Three Steps to Pay Yourself More, Save for Taxes, and Create More Money in the Bank
This week, Maggie is chatting with Connie Vanderzanden. In this episode, they are talking about how entrepreneurs can pay themselves more, save for taxes, and put more money in the bank.
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Connie Vanderzanden is on a mission to help entrepreneurs live the lifestyles they desire by learning the simple steps, structure, and discipline to create and save money. With 34 years of accounting and bookkeeping experience, a variety of industry knowledge, and her own real-life business growth journey since 2001, Connie developed the Going Beyond Revenue Cash Handling System, focusing on cash flow planning that creates profitable and sustainable businesses.
Connie is a true Oregonian, born and raised in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, where she spends time with her husband of 34 years and their “fur kid”.
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To learn more about Maggie and her coaching and speaking services, visit www.maggiegermano.com.
The theme music is called Escaping Light by Aaron Sprinkle. The podcast artwork design is by Maggie’s dear husband, Dan Rader.
TRANSCRIPTION
Maggie Germano 0:05
Hi, and thanks for listening to the money circle podcast. I’m your host, Maggie Germano, and I’m a feminist and a financial writer, speaker, educator and coach for women. I’m passionate about making personal finance less scary and more approachable so that women can improve their relationship with money and take control of their finances. Every other week, I will interview an amazing, inspiring woman to talk about the issues that impact our money, our health, our independence, and more. We will touch on the societal and structural issues that we need to work together to change and the actions that we each have the power to take in our own lives. If you’d like to learn more about me and the work that I do, visit my website at Maggiegermano.com or follow me on Instagram @MaggieGermano. Thanks again for listening and I hope you enjoy.
Maggie Germano 0:55
Hey there and thanks for listening. I’m your host Maggie Germano. And this week, I’m chatting with Connie Vanderzanden, a cashflow and business mentor and the founder of profit with Connie. In this episode, we are talking about the three steps you can take to pay yourself more save for taxes and create more money in the bank. If you’re an entrepreneur, this episode is for you. Enjoy.
Maggie Germano 1:23
Okay, welcome, Connie, thanks so much for being here today. Thank you, Maggie.
Connie Vanderzanden 1:27
I’m excited to be here. I always love any opportunity to talk about money in business.
Maggie Germano 1:32
Oh, me too, for sure. So why don’t you tell listeners a little bit about who you are and what you do?
Connie Vanderzanden 1:39
Sure I am. I live in Oregon. So let’s start with that. So I’m on the west coast because the experience of West Coast versus East Coast is a little different. And I have 35 years is in accounting, different varieties of it bookkeeping accounting, I work for a CPA. But even with all that knowledge, it didn’t help me with my own money journey in my business when I started in 2001. And I built a bookkeeping business as well, for almost a half 19 years, I have to do the math. Yeah, I forgot to do the math this morning before we got on our call. And it seems like that would be setting me up for great success. But it didn’t. In fact, my whole entrepreneurship has been a learning experience. And I think that’s the one key thing about entrepreneurs that it continually allows us to develop ourselves, and definitely relearn how to be with money and how I want to it to support me in my life in the community that I live in.
Maggie Germano 2:45
Yeah, no, I’m with you there. And how has that kind of journey for you informed the work that you’re doing now? And kind of how you move your way through business?
