007. BONUS - The Profit Society with Jen Fischer
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INTRO
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Lisa: [00:00:00] Simplicity, balance, and efficiency shouldn't just be items on your eternal wishlist. If you're a side hustler or mompreneur who wants to level. Up and be a true CEO, create a business that supports your family while still maintaining a life you love, you're in the right place. I'm your host, Lisa Kinser, and you're listening to The Simply Booked Podcast. I'm a wife, #girlmom of two, bookkeeper, and owner of Simply Booked, LLC. Where I help small business owners like you know, and grow their profits. So heat that cup of coffee for .The third time this morning, and let's get started.
CONTENT
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Lisa: Hello. Thanks for joining us on another episode of the simply booked podcast today, I have a very special bonus episode. I don't normally post every week and this one is coming in between a two week break. So I have Jen Fisher with me and we have a big announcement today. So first before we make it our announcement, I'm gonna let Jen introduce herself.
Jen: I'm Jen [00:01:00] Fisher owner of numbers by Jen. I am. In Cincinnati, Ohio. And I've been doing this unofficially, since December of 2019, and officially since may of 2021. I had to think about that for a second stupid pandemic.
Lisa: And so you are a bookkeeper and we met through Katie Farrow's coaching program life by the books. And I guess you've been in that program since March, right?
Jen: I think so. Yeah.
Lisa: I joined in October of last year and I was the last live round that she did so I was like the last official cohort before she opened it up to be open anytime.
And That's just been really valuable to me. And it's been a lot of fun getting to know everybody. Jen and I are actually both going on a retreat that Katie is hosting and that's in a couple months, but it's funny. I was thinking about this the other day. [00:02:00] When she first mentioned the retreat I didn't necessarily want to go like I did, but the more I got to know other members of the group and not just Katie, the more I was like, oh, this is gonna be so much fun. Like I'm looking forward to it now.
Jen: Funny because you were the first one to buy weren't you
Lisa: Yes, I was and that was another thing. I was like, every coaching call that we would do on zoom.
We did these about once a month. Every time we get off the call, I would be like, this is so much fun. These are like my best friends. And then I'm just like up talking to my husband about how much I love my business and
Jen: Mm-hmm
Lisa: so much better than working in corporate. And I can't believe this is my life.
Jen: would probably do the same, except my husband's always sleeping when they're over.
Lisa: Right. Normal people are asleep by the time we get off the calls.
Jen: just come into the room all amped up and he's asleep.
Lisa: That's funny. My husband's usually awake. When we're off calls, but that's when I just go into big. Big stories about how much I love my business and just gush about everything. [00:03:00] So our big announcement is that Jen and I are starting a membership. It's called the profit society and it's going to be a group membership. That's part, community part, live workshops. Part networking, but it's all focused on profit. And DIY your bookkeeping. So since she and I are both bookkeepers, we have a really good opportunity for business owners that don't necessarily have the funds to hire a bookkeeper.
You can join this group and we have a template for If you're a founding member, you get the template for free and we will work through the template with you monthly on coworking sessions. So the great thing about that is that we're holding you accountable to do your books monthly. We'll help you figure out how to load all your transactions into the template. Answer, any questions you have while you're going through it, it's going to be really fun. And we were talking about this earlier. We hope that it's a [00:04:00] no brainer fee to where any small business, even if you're not profitable yet.
Or if you don't know that you're profitable, because if you're not doing your books , you just don't know. You can join and get a lot of benefit from it and we recently got the opportunity to try A software called heartbeat. And it's an app or a website. That's very similar to circle. If you're familiar with that, it's like a Facebook group.
Without the distractions of Facebook. So heartbeat is its own community platform. And we really, really like it. So that's where we're hosting our community. And there's an app that you can download no matter if you have iPhone or Android. There's a lot of fun features that we're still playing with and if you're listening to this podcast on September 21st.
Today is the launch day. You can go be a founding member. And you can only be a founding member for the first week that we have the doors open. So if you listen to this and it's after, I don't know, the [00:05:00] 27th, I think is a more closing the doors for founding members.
