 3: shoot coming up, and you would think that that's just
Speaker 3: like easy, right, you hire a photographer, Okay, but what
Speaker 3: about the location. I need to pay for a location
Speaker 3: that's going to allow me to film there and use
Speaker 3: those videos for commercial purposes. I need a hair and
Speaker 3: makeup artist. I need, you know, the lighting guy that's
Speaker 3: separate from the photographer. Oh my gosh, my photographer doesn't
Speaker 3: do video. I need the separate video person to get
Speaker 3: the behind the scenes content, Like there's just so many
Speaker 3: moving parts that you go, oh, I thought it was
Speaker 3: about just taking some photos and whacking them online. Like,
Speaker 3: don't get me wrong, there are definitely cheaper ways to
Speaker 3: do things. But business is expensive, which means you need
Speaker 3: to be looking at the bottom line of your business
Speaker 3: from the start, Like I think consistently thinking about, well,
Speaker 3: what will the outcome of this product be, Like can
Speaker 3: I feasibly sell it for fifty dollars or does it
Speaker 3: actually need to be one hundred dollars to be a
Speaker 3: feasible long term business? And I think so many times
Speaker 3: we forget to look at what it's going to cost us,
Speaker 3: and we just benchmark ourselves on what our competitors are
Speaker 3: doing or what we think in our heads these things
Speaker 3: should cost instead of like, oh, to make this viable,
Speaker 3: it actually sits here. So I think doing the research
Speaker 3: from the start and making sure that you're covering all
Speaker 3: of those bases for me would be the big thing.
Speaker 3: And it can be overwhelming, but it actually doesn't need
Speaker 3: to be Like open an Excel spreadsheet. You don't even
Speaker 3: need to be good at spreadsheets, there are little boxes.
Speaker 3: You can put words in those boxes and start putting
Speaker 3: words down one side, and then how much each of
Speaker 3: those things is going to cost you down the other side,
Speaker 3: so you can keep track of it, Like it's all
Speaker 3: the small things that add up.
Speaker 1: Do you think as well on this this is the
Speaker 1: part of business that maybe deters people or stops them.
Speaker 1: Is they want to own a business and they love
Speaker 1: the creative side and they're passionate about whatever the business is.
Speaker 1: But then when it comes down to crunching those numbers
Speaker 1: and all the back end part of it, do you
Speaker 1: think that's where people kind of get put off a
Speaker 1: little bit and that maybe maybe that's why they push
Speaker 1: that stuff to the side, which then down the track
Speaker 1: winds them up in financial stress.
Speaker 3: I guess yes, because at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: sometimes the perfect person to run a business is not
Speaker 3: the perfect person to be the front of the business
Speaker 3: or the creative behind it, and that can be a
Speaker 3: really hard I guess realization to come to. Like the
Speaker 3: amount of people that I've met who are like, oh,
Speaker 3: I just I can't seem to make the business work,
Speaker 3: and it's like, well, are you sitting down and thinking
Speaker 3: about strategy. You know, how much research are you doing
Speaker 3: into this expansion? What are you looking at when it
Speaker 3: comes to you know, your financials. Are you sitting down
Speaker 3: every month and looking at them? They're like, no, I
Speaker 3: hate that stuff, and it's well, you might hate it,
Speaker 3: I might not enjoy it, but these are necessary so
Speaker 3: that you can be creative, so that you can, you know,
Speaker 3: consistently have all of the good times. Like business sadly
Speaker 3: is good and bad, like there are things that you
Speaker 3: aren't gonna like. And I often say business gets harder
Speaker 3: the bigger it is because the responsibility becomes more and
Speaker 3: I feel like the more senior, I don't know if
Speaker 3: the word senior is right here, but like the higher
Speaker 3: up we get, the bigger my business becomes, the more
Speaker 3: meaning all my tasks, like I'm the one having to like,
Speaker 3: you know, do the banking, going to the post offfice.
Speaker 2: Like I'm trying to take it frosh.
Speaker 3: Oh, it's so annoying. But I'm the only one that
Speaker 3: can pick up the parcels because my name's on it,
Speaker 3: my driver's license and like you think you can send
Speaker 3: your assistant and you just can't. For a lot of things.
