The July Round Up!

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Summer is going by fast!

July is just about over and I hope you are kicking butt on your business goals. I am sure you are busy and taking care of yourself can rank at the bottom of your to-do list. The fact remains that if you are NOT healthy then your business will suffer. This month I wrote about 3 ways to manage & minimize stress in your life: time management, financial management, and sleep management.

Additionally, I talked about 5 great ways to eat healthy that are pretty simple. I love to eat BUT cooking can sometimes become cumbersome. I hope the tips I share in the post help you along your journey to eating healthier.

July is almost behind us but it is not too late to start goals that will help you to optimize your health.

Keep IT Sunny!

5 Great Ways To Eat Healthy!

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I love to eat. 

I don’t like to cook all the time but eating is my favorite pastime. My schedule is busy as I am sure yours is too. Eating healthy can present some challenges but I have picked up a few tips along the way to help me reach my healthy eating goals. 

  • Buy fresh produce and less pre-packaged food - This is a no-brainer in that it is much healthier to eat produce in its natural form than after someone has stuffed it into a bag or a can. 

  • Shop at pick your own produce farms - Las Vegas may be known for many things but picking fresh produce from a farm probably isn’t one of them. We have one of the best family-owned farms called Gilcrease Orchard which has a variety of things to pick depending on the time of the year. It is a great form of exercise and less expensive than buying produce from the grocery store. It also tastes better. 

  • Meal Prep - A really good friend of mine does this usually on Sunday. She cooks all her meals for the week including lunch and this helps to control portion sizes. It also saves a ton of time and ensures you are not grabbing fast food on the fly. 

  • Work with a dietitian - I shop at The Vitamin Shoppe for my supplements and noticed that they offered free dietitian & nutritionist services. I made a virtual appointment and was able to get a customized meal plan tailored to my specific needs and great suggestions on supplements to try. I highly encourage you to take advantage of this free consultation. Additionally, you might have the same thing available to you via your health insurance. 

  • Read labels - I know this sounds like common sense but sometimes we forget to do the obvious especially if we are shopping in a hurry. It pays to read what you are putting in your body to help prevent health issues in the future. You know what the famous quote says, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”


I hope you add these 5 tips to your healthy eating checklist. The life of an entrepreneur is busy and hectic but taking the time to implement these tips will be worth it.

Keep IT Sunny!

3 Ways To Manage & Minimize Stress

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STRESS

Looking at the word can make you feel stressed out. What is the definition of stress? According to Merriam-Webster.com, stress has many meanings: 

constraining force or influence: such as

a: a force exerted when one body or body part presses on, pulls on, pushes against, or tends to compress or twist another body or body part

especially: the intensity of this mutual force commonly expressed in pounds per square inch

b: the deformation caused in a body by such a force

c: a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation

d: a state resulting from a stress especially: one of bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existing equilibrium

Now that we know what it means let’s look at 3 ways to manage & minimize stress.

  • Sleep Management - In my post last week I learned that “35.2% get less than 7 hours of sleep per. Night.” according to the Center for Disease Control. Most people lack enough sleep to sustain long-term success in life. A sleep management plan is the best way to ensure you get enough sleep. This could involve having a designated time you go to bed every night. It could also include bedtime rituals like doing yoga, taking a warm bath, and meditation to prepare your body and mind for rest. 

  • Time Management -  In the book From 6 to 7 figures by Austin Netzley the founder of 2x he talks about how guarding your time is paramount. This is so true. As an entrepreneur we are very busy and as your business grows more of your time is required. The question to ask yourself when you are doing an activity is if it is necessary for you to do it or can it be delegated. This will help you to stay focused on the things that only require you and your zone of genius. 

  • Financial Management - Let’s be frank here. If your finances are out of whack in both areas of your life: business & personal then you are not a happy camper. What is the solution? The solution is to have a plan in place to track and manage both scenarios in your life. A good professional bookkeeper like myself can help you with that. 

Stress is a part of life. There is no way to be alive and not experience it. However, there are many easy and practical ways to manage it so that it doesn’t take a toll on your life. 

Keep IT Sunny!

Welcome To The Month Of July!

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Photo by Tairon Fernandez: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-lighted-sparkler-450301/

How are you feeling today? If you are like many entrepreneurs you are probably tired and not getting enough rest. According to Forbes and the Center For Disease Control,

“35.2% get less than 7 hours of sleep per. night.”

