127: Ask Amber Anything About Business Part 1

Introduction 

You're listening to Biceps after Babies radio episode number 127

Hello and welcome to Biceps after Babies radio. A podcast for ladies who know that fitness is about so much more than pounds lost or PRs. It's about feeling confident in your skin and empowered in your life. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke, a registered nurse, personal trainer, wife, and mom of four.  Each week, my guests and I will excite and motivate you to take action in your own personal fitness as we talk about nutrition, exercise mindset, personal development, and executing life with conscious intention. If your goal is to look, feel, and be strong and experience transformation from the inside out, you, my friend are in the right place. Thank you for tuning in, now let’s jump into today’s episode.

Milestone hit! 1 million downloads on the podcast  0:47  

Hey, hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of biceps after babies radio. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke, and holy heck, we have hit a milestone. The podcast now has over 1 million downloads. Can I get an amen? I mean, I couldn't believe it. My birthday was this last Saturday, and we hit 1 million downloads the week of my birthday, what could be a better birthday present than hitting 1 million downloads on the podcast.

Thanks from the bottom of my heart  1:25

So I just want to take a moment to thank you. Because without you, I wouldn't be here without you listening without you sharing. Without you telling your friends about the podcast, I wouldn't be here. And starting the podcast two years ago, a little over two years ago, has been one of the favorite things that I've done in my business. It is one of my favorite things to get on here, record episodes, be able to hear your experience with the podcast as you share the podcast. I just love it. Like there's so much about the podcast that I love. And I just want to celebrate with you this achievement. Because I'm all about celebrating the wins. If you're in macros were one you know, I'm all about you finding and celebrating the heck out of those wins. Because when we celebrate wins, we get more of them. And so this is me just taking a moment and celebrating that we've hit a huge milestone of 1 million downloads. And I couldn't be more proud of this community and what we've created, and I can't wait for the next million.

Let’s get to know how I started my business 2:31

Today, we're going to mix it up a little bit. Most of my podcast is about your health and fitness journey, and things that can help you in that journey. And what I find is that a lot of women come into this process, they come into their own health and fitness journey and they're transformed both mentally and physically through the process. And they get to this point where they then want to help other people be able to have the same transformation that they've had. And so it's a very natural pathway through your own fitness journey into then facilitating somebody else's fitness journey. And that can look like going into coaching, it can look like building a business, and being able to take women through that same experience. And that was really the path that I went on and the path that I would say that most fitness coaches have won on. They've had some sort of experience with the transformation themselves. And they get the bug and they get how it's impacted their life and it's just natural to want to take that and share that with other people. And so I wanted to record a podcast episode cuz I get asked all the time about my business, about where I started, how I grew my business, how I got clients, how I was able to develop programs and really make this into my career. We'll go a little bit into how I got started. But many of you know that I got my bachelor's degree in nursing. And I worked as a nurse for several years. And that was really the path that I was slated to go on was in the medical field and in nursing. And my, you know, path kind of took a little bit of a trajectory-based off of, you know, a couple of things that happened in my life, my husband and his career, us moving around where my kids were at. And you know, I ended up in the health and fitness coaching space. And it's something that was not anything that I ever dreamed about. Like I never sat down and was like, you know, it'd be really fun to grow a coaching business and like to have employees and have, you know, 1000s of clients like that was never my vision at the very beginning. But here we are. And it's been an incredible ride and I wouldn't change it for the world. I love what I do. I feel really grateful that every day I get to wake up and I get excited to hop onto my laptop, to work with my team, to work with my clients and If I can facilitate that, someone else being able to have that experience, especially when it comes to women, being able to stay home with your kids, if that's what you choose, to be able to have the flexibility that comes from owning your own business, I don't think I could ever go back to nursing. And that's actually one of the questions, I'm already answering one of the questions that were asked, but I don't think I will ever go back to nursing because I think I would find it really hard to go to work for somebody else and to go to work on a schedule that was set by someone else.

Pros of my business 5:29

So all that to say, my business has provided me with an ability to be able to change other people's lives, to be able to sit front row in that transformation. My job has provided me the ability to be able to hire other women in my business and give them the ability to be able to work and provide for their families while also staying home with their kids. He's met my team before, on the podcast, Episode 83, which will link up in the show notes, I had my team come on and kind of talk about their roles and introduce themselves. So you've heard my team on the podcast, but all of them are part-time and all of them are stay-at-home moms with kids at home. And so to be able to provide that for my team, and to be able to provide for those women in those families is amazing. And to be able to serve clients, people to have to build out a team to be able to provide financially for my family, and to be able to have the ability to make my own schedule, do what I want when I want. It's been an amazing journey. So growing a business wasn't ever anything that I thought I would do. But the fact that I have done it has been the most immense blessing in my life.

