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Pt.2 - The Wise Moves of Wealthy Business Women: Melissa Dailey-Newman from CHIConWallStreet

Published on: 28th May, 2024

In this episode of the She Needs Profit podcast, host Samantha Varner interviews Melissa Dailey-Newman about business and wealth. They discuss the importance of financial literacy, the need for women to have conversations about money, and the significance of intentional wealth management. They also explore the challenges faced by business owners in balancing personal and business finances, and the importance of paying yourself as a business owner. The episode ends with a discussion on how to set yourself up for financial success as a new business owner.

DON'T FORGET - June 19th I have a FREE Webinar "Mastering Business Finances - A Profit First Approach"

REGISTER HERE

Sound Bites

"All of us are aiming for personal wealth, financial independence, and the ability for women to stand on their own two feet."

"Having conversations about money is important, whether it's about starting a business or looking at mortgages."

"Business owners often fall into the trap of spending to grow, but it's important to create assets for long-term wealth."

To Contact Melissa to learn more - https://www.chiconwallstreet.com/contact

***And remember June 19th I have a FREE Webinar "Mastering Business Finances - A Profit First Approach"

REGISTER HERE

Transcript
Speaker:

Thanks to the She Needs Profit podcast,

I'm your host, Sam Varner.

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You know, in my 15 years of business

experience, I've noticed there are three

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things required to create a thriving

business.

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Sales, visibility, and profit.

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And yet most business owners find

themselves overworked, overwhelmed, and

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underpaid.

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If you own a private practice or are a

service -based business owner, this

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podcast is for you.

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On this show, I give you the tools,

strategy, and coaching.

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to run a profitable business and share

stories and insight from people who are

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right there with you.

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Let's dive into today's episode.

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Hello, this is your host, Sam Varner.

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I am really excited to bring you the

second half of my conversation with

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Melissa Daly Newman last week.

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So she is from Chic on Wall Street.

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She's a financial planner.

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And last week, if you didn't catch that

episode, was the beginning of our

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interview.

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We talked all about assigning a task for

your money.

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We talked about her belief that there are

four categories you need to consider.

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Spend, save, invest and give.

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And so it is absolutely a great idea to go

back and listen to last week's episode if

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you haven't heard it yet.

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But today we're going to dive into the

second half of that interview.

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Melissa and I are going to go deep in some

examples of if you're at this place in

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business, here's what you should be doing

when it comes to financial planning and

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the investment side.

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So stick around and listen in on our

conversation.

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I guarantee you're going to take something

away from it.

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Okay, so let's talk a little bit about

that person who maybe they've been in

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business for five years and they're

listening to this and they're thinking

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like, okay, I've been cash flowing things

decently, but I really have nothing to

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show for this in terms of investing in

myself or, and or usually that the

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business has nothing in terms of assets

beyond like, I don't know.

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I mean, a printer and a desk and a

computer and like basically non -assets,

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assets, but non -assets.

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So.

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Yep.

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What do you do when you're in the thick of

it?

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And how do they, how do they start?

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If it doesn't feel like there's any room

to be starting to just peel money off of

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places, cause it all has a name.

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It all has somewhere to go.

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Yep.

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I think for someone in that stage and I

think of, you know, I kind of go back to

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my personal practice and what clients I've

helped and, and friends that I know in

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this space.

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And so one person that comes to mind

specifically is a real estate agent.

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to where, you know, she's pretty

successful at this point.

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So they've been in the business long

enough, they've got their referrals and

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they've got a good amount of transactions

happening, but not necessarily setting

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themselves up for complete future success.

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And it's because her business is

completely dependent on her working.

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So one of the questions that I asked to

get someone to start to bridge is what

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happens if you aren't working?

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Are you still making money?

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And

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typically in that scenario, the answer is

no, right?

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So I would say to every business owner,

okay, and this doesn't necessarily mean

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like long -term succession plan.

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I mean, that's a whole other conversation.

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Yeah, that's a big and detailed one.

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But just in terms of if every dollar that

you make is dependent on you working, then

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you're not actually setting yourself up

and scaling yourself for growth.

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And so that's kind of where you find

yourself now in this next category where.

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You're doing good, you're paying bills,

you're taking a salary and everything.