The founding price is $30 a month. And. that is just crazy cheap. So
Jen: Mm-hmm
Lisa: Jen and I were messaging yesterday or today, and she was like... I think we need to raise the price. I think we talked ourselves out of it . but that just means that there's even more incentive to join now.
So , before we come to our senses or I don't know. I, I just feel like this is the right price and for the right people, it'll be a really great fit. So do you have anything to add to that? I just rambled on forever.
Jen: I think that one of the main things I'm excited for, and especially when I went in to set up all of the pieces of heartbeat... I reached out to a handful of people that I know that DIY their books and that was to do a little market research, I guess.
And that was a common theme with everybody is having accountability. And that's one of the [00:06:00] main reasons why they ignore their books and put it off until the end of the year or when they need them urgently for.
Lisa: mm-hmm
Jen: know for a loan or something,
Lisa: taxes.
Jen: yeah, taxes . And so I immediately liked when we were setting up heartbeat that they had an accountability like that was part of the system.
And we could put a framework in place for that. And I know we talked about like gamifying accountability in some way, if we could. And so I know that we'll have. By the 21st, some sort of rough framework for that too. but I think that's one thing that will be huge for people is having a community that's checking in on them and we'll have those co-working sessions once a month where we're all getting together and we're doing our books as a team.
And as I'm saying that right now, I'm realizing that I totally neglect my own books because I spend so much time on other people's. Are you the same?
Lisa: no, actually do mind [00:07:00] first. Yeah. And so I think actually Katie said this, she said Do your own books first, because they're the easiest because you know, all the expenses and everything, and it gets you motivated to do the rest.
And that's really worked for me. So it's treating yourself as your best client and you're the top priority. So that's what I try to do because I'm not usually in the right head space at the beginning of the month. I'm like, okay, I have all of this client work to do. And. Once I get into my own books.
I'm like, oh, this, this looks pretty good. Everything's clean. And and it just makes me motivated for it. So I'm trying to take on that. And it's worked so far. I mean, I've done it pretty much ever since I've had income. So
Jen: That's great. I am the opposite. So I neglect mine until the quarter when I need to submit my estimated tax payment. And I do that. Okay. So kind of similar, I do it because I know it's EAs, like [00:08:00] mine are the easiest, and so I know I can knock 'em out in no time flat, so I leave them until the end. And so I personally as a bookkeeper, I'm excited for a co-working session where I have an excuse to sit and work on my own books, along with
Lisa: we know what you'll be doing.
Jen: Yeah. so, anyway, accountability, I just wanna point that out. I think that's huge for people, and I think that it'll be something that I know I will be focused on in the community. And I think that heartbeat specifically has a lot of nice features in place to promote account.
Lisa: I think so too. And it's, it's nice that you can turn on and off notifications, but the way that it really seamlessly works with zoom meetings, like whenever there's a zoom going live, even if you didn't RSVP, cuz you didn't think you could go, you just happen to be online. You see this little blue button pop up that says join zoom.
I think it just really makes it easy even for people that aren't [00:09:00] technology. Focused. I think it'll be a fun. Yeah. Another thing I'm really excited about is that we are business owners, even though we're bookkeepers. We're small business owners ourselves, and it'll be really fun to get to know other small business owners.
And you never know who you could meet in the group and potentially collaborate with. So you know, Jen and I both need a good copywriter. speaking of cause we both suck at. I'm speaking for myself, but I feel like you feel the same way about
Jen: No, I do well. I mean, it makes sense, right? We're numbers people. We're not wordsmith. So
Lisa: Right. And that's kind of the whole point is if someone's a copywriter, they likely aren't numbers people. So this would be a really good group and we can we can help each other out. But just getting to know other business owners is really fun because there can be industries that you've never even heard of.
And just hearing how they make money is a lot of fun. And I think that's not necessarily unique to people that like numbers [00:10:00] But
Jen: almost feel like. Them joining the community is like a tiny pre-qualifier. You know, like if somebody's in there, then they take their business seriously enough. They respect their business enough to take a step toward knowing their numbers, getting organized. And so if you find somebody in there in a different industry than somebody directly word of mouth, but almost somebody that was in my circle or your circle or both of our circles.
