What do we want? Gratification!
When do we want it? Instantly!
We live in a world saturated in instant gratification. We can contact our friends through multiple channels at any time of day, from anywhere in the world. We can have the city’s best sushi or a even just single lime delivered to our front door. The amount of entertainment we have access to at our fingertips is a number that my brain cannot actually comprehend. And we can generate a rush of dopamine in the time it takes to write a caption for a photo.
It’s no wonder why we give up on the things that require more than a few minutes of focus. We have so many other ways to feel instantly good and to distract us from the real work we could be doing. But real work takes, well - real work.
Read MoreI’m just going to come out of the closet and say this: I actually hate budgeting. And I think so many of us have sucked at it because it actually inherently sucks. A budget is the harsh fluorescent light the morning after, revealing all of our past personal mistakes. Not being able to stick to a budget highlights just how out of control we are in our daily lives, like how we are powerless to marketing that connects with us emotionally or how the market or an employer dictates what we can afford and ultimately, how we live our lives. On the surface, a budget is a bunch of numbers, but at it’s core, it forces us to confront ourselves.
Read MoreWritten by Luke Frye
Okay, this is going to sound extremely biased... but, as an accountant, I strongly recommend hiring a professional to file your business’s tax returns.
Sure, you’ll have to part with some of your hard earned cash in the short term. But I guarantee it will save you time and headaches. And if it helps you avoid making costly errors on your tax return (y’know, the ones that result in IRS fines), it’ll also save you money in the long run.
That said, I’m aware that it’s not always possible to hire a pro. So, if you’re doing your own tax return this year, here are some common mistakes to avoid.
Read MoreWhen you’re at a bar at 1am; you’re not drunk, but not not sober, surrounded by a bunch of friends, the last thing you want to do is load several heavy, oddly shaped items into a car only to have to unload them shortly after. This is the worst part about playing in a local band; you have to do everything yourself… but it’s just part of it. It comes with the territory.
To my freelancer friends and small business buddies who hate selling or pitching or talking about the money part of things. I get it, it sucks, but too bad. It’s the trade off for being able to spend your working life building something you believe in. It’s the cost of mostly being in charge of your life. Talking about money doesn’t have to suck. You can stop hating it, but you have to do some work to change your own perspective on it.
Here are some ways I think about selling. I hope some of it will light up your brain and help you power past some of your limiting beliefs around selling and talking to customers about money.
Read MorePeople talk about opportunities like they’re a nebulous, disembodied thing. Like they’re floating around and will land on your shoulder and boom, your life is changed forever. Let’s say they are. Imagine opportunities are all floating around in form of balloons. Every balloon is connected to a string. And at the end of the string, even though you might not be able to see it, there is a person holding the string.
You see, opportunities are not standalone. They’re always connected to a person.
This article is all about understanding who you serve. Who is your ideal customer, target market and what’s your niche?
Read MorePicture this. You’re back in 5th grade. You’re standing in a line with your fellow classmates, facing an open field. And you’re all about to be humiliated because you’ll now be ranked by your kickball skills.
There are two team captains and they’re staring you all down and sizing you up. The first picks start and of course, the kids with the most kickball skills are picked first. Then the kids with the moderate skills are picked. They don’t even need hard kickball skills, they can have skills like morale building, being a team player or not getting in the way of the star players. And then the last picks are the kids who might not only lack skills; they might be a liability. On the dusty field, it’s not about feelings or friendships, it’s all about skills. After all, it’s not called friendship ball.
Read MoreI got clocked in the head about 200 times in a recent boxing sessions with my trainer. I don’t remember how many hits I took to the body because it was really the face punches that stood out to me that day. He wasn’t even hitting me hard, there were just so many. It was very disorienting. Ask someone to lightly slap you all over your face 200 times and you’ll see what I mean.
Read MoreBefore we begin, I’d like to introduce you to the pyramid of financial awesome.
The pyramid of financial awesomeness, lays out everything you need to do to get your personal financial life together. You start at bottom and then progress upward.
In this post, I’m going to walk you through the three things you can do to build a solid foundation.
