My entire life has been a string of hilarious jobs. In this email, I admitted to being a corn detasseler. After that job, I became a waitress…which sounds normal…but I worked in a little country village (pop. 150) where we preserved the Swedish culture and heritage for visitors.

That meant I wore this outfit, had to do my checks and even enter credit cards manually, and wash all of the dishes by hand (nothing like scrubbing Swedish meatballs from giant pans all day…)

But I loved this job. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit that made even waitressing a game. I learned 2 things quickly –

• Find out which table of regulars tips the most, and be the best dang waitress they’ve ever had (I still remember the drink orders for the front window table that came in every Sunday and tipped 40%!)
• Make good friends with the host, who decides which people sit in your section

I became one of the top waitresses and filled my jewelry box drawer full of cash?. I was 15 at the time, and I asked my mom what I should do with the money.

She’s a business professor and taught me how my money can make me more money. I got a pamphlet on CDs and their interest rates from the bank, and voilà – a little investor was born.

You’d think starting young would make it easier to see more things through the long-game lens, but ugh the temptation to buy something now – like that new office décor I have my eye on ?- still tries to outweigh the littttttle voice of reason inside that says – invest it wisely, sis? .

I felt this same cycle repeat when I found and hired my accountant and booked a tax strategy session. Accountants aren’t exactly cheap, and it would have been easy to push it off. But that deeper part of me knew the return on my investment would make it worth it.

A lot of you told me you hate the numbers, don’t track your finances, and do zero forecasting in your business. No judgment from me – I know that phase of avoidance. But…I’m all about turning the scary things into empowering lessons, so here are some BTS examples from my Q4 Planning convo with my accountant to (hopefully) inspire you.

Firstly…You don’t know what you don’t know.

Your accountant wants to help you. This is their job! They don’t expect you to do it right or even know where to start. They have a Master’s Degree AND they had to pass 4 grueling exams to get the CPA initials by their name. It’s okay to not know.

I am also not an accountant, so please don’t use this advice. It’s for me given to me by a professional who knows my business and is in my books, okurrr?

Wait…paying more in taxes….is a strategy?

Next year, my husband and I want to buy a house. Normally, I don’t mind taking on business expenses, because they lower the amount of taxes I pay. This year, though, underwriters will be scrutinizing my business to decide how much money they can loan us for a house. So my accountant advised me to maximize profits, keep a close eye on expenses, and put more money away for taxes.

Why is everyone talking about LLC vs. S Corps?

For me, we talked about at what profit level it makes sense to be recognized as an S-Corp, which has pros (it’s taxed differently) and cons (annoying payroll expenses). We set a date together for the transition, which impacts the type of retirement fund I set up and the way that I pay myself.

Just because Nancy expenses it doesn’t mean you can too.

Things that I could expense in my previous business no longer apply, but there are also some new things I can write off…so before you listen to Nancy’s advice telling you she expenses her weekly massage and fresh pedi?, best to check what’s allowed for you.

For $397/hr, I’ve already saved myself thousands of dollars while likely increasing the amount of money I’m able to use to buy a home. Plus, it saves me hours of headache to have things set up correctly at the start of next year for when 2023 taxes roll around.

Short term feeling of “loss” < long term gains. cue proud high fives

As boot strappin’, DIYing, resourceful, entrepreneurs,

it can be TOUGHHHH to admit that we need experts in our business. I try to see it as a way to keep myself in my zone of genius, while letting others maximize their genius inside of my business. We both benefit.

This is what fractional hiring is too. When you hire me (or a copywriter, designer, OBM, etc.), you’re bringing someone onto your team to add to your gifts with their magic. They bring their experience, expertise, and unique perspectives from working across multiple businesses like yours, and you get to reap the ROI from this work.

What I see happening a lot in this space is entrepreneurs spending a lot of money to LEARN how to do something. I get it – I’m a huge nerd ?. I love learning.

But…I’ve talked to many entrepreneurs who have spent thousands of dollars on courses to learn a tactic that a) might not even be right for their business right now, or b) they have so much resistance to executing that they never even try to deploy it.

On the other hand, I have a fractional client who just had a +$60k launch.

She was so burned out in the middle of the process that she brought me on to help. I took over marketing and became her wing-woman and marketing team – overseeing everything from social media content creation to automation to CRM to email marketing to discovery calls.

Meanwhile, she was able to get reignited for the program, create incredible content, and fill it with an aligned group of women. She said that after years of being resourceful, it felt amazing to have support from someone who understood her brand and took on the things that weren’t lighting her up.

This is the power of looking at your business through the lens of an ROI. If you want to learn more about what it looks like to have me on your team, this page is for you.

xo, Rachel Jeffries Murphy