Questions about starting a business 6:41

And if I could facilitate that for other people, or help give other women the tools and the confidence to be able to step into growing whatever type of business they want to have. Then I'm all here for that I'm here for more generous, integrity-filled women running businesses in this world and providing extreme value both as to their families and then also to the community and to the world at large and I am here for that. And so that's where this podcast episode comes in. And actually, I got so many questions from you guys about business. When I asked on Instagram, I did a couple of question boxes about what you guys wanted to know about business, I got so many questions that I'm actually going to break this episode up into two parts. So this week will be part one of answering questions, and next week will be part two. So today's episode is going to be more geared towards questions around starting a business. And next week's topic will be more around building and or scaling that business over time. So I'm gonna dive right in. But again, these are questions that you guys asked. And I can't wait to answer them. Because I've found for somebody who wasn't planning on being an entrepreneur, anytime in their life, I have found that one of my very most favorite things to talk about now is business. So I'm excited to dive into these questions that you asked.

Start and scale your online business with Biceps After Babies 8:07

Oh, and before I do that, because I know some of you are interested in getting more information, or being able to work with me or being able to see what I come up with in terms of business, coaching, mentorship, certifications, things like that. That's something that we're building out in the business this year. It's one of our focuses for the year. But if that's you, and you're like, heck yes, I want to hear more about any programs that Amber creates, or any opportunities to work with her to either build or start your business, then just go to www.bicepsafterbabies.com/business, you can just put your name and your email in there. And that will put you on a list. It's essentially an interest list. So that I know who's interested, what kind of things you know, I talked to those women who are on that list about what kind of things they want me to create, those types of things. So if that's something that's interesting to you go to www.bicepsafterbabies.com/business, we'll link that up in the show notes as well just put your name and your email. And that kind of gets you to the head of the line for anything that I do create this year in terms of starting and scaling your online business.

Q1:How did you know it was time to start a business instead of just a hobby? 9:11

Okay, we're gonna start with question number one. Mary Ann asked, How did you know it was time to start a business instead of just a hobby? So I think this is a great question because there is a big difference between a hobby and a business. And a big mistake that a lot of beginning entrepreneurs make is they are just essentially having a hobby, and there is nothing wrong with a hobby. A hobby is great. If you want it to be a hobby, but if you're trying to run your business like a hobby, it will not work.

Difference between a hobby and a business? 9:42

So the biggest difference between a hobby and a business is that a business needs income. A business needs money to be able to run. A hobby is something that you're fine losing money with, you're fine putting more money than you get out because the value you get out of something is more than the money, right? Like I go surfing and that costs money. So I have to have a board and I have to have a wetsuit and we have to pay for parking. And, you know, it costs money for me to have that hobby, but it's okay. Because I'm willing to put money into it, because of the joy and satisfaction that I get out of it. Now I get joy and satisfaction out of my business. But if I was going to run a business like a hobby, then I would be okay with sinking money into it and not having generated revenue. And so the biggest difference is a business needs income, a business needs revenue, a business needs to make sense, it needs to be profitable.

My story of going into my business 10:35

And so for me, once I mean I, to share my little bit of like my story of going into my business, I started my Instagram account, bicepsafterbabies on Instagram. Before I ever really wanted to do coaching, I just kind of wanted to start sharing what was working for me. And very quickly, very organically, people started asking me to coach them, they started seeing that I was able to get results for myself, and they started wanting me to coach them. And so very quickly, I started to realize that there was value in what I was doing that there was value in this ability to be able to coach people through their transformation, and that value came with a price tag. So the first people I think I coached two of my friends for free before I moved into, like starting to charge people. But very quickly, I started to realize that I was providing value to people and that needed to have an exchange of resources, right? The value being provided needed an exchange of energy and an exchange of money in return. And so very quickly, I realized, Hey, I have a business here, I have something that people are willing to pay for. I have something that I'm really good at that not everybody is really good at. And I think when you're thinking about starting a business, that's a really great question to ask yourself, what comes super easily to me? What comes easily to me, that doesn't necessarily come easily to everybody else?

