Episode: #20 The Money Leaks You Don’t See: Where Your Wealth is Disappearing

In this enlightening episode, we delve into the critical issue of profit leaks that plague many entrepreneurs, often leading to the misconception that their businesses suffer from insufficient revenue. It is imperative to recognize that the true challenge lies not within the revenue itself, but rather in the inadvertent financial drains that occur without awareness. Through a comprehensive analysis, we elucidate various factors contributing to these leaks, including subscription oversights and inefficient delegation practices, which can ultimately stymie business growth. By emphasizing the importance of financial awareness and strategic tracking, we present the CEO Dashboard as a vital tool for enhancing clarity and fostering informed decision-making. Our discussion aims to empower listeners to take actionable steps toward optimizing their financial practices, thereby paving the way for sustained business success.

The Design Your Dream Life Podcast presents a profound exploration into the intricate relationship between personal finance and entrepreneurial success. The host, Cara, articulates the pervasive issue that many entrepreneurs face: the challenge of translating revenue into tangible profit. This episode delves deeply into the concept of 'profit leaks', emphasizing that many business owners are ensnared in the illusion of financial success while their profits are silently eroded by unnoticed expenditures. Cara identifies several critical areas where these leaks commonly occur, including subscription services, inefficient team management, and unoptimized pricing strategies. She encourages listeners to adopt a proactive approach to their finances, underscoring the importance of regular expense reviews and strategic decision-making based on data rather than instinct. The discussion culminates in an introduction to the CEO Dashboard, a tool designed to simplify financial tracking and enhance profitability, thus empowering entrepreneurs to regain control over their financial landscape and foster sustainable growth.

Takeaways:

• This episode emphasizes the importance of recognizing and addressing hidden profit leaks in business.

• Entrepreneurs often mistake revenue problems for profit problems, which can hinder their growth.

• A quarterly review of subscriptions and expenses can significantly enhance financial management.

• Effective team delegation should focus on revenue-generating tasks to optimize business performance.

• Implementing a simple tracking system for finances can lead to better strategic decisions.

• Utilizing tools like the CEO Dashboard can provide clarity and ease in managing business finances.

Links referenced in this episode:

• designyourdreamlifetoday.com

TRANSCRIPT:
Hey there, I'm Kara and welcome to Design your Dream Life Podcast where we dive in and explore how you can use practical personal development to up level your life.

Whether you are looking to have better or deeper relationships, fix your problems with money, learn to love yourself unconditionally, leave a dead end or high stress career, or just want more happiness in your life, my friend, you are in the right place. Are you ready? Hello my friends and welcome back to another episode of Design your Dream Life Podcast. My name is Kara, I am your host.

I am so happy you're here today because this one is an important one, especially if you are a business owner or thinking of becoming a business owner. Or listen, even if you don't have a business, you could learn a few things about finance and personal development and money in this episode.

So regardless, it's going to be a good one. But if you've ever looked at your business revenue and thought I should have more to show for all of this work, you are not alone.

One of the biggest reasons entrepreneurs struggle to scale isn't because they're not making enough money. It's because they're leaking money without even realizing it.

And today I'm going to break down the hidden money leaks that are quietly draining your profits and what to do about them. If you have ever felt like tracking your numbers is too much or too complicated, stick with me.

I've got something that will make this ridiculously easy. Listen, you don't have a revenue problem, you have a profit problem. Profit leaks are one of the fastest ways to stall your business growth.

So many entrepreneurs assume they'll feel financially free when they hit their next big revenue milestone. But if your profit margins are so thin, or worse, if you don't even know what they are, you're always going to feel like you're chasing money.

Think of it as like a bucket with tiny holes. No matter how much water you pour in, it keeps leaking out. Until you see where the leaks are, you'll never get ahead.

So let's talk about where entrepreneurs lose the money the most and how to potentially fix it. So number one, this goes for personal and business. I will say this subscription and software creep is a thing. Thing. I know, I'm guilty of it.

Have you ever signed up for a tool, forgotten about it, and months later you've realized you've been paying for it the whole time? Or maybe you're like me and you sign up for all of these $5 or $7 offers and they add up. There are some that I have not opened.

And I've been on, I'm like really bad to admit this on the list for years, but I'm like, one day I might need them, but I really feel like you need to do a quarterly expense and cancel what is not actively contributing revenue to your business or pleasure to your life. Some of us have way too many streaming services.

I know, I'm always looking at that too and paring down because before you know it it's like Disney plus, Netflix, prime and then the other thing with prime and Apple TV and like before you know, you're like, whoa.

