Service Based Business Society Podcast

Hello, and welcome to the Service Based Business Society podcast. I'm your host, Tiffany Ann Bodger. On our weekly episodes, we will dig into everything you need to know about scaling your service based business without losing sleep. With my experience in creating over seven figures per month and a passion for marketing, finance, and automation, this show will provide tangible tips and techniques for scaling your business.

Let's get started.

Back in the studio. So, uh, we ran a few extra guest episodes and

because Thanksgiving just wrapped up in the U. S. And while I'm in Canada and we had our Thanksgiving already a few weeks ago, I will say that since half of our client base is in the U. S., we definitely feel that American more than the average Canadian company. But as Thanksgiving wraps up, you know, so we have like Canadian Thanksgiving and then we have like Remembrance Day, Veterans Day, then American Thanksgiving, and then it's like holiday time.

You know, I mean Starbucks has their holiday cups out, still no eggnog latte this year. Can I just vent a little bit and say Starbucks, epic fail, epic fail Starbucks. But it's like, it's holiday time. You go into the stores and it feels like holiday time and you start to feel this like holiday busyness.

And I think we often forget a little bit about our business. So we're gonna be talking today, we're gonna be talking about the seven things you need to be doing in your business right now based on the season. We're going to call them the season's seven. And we're also going to talk a little bit about, you know, like getting sick as a business owner and what that looks like.

Because recently on an episode, we talked a lot about what happens if someone in your business goes down, whether that is they quit, they're fired, they get sick, if they're this key person. But what about if it's you? Do you have a plan? Because I actually have. Assisted, supported, you know, so many business owners with, you know, the situations we talked about this on a, on a recent episode.

But, but I definitely had not made a great plan if something happened to me. And so, you know, a little bit of insight. I got super sick and then I felt like I was almost better and then I got worse. And then I started to get better and then I got way worse. And so I actually like passed out, I'm in the hospital, I'm not, I'm not great.

And my husband says to me, so we've never really talked about it, but if something happened to you, I guess I would need to be able to like reach out to your team. I don't even know who I'd like to reach out to. I don't know what would happen. And I, I thought about it and I was like, you know, we have people on the team that would know exactly what to do, um, in terms of clearing, clearing the calendar, in terms of rescheduling things, in terms of.

Like what work needs to go out and all of these things. But there were a couple pieces, holes in the game, if you will, where I felt like, so I'm the only one that knows that that goes on. So there was some definite, you know, standard operating procedures to update. But the one major piece is that my team, most are You know, virtual doesn't really have any connection to say my husband or family if something happened to me in terms of, hey, by the way, uh, she got hit by a bus and is going to need the week off.

She'll be back, but you know, I mean, worst case scenario, worst, worst case scenario, like, which we won't, you know, let's not dive into, but like, what if I wasn't coming back, but in that moment, I realized. that there wasn't really a plan for my husband to connect with my team. Anyway, I, it was, I was unconscious, like I passed out for a short period of time.

The doctor got me on some medication, some actual medication. I took a few days off, um, but I was sick for about five weeks in all. And so, you know, I ended up kind of starting to put together the plan of Hey, like, where are the passwords? We have a password management tool. I'm sure you've heard me talk about it on previous episodes.

We're organized. The team and I are very organized, but that didn't extend to my personal life, my family life. So, you know, I, I take this moment to kind of challenge you and say, you know, if you have a team, if you are super organized, does, is there a link somewhere that if something happened to you, um, you know, and you were super sick, you couldn't, uh, be reached for a few days.

Does someone know what to do? This was a hole in our game. I'll admit. And so a hole has been patched. Uh, we're a little more organized now. We've got it all under control. But it definitely sometimes takes those moments of like, hey, what about, what about this? What about that? I mean, there's a reason you do a will, um, in your life.

And that is because you're supposed to, you know, hope for the plan, plan for the worst and hope for the best. Is that how that thing goes? And so we really need to do the same thing in our business. Make sure that someone has access, make sure that someone can contact the rest of your team. that your team knows what to do, you know, in terms of clearing the calendar, what needs to be rescheduled, what should be shared?

You know, do you want all of your clients to know, hey, business owner is, um, in the hospital and, uh, we're just running wild over here? Or do you have a bit of a game plan? So these are all things that you should really think about. But that is not the topic of today's episode. I just wanted to share a little bit because there was definitely some learning that occurred.

And the other piece You know, is that I was really in bed for eight, eight days. Um, I think part of the reason why I was sick for so long was because I wasn't in bed for the first several weeks and I just was like, I'll be fine. Typical business owner, typical mom. Um, you know, it'll be fine. Just keep going.

