234: Top Apps and Techniques for Mastering Bookkeeping and Boosting Growth

Annie: 0:00

When you know your numbers, you can make better decisions, and it really is empowering to feel confident when it comes to finances, because you don't have to look at them with fear. You can look at them and say, okay, this is what happened. These numbers tell a story, and whether that story is a great one, or maybe it's a story that I want to change, that's okay. I now know the story, and knowing the story is the first step to either changing it, rewriting it, or continuing it.

Camille: 0:35

So you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business, sharing your voice. How do women do it that handle motherhood, family and still chase after those dreams? We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know. This is Call Me CEO. Welcome back everyone to Call Me CEO. This is a podcast where we celebrate mothers building businesses. We also give you ready-made resources for helping you to live a more proficient life in all areas, but today we are talking about specifically your finances and how to take practical steps to feel more empowered with money coming in, so that you can have more power and control with the money that stays with you and grows. So today we have our expert, annie Hillman, who is the CEO and owner of 1428 Financial, and she is going to share with us her journey of going into the financial world and how she is now helping to form and shape greater futures for women in business. So, Annie, thank you so much for being on the show today. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Annie: 1:45

I'm so excited to be here.

Camille: 1:47

Yeah, so we were just chatting before we pressed record and you were telling me about your darling family. Please introduce yourself a bit more to the audience and tell us about you, your business and your family.

Annie: 1:58

Yeah, so like, like, uh, like you said, my name is Annie Hillman. I own 1428 Financial. I started it almost five years ago now, which feels like forever but also feels so amazing that we're almost at that milestone. I had a background in winery accounting when I started the business and then started doing some books on the side and realized I just loved working with small business owners and really getting to teach and educate on finances as well as just do the books. So, like I said, that was five years ago and I have a daughter who's two and a half, and her and my husband and I we live in Texas. We live on a couple acres. My husband is a farmer, so we have some animals and some a big garden and we're just kind of trying out the whole. I say homestead but it's really not a homestead because we are very much in Fort Worth, close to the city, so we have the best of both worlds kind of yeah, I would say.

Camille: 3:02

I mean, I feel like more and more especially the generation. How old are you? I am 31. Okay, I feel like the generation that's watching a lot of our mothers that were kind of doing more of the turnkey, figuring out how to work outside the home. And then also there's this craving now of like wait, but let's create a little bit more coziness and sustainability. But we still want our Walmart down the street. We want a little bit of both, which I think that's fantastic.

Camille: 3:33

I have a friend who owns a homestead a little hobby farm is what she calls it with goats and chickens, and actually her goats helped her daughter to sustain life and got through some really rough first months of her infancy. It was all meant to be. It was crazy. She moved into this new home, the goats were pregnant, she was pregnant, the baby was born. This was her fifth child. She'd always nursed her children but, for whatever reason, this one needed more than what she had to offer and allergies to breast milk and, or, sorry, allergies to formula and it was the goat's milk that really helped her little baby to thrive and I thought that is so cool that it really was meant to be. Anyway, the goats ended up being way too much work so they kept escaping. So after a couple of years they're like okay, let's move on from the goats. But I think that's so fun that you have both like business and a little bit of livestock. What kind of animals do you have?

Annie: 4:31

Yeah, we actually did have goats as well and got rid of them for the same reason. That's so funny. They kept escaping and we're like, okay, I think we're done with this, but we have one cow and we have chickens, um, and then right now we currently have a donkey and a horse in our pasture, but there are neighbors that are grazing, um, so we kind of have a full, uh, a full pasture right now, but, uh, yeah, it's fun. My, like I said, my husband's the one who who manages all of it, but it's kind of fun because then my, my daughter and I just get to enjoy it.

