Copy of 193 | Restore Rewind: How I Went from $200K in Debt to Financial Freedom with these 4 Principles
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[00:00:00] Hey friends. Welcome back to the Call to Lead podcast. So I have decided to make an executive decision. I know last week was the first of a new series that I'm doing, talking about the three biggest things that are holding you back in your business. And last week I shared. The first reason might be your mindset around money.
Well, since I posted that episode, I actually had someone reach out and ask, ~uh,~ as she remembered that I had done an episode at some point about my exact money breakdown and what I recommend once you start making money in your direct sales business, whether that's a hundred dollars, a thousand dollars, or a hundred thousand dollars.
I wrote down my framework and I did an entire episode on it, not just sharing what I recommend or what I have found to be the simplest, easiest way to tell your money where to go and to scale it and grow as your income grows. But even better than that, I shared one of the most powerful layers [00:01:00] of my testimony, my personal testimony.
And so I went back and listened to that podcast 'cause I thought, what did I say? And I've known from day one in starting Restore Collective that this is something that I wanted to bring into our field, either through some sort of financial freedom course or some way to be able to teach and coach people once they do start making money.
The best way is to steward it well. And so I thought, well, until we can get to that point where we have a course or where we have the internal structure for it, I thought, why not bring that episode back and share both the heartfelt story of how I went from hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. To being debt free.
Not even having a credit card. Actually still I do have technically have one credit card, but literally Roger holds onto it. And the power of partnering with your partner, especially if you have different giftings when it comes to ~money,~ money mindset. 'cause Roger's ~the ~the saver. I'm the spender. I'm actually the nerd.
So I love me numbers and spreadsheets, and you guys know that about me. But I digress. [00:02:00] I decided to interrupt this regularly scheduled program to share. What I shared a little while ago about my exact story of how I went deep in debt into building a paycheck that helped us to grow the financial freedom of our family, but not by being a six figure earner overnight.
So if you're just getting started in your business, I think this will be a blessing and I cannot wait to share my story and some tips and wisdom with you and see what you think. So here we go.
[00:03:00]
So before I get into my exact framework that I use in my business right now, too. I basically tell my money where to go. I feel like I need to ~kind of ~share a little bit of the backstory before I was even in network marketing or honestly, around the time that I joined my first network marketing business, which I, if you haven't heard, my story was a small business owner. I had a boutique and bridal shop in Savannah, Georgia.
At one point I had three boutiques. And we were voted best women's store, best boutique, best bridal shop for ~many, ~many years in a row. Like seriously, like a decade or more. [00:04:00] And even though I ~kind of ~had this very kind of desirable, shiny. Dream job. If you will. My friends. I was deep in debt and I was on the struggle bus. And part of it was because of the recession of 2008, which actually for me started about 2006, which is the year that I opened my bridal salon. So this is when I expanded with my second and third business. And.
Basically that's another story for another day, but it was not a pretty picture. And I spent the next 10 years trying to ~kind of ~claw my way out of the hole that the recession put me in. But I say all this to say that if you are a small business owner, especially one that navigated that season, or honestly, maybe even navigated the most recent season of the pandemic, the global pandemic, and maybe being shut down in your business, it's not easy. And so I am actually going to, I cannot believe I'm going to do this, but I just searched this up.
And I have been praying about being as transparent as possible about unearthing all [00:05:00] of the dirty laundry of my past as. What I think my identity back then was that I was bad with money. And that my friends a lot was circumstantial, but it's not something that couldn't be turned around with a lot of help and guidance from the Lord with partnering with my husband. And honestly just implementing some sound money principles, many of which are found in the Bible. So I'm literally going to share what my like debt situation looked like.
~Um, ~if you're watching this on YouTube. You'll be able to literally physically see my spreadsheet here. And if you're listening to this on the podcast, which I know a lot of you are, I'll try to talk through it. But I'm literally going to be sharing my screen with a spreadsheet because I am. I'm a spreadsheet, nerd spreadsheet junkie that I made back in. I think it was 2015. ~Um, ~and essentially it is outlining the debt snowball that would be required to pay off all my credit card debt, my loan, and even things like outstanding tax debt that I had. And that's ~like, ~like that's ~like ~one of [00:06:00] those like painful shameful ones that I feel ~kind of ~crazy.
~You know, ~putting out there, but many of you guys who do have to put sales tax or pay sales tax on your business, which praise the Lord, those of us in network marketing, don't even have to worry about stuff like that. But it's stressful when the 20th rolls around. Each month and you have, ~you know, ~hopefully saved that sales tax you've collected from your customers in order to pay it back to the government. But if you've allocated those funds for other things, or if you're like me and you tend to be hopeful or optimistic that you'll have a great weekend and cover it up, you can ~sort of ~get behind on things like that.
And it's really. Not a good thing, but I'm just going to be totally honest and transparent of exactly where I was literally to the dollar when I show you guys a spreadsheet. So y'all ready. Buckle up.
MacBook Pro Microphone: Okay. So if you are looking at this, what you are seeing here is a very simple spreadsheet that I titled debt snowball. So, this was probably after my, ~I guess, ~second round of doing Dave Ramsey's financial peace university, which he teaches in tackling your lowest [00:07:00] or smallest debt first, and then applying that payment to your next and so on and so forth to where it starts to snowball, where you can tackle the bigger, larger ones with the same amount of money that you're used to paying or used to budgeting from your income.