Connie Vanderzanden 2:55
Yes. Well, what I do now is based on what I experienced as an entrepreneur, we tend to think we don’t have any money really to talk to you about our money. I had coaches at the time that wanted to talk about my top line money, what my revenue goals were, but they didn’t really care to what I was doing with it. And the reality was that I was spending every bit of money that was coming in, and I had more and more debt increasing so that I went through my growth phase in my business. I’m throwing money at things that I thought were needed. I mean, I love Mike, I loved my personal space, it was gorgeous. It was nobody came to see it except for me, my team and looking back, there were a lot expenses there that didn’t need to be there. But the debt, the debt was already there. So I learned a lot about how to make myself accountable to that. But I wasn’t able to hold myself accountable to myself. And so I didn’t have anybody there, I didn’t couldn’t talk to any of my team members, I couldn’t really talk to my husband, my partner about it as well. And so it felt like you were all alone, I felt like I was carrying this big, heavy weight on my shoulders. And I was also the person responsible for my household finances. And so it felt like it was multiplied. And to the point where when I finally hit rock bottom, I hadn’t paid myself for six years and had created over 50,000 in debt that I didn’t even know how to get out of it. And so that’s when I knew I had to finally get some help and get some support around it. But there was a lot of shame and guilt around it. And that’s what happens a lot of entrepreneurs that I work with around bookkeeping and accounting. And so we first come with that shame and guilt. I was like, Oh, look, wait, I’m experiencing exactly like most of the business owners I work with, have they there? They have this guilt around even letting you look at their numbers. They have shame around not knowing what their numbers are. And the reality is, is that none of us were taught that in school and Even though I learned some of the accounting, the book learning in school, it didn’t translate into how you use money on a day to day basis how you’re in relationship with money. And so that’s when I had to learn that. And when I was able to learn enough skills to get myself out of that, that’s when I knew I could like, translate that into helping business owners and entrepreneurs use the same skill sets to move their business forward. I will say, you know, there are those people that can live on beans and rice. And I learned that I couldn’t, my little spender in me just could not do that. I could do it for short term periods. But it wasn’t a long term fix. And so first off, I want people to know is that there’s nothing wrong with you, there’s nothing broken, it’s just that we need to a little bit of education and figure out what our own personal needs are, so that we can use this as a strength. And then we can make steps to move forward small actionable steps that we can build on as we go.
Maggie Germano 6:01
Yeah, no, I love that. And I love the fact that you’re, you know, leading with that of like that there’s nothing wrong with you, that you just need to like, get the information and put the systems in place that will get you to where you want to be. And something you said earlier was that, you know, you didn’t learn about personal finance in school, like you took accounting classes and things like that. But like, that doesn’t touch on the spending piece, and the budgeting piece really, and, and the emotional side behind money as well. And so, I’ve always found it kind of funny that like, almost everyone I know and work with thinks I should know what I’m doing with money. But at the same time, almost everyone I know, also was never taught really what to be doing. So like how can both of those things be true at once, you know, like, there’s a big lack of education around personal finance and money management. But we all kind of put the same sort of pressure on ourselves. And then when you throw business ownership into the mix, there’s a whole new side of money that is, you know, connected to self worth and your own contribution to the world. So it just adds a lot of that. So I’m glad you’re you know, bringing that to your clients.
Connie Vanderzanden 7:15
Yeah, it’s in it’s that patriarchy, we all were, we should know what we should know what we don’t know. You know, get graded on it. And I, the educational system did all of us a disservice by teaching us that pattern. And now it’s about really learning that money is also not evil. A lot of the times I talk about loving money, and I get a an immediate response back. Oh, that’s, that’s not right. But it’s a relationship with money. Money is a resource, like our time, and our energy. And so it’s the same thing is that we need to nurture it so that we can make it grow for us so that we can do bigger and better things, for our family, for generational wealth, and for our communities. And so it’s definitely something I never considered from when I started the business in 2001. It wasn’t it wasn’t one of my line items to have money grow, to save it, to have it for to give back to the communities. It was only until I went through this money issue for myself and hit rock bottom that I realized my budget needs to have both of those things on it. My plan needs to actively intentionally grow those two, three things, so that I can like fix my own relationship. It’s so it’s an interesting way to go through it. But it’s, it’s I hate to say that we have to go through business to learn it. But I think that’s where coaching is such a key component for us to do it. Because we often we can’t do it by ourselves. We need somebody to witness us and listen to us and then reflect it back.
Maggie Germano 8:52
Right? Because we’re usually so close to it, though we can’t necessarily see what’s going on or like you were saying with like, shame and embarrassment. Like if you’re kind of just stuck in it by yourself, you’re afraid or ashamed to tell anyone what’s going on. So you if you don’t know what to do to get out of it, how are you going to like learn how to do it if you’re also not feeling like you can talk to anybody about it. Plus, with coaches and I’ve seen this like with my own coaching business, I obviously care about my clients, but I’m not personally invested or impacted by their finances and what they do with their money. I can be a third party that’s not going to like yell at them or feel like my life is in at risk because of whatever is happening there. So I think bringing somebody in who doesn’t really have a stake in the game and is just there to kind of be that third party who can help you and figure out kind of, you know, how do we sort through this what is the first step to take and where do we go from there it can be really helpful and take Have that that fear and shame out of it because you’re not being you’re not feeling like you’re being judged or worried about by a loved one.