Many entrepreneurs see it as a badge of honor especially during the early years of their business journey. This lack of sleep culture does have its limits. Elon Musk and Ariana Huffington both suffered from health-related issues due to sleep deprivation. This month I will take a look at health & wellness in the areas of sleep, healthy eating and wellness/fitness. It is important that we take care of ourselves so we can contribute our best to our clients, colleagues and professional teams.

Keep IT Sunny

Happy 4th of July Early & June Roundup!

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The month of June is over and the start of July is upon us. Before we usher in July let’s take a look back at the month of June to see if we are closer to reaching our goals. This month I wrote about how to set goals that are achievable, working in a state of chaos, and 3 tech tools to help you stay organized. If you didn’t get a chance to read those posts please take a few moments over the next few days to get caught up.

The month of July starts the season of summer with cookouts and outdoor gatherings. It also has one of my favorite summer holidays: The 4th of July which is one of my favorite summer holidays filled with tasty food and festive activities. It is a time to gather with friends and family to have fun! But let’s not forget the true reason why we celebrate the 4th of July:

Freedom & Liberty

There is much that can be said of those two words and I will leave that to you to ponder. The 4th of July for me is a time to celebrate being an American and feeling thankful for the soldiers on the ground and in other places that help this country to remain resilient and a beacon of hope for so many. I don’t take for granted that I was born here and for those who fought great battles to allow me to have the freedom that I enjoy today. As I eat all the summer treats and enjoy the fun of the day these sentiments will be close to my heart. If you want to learn more about the history of the 4th of July check it out here and enjoy your day my fellow Americans.

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3 Tech Tips To Help You Stay Organized

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We all love technology right? That is for the most part until it stops working on us. Today we are going to look at how technology can help us to stay organized and get more done. 

Tip One

Use the text feature on your phone to schedule text messages to yourself so you don’t forget an important meeting or birthdate. 

Tip Two

Use an online calendar system & link it to your phone to stay on top of meetings and household appointments. I like using Google Calendar for this

Tip 3

Use apps to help you with almost everything. Do you want to stay connected to that business contact you made at a conference? Well there is an app for that called Cloze. This app is a relationship management tool that will keep you connected to your contacts across all social platforms along with having their contact information handy. 

Technology is great! It makes our lives easier and fun. Check out the tips above to help you to stay organized. 

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How To Set Goals That Are Achievable

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Goal setting is easy. It begins with an idea or thought and moves to taking action. The hard part is the taking action part. How can you set a goal that is achievable? I wrote about this in a previous post but essentially here are the steps:)

Step One

Start where you are by taking stock of what you have achieved so far in your business.

Step Two

Make sure your goal is something you are really excited about achieving.

Step Three

Break your goal down into tiny bits that can be measured in a S.M.A.R.T way.

Step Four

Celebrate your wins

I hope these tips help you to get FIRED UP about crushing your goals and reaching success in your business!

Keep IT Sunny~

Welcome

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I hope that you were able to get many things on your to-do list done in May. June is finally here and the summer season is in full swing here in Las Vegas. There are so many fun events happening everywhere in town and I can’t wait to check them out. Another thing that excites me is to take a peek at my quarterly goals to see if I have successfully executed them. 

I hope you are doing the same but if you are stuck on goal setting and goal execution then do not fret. This month I will focus on how to set goals that are achievable and and a few tech resources to help you to stay organized. 

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NO Sales = NO Business!

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Sales. That one word has so much power. It is the reason why we are all in business. If you are not interested in getting sales then you are a non-profit. There are so many tools available to help you to get more sales and thought leaders. The question remains: What exactly is a sale?

It seems simple but the definition according to Investopedia is, “A transaction between two or more parties in which the buyer receives tangible or intangible goods, services, or assets in exchange for money or other assets.”

Sounds simple enough but why does it seem more complicated than that in real life? My own definition of sales is sharing knowledge and resources that can improve clients’ lives in exchange for money.

Here are some resources to help you get started on the path to obtaining that elusive sale:

Tips On How To Increase Sales In Your Business

Content Marketing Tips & Tricks

Tools To Help You Stay Organized In Your Sales Workflow

I hope these resources help you increase the sales in your business and create more peace in your life.

Keep IT Sunny!

Are You Managing Finances Successfully In Your Small Business?

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The life of a business owner is so hectic. If you are working solo or with a small team, it can become completely overwhelming to stop and take stock of the health of the business finances. Many owners feel comfortable with managing their business finances with a quick glance at their business checking account and maybe a brief glance at the P&L. But that is not enough. It is important that owners go further to make sure that their business is going in the right direction financially before it is too late. The two areas below will help you to get on the right foot.