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But if you're finding that you're not

really growing your business, it's just

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dependent on how much effort and energy

you're putting into it.

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And so that's where I think this invest in

yourself for future comes into play.

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So I would say if you find yourself in

that situation, you're absolutely ready to

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truly go through kind of your balance

sheet of your business and look at it.

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because if you look at your balance sheet,

so basically, you know, your balance sheet

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is all of your assets, which is everything

you own.

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And for some business owners, like you

said, it's a printer, right?

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It's a fax machine.

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Yeah, it's next to nothing.

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Like, I mean, my personal ownership is

like next to nothing.

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We just don't have equipment and things,

right?

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Yeah, there's no inventory, right?

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I mean, for some people, they might have

inventory.

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you know, and so depending on your

business, if I go back to like my DJ days,

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right, like I had some assets there, I had

some music equipment on paper that if I

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had to sell, they had value.

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And so that's important to know, because

it is a reminder on paper of what you've

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spent money on.

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So you have invested, you know, because

sometimes people, you know, you're always

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kind of thinking, I need this new thing.

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I need this new thing.

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I knew that if I only had a better

microphone, if I only had.

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Right?

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A better ink pen or whatever.

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I mean, you know, so I think going through

a balance sheet at this point is so

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important.

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Capture all the assets that you have.

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And when I go through that with clients,

it's not just the physical property

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assets, but it could be.

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But then you start questioning what's the

ownership structure of everything that I

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own.

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So let's say you're, you know, a business

owner that has a vehicle that the company

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owns.

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So does it make sense for the company to

own it or for you to own it?

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And maybe what you've realized, so let's

go back to that like real estate agent

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person, because a car is a big one for

real estate realtor.

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They want it to be a nice car, so they

spend a little more.

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They put a ton of miles on their car and,

you know, the gas, they spend all the

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things, always driving around clients or

going to open houses.

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But what I found is some some people don't

have the business own the vehicle, you

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know, or some, you know, it just it's a

personal vehicle.

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So when you really do this balance sheet,

you're looking at what are the things that

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I own and is it me personally that owns

them or me as a business owner?

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So again, I'm always asking, are we

talking about you as a business owner or

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are we talking about you as a person?

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And then there's cash in the bank.

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That is an asset.

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So it's a liquid asset, but it needs to be

on your balance sheet.

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So when you're looking at all these,

again, this is just a list of all the

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things you own versus all the things you

owe essentially.

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So you're gonna list out the money that's

in the checking account.

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which goes back to, is it in your personal

checking account or is it in your business

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checking account?

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And ideally, to really grow your business,

your business balance sheet needs to grow

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as well.

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So you should have more cash in a savings

account for your business so that you're

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not just kind of always hitting zero at

the end of the month with your business.

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And so that's one of the ways to grow.

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You hear this kind of on a big corporate

structure right now, whenever we're

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analyzing Fortune 500 companies and we

talk about cash on their balance sheet.

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You should have the same mindset as a

small individual business owner too.

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Like how much cash is on your balance

sheet?

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So what are the things that you own?

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And then on that balance sheet, on the

liability side, maybe you have that car,

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but is there a loan on it?

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So you need to net that to know, you know,

well, what do you really have in value?

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So for someone in that kind of space of

their finding success, but they really are

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kind of, you know, not necessarily growing

or thinking where they might have

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substantial growth in five years or so, I

absolutely look at the balance sheet on

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the business side and then the investment

side.

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So I hit briefly on that retirement piece.

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Let's say you're that real estate agent,

you know, are you...

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investing in a SEP IRA, for example, and

that's one of the things that sticks out

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immediately.

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So if you're listening and you find

yourself thinking, I'm making pretty good

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money, but I'm really not saving for

retirement, you're missing out.

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Because if you were working at a company,

what would they be doing?

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Contributing to your 401k, giving you

money into an HSA account or some of those

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types of things.

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So I think between those two things.

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Absolutely saving for retirement.

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I'm going to say that all day every day

that you can't start too soon.

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And as a business owner, it's really

important.

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And that's whether you are kind of a solo

or if you've got a couple of employees and

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really look at what could you offer your

employees, even from an employee retention

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standpoint, I think it's a big deal.

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Yeah.