Camille: 5:05

Yeah, that, cause it is a lot of work, I mean at the end of the day. So that same friend this is random side note, but they just released the movie homestead. That is live in theaters, I think December 20th. We're recording this right before it comes out the weekend before. So if you get the chance, go see the movie. It's actually a fantastic film, very family friendly. It's like an apocalyptic, dystopian future. But what would we do if we really had to live back on the land again? And I think it's a really interesting topic to explore and also to think what would we do and where would we go and could we work together where it's not just this zombie apocalypse where everyone's just killing each other? You know what I mean. It's a totally different approach, but there is still, you know, needing to take care of your own, and that does bring in some interesting factors. So check it out if you haven't yet.

Annie: 5:58

Yeah, I want to. I saw a commercial for it recently and I was like I want to watch that.

Camille: 6:02

Yeah, I have a link, I will send it to you, all right. Well, let's get into another topic that I think can be a bit scary and foreboding is finances. The cost of everything has gone up so much, and not to get political, but by the time this comes out we will have a new president and with big promises. But also, what are we going to do with what we can do and the decisions we can make for ourselves? And that is comes very much down to our daily ins, daily outs, the weeklies, the monthlies, the bookkeeping. So what brought you into this field and what is it about it that made you feel really excited?

Annie: 6:43

Yeah, that's a great question. So when I was growing up, my parents I love them to death, but they never taught great money habits. They didn't.

Annie: 6:54

For me, growing up, money equaled stress. And then when I got to college, I took a temporary accounting job and I started learning how to manage money. I realized money doesn't have to equal stress, and when I know how to manage money well, then it's actually really exciting and I can use that data to make decisions, which was a really empowering thing, and so that's when I was hooked. From then on, I was like accounting is the best thing, which is so funny for people to hear, but it's true, because you know, when you know your numbers, you can make better decisions. And it really is empowering to feel confident when it comes to finances, because you don't have to look at them with fear. You can look at them and say, ok, this is what happened. These numbers tell a story, and whether that story is a great one or maybe it's a story that I want to change, that's okay. I now know the story, and knowing the story is the first step to either changing it, rewriting it or continuing it.

Camille: 7:56

I like that you bring up the emotional aspect first, because I actually have done. I mean, I'm in my fourth year now of podcasting and I've had experts in the past that have come in and talked about money and money, personalities and spending and relationships that we have with money, and it really is something that cannot be covered in one episode.

Camille: 8:17

It's something that there are entire podcasts on, or therapy sessions where people professionals could help you with that. But I think coming to a place of really understanding where your relationship is with money and maybe getting to the root of understanding that first, in a way, of empowering yourself, is one of the first steps to having success with money. There's a lot of mindset that can be worked around money. There's a lot of mantras that can be worked around money. There's a lot of mantras that can be worked around money. You know people talk a lot about the power of gratitude and that if you say your gratitude for what hasn't even come for you yet, you'll get more.

Camille: 8:54

But I think that diving into it however it needs to be discovered for you is huge, because money one of my favorite ways of having this described to me is that money is an exchange of energy. It is not something that should be labeled with an emotion of being evil, good, you know whatever those those things are, because there are some things, ideals, that surround that, but it can be an understanding of how we can use it for good or a way that we can come to understand it so it can be used for a power of helping others and all of those things. It's very multi-layered is what I'm trying to say, as you know. So, as you're helping people with bookkeeping, with that being said, as a caveat for what we're going into with these tips and tools for how to best or better manage our money, what are some major pitfalls that you've seen for people who maybe don't have the best relationship with money or maybe don't even acknowledge what's happening?

Annie: 10:03

Yeah, I think the first step is the acknowledgement and acknowledging that money, whatever your money story is, we all have a money story, right? Like I shared a little bit about mine acknowledging it and saying this is you know, this is what happened. This is where I come from. This is why I feel the way I do about money. That's the first step to then understanding okay, but it doesn't always have to be that way. I can change my outlook on money, I can work on my mindset around money, and I could oh my gosh, I could go on for days.

