72: Ways Your Are MISSING Money in Your Business and How to Solve that Today

Behind Their Success: Ep 72

Paden: Natalia

Natalia: [00:00:00] we improved their bottom line by a positive 200,000.

That means that they improved by a million dollars in profit in six months. And actually figured out where their cash was going. 

Paden: Hello everybody. Welcome to Behind Their Success Podcast. I'm Paige Squires, the host, and this morning we have on Natalia. She's the founder of Zachary Consulting, an elite accounting firm that was started in 2019. She's dedicated to empowering business owners to gain control of their financial health and build resilient enterprises.

Under Natalia's leadership, the firm has grown into more than just an accounting service. They offer strategic bookkeeping, remote CFO services and financial intelligent programs that provide clarity and direction for business. Natalia, welcome on the show. 

Natalia: Thank you so much, Peyton. I'm very excited to be here.

Paden: Yeah, Natalia, so give us, uh, just kind of overview of your business and kind of what 

Natalia: you do. Sure. So, um, you know, bread and butter is bookkeeping [00:01:00] and we work in QuickBooks online. Um, we're QuickBooks ProAdvisors. Most of us are, you know, really know QuickBooks very well. But I noticed while I was starting the business and I was doing all of the sales, I did all of my sales up until very recently mm-hmm.

That, uh, people really wanted to know what was happening in their business. So we, we started offering CFO services and I think the CFO services we really started offering in 20, at the end of 2020, beginning of 2021. So a couple years in, and, uh, so yeah, bookkeeping and then the fractional CFO services.

Forecasting, budgeting, just really to help people understand where they're at and how to get to where they want to be. 

Paden: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's great. And you know, but you know, before we jumped on the show here, you know, Me and Natalia were talking a little bit and, you know, we're actually in some of the same kind of strategic consulting groups and stuff found out.

And, uh, you know, obviously we're working very, very similar space. We're each kind of in our own lane. I'm, I'm focused through tax and she's, she's focused, uh, really on putting the [00:02:00] financials together. but yeah, I mean, your services are so desperately needed, uh, for business owners and even for people like me because, um, you know, it's really hard for me to do what I do.

If, uh, my clients and business owners don't have great accountants slash CFOs like you, uh, because I can't really do my tax planning if the business owner or the financials are a total mess. Right, 

Natalia: exactly. Uh, not only a total mess, but not on time. So I find that happens a lot when we get new people. I just met with someone, uh, the other day and they said.

Um, yeah, my financials are up to date. They're, they're up to date through December and I'm, it's March 

Paden: the end of the first quarter. 

Natalia: So yeah, keeping it up to date is really key. Mm-hmm. Uh, every single month, uh, and getting your financials, um, and. Understanding what's going and, you know, uh, at least and in the least eyeballing it and seeing from month to month where you stand, that is like the least amount of, [00:03:00] uh, that what you should be doing in your business.

Paden: Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure. And it's, you know, I, I'm sure you have the same conversations. I, you know, like basically the same conversations I have with clients all the time. Mm-hmm. It's like, you know. How are you going to make business decisions if you have no idea what's going on, right? Or how are you even gonna project?

Like there's no way you can get your business even halfway efficient if you have no way of knowing even like what's going on from a cash position or revenue or profit or expenses, or any idea where your money's even going. 

Natalia: Yes, and a lot of people don't know where their money is going. A lot of very intelligent.

People. We had a client that was at $25 million in gross sales. That's a big client, right? Yeah, big business, logistics business. And they were at a negative 800,000 in profit and, and had no cash. They had no idea where their cash went. Uh, they hired, or they were, they were in discussions to hire a consultant, and the consultant said, I think you should close your doors if.

It. [00:04:00] So they were, they ended up talking to us. We were actually just doing the bookkeeping. Mm-hmm. And I said, look, we do CFO services, let's talk about this. You shouldn't close your doors. There are definitely things that you can do. So they hired us and in six months, uh, we improved their bottom line by a positive 200,000.

That means that they improved by a million dollars in profit in six months. And actually figured out where their cash was going. So they were taking the cash outta the business and buying like real estate and all this stuff because they were like, oh, we we're so flush with cash. So they started spending it in other places and had no idea.

And these were smart guys. 

Paden: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's not like an intelligence thing, right? It's, it's, it's a process and not even know, you know, not even know what's going on. And, yeah. Yeah, I see the same thing all the time. I mean, it's, it's nothing to see a, a multimillion dollar revenue business, um, that you know, and, and God bless 'em.

Maybe they have their, you know, their office manager [00:05:00] doing the books or whatever, and I. And I get stuff and it's bad. Right? As in, just from an organizational standpoint and, and just not even, like, there's no way the business owner can make decisions, strategic decisions. No. Where, you know, no. Like cash flow.

Being able to make a plan around when cash is coming in, what you're ultimately gonna do with it. Um, yeah. That is, it's, it's so important for people like you to help. 

Natalia: Yeah. It's very important. We get a lot of messes. Um. People are under the impression that bookkeeping is, uh, data entry and it's not. It's far from it.

It's, it's truly a professional service. It's very important. All of our people are highly talented and they're technical. I have probably more CPAs than most CPAs firms. Mm-hmm. I have four CPAs on staff. 

Paden: Nice. 

Natalia: And that is not, 

Paden: you got more than me. 