Speaker 2: You've got to take your passport.
Speaker 1: Like sometimes I've gone to the bank to do something
Speaker 1: like set up a new bank account, and I've got
Speaker 1: my license and my cards, but oh, we need another
Speaker 1: form of ID and I'm like, I don't carry my
Speaker 1: passport around.
Speaker 2: Then I've got to go is this whole thing?
Speaker 3: Literally me the other way, I'm at the bank and
Speaker 3: they're like, okay, so which account is it? And I'm like,
Speaker 3: I don't mean to be rude, but I have a
Speaker 3: lot of accounts, babe. Like they're like, what what does
Speaker 3: the number? Like what's the ending for numbers of this?
Speaker 3: Am I meant to know this off the top of
Speaker 3: my head. And I was like, can I look it up?
Speaker 3: And she's like, oh yeah, And like, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 3: these are the small things that are a privileged to
Speaker 3: do because you're big. But like I think they're the
Speaker 3: things that the bigger you get, the more you're gonna
Speaker 3: have to do these things. So if you're not willing
Speaker 3: to do them from the start, I promise that setting
Speaker 3: yourself up for failure. Like you need to carve time
Speaker 3: out to be working on the business. And when people say, oh,
Speaker 3: you're working on the business, Like I think that that
Speaker 3: sounds so romantic to me. I'm like, oh, you're thinking
Speaker 3: about growth, You're working on the business. You're doing some
Speaker 3: marketing and branding. Oh so chic, when the reality is like,
Speaker 3: I'm working on the business so the business can still stand, babe.
Speaker 3: Like I'm in the background, going, actually, do I need
Speaker 3: to review all this subscriptions in the business to make
Speaker 3: sure that I'm not, you know, frittering all.
Speaker 1: We've got all We've got all our work phones, and
Speaker 1: you know how easily you download and subscribe to apps
Speaker 1: on your phone, So we're we've got like six work
Speaker 1: phones in the office at all times, and they've all
Speaker 1: got different sorts of apps, editing apps, all this and that,
Speaker 1: and every now and then, I'm like, girls, let's go
Speaker 1: through the subscriptions in like the Apples hundred ID because
Speaker 1: you you don't realize how many you're subscribed to.
Speaker 3: The drive here. This is. I don't know how relevant
Speaker 3: it is. I just think it's really funny. The Drive here.
Speaker 3: I was on the phone to my assistant who was
Speaker 3: helping me do the reconciliation for my AMEX, and she's
Speaker 3: like one hundred and nine dollars ninety nine to Apple
Speaker 3: what's that. I'm like, I don't know. Yeah, Like I've
Speaker 3: got no clue, and we're going through these charges and
Speaker 3: I'm like, did I do that? I could have? Like
Speaker 3: what's it for? And like these things just come out
Speaker 3: of nowhere. So I feel like, if you're not willing
Speaker 3: to do the small things, yes, you might be the
Speaker 3: most gifted human being when it comes to being creative,
Speaker 3: and you might be the best designer, you might be
Speaker 3: the best everything. But it's a compromise you're gonna have
Speaker 3: to make to be able to shine in that space
Speaker 3: as well. Because you know, even if you like, let's
Speaker 3: say you're an artist and you want to sell your paintings, Like,
Speaker 3: the bigger you get, the more admin you're gonna have
Speaker 3: to do, the more you're gonna have to think about
Speaker 3: shipping costs. You're gonna have to think about packaging, how
Speaker 3: to get your items overseas. If overseas buyers start to
Speaker 3: pick up your work, Like, these things are not sexy,
Speaker 3: but they're necessary to be known for your craft. So
Speaker 3: I think that being happy to take that on from
Speaker 3: the beginning and seeing it as a responsibility of a
Speaker 3: being a business owner is essential. But it's not fun. Like,
Speaker 3: don't get me wrong, I don't want to reconcile my
Speaker 3: amex like I want the points. That's why we got it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're so right.
Speaker 1: Like the bigger the business gets, the more of that
Speaker 1: admin shit happens. Like it never gets to a point
Speaker 1: where you can just kick back and it's easy and
Speaker 1: everything's in place. It's just like the more and more
Speaker 1: the bigger you get, the more admin justus piles on
Speaker 1: top and on top. But it's just one of those
Speaker 1: things that you just have to like do and embrace.
