fbpx

Entrepreneurship

Episode 197: Bookkeeping and Business Finances with Madison Brown

January 30, 2024

Chasing Simple Marketing

learn the best marketing strategies for your business

You'll also love

tell me more

I'm  Amanda — simplicity-focused content marketing strategist.  I'm here to help you fit your marketing into your business.

Meet Amanda

diy your marketing strategy

Madison Brown understands how confidence in your bookkeeping and business finances fuels the growth you deserve.

Bookkeeping and Business Finances with Madison Brown

I have a confession: business finances have been a sorely neglected topic here on Chasing Simple. And for that, I apologize. Frankly, it ironically mimics how our finances are treated in our businesses as well.

But we’re working on correcting that (both on the podcast, and within our businesses) and today we’re going to hear from my dear friend Madison who is passionate about financial literacy for female entrepreneurs.

Madison Dearly is a bookkeeping team serving brand and website designers and female business owners in the online space with friendly, hands-on financial tracking and analysis. With a ton of experience in small business accounting, Madison clearly understands how confidence in your business’s financial health fuels the growth you deserve. (And it also supports the lifestyle you work so hard to afford!) In short, these gals are not your dad’s stodgy bookkeeper, okay? For more information (and to make new friends), visit http://www.madisondearly.com.


Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

  • When it comes to creating your monthly content calendar and sitting down to create your content (because you’re batching it, right? 😉), the first step is not writing in the monthly calendar. It’s not even writing your categories and important dates on the calendar. If that’s where you’re starting with your content planning, well, all you’re creating is a plan. But what you need is a strategy. What’s the difference? A strategy is like the inner structure of a building, while the plan is the decor. A strategy is what helps you achieve your goals, and your plan is how you achieve them. Your strategy is where you’re leading your audience, and your plan is what you’re talking about and when. Without having a strategy first, putting together a plan will simply mean pulling ideas out of thin air. So, how do you start with a strategy? By starting with your goals, and working backwards to ensure you’re moving your audience toward them. What are your yearly goals, quarterly goals, monthly goals, and weekly goals? And how can you translate them into content your audience wants to ingest? You’ve got to consider those questions before you even begin deciding what it is that you’ll post about. And if you want a simple way to create both your strategy and your plan? Grab your Chasing Simple Content Planner. The planner is my number one bestseller – And for good reason too, because this massive 130+ page planner was designed with strategy in mind. It’s not merely a place to write down what you’re going to post, and when. Yes, that’s part of it. But first, you’ll walk through intentional pages full of strategic questions to get your brain moving in the right direction before you even start writing down your topic ideas. In addition to the traditional calendar pages, you’ll find: Yearly planning pages Monthly prep work Monthly reflection questions Repurposing worksheets and so much more! If taking your content to the next level is a goal of yours, the Chasing Simple Content Planner was created for you. Grab yours for just $27 at amandawarfield.com/planner/
  • Maternity leave spreadsheet
  • Madison’s budgeting spreadsheet
  • Business software, Xero
  • This week’s action step: Set up a business bank account
  • This week’s book recommendation: Atomic Habits by James Clear
  • Find me on Instagram and tell me you completed this week’s action step: @mrsamandawarfield

Madison Brown understands how confidence in your bookkeeping and business finances fuels the growth you deserve.

Madison Dearly is a bookkeeping team serving brand and website designers and female business owners in the online space with friendly, hands-on financial tracking and analysis. With a ton of experience in small business accounting, Madison Dearly understands how confidence in your business’s financial health fuels the growth you deserve. (And it also supports the lifestyle you work so hard to afford!) In short, these gals are not your dad’s stodgy bookkeeper, okay? For more information (and to make new friends), visit http://www.madisondearly.com

Social Links:

Website: https://madisondearly.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madisondearly/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@madisondearlybookkeeping

Paid Maternity Leave spreadsheet: https://madisondearly.com/maternity-leave

Online Business Budget spreadsheet: https://madisondearly.com/online-business-budget


Did you love this episode?

Don’t forget to subscribe so that you never miss an episode! Also, if you would be willing to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, it would mean the world to me. It’s such a small thing that can make a big difference in helping me spread this message of simplicity to other overwhelmed women.