Read More"We are what we repeatedly do.” - Aristotle
There was a time in my life where I was running about six miles a day, nearly every day. I didn’t become that annoying person overnight.
The first time I went out on a run, it was on a track at a community college near my childhood house. The loop was one-quarter mile, so I had to run around it four times to complete a mile. The first time I went out, I couldn’t run around the loop once without stopping. I only ran/walk a mile that day.
Then the next day, I woke up and ran/walk another mile. I slowly progressed, but before I realized it, I could run a mile without stopping. And eventually I could easily run six.
Read MoreI usually hate Maroon 5. But it’s Saturday night in Little Tokyo and a stranger is absolutely slaying his version of ‘Sunday Morning’. The crowd is feeling it and the next thing I know I’m totally grooving to the only thing crappier than an actual Maroon 5 song - a cover of a Maroon 5 song. But I don’t care that I look like a loser. After all, it’s a karaoke bar.
Read MoreI really enjoy being married to an interior designer. There are a lot of perks: We spend a lot of our time engaging with the culture in whatever city we find ourselves in. Nearly every industry party is impeccably designed with delicious food. The bins and bins of fabric samples mean I have access to thousands of potential pocket squares. Since so much of my wife's work relies on being inspired, we’re constantly looking for beauty in the world.
Read MoreImagine a room full of people running the odds on how long a stranger will live or die and then making bets on those odds. It could sound like an interesting scene in a movie, where questionable characters indulge in some casual underground gambling, but what I’m actually describing is a room full of underwriters in the life insurance industry.
When you look at it that way, doesn’t the insurance industry sound fascinating? It’s one of the biggest industries in the world and it’s all based on risks and making bets.
Read More"I have an app on my phone and it reminds me 5 times a day that I’m going to die,” is exactly what one of my friends told me recently. I stopped and thought about what she said, coming to the conclusion that I didn’t find it morbid. In fact, I think it’s a little weird that we don’t talk about dying more often; that we go around living our lives, putting things off as if we have all the time in the world.
Read MoreIt’s a common misconception that the tax code is rigged so the rich benefit and the poor are penalized. While the uber wealthy can definitely afford shrewd accountants and savvy tax attorneys to help, there’s another perspective to consider. The tax code favors employers versus employees. As a small business owner, you’re an employer. Employers have considerable more strategies available that can help you save money.
Read MoreMy favorite dad-joke about being a freelancer or small business owner is how we end up getting jobs that we never applied for.
No matter what you do, when you first start out, you do it all. You’re the head of marketing, the VP of sales and the director of finance.
If you’re in business, and you’re a little lost on what you need to be doing to stay on top of your finances, here are the things you should be looking at every week to make sure your business will be sustainable in the long run.
Read MoreSaving money is important. So is not spending more than you earn. And so is understanding the implications of big financial decisions like taking on student loans or a mortgage. All of these are crucial for long-term financial sustainability.
But one huge piece of the equation that not a lot of people focus on is the earning money part. As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time thinking about this concept.
Read MoreFor the past year, I’ve been using an income account as a part of my weekly accounting process.
Accounting process sounds fancy, but it’s just a workflow process that I use every week. The reason I started using an income account was because I wanted to have a better understanding of how much I truly needed to earn. I also wanted to see if I could run my business with less money each month by only giving my business a certain amount of money to work with.
Read MoreI’m sure you’ve heard of Murphy’s law; an old adage that states "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” And then there is Parkinson's law that basically boils down to: work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
Now, I’d like to introduce you to Paco’s law.
Read MoreDisclaimer: I am not an accountant and this is not tax advice. There are different methods and strategies for saving for taxes. This is one I’ve found to be very simple.
If you’re tired of being totally freaked out about owing taxes because your business earned money, listen up. Instead of being unsure about how you’ll pay your tax bill, you can get ahead of the curve by saving for your taxes as you earn income.
Read MoreThe world of finances is wide and deep. From building a budget to understanding insurance and everything in between; it can be intimidating. Jumping in all at once can result in a harsh flop followed by a defeated retreat.
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