Calligraphy Biz Corner

29. How to Use Financial Data to Grow Your Creative Business with Samantha Eck of Firestorm Finance

• Alane Gianetti, Shaochen Wu • Season 1 • Episode 29

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You probably didn’t become a calligrapher because you love spreadsheets. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by your numbers, this episode is about to change the game! We're joined by Samantha Eck of Firestorm Finance, a bookkeeper for creatives who helps transform financial chaos into clarity and strategy.

In this value-packed conversation, Samantha breaks down how to actually understand your numbers, track key financial metrics, and make smarter decisions for your business. Whether you're wondering what numbers to track, how to prepare for slow seasons, or how to start financial planning as a creative entrepreneur, Samantha’s insights will leave you feeling empowered (and maybe even excited) to look at your books!

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • Financial Tips for Calligraphy Business Owners: How to shift your mindset around money and feel empowered by your numbers.
  • Key Metrics to Track: The top financial data points that matter most for your business, and how they guide smarter decisions.
  • How to Plan for Slow Seasons in Your Calligraphy Business: Analyze seasonal trends and build a financial buffer to protect your income.
  • How to Start Tracking Your Business Finances: Simple, non-intimidating ways to get started—even if you’re brand new to bookkeeping.
  • Using Business Data to Grow Your Calligraphy Business: How your past performance can help you build a more profitable future.
  • Creative Business Growth Strategies: Stay proactive with your finances and make strategic decisions as your business evolves.
  • Budgeting Without Burnout: Use tools and simple spreadsheets to plan intentionally, not restrictively. 

If you’ve ever Googled “how to grow a creative business” or “how to manage seasonal income dips,” this episode is exactly what you need! Grab a notebook, and let’s talk creative business growth and financial clarity!

🔗 Links to resources mentioned in this episode:

Text us a question to answer on a future episode!

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alane_2_03-20-2025_160155:

Hello and welcome back to Calligraphy Biz Corner. I'm Elaine.

shaochen_2_03-20-2025_140155:

And I am Sha Chen, and today we're chatting with Samantha of Firestorm Finance. Samantha is a bookkeeper for creatives, and through her business she transforms messy financials into crystal clear roadmaps for success. Us. cannot wait for you to listen to this episode. It's short and sweet, but just jam packed with good information and will make you excited about looking at your numbers. At least that's how I felt after our interview. But before we dive in, Elena and I wanted to share a little update about the podcast, which you might've already seen us talk about a little bit on Instagram. and don't worry, our podcast isn't going anywhere, but we're just switching things up a little bit. We're moving from two episodes a month to one episode a month for now. We're both big fans of keeping a pulse and listening to what you need in the season that you're in, and like being adaptable and making adjustments accordingly. And right now for both Elena and myself, like this shift just feels like the best way to keep delivering on the value that we wanna share with our community, while also being able to create some space for other parts of our business that we wanna grow.

alane_2_03-20-2025_160155:

Yeah, we absolutely love creating and producing the podcast and getting to connect with you as well as our guests. and we know that you all love. Tuning in as well. So this new schedule of just going down to once per month is going to help us keep producing and creating the podcast in a way that is more sustainable and without sacrificing quality or consistency, because we do wanna make sure that we are still bringing you valuable content and that we're not just putting things out there to put them out there. So thank you so much for being a part of our podcast family. We can't wait to keep bringing you episodes that inspire, motivate you and help you grow your calligraphy business. So back to today's episode. One of my favorite takeaways from this conversation with Samantha is that instead of being intimidated by our numbers or just avoiding them entirely, which I remember being in that phase of my business where I just didn't even wanna look at them. Being able to shift your mindset to actually realizing that, like getting in touch with your numbers, looking at them on a consistent basis, knowing what the data is telling you is actually really empowering, because that is going to help you make better business decisions. It's gonna help you make decisions quicker than you otherwise maybe would've made them without knowing what your finances are really looking like. Even still, like I have a weekly finance date with myself, but still after this episode, I'm like, okay, I'm going to make sure that I am always entering into that little weekly date or meeting with myself with like this empowered mindset rather than like, oh no, is it gonna be a little scary?

shaochen_2_03-20-2025_140155:

Yeah. That's so good. I love that takeaway. my takeaways for this one, in addition to what Elaine just mentioned, are some of them are like more tactical. So first of all, I thought that we kind of knew what the main financial metrics were to look at for our business, but Samantha actually brought up a metric or like a new way of looking at a metric that I hadn't thought of. Before and now I can't wait to dig into it because like I feel like there'll be some really good insights that I haven't, you know, noticed before. so listen to the episode to find out what that is. some of my other takeaways were around just like better financial habits. That I can build for myself. So things like scheduling a review, meeting with myself each month to really like, analyze and understand exactly what the numbers are telling me and like using that to guide some decisions before I go into the following month. and then I. I think this is so important, like rewarding myself for it. If it's something that we kind of dread or don't love in our business, like making, she talks about making it fun. But I like the idea of just like giving myself a treat for doing it. So we're talking about watching a show you like, or eating some ice cream. and then the last takeaway for me that I'm like, like an action that I took for myself is I'm gonna download the budgeting app that she talks about in this episode.

alane_2_03-20-2025_160155:

And then you can put your ice cream treat into your budget, so you know it's always covered. If you listened to episode 20 with Erin, who is a money mindset and management coach, this whole conversation with Samantha was such a nice follow up to it because I feel like all of the, I. Kind of mindset pieces, and the way that Samantha also approaches numbers was very aligned with the things that we talked about in Aaron's episode. So if you haven't listened to that one yet, then go back and do that. After you listen to Samantha's, we'll link the episode 20 in the show notes so you can quickly go back and tune in. So with six years of corporate accounting under her belt, a formal education in numbers and the street cred of running two creative businesses, Samantha is uniquely equipped to help fellow creatives decode the story that their numbers are trying to tell them. When Samantha's not wrangling QuickBooks, you'll find her dominating on Xbox or curled up with a page turner, her husband by her side and her pup Vivi, keeping watch. She knows that clarity in the books leads to big, dreamy business moves. Ready to see for yourself. Let's jump into our interview with Samantha.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

Samantha, welcome to the show. We're so excited to have you. Before we dive into all your financial tips, we would love if you could share a little bit about your journey and what led you to specialize in bookkeeping for creatives. I read a little bit of your like intro and I saw that before you had Firestorm finance, you were, you actually had a couple creative businesses and you were like

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yes.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

clothing and like. Creating stickers and pins from your art. Like I wanna, I wanna know all about this.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah, absolutely. So when I first got married in 2015, I was working a corporate job, but as soon as my parents left to move to Maryland, I don't know, I felt really like. I don't wanna be corporate anymore. I don't wanna work in the same place that my dad was working. I kind of wanna do my own thing. So I started making kids' clothes and selling those from like a cotton micro fabric. It was like really stretchy and nice, but. I found that a lot of the times I had a hard time. I, I didn't have as thick of skin as I did then, as I do now, but where people were like, Hey, your prices are too high. And I'm like, but I put so much work into this, so why would you say it's so high? And so a, that was one of my adventures that I eventually fizzled out on because of that impact. But then when we moved here, I was like, you know, I'm gonna try again. I'm a little bit tougher. I can do this. I'm gonna actually try and sell stickers and pins for my art. So I just started drawing daily and I saw myself improving every day. And then I was like, why not just sell them as stickers and pins? And I did that for a while, but I was still at that point where I didn't look at my numbers, I didn't understand anything. I was just buying stuff. I was like, I want to create and sell stuff. That's all I want to do. I'm not gonna look at the back end of things. It got to the point of taxes, and my dad usually did our taxes at that point. And he goes, Hey, so like, how much did you make from your business? And I looked at him, I'm like, what do you mean? I'm like, I, I don't know. I don't even know what I spent. I'm like, I'm pretty sure it was a loss, but I don't know. And he's like, well, you should probably figure that out. So I was like, of crap. Like that's sort the point. I was like, I need to get more information on this. I need to understand this. And I felt so. Like a knot in the pit of my stomach. Like how do I get out of this? Like what do I do? that's when I really started putting in the effort to actually learn. So I got in accounts payable job.'cause I had a corporate background in accounting. I got an accounts payable job at a housing building company. I started to learn. I fell in love with numbers. They saw my potential and were like, Hey, we think you could like. Become an actual accountant. So they sent me to school. I did most of my schooling in a year, and then I was like, you know what? I don't wanna work corporately. I wanna help people who are like me, who didn't know what they were doing. So that's when I transitioned into being a bookkeeper. it wasn't until I really dug into like my past that I was like, you know what? I wanna be a bookkeeper for creatives because. If they're like anything like me, they don't wanna look at their numbers either. So how do I help those people?

