Katy Ripp 00:00:00  So we’re just going to talk about money because nobody fucking likes to talk about money. Nobody does like to talk about it. There’s so much there, especially around money. The thing about abundance and scarcity, which are, you know, kind of big words to talk about money, like it really just means having enough or not having enough. It’s not rocket science. But in my generation it was. Nobody really loved their jobs. You just fucking worked really hard. And it was kind of like the more you hated it, the more money you made. Then we grew up. Like, if you liked your job, you were like, oh shit, I shouldn’t get money for this. Then, right? Then I should be giving it away because I have this skill somehow that I don’t hate it. So therefore I can’t make money at it. And we’ve all got money stories. Hey there, fellow rebels, welcome to #ActuallyICan, the podcast where we say arty hell yes to designing life on our own terms.

Katy Ripp 00:00:57  I’m Katy Ripp, a lifestyle coach, business mentor and serial entrepreneur. Here to guide you through the wild ride of defying what society expects of us and embracing our authenticity. On this show, we dive deep into taboo topics like death, money, spirituality, entrepreneurship, unapologetic self-care, and personal development, all while swearing and laughing along the way. Expect down and dirty conversations, plenty of humor, and a whole lot of exploration, leaving you feeling empowered to be your truest self. Whether you’re craving a good laugh, seeking unconventional self-care tips, or simply looking for some camaraderie. You’ve come to the right place. We only get this one short life, so buckle up and let’s design yours on our own terms. Ready to dive in? Let’s go.

Katy Ripp 00:01:49  So welcome, Nicki. Thanks for having me. Okay, so, Nicki  Knecht is my bookkeeper. That’s what we’re going to call you. She is my lady in the streets freaking the bed sheets, which I also happen to love because bed sheets.

Katy Ripp 00:02:02  Spreadsheets. Oh, spreadsheets. Yeah yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, it rolls off the tongue. This is not that kind of podcast. Nicki freak in the spreadsheets. Yeah. So this is where we’re at. Well, let’s see, we met five years ago. Sure. Is that five? Well, we’ve owned 1909 for five years. Or, you know, we own the building for 4 or 5 years, 4 or 5 years. So I was not looking for a bookkeeper at the time. Now, I knew myself pretty well, and I had some real fucked up issues around money, but I just, like I committed to myself that I was going to be really good. Like, I had a clean slate to start with with the two businesses because we started in 1909, the business and we also bought the commercial building, and so we had two LLCs, and one was going to pay rent and one was going to, you know, all of these things. We were going to keep everything super separate.

Katy Ripp 00:03:00  We had, you know, separate bank accounts, separate credit cards, you know, everything. So like most small business owners and entrepreneurs. So listen up, ladies and gents, if you’re listening to this and you are an entrepreneur, this one’s for you. Like most of us, we become all the things to all the people. And guess what was the first thing to go by the wayside? Which was finances. Like there was always enough money to pay payroll. There was always enough money to pay inventory and do all the things. There was always enough money, but I ignored it. And that habit came from my personal finances. Right? Like I just got in the habit of ignoring it altogether. Like if as long as there was enough money and I’d check a balance every so often, as long as there was enough money, it didn’t really matter what was going on in there, right? That’s a very.

Nicki Knecht 00:03:53  Normal thought process.

Katy Ripp 00:03:55  Oh so interesting. Let’s touch on.

Nicki Knecht 00:03:57  Gosh, yeah, I quite frankly, I’d be willing to bet that probably at least I would say at least 50% of our clients don’t even look at their numbers.

Katy Ripp 00:04:11  Okay. Well that makes me feel better and probably makes our listeners feel better. And then this is one of the points of my podcast. Right. Like I want to kind of pull out all this like weird shit from underneath the bed, all these like taboo subjects and just like, strip the shame and anxiety and guilt off of it and just be like, listen, there are other people out there that feel like you do, even if it looks like they’ve got their shit together, right? Like I’m sure that my social media looks like I’ve got my shit together, I mean, sometimes. Oh, it totally does. I mean, sometimes I.

Nicki Knecht 00:04:47  Clear the ice.

Katy Ripp 00:04:48  And snow off my car with a stale piece of bread. Yeah, sometimes I do that, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t all have the same issues or very similar common issues. And I’m guessing you see a lot of that, right? Like 50% of the people think like I do and do the things like I do, and I think I’m the only one.

Katy Ripp 00:05:10  Right. So that’s why I’m doing this. I want people to know that they’re not alone. So anyway, I thought I could do it. I realized very quickly I could not write like I missed a sales tax payment. I’m guessing I just I got to a boiling point. I don’t even know if it was a boiling point. I just knew I needed help and I knew I had the money. But also the biggest fear or the thing around hiring help is how much is it going to cost, right? Like, I can do this myself, so how much is it really going to cost me? And in the end, it didn’t cost us that much money to have you do everything for us. So when I say that, tell me what you do. Like you can tell people what you do for us, but like, tell me what you do. Because the conversation we had was affordable to us and we were just starting. So when people say like, oh, it’s cheap or it’s inexpensive, and then somebody comes back and says, well, it’s $1,500 a month, you’re like, fuck, that’s not cheap.

Katy Ripp 00:06:12  Like that may be cheap to you. That’s not cheap to me. So, you know, this is all relative, obviously. And we have way more businesses than we did when we first started with you. But tell everybody what you do.

Nicki Knecht 00:06:24  I mean, the gist of it is the daily finances, daily, monthly we will do everything that leads up to tax time. So we don’t do any taxes year end taxes. So we’ll book all of your transactions in and out to the appropriate account. Right. So be it marketing, legal fees, whatever. Right. As well as the income some people just might have, you know, sales. Other companies might want it broken out. You know, if they have a restaurant or a bar, you know, what are they selling in bar sales. In food sales, you know, so depending on the nature of the business and how detailed people want their numbers to be displayed for them, we’ll do that. Sales tax filings, be it monthly, quarterly, some are even annual.

Nicki Knecht 00:07:15  And I tell you what. And you know this, there’s nothing more expensive than late sales tax filings.

Katy Ripp 00:07:23  Oh, I paid less. I mean, a number of time and they’re like 250. I mean, they’re a percentage of what you pay in. Right. And I mean how.

Nicki Knecht 00:07:33  Late it is. Yeah. Well yeah.

Katy Ripp 00:07:34  But there’s like I paid $300 fines. Yeah for sure.

Nicki Knecht 00:07:38  It’s ridiculous.

Katy Ripp 00:07:39  Three months or something.

Nicki Knecht 00:07:40  Yeah. So we’ll take care of that payroll. So some of our clients like you, you know, they’ve got their own payroll processing thing but will at least record the transactions actions properly. We also offer our own payroll services and then reconciling your accounts, which a lot of people these days, they don’t necessarily think that it’s necessary because QuickBooks brings in all the transactions. And if they’re all coming in and you get them all booked, then everything must be fine. Well guess what? Technology isn’t perfect either, and transactions don’t get entered or some are doubling up or whatever.

