Ep. 26 The Stern Truth: I Was So Over My Business with Jessica Weismiller

A few weeks back I did a Part 1 of a three-part series, “Have You Lost the Passion for Your Business?” This episode is Part 2, and it’s a little different. I have a guest joining me to share her own story of getting the passion back.

Jessica Weismiller of Your Steel Toed Bookkeeper is my special guest on this episode. Jessica started her company in 2014 as a single mom. After coming back after a maternity leave in late 2024, she felt obsolete in her own business. 

The passion wasn’t the same as when she first started her business, so she reached out to me. We came up with great insights through working together. From navigating Covid changes to deeply understanding her clients, Jessica knows her current position in her business is valuable.

She’s accustomed to getting people out of those deep financial holes. Jessica tells us how her company helps get her clients over the financial humps. Guiding them through financial situations they can’t get out of themselves is what truly energizes Jessica and her team.

I myself am well-known not to sugarcoat things for those who I work with, and Jessica is no different. Hard conversations and big challenges need guidance. Businesses need a budget and cash flow. And leadership needs accountability, trust, and, sometimes the most important, guidance.

Contact Jessica here:

jessica@ystb.ca

www.yoursteeltoedbookkeeper.com/

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Marshall Stern: So if you've listened to Episode 24 on the Stern Truth, “Have you lost the passion for your business?” That was part one. Today, a few weeks later, we're really delving into part two of this, but it's a little bit different today because we have a special guest. It is a client of mine. She is part of my private business and Life Mastery Coaching.

[00:00:22] Her name is Jessica. When Jessica came to me eight months ago, she was ready to give up on her business. She was so done with her business. She was ready to sell it. Fast forward to today, you're going to hear her story and how she's actually refound, re-rekindled that love, that passion for her business.

[00:00:42] And because she's an amazing bookkeeper, a fractional CFO, she's going to give some hard truths, some golden nuggets that you're going to want to take note of. Grab a paper and pen and listen for those golden nuggets. Also, a quick reminder. Don't forget August 6th, it all starts, my friends, come join us in the ONtrepreneur, that’s O-N Trepreneur Bonfire Series.

[00:01:08] Grab your s'mores, grab your guitar in your blanket, sit by our virtual bonfire. It's going to be amazing. It's three weeks. You can come to one of the bonfire events or all three. It's entirely up to you. All the details are in the show notes. Register your spot today.

[00:01:23] Anyways, on with this amazing part two with our special guest, Jessica. Enjoy.

[00:01:35]Hi, I'm Marshall Stern and I've spent over 35 years leading and growing multiple small businesses. I know firsthand the struggles of entrepreneurship, feeling isolated, lonely, overwhelmed, and feeling like you have to do all by yourself. I've been through multiple recessions, and I have felt the highs and the lows. 

[00:01:54]I've been there, and I get it. This podcast is here to change that every week. I will bring you straight talking advice, real world strategies, and honest conversations about what it takes to succeed in business without the fluff, the gimmicks, or the sugar-coated. If you're ready to stop spinning your wheels and start making real progress, then you are in the right place.

[00:02:17]This is the Stern Truth.

[00:02:22]All right, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The Stern Truth Business Unfiltered. Now, today, my friends, we have a special, special guest. Not that my other guests aren't special, but this is a unique guest because this is a current client of mine, one of my coaching clients. I would like to introduce you to Jessica from your steel toed bookkeeping owner, founder, entrepreneur, extraordinaire.

[00:02:51] Jessica, how are you? 

[00:02:53]Jessica Weismiller: Good, how are you? 

[00:02:54]Marshall Stern: I'm doing great. Thanks for asking. So we started working together, what about 7, 8, 8 months ago? 

[00:03:03]Jessica Weismiller: Yeah. 

[00:03:04] Marshall Stern: Okay. What I want to do in this session, I want people, well, let me give the audience, give our listeners quick little Cole’s Notes version of. Who Jessica is and your company?

[00:03:15]Jessica Weismiller: I started my company in 2014 because I was a stay at home mom and I needed to find another way to make some income while still working around children's schedules. So bookkeeping became a great idea for that so I could work from home and still service and work with clients, as I was doing all the work from home.

[00:03:37]Marshall Stern: Nice. And you reached out to me back in, I think it was December. Where were you at with your business at that time? 

[00:03:47]Jessica Weismiller: Yeah, so I reached out in late 2024 because I was just coming back off of being away from a maternity leave with my last child, and I had walked out of my business and left it in great hands.

[00:04:03]In doing that, that meant that when I came back, I had no place in my business, which is great because everybody was taking care of all my clients were well taken care of. All the stuff was happening. But then when I wanted to come back, there wasn't really a spot for me and I didn't know. What to do or how to do it.

