Does the thought of looking at your books give you a headache? Let’s change that.

Finances can feel heavy, especially when you’re running a wellness business and trying to balance passion with profit. In this episode, Kelly Marshall joins us to share how she helps conscious entrepreneurs get clarity and confidence with their finances.

Kelly brings a refreshing, holistic perspective to bookkeeping. With a background that blends corporate financial expertise and energy work, she meets her clients with empathy, strategy, and a belief that good people can change the world when they feel empowered about money.

In this episode:

• How Sacred Money Archetypes reveal your financial habits and empower your decisions.
• The biggest mistakes small business owners make with bookkeeping (and how to fix them).
• Why compassionate, judgment-free support from your financial team is essential for success.

Find It Quickly:

00:36 – Meet Kelly Marshall: Financial Wellness Coach

01:12 – Understanding Conscious Entrepreneurship

01:46 – Jane: Your Practice Management Solution

03:26 – Kelly Marshall’s Financial Services

12:01 – Exploring Money Mindset and Archetypes

22:12 – Introducing the New Team Member

22:29 – Balancing Risk and Growth

22:54 – Supporting Your Business Partner

23:21 – Sponsor Break: Jane App

23:56 – Understanding Archetypes for Success

24:52 – The Importance of Bookkeeping

25:52 – Three-Step Bookkeeping Methodology

28:01 – Building Client Relationships

30:52 – Common Bookkeeping Mistakes

39:30 – Personal Definitions of Success

40:46 – Where to Find More Information

Mentioned in this Episode:

Kendall SummerHawk: kendallsummerhawk.com

Denise Duffield-Thomas: denisedt.com

Connect with Kelly:

Website: terracarefinancial.com

Instagram: instagram.com/kelly.marshall.8

Facebook: facebook.com/groups/2026160704129573

Quiz: https://terracarefinancial.com/sma

🎙️ Listen to Episode #118: Financial Wellness & Bookkeeping Strategies for Acupuncturists with Kelly Marshall

💙 This episode is sponsored by Jane, a clinic management software that’s here to make practice life a little easier.

Ready to get started? Use the code ACUSCHOOL1MO for 1 free month at jane.app.

Subscribe to the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

 💖 Love the podcast? Help other acupuncturists find the podcast by leaving a review here.

Transcript:

Michelle: Welcome to the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Grasek, and I’m here to help you get visible in your community. Take marketing action with confidence, and get more patients in your practice and more money in your pocket every week. We both know you’re a talented, passionate acupuncturist and that acupuncture has the power to change lives.

So let’s dive right into this episode and talk about how you can reach more patients.

Hi there. Welcome back. Happy New Year. Today I’m joined by Kelly Marshall, the founder of Terra Care Financial. Kelly offers bookkeeping and financial wellness coaching, which is a blend of financial strategy and holistic coaching for conscious purpose driven entrepreneurs. So she believes that good people do good things with their money, and her mission is to help those people feel empowered, supported, and unashamed when it comes to their finances.

So whether you wanna scale your practice or you just need to clean up your finances, or you’re trying to make peace with your money mindset, Kelly has lots of insights for you. In today’s episode, we talk about what it means to be a conscious entrepreneur. Kelly’s CFO Light Financial Advisor approach and how it differs from traditional financial roles, the Sacred Money Archetypes, and what they reveal about your money habits, her three step bookkeeping framework.

Get clean, get clear, get growing. Why good communication and judgment, free support from your financial team is essential for financial wellness. So grab a cup of tea or take us with you on a walk. Let’s get into this conversation with Kelly. Today’s episode is brought to you by Jane, a practice management software and EMR that helps health and wellness practitioners care for their communities.

I know switching EMRs can feel really daunting. I’ve been there, but it feels easier when you’re supported by a team every step of the way. And when you switch to Jane, you are not making the move alone. You are backed by an award-winning and human support team with unlimited access to Jane’s support.

You’ll have someone there to answer your questions as you get your new EMR up. Running and Jane understands that questions don’t stick to a Monday to Friday schedule, which is why you can access support by phone, chat, or email on Saturdays too. And I know my main concerns when switching from another EHR or EMR were, how long will it take?

Will I mess this up? That was a big one. And will I have to figure it out alone? So first of all, the Jane team will actually do the transfer of your files into your new Jane account. So you do have to download the files from your. Current EMR, but Jane has easy step-by-step instructions for how to do that for a huge variety of other EMRs, and this was way simpler than I imagined.

And then you just send that file to Jane and let them know what day you want the transfer to happen. I think it took 24 hours, so I was not doing this myself. I could not mess it up, and it was a very short turnaround time. So if you’re interested in learning more, you can book a demo at Jane app. And if you’re ready to get started, you can use my Code Accu School one mo for a one month Grace period on your new account.

And of course, I will put the link and the code in the show notes for you. All right, let’s get into this chat with Kelly. Hi Kelly. Welcome. How are you today? I’m doing well. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. It is such a pleasure to have you here and before we dive in, I’ll give you a moment to introduce yourself to the audience.

Okay, thank you.

Kelly: Um, it’s always a complex question that should have a, a buttoned up answer, but I don’t necessarily, so I’m Kelly Marshall. I’m the founder of Terra Care Financial and we offer bookkeeping services, um, to purpose-driven conscious entrepreneurs. And we also do. I would say CFO light services, which are really in kind of my.

Wellness coaching kind of umbrella is how I think of it. So it’s very holistic, supportive coaching in bringing this skillset that I’ve developed through education and, and years of corporate experience to people who are trying to do good things with their money and keep more of it in their pocket.

Maybe

Michelle: I’d like to help them with that. Yeah. I’m so curious how you would define. I think you said purpose and conscious driven entrepreneur.

Kelly: So when I

Michelle: first

Kelly: started out, I knew I wanted to work with people who were doing good in the world. Like that was I, I really. Don’t let me go too far on this tangent, but I had these two paths.

I had this accounting education and experience corporate world, and then I had holistic health coaