Episode 76

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Published on:

2nd Jul 2024

Ep 76. Creating Legacy Goals & Harmonious Wealth w/Iyanna Vaughn

In this episode with CFO, Iyanna Vaughn of Lovely Financials Group, we talk about what it means to create harmonious wealth as a mom in business. In the conversation, Iyanna shares about her journey to the intersection of motherhood and entrepreneurship, how she went from rock bottom to a multiple six figure business.

She also explains to us the difference between the role of Bookkeeper, Accountant & CFO along with how to create a legacy plan.

About Iyanna

Iyanna Vaughn is the CEO and founder of Lovely Financials Group, which is her Metro Atlanta based CFO firm, which aims to provide the support needed to aid women, business owners and brands at any scale, recognize and optimize key opportunities for wealth acquisition and management.

In applying her methods, clients have been able to see an increase in their overall profit margins and the maintenance of healthy revenue streams. While she has seen her clients exceed seven figure margins by implementing her teachings, she understands that true fulfillment comes with the accompaniment of much more.

Her journey of healing through faith Faith and spiritual awakening has emboldened her creativity and strengthened her confidence beyond the numbers, a reality she seeks to see every woman achieve

LINKS & MENTIONS

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IG: @phyliciapough

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Website: themomceosuite.com

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Transcript
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You are now tuned in to the mom CEO suite podcast.

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I'm your host, Felicia, wife, mom, and

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entrepreneur. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my mompreneur

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journey along with strategies that will help you build your online

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business operations in a sustainable way. The goal is

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to help you build a business that fits into your lifestyle as a mom who

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values putting family first. We will also hear the

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experiences and expertise of other moms with service

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based businesses. You'll get a peek into our journeys so you'll

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know that you aren't alone. Motherhood gets hard.

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Entrepreneurship gets hard. But together we can

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do hard things. Welcome to the suite.

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All right. Hey, friends, welcome to another episode. Thank you so much

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for being here with us today. Um, today we have another guest and

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our guest is Ayanna Vaughn and she knows numbers.

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The CEO and founder of a lovely financials

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group, which is her Metro Atlanta based CFO firm.

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Which aims to provide the support needed to aid women, business owners and brands

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at any scale, recognize and optimize key

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opportunities for wealth acquisition and management.

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In applying her methods, clients have been able to see an increase in

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their overall profit margins and the maintenance of healthy

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revenue streams. While she has seen her clients exceed

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seven figure margins by implementing her teachings, she understands

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that true fulfillment comes with the accompaniment of much more.

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Her journey of healing through faith Faith and spiritual awakening has

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emboldened her creativity and strengthened her confidence

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beyond the numbers, a reality she seeks to see

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every woman achieve. That is so beautiful. Hi, Ayana.

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Welcome to the suite. How are you? I'm doing so good, Felicia. Thank you so

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much for having me on. It's so interesting. Like hearing you read the bio because

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it was like, Oh, okay. This sounds really good. Right. That's always how I am.

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I'm like, Oh wow. They're talking about me. Right? Like, Oh, okay. That's

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so funny. So, so glad that you are here today. And just a

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quick plug. I met or connected with Ayana on.

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Threads actually. it's just a different atmosphere and you're able to connect with, just

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people who you haven't come in contact with. So, uh, connect with us over

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on threads, but I gotta tell us a little bit more about

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you and really, how did you get into the work that you're doing

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today? Oh my goodness. So, um, my

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story is not the typical like accounting major

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to corporate to entrepreneurship pipeline. It's like,

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I went to college for originally healthcare management, but if we go

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further back, I wanted to be a psychologist. I

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wanted to help people understand themselves. A lot of my

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friendships developed with like deep conversations. So I was

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keen to learn about psychology in college. And then my family was

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like, Do nursing. I'm like, I don't trust, I don't have good hand eye coordination.

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Y'all call me butterfingers. I'm always dropping things. Why would you

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expect that I would be a nurse? Absolutely not. So I got

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into healthcare management, which is the business behind healthcare. And

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I took a few accounting classes and I fell in love with accounting. And

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then I told myself, I want to be a CFO at a hospital one day

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and come to find out towards the end of my college career, I was

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expecting. So I told myself, okay, I'm not going to change my

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major just yet. Let me get through this, this bachelor degree

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so that I can come, come back to school after I have my daughter. And,

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um, long story short, after I had her literally,

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I walked across the stage, December of 2013. I had her

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January 2nd of 2014. So it was

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right there. And while I was in school, I had

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technically graduated in the summer of 2013. And

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at that point, every trimester I was adding on a job. I was working

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like three jobs. It was a lot. And, um, when I

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had her, instead of going back to three jobs,

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I decided to be a host parent, which is kind of like a

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foster mom to adults, but. Um, special needs or

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developmental disabilities. So I know really,

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really different story. So as I was

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essentially a mom of three overnight, I was overwhelmed at this

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point, I was a few years in, I was going on 25. I was like,

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what kind of creative outlet can I do for myself? And that's when I got

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into like crafts. I got into like blogging. Like I had a

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blog, it was cute. It was a great community. Um, but

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the, the sauce was when I joined, I was,

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I saw so many women have online businesses and they were crushing their goals, but

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they were really afraid to talk about money. So I was like, wait, you know,

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I love accounting at the time. I would like tutors, like other students on the

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weekends. Like my professor was like, change your major, change them. I'm like, Oh, wait,

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wait, wait. But. Fast forward to this point, I was

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like, Okay, how can I conceptualize everything that I learned in school about

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accounting to create a business? So that's when I came across the

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bookkeeping. Um, it was basically bookkeeping in a box like type of

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course, So I invested in that course. I invested in myself. I was,

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I never thought I would be a, an entrepreneur or a business owner.

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And, um, that's when I had my first few clients who were

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bloggers. And during that time, they were able to like,

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understand, well, first. They had bookkeeping done for

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tax season. I was first and foremost getting the books done right. And then

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as I would meet with clients, I would prepare financial statements

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and I would educate them on their financials. So it kind of was

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more of like a gradual inorganic filling in gaps

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as I've seen, like, First, let me help you at least

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get your bookkeeping done for tax season. Okay, now let me

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educate you. Now going beyond education and creating

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strategies to help them improve their financial picture was the next

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gap that I filled. So I went above and beyond.

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bookkeeping to more financial strategy. And now we do

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fractional CFO services with our clients. And what's so interesting is

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that because I bet on myself and I invested in

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myself during that time, I was able to witness and have the

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honor of witnessing like clients, like exploding in their businesses,

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like growing their businesses, even like helping them through growing pains or like.

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Pivoting and things of that nature. So it's been a beautiful journey. And

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again, it's not the typical, but it's, it's a little unique story.

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No, I love that. I don't think anybody's story ends up being typical, right?

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Because it's just so different pieces that all at

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some point kind of combined to get you to where you are today.

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But I love that you said you invested in yourself. And then because of that,

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other people were able to kind of see their growth and

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develop in their way. And that just kind of goes to the point. I know

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a lot of times we, we might be second guessing ourselves or,

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you know, afraid to invest in ourselves or just do the thing that we feel

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like we're supposed to be doing, but it's literally. You know, you

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hear it a lot, there's people attached to you and people are waiting for you

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to kind of walk into what you're supposed to be doing so that they can

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experience their, their freedom, their growth and all those things. So

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I absolutely love that about your story. I do agree with that.

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Sometimes, you know, we don't like to talk about the numbers, but we're going to

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talk about it a little bit today. Um, so one

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of the things that can kind of get, I won't say

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confusing, but It's a little muddy sometimes in the

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online space. Can you explain to us the difference

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between what a bookkeeper is? Because you did mention the

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bookkeeping, um, between a bookkeeper and

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accountant and a CFO, how do their roles differ?