Have a comment about today’s episode, or a topic


Rather Read? – Here’s the Transcript!

*Just a heads up – the provided transcript is likely to not be 100% accurate

Amanda Warfield: I have a confession. Business finances have been a sorely neglected topic here on Chasing Simple, and for that, I apologize. Frankly, it ironically mimics how our finances are often treated in our businesses as well. They’re often the last thing that we think about, and you know, we may do the bare minimum to balance, but At the end of the day, it’s not what we spend most of our time thinking about, right?

Amanda Warfield: We’re working on correcting that, both on the podcast and within our businesses. So today we’re going to hear from my dear friend Madison, who is passionate about financial literacy for female entrepreneurs. Madison Deerly is a bookkeeping team serving brand and website designers and female business owners in the online space with friendly, hands on financial tracking and analysis.

Amanda Warfield: With a ton of experience in small business accounting, Madison Deerly understands how confidence in your business’s financial health fuels the growth you deserve, and it also supports the lifestyle you work so hard to afford. In short, these gals are stodgy bookkeeper, okay? For more information and to make new friends, visit madisondeerly.

Amanda Warfield: com. Padme says hello, everyone. You’re listening to episode 197 of the Chasing Simple podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield. This episode was brought to you by the Chasing Simple content planner, and you can grab your own at amandawarfield. com slash planner.

Amanda Warfield: How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways, and how do I do it? Are launches still a thing? And most importantly, how do I put it all together to market my business strategically?

Amanda Warfield: Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head when you think of marketing. Welcome, friend. This is Chasing Simple, where practical marketing strategy meets simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focused content marketing and launch strategist, speaker, educator, and author of Chasing Simple Marketing.

Amanda Warfield: I traded in my classroom lesson plans for helping creative entrepreneurs sustainably fit marketing into their business without it taking over their business. So that they have time to grow their business, take time off, and live the life they dreamed about when they first decided to go out on their own.

Amanda Warfield: When I’m working, you can find me working with one on one clients, such as The Contract Shop and Rebecca Rice Photography on their marketing strategy and copywriting, or helping my students simplify their marketing and launches. And when I’m not, you can find me spending time outside with my husband, Russell.

Amanda Warfield: Reading in our hammock, watching Gamecock Sports, traveling, or forcing our cats to snuggle me. If you feel overwhelmed by marketing, you aren’t alone. Many entrepreneurs find marketing frustrating, overwhelming, and simply an obligation. They know they need it, but they don’t enjoy how easily it can suck up their time when what they really want to be doing Is the thing that they started their business to do, which is why I’m here to help make marketing simple and less time consuming so that you can spend less time on your marketing and more time growing your business and doing what you love.

Amanda Warfield: Each week I’ll bring you transparent conversations, actionable steps, and judgment free community to encourage and equip you. So grab yourself a cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choice is and meet me here each week for love, support, practical tips, and advice on uncomplicating your marketing and business.

Amanda Warfield: Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we? When it comes to creating your monthly content calendar and sitting down to create your content, because you’re batching it, right? The first step is not writing in the monthly calendar. It’s not even writing your categories and important dates on the calendar.

Amanda Warfield: If that’s where you’re starting with your content planning, well, all you’re creating is a plan, but what you need is a strategy. What’s the difference? A strategy is like the inner structure of a building, while the plan is the decor. A strategy is what helps you achieve your goals, and your plan is how you achieve them.

Amanda Warfield: Your strategy is where you’re leading your audience, and your plan is what you’re talking about and when. Without having a strategy first, putting together a plan will simply mean pulling ideas out of thin air. So, how do you start with a strategy? By starting with your goals, and working backwards to ensure that you’re moving your audience toward them.

Amanda Warfield: What are your yearly goals? Quarterly goals, monthly goals, and weekly goals. How can you translate them into content your audience wants to ingest? You’ve got to consider those questions before you even begin deciding what it is that you’ll post about. And if you want a simple way to create both your strategy and your plan, grab your Chasing Simple content planner.

Amanda Warfield: The planner is my number one bestseller, and for good reason too, because this massive, more than 130 page planner was designed with strategy in mind. It’s not merely a place to write down what you’re going to post and when. Yes, that’s part of it, but first, you’ll walk through intentional pages full of strategic questions to get your brain moving in the right direction before you even start writing down your topic ideas.