Nicki Knecht 00:08:17  There’s all sorts of crap that happens. Yeah. So to do the reconciliation, like the old school check check check. You know, that’s the most important part. Really? Yeah. But then we’ll also do like, you know, more consulting things. So, hey, I am not happy with my chart of accounts. And people are going to be like, what’s the chart of accounts. Right. So the chart of accounts is your income categories and your expense categories. And that’s what feeds into your profit and loss statement or your income statement. And that report, amongst a couple of others, probably is where you’re going to get the story and the financial health of your business. And if that’s not telling you the story that it needs to tell you, be it good or bad, it doesn’t matter. But you want to customize that chart of accounts so that it’s telling you the right story. Yeah, and I’ve had.

Katy Ripp 00:09:10  Clients and there are probably people listening here that that’s all they want. They just want somebody to set up their QuickBooks.

Katy Ripp 00:09:18  Because first of all, you start out with 250 fucking accounts, right? Like nobody needs all that money. Maybe somebody does, but I didn’t write. Also, you asked me like specific questions that I didn’t even know to ask. Like, for instance, what are you going to use these reports for? Right? Because you get into like these details like down to, you know, how many lattes you sold versus how many machetes? I don’t give a shit. Right? I have a different report for that. Plus, that’s not how I run my business. I don’t run my business on reports. I mean, if I want them, they’re there. But my like to break it down. I wanted to know my food costs and I and food and supply cost. And I want to know my beverage cost like coffee and tea. And I’m using crossroads as an example because it’s easier. Right? But also at the time, I didn’t know what an asset or a liability was. So when QuickBooks was banking these things into other assets on.

Nicki Knecht 00:10:20  Categorized and.

Katy Ripp 00:10:22  Categorized asset or on what’s the other one, the unpaid one on deposited funds, but it’s actually deposited. Like, I didn’t know what that meant. My brain does not work that way. Right? Like I don’t have that brain. And as small business owners, we are expected to be the bookkeeper, the accountant, the creative director, the Instagram reel maker, the, you know, the payroll person, the janitor, the, you know, like all of these things. And when you have a brain like mine that I like to look at it and I like to fuck around with numbers, but I can only go so far. Right. And the business world wants me to go much farther, and I’m not equipped to do that. Yeah, and I had to admit that to myself and be like, this is the first thing I need to give up. And since I’ve done that, I was able to pass these off to you and allow you to do your math, like your magic and what your magic is, is really, for me anyway, is really organizing it the way my accountant needs it organized to do my taxes.

Katy Ripp 00:11:31  Because a I also don’t do those like, and I think many people that start their own businesses, that’s the first thing they do is hire an accountant, and they think that the accountant is going to do their bookkeeping. do you see that where people get confused about who is doing what.

Nicki Knecht 00:11:47  I don’t know if it’s as much that, but what I can say. I mean, there are accountants that do bookkeeping. I mean, I’ve written books from clients where their accountant was doing it. And the difference, you know, you wouldn’t think that there’s much of a difference. But tax accountants are focused on bottom line at the end of the year, and understandably so. That’s their job. But because of that, when they are doing the daily entries and the categorizing and everything like that, they do journal entries. So they’re like looking at a statement and getting all right. In January, they spent, you know, $500 in advertising and $500 in legal fees, and they enter it into one entry.

Nicki Knecht 00:12:36  So there’s no detail behind it. So at no point in time could you ever go into your books or even ask me and say, hey, Nicki , how much have we spent on Knecht business solutions over the past two years. You wouldn’t be able to figure that out because they’re not assigning like vendor names, which again, that’s just how they roll. They don’t care. And if they’re going to be doing it for what they need at the end of the year, they’re like, this is how it’s going to get done, right?

Katy Ripp 00:13:02  But there’s more than one reason which their reason is taxes, right? There are many more reasons to look at reports.

Nicki Knecht 00:13:08  Oh, 100%, yes.

Katy Ripp 00:13:10  And when you’re ignoring your finances, like I did for a very long time, those reports didn’t really matter. You sent me a monthly report. I never opened them, I never looked, I just sorry, I mean.

Nicki Knecht 00:13:22  Again, I think it’s the norm and I’m going to get into something, you know, when the time is right, a little bit later.

Nicki Knecht 00:13:28  Because I want clients to know their numbers and to look. But I also know that most people don’t like to look at a profit and loss statement or a balance sheet, especially a balance sheet, because they don’t understand assets, liabilities and equity. Totally different beasts. They want to know income and expenses. Yeah.

Katy Ripp 00:13:49  The reason I ignored them for me personally, was deeper than just like, ignoring finances. I was terrified to see what was going on because I thought I was somehow fucking.

Nicki Knecht 00:14:01  Up, even though when it was in our hands, and even though there was always money there to cover things, you still felt that.

Katy Ripp 00:14:07  Way. Oh God yes. I always felt like I was fucking up in some way that like, the bottom was going to drop out and it was going to be my fault. Like, I just always felt that way. I felt that way about our personal finances. I was also in control of those. I was in control of all of this. And the more I ignored it, the more what I was perpetuating came true.

Katy Ripp 00:14:30  Right? Like ignored it because I was scared that something was going to be bad. And then when I finally did look, it was bad. Not totally like not bankruptcy bad, but like I just attracted everything I was asking not to have. Does that make sense? Yeah. Then I got we sold the business we sold in 1909, and I said, I’m doing this right. Like, because also I started to look and I thought, and this is no offense to you, Nicki . Yeah. No, I saw what I because my shit’s detailed and because you did it, I looked at the end of the year and I was like, dang, we pay Nicki ‘s the money, right? Because like, we do it for what, 5 or 6 different LLC. Right? Right. So. Right. You know, the whole kit and caboodle we were paying and again, I was like, I can fucking do this. Like, we don’t need to pay her that much. I can do it.

Katy Ripp 00:15:25  I’ll pay myself that much or blah, blah, blah, whatever. I was like, hey, Nicki , I need to take a pause. I need to take a time out. I realized I needed to pay attention to the finances. I gotta do this myself. I’ve lost. I basically didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t have my finger on the pulse. I wanted to get into a system where I felt better about it. And so basically, I let the pendulum swing the other way again, right? Like I was ignoring it. But then I was like, well, I’m going to do it every single day, and you know, this is going to be perfect and blah, blah, blah. And that wasn’t true either. But now we like, swung the pendulum back and we’re kind of in the middle of I’m paying attention every single day. I have a separate spreadsheet. Right. Like what I realized was I have to manually do it when shit comes into me automatically, it’s too easy for me to ignore.

Katy Ripp 00:16:17  So I started setting a timer, and every single day I have a separate spreadsheet. It’s very intense and ridiculous. I should send it to you. I have a very like. I set my timer for ten minutes a day and that’s how I do it. I don’t look at QuickBooks because you do, but I know what’s going on and I have like set a budget where I have saved almost $5,000 a month by getting rid of shit that I didn’t even know was what’s out there, right? Like shit. Like, I have three Spotify accounts. I had one for 1909. I was still paying. I had one for crossroads that I was paying. I have a personal family plan that’s like 60 bucks, right? So like when I’m looking at that all holistically now, it makes sense. Like when I saw Spotify come in, I was just like, oh, well, there’s one Spotify, right? Except it came in three different separate times a month into different accounts, into different accounts. So now that I pay attention to it, I’m like, oh, I don’t need all of those.

