Money Morsels

Paula Pant is just plain delightful, a rebel with a cause. And, although it is uncommon to call somebody who specializes in financial savvy "delightful", her passion for prioritizing and living her life to the fullest is truly inspiring. She joins us to tell her rebellious tale of starting her own business by the age of 27 and traveling to over 30 countries by the age of 30. She shares her hate of cubicles with us, along with tips dedicated to becoming money savvy, crushing limits, and maximizing the potential of life. Her blog called "Afford Anything", serves as a gathering place for a tribe of people who refuse to do anything less than what they love. Paula’s success comes from her ability to identify her main priority in life, and her passion, which she identifies as her love of travel. Equally as important is her unapologetic approach to pursuing that which she loves, at any cost, and never telling herself that it is beyond her means. The point of life, and of business, says Paula, is not too mindl

Darrell Mullis of Stratactics is a communication and finance guru and a financial trainer for nonfinancial professionals who has a very unique way of teaching and spreading his wisdom. Coming from a civil engineering background, and having run his own successful construction firm, he realized that engineering school didn't teach him much about finance. He participated in a one day program called The Accounting Game and loved the learning methods so much that he ended his construction career and became a master teacher for the program.   Today, he's the founder of Stratactics, and specializes in teaching finance and accounting to managers and associates to create more awareness of financials within the company, as well as lay groundwork for a stronger team dynamic and better communication. He is also the author of The Accounting Game, a book that features a lemonade stand on the cover, and provides readers with an unconventional, engaging way to learn about finance and break it all down. Also, via an inte

On the surface, Elena Lipson's message seems simple. She wants us all to take good care. She's a self-care mentor and strategist who runs programs, courses, and retreats that teach women entrepreneurs how to take care of their most important asset: themselves. But is self-care really that simple? As business people, mothers, and jills-of-all-trades, it is surprising how quickly we can become run down and minimize our own potential. Elena reminds us through her work that if we are in tune with ourselves and meet our own basic needs, we are able to show up and be where we're supposed to be present 100%. Once Elena became a mother, a wife, and started her own business, the philosophy of sharpening yourself, making the best impression on others, and stopping showing up halfhearted, tired, and exhausted, really hit home.She realized that if she was not at her best from the inside out, she couldn't be at her best in her business, and in her family. She began to ask her clients what's self-care meant to them and fo

Dave Delaney is an author, consultant, and keynote speaker on digital marketing, social media strategy, and business networking. He also has a book out called New Business Networking, which explores online and off-line tools, tips, and techniques to grow your professional network, your business, and your career. So does new networking mean that we throw out the rules and traditions of the old way of networking? Not necessarily, says Dave. Online networking and social media can be excellent tools to market content and to build connections with people, but the value in face-to-face networking and building community has not changed with technology.We live in the wonderful time where we have fantastic tools for researching. We can research people and companies before we go and meet them in person. We also have lots of opportunities to get oriented and get our foot in the door in the first place.   -- Dave's fascination with the earliest forms of online communication (he even used to run a bulletin board sy

We all have so much to learn from Hy Ryan, a family man who, from a very early age learned the value of hard work. Growing up on a farm with entrepreneurial parents, he went on to become a diesel mechanic, got a job with John Deere for a while and worked on the construction side of things. When the family wooden pallet business needed him, he readily entered the world of wooden pallet recycling and manufacturing. Today, he runs the business successfully, with 2.5 million in revenue, and is known as the Truckpreneur. Why trucks? Because Hy saw an opportunity to not only streamline his business, but expand it to include a wider variety of services and the ability to meet his clients' needs and diversify the abilities of his operation. He joins us to talk about how he grew the business organically, how he branched out into recycling and reclaiming wooden pallets, and how focused he is on being frugal and not going into debt. Hy also shares how his business survived and thrived through the manufacturing recession

As business owners, we are constantly juggling all aspects of preparedness, so it is oftentimes difficult to find the motivation to understand the ins and outs of our balance sheet. Furthermore, things are not always as they appear. However, it is crucial to not only consult the numbers for a peace of mind, it is also important to know what the numbers mean. It is easy to see the pluses and the minuses only, without learning to distinguish between different types of assets and expenses. It is for this reason that many people are confused about the concept of retained earnings.   -- Retained earnings are a mythological creature, a point of confusion for business people trying to figure out the difference between retained earnings and an emergency fund. Heck, we all have no doubt we NEED an emergency fund, that one could be the difference between sinking or being able to swim on.  But what does one look like? It is important to understand that the assets of your business, the retained earnings, are

Having recently returned from a trip to Austin, where I spoke to the ASMC, a conference for the Association of Apple Authorized Retailers, the folks that are on the frontlines of getting us Apple service and products and helping us use them, I have been thinking about a very common question I am often asked. A lot of business owners, whether they provide a product or a service, ask, "Can you give me a ratio for _____?" The variables within that question are things like advertising, location, and staffing.   This question is interesting, because it presupposes that there is a magic number for a specific category inside of your business. While there are guideline numbers, and it is certainly advantageous to analyze your numbers, everything depends on your line items and your bottom line profitability. In this installment of Money Morsels I will explain how to look at your trends using three ratios to understand your business better.   -- Keeping an eye on the cost of goods relative to your overall

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg once said, “The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” As a believer in this statement, Mitchell D. Weiss continues his interview to emphasize on the need to identify and manage risks. The author of “Business Happens - A Practical Guide to Entrepreneurial Finance for Small Businesses and Professional Practices”, Mitch continues to assist business owners by sharing knowledge collected over 30 years in the financial services industry. More About This Show I decided to break down my interview with Mitch Weiss into two (Part 1 here) podcasts because I wanted to provide you with smaller morsels to process and learn. Whereas we discussed business loans to fund your business in Part 1, this episode is more about how businesses can learn to manage their risks. Though business owners realize that they face many risks, they tend to be optimistic in nature.