Okay. And so when I'm showing you this, ~you know, ~I'm not gonna go through every single line of this, but what I will show you is that the, there is a grand total down at the bottom of all the debts, because I had one. 2, 3, 4 different. Credit cards, you guys Four. one personal three business that added up to it looks like, oh my gosh, ~like ~50 grand or more in credit card debt. ~Um, ~I had past due sales tax.
~Um, ~like I said before, and I had a loan that at this point was about $75,000. So all said, this was just shy of $200,000 that I was in debt at this point, which I believe again was in 2015. And this again is about the time that I decided to join my first network marketing [00:08:00] company. And one of the reasons for that was to try to get out of this messy situation. So let me keep telling you this story about that.
So now that I've heard that dirty laundry, let's keep it going. So when I first started in network marketing, My husband Roger and I had a family budget because again, we'd been through Dave Ramsey and we had an agreement where we would essentially take our household expenses, divide them into. And we would each contribute an amount towards those expenses. And at that time it was about $4,000 in household expenses. And I think that we had other things that maybe weren't factored into that account. But what that meant is that I was to contribute $2,000 a month towards our family expenses, from my business, which you would think running a business at the time that grossed close to a million dollars give or take, it would always have her between maybe 801 point, I think 1.4 million was my best year.
~Um, ~with my traditional boutique, you would think ~that ~that would be a breeze. But let me tell your friends. And if you are a small business [00:09:00] owner, ~you know, ~that often you get paid last and it was not easy. ~Uh, ~some months were easier than others to come up with that $2,000 some months were really challenging in order to be able to do that.
And so when I started my network marketing business, that was my first goal was like, how can I bring in an extra $2,000 to really take that pressure off to do what I loved at the time, which was run my business. And ~so, you know, ~that was essentially where I started with this, and that was the beginning of our debt-free journey and really trying to lean into.
~Um, you know, ~just being better stewards and better managers of the money. But at that point I really ~was, ~was in still not in a good financial shape. So then fast forward to year one. And I'm just going to ~keep, ~keep the bag of goodies coming for you guys. But you're one. ~Um, ~I remember that was my first full year with the company I'm with now saying at the time it was called mascara. And I think that first year I maybe brought in about 20 grand somewhere in there.
But my W2. From my. ~Uh, ~retail business was about half that I think it was about 10 or [00:10:00] 12,000. So I couldn't even believe it that even though that I had fallen short, first of all of my goal of bringing in $2,000 a month, which would be about 24 K ~from, ~from my business. I had more than doubled the income that I was giving myself from my business.
By adding on that additional revenue stream, which was totally a blessing. But come March of that next year, which was just over a year after having completed,~ um, you know, ~my first full year in network marketing. We got our tax bill from the. ~You know, ~for our personal,~ um,~ taxes, which essentially included all the business stuff as well. And you guys.
I ~had ~had my record year post-recession of my boutique, where I was just, again, ~right. ~Maybe just under a million dollars in gross revenue. And my profit was somewhere around the a hundred thousand dollar mark, which I was thrilled about because that was the biggest profit that I ~had ~had in years.
~You know, ~a 10% profit in a retail business is a great thing, but every dime of that had gone to debt [00:11:00] reduction. Because you saw the situation that I was in, ~right. ~To engrave my inventory. And so both of those things actually don't take away from your balance sheet. They just take away from your available cash. And so what that meant is I at about a 30% tax bracket had a tax liability from my end of about $30,000.
And guess who did not have $30,000 in her bank account? Me. And so don't be wherever, especially when you start making money, don't be like me. And you've got to be diligent about setting that money aside because it essentially ~doesn't ~doesn't belong to you. ~Right? ~Like tax money is definitely something that is owed.
~Um, ~and you definitely want to get ahead of it and get prepared from that. ~So, ~thankfully, because we had made investments in our retirement. ~Uh, ~for years, we did pull out some money from retirement and we were able to cover that. But that's about the time that my husband was like, oh ~right. ~You probably would have been better off sitting at home selling makeup.
Then trying to do both and, ~you know, ~spend all this time working in a business, that's not necessarily cutting it for our [00:12:00] family. And so that's when I started praying about selling my business. And so in year two, that's when. Of my Seint journey. That's when I sold my business, which sounds glamorous. But you guys.
I was super careful about this. I valued finding the perfect buyer and owner for it over just getting someone to pay me what it was worse on paper, because ultimately that's the worth of anything is what somebody's going to pay for it. ~Right. ~And so I wound up making the very difficult decision to essentially just let it go as an asset sale to my dream buyer, who is still the owner today, they are incredible.
And they kept my staff. They honestly are doing an even better job than I was even post. ~Uh, ~post pandemic, which is really amazing. But it wasn't a very glamorous sale because the amount that they gave me did not even wind up covering the debt that I still had on the business. So guess what? For the second time we had to pull out of our savings out of our retirement, essentially in order to cover that so that I could start clean.
Okay. So that's year two and my business [00:13:00] looking pretty right. So fast forward to around that second or third year, we'll call it year three. I decided to really lean into and partner with my husband. So I call him to this day. I call him my CFO because. I let him ~kind of ~lead the financial decisions, because if you've taken any of the Dave Ramsey courses, or as you'll see in my money mindset episode, that's coming up here, there's usually in a relationship there's a spender and a saver. I'm the spender, he's the saver. There's usually a nerd and a free spirit, which I'm the nerd.