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Yeah. So a bookkeeper does the day to day trend. Like they,

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all the transactions that come in. And your bank account,

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your credit cards, or they're coding the transactions

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and they may or may not produce financial statements. But if they do, they

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are overseen typically by an accountant who's able to

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collect that data. Just make sure like, do a quality check

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and then they're able to. Report the findings to a

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client and then a CFO does more of like,

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okay, let's get out of the weeds of the day to day. Let's look at

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the future. What are the next 3 to 5 years? Like, what are your

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goals? And how do we get from point A to point B? So to

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summarize again, bookkeeping is like day to day operations, like

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the This came in here, revenue came in expenses,

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and then we're computing your profit, creating your financial

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statements. And those financial statements are typically the income

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statement, aka known as the profit and loss statement, the balance

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sheet. Which it tells your assets, which, which is what you

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own liabilities, which is what you owe an equity, which is

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what's left over. And then we have that statement of cash flows. You may, you

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may not get this if you have a bookkeeper, but this is important because it

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tells you how your cash flows in your business. So

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a lot of these terms, right? Bookkeepers have definitely

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evolved. As of late, right? They're doing more than just

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reconciling transactions, which is just making sure that the

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bank statements, the credit card statements matches up with what's in the

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accounting platform. They're doing more these days, right? They're doing more

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advisement. But, um, typically when you are

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working with any of these professionals, right? You want to ensure that the

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scope of service matches and going

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back to an accountant. Not only do they prepare the statements and Give you

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an analysis. They might do tax accounting, right? they might

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do payroll for you. They might do,

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um, sales tax, different, different areas,

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right? So essentially, the main important thing is

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making sure that you have the right scope of service.

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With whoever you're working with because they, they do different things. some accountants don't

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do taxes. Some do some only work with specific

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industries. That's such a good breakdown and

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good advisement too, right? Because just know who you're

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working with and what the scope of work is going to be. Um, so you

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did mention profit as well. And I know you just released a podcast

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episode by the time this airs, it'll be one of your past episodes.

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But again, it's kind of differentiating and

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explaining these different financial terms. And

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so I'm going to put the link to that episode in the show description. But

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you're talking about what. The profit is versus cashflow

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versus cash one hand. And again, I think sometimes

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we hear this stuff and it's like, well, what is this? Or I'll just let

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my, my, my accountant take care of that. Right. But we do need to kind

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of know what these things mean. So we're not going to dig into it

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today, but I'm going to link it in the show description so that you all

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can listen to that episode and kind of get the information that you need.

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But having said that, you know, I mentioned you have a podcast and your podcast

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is called, uh, Harmonious wealth. And I love that

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title, right? We talk about work life harmony here at the mom CEO suite.

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And so can you explain to us though, what does that mean for

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you? and for your brand, what is harmonious wealth?

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Mm. Well, first, thank you. I do appreciate that. And

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when I saw that you have like work life harmony, I'm like, Oh yeah, we,

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we, we here, we here. But to me, harmonious wealth

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is having more than just the financial wealth, but more

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so your inner wealth, more so like having harmony between

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different areas of your life, especially as a mom business owner.

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Especially, especially right. Because you have, you want to have wealth

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spiritually, mentally, physically, your

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health, right. So with harmonious wealth, I wanted to showcase

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online entrepreneurs, especially moms who strive to

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build their businesses and they're stressing themselves out. And

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instead of having you working for your business, flipping

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it and having your business work for you. So I'm a major

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advocate for making sure that your business, not only are you

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serving God's children, not only are you serving community, but your business must

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also serve you. And that is through accomplishing both your immediate

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lifestyle goals, as well as your legacy goals. And harmonious wealth

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talks about all those different things while educating you on your

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financial picture and understanding finances as a whole. You mentioned the

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legacy goals, right? And I don't think we talk about

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this enough in our community. Um, just the legacy.

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What's going to happen when you're not here? What do you want to happen

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after? You know, are you going to close your business? are you going to pass

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your business down? I know you talk a lot about legacy

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plans. So can you explain to us what a

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legacy plan is? And then you started talking about it a little bit, but

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why it's important for female, especially mom entrepreneurs to

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create one. Yeah. So first a legacy goal,

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it encompasses so much, right? But from the scope of service that we

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work with our clients, we're the first step to like actually

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talking about your personal goals and your future goals. So I

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want to kind of gather as much information for clients to say, okay,

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if I know your personal goals, I know where you want to be in the

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future. I know what you want to do when you retire. I can kind of

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grasp that picture with you. Now, how can we move

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forward to Execute on it as well as

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accelerate it. But overall, a legacy goal is essentially having a

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plan for not only yourself, but for your family

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generations to come. So it involves like your estate

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plan, right? And involves like making sure that you have a business

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success. Succession plan. Like you mentioned, like, are you going to close the business? Are

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you going to pass it on? Are you going to sell it? Whatever have you,

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what is your personal legacy going to look like? What would you want to be

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your most successful accomplishment? What does that mean for you? You know, is it

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like raising, um, well rounded children?