Lisa: Yeah. And it's really fun to. Get to know more people expand your network and you never know what that could mean in the future. So I like that. And constantly, I'm always thinking of things that I wanna talk about, like in little workshops and it doesn't always have to be bookkeeping.
Focused, but it will always be something that will help your profit. Something that I've been trying to focus on lately is looking at my expenses and realize what [00:11:00] expenses are investments versus what is just an expense. And trying to realize that if I'm spending more money one month, it needs to be.
Investments and not just cuz I'm spending more money on whatever, like if it's software and it's an annual subscription for something that's obviously an investment. Or if it's a course or a membership, I feel like those are investments also. And I'm actually in another membership, that's a low fee and I have gotten a ton of knowledge from it already and I've only been in it for two months.
And that's something that I don't necessarily think I would just get rid of. because it's been really valuable and I have potential clients that are in that group that I can bring value to them. People post questions about all kinds of stuff. And it's not just bookkeeping or just business related.
It's just all kinds of stuff. You never know what you're gonna see. So I always like all the possibilities of just network.
Jen: Yeah, I think it's a nice, approachable way for [00:12:00] networking too, as an introvert. And I know
Lisa: I was thinking the same thing I was like on zoom. That's easy. I can do that.
Jen: easy networking. Yeah. We should talk about the workshops though. I already have so many ideas for the workshops and I would really love to do a budgeting one before the year is over. So we can, everybody can put some sort of plan together for 2023.
Lisa: Mm-hmm
Jen: And so we'll have workshops once a month toward the end of the month.
I think budgeting is the main one I had in mind. I know. I always like to talk about bank account structure too, because I'm a fan of profit first. And I think that I like that strategy and I find it interesting to talk about.
So like, selfishly, I like to talk about that. So that could be a good workshop.
Lisa: Yeah, I definitely think profit first would be good. I do a version of that in my business, but yeah, that would definitely be something that would bring a lot of [00:13:00] questions. I'm sure.
So who would be the best person to join? What does that look like to.
Jen: Someone who is very successful, small business owners. And my impression is that the thought of partnering with a bookkeeper almost sounds overwhelming because they think that it will be work like they will need to, there will be onboarding and I need to give you all these documents and then I run into a bunch of people who it's like a balance they wanna outsource, but they also wanna know it as a business owner. Like they feel the pressure to be that person and to be in the know on it. So somebody who is maybe not ready to outsource because it stresses them out or because they really wanna be involved in it.
Lisa: I think The way my brain works. When I first started my business it was the easiest to invest in myself like purchase courses and memberships, but it was a [00:14:00] little bit harder to stretch my budget for the best software. Even if I knew it was the best, I still tried to skimp and like piece together things and just make it work.
But then once I realized I was gonna be successful regard. Then I was able to splurge on the software. And then now I feel like now that I have enough profit that I'm seeing now, I feel like I can finally start outsourcing things. And I feel like I'm more likely to outsource before I hire, if that makes sense, because outsourcing like your social media or your copywriting is still.
Relying on someone else to do it. And hiring is relying on myself to train somebody and then be responsible for them too. So that's kind of my process of things that I was comfortable with at the beginning versus now. And I'm still in the starting process in my business, it's a little bit less than a year old, but I feel like I've [00:15:00] gone through fairly quickly of all those stages and.
Like I said, I think memberships and coaching was the easiest to spend money on. And I know it's really easy to spend a lot of money on online classes and then never take them So having a group and an accountability has really helped me with the coaching program that you and I are in together.
And. It just makes me get through it. So I know that this isn't necessarily a course but it's a membership that comes with a course like template. And then we work through it together every month. I think when I think of new business owners that don't wanna do their numbers, it's the easiest thing to put off because doing your bookkeeping doesn't in and of itself make you money.
But the knowledge that you get from seeing those numbers helps you make more money. So it's hard to explain without really seeing it. And you shouldn't see it just once a year when it's [00:16:00] tax time and your CPA needs it. So I think that's my passion of like, why I think bookkeeping is important because I owned a party rental.
