Boost Profit & Keep Cash

Speaker 1: it's good to continually challenge ourselves to measure return on investment in everything when we come to the table with that mindset everything shifts hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the shiled experience with Melanie you're here because you want to experience the life and business that you crave join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech Innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in Sierra Stockland is an author speaker and two-time Iron Man she has owned and operated businesses since her early teens most recently Siara has launched the inventory genius a coaching program for business owners thank you for joining us Sierra you owned and operated a business since your early teens tell us about what you do and what inspired

Speaker 2: you to do it so I have owned a few businesses I've had a lot of Adventures since my early teens but right now I am coaching and Consulting with inventory based businesses and that came about because of my experience in retail and wholesale I started my retail business in 2006 built that franchise it had multiple locations a warehouse a wholesale division so I've touched a lot of inventory and as I started to get to know other inventory based business owners around the country and then around the world I kept hearing the same questions and helping them solve the same problems and so that is what I do full-time now and I love it and I love

Speaker 1: that you really listened and you took a need and turn that into a business I was just talking to a prospective client right before our conversation and he said I had this vision for my business and it's not working and I said we really need to listen to our customers because sometimes we as entrepreneurs have this Grand idea of what we're going to do and the customer or the consumer

Speaker 2: tells us otherwise I really had no interest in coaching I never thought of myself that I would be a coach or consultant but as I was having more and more conversations I thought there's a need for this so why not dive into it especially after you've already built a successful business and can teach others how to do it too yeah let's learn from

Speaker 1: my mistakes so you can hopefully skip to the front of the line let's do that you wrote a book inventory genius tell us about it and what led you to write it

Speaker 2: yeah so the inventory genius method is a method that I've developed over the last several years again working with those inventory based clients helping them really understand the numbers of their business so what a financial set means how the inventory plays a role and a lot of times we think of inventory based business as a retail store but but salons have inventory bakeries have inventory Design Studios have inventory so a lot of businesses sell things and they don't understand how the selling of those things plays into profitability I created this amazing method that works whether you're just starting out or you've been in business forever and I was using that over and over with my clients and then seeing a lot of amazing success stories and I thought it would be so great to bring those stories together along with the failures I've had and the wins that I've had in my own story bring them together to make the method more approachable because I think anytime we talk numbers our eyes glaze over it gets intimidating and so I thought if I can bring the method that I'm using to life with stories for my clients all in one book people will follow it and do it so that was my reason so many businesses have inventory in one way or another and you're right our numbers the more we understand them the more successful our businesses can become yes and a lot of times we don't think of if you're a retail store Boutique you have inventory but a lot of other businesses maybe the majority of what they do is service so I was working with a client who doesn't she has an education business but she creates the curriculum which she sells so that's her inventory and she didn't really know how that played into her overall profitability and you can lose money very quickly when you don't know how to manage inventory so while her overall business was extremely profitable the inventory side of it because she didn't understand how to manage it well was taking up some of that profit so we just had to go in and shift some things around and and let her look at it from a different perspective and it's interesting how just that small shift in mindset can make such a big difference very quickly yeah because you start to focus on the right things what is the

Speaker 1: most impactful thing that your book can

Speaker 2: teach entrepreneurs I would actually say how a financial set Works which don't stop listening because I said that don't podcast we won't we're all business focused so I'm sure we're going to learn something financials are really overwhelming to big and small businesses and entrepreneurs a lot of times what happens is we are great creative minds we are great at selling we're great at visioning out something putting it into Play customer service all those pieces and then we find ourselves in a spot where now I need to understand my financials because the banker wants to know or I need a small business loan or I want to rent a new space right and so we get to a point where we start maybe we hire an accountant we have a bookkeeper in house they give us the monthly Financial set and we're like that's great and we just shove it in the corner and we're at the spot in our business where we don't feel like we can ask anyone because I've been in business for five years now I should know what this means and so then we don't and we just continue this cycle and so the book and the inventory genius method revolves around the profit and loss statement so