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Is it like making sure that your, your goal for your community

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is to serve X amount of people? and then also what are your

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philanthropic goals? Like, how are you going to give back to the community?

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So encompassing all of those things go into your legacy goal.

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And what I do is help clients identify or at least

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the first step of identifying it. Because up until that point, they're not

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talking about retirement. They're not talking about years in advance. They're talking about the next

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quarter, the next year and salary, right. Which are all great

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things, but how can we get out of just the weeds of our business and

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look. Three years in advance, at least. How can we look like, how

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can we place a specific date or age

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when you're going to retire? Like, what do you want to retire with things like

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that? so the legacy plan that I do with my clients

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goes into like, what do you love most about your life? What do you love

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most about your business? When do you want to retire? What does a day in

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a life look like when you retire? And most of the time, this is their

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first conversation. And I'm like, okay, let's, let's, let's kind of dig more

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into this. I'm curious. Like, how can we like make this a reality based off

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of your business? So I'm a big believer that your business should be

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one of the first or one of the top wealth generators for you, because

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if you read the book. The cashflow quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki.

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He talks about like the four different areas in which you earn money.

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First is through as an employee. The second is through

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like a self employed business owner, right? So now you go from one boss to

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many, but you're doing most of the work yourself. And then it goes to

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business. So my, I'm trying to help clients go from two to more. So

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three where their business. Runs like the business funds,

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their life and their wealth through their operations,

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having the right team in place. And then also like pouring out

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their, their intellectual property into like an offer. So

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then when they have like excess cash on

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hand, because they're increasing their profits, they become for an investor.

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And then they can work with like a financial advisor to kind of like have

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different investment strategies. But my job is to say, okay, let's go from two to

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three. Let's increase your profits. Let's increase your cash. Then you

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could go to your financial advisor to kind of go through everything else. So

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yeah. That was such a good breakdown. And just

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even the explanation of you talking about that, the, the quadrants

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going from two to three, that's so real, right? Because so

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many people start businesses and it just becomes like another job, right? But

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it's not really, financing the life or the lifestyle that they

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really desire. And so in talking about the legacy plan, you did

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kind of mention a lot of things to consider, which was really, really

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helpful because it's I know for some people thinking about legacy

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planning goals, it might be like, well, where do I start with this? Right.

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You gave us some things to consider, but do you have any like

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tangible steps for people if they're, you know, they're

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thinking, okay, I do want to start creating my legacy goals and

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plan. maybe like, what are the first few things that they really should do

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to get that started? Great question. So one of the

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first things is deciding, even if you're not married to the

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idea, like what age would you want to retire? And by the time

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that you retire, how would, how long will it take for

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you to grow a nest egg of at least 2 million by the time that

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you retire so that you live off of your investments? So what that

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means is like, say. I'm 34, right? And I haven't, I'm

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not 34 yet. Almost. I'll be 34

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this year, but say, let's, let's just use me as an example

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and say, I'm, I'm just starting out with retirement. I haven't

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started just yet. What you should do is

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look and see by the time, if you want to retire by 60 from

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34 to 60, how many years, how many years

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is that? Right? How, how much would you have to contribute until your

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retirement? So that you can have 2 million in your nest egg

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so that you can retire with that amount.

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So that's where I would start. It was like, okay, who am I as a

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person? What do I love most about my life? But tangibly,

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what would it take for me to at least retire with 2 million in my

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nest egg? Then you can work backwards and say, okay, if that means I

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need to fund my retirement by 1500 a

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month, but I'm not there yet. What, what can I start with? What can I

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start with at least? 100, maybe

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maybe 100, maybe 200 going from there and then growing. Right.