Natalia: It's so funny. Um, that is not for tax purposes. That is. To, um, to review, the, information and make sure that it's technically [00:06:00] accurate so they understand.

So everybody can pretty much figure out the, the profit and laws. It's the balance sheet that's always really tricky and that really impacts your taxes dramatically and impacts your decision making dramatically So every single month before the financials go out. one of our CPAs will review everything for technical accuracy.

So we have an in-house controller, basically. 

Paden: I see. Um, 

Natalia: that I don't think anybody else actually does. So most of the industry is leaning out and, and this is, uh, and we can talk about other businesses too, not just, you know, having tax, uh, of what we see, but a lot of, uh, the industry is leaning out and they're going, um.

Uh, to, uh, cheaper and cheaper services. Look at, look at what happened with Bench, for instance, 300 bucks to do your bookkeeping. Um, most of it I think, was overseas. I, I don't have a problem with overseas, except that I don't think that anybody with a lot of technical knowledge was actually reviewing anything.

Customer service wasn't there. so we are leaning in and we're hiring more expensive people that have [00:07:00] more talent, a lot more, experience and uh, a lot more customer service related. So we're very white glove. Um, we want our clients to be able to call us or message us and get ahold of us. Either that day or definitely by, by the next day, within 24 hours or less.

Yeah. 

Paden: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's, yeah. That's great. And it's just, and I mean, it's, um, once again, not, not to beat a dead horse, but it's so important. Yeah. Just be able to, to be able to, yeah. See that stuff and get, and get. Proper help because you're right. Like, you know, a lot of people see bookkeeping and, and you know, I would say, I don't know, and I'm just making this up, maybe you know, I'm speaking on term, but like 75, 80% of bookkeeping is, you know, just kind of this basic day-to-day stuff.

But that other, mm-hmm. 20% is so crucial and huge that your office manager doesn't know how to deal with. 

Natalia: Yeah. Yeah. And you have to do it with a, uh, with an eye for what you want it to reflect in the financials. Right. That's why I call it strategic bookkeeping, because there's wiggle room. Yeah, for instance, there's [00:08:00] wiggle room on doing what you need to have on the tax return.

So when we create the financials, we wanna make sure that it's very easy and simplified for our tax preparers, uh, in our tax partners or any, any tax preparer to be able to do the taxes. Um, that makes sense right there, there are, uh, standards in, in bookkeeping, but there's wiggle room for. Pulling things out that makes sense for the business owner to make better decisions.

So, for instance, breaking out advertising and marketing. So if you have different streams of advertising and marketing, like you're doing online advertising or you are, printing, and sending, uh, postcards, um, or you're hiring social media experts, you can break those out into different channels.

So you can see. Just right there on the p and l. If you increase your spend on any one of those things, how does it impact your revenue? Are you getting a return on investment? So that's part of the strategy is to make sure that you really have a lot more clarity in making those decisions, because if you are not [00:09:00] getting a return on your investment, then there are things that you need to take care of, right?

You're just wasting your money. 

Paden: Yep. Oh yeah, yeah. Totally. For sure. And that's, that's a great point there. It's like your financials, obviously Yeah. You, you need to build 'em a way where you can, where prep taxes and be compliant. Mm-hmm. Uh, but then at the same time, yeah, you, you wanna make your financials strategic that allows you to have a line of sight to important things in your business.

Right. Right. That's kind the difference between. Financial accounting and managerial accounting, right? Like there's managerial accounting, you wanna design your stuff, so like you just have line of sight to different things that you're tracking, right? and for all the listeners out here, if you, you know, just here's a nice little health check or a little tip for your, for your books.

Go into your, you know, if you have QuickBooks or whatever it is, go in there and pull up a balance sheet. And check to see if there's a bunch of negative numbers on there. That's the first thing I do when somebody's like, okay, my books are ready for taxes. The first thing I do is go and pull a balance sheet, and that immediately tells me, uh, if they're ready for taxes.[00:10:00] 

Yeah. And, and often if, you know, you go there and you have a bunch of negative liability balances, right. For loans, your books are not ready for taxes. 

Natalia: Yes. And it could really impact what you owe. 

Paden: Oh, yeah, for sure. Because you know, if they're, they're just coding that to a liability. There's interest and you're, you're missing interest expense almost.

Natalia: Yes, certainly, right? Yeah. Yeah. No, there's, we find a lot of really interesting things. Um, and no matter where it comes from, sometimes it could be other accountants. Right now anybody with a computer is calling themselves the bookkeeper and starting their own business. You have to be very careful. 

Paden: Or a tax preparer.

Exactly. Which might even be more dangerous. 

Natalia: Oh my gosh, yes. People don't know this. Like, for instance, HR Block. They don't hire people with any tax experience. 

Paden: No. They have like an eight hour course, um Yes. That you go through. Yeah. 

Natalia: So basically anybody off the street comes in and they take a course and they become an employee of HR Block.

I don't know if people knew that. Most people really confuse, who a tax preparer is who A [00:11:00] CPA is. Um, who an accountant is like, they confuse all the different, um, terms and what's actually happening out there. So you just have to be really aware. 

Paden: Yeah. And, and amazingly enough, the United States really has no standards for tax preparers at all.

No. Um, like all you have to do is apply and as long as you don't have a bunch of felonies, you're, you're gonna become Right. Like that's like the only standard. Yes. 