Speaker 1: And even though we want to be there amazing entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: and business owners and fun and creative, we've got to
Speaker 1: do all the nitty gritties no matter what.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like my actual like if we did like an
Speaker 3: Instagram day in the life, like it would be.
Speaker 1: So boor sitting at the laptop typing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, sitting at the laptop typing calling people being like, hey,
Speaker 3: do you do you know how to spell this? Like
Speaker 3: it's not it's not coming up in the system when
Speaker 3: I look it up. Oh no, okay, Hey, So there
Speaker 3: was this charge of my amex forty seven dogs? Can
Speaker 3: anybody remember that?
Speaker 1: Was?
Speaker 3: Fact? Have you got a receipt for that. I'll call Maddie.
Speaker 2: I'll ask her for that back to bank accounts.
Speaker 1: Yes, I think a good question to ask you is
Speaker 1: why is it important to keep your personal and business
Speaker 1: finances separate? And I think a lot of business owners
Speaker 1: in the start, I know me, when I became an
Speaker 1: influencer and I was essentially my own business, I didn't
Speaker 1: I didn't set it up correctly. In the start, I
Speaker 1: was just me with my person bank account, and I
Speaker 1: was doing all these brand deals and it.
Speaker 2: Was all going into Wow, people are paying me.
Speaker 3: Yes, it was insane.
Speaker 1: It's all going into my personal account. And I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I was none the wiser. I should have known about you.
Speaker 1: But this was forever and ever an ever ago.
Speaker 3: I was about to say, I was a nothing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's not like I was just watching your content, babe.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm making these YouTube videos getting paid straight into
Speaker 1: my personal bank account. I didn't even have an ABN
Speaker 1: or anything like that because I didn't have any.
Speaker 2: Idea about this kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: So why is it important that people separate the two
Speaker 1: their business and their personal.
Speaker 3: There's a couple of reasons, and we'll quickly go through them.
Speaker 3: So the first is it's messy. So when tax time comes,
Speaker 3: separating oh, was that business income or that income you've
Speaker 3: already paid tax on, Was that, you know you spending
Speaker 3: on a business expense versus was it a personal expense?
Speaker 3: It just becomes so cloudy and messy. Whereas every day,
Speaker 3: if you have a debit card associated to your business
Speaker 3: account and it's in your wallet with your personal you
Speaker 3: can go all right, well coffee personal, but oh, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm going to office works, I'm just gonna pop this
Speaker 3: office works charge on my business card. Where so many
Speaker 3: times when I used to do this, I would just
Speaker 3: tap my card at office works and be like, whatever,
Speaker 3: I'll work it out later. Spoiler, I never worked it
Speaker 3: out later, and I was using post tax income to
Speaker 3: pay for business expenses that I shouldn't have been paying
Speaker 3: for with post tax income, right, Like, all of that
Speaker 3: is meant to be a business expense. So I'm shooting
Speaker 3: myself in the foot when it comes to the bottom
Speaker 3: line of my literal business and what profit I make
Speaker 3: and what loss I make. So I think mess is
Speaker 3: one reason. But then secondly, if it is really messy
Speaker 3: and you want to do stuff in the rest of
Speaker 3: your life, for example, you want to purchase your first
Speaker 3: home brick like, a bank wants to see usually at
Speaker 3: least twelve to twenty four months worth of clean business
Speaker 3: expenses and profit in your business, and if it's tied
Speaker 3: up with your personal stuff, they're like, oh nah, it's
Speaker 3: not legit. Well we don't want to Like, once you've
Speaker 3: separated that, come back and talk to us. It is
Speaker 3: a nightmare. So making sure that everything's clean is going
Speaker 3: to mean that the rest of your life can keep
Speaker 3: going on. If you want to purchase property, if you
Speaker 3: want to get loans, if you want to, you know,
Speaker 3: make a business loan, the bank is going to want
Speaker 3: to see all of your business accounts and make them
Speaker 3: really clean. They don't care about your uber eats like
Speaker 3: they don't want to see that, not want restatements and
Speaker 3: go oh well, bar, is that a business expense? And
Speaker 3: you go, oh no, that wasn't business, that was actually
Speaker 3: personal and they go okay, great, what about this one
Speaker 3: at the cafe fifty times in one day? Like they're
Speaker 3: gonna ask. And the reason that you want it to
Speaker 3: be clean is so one life can keep going on.