Meaning I like all the budgets and I know all the things. But I go back to default the spender, but I was like, okay, honey, I need your help. Let's partner into this together. And so honestly, the things that I'm going to share with you, these, and there's going to be four PS that I'm going to share for my exact money breakdown. They were done in partnership with him, which if you are married and especially if you and your husband are on different kind of levels in terms of your,~ um, your, ~your spending habits and your money [00:14:00] mindset and all of those things.
That is one of the reasons why I really believe the Lord puts us with people who are different than we are, is so that we can together make each other stronger. Okay. And so this is something that we have been doing for years. It has made all the difference in the world in terms of just having so much more freedom in our finances. And so I'm so excited to roll this out to you today because honestly,
Whether you're making like a hundred dollars. A thousand dollars or six figures, these principles that I'm gonna talk to you about, they will apply to you and they will scale and grow with you as your business grows. Okay. So keep that in mind. So let's dive into the four P's or four principles. If you build, they all start with peace. ~Um, uh, ~how I implement my exact money breakdown.
Okay. So the first P is provider and that is acknowledging, who is your provider? Is it you? Not for me. I know who my provider is and it is from the Lord. And I know you might not be a believer like me and listen, I'm not here to push [00:15:00] anything down your throat. At all, I'm just sharing my story, my experience. And of course my beliefs, and we're all entitled to the freedom of believing everything that, anything that we want to write. But for me, I have seen this, I have experienced it. And especially in my journey as a small business owner, it was crystal clear to me.
And it's actually, it has a biblical, so Philippians four 19 says, and my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ. Jesus. So if you are in Christ, Jesus. God is going to show up for you and he's going to provide every need, whether that's financial, whether that's a friend, whether that's an idea for your business, whether that's the little, ~you know, ~
I ~kind of get, get~ spirit led decision that you need to make in your business. Like for me, when I knew I needed to let my business go. Trusting him and acknowledging that he is the one that is giving you everything. That is step one, but guess what? The biggest part of that is when you can acknowledge that you will be able to fully lean into choosing [00:16:00] face over fear that even in the scariest moments, when it feels like you're going to run out of money or when your bank account literally hits $50 and your, which there's a story behind that, that I'm going to share in the next episode, just get ready.
Cause that actually happened to me recently. Believe it or not, but when that comes before your paycheck comes and you're like, Lord, how is this even gonna,~ how,~ how is this going to work? This map? Doesn't add up. ~Well, ~when you acknowledge that it's all from him and that he will supply everything you need, that is going to give you so much freedom.
Which, ~you know, ~the Lord also says that when you take on his yoke, meaning literally ~like, ~like in an agricultural thing, it's like the yolk between two,~ um,~ Animals. I don't know what kind of animals anyway, but like when you take on his yoke, the burden becomes easy. It's like linking up with someone who can carry that weight for you because money stuff is really heavy. And actually speaking of the Bible, Jesus talked about money more than he talked about prayer and having faith like combined when you combine those two, I read that, that he actually talked about money [00:17:00] more than that.
So money was definitely something that was an important topic to him. And there are a lot of misconceptions, but also a lot of wisdom when you dive. Five into the Bible, but essentially acknowledging that he is the provider. Whether it's a little, whether it's a lot, it is all from him and not has got to be step one. So just to ~kind of ~tie that into my story as well, and honestly, both businesses, but as a.
Traditional entrepreneur having my boutique, I could feel that he was giving me exactly what I needed. But not necessarily more or an abundance than what I needed, which kind of got my attention to think ~like, ~Lord, what ~if, ~if this isn't it like. Or is this what you want me to do? And if not, like ~what else, ~what else could be.
For me. ~You know, ~what else could you have for me? Because I remember there were certain days that it was so scary where I would have at sales tax or payroll that was due on a Monday. And I would have to sell eight wedding dresses over that weekend in order to make that payment. And every time he would show up and it would be right within ~like ~a hundred dollars, but it would cover that [00:18:00] payroll again no more and not necessarily given me the abundance that I needed to contribute to our family.
Which is the whole point of owning a business, which we'll talk about that in a second. And that essentially it was that kind of wake up call to through the hard things financially to realize that I needed to lean on him and I needed to listen to him for what those next steps would be in my business. And so I did an episode that I'll definitely link in the comments of how to know whether it's the Lord's will for you to start, stop or grow your network marketing business.
And I think that would be a really helpful one for you to listen to if you're in that season, like I was of like, okay, what are you trying to tell me? So that's my four, my number one P, which is the provider and acknowledging that he is the provider first. Okay. So the number two P it's second principle.
Is profit. First profit first. So this is actually a book by Mike that I read probably about six years ago. Maybe somewhere in there 2016 probably [00:19:00] is when I found it. And it's a good one. Y'all and it basically says that as a small business owner. And so this applies, if you're a network marketer or any small business owner.
You need to make sure that your paying yourself. And providing for your family first, always that has got to be your number one priority in business. Otherwise you probably shouldn't be in that business. And again, you might need to be open-minded about what it is ~that ~that looks like. And the cool thing about the profit first model in network marketing versus like a traditional business where you've got to buy inventory and have employees and.
