Building Good Money Habits for Your Business with Justine Lackey

Building good money habits? How do I even do that? I know this is something evvveryone, including myself has wondered.

Any creative entrepreneur starting a business knows that you seem to acquire a dozen new job titles overnight—everything from copywriter to accountant. And if you haven't had any training in money management, the learning curve can feel daunting.

I get it. It's so much more exciting to be creating beautiful things than to manage your books. But developing and building good money habits is key to both the short-term and long-term sustainability and financial success of your business. Which, in current times with what's going on in our world, is so important!

Maybe you're thinking, I'll just outsource it. Even so, it's important to have a foundational understanding of what's coming in and what's going out. It helps you know who to hire, what questions to ask, and how to feel empowered (not overwhelmed) by the numbers.

Since I'm definitely not the expert on the topic, I invited Justine Lackey to the podcast. She is a 100% virtual bookkeeping company based in the NYC area. With 20+ years of experience, Justine's been featured on forbes.com, entrepreneur.com, and in Women's Day magazine.

Justine is passionate about helping small business owners, entrepreneurs, and especially creatives position themselves for long-term success by taking control of their finances and implementing systems to maintain organization in their business.

Listen to this episode and I bet you'll walk away with greater confidence and actionable ideas for improving your and building good money habits.

Stellar insights

[06:50] If you're not ready to delegate bookkeeping services, schedule regular times in your calendar to focus on it. And automate repeated processes!
[09:46] There are tips for saving the right amount of money to avoid dangerous tax debt, which is one of the hardest lessons learned for freelancers and artists.
[18:47] QuickBooks online is a popular bookkeeping software with many helpful features like banking feeds and invoicing.
[21:24] Saving between 2-4% each month in a rainy day fund can give you a safety net and do wonders for your mindset.
[22:48] Don't forget about saving for outlier business expenses (i.e. business insurance) and keeping tabs on when those expenses are due.
[25:09] It's a good habit to educate your client/customer on your payment policies at multiple points in the sale process.
[32:34] Justine outlines her recommended checklist items for monthly and quarterly tasks and reminds us of the vital importance of collecting W9s for contractors.
[40:40] Justine decodes the commonly-used tax forms—EIN, DBA, W9, 1099, 1099K, W4, W2.

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Links mentioned

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Related Episodes

Episode 5: What No Ones Tells You About Being Your Own Boss
Episode 8: 5 of My Biggest Mistakes as an Entrepreneur
Episode 10: Legal Steps to Take When Starting a Business
Episode 21: The Legal Crash Course Every Business Owner Needs to Hear
Episode 28: How to Make the Right Hire

by Jenna Rainey

Jessica F says:

June 11, 2021 at 12:41 am

Super awesome and helpful information. I’m feverishly taking notes, playing back, repeat. When you are just starting a business, at what point do you hire an accountant? Or do you just start with software like Quickbooks?

- Jenna Rainey says:
  
  June 11, 2021 at 9:14 am
  
  It all depends on your situation, skills, background, etc. But I’d personally do it early on just because I don’t like doing bookkeeping and making errors on taxes can actually cost you money!