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And I think in my experience, so many

business owners are kind of of the mindset

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that

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We'll just have a really good year.

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We'll just be able to do this at the end.

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We'll just be able to like fill up those

buckets one day, right?

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And it becomes very much a one day

discussion.

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And I think that is if nothing changes

from listening to this podcast, besides

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you separating your money, obviously you

guys know that we're like adamant about

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that.

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But also if you start thinking, I take

care of myself every time I get paid.

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I'm not waiting for the bonus.

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I'm not waiting for that big client to

land.

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I'm not waiting for the end of the year

when I'm going to pull money at that

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point, but in fact, doing it each and

every time that grows, right?

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We talk about compound growth in

investments is no joke.

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The numbers don't lie and the sooner you

do it and even microscopic little bits add

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up over time.

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And the longer they're able to sit in that

investment pool, the more they grow.

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Right?

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I have

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a business owner this week that we were

chatting about it.

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And I said, you know, I don't love that

you wait till the end of the 12 months to

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put those monies into your investment

account.

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I would like to see a 12th of it each

month so that you're getting that compound

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growth over the duration of the whole year

instead of just waiting for the lump sum.

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And lots of times that feels harder, but

it's just habitual.

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It's just a matter of making that work and

then running the numbers accordingly.

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So I do want to encourage everybody who's

listening to this.

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It's time to invest.

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in yourself with your business, not just a

wing and a prayer and a hope that five

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years from now when I need money, there'll

be money to pull up because there won't be

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because you won't have set it aside.

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Right.

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Intentional, right?

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That's my whole deal.

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You've got to be intentional.

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And so what is the purpose of

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this business that has to be more than a

paid hobby.

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Yes.

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Sometimes, you know, I mean, that's what

it kind of you start feeling like it.

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And it's fantastic that you are passionate

about your business.

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I mean, that's part of what is so

fantastic about you being an entrepreneur.

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I mean, and I know it because I wired that

same way and I get so enthusiastic and I'm

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all in on like.

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feeling like I'm just driving to the

office to go work for someone else and

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then going home, right?

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And so we all, as business owners, we

understand that, you know, there's not

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really what I call work -life balance.

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It's work -life integration because it's,

it can be any day, all day, right?

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I mean, you just, it is, but that's okay.

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If you really are, you know, you kind of

have that fire with your business, it's

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part of it.

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But when it comes to your money, if you're

not separating,

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business to employee you're missing out.

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So absolutely, you've got to be

intentional about paying yourself as an

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employee, investing in yourself as an

individual, because one day you won't be

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working.

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And I think that sometimes when we're a

business owner, we live and breathe our

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business.

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And so we're in it all the time.

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And it's hard to imagine a day when we

won't be living and breathing.

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But that is the end goal.

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The end goal is,

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a day off work, a vacation, a beach.

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You know, it's different for everyone,

right?

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But it's sometimes we have to, it's crazy

because honestly, my corporate employee

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clients, like they get that.

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They're already like, yeah, I can't wait

to be done five more years.

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they've done the calculators, right?

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They're like, well, if I hit my max

income, it should be, yes, I will be 68

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and 14 days old and then I will retire or

whatever it is.

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They do the math.

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A hundred.

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percent that a little countdown on their

phone, right?

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And so it's funny because then as business

owners, it's like, well, we don't think

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that way.

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We just we're so caught up in it.

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And part of it's the passion of, you know,

we're driven and super ambitious about

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their business.

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But I think that's where if you haven't

sat down and thought about retirement in

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that way, you absolutely should.

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Because if you don't plan what happens,

you don't retire.

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You got nothing to show for it, right?

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You're dying in your boots accidentally.

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Like you are literally working when you're

actually getting to a point where you

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don't want to because you have other

priorities.

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Like life will shift and you don't want to

be in a position where you have no choice

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and you have no shift.

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You want to have the option in that.

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It's that freedom and flexibility that

we're going for, right?

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I want to be able to make the choice on a

Tuesday that I just don't want to do this

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anymore.

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I want that power.

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I don't want to be in a situation where

it's like, well, hmm.

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I guess I'm doing this until I'm dead or I

have to go get a job and now I'm 65.

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Like neither one of those is a great

scenario.