Annie: 10:36

I think that one of the biggest problems I see is that our society perpetuates this negative like this, this idea of fear around finances, and so it's like everybody keeps talking about it and then it keeps going on and on and it's just this cycle, and that's why it's important to me that we really we do our best to reframe finances from being that scary, fearful thing into this useful, fun, exciting, interesting thing that tells us so much about our business, or if we're talking about personal, that tells us so much about our business, or if we're talking about personal, that tells us so much about our personal finances. And I think that it's it's not something that happens overnight, and that's what I want to reassure anyone who, if you are someone who is fearful about finances, or if it gives you anxiety, or if the thought of looking at your bank is like, absolutely not, not, I can't do it. I don't want you to feel like this is something that you have to fix overnight. It's a little by little, step by step. Maybe it's tomorrow. You do something like you look at your latest bank statement, or you do something small and you take one step at a time. You don't get to the point overnight where you're like I'm reading my finances, I understand my whole PNL. You know that's something that comes with time. That's something that, with our clients, we make sure to review their PNL with them, answer any questions that they have, so that those numbers don't read fear. They read, wow, like I can use this data. This is data that I can use in my business to make decisions. I have.

Annie: 12:11

I had a client who I was on a call with and we had gone over her PNL and she had asked a couple of questions and at the end of the call she said, wow, I was reading so much emotions into that. I had this whole story in my head. But when you explained it and you had looked at it objectively and then shown this is what happened it just kind of blew that story up and it wasn't those emotions that I was feeling about. It weren't even accurate. And yes, there were real emotions. She was really feeling them, but when we looked at the numbers and we sat down and looked at them, we realized none of this was actually true.

Camille: 12:49

That's a very interesting factor. I think what is helpful for this too and we talked about this a little bit and I've mentioned this before that my husband is a CPA and he looks at our finances every day. He loves it. I am not that way. That is not. I don't wake up in the morning and think, oh, I want to look at our finances every day. He loves it. I am not that way. That is not. I don't wake up in the morning and think, oh, I want to look at our stock investments, I look at our, our debts and what we've paid off.

Camille: 13:15

But that is like he, in a way and I think that this has come as a strength for him because he studied accounting is he found a way to look at it almost as a way of gamifying the production or the what's a good way of saying it the balance of money, of like what's actually happening. And I think that that's a benefit that people have who have taken accounting lessons, because it takes the emotion out of it. It's more of like a zoomed out view of what's happening, of the ins and outs, and saying, oh well, now we can look at forecasting or now we can look at your P and L, which is your profit and loss. For anyone who is hearing that and going, huh, your profit and loss statement for your business of what's actually coming in and what's going out and maybe where there's leakage of money or cost that you need to let go of. That isn't really helping your business.

Camille: 14:09

And that can be so helpful, to have a third party who can do the zoom out, take away the stories and make it more of a not a game, because it's real life, but make it more of something that it's an equation. It's not a story of who that person is as a business owner.

Annie: 14:28

Yeah, exactly, exactly. That's a really good point to be that to do. That's a really good point to bring up Because I think especially I don't know what it is, but I noticed especially males, like the gamifying of it. My husband is kind of similar in that way but it's like because my husband is kind of similar in that way. But it's like the important thing to remember is it's finding a system and a way of looking at it that works for you. We are all different people, so finding a way to approach your finances that works with the way that you operate is the most important thing.

Camille: 15:03

Okay, well, let's dive into that. What are some ideas that you have for people to dig into their finances or keep tabs on what's going?

Annie: 15:10

on. Yeah. So, like I said, if you aren't doing anything at this time, if it gives you anxiety to think about it, take one small step. Look at your bank statement tomorrow. Log into your bank. If you set up QuickBooks months ago and haven't touched it at all, maybe log in and look at things. Maybe try categorizing a few transactions here and there to even just get you know.

