A wild guess: You started your business because you’re truly passionate about the work you do. You love your clients and you’re honestly psyched to roll out of bed and get to work every day (or at least most days). But…If you’re being honest with yourself, you’ve got the creative side nailed down, but money-wise? That’s another story altogether.

A lot of creatives have the idea that they’re “not money people,” and so they tell themselves that it’s okay if their finances are a bit messy. Which might work for them…until one day, it doesn’t anymore.

And while you may be able to learn some aspects of running a small business “on the job,” it’s not a great idea when it comes to finance—as we ourselves have learned.

Before we tell you that story, though, let us introduce ourselves.

Let’s rewind to November 2020. 

With demand surging for elopements and micro weddings, Mollie had logged a ton of miles that year. To make traveling easier on herself, she’d been on the hunt for a camper van for a while, and the perfect cherry-red one finally popped up on her radar. She had enough cash in the bank (all $60K) and if she paid in full before the end of the year, she could write it off come tax time. “Why not?” she thought.

So she bought the van.

Then February—traditionally her slowest month—rolled around, and Mollie panicked when she realized that she didn’t have enough money in her bank account to pay herself. That’s when she called in the cavalry—aka Drew. He took one look and decided it was time to implement the same strategies that he’d been using for their personal finances.

It changed everything behind the scenes at Between the Pine, allowing us to scale the business and hit some major goals along the way. In the past 2 years, we’ve:

✅ Hired multiple associate photographers—and other team members

✅ Brought Drew on full-time to handle operations

✅ Diversified our portfolio (how’s that for fancy finance terms?) by investing in a short-term rental and starting a second business (this one!)

✅ Made sure we pay ourselves consistently each month, despite the fact that elopement photography is a super-seasonal business

✅ Built up a cushy emergency fund and saved for some of our long-term goals, including [one goal here].

We’re living proof that it’s possible to run a small business (we have fewer than 10 employees) with substantial expenses (in high season, we spend $900/month on gas alone) and still make a living that allows us to do what we love, enjoy our hobbies, and save for our future—without working 90 hours a week.

We all know there’s money involved in running a small business.

But we’ve found that most people don’t actually talk about it honestly. Some people don’t talk about money at all. Others only brag about their eye-popping revenue numbers—without ever talking about their profit margins, or what decisions they made to get there.

We’re on a mission to change all that.

Over the last two years, our business has grown in ways we never could have imagined—and it’s all because of our approach to money.

And now, we’re going to teach you exactly how you can do the same in your own business.

Introducing

The Take Off Guide!

In this guide, we’ll share our tried-and-true 3-part formula for getting your financial house in order so that your business is on solid footing as it grows.

(Present-day Mollie likes to think of this as everything she wishes she could tell Mollie circa 2020.)

Here’s how it breaks down:

ONE: YOUR MONEY MINDSET

Before you do a single calculation, we need to explore an aspect of money that doesn’t get talked about too often: how it makes you feel. 

We’ll look at the role money played in your early life to understand how it’s affecting you today, so that you can better set yourself and your business up for success.

Then we’ll move into figuring out where you want your business to take you financially, and exactly how you’re going to get there. We’ll teach you exactly how we set big-picture goals, break them down into smaller bites, and then build the habits to get things done every single day.

TWO: SMALL BUSINESS STRUCTURE

There are some legal and financial concepts that every small business owner needs to understand. Without a solid understanding of the basics, you could be making decisions that put you and your business at risk unnecessarily.

In this section, we cover the different ways you can structure your business legally, how to register with the government, and why you absolutely MUST have a business banking account.

Then we’ll give you a crash course in how money flows into and out of your business, introducing you to all of the key finance terms you need to know. We’llknow We’ll also share our favorite tools for bookkeeping, sending invoices, and tracking expenses.

THREE: YOUR FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Ready to crunch some numbers? We’re going to teach you how to calculate your actual and projected revenue—the numbers that power virtually every decision you make in your business. Then we’ll go step-by-step to figure out what your expenses generally look like, and bake that number into your budget.

Once those numbers are plugged into our handy-dandy spreadsheet, you’ll be able to see exactly how much profit you’ll have after taxes. Knowing your profit margins allows you to make smarter decisions about what you spend your money on in your business.

You’ll see how to track your expenses each month, so that you understand exactly what you’re spending, and where. And you’ll also learn how to save strategically, so that you can build an emergency fund (in case you, say, knock over a glass of water and fry your laptop) and set money aside for bigger goals (like a cherry-red camper van of your own)

Q&A Time

What’s included in the guide?

The Take Off Guide includes a PDF workbook that walks you through our 3 foundational steps for getting your business finances in order: {Section 1}, {Section 2}, {Section 3}.

You’ll also receive a template where you can plug in your data and calculate your projected revenue and profit margins, as well as track your monthly expenses. Plus you get video walkthroughs where Drew teaches you step-by-step how to find these numbers and where they go within the template.

What sort of business owners will this work for?

The Take Off Guide was created for any and all ambitious entrepreneurs who don’t feel like they have a solid financial foundation in place quite yet. It doesn’t matter if you’re working on a side hustle or you’ve made this your full-time job, we want to lay the groundwork for you to grow your business without running into financial roadblocks along the way.

The material in the guide is applicable to small businesses that sell both goods and services (online or offline).

Are you allowed to give financial advice?

In the guide, we provide broad definitions for general business concepts as well as the different types of legal entities that a business can have. The information about business structure and taxes was reviewed by our very own CPA.

However, for questions about how to apply it within your business, we strongly recommend that you find a local accounting professional who can provide guidance specific to your state and your business needs.

After you implement what we teach in The Take Off Guide, you’ll be able to:

• Recognize the traps you often fall into when thinking about money, and how they might affect decisions you make in your business
• Understand key financial terms, so that you don’t feel like you’re in over your head the next time you talk to your accountant or tax prep advisor
• Track your expenses on a monthly basis, so that you’re no longer keeping a shoebox (or Gmail tab) full of receipts
• Pinpoint trends in your monthly income and expenses, then use that knowledge to make informed decisions about spending
• Pay yourself a portion of your profits (whether that’s enough to cover an ice cream cone or all your bills for the month is up to you)