Valuing what comes innately easy to you 12:03

Now the trick is, is that we don't often value what innately comes easy to us. And I had that experience where I was like, well, this stuff is really easy for me. Like it's this, like the science, the like mindset work for like coaching, fitness, like this stuff, is really easy to me. And so it was easy at first for me to say like, well, it's not very valuable until I started realizing that just because it was easy for me did not mean that it was easy for everything else. And I can think of many things in my life that are not easy for me that are easy for my husband, or easy for one of my friends. And so don't discount those things that come naturally to you, those things that come easily to you because it doesn't mean that they come easily to everybody else. So when I started realizing that this was something that I loved, that I enjoyed, and that came very easily and naturally to me, it didn't to other people, it made sense to be like, Hey, I can start a business around this, like I could get paid to do something that I honestly would do for free anyway. Like for years, I had kind of, you know, people would ask me questions and about nutrition and fitness. And I love chatting about it. I loved answering those questions. And I realized that I could turn something that I just did naturally, that I did anyway, into a business.

The answer lies in the decision you want to make 13:28

So the question of like, how do you know when to turn a business into a hobby? I think that's a decision that you have to make. Do you want this to just be something that you like to sink money into that provides you some other intrinsic value? Or do you want this to be a profitable endeavor where you're actually getting paid for the work that you do? There's not a wrong answer. But just understand that that's really the difference between a hobby and a business.

Q2: How did you get started? 13:54

Okay, Celina asked, How did you get started? So I kind of started to answer this question. But it really was organically. I never ever wanted to be an entrepreneur. In fact, my dad has worked in corporate America for years. He actually just retired in December of 2020. You know, after decades of working in corporate America, but I think part of him always kind of wished that he had started a business. Because when we were kids, I'm the oldest of seven. When we were kids, my dad was always trying to get us to start businesses like every summer. He was like, you should start a window-washing business, you should start a car-washing business. He always had these ideas of like businesses that we should start. And he actually got some of my siblings to start up. I think one of my siblings started a window-washing business, but I never did. I was always like, Dad, I don't want to start a business. I would rather show up, go to work. Always know that I was gonna get paid the same amount and just come home and like chill, like, I didn't really want to start a business, I saw a business as more risk.

Sense of security and stability 15:08

One of the things I've learned about myself, as I've done more like a business and personal development is that one of my high values is security. And so to me, I would rather make less money, but always know that it was going to be like secure and it was always going to be stable, then have the opportunity to make a lot more money, but then also have an opportunity to make a lot less money. And so entrepreneurship never fit into that value system. I have never been into the value of security for me. And so I was like, no way, Dad, I do not want to start a business, that is not anything that I want to do. And so then fast forward to 2016 when people started, you know, offering to pay me for my services. I was like, Okay, well, maybe this is something that I could do, this is something that I could grow. But I will say for me, I was able to still have that security. Because for me, I never went into debt for my business. I never went into the red. I never, like paid out more than I made. And so that allowed me to provide that had that security. And then I also tell my husband, now my husband has always worked to he's always brought it in an income, which allows me to feel secure because we have his income. And we could always fall back on his income if we needed to. And so my income has always been just like, supplemental. So I was like, you know, the whipped cream on top. He's allowed, he's provided that like security for me.

Started as an accidental entrepreneur 16:40

So that's when I get started. I just got started very, very much just a kind of an accidental entrepreneur, people literally just started saying, Hey, can I pay you for what you're doing? And I remember this experience. I think it was in my first year of business, which I started in 2016, the beginning of 2016. And I'm pretty sure it was that summer. It might have been the next summer, but it was either summer of 2016 or 2017. And I remember my husband, we woke up one morning, and we were just laying in bed talking and he looked at me and he was like, where's this going? Like, where is this business going? What do you want this to be? Like, Are we just like playing around and like making a little bit of extra money? And like having some fun? Do you want this to be like? Do you want to be the next Jillian Michaels? Like, where do you want? Where do you see this going? And I remember breaking down in tears. Because I didn't know, I was like I don't know, this wasn't anything I ever planned for. I never thought I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I never thought I wanted to start a business. So it was very much organic growth. Now, that's not to say that it has to be for you that way. I think there's a lot of power in going into this process and be like, No, I want to build a business. I want to, you know, make X number of dollars a year or help X number of clients. I think there's nothing wrong with that. That just wasn't where I started. It wasn't like I wanted to start a business. People just started asking for it and I started providing it.