Annie: 15:38

To get started, I recommend also setting on your calendar a monthly money date within the first couple of days of the month, and this is something where you're going to look at. It can be as in-depth or as surface level as you want it to be, depending on where you are at in your money journey. If you're someone who is just starting out, like I said, maybe it's you look at your bank account every month. Obviously, we want to get to the point where you're doing your bookkeeping if you don't have a bookkeeper doing it yourself or where you're reading the reports. But yeah, depending on where you're at, maybe it's you sit down on the third of the month and you do your bookkeeping. You light a fun candle, you get a nice drink, maybe go to a coffee shop. Make it fun, because I think if we sit here and we're like in our little cave in our office and it's we're not making it fun, then it's not going to be fun, right? So, especially when you're first starting to to dive into your finances and you're like I don't know, I don't like this, do everything you can to make it an exciting thing, an interesting thing, and your body will respond to that. So, yeah, making that monthly money date.

Annie: 16:49

And then let's say you do have a bookkeeper and maybe you're like I have a bookkeeper because they helped me stay prepared for taxes. That's great. That's one of the best parts of having a bookkeeper Maybe not one of the best. That's one of the great parts about having a bookkeeper is that you're prepared for tax season. However, one of the best parts of having a bookkeeper is that they're giving you reports every month that have all of your data on it, and if you're not using that, then maybe start setting during that time.

Annie: 17:22

Maybe during that monthly money meeting, you set aside time to look at those reports that your bookkeeper gives you. Or maybe it's when you see that email come from them that says, hey, your reports are ready. Look at them. If you don't know what the numbers mean, ask them. Any good bookkeeper should be able to explain to you, and make the time to explain to you, what those numbers mean. Because, like I said, you are paying them to have your books ready for taxes, but you're also paying them to help you manage your money and help you know where your business stands. So I think that that's really important too. So I would say those are the two biggest things you want to do.

Camille: 18:02

Um, if you're like I don't know where to start, yeah, so with, have you found any apps or different things that have helped you to stay accountable or to gamify or to keep track of your money in an easier way?

Annie: 18:18

keep track of your money in an easier way. Yeah, so for business finances, we love Xero. It's spelled X-E-R-O. It's not necessarily like gamifying things, but it is really. It's just the best platform that we've found On the personal side. I highly recommend it. It's called Monarch Money. It's an app on the phone, but it's also like a website and it's just really pretty, which to me, I think you know I love business finances, I love personal finances, but I recommend it to anyone if they're like I don't really want to do my finances Like it always helps to log in and have a pretty platform. It's easy to use.

Annie: 18:56

It helps you track your net worth, have a pretty platform, it's easy to use, it helps you track your net worth, all those things that's another thing I recommend looking at as well as like tracking your net worth on a monthly basis is really important too. That's obviously on the personal side, but that's going to help you just have a standing of where you're at and just think about the future.

Camille: 19:16

Yeah, I've noticed one thing for sure that when so my husband and I, we have family meetings, and we try to do them every Sunday, and this includes talking about the schedule for the upcoming week, what we plan to eat, that's where I look at the week and I'm like, okay, we have this game happening this day, this kid needs to be this place, and I know when I need to make a slow cooker meal, versus a day that I have a little more time. This is also the time that we talk about our finances and our goals with money. It is also the time that we talk about our date that we hope to do that week, which is much easier when you have older kids now that we have older kids so much easier.

Camille: 19:56

And then we also have a one-on-one meeting with each of our kids where they come in. We talk about what they have upcoming for the week, what they've been doing really well, and then maybe a goal of something they need to work on, whether it's interpersonal, like with the other kids in our house, or a goal that they're working toward, and that, I kid you not, has been one of the best ways for my husband and I to stay on track, not only communication wise with our goals with each other, but financially it's been huge, because I am much more mindful about excessive spending as well as keeping our eye on the price. So when we were setting a goal to pay off our home, for example, I created a printable because I wanted something to look at. He had the website that he would look at every day. I didn't want to see it every day, but I did want something that I could look at and mark off along the way, and so I created this pay off your house printable and I would literally fill it in with like a colored pencil, and it was in our closet.