Amanda Warfield: In addition to the traditional calendar pages, you’ll find yearly planning pages, monthly prep work, monthly reflection questions, repurposing worksheets, and so much more. If taking your content to the next level is a goal of yours, the Chase and Simple content planner was created for you. Grab yours for just 27 at amandawarfield.

Amanda Warfield: com slash planner. Madison, I’m so excited to have you on today. You’re actually, I had one other guest, I think in this batch of interviews that I’ve actually been lucky enough to meet in person. And so it’s so nice to like, I’ve gotten to see you in person. We’ve had dinner together and learn together and now we get to choose, which is really, really fun.

Amanda Warfield: But for those that haven’t been that lucky, can you tell everyone who you are and a little bit about what you do? 

Madison Brown: Yes, and it almost stinks that we’ve met in person because now I’m just like kind of sad that I can’t hug you. I know. Because I really just enjoy spending time with you. But hi everyone, I am Madison Brown.

Madison Brown: I am the owner of Madison Dearly Bookkeeping. We are a top notch bookkeeping agency for branded web designers, creative online business owners who think big. I am a wife. I am a mama of two, uh, little ones. They are four and two, so if you know, you know. And, uh, life is grand. So yeah, that’s a little bit about me.

Amanda Warfield: One of our very first interactions together, which you reminded me of when we were at the conference together in September, I was very rude. And I, I don’t even know, 

Madison Brown:

Amanda Warfield: probably just messaged you out of the blue, which makes it a hundred times worse. But I messaged you on Instagram and I was like, so why would I need a bookkeeper?

Amanda Warfield: Because I do all of this myself. Like, I don’t understand. And genuinely, I was trying to understand because I felt like there must be something I’m missing, but I’m sure that came off as incredibly rude. And I’m sure that everyone else who has a similar thought process is probably wondering the same thing in a much nicer way.

Amanda Warfield: So can you tell us? What it is that you and your team do for your clients exactly and why it is so important that we as business owners have a 

Madison Brown: bookkeeper. Yes. And I said it to you then and I’m going to say it to you again. And for everyone listening, it was not rude. It was not rude at all. It was honestly, as you know, when you’re, when you start following that person on Instagram and you’re like, this seems like something that I might need, but do I?

Madison Brown: Actually really need it. Um, and especially when it comes to finances, when you have the IRS, like hovering over your shoulder, you’re like, do I actually really need a bookkeeper? It’s a genuine question. But I remember I was pretty new in my business and I probably was trying to sell you honestly, because I needed clients.

Madison Brown: I, I, I just needed that’s where I was in my business. So what we do for our clients is really just putting together a set of reports that tells you exactly how much money that you brought in in the previous month or the previous however many months that were, you know, contracted to do your bookkeeping for and how much money that you spent.

Madison Brown: So what did you bring in and what did you spend and what’s left over? Um, it’s really important that this is done in your business, whether it’s by a bookkeeper or you’re doing it yourself, because if you just don’t know what these numbers are, you don’t know how much you can pay yourself, how much you can.

Madison Brown: Save to invest in something that you really want for your business. It’s crucial to know these numbers. So whether you’re doing it yourself or hiring someone, you have to be doing it. And you’re kind of a rare egg too. I think there, I don’t even know if that’s the right term, rare egg. But I think there are a lot of people that just know that they hate bookkeeping.

Madison Brown: They’re like, I don’t want to do this at all. So they will outsource it. Then there are some people that are like you, where you’re like, well, kind of don’t hate this. And I do it every month. And it’s not that complicated for me. So the learning curve for you is pretty short is what it sounds like. And if you, if that’s something that like your brain works that way, you have a good process for it by all means, save the money, do it yourself.

Madison Brown: As long as you know that you’re getting it done accurately and you’re actually getting it done. 

Amanda Warfield: And I do really enjoy, like I reconcile every month. Like I’m, I’m on top of it, but I’m going to tell you, Madison tax time came around. And as I was preparing things for my CPA, Because I finally outsourced that this year, I was having issues with QuickBooks where I would go to a category and it wasn’t showing me every single transaction in that category for some reason.

