The Worst Financial Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Starting Out with Jordan Sutlick

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like My First Million. Today, we'll be breaking down the worst financial mistakes entrepreneurs make when they start out. To drop these value bombs, I brought to Jordan Sutlick in the EO Fire Studios. Jordan is a founder of FlowGoal, a fintech platform router. She helps individuals break free from financial stagnation, understand strategy, and experience the fulfillment of achieving goals faster with confidence and clarity.

0:32In today's foundation, we'll talk about avoiding financial mistakes when starting your business, the most common mistakes when people start out, and conflicting financial advice for entrepreneurs, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Jordan and our sponsors. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lance, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. AI technology is transforming the way we do business, and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business.

1:07Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts. Is this your year to grow a successful business? Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki and Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EOfire. Again, request life-changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Joe, say what's up to fire nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hi, John. Thank you for having me. Um, something that is, I would disagree with as far as how people define success.

1:55A lot of people will define success by their followers or really hitting that dollar amount. I think that that dollar amount, they have a dollar amount in their head and of what success looks like to them. And most of the time it does come down to money. That's a huge disagreement with me. I think that is something that comes in with depending on what business that you're starting. So say I'm in fintech and if I bring in, you know,$10 million, is that success for me? No, it's not because of the amount of millions that we have in it to get it built. So success for us would look completely different for as success for another person.

2:48So the dollar amount I would definitely disagree with. And then also the thing that ties in with that is how much can you give of what you're making? I think that there is a huge part of defining success by how much you can give out of that success. And that might look different for a lot of people. Sometimes that means money. And sometimes that means giving people actual experiences of your time. And it looks very different to everybody. And but yeah, that that would probably be my answer for that. Joe, I love where you're going with this because we're talking today about the worst financial mistakes that entrepreneurs make when they're starting out.

3:42And man, there's so many, it's countless and you've seen it, you've lived it, you've experienced it. And we both know that mistakes are part of being a human being. But how realistic is it for entrepreneurs to avoid financial mistakes when they're starting their business? mistakes are part of the learning curve but the key is to understanding which mistakes are avoidable and which ones provide the most valuable lessons so um i think failure when making mistakes is very very educational and um i welcome it i welcome failure with open arms because it teaches us so many things. So that really comes in with the financial aspect too, right?

4:29So in doing this and, you know, avoiding those mistakes, it all really comes down to making sure that you have those right systems in place and, you know, you're prioritizing financial planning and you're doing that early. That is my biggest thing for startups is making sure that you're prioritizing that financial planning right out of the gate. That way, you know, entrepreneurs can sidestep some of those bigger pitfalls. So for example, understanding your cash flow and budgeting properly, I can't tell you how many entrepreneurs come to me that tell me, you know, they come in very, very confident knowing what numbers that they think are coming out.

5:19And then when we really jump into it and we hook everything up, all their accounts to our software, we really figure out that holy cow, they've been, they're off by thousands that year. And most of the time it It comes down to just, they didn't realize that they were still paying on some things that they aren't using anymore. So just really understanding where every single dollar is going and making sure that you're truly managing that cashflow and then budgeting properly from day one can also prevent a lot of stress and missteps later. So one thing that I think we both have seen is that overwhelm can just cause inaction.

6:03I mean, when there's too many things going on, people just freeze. And that's kind of maybe what you were mentioning right there, where people have been paying for something for a long time and they just haven't taken action on it, even though it's just like, cut that loose because like, why wouldn't you? So do you think there's too much conflicting advice for entrepreneurs out there? Is that a reason why some people are overwhelmed and some people are just not taking action? Oh my gosh, yes, absolutely. Absolutely. The Internet is full of advice on this topic, but it's all it's not all tailored to an entrepreneur's specific needs.

6:40You know what I mean? Like we with the product that we created, we're focusing on cutting through some of that noise by providing those personalized tools and insights that align with the user's goals. and you know that's just not a one-size-fits-all approach and so every strategy is going to be different because the business is different because the goals are different and you really do have to figure out what works best for you um what we have done with cutting out some of that noise is we've taken several, several different strategies from a lot of experts and we've really tailored a something that you can plug in your numbers very, very easily to that will make everything a lot more clear and easier to understand, if that makes sense.

7:40It really does make sense. And that's where I think we need to just take away the confusion, Take away conflicting advice and just focus on simple, clear-cut actions that actually will move the needle in the right direction, actually give people advice that they will follow because they're not overwhelmed. So Fire Nation, we have a lot to talk about on this topic when we get back from thanking our sponsors. sponsors. Ever feel like your job description just keeps getting bigger? But we all know there's only 24 hours in a day causing marketers everywhere to feel spread thin. Between creating content, launching campaigns, generating leads, and more, you barely have a moment to take a breath, let alone do your best marketing.

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10:13Joe, we're back. And one thing that I've definitely noticed, and I think that you've probably seen in your experience, is that getting on track early is key. Like we have to start early. You don't want to wait till like a 10 year or 20 year, like you want to start early. So how can entrepreneurs tell if they're on the right financial track early at the beginning side of their journey? Yeah, I think there's a few key indicators here. First, if they have a clear understanding of their cash flow, which, you know, I mentioned before, that's just huge. What's coming in, what's going out. That's a fantastic start.