Natalia: That is true. And there's, there's, there are no standards for bookkeeper, bookkeepers at all either. No, nothing. Like people just, and I see the forums, I'm on a bunch of forums on, um, in Facebook, on a bunch of Facebook groups.

Paden: Yeah, me too. Or 

Natalia: accounting and bookkeeping and, I like checking in and reading and usually it's, it's like a horror show. I feel like, you know, getting my popcorn half the time I'm, because people are asking. The most basic questions to other people that probably don't know how to answer them. Yeah. Um, so it's pretty scary.

Paden: Yeah. Same thing. I mean, I'm in like, tax groups and, the questions that are asked in [00:12:00] there, um, I'm like, oh, mg you should not be prepping taxes if like, you don't know what that is. Right. It's like, but you know, uh, Natalia just kind of, you know, to kind of move the conversation just kind of onto you like.

Tell us, you know, give us a little, uh, background of, you know, you started the business in 2019. Tell us, what that was like, or, you know, I assume you kind of had a career before that, and what, what motivated you to kind of make, make that jump? 

Natalia: Sure. And, um, and I hope this is actually, uh, motivational and inspirational for other people.

And also, you know, how we were like kind of talking about everybody else who don't know what they were doing. Well, now I'm gonna tell you how I didn't know what I was doing when I started. but you know, I, I, I did take preventive measures. So, I went through a divorce in my forties, um, started working at a corporation, was there for about six years.

And, um, after a while, I, so I was in. Um, the financial department, I was an invoicing clerk for a big company. Um, really got along very well with the [00:13:00] CFO there. And, uh, when their controller left, I walked into his office and I said, anything that she was doing, can you show me how I can probably do it? I could figure it out.

Just show me. Um, I had no idea what I was talking about because I was an invoice. Didn't figure it. 

Paden: It's always an invoice. They figure it out. 

Natalia: Yes. And before that I was in sales, so I have a, a sales personality. so, he just, you know, uh, I never did any kind of bookkeeping. For instance, we had NetSuite and, um, and Microsoft, um, uh, uh, what was that, Microsoft before that.

So I never used QuickBooks or anything like that. He was great. Um, and then when he left the company, the company started switching. Uh, management and started switching gears and they, uh, I saw the writing on the wall. I was no longer someone that they felt that was valued and, um, they demoted me. 

Paden: Hmm.

Natalia: Actually a couple years later, they were trying to get some of the older population to leave. 

Paden: Mm-hmm. 

Natalia: And I was older, so, um, I got demoted the, in, in [00:14:00] 2018, to, what's considered poverty levels for the state of Maryland for a family. Wow. So they were trying to get me to leave, but, and I wanted to leave, but I had nowhere to go.

I was looking. For work for over a year. Wow. So at that time, I had just met, a guy that I was dating and he had his own tax business. Mm-hmm. You probably know who he is. Um, 'cause he's in the same circles. Um, but, um, I'm, uh, we were dating and we're sitting in a cafe and he says to me, I'm, I'm like literally on poverty levels.

I'm making $40,000. For a family, and I'm a single mom not getting any, uh, child support or anything like that. So, um, we're sitting in a cafe and he says, why don't you start your own business? And I was like, doing what? And, um, he said, well, how about bookkeeping? You know, accounting, it's a, it's a, it's a pretty good way to make some money.

And everybody needs an accountant. So I, I kind of took that information and I thought, well, at least I can figure this out and make some extra money. So I took a bunch of courses. He sent me, um, a course on how to [00:15:00] start your own accounting business. So I was, I. Still working full-time, going through that course at night, on weekends, during lunch hours.

and then suddenly I got my first client, uh, on January, 2019, who is still my client. and, um, uh, I panicked. I'm like, what do I do now? So, through, um, uh. YouTube videos like Hector Garcia and Veronica Sek. By the way, I have a great, um, way to learn. Um, and through the, the QuickBooks courses and through the community and books and everything I could possibly read, I just started doing bookkeeping on the side.

Um, I did for a while work for another CPA for a very short time, and then I figured that I just couldn't do that and run my own business at the same time. So, um. So I did get a little bit more experience that way too. Um, but anyway, so that was January, 2019. I only made $30,000 that year in, gross revenue, but I was doing my own bookkeeping.

And why I [00:16:00] think bookkeeping is so important is I could see when I was putting in all of my expenses for the business. And all of my revenue and lack thereof, I could see where the break even point was going to be. Like, how much more did I need to make to break even? Uh, fast forward, two years, I, I quit my job.

Uh, I quit my job within eight months. I. in 2021, I ha I started deciding that I need to hire my first person. And I was like, I can't, I, I have so much work, but I can't afford to hire the first person. 

Paden: Yeah, you get stuck in that spot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Natalia: A lot of people think they need to hire people because they have a lot of work.

You don't hire people because of the work. You hire people 'cause you can afford them. Um, and you have, uh, you know, sales that you know how to do sales. You have, you have revenue coming in consistently. So, um, I had double my pricing. It was a huge lesson. It was very painful. and now I. Uh, we're in our sixth year.

We have 12 employees, four of them, uh, CPAs, and uh, we were just talking that this is gonna air in [00:17:00] May, so it'll be after the fact. We just learned that we made it on the Inc regionals, ranked, top 25 of the ink regionals. We've been growing and doubling and tripling you over year since, so it's been, and I don't have any prior experience, so that's just goes to show that if you just.