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

I love that journey so much because it's so true. I feel like we just get so excited about like the creative things that we're doing, our hobbies, whatever the case may be, and we're like, numbers don't really matter. Right. Until you're like, oh crap. They really, really do.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

yes.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

And I love that you realized that you had, you know, strength in accounting and numbers when you really started to dig into that. And then were like, okay, I can use this now to help people who are just like me. That's, I love, it's such a, like, beautiful melding of your, all of your interests into one.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yes, exactly. And I was like, that's what kind of makes me different is because I came from that background. Instead of just being someone who's like, oh, I help creatives. I'm like, I actually was one once upon a time.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

Yep, exactly. So transitioning to calligraphers, like I just kind of said, we tend to love the creative side of our business and calligraphers and creatives in general. So we do often. Kind of shy away or feel intimidated when it does come to the number side. So to kick off this conversation, do you have any advice or mindset tips that you can share to really help us embrace the data and the numbers a bit more?

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah, absolutely. So I am someone who always believes that you should make your numbers, your bookkeeping, your accounting fun. So instead of approaching it with like a negative mindset or like, oh my goodness, I can't look at my numbers. Approach it with a mindset of like learning from it. So if you didn't hit a goal, you set a$10,000 revenue goal and you only set hit 8,000, don't approach that with I failed. I can't believe I did that. it instead with a mindset of, okay, I only made 8,000. How do I get to 10,000 next month? Like what was holding me back? Was it my expenses? Was it I wasn't advertising enough? Figure out the why's in the how's instead of dwelling on what's going on. And like your failure. Don't dwell on that. And then the other thing I like to say is like, make it fun. When you look at your numbers, don't just look at them like. Grab a coffee, grab some wine, whatever it is that you wanna do to make it fun. Put on some music and maybe dance. I don't know, dance while you're looking at your numbers, just do something that makes it interesting and fun so you feel less of this dread and like the pit in your stomach when you're looking at your numbers.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

Yeah. We love talking about being like the scientist in your business.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

what you're getting at too, is like digging into the data, having some hypotheses. Well, it could be this, it could be that. What does

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

tell me? So I love that.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

And I also feel like we can get, so I feel like this is a general mindset thing that everybody should kind of pay attention to and hone in on, is that we can get so fixated by the negatives of like. What didn't we had hit? What didn't we accomplish? What isn't working well? What isn't going right? And instead being like, okay, well what can I do to get there? Or how can I improve? Or what other opportunities are at my doorstep right now that I can tap into? So I love that. I've been in a like in and out sometimes lately of. Going from like really highs, like, oh my gosh, everything's going really well to like the really low lows of like, Ugh, this didn't work out the way that I wanted to. And I even said to my boyfriend this morning on our morning walk of like, I don't understand why it's so easy to gravitate and fixate on the negative instead of like celebrating all of the positive.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

Hmm.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

So I appreciate that.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

yeah, that's why you need biz besties to also help you remember that.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

I was gonna say, we've had a ton of boxers about that.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

Yeah. So Samantha, let's kind of dive into some specifics here. So what would you say are the most important or like some key financial metrics that Calligraphers should be tracking to understand their business health?

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah. So I mean, I don't think this just applies to calligraphers, but really specifically, you wanna look at revenue for one thing, but don't just dwell on revenue. A lot of people fixate over. Revenue, and they're like, oh, you know, I have that$10,000. But a lot of people use revenue to make those like bold claims online where they're like, I brought in like six figures, but that's six figures in revenue. You don't know their backstory, you don't know what's going on behind the scenes. another metric you should track is your expense percentage. A lot of people tend to only look at the number of their expenses, but you need to look at the percentage that you're spending on it, and not just the overall percentage, but the percentage. Per expense. Because when you see, you know, you brought in$8,000 and maybe you only spent$400 on coffee for a month, but then you look at that percentage and that's like, I dunno, 15%, you're like, oh my gosh, like 15% of my revenue went towards coffee. It's gonna hit you a lot harder than just looking at a number on a page. and then of course we have your profit, so you wanna look at your profit. That's a great one to look at and just understand that. then you also have like. I know this isn't really a metric, but I like to call it a metric, like what you wanna pay yourself. Because us as business owners tend to forget about ourselves. And the way I like to say it is work backwards. Don't just say, okay, I wanna make$10,000 a month. Start with what you wanna pay yourself. Okay, I need to earn.$5,000 a month to support me and my family. Build on top of that with your expenses, and then that's what you know you need to make per month instead of leaving yourself out for last and being like, okay, I'll just pay myself what's left over. Because then you're gonna get to this point where you're feeling a lot of burnout.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

