Knowing your numbers makes you more money

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio

 Are you a creative that knows that your numbers are important as a business owner, but it’s something that you just push to the side? If so, we’ll stick around for today’s episode of the podcast because I’m having a chat to Emma Doman and we talk about how knowing her numbers hasn’t just made her feel more empowered as a business owner, but it’s actually helped her to make more money.

If you wanna make more money in your creative or service-based business, stick around and you’ll learn how the power of numbers can help you to make more profit.

Well, a big warm welcome to the Clare Wood Podcast. Emma so good to have you here. Hi, Clare. It’s so nice to be here. Thanks so much for coming along and be willing to have a bit of a chat about your experience inside the Profit Academy Foundations. But before we dive in anymore, actually before I asked you to do an intro, I wanna tell you it’s on my vision board to have you design my pool yard.

All of the things when we get the dream house done, your work is so, so beautiful. So thank you. With that intro, maybe you could share a little bit more about the work that you do. Oh, thanks Clare. I would happily happily be at your place, new, gorgeous outdoor area. So my name’s Emma Doman. I’m a registered landscape architect with over 20 years experience and founder of Emma Doman Design.

We are a small landscape design studio based in Brisbane, and as you just touched on, we specialize in creating architectural landscapes for high-end residential properties. Across Australia. So our focus is really designing outdoor spaces that feel as sophisticated and considered as the interior spaces in the home.

So spaces that really elevate lifestyle, foster connection, and offer a true sense of retreat for the people that live there. I really love the way that you look at it. ’cause it’s not just, it’s not just like, oh, let’s just make it pretty young. You are actually really considered and thoughtful in the way that you put it together.

You’re like, where are you gonna be spending your time? What do the spaces look like? And of course you just have this knack for just making it look absolutely stunning. So thank you so much. That’s very kind of you. Now because these listeners can’t see what we’re talking about, I am gonna pop your insta in the show notes for today’s episode.

So if you are having a listen and you want to go and see what the spaces that Emma Designs will look like, you can go and check out her Instagram, the links in the show notes for today’s episode. Thanks, Clare. Oh, it’s a pleasure. So yes. Emma, the reason I’m delighted to have you on the podcast, we’ve worked together a few times actually.

But one of the ways that we did work together was inside my course, the Profit Academy Foundations. So this course is of course, all about business finances, learning how to do all the things that sound unsexy, but are actually very important for business owners, like knowing how to read your financial reports, doing cashflow, forecasting, budgeting, all of those things.

So I guess I wanna go back, and I know that it was a little bit back that you did do the program, but I want you to see if you can rewind back and have a think about why you actually decided. Like what was it that made you think, “yes, I probably need to work on my numbers.” Absolutely. So look, there’s probably two reasons really.

The first reason and the most obvious was I, I just wasn’t really being, I, I felt that I wasn’t savvy enough with my numbers. So I really wanted to get across everything in, you know, a much more productive way, step into that CEO energy and really be running my business in the way that I should. You know, for, for, for scaling and for growth, I really felt that was an area that I needed to get better at.

I think as creatives, we spend a lot of time, you know, in the creative space and I’ve really enjoyed running a business for the last five years. So I really enjoy it, but just felt that, you know, the skillset needed sharpening and, and just wasn’t there. So the other reason really was my husband is self-employed as well and you know, we’re like you, we’re sort of thinking, you know, renovating the house and, you know, so I just wanted to create an asset of value.

I really wanted to be able to walk into those meetings with the bank or brokers and, you know, be able to very confidently explain my business, explain how it was growing, scaling, where it’s come from, where it’s going to, the figures, the, you know, all the kind of financials and and that side of things.

So yeah, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to jump right into that and, and start running things a lot better. And so when you were talking about like, that you didn’t feel like confident and empowered with your numbers. What were some of the ways, like what sort of made you think, oh, this is something that I might need to work on?

It was just that I think a lot of creatives, kind of, you know, hide and, and would prefer not to look at, at those, you know, like, it’s like, oh, I don’t wanna look, I don’t wanna know, kind of thing. It, it was almost like stepping in and just going, I’m gonna look at everything. I don’t care what it looks like, but I need to know so that we can get a strategy in place.