Do your own marketing and again, pay for sales taxes and all that stuff is there are limp. There's usually limited overhead that you're responsible for. So making a profit, especially if you plan for how you're gonna spend your money. It can be very easy and very simple and your business. And what's really cool is you have an opportunity like I did to make more money by even selling less or having less overall volume because you're able to [00:20:00] start a profitable business and you can get off the bat. And I always recommend for my, any new distributors that join my team.
And our company to make that their first goal usually in the first month is to make back that kit investment as soon as possible. So that you're starting your business from a place of profitability. And then you're maintaining that to where every time you. ~You know, ~are basically getting paid. Guess who's the first one to benefit you and your family. Okay.
So read that book. I can link it in the show notes as well. Profit first by Mike He is definitely a dream person. I would love to interview on the podcast. So you'll say a prayer. I can get him on here. Cause he's so good. There's a couple other books he's written too that are ~really, really, ~really great as far as business guys, but profit first is a good one to start. ~So, um, ~I love that the biblical kind of example of this is Proverbs 21 5, which is the plans of the diligent lead to profit.
So when you're diligent, when you set plans,~ uh,~ which that's gonna be the next little spoiler alert, that's gonna be the next P. It will lead to profit. [00:21:00] So just keep that in mind. ~Um, you know, that ~that profitability needs to be your goal. So how do you do that and how do you have the plans of the diligent? The next P the next principle is plan.
Not just make a plan, but plan on your average plan on your average income. ~So, ~this is ~really, ~really easy in network marketing to get very ahead of ourselves, especially as maybe a top leader, top seller or someone who is actually doing great things in your business and great is always going to be like a moving target, right? ~Like, I mean, ~I was thrilled making my couple hundred or couple thousand dollars a month.
~Right. ~I never dreamed that I could make. You're more than what I made in that first year in one month. ~Like, ~I, my mind is blown ~that ~that's even, ~that ~that's even possible. But it absolutely is possible. ~Um, ~but what you want to be ~really, really, ~really careful of is you don't want to plan your business.
On your best months. And it's very easy to do that. So for example, like if you're like, oh, ~well ~that one time I got paid. ~You know, ~$10,000 ~in that, ~in that one month. ~Um, ~so I'm going to plan [00:22:00] my spending accordingly. Or if you're like, dang it, I'm a goal getter and I have a big dream and I'm going to make that, that six figures this year and I'm going to hit 10 K and, ~you know, ~you gotta spend money to make money. And ~so. ~
Dang it I'm going to invest that money right now. And I'm going to, I'm going to do that. And so you're spending the money that you haven't even made yet with the hopes or the dreams that you will. And I've been there too, even as a traditional business owner. That was honestly, one of my biggest struggles is I would, I ~kind of ~held on to the glory days of our best month ever.
Or, ~you know, ~the,~ um, you know, ~pre-recession days and things like that, as opposed to looking at the reality of the numbers. I can be an optimist to a fault. And I've even done this with my Seint business, to be honest, I remember, I think it was in my first or second year, a couple of my uplines and leaders who were making really great money. They, and that was my goal, ~right. ~Was like, just following in their footsteps. They were planning these lavish trips in incentives and things like that.
And I was like, Ooh, I want to do that. And so I threw the [00:23:00] idea out there to pay for a cruise. Cause I was like, I want to go on a cruise. I've always wanted to go on a cruise and now I can afford a cruise ~kind of. ~And so I planned this elaborate cruise that was going to wind up costing me more than what I was making.
Which is never a good idea of my friends to plan something that you basically aren't making your money for. So w as the Lord always does, he worked it all out for good and it wound up that. It just, I actually can't remember the circumstances, but it wound up to where it, it did it happen. And I chose to do a retreat in a different way and it worked out just fine. But I learned that important lesson, not to plan on spending money that I don't yet have. So the answer is look at the last year of your business.
And if you haven't been in business a year, you better start on like where you are right now. ~Right? Like ~the last few months. ~Um, ~because you know ~that ~that's what you are capable of. ~Right. ~But even better, if you can have a year's worth of your income. And even better a year's worth of your expenses, maybe that you already are spending in your business, especially if you've been at this thing for a long time, those little [00:24:00] subscriptions and things like that, add up. Okay. And some of them are definitely worthwhile investments in your business.
Some of them not so much. So when you look at the average income and the average expenses over the last year, what does that number look like? And how can you plan on that? And so by focusing on your average check and not your best or not your goal. You can really get specific and strategic. About the next fourth and final P, which is how to actually divide up that money that you get. What do you do with it? How do you spend it?
And so I'm going to share my ~very, very, ~very ~simple, ~simple strategy with you. And it all revolves around the fourth and final P, which is the percentage. So percentages make it simple. So I know I did an episode a while back called the power of the percentage and I, to be honest, I don't even remember.
I don't even remember the specifics that I talked about in it. But I'll link it and we can all listen to it together because I feel like it was one of my favorite episodes at the time, because I'm a big believer, always have been in the power of the percentage [00:25:00] versus ~like ~a certain set amount, because it's something that can scale with you. It's something that can grow.
It's something that can be analyzed. Okay. And so I've been in my company for six years. Again, I've been on this financial journey from deepened debt to now, ~you know, ~multiple six figure earner, completely debt free. Might I add like literally still don't have a credit card to this day. You guys.
