On today’s episode of The Render Podcast, we sat down with our dear friend Christie Varner to chat about all things finances within your business. Christie is joining us as part of our In Conversation with series where Cam talks with leading industry professionals in and out of the events industry about hot topics surrounding money, booking clients, navigating the market, how to sustain your energy, and much more! 

Christie is an avid entrepreneur in the sense that she is a certified CPA, financial planner, financial advisor, a business leader, and last but not least, founder of Victory Advisory. In Ep. 145 — Cash Flow Strategies for Small Business on The Render Podcast, Christie talks with our audience about strategies and steps you can take to continue bringing in cash and keeping your business afloat. Join us on today’s episode as we still talk about money, but in a new way of approaching it!

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While every guest or topic that we talk about on The Render Podcast is important, today’s episode will be one that we sure hope hits home with you. With the major shift in the economy and events in general post-Covid, how you balance and manage your business finances is the key to staying afloat and operating. Where there are bookings coming in, there is strategy behind that, and while the continuous bookings are what we had hoped for, we cannot simply rely on hope. Finding out what your core business strategy is to continue turning a profit is the strategy that you should continue to rely on to keep your business going. 

Hope vs. Strategy

Planning a live event, whether it be a wedding or a conference, takes more details and thoughtfulness than just hope. Like running your business, you need strategy. The same mindset you have around planning a successful event, is the same mindset you need to plan for profit. Hope is not a strategy in business, it is not a strategy in planning a wedding or a live event, and hope is not a strategy for increasing the profits in your business, however with a plan and simple strategies, it is totally possible. You are skilled and talented and are offering that to the world around you and your clients. With the proper time and resources, you can learn to be skilled in your business finances to plan for success financially, too. 

Render just finished producing luxury furniture rentals along with glamorous floral designs for the Academy of Country Music Awards and that did not happen overnight. From the moment Render was chosen as the team to work with, the entire team and crew came together and worked incredibly hard to plan and strategize all of the moving parts. A few things such as preparing dressing rooms, floral arrangements, pre-party set up, red carpet design, during the actual awards ceremony, and then the after party, working to plan ahead is what set us up for that success. Having hope that it would all work out in our favor is nice and all, but we cannot rely on hope. Working alongside such a talented team such as the ACM Award crews and the talents, we learned how they prepare for these huge events and how strategizing the job roles and tasks is the key to success. 

Increasing Your Profit

Christie mentions how she loves a good analogy and to synopsize, she talks about how she orders pizza one night for her and her kids along with their friends and after calling the kids in to grab food, she went to grab some for herself. Of course with multiple teenagers in the kitchen, none was left by the time she went to grab some for herself. So instead of sitting and thinking about how sad this is (I mean once she got her dinner, right?!), she turns this experience into a simplified business strategy. With you in mind, we have created a free downloadable worksheet for your convenience. Simply print it out and let the ideas begin to flow as you listen to this episode!  

Strategy One

The accounting formula for profit is really simple. It is Revenue minus Expenses equals Profit. Before you can get into that further, let’s define these technical terms. 

Revenue — the total amount of money brought in by a company’s operations, measured over a set amount of time.

Expenses — the cost required for something; the money spent on something.

Profit — a financial gain, especially the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something.

If we want to increase profit, it essentially boils down to three strategies to increase your profit within your business. We will be using the pizza example above as the example here! What would have happened if Christie would have first taken a slice of pizza before dispersing the rest? Literally. In this same sense in your business, you can take your profit first so that you know what is already in your pocket. A quick note, we encourage you to read Profit First by Mike Michalowicz to help lay out the foundation and the philosophy behind this strategy. When you book a job, you plan out what your costs will be and how you will split that money. What if rather than taking your profit at the end, you take it upfront? Makes no difference, right? You are taking your slice of pizza before you share it with anyone else. 

Strategy Two

What if you ordered even more pizza to help cover the extra costs or cover more profit? We only have three things to work with (revenue, expenses, and profit), and we want to increase our revenue and in return, it will increase our profit. A theory from Rachel Hollis, but Idea Soup is a great way to solve a problem. You just need a pen and paper to put all of your ideas down. Don’t think about how you will execute those ideas, just get them down.

1. Idea Soup

— How can I get more revenue? How can I get an extra large pizza out of a large pizza? As you listen to some of the suggestions on the podcast, download our free worksheet to begin brainstorming ideas that can help boost your businesses revenue! 

2. Pareto’s Principle

— This just means that 20% of your customers are providing 80% of your revenue. This may not necessarily be true, but mathematically and historically, this holds true. 

3. Referrals 

— Do you have someone that you just loved working with? What about a dream client or dream wedding planner that was so seamless? Super size your pizza! Ask them to refer you for even more clients like the ones you just worked with and or in the direction that you want to take with your business! 

4. Upsell Your Business

— Funny enough, we recently did an episode on this and when you are in the rental industry, you most likely have the extra products or items that your clients may want or need for their event (they may just not know it yet). Be in the business to bundle your services and also to alleviate your clients’ pain points. By doing this, you can increase your revenue! Listen to Ep. 151 of The Render Podcast — Upselling Your Clients with Kelly Ann Peck to learn more! 

Strategy Three

How can you give less of the pizza? Rather, how can you control your expenses? At some point, we all spend unnecessarily and mindlessly on something, whether it is actually coffee, fast food, or subscriptions, and it adds up so fast! You can evaluate your expenses in our free downloadable worksheet for your convenience. Simply print it out and begin combing through your expenses!

1. The Latte Factor

— When you mindlessly and continuously spend money, it adds up. If there is something that you are spending money on in your business that you mindlessly say yes to, you probably don’t actually need it. Make sure that whatever it is you are buying or paying for monthly is actually benefiting your business. 

2. Treasure Hunt for Cash

— We encourage you to get out your business bank statement and your business credit card statement and comb through them thoroughly. What can you cut out? You are going to take every expense and categorize it in one of three ways. A check mark, a question mark, or an X. If you need it, put a check mark. If it is nice to have, yet not necessary, put a question mark. If it’s something that you forgot you paid for or you realize you are not actually using it, put an X by it. By doing these steps you will learn so much about where your money is actually going. 

Business and finances don’t have to be rocket science. You can certainly figure it out, it just takes some time and dedication to do the work to better understand your finances. We encourage you to reach out and ask all of the questions — Christie and Cam would love to hear from you! We hope that you enjoyed today’s episode and are enjoying the content we are bringing you with this new series! We are excited to host some of the best and most inspiring in the industry on The Render Podcast and are so grateful that you are here! 

You can connect with Christie Varner and be sure to follow her or reach out with any financial questions or even book some of her services! As you work through our free downloadable worksheet, share those results with us and reach out through our Instagram or email us at educate@therender.co! As always, thank you for being here and we will see you next week!

Joyfully,

Raven Scott | Podcast & Marketing Coordinator