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Are you trying to overcome any money fears? Do you get nervous about the numbers and looking at the finances within your business? What should you do to prepare financially for the new year?
In this podcast episode, LaToya Smith discusses the real end-of-year money talk with Diana Williams.
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Meet Diana Williams
Diana is the go-to Accountant and CFO for Mental Health Therapists and Private Practice Owners. With 15 years of experience in Accounting and finance, she has developed a deep understanding of the challenges small business owners, specifically, women of color, face. Her mission is to empower women to reclaim control of their businesses, their finances, and their impact. They do this by addressing challenges like limited financial knowledge, irregular income and cash flow, and balancing client care with business management in a safe and non-judgmental space. Additionally, Diana is the Founder of Fearless Brown Girls® – a nonprofit that focuses on teaching financial literacy to black & brown girls.
Visit Diana’s website and connect on Instagram and LinkedIn.
FREEBIE: Mention this podcast and get $100 off Diana’s Business Strategy Sessions!
In this Podcast
- Easing past money fears to understand the numbers
- Leveling up your mindset
- Closing the year and opening the next one
- Understanding business takes practice
Easing past money fears to understand the numbers
Whenever Diana works with clients, she often treats them in a similar way to therapy clients in private practices. It’s a safe space, with no judgment, and it’s dedicated to them and how they want to move forward with their life.
Ultimately, Diana wants her clients to be able to navigate their finances on their own, as that is part of their success. Clients come to learn, be inspired, and continue the work on their terms.
I like to start with the goals, right? What are your goals, and they can’t be, “I want to make a million dollars.” It can be that, but that [shouldn’t be] the only goal … So I like to get really deep into, ‘“Why are we doing this?” (Diana Williams)
Understanding your “why” is the key step, because you can make many millions of dollars but if you don’t know what to do with it or where to use it, it won’t do you much good.
Leveling up your mindset
When you understand the “why” behind your desire to earn money and its deeper roots and causes, you can structure your game plan..
Then, you can begin to take note of your numbers impartially, without judging them – or yourself – or without skewing them to save yourself some frustration. You need the full, clean facts and truth if you want to succeed, and that means gathering real data.
When we’re able to actually dig into the data, prepare financial statements, and look at what your behaviors were like throughout the year, now we have something on paper that we can look at and not deny. (Diana Williams)
There are lots of things that you can figure out to do or to stop doing, once you have the data and the numbers down in front of you.
Now, you can begin to take action on your game plan.
Closing the year and opening the next one
If you have your numbers, now’s a great time to look at:
- How the year went: did it go the way that you anticipated?
- How the year was financially: was it easy or difficult to make the money you made?
- What do you want to do differently next year?
- What are your revenue goals?
What do we want next year to look like? What do we want to do differently? … Just [focusing] really on that whole analysis around, “How has life been this year?” and, “What do we want it to look like next year?” (Diana Williams)
Understanding business takes practice
No one is naturally adept at business. They may have a knack for numbers, like therapists who have a knack with people, but the rest has to be learned.
If you are the CEO of a practice, don’t pressure yourself into feeling bad because you don’t know – you have to learn, like any other skill. It took you years to become a qualified and successful therapist, and it will take time as well to become a successful CEO.
This is like one of the most important parts of the business, just not the prettiest side of it, right? Most entrepreneurs want to be business owners going, like you said; “I want to make a million”, but this is like the dirty work. (LaToya Smith)
Useful links mentioned in this episode:
- Visit Diana’s website and connect on Instagram and LinkedIn.
- What’s your phase of practice? Click here to get full access, totally free!
Check out these additional resources:
Why Wait? Build As You Go! With Jamara Frazier and Tracey Johnson | GP 200
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Meet Joe Sanok
Joe Sanok helps counselors to create thriving practices that are the envy of other counselors. He has helped counselors to grow their businesses by 50-500% and is proud of all the private practice owners who are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.
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