Got my 2021 financial package back from Bench*!
(Okay, fine—they sent it to me a while ago but I’m really just reviewing in depth now.)
I LOVE when they send me my end-of-year reports—balance sheet, income statement, general ledger, monthly balance sheets—which I then literally turn over to my accountant at tax time and it’s the easiest thing I’ve ever done. No scrambling, no trying to figure out what I can write off, no entire weekends spent trying to categorize expenses I will never even remember from last year.
They did it all for me throughout the year. (Though they can do a historical accounting on your Stripe & Paypal accounts right now if you need someone to help you ASAP. *That's an affiliate link that'll give you 2 months off, too, if you decide to move forward.)
You know what I look for when I’m reviewing these docs?
How much I’m making versus how much I’m spending in order to make it.
Otherwise known as: REVENUE – EXPENSES = PROFIT.
What you have left over after alllllll of your expenses is how much you’re actually earning—and that’s the important number. And I wanted to take a time out to talk about that for a hot second, because I’ve been seeing this trend on the internet where the advice du jour is:
- Make a program!
- Build a team!
- Let them run it all for you!
- Just show up once a week!
- Earn 7 figures!
And I gotta tell you: it makes me sorta gag like I did that one time on a cherry Fruit Roll Up (not a euphemism). Not because there is not value in a CEO mentality, but because the way it’s being sold is often a bunch of (crappy and stained) smoke and mirrors.
If you earn $3M dollars in revenue, but have to pay $2.5M on a team and ads and software and botox (okay, fine, botox doesn't count), all you’ve done is just given yourself way more work than if you were just earning $500K as a solopreneur—without having all the extra complexities of having to BE a CEO / lead a team / babysit / deal with headaches / not do the work you love but be a manager instead.
And, honestly, earning $500K as a solopreneur is a reasonably achievable goal these days.
But you know why people still do it? The teams and the glitz and the perception that you are bigggggggg?!
Vanity.
Ego.
Feeling like they have made it.
So they can finally ditch their imposter syndrome and so other people view them as important.
Even if they hate it. Even if they don’t like running a team, or managing other people, or offering negative feedback, or handling all the logistics, or being responsible for everyone else’s livelihood—which are all very real considerations.
And it’s one of the reasons why I’m allllllllll about building a portfolio of lean, mean, money-makin’ one-person businesses. (You’ve seen me building over here, right?)
It’s not about size, it’s about strength.
And you know one of the best ways to get financially stronger is?
Say “yes” to profit.
Say “no” to your ego.
Saying “no” to your ego unlocks profit.
I wrote a whole Twitter thread on this this morning—with 5 pieces of advice if you want to make more money as a one-person biz without succumbing to the pressures of having to be a giant factory.
(Even though I typo’d and said I had 3 pieces of advice, hahahahah. IT’S REALLY FIVE, I’M A MONSTER.)
Thought I would include here: ✨
Hopefully this helps you if you’ve been stuck on what the hell you’re doing with your little biz in 2022!
XOXO,
Ash