Camille: 21:00

It was something we could both see and visualize, a goal that we were reaching together, which was really fun and exciting for us, and I think that there can be. You could apply that concept in business as well. If there's something that you would want to have a visual representation of a goal that you have with your team or a place, there's this book that I love called the four disciplines of execution, and one of the tips that it has, especially if you're leading a team in business, is to have a visual chart or goal sheet that everyone can see and access the progress together, where they say this is our focus of a goal that we're working toward, whatever it is, whether it's a financial or a sales goal or a proficiency goal or whatever but that you can see that goal together and you are, it's just more front of mind of the goal that you're making and the goal that you're trying to achieve together, and I found that that works really well in personal and in business.

Annie: 21:58

Yeah, you just reminded me. There's a website it's called debtfreechartscom and there's like it's a bunch of printables, just like that Cool. They're like a lot of them are free, or there's even some that are like a couple dollars and they're really cute. Like one of them is like debt-free land and it's kind of based on candy land. And then there's the one that's like debt-tris instead of Tetris, and so it's like a visual representation of paying everything off. They also have ones for savings and things like that. If you're saving for different things. I think it's really cool. And I think that, especially for people who aren't finance people, I think that that visual representation and seeing it represented in something other than just numbers on a spreadsheet is so important and it's so helpful, because then you could see, you know, you see three quarters of the squares colored in and it's like, oh, I want to get that last, like those last couple of squares. It's like it does really make it a game. I had totally forgotten about that. I'm glad you brought that up.

Camille: 23:00

Oh, that's awesome. No, that's a great resource. So one thing that I advocate for is to hire help. If you are not that numbers person, if you are a person who likes to change it up or have an accountability, someone that you're accountable to, whether that's a business coach, like I coach people through helping to launch that next big thing where it's a podcast, an online course, if you're wanting to hire team members or create new systems so you can automate and also to give that ability to someone else.

Camille: 23:33

Obviously, when you're first starting a business, you're wearing all the hats. There's no way around that. But as you're growing and as the visionary of your business, you need to delegate. That is a part of the business that, without you, can't. You cannot sustain growth if you continue to do all of the things. So, whether that's hiring the virtual assistant, which I can also help you with, or whether that's hiring the booking and having the money and a partner that can help you, look at the big picture, like Annie, that is a way that you can help reach those goals without it feeling so lonely. I think a lot of us like to work in a team mentality where you feel like you have an advocate or a partner or someone that is helping you to reach those goals. And I know from experience that it's when I've invested in myself and my business, that that's when my business has grown and when I've hired the coach, when I've brought in those team members to help me achieve those big goals.

Annie: 24:29

Yeah, I completely agree and it's not.

Annie: 24:31

I think a lot of times people are like I could do this and I agree like I could do things. But the thing that I've noticed when I outsource is number one it's it's usually done better than I could have done it myself. And number two, my time is freed up and maybe that means I get to spend my time with my daughter at the park, or that means I get to spend my time working in my business doing something that I really want to work on, and both of those are totally valid and totally exciting things. Like I'm just as excited to get to work on my business as I am to like have a free afternoon where I can go on a coffee date with my daughter, because that's like our favorite thing right now. Doing it where it makes sense. But also making sure you're doing it at the right time, like I know you know when we're all, if we think back to when we were all starting our businesses. Like you can't outsource everything all at once, but being smart about what gets outsourced when it's really important to.

Camille: 25:32

And a bookkeeper would know when it's time to do that, because you can look at the full money perspective and say, oh yeah, you actually have a little wiggle room. That would make sense. And I can tell you too that sometimes there have been things financially that maybe don't make all the perfect sense, but it's a leap of faith and sometimes those are worth it too. It may not always make perfect sense, but maybe it's the right time, you know.

Annie: 25:58

Yeah, and we have clients like I. I always say like there's a time and a place for DIYing or bookkeeping, like I don't. If you're just starting out, um, you know, do the best you can like don't leave it undone and don't totally ignore it. Um, but I totally understand, like taking on that monthly cost is hard, um, that being said, like we have clients who are just like nope from the beginning, I don't want to touch it, take it over. And you know it's like you said, it's that, it's knowing, you know that it it. If it like it, if it's not going to get done, if it's, if I want that mental weight off my shoulders, then yeah, okay, take it off my shoulders.

