Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin - 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting a Business

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

In business, you'll learn that you don't know what you don't know. When Nicole started MNN, there were five lessons in particular she wished she learned earlier. Today, she gives you the cheat code. If you're ready to find the right professionals for your dream team, LinkedIn Jobs makes it easy. Get started here: linkedIn.com/mnn

Money rehabbers, you get it. When you're trying to have it all, you end up doing a lot of juggling. You have to balance your work, your friends, and everything in between. So when it comes to your finances, the last thing you need is more juggling. That's where Bank of America steps in. With Bank of America, you can manage your banking, borrowing, and even investing all in one place. Their digital tools bring everything together under one roof, giving you a clear view of your finances whenever you need it. Plus, with Bank of America's wealth of expert guidance available at any time, you can feel confident that your

money is working as hard as you do. So why overcomplicate your money? Keep it simple with Bank of America, your one-stop shop for everything you need today and the goals you're working toward tomorrow. To get started, visit bofa.com slash newprosmedia. That's b-o-f-a dot com slash n-e-w pros p-r-o-s media. bfa.com slash newprosmedia. I'm Nicole Lappin, the only financial expert you don't need a dictionary to understand. It's time for some money rehab. it's time for some money rehab. So over a year ago, I started Money News Network. We launched officially January 1st, 2023, so happy belated anniversary, M&N. Starting this company has been the hardest and yet most rewarding thing I have ever done. I am beyond stoked to say that it's going really well, but I have made so many mistakes along the way that were entirely preventable, and I did a

ton of things that I would never ever do again. What you'll learn in business is that there are things that you don't know you don't know. So today I'm teaming up with LinkedIn Jobs to shed some light on five things I wish I knew before starting a business that I learned the hard way so that you don't have to. And these tips are for everyone running a business, whether you have a small business that you want to turn into a Fortune 500 company or you're rocking a side hustle that brings in some extra pocket change. These tips are for all of you entrepreneurs and solopreneurs alike. So here it goes. Number one, you are going to get paid late. And now I knew this was a possibility when I was starting M&N, but I could have never imagined how often this would happen. So imagine you run a cupcake bakery and you get a PO or a purchase order for 5K worth of cupcakes

for St. Patty's Day. Amazing. We love 5K. And you have net 30 day payment terms, which means that the St. Patrick's Day party people are going to have to pay you 30 days after they receive your delicious cupcakes. So you think you're going to have $5,000 in your business banking account 30 days after St. Patrick's Day. So you start scheduling what you're going to do with that money. You order flour, you order eggs, whatever else to make cupcakes, and you schedule the order for around the time you believe you're going to have that St. Patrick's Day money to pay those bills. But here's what really happens. You'll hear from the St. Patrick's Day party people that they say,

hey, we're so sorry, but we're not going to be able to pay you for net 90 days, meaning you're not going to get that five grand in your bank account for another two months. And all of those orders you just scheduled, you're not going to have the money to cover them like you thought you would. In the early days of M&M, this would happen all the time. I put my entire life savings into this company and I had to cover capital way more often than I would have ever predicted. Now I know to work under the assumption that payments are just going to hit late and adjust accordingly. Whether or not you decide to have some sort of interest or fee for late payments, totally your call. But regardless, I'd recommend to add some sort of buffer to accommodate late

payments. So if you're the cupcake baker, what you should do is instead of scheduling bills to hit on days that depend on on-time payments from your customers or clients, I'd add another 30 days at least to whatever day you expect to be paid out. Or if you can't wait on your flower, negotiate longer terms with your vendors so that if your income comes in late, you have time to pay your bills. Cash flow is one of the many lovely unexpected challenges that has come with running this company, and I think it's only gotten harder since we started. But if you know this roadblock is coming, you can reroute in advance. Number two, if you want to buy a house as a small business owner, get a mortgage broker. Even if your business is totally raking it in, it's really hard to buy a house and get approved

for a mortgage if you're not a W-2 employee. And if you're raising money for your company, that might even count against you as debt, which makes the mortgage approval process even harder. But having a mortgage broker on your side can improve your chances in a big way. A couple of months ago, I had entrepreneur Morgan DeBond on the podcast, and she said that she had a mortgage broker and it was one of the only reasons she was able to buy her house. And fun fact, most mortgage brokers don't even charge you for their services. They charge the lender. So if you do your homework, you can get this pro service for free. Number three, be your most expensive employee. When you scale your business and you start to outsource to employees or freelanc business and you start to outsource to

employees or freelancers, you're going to have to choose which of your zillions of responsibilities to delegate and which to keep on your own to-do list. I really struggled with this in the early days of MNN. I literally wore every hat when it came to business, recording the podcast, that was of course me, monetizing the business. Me again, securing press opportunities. Me, myself, I. You get the drift. And when it came time to deciding which hat to hand off to someone else, I totally froze. But I figured out a strategy through some trial and a lot of error. What you should do is write down all of your responsibilities and assign each task an hourly rate based on market value of that skill.