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So taking the time to do it now, taking

the time to reach out to somebody like

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you, Melissa, and get help on this,

because that's the other part is I think

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one of the big reasons I wanted to do this

chat with you today is like this

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information is available and there are

women out there.

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I mean, they're.

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There are great men out there doing this

work as well, but there are women out

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there that are not gatekeeping this

information, but you have to seek it out.

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You have to ask the questions.

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You have to hear an interview and think to

yourself, I have questions in this space

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and now I have resources as to who I could

ask these questions to.

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And you need to advocate for yourself in

these areas, right?

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Yeah.

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Well, so often I feel like for business

owners, I don't know, sometimes women

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generally like the reason sometimes we get

in business for ourself is because we want

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the flexibility.

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We want to be able to take off at two and

go get our kids, or we want to be able to

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go on the field trips, or on the other

side, we've got aging parents.

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And so we want the flexibility of our

time.

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Frankly, I was golfing this morning

because that's something that I enjoy

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doing.

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And so I want to be able on Thursday

mornings during the season to be able to

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golf for a little bit and have some

flexibility in my schedule there.

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That's important to me.

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But then on a Saturday afternoon when a

client calls and says, hey, can you meet?

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Of course, I'm going to say yes.

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And so for me, time flexibility is what

drives that concept of kind of running my

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own practice.

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And so a lot of times,

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That's what gets you into owning your own

business, thinking flexibility in terms of

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time and family.

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And so I would encourage everyone to

remember you're also in business for

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financial stability and for the upside

potential.

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So, and actually when I say stability, I

guess I should really say that's actually

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kind of probably not exactly what we get

as business owners, right?

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As opposed to, you know.

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It feels like it's the upside.

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It's the untapped upside, right?

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It's that how did you get into business?

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Well, my salary was this and I figured I

could do better.

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Yeah.

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I could make more and I was going to go

out and sky's the limit when I do it on my

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own.

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And that's why we do it.

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Plus also I want to be able to take my kid

to the finger surgeon on a Thursday

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morning.

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Right.

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Or golf sounds a lot more fun, honestly,

but still we do what we got to do.

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Right.

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Well, yeah, absolutely.

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And yes.

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And so the upside potential and holding

yourself to the growth I think is

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important because.

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You know, when you work somewhere else,

you often have a sales manager.

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It's like, okay, did you hit your goals?

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How many new clients did you get this

week?

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You know, are you increasing your pricing?

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Like all the things that you talk about

all the time around growing and driving

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profits, right?

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Like that's so important, but you have to

do it yourself or find a resource like you

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where, okay, you are gonna coach someone

through this for that reason.

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And that's kind of, then I come in on the

finance side.

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So you really think of me as your,

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financial accountability buddy here.

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Like, okay, how's your balance sheet?

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How's it going?

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Right.

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And so I think if anything, and this, I

think this would be helpful for everyone

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to go through.

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So I will make sure to get you like a

couple of PDFs that people could download.

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Cause I think it's so important to go

through this, have a business balance

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sheet and then have a personal balance

sheet.

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And then ultimately that becomes your own

benchmark for, you know, success.

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So you've got your metric today.

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And honestly, I tell people this about the

balance sheet because for those of you

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kind of like visually thinking through how

this works, if you haven't done one, you

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know, you're, you're writing down

everything you own, you're writing down

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everything you owe and it nets out to this

number.

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So it's, you know, asset, my dis liability

equals guess what your net worth.

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And until you know what your personal net

worth is, then you don't really know if

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you're growing your net worth or not.

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And so obviously the goal.

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a year, five years, 10 years from now is

to grow your net worth.

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And so I tell, especially my female

clients, I'm like, just think of it like

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stepping on a scale, okay?

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You just, you gotta do it.

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But how will you know if your diet was a

success or your fitness goals are being

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met, you know, if you don't have something

to measure.

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And so if you step on the scale and you

see that number now, and then you step on

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the scale, you know, down the road at

different points.

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you can see where that's fluctuating.

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And I do the same thing with a balance

sheet.

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So we're going to get to what is your net

worth?

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What's the business net worth and what's

your personal net worth?

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And both have to be growing to really

define success on this financial journey

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that you're on.

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I love that.

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I love that.