Before I started my bookkeeping business and I never did my books and I was detoxing from my corporate job and party rentals was the opposite of accounting. I went all in on that and I almost hired a bookkeeper. I almost hired a bookkeeper and I was thinking I'm not a bookkeeper, I'm a party rental business owner.
And so I was about to hire someone and then I. I would actually rather be doing that type of business. Once I detoxed and got it all outta my system, I sold that business and started a bookkeeping practice. But I think just that it needs to be done and doing it are completely different things
Jen: Yeah. Yeah.
Lisa: but I think this membership that we're going to make is really exciting because it's not just pigeonholed into bookkeeping.
So it's not like you have to be a bookkeeper to be [00:17:00] in this group. You don't even have to know what you're doing, cuz we'll be there to help you. But just that there's so much more that you can gain from it as a new business owner, even a fairly successful business owner that just wants to do it themselves.
Jen: Yeah. And I mean, getting back to the no brainer price point I think, you know, you get the monthly coworking session then the workshop and then the community where you and I are active to answer questions throughout the month. Anytime so you not only have access to one bookkeeper, but two
Lisa: mm-hmm
Jen: and two people who are gonna keep you on track, provide a bunch of resources that are just gonna compound over time. If you are a business owner and you have been avoiding your books and want a low cost, easy way to dip your toe into bookkeeping finally. So you can grow your [00:18:00] bottom line and know your number's better. I
Lisa: Yeah. And I think that a lot of people think bookkeepers are rigid and not any fun, but
Jen: We're so fun. We each have our glass of wine.
Lisa: I know. I think that it'll be a lot more fun than just work. If this is something that interests you, you should come and go check out the profit society.net and join our group. And like I said, if you join within the first week, you'll be a founding member.
You get to lock that price in forever, as long as you wanna stay. And.
Jen is like, we're gonna raise this price like soon. And we might no promises because it is incredibly cheap or we're recording this three weeks before we launch, so we still have a lot to do, and it's hard to on our side to create. Pretty graphics and all of these things and not release them to the world yet.
Okay. So we're gonna do a fire round. I told Jen to think of some questions to ask me, and I thought of some questions to ask her. So we're [00:19:00] gonna.
Jen: Fire
Lisa: And you know what happens happens.
Jen: okay. I think you should start. I think yours are probably more professional than mine.
Lisa: Okay. Okay. What is your favorite business software?
Jen: So I feel like I am almost going through like a breakup with Dubsado because I loved it so much. And then I met Kajabi and it's like your first love. I still have a special spot in my heart for Dubsado and I still really love it. So I think I'm gonna pick Dubsado
Lisa: Okay.
Jen: and I love all the workflows.
I think eventually they will have a better autopay feature, which will be really nice for business owners,
Lisa: working on it.
Jen: but I think the workflows are great and they're really easy compared to some other software workflows that I've tried to implement.
Lisa: Mm-hmm
Jen: MailChimp. Um,
Lisa: not naming names, but
Jen: Anyway, so Dubsado final answer.
What's the craziest thing you've ever done.
Lisa: Oh my gosh.
Jen: Probably
Lisa: Okay. [00:20:00] So I got in a fight at a concert I
Jen: Where at
Lisa: for a couple years and it was the house of blues. and Senses Fail was the band and we were at the front. And of course I always listened to punk music growing up. So that was just kind of my thing. But there was a girl with pigtails and I say, girl, she was, you know, probably early twenties.
And so was I, and she did not wanna be touched. but she was at the very front, like on the stage, like against the stage. And I was getting pushed into her, like right behind her and she just kept elbowing me. And I don't know everybody was like, what's going on? I don't know, but it was loud. So you couldn't really tell, but so her pigtail is like this and I grab her like her hair above her pigtail. So I messed up for hair cuz you know, when that happens, it just leaves a big bump
Jen: Yes.