Q3: What do you wish you knew, then that you know now? 18:09

Okay, the next question is from Maria. And she asked What do you wish you knew, then that you know now? Okay, so I came up with four things, that if I could go back to me in 2016, or that I would tell someone who started a business like things now here five years down the road after starting my business that I wish I would have known.

1: I was only going to get better 18:09

The first that I wish I would have known is that I was only going to get better. And I think a lot of times we don't get started because we're not 100% awesome at something, right? We're like 70% awesome at something. And a lot of times we let the fact that we're not like the best at something or that, you know, there's room for improvement we have that allows us to prevent us from starting. And it's amazing to me to look back over the last five years and recognize how much better I've gotten in everything. I've become a better coach, I've become a better mentor, I become a better messenger and a better marketer. And I become better on social media and I literally can't even think of an area of my business that I am not better at. And so a mistake I see a lot of people making is feeling like they already have to be better before they can start. And what I want you to consider as the only way that I was able to get better was because I was willing to not be the best at the start. I was willing to suck, I was willing to not be good at something in order to get good at it.

Over time you get better by doing things 19:41

Now, that's not to say that I didn't provide my clients’ value. That's not to say that at all. It's just to say that over time you get better by doing things. We innately get better, the more we practice things and so do not make the mistake of not starting because you're not the best yet. You have to practice in order to get to be the best, and what's the best way to practice is to actually get in there. And to take messy action and to actually start coaching people, actually start doing the building of the business, because you are going to get better. And it's amazing to me to look at where we're at now, five years later, that we wouldn't have gotten to had I not just decided to start.

2: The best businesses are built with the best teams 20:19

Okay, the second thing I wish I would have known is that the best businesses are built with the best teams. And if you are a solo entrepreneur, someone who is doing everything in your business yourself. Hiring is one of the, I would say one of like, the scariest steps that I took hiring like my first employee, but if you have a big vision, if you have a dream to build a business, if you have a dream to serve more people, you are only one person, and you will only have a certain amount of capacity. And if you want to scale that, if you want to serve more people, you cannot do it alone. And so if you want to build a great business, you have to be willing to build a great team. And I will tell you, I mean, we're still in team building, I think, you know, as you grow business, you're always going to be in team building. But I spend a lot of time with my team, mentoring my team, meetings with my team because I recognize now that this isn't just about me, that my vision is bigger than just me and what I can provide. And that now by building this team behind me how much more energy and momentum we can get into the vision that I've built, the vision that I have for my business is huge. It's big, I want to get as many women as possible, to be able to recognize the power that they already have inside of you, of them and you. So you already have the power inside of you, you already have answers inside of you. And when I can get women to help understand and tap into that power, everything changes. And it starts with fitness. It starts with how I teach you to ask yourself better questions, it starts with figuring out how to set goals and achieve them. And once you start to get that taste of success, and recognize that that power and ability was already inside of you, then the world opens up. And I've shared on the podcast before my favorite thing is when women who come into my sphere who join Macros 101, then go on to take what I've taught them in the realm of fitness and apply it to other areas of their life. So we've had women go back to school, we've had women go back to work, we've had women start businesses, we've had women get published. The things that they've learned in Macros 101 translates to all these other wide areas of their life. So I have this big vision. And if I was doing this by myself, that vision could not reach very far. But how much farther can that vision reach the more women I enroll in this vision, the more women I get to be able to support the business to be able to grow to be able to serve more people.

3: Enjoy the ride 23:08

Okay, number three is to enjoy the ride. It's really easy with business, just like fitness. It's really easy to set goals, and feel like I won't be happy until right? Like, I won't be happy until I build a six-figure business. And then once you build a six-figure business, it's like I won't be happy until I build a seven-figure business. And then once you build a seven-figure business, it's like I won't be happy until I build an eight-figure business and like we could go on and on and on. And instead, I've really learned to just enjoy the process. Like just enjoy the ride to get there, like the destination matters way less to me than just enjoying the process that it's taking the growth that it's taking individually with the team to be able to get to that level. So if you're at that place, and you're like, gosh, I just want to like start my business or I just want to hit six figures or I just want to like have my first 10k month or whatever it is. Remember to come back to like, enjoy what you're doing right now. How can you enjoy what you're doing while you're working towards that goal? Heck, yeah, I want you to have 10k months, I want you to make seven figures. That's great, have that goal, have that vision, but don't put off being happy or satisfied or enjoying your business until you hit those milestones.