Mm-hmm.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

final thing I think you should look at is your cash flow. So you wanna understand and just look at what's coming into your business versus what's going out on a monthly basis to make sure that you're not overspending. Because if you're overspending, then you're overreaching yourself, especially if you're also taking like more than what your business can currently withstand. Like obviously you do wanna pay yourself, but you wanna make sure that you're also leaving enough money in your account that you can also cover all your expenses.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

That makes a lot of sense. I like the idea of looking at the expense percentage.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

about it that way. So I had a follow up question for that.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Okay.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

there, knowing the kind of like business that we have as calligraphers, is there some kind of like benchmark or best practice around like what our expense percentage should be compared to our revenue?

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah. It really comes down to like what you want for a profit. But if we're benchmarking it, it's usually around that 20 to 30% is where you want your expenses to be. That seems very little when you're thinking about all these expenses that come into it, but. Usually it's around 20 to 30%. And then if you're having like cost of goods, like stuff that goes directly into what you're making, your inks, you know, pens, things like that, that's like directly in what you're doing in business, that's usually another 20 to 30% on top of that. So if you split it, usually between those two categories, you have your 20 to 30% in overhead and other supplies, and then your 20 to 30% in what's actually going towards your business specifically.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

Okay. And just to dig into those two numbers a little bit for listeners as well. So the, 20 to 30% that's going towards your business specifically, is that more like things like you said, kind of cost of goods, like if we're buying materials for a wedding project or printing costs for wedding stationary, et cetera. And then the other, just like general business expenses would be things like any programs you run or like your coffee order or things like that.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah. Yeah. So anyone you hire to like help you would be in that other category. So if you're like, I need a social media manager for my social media, that would be in that other category. But then, yeah, your cost of goods is gonna be exactly what goes into making your product. So whatever you are putting into it, even if you're shipping it out, your boxes are part of that cost of goods. Your labels are part of that cost of goods, because that's what goes into it. And that cost of goods will also help you to understand and improve your pricing. Because if you're looking at that and you're saying, okay, I'm spending, you know, 40% on expenses, but. My revenue isn't there for that specific product. You can understand then from there how to raise your prices as well.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

I remember digging into that. I'm sure that you had the same experience. Chen when I was offering Christmas ornaments and I was like totalling up the cost of the ornament, the cost of the packaging, like the cost of the paper, the box, the stickers, the ribbon, like all of these things, and I'm like, I am making like less than$5 an ornament right now. Worth.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

Right. then you don't sell all of them, right? You don't like,

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yep.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

generally plan to sell out of everything you have.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

Right.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

I mean, that's honestly one of the big reasons I do like. More of the custom projects so I can like purchase the supplies when I need them for the most part. But, I'm also really glad when you were talking at first, you were like 20 to 30% expenses, and in my head I was like, oh no. Like I definitely have more expenses than that. And then you had cost of goods as a separate category on

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yep.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

that, right? And

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yes,

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

okay, I feel better about my business now. Like I'm actually within that benchmark range.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

yes. I feel like, I feel like that's hard though, right? Because especially when you're in a growth phase, you are gonna be spending more if you're like, I'm in this phase where I really need to focus on growth and everything like that. And some generally that means like less revenue as well. But if you're like, okay, this is the standard of what my industry is at, it's usually usually around that 20 to 30% per category. So.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

That's really great to keep in mind. But yeah, I'm like, for example, I'm about to start running ads or like that. I'm hoping to get into it and so I know my profitability is probably gonna take a big hit, but like

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

I just need to prepare myself that that's like hopefully gonna lead to longer term growth, even though my short term profits are gonna be less.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah, exactly. And that's where you have to look at that and say, okay, well my profits are less this month, but I know it's because. I was running ads, so there's nothing wrong with that. You already know what the issue or what the cause of it is. You just have to be okay with it, and that's breaking that mental barrier, which sometimes we have trouble with, but that's where that all starts for sure.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

Okay. So for someone who is just starting to track their numbers or just feels completely lost when it comes to their bookkeeping, what is a simple first step that they can take? Or like where would you recommend that they start?

