Find out how small business owners (just like you) are living the dream by creating a strong financial plan.
Meet Shane and Jocelyn Sams — Financial Planning Rockstars
Shane and Jocelyn are the husband-wife dynamic duo behind Flipped Lifestyle, a coaching business that helps people recreate their lives (and lifestyles) through starting an online business. They sell digital products and membership communities that help people succeed in a wide range of online businesses.
Flipped Lifestyle offers solutions for people through a membership model. Depending on your level of membership, you can access video, PDFs and other digital files, participate in forums, or get one-on-one coaching time with Shane and Jocelyn.
This month, Shane and Jocelyn took some time off from helping online entrepreneurs to…well, help the online entrepreneurs in our community. Here's their story of how they became financial rockstars.
What does “having a strong financial base” mean to you?
Having a strong financial base to me means spending less than we make, and having a war chest set aside to get us through down times.
Entrepreneurship and owning your own business is a roller coaster of ups and downs. There will ALWAYS be good times and bad. But you can totally prepare for it.
[Tweet “”In entrepreneurship, there will ALWAYS be good times and bad. But you can totally prepare for it.” –@flippedlifestyl”]We keep 3-6 months expenses saved for our personal and business. We also budget for less than we actually make. This prevents cash flow problems, or emergencies from being catastrophic. A strong financial base means we have TIME to pivot, adjust, improvise, adapt and overcome any challenge in our business.
What made you decide to get intentional about creating a financial plan for your business?
We decided to get intentional because we kept making more and more money, but there was less and less left at the end of the month! Every time we made more, we spent more, and realized we didn't know where it was going.
We quickly realized business wasn't just about what you made, it was about what you kept! So we decided to get serious and shift from a side hustle mentality to a BUSINESS mentality.
[Tweet “”We realized business wasn't just about what you made, it was about what you kept!” –@flippedlifestyl”]How do you coach your clients regarding getting a strong financial base in place?
The #1 thing we coach people to do is to create a business around subscriptions or memberships. We teach people how to create “forever customers”–customers that pay month after month, year after year. Think Netflix, cable, your internet: you have to pay month after month to use that service. We attack online business in the same way.
When you sell one-off products or services, you are constantly scrambling and spending tons of energy each month trying to find that next sale. You need to offer something that creates continuous value, that people will pay for over and over again. That creates financial stability.
What are you proudest of, when it comes to mastering your business finances?
We are most proud of switching to the Profit First method of accounting! We are spending less than we make, watching our money grow, and our business is financially secure. We have also been more disciplined in our costs, reducing a lot of waste in our business expenses.
How has financial planning made your business more amazing this year?
Building a business around memberships has given us the most peace of mind. We know our numbers. We understand how many members we have, how many on average leave each month, and how much it costs us to replace people that leave. We have systems in place to go get more customers and keep growing.
Knowing over 1000 people will pay a recurring monthly fee next month gives you so much peace of mind. It becomes almost impossible to fail when you know that you have guaranteed money coming in next month.