[00:04:25]And I felt kind of obsolete at that point. And I didn't know if I should just sell the business, give it to my business partner, who I was working with, or continue and work with it. 

[00:04:39]Marshall Stern: Would you say you were sort of, kind of like almost done with the business? Like you weren't really sure the path forward?

[00:04:46]Jessica Weismiller: Oh, very much so. I had no idea where I was going to take this. I was. Pretty feeling like I really didn't fit in my own business was really hard. And I was also kind of over the fact of like, do I want to keep running down this path? How do I fit myself back in here? I didn't also have the same passion for it at the time, at that time, coming back into it as I did when I first started it.

[00:05:11]So I was really struggling with why would I keep doing this instead of pursuing something else at this time. 

[00:05:18]Marshall Stern: Right. And I, and I get that we've talked about this before. I mean, in one of my other businesses, I had at one point lost the passion for that business and for a lot of business owners, I think it does sort of, it's like the rollercoaster, entrepreneurial rollercoaster ride, right?

[00:05:32]And there's sometimes we kind of lose passion and for different reasons. So what led you to us starting this past, this journey we've been on for the last seven months? Like really, what got you to say, I need. Did you need, like what were you thinking when you decided to go out and, and hire a coach and mentor?

[00:05:53]Jessica Weismiller: I didn't want to make the choice hastily to just hand over the business to the person who was currently running it. because it, I had done this for 10 years. I've built this business since 2014 and gone into where it was. I had, when I started that business, never thought it would get to that size.

[00:06:12]And to where it is now and to the success that it is now. So I didn't want to just be like, oh, okay, give up on it and be done. so I knew I needed somebody else in the business world to come in and give me some great insight as to whether or not that was a smart decision. So I was looking online and you were posting in a Facebook group.

[00:06:33]So then I came into it and I started talking with you, and that's why I decided to start working with you. 

[00:06:40] Marshall Stern: And I'm glad you did. I think we've had some insights over the past seven months. 

[00:06:49] Jessica Weismiller: Yes. Quite a bit. 

[00:06:51] Marshall Stern: I want to talk about some of those. We've had some fun too.

[00:06:53] Oh yes. We've had some big conversation. Right. 

[00:06:55] Jessica Weismiller: Yeah. 

[00:06:56] Marshall Stern: What would you say would be some of the biggest takeaways that you've had in our time working together? 

[00:07:03] Jessica Weismiller: Knowing that I'm absolutely not obsolete in my business and that the position that I'm currently in is actually extremely valuable, I set it up and unknowingly set it up so that I could be out and not have to be in it.

[00:07:18] They don't rely on me in it day to day, so that means that if I need to not be in it, it's okay. I can go out and still acquire new business and still do things to help the business be in it in a different way, which is more the entrepreneur style that I should be trying to achieve. And it's been a lot nicer to achieve that style.

[00:07:40] Marshall Stern: Yeah, no, for sure. And I remember in one of our earlier sessions, like at the beginning, I had even said to you like, you are in a great position because you're not, as Michael Gerber e Myth, doing it, doing it, doing it. You're not in it, doing it, doing it, doing it, doing, you know, doing the books for the clients you were actually, because you had stepped away from it.

[00:08:04] You were in the perfect position to really be that visionary, be that leader that your business needs. 

[00:08:09] Jessica Weismiller: Yeah. 

[00:08:10] Marshall Stern: What other takeaways or insights do you think have, have come your way and have helped you to the point that you're at now? 

[00:08:18] Jessica Weismiller: I definitely didn't have confidence in myself either, coming back into it.

[00:08:21] I used to run this business with a lot of confidence, and being off for a couple years, I didn't have as much of that. Also with the whole change of how we do business now since COVID, that changed a lot of the dynamic. For me. I was a very in-person type style person, and so going to people and seeing them, I loved doing that.

[00:08:44] I loved being in front of them, going for coffee, going to their office and having a talk or doing a once a month meeting face-to-face. That was my style. And when COVID hit and it changed all that. I felt like it was really hard for me to operate my business, and I lost a lot of confidence. Being able to kind of gain some of that back, even though I might be doing meetings over Zoom more often because clients prefer that, or I still push and try.

[00:09:08] I do still try to do in-person meetings if they're willing to do that. I do prefer that. I feel like it's just an easier flow for me. But with technology the way it is, clients still sometimes prefer, obviously a phone call or Zoom, and I will absolutely accommodate that. I just feel an in-person is just much nicer and you can have a better conversation, a smoother conversation, a less, for me, it's a less, clinical conversation, I guess.

[00:09:32] . I get more personable and it just is easier for everybody to know who you're working with. 

[00:09:37] Marshall Stern: So for our listeners, you know, people who might be sort of at a similar stages to where you are at, maybe for different reasons. Right. Maybe their business is just slow and they're tired of the grind, tired of like constantly trying to get clients and, and or maybe doing the wrong activities there.