Connie Vanderzanden 10:08
Yeah, it That’s true. In the finance industry, it’s so heavily male dominated, though, I think a lot of people still feel like they’re going to the principal’s office. And so it’s about finding the right person and and knowing that there are a lot of people out there to choose from. But I think the first step is if you’re really comfortable with your tax pro or your bookkeeper, but you’re getting these vibes that they’re not there to support your numbers, they’re just going to process the numbers and the data and give you whatever report or tax return afterwards, then that’s where you look for a financial coach, or a mentor, or when you’re in business coaching that you ask for a business coach that asks you about those numbers and more accountability around it. There are industry is changing, but it’s changing slowly. We need people to be number focus to run, do our taxes, we need people to pay attention to those tax laws. But they’re also not going to be the ones that are going to help us nurture that relationship. That’s not their strength. So finding somebody that does have that strength of consulting or being with it, and then figuring out what you individually need for it. If you’re very number focused and love spreadsheets, you’re not going to probably need somebody who’s going to ask about your energy and bandwidth or or have you had any fun with money today, these might not be the words that resonate the most with you finding somebody that’s that talks in the same language, or has the same point of view, those are key things to look for.
Maggie Germano 11:41
Yeah, no, I agree with you there, I think, you know, making sure you’re finding someone who’s a good fit that you’ve can trust and that you feel comfortable with. And, and you also said something about, you know, working with people who can play on their strengths, right. So like, someone might not be right for you, it doesn’t mean that they’re not good at their job, or they don’t have the best intentions. But you want to make sure that you’re getting the strength that is most useful to you and is going to help you, you know, get to whatever goals that you’re that you’re setting. So I’m a big fan of like talking to lots of different people doing your due diligence, I do discovery calls with people all the time where I’m like, okay, you know, based on what you’re looking for, I think this this type of person, or this specific person could help you better than I could, because I think it’s important to me to make sure that people are getting the help they want. Like, obviously, I’m running a business. So I want clients but I don’t want to work with someone who I can’t help in in the best kind of way based on what they’re looking for. So I think talking to people doing lots of discovery calls, making sure you’re getting the, you know, business owner and the support that you actually are looking for is really important. Yes, yes. And so, if someone is out there, and they’re kind of you know, maybe they’re new in their business, maybe the pandemic, encourage them to start their own thing. What is kind of one of the first things you would recommend an entrepreneur do when it comes to their money as they’re starting a business? Yeah,
Connie Vanderzanden 13:16
the first thing is separate business from personal as much as you possibly can, it’s going to make tracking your activity way easier. And that could mean as simple as you have two personal credit cards, one is going to stay personal one is going to be business. And if you can open a separate business checking accounts so that you can see the flow, when we first start, and so many businesses start just running it out of their personal accounts, they’re not really sure if it’s going to be a hobby, or if it’s a contractor relationship, they’re not sure if it’s gonna really have legs to create a business around. And so it’s super common. And it’s super messy. And so the number one thing I see a lot of business owners is that they don’t keep track of their bookkeeping or their accounting throughout the year, because it’s so intermingled, and it gets to be distracting. So separating the two will be super easy. You can like use your bank statements, you don’t even have to use an accounting tool. And it it’s simpler that way, if you want to do a spreadsheet or go for more hog wild on an accounting tool, great, but that’s not usually the first thing I want to work people through.
Maggie Germano 14:29
Yeah, I think that’s really good advice. And I luckily learn that in the beginning as well. So I’ve always had separate business and in personal accounts, and it’s just funny because it’s like I even still find it kind of complicated at the end of the year looking at like what my expenses and income were. And so I just can’t even imagine if I had to go through a year’s worth of business and personal stuff mixed together how impossible that would feel whether I was doing it myself or even putting it off on And accountant and then like, you know, making their lives much harder as well. But I, you know, I talked a lot of people who they have a hard time tracking just their own personal expenses as they go along every week or every month. So throwing in the business side that you like, actually have to keep track of for tax purposes, just makes your life even harder. So starting from the beginning is better.