Just keep going. Um, until my body basically said, yeah, no, we're not going to keep going. We're, we're taking some time. So I spent eight days in bed. I worked off my phone. Interestingly, whatever this, you know, sickness was that I had was affecting my arms in a weird way and holding my phone to even type on my phone.

It felt like a 500 pound brick. So while I did do some work off my phone, I didn't do as much as I would have hoped, but I was able to send voice messages. And so, you know, all in all, we made it work. It was a great way to kind of battle test the team a little bit for the upcoming holidays, which ties into our seasonal seven.

So So, you know, holidays are coming, Thanksgiving's over, you know, eggnog, not in the Starbucks, but the Red Cups are out, so close enough. And now's the time to really be thinking about those seasonal seven items and what are they? So typically, we're going to be wrapping up the year and that also means we're wrapping up the book.

So some businesses have a fiscal year, meaning, you know, that their business year does not align with the calendar year, but a lot of business owners. Have, um, a calendar year, or even if they have a fiscal year, there's still a bunch of paperwork that needs to be done for the calendar year end. Usually regarding payroll and tax slips and, um, those types of things.

So, number one on the list is those books need to be caught up. And it really ties into a few other things. So, you know, our agency provides bookkeeping services. And right now we're really feeling the business owner saying like, Hey, I need to get this caught up. Like the end of the year is coming. And I don't want to worry about this, you know, over New Year's Eve.

Like I don't want to be thinking about my book. So number one, it is time to get the books organized. So whether you're going to hire someone like our agency, You're going to DIY your books. Whatever your method is, you need to get it caught up. And in previous episodes, I've talked a lot about why you shouldn't DIY your books.

Why it's just not the best use of your time. But even if that's the direction you're gonna go, now is the time to get it caught up. You for sure want to have Q1, Q2, and Q3 finished. So that would be... You know, Q1 is January, February, March. Then we got April, May, June, July, August, September. So you should have at least until September done.

Why do we need to have up to September done? Well, funny you should ask. It brings us into our seasonal item number two, which is time for tax. prep. And you might think, hey, but you just said I needed the books to be done. Two separate things. Tax prep means we actually need to look at our profit for queues one, two, and three, and forecast the end of the year.

Because we need to know about where our profit's going to be so that we have time. to make adjustments as needed. You know, if you have been having an absolutely incredible year, and you haven't put any, you know, the money aside for the taxes, those installments they always ask for, you know, now is a good time to say, well, how much should I have put aside?

Do I, you know, have the ability to put a little more aside over the next? couple of months. You know, is this something where I want to maybe make some purchases to help bring that top, that tax, uh, owing down? There's lots of different options, but at the end of the day, no matter what you do, you can't do anything in the past.

I mean, there's a few things you can do in the past, but 99 percent of your options need to be done with some pre planning. So by taking the time now to get your books cut up and take a look at actual, you know, when I say the lay of the land. in terms of the tax and preparation. Now is the time where you can make decisions to perhaps spend a little more, spend a little less, drive sales, maybe not drive sales.

You know, these are the decisions of the planning and the prepping requires information. So step one, get the books caught up. Step two, use that information to really plan out the rest of the season. Item number three, Christmas and the client. There is so many Thoughts and theories about client. Lots of people say, don't send any holiday gifts because everyone sends holiday gifts and yours is just, you know, one of those items.

But I think that that really depends on your industry. It depends on your clients. It depends on, are you a remote or are you local? Um, all of these things play it. Back when I was in corporate, I will never forget. We did all of these, you know, at one point, like Costco gift baskets. And then the sales team would go and like deliver them.

And they would always talk about, they would walk into an office the week before Christmas with this. you know, what they felt like was a big, you know, impressive gift basket. And they would walk in and the receptionist would kind of wave and say, Hey, over, over there on the table with the rest of them.

And they would put the basket down. And it basically, you know, what, what seemed like a giant, impressive basket in a sea of other baskets. It was just like, not, it was nothing to write home about. And so we always looked at, you know, more personalized gifts and, and also. Perhaps not doing a gift right at Christmas, but giving a gift in some other, you know, timing that makes sense for the client, maybe to celebrate a big win, um, you know, maybe something more custom and personalized.

It's not a requirement, but I will say I highly recommend a nice Christmas card. Holiday card of some kind. Um, signed by the team. There's lots of different options. Um, so you know, It's time. It's time to get those going. If you're a Christmas card, you know, writer on the personal side, it really spills over into business.

But a lot of times people really want to do these things and they're thinking about it too late. If you want to send out holiday cards, now is the time to be thinking about it. Because if nothing else, you can have them completely ready to go and pop them in the mail in the next week or so, if you're, if you're a bit more of a last minute er.