Katy Ripp 00:17:11  We can use one Spotify account. And there were a number of things like that.

Nicki Knecht 00:17:16  Well, as long as you’re not paying things for past businesses because there was that too.

Katy Ripp 00:17:22  There was that too, right? When you ignore stuff and you realize that you paid $4,000 on a credit card to somebody else’s business.

Nicki Knecht 00:17:30  Yes.

Katy Ripp 00:17:31  This is why we pay attention now anyway. So, Nicki , let me take a pause. I just said, listen, I just want to try this myself for a little while. We tried it. It didn’t work. I write like I am who I am. I had to learn the lesson again. It wasn’t horrible, but it was still pretty ugly. And so we gave it back to her, right? Like I was like, hey, can you help me please again? And she did. And we now we I think we have this like nice little. Well, we’ve always had a nice relationship, but we only really talk when we like. Have to when there’s something, you know, like something out there.

Katy Ripp 00:18:10  So also you’ve given me like the freedom to be that way, right. Like I’m not ignoring it, but I’m also like just doing it in a different way that works for me. And when I need help with taxes or when I need help with whatever it is you’re there. And what I’ve realized is all of the things I pay other people for is not necessarily the service. It’s my peace of mind. I don’t have to worry about my finances. And if somebody asks me for a profit and loss statement, if somebody asks me for a balance sheet, right, like we owe money to the bank, the bank wants reports. I can pull those and know their current right. I can have a profit and loss statement for the car company that we need to get a loan for our son’s car, right? Like I can pull all of the taxes. I have no fear of being audited. Or if I get audited, it’s all there. Like we’re not doing anything wrong. So I have discovered that when I hire professionals like yourself, it’s not really your service that I’m paying for.

Katy Ripp 00:19:17  I love the service. It’s great. It is my peace of mind. I don’t want to have to worry about money anymore, period. I’m worried about money almost my entire life. I’m done worrying about it and I know I can’t do it. So like being we had this conversation earlier, like just today, like being who we are and just accepting that who we are is who we are. And fuck it like I know I need help in the financial world. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not how I’m built, it’s fine. And there’s amazing people out there that that’s what they do and.

Nicki Knecht 00:19:52  Our people and.

Katy Ripp 00:19:54  Our people. Right? Like not the schoolmarm of the bookkeeping world that’s going to judge you. You know, it’s not your mom that’s like, oh, Katy, I mean, did I get you get on Nicki . I get on Katy. So in any case, tell me about that part. Like, I know you’ve you’ve got some stuff to say, so. Well, what.

Nicki Knecht 00:20:15  I was going to say is, you know, I’ve gotten to a point where, well, first of all, to give you a little bit of history, I do not have a degree in accounting. I took, you know, probably 101, maybe 201, I don’t know, but my background is in it consulting like I was a computer nerd. My first job out of college was building computers. Like, literally putting in a hard drive. Putting in the memory? Yeah, inside the box. That’s what I did and learned pretty quickly that I’m way too social to have my head in a metal box. And I was fortunate enough that the company I was working at at the time also had a training department, and so I started doing training, which was awesome. So students come in, they’d all have their own computer, and I teach them Microsoft Word or Excel and Outlook and that kind of thing. And I did that for quite some time and then moved on to where I was contracted out at anchor Bank for years as like second or third level helpdesk.

Nicki Knecht 00:21:27  And I helped develop their intranet, which was, you know, their internal internet thing and when they moved from there, I don’t know if they were like old DOS systems, you know, when they moved from those computers to windows computers. I trained all the employees throughout the entire organization on windows. And I kid you not, Katy, I’m going to date myself, but people had to come to class 15 minutes early if they had never used a mouse.

Katy Ripp 00:22:02  I was thinking you were sort of dating us, but then I’m like, fuck! Like, who cares? I’m 46. How old are you? 50.

Nicki Knecht 00:22:08  So yeah. 51. Yeah.

Katy Ripp 00:22:10  So whatever. So yeah, that’s why I said we’re sandwiched in this generation of like, we’ve still had rotary phones, right? We can build computers.

Nicki Knecht 00:22:20  Yeah.

Katy Ripp 00:22:21  Right.

Nicki Knecht 00:22:21  Like our phone was in a bag.

Katy Ripp 00:22:23  Yes, yes. And so some of these people are going to be like, what are you talking about? Yeah. But yeah, we have the skills of both generations.

Katy Ripp 00:22:34  So.

Nicki Knecht 00:22:35  Right. So yeah, I joke that I have no business doing what I’m doing because of my background, but I was raised in a very entrepreneurial family, you know, grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, lots of different business owners. And I’ve always enjoyed numbers. So it came naturally to me. And I’ve been doing it for 15 years now. So I’m good at it, right? I mean, I’m doing okay, but.

Katy Ripp 00:23:01  Nobody is asking for your degree.

Nicki Knecht 00:23:03  No, I know, I know.

Katy Ripp 00:23:04  Even going to look for a new job, right? Like if you say I don’t have a college degree. So like now I also work for myself, so I don’t really have to go in an interview. But how many interviews are you going to these days that are like, where’s your certificate? Like, I need to know that you have all of this, like we’re from the school of life.

Nicki Knecht 00:23:23  Exactly, exactly.

Katy Ripp 00:23:24  You can do anything you want. You can teach yourself anything you want on the internet, and then go out and make a business of it.

Katy Ripp 00:23:32  People do it all the time.

Nicki Knecht 00:23:34  Well, 15, 14 years ago I was doing a lot of googling. I like to call it giggling on how to do certain things. Yeah. You know, payroll wasn’t just booking it to wages and taxes, like it’s way more involved than that, which, you know, we tried to do.

Katy Ripp 00:23:53  This is why this is why I came back. I was like, why the fuck am I doing this? I don’t know what fix like a mechanic is. Just do it for me. Yeah.

Nicki Knecht 00:24:02  So but I’m, you know, I have to pat myself on the back a little bit too, because I’m like, there’s times where I listen to myself talking to anybody. Clients, just people in general. And I’m like, where the hell did that just come from? Like, how do I know this?

Katy Ripp 00:24:21  What you do.

Nicki Knecht 00:24:22  But I do. Yeah. But, you know, and over the years, doing bookkeeping I would say is different Then knowing your numbers and understanding your numbers because yeah, I’m entering the stuff in, but it doesn’t mean that I’m looking then at the PNL, the profit and loss and saying this, this, that, and the other thing, you know, I don’t do as much financial consulting or coaching as I could be doing, and I’m probably as I should be doing.

Nicki Knecht 00:24:52  But as I have learned more and more about that over the years in my own business, I really, really want our clients to start understanding that stuff. And it doesn’t. It’s like minimal stuff, like understanding what is a profit margin. And, you know, it’s not just a profit margin. It’s net profit margin versus a gross profit margin. And I want my clients to understand that stuff because it is important and it gives them really good information on well and that can I charging enough.