Connie Vanderzanden 15:24
Yeah, it does. And it’s it’s about also giving yourself if there was a second thing I would recommend, is setting time weekly to have a money date, so that it doesn’t get so out of control. Yes, if you wait to do your accounting until the end of the year, that’s a bigger, that’s a bigger thing to hold. But if you can get used to like updating your money and knowing where your money’s at each week, a it’s going to take less time you’re going to be if you’re using a tool, you’re going to be in it, you’re going to get more comfortable with it, you’re going to be able to look ahead rather than looking behind because bookkeeping is all about looking at what historically what’s happened, it’s not really going to give you the information your as an entrepreneur that you’re going to need for future forecasting. So it’s going to require us to be in the numbers and you can work on your relationship there. If it’s something you can’t hardly do for personal, then add some rewards to that add some chocolate, add some wine, if you need to create some support around it, find somebody else to be on Zoom, they’re updating their numbers, and you’re doing yours or something like that. It’s about building a habit building the strength to be there.
Maggie Germano 16:35
Yeah, I love that. And I love the idea of having it be a kind of like a buddy system. If you have another friend who I mean, they could be an entrepreneur or not. Maybe they want to go through their personal finances while you’re doing your business finances once a week and make it into social activity, whether it’s virtual or in person, depending on what your situation is. And like you said, I think pairing something fun with it is really helpful, too.
Connie Vanderzanden 17:01
Yeah, it could be just a half hour as you get used to it. I do recommend to entrepreneurs use it for revenue building as well. So once you’ve got the habit belt down of looking at your numbers, you could also then Bill it, use it to make sure you’re invoicing your clients, you’re doing any collections, you’re following up on any discovery calls or sales or anything like that. So it’s it’s really like celebrating money as it comes in, and then intentionally using it. And when we’re more than that, no, when I forget to do my weekly Money, dates, money goes crazy money, like really gets angry at me. And when I first started because I was so in in debt, all my credit cards would max out, you know, and so it would be literally you forgot to pay attention to us, we’re going to make it really obvious that we we need your attention. And of course, it would always happen if I was traveling, it’s never failed.
Maggie Germano 18:00
Yeah, and I was just talking about this earlier with my husband, where it can feel like, the less you’re paying attention to something, the more you’re kind of taking control over your own life, like I don’t want to worry about that, I’m just going to ignore it, I don’t want to spend my time on it. But it’s actually the opposite. Where if you are ignoring something, if you are kind of putting your head in the sand, things feel more out of control more stressful. And the more you’re actually kind of taking the time to like you said, look at your expenses and your income, whether it is business or personal, the more control you actually have over it because it becomes less scary because you’re the more you do it, the less scary it is. Also, the quicker it becomes because you’re getting better at it. And it’s also less things to review at once because you’re doing it more frequently. And you can become automatically more confident and feeling more in control. And I think that’s something that people don’t realize until they’re actually doing it. Yeah.
Connie Vanderzanden 19:05
And again, it’s it, there’s nothing wrong with them. It’s just somewhere in your life. Perhaps I’m thinking of a client that I used to work with. In her life, her family, her parents, her father gave her the impression that she didn’t have to ever think about money or worry about money that somebody else in her life would do that. But then she became an entrepreneur. And that’s what she was taught to never have to worry about money. So she never wanted to look at it. And they often will hire a bookkeeper and force that on them. But the bookkeepers not emotionally attached to this business. They’re only going to look at the historical information. So they’re not going to look in and care about how the money is going to support you in the future. It really is the entrepreneurs goal to like sit there and give money a job and say this is how you’re going to support me you’re going to support my lifestyle so I can show up as my best self and you’re going to help the business give back in these ways. So it’s It’s really about you have to look at yourself first and figure out where you’re stopping, and then realize, oh, this was never mine. Would you like to change it? You have choice in this matter? Yeah, absolutely.
Maggie Germano 20:13
Just because something was one way or your thought process around money was one way doesn’t mean it always has to be that way. It’s not permanent.
Connie Vanderzanden 20:21
No. But not everyone’s willing to change that, though. I’m sure you talk to a lot of people that think they want to change it. But when it comes down to it, when they get to the uncomfortable spot, like they’ll get into it for maybe the first 3060 days of this isn’t new behavior, I’m learning it, and then something will happen, that will be uncomfortable. And there’ll be like, Oh, they’ll give it up, or they won’t show up. And that’s the part where we really want to like really, like examine it more, so that we can push through that so we can get to the next area. But yeah, a lot of people will stop as soon as it gets uncomfortable, they’ll go back to old behaviors.