[00:09:52] There's all sorts of reasons why we lose passion and I've been talking about that in other episodes and I'll continue to talk about it. what would you say other challenges you've faced, whether it's. We've worked through it, we've worked through a lot of different areas, or not, other challenges that you see either for yourself, where you see other people sort of go through.

[00:10:15] Jessica Weismiller: One of the challenges was how do I get back into gaining a few new clients? We don't take a lot of clients every year. That's not a big thing for us. We try to keep ourselves a smaller base, so we get to know our clients really well. However, we did have some space come available and so we were looking at getting a few new clients.

[00:10:32] I've always done that by just letting a few people know we were taking clients, and I usually get several people kind of calling in or emailing and being like, hey, we'd love to have your services. That's not the case anymore. Once again, because I'm not out there, I'm not having these conversations, I'm not seeing people like I used to.

[00:10:51] So starting on the marketing journey of trying to do that, and playing that, that role that I've never played before, I'm not a social media person and having to start creating social media, putting it onto these accounts and learning that whole process, it's difficult. But once you iron it out. It's somewhat of a mental challenge, but it's kind of a cool mental game I've learned to play with myself where I will actually sit down and make content and be like, how many can I do today in this much time?

[00:11:23] And what can I come up with? And I've gotten some great softwares to put together and how to make it easier for myself, and I'm always just playing around with it a bit to see how I can make it work. Better for myself and easier for myself, and it's not something I'm strong at, and eventually I will hire somebody else to do it.

[00:11:43] However, at this time, financially, my business isn't in a situation where I can push out hundreds of dollars a month necessarily to towards marketing. It just doesn't quite make sense. I really do, obviously, being a bookkeeper look at the dollar and cents value of things and that didn't make sense to do it that way and spend the money there when I can spend it in other places and other improving places. 

[00:12:08] Marshall Stern: And, and we're working on that, right?

[00:12:10] Oh yeah. So our time together is not completely up. No. So we are going to, we are going to work on that. if it's something, here's the thing, and this goes for you and for. Millions of listeners one day we can dream. we need to focus on the, the activities. And I talk about this. You know, I have my business energy reset audit and all this other stuff.

[00:12:35] I really believe we need to focus on the activities that not only energize us, rather than drain us. So we want to get rid of the drains as many of them as possible, but we also want to focus on activities that energize us, but that we're also good at. And there's a fine line. Some of them we're good at, but they drain us.

[00:12:55] Some of them we love, but we're not so good at it. So it energizes, but we're not so good at it. but ultimately revenue generating activities, I think it's one of the things that most small business, not most, a large majority of small business owners fail to focus on. I remember at, I was at a business conference years ago and they did a stat and, and I looked it up and, and I think it's pretty, pretty close.

[00:13:21] You know, it's like 80% small business owners focus, 80% on the admin and everything else, and 20% on revenue generating. And it needs to be flipped, right. And that's the, it's on over. It's a process or process depending on where you are. But yeah. What would you say, so having, working with me or having a, you know, a coach and a mentor guide, what would you say would be?

[00:13:48] And I'm not trying to sell myself because I think everyone should have one, and it could be someone else. There's some really good people out there, and it has to be a fit, right? 

[00:13:57] Jessica Weismiller: Oh yeah. 

[00:13:58] Marshall Stern: What would you say would be the benefit? The real benefit for you of having, you know, someone like me in your, in your lineup.

[00:14:10] Jessica Weismiller: So for me it's been having someone that's in the business world that I can use as a sounding board frequently. but that's been huge. I know people in the business world, but it's not that I, they're busy and, they're not necessarily accessible weekly or frequently enough that I can be sending some information to and be like, hey, what do you think of this?

[00:14:31] There's been a couple times where we're in a session and I'm like. I'm thinking about doing this, but it's going to cost me this much and I'm really on the fence about it and we discuss it and by the end of their, our session, it makes sense to either do it or not do it. I know in the past I've made.

[00:14:48] I made one really big mistake, I would never make it again. I actually wrote about it on LinkedIn where I hired a person, but I used a hiring agency and I paid a large fee to that hiring agency, and the person that I hired ended up not being who they should have been. It turned out really badly. I would never outsource that as quickly as I did ever again.

[00:15:10] Now, I feel like if I had had someone in. A business situation like a business coach or in the business world where I could have sound boarded, that I may have made a better decision and not so hastily do, gone down that road. It was, yeah, so definitely helping make better decisions on a day-to-day basis, but also making me feel like.

[00:15:33] Yeah, you can do this. You're not in a situation where like, I'm not losing money in any situation in this business. So there's not like I'm needing to close the doors. You are not sitting here telling me to keep the doors open as I'm losing $50,000 a year in any way. So you're not sitting here giving that advice in any way.