Katy Ripp 00:25:26  Yes. That kind of information gives you power. And then that kind of power, that kind of empowerment gives you confidence. And then, you know, like that stuff just builds to go back to what you said. Like you want your clients to understand that we were never taught it. No. Especially women. We were never taught it. So when people say, well, I don’t want to go to a bookkeeper because I don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s a fear of looking dumb. But we were never taught it right.

Katy Ripp 00:26:00  So you cannot blame yourself if you were taught at it and was like, that’s not fucking important to me, and fuck this. I don’t need to ever worry about money because I’m going to go and marry a rich guy, and I never have to worry about it. If you did that, okay, then I sort of blame you, right? Nobody has done that. Everybody that’s out there working hard to make a business for themselves right now is if they don’t know about it, they’re ignoring it and they’ve just never been taught. So we need people to teach us in a non-judgmental way. Nicki , teach us in a non-judgmental way so we can get the power to then get the confidence to then raise our prices, to then make more money so we can use that money to do good things in the world. Right? Like, these are the money blocks that keep us from doing things like the limiting beliefs of like, I’m not good enough, I’m going to fuck this up somehow, but it’s just because we didn’t know, right? That’s not fair to us.

Nicki Knecht 00:27:07  My latest moments came when and it’s like, you know, of course I knew it. But until it was sitting there in front of me, I was looking at, you know, a bill from a tradesperson, you know, whatever. Yeah. Plumber, HVAC person, whatever. And, you know, they break it out into parts and labor And I’m like labor, $125 an hour. I’m like, why am I not charging $125 an hour? Providing really, really good information to business owners? If a plumber can charge me that to have his head in my toilet, and that’s not demeaning the trade, obviously, it’s like, why am I not worth that? You know, first of.

Katy Ripp 00:27:50  All, you are. But second of all, like we have gotten to a place where and this is very much a, I think, a very female thing. There are certain females, myself included, that have money, stories, money, blacks, limiting beliefs about what we should be deserving of, what we’re worthy of making, what people are willing to pay us.

Katy Ripp 00:28:16  All of these like things that are out there. And the question is, why aren’t we charging that right? Where’s the fear? Like, why aren’t we charging the things that we think we’re good at? I actually, I don’t know, a whole lot of coaches. When I went into coaching, I went and got certified through a place called Mind Rebel Academy. And during this we had like a mentorship with the owner, the lead instructor, Taryn Watts. A lot of people went to this certification, like, I’m going to start my coaching business two years down the road. Well, one month into it, I was like taking clients. And she was like, dang, I love it. She was like, I also took clients like right away in my certification because there’s no, like, governing body around it. Like anybody can call themselves a coach. Go on to Instagram and search coach and see what you find. Anybody can call themselves a coach. And I asked her point blank. I said, how did you come up with the per hour dollar for charging? I was like, what’s the standard? Like, where do I start? I don’t know what to charge people.

Katy Ripp 00:29:21  And she was like, I don’t know. She was like, I just set like a number that I thought I was comfortable with and I felt okay with. And then like every month I would raise it to, like, I would push the envelope a little bit and I would raise it again and I would raise it again. And, you know, of course, my thought process was like, well, what about the, you know, the first person that got you? Are they going to tell the next person that they’re paying that much? And she’s like, no, nobody’s like sharing that. And even if they do share it, you say, oh well, yeah, my price is raised right. I raised my prices like the demand was higher. I raised my prices. There’s so many tools I have for like getting into those money stories, but now that I’m into it, I’m just like, oh my God, I just want to save every female business owner right now. I want everybody to double their prices.

Katy Ripp 00:30:12  That’s like, no joke, please double your prices. We all want to pay it. We all can afford it. I read something very recently. It was like change. I can’t afford that to. How do I afford it? Right. Because it gives you some sort of action plan. If you say I can’t afford it, it’s just nope, you can’t. And the universe just said, you said I can’t afford it. And the universe is like, nope, you can’t afford that. We’re not going to give you anything to afford it. But if you start thinking all the time, how can I afford it? How can I make more money? How can I spend less? How can I, you know, blah blah blah. There’s all these things. So anyway, I’m getting on my pedestal here. I’ll stop. That’s okay. I love listening and I like I find you to be such a resource for that because it’s just like it’s a welcoming space, right? Like you’re my people where we can just, like, talk about shit and you’re not like, oh my God, you only have $500 in your business account.

Katy Ripp 00:31:13  Yep.

Nicki Knecht 00:31:14  You can’t tell you again, like the number of times people have said stuff like that to me, you must think I just, you know, such Yeah. Or whatever. And I’m like, to be honest with you again, unless I had a client that I did like a monthly review, like, let’s go over your financials. Unless I had that, which again, I should.

Katy Ripp 00:31:35  We’re going to get you there.

Nicki Knecht 00:31:36  I’m not looking at it like I don’t have time. I go in, I get shit done, and I move on to the next client, you know?

Katy Ripp 00:31:45  And in the big scheme of things, they’re just fucking numbers, right? They’re just numbers, right? Like the person on the other end of that, your client, they’re putting the energy on it to you. It’s just numbers to them. They’re the ones putting the energy on it and saying it’s good or bad. The honest to God truth is it’s just numbers. It’s the like emotion we have around it and the limiting beliefs and the, you know, unworthiness.

Katy Ripp 00:32:14  And I don’t value myself. I don’t value, you know, the impostor syndrome, all of the things like, I have no business doing this. And I mean all this lip service that goes on in our head. Now, there’s a reason I know this is because I’ve lived it. Right. I’m not just making this up like this is something I’ve actually gone through.

Nicki Knecht 00:32:32  I don’t know about you, but me personally, taking it one step further is, you know, looking at the numbers and being like, oh my gosh, that’s bad. I wish I could make more money or whatever. So then the next step would be, okay, let’s establish some goals. And how are we going to accomplish those goals so that you are making more money? I suck at goals. I don’t like setting goals. I don’t know how to set goals necessarily. Like since day one, I’ve really just flown by the seat of my pants. You know? I don’t even make it a point like I need to go to, you know, two networking events a month, like I do nothing.

Nicki Knecht 00:33:16  And I think about what I could be doing that, you know, could probably be doubling my business, but I’ve been really happy with just the slow and steady growth. Yeah. You know, there’s nothing wrong with that either. Right.

Katy Ripp 00:33:32  Like then that’s what CB’s is and that’s fine. Like, it’s like all the lip service of the other places too, that are telling you this is what you have to be doing. Right? This is the only way to make money. If you’re not on Instagram, you’re not making money. If you’re not doing Facebook ads, you’re not making money. I mean, it’s such bullshit. Like, we have to remember who we’re listening to and consider the source, especially with an election coming up. Oh, God, we need to be like, really fact checking our sources. One of the things well, you said, you know, people come to you all the time with these, like, you must think I’m this way or you must, you know, what else do you hear on a regular basis that is just like, negative? Yeah, I’m just curious.