Maggie Germano 20:59
Yeah, I understand that. I mean, I think that’s very human, like, we want to avoid discomfort and scary things. But like you were saying, if you want to change something, you have to kind of be uncomfortable for periods of time, or for long periods of time, sometimes, depending on what it is. I think that’s, you know, why some people struggle with coaching, and why some people struggle with therapy, you know, maybe you start therapy, and then it’s like, your therapist is asking questions that are making you be a little too introspective. And you don’t really want to do that. And so you kind of abandon that and go back to whatever, you know, you wanted to kind of get out of anyway, obviously, money’s the same, it’s, it’s funny, it’s like, a lot of people think about money in terms of just the numbers on the page. But it’s very, very emotional as well, especially when it’s all up to you to be earning money when it comes to your business. And, you know, whatever service or item you might be providing, it’s very closely attached to you emotionally, like you were saying. So you have to kind of work on that money piece, too, since that’s a lot of the point when it comes to business.
Connie Vanderzanden 22:05
It is it is yeah. And, again, if you are number focused, the numbers on the page probably are enough to get you moving towards that, you’re probably already like checking the boxes and moving forward. But a number on a page with no emotional tie to it. Like, the first time I ever picked a revenue goal for my business, I picked a number that was the same as everyone else in the room that I was in. But I had no emotional tie to it, I had no intention around how it was going to be spent. And so I didn’t achieve it. And so when we look at our money, it’s about emotionally tying to it. Like if we get to this goal, this is what we’re gonna do. It’s especially around debt, you know, debt, there’s a lot of forgiving our younger selves for creating it. But then it’s also how do we keep moving forward to pay down debt? Because it’s going to take a while to do? And so what’s that goal? Why are we doing what’s the emotional, that we want to tie to this going away? And then how are we going to, you know, slowly get there and take those steps. Because when you have a large debt, say student debt, student loan debt or mortgage or something that’s going to take years to pay off, you’ve got to have something that keeps fueling you to show up for it and keep moving.
Maggie Germano 23:19
Yeah, absolutely. It’s it’s not just a hobby, it’s not just something that’s just on the side where it doesn’t matter how much money you earn, it’s, you know, something that supports your family supports you helps you meet your long term goals or your short term needs. And so the money pieces really important. So what are the some of the steps that you recommend people take in order to be able to pay themselves more as entrepreneurs, as well as the the fun things like, you know, saving for taxes and making sure that they have money in the bank.
Connie Vanderzanden 23:54
And, again, a lot of people, if you’re number focus, you’re going to probably think these steps are crazy. And what I find is that when business owners have one checking account for their business, they forget to pay themselves, they forget to save for taxes. And so money comes in, and it immediately goes out to expenses, especially if they’re like in startup mode, or they have been just, you know, they have to hustle. If they’re in hustle that hustle phase, so they hustle to get money in to pay things that they’ve already achieved. So the first step is the smaller buckets does work. There is a book called Profit First that talks about smaller buckets, there’s couple books about it. And really it’s about creating an intentional bucket for an intentional need in your business like a tax savings account, a profit savings or growth savings account, and an owner’s wealth account. And then as money comes in, we intentionally which step to intentionally put money into the smaller buckets so that our operating bucket is nice and contained. And so we keep That’s an easy way to keep our expenses nice and contained. And especially like if we ever consider can we hire, can we do x, we can always go back to our operational but bucket and say, Well, is there funds in there or not. And if we need to like higher, we can use a savings account to save up a few months before we make that investment. So the smaller buckets does work. And if you’re just starting out one checking at least one savings account. And then you could start with even a half a percent. When I first started this 98% of what was coming in was already going out. And so I had to start very small. And so for me, it was just $20 a week that I could put into it. But you build and you build that muscle. And it’s amazing what a savings account will do for your business and your personal life. It builds a foundational piece that you can actually stand on and go oh, I’m I am supported by money. And it gives us a different point of view of how we go forward. The second step, again, is being intentional with your money making the transfers, and then paying your bills. The other step of that is not letting vendors or your team members tell you when they need to get paid. You as the business owner, the entrepreneur can come out and say I pay my bills, twice a month, I pay my bills every Friday, you get to decide that and you get to take that power back from them. And so that you’re not hurrying every day in they’re sending money out, let money sit in the accounts, let it be like, Oh, she likes me, we want to be here. She, they enjoy me being here. And then you can give it a job and tell it to go out into the world. And then the last one is, we have to know our numbers. So you’ve been playing with money in these accounts. But it ultimately comes down to knowing where your numbers are historically. So that you can use it for planning future and I use the I love a cash flow forecast, it’s can be very simple. And a spreadsheet usually is the best way so that you can allow it to help you do the math. But it’s looking forward and you got to know the numbers to look forward to that you can plan ahead like nobody was expecting COVID to happen a couple years ago. But those that were already looking forward or had the profit savings account, were easier had an easier time pivoting when it did happen so that they can move. They’re much stronger now as businesses than those that didn’t. So it’s the same thing.