Speaker 3: But also your business accounts are really clean, like you're
Speaker 3: going to know if the business is in trouble sooner,
Speaker 3: if it's not messed up with your personal accounts. You're
Speaker 3: going to know if the business is successful sooner, if
Speaker 3: it's not messed up with your personal accounts. Like everything
Speaker 3: I promise is better once it's separate. Also the stress,
Speaker 3: Like do you know how good it is knowing that
Speaker 3: I can just go onto my online banking, download the
Speaker 3: excel file, send it to my accountant and be like, hey,
Speaker 3: that's all the business.
Speaker 2: There's all the statements. Yeah, that's the state. It's not
Speaker 2: mixed up. And then you don't have your accountant going
Speaker 2: what's this transaction?
Speaker 1: Is this personal? Is this business? It's so good to
Speaker 1: have them separate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And do you know how annoying it is now
Speaker 3: as somebody who does have it separate when I accidentally
Speaker 3: use the wrong card for something like we've got prefill
Speaker 3: online now, Like, so if I'm making an online purchase,
Speaker 3: sometimes it's pre Field and I'm like, yep, just yeah,
Speaker 3: and then it's my personal one. And then my bookkeepers
Speaker 3: coming back to me at the end of the month,
Speaker 3: they're like, what's this from fate? And I'm like, oh ah, sorry,
Speaker 3: can you just transfer that over and then you have
Speaker 3: to fully reconcile it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's important to do it from the get go.
Speaker 1: Is head those separate bank accounts, even if you are
Speaker 1: just starting a business, and much like when you started,
Speaker 1: she's on the money and when I started Fade and
Speaker 1: I thought, this is probably not going to be anything.
Speaker 1: I never thought into the future. It was just a
Speaker 1: fun little idea at the time. You never know what
Speaker 1: your business is going to turn into. So it's best
Speaker 1: to just cover all those grounds and just set yourself
Speaker 1: up for success from the beginning, even if you aren't
Speaker 1: sure where the business is going to go.
Speaker 3: But it's also even if you don't know where the
Speaker 3: business is going to go and maybe this is like
Speaker 3: a little bit like morbid and we should be really optimistic,
Speaker 3: it's so much easier to shut it down to if
Speaker 3: you decide that it's not for you. Having everything separately,
Speaker 3: you can just be like, all right, cut the line.
Speaker 3: We've done with that, Like I've decided to step out
Speaker 3: of it. It's not intertwined into your personal life, and
Speaker 3: for years later you're like, oh, actually, what's this. Oh actually,
Speaker 3: what's like we just don't want that, Like we want
Speaker 3: to make sure that we are caring about it. The
Speaker 3: other thing I want to say here is around the
Speaker 3: structure of that business. And I'm sure you've gone through
Speaker 3: this where it was in your personal accounts and you're like, well, yeah,
Speaker 3: and then things started to get serious and then you
Speaker 3: went to an accountant and they're like, oh my gosh, Britt,
Speaker 3: what are you doing that rating as an individual.
Speaker 1: That was me here, They're like, why haven't you set
Speaker 1: yourself up as a business company?
Speaker 3: Why don't you an opinion?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I was just me and then you need
Speaker 1: to be a PtyLtd.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what does this mean?
Speaker 3: Like, yeah, like who is this?
Speaker 2: What is that?
Speaker 3: So I think understanding that from the start, and the
Speaker 3: reason accountants care so much about that is actually personal protection.
Speaker 3: It's you know, obviously, tax is sexier inside a company
Speaker 3: than it is if you're paying it at your marginal
Speaker 3: tax rate. So really quickly, if you're paying it at
Speaker 3: your marginal tax rate, you're being paid into your personal accounts,
Speaker 3: and you start making bank and you're at the highest
Speaker 3: marginal tax rate, you'll be paying tax at least forty
Speaker 3: seven cents in the dollar, which is not that sexy.