Katy Ripp 00:34:16  Like when people come to you for the first time, like, how long do you think it’s been since they should have called you? You know, like, oh, fuck you. They should have called me six months ago or, you know, whatever.

Nicki Knecht 00:34:26  I there is one client right off the bat who came to me and they’ve really been struggling.

Katy Ripp 00:34:34  And when you say struggling like struggling doors open okay.

Nicki Knecht 00:34:39  Got it. So it’s fascinating that at that time he decides to hire a bookkeeper. Right. Because that’s just more money out the door. But there was so much information that he wasn’t being given because stuff was getting booked wrong. And it just he like had no idea the his. The other problem is something got all fucked up. He was using QuickBooks payroll. So you know similar to like a square payroll or whatever the payroll built into QuickBooks. And something got all fucked up in his QuickBooks setup. And when he thought all of his quarterlies were getting paid. They weren’t. And so now he’s like digging himself out of tax debt and the interest and penalties and all that crap, you know, which that’s painful.

Nicki Knecht 00:35:35  I mean, that’s painful, and it breaks my heart, really, you know. But he did say to me, you know, after I dug in and did the full cleanup, you know, then it was, okay, let’s have another conversation and let me explain some of this stuff to you. And I then at that point brought up profit margin to him. And I’m like, you’re not like, because I could see his cost of goods sold versus his income. And I’m like, dude, you’re barely positive up here. Never mind all of your other expenses, right? And so right then and there, I had to do just another little kind of audit for him to really make things very clear to him. And he was like, you’re right, I need to raise my rates. And he’s like, you’ve brought so much value already to me within like a week’s time, just by getting this stuff cleaned up and booked, right. You know, it’s worth its weight in gold. And that makes me feel so, so good.

Nicki Knecht 00:36:39  Yeah.

Katy Ripp 00:36:40  And, well, obviously.

Nicki Knecht 00:36:42  Yeah, yeah.

Katy Ripp 00:36:42  But also when you feel good about that. Right. It’s almost like, God, I wish I could do this for free.

Nicki Knecht 00:36:50  Well, yes. And especially when I’m working with somebody that I know is just trying to keep the doors open.

Katy Ripp 00:36:55  Yes. Right. It’s hard to charge and but from like, another side, like if I was coaching you, I would be like no, no, no, no. Like, first of all, whether or not they can afford is none of your business. It is the.

Nicki Knecht 00:37:07  Worst part of what I do, being that I do have the visibility to that it’s the worst.

Katy Ripp 00:37:14  Yeah. Because. Right. Because you can see it. So like while it’s not your responsibility, you’re also aware of it. And so that I, I’m sure that sucks right. Like it’s also like shit they really can’t afford me but they need me so bad. Right. And same with me. Really.

Katy Ripp 00:37:30  Like you need me, but like I’m an elective, right? Like, actually somebody can coach themselves or find, you know, something on the internet or whatever. And so and usually when people are in dire straits, when they’re struggling to keep the doors open, when they’re struggling at home, when they’re struggling in some way, that’s when they need professionals and that’s probably when they can’t afford it. So like getting the professional ahead of time, right. Because then it becomes urgent and urgency costs money. And so if you’re in a maintenance program with you which you are basically that for me. Right. Like yes you can and you can correct me on any of these services you do or do not offer. But like, yes, you can hire Nicki  and she can set up your QuickBooks for you for a one time fee of X amount of dollars, she can set up your QuickBooks. She can do your chart of accounts. She can give it back to you in a pretty nice little boat. And you do the bookkeeping.

Katy Ripp 00:38:33  And then there’s, you know, like, hey, I need this cleaned up for my bank. Can you get me, you know, X, Y, and Z. Here’s three months of stuff and can you clean this up for me? And that’s the, you know, deal. And then there’s the ongoing maintenance like I have. Well, if you get into a situation where you need something from someone, it’s more expensive.

Nicki Knecht 00:38:57  Yeah.

Katy Ripp 00:38:58  Period. I don’t care where you go. The plumber all of a sudden has a $75 trip charge or $100 trip charge. So you’re not paying 125 an hour. You’re paying 125 an hour plus $100 for them to just come and show up. And guess who doesn’t ask questions about that? Right. The person that needs the service, they’re like, fuck it. I needed on July 4th, which was a Sunday. They had to come I like my toilet was overflowing. When you get to a point where your financial toilet is overflowing. You have to have somebody on your side.

Katy Ripp 00:39:35  And again I don’t pay for services. I pay for peace of mind. Yeah. It’s why I pay more than most people do for insurance. And guess what? Just saved my ass. The insurance for a flood we had. It wasn’t that I paid for the service. I had no idea what my policy said, but I trusted my insurance agent to charge me the appropriate amount that if we got flooded, everything would be taken care of. And guess what it was. And so, I mean, I guess you don’t really know what people are saying before they come to you, Like, do they think so expensive that I mean, I will say that I have said like, here’s my bookkeepers number and they’re like, God, I’m not there yet. Like, I can’t afford a bookkeeper. I’m, you know, I only have ten transactions a month. Yeah, I can’t afford a bookkeeper right now, so. Okay. Right. But I always think to myself to, like, you could very easily, in three months, have 100 transactions.

Katy Ripp 00:40:35  And guess what 100 transactions does? It’s very easy to ignore. Yeah, it’s the first thing we.

Nicki Knecht 00:40:42  Do have a couple of clients that are new businesses that have opted to start like right away. And so we do have it’s I don’t prefer it, but it works fine where we have a quarterly, you know. So I charge them in January for January, February, March, you know. And basically what happens is beginning of April, we’ll go and we’ll book everything for the first quarter.

Katy Ripp 00:41:10  I tell me you charge more for that than every quarter.

Nicki Knecht 00:41:13  Oh, no.

Katy Ripp 00:41:15  Oh, shit. Nicki , I.

Nicki Knecht 00:41:17  Know, I know the.

Katy Ripp 00:41:18  Urgency part. People have to pay more for that then.

Nicki Knecht 00:41:22  Because the coaching call too.

Katy Ripp 00:41:24  I know, I know, so I love coaching calls. Yeah. So we’re going to do that.

Nicki Knecht 00:41:30  But again it’s because I know that they don’t have. And let’s just say I mean because it’s going up. But like minimum let’s just say typically a minimum might be around like $300 a month okay.

Nicki Knecht 00:41:44  But that’s everything. And we don’t do hourly. We charge retainers. I’ve been doing it long enough where I know how long it takes. I know what I need to make, I know what I have to pay my people, you know, whatever. I mean, because there really are small new businesses that might only have, like 20 transactions a month, and I do. I feel terribly guilty charging for that.

Katy Ripp 00:42:05  I know you see me shaking my head, no.

Nicki Knecht 00:42:07  I.

Katy Ripp 00:42:08  Can. There’s like, no.

Nicki Knecht 00:42:09  Reason to feel.

