Hey friends! We are back for another profit report. It is time to break down January’s profit, the first profit report of 2020, and we are super excited! If you’re new here and this is the first profit report you’re listening to it might be a little bit different than what you’ve seen floating around online where people do ‘income reports’. We decided last fall to change up the narrative, not only for ourselves and our mentality when we’re talking about business and our own goals but also for the ‘comparisonitis’ that happens. Sometimes when you hear income reports where people list high figures and goals it gets really overwhelming and unattainable, and we can’t really compare that progress or those strategies to our business because we feel like the expectations are so different.

So, what we have tried to do is share percentages and profit. We have made it a goal to focus more on profit than big, shiny, sexy revenue, and that goal is continuing into 2020. It feels really good too! So, throughout this episode, we’re going to share percentages of products or expenses in our own business so you can begin to see the weight those things bear on us, and can make easier comparisons with your own business too!

Life as a successful female entrepreneur can be frazzling with all the different responsibilities you have to take on. Sometimes it can be difficult to know which thing to tackle first! Today on the podcast we have Jessica Korthuis, founder of Sohuis, a marketing and branding education resources company that provides on-demand training for early-stage female entrepreneurs. Jessica is a powerhouse brand strategist marketer, and she has worked with brands like Red Bull, TEDxWomen, Girls Who Code, Stanford University, Bloomingdale’s, and Florida Institute of Technology.

In this episode, we are talking about all the differences between small business ownership and entrepreneurship. We cover marketing tips, feeling the need to do everything and be everywhere, and how to prioritize the stuff that is actually working in your business so you can move forward. Joining this discussion, you’ll hear some top tips for validating your product, how to stop being a perfectionist and take action, and the value of being transparent to build audience trust. There is a lot of mindset-related stuff we are tackling today! Jessica is really in tune with female founders, and the different way intuition works when running a business. So, if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed about what is on your plate and what you have to handle, perfect! This episode will definitely provide some clarity for you.

Oftentimes the people closest to us are the most apprehensive about our business goals and dreams, and this can be isolating. You worry that perhaps you have done the wrong thing as their lack of enthusiasm or support makes you doubt yourself. But have you ever considered that this might be because you going for your dream might remind them that they are stuck? Maybe their skepticism is more about them and how your aspirations make them feel – how it highlights their passivity or the rut they find themselves in. Conversely, it could be your loved ones offer the wrong kind of support or they share their fears around your decisions because they do want you to succeed.

It could be that your spouse is more anxious than you are and that he or she is uncomfortable with you taking risks. As we all know, being an entrepreneur is all about insecurity and unpredictability! In this episode, we share our thoughts about why strangers are often more supportive than our loved ones. We talk about setting boundaries, not giving power to the wrong people, keeping a healthy perspective on the opinions of others, and why it is okay to unfollow people on social media!

You may have wondered what kind of revenue our business made over the holiday season, so today we’re giving you all the details about December. So, even though we’re properly settled into 2020 by now, let’s just backtrack a little to the end of 2019 – because there’s still something we can learn there. During this past December, we took time off for family and enjoying the holidays, but we also prepared ourselves for a big launch in January. We recognized making a big profit was not on the cards for this month as we had other plates spinning and purposefully decided to focus on our long-term vision. 

Sometimes it’s okay not to have profit as your biggest priority each month because as your business evolves, different things are required at different times. Sometimes you have to do the groundwork for what is to come and sacrifice the quick short-term cash and by listening to this episode, you will hear that this was what December looked like for us. Still, we talk about the outstanding performance of our Trello for Business course, why we expected a decline in profit from Strategy Academy, how we’ve rediscovered the power of strategic emails, and a whole lot more! 

Today we are giving Emylee the guest chair and are diving into her newish side-hustle, making clay earrings! You have probably heard it mentioned on the show in the past couple of months since she started hand-making everything from home and selling it through her personal Instagram account. She has kept the whole thing quite fun and casual, not wanting to put too much pressure on the fledgling business. 