[00:15:52] You're helping, right? Keep the doors open. It is making money. it's a good business. It was just me sitting here going, well, do I want to get back into it or not? And helping me make those decisions, but not forcing it one way or the other. 

[00:16:07] Marshall Stern: No, I like that. So would you say now, I mean seven months later, that passion for the business is back?

[00:16:13] Jessica Weismiller: Oh, yeah, yeah. No, I do enjoy, I absolutely enjoy working in it and I enjoy working in, in the new method that I am working in it. and it was a little bit difficult at the beginning trying to find a groove, but now I've found a groove. And my staff have kind of figured out what I'm doing as well.

[00:16:32] That took a few moments for them to kind of be like, okay, catch up. What are you doing? It didn't interfere with what they were doing. It was just them learning what they could rely on me to do and what I needed them to do at, at those types of things. But really, yeah, it's been awesome to get back into it.

[00:16:51] Marshall Stern: I love that because I find that too many people try to go at it alone. And it's, I mean, I guess it's a natural, I mean, we're only human, so we try to do it ourselves, right? but if people can just step back and whether it's a coach or mentor or accountability partner, which can work, or just surround yourself with a group of other entrepreneurs who will tell you the, the stern truths.

[00:17:17] Right? They're not going to sugarcoat it. because that's the other thing, like I'm not a cheerleader. For, I'm sorry. I'm not a, a blind cheerleader, right? I will not say, I will not just like say, you go girl, you've got this, you and your business. You go, you go. You've got it. You've got it. Because if I don't think you have it, then I'm going to tell you that.

[00:17:35] Jessica Weismiller: Yeah. No, we've had some hard conversations. 

[00:17:36] Marshall Stern: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's the thing. I think that's the hard conversation we have to have with ourselves as well, so. Speaking of hard conversations, what do you think separates - this is a big question, so you could think of it for a second if you want, but you're in - here's the thing, I know one of the biggest challenges the small business owners have is, they're ignorant when it comes to the numbers and they need someone like you and your company.

[00:18:06] To help them, guide them, guide them through it. Because they don't know. They don't know what COGS is. They don't know, what net profit, gross profit like they think they do. They think revenue and income is the same thing and they're just not sure. Right? They just go at it and hope and pray. I might have given it away, but what do you think separates those small business owners and entrepreneurs who are on the path to real true success and success?

[00:18:35] I mean, I don't mean just financial success, building the business that they dream of, that they want from those. Who struggle. 

[00:18:43] Jessica Weismiller: You kind of gave it away a little bit, but the reality is it's no different than when if you talk to any financial expert, whether it's for your personal finances or your business finances, if you do not have a budget, you are pretty much planning to fail.

[00:18:57] . You need to have a budget. So in order to have a budget, you need to know what your cash flow is. You need to know what your financial position is. I have clients who come to us that need almost every single day. We need to go over cash flow with them. And that's okay. That's what we're here for. We are here to help them over those humps where sometimes cashflow is so tight.

[00:19:19] So we need to talk about how are we going to make these payroll, how are we going to make this next coming up remittance for GST or work safe or whatever it is that's coming through. We are here to help you with that, and that's what we do. And you have, this, and it's the same. You have some people who just don't want to face it, I guess is really the reality of it.

[00:19:42] That becomes really difficult and that's when you get people who get themselves into a really big hole and then once you get into that hole, it's a lot harder to get out of it. So facing it is scary. I won't lie. It is absolutely scary for most people to face their finances, but the quicker you face it, the quicker we can actually get you back above your just.

[00:20:04] Keeping your head above water. We like swim it. I want you to be the client that I look at and close to your year end and say, hey, actually you've got about like $40,000 that you could go spend and go buy something so that you might want to lower your tax, implications for the end of the year if you'd like.

[00:20:20] If you need that new piece of machinery or whatever it is that you need to invest in, now might be the right time to go purchase that. We keep tabs on that for our clients. We help them get through those points in, in their situations. 

[00:20:34] Marshall Stern: So what you said, everything you've been talking about definitely resonates with me because I myself, admission time, I myself have dug that hole for myself in my business.

[00:20:48] Many years ago, I thought things would change. I had a hope and a pray. Prayer and hope. That's what it was. Prayer and hope. Hope and a prayer. and I thought in my sign company, my graphics business, I thought, oh yeah, it's going to turn around. It's going to turn around. It's going to be fine. It'll be fine, it'll be fine.

[00:21:04] But I didn't do anything different. And instead, I ended up going deeper and deeper and deeper. I, okay, I'll just get this long - this will be okay. This will cover it. No problem with not a plan to repay it like fully. Just like, okay, I'm investing in my business. Right? And you justify it. And I know, and this sort of also, I know and, and people are out there.

[00:21:28] I want them to know there's no shame in struggling. There's no shame, no. 