Amanda Warfield: And I, I think I messaged you and I was like, do you do this for your people? Because I never want to do this again. I need to hire a bookkeeper this year simply to avoid that at tax time again, because I had all the numbers there and for some reason I was like, why, wait, that’s the total. And this is what it’s showing me.

Amanda Warfield: And these two are not adding up. So what is happening? And it took my husband and I like 30 minutes to figure out that for some reason it wasn’t showing every, even though everything was categorized in the right category. It wasn’t showing all of them. And I was like, forget this. I’m hiring a bookkeeper this year.

Amanda Warfield: It’s going on the goals. 

Madison Brown: Oh, I hate that so much. And especially because most people know that the QuickBooks name, everybody knows QuickBooks. So I think a lot of people, when they think of bookkeeping, they automatically think of QuickBooks, but I use Xero, X E R O. That’s what we use, um, in my agency. And it is so much more.

Madison Brown: simple. They are very intentional about taking out all the accounting jargon. And QuickBooks also has just kind of functionality issues that pop up like that for people who even do understand what they’re doing. Even for me, I’m an accountant, a bookkeeper. I have a long history of being in the finance industry.

Madison Brown: Don’t get annoyed being in QuickBooks. That’s because of the functionality issues and, um, because of all the accounting jargon. No one wants to see that. 

Amanda Warfield: No, it’s so confusing. I’m constantly like, how do I categorize this thing? Because I don’t know how it works within how they’ve categorized things. And then I send it to my CPA who wants to categorize it a different.

Amanda Warfield: Oh, Lord. All different things. Okay. So. When should someone hire a bookkeeper? How 

Madison Brown: do you know it’s the right time? Yeah. Um, so kind of going back to what we said, there are really two types of people. You either know that you absolutely hate bookkeeping and you don’t want to touch it at all. Um, but you know that you need to get it done.

Madison Brown: It’s something that is a non negotiable. If you have a business, there is no IRS saying like, did you post on Instagram today? Like, no, there is an IRS asking. Did you do your bookkeeping? Um, so you have to get, have to get it done, but if you hate it, you might want to just outsource it from the very beginning, so that you know that it’s getting done on a monthly basis, and you know that it’s accurate.

Madison Brown: Um, but there are some people who are totally fine doing it themselves, whether that’s with a spreadsheet, um, or in a software, if they decide to do a software themselves, um, and you can do it yourself for A good two to three years, especially at the beginning of your business, where you might not have a high volume of transactions and it might not take you very long, whether you do it like a finance Friday and, you know, carve out a little bit of time every Friday or once a month, um, it might not take you very long, but if you’re doing it yourself.

Madison Brown: And you actually like doing it, or you have a short learning curve, then it might be time to outsource if it’s just taking you too long, if you start selling, uh, from one to one to one to many, and you now have a higher volume of transactions, it might just be taking up too much of your time. And it might make more sense and just be more efficient for you to hire a bookkeeper at that point.

Madison Brown: So 

Amanda Warfield: hiring pros, efficiency, not having to do it at all, having it totally off your plate and having someone who is able to say, here’s what you made. Here’s what you spent. Profit loss. You also help with budgeting. 

Madison Brown: Is that correct? Yes. Yes, we do. I do this actually, uh, like once a year and I’ve only done it with, um, clients, like current clients, but I thought about opening it up to other people who would want help with like putting together an annual budget because we, when we think of budgets, what do you think of when you think of budgets?

Amanda Warfield: I mean, I think of the envelope system, but again, I feel like maybe I’m just like a weird person that’s weirdly into finance and I ended up in it as a career. 

Madison Brown: No, I think a lot of people think of that. A lot of people think of Dave Ramsey or they think of, Oh, I need to not go to Starbucks for the next three months.

Madison Brown: Cause I’m trying to. pay off whatever XYZ debt. But sometimes people forget that you need a business budget. You actually need to know what types of expenses are you going to have over the next three to six months to a year. Um, are you going to give your team member a promotion and how are you going to pay for all of this?