That brings us to Seasonal item number four. Christmas for the team. You know, are you doing a holiday party? Are you doing holiday gifts? Are you doing Christmas bonuses? You know, all of these pieces. The bonuses might tie into the tax planning. That's why this list all needs to be done kind of at the same time.

You know, if you've done, if you've caught up the books, you've done the tax, uh, tax prep and planning. Now, you know, do you have a little more profit to work with? Do you doing a little more, you know? Year end bonuses, that kind of thing, getting them in. Uh, so, something to think about at this time of year is what are we doing for the team?

The now and the end. Decental item number five, holiday hour. There's so much to think about this time of year between school schedules, kids Christmas concerts, sports Christmas concerts, or, you know, events of any kind. You've got the stat holidays, uh, you got Christmas parties, all of these types of things all play into it.

I actually just booked, uh, just today, I booked something on a, someone's calendly link. And, um, I got an email back, you know, a few hours later that said, Hey, I should have booked the time off in my calendar. I'm actually at my partner's, uh, Christmas party. It's going to go late. You know, a 9am meeting is not super ideal.

Is there any way we can reschedule? I, of course, replied and said, hey, no problem. Have one for me. I'll reschedule it now. Like, have a great night. And, uh, you know, they were super appreciative. But all of that really could have been avoided by just making sure that on the calendar, you're not just booking out the time of these events, but making sure to factor in travel.

Um, and of course, a little recovery time where it's needed. So, you know, if you have your kid's Christmas concert, make sure that the concert is on your calendar. Uh, so that you're, you know, if you're taking the time off work to go and be able to be there, make sure that you're factoring in travel time, time for parking, that you're not feeling super rushed, and you're also not having to, you know, reschedule with someone last minute.

It's a very busy time of year and ultimately, you know, you want to make sure that you're staying on top of your calendar. So that you're not having to do last minute reschedules that can frustrate, um, either, you know, your clients or business, um, associates or whatnot. Ultimately, everyone is short on time at this time of year.

So let's try our best and, you know, keep it, the schedule organized. Another, uh, thing to think about is updating your Google business profile with your holiday hours. Now sometimes, you know, around the holidays, the Google will send you a little email. prompt you asking you if your hours have changed for the upcoming holidays.

Do you have the option to fill that out for the whole year? Um, all in one go, you know adjusting for all of the holidays. But if you haven't done that in the past now is a great time to just log in. You don't have to think about it closer to the actual holidays, but making sure that if you're going to be closed that you mark that you're going to be closed.

That ties in to item number six, which is social media. Making sure that, you know, now is a great time, even if you prefer to do your social media, you know, not scheduled in advance. There's, there's definitely, you know, uh, I, I'm super curious about the percentage, but the, you know, of, of people who like to schedule their content and batch create versus those who like to schedule on the fly.

There's nothing wrong with either method if... It works for you and you can be consistent. But over the holidays, even if you don't pre schedule your content, or maybe you do sometimes and then you fall off the wagon, um, you know, over the holidays is a great time to schedule that content. And especially when you're going to be closed, you know, don't, don't hesitate to really add that to your social media and say, Hey, We're actually going to be closed.

Um, you know, so if you're going to be closed, say Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, you know, on the Thursday run the post that said, you know, we will be off and be back in the office for Tuesday morning, 9am. You know, have a wonderful holiday time with your family. Yada, yada, yada. Be organized, be prepared. So there's no question.

Um, you know, you want to make sure that your, um, any auto replies for your email, chat widgets, those kinds of things are also. Um, organized for the holiday season that, you know, if you're not going to have coverage for these things, you know, set an automation, grab the person's information and make sure that you give them a call back when you're back in the office.

Some of these things just take a little bit of pre planning and you can be so organized and still give an incredible customer experience while you're actually also still providing, you know, and enjoying an amazing holiday experience with the family. Um, you know, there's nothing worse than forgetting to book some time off in your calendar and your whole family is home and you have some meat.

I speak on this one from so much experience, especially because, you know, like I said at the beginning of the episode, We have some clients in Canada and we have some clients in the U. S. So, so oftentimes, you know, my whole family is home from school or, or work or whatnot for a specific holiday, but it's not an American holiday.

And so, you know, the American clients have booked on the calendar. Um, I learned, you know, about a year ago, I got really, um, organized about making sure that those days were booked off on the calendar so that You know, my kids aren't all standing there going like, Hey mom, like, you know, what's happening?