Like ~not, ~not a bit of debt, which I paid for card cash, all the things that you'd have to do, I've been able to accomplish by implementing these into my business. And so I know that you can too. No matter how hopeless or how frustrated or how crazy it seems to be. Okay. So stick with me on this. So the percentages are what is going to make it really simple for you to tell your money, where to go? Okay. ~So. ~
Let me, I'm going to first break down my recommendation for you. This is a very general recommendation. It doesn't mean that you can't adjust or fudge, but this is a starting place for if you take a pie. Like around circle and you were to put all your money in [00:26:00] that pie. If you were to divide it up into different percentages.
This is what our rubber recommend that you do to it. Okay. So if you take your pie, your pile of money, this is how much money you're T you're making from your business, not how much you're selling, because again, in network marketing, There's different commission structures. I'm talking about literally what your bonuses are, what your total paycheck is and our company, it can be a little confusing cause we get paid 20% weekly, but then we get any additional bonuses and downline commissions at the end of the month or on the 10th of the month for the month prior.
~Um, ~and so you're going to want to add all those things up. Okay. So like everything that you made in that one month into a pie or a pie plate. Okay. So I want you to take half of that. So picture of dividing that down the middle. And that needs to go to you. And you're like, wait half, not all I want to, I want a hundred percent.
~Well, ~I have plans big ones for the other half, but stick with me. 50% profit first needs to go to you. Okay. That way, like you're going to be, you're [00:27:00] going to be used to basically living off less than what ~you're ~you're making, which is going to allow you to even ~kind of ~flex,~ uh, you know, Black's ~a little bit as the, as you go.
~But you're going to be met.~ You're going to be taking 50% to give to you. Okay. Then you're going to take 25% and you're going to allocate it towards tax. So again, that's going to be a quarter of your little circle or your pie is going to go to a savings account, preferably separately from your other account.
That's what Mike talks about in profit versus setting up different bank accounts, which is exactly what I do. And I'll talk more about that in a second, but take that 25% set it aside for taxes. ~Um, ~for you, like for me, I am in the 30% commission bracket. ~Um, ~and I think it might not commission bracket and a 30% tax bracket, which I think it actually might even be more than that. And so again, my husband ~manages, ~manages that, but ~I think, ~I think that's what we save is about 30%,~ um,~ in taxes.
So for you, I would say do 25% just know, look at your tax bracket and you can adjust that up or down. But what I like about 25% is say you only need to pay 20%. You're going to have a [00:28:00] little surprise fund money, come tax season. And so unlike me where you don't have the money saved, you're going to have a little bit of extra that you're going to be like, oh, that was an extra 5% that we didn't know we needed. ~Right. ~
So 25% ish is going to go towards your taxes. Okay. The next one. Is 15%. That's going to go back into your business. So I've gone back and forth. And I would say this ranges between 10 and 20%. But I like 15, cause it's right in the middle. Okay. So make sure you're investing at least I would say 10% back in your business. So again, if you're making a hundred dollars, that's $10. If you're making a thousand dollars a month, that's a hundred dollars a month that you can invest back into your business into certain things.
And I would say, don't go above 20%. So 15% is a good round, round little metric, but no more than 20%. So that means, ~you know, if you're, ~if you're making 10 K normally spending more than $2,000 a month on. Investments for your business. And now again, Not an [00:29:00] accountant. I would talk to your accountant about some of these things, but I have found that this is a brilliant way so that when an, if your paycheck does go down or when, and if things are circumstances, change, which they always do, you've got a plan that's based on your average, that is essentially telling your money where to go.
And you're being very smart with how you're spending your money. And again, that fit tend to. 15 to 20% applies to you, whether you're making a hundred bucks a month or whether you're making a hundred thousand a month. Okay. Like I was actually, I don't think she'd mind me sharing this, but my St. Mama and mentor Sarah, that,~ um,~ we have met here on the podcast. She is getting ready to her, host her very first retreat.
~Um, ~but there's literally like over a hundred and something over a hundred. 30 people that are qualified already. So she's got this huge house she's going to be running another one and you guys is going to be a little bit expensive. It is, but we were talking about it and I was like,~ well,~ let's look at your income and let's, ~you know, ~apply the filter of it and see, and she's within that 15 to 20% of [00:30:00] her income that she's associating towards this.
Okay. So note that if you're not making what she's making, you should not be renting a house for 92 people. ~Right. Um, ~that is where a lot of leaders get into. A lot of trouble is they'll spend a lot of money that they don't have, or they'll spend a lot of money there. They're making. Okay. And then, so if you're a math nerd, ~you know, ~that there's 10% left. Okay. So where does that 10% go. And again, some people would say this needs to be your first 10%. So I probably should have started with this. It actually is the first one I start with.
~Um, ~On my breakdown, but that 10% is to give, to gift away. Now for me, I, because I am a believer, I get that back to the Lord. ~I, you know, ~that is a biblical principle that isn't something that's tied to your salvation, but it isn't a biblical example that is talked about ~over and ~over and over again at the.
In the Bible. And so for me, it's a great starting place for us to be able to give back to the Lord through our church who they're naturally very good stewards of the money,~ um,~ because that's what they do, ~right. ~And so we give, ~you know, ~my recommendation is to give [00:31:00] 10%. So if you're not a believer, try giving that money away, like in gifts to your team or gifts to a local charity or gifts to, ~you know, ~again like Toms, I don't know that they're a faith-based company, but giving one pair of shoes or whatnot.