4: To trust my intuition earlier 24:28

And then the last thing that I would say is I wish and I think I'm still learning this. This is not my innate strength. I wish that I would have learned to trust my intuition earlier. I think and I see this a lot with new business owners is that they think everybody else has the answers, that they think they just need to hire the right like business coaches and the right gurus to tell them what to do to build their business. And to some extent, there's a lot to learn. Like I've learned a lot that I didn't know. And at the same time, it's not only just about learning more things, but about being able to use your intuition about what people want, how to build your business, how to structure your business, how to make it jive with you, and what you want to create in the world. And I would say that, again, this is not I would say, this is not my strong point. I'm very logical, very methodical, very, like thinking oriented. And it's taken time to start to build up that trust with myself of being able to tap into that intuition.

My firsthand experience of not believing and believing my intuition 25:49

But I can think of a couple of experiences early on, as I was hiring coaches, and as I was hiring mentors, that my mentor would tell me something that my intuition just said, No, that doesn't make sense. And I didn't listen to it. I'll give you an example. In 2018, I hired my first one-on-one business coach. And I paid a lot of money or what seemed to be a lot of money at the time. But I was ready like I was ready, we had scaled to almost multiple six figures. And we were ready to scale beyond that. And I didn't know how to do that. I was at the point where I was had a ton of one on one clients, I was like, my time is limited, I can't scale this anymore. And I needed some outside perspective of what it looked like to be able to scale my business beyond what I had already done. And I hired this one-on-one coach. And her first suggestion to me was to double my prices, which I did, and that probably needed to happen. And then 30 days later, she was like, okay, double your prices again. And I was like, Okay, I just double my prices, but like, I invested in this business coach, she knows what she's doing like, I'm gonna trust her. I doubled it again. Like 30 days later, she was like, okay, we're gonna double them again. So now I've like, I don't even know math, right? 6x my prices, like, it was a big, huge jump. And I get it. Like I might get my intuition was like, I don't really think this is what we should be doing. But I kind of shoved it down and was like, No, like, the business coach knows, right? She's been in this realm like she knows what she's doing. She's the smart one, right? So I push that like intuition down. And I didn't listen to it. And a couple, I don't know, a month later, we were getting to the point where she was asking to renew the contract. And I went back and forth on whether I was going to renew this contract with this business coach. And luckily, at this point, I finally, listen to my intuition, which was telling me that the solution to just keep raising my prices was not the solution that aligned with me, it wasn't the solution that aligned with who I wanted to serve. It wasn't a solution that aligned with the business that I wanted to build. And that seemed to be like, every time I would come with a question about scaling my business, her answer was always just to raise my prices, like that was just that was the solution, just raise your prices, raise your prices, raise your prices, which is fine. There's nothing wrong with raising your prices. In fact, I would say most women probably need to raise their prices, because we tend to undervalue what we provide. But at that point, it wasn't aligned with what I wanted. And instead of trusting my intuition, I was putting my trust in a business coach, who had lots of experience and had built her own business, I built lots of other people's business. But at the same time, it was going against what my intuition was telling me. And so I ended up cutting ties with that business mentor and ended up aligning myself with my current business mentor, James Wedmore. He's been coaching me since late 2018. And that a lot he aligns much more with, with the way that I view business and the world and more so aligns with teaching principles, and yet helping you to tap into the intuition to be able to apply those. So it's not like you have to do things this way. It's like, here's the principle. Let's see how we can best apply that to your business. How can we have you ask yourself better questions so that you are able to apply these principles in a way that feels aligned with what you want to do? Okay, so that was a long answer, it is a really good question, Maria.

Recap on the list of what I knew then that I want to do now  29:22

So what do you wish you knew, then that you know now, one, you're only gonna get better just start. The only way you're going to be able to be good is to be willing to be bad, or too willing to be not perfect at first. That's the only way you're going to be able to get good. Number two, the best businesses, build the best teams. They built the best teams, that's how they are the best businesses. Enjoy the ride. Don't always let the numbers, the revenue goals determine whether you're happy or enjoying your business. And then learn to trust your intuition. Learn to trust that intuition early. And yes, learn. Please hire mentors. Please hire coaches. I didn't know anything about online marketing, I didn't know anything about building a business, there were obviously things that I had to learn. And at the same time, I had to align that with what my intuition was telling me about how I best could serve.