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I think building momentum is better than just saying, you know, I

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can't do it right now because I can't fund the whole thing. But things

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change in businesses. So maybe it might be 100 or so

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a month this year, but maybe the next year because you've been really looking at

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your numbers like a fine tooth comb. It grows to 1000 plus.

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Right. So that's the first way that I would look,

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um, I would also look into getting like

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insurances in place to not only protect yourself, but your business.

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And that involves like, um, I'm going to talk about this in a

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future episode, but there were some things that I missed out on a couple of

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years ago when I experienced a personal life change. And if

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I would have had those insurances in place in my business and personal, then

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I would have been able to kind of like take some time to heal mentally.

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To kind of get back to things. So specifically for

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insurances, those are a lower barrier of entry because it's like a

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hundred, a hundred something dollars a month. Right. So that would be like disability

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insurance, definitely getting that so that you can support

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yourself if anything happens to you as a business owner, because you're not going to

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have that elsewhere. I would also look into, um,

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getting what is called a, an overhead insurance.

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I forget the name, but basically a cop, like if anything happens to you as

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a CEO, you're able to get coverage for your overhead

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to cover those overhead expenses. And then also

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find a potential replacement for you. So having those

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insurances in place, you're able to protect yourself just like you

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would be protected. If you were employed at a company, maybe

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even more because now you're kind of like looking into things.

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And I would also look into like, I'm going to talk about this

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next week, but by the time this launches, I'm sure it'll be posted.

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But What is your tax plan? You know, what is your tax plan for

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not only this year, but the next few years, if you're growing in business, you're

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growing your profits. How can you align your tax plan with your

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lifestyle goals? Right. So what that means is like, if you're

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wanting to buy a home, you know, you're not going to want to deduct every

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single thing from, from your business because you want to show

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taxable income that suits buying your home. Um,

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and then finally, just to kind of summarize this is you want to

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get. Um, legal support, you know, having a

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state plan, right. Or, or a will, or even talking to someone in your

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area that can say, Hey, you know, based off of what you have, like your

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assets that you have, we could at least start you with this. So then that

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way you at least have one step. It's all about one step. You

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don't need to have all the bells and whistles. One step.

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That was so good. You said so many good things and I love that you

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started talking about the insurance. Because I feel like I

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never see anybody talk about it in the online space. So

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I'm so glad you mentioned that. Um, but when you work with your clients, do

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you help them Navigate those areas when it comes to the business

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insurance and the legal estate planning piece.

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So I don't. Do it. But I am a person

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that loves to connect with others. So say if I know your goal

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and I'll ask like, do you have business insurance? I don't see on this

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statement here, let's get into it. And then if they're reluctant,

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I'm like, no, this is what happened to me. I could have been supported in

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a way, right? My personal story. And, um, I don't mind sharing,

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you know, trigger warning. I do want to say trigger warning. Um, in

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2022, I went through a pregnancy loss and, Changed my

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whole life. Everything changed about me. Right? And

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I just wasn't the same and I wasn't performing the same. And if I would've

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had insurances in place at the time, like disability insurance, like

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overhead coverage, type of insurance, things like that, I would've

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been able to support myself financially. Or. my business would

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be able to support itself with insurance. Right. And then I would have been able

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to take time off, take leave and still get paid the

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majority of my salary without it impacting the business as it did.

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So if you're on the fence with getting business insurance or

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disability insurance as an entrepreneur. Don't hesitate. You don't know

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what what's going to happen. And also having the faith that

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nothing crazy or catastrophic will happen, but you just want to have something in

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place, you know, to protect yourself. Yeah, that's

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so good. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. Um, but you really

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gave some good advice. So I really would encourage you if you are listening

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to go ahead, pause, rewind, take some notes and just

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start taking, like Ayanna said, that one step, right? Even if you

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don't have, once you do your plan, if you don't have that

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1500 or whatever to start with. Start with where you're at and

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do what you can right now and then gain that momentum

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going forward. So that's, that's really good and encouraging. Reach

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out to Ayaan if you need support and assistance in that

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area. Um, so I want to ask because

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we did mention, you talked about, getting people from quadrant two to

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three. So when they're trying to scale their businesses though, what have been some

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of the biggest challenges that you've seen? when entrepreneurs are

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trying to go from, From two to

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three. The biggest thing is they're not paying

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themselves enough. And there's a lot of

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distrust that goes on when it comes to investing in your business.

