Today on the podcast we have Braden Drake, a California licensed attorney with a master’s degree in tax law, joining our conversation. He runs an education company that teaches other small business owners how to get the legal and tax stuff in order to ultimately unf*ck your business framework! He’s a pro at sorting out all the accounting and tax mess we make in our businesses, all those things that are totally befuddling to most of us! 

You’ll be happy to hear that he dishes out a lot of great strategy regarding lawyer-y things, and towards the end of our talk, he also gives away an awesome resource. If you need to do some damage control or brush up on your know-how around the sticky issues like choosing the right entity, paying quarterly taxes and avoiding Frankenstein contracts, be sure to tune in! 

We’ve heard from a lot of people that going from contractors to employees is complicated, expensive and overwhelming, so for a long time, we avoided going down that road. But then we started looking into it and considered all the potentially good stuff about having employees, such as having more control over how they spend their time and when they work. On today’s episode, we want to talk about all the things to think about before hiring an employee, because the truth is, it is very different and a much bigger responsibility. 

There are pros and cons to both, though, and that is why we share with you our experience over the last few years, so that you can be prepared for whichever scenario you choose. It’s all about looking at your business and figuring out whether you are in a financial position to take on a full time employee and whether you are prepared to deal with the positives and negatives of each option. Join us for everything you need to know about the people who do work for your business! 

Income reports can be super distracting and set you on a road of comparison, so instead of focusing on the exact dollars, it might be more useful to look at the profit and give you a breakdown of the biggest sources of income as well as the major expenses. Therefore, we are calling it a profit report and we want to ask all of you, even before we start, to DM us feedback – whether this format worked and helped you in your business. 

In this episode, you will hear more about our thought processes around profits and expenses, but it is important to keep in mind that there are many different ways in which to approach this, so we are not suggesting that you replicate exactly what we do. For the sake of transparency, we also want to let all of you in instead of just talking about the topic. We believe sharing the truth about our business will be of much greater value to you than simply giving you a blueprint for what it should look like. The focus should be profit and figuring out what your goal is in this regard is more important than being able to say you are a six-figure business. We’re baring it all today, so don’t miss out! 

Welcome back to the show, everybody! Today we are going to be letting you even further into our business lives! As we continue to grow we are constantly asking ourselves, "What is the content that people want to hear about?" This goal of keeping you entertained, educated, and engaged is very important to us and we have always loved sharing our lives and work with all of you. When we started out, everything we did was fun, fresh, and engaging and it was easy to share this with our listeners in a natural way. As we have grown, things have changed and we have been more considerate in our choices but we want to carry on sharing stuff with you that is exciting, new, and informative. It has always been our best thing, being able to share something about a problem we solved or a strategy we discovered. 

As we enter year four of our biz we have to continue to look for these opportunities when we have had a different reality from where started out and many of our listeners. We want to help you now and set you up for success in the future! We have a feeling there may be some inaccurate perceptions out there of what is happening in our business. You are welcome to DM us on Instagram with your thoughts but we sense people find us less relatable than when we started out and were smaller. There have been challenges in continually connecting with our audience as our situation has changed, our team has grown and so on, but we want, more than anything, to stay relatable to all of you! We actually think we are probably in more similar situations to a lot of you than you may think! All this to say, we have resolved to let you in on some of this and share more of what is going on in our current lives than we have been!

Guess what’s back? Another Boss Project Summit! For those who have not yet joined us for one of these events, it’s basically an amazing, free business conference during which you can wear your PJs while attending in the comfort of your own home. We gather all the best entrepreneurs and business owners to teach you everything they know, from starting an online business to pivoting and scaling, and everything in between. Head to the Boss Project Summit website to sign up and get your virtual ticket. It is happening live August 20-22, 2019, so make a note of that. 

On this episode we give you a quick overview of some of the topics that will be covered and the great sponsors we have for the summit. We also tell you how you should go about getting access to the summit and what an all access pass will allow you to do. So be sure to get with the Boss Project Summit program! 