Madison Brown: What are your, what do your sales goals need to be? So I have done like VIP budget days with my current clients where we put together an entire like annual budget and they are So fun clarity is like not doesn’t even begin to touch like how people feel when they come away from this, but I also have a business budget spreadsheet template that I launched a couple months ago, which is like under 100.

Madison Brown: And it’s for someone who just needs like a templated version of a VIP day, and they can actually put like an entire budget together so. Yeah, that’s the thing that I do. I go, I have definitely been looking at that. You would love it. You would love it. Uh, it’s definitely, 

Amanda Warfield: yep. It’s a need for sure, because I’m great at budgeting.

Amanda Warfield: And I I’ve talked about this in another episode with a different financial guest, but I’m great at personal finance budgeting. I am not great at it with the business because cashflow is a thing that I just can’t wrap my mind around. So what tips do you have for someone who. Maybe they would like to outsource, but they don’t have the funds yet to outsource their bookkeeping.

Amanda Warfield: What tips do you have for someone while they’re working to get to that place of being able to outsource to someone like 

Madison Brown: you? Sure, just really getting everything organized. Act as if you already have a bookkeeper, which means Keep your receipts. Make sure that they’re in a nice Google Drive. Um, sort it by year and by month.

Madison Brown: Um, so make sure that you have, you’re keeping your receipts documented, but then also make sure that you have separate bank accounts. Keep your, your personal bank account separate from your business bank account. That is going to, whether you’re doing it or a bookkeeper is doing it, that is going to help tremendously to cut down on the time that it takes to do your bookkeeping.

Madison Brown: Because as your bookkeeper, I do not need to know how many times you went to Target and Nordstrom and Sephora and like, I do not need to know any of that stuff. So separating that out, keeping your receipts. Just overall being more organized with your money. If you have a PayPal, make sure that it’s a business PayPal so you can add team members to it in the future.

Madison Brown: And if it’s a PayPal, only have your business payment on there, not like your personal card. Things like that that make it a little bit more streamlined and organized so that once you do have a bookkeeper jump in, they are ready to go and it’s easier for them to turn around reports faster for you. I 

Amanda Warfield: will never forget sitting at dinner and we all got our receipts and the rest of us are just like shoving it in our bag.

Amanda Warfield: Right? We’re like, whatever. We’ll deal with this later. And Madison is just like quickly taking a picture and immediately uploaded it to her drive. And I was like, Oh, dang it. I don’t do that ever. And I’m ashamed to say that I still don’t do that. And it’s been six months. I’m going to start this week. I’m going to go set that Google Drive up right after we get off of this call.

Madison Brown: Yes, I love it. I love to hear it. It’s kind of habit for me now. And maybe because it doesn’t happen very often, we really, I don’t travel that much. I love to go to in person conferences, which is where I usually have to snap a picture of a receipt for a meal. I think the ones. like a meal or Amazon or Target, those in the moment have to be saved because those are the ones that are always that an auditor is going to ask questions about if you ever do get audited and you have to have the backup of like, this was lunch with Amanda in Charleston or whatever, you know?

Madison Brown: Yeah, I do. 

Amanda Warfield: In the receipt, there are some that have gone missing. I’m just going to be real honest, but the, for the most part, I save them. And the ones that I do have saved by right, what the conference was and whatever, like this date on there, just, just say a case, but, um, let’s talk about auditing actually, because that’s something you’ve been talking about on your YouTube channel and on your Instagram over this last week, you were an auditor 

Madison Brown: at one point, correct?

Madison Brown: I was, yes. For a top 10 public accounting firm back in my day. 

Amanda Warfield: So what, what kind of things do we need to be aware of? And I know I saw your Instagram post earlier because I stalk you, um, where you were talking about, you know, our biggest fear is always, I’m going to go to jail, which it totally is. That is always my big, that was why I was like, I got to get a CPA cause I’m going to go to jail.

Amanda Warfield: I don’t know what I’m doing. Um, What do we actually need to worry, quote unquote, worry about versus what do we not? 

Madison Brown: Um, number one, you’re not going to jail unless you do something illegal. I will say it one time, I will say it a thousand times. You are not going to jail unless you do something illegal. You are not going to jail if you expense something that you shouldn’t expense.