Speaker 3: Whereas the company rate is thirty cents, and like, I
Speaker 3: know which one I would prefer to pay. Obviously, it's
Speaker 3: going to be different when you distribute that income or
Speaker 3: take income out of the business to pay for your
Speaker 3: personal life, but that can come later. But at least
Speaker 3: you're making sure that your business income is maximized. Like
Speaker 3: that's a difference of at least seventeen percent, Like you
Speaker 3: are seventeen percent better off. Ye a lot of the
Speaker 3: time if you're you know that highest marginal tax bracket,
Speaker 3: putting yourself into a company for that, and it is
Speaker 3: expensive to set up up, but it pays for itself
Speaker 3: over time. It's also meaning that you know, nobody wants
Speaker 3: to get sued in business, but they can sue the
Speaker 3: company instead of you personally.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's taking yourself out, taking yourself out.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I think that all of these things, while
Speaker 3: not sexy, are really important to talk about.
Speaker 2: You heard it here first, people.
Speaker 1: Not sexy stuff is actually really sexy and you need
Speaker 1: to care about it. Me, please do included all of
Speaker 1: us included. When it comes to someone starting a new business,
Speaker 1: I always get a lot of people saying, like what
Speaker 1: we spoke about earlier, how much money do I need
Speaker 1: to start a business? Do I need to take out
Speaker 1: a loan? Like I get these questions all the time.
Speaker 1: I'm like, don't ask me, like, I don't know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, But what are some common funding options
Speaker 1: for new businesses? And what would you say? Are there
Speaker 1: pros and cons? Are you all four people taking out loans?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: Tell me it all.
Speaker 3: It depends and it's going to depend on the business.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's going to come as a surprise
Speaker 3: that I'm relatively anti debt, and I would actually prefer you, Britt,
Speaker 3: to take another six months of saving and start your
Speaker 3: business in six months, then get ahead six months by
Speaker 3: taking out a really big loan, because to me, the
Speaker 3: risk of that is that it's just not going to
Speaker 3: work out. Whereas if you came to me and said, hey,
Speaker 3: I've got this really brilliant opportunity, and you know someone
Speaker 3: selling a business tried, true tested, been around ten plus years,
Speaker 3: draws a profit, and I'm going to purchase this, That's
Speaker 3: a very different conversation than taking out a loan. To
Speaker 3: back yourself, and don't get me wrong, I think we
Speaker 3: all should back ourselves, but to back an idea. So
Speaker 3: backing an idea and taking out debt to me is
Speaker 3: very different taking out debt for purchasing a pre existing business,
Speaker 3: and those are different conversations. Am I against business debt? No,
Speaker 3: I've never had it personally. And the reason I haven't
Speaker 3: ever had it personally is because I just I don't
Speaker 3: want to owe a bank money for a business because
Speaker 3: I know that that's not something that if it's not working,
Speaker 3: I can sell it right. Whereas a mortgage. If I
Speaker 3: go and lend money from a bank to purchase the property,
Speaker 3: which I have done, I know that if my life
Speaker 3: goes to shit, I can sell that property, pay the
Speaker 3: bank back, and we're all clean and good and like
Speaker 3: in a perfect world we all break even. But you
Speaker 3: can't do that with a business loan. That's why the
Speaker 3: interest rate on them is so much higher because they're like, oh,
Speaker 3: there's a little bit of risk involved here because it's
Speaker 3: coming down to you having to put the work in.
Speaker 3: So I feel like avoiding debt as much as possible
Speaker 3: is a good idea. Funding options, there's lots. I think
Speaker 3: that it is silly of people to not look into
Speaker 3: business grants, like there are so many grants there are
Speaker 3: so many schemes, so many like accelerated programs out there
Speaker 3: now that I think everyone should be putting their hat
Speaker 3: into the ring for Like what's the worst they say, Oh, no, okay,
Speaker 3: no worries, thanks so much. At least I put my
Speaker 3: hand up for that ten thousand dollars grant. Imagine if
Speaker 3: I've gotten it, it would have been great. But I
Speaker 3: think so many times, especially as women, we don't put
Speaker 3: our hands up for opportunity because we go, oh, they're
Speaker 3: not going to pick me. Yeah, but what if they did?