Basically, there are tons of companies that abide by this, where you're giving 10% to something that is special to you, and you can even be more inspired to work and grow your business. When you have that generous spirit of knowing that a portion of that is going back to something that's important to you.
~So. ~Summarize my recommended percentages. And then I'll show you. I'll tell you exactly how I break mine down. Okay. So stay tuned. Is 15, you've got your PI 50% is going to go to you. 25%. A quarter is going to go to save for taxes. 15% is going to go back into your business to invest in those day-to-day things. Maybe it's a course. Maybe it's my course. I am really excited because I'm getting ready to roll out or really it's ~kind of ~out there. So if you're listening to this.
Check out Heather [00:32:00] cambridge.com/automate. If you want my exact systems on how I automate my customer experience. I'm about to officially launch it at a much higher price point, but this is the beta run and it's technically out there for 97 right now. So if you guys want to go grab it, and if you're listening to this after the fact, it's because of already put it out there, but if you wanted to invest in something like that, for example, you would want to make sure that you're making more than.
Like he would want that $97 investment or a hundred dollar investment. To be 10 to 20% of your income. Okay. Does that make sense? So you need to be making at least 5,500 to a thousand dollars a month in your business to justify an investment like that. Not including anything else that you might be investing in. Okay. ~So, ~and then finally, the 10% to give.
So now we're going to dive into literally how I, and I follow this, but you'll see that I get even more specific on this and it ~kind of ~ties into that profit first, multiple bank account strategy. And you guys it's brilliant. So here we go.
So as promised here is exactly what I do with my money every [00:33:00] single month. When I get that monthly bonus. So again, I ~kind of ~mentioned how our comp plan works, where we get paid weekly, and then we get a larger bonus on the 10th of the month. So I just let ~that, ~that goes into a, ~I guess, ~I don't know, some.
Cloud account or something. Online. From our payroll company that we just save up. And once a month, you guys, I don't even see the ~number,~ the email come to my bank account literally goes to my husband. Of course. I know what it is because ~like ~any good. ~You know, ~small business owner. I constantly track my money and I know what the total is. And I have the spreadsheets for days to track it, but he literally gets the email.
On the 10th when I get my bonus and what he does is he transfers it. Into ~Mo~ multiple accounts, because we learned this from that profit first book that you've got to ~kind of ~tell your money where to go. And it's ~kind of like ~the envelope system with Dave Ramsey with cash, but we do it digitally. And I actually only have access to three of these bank accounts, because guess what?
I'm a transfer. I'm a spender. We're going to talk about that in an upcoming episode. And so this system is designed to ~kind of ~rein me in. ~ If, you know what I mean? So basically what, what he does is he takes 30%. ~So again, everything's on a [00:34:00] pie and he takes 30% and ~he sets that aside. you know what I mean? ~
And he puts that aside in an account that's designated for taxes. Okay. So 30% is what we plan for of the gross amount. Even though we only pay taxes on the net amount, meaning after expenses, he starts there. Okay. So 30% goes away. And then after that he takes 10% and puts it into an account where we ties and we give that money to our local church. And so he is a net tither. I'm going to be honest, I'm a little bit more of a gross tither, but I'm going to default to him. He is leader of our household. And honestly, again, the Lord, I don't think it.
~You know, ~there's not a wrong or right way to do it. As long as you're giving from the heart giving with joy. And we absolutely love to do this, and it's a great kind of rhythm to get into. And so 30% taxes, 10% aside to give to our church. Then we have a set amount of that goes into my business account. That's about 15%. Okay. So about [00:35:00] 15% goes into a dedicated small business account, which is definitely what I recommend. Once you start making some money in this business is not to ~kind of ~mix your finances so you can get a real clear picture.
Like I was saying, On the average amount that you spend. And so that 15% is what I invest back into things like this podcast or any coaching or courses or my amazing assistant or the monthly subscriptions that I have. All of those things come out of that business account. And I actually even give outside of the 10% from that business account.
So probably another about 10%. Comes ~like ~is factored into that budget. If you will. 10% of the 15%. It's what ~I, ~I focus on giving as well, but basically that money that goes into that account each month is designated towards business purchases. And I have a set budget for what, how I spend that, if that makes sense. So again, honoring what I told you guys, 15%.
Spinning back into the business. Okay. And my that's going to total to a larger amount because I'm, ~you know, ~I'm making a little bit more. But [00:36:00] it is something that is scaled along with my business as it grows. Okay. So the next 15% goes into my favorite account. Can you guess what that is? It's the Heather fund money account.
~So, ~and actually this, I should say, this is done at the level that I am. If you're making more than like a, ~you know, ~six figures or a hundred thousand dollars, I do recommend,~ um, well ~talk to your accountant, but that's about the time you'll want to set up an S corporation. For yourself, a limited liability corporation and they, your accountant might want you to go on payroll yourself. And so that Heather fund money account is literally on my own employee and I get paid twice a month.
From the business account from the main, ~I guess, ~wherever, Roger. That's the bulk of the money when he transfers it. ~Right. ~The money comes in. It goes into that Heather fund money account, and here's the best part. My husband and I have an agreement that I can do whatever I want with that amount of money. He literally said, if you want to take that money and throw it out the window, driving down the road, you have fun with it.