If you just move forward and keep selling, selling is the most important piece. You'll figure it out. 

Paden: that's, you know, an amazing story. And, and it rings some, some similarities to, you know, before we jumped on here, was kind of talking Yeah. Bring similarities to, to my story as well of, of kind of quitting a corporate job.

Jumping into this industry and while I, while I had my CPAI bet zero experience, like in public accounting, right? Yeah. But it is truly amazing. Like what someone can just figure out by just willing to study and do the work and, and jump in and, and bet on yourself and, you know. Yes. And, and that's ultimately what you did.

You know, you jumped into amazing [00:18:00] industry where there's just a total lack of, um, even just quality service that, you know, if you do a good job and, you know, do proper sales and marketing well, growing the business is just a matter of time, right. Not a, you know, not a, uh, it's not a, It doesn't have to be a hard path, right?

Natalia: Yes. It hasn't been an easy path. I mean, we are growing, um, it's kind of chaotic when he grows so quickly. Oh 

Paden: yeah. Oh yeah. 

Natalia: Right. So it's a little chaotic and figuring out the hiring piece and figuring out, uh, and like the, the, the different software to use and everything. We were virtual before it was.

Popular to be virtual. Mm-hmm. So we were virtual from the very, very beginning in uh, 2019. But, um, I have to say that I do sometimes work probably more than, I need to, but I'm also, uh, I've become extremely passionate. It's, it's funny 'cause this wasn't something that I wanted to do.

I fell into it 'cause I needed money. 

Paden: Yeah. 

Natalia: And when I started talking to people and all these other business owners, and I'm really more of an entrepreneur at heart. I really felt, passionate about helping [00:19:00] them. So at first we started with the bookkeeping, and soon I transitioned into. These people need to understand what's happening.

They need to know the 

Paden: why, right? Yes. Just the Yeah, yeah, 

Natalia: yeah. And like, and the numbers truly tell the story of the business in every way you could possibly. Like we, we can uncover so many different things through just the numbers or like a ratio of the numbers or, or something. So, um, it's been an incredible journey and something that I didn't ever think I'd be passionate about, I became passionate about because it became about helping people.

Yeah. It didn't. The vehicle of through bookkeeping and CFO services. Yeah. If that's not what I want, that wasn't my dream. Right? Yeah, 

Paden: yeah, yeah. Looking back, oh, you say 10 years ago when I'm, you know, if I said to you in 10 years you're gonna be super passionate about accounting, you would've been like, what's, what's that?

Right? Yeah. And, and you know what's amazing? You know, people are always like, Hey, find your passion or, or whatever, or try to work in your passion and you'll never work a day the rest of your life or whatever. But like in my [00:20:00] experience, passion isn't found. Yes. it's, people are, people are amazingly passionate about something that they have worked hard at for a long time and gotten better at it and gotten good at it.

Yes. That's when people get passionate about stuff, right? It's not just like something you stumble upon and you're passionate about. It's something that you put effort and work into, and that's what develops the path. 

Natalia: I completely agree. I actually feel like first find something that makes you money and then compassionate about it.

Paden: Yeah. You're really good at it. And then amazingly enough, when you become really good at it, You like doing it, avoid doing, right? 

Natalia: Yes. And that's the thing, you have to get really good at it. you have to put the hours in, and you know, it's what, what is it? A thousand hours to get really good at something.

Yeah. Well, 

Paden: the, the Malcolm Gladwell, like the 10,000 hour rule thing. Right? So generally if you do something like. 10,000 hours, which is like five years of full time, right? Like that's mm-hmm. About the equivalent. Like, you have to have that level of experience in something to even begin to say like, yeah, I'm like a [00:21:00] master or pretty dang good at this.

Right? 

Natalia: Right. Yeah. And so it's even 10,000. So I didn't even, uh, think about that. But it. Comes through constant learning, uh, you know, reading, learning, doing. so, I actually noticed that you have like the imposter syndrome. Mm-hmm. You posted about that. I looked at your social media.

Yeah. you will have imposter syndrome and probably for five years at least, because you aren't who you are becoming yet. Mm-hmm. Um, I'm very confident now, this is my sixth year business. Mm-hmm. I was a nerve. Everything was nerve wracking. Terrifying. Mm-hmm. I'd sometimes get off a call and cry. the learning experience from where we, from where I started and becoming an entrepreneur to where we are now was.

a journey and it was very, very hard because you have to change everything. You think about yourself and you have to do things that are really uncomfortable. 

Paden: Yep. Repeatedly. Repeatedly. Yeah. and if you want to continue to grow, you just gotta keep upleveling and putting yourself even in more uncomfortable 

positions, right?

Yes. But the [00:22:00] amazing thing is, okay, what you were capable of in 2019. Like the rooms you walked in, that scared the heck out of you, right? Like now. You walk into that same room, just confident as all get out. Right? Yeah. Because you know what you're doing and you've been exposed to that. 

Natalia: Yeah. Yes. And the resilience.

Uh, so what used to freak me out and terrify me before is just Yeah. No big 

Paden: deal. Right? It's just another Tuesday, right? 