Speaker 3: What if they did pick you? It would change the
Speaker 3: trajectory of your business. So I think just putting your
Speaker 3: hat in the ring and going I don't care if
Speaker 3: they say no, it was worth a crack. Like so
Speaker 3: many of the things that I've put my hand up for,
Speaker 3: I've been like, this is a bit of a joke, right,
Speaker 3: Like this is wild, Like I don't know why I'm bothering.
Speaker 3: Have come to fruition and I'm like, oh, holy, holy moly.
Speaker 3: Like I remember when I got nominated for the Telstra
Speaker 3: Women in Business Awards and like that was really cool,
Speaker 3: But that just means that someone had put my hat
Speaker 3: into the ring. And said, oh, they should be considered. Yeah,
Speaker 3: But I then had to do my application. I was
Speaker 3: like to my team, this is not worth it, like
Speaker 3: don't bother like you know, not going to do it.
Speaker 3: We made finals and I was like sorry, what, Like
Speaker 3: this is insane. So I think putting your hat in
Speaker 3: the ring is really important when it comes to funding it.
Speaker 3: You've got personal you've obviously got loans, and you've also
Speaker 3: got bringing on a business partner, and I think that
Speaker 3: you need to really consider what that actually means for
Speaker 3: you and your business, because that's a bigger decision than
Speaker 3: just like, oh, brit seems nice, we should do a
Speaker 3: business together.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people do get into
Speaker 1: that in that way so easily. Like I can only imagine,
Speaker 1: not speaking from any experience, but when you are excited
Speaker 1: and creative and you've got this business idea and then
Speaker 1: you've got this friend or whatever and you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's partner up and do this, that is a way
Speaker 1: bigger decision than you actually think in that moment.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. And I'm speaking from experience. I have
Speaker 3: done this and it has been a terrible idea. Yeah,
Speaker 3: Like don't get me wrong, In the heat of the moment,
Speaker 3: I think it's a great idea, and I go, this
Speaker 3: is going to be absolutely fantastic. But when it boils down,
Speaker 3: I am somebody who it's funny. My accountant actually said
Speaker 3: to me the other day, Victoria, if you come to
Speaker 3: me with another business partner not setting the structure up,
Speaker 3: it's not happening. You're not having another business going on it.
Speaker 3: We're not doing it. It's not a thing. You are
Speaker 3: not good at picking business partners. We're done. And I
Speaker 3: was like, okaying to worry, thank you, thank you. He's like,
Speaker 3: you need to back yourself more. Like so many times,
Speaker 3: I'm finding like now again, in retrospect, I look at
Speaker 3: it and go I picked that decision because I thought
Speaker 3: it would make my life easier. I thought it would
Speaker 3: make the business more successful. I didn't back myself enough
Speaker 3: to know that I could have done all of that
Speaker 3: on my own. It just would have taken a little
Speaker 3: bit more.
Speaker 1: I think we're impatient human beings as well.
Speaker 3: Adhd one hundred percent. I'm so impatient. It's not funny.
Speaker 1: We want things now, and especially if it's this fun,
Speaker 1: exciting idea, Yeah, let's do it. Let's take out a
Speaker 1: big loan or go into business with someone. But these
Speaker 1: are things and decisions that we need to make carefully
Speaker 1: and take our time with.
Speaker 2: So I'm with you on that.
Speaker 1: And as for myself in my business journey, I've been
Speaker 1: fortunate enough to not take out any loans or have
Speaker 1: any business partners. And I think from that, as much
Speaker 1: as I could have got an investor or had a
Speaker 1: business part now that maybe would have fast tracked us
Speaker 1: even quicker. There's something really personally satisfying about saying and knowing.
Speaker 2: I have done all of this on my own.
Speaker 3: This is all me.
Speaker 1: Like, I get a really big sense of self accomplishment
Speaker 1: and satisfaction going I founded this whole thing. It's all me,
Speaker 1: And I think that's really powerful.
