But Are You Making Any Money?

Stop Being Busy and Start Creating Cash

Marley Majcher

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781600378683
• eBook ISBN: 9781600378928
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Entrepreneurship
• Index: Business

Entrepreneurs—learn how to double your income (and work less) with this proven, specialized method of job costing that's simple, fast, and effective.
Well-known celebrity party planner, Marley Majcher, in her signature witty, no-nonsense style shows you how to make a real profit without spinning your wheels. But Are You Making Any Money? answers the questions that you're afraid to ask in a straightforward, easy to understand way. In But Are You Making Any Money? you will learn how to fatten up your bottom line in a unique, super simple, step-by-step process that shows you where all your money is really going. By learning from the trials and tribulations of Majcher's own entrepreneurial journey, you will magically see yourself in her examples yet learn the skills necessary to turn a real profit, all while laughing out loud. Who knew business could be so much fun?
Praise for But Are You Making Any Money?
"For entrepreneurs of all stripes and sizes, getting to profitability is the key to sustaining your business. This book will take you through the steps you need to evaluate the hurdles you face and get your business earning money for you—and it's told in a witty, conversational style that makes you want to keep reading more. A great how-to book for any entrepreneur." —Kerry A. Dolan, senior editor, Forbes magazine
"Here's a sparkling yet profound journey to the heart of enterprise—how an entrepreneur makes money, keeps it, and then applies it to the next step forward. It's a unique story of business and of life. Read it." —Derek Leebaert, PhD, partner, MAP AG; co-author, The Future of the Electronic Marketplace; professor, Georgetown University
"As a fellow entrepreneur I found Marley's observations on running your own startup funny, insightful and uncannily accurate. Shave a couple of years off your path to success by applying a few of Marley's simple, well thought out techniques." —Chris Maloney, CEO, TriTech Software Systems
"A lot of people will tell you their very polished and politically correct version of how to run a business. If you'd rather hear the truth, however, just ask Marley. She not only thinks outside the box, I'm not sure she even knows what a box is. Prepare to laugh and learn . . . and possibly get hand cramps while scribbling notes to yourself." —Amy Swift Crosby, founder, SMARTY

Part I

GET YOUR
BEARINGS

Chapter 1

YOU’RE BUSY AS A BEE BUT YOUR
BUSINESS IS A CHALLENGED MESS

Let’s start in the middle, where most of us are. Many of us wake up in the middle of our business feeling hopeless and maybe even a little bit foolish. We realize that we are far from accomplishing the goals laid out in our business plan and dreams. We began with passion and got lost along the way. What happened? When did we start working so hard? How can we be so busy but feel like we’re getting nowhere?

SOUND FAMILIAR?

Meet Julia the graphic designer, owner of her own fabulous firm. Like many of us these days, she opens her eyes every morning with her stomach in knots, her heart racing and pounding (if that’s even possible at the same time), and she has never looked so—what’s the word? Depleted.

But it wasn’t always like that. In fact, what happened to the days when she longed to get out of her “dead-end job” and be her own boss? She had always been amazingly creative, everyone said so. “You should go out on your own.” “You’re so talented.” “Can you imagine how much you would make if you didn’t have to give it all to your boss? Unbelievable.” Julia drank the Kool-Aid, seeing a vision of herself as a skinny, tan superwoman, sipping mai tais by the pool while logging in remotely to her ever-growing bank account.

Um, yeah.

Julia did what a lot of us do. She marched into her tyrannical and stuffy boss’s office and quit, starting up her own gig. Bolstered by her dreams of what her work life could look like, she did it—and only burned a couple of mini-bridges in the process.

From then on, it was Julia’s world, exactly how she wanted it. Being the creative person that she is, she spent all kinds of time on the logo, the website, the business card, just the right weight of card stock for her letterhead. This was her shot. She finally had her own company and it was going to be more amazing than her wildest dreams. She knew it in her gut.

After she set up shop, home office fully outfitted, blog ready to go, special new e-mail address up and receiving, the phone started ringing. Hey, this working for herself deal wasn’t so bad. Mornings, she started with rolling out of bed and booting up the system in her pj’s, hot French Roast at the ready, sunlight streaming in the windows. Fantastic! Wow! She should’ve done it sooner!

The phone kept ringing, the jobs kept coming. So much work and nary a second to invoice all the customers. Nice problem to have! Julia was rockin’!

Not so much.

Before Julia knows it, she’s on the hamster wheel. She is officially busy beyond belief. If only she could have just a few minutes to actually bill all those clients, once and for all. Yikes, she goes to use her credit card and gets the dreaded, “I’m sorry Ma’am, might you have another card on you?” Do I have another card on me? (And when did people start calling me Ma’am?) I always pay my bills on time. There must be some mistake.

Actually, there’s not.

You see, Julia has found herself where so many millions of us before her have found ourselves: stuck in the middle of our business with absolutely no idea of how we got there. One minute it was French Roast on demand and sunlight streaming through the window, birds chirping, every day it’s spring! The next it’s a desk full of papers, far too many late nights working in a row, no one to help, a credit card that got maxed out somewhere along the way, and a mailbox full of unreturned voice mails to friends she once treasured. What happened?

Good question.

Enter the life of the entrepreneur—overworked and underpaid, bitter, broken and without hope. Mired in paperwork that never interested her in the first place and days spent on exactly what she hates most. In fact, Julia realizes that “If only I could just design, things would be really great.” But Julia can’t only “just design” anymore. She’s got responsibilities. She’s got a job running a business—which she didn’t have when she was working as an underling designer for Mr. Suit.