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That's where we're going to leave them

today because I think that's the thing is

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it's such a great visualization of like,

just, you don't know what's happening if

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you're not measuring it.

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So now,

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The action is go measure it and then come

back to it and against the measurement,

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against the measurement, against the

measurement, and then ask for help in the

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areas that you need help in terms of

growing, saving, investing.

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It doesn't matter, but then you just

figure out what you need and you go out

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and you seek it.

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And that's what we're all good at.

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Every single person listening to this

podcast is a go -getter, is ready to kind

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of make those changes, is interested in

growth.

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So here's what you need to do in order to

even know if you're growing.

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Right?

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Yep, absolutely.

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And then you've got that too, to take to

your CPA.

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Right?

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So now that's a whole lot like here's my

assets.

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Do I depreciate them?

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Do I not?

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Do I do this?

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Do I not?

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You know, maybe you've got an attorney

you're working with with your business.

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Does the legal structure of my business

make sense?

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Right or not?

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So just even by doing that too, it just

elevates your business acumen in general

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so that you really are setting up your

business.

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:

and running it in this manner for growth.

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And you create this growth machine and you

go from there.

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And it's meant to be an encourager always.

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So that's, you know, it's if you don't

know, you don't know.

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So you need to know, you need to know

what's your net worth.

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What is your personal net worth and what

is your business net worth?

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And the two need to be growing in harmony

so that intentionally you are spending,

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saving, investing, and ultimately giving

in a way that is your own personal wealth.

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And that's really kind of.

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wraps it up, I believe.

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I mean, that's what I think of.

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It does wrap it up.

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I love it.

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That wraps it up like perfectly.

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So thank you so much for doing this today.

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I think everybody listening is going to be

walking away with something like with a

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nugget of like, okay, I have my marching

orders.

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I know exactly what I need to be doing

now.

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So thank you so much for taking the time

to come on this afternoon.

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I appreciate it.

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Thanks for having me.

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Yes.

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And find me at Chic on Wall Street.

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If you've got questions, my contact

information will be there.

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:

I'm happy to answer any questions.

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:

I kind of do these ask anything sessions

throughout the year.

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:

And it's just a time that I carve out

specific time dedicated to just it could

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:

be anything, anything, you know, financial

related.

404

:

And if nothing else, I point people in

direction of resources, just like how you

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:

and I got connected.

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It's great.

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:

Yeah.

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:

That's perfect.

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Well, thank you so much, everybody.

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I look forward to chatting with you again

next week.

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And that's this week's episode of the She

Needs Profit podcast.

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If you like what you heard today, connect

with us on Instagram at Sam, the Profit

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:

Coach, or leave us a review in your

podcast player.

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:

Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter

packed with more profit tips.

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:

The link is in the show notes.

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:

See you next week.

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About the Podcast

She Needs Profit
A kick-ass approach to business growth and life freedom! More profit and less bull*
Want to build and grow a profitable service based business? Are you tired of just breaking even?

With solo episodes focused on sharing business profit coaching gold nuggets and interviews featuring gritty women entrepreneurs, this show will give you strategies around building an offer that gets results without wasting time or energy!

We’ll also talk about why it’s important (and necessary) when scaling a biz from one person operation into something bigger than yourself to lean into understanding the money part of business! And, of course, there will be plenty of real-life examples along the way too because I want you walking away feeling like "I CAN do this!" Not just listening but actually doing it!

I’m your host, Samantha Varner, profit coach and founder of She Profit School. My 16+ years of experience in financial services, public relations, and profit coaching are being poured into this show so you can avoid indecision, frustration, and confusion when it comes to building and scaling your own business.



Email me at sam@crushprofitcoaching.com
and Connect with me on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/samtheprofitcoach/

So let's go. Roll up your sleeves...get gritty & let’s create wildly profitable businesses together!

About your host

Profile picture for Samantha Varner

Samantha Varner

Sam Varner is a momma to 4 kiddos ages 16 - 10 and she is the founder of CRUSH Profit Coaching. She is a money making business creator for driven female entrepreneurs. Sam has 16+ years in PR & Marketing, Finance Strategy and Business Development. After living in 3 different countries and getting re-qualified to work over and over again Sam decided to create her own business serving women business owners online.
Her mission is to coach women to realize they are capable of changing their financial reality through business ownership.