Lisa: and I thought I was really tough. Yeah, I saw [00:21:00] Senses Fail again, pretty recently, like within the past few weeks here in Oklahoma city and that didn't happen I didn't have a re replay of that fight, but I did feel pretty tough.
I will say that much.
Jen: That's funny. I got into a fight once at a concert at river bend, actually. Yeah.
Lisa: Buffett there.
Jen: I don't remember what concert it was. Probably Dave Matthew's band, if I had to guess. And all I remember is it was kinda the same thing. Like we were fighting for space, you know on the general admission lawn. And I turned around to my friend, cuz I had like dangly earrings in at the time this was in college.
I turned around to my friend. I took my earrings out and I asked him to hold them just so I could turn around and , I didn't wanna ripping out my earrings. And as soon as I turned around to go get her, he grabbed me to try to keep me from attacking.
Lisa: Earrings. This is what bookkeepers do in our free time.
Jen: As soon as you said, pigtails, I thought, Ooh, she's done for You don't wanna be the one with pigtails during a [00:22:00] fight.
Lisa: I know. And yeah. It was just fun. And don't be at the front of the mosh pit during a punk show. If you don't wanna be touched that's my 2 cents okay.
Jen: we should back up and do your favorite software since I was gonna ask it anyway.
Lisa: okay. Yeah. My favorite software was honey book actually , which is funny. It was honey book when I had my party rental business. And every time I got paid, little dollar bills fell from the sky on the app and I loved it.
I really liked honey book, but it didn't work well for a bookkeeping business. I did try to use it for a while. and then I tried Dubsado and I don't remember. Oh. And then I just switched to Kajabi and I love Kajabi, but I think honey book was my original love, like you said.
Jen: Yeah,
Lisa: Okay. Who is your favorite author?
Jen: so I don't hardly ever read, which is terrible. I feel like I should. And [00:23:00] especially being , I don't know, being a bookkeeper, you know, that little emoji with this, with the glasses, I feel like I should be more studious and live up to that emoji okay. So I really like Jody, I don't know how you say her last name, Jody Picoult
do you know her?
Lisa: You said Jodi Picoult? No
Jen: and they're just kind of girly stories like drama, I guess. Easy read.
Lisa: yeah.
Jen: And she comes out with new ones every so often.
I think the reason why I like it, so I like to watch TV and I like to watch a lot of bad TV. And I think the reason why I like it is because it kind of reminds me of like a TV drama a little bit. I dunno. Okay. My turn right. This might be inappropriate but Do you have like a person who like your free pass, basically.
Lisa: You're talking about if I was, if I were to cheat on my husband or something who would it be with? Um, uh, Jimmy Fallon.
Jen: I told my husband to come get me. If I got too loud out here and I feel like , I'm approaching.
Lisa: Jimmy Fallon [00:24:00] hugged me. One time I went to New York city, saw him when he was on the host of late night. So now he's the tonight show, but when it was late night, I went and saw him with my cousin and he like goes up and down the aisles of the crowd after recording. And I asked him if I could have a hug.
And he said, of course What was your favorite or what's been the most beneficial business investment you've made.
Jen: Wait, I know you didn't ask. I know nobody asked, but my one is Chris Hemsworth.
Lisa: you're like, just have to put this out there into the universe. Chris. Heworth if you're out there,
Jen: Yes.
Lisa: you're listening to the simply booked podcast. Uh, how funny? So would your husband be okay with that? Does he know that like he'd have to be okay with that?
Jen: okay, so I have two hall passes and he's more on board with Joe burrow, the quarterback for the Bengals.
Lisa: okay.
Jen: He said, if I can secure Joe burrow, he's completely fine with it [00:25:00] because then he can brag that his ex-wife is married to Joe burrow.
You had a real question for me.
Lisa: I like your question's better. What's been your most valuable business investment.
Jen: Serena Shoup's course, which is the bookkeeping business accelerator.
Lisa: Huh.
Jen: And at the time it felt like a lot of money,
Lisa: Mm-hmm
Jen: but I. It was weird because it was like a lot of money, but also kind of a no brainer at the time, because she had a lot of templates and a lot of, I could tell from her sales page and from some of the graphics and whatnot that she was offering a lot of templates and a lot of processes and software recommendations and just a lot of the stuff that I needed to take my business from. Thing to an actual full-fledged business.