Q4: When do you apply for a business license and what type and what paperwork is needed to start a business? 30:13

Alright, that was a long one. Hailey asked, when do you apply for a business license, and what type and what paperwork is needed to start a business. So first of all, I will say I'm not a lawyer. I'm not an accountant, I'm not any of those things, I will share my experience, and then please, please, please consult somebody who can actually advise you and your business. So I was just in the first year of business, so in 2016, I was just a sole proprietor. And it wasn't until year two that I actually became an S Corp. Now as a sole proprietor, I still like to register my business with the federal government. And I got my like, tax ID number. I registered my business with the state that I was in currently, at the time, it was North Carolina. So you know, right away, if you are earning money from something, that is when you are now a business, and you need to file that paperwork, you need to get your federal tax ID number and you need to file with your State Secretary of State to basically register your business. Okay, so that has to happen. Like, if it hasn't happened yet, it has to happen like yesterday, okay, you have to get that paperwork in.

Sole proprietorship and LCC 31:27

But in terms of like, taxes and things, I was just a sole proprietor, which essentially means that anything that was made in the business, any profit that was generated from the business, just simply like went through onto our taxes onto our just my husband and my taxes, just as a sole proprietorship. Now, a lot of people at this point, also start an LLC. And know that an LLC is different from like, the tax entities. Okay, so a lot of times people are like, do I need an LLC? Well, an LLC protects you. It separates you from the business. And so it is an ability to have those two things separated, that's not necessarily it's not a tax implication. LLCs are usually just you just default to like a sole proprietorship. But yes, if you want to separate yourself and the business, which you should, getting an LLC is an important step, I did not get an LLC, because in year two of the business I formed an S Corp. We're not going to get into super technical details. But I will tell you that during that second year of business, I was making enough money that my accountant recommended to me to form an S Corp.

S Corp 32:46

An S corp is where you actually form a corporation. So biceps after babies incorporated, is the corporation it is separate from me it's separate from its like its own business structure, and the business actually hires me into the business, the business then pays me out. And so having an S corp like separates you from the business from a legal standpoint, and it also allows you to be able to save on taxes. Because as I'm paying myself a wage, I can pay myself a lower wage and not have to pay and then take the rest in like an owner's draw a disbursement and not have to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on that money that I draw as an owner's draw versus a wage.

More on LLC, sole proprietorship, and  S Corp 33:38

Now, if not with what I'm saying doesn't make any sense to you to talk to somebody who knows what they're talking about. I'm just telling you what I've learned. But I didn't become an LLC, because, in year two, I became an S Corp. And my accountant told me if you are netting, so you're profiting over 50k in your business, it probably makes sense for you to pay the money to become an S Corp. It's kind of expensive like you have to hire a lawyer and I have to add paperwork and all these things to become an S Corp. But the money that it saved me on taxes, more than has made up for that fact. So whether you're a LLC, a sole proprietorship, or you form an S corp, that's something that you need to talk to an accountant about, to be able to advise you more on that. But in year two, I became an S Corp. And to have been an S corp ever since then. Now all of my employees were independent contractors until January of this year. So January this year, we actually hired our executive team as employees. So not only does the business pay me as an employee, I've always been an employee of the business but now we also have other employees of the business and instead of independent contractors, they are now employees plus we have independent contractors as well. Okay.

Bookkeeping 34:56

Other stuff, you know when you're just getting started applying for your federal ID number and registering with your secretary of state, you also need to start from day one, doing bookkeeping. Okay, this is a mistake that a lot of entrepreneurs make, because they're like, don't like numbers. I actually really like numbers. So, from the very beginning, I had an Excel sheet, and I would track all of my income, and I would track all of my expenses. That way when I was doing, first of all, I knew that I was making money. I think that's a really important thing. Are you making money in your business, and if so, how much. And then when it came around to doing taxes, I was in a really good spot to be able to prepare those taxes. So I did my own bookkeeping, from 2016 until about the beginning of 2019. And that's when I hired my first bookkeeper. And now we contract that out and somebody does our books for us. I did my own taxes, I'm pretty sure the first year as a sole proprietor, but as soon as we became an S corp, I've now hired that out. I've been an accountant who advises me and does my taxes for me. So that's all a little bit of like the business and the accounting side of the business.