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah, absolutely. So I always recommend to start with tracking and you don't have to get a fancy software or anything like that. A spreadsheet is totally fine. So just track your income and expenses, like understand what is going in and out of your business. That's always the first step you take, and that's what I was talking about, making it fun. Like set up a monthly time every month to do that and put on a Netflix show. I don't know, watch The Walking Dead, whatever it is that you wanna watch and actually put in that effort to look at them.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

Around doing my accounting. I was.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah, yeah. Something fun. Something that'll keep you inspired and just look at them. Just track them understand again, what's going in and outta your business, because that is the first step to actually like reading the story that your numbers are actually trying to tell you.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

So they could even get started then with like a basic spreadsheet or something like that. Like you said, kind of taking note of the money that is coming in, the money that's going out, and starting to even maybe just categorize like this is. Kind of those two expense categories that you had mentioned earlier, like cost of goods versus just other business expenses. If they're not gonna really dial in just yet on the nitty gritty, like will that give them enough of a kind of starting picture?

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah. Yeah. Because if they're putting that all into a software, like even a Excel, and they're looking at that and they're saying, okay that was an advertising item I've hired a contractor to make my logo, whatever it is, they're gonna understand, okay, that's what came outta my business then I brought in this much, it's gonna at least give them that starting point. Because a lot of people will say, okay, well start off with an accounting software and. I think that that's too complex for someone who's very new to business because if you get into an accounting software and you don't know what you're doing, it's quickly gonna get to the point where you're gonna feel overwhelmed and you don't wanna look at your finances at all. So just starting on that spreadsheet and putting in that basic information will at least give you that headstart to be like, okay, I know what I'm looking at now. How do I move my business further by putting it into an accounting software?

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

Yeah, I love that. It's kind of like what you were saying earlier about just like removing the mental barrier or

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

to like just starting to look at your number. So like whatever feels easiest for you at the moment. At

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

do that so you can get started.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yes.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

Let's talk about business growth. How can tracking this data help calligraphers or creatives make strategic decisions about expanding their offerings or changing their offerings, raising their prices? Like how do we use, now that we are tracking that data, how do we use it?

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

absolutely. So that comes back to kind of what I was saying, where you're gonna really start to analyze them. First of all, I think you should always set. Financial goals. A lot of people tend to forget about their goals, and I used to not set any goals at all, but when I started setting goals, it helped to really. Understand my business a lot better because I would say, okay, I wanna make$10,000. I wanna only have 60% in expenses. I wanna make sure that I have at least a 40% profit so that I can pay myself 20% of that, or whatever your number is, because that's where you kind of build up to it. So now that you know that and you're like, okay, I only wanna spend. 60% in expenses, whatever that number is.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

So.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

you're going over that, that's where you have to ask yourself, was it worth it? So now that you know your numbers, you're looking at everything, you're looking at that data in your QuickBooks, you know what that percentage is, and you, you look at that$400 coffee order and you're saying, was that worth it? If it did and it lit you up, and you're like, yeah, I was on fire last month. Like, go for it. Like. That's absolutely, I love that for you, but if you're like, what the heck? Like, why did I spend$400 on coffee last month? That's where you start to learn more like about yourself and kind of like curb those spending habits so you can be like, okay, I want that$400 to actually go towards advertising so that I can gain more people coming into my business. That's how you're gonna start to pivot. And then as well, with your cost of goods, if you're like, Hey, I only want my cost of goods to be at 20 to 30%, if your cost of goods are at 40%, that's a red flag for you right there.'cause you're looking and you're saying, Hey, I'm spending 40%, I need to up my revenue. Like how do I make sure that that 10% is built into the revenue instead of. Coming outta my pocket. So looking at those percentages and understanding those and knowing what your goals are, is all part of that bigger picture that's gonna help you really start to read that data?