Speaker 1: it helps the reader understand what a p&l really does for your business how to understand a p&l and that the best number to look at is that bottom number not the top number because we love to pursue the sales goal the sales number the vanity metric and say I'm a seven figure business and yet I'm in a bunch of debt I never take a paycheck like that doesn't matter right understanding the financial set and what it means and how it can tell the story is really what I try to drive home in the book and it's so interesting because so often entrepreneurs don't always take that paycheck and really understand and feel what that means it doesn't matter what size business you have you can know you're doing it but not really feel that you're doing it yeah I'll hear from a lot of people I'm doing a 1.5 million where's all the money going I don't get to take home 1.5 million I rarely pay myself or I had to take out another loan and that's just understanding what the numbers are saying and then how to work through that so wherever you're at in your business as you're listening no shame no guilt in where you're at let's just start today and figure out what we

Speaker 2: need to focus on you strive to motivate business owners to build profitability and peace of mind into their business what is one of the most important things that you think business owners should think about when scaling their business

Speaker 1: they really need to think about the cost associated with sales so in the book I talk about how I kept relentless LLY pursuing the Topline number and I was like that book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie okay I have a warehouse now I need to hire more people now I need a fork Clift now I need someone to drive that now I need someone to manage the person who drives the fork Clift so I kept growing the business because that was the fancy thing to do and I don't think I was necessarily trying to impress people I just feel like that's what you do you grow to a million dollars and above and you have a team underneath you you need the corner office but I wasn't looking at what those sales cost me and I never looked at the bottom line I just didn't focus on profitability and that's what I want people to focus on because profitability gives you peace of mind a lot of times Topline Revenue gives you sleepless nights and lots of heartburn so we want the peace of mind so let's grow the top line but let's grow it in a way that we're keeping control of what's underneath it so that we're left with something at the end of the day and so often it can also be going through all of your transactions and saying what do I really need and what can I cut from the smallest level of even all those things we sign up for today that are online technology platforms do we really need that CU that can be really fun even at looking at for someone that is just going through personal finances you look at that and you think wow I save so much and you do the same thing within a business am I managing this in the right way and am I getting the the most profit out of those interactions and transactions yeah I think it's good to continually challenge ourselves to measure return on investment in everything so if you hire a coach what's your return on investment if you sign up for the $17 app what do you expect to get as a return on that investment and when we come to the table with that mindset everything shifts and it creates a discipline in us as entrepreneurs yeah I would love to have that shipping app however the size I am right now I can still do it manually and I can save x amount or alternatively I'm losing Revenue because I don't have that app it's time for me to spend the money on it you have

Speaker 2: completed two Iron Man races which makes the half marathon I'm doing in a couple week seem tiny tell us about the training and what goes into it and how does the training help you mentally in your business and

Speaker 1: life first I love that you're doing a marathon for anyone listening even if it's a 5k depending on what you're doing there's a different outcome and goal and Method behind it coming up in a month I'm doing a half Iron Man and I'm excited because I'm going to go and race that race the Iron Man is for me was about I mean I was still racing in some regard but it's more about the endurance throughout the day and I think the same thing in our business as I was training for the first Iron Man particularly just really how can I apply this to my business coaching I would tell my clients we all have a different goal we're all in a different place we have different tools at our disposal I can't look at the athlete next to me that's on her third Loop and I'm on my first Loop of the run and compare myself because I don't know anything about her history I don't know what her day was like maybe I had a bad day my stomach is bad whatever but we do that in business all the time these people have that big of a store or whatever and we don't know the history behind it so we really have to run our own race so that was the first thing doing the Iron Man taught me is running the mile you're in running the race that you're in today and then just the mindset of staying organized and really time blocking so I know a lot of us as entrepreneurs struggle with time management but when you're doing a big event like an Iron Man you can't skip workouts you can do whatever you want I always tell my daughter that you can do whatever you want you do have options however if you want a successful outcome you can't skip your training sessions and so you have to learn how to fit that into your day and prioritize what matters so I always challenge entrepreneurs you don't have to do an Iron Man but find some sort of a physical goal because it will help your mindset when it comes to the rest of your time management for your business