Natalia: Yeah. And I think it was, uh, I love, listening to a lot of other people, like, a Alex. Jocko willing, like anybody actually the, the, the tough people, right? Yeah. You've got 

Paden: a bunch of tough guys you listed to, 

Natalia: I like to listen to them, to like motivate me.

Yep. And I think it's Andy Zel actually that says that if you don't get gut punched about twice a week or maybe even daily in your business, then you're not doing enough. 

Paden: Yeah. Well, you're not, you're not, um, yeah. You're not taking enough risk or like pushing, you know, pushing yourself to your edge probably, right?

Natalia: Yes. Yes. So, but uh, it's been, it's been a journey and it's been really interesting and, um, I. And now [00:23:00] what's interesting about this space, and you probably feel the same way, is not only do I get to learn and grow in my own position, but I'm learning and growing because we are constantly talking to other business owners too.

So we work with other business owners. Yeah. Uh, and so we see patterns of what works, patterns of mindset, patterns of like what they do, patterns in the numbers. Um, and one of the things I'll say that really has been impressive, uh, is when someone sees. Um, something and makes a pretty fast decision and, and moves forward.

So, for instance, I had a client who lost several of his really big clients. He's a, he's a marketing person. Um, he lost over a million, uh, maybe even $1.5 million in revenue overnight because one of his, uh, big clients merged with another client and they lost that business. and I had something similar happen to another, another client that did really, really well during Covid.

And then everything changed, uh, when Covid left. So the one client that lost, um, one and a half, uh, millions, uh, million dollars [00:24:00] in business, I. He auto corrected his business really quickly. Like he's a CFO client. We meet every single month. We're looking at the numbers and I'm like, you can't afford these people.

He laid off most of his, uh, of his people. He had to, the business has to survive. Mm-hmm. 

Paden: First 

Natalia: business comes first. Yeah. 

and now he's done all these changes. He's really quick to make a decision and, you know, we talk it through. The great thing about working with someone is that you can bounce ideas off with off of each other too.

and, he is now back on track. It took him about a year, but he is back on track and now hiring again, a whole bunch of people. The other person who. A host business changed and he didn't pivot fast enough. He didn't make changes fast enough. He actually had to start taking out loans to keep paying his people, and I'm thinking he's not a CFO client.

Then we meet every once in a while, and I keep thinking, why do you have so many people? Like, what are they doing? Because there's, you know, a percentage of revenue that goes to pay your, your payroll. So what are they doing for you if you're not making that [00:25:00] revenue? and you have to get rid of those.

Some of those people you have to, it's a painful thing to do, but you have to, and he didn't, and he went into terrible debt. so it's like making fast decisions is really important. Making hard decisions is really important. 

Paden: Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent agree with that. I'm in a mastermind group and, last time I kind of spoke to that group, or I guess maybe last fall we were in Austin, Texas.

And, you know, while, while I'm a, a hard driving entrepreneur, amazingly enough, you know, when I take different personality tests that I'm. I appear a lot more confident than maybe I really am. Like, I'm so ful I, I can, you know, I don't know, fake it till I make it kind of way, but you know, the feedback I got, you know, when I was kind of talking about my business and what was going on in there and, um, they're like, Peyton, you're just not making decisions fast enough.

Mm-hmm. And, and it's amazing, you know, as you grow a business and get to a certain point that your career or your business transitions from like doing work. To, like, you're paid to make decisions. 

Mm-hmm. And, 

and making decisions quickly and, not [00:26:00] delaying on them. Obviously you need to get enough information, but making decisions quickly so you can move things forward and move the business and, and start down the path, whatever path you need to go on is so important.

And often, you know, people like me or other entrepreneurs, right? They, they kind of delay that because it is a hard decision or it's an uncomfortable conversation with an employee or, or, or whatnot. But all that is, is just a roadblock. And if you don't deal with it, it's, well, it's always gonna be in your way.

Natalia: Yes, yes. I, I totally agree. And that, you know, there's, um, there's stages depending on what kind of business you have, but there are definitely stages. You know, first it's usually mostly you. Mm-hmm. Um, then when you get to, um, seven figures, a million dollars, Getting to a million dollars is probably really hard.

Mm-hmm. But once you hit a million, getting to the next million is easy. So it took us five years to get to a million dollars. Um, and then we, and then we hit a million dollars in one year. I was like, oh, that wasn't hard at all. First one's 

Paden: always the hardest, didn't it? 

Natalia: I was like, okay. but it's different.

So after a million dollars, you can get to a million dollars with just yourself. You don't [00:27:00] have to count on too many people to get, if you're willing to 

Paden: work your butt off, you can. 

Natalia: I know a lot of people that work their butts off, but once you're starting get to two, three, 4 million and beyond. you really need to get really good at hiring and leadership.

Paden: So the 

Natalia: people quotient is, and leadership, you have to get really good at leadership, so that the people quotient becomes really important. Before that, it's like, are you pricing correctly? Do you have the right client? Um, you know, you have to have sales and, and that's probably gonna be you most likely.

You have to get really good at sales. and then after that it's gonna be managing and leading. Yeah. And being the visionary, uh, more than anything else. And it's a completely different role. 

Paden: Yeah. I totally agree with that. I see that same path all the time, you know?