Maggie Germano 27:27
Yeah, no, that’s a really good point. And I liked what you said about having kind of a payment date every month of when you’re paying your vendors so that there is that clarity of like when your bills get paid that you know what to do when and it isn’t kind of this, like you said daily out flux of money that can make things feel better just in terms of like how much you have in the bank on a daily basis, but also a little bit more structured and in control so that you know exactly what’s going where when.
Connie Vanderzanden 28:02
Yeah, now there’s there are some industries, I’ll put a caveat on here, there are some industries that have to pay restaurants for one is usually a cash based, they have to pay for the product when it’s delivered. And they still can determine when they pay their other expenses. So there may be some that you have to pay an eye. Again, if somebody is bothering you, I get a lot of coaches that work with team members that are constantly asking when they’re going to get their check, you know, they do their invoice and they’re expecting payment the next day. It’s not your responsibility to handle their lack thinking. It’s a boundary for you to set that boundary up and allow them to work into it. But as somebody that’s pushing back a lot of the time asking to get paid as a team member, you may want to reconsider why they’re on there. Because they’ll take a lot of energy from you emotional energy for that.
Maggie Germano 28:55
Yeah, no, that makes sense. And especially when if money is a difficult subject for you or something, you’re kind of struggling whether you’re trying to improve your relationship with money and make money, like easier to handle emotionally. You don’t want anything kind of coming in and making things more difficult and taking up that time and energy if you don’t have to.
Connie Vanderzanden 29:17
But yeah, it’s it’s amazing. The have had, I’ve had a lot of clients have had that again, it’s also that where you’re in your business. When you’re in startup phase or in hustle phase of the business, you tend to work with clients that are you tend to work with vendors that aren’t feeling as much self worth around what they’re charging, because the pricing will be you know, 25 an hour or less. And that’s where you get a lot of lack mentality that they’re always hustling the more mature you are in your business, the more mature you will work with vendors who were going to tell you up front that they work on retainer basis or this is how much they they get an hour so that there’s enough space in their money supporting them. There’s enough space there for them to support their team. Well, and they don’t have as much lack thinking around it. So it’s pretty common around to have that energy. Just be aware of how that energies is being spent.
Maggie Germano 30:19
Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. So is there anything else that hasn’t come up so far that you would recommend that entrepreneurs know or think about or just anything else? You want to make sure people take away today?
Connie Vanderzanden 30:34
That’s a very good question. I think a lot of the clients I work with have debt. And that was something less than I had to learn really hard, and that I’m still learning, it’s still I’m still in recovery around that, because I’m a spender. And my spender loves to spend money on other people. But debt is an interesting bird or animal. I think there is healthy debt to us. And then I think there is debt that we need to find our way out of, but I watched so many business owners pay off their debt, and then it immediately comes back within six months. And so when you get to that point, consider freezing your cards, canceling some cards, restructuring it, but if you ever need to go back into debt, or use debt, again, have a good plan for what that’s going to look like, how are you going to pay that off, if you’re in an investment phase of your business, know what that number is, go into it with your eyes open, rather than just throwing credit at it. Again, usually when we start up, and in that hustle phase, we just throw things at the money. And so after seven years of five to seven years, which is a normal span for that, we look back and wonder how we’re going to get out of it. It’s about pausing, taking a breath, and then being more intentional about how we’re using money. I think that’s the the other thing I would recommend. And if you need to separate yourself from debt, I had a codependency with debt. And when my coach said, Hey, freeze your card, I felt like it was like you, she was asking for one of my limbs. I was like, I can’t do that, are you crazy? We may need to get a little therapy around it, just to unblock it. And that’s a great time to work with financial coach to help you walk through the questions about why are you so dependent on keeping this credit card with you? It’s an interesting answer. But I didn’t realize what it was at the time. But now I look at it differently.