Speaker 2: as well it's so true I ran half marathons and I ran a full Marathon right before my twins were born and then I just struggled to get consistent with workouts and I have friends that are Runners grateful for them and they said

Speaker 1: come run this half and after my last marathon when I had the twins I thought will I ever run I always wanted to but I didn't know if I would ever do it and going through this training it's amazing how just good you feel and you're right with any form of physical activity how good you feel when you're consistent about something and you reach for goals because you start reaching for those goals in every other aspect of your life and I'm sure with the Iron Man you have to push yourself to these places and you you have to do that in business as well

Speaker 2: yeah and you can't take shortcuts one of the things I like to talk about with the Iron Man is when I signed up for my

Speaker 2: right I think the same thing with business hire people and surround yourself with people who can help you jump to the front of the line who can help you skip the mistakes or at least be there for you when you make those mistakes and push you through and set yourself up for success by doing things right don't cheat yourself we spit so much money into opening our business $250,000 to open my store but then I don't want to spend $100 a month on a bookkeeper so really think about right equipment right people and surrounding yourself with that good team so

Speaker 1: important that's so true and one other thing I learned through the training is before kids I went for hour to hour and a half workouts now I have a treadmill in my house so it makes it a little easier but I'll go run a mile and then I'll come back and now we're on Zoom so much and I can break it up like if I have a project I have to work on or something it took a long time to get out of the mindset of I can do it in chunks right I can work out for 30 minutes and go do something else and then go back for 30 minutes cuz I had it in my mind that I only could do it for an hour so it's interesting to think about what limiting beliefs we have and how we can set those free so now if I want to run eight miles in a day I might run four and then go do something else then go back and run for again but in the past I would tell myself oh I don't have the time to do this so it's

Speaker 2: interesting yeah you know what that's so true I never thought of that but we do limit ourselves and then we use that as an excuse to not do what we need to do so I think about this like with debt so people come to me with lots of debt and they're really at their lowest point and we feel like okay but I have $250,000 in debt how am I going to take care of that we're not today but we can take care of that one credit card that's $1,000 and we can pay that off and we can then do this the same thing like you said with training working out we like to say I don't have time to do it every day so then I just won't do it at all or I don't have an hour so then I just won't do it at all but you could do 20 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon or in the evening there's lots of ways to slice it if you really find it important and I think that's with everything and so creating some goals around physical activities it's just so

Speaker 1: interesting to me how you're training your mind for one thing but it does flow into the way you think about other

Speaker 2: things as well it totally does and I started off when I started to work out consistently again saying okay I have 20 minutes I'm going to take 20 minutes and do this pelaton routine for 20 minutes now I'm up to an hour and a half but I

Speaker 1: didn't start there yeah that's so great yep yep you didn't start there but you started and that's what's important yeah magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one way that you make sure to find and live your joy each

Speaker 2: day yes I just love my morning time I know we were talking offline a little bit about the age of our kids and the freedom you get as they get older and my kids now are out of the house my daughter still lives here but she's in college and so I have a lot of freedom and I always tell young moms we're all in a season so don't try to make your season someone else's cuz when my kids were little I could not get up and do devotions and sit and have my like I couldn't that wasn't practical it wasn't real and so instead of feeling guilty about it I did what I could do but now I have that time and I love that and it brings me so much joy to get up in the morning I sit everyone know knows mom is in her chair with my coffee do my reading do my social media and just set my mindset for the day I just love that and if I can start my day out like that my day is just so good so I'm not a get up in the morning and exercise person I would always rather do that afternoon

Speaker 1: evening I am with you there start slow in the morning and then by the end I'm wide awake yep absolutely yeah so much fun to talk to you can you please tell our listeners how and where they can find

Speaker 2: you and where we can find your book yes so you can find everything about me including the book on my website Sierra stalin. the book's also available on Amazon and then Instagram is a great place to just get some tips and tricks about inventory and follow my Iron Man journey and my handle there is Sierra

Speaker 1: Stockland thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you reach out to me at hello Sheil it.com on our Sheil it website or at Sheil it on social thank you to my editor Rich draino who always makes us sound good until next time let nothing stop you from experiencing the life and business that you crave