[00:21:34] Jessica Weismiller: Happens all the time. It's more than you think it is. I, I know. It's so much more than everybody thinks. 

[00:21:40] Marshall Stern: But I want people to know there's no shame in struggling, and there's no shame in realizing you need help. And I'm not talking about like with a business coach or a mentor.

[00:21:50] That's one thing, but maybe someone like yourself, right? Someone who can help them with the numbers. There's no shame in that. Where there is shame is how I operated for a little while, a long time ago, where I had my head buried in the sand. That was shameful. I didn't know that. I knew deep down, but it was scary and I thought things were fine, and I thought things were going to turn around and get better and get better, and then they didn't.

[00:22:15] Right. And then finally when I realized it wasn't too late, thankfully, you know, you said it right, like it's so quick to go away down, like to go into debt and line of credit and loans and whatever. It's so easy to go into it. It takes a long time to come out of it, but you need to have a plan at least.

[00:22:34] And you need to get people on your team who will help you get there. And not be so alone. because it can be very, very lonely. 

[00:22:41] Jessica Weismiller: Well also, you may not also know all the resources out there. There's a lot of government grants that people don't know about. Yeah. 

[00:22:49] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:22:49] Jessica Weismiller: I have one client that we get government grants for frequently and they get tens of thousand dollars a year.

[00:22:58] Tens of thousands of dollars from government grants. That's free money. 

[00:23:01] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:23:02] Jessica Weismiller: Just for filling out some paperwork. It's all legit. It's all from the government. There's nothing shady about it. It is literally money the government is trying to give away in these programs, and people don't know about them because they're not necessarily easily accessible to find.

[00:23:18] But we know about them. That's what we do. We help our clients apply for these so they can help offset their costs in some ways. So there's also small situations as well, so that maybe a loan isn't necessarily the right path. You might have a grant that you could qualify for that can help offset some of this cash flow tightness as well.

[00:23:36] Marshall Stern: Cash flow. Don't we love cash flow for all your business owners out there who think it'll be okay, it's okay. So I think I told you the story I went to, I won't mention the financial institution, I went to a board of Trader, a Chamber of Commerce event, several years ago. And this was when I was going through my struggles.

[00:23:53] And it was about cash flow management and it was like, I think the topic was -the number one thing you can do to improve your cash flow. So I, and every, it was packed, like it was a whole chamber event, like a business after business kind of trade show. And then they had these breakout sessions, these little seminars, and this seminar was, the room was just packed.

[00:24:15] And I stood there and it was a financial institution that was leading the seminar, had no idea at the time. And they got up and you know what they were selling, you know what their tips are. You know what their tip was. Get their  Visa or MasterCard or whatever it was, rather than paying your vendors right away with your hard earned money, charge it.

[00:24:40] Charge it what? Charge it. Put on a credit card, get points, get cash back. Because you had a 1% cash back thing or travel points or whatever. And there's nothing wrong with that. Travel and cash back is great, but that was their idea of managing cash flow, improving cash flow, put it off for another month. 

[00:24:57] Jessica Weismiller: Yeah.

[00:24:57] Marshall Stern: Or in there, what they really wanted was put it off for several months and just pay the interest. That's what really they wanted. Because that's how they get rich. 

[00:25:03] Jessica Weismiller: Yep. 

[00:25:04] Marshall Stern: That's how their cash flow goes up and ours goes down. 

[00:25:07] Jessica Weismiller: Absolutely. 

[00:25:08] Marshall Stern: And as they started to talk about that, the room started emptying out.

[00:25:12]That is the worst. I mean, I'm the one, you're the expert, but would you suggest that as a good strategy, cash flow measurement strategy? 

[00:25:21] Jessica Weismiller: No. No. That's last resorts is debt. in, in that sense, there is some good debt to have, but that is not it. And, yeah. 

[00:25:33] Marshall Stern: Okay, let's talk touch on that for a second.

[00:25:35] What would you say would be good debt to have? 

[00:25:38] Jessica Weismiller: It really depends on the business and the situation you're in financially. 

[00:25:42] Marshall Stern: Okay. 

[00:25:42] Jessica Weismiller: There is so many variables, for tax purposes and if you're in a financial situation that can handle it. Usually we suggest that your vehicles are not purchased outright necessarily.

[00:25:55] For a while, electric vehicles purchased outright. Were a full write off per year, and that was fine. They are no longer that way. They've changed how that's being done. However, the way that they do vehicle write offs, it doesn't make sense. To purchase them necessarily, and sometimes it makes more sense to even lease them.

[00:26:14] So it, it's, everyone's situation is different. right. This is when we do sometimes pull in on the accountant, depending on certain situations. there is always, and this is the variables, we look at it, right? And we always have. Like I have a company and it makes the most sense for that company to lease most of their equipment.