Maggie Germano 32:45
Yeah, that’s a really good point. Because I mean, if you’re not asking yourself a question like that, you might not actually have any idea kind of what is going on and not even notice that you’re feeling that connected to the debt or to the credit card. And then you’re wondering, like, Why do I have all this debt? Or Why does it always I’m like making money, but somehow never have anything left over for the things I actually want to do or to be able to grow my business or whatever it might be. So yeah, asking yourself questions like that, that you wouldn’t think to ask, it can be really eye opening.
Connie Vanderzanden 33:19
And you had a podcast guest on earlier that talked about saving to spend. And that’s the other piece of when people get out of debt, which I recommend, and he may as well as like, when they’re going towards debt, and they have $100, I recommend $50 to go towards the debt and $50 to go towards the savings. Because we want to be our own bank. And that’s the same for an entrepreneur, the more you can create your savings, and I will out people right now, because they’re gonna say they’re gonna say this to the recording, but I’ll owe tax. Yes, when you have a healthy savings account for your business that can be its own bank, you will owe tax at first time it comes around, and you are going to be able to make your own decisions, you’re not gonna have to let the banker tell you what you can do, you’re going to be empowered to do what you want with those finances. And so if you can have to debt have to the savings account and what what number is in the savings account, it all depends. Everyone has a different number. One client needed $50,000 in there. I usually start with around three months worth of operating expenses. But it whatever feels comfortable for you over there. One of my clients right now is putting money aside because she’s going to do eventual construction. So should we won’t need a loan and she’s also saving a certain percentage of revenue so that she can have that cash forecast for a recession or another COVID outbreak or whatever she needs for that. But it saving money personal and business is one of those key things. That’s a that would be the third step. Um, that a lot of businesses don’t do.
Maggie Germano 35:04
Yeah, no, that’s really that’s great advice. I am wholeheartedly with you there. Um, is there anything you have going on with your business that you would like to promote to listeners right now?
Connie Vanderzanden 35:14
Well, one thing is, is I am actually a co author or collaboration of a book on purpose. And I love this book, you can get it on Amazon. There are a lot of strategy conversations in here about mindset. My chapter is on your best team member money. And I think it’s an interesting way to look at money, as any team member needs, nurturing and gratitude, and paying attention to it. So it’s, it’s something you might not have seen out in the world these days. But overall, the chapters are great. My friend Lisa Jones also did a great article in there about self care, and putting priority on money. Making these weekly Money dates is self care, not only for yourself, but also for building generational wealth for your family. And so it’s the same thing for business. We need self care around money, and create creating those habits.
Maggie Germano 36:10
Yeah, I love that. And I’ll link to the book in the show notes as well. So people have easy access. And how can folks find you and learn more about you?
Connie Vanderzanden 36:19
The easiest way is to go to moneyactiontips.com. And that’s tips with an S. And there’s a free report of the three steps we talked about on the show. And of course, as an educator, if people would like to get on a call to talk about anything that this might may have triggered. My goal is to make sure you have the education you need to make the next step. It’s not a sales call. It’s just having conversation.
Maggie Germano 36:43
Great, and I’ll link to your website as well. Thanks so much for taking the time and sharing your wisdom. I really appreciate it.
Connie Vanderzanden 36:50
Thanks, Maggie. Anytime this my favorite topic.
Maggie Germano 36:52
Great, mine too.
Maggie Germano 36:57
Thanks again for listening to the money circle podcast. If you want to learn more about my financial coaching services, my speaking and workshop offerings, or just to read my blog visit Maggiegermano.com. To get in touch with me directly email me at [email protected] You can also follow me on Instagram and Twitter @MaggieGermano. I look forward to hearing from you. Bye bye.