So yeah, it was more I guess not hiding from it, but just really not giving it the time it deserves. I think is probably a, a better way to put it. So, yeah. You know. And so before you did the program, were you, like, were you sitting down, were you running your reports every month? Were you, like, what sort of state were you in when it came to your relationship with your money?

Yeah. So definitely wasn’t, I was not running my reports every month. I, my relationship with my accountant was very, you know, I wouldn’t call it a collaborative one. So I, yeah, wasn’t I, I was sort of doing my own version of reporting but not the kind of reporting that you know, you would need to you know, go for, for home loans or you know, extensions to the home loan or anything.

But I guess, the biggest thing I think was like the cash flow, how I was monitoring cash flow. So I used to have all the dates of things in my head. Like I, I knew my numbers. They were all in my head though. Mm-hmm. I knew what subscription was due when I knew when invoices were due for subcontractors and I knew all that.

But getting that out of my head. And on into a proper, you know, spreadsheet just gave me more bandwidth, I guess to focus on different things rather than trying to remember everything in my head. Yeah, that’s great. At least you’re had handle on it because honestly a lot of business owners, a bill comes in and they’re like, oh my goodness, I’d totally forgotten.

Or I didn’t even know that was coming up. I have to admit I’m the same. Like I, if I didn’t have my cashflow forecast I’d probably forget that we had our insurance bill, annual insurance bill coming up. You know, a lot of times, ’cause we actually use the same process I teach in foundations in our personal.

Life as well. Yeah. Cool. And we sit down with our bookkeeper and she’s like, oh, your energy bill’s due next week. And it’s just such a, when you’ve got the system in place, you don’t have to be holding that space for remembering it all because it’s, it’s there, it’s in the plan. Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, just having that documentation as well in terms of business growth and you know, if I was to

have someone join the team who was particularly skilled in that. It’s like you can literally hand it over. Yeah. And I know another thing I hope you don’t mind me sharing on the podcast, but I know that you had this vision to get your own studio space, and a lot of times when you’re trying to make decisions, whether it’s hiring a new team member or I wanna get a studio space, or I wanna invest in a new program or mentor, whatever it might be.

If you don’t kind of have it all laid out in front of you, a lot of times you’re just flying blind really, aren’t you? You’re like, I think that if I’m making this much, then I should have enough to cover that thing. And then I think that I, but when you’ve got your plan in place, you actually say, great, okay.

I know that I can comfortably afford the new studio space. And you know, if you are watching this on YouTube and not just listening to the podcast. I can tell that that space must be absolutely divine. The fact that you, it’s beautiful, have gone and, and created that space. You enjoy having it. Oh my gosh.

Game changer. So as it, you know, I didn’t rush into my new space. It, I, I spent five years in a home office. But getting, you know, savvy with my finances and just the, you know, even from a growth point of view and being able to expand into a studio space of my very own it has been a game changer.

I love this space. It is my absolute century. It’s so productive. It’s beautiful having clients come into the space. It’s full of light. It’s just, it’s, you know, we meet here as a team. Once a week. And, and it’s just a game changer, having that dedicated space to the business. So you know, just be being across my finances I, I believe really made that happen.

So it got to a point, and I guess we all do it intuitively, you know, a little bit, but having the actual, you know, monitoring it week to week, so those weekly you know. Checks that you have in the foundation course. Just being across it, it, you know, I started to see that it was possible and I’m like, yes, we could do that.

You know, so here I am. I’m sitting in my new studio space talking to you now. Oh, I’m so, which was a huge dream. I’m happy for you. Thank you. I love when dreams come alive and I do. I think when it comes to numbers, I see kind of two buckets of people. A lot of the time there’s people whose business just really isn’t where they want it to be.

And then they are scared to look at the numbers because they think, oh my gosh, what am I gonna see? And I’m like, well, it’s going on anyway. We may as well have a look. That’s right. Yeah. Or I also see business owners who like you, are actually ready to scale and grow, but because they don’t actually know.

Like people are, I know I needed to a team member, but I don’t actually know if I can afford it, so I just won’t because I’m too scared. And what if I hire them and I can’t afford them? And so sometimes it just gives you that little confidence boost because you’re like, alright. Or sometimes it might just say, do you know what?