Katy Ripp 00:42:10  Guilty, right? Like there’s no reason to feel guilty. There’s no amount of money that you could charge that should make you feel guilty. There are other bookkeepers that would charge $50 and feel guilty for it. Really, it’s all relative. There are some bookkeepers out there that, you know, work in LA or, you know, whatever and charge $3,000 a month for the same service. Yeah, right. Like that’s real. Like there are coaches out there that’s charge $10,000 an hour for what I do.

Katy Ripp 00:42:42  Right? Like it’s all relative and there should be no guilt around it. Now, again, how do I know this is because I feel guilty, right? Like I also feel guilty. But if we can remove ourselves from the feeling of money, it’s just exchanging hands. And when you are providing a service that will eventually get them to a place that’s better for them, right? Like you’re providing a service to make their money healthier. You have to charge for that. Yeah. And anybody that’s using your service should want you to charge because they want to be able to charge.

Nicki Knecht 00:43:24  Right?

Katy Ripp 00:43:25  Yeah. I mean, I want to see people raise their prices on me because it gives me the confidence to raise my prices. Shit is going up all over the place. Nobody asks the Chiquita Banana if they feel guilty about raising the prices of the fucking bananas. Nobody asks them. It’s the small businesses that get slapped across the face of I can’t believe you’re charging that much, right? Why not? Target does right, like Edward Jones.

Nicki Knecht 00:43:56  Does. Why can’t.

Katy Ripp 00:43:57  I? Yeah, why can I, why can’t I.

Nicki Knecht 00:44:00  Actually I can.

Katy Ripp 00:44:02  I actually I can tell me about like the process of somebody wants to work with you.

Nicki Knecht 00:44:08  Basically it is. I mean, I’m pretty excited because I’ve got a whole like automatic, automated thing that goes on now. But, you know, it’s like, you know, go to the website, fill out the questionnaire, book your exploratory call. Right.

Katy Ripp 00:44:21  So free exploratory. Yes.

Nicki Knecht 00:44:23  Absolutely.

Katy Ripp 00:44:24  Yep.

Nicki Knecht 00:44:25  So then it’s just, you know, a little bit of fact finding how many accounts do you have checking savings credit cards, how many loans, all that kind of stuff. And it’s explaining to them this is how we operate. You know, we want our own logins, if at all possible, into your accounts, because the bane of our existence is texting people. Can you please send me a code or, you know, what’s your first pet’s name? You know, shit like that.

Katy Ripp 00:44:51  Yeah, yeah.

Nicki Knecht 00:44:52  So much time. So, you know, right off the gate, like you need to give us our own access. Like we’ve got access to everything, right? And then it’s, you know, again, just what kind of questions do you have explaining how we operate? Our goal we like to have everybody reconciled by like the 20th of every month. Shit happens. You know sometimes it doesn’t happen. But so just you know setting the expectations kind of on how we work, what we might expect of you should you decide to go ahead with us and then it’s okay I think I’ve got enough information. I’ll send you a proposal. Right. And then again all the magic stuff they can sign online, do this, that, the other thing. And then it’s now schedule your onboarding call and where we sit again for maybe half hour to an hour. Just making sure I’ve got everything I need. Making sure I can get logged in to everything. Let me know what all your secret questions are, or let’s put my phone number on to send the codes here.

Nicki Knecht 00:45:56  Just all that.

Katy Ripp 00:45:57  Stuff and voila!

Nicki Knecht 00:45:59  Voila!

Katy Ripp 00:46:00  You’re ready for taxes.

Nicki Knecht 00:46:01  That’s right. You know the first name of my business before it was KBS was called Voila virtual services. Really getting it done like magic was my tagline.

Katy Ripp 00:46:12  Oh my God, I love it. Getting it done. Like magic Mike. Getting it done like magic.

Nicki Knecht 00:46:15  Voila.

Katy Ripp 00:46:16  Voila, I love it. Okay, so tell me I am so curious about. You’re also a small business owner. So because you’ve got staff, this is also a very important conversation that, you know, like, I’m not ready for staff. I can’t afford staff. I don’t know what to do. Right. Like with all the things, we certainly don’t have all the skills. Also we struggle with, I have zero time to work on my business because I’m working in my business.

Nicki Knecht 00:46:47  And then to think about having to train somebody.

Katy Ripp 00:46:50  Where you’re like.

Nicki Knecht 00:46:52  Time to train somebody to do this. Yeah, yeah.

Katy Ripp 00:46:55  So you have done that right?

Nicki Knecht 00:46:57  Oh my God.

Katy Ripp 00:46:58  Yeah. So tell me about that experience because I get that a lot. right. Like we’re at like the first maybe year or two. But people are realizing I have to outsource something like, I cannot do this. Also, this is no fun like self-employment. Entrepreneurship should be fun. You should have freedom and flexibility if you are working more hours than you did at your corporate job and you’re hating it, it’s time to hire out. That’s when, like there’s a difference between being a business owner and actually like an owner mindset and a manager in your business.

Nicki Knecht 00:47:38  Yeah, I was solo solo for about the first five years, and then stuff started to pick up, and at the same time my brother was looking for a change. He was miserable. And I’m like, well, what would you think about coming to work? And that’s when I changed the name from Voila to Katy because I wanted to incorporate, you know, I didn’t I wanted to incorporate my brother. And so poor guy, literally his first day with me, that was pre-COVID.

Nicki Knecht 00:48:07  You know, we’ve got the pre and post Covid. So pre-COVID we were doing a lot of traveling to our clients like well, right.

Katy Ripp 00:48:14  Because like zoom didn’t exist. Right. Like there was not a practice to do things like this. Like where I can sit in my office at my house and so can.

Nicki Knecht 00:48:21  And QuickBooks online sucked.

Katy Ripp 00:48:25  Oh, okay.

Nicki Knecht 00:48:25  It was so bad. So it just it yeah, it wasn’t a thing. We spent more time driving around than actually making money getting shit done, right? Yeah. So I took my brother out to a client that was in DeForest, and all of a sudden I can’t even remember what it was, but I got, like an emergency call. Now, granted, I know there’s no emergency and bookkeeping. I can’t remember what happened, but I looked at Patrick and I’m like, I gotta go. I left him on his first day.

Katy Ripp 00:48:54  With me.

Nicki Knecht 00:48:54  At a client house. Like, now, here’s my baby. You had a little bit of financial background because he actually worked at anchor Bank as well, but not doing bookkeeping, but I threw him into the fire, poor guy eye.

Nicki Knecht 00:49:10  And he stayed with me for five years. I don’t know why, but that was interesting and it wasn’t. In my mind. That wasn’t like hiring an employee. I mean, it should have been. Yeah, yeah.

Katy Ripp 00:49:22  Yeah, yeah.

Nicki Knecht 00:49:23  But I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. And it was my brother. And I’m just like, you’ll figure it out. I figured it out. You can figure it out, right? Yeah. So it wasn’t until Patrick was probably with me for a couple of years, and we hired a subcontractor. Okay, so who’s still with us? Yes. And even then, I think because she was a subcontractor and she was very familiar or is very familiar with bookkeeping because she has done her family has multiple businesses similar to the rips, and she has done all of the family books. And, you know, it’s not like I had my standard operating procedures or anything like that, I didn’t. I had nothing documented like with this client, we do this, this and this, right? None of that existed back then.