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

And also it's not just necessarily like cutting expenses. I think that's an

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yes.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

it

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yep.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

you can increase your profit by raising your prices as

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yes.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

your revenue. So that's like the other half of that equation, right.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yes. Yeah.'cause expenses are only one part of that. Like if your expenses are super lean and you have nothing that you can cut, and you know this, I need every single expense that's in here, then the only thing that you can do is raise your revenue. So then you have to start formulating a plan. Okay, so I had a really successful month last year in February. What made that such a successful month? Okay. I advertised a lot more. On Facebook. I'm gonna advertise a lot more on Facebook and see if I can repeat that. Okay, this month was successful. How do I keep that going and learning from that data so you can keep repeating what's really working for you. I.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

Yeah, I love that.'cause yeah, I was gonna say the same thing too, where it's like. Looking at your numbers, if you know you're seeing that that expense percentage, especially for the cost of goods, is like higher where you want than where you want it to be, you could either go, okay, do I need to find some new suppliers or is this, this is what it is and this is actually an indicator that I'm not charging enough for these services'cause I'm not making enough of a profit on them.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yes.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

So I really love starting from. Kind of your goals and then working backwards to be able to analyze and track your data. And I feel like this conversation is tying in very nicely with our episode 20 with Erin.'cause a lot of her philosophy too is not necessarily like cutting back or budgeting. She was talking about just how to use your business finances to support your life basically.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yes.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

And it's like not about cutting back or you know, that term budgeting that I feel like we're all like, Ugh, gosh, okay, we need to make a budget. But it's really getting in tune with like, well, what is actually lighting you up? What do you really need? Like you said, if like if it's the$400 coffee order that's like, yeah, I need this.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

Then maybe there's another place where you can shift things around.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah, absolutely, and I love that and that I talk about that a lot where budgeting is not restrictive, like everybody thinks of budgeting as some sort of restrictive thing. budgeting I take is a thing where you're learning from it. So if you set a$500 budget on ads, but you spent$600, all you have to look at that and say it's okay. Did that extra a hundred dollars. Do something for me that's not to say, oh crap, I spent an extra a hundred dollars on advertising. That's like, why did I spend a hundred dollars on extra on advertising and did it work for my business?

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

Honestly, this conversation is really like motivating me to now go look at my numbers. I'm like, I'm just gonna open my QuickBooks real quick. But no, I, I think I, I'm taking away like, I think definitely blocking some time at the end of each month to look at it.'cause sometimes I just, you know. Things happen. You, there's a lot going on, blah, blah, blah. Next thing I know, the quarter's passed and it's time to file my sales taxes. And finally I'm doing my bookkeeping. But I think like just like you said, the data can be so much more powerful in informing my decisions more. Quickly, if I look at it more often, like I can make more changes and more decisions and adapt to my business more quickly if I'm looking at that data on a more frequent basis. Not like every day or even necessarily every week, but I think on a monthly basis is a really good cadence.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah, absolutely. And I always tell my clients that too. Like even if you have a bookkeeper, even if it's not me, if you have someone else as a bookkeeper. You still need to sit down and look with your numbers because you are the business owner, you are the decision maker. You make those decisions. You need to also sit down and look at the data that's being presented to you and saying, okay, hmm, how can I better my business and how can I utilize the information that they're giving me to, to make it better?

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

I feel like we tend to, like I said earlier, we tend to feel a little intimidated by our numbers or by looking at numbers. Um, I think'cause a lot of us are just like, oh, I'm scared of what I'll find. Or like, it's. Not gonna be as much as I want it to be or whatever the case may be. But it's like, no, it's actually really empowering to be able to look at your numbers.'cause like you said before, Chen it, it gives you the data to actually like, make better decisions and to make them quicker. Like if you need to pivot, if you're halfway through the year and you're not reaching your revenue goals, like you can figure out what to fix and change before it's too late.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yes.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

And then the other thing I really like is like tying something fun, like kind of a Pavlovian response. So like maybe after I do my accounting and get myself some ice cream. And that's just like

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yes,

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

to every time I do my bookkeeping. I think I'm gonna start doing that, not.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

yes.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

I know when you were talking about um, putting on a TV show before, all I could think of was just putting that one, I don't know if you're a Schitt's Creek fan, but that one scene of Schitt's Creek where they're talking about the tax write off just like on loop, because that just brings me joy every single time that I watch it and it's like numbers related. So feel like it would make it a little more fun.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

yes. I've used that meme way too many times.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

It's so. Talking specifically about wedding businesses for a second.'cause I think that, I mean on, I feel like any, you know, creative business may tend to have its ebbs and flows right of income and expenses, but weddings in particular are definitely a more seasonal. Business model. Even with live events as well, we have high and low seasons based on holidays and, you know, whatnot. So what advice do you have for preparing ourselves and our businesses for those slower seasons? And then how can we use that financial data to like plan ahead and better prepare ourselves and stay more financially stable?