This is a fabulous idea, but maybe now’s not the quite, quite the right time. Let’s get the revenue to here. Yes. And then we’re gonna be really, really ready to go on that. Absolutely. But putting all the systems in place just felt great. Even if the answer was, you know, we’re not quite there yet, but, you know, let’s, let’s check back in, in three months time.

Just putting all this, I really enjoyed the process. You know, just getting it all in place, so great. Oh, I love that. I love that. So you made the decision, okay, I need to get across my finances. Tell the truth. Did you have any last minute, you know, when you go to actually pay for it and you have those last minute wobbles, did you have any of that experience?

If you can remember back. I didn’t actually, because like, like you mentioned, we have worked together a few times. I I think you’re quite generous with all your free content as well. So I had been following you for a really long time, you know, had pretty much absorbed a lot of your free content, so I knew that you you know, had a beautiful way of teaching people and sharing those skills.

And then. I really enjoyed the, the planning day that we did in Brisbane. So I had sort of come off the back of that and I saw it come up on your Instagram where I think I got an email and I literally was straight on it. There were, there were no wobbles. I was like, yes, this is the next step, you know, with, with the whole getting more savvy with the financial side of the business.

Oh, I love that. I love that. ’cause I know that can be scary when you go to make an investment, but I have heard from students of mine again and again, they’re like, oh my gosh, I’ve made that money back so many times since I’ve done the program. Absolutely. Let’s go back to the actual program itself.

So as you are working through, how did you find the course itself? I loved it. I loved the spreadsheets that you you put up, you know, to download. So I loved that there was the explanation tab, you know, to begin with because I, the way I do courses is, it’s really hard for me in a sharp life. There’s just, you know, a lot going on.

So I always usually, watch the replay, do the, do the, do the module when it’s available. So it was really great that there was that explanation, you know, to go with, with the content. And the replays are really good too. I think I showed up to a few of the lives, but maybe my attendance rate was about 50%.

But yeah, look, I really loved just the, and I liked the, the kind of intro in terms of you’re not jumping straight into it. You kind of explained a little lingo. We did a bit of a zero. We did a bit of the excel basics. So there was stuff that I learned in Xero that I’d been, you know, I guess wondering about, and I was like, oh, that’s how you do that.

You know, just navigating your way. But I really liked that it wasn’t too overwhelming. So we did, you know, I don’t think any of us really needed a full accounting degree. We just need to know how to run our business better and to be in charge of, you know, that CEO energy. So yeah, I liked that it was enough without being too, too overwhelming.

Oh yeah. And it’s such a hard balance when you are creating a program. I know that you are creating an online program as well, but it’s always this balance between how much do you wanna put in? And I think for me, I, I really wanted to just keep it like, what’s the bare minimum? You know, I’ve spent six years studying accounting at university, and I’m like, people don’t need the average business owner running a small-ish business

doesn’t need to know all of the intricacies and ins and outs of yes, all of the, they just wanna know what’s the stuff that I need to know to keep my business ticking over, make sure that I’m paying my tax on time. Make sure that I feel confident and empowered to be working with my, you know, my finance expert.

You know, yes. This is to support you to work with your accountant. Yeah. But I think the mistake that a lot of people make is they’re like, I’ve got an account, I’ll take care of it. Yeah. Then they get an unexpected massive tax bill. They you know, didn’t realize they were running at a loss. Yeah.

They, you know, didn’t realize like they were just working, working, working. And real didn’t realize, oh my gosh, I’ve actually got money to hire. Yeah. Someone knew and they’re expecting their accountant to do that. And the big thing in the course, I actually say like, this is not your accountant’s fault.

They’re just. They’re just gonna tick along. They don’t, they don’t know what you do or don’t know. Yeah. And so the more empowered and educated that you be, actually, the more that you can get out of, of that relationship. Absolutely. And I actually really loved how, you know, in the course you went through like how to work with those professionals.

So as a result, I. Stopped working with the, with the, the guys that I was working with. I found a new accountant and I found a bookkeeper, which I’ve never worked with before either. So I’d been doing all my own bookkeeping. But now I work with a bookkeeper and an accountant, so I loved that there was just that sort of you know, overarching information of like, well, this is how.