Nicki Knecht 00:50:09  Well, it.

Katy Ripp 00:50:09  Existed. It’s just in your brain.

Nicki Knecht 00:50:11  Well, right. Yeah. True. Right. So it wasn’t until Patrick decided to go a different direction, and I had to find somebody else to take on some of that workload. And it wasn’t until then where I was like, oh, man, I need to delegate. I need to tell her when to do it. I need to be more descriptive on what needs to get done for what client. And, you know, is this like an early month client because this is somebody that actually looks at their books? Or is this somebody that’s like, well, we can postpone this one because they really don’t look at their books anyway, right? But man, talk about having to get a lot of work has been done on making the business streamlined and allowing me to delegate and all that stuff. A lot has been done over the course of the past 3 or 4 years. Yeah, which has been super beneficial in a lot of ways because I also know that let’s just say somebody wants to come in and offer me whatever some amazing amount of money and just take over and own CVS.

Nicki Knecht 00:51:16  Right? It’s all documented now, like I’ve got all that shit in place like Creekside Scoop. It’s this credit card, this checking account, crossroads also, that makes.

Katy Ripp 00:51:28  You have a book of business to sell, right? Right. Like, I, I mean, I’ve learned lots of lessons from selling a business. One of them is right. We can be the face of things, but they need their own identity. That’s definitely one of the lessons I learned, but also that kind of work or that kind of progress of like legitimizing what you’re doing is validating your business. And sometimes I think we don’t validate it because we’ve been told, like, how’s your little business going? How’s that little thing going for you? Right. How, you know, like everybody else, a.

Nicki Knecht 00:52:03  Side project or something.

Katy Ripp 00:52:04  Yeah, right. Like it’s a side hustle and like, there’s things about that that are like underlying. And so people don’t want to validate it. And I see this all the time with websites like people do, you know, like they get a domain name or whatever, but then they keep their Gmail address.

Katy Ripp 00:52:21  I’m like, no, no, no, no, we can’t you cannot have a Gmail address if you have a legitimate business that people are paying you tens of thousands of dollars for, right? There is a perception we would like to give to people, and people still believe in it, right? Like people still look at like a Gmail I do. I look at Gmail addresses and I’m like, you can’t pay $20 a year to get your domain name. To me, it’s just like I need you to legitimize I need people to validate their business, because when you validate your business, like you take the steps with air, like you hire a bookkeeper, like you hire an accountant, like you hire a social media manager. Like when you start outsourcing, that makes you an owner.

Nicki Knecht 00:53:06  Yeah, yeah.

Katy Ripp 00:53:07  It makes you an owner. It doesn’t mean that you can never do the books again. It doesn’t mean that you can never write something again. It doesn’t mean whatever your job is. Like, I just made lattes this morning, right? Like, but that’s not my job.

Katy Ripp 00:53:20  My job is to make crossroads a legitimate business so that I can support the staff that works there. That’s my job. I make a mean latte. That’s not my zone of genius. Yep. So we need to, like, stay in our zone of genius to make all the money and not have Gmail addresses. I’m sorry for those of you, I know that there’s some businesses out here that are clients of mine that still have Gmail addresses. I’ve not said this to your face yet. Consider me saying it to your face. Now don’t be mad at me. I just like you, can’t have a Gmail address if you want to be a legitimate business. So anyway, somebody’s going to prove me wrong. They’re they’re going to be like, well, this person has won. Okay.

Nicki Knecht 00:53:59  I would say, though, that one of my biggest struggles is delegating. Still, because you feel.

Katy Ripp 00:54:04  Like you can do it better yourself or you feel.

Nicki Knecht 00:54:07  I just I just feel guilty. Like just this morning, you know, I got an email from a client.

Nicki Knecht 00:54:12  Hey, Nicki , do you know when these books are when the when August is going to be done? Understood. It’s 924, right? We’re almost going to reconcile September. I’m like, shit. And I know that that one is not my task. You know, I still have some clients where I am the one that’s doing the.

Katy Ripp 00:54:28  Yeah, yeah.

Nicki Knecht 00:54:29  Not many, but so reached out to, you know, my staff and I’m like, hey, do you think you can get this done? You know. And I just feel crappy doing it. Yeah. And now granted, she knows when it has to get done. It’s assigned to her. It’s a reoccurring task on her calendar every single month. You know that she has. It’s a.

Katy Ripp 00:54:49  J. It’s her job.

Nicki Knecht 00:54:50  Yeah, yeah. but I know I.

Katy Ripp 00:54:53  Get it, do.

Nicki Knecht 00:54:54  I? Believe me.

Katy Ripp 00:54:55  I see text messages come through about shifts that aren’t covered. And we need this right now, and, you know, that kind of thing.

Katy Ripp 00:55:03  I see it all the time and I have to, like, step back and be like, now in a dire emergency. Yep. I’m stepping in. But I also have boundaries. I have to say no. That like, actually doesn’t work for me right now. I’m not on the schedule. It’s not my job to be doing that. I hire people to do that. And if you can’t do it, then you need to hire somebody else, right? Like, I just I need to constantly stay on that. And just like you got all of your things together so that you can onboard people, onboard staff. I am hiring an HR consultant. I have thought that we can. Yes, I have thought that we could do this forever on our own. It’s not working. I’m putting way too much stress on our current staff And I didn’t even know that this woman existed. I didn’t know that there were HR consultants. I didn’t know that somebody could come in and be like, do the hiring, the firing, the interviewing, the.

Nicki Knecht 00:56:02  Employee manual.

Katy Ripp 00:56:03  The filing, the manuals, the handbook, the 30, 60, 90 day reviews that I’ve never done in the five years I’ve owned business.

Nicki Knecht 00:56:13  Who are you using pimp for?

Katy Ripp 00:56:15  Amber Nelson.

Nicki Knecht 00:56:16  Okay, I don’t know her.

Katy Ripp 00:56:17  She’s been in HR for like, 20 years, but she’s new, going out on her own. So I’m. Yes, I’m very excited to use her. And I think that I can probably get her enough clients to leave her real job. Right? Because there’s so many people that need it and the stress. Now, while I love staff, I do. I find it to be an extremely rewarding part of being an entrepreneur is to have staff, which a lot of people say. It’s the worst part. I think it’s actually the best part. I could not do what Crossroads and Creekside could not do. What they do in 1909, for that matter, without the staff I have. We have an amazing staff. I consider them family members. I get a front row seat to their lives.

Katy Ripp 00:57:00  Like that’s true, right? Like I get to see a lot of high schoolers come from sophomores and go on to college and come back for one summer and go on and live their lives. Right. Like we just actually sent off, like my first hire at crossroads. Oh, high School. Lydia. And so I find it to be one of the greatest experiences. Also the hardest. Yeah, there’s just no way around it. It’s just hard. People have lives. People have different values. People have different priorities no matter what. Nobody owns your business except you. So when the doors have to close because you can’t be there, somebody has to be there. And that means you might have, like, I might I’ve had to leave weddings before to like, close 1909. It’s just the way it happens. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to do that right? Like you also can just either a close the doors. I don’t suggest that, but also hire somebody to do it.