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I'm a big believer in investing in your business, but if you're, but if your

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company pays your salary and it's impacting how

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you can pay yourself, you need to figure out how your

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business can support you while you're trying to grow your business.

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And a lot of that stems from underpricing one,

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um, scope creep, another one. And then,

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also. Understanding like

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guidelines and which, how to invest in your company.

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So say for instance, understanding, what you can afford

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to pay someone. Right. And I do, I have something called like

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a profit guideline, which it kind of, you map out your past six

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months and your revenue past six months and expenses. And then it kind

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of computes like your affordability to pay yourself.

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So. Coning back in on the biggest mistake I see is not

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being able to pay yourself from your business. I'm a big believer to eventually getting

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to 50 percent profit margin before paying yourself, because that allows you

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to pay yourself, you know, a decent salary. And, um,

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with that. You probably don't pay yourself enough,

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right? You're underpaying yourself. You're living stripe payout to stripe payout.

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Um, and then you're not able to understand what are the holes that you need

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and creating random revenue goals as well. So, it's like, once you

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understand exactly what you must pay yourself, then you have an idea of

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what your revenue goal should be. And once you have guidelines and how to

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spend your money, you're then able to say, okay, how can I

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without? Or objectively without a lot of emotion, say

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what I, what the business can or cannot afford at the moment. And if it's

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something that I do need to invest in, how can I create or

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take a calculated, a calculated risk? So that

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if I do take it i'm keeping myself accountable. I think

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you're so right. When you said strike payout to strike payouts, like some people,

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that's what we're, we're doing. Right. and I know a lot of people have not

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gotten to the point where they pay themselves a

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consistent amount. like every week or two weeks,

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um, it's just kind of based on whatever's coming in the business and sometimes that

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might not be what you need in order to

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sustain your lifestyle. Right. and then having that plan and knowing what the business

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can afford. All the things that you mentioned, super

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important. And so clearly as you guys are listening,

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Ayana knows what she's talking about. Okay. So go

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ahead. We'll put links to her, um, her, her

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website so you can check her out, schedule a call, get the

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information that you need, to better your business. So I

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want to switch gears and we have been talking about this a little bit, but.

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More about your mom journey. Um, really,

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how did you get to the intersection

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of motherhood and entrepreneurship? What was that journey like for you?

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Um, it was so interesting. So my daughter has like

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great memory. She has great memory. I say that because when she, when I

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started my business, she was, I started in.

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Officially 2016 and got started for real

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2017. so she was three going on four. And at the time,

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single mother, I got into our first apartment and

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I was hustling. Okay. I was working so much. I

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did. I went from pregnant working three jobs to now having a business

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doing the job of three people, essentially. So that journey

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was really tough. Um, and. What

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was disheartening was I was ignoring my own financials

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while paying attention to everyone else's. I know that there's like some, when you have

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a business, right, your trauma shows up in your business. The,

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your mindset shows up in your business. Your business is a mirror of who

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you are at that moment. And I had to face a lot of things. I

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was still, you know, navigating my twenties, navigating motherhood, navigating a

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whole, a whole business. And because I

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was ignoring my own financials, right. I

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suffered financial rock bottom in 2018.

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And, um, thankfully my daughter didn't like

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feel right. Feel that thankfully, but I felt it

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and it was extremely stressful. And I,

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and at the time when I mentioned that she has great memories, she,

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She understood that I wasn't as attentive as I was today.

