Hey, friends! I’m loving these monthly recaps! If you’re new here, this is where I share a vulnerable and transparent behind-the-scenes of my business and how it’s operating. The hope is that this can be helpful for YOU – to know that you’re not alone when entrepreneurship gets hard, you can do anything you set your mind to, and sometimes the grass isn’t always greener on the other side 😉

Also, what better way to be held accountable than to publicly declare what my hopes and dreams are over here?! 😅

Let’s dive in!

How does my business make money?

We are an accounting firm that provides tax and bookkeeping help for creative small business owners. We primarily work with online businesses – like brand & web designers, copywriters, VAs, OBMs, tech specialists, etc. 

We offer several different packages for tax strategy and preparation, DFY bookkeeping, a DWY bookkeeping membership and (occasionally) Gusto payroll setups for our current clients.

Here’s the breakdown:

August 2024 Income: $15,850

Bookkeeping	$14,300
Membership	$1,250
Speaking Engagements	$300
Total	$15,850

YTD Income

January	$18,850
February	$16,454
March	$17,950
April	$14,795
May	$16,297
June	$15,347
July	$16,535
August	$15,850
Total	$132,078

Expenses

Lead & Staff Bookkeepers: $6,980

Payroll Tax Expense: $617

Stripe Fees: $501

Gifts: $82

Insurance: $279

Interest Expense: $74

Software Subscriptions (see breakdown below): $596

Brand Designer: $2,000

Copywriter: $3,250

CPA: $200

VA: $800

Speaking Coach: $1,875

Training & Education: $1,355

Travel: $244

Total: $18,853

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Loss: -$3,003

Owner’s Draws: $0

(Whew – a loss this month! I’ve got some big investments over the next few months and am intentionally not taking Owner’s Draws until revenue increases. We’re adding tax services to our service offerings, hiring a CPA, redoing our website copy and branding and launching everything together!)

Month Overall:

Professional

• New clients signed: 1
• Discovery Calls: 0
• Kick-Off Calls: 1
• Premium Client Quarterly Calls: 9
• SOPs written: 3
  • Freebie Funnel Audit
  • Inquiry Submission
  • Onboarding Clients
• Okay this could really go under either the personal OR professional section, but my Lead Bookkeeper Whitney came up to Minnesota from Arizona to visit! We spent the weekend taking her to our family’s favorite local spots and we worked on a huge SOP overhaul!
• I was invited to speak in The Content Huddle membership by Sara Gillis about all things business finances, and it was SO FUN. I spoke about all things business finances – what bookkeeping is, common bookkeeping challenges, the top 5 habits to cultivate for organized finances, and my most recommended tools!
  • I looooove being a guest expert in memberships and thrive on those 1:1 connections and a personalized Q&A time for students to get their questions answered! If you would like me to guest speak in your membership or group coaching program, email hello@madisondearly.com!
• We’re getting ready to kick off a new website copywriting project to redo our website and add the tax service offerings!
• I’m on the hunt for a brand photographer, and I think I’ve found my gal, but I need to submit an inquiry and book a plane ticket! ✈️
• I had a meeting with our new brand designer, who is going to be helping usher Madison Dearly into its new era: Madison Dearly Financial! Sooooooo pumped about this new visual identity!
• We held interviews for candidates for our open CPA position. We had a second interview with the most promising, sent her a job offer, AND SHE ACCEPTED!!!! Crying, screaming, throwing up I’m so excitedddd

