The Profit Pillars Show by Evolved Finance

I've said it once and I'll say it again. Entrepreneurs love overcomplicating their businesses when they don't need to. Most business owners don't want to make their businesses more difficult to run, but as problems and issues pop up, they tend to add layer after layer of band-aids instead of treating the cut with stitches right from the start. That's why having access to the financial data in your...

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when bookkeeping and accounting tasks were all completed on paper. If that were still the case, I can assure you that I would not have shifted my career to the world of accounting and finance. Ha! Like with most industries, technology and software have dramatically changed accounting and bookkeeping for the better, but there is an oddly "old school" ment...

A big part of what we are trying to do at Evolved Finance is to help our clients create wealth through their online businesses. That might be weird to hear from a bookkeeping firm, but the monthly financial reports we deliver to our clients are to help them make sure they are building businesses that are healthy and profitable. When an online business is able to become profitable, that's when the...

I don't think you can have a business strategy conversation without using the word "grow." Grow your revenue, grow your customers, grow your team. Grow, grow, grow!!! Obviously, growth is a great thing for a business, but is possible to have too much growth too quickly? I think so. That's why for this episode, we discuss: What does a quickly growing online business look like? Why your business mod...

As you see the revenue in your online business grow, it's inevitable that your expenses will grow with them. Of course, we want the expenses to be growing at a slower rate than the revenue, but even our most profitable clients can have thousands of dollars a month in expenses. If we looked across all of our clients' businesses, it would be super common to see them spending anywhere from $10k-$30k...

My first experience with social media was MySpace. I was a musician in a rock band during the peak of MySpace's popularity, so we were ALL about getting followers on our page.  Since those days, the "in" social media platforms have changed, but the game has stayed the same regardless of if you're a musician, thought leader, comedian, or video game streamer. Building a following. With the types of...

Since Evolved Finance was founded in 2010, we have seen a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff that happens in a successful online business.  That means both the good and the bad. But the one thing we haven't seen a lot of is our clients selling their businesses. As I have mentioned in the past, most online businesses are not built to be sold. They are built to be profit machines that generate incom...

Let me start out by saying that I don't have a crystal ball that tells me the future. As far as I'm aware, I don't think anyone else does either. But as entrepreneurs, we must manage the financial risks and opportunities in our businesses based on what we think the future holds. Especially in times of uncertainty, which the past 12 months have given the entire world in spades. That's why for this...

I don't think many people predicted in March or April of 2020 how beneficial COVID would be for the online business world. I fully understand and acknowledge that COVID has been devastating for many industries and communities, but we are fortunate that the online business space has not impacted.  In the last year, we saw more of our client's businesses take huge leaps in revenue than ever before a...

I love teaching entrepreneurs about the financial side of their businesses because their numbers are so fundamental to the success of their companies. If you've listened to even a couple of episodes of this podcast, that's hopefully become apparent to you as well. But giving advice about money and business to a broad audience can be tricky because certain pieces of advice will be more or less impo...

One of my favorite sayings about running a small business is, "If your small business isn't making sales, you're simply funding an expensive hobby." This is why learning how to generate consistent revenue in your online business is such an important skill to develop from the start. This is also why there are so many coaching programs and marketing services dedicated to helping small businesses gen...

To be a human being is to experience emotions and feelings.  To be a business owner is to balance feelings with data. Many a startup have failed because the founder's "feelings" and "instincts" didn't match up with the reality of what the market was telling them (the data).  The types of online businesses our clients own can get far off of feelings and instincts alone, but they will eventually hit...

If you have any hopes of growing your online business, then you're going to need other people to help you get there. For most online entrepreneurs, contractors are a great starting point to get the support they need, but as their business grows and scales, hiring employees becomes a necessary next step. I think it's fair to say that when building any sort of team—be it your first contractor, or yo...

One of the most important things any business needs to get right, and sooner rather than later, is pricing.  While a lot of business coaches tell you to "price what you're worth!", it's not always that straightforward.  How you price your offers needs to not only reflect the value your offer provides but the way your offer is packaged You also must price your offer in a way that supports the futur...

When entrepreneurs run into profitability issues in their online businesses, their immediate response is to cut back on expenses.  However, while cutting back on expenses might be part of the solution, it's not always going to fix your problems. Balancing your expenses relative to your revenue is often a delicate dance that only data and a properly organized profit and loss statement can fix. That...

When it comes to being successful as an online business owner, having a solid offer that delivers results to your customers or clients is an absolute must. That's why we regularly tell new online entrepreneurs to get clear on their offer before they start to dive too deeply into sophisticated marketing strategies. Because even if you have a killer landing page, a high-converting webinar, and the m...

Running an online business can be very overwhelming at times. As you convert more and more customers and clients, it can feel like the business takes on a life of its own. It's counterintuitive, but we've seen over and over again that our clients who try to do everything at once struggle to stay profitable. Instead, it's the clients that understand the power of "less is more" who scale the fastest...

When a service provider or software company positions their offer to me as an "all-in-one" solution, I am immediately skeptical.  I think we all wish we could simplify our processes, activities, and solutions into fewer apps, fewer people, and fewer systems. But it's just not realistic to expect an all-in-one service to be the most effective solution from both an operational and cost stand-point....

One of the first topics we covered in this podcast was about understanding how profitable your online business should be. It's been almost 3 years ago we released that episode, so we wanted to check back in and share our updated outlook on what a profitable online business looks like.  In this episode, we discuss: What profit is and how much of it your online business can have Why only focusing on...

Starting an online business takes a lot of work. Owning an online business that generates a full-time income takes even more work. It is hard work that makes entrepreneurship, especially in the online space, such a meritocracy. If you work hard enough, you will get to where you want to be. But what about luck? What about circumstances? What about chance? There is no question that the year of COVID...

This is the time of year when all entrepreneurs start thinking about their finances and taxes. While March 15th (the S-Corp tax deadline) and April 15th (the LLC and Sole-Prop deadline) may seem like they're miles away, any entrepreneur that has gone through the tax filing process knows there is a lot to do before then. During this time leading up to tax season, we often see that online business o...

Back in May of 2017, we posted the very first episode of our podcast. The title of the episode in 2017 is the same as the title of this week's episode. Why cover it again? Because in the last three years, the world has changed, the online business space has changed, and my insight into our client's businesses has changed.  So for this week's episode, we discuss: Why it's important to define what s...

In last week's episode , we reflected on what 2020 taught us as online entrepreneurs and why there was a silver lining for those running businesses in the digital space. Now that we've entered a new year, I wanted to discuss some predictions I have for 2021.  While nobody has a crystal ball that shares exactly what the future will look like, I do believe there are some assumptions online business...

I think it's safe to say that 2020 will be a year we will all remember for the rest of our lives. For most Americans, if you have your health and you have an income, you are one of the lucky ones. And there is no question that the majority of our clients felt pretty fortunate this year. That's why for this episode, we discuss: My reflections as a business owner navigating 2020 Why so many online b...

In last week's episode, we talked about the importance of pricing for online businesses. This week, I thought it would be appropriate to ask the question, "should you ever discount your offer?" Many online entrepreneurs struggle with this question because of what they see retail businesses do. But online businesses are not retail businesses and thank sweet baby Jesus for that because the margins a...