So that's what I do when I, ~you know, ~want to decorate our house, which I know some people would say that's a [00:37:00] family expense, but it's just not something that's important to my husband. And we have differing opinions on what things could cost. And so that allows me to be like, yeah, I'm going to get that in your dining room table or that new rug or.
Or whatever it is that I want to do. ~Um, ~when we read, when we did our kitchen renovation, I think some of that came from, with working with designers to help me with that. And so that Heather fund money ~is, ~is definitely you guys still to this day, I told you I'm a spender. I spend that money. Let me just say,~ um,~ because as you'll learn in ~the next, ~the next,~ uh,~ or one of the next episodes,~ um, you know, ~when you're ~kind of ~a spender ~you're ~you're, I have the next,~ like,~ probably million dollars that I make spit in my head already. And ~so. ~
I already know where that money's going before it hits it. And ~so, um, ~it, my oldest daughter is ~kind of ~the same way. And so I like to spend that money. And so the Heather fund money. ~You know, ~I spend it, so we'll just, we'll leave it at that. But 15% is about the amount that I pay myself in the salary. Okay.
And then about 10% of what I make. Remember when I told you guys that we take our monthly expenses and we divide them down the middle, and then we basically contribute that amount into it. Just ~kind of ~makes it fair. We're both small [00:38:00] business owners and there's nothing wrong. ~You know, ~again, if you make 20% of what your husband makes or you're not making, ~you know, ~whatever that is, don't worry.
Don't you don't have to have that be exactly the same amount. This is coming from your overall 50%. And you can divvy that up, how you want, but for us, Our monthly expenses. They have grown. Hello. ~Uh, ~inflation. And also, ~you know, ~just a little bit of an increased lifestyle. ~Um, ~they grown a little bit.
~Uh, ~for our family. So it's no longer that $4,000 a month, but it does wind up being about my contribution is about 10% of what I make within the business goes into that family account. And so that's where, remember when I told you guys, and I'll tell you more about this story in depth, in a future episode. So stay tuned, but more when I told you the count got down to $50 and it was before we were going to like, basically before payday, I was like, oh my gosh, this is what people living paycheck to paycheck feel like, right?
Like when the money runs out, what there's a saying for it, something like there's more. More time than there is money. Left or something like that at the end of the month. And I [00:39:00] was stressing because we were headed out of town to go to Myrtle beach. To my daughter's lacrosse game and we didn't have any money in the family account to pay for these things, ~like ~let alone, like the hotel room or like the trip to the carnival or any of those things.
~So, ~thank the Lord. We had been diligent with the other aspects of our money, to where we had the freedom to be able to transfer from other. So we had the cash, just not in that account. ~Right. ~So then guess what I did. I went and I planned on the average. I did a quick budget spreadsheet that Friday, before we left.
And I figured out exactly where the leak, where the bleeding, like where was the money going? And it was primarily because we did this Clubsport, which was requiring us to travel every single weekend to these exotic locations. And,~ uh,~ guess what, when we were getting there, we were acting like it was a vacation and we're like, oh, ~you know, ~spending all the money on the hotels and all the things.
And so if you've got kids in cheer or baseball or anything like that, you know what I'm talking about and it is not cheap. And so you better plan for it and your family money account So we're actually going to be talking re revisiting [00:40:00] that family budget. Here shortly, but that's the beautiful thing about telling your money, where to go. So anyway, about 10% of that goes into that family account and that's where we have the family expenses. That's where the school stuff, the kids clothes, I just bought sunscreen on Amazon,~ um,~ for like our upcoming beach vacay trip, all that gets up groceries, you name it, eating out Starbucks.
All those things comes out of the family account. Okay. So where there's, if you're again doing the math, there's 20% left. And that 20% roughly, or basically whatever's leftover after all of these things, which is about 20%. That goes into savings for us to essentially do whatever we want. So we do contribute to,~ um, uh, ~gosh, mutual funds. I was like, what does that word? We do contribute to several,~ uh,~ investment accounts that are in the stock ~market ~market through mutual funds. We also have.
~Um, ~some real estate investments, like we,~ um,~ bought a condo. ~Um, ~with my mom and Costa Rica, which is ~kind of ~fun with our savings. ~Uh, ~we're about to put a new roof on her house. We did have an insurance claim, but we're going with a metal [00:41:00] roof. And so all that will come out of that savings. And then again, whatever's ~kind of not, ~not earmarked for a big expense, like a roof, then we'll send it off to,~ um,~ to our finance guy who will invest it in the market for the long run.
And so my friends that's literally where my money goes. And if you want, I won't share the exact number. ~Um, You know, ~just because I don't, while I think it's very important to talk about money. The last thing that I would ever want to do is flashlight. Here's what I'm making or anything like that.
~Um, ~nor should you for that matter, because most people don't join this business too, even though they know we've been beat over the head, what's possible in network marketing, they don't join to make that big amount. They join to usually make a deficit or contribute something to their family's bottom line.