You create a team and this is how it all kind of works. And if you know this is the role you need to play and that’s what you need to be looking for in those professions. So that was, that was hugely helpful. Yeah, I know for me, because I’m the opposite to you, I like, like give me numbers, gimme spreadsheets.

I’m, when it comes to creative stuff, I am a bit like, oh. And when I worked in corporate, we hired this marketing agency and we had no idea what they were doing at all. And it’s only since I’ve come into small business world that I’ve like had to educate myself around, you know, Instagram and SEO and SEM and all of those things, Facebook ads.

I realized we were being taken for an absolute lead because we just had no idea. We thought they’ll take care of it. They’ll take care of the marketing stuff. Yeah. And now that I understand the basics, I realize, oh my gosh, I look back and wish that I’d known more because we just blindly trust them. We paid so much money in my corporate organization, and I think that if you don’t even understand the basics, that’s what you are.

Yeah. At risk of, of happening is that you just don’t really understand what’s going on at all. Oh speaking from personal experience. Absolutely. So I’ve changed accountants and, you know things are you know, much kind, you know, I, I don’t think you really know until you start, you know, raising those questions.

And had I not. You know, had my head into that course, I probably would’ve just stayed with, you know, that accountant. But yeah, look, there’s gotta be an aspiration, I think, for both sides to kind of really, you know, grow the business. And I feel like I’m working with the right person now. Oh, that makes me so happy.

And so how does knowing your numbers actually help you with growth? Look, I, I think one of the really valuable things that we did in that course was creating a budget. Like, so, you know, that forward planning, like what is the, like what are your, you know, revenue goals for the year and how are you gonna make that happen?

And let’s break it down. That was hugely valuable. And I think, again, intuitively, we all do that in. But getting it down on onto, I, I won’t say on paper, but getting it down into a spreadsheet. But it, you know, it makes it all real. It makes it, it just gives you, takes it out of your hand and gives you that bandwidth to just, you know, do other stuff with, with your head space.

So the, the budgeting exercise was really good. The cashflow is probably, you know, the forecasting is, is probably the thing I use the most. Just just, you know, watching things like, what have I got coming in or what’s going out? What do I need to do to make that all balance and, and work nicely?

So yeah, budgeting, cash flow, were great. They’re probably the two, you know, they, they’ve had the biggest impact in the business. Oh, wow. Apart from, you know, changing accounts, having a bookkeeper on board. Yeah. I think something with budgeting that I’ve seen, like I’ve been doing, I’ve nine and a half years I’ve been in business now, Emma.

Wow. I can’t believe. But I, I, I don’t think I’ve met. A business owner yet that had a proper budget in place, or very, very few that I’ve worked with over the years. And I’ve worked with a lot of different business owners and most small business owners kind of have a bit of like a, yeah, cool, I wanna get there, but don’t actually have the game plan.

And I think that this is the disconnect. Like a lot of times people are like, okay, I wanna grow my business to a million dollars. I’m like, awesome, what are you gonna do? And that’s where it kind of like. Blanks out. Yeah. And I’m like, well, you know, who are you gonna hire? What are you gonna, are you gonna get a studio space?

Are you going to launch a program? Yeah, I’ll launch a, you know, I’m gonna hire a team member. And I’m like, great. Do you have enough money to do that? I’m gonna launch a course. Okay, so how are you gonna do it? Who’s gonna pay for the platform? How are you gonna actually learn how to create an online course?

And actually it’s going, okay, cool. Whatever it is that you want to do in, in whichever way you wanna scale. You’re probably gonna need to make some financial investments to get there. Yeah. And so what exactly does this look like? What are the skill sets that you’re missing? Yes. And how much do you need to invest to up level in that area so that you can step into your next level of growth?

Absolutely. It is the difference between being aspirational and having a plan really, isn’t it? It’s like, oh yeah. When, you know, I think we’ve all got it in our head. Okay. You know, we all do the numbers in our head. Yeah. Especially creatives. I think that we’re quite, you know, terrible, like everything’s just kind of up here.

But it’s when you get it on, on, on, into a spreadsheet that then becomes a plan. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, ’cause you sit there and go, oh yeah, I wanna hit 50K months or 70K months, or Yeah, 10K months, or 5K months, whatever the number is. Yeah. But to actually put it down in a spreadsheet, you can then start to go, oh wow.