Speaker 3: One hundred percent, And I wish that I was in
Speaker 3: that situation because as somebody who has had like I've
Speaker 3: started my businesses and then taken on partners to hopefully
Speaker 3: turbocharge the businesses, it's actually cost me hundreds of thousands,
Speaker 3: if not millions of dollars because I have done that
Speaker 3: like mucho regretto, like terrible decision. And I think that
Speaker 3: talking about it is really important as well, because when
Speaker 3: it comes down to it. The reason I made those
Speaker 3: decisions was because I was like, oh, this will turbocharge
Speaker 3: it and get us ahead, and you know, be what
Speaker 3: I want. But ultimately it's not because they're not on
Speaker 3: the same page as me. We don't have the same ideas.
Speaker 3: We do want to go in different directions, whether that
Speaker 3: is content creation or it is you know, the size
Speaker 3: of the business or the ethics of the business. Like,
Speaker 3: it doesn't matter what it is, We're just not on
Speaker 3: the same page. Because the person who knows your business
Speaker 3: and what you want to create with it, the best
Speaker 3: person to know that is you. And you can't convince
Speaker 3: somebody else to love your business idea as much as
Speaker 3: you do. Yeah, and I think that that is really
Speaker 3: hard to wrap your head around. And yeah, there's something
Speaker 3: really satisfying knowing that you know, I started all of this.
Speaker 3: I've made a lot of very expensive mistakes along the way,
Speaker 3: and I'm happy to talk about them because I think
Speaker 3: that other people can learn from them. But you need
Speaker 3: to back yourself. And if backing yourself means it takes
Speaker 3: another year, like that's incredible, because the outcome of being
Speaker 3: able to say I did this all on my own
Speaker 3: is amazing. Knowing that I don't owe anybody any money
Speaker 3: for my business is so gratifying going to bed at
Speaker 3: night knowing that I don't have to turn a profit
Speaker 3: in my business to pay a bank Like, it's just
Speaker 3: so nice knowing that the success of my business is
Speaker 3: dependent on me or on somebody else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that. So to all of you listening,
Speaker 1: be patient, take your time back yourself. Don't jump into
Speaker 1: things because it's a great idea in the moment, which
Speaker 1: we've all done things like that throughout our our careers
Speaker 1: and business journeys. Is jumped the gun way too quickly
Speaker 1: because you're excited. And I guess the most important takeaway
Speaker 1: from this chat, Well, what I've gotten from it is
Speaker 1: how important it is to have your ducks in a
Speaker 1: row with all that nitty gritty not so sexy stuff,
Speaker 1: and like.
Speaker 3: Keep it to yourself for a while. Like, if you've
Speaker 3: got a really good business idea, sit on it, think
Speaker 3: about it, like you can ask your friends and family,
Speaker 3: but like set it up from the start. Go do
Speaker 3: your bank accounts, Go get your ABN set up, make
Speaker 3: sure that all of your ducks are in a row.
Speaker 3: The other thing I would say is make sure that
Speaker 3: you understand trademarking. Does somebody else have the same business
Speaker 3: name as you? Like, if you're going to grow, are
Speaker 3: you going to get into some hot water? And if
Speaker 3: you are, like, are we going to pivot and change
Speaker 3: the business name from the start so that we just
Speaker 3: don't need to go through that jung.
Speaker 1: That gets a lot of people stuck when oh, this
Speaker 1: business all of a sudden in this state over there
Speaker 1: has come after me because I've got a similar ish
Speaker 1: name to them or the same name as them.
Speaker 2: So it's important to do the research on that.
Speaker 3: And the bigger your business gets, the more prevalent issues
Speaker 3: like that are. You might think, oh, it doesn't matter,
Speaker 3: Like I'm going to start, you know, BRIT's shoe shop,
Speaker 3: and then there's a BRIT's shoe shop in you know,
Speaker 3: northern Queensland. But you didn't realize how big they were,
Speaker 3: and they're actually really big online, but you thought that
Speaker 3: they were little and you didn't think it mattered. Yeah, like,
Speaker 3: these little things matter. So I think making sure that
Speaker 3: you're dotting all your eyes and crossing all your te's
Speaker 3: and kind of keeping stuff internal. It's so hard when
Speaker 3: you're so excited, but making sure that you're putting yourself
Speaker 3: first and setting it up for success from the beginning
Speaker 3: is really good. I mean I suck at instant gratification,
Speaker 3: like I'm that kid with the marshmallows. Like you've seen
Speaker 3: that right where the kid gets offered a marshmallow and said,
Speaker 3: if you can watch that marshmallow for fifteen minutes, when
Speaker 3: I come back, you can have two. Yeah, but I've
Speaker 3: already eaten it, like I just can't. And I think
Speaker 3: that's what's hard about business because we are so passionate
Speaker 3: and want it right now, but we know that if
Speaker 3: we invest slowly and consistently over time, that's where real
Speaker 3: wealth comes from. And I mean I'm an ex financial advisor,
Speaker 3: so I know that. But I also really struggle with
Speaker 3: instant gratification. So I feel like that's where I connect
Speaker 3: with my audience because I'm like, I get it, babe.