In this episode, we talk about four major thoughts and ideas for growth in a product-based business and Emylee weighs in with her experience of each. The truth is her earring side-hustle might be a fully-blown business soon! So without further ado, let's hear what she has to say and get into some strategy!

Parker Stevenson is a great friend of ours and someone we love and respect a lot! He has done so much for us and our business in the years that we have been working together with Parker handling all of our bookkeeping. He has already been on the podcast a bunch of times and today he is back to talk about the all-important topic of launching! We get into cash-flowing a launch, how to know when you are ready or not ready, questions and preparation and how to pay yourself when it's all done. So basically we cover all the things you might be thinking about and what better person to ask than a bookkeeper.

Parker is all about helping his clients remain profitable and this conversation will get you into a great headspace for possible launches in the future. We offer tons of free resources in the second half of the show so be sure to stick around for those and Parker gives the inside scoop on many business and how he has seen launches evolve. In his work, he has helped countless small businesses that apply to so much of our audience. So for all that and a whole more on getting your next launch off the ground and into the air, join us as we talk strategy!

Today on the show we welcome Justine Nelson, founder of Debt Free Millennials. Justine is on a mission to advocate for a debt-free lifestyle, and today you will learn how this is relevant for your business and how it can fuel your personal financial goals. By the age of 25, Justine Nelson had paid off $35,000 in student loan debt making an average of $37,000 per year. Grit, discipline and a motivation to kick debt's ass for good helped her achieve this goal within two and a half years.

In this episode, we talk about leveraging your side hustle to pay off debt or save for that dream vacation, Justine’s go-to worksheets and business books, and a list of things you can do each month to ensure that you stay on track with your goals. We also talk about bookkeeping systems, budgeting, planning for annual subscriptions, and setting measurable goals. Now that 2020 is in full swing, why not tune in to this episode and learn how to get your debt and savings dealt with? 

Can you believe it? The year 2019 is over and we’re starting 2020 in just a few hours! We’re talking about our New Year’s Eve plans and how Emylee is going to navigate a house full of party people – thanks to marrying a frat guy who has a million friends! But speaking about plans to enter the new year on a high note, today we share with you our biggest lessons from 2019 and how they should impact your (and our) strategies for 2020. Tricky situations are unavoidable, and we offer you some solid advice for mitigating their potentially negative effects. 

As business owners, we are required to keep learning and developing all the time – otherwise, we simply won’t be able to keep up and we’d never reach our full potential. There are logistics and technicalities you must deal with at some point, whether it’s your thing or not, because entrepreneurs and business owners need to fulfill a multitude of roles and responsibilities. We reckon you can give yourself a pat on the back for what you have achieved in your business this year. It’s not easy, and it takes a lot of grit. Join us for this last episode of 2019 to hear more about break-even points, short-term sacrifices, distractions, and a whole lot more! 

Welcome to the November profit report! All businesses experience ups and downs – we do too – and sometimes what at first seems like a minor thing turns out to have a big impact on profitability. You all know by now that we’re all about profit here at Boss Project and we’ve spent too much time focused on the top line that we missed many of the intricacies going on in the background of our business. We’ve been showing you how to stabilize your profit and our own goal is to get to that 30% mark, but we also understand that there are many moving parts – things that are beyond our control – that ultimately determine your profit. For starters, it’s imperative for you to know exactly what comes in and goes out of your business every single month and to be truly aware: you can’t fix something if you didn’t know it was broken! Three factors impacted us negatively in November, two of them were actually preventable, but now we know and we won’t make those same mistakes again. 

When we talk about being aware, you have to know your awareness not only drives your decision-making, but it makes you alter your focus on the flip side. It’s not necessarily that you need to decrease your costs, but it’s about looking carefully at what the root problem is. Something might even seem like an issue when it really isn’t. That’s why you never make decisions on a whim: decisions should be made after digging deeper to find the underlying problem. When you have this kind of information, you might look at your results differently. Join us again today as we take you through the highs and lows of November 2019! 