Personal

• Homeschool Things
  • We’re starting to get back into the swing of things by bringing more formal lessons back into our routine. (Let’s be honest – we never really stopped homeschooling over the summer, but we pulled back from consistent lessons, that’s for sure!)
  • We made a few trips to the library, which the kids absolutely adore, and I have it on my to-do list to scan the library event catalog and add some relevant activities to the kids calendars!
  • Sadie passed her Unit 1 Assessment for Kindergarten Math, so we’re onto Unit 2! We are still working our way through her Kindergarten Language Arts curriculum and are so close to completing it! She’ll be starting 1st grade curriculum before we know it!
  • Nolan likes to play and I can tell he’s not a workbook kid, so we’re going to have to start getting creative with ways that he can learn that make sense for his brain!
• Books read:
  • Sandwich by Catherine Newman ⭐
    • This was super depressing and made me decidedly NOT excited to get older and watch my kids grow up. Is this what everyone experiences?? Or are there any expander women out there who an paint a different picture of the beauty of aging / menopause? It also should’ve come with some trigger warnings for miscarriage and abortion! 😬
  • The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler ⭐⭐
    • I read this chapter book out loud to my daughter each night and it was booooooring. The only reason I didn’t give it one star is because I’m not the target audience for this book and I think it might maybe be an interesting read for a 12-year-old girl.
• Currently reading: The Authenticity Project by Clare Pooley (AND LOVING IT)
• Pilates classes taken: 10 💪
• My new breakfast obsession: homemade hummus on GF bagels with sliced cucumbers, tomatoes and arugula. I’ve been eating it pretty much every morning and my camera roll is littered with pics of this delicacy 🤤
• We bought these play dough kits (ballet for Sadie and race cars for Nolan) and the kids are OBSESSED. (Let’s be honest – so am I! They are so fun to play with!)
• Minnesota things we did with Whitney (our Lead Bookkeeper) when she came to town:
  • We got to see The OK Factor perform at The Dunsmore Jazz Room in Minneapolis and it was SUCH a treat to witness that level of talent. Karla, who I met at the Cheers to Your Next Chapter retreat (hosted by Xanthe and Kaitlyn) last month, has become a dear friend of mine and does branding when she’s not playing the violin!
  • Getaway Motor Cafe (duh – a Carver staple) + a walk along the river
  • Crisp & Green – my fave salad spot
  • Lagos Tacos in Excelsior
  • Lola’s Lakehouse in Waconia
  • Long bike ride on the Carver trails
• Dale and I went to the Carver County Fair kick-off concert and it took me right back to our early dating days when we went two stepping every weekend!
• Dale and I took the kiddos to the zoo during one of our Thursday Family Frolick Day™ outings
  • Dale is off of work on Thursdays and I block off my day from work for the four of us to just frolick and do as we please on those days!
  • I took a picture of a quote on a wall at the zoo and it said, “Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand,” and if that doesn’t describe our decision to homeschool in a nutshell, I don’t know what could.
• We went to a Twins game at Target Field in Minneapolis with the kids and they loved it!
• Times we frequented Carver Creamery after dinner: (too many to count)
  • Fun fact! Our local ice cream shop is only open from late winter to early fall, because no one ever said, “Oh, it’s -35 degrees outside? I could go for some ice cream right about now.” 😂
• I celebrated my 33rd birthday, and got to see the annual Perseid meteor shower that happens every year on my birthday on August 12th! The sky was showing OFF this year because some pink aurora borealis lights decided to make an entrance also!
• We celebrated Nolan’s 4th birthday! We surprised him with Hot Wheels decorations, a Hot Wheels race track, put streamers on his door, went to Carver Creamery (a family decision, of course) and let him pick out a few of his own presents at Kiddywampus (a local toy store in Chanhassen). We had a few friends over post-dinner cupcakes to sing happy birthday and celebrate our little man!
• Carver County puts on an event called Touch-a-Truck every year, and tons of fire trucks and construction trucks and police cars and school buses are parked in the Chaska High School parking lot for all of our kids to explore and sit in! It’s so fun to use these events to tie into homeschool lessons, teaching about different jobs in our community and how we all work together! Plus they had free popcorn and ice cream, so I’d say it was a successful night for all of us 😉
• On a random Saturday, we decided to drive an hour to Northfield, MN and explore their local scene. We visited Little Joy coffee shop, strolled around the Riverwalk Market Fair which is an adorable farmer’s market (and bought the world’s best barbecue sauce I’ve ever tasted), made my soul happy by smelling books at Con•tent Bookstore, ate at Tanzenwald Brewing Company for lunch and did a hike at Nerstrand Big Woods State Park which led us right to a super fun waterfall! Definitively, my favorite day of the entire month! (My birthday was a close second – haha!)
• Sadie had her first ever pedicure and she kept saying, “Mom, isn’t this so relaaaaaxing?!” about a hundred times and I laughed… every single time 🤣

Hours Worked

Administrative: .75 hours

• Responding to emails

CEO: 19.25 hours

• Accepted proposal and signed contract for website copywriting
• Branding meeting with new brand designer
• Browse brand photographers
• Catchup meeting with the world’s best VA, Erin!
• Clear Slack
• Interview CPA candidates for open position
• Meeting with business coach
• Meeting with speaking coach
• Mindset call inside of the mastermind I’m in
• SOP creation
  • Freebie Funnel Audit
  • Inquiry Submission
  • Onboarding Clients
• Team meeting

CFO: 8.5 hours

• Quarterly calls with Premium clients! SO FUN and so many takeaways!

Marketing: 5.5 hours

• Content creation
• Design slides for The Content Huddle presentation
• Write July 2024 Income Report blog post

Other: .25 hours

• Running client payroll

Total: 34.25 hours

Next Month Goals (September)

Kick off new website copy project

Onboard CPA

Start marketing tax services

• Complete new services guide to use before website is complete
• Tidy up systems for inquiries and onboarding new clients

Software & Tools

• Later.com: for scheduling content
• Gusto: THE ONLY payroll software I recommend for running payroll
• Notion: for organizing education notes (read: preventing my courses from turning into a course graveyard)
• Zoom: for sales calls, kick-off calls, team calls and quarterly bookkeeping meetings with Premium clients
• Zapier: for automated task management
• Loom: for sending a quick video / screen recording message to cut down on unnecessary meetings 😀
• Slack: an instant messaging software for quick team communication and client work management
• Slack: for the membership students to ask questions and engage with my team
• Adobe: for signing / editing documents
• Xero: THE BEST ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE OF ALL TIME
• VidIQ: I use this for YouTube research and education. It helps me evaluate data based on my channel and my competitors.
• Intuit: This is ONE QuickBooks subscription that I pay for for our only non-profit client and it’s basically a donation to his business. Every time I see this expense I think about moving that client to Xero…
• ClickUp: project management software to keep track of the status of monthly client projects
• Dubsado: our Client Relationship Management (CRM) system, which we use to track leads, send proposals and contracts and automate recurring emails
• ManyChat: automating Instagram engagement to increase sign-ups for lead magnets, etc.
• Flodesk: our email marketing software
• 1Password: our hub for storing all sensitive client information
• ChatGPT: the holy grail for all sorts of email writing, content writing, brainstorming, naming new service offerings… P.S. the paid version is WORTH IT and so much better than the free version 👍