10:51Second, I would say setting and regularly achieving your financial milestones is another really good sign. Logo helps by providing this with our visual progress tracking and dashboards. So entrepreneurs can easily monitor their financial health and make adjustments as needed. But yeah, I think it really comes back to understanding what's going in or what's coming in and what's going out. Because you really do have to adjust. If you have too much that is going out and not enough coming in, you really need to look back, reevaluate, see where you can cut some things and still be able to, you know, not lose traction on what's coming in and really build from that.

11:46It's always going to be a pivot mentality. Just really, really staying on top of those numbers and tracking. Joe, let's be honest. I mean, we all want long-term financial success. I mean, that is the goal of a human being, of an entrepreneur, of a business owner. So we all want to ensure this long-term financial success. So where specifically should we focus our financial efforts in order to accomplish this goal? Setting up your system to grow with the business. So what I mean by that is investing in some scalable tools, things that can help you manage that cashflow, So making sure that you have an emergency fund built up for your business.

12:35I know a lot of people have an emergency fund. Everybody knows to have an emergency fund. But, you know, what's that number for you? And that number for an emergency fund is going to be very, very different for everybody. But I highly recommend having one that is just for your personal life and then one that's for your business as well. Because, you know, we're entrepreneurs. We're going to have great years and we're going to have not so great years. That's just the way the economy goes. So I would definitely make sure that you have that emergency fund for the business. And then, again, coming back to managing that cash flow and just helping maintain focus on that big picture.

13:20It's just so crucial to prioritize paying down high interest debt and reinvesting in those areas that directly contribute to revenue growth. So one thing that I want Fire Nation to do in their journey is to avoid these common pitfalls that happen, that waste time because it's just not needed because there's people like yourself, Joe, that have seen this, that know this, have experienced this and have created products and services to help this. So let's share right now how we entrepreneurs, business owners can streamline our financial management to both do those things to avoid common pitfalls and save time.

14:02How do we do that? Automation is your best friend. Automation is my best friend. I have it in all of my tools. I have in all of my strategies. My biggest advice is to really hone in, get very, very clear with that strategy. for your entire business. A big thing that comes into this is operations. It would be very, very smart to hire a certified operations expert to come in and help you with that strategy. And then you can take that strategy and automate it. You can get that tool that's going to automate that, which is exactly what our product does. Flogal, that's coming to market here this year.

14:48We're super, super excited about it. But you can take it, automate things like budgeting adjustments, tracking expenses, and really even planning those long term goals. And then by automating, you know, these repetitive tasks, entrepreneurs like your audience can really focus on that strategy and growth instead of getting bogged down by the day to day, which is I think a lot of entrepreneurs do get, you know, we have our highs and then we have our lows as part of entrepreneurship. entrepreneurship and it's just, it's all about working smarter, not harder. You know, we've heard that a million times, but it truly is very, very accurate when it comes to managing your finances.

15:35So Joe, today we were talking about the worst financial mistakes that entrepreneurs make when they are starting out. I mean, we went through those mistakes. We went through overwhelm, inaction, about getting on track early, you know, focusing our financial efforts. And then of course right now, streamlining and having systems and automations. What would be the one thing of everything we talked about here today? What would be the one thing that you would really want our listeners to walk away with to make sure that they really got the key value point of our conversation? Don't overspend on the things that don't directly contribute to growth.

16:14So neglecting to set aside money for taxes, not having a clear understanding of your financial runway. I think that would be the big one. Another mistake could be failing to separate personal and business finances. I see a lot of my clients that do that where they just have it all lumped into one big plan because some of them are, you know, one man shows and they're bootlegging everything. So that's different, too. But I definitely that's a big one. Make sure that you separate your personal and business finances that can create a mess when it's time for tracking spending or filing taxes. and you know, um, those are, that's why we created this product.

17:07That's another huge reason why we created it. It's just, it's designed to help entrepreneurs just manage everything efficiently. Um, but yeah, that, those are the two big ones I would say. Joe, you have been dropping value bombs to Fire Nation. We appreciate that. And if they're listening and they're like, we want to learn more. We want to know more about what Joe has going on and everything that's happening with Flow Goal, what would be your call to action to our listeners today? I would say you guys need to go ahead and head over to our website, flowgoal.com. There is a button right at the top of our page.

17:44You guys can click and join that wait list and we will have all of your guys' resources, launch info, everything coming straight to your inbox. That's a flow goal, F-L-O-G-O-A-L, Fire Nation. And you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with JS and JLD today, so keep up the heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Jordan in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. Jordan, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

18:22Thanks, John. Thanks for having me. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Jordan for sponsoring today's episode and to Fire Nation. Successful entrepreneurs accomplish big goals. That's why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days. And we're talking step by step. Visit thefreedomjournal.com and I'll catch you there or on the flip side. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lance, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented.

18:58The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts. Is this your year to grow a successful business? attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and now featuring Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki and Eric Trump at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire. Again, request life changing tickets today at thrivetimeshow.com slash EO fire.