Okay. That’s the game plan. That’s my target. Yes. And I’d love, love, love to encourage people to actually each month go, if my target’s that, why didn’t I hit it? What’s going on? Like actually use the data. Yeah. And think about it and go, okay, what am I gonna do differently? So something I talk, talk about, and if you can remember in the money meetings is I’m like, they always need to be action oriented.

Yes. So you don’t just go in and go, oh, there’s my numbers. Okay. Hi. Hi. Back to work. We go. It’s like, okay, well that’s the game plan. What are we gonna do next? Yeah, right. But you know what, I haven’t set up my Facebook ads yet. I still haven’t got my studio space, and I know that I’m gonna make more money because I’ll have people coming in and they’ll see the beautiful space and they’ll wanna work with me.

That’s right. And, you know you just triggered a like, so. One of the, I’ve totally forgotten about, like the, the tracking, you know, like I do it just like, it’s so automatic now, but just the tracking, like, you know, you said get your highlighters out. And I’d never thought of that in that way before.

And now it’s just a part of what I do, you know, every, every month just looking ahead and, you know, reflecting on the previous month. Yeah. So it’s been really good. Oh, that makes me so happy. That makes me so happy. Have you got your husband on the train yet? Foundations. Oh, that’s a whole nother ball game one day.

The ball game. Yeah. Yeah. One day. One day. Too funny. So if people are listening and uming and ing, like, I don’t know, it sounds kind of boring doing a course about numbers. Do I really need to do this? What’s the advice that you would give to them? Oh, just get in and do it and just, you know you’ll feel so much more organized.

Numbers are everything. Like, you know, one of the reasons, you know, you said like what sort of led you to the course or what made you wanna focus on finance is, I love podcasts. I listen just so many business, podcast, and the thing that people always say is for growth and scaling, you have to know your numbers and it’s not something that you can really outsource to someone.

You are at the wheel. You need to be across it. You don’t wanna outsource that stuff. You know, there, there’s, there’s people that can be on the team and it can help you. And together you work towards a goal. But really you have to know this stuff. There’s no escaping it. You can put your head in the sand for a while.

Yeah. But it doesn’t make things any better. And something I really tried to do in the program is also make it not so boring. Yes. Yeah. I know that when I went to university, I was sitting there and I’d have this, you know, old lecture of English. And then the prophet, and then you carry the, and I’d sit thinking, oh my gosh, this is so boring.

Yeah. And so I tried to make it, you know, like, let’s take a little break. You’re doing really great. And tried to shell little stories to make it a little bit less, you know? Absolutely. It, the content was really easy to absorb and I wouldn’t normally say that about. Numbers of financial things, but it really was easy to absorb and also to action.

You know, from every module there’s sort of the things that you need to do. It wasn’t, the modules weren’t so overwhelming that you felt like you were never gonna get, get it done by the next call. It was, it was easy to absorb, nice, really actionable steps. Every module just took you closer to, you know, having an overall sort of handle on everything.

Aw, I’m so pleased. I’m so glad that you decided to invest in my program and yeah, it’s been a delight getting to know you over the years. If people are listening to the this podcast episode and they would like to connect with you, Emma, what’s the best way they can do so? Sure. So look, there’s contact details on my website.

So if you go to www.emmadomandesign.com au if you wanna discuss a project, there’s a, a contact form on there that you can submit an inquiry. Then my Instagram page, like Clare mentioned she, she’ll put a, a link in the, in the show notes, but yeah. The best way to get in touch is through the contact form on my website.

And if you are someone who loves beautiful, like if you’re someone like me who’s obsessed with looking at beautiful houses, do so a favor. Go check out her Insta. ’cause there’s some really, really stunning spaces that she’s created in there. And thanks so much for coming in the podcast. Really. Thanks God.

Thank you so much. Absolute pleasure. Awesome. Thank you.

 If you are ready to take control of your business finances so that you feel less overwhelmed, more empowered, and you can make more profit in your business. Doors to foundations have not been open in over 12 months, so now is the time to jump on in

if you’ve been sitting in the fence. You can find out more and join this live round of foundations via the link in the show notes for today’s episode. Hope to see you inside.

* Transcript created by AI – may contain errors or omissions from original podcast audio