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I really wasn't. And she knew that I was

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always working. You know, I was always like, she was three, four when you, when

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your child turns three, if anyone has a three year old, you know, it's hard

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to go to sleep. Okay. She was very,

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um, I wouldn't say outspoken, but she definitely spoke her mind not

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in like a crazy way, but she, because I would talk to

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her and like, um, Even as a baby, as I would anyone else,

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she was, she had a high vocabulary, so she was able to

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articulate her thoughts really well. So that was

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interesting because, you know, here I am, single mother,

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um, with financial rock bottom, like struggling to kind of get

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her to Really making enough to pay the bills and to get her through

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daycare and thank God when she went to pre k

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that was free, right? so

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So, um as I went through financial rock bottom in 2018

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I promised myself that I would never go to that low point

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again, and I would treat my financials like I would a client

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So I was doing my, I was acting like I was my own

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accountant, my own CFO doing my numbers every single

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week. And, um, that next year I made six figures. I

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doubled my income that following year and I was, I, I

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saved, bought my baby and I a home,

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got myself a new car and everything. So it was just,

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I was able to understand with motherhood some,

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it was a whole nother step, right? I wasn't just focused on myself. I

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had to switch my life to be life first

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versus having my business and whatever time was left over

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was for my family. I had to switch that around. And, um,

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honestly, Even when I, um,

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shifted in business and I was more successful, I

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still worked a lot. And then when I went through spiritual rock

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bottom in 2022 is when I was like, okay, something has to

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change. And that's

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when now I live a much softer life in a

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way. You know, I still am, I have more energy to kind of work hard

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in sprints, but I'm really, um,

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Focused on how can I actually create a life

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first business, right? My hours are now from like 10 to three. My daughter

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comes home typically at three, sometimes a little bit earlier from the bus.

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So I'm able to like, focus on her. She's 10 at this point now. So

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she does have her little life where she has her social life going out with

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friends, hanging outside. Um, so those times

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I used to kind of like focus on other things in the business or even

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my own personal wellness. And that's a part of, uh,

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What I believe in harmonious both is like, how can you have,

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uh, not necessarily balanced, but a life of harmony where all

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areas of your life is tended to versus just one.

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Right. And then also how can you avoid idolizing

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your business and idolizing selling? Right? Because.

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While having a business as a major milestone is not the only thing,

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it doesn't define you. And that's what I had to learn,

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heal from my own trauma, heal from all these different things, right? Go through

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the breakdowns, the, the rock bottoms and all those things to come

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in the end of like, you know what? I need to

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really put God first. I need to really put family first. I need to really

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like shift how I'm thinking and how, how I'm operating business.

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And you know, if you're as my, as a mom.

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It's going to be the best option for you is creating a

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life first business.

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Yeah.

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so many good things. And of course, it's such an alignment with

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what we believe here at the mom CEO suite. Um,

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but if you could, you mentioned how you were at, you know, rock bottom kind

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of in your life and business. And then you mentioned you

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really looked at your financials. But then after that, the next year,

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you had a really successful year. And I know there's people

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listening who maybe they're not at rock bottom, but they're still trying to get

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to that success that they know is

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possible, but there it's been a struggle for them to get there. Right.

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Um, so do you have any, just from your experience, um,

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just tangible advice for someone who might be in that transition

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and were there other things that you did to get to that, um, uh, Um,

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place of success, what that looked like for you.

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So I did bookkeeping for both my personal finances, right?

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Have we have to create, I like to call it a personal

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spending plan. If you don't like the word budget, have a personal

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spending plan. Look at your numbers every single

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week, if not day, but don't put too much pressure on

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yourself. Do it every week. And then I did my business

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bookkeeping. And with that, I looked

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at if my goal, if I have a goal

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for revenue, I'm building momentum every single week.

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Right. And how can I increase my monthly recurring

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revenue as much as possible so that I'm not starting from

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zero revenue every single month? I'm building on what I already

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have. And then how can I ensure that I'm pricing for

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profit? So pricing for profit means your, your

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price. And then after your expenses, so say, if you have a

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team after your team calls for every

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unit, Of sale. So say if I have CFO

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services 2000 a month, I need to know exactly how much it

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costs per client for the digital

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software. I need to know how much it costs per team member. And we

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have, um, specific budgeted hours. So

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then I know, okay, this is what my profitability looks like for

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every single client. And then that way, when you're pricing

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for profit, you're able to go. Then focus on how do you

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deliver the best service. It's like, of course you're focusing on that, but

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it's like you're at least making profit in that offer.