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah, so I have two pieces here. The first one is that you should be building a financial buffer. Everyone advises three to six months of expenses, and you don't have to do that all at once. I always tell everyone I know, like you don't pressure to be like, oh my gosh, I have to set aside like$3,000 like right away to cover that. No. at it slowly. Like start with a hundred dollars a month, start with$200 a month, put it in a different savings account, build it up as a buffer so that you have three to six months of expenses in case you're ever super, super slow. You have a backup there. And then don't, don't touch it. Like a lot of people will be like, oh, I'm gonna take that money and use it elsewhere. Don't touch it.'cause that is your safety net. business. And you're right, every business has highs and lows. But building that buffer is gonna be your first step. And then the second step is looking at the data, not just on a month over month basis, but looking at it on a year over year basis. I know that seems wild'cause every year is different, but looking at it on year over year basis can kind of help you, especially if you start to build up maybe of three years, maybe of four years. Just looking back on it and seeing, okay. You know, it seems to me that every January, March, and February I take a large dip and then. April, March or April, may and June, I take a high and then I start to dip back down again. So I know that my expenses and my what I'm spending should be lower in those first few months, and then it needs to be higher in those next three months and then kind of dip back down and even out. So I know that if I'm gonna make any huge expenses, I need to do that. Either before that period, or I need to do it after that period.'cause then that'll help you to start to plan around that. And instead of being kind of thrown into the midst of it and be like, oh my gosh, I don't know what to do. I'm running out of money. at least a little bit more prepared. And again, that's not saying like cut out expenses, it's more just saying, what can you shift to those periods? Or what can you hold back from those periods to make sure that you're not causing yourself to dip really, really low?

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

That's such a good tip there to look at your cyclical trends of past years and see if they're consistent. Like just looked at my credit card bill from the past month and I was like, why is this like three times higher than my, my business credit card bill normally is? And it was because like. So many of my bigger ticket softwares that I pay annually renewed, like all in the same month. And I'm like, I think I should have made a note of that somewhere because that obviously happens every February, but somehow it still caught me off guard. And I'm like, well, luckily I had built enough of that Cashflow Reservoir or whatever the buffer you were talking about that I can pay off the credit card bill, but like I'm definitely gonna put like a calendar reminder or something next year. So I'm like, Hey, in January, like, hey, reminder, February's gonna be a big credit card month.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

Yes. The same thing happens on mine.'cause I feel like as we're starting businesses too, you're signing up for all of the softwares and the. Subscriptions right away. And then you're like, oh my gosh. Okay, now these are all due at the same time. I have a question about the buffer that you were talking about. I'm just curious, and maybe some people handle this differently, but I would love to know your thoughts on it.'cause I know you said building up, you know. The typical that we hear is three to six months reserve for your business expenses. Do you factor salary into that as well if you're paying yourself, or do you really just hold it for like business expenses and if your salary has to take a hit, then that takes a hit.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah, I mean, I would, so I would factor not just your salary in there, but if you have employees factoring your employee salaries in there as well, because. Then if you're ever in a pinch and you're like, oh my gosh, like this is just the worst month I've ever had. You are not stressing yourself out. And then you also don't react in kind of like a scarce, a place of scarcity and scare people away.'cause you're like, I'm, I'm desperate. Like I need money. Instead, you're like, I've got it covered. I'm not worried about it. I'll pick it up next month. But then at least you are covered, your employees are covered, all your expenses are covered, and you can feel at least some sense of peace during that month, even though it's not your best month.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

Yeah, I love that piece of advice.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

So I feel like we've talked about a lot of like things we can put into practice during this conversation, but do you have like a favorite financial habit or practice that you would recommend to everyone that can really make an impact on our business over time?