Camille: 26:40

Right, right. Which which again goes back to our very first tip of like really reflecting where you are and just being honest with the moment and saying, okay, is this something that I need a little extra help with? And it's okay if the answer is yes. So cheers to delegation, cheers to growing teams. If that's something that you need help with, I would love to help you find a virtual assistant to help you with admin tasks or to help grow your email list or your social media.

Camille: 27:10

So often I find entrepreneurs are bogged down by the air quotes. I should be doing this and I'm not where. Maybe it's just hiring someone to a couple hours a week to help you take that lift or that load of oh, I should be doing this, but I just don't have the time. Your peace of mind is worth those few hours that you would pay for someone to do that for you. So if that is a question that you have, please feel free to reach out to me. You can find me at camillewalkerco, my website, or on Instagram, or you can email me call me CEO podcast at Gmail. So let's, annie, turn that light onto you. Where can people find you and reach out to you if they need some help with their finances and bookkeeping.

Annie: 28:00

Yeah, so I'm most active on Instagram. Our Instagram is 1428financial, and then my email is just annie at 1428financialcom. Our website is 1428financialcom, so you can contact us through any of those those ways.

Camille: 28:17

Perfect. Well, before we wrap up, I like to ask our guests the same two questions. The first is what are you reading, watching or listening to? And the second is a motherhood moment you want to share?

Annie: 28:29

Yeah, so I am currently reading. It's called 28 summers by Ellen Hildebrand. I've been like on an Ellen Hildebrand kick lately, just like a good beach read. And then, since it is getting close to Christmas, we are in full on Christmas music mode over here. We're listening to lots of Christmas music, watching lots of Christmas movies. My daughter lately has been loving Frosty the Snowman, so we've watched it about 10 times this year. Um, and then a cute motherhood moment. Oh my gosh, my daughter is two and a half.

Annie: 29:06

I think I mentioned that at the beginning of the, the episode just recently, uh, like yesterday, I was on the phone I had to call in and pay like our toll tag invoice and I was really annoyed with them because I had already paid it and then they had put, they had applied it to the wrong account, so it was saying that I hadn't paid it, even though I was like looking at my bank account and I was like this definitely got debited, and so you know, I was annoyed and just kind of had a bad attitude about it and so I had explained to them everything. They had put my phone, they had put me on mute or, excuse me, they had put me on hold and some like elevator music came on and I was holding my daughter and she goes, let's dance. And I was like the funniest moment of like, just snapped me out of my bad attitude and it was like things aren't that bad. You know, I get to dance with my daughter in the middle of the kitchen during the day and that's pretty cool.

Camille: 30:09

Oh, I love that. I love how kids, their innocence and just that joy for being alive, they're like, hey, there's music on, let's dance. Like they're just so innocent and sweet.

Annie: 30:19

That is adorable. It was so funny.

Camille: 30:22

Oh, that's the best. Well, I appreciate you coming on to the show. Thank you so much for sharing your tips and for offering these services. I feel like this is something. If I did not have a husband who did this, I would definitely be hiring someone like you, because money is or like the bookkeeping piece is not my favorite. I would rather think of like the big ideas and put together events and coaching, and you know, it's so funny how we all and thank goodness that we have people that love spreadsheets like you- so thank you for being on the show and to all of you who are listening.

Camille: 31:01

Thank you so much for listening. If you've enjoyed this episode, please leave a five-star rating and review and share it with a friend. Sharing is caring and that's a great way for small businesses to continue to grow. I love you. Thank you so much. We'll see you next time. Hey CEOs, thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you found this episode inspiring or helpful, please let me know in a comment. In a five-star review, you could have the chance of being a featured review on an upcoming episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram at callmeCEOPodcast, and remember you are the boss.