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And, um, looking at your expenses is going to

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be important. I talked about like, Understanding like

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what each line item is is against your

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revenue. So I call it percentage of revenue. Um, so what,

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what is your software according to your total revenue? If it's over

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5%, you need to consider decreasing it. If your

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team is over 30 percent of your revenue, then that means you need to consider

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decreasing your team because we know we love to pay our team, but what are

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some things that we can do with automations or our processes that can

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eliminate having To do it, but then only

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focusing the work right that you absolutely need

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and concising it so that you're saving your business money. You're saving

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someone's time and you're not underpaying someone because you can't

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afford it. And you're paying them a couple of dollars an hour. Right?

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So, um, and also patients, you know, having patients

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and I've read James 1,

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4 last night and I was like meditating on it and it was like

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having a patience and not grumbling and

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not complaining and how you can show up in your business in that way.

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Um, so I hope this helps like tangible, but then

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also your mind understanding

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that this can happen for you and having that faith without

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complaint. So, so good. A wealth

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of just knowledge, resources,

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wisdom, things to think about and consider. And so I definitely

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would encourage you all to take a listen, subscribe to her

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podcast because it's going to be the same type of thing. Right. And you all

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need this in your life. You need this in your life. So Ayana,

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let people know how they can connect with you. And if you have anything coming

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up that you want to share, share that as well. Yes. So you can

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connect with me on Instagram at lovely

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financials. Also my website, lovely financials.

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com. And if you want weekly emails about

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topics like this, as well as understanding how to harness

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your wealth within go to lovely financials. com slash

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wealth, and you'll be a part of the community.

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Absolutely amazing. And we will link all of that in our

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show descriptions. Ayana, thank you again so much for being here

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with us today and we'll see you in the next episode.

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Thank you thank you for listening to the Mom CEO

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Suite Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, can you do us a

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favor? Leave a review on iTunes and share with other

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moms in business like you. Help us spread our message and empower

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others who are at this intersection of motherhood and

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entrepreneurship.

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About the Podcast

The Mom CEO Suite: Life & Business Systems for Mompreneurs Seeking Work Life Balance
Life and business systems strategy to help work from home mom entrepreneurs find work life harmony
Are you struggling to stay productive with constant interruptions from your kids while working from home? Does juggling it all leave you feeling overwhelmed and stretched too thin? Are you dreaming of work-life balance, but it feels out of reach?

You can have that reality where business and life integrate harmoniously, so you’re able to be a present, peaceful mom plus have an impactful business.

Hey Friend! This is The Mom CEO Suite and I’m Phylicia Pough, a Christian wife, mom of 2 and life and business systems strategist for moms.

I understand your daily juggling act, and I’ve discovered the secret to achieving the work-life balance you’re craving; so you can finally experience true harmony between your business and family life.

The Mom CEO Suite Podcast is your go-to resource for learning how to create and implement life and business systems that actually work for you as a busy, faith-driven mompreneur. You’ll get practical tips, easy-to-follow strategies for leveraging systems and automations to help you balance running a business while raising a family.

Plus, I’ll guide you through simple ways to build life and business systems that make sense for your unique situation. And because we’re all in this together, you’ll hear real stories from fellow moms, reminding you that you’re never alone on this journey.

After listening to the podcast, you will shift from feeling overwhelmed, disorganized, and stretched too thin to becoming more empowered, organized, and capable of running your business and household with more ease and a greater sense of harmony.

I can’t wait to help you create the life and business you’ve always dreamed of, full of balance and peace. Let’s make it happen together!

Motherhood gets hard. Entrepreneurship gets hard. But together, we can do hard things.

Connect with me on Threads at www.threads.net/@phyliciapough
Visit us online: www.themomceosuite.com
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About your host

Profile picture for Phylicia Pough

Phylicia Pough

For over 10 years, Phylicia has been behind the scenes of businesses and ministries, keeping things organized. Her journey started in Administration and developed into Operations & Automation Consulting

Her latest venture is The Mom CEO Suite which is a community for the modern day mom in business. In addition to curating experiences and safe spaces for mompreneurs, we automate business & podcasting processes for mompreneur service providers.

In her spare time, Phylicia loves to travel, read and sip tea.