So honestly you should just put a reminder in your phone or on your calendar actually is the best every quarter to review your subscription and software creep. Especially with AI too. I find that it is just easy to go down the AI rabbit hole, buy all these software and then forget to actually use them all.

The second thing is inefficient team and delegation caps. So hiring team members should buy you back your time, not drain your profit. But are you actually optimizing your team's strengths?

So you want to make sure that every role is aligned with revenue driving tasks, not just busy work. And I know this is a lot easier said than done, but really to look at like, how are these people contributing to my bottom line?

And then the next thing is unoptimized sales and pricing strategies. So discounting, unclear pricing or not tracking your conversion rates. This is where businesses bleed money. So you need to refine your pricing.

You definitely need to track your ROI and stop discounting out of fear.

I feel like discounting is a strategy and I've been playing with it even within my own messaging of like trying offers with discounts and without discounts. It's really fascinating.

I don't know if you've ever heard of the story of this one jewelry business that was going out of business and it had really like clearance affordable items, but their whole strategy was all about clearance and all that.

And they had someone come in and give them a whole new feel and vibe and doubled their prices and it saved their business and they went into like a luxury high. Let's talk about the CEO money shift. So knowing your numbers, growing your profits, what separates struggling entrepreneurs from thriving CEOs?

It's honestly not about working harder, it's about making smarter, data driven decisions. You honestly need to shift from guessing to knowing your money and what is happening in your business. Right.

If you don't know your business numbers, you're not running a business. You're running a very Expensive hobby. So why does financial awareness equal financial freedom?

Well, when you can see your revenue, your expenses, your profit at a glance, you instantly make better, more strategic decisions. It's the power of simple tracking.

No, you don't need to spend hours in spreadsheets, but if you're not reviewing your key business numbers monthly, you are leaving money on the table. That I promise you. One of the reasons why I created the CEO Dashboard is because I honestly believe it is your secret weapon for profit clarity.

Listen, this sheet is something that I use with my super high end clients when I first start and come and work with them. And each time I've introduced this sheet, they first rolled it and I rolled me at the idea of it, but later fell in love with it.

Like absolutely in love with it. Listen, I get it. Tracking numbers feels overwhelming for a lot of entrepreneurs. But what if it didn't?

Like, that's exactly why I created this dashboard.

It's a simple, easy to use tool that gives you instant clarity on your revenue, expenses, profits without loads of spreadsheets without wasting your time, and also giving you a glance at your entire business. So even if you have and you're like kara, I have a, I have a profit and loss. My accountant or bookkeeper sends me every month.

This is not what I'm talking about. And yes, we should like I use the metrics from profit and loss and plug it into this spreadsheet.

Honestly, it is the best $27 you could ever spend on your business. Seriously, you don't need a finance degree, you don't need complicated software.

It's using free Google sheets and it just pure clarity on what's working and what's not.

It is like the lifeblood of your business because it's not even just profit and loss, it's bringing in your growth of your company where the money and the revenue is coming from, what your average cart value is and it's doing all the calculations for you. You simply just have to input some simple numbers and boom, it's telling you. And it just.

And it also comes with so much more because a lot of people sell spreadsheets. So what makes this different is that's only a piece of the puzzle.

Strategy from data driven decisions is magical and I give you all my power strategy questions that I go in when I'm looking at this sheet that really help you reflect. And not only just reflect, but give you a solid plan for growth.

So if you're tired of guessing your way through business, the CEO Dashboard is your next best move. I promise you that I'm going to drop the link in the show notes so you can grab it.

But if for whatever reason you're I want this right now, go to designyourdreamlifetoday.com and just click on the products and there'll be an image and then click a button to learn more and you can see the entire write up about everything it does. Watch a video the things all right friends, now it is time to take control of your money this week.

Your action step this week is to take 15 minutes to review your last two months of expenses. Identify one place where you can cut cost or optimize spending.

And if you want a super super simple way to stay on top of your finances without loads of different spreadsheets and grab the CEO dashboard. It is honestly the easiest way to track, plan and grow your business without the stress.

And again, link will be in the show notes or you can go to designyourdreamlifetoday.com and hit on products. And I will tell you something, I guarantee you this.

If you go and get this dashboard and you go and enter your I'm going to challenge you to actually do three months, the whole a whole quarter and you actually input all the information that the sheet is asking and you do the review questions and you don't have an aha moment, you need to email me because I will personally get on a call with you to give you an aha. Like I honestly feel like there is an aha to be had more than one by using this sheet.

So if this episode was helpful, share it with another entrepreneur who needs to hear this message. And don't forget to hit subscribe so that you never miss an episode. That's it my friends. Have an amazing week and I will see you on the next episode.