So Emylee has been following a new Instagram account and just wanted to share some of the amazing data that she has been geeking out over for the last while! We have selected four specific posts that she found thought-provoking and worth talking about and will be unpacking what they are about and what we can learn from them. The account is called Chartr Daily and they post charts and graphs that represent interesting statistics and facts from the business world. They often add some commentary and discussion in the description, as well as having a newsletter with more detailed information. 

Here at the Strategy Hour, we love looking at charts! They might be slightly more difficult to make but that does not mean we cannot appreciate and enjoy what they are communicating! The four charts we have selected to discuss in today's episode are especially applicable to us, our industry and the conversations we have been having on this podcast, so head over to have a look at the posts and let's get into some strategy!

Ya’ll know we’re on a mission to turn you into a full-time creative entrepreneur who earns a sustainable income from your passion. Because we’ve been on this journey ourselves for the past four years and have helped thousands of people through it, we have seen and heard most, if not all, of the mistakes in the book. While we’ve spoken a great deal about getting your perfectionist or overachieving mindset right, that alone won’t help you to succeed. On a practical level, you need to stop making crucial mistakes, including focusing too heavily on the appearance of your brand, thinking that your audience is a bunch of strangers and convincing yourself that gadgets and systems will get you to where you want to be. Today we unpack each of these common mistakes, so get your notebook and listen up! 

Today on The Strategy Hour we are so happy to be joined by our friend Jill Stanton! Jill is the co-founder of Screw the 9 to 5, where she helps ambitious entrepreneurs quit their day jobs and live out their business dreams. They also have a very popular podcast and through all this work has inspired tens of thousands of people to build thriving businesses and live lives full of meaning and purpose. You can see why we love Jill! This is such a fun conversation, in which we focus on what it means to hire for growth instead of filling spaces. There is a big difference between building a team that actually helps you make more money and just getting bigger. It is such an opportune time to talk to Jill about this as she and her husband have just implemented these changes themselves within the last year! So the results are not all in yet, but it is looking good so far.

No matter how big or small your business is, this episode has lessons for you, many of which can be implemented from day one in order to set yourself up for success. As many of you will have noticed we are getting into the habit of emphasizing profit above all else and this is something we have in common with Jill! We are just so excited to have someone with this much experience in the online business world to share their genius with you. We have so much respect for Jill and Screw the 9 to 5 as she has learned so many lessons and we can all be really grateful that she is here to share these us!

It’s time for another profit report! These are not an excuse to talk about our business – we truly want to arm you with helpful information that you can apply to your business as a full-time creative entrepreneur. Ups and downs are a natural part of any business, so we want to give you a glimpse into our month-to-month profit not so that you might compare your business to ours, but learn from our mistakes and find your own rhythm. We aim for a 30% profit and share what all our expenses are each month and the different sources of income over that period so you get all the details. Today you’ll learn what profit means to us, how our summit sales performed, why you must get hooked up with sponsors, the ins and outs of payment plans, and more! 

We cannot believe we are about to enter into a new decade! It's crazy but it's true, so get ready! This is a bit of an unplanned episode, which is what makes it special. We want to take this chance to share our planning around the new year with all of you, and exactly what we are thinking about accomplishing for our business in 2020. 

This chat will be the build-up to our end of year meetings around wrapping up and looking ahead. Just think of it as an unofficial look inside our minds as we close out another year at Boss Project and The Strategy Hour! So many businesses do not make it past the fifth year and we do not aim to add to this statistic! So feel free to drop in and eavesdrop on a typical meeting between us as we voice our thoughts and ideas going into the last part of 2019!

Today we’re sharing with you our profit report for September. This is such a great opportunity for us to reflect on our business while also giving you a sneak-peek into how this might be applicable to yours. And before you think this is going to be boring – it’s not a traditional income report and we’re not giving you every single figure because it leads to a lot of unnecessary comparisons, disrupting the possibility of learning something. 

In this episode, we’re going to go over what worked and what didn’t, where the money came from and how it left, and what profit was left right at the end. Comparing September’s report with the previous month’s will also be helpful in understanding the unpredictable nature of business and will be a good starting point for getting some new strategies in place.