Teresa Ruiz Decker, owner of Dream Catch Consulting, takes us on a journey—from making the decision to start a business when she was laid off 3 years ago, to hard lessons she’s learned along the way, important advice she wants you to know if you’re considering this type of work, how she juggles it all during a global pandemic, and more! ⁠

If you’ve been around for a while, you know that one of our main goals is to help you avoid painful, stressful, costly mistakes that can be prevented with education and discipline. So for this episode of the Kenza Pod, Beth pulled together the top 10 mistakes that she has seen small businesses make time and time again with the goal of helping you to avoid them!

Beth Gummere, Kenza's CFO, and Brandon Smith, Attorney at Law, share with us the ins and outs of the new(ish) AB5 Law in CA. Even if you work outside of California, this information is still great to know, as other states either have similar laws or will most likely adopt something similar in the years to come. ⁠⁠

In this episode, we dispel the myth that you have to go “all in” on working for yourself - quit your job, take a huge risk, and just go for it. For some people, that might work. But for others, that’s just not necessary. Kevin shares with us how he worked with his employer to go part time while he built up his real estate business.

In this week’s Finance Friday, we sit down with Kirstin Smith, Enrolled Agent and small business tax expert, as well as Beth Gummere, Kenza’s CFO, about the when and why of incorporating.

We talk about life and dreams before the pandemic, and they open up about how much that has changed over the last few months. They each share practical tips and advice on how they’re making it work, including time management tricks, how they communicate with their partners, what they do for self care, and much more.

This is one of those areas that we really want to help provide clarity on - not just taxes, but your entire business financial situation. We want you to feel informed, empowered, and educated on how this all works together. We want to help you figure out who to talk to, what questions to ask, and how to truly understand your financial picture. 

Our very first Soyawannabea episode is with Sarah Cook from SustainableCooks.com - a blog dedicated to budget-friendly sustainable recipes and balanced living.

If I have an unexpected 15 minute window, I know that I can sit down and know exactly what to work on next. These pockets of time, when utilized properly throughout the week, are what allow me to get it all done. To be able to do this, you have a solid strategy.

There are a lot of resources out there when it comes to putting together your business plan, including resources within your own city. We highly recommend looking up the resources of the small business development center in your area, as they may even be able to help you (for free!) with your initial business plan.

What I did was take a look at my full skillset and figure out what I actually like doing, what I’m good at, and also what I could quickly start to sell. For me, that was freelance project management. Maybe you can look back at your work history and pinpoint a job that you really enjoyed: figure out why you liked it, what skills you learned, and then maybe build an offering from that.

In this episode of Finance Friday, we’ll be hearing from Beth about what goes on behind the scenes when you send an invoice to your client. We’ll walk through the entire journey, from setting up your payment terms, to submitting paperwork, to how to properly format your invoices, and more.

You get to choose who you work with. You get to choose who you work for. You get to choose what you get paid. You get to choose when you’re done with something. These choices are some of the best parts of freelancing!

When you are an employee, you split the cost of payroll taxes with your employer. Each paycheck, your employer covers half of your payroll taxes, and you cover the other half. When you are self-employed, all of that comes from YOU. You are now the employee and the employer.

In Beth’s own words, “everybody has the capacity to be their own CFO.” Beth believes we should all work for ourselves, and with her 25+ years of experience serving 50+ clients, she'll show you exactly how to financially manage your own business, and teach you about costly mistakes to avoid.

Kenza wants to help you run your freelancing business like an agency, to help you not be intimidated by the financial side of running your business, and to have the freedom to create whatever lifestyle you want to create for yourself and your family. Plus, we’ll have weekly podcast episodes and a forum where we can share tools & resources, get feedback & ideas, and inspire & support one another.