And me being like, Oh, I just have three meetings to go. Um, you know, I always have the best of intentions on those days of wrapping up earlier, but I'll be honest, once I'm in work mode and taking meetings, taking calls, it's very easy for the day to get away from. Now I'm very diligent about adding those times, pro D days, um, you know, holiday days, those kinds of things onto the calendar.

The last piece, seasonal item number seven, ties into the books. It ties into the planning. It is. the budget. A lot of people, a shocking number of people, tell me they have never had a business budget. Some very successful long term business people and some newer business owners. I can't get enough of the good old business budget.

And so if you have not had a budget in the past, or you have had a budget in the past, uh, but you haven't done your budget for 2024, now is an amazing time to, to have a look. I will say that you really want to have. up to the end of Q3 done and reconciled in your bookkeeping before you attempt to do the budget for the following year.

Because you're really going to take a lot of that information and extrapolate it out in terms of now business growth. You know, you really want to know what is your carrying cost per employee. Um, now look at your revenue goals and then be able to actually kind of reverse engineer and look at some costs, you know, for example, the employee carrying costs.

And say, okay, well, in order to hit the revenue goals, we need to hire three more people. Those three people are going to have an additional carrying cost of, you know, XYZ, you know, looking at advertising, uh, looking at investment into software, into different marketing, into different, you know, infrastructure for your business.

Um, those are the types of things that you really want to be laying out at the beginning of the year, uh, so that you know where you need to be in order to make your goals happen. You know, oftentimes business owners are kind of flying by the seat of their pants, especially when they're in growth mode.

It's just, we just need to grow. Grow, grow, grow, grow. But the key is actually sustainable, profitable growth that leads to the best place. And so just growing for the sake of growing often leads to difficult difficulties in execution. Uh, things become more complicated. You've got too many irons in the fire, too many things.

And, and at times, some of them are actually costing you money instead of profiting you money. And so, you know, we want to have the appropriate information to make those educated. Decisions in the direction that we push for next year. So those are our top seven items that we should really be focused on this year.

So, you know, at this time of the year, we got our bookkeeping, our tax prep, our Christmas holiday, you know, treats and treasures for clients. Same thing for the team as into the holiday party, any Christmas bonuses, etc. Really planning out the holiday hours. When are you going to work? When are you not going to work?

Don't try to reinvent the wheel here. I also see business owners when it comes to holiday hours. They'll, they'll decide. Hey, I actually, you know, the Friday is when most people are going to take off, but, you know, that isn't so great for us. So we're going to, you know, have the team work the Friday and instead we'll take the Monday.

In some industries, this is totally fine. If you need access to customers or you need to be able to pick up, you know, parts, materials, supplies, and some, and all the stores are going to be closed or your customers are going to be off, you're really setting yourself and your team up for a tough day. You know, if you have to pick up parts and all of your suppliers are closed because You've taken one day and they've taken another.

This can be incredibly frustrating for the team and for the customers. Um, I actually had a, uh, a business owner recently. They did just that. They decided to kind of move some dates around on the calendar and they ended up with a customer who had an emergency on the day that technically was not the staff.

The way that this business had kind of adjusted the schedule, it ended up being the staff for them. The customer was genuinely unimpressed when their employee said, Oh, I'm really sorry we're not available that day. Um, you know, that's, that's when we're taking the stat holiday and the, the, the customer kind of laughed at it, but that's not the stat holiday.

And so I'm not paying overtime and I'm not doing all of these things based on the fact that, you know, you business owner have, you know, changed things around a bit. So you have to be mindful of that. Of course, there are some industries, you know, if you're a solopreneur. Um, and you don't need access to, you know, different stores or customers or whatever.

You might be able to do whatever you want with the schedule, but you just need to be factoring these items in. Be mindful of the resources that you need for you and your team to do your job. Um, we've got the social media. Make sure it's scheduled. Make sure you wish people, you know, a happy holidays or whatever is, um, authentic to your business.

And, you know, that, that final budget. Tie it all together. Um, you know, the tax planning, the bookkeeping, and, and the rest of these pieces. Set a nice budget so that you have a plan for next year. If you need some help with the budget, the bookkeeping, or even the tax prep, uh, don't hesitate to hit up our agency site, Botcher, B O T T C H E R dot I O.

We are happy to help you through this kind of busy paperwork season, which ultimately kind of coincides with just that busy season in general. You know, you got your holiday decorating, all the parties, the getting together with friends, the gift wrapping. It's just a busy time, so don't let it get away from you.

Make sure that you get the prep and the planning out of the way so that you can enjoy that time with your family. And guys, that's all for today. Well, we are all out of time for today. Follow the show by going to any podcast app and searching Surface Base Business Society. Click subscribe, click the fifth star and leave us a written review.

Have a great week and we will see you soon.