[00:26:35] Their accountant has looked at it for them for tax purposes. It makes the most sense and maintenance purposes to lease their equipment except for one piece of equipment. He says, you need to buy that one. Honestly, I couldn't tell you the exact reason why the accountant has chosen that specific piece of equipment.

[00:26:50] I don't fully understand that part of it. he couldn't quite explain it, but he made this choice. So we said, okay. There are certain things that, like if the accountant says this and. We are like, we don't usually argue, we don't argue with the accounts. Let's go with that. Unless we really deem that there is something that we are like, we need a second accountant in on this one.

[00:27:11] We trust that accountant. We've used them lots of times. We know that they're very well versed in what they're doing. this one was a little peculiar, but, the situation, but he knew what he was talking about. but yeah, so most of the time it's a dependent on person situation. 

[00:27:27] Marshall Stern: Hmm. And switch gears now.

[00:27:29] We have a few minutes left, but I want to switch gears. Tell me the importance of having a strong team around you. 

[00:27:35] Jessica Weismiller: That is the utmost importance. I couldn't fathom not having, like my team that I have, I was really sick back in March and none of my clients knew I was off work. Because I was like, the, the team just picks it up.

[00:27:51] Wwhen my other team members are going to be away or whatever, we pick it up, we do it. So as much as I don't have to work in the business, I am able to work in the business When they want to go take vacation or they need to be off for whatever reason, we really have a strong teamwork ethic.

[00:28:10] Although we are all remote workers, we are all remote in BC. So we're on the same time, Pacific Standard Time. We work really well together. We have teams talking in the background. It is constant back and forth. We have great communication. We talk every day. It, it's really important. if your team isn't in continuity with each other, that's not going to work in the grand scheme of things in any business, in my opinion.

[00:28:36] I think that that's going to be a, a really big push to try and have a successful company with a team that's at each other. 

[00:28:43] Marshall Stern: Hmm. Yeah. Team's, everything. And one of the things, and you've built your business this way. Like, I built my business, my sign company, when I started it, I built it with a team.

[00:28:54] Otherwise, I would've been there making the signs. But I was taught early, a lesson early on, I've talked about it on the podcast before. I had an employee, I've told you the story. I had an employee, like one of the first few days in See me at the, at the table, at the, at the production table. He said, what are you doing here?

[00:29:08] And I said, I'm making the sign. He goes, no, no, you owner me a worker. I make the signs. You, you sell them. I make them. Yeah, go out and sell. Go out and sell. And that was one of the last times I ever made a sign, which was like the first few days into my, into the business.

[00:29:27] Right. It's not the same for a lot of us, especially in the service-based businesses. You're doing the service. Like as a coach, I'm delivering the service. I don't e ever want to be having someone else delivering my service as a coach. because that's, it's me. 

[00:29:43] Jessica Weismiller: Yeah. 

[00:29:43] Marshall Stern: But there's a ways to. Groups and all that stuff where you bring in more people, you can serve more people.

[00:29:50] Tell me, Jessica, what would you say to your younger self, but that you're old but you know, when you're first starting out, something that you know now that you maybe wish you had known at the beginning. 

[00:30:09] Jessica Weismiller: Build out the processes sooner. 

[00:30:12] Marshall Stern: Hmm. 

[00:30:13] Jessica Weismiller: So the backend processes, build them out sooner. It's a lot harder to build it out mid, mid process, like mid company, I guess is the best way to put it.

[00:30:21] Although like that's like six of one, half a dozen to the other, it's kind of hard because you don't know what you're going to run to. Like I never thought this business would get this big, I didn't never thought I'd have employees. I thought it was always just going to be me doing my small little bookkeeping company.

[00:30:35] And then it just grew and clients were happy and they brought more clients. Their companies grew and it just became a bigger thing. So I would say plan for growth. Build out your backend processes and make sure that you have a project management software of some sort in the background of basically if what we call in our company, the hit by a bus theory.

[00:31:02] If you get hit by a bus, is somebody to be able to look up and figure out what's going on. And that's, that's like our, and in our company, that's how we have it. It took us a little bit longer than I'd like to get to that point, but we got there. And it would've been easier if I had started with it that way.

[00:31:19] Marshall Stern: So, like I've mentioned before in this, on the podcast and probably with you as well in our, in our sessions, my father was all about getting one golden nugget. One takeaway from seeing a speakerm reading a book, listening to, well, there weren't podcasts back then - whatever, to where – it wasn’t YouTube -  listening to a cassette tape, a personal development or business development one, one gold nugget.

[00:31:43] You've given many and I'm just going. I just want to mention the last two that you, you threw out there and I want people to really listen to what you said. Okay? And again, I'm going to put your info, if you're okay with it in the show notes. People want to get in touch with you. They might have questions about how to work with you.