Q5: When did you hire your first employee or independent contractor to help you? 36:07

Somebody asked, When did you hire your first employee or independent contractor to help you. So my first employee was at the beginning of 2018. And at that point, this was when I also had my first business coach. And I was at the point where, as I said, we were at multiple, six figures. And I was wanting to continue to scale. And I realized that I couldn't just do that with me just having more one-on-one clients. Because I was already completely full with clients, I had raised my prices, as we talked about, raised my prices a bunch, and I was looking for ways to continue to scale the business. And so I've hired my first independent contractors as coaches, those were really I hired, I'm pretty sure I hired three coaches from the start. And I at the bat, at that time, I had a program called ditch the diet, which essentially has now become Macros 101, like that program has just kind of evolved and transformed. And we've renamed it a couple of times. And so that program was called ditch the diet and had more one-on-one coaching components to the program. And so I hired three coaches, to be able to expand that program and not have to do all the coaching myself. At the time too, one of those coaches then became my customer service rep. Actually, Brooke became a customer service rep, she was a coach, customer service rep. And now she's our podcast editor. So Brooke has been with me the longest, she's kind of worked ancillary to the team. So I hired coaches first. And then, you know, I had independent contractors to write. I had a graphic designer who would get things designed out, I had an editor who would edit copy for me. And I had like a website designer who would do the website I had, you know, my lawyer who had set up my S Corp. So I had some of these other contractors that we would use as we needed them for a long time. And then I hired Carly, who is my integrator, essentially, my project manager, I hired her almost two years ago, maybe like a year and a half ago.

BAB’s Executive Team 38:12

And that really was the point of starting to build out what we call now my executive team. So we have me as a visionary Carly, as the get integrator. We have a growth team manager, which is Amber Every, we have a customer fulfillment manager, which is Melissa Porter, and we have an operations manager, which is Renee Williams, and those the five of us make up the executive team, and then they have their teams underneath them, that we're now starting, as the business continues to grow, we're starting to build out those teams as well.

Things to consider when to hire people to make 38:43

So if I was gonna say, what's the first hire that you could make, it would be customer service, getting customer service off of your belt, like I can remember when I handed over customer service, mainly, it was like this big sigh of relief to like, have that responsibility off my back. And to not feel like I always had to be in the inbox, it took so much time and it took so much energy to deal with all of the problems and stuff that comes through the inbox. So handing off that was like the biggest load off my shoulders. So I would say if you're just starting out, yeah, when you're just starting out like you wear all the hats and your business, you do everything. That's how you like you're scrappy. You get it done, you make it happen. But if you're to that point where you are starting to like not to have enough hours in the day, or you're needing to generate more revenue, and you're finding that you're spending all your time doing things like sitting in the inbox instead of going out and generating value and generating revenue, then that's a great first hire for most people to make.

Q6: Where do I start? 39:50

Okay, Shelly asked, Where do I start? Recently certified nutrition coach and I have no idea where to begin. Okay, this is really common. And here's my suggestion to you. My suggestion is to help somebody. That's it. So many people feel like they get bogged down with the legal stuff, the accounting, building a website, getting a logo. Friends, I will tell you, I did not have a logo until like your two in my business. I didn't build a website until I already had a six-figure business-like, all of these things that people they're like, oh, I'll you know, start coaching people after I've built my website, I'll start coaching people after I've gotten a 10k on Instagram. I'll start, no, no, just help somebody. There's somebody that you can help. There's somebody in your life. Heck, if you post on Instagram, there's somebody on Instagram that you can help and just start helping them. That's it.

Start helping people 41:05

And I will tell you through that experience of helping that person, you are going to learn way more than you ever would just like taking another nutrition course. But for a lot of people like staying in the busyness of taking courses, taking certifications, building your website, building your social media getting template, like all of these things that you're doing, for a lot of people are just ways to put off actually taking the scary action that is selling, asking for the sale, and starting to actually coach people. So that would be what I would say, if you recently certified in something great, get a client. Maybe it's maybe your first person is not even a paid client, that's okay, like get a client and start serving them. And then, you know, maybe if you want to build up with a couple of like non-paid clients, great, then get a paid client, get a client who's paying you and start serving them and start helping them. That is where I would say where to start.

Q7: How to run a business? 39:50

Okay, last question. And then we'll wrap up the first part of this. This is from Katie, she's written in all the things, I have no idea how to run a coaching business. So Katie, and anybody else who has the desire to build a coaching business, has a desire to help people but feels like you don't know what to do. The first thing that I will say to you is the fact that you have a desire to do something means that it is possible for you. I don't believe that God gives us desires that cannot be fulfilled. This means if you're sitting here thinking, I really want to start a coaching business, I really want to build a business, I really want to help people I really want to coach, that's what I want to do. That inherently means that you have the ability to create that. Okay, so we can come at this from you know, what do I do question, but I want you to come at that question from already knowing that it's possible for you that you can do it 100% here's what I would say. Be willing to get it wrong. Be willing to do it badly. Be willing to make mistakes because you will learn more by playing the game than you ever will by sitting on the sidelines. Like can you imagine trying to learn how to play football by just sitting on the bench? Could you learn some stuff? Sure. Like I've learned a little bit about football watching it. But do I know as much as someone who's actually in the game, who's actually handling the ball and actually running down the field and actually doing the plays? Heck no. And so, if you have no idea how to run a coaching business, that's great. Get started anyway, like take one step today to move closer to that reality of building a business.