Hire a bookkeeping/accounting professional - This is the first step in the right direction. I have seen numerous clean-up projects from clients that decided to D.I.Y. their bookkeeping at some point in their business journey and it didn’t end well.

Use professional accounting software - This is important to put into place so that you are ready to file taxes in an organized manner. Additionally, software like QuickBooks Online will enable you to run management reports that help you to run your business better.

Read your financial reports - This is crucial. There is no point in doing monthly bookkeeping for your business and making the monetary investment if you don’t read your reports. A strategic partner like a bookkeeping/accounting professional can help you to make sense of your reports. To get a jump start check out this post I wrote about the Statement of Cash Flows report.

The life of a small business owner is not boring. It is filled with constant activity but if you are not on top of your business finances then all the sales in the world will not stop your business from ceasing to exist.

Keep IT Sunny!

3 Tips To Help You To Get Organized

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Are you running your business in a constant state of chaos?

Is this costing you money?

According to the International Association of Business Organizing a Forbes ASAP article states that “the typical executive wastes 150 hours a year, nearly an entire month of work, searching for lost information.  For a salaried position earning $50,000 a year that is a loss of almost $4000.

That is a lot of time & energy going into the ether

No fear - Check out the 3 tips below to help you get started on the path to getting organized:


Tip One: Start where you are and declutter your work area. It is simple but provides the most impact. If you know where to find the items when you need them and your space is clean, your day will flow much better.

Tip Two: Document your work processes so that you will have the foundational standard operating procedures for your business. This will help you to understand which processes can be automated or when you need to bring in a team member to help.


Tip Three: Make a weekly habit of organizing your digital files so that you will be able to find things exactly when you need them. I like to do this on Fridays and use it as my admin day to get organized and ready for the following week.


I hope these tips help you to start getting organized so that you can work in a stress-free manner and minimize wasting money due to disorganization.

Keep IT Sunny!

Welcome To The Month of May!

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Photo by Olya Kobruseva: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-person-writing-on-a-desk-calendar-5408684/

The tax season is over and spring is in full swing. We are in month two of the second quarter and now is a good time to take a look at your business goals to see if you are on track to execute them. This month we will take a look at how to run a successful business. There are many opinions and research statistics available to glean but we will look at 3 areas that will help us to be the most successful:

  • Financial Management

  • Sales & Marketing

  • Staying Organized

I am excited to dive into these 3 areas with you as we learn more about how to run a successful business.

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Is This The Right Time To Hire Team Members?

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Photo by fauxels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-people-looking-on-laptop-3182812/

Is your business keeping busy beyond what you can manage alone? If so you might be wondering if now is a good time to start hiring team members. According to Neil Patel, online marketing wizard and successful entrepreneur, here are a few signs it is time to hire:

  • You lack time to take care of business operational essentials like marketing and finances

  • The quality and standard of your service are taking a nosedive

  • You have new ideas for other services you want to offer but you don’t have the time

  • You are saying no to new sales opportunities

If any of these signs sound familiar to you then it might be time to bring on a team member or two or more. The most important thing to do before you make that decision is to make sure you can afford to do it.

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When Can I Start To Pay Myself In My Business

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Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/portrait-photo-of-woman-in-red-top-wearing-black-framed-eyeglasses-standing-in-front-of-white-background-thinking-3762807/

You became a business owner to live the dream life. The one where you sleep in and take vacations when you want and earn a living from the fruits of your labor. This all sounds delightful, right? The reality according to a survey from Fundera is that 30 percent of small business owners don’t take a salary.

WAIT!

What happened to that vision of living the dream life? At least when an employer was a part of the equation a paycheck was delivered regularly. 

So what gives? 

Why are business owners NOT paying themselves? There could be many reasons, but one of the main reasons could be that they don’t know when they should draw a paycheck from their business. Here are a few factors to consider to help you decide to pay yourself:

  1. Is your business profitable? If you look at your profit and loss statements and see a positive net income number, it might be time to start paying yourself.

  2. What stage is your business in? If you’re in the early stages of your business then it makes sense to put everything back into the business to help it grow and press pause on paying yourself. However, if you are in a growth stage in your business, it might be time to earn an honest living and pay yourself.

  3. If you are a sole proprietor for example and your tax bill is out of control then putting yourself on the payroll might be the way to go. Discuss your thoughts about paying yourself with your tax professional. They will be able to assess the best course of action to take depending on your entity type and tax situation. 

There you have it! 

I hope these factors will help you in your decision-making process.