[00:32:01] I know you don't take on a lot of clients, or about the government opportunities. You know, maybe you can have a chat. We'll see. I'll put it in there and people can reach out to you. But you mentioned two things and I want everyone to hear this. I might have to bring you back to talk about this further plan for growth and build out your processes to like my friends talking to everyone else now.

[00:32:28] That's it. That is gold. Because too many times, and I know you might be sitting there, you might be thinking, this is where I'm at right now in my business and eventually I'll get to maybe this point and whatever, but we don't really plan for growth. And you know, Jessica, like, I like to look at a two to three year plan.

[00:32:49] Where do you want to be? What's your why? What's your what? What's your what? Two to three years up down the road? And then let's reverse engineer and get there. But too many people just don't think of the future, especially those who transition from, let's say. A bookkeeper for X, Y, Z company and they say, oh, I'm sick of working for this company.

[00:33:09] I'm going to go start my own bookkeeping firm and it's going to be me. And then you're not really thinking about growth, it's just you take it day by day, day by day. You're basically an employee plan for growth because if you don't, you just will stay where you are. And yeah, like that's magic. because if you plan for growth, become, act like I always say like act like.

[00:33:33] The person you want, person meaning business leader that you want to become, you are already there. What does that look like? Because we get too stuck in where we are currently at, and that might not be where we want to be in a year or two or three years. So be the person you want to become. Why wait? 

[00:33:51] Jessica Weismiller: No, exactly. 

[00:33:52] Marshall Stern: Right.

[00:33:52] Why wait? And same thing businesses. If you're struggling financially and you're confused and you're like that whole debt or the cashflow talk. You know, kind of hit you hard, right? There's a better way. Maybe reach out to Jessica. just focus on your numbers, my friends. Like, look at the numbers.

[00:34:13] And it doesn't, if you're scared, acknowledge it and get help, right? 

[00:34:20] Jessica Weismiller: I agree a hundred percent. It's better to acknowledge it than to hide from it, even in a simple Excel spreadsheet, it's still better than nothing. 

[00:34:26] Marshall Stern: I'm going to give the Stern Truth here, the Stern Truth for today - it ain't going away.

[00:34:31] Jessica Weismiller: No, 

[00:34:33] Marshall Stern: It ain't going away. You can go close your eyes and grab a pizza, you know, and go home and watch Netflix and think tomorrow's a new day and it'll be all better. I'm telling you it's not. That's why there's so much, there's too much information out there. There's no lack of information. There's no lack of podcasts except for this one.

[00:34:53] This one needs to be seen by more and heard by more. but there's no lack of information. YouTube, everything's out there. What there is, is a lack of implementation. Learn it, do it. Take action and plan for growth, and it's going to be different for everyone, right? Oh, wow. This has been awesome.

[00:35:15] Any parting words of wisdom, golden nuggets that you'd like to share with our listeners? 

[00:35:20] Jessica Weismiller: No, you've captured it quite well. Just get a hold of your cash flow. That's going to be one of your most important things to understand your books and, make sure you understand them. That's really the biggest part.

[00:35:30] Understand them and if you don't understand them, whoever is doing it with you should be able to sit down with you and. Show you what you're, you need to know and make it in a way that you understand it. Your bookkeeper should be considered like a nurse is to a doctor. So when you go in for care and your doctor's saying something and you don't understand what they're saying, the nurse usually can bring it down to a level that we understand as non-doctors.

[00:35:54] Well, your bookkeeper should be able to help you do that as well. We provide custom reports to our clients that they're requesting so they understand things. We provide reports to one client. That's basically all the receipts that they're missing that they never sent us at the end of the month. we have one client that requests that so they can go find all those receipts.

[00:36:13] It's as simple as that. The, your bookkeeper should be working with you and for you never against you do not have a bookkeeper working against you. That is counterproductive. And it should never be that way. 

[00:36:26] Marshall Stern: Yeah, no. Here, here, a hundred percent. One last question for you. 

[00:36:31] Jessica Weismiller: Yep. 

[00:36:32] Marshall Stern: Because we know the financial part of our business can be scary.

[00:36:37] What about beliefs, limiting beliefs, imposter syndrome - you work with a lot of businesses, small and medium size, maybe some larger size. Do you think, do you ever come across - does that ever rear its ugly head with you? 

[00:36:54] Jessica Weismiller: Like clients that believe that they can't do it? 

[00:36:57] Marshall Stern: No, I'm actually, well, your clients, or like for you actually just yourself, like your own limiting beliefs or imposter syndrome as a, as a leader of your own business.

[00:37:06] Jessica Weismiller: I don't take on clients I don't think I can help. So for me, no. if I don't believe I'm going to be helpful to someone, I won't take that client on. We don't work with anybody in e-commerce, let's just call it that right there. Easily enough. I immediately push that out. There's no way, we don't have enough knowledge in e-commerce to be a successful bookkeeper for someone in e-commerce.

