Financial Fitness with Tracey Bissett

Today is a special client feature episode of Rock the Podcast with finance expert Tracey Bissett! Tracey is on a mission to redefine the world's economic future by increasing the financial literacy of entrepreneurs, also known as financial fitness.  With over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, Tracey can help entrepreneurs in all industries, both on and offline.

As the founder, President, and Chief Financial Fitness Trainer at Bissett Financial Fitness, Inc., Tracey helps her clients understand and improve their level of financial fitness with a goal of increased confidence using their financial skills so they can be successful in their financial life. In addition, Tracey is a professor at Centennial College’s School of Business program and regularly leads speaking engagements to increase financial fitness awareness.

Tracey starts the episode by talking to us about entrepreneurship and cashflow. Most early entrepreneurs are looking at their profit and loss, and their sales and expenses. Tracey notes that depending on your business, just because you make a sale does not mean that you necessarily have the cash in the bank. There can be a disconnect for business owners between sales and cashflow.

Cashflow is money coming in, money going out, and the timing in which that happens. If you’re in a coaching or service business, you’ll often have payment plans for your clients. As the owner, you might track the sale as it comes in, but you’ll get the money monthly. That’s where this disconnect between what the sales says and what you have in the bank occurs.

Cashflow is the lifeblood of any business. Cashflow dictates whether you keep going or you don’t. Tracey has seen companies go under in as quick as 90 days when they don’t have cashflow coming in! 

Another issue Tracey addresses with her clients is billing and collection. Tracey worked with a client who had over $300,000 in sales, but lost $100,000 because she billed them too late and was unable to actually collect the money. Collection is critically important to understand in your business. Entrepreneurs need to understand what is normal for their industry, make sure they have good billing and collection practices, and that they’re actually keeping track that the money is coming in.

Jess had a similar experience starting out as an entrepreneur. After Jess’ first sales call, she told her brand new client that she would bill him at the end of the month. He gave her a great tip, which is “collect the money up front.”

Tracey encourages entrepreneurs to talk to other people in their industry to find out the best practices in billing and collection, because it varies in different industries. It’s important to find out where the boundaries are and to be transparent with your clients about your billing practices. Many business owners will offer a discount if their client pays up front as opposed to in monthly packages, which can be very helpful for entrepreneurs who no longer have to reach out every month for payment.

Tracey also notes that mindset plays a huge role in payments. The main driver if someone is going to pay you is not if they have the money, it’s their character. If they have the willingness to pay you, they will. 

On the topic of mindset, Tracey and Jess also discuss the problems entrepreneurs face when they are pricing their services. According to Tracey, service providers are typically bad with their pricing-- they often don’t charge enough! When deciding on your prices, Tracey suggests factoring in expenses and profit margin as well as doing some research into your target market. You’ll want to ensure that your target market wants to pay for what you’re selling.

Tracey also recommends that entrepreneurs and business owners take a regular salary from their business, and factor that into their pricing. If you want to apply for a line of credit, you’ll have to prove that you have the money to pay it back! That steady income will also be imperative for you to meet your goals. Increasing your prices will also give you more freedom to hire a team to take on more clients and invest in marketing and visibility to help you grow even more.

Jess and Tracey agree that oftentimes entrepreneurs face mindset blocks when it comes to their pricing. Tracey believes that we get our mindset about money when we are very young, about 5-7 years old. This mindset comes from our family and our emotions toward money. People need to be observant with how they react when things pertain to money, and if you don’t like your reaction, you can change it.

The bulk of the population comes from a place of scarcity, and therefore has a scarcity mindset with money. It’s okay if you feel that way, but you don’t have to feel that way! Observe your reactions, then make some changes. It’s not going to happen overnight but one thing you can do is practice gratitude to change your money mindset.

Most of us have heard that we are a function of the people we spend time with. Tracey recommends that we spend time with people who are grateful and people who are looking at money in a different way in order to improve our money mindset.

Look at what you’re offering, validate it in the market by looking around at your competitors. If  yours is better and has more value, charge more! Tracey is a firm believer that you need to spend time on your finances monthly in order to grow your business!

You can head over to Cashcoach.biz for a free money meaning agenda from Tracey!