Speaker 3: I suck it about it like I suck it with
Speaker 3: it too. But what we need to do is this,
Speaker 3: And like sometimes the thing that we need to do
Speaker 3: is it's not as fun, but that's okay.
Speaker 2: We need to be patient and take our time.
Speaker 1: Well, it's been so great to have you share your
Speaker 1: wisdom with us V. I've absolutely loved this chat and
Speaker 1: I feel like for those listening, they've probably gotten a
Speaker 1: lot out of it, So so.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for sharing.
Speaker 1: And at the end of my episodes, I always and
Speaker 1: with a tip of the week. It can be a
Speaker 1: business tip, it can be a life tip, it can
Speaker 1: be a life hack. I know I should have probably
Speaker 1: sent this to you before we record it.
Speaker 2: But do you listen to your show?
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, you know, come on, you know I have
Speaker 3: a finance one perfect and I feel like, whether you're
Speaker 3: a business owner or not, this makes sense. So what
Speaker 3: you're going to do is go and purchase yourself a
Speaker 3: Visa gift card. And I know that that does it
Speaker 3: could be like five dollars, but you know what you're
Speaker 3: going to use that Visa gift card for. You're going
Speaker 3: to use that for all of your free trials and
Speaker 3: all of your subscriptions because you have to put in
Speaker 3: a credit card number to sign up for a Netflix
Speaker 3: trial or what and then how many times do we
Speaker 3: forget about our Netflix trial? Yeah, we are going to
Speaker 3: get Visa gift cards because not not normal gift cards,
Speaker 3: but Visa gift cards come with the credit card number
Speaker 3: in the CCV and the expiry so we can pop
Speaker 3: that in get our free trial and it not cost
Speaker 3: us a whole heap of money when we forget trials,
Speaker 3: and that can see in your wallet and you can
Speaker 3: use that because we're not going to actually spend the
Speaker 3: five bucks or ten bucks or whatever we've put on it.
Speaker 3: We're going to use it for our free trials to
Speaker 3: make sure that our credit card details are safe as well.
Speaker 3: So if there's ever like a website that you need
Speaker 3: to put your credit card details into too, right hack,
Speaker 3: that's what we're going to do. So it's like a
Speaker 3: finance one, but it's like keeping you safe. And I
Speaker 3: feel like that's worked for me a number of times.
Speaker 3: And whenever I tell friends, they're like, why didn't I
Speaker 3: think of this?
Speaker 2: And genius?
Speaker 3: I love that I get to take credit.
Speaker 2: I absolutely love that.
Speaker 1: Oh well, thank you so much again for joining us
Speaker 1: on Big Business.
Speaker 2: Tell us. Where can everyone find you?
Speaker 3: You can find me at She's on the Money AUS.
Speaker 3: You can find me at Victoria Underscore, Divine. On socials,
Speaker 3: all of my socials match, like whether that's Facebook, Pinterest,
Speaker 3: same same, like come hang out. I mean I'm not
Speaker 3: that interesting. But the she's on the money page is
Speaker 3: definitely where.
Speaker 1: You are so interesting. You're making unsexy things fun.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so like, the content's not sexy, but it will
Speaker 3: put you in the best possible position.
Speaker 2: And that's what we love.
Speaker 1: Oh thanks again so much and thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I'll see you again soon when I come back on
Speaker 1: your podcast.
Speaker 3: You no, I love this. We're gonna do it, absolutely