[00:37:26] It's not something we've ever delved into. And I don't want to hurt somebody's business by saying we can do this when I know truthfully, we don't know enough about it to do it to the extent that I would like to provide for them. 

[00:37:39] Marshall Stern: Right. 

[00:37:40] Jessica Weismiller: I know that I can do it really well for construction marketing, a couple other manufacturing and, and such like that.

[00:37:48] But to be fair, like e-commerce is definitely one. I've full stop. Said no on, but I'm happy to find somebody. Or give people information about what you should look for in a bookkeeper. I've done that before. When people ask for an eCommerce bookkeeper, I'm like, hey, just look for these things, you know? Yeah.

[00:38:05] I will always say, we're just not the right fit. Before I ever sit there and go, I'm a little nervous about this. If I'm nervous, we're not doing it because this is too important. I can't screw this up for them. So if I'm not okay with it or if I'm not confident in it, I just won't do it. 

[00:38:22] Marshall Stern: Yeah. That's awesome.

[00:38:24] No, I love that. And, I always say to my clients, and, and you know, this, and even in the podcast, like, we need to with work within your genius zone. Whatever it is that we do, our service or a product, and work with people that actually we enjoy working with and we can really serve powerfully because other because life is short, right?

[00:38:45] There's not, and there's 24 hours in a day. Why do you want to spend 10, 8, 6, 12, 4, whatever hours working with people that drain you or projects that drain you? We want to be a little bit more selective. I know at the beginning you got to kind of. Find your way, but you find your way pretty quick. 

[00:39:05] Jessica Weismiller: Oh, you do? I did a restaurant once and I, we did it really well. I learned that's not my, the place I want to do it. And now I have a bookkeeper I know that I refer those restaurants to. 

[00:39:15] Marshall Stern: Yeah. 

[00:39:16] Jessica Weismiller: And he will do it a million times faster and better than I will. Like, I can still do it, but it's just not our forte. So why? It just doesn't make sense to keep on a path that isn't going to help anybody.

[00:39:29] Marshall Stern: Yep. When I had my sign company, people would come just for vehicle wraps, like full wraps, and I knew the guys down the street or the guys in, you know, in the city next to us did it. That was their job. They were like full-time. They were rap guys. Actually, one of them is called the Wrap Guys, and it's like they did it half the time and definitely less for a better price because that's all they did every day, all the time.

[00:39:55] Whereas we maybe did a wrap like once every. Six, seven months, like a full wrap. I'm talking about, it just didn't make sense. And it was so intricate. They were the experts. So I would just say go to them. 

[00:40:06] Jessica Weismiller: Yeah. 

[00:40:07] Marshall Stern: Right. and we stuck to what we did well, so, okay. Talked about a lot of different things here.

[00:40:13] I'll put your stuff in the show notes so people can get in touch with you if they would like to. Jessica, this has been awesome. 

[00:40:20] Jessica Weismiller: Thank you very much, Marshall. 

[00:40:23] Marshall Stern: And for all of you who have enjoyed this episode, of course we'd love to hear the feedback, share it, talk to your friends, tell your friends about it, tell your friends about Jessica.

[00:40:34] And I guess really the whole over well aside for planning for growth is just don't do this alone. I think the whole theme of today is regardless of where you're at in your business, if you're feeling a little bit isolated, a little bit alone. Reach out, whether it's to someone like Jessica or myself or people like us, other business owners, network, connect with people, entrepreneurs, and you don't have to go through all of this by yourself.

[00:41:00] I do commend you if you are a business owner and entrepreneur and you've got that spirit, but if you're frustrated, lacking in passion right now. Right. My my suggestion to you. This, and I've talked about this before. I'll talk about it again. Look at why you started the business and what you want to create for yourself, for your life, two, three years down the road.

[00:41:24] But really look at why you started. because sometimes we forget why we started and that kind of brings us back home. Anyways, I've spoken way too much. We'll have to have you back. 

[00:41:36] Jessica Weismiller: Sounds good. 

[00:41:37] Marshall Stern: And for everyone else hit the subscribe button, all that kind stuff, and reach out to Jessica. Have a great week. We'll see you again next week for another episode of The Truth Business Unfiltered. 

[00:41:50] Thank you so much for tuning in to Stern Truth. If you found today's episode helpful, we would love to hear from you. Please like, share and leave us a review. Also, if you'd like to be a guest in the upcoming episode or join us in one of our Moment Accountability Group sessions, simply email me to marshall@marshallstern.net. 

[00:42.09] That's marshall@marshallstern.net.And don't forget to hit the subscribe button, so never miss an episode. Until next time, keep pushing forward and leading with confidence.