As your business grows, you might find the need to hire a virtual assistant. How we approach hiring now is very different from what it used to be and getting someone who is the right fit takes a good portion of know-how. It’s a learning curve and a process for sure. The first step is to make sure that you actually need a person and that a well-functioning system or software application is not able to address the need, because that will naturally work out way cheaper! 

When you’ve done your research and figured out that you absolutely do need a human to do the task, you might begin by asking for referrals. But how will you know if this is the right person for the job? Well, on this episode we share some of the greatest advice for hiring a virtual assistant – tips and tricks that you can apply to really any position you need to be filled. So be sure to tune for today’s Strategy Hour Podcast! 

Today we are carrying on with listener questions, so do not forget to send yours in if you have any! You can do this on Instagram or in the Facebook Group, we love to hear your ideas and questions, so go ahead and ask away! Today we are tackling a question on how to keep communication clear, deal fairly with different amounts of input and how to keep a partnership strong and working well. We have talked about this a little before in other episodes, in different contexts, we have looked at the legal side, how we started out, how things have changed, our thoughts on partnership and breaking down our team. But it is high time for an update, so here we go!

Truth be told, we do not really suggest you go out looking for a partnership like ours. We have seen again and again how difficult it can be and how businesses dissolve, we have just been very lucky in the way that we fit together. So this is us sharing our lessons that you can apply to your team in whatever shape or form it is in now or takes in the future. We are sharing some strategies that have worked for us in resolving conflict and sharing the roles of a business and truthfully, it has mostly been really smooth and easy for us, but that is not always the case. So join us as we break down some tools, books, software and ideas that can make it work that much better for you!

Today we are talking about a real hot topic and something we should all be talking about more often! We will be unpacking inclusivity and diversity and our own experiences and the lessons we have learned in this area. We will be drawing mostly from our recent summit and what we took away from the event that we will carry forward. This episode will have actionable strategies and tips about how to invite everyone to your table. We have spoken on this topic in various ways on the podcast before but it definitely deserves a dedicated episode, so we will be discussing community over competition, inclusion in our own company, the speakers we invited to the summit and what to do when something rubs you the wrong way. 

We all have a responsibility to open up these conversations if we are going to make any progress as a society. Do not worry, you are not alone if the discomfort itself makes you feel uncomfortable! There is a lot of work to do and processing all of this is not always easy but you learn best by doing and mistakes are okay! It is a big misconception that we will all get it right every time, so do not put too much pressure on yourself in that regard, rather commit to learning, listening and trying your best to contribute to important change!

Welcome back to the Strategy Hour Podcast! Today’s episode is mostly for the listeners out there whose businesses are under the $500k a year earning mark but who have this possibility on the horizon. We want to talk to you about the growth that happens around this point and for you to ask yourself whether you really need to keep growing. The reason this is an important question is because as you scale past $500k you actually may not increase your profits.

This law of diminishing returns is something we have experienced at Boss Projects as we grew. What does it really mean to have a seven figure business? The answer might not be quite what you expect. In order to get you ready for these possibilities we will be talking accounting and the different ways that making money works in your business. So if you are ready to start making your revenue work for you and to keep your profits up, listen in, we cover it all!

Many times people come to us and ask where they should start with their business. They’re overwhelmed and feel like they’re having to do so many different things when really they want to focus on doing only the things that actually get results. You can also get totally snowed under by the ideas and opinions of others. The biggest detriment can be wanting to have all the bells and whistles of a thriving business and wanting all of them straight away. We argue for the opposite: first get the foundational things in order and get really good at it before worrying too much about the fluff.

Here is a construction analogy: In the Midwest, houses often have basements because their foundations have to be built below the snow line, otherwise it will crack. The same applies to our businesses: they require really solid foundations. Some of you have to take a few steps back and dig out a basement so that the structure of your business can be healthy and sturdy. A foundation allows you to have stability, and frankly, without a foundation, you don’t have a sustainable business. Today we’re talking about what’s involved in those initial stages that many people are skipping or putting off, so get ready to join us for another fun episode of the Strategy Hour Podcast!  