Hire coaches and mentors and be willing to get started  44:12

Now I will say I've spent 10s of 1000s of dollars on coaches, and mentors, and masterminds and things to build my business and teach me things. I didn't go to school for this. I went to school to be a nurse. I knew zip, zero, zilch about marketing. Before, really 2018 I didn't know anything about marketing. I didn't know anything about messaging. I didn't know anything about what a webinar was or what a landing page was. Or like none of those things, or a funnel or an email. It's like none of those things. I didn't know any of those things. All I knew was that I wanted to help people. That's all I needed and everything that I've been able to learn was always because I realized that if I learned that thing I could help more people. If I learned how to do Facebook ads, I could help more people. If they learned how to grow an email list, I could help more people. And so as I was helping people, it just became to this point where it's like, Okay, how do I help more people? Oh, well, if I learned this piece of marketing, I'll be able to help more people. I will say, hiring coaches, hiring mentors, getting in masterminds, buying online courses, buying programs is a great way to skip through some of the stuff, to skip through some of the trial and error learning. I don't think that you need trial and error, everything with your business, there's a lot of business principles that you can learn to kind of skip through some of those hard parts. So I think there's a lot of value in hiring coaches and mentors, but it cannot take the place of you being willing to take messy action. Don't hire a coach, if you're just doing it to take the place of taking action. Because for a lot of people, hiring a coach taking another program, taking another course, is a great way to push off having to sell or push off having to ask people to coach them, or push off having to like, learn how to coach and dive into that with a client. Okay. So if you have a desire, it's possible for you. Hire coaches, hire mentors, hire somebody to help you, but be willing to just get started, be willing to do it badly, so that you can then do it better. Now, when I say badly, I don't mean like, being an awful coach. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying be willing to not be the best at something, and to just get started. Because I guarantee you there is a value that you can already provide without learning anything else. There's something that you can provide that would be valuable to somebody else, then you're gonna get better. You're gonna grow, you're better at all of it. But be willing to get started when you're not bomb awesome at something. You will learn so much more by playing the game and then you will learn by sitting on the sidelines.

What to look forward to the next podcast 47:16

Okay, so that's gonna wrap up part one of this Q & A, we focus mostly today on starting a business. And next week, come back because we're going to talk more about growing and scaling that business. Okay, so it's like one thing to start the business and you need certain things and understand certain things to start a business. And then there are all these other things that you have to learn to continue to grow and to scale a business. And so those are the questions that we're going to be focusing on next week.

If online business interests you, then sign in 47:48

Now, if you enjoyed this episode, I'm gonna ask two things of you. Thing number one, is if you are someone who wants to grow an online business, or you already have an online business that you want to scale, go to www.bicepsafterbabies.com/business and get on my email list specifically for business owners. Okay, this will be stuff that's curated just for people who are looking to start or scale an online business.

Let’s spread the good news by sharing your insights on today’s episode 48:13

Secondly, I'm going to ask is that you screenshot this episode, and share it on your social media and tag me at biceps after babies share what you liked about this episode, what came up for you? Maybe what kind of dreams you're thinking about right now in terms of you building a business or you starting a coaching business? Let me know, let me know what you took away from this episode. I'm excited to be able to interact with some of you guys who are excited about building a business. That wraps up this episode of biceps after BBs radio. I'm Amber now go on and be strong because remember my friend, you can do anything.

Outro

Hold up, sister friend. Do you love Biceps after Babies radio? If so, the best way to say thank you is to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review on iTunes. I know, every podcaster wants you to leave a review, but it's because those reviews help the podcast to reach more people. And I do truly want to know what you think. If this particular episode resonated with you, will you also please share it? Either send the link to someone who would find it valuable or take a screenshot and post it to your social media and tell your friends and family why they should listen. Make sure you tag me @biceps.after.babies so I can hear your feedback and give you a little love. And you know, if you aren't already following me on Instagram or Facebook, that's the perfect time to hit that follow button. Thank you for being here and listening to Biceps after Babies radio.