Katy Ripp 00:57:59  So you’re not working yourself to the bone for that.

Nicki Knecht 00:58:03  Just so a year and a half ago, it was December, not this past December, but the previous December. I took my daughter on a little quick Bahama cruise, okay, for her 21st birthday. It was the first time that I’d ever gone on vacation in my past 15 years without a laptop. Oh yeah, it was awesome.

Katy Ripp 00:58:29  Was it awesome? It was.

Nicki Knecht 00:58:31  Awesome. Now, granted, I wouldn’t have been able to do much with it anyway because you’re on a cruise and I wasn’t going to pay for the internet service. But regardless, it was just really nice knowing that shit was going to get taken care of. Yeah. Now, last year. September. October. I was gone for a week and a half to Europe. I certainly wasn’t going to schlep around a laptop with me because I only packed in a backpack.

Katy Ripp 00:58:58  Oh dang.

Nicki Knecht 00:58:59  That is it for. It’s impressive. Yeah. And yeah, same thing. Everything was just fine.

Katy Ripp 00:59:04  Yeah, I’ve told this story a number of times to some clients that the first weekend we left, 1909, 1909 was a like my first brick and mortar business. Right. Like when I say brick and mortar, like we own the building, we had people in there without us. It was the first night I was away. We were only in the Dells. We took the kids up with my mother in law to Kalahari. We stayed overnight. I am not kidding you. When I didn’t, I laid on the bed the entire night and watch the cameras. I was so terrified that something was going to happen without me. And then it just gets easier and easier, right? Like the first time sucks. It’s like leaving your brand new baby home and you’re like, oh my God, I have to be here. You know, I what if something happens and then I just like it got easier and easier and easier and easier. And then one night a car hit the building like a drunk driver came up and hit the building, you know, crashed into the building.

Katy Ripp 01:00:02  We weren’t there, and we got a call. And I was like, this is what happens when there’s an emergency. Like, you just get a call. I mean, like, and we ran down there. It wasn’t that big of a deal. So, you know, as much as you think you’re not replaceable or you can’t delegate to somebody else, the truth is we are. Yeah. Truth is that somebody else can do it.

Nicki Knecht 01:00:23  Frankly, I hope they do it better 100%. Right.

Katy Ripp 01:00:27  Like, I don’t even need to take the credit for anything anymore. I mean, I’ll take the credit for like, some ideas, but outside of that, the people that bring this stuff to fruition is not me. It might have been my idea, but it has ebbed and flowed to get to where it is right now. And I was not solely responsible for that. I’ve never been solely responsible for anything in my entire life. Everything I’ve done is then with somebody. I just I can’t do shit alone.

Katy Ripp 01:00:55  Nobody can do shit alone. You can. You’re going to then burn out and no fun will be had, right?

Nicki Knecht 01:01:03  Amen. Amen. Amen.

Katy Ripp 01:01:05  Okay, so if somebody wanted to, like, follow along, where’s the best place to find you?

Nicki Knecht 01:01:10  I mean, I do hire out my social media person. Yeah, because I suck at that, too. So we’re on Facebook Knecht business solutions, we’re on LinkedIn, and that is it. And we’ve got a Web Knecht BBS.

Katy Ripp 01:01:24  Com Knecht vs.com I love that.

Nicki Knecht 01:01:28  But we’re not in Instagram any of that stuff.

Katy Ripp 01:01:31  Yeah. Do you have a like a tip or something. Like somewhere somebody could get started before they call you?

Nicki Knecht 01:01:37  You mean like it started on their own books before they hired? Yeah. Yeah, I would just say even if it is to have like a spreadsheet where if they just look at their statement, their bank statement each month, put their income down in the month of January, put all it like, what are their credits in January, what are their debits in January, what came in and what went out? And just maybe track that for a year or whatever? Yeah.

Nicki Knecht 01:02:07  Just so they have an idea of what they’re making each month, you know, and don’t just rely on well, there’s money in the bank. So we must have their bank.

Katy Ripp 01:02:16  Balance, right? Yeah, that’s what I did. And I had no idea. I mean, like I and actually I was pleasantly surprised. Here’s the other question I get. And I get this from my own husband. I get it from myself. I get it from other people. You get a profit and loss statement and there’s $50,000 at the bottom line, a positive $50,000. Congratulations, congratulations. But also, where the fuck is that money, right? That’s sort of an educational piece that some financial professional can explain to you, right? Like I had that explained to me in our specific situation of there’s places that that money went, but it looks like it should be sitting in your bank account. And that’s not true. So like if you have that question, Nicky could answer it. Yes. So that’s just like one of the most I’m sure you get that question all the time.

Nicki Knecht 01:03:15  All the time.

Katy Ripp 01:03:16  Then no profit and loss of like okay, it says that I should have 10,000 or 15 or.

Nicki Knecht 01:03:21  Is there only $500 in my bank?

Katy Ripp 01:03:23  I have no money. Right. Like that’s different. That’s a balance sheet. Right. Like that’s a yeah, those are different reports. But when you don’t know what you’re looking at, it can be very scary and very, almost embarrassing.

Nicki Knecht 01:03:39  And then you don’t look at it.

Katy Ripp 01:03:41  And then you don’t look at it, and then you ignore it. And then guess what? In five years, when you need to actually know it, you still don’t know it. Right? So anyway, I would love to make a plan with you to have you on like a zoom. You know, ask Nicky, ask the bookkeeper, whatever. We’ll do some kind of workshop or whatever because I think that would be super fun. So thank you for joining me.

Nicki Knecht 01:04:04  I’m so thank you for having me.

Katy Ripp 01:04:07  I think I’m going to have a panel of, like nutritionist, bookkeeper, you know, like all the crazy things that people do at the beginning of the year and have a panel of like, how do you want to save money? Do you want to lose weight? Do you want blah.

Nicki Knecht 01:04:21  Blah, blah.

Katy Ripp 01:04:22  Here are your people. So anyway, I will talk to you soon.

Nicki Knecht 01:04:26  Thank you Katy.

Katy Ripp 01:04:27  Thanks, Nicki, I appreciate it.

Katy Ripp 01:04:30  And that’s a wrap on today’s episode. I hope you enjoyed diving deep into the world of living authentically with me. Before you go, don’t forget to Knecht with me on Instagram. Shoot me a message at Katy Ripp. I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s episode and connect with you further. And remember, if you want more details on today’s episode or just want to explore more about designing your life unapologetically, head on over to my website at Katy Ripp dot com. There you’ll find all the juicy details and resources you need to keep the inspiration flowing. Lastly, if you’d like to join me on the show, whether it’s to tell about your experience of designing your own life, to share your expertise, or if you’d like to participate in lifestyle coaching live on air, don’t hesitate to reach out. Your story could inspire countless others on their own path to living authentically.

Katy Ripp 01:05:16  Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, keep living boldly designing your life. And remember #ActuallyICan.