Madison Brown: What will happen? Let’s just say you expensed, um, Gosh, what’s something like clothes. Let’s say you went to Nordstrom, you spent 500 on a bunch of clothes and the IRS came and audited you and said, Hey, you actually can’t spend money on clothes unless they are branded or there’s some kind of uniform that you wear every day to work.

Madison Brown: They can’t just be everyday clothes that you would wear to work. A party. Then they come in and they say, Hey, you actually can’t expense that. They take it off of your books, which basically increases your taxable income. You basically just have to pay back, pay and probably some fees. You are not going to jail for it.

Madison Brown: Uh, they will just basically have to make adjustments for that. But, um, I think people. Also just need to overall, like we’re talking about how good receipt documentation really, truly, because those are the things that they are going to ask questions about, or the things that you really can buy whatever you want from Amazon.

Madison Brown: So that receipt does need to be saved to show. Actually, I bought a tripod and a camera for my YouTube and a microphone for my YouTube so that you clearly have that piece of paper. That is your defense to an auditor that shows this really was a hundred percent business deductible. That’s so helpful and 

Amanda Warfield: actually really calming for my warrior perfectionist heart because so often when I bring up that concern of like, I’m going to get in trouble.

Amanda Warfield: I’m going to go to jail. It’s always, you’re not going to be audited. You’re not big enough. And that’s always it, which is, you know, a fair, like, Objection buster to that, but I, I like you’re so much better where it’s like, okay, but even if you get audited, you’ll be fine. It’s not the end of the world. It’s just money.

Madison Brown: Really? It’s really not. Yeah. And they honestly auditors. Like, I was the jokester. I was the jokester of the audit team. I was the one that came in and was like, Hey, everybody. I know none of us want to be here, but like, let’s make it fun. Okay. So we, like, Okay. Gave our people the list. You already know what you’re going to need.

Madison Brown: They show you everything. We ask questions. If there’s any kind of like, oops, then we go back and fix it. And it’s not a big deal. So hopefully that continues to calm you. Although I feel like 

Amanda Warfield: you’re probably very few auditors that are as incredible as you. Thank you. 

Madison Brown: Okay. There’s 

Amanda Warfield: more. I mean, you just. So special in so many ways that you’re all very lucky to, to have you on as a guest right now.

Amanda Warfield: Thanks. You also have, in addition to your budget spreadsheet, you also have another DIY. offer. Tell us a little bit about that because I think there are going to be some people that are going to 

Madison Brown: want this. Yes. This one is very near and dear to my heart. This is the paid maternity leave plan spreadsheet.

Madison Brown: Um, this is for anyone who is planning on taking a maternity leave. Uh, it can honestly be used by anyone who wants to take time off in their business. So it doesn’t have to be just for women who are Pregnant. Um, but I made it that because I know that there are so many business owners who are afraid to get pregnant or think that they’re not able to get a maternity leave.

Madison Brown: And that’s just not the case if you have proper planning. So I made this spreadsheet ridiculously affordable, honestly, and very simple and easy to use. All you have to input is the amount of months that you have until the baby is here. The amount of months that you want to take off. all of the expenses that you need to pay while you’re away, whether that’s team members or your software subscriptions, whatever that might be.

Madison Brown: And then it calculates everything of what you need to save monthly until the baby is here, all of your goals. It’s just a really simple and easy to use and effective spreadsheet that almost instantly creates a plan for you so that you are prepared to take off as much time as you really want to. For maternity leave.

Madison Brown: If you’re a 

Amanda Warfield: business owner of that, I get questions about batching for maternity leave all the time. So I know there are people that are going to definitely going to be interested in that. If you could give everyone an action step to take after listening to this episode, what 

Madison Brown: would it be? That is a great question.

Madison Brown: Well, if you don’t already have a business account, that’s separate from your personal, that’s always, always voice. My number one, um, that is a really easy. Thing to do, but extremely impactful. And the second thing would really be making sure that you’re covered with your bookkeeping, whether that’s hiring someone or doing it yourself.

Madison Brown: Put a recurring calendar invite to yourself on the calendar to make sure that you get it done or co work with somebody else who’s like a business bestie that also needs to get their bookkeeping done so you can hold each other accountable or just hire the bookkeeper. I was talking to a client actually a couple days ago and she was saying, So many people just don’t think about what it feels like after you have hired the bookkeeper, or actually done the bookkeeping, and you’re on top of that system in your business.