It’s so important to know if your business is profitable or not. That is the starting point. The very next thing to do is talk with your tax professional to start planning when and how to pay yourself. You work hard and deserve it.

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Welcome To The Month Of April!

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Photo by Bich Tran: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-blue-and-purple-stars-illustration-974197/

April is here and the 1st quarter of the year is behind us. I hope that the year is getting off to a good start for you and that sales are pouring in. This month we will look at 3 reasons why knowing your numbers and the status of the financial health of your business matters. The 3 reasons are:

To help you to know if you can pay yourself and how much

To help you to know if it is a good time to hire new team members

To help you to know if you are making money or is it time to close down your business.

I am excited to dive into why knowing your numbers and the financial health of your business is crucial to being a successful entrepreneur. I hope you are ready for the journey.

Keep IT Sunny!

March Round Up!

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Photo by Bich Tran from Pexels

This month we looked at tips to get started on the entrepreneurial journey. We started off with taking a dive into how to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. I can’t stress enough how important it is to take time to develop this type of mindset because it will come in handy when you hit a brick wall during your journey but you have to continue on. Next we looked at important tips to help you set up shop like testing the waters for your business idea first to make sure you have a business and not a hobby. We also talked about creating a business plan, creating a seed money fund, ideas for generating a business name and making sure you select the legal entity that is right for your business. Finally, we looked at the final piece of the puzzle which is making sure you have the right licensing and creating a bookkeeping system.

These posts are an overview of what you will need to get started on your business journey. I hope you put them to use as you start on your amazing journey to business success.

Keep IT Sunny~

The Final Piece of the puzzle: Licensing & Tracking Your Business Finances

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Photo by Ann H from Pexels

The entrepreneurial journey can be exciting and rewarding. In the previous post I shared a few tips to help you get started on your journey. This week we will finish the tips list with discussing how to make sure you have the correct licenses for your business and my recommendation on software to use for setting up the tracking system for your business finances.

Licensing For Your Business

It is so important to get started on the right foot when you start your business and making sure that you are operating legally is paramount. According to Legal Zoom, “Virtually all businesses will need a license of some sort, and many will need to apply for a number of different licenses and permits. The types of licenses and permits your business requires will depend on where you live and the type of industry you’re in.” Check out their checklist to make sure you have the right licensing/permits for your business.

System For Tracking Your Business Finances

You are going to put in many hours and days getting your business off the ground and selling to your customers. You will have your own personal money that you will use to fund your business and hopefully a ton of customer sales. Once the money starts flowing in then you will most likely focus on how to keep the process going and taking a moment to see how financially well your business is doing might take a backseat. That is unless you get started on the right foot. My recommendation is to set up your business bookkeeping system using Quickbooks Online. This will help you to begin tracking your business finances correctly from the start. Once you have opened your business checking account then you are going to want to subscribe to Quickbooks Online and connect your bank to the software so that you can start tracking your business activity within the software. 

This is important so that when tax time rolls around you will have all your ducks in a row to get the most tax deductions possible. My suggestion is to start with their basic subscription called Simple Start and as your business grows then you can always upgrade to a higher plan later. Incidentally, I do not recommend the Self-Employed Subscription as it only tracks the Profit & Loss activity and you can’t upgrade to a higher subscription later. This subscription is basically geared towards working professionals who intend on doing a side-hustle and not go into business as a full-time entrepreneur.

The entrepreneurial journey is filled with ups and downs but getting started on the right foot will help you to be a successful.


Keep IT Sunny~



Tips To Set Up Shop!

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Photo by Anna Tarazevich from Pexels

Are you excited and ready to open for business?? I hope so. Here is a short list of items that you want to make sure are in place before you put that sign on the door:

Create a business idea & test it out - This is to make sure that you have a business that will make money and not a hobby.

Create a business plan - This is to make sure you have a clear vision of where you would like to go with your business and to attract investers if needed.

Create a seed money fund - This is to make sure you don’t starve during those early days of running your business.

Create Your Business Name - Do you have a cool name in mind for your business or are you stumped? No worries. Check out Business Name Generator to help to get those creative juices flowing. Once you have your new business name double check to make sure it is not in use on Nolo.com.

Set up your legal entity - Are you going to operate as a soleproprietor, LLC, S-Corp, Corp or LLC taxed as an S-Corp? If you are not sure which one to choose then check out Nolo.com to do some research. They also have information about how to start a business in every state here. To get everything set up check out Legal Zoom for tools and resources.

Keep it Sunny!