So make that list and then whichever responsibility requires the most expensive skills, do those yourself. That will help you in two super important ways. First, this is a really budget friendly way to hire because you'll be doing all of the things that you'd pay someone else a lot of money to do. And it helps you justify taking a salary and paying yourself. I think a lot of founders feel like this is a badge of honor not to pay themselves, like couch surf as a rite of passage, put all of the money back into the business. I should say not every founder can take a salary early on, especially if they have aggressive growth goals and need to spend a lot of capital

on product development. But if you can work your salary into your business plan, you absolutely should. So once you've decided which responsibilities you can actually delegate to someone else, put those in a job description and assemble your dream team. The big pro tip here is you don't need a recruiter to find the right person for your business, and you don't personally have to recruit full-time in order to find your dream candidate. You can use LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn has a vast network of more than a billion professionals, which makes it the best place to hire. And the process is so easy and intuitive that a majority of small businesses get qualified candidates within 24 hours. Also, it is free, which is my favorite price. So if you're ready to grow your team ASAP,

you can check out the LinkedIn jobs link in the episode description. Number four, you should add an extra 20% to your budgeted expenses for unexpected costs. I know that 20% seems very high and honestly, sometimes it is, but the times when it isn't, you will be so thankful that you had a buffer. I try to budget 20% for unexpected costs and some months it has been way too much and I had extra money, which I love. Try not to spend it. And some months it was exactly enough because I did get hit with unexpected bills, which I don't love, but at least I was covered. Money rehabbers know that when it comes to your personal finances, I recommend having an emergency fund just in case life throws you a curveball.

An emergency fund has really saved me before, like the time I knocked off my right side mirror on my car and then knocked off the left side mirror on my car literally the day after. Having a 20% buffer for your expenses is like the business version of an emergency fund. Extra money to have just for those curveballs or the garage doors that jump out at you from nowhere. Number five, set bridge goals. The first goals I set for MNN in the early days were gigantic. These goals were so big that I knew it would take at least a couple of years to reach them. This is super common for founders. No one thinks to

themselves, oh my god, I'm going to build an amazing business and break even. No, founders are always like, this is my million dollar idea. I'm going to turn it into a billion dollar business and I'm going to have a 17 figure exit and go public and be on Shark Tank and Mark Cuban's going to be my best friend. And maybe all of that will happen for you, but it can't be your first and only goal. What I learned is that you should set bridge goals that represent all of the many baby steps that you will need to take in order to get to your ultimate big goal. If your goal is to have a million dollar business, you're going to have to make six figures before you make seven. Heck, you're going to have to break even before you make any figures at all. So setting those bridge goals will build in time for you to appreciate the progress that you're

making and all of the steps that you are taking to reach your bigger goals. If you don't do this and all you have are those super lofty goals, until you reach them, you will never feel like you're succeeding. And the mental gymnastics that it takes to run a business is hard enough. A little celebration or a pat on the back can give you the momentum to keep you going during challenging moments. I have had to have a lot of hard conversations with business this year, but no conversations were harder than the ones I had with myself. Be a little easier with yourself and recognize your bridge goals. For today's tip, you can take straight to the bank. If you're

feeling like you don't know where to start when it comes to hiring, do a little light LinkedIn stalking and see which types of jobs are being posted by companies comparable to your size and mission. Seeing other job postings out there will hopefully give you some inspiration when you're ready to put down a job description for your give you some inspiration when you're ready to put down a job description for your own company and when you're ready to post it you don't need help along the way you can use linkedin jobs the link to get started is linkedin.com slash mnn which i put in the episode description so you can find it easily now go crush it money rehab is a production of money news network i'm your host nicole lappen money

rehab's executive producer is morgan lavoie our researcher is emily holmes do you need some money rehab and let's be honest we all do so email us your money questions money rehab at money news network.com to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one-on-one intervention with me and follow us us on Instagram at Money News and TikTok at Money News Network for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make.