AND HOW’S THAT WORKING FOR YOU?

Julia’s dramas aside, let’s talk about you for a second. How’s life? What does your business day look like? Let me guess. Sort of an unplanned, tangled mess most of the time, but on some days you get a glimpse of why you started in the first place. Problem is, that glimpse is fleeting.

I don’t know about you, but one day I woke up and it seemed like my whole business life was about running out of printer paper, figuring out why the Johnsons still hadn’t paid their final balance (or had they?), trying to satisfy my assistant’s special plan for her own schedule that had nothing to do with the hours I hired her to work, trying to determine how exactly I should price that line item on the proposal that just had to get out, um, yesterday. What happened to my dream of being a business owner who got to create and meet with clients and design fabulous parties? Unfortunately, she was long gone. Enter Bitter-with-Baggage-Party-of-One.

Let’s see if you might be in the same boat. How would you answer the following questions? (Quizzes are always fun if the news is good at the end, right? Keep your fingers crossed.) Yes or No?

• During the day do you feel that you are focused on the most important, moneymaking tasks you could possibly be handling?

• Are you able to direct your attention in concentrated chunks of time to what you set out to accomplish when you get to work?

• Do you start out with a really good plan and then end up getting tossed around the ocean of life like a small, lightweight bottle in the midst of a lot of overbearing, ginormous waves?

• At the end of the day, do you feel refreshed, satisfied and accomplished with how the day went?

• Are you so on fire with how today went that you just can’t wait to get up and hit it tomorrow with a vengeance?

• And then, how about life at home? Do you manage to wrap up the day when you think you will, in fact with a little time to spare, or do you feel like you are barely making it home at a decent hour, starving, annoyed and kind of raw?

• When it’s time to pay the bills are you floating in money? Unable to contain your joy at stamping the envelope and cheerfully sending it on its way?

• Do you pay your bills before their due date with plenty of time to spare, or are you constantly making excuses to the phone company that clearly something went wrong with the mail because you paid that bill weeks ago?

In other words, if you just left the office fresh as a daisy, floating in cash with a staff that’s well rested and loves you, and you’re headed to the Bahamas tomorrow for two blissful, unplugged weeks of snorkeling and late night JELL-O shots, then put this book down. You’re done. Call me when you want to plan a party and your budget is huge.

But for the rest of us mere mortals who haven’t seen a white sandy beach in person since 1992, then . . . I think you see where I’m going with this. You’re tired, frustrated, drained and confused or you wouldn’t be taking time out of your already challenged day to read this.

Running a business, whether small, medium or large, is stress inducing and challenging because you must put on your entrepreneurial hat and delve into running the business, the mechanics of which are outside your area of expertise.

Hang on and trust me—there’s a cure and it’s not in a magic prescription, but in four magic letters: A, B, C and D.

Chapter 2

THE NOT-SO-IMPOSSIBLE DREAM

The unfortunate part of all of this is that you know it can be different. You have enough experience to know that other people live more calmly, at least in the magazines. It certainly seems like some of your neighbors are pretty happy, that there is something else out there. While you’ve got only a fleeting memory of the dream life you left your old reliable job for (and that job isn’t looking so bad now—it’s OK to admit it), you’re sure something fabulous is still possible. And at this point, you’d settle for something adequate with regular cash coming in, but even that feels like an elusive butterfly dancing before your eyes.

SOUND FAMILIAR?

You’ve heard the old adage that ignorance is bliss, right? Your problem is that you’re not ignorant—you can taste the possibilities. Our graphic designer, Julia, is a great example. She’s frustrated and busy and has just enough time to wallow in the misfortune she secretly knows she brought upon herself. But why can’t she just fix it? Going into this she had a business plan, knew what she was doing, had it all figured out. What’s wrong? Where did she blow it, and now what? She’s not sure how much longer she can ride this roller coaster.

YOU’VE GOT A BUSINESS PLAN, RIGHT?

We all know that long before you start a business you need to run out and get the magic business plan software that will make your future financial life sing, right? You did create that plan, right? Did your market research? Completed the fancy forecasts? Plugged in the beyond accurate needs for start-up capital and annual growth, growing at a very modest rate as opposed to one that might impress certain would-be investors?

Pull that little puppy out and dust it off a bit. How much did you actually spend in start-up costs? How did your projections match up? No doubt, you’ve far and away exceeded your revenue goals, and as far as cash outlay, you’re way below your guestimates. Take a look at your business model. Does it make sense in today’s environment? Is it a model that can last for years, if not generations?

Not quite, eh?

NEGATIVE IN THE BUSINESS PLAN DEPARTMENT?

Um, yeah. Business plan? Not so much.

OK, so you don’t have a business plan. Don’t panic. Most of us don’t have one either. Now I’m not telling you that it’s not a really, really good idea to have a business plan. On the contrary, I think it’s a great idea to have one. Why? Because creating a business plan forces you to face your demons and the underbelly of the business world. It forces you to really stop and consider how much time, energy, blood, sweat and tears you’re going to have to put into your business to make it fly. It corners you into estimating your potential sales and figuring out how you will actually achieve them.

If you haven’t alr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Halftitle
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I: Get Your Bearings
• Part II: Expense Coding Explained
• Part III: Expense Coding Applied
• Part IV: Life As a Successful Entrepreneur