Entrepreneurs seek the help of bank loans regularly only for most to be shot down and deprived from their dreams of owning a business. Fortunately this doesn’t need to be the case the next time you apply. Mitchell D. Weiss joins Money Morsels to help you learn how to get a bank loan the right way. A famous author with titles like “Business Happens - A Practical Guide to Entrepreneurial Finance for Small Businesses and Professional Practices” under his belt, Mitch shares his 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry to help you understand how banks think and, in turn, enable you to get the loans you need. More About This Show Mitch Weiss uses his three decades of experience in the financial services industry to educate business owners, especially ofstartups and those facing difficulties while seeking financing. In this podcast, he shines the light on some of the mistakes people make, driving banks to “not like them” and ultimately reject their loan application

One of the important aspects of running a business is raising funds. At times where bootstrapping isn’t possible, you’ll need a capital cash infusion to take care of numerous costs and other factors like location. In such cases, you need to start with the kitchen table pitch, i.e. selling your idea to friends and family members to secure their angel investments. However, while this method seems easy and profitable due to its numerous advantages, there are some disadvantages which mandate that you think your decision over a few times, regardless of whether you’re planning to fund your business through equity investment or by borrowing money.  More About This Show Sue Vineyard, trainer and author of The Great Trainer's Guide: How to Train (almost) Anyone to do (almost) Anything, wrote, “When we recognize that a better word for Fundraising is ‘friend raising’, we open limitless doors to creativity in support of our causes.” In this episode, I tackle Sue’s

Former General Electric chairman and CEO once said, “Cash is King”. However, like royalty, you need to make sure of handling it delicately or you (and your business) will suffer the consequences, mainly low cash flow and inability to meet expenses. To avoid these pitfalls and treat your cash right, you need to learn how to plan your cash flow. By planning your cash flow or projecting it, you’ll be able to reap a number of benefits, including making better decisions that profit the company. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg that is your financial well-being. In this podcast, you’ll discover why you should plan cash in your business, the steps you should take and the resources you need to ensure that your business remains afloat.   Click here to Subscribe to the Money Morsels podcast via iTunes!   More About This Show Cash is one of the important assets of a business, which is why you need to manage it properly. Just remind yourself that without cash, everything yo

Entrepreneurs are universally brilliant at spotting a need in the marketplace and taking action to fill that need, including raising the necessary capital. Helena Fogarty did just that and she joins Money Morsels to talk about it. Seven years ago, surfing became her obsession and led her to move to Costa Rica. While there, she surfed up to four hours a day. And every day she was annoyed by the same problem: a bikini that repeatedly fell down. So she went back to her fashion roots, moved back to New York and set about creating Mi Ola, a company that makes a sexy bikinis that stay on. Click to View Podcast: Play in new window | Click here to Subscribe to the Money Morsels podcast via iTunes!   More About This Show Helena saw a true need with her Mi Ola bikinis and she had the perfect background to create them. She had worked in high fashion and had a background in business as well as an MBA, all of which she combined to forge her company. Her journey in building the company is full of lessons for all entre

There’s a quote that is sometimes attributed to Lou Holtz, the legendary Notre Dame football coach that goes like this: “If you aren’t growing, you are dying.” This is true in life and in business. All businesses grow, some simply tank as a result. So how do you avoid that fate; how do you grow your business, without tanking it? It isn’t magic, luck or chance. It is one thing: concrete planning with specific tools and processes. In this podcast episode, YOU can find out what these tools and processes are and use them in your business too. Click to View Podcast: Play in new window | Click here to Subscribe to the Money Morsels podcast via iTunes!   More About This Show Every entrepreneur and business owner has faced this challenge at one point or another: how to cope with the growing pains and growing challenges of their business, without tanking their business. And if you are fortunate enough to be in the midst of those growing pains, embrace it. It’s a GREAT thing! Re

Welcome to the first episode of Money Morsels, a podcast dedicated to helping entrepreneurs like you, take charge and take control of their finances. This podcast's purpose is to provide small bites of financial wisdom so you can be consistently upping your game. And I'll be your host, my name is Emily Chase Smith and I'm a bankruptcy lawyer-turned-financial educator who is committed to supporting entrepreneurs' financial success. Click to View Podcast: Play in new window | Click here to Subscribe to the Money Morsels podcast via iTunes!   More About This Show Money Morsels is a podcast for entrepreneurs and anyone else dedicated to creating greater financial peace and understanding in their lives. I'll be talking with people who have been where you are; we'll discuss their biggest money mistakes and their biggest money successes. All of our discussions will be uplifting, motivating and value-driven. What Money Morsels will NOT be is a podcast that uses CPA-speak or other financial lingo that leaves you