Yeah. This is the same path in my business. Right. You know, the first, first mill in revenue is, is process. It's like getting down all the process, the pricing, the right, you know, what clients are we looking for? Getting marketing, messaging, you know, a sale, an actual sales process where it's not just this.

Wing thing that whatever happens, happens [00:28:00] kind of thing. Um, and that'll get you to the million, right? Uhhuh. And then, and then after that, you're right. Like, and, and that's where my role has become even more and more less of the practitioner, right? Mm-hmm. And, and more of the lead by example. Um, I still do the majority of sales, um, because I am kind of my superpower.

I'm pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but ultimately later this year, I don't wanna be the. The only person doing sales. Right. And, and, but we have a plan for that. But it is so true. It's like it becomes leading people, teaching people, just leading by example. So everybody, you can not only lead your people, but also then attract, the right kind of people to your firm, even, you know, even later as you continue to 

Natalia: grow.

Yes, exactly. I would say, I really lean on, Like people, people create their vision statement, their mission statement, and then their core values. I actually really lean on those three things when I make decisions mm-hmm. For business and for myself as a leader. So my top three core values are [00:29:00] accuracy, integrity, and excellence.

So I have to live up to that as well. 

and really consider what I'm doing. You know, transparency is one of our, core values also. so I have to like really live up to that in order for me to, you know, make decisions. According to those core values and for the rest of the firm to have that culture.

so it comes from the, the leader. And, I read somewhere, it was actually, I think it's the 24 Laws of Leadership. I'll have to remember what, uh, what that book. Um, is that 

Paden: Maxwell or something? Yes, max. Yeah. It sounds like a John Maxwell title. 

Natalia: Yes. Um, that's actually a really good book because it's short.

It has very short chapters, so it's easy to like read a chapter a day or something. And I'm, I'm a, uh, a fanatic about reading. I think it's extremely important, especially as a, as a business owner and as a leader. so one of the, laws of leadership is that, your business will only grow as far as you grow as a leader.

So you have to. I think that this has been the hardest thing that I've ever done. I've mentioned that before. Um, when [00:30:00] I've been on, in on speaking engagements, this is by far the hardest thing I've ever done. I've been like an executive director before of, uh, nonprofits. I'm a mom.

and owning a business is the hardest thing I've ever done. 

Paden: So, yeah. And it's, been the best thing for you too. And, you know, we talk about it repeatedly on here, that, that entrepreneurship is the, uh. I believe is the number one self-development tool out there. Yes. It just beats the heck outta you.

Right. And it's, it can be brutal because it's like brutally honest, right? The market just is, and anything that in your business is not going the way you want it. Two. I mean, of course you can point to all kinds of external factors and say it's that, but ultimately it's your responsibility to do something about it.

So you need to adjust. Right. Instead of saying to force the world to adjust and, and yeah. I mean, entrepreneurship puts the owners through a fire all the time. Mm-hmm. If you want to continue to grow and continue to survive, you have to be willing to mold and chip off the parts of you that need to go away, um, for [00:31:00] you to go to that next level.

Natalia: Yes. 

That is a constant battle. It's um. I really, I've enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Um, and I'm, I'm like a little bit addicted, I think, to it. Yeah. Those two 

Paden: main hits, those ups and downs and yeah. A lot of those entrepreneurs, uh, get really caught off in that for sure. 

Natalia: Yes. I think there's also even some kind of, um, survey out there or statistics out there that a lot of entrepreneurs are a DD or a DHD.

I'm pretty sure that I am, because I can sit down and I can work an 18 hour day. Yeah. 

Paden: Yeah, me too. Where you just lock in and Yeah. Oh yeah. 

Natalia: Lock in. Yeah. 

Paden: yeah. And you, and you see that, and you see a lot of, I, I would say, you know, less disciplined entrepreneurs where that A DHD can be a huge benefit to you.

Yes. Right. Like when you're talking, you can lock in, but it can be a huge, you know, uh, problem too, if you can't learn how to get control. Right? Yes. Yeah, exactly. Um, so if you can focus that, that is extreme power. but yeah, you see that all the time and entrepreneurs are just kind of all over the place and where I see a lot of 'em getting in trouble [00:32:00] is they're addicted to that chaos.

And if things are going too well. They will create it in some fashion, some way, right. To be able to create some sort of excitement or whatever in their life. it's, you know, they'll, they'll cause problems in their own business, you know, without even realizing. Yes. 

Natalia: Or they'll have the shiny object syndrome where they'll start multiple things and then they're not good at any one of them.

Yeah. Um, like focus on one thing, get really, really good at it. the way I try to manage that and, and manage, um, you know, like when it gets really hard is I look backwards from where I started, which was poverty basically. 

Paden: Yeah. Um, 

Natalia: to where I am today, you have to look backwards. there was one point, that my sister, I think it was like 2021, I still wasn't really making a lot of money.

I just hired my first person. I had to like, change my pricing. Mm-hmm. You know, it, it's always been tough. It's not less. Tough. Now I'm just more resilient to it. Right? Yeah. So it's always been tough and at one point my sister says to me, she says something to the effect that, um, that I'm successful.

And I [00:33:00] was like. What success? I don't see any success. Like, I don't really, still don't have any cash really, you know, like I can't afford things yet. And, um, I, I feel like every day is a struggle and she's like, you need to look backwards of where you came from. And, um, I found like the practice of gratitude, it's been so.