Lisa: mm-hmm
Jen: so I think that was really a turning point for me. I got so excited to get in there and. Go through the modules and put a lot [00:26:00] of real things in place. And so
Lisa: So how did you find her originally? Do you remember?
Jen: I think it was on Instagram and back then, I was just. Listening to a lot of bookkeeping, specific podcasts, bookkeeping, like business podcast. And I was like joining all the groups on Facebook and just really like soaking in as much as I could. And I came across her. And her course just was exactly what I needed at that time.
It was like divine.
Lisa: That's
Jen: then like Katie's when Katie's course came along, that was also exactly what I needed. And I did the one-on-one coaching with her and it was perfect for that time too. But it just like really kick started.
Lisa: There always is something though. That's just a game changer that it's hard to beat it. It's just whatever really struck a chord with you and just made you realize that's what I'm gonna do.
Jen: yeah
Lisa: That's definitely how Katie's course was [00:27:00] for me. And I found her through her podcast. So I was listening to the podcast and I guess she didn't even, either she didn't have the opener that.
That she has those courses, or I was not listening to it feel like I listened to a bunch of episodes before I put two and two together that she had a course. And so once I realized that I made myself like binge the rest of her podcast before I really looked into the courses, cuz I was like this is free.
So I did that and then I was like, now I'm definitely gonna buy the course. I love her. And I feel like I know her and she's never met me or heard of me before but I listen to her podcast. Yeah.
Jen: I felt the same way with Serena. So she has a podcast too. And her podcast launched. I wanna say like around the time that I started the course, but I remember just being so grateful that I found it and it. It was just, it felt life changing at the time. And I remember [00:28:00] messaging her on Instagram and telling her, like thanking her and telling her how grateful I was for her course.
And she's probably like, okay.
Lisa: no, I bet she loves it. So I love it. And I don't know, I don't think that's kind of stuff will ever get old.
It's just neat to see like how people come together. And I really wish that there was some way that I could go back in time and really see how I figured out that Katie existed. Because I'm like, did I see a Facebook ad or did I search something specific on the podcast app to find
Jen: all happens so fast.
Lisa: Yeah.
Jen: I, there, cuz there will be times where I sit down at the computer and I think I get some, an idea in my mind and I think I really need to. Focus on being a podcast guest, cuz like I saw somebody and they have all of these guest highlights and their stories and I should do that.
And then I'll get down the rabbit hole of like all these Facebook groups and then I'll join these free [00:29:00] memberships where they match up people and.
Lisa: mm-hmm
Jen: And then I start getting all these emails because I've signed up for all these things. And I can't them originated from, I spent one afternoon signing up for 20 things and
Lisa: I do the same thing. And then I have to unsubscribe all the next day. Thanks for tuning in. This has been really fun chatting with Jen. She's my first guest ever. I might have her on again, if you're lucky but,
Jen: I have more fire questions.
Lisa: Yeah,
Jen: I have to come back.
Lisa: maybe it'll just be a rapid fire episode.
Jen: Yeah.
Lisa: So anyway, we would really love if you have any questions, DM, each of us, I'm gonna have both of our Instagram names, in the show notes.
So scroll down and see those and send us a message or just contact us, screenshot this episode and let us know that you listened and hopefully we'll see you in our. Thanks for listening. Bye.
OUTRO
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Lisa: Thank you so much for listening, and you've made it all the way to the end! To view the complete show [00:30:00] notes and all the links mentioned in today's episode, please visit simplybooked.llc/podcast. And before you go, make sure you leave a rating and review because even though it just takes a few seconds, it really does make a difference. Thanks again for joining me in this episode of The Simply Booked Podcast i'll see you soon!
Jen: That's so weird, cuz this is the first time we're talking about it and it's just to each other.
Lisa: I know
Jen: And nobody's even gonna hear it for three weeks.
Lisa: I know. Oh my gosh.