Madison Brown: There is such an indescribable amount of peace and freedom and confidence. Knowing what your numbers are. So you can clearly say, how much can I pay myself? Can I be paying myself more than what I’m paying myself? That is like one of the biggest, most beautiful things about bookkeeping is if you know your numbers.

Madison Brown: You can bring more money home if that’s the case, if you’re, you know, profitable and in a good way. But yeah, I would say that that is the number one thing. Like as soon as you are finished listening to this podcast, make a date with yourself to do your own bookkeeping, whether that’s in a spreadsheet or a software or go just hire the bookkeeper because every single one of my clients will tell you that they wish they hired me earlier.

Madison Brown: And if someone did 

Amanda Warfield: want to work with you. Where can they learn more? 

Madison Brown: Yes, I am Madison Deerley everywhere. So at Madison Deerley on Instagram, I love, love hanging out in the DM. So please just like come say hi to me and you won’t have a choice. We’ll be best friends. Um, I’m also madisondeerley. com, madisondeerley on TikTok.

Madison Brown: If you want to watch, it’s pretty, it’s pretty lame over there right now. I’m dabbling in it, but I’m still over there. So. Yeah. That’s nearly everywhere to channel. 

Amanda Warfield: Gosh. Yeah. I have a YouTube. 

Madison Brown: I don’t normally like, that’s not like the first thing that comes to my, to the forefront when people ask that, but yeah, I just launched a YouTube a couple of months ago, you know, one month out one month, almost to the day.

Madison Brown: And it is going swimmingly. I love it. I love to talk clearly. Um, but I feel like there’s also so much that business owners need to know and need to have. Accessible to them. I really, really genuinely want financial literacy to be higher for business owners and for women. Uh, so yeah, YouTube is where we hang out and we educate and yeah, 

Amanda Warfield: come find me there.

Amanda Warfield: Absolutely. And we will link to all that in the show notes. But before I let you go, what would be one book recommendation that you would give to everyone that they need to read? And it, it can be business, it can be finances, it can be fiction, whatever. 

Madison Brown: Well, the number one that comes to my head, and you’ve probably talked about this a hundred times, I would be shocked if you hadn’t.

Madison Brown: Atomic Habits is just so good, and I know everyone raves about it, but it really is that good. I feel like I’ve read the book physically once, and then I listened to it on audio again, just To really let it sink in. And one of the most impactful things that I remember from that book is never miss twice.

Madison Brown: Um, so it’s okay to have your day. It’s okay to, um, miss out on a, on a habit that you’re trying to create, but don’t let it happen twice. So like really, really striving. Cause I’m the person that will give myself grace all day. I’m like, you know what? It was a bad day. I need to give myself grace. I need to sit back.

Madison Brown: I need to watch trash TV today. But I’m going to give myself this one day and the next day I know because this is a habit that I’ve said is really important to me to come back and completely knock it out of the park. 

Amanda Warfield: I love it. You know, it’s funny. I think probably at least half the time guests do say atomic habits as their recommendation, but it’s always really interesting to hear what their biggest takeaway was because that is always different.

Madison Brown: So that’s interesting. I was going to say A Court of Thorns and Roses because I’m currently reading that right now and it’s so good, but I’m not finished yet. So don’t give me any spoilers. I see you waving your hands. It’s 

Amanda Warfield: so good. It’s also good. We’ll talk about that 

Madison Brown: later when you’re done. I 

Amanda Warfield: love it.

Amanda Warfield: Madison. Thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate it. 

Madison Brown: Of course. Thank you.

Madison Brown: Thank you 

Amanda Warfield: so much for joining me here today, friend. You can find this episode show notes as well as all the resources you need to simplify your marketing over at amandawarfield. com. If you liked what you heard here today, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. And if you could take a moment to leave a rating and review, it would truly mean the world to me.

Amanda Warfield: Ratings and reviews are the number one way that you can support a podcast. And ensure that it sticks around for many more episodes to come. I’ll see you next time. Now go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.


Hey friend! Just a head’s up — this post may contain affiliate links!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I accept the Privacy Policy

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.