Important for me to keep me on track and to keep me moving forward. When things get really, really hard. I have to practice my gratitude, like, what am I grateful for? There were times where I felt like I was grateful, like you know, I have, I'm having health problems, financial problems. I. I'm a single mom.

I was like, mm-hmm. Um, I don't, I don't find, I can't find anything to be grateful for, but I'd force myself and that's been really, really helpful in those tough times. And I still do it to this day. Every time I get, distracted, or I feel unhappy, I get bored. I get bored sometimes.

It's hard to run a business. I'm. I don't wanna do this today. You know, 

Paden: I have things like that. Yes. 

Natalia: Like I wanna [00:34:00] play hooky for the rest of the week. Yeah. Um, so, um, like I have to practice gratitude and gratitude for what we've built. When you're, when you're an entrepreneur, you're building something extraordinary.

And you're either helping other people with your product or service, uh, and or, um, helping other clients and or helping your, uh, employees. So you're building community and it, there's like this huge ripple effect mm-hmm. Of what you're doing that's so important. So you have to. You know, focus back in on the gratitude when even on on the tough times.

That's, that's been really helpful for me. 

Paden: Yeah. Yeah. It's important to remember that all of this is bigger than you, right? Yes. The business isn't just about you, it's about the clients, it's about your employees. I mean, this business is here to take care of a lot of people, right? Um, yes. So, yeah, it's always, it's always important and, and you know, you're talking about the importance of measuring backwards, right?

And not forward. Mm-hmm. Um, The Gap in the game is a book. 

Oh, I love that book. 

Yeah. Benjamin Hardy and, uh, [00:35:00] yeah. Yeah. So I've committed this year too. They got like three or four, books that they kind of did together, and I committed this year to not read a ton of books, but to read those books kind of over again.

Right. And the gap in the game, you know, is a great book for the listeners to check out what, you know, talking about measuring backwards, right. Measuring the gains that you've made in your line. Instead of constantly looking forward and measuring the gap between where you are and where you wanna be.

Right? Yes. 

Um, it's important to know that, I mean, it's very important to know where you wanna be and where you want to go, and even how you're gonna get there. Um, but it's not really satisfying to be constantly looking at what you're lacking, right. What you're lacking between what you are and, and what you wanna be.

It's really important and really motivating to realize that when you measure back, it's like, okay. I have done a lot of things. There is evidence there, right? There is evidence that I've 10 x my business or done this or done that or whatever, and that can give you the confidence I. That you can do that same thing again moving forward.[00:36:00] 

Natalia: Yeah. Or sometimes it's not even that UAN X sometimes it's, I've survived. 

Paden: Well, for sure. Yeah. Another, another great book by those two guys is 10 x is easier than two x. That's a great book. Which is, you know, I entrepreneurs should check that out too, that, that kind of breaks the mold of how you kind of grow a business and whatnot.

Yes. How, you know, two x thinking trying to two XA business is. Is much more of a grind than actually trying to 10 XA business. 

Natalia: They just break it down in such an easy way to understand.

So the gap in the game is really similar to other books that I've read, but they broke it down into like a different. Way to think about it. Yeah. Um, which I found to be really useful. same thing who, not how, and I, and I read 10 x is better than two x. and, uh, I love reading because I feel like I.

There's a lot out in the internet. You never know if it's real or not real, if it's, if it's, uh, you know, good information or bad information. And I learned this. I used to be a master gardener a very, very long time ago. A lot of bad information out there about like, what's a native plant? What's healthy, you know, [00:37:00] what's good for the ecology.

but I found that when you read books that the knowledge has to be far superior to, to write an entire book. You have to have a lot more knowledge in that subject. So it's a lot harder to find books. That are incorrect first of all. And then if you, if you find that you're, you wanna learn a subject, for instance, you wanna learn how to do better marketing, if you read five books on that subject, you're gonna start seeing the patterns of what works.

Paden: Mm-hmm. 

Natalia: And seeing how it, um, how it relates to you and. I always feel like if you wanna learn something, read five, five to 10 books about it and you'll figure it out. Yeah, yeah. 

Paden: Just kind of a deep dive on it, right? Yeah. Instead of just doing general reading about whatever, it's like, okay, this is my bottleneck of my business.

Maybe it's marketing, maybe it's finance, right? Um, yeah, do a deep dive, right? Like, you don't need to know everything else right now. You need to fix this one problem. And so go deep into it and fix that problem. Right. Um, 'cause that's your bottleneck. 

Natalia: Yes, exactly. 
 

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Speaker: I'm Peyton Squires. I'm a CPA and owner of WR Tax Planners. We work alongside entrepreneurs and high income earners, helping them pay the least amount of income taxes both legally and ethically. We have saved our clients hundreds of thousands of dollars for specific strategies, and we guarantee we can find multiple tax saving strategies that your current tax preparer hasn't told you about.

If that interests you, head on over to the contactPage@paytonsquires.com. There you can fill out a contact form and get a call book to see what it would look like to have WR tax planners on your t. so going back to 2019, if you could tell yourself one [00:39:00] piece of advice, what would that be? 

Natalia: I would tell, actually, can I tell myself two pieces of advice? One advice I already did. 

Paden: Yeah, go for it. Yeah. 

Natalia: You have to understand the numbers of your business. 

Paden: Mm-hmm.