And that's usually a smaller amount, like to $200. ~Um, you know, ~again, mine was just $2,000. That's all I ever wanted from this business. And so for that reason, I hold on to that and I'm so grateful. And I acknowledge again, the provider to know ~that ~that abundance is coming from him. And it's also how I know that I'm right where I need to be in this business because he is [00:42:00] equipping me along the way with an abundance to continue, hopefully being a good steward of what he has given to us, even if I don't always get that.
~Right. ~Which I definitely don't you guys, but I hope that this is helpful for you guys. Again, the four P's to summarize as the provider. Acknowledge him. Profit first. Pay yourself, my friends. And plan on your average, not your best or your goal, and then finally percentages make it simple. And ~so, ~oh, and I was going to say, check out the income disclosure, if you want to see what the income looks like, ~you know, ~in our company, that's an ~easy, ~easy way to do it. If you want to actually do the math, or if you want to ~kind of ~plan, check the income disclosure out for whatever company you're with and you can say, gosh, it would be my dream to be this rank in my company.
And this is what the average artist at that rank makes. And again, go with the average, don't go with the highest. You don't have to go to the lowest, but go with. The average, it's almost always on there. And then you can, ~you know, ~not playing on that, but plan on what you are making with the hopes and dreams of growing your business to get to that next step. So I hope this helps you guys. I feel so [00:43:00] good to be able to talk about this. It feels so good to be able to impact some of that dirty laundry with you guys.
So I pray that it blesses you,~ um,~ as it blesses me to talk about it and buckle up because we've got a lot more good money stuff coming up your way. So make sure to subscribe, hit the plus button. If you're on apple podcasts. Cast course that you can follow this anywhere else, Spotify or anywhere else that you're listening to podcasts or on YouTube now. ~So. ~
~Uh, ~thank you guys so much for watching.
I hope that was helpful for you guys to be able to hear a little bit more of my story, my backstory, but also to be able to give you a framework that hopefully can serve your business from a solid foundation right now into years of the future. So let me know what you thought, and if you think that something like this would be great to work into a simple course for our field, if you're a part of Restore Collective, and let me know if you guys like this.
This money conversation. Don't forget that you can, if you're a part of Restore Collective, you can do a voice message and send to your founding partner, mentor and they can forward it to me for [00:44:00] inclusion in our next q and a. So make sure to do that if you have any specific questions or you want me to go deeper on any of this, ~uh,~ for a future episode.
So before we wrap up in prayer, I wanna shout out another Restore Rockstar. So you guys, I have heard about something that I thought was such a brilliant idea that as far as I know, was first done by Brenda Miller. So Brenda has. Kind of started doing something called Pass the Pallet, which she got really resourceful and found some tools on Amazon to be able to take little sample versions or small versions of our tins and put them in a, in a way that she could share our products to allow people to borrow them.
So local people that maybe just wanna give it a shot before they try it, she basically passed a pallet to them, for them to kind of try it out to see what they thought. And I thought this was so brilliant. So I actually, I have a friend, Lauren, who is a distributor with another company called Melaleuca.
I'm sure you guys have heard of it. [00:45:00] And they do something simpler, simple called, I think it's like the borrow basket maybe. And I, ~uh,~ while I am not big on like household clean products, I loved what Lauren did, which was she dropped off this borrow basket at my front door and told me, just try this for a few days.
I'll come back and, and pick it up. And now, while again, I kind of wasn't. Really gonna use those, those products. I absolutely loved the idea and so when I saw Brenda or heard about Brenda doing this with the makeup and skincare, I was like, this is brilliant and so simple and something that anybody can do.
So I just wanna shout you out, Brenda. You are crushing it over there. I can see even this month, you're doing really well and I just wanna shout you out for abundantly sharing that with your branch as well. And I love that it made it to me and I hope more of you guys. Take the pass the palate idea if you're part of Restore, ~uh,~ or whatever company that you're with to be able to share products with more of your people.
So great work over there, Brenda. So excited for you. Alright, let's wrap up here in prayer. And I'm so grateful for you guys. [00:46:00] Lord, thank you so much for just, ~uh,~ the wisdom and lessons learned over some really hard times in my life that felt at some points. Just so hard to overcome. And so for anybody that's listening that is deep in debt or has been there, or uh, has fears of going back there, especially in the times of uncertainty in our world right now, uh, just give them a piece to know that number one, you are their provider and you are the source of all of it.
And if they entrust their finances and their people and everything in their business. To you, but also match that with being a good steward of what you do give, uh, by trying to stay outta debt and to profit. You know, build, build a business that's based on profit for their family so that they can serve the desires that you put on their heart.
And Lord, just help 'em to leverage these really simple breakdowns to be able to take the income that they make at whatever level and, and honor you with it first. Um, so that you can multiply it and bless it because we know that you can, uh, and you will. What's possible here and what I've experienced in, in our family [00:47:00] and our life thanks to this business model is such a blessing when we allow you to take over and we, uh, just focus on doing what Brenda's done and do things that, that work over and over again.
And so, Lord, thank you again for all of these stories and for our family of listeners, whether or not they're part of Restore. And I'm just so grateful for all of it. And in Jesus name, amen. Alright guys, I hope you have a fabulous week and don't worry, we'll be getting back to the biggest things holding you back next week in your business.
And shoot, who knows, maybe I'll keep interjecting with some, some past goodness, ~um,~ and stories along the way that can help you do that. So thank you guys so much. I hope you have a great week.
[00:48:00]
~you, Lindsay. It's been a minute.~