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

actually, and it connects to what you were just talking about with your expenses. So I'm a firm believer in the e budgetting software called YA. It's called You need a Budget. And it's where you'll put in like all of your expenses and everything like that, and everybody else says, oh, like I said, budgeting. They think it's a scary thing. They think it's a little bit restrictive, but the point of it is not necessarily to be restrictive, but more so to put in everything that we know we have coming out for our business so that we can make sure that we're covered, even if you're gonna put it on a credit card. Just understanding, okay, this comes out every year. At this time, this comes out every month at this time. I know that I need to cover that by next year, so I'm gonna have to make sure that that money's in there at some point. And as scary as it is, I think that that's one of the things where at at least you're prepared for that, and that will also help you to build that buffer. Because if you know exactly what all of your. Kind of fixed expenses are your buffer's gonna be a lot more firm because you're gonna be like, okay, I know I have$200 in subscriptions that come out every month. I've gotta have at least$600 for those every month. But just putting those into, even if it's not in, I can't, like a budgeting software, just a spreadsheet and saying, okay, are all my subscriptions, these are all of the people that I pay like. providers, whatever it is, this is where I get all my materials. This is the average cost of them. Just to understand that part of it, because you can look at your profit and loss, sure, but your profit and loss only shows you like the bigger picture. It doesn't really dig into like the line items and the nitty gritty and all when those subscriptions come out. You can look in that in QuickBooks, but if you're not using QuickBooks yet, it's a great way to kind of just that in your head so that you know when your subscriptions are coming out.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

Yeah, that's so good. What was the app called again?

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

need a budget or YAB, YNAB or you need a B like it's called, you need a budget. But yeah.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

got it, got it. Okay. I was hearing like wine app. I'm like, what does wine have to do with accounting?

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

Sign me up for that one.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

Okay. Well, we'll, we'll find it and link it in the show notes.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

Yeah. I like the idea of that because it's, like you said, it's a little more proactive and forward thinking versus reactive. I feel like that's a lot of what this conversation has been about is just like you being in the driver's seat and taking control of your numbers and your finances and your budget, or whatever the case may be, versus letting it happen to you or. Steamroll you over, God forbid, so I like the idea of that being more forward thinking.'cause yeah, it's like you can track your profit and your loss, your expenses, et cetera in a spreadsheet. But like, are you also able to keep track of like what's even coming in or what is going to be going out in the future? And I think taking a look at that bigger picture is just also really empowering and helps you better, again, better plan for some of these ebbs and flows that. Literally every business owner is going to experience. But setting you up so that you're not panicking or like you said in that scarcity mode of like, somebody please gimme their money.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yes. Yeah. I am a very firm believer in being both proactive and very intentional with your business money. I actually talked about this in a podcast episode I did last week or this week where it was about intentional investments, like making sure that you're looking back at your investments in your business and understanding if they served you or if you bought them from a place of fear or emotionalness. Like what? What forced you to buy this? So if you bought like a$5,000 course last year on calligraphy, let's just say calligraphy, and you went and you're like, I already knew everything in that course. Like I, that was a huge regret of mine. Why did I buy it? Maybe it was, you saw an ad that was just so powerful that was like, yeah, I wanna buy that.'cause that ad is just like. that's killer. But if not, and you're like, okay, I didn't think I, I was good enough. So I bought that, that place of fear, that place of not trusting yourself. So being intentional and understanding your finances so that you can be proactive is just, that's gonna change your entire world. It's gonna change your entire business.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

I love that we're both here for that. I feel like it ties into our empowered CEO series where we talked about action because like taking action in your business and a lot of it had to do with just like I. Taking a more proactive stance. So this, this mindset, this like frame of thinking, even when it comes to your numbers, is just very well aligned with all of the things that our listeners are used to hearing, but also the things that we believe and try to practice in our own businesses as well. So then if our listeners wanna keep learning from you, if they wanna connect with you, learn more about your work, if they are interested in bookkeeping services themselves can you let us know where they can find you?

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm most active on threads, Instagram and LinkedIn, and all three places. It's at Firestorm Finance LinkedIn. It's just under my name, Samantha Eck. also have a lot of free resources if you're like, I just wanna learn because I'm someone who always believes in giving value and giving as much value as possible. So my podcast is Creative Mind Smart Money, and most of the topics are finance, but we do have like other people who come in there to talk about different aspects of business. And then my newsletter is also another place where I just provide as much value as possible to give you the best steps forward to growing and building your business from a financial perspective.

shaochen_1_03-20-2025_130806:

Amazing. Well, thank you so much for being on our show today. This was like a nice, short, sweet, but like jam packed episode and I hope that our listeners are feeling like motivated now to go and like dig into their numbers.

samantha-eck_1_03-20-2025_140806:

Yes. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

alane_1_03-20-2025_150806:

Thank you. We'll talk to you soon.

People on this episode

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Alane Gianetti

Host
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Shaochen Wu

Host