Natalia: Absolutely. That is, I automatically fell into accounting, so I had to understand the numbers of my business. That helped me to really make projections and make decisions. The one thing that I would go back is I would make sure to look at my business, even if I was starting from the very beginning, look at my business, like what would it be?

But how would I feel and what would it look like if it was 10 times the size and who would I hire and I would actually price my services or my product according to that level? 

Paden: Yeah. 

Natalia: And I would also hire a higher level person faster. I hired three employees before I got to my manager, who's a CPA. I regret that I didn't hire him first or sooner.

Because he took so much off my [00:40:00] plate that I could do a lot more. 'cause it's always who not how. Right? Yeah. It's not how it's who. So I think my biggest advice is price appropriately don't price according to what your competition is doing. 

Paden: Yeah. Um, 

Natalia: price, what you need to price so that you can hire that manager or that person or that foreman or whoever that is to take things off your plate sooner.

Yeah. And so that you keep running the business. 

Paden: Yeah. That's great advice. I made. Same mistakes you're talking about here, right? You know, from a pricing standpoint and whatnot, because I didn't have a big enough vision, you know, in the beginning my vision was like, ah, I'm just doing here and I'm making money.

And that's all that really matters. But, um, you know, long term I didn't build in a way that was scalable. I. So I had to go through, you know, a, a process of breaking things down and doing all kinds of dirty work to get my business to the place where I should have built it in the first place. Yes. But I didn't have that, that vision at the time.

And, um, it's a whole lot easier, you know, if you're trying to build a $10 million business, it's a whole lot easier to know that from [00:41:00] the beginning. Mm-hmm. Um, because you're gonna build in a way to get to that 10 million business. 

Natalia: Yes. Don't know that. Like, I was like, I just wanted to make, uh, 

Paden: I just wanna make some money.

Right. 

Natalia: I just wanna make some money. I was like, when I got 200,000, I was like, woo, this is amazing. and then I got to two 50 and I'm like, that's, I, I'm good. Like I don't wanna really grow. 

Paden: Mm-hmm. 

Natalia: Um, and joining a mastermind in my field of accounting actually really changed that and normalize that.

So like 40 million doesn't feel like it's outta the question now. Yep. And it just, it normalizes those numbers. It's not more difficult to run a $40 million business than it is to run a half a million dollar business. Yeah. 

Paden: both of 'em are gonna stress you out. so you might as well be making a whole lot more money.

Natalia: Exactly, yes. And build a sellable asset. Yeah. 

Paden: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's, the thing too, is just understanding that like, if you want something for your business, uh, you do have to build it in a way that doesn't need you, because Yeah. Only is no one's gonna buy it. If [00:42:00] you're gonna leave, if it needs you.

So if you want an asset that's worth something, build it, not revolved around the owner. 

Natalia: Yes. And one of my favorite books is Built To Sell by John Warlow. 

Paden: Yep. 

Natalia: Great book. All the, all easy to read. Um, so 

Paden: yeah. Yeah. I'm, you know, Italian, I'm a huge. Reader podcast. I'm sure we've read all, all the same books, probably.

Same podcast, probably. Yeah. Well, Natalia, this has been an amazing conversation. I appreciate you coming on. Like what's the best way, uh, some of these entrepreneurs can connect with you, you know, obviously, um, you got some resources there that can, help him get on better track.

Natalia: Yes, so I've got a URL, it's, Zachary Consulting all one word.com/b as in boy, T as in Tom, S as in Sam, so slash bts. And I've got, uh, two giveaways. One is seven ways to find Money in Your Business Now, and one is the ultimate checklist for a financially successful business. Yeah. [00:43:00] So you can, find those resources there, uh, or book a call with us for a free financial consultation.

Paden: Yeah. That's awesome guys. And you know, once again, if you go into your books today and pull up your balance sheet and there's a bunch of negative numbers on there, you should probably talk to somebody 

about, 

because I tell you that's not how it should be. Yeah. So, Natalia Natalia's got a great, you know, great couple free resources for you and, you know, you're certainly, if you're interested in, in working with her and her team, um, definitely book a, book a call with her.

you know, I can tell in, in our time here, they just interacting with her. they have a quality business and, and I'm, I'm sure take great care of people. 

Natalia: We absolutely do. And if we, don't, you, you know who I am. So you tell, 

Paden: well, I can tell you, 

Natalia: I tell you. Anything you 

Paden: wanna leave for the listeners before we 

Natalia: check outta here.

just, you know, keep going. Don't give up. and your business, it's hard, but it's totally worth it. And, instead of dreaming of the life that you want, how about thinking you already have that life now. Yeah. And, and you [00:44:00] actually, your brain will automatically start autocorrecting to get you to where you wanna be.

Paden: Yep. Yep. That's amazing stuff. Yes. Visualize what you want. Mm-hmm. 

Natalia: And then go 

Paden: start taking some actions to build. 

Natalia: Yes. 

Paden: Awesome guys. Listeners, we appreciate you checking us out and we'll catch you next time. 

Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you found it valuable, please rate, review, and share it. That is the best way to help us build this and reach more people as we're trying to accomplish our goal of help creating more healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs. You can follow us on social media by searching for me Paden Squires.

Or going to padensquires.com on the website and social media. We're always sharing tips of personal growth and there we can actually interact. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks guys.