Our guest today, Emily Benson, is an expert in everything retail, working for companies like Abercrombie & Fitch and Club Monaco. For those who aren’t aware, 80% of boutique owners go out of business within their first two years – most often because of a lack of education. Emily’s boutique training academy is here to help lower that percentage, offering both beginner and advance coaching to people who want to grow their boutiques. But it’s not only super helpful to product-based businesses; her advice is applicable to service-based babes too, because business is business, right?

On this episode we’re talking inventory, margins, increasing profits and generally making smart business decisions based on the results you are currently getting in your business. So whether you’re selling t-shirts or courses, it’s all about paying attention to your data, customers and trends and we are going to dish out detailed strategies for exponential business growth. So buckle up, take some notes and get ready to learn a whole bunch from the boutique master herself!

Today on the show we are joined by the wonderful and inspiring Kathleen Cutler! Kathleen has worked behind the scenes on multiple million dollar online stores with her main area of focus being jewelers. She has coached over a hundred different jewelers to help them achieve their business goals and get their products selling online, but Kathleen’s expertise extends so much further than just jewelry! She wants to help everyone selling products or even services online extend the experience of the customer and drive sales through the type connections that you would usually associate with a physical retail space.

Along with all her incredible business skills, Kathleen is also an awesome speaker who will be joining us at our upcoming Product Powerhouse Summit! Make sure to go get your free ticket immediately! She will be one of many great speakers talking about the world of online product sales and marketing and getting your store busy and making that money! So without further ado, let’s get into today’s strategy.

Today we are taking you through everything that we have messed up on! Products, launches, events, campaigns, everything! We have made a checklist of all the things we kind of wished we had done differently over the last few years, but at the same time we do need to say for the most part we think the mistakes were necessary and don’t believe in wanting to travel back in time to fix past problems. We all make choices as best we can at the time, so hypotheticals do not really exist in real, present tense life.

All that to say, we do not really regret any of these decisions but want to play this game where we can look back at things and see where we might have gone wrong. Also, it is important to remember our experiences are not yours. Things that did not work for us, might be amazing for you and your business. We are not making blanket statements about all businesses, because most things work for somebody at some point in time. Most mistakes are more about wrong time and wrong personnel than anything else. So without further ado, let’s get into our flops!

Hello again, you guys! Guess what? It’s time for another summit! In November 2018 we launched our very first summit and it was amazing. We started thinking about how we could improve on our already-spectacular event and came up with the idea of focusing on a very special portion of our audience because there seems to be a lack of resources for this type of business owner. The upcoming summit, called Product Powerhouse Summit, is aimed at all the product-based babes and those aspiring to step into the retail market, whether you have your own boutique or want to introduce e-commerce to your website.  

Just to lay it all out there, it’s 100% free to attend! Simply head over to the Boss Project Summit website to claim your complimentary ticket. We’re going to have about 25 speakers over three days, from April 9 –11th. You are going to get 24 hours free, which would allow you to watch almost all of the speakers. The best part of it all? It’s all virtual! As long as you have an Internet connection, you can access it through your phone, iPad, or on your desktop, and you don’t even have to be wearing pants! So stay tuned for the breakdown of the exciting topics you can look forward to!

Welcome back to another episode of your favorite podcast! Today we are answering your requests to break down the various roles we currently have at our company. So, just for all of you, we will be unpacking the size and impact of each of these in our beautiful little biz! We have been taking on new people and restructuring lately so what better time than now to do this exploration. We finally have a solid group and each role is pretty clear, which is more than we used to be able to say! We have to admit that for quite a long time certain jobs and departments remained quite a mystery to us, what they were really for and how much we could ask. Building a business is always going to include bringing people on and letting people go and it can sometimes prove quite hard to find the right fit. But we are much more confident right now than we have ever been!

So at the moment we have a nice mix of new faces and old hands and we have to shout out once again to Traction, the book we have drawn so much inspiration from, for helping us figure out our company structure. We have had to change our mindset from small business owners to the CEOs and founders of a company, which is harder than it sounds! It has taken three years of trial and error and in the beginning we did not even have plans to build a team at all! We are still figuring out how big we want to be; right now we stand at about 20 people working on things. Quite a lot, we know! Some of these are contracted out, some are employees, some are part time, but it is quite crazy to us that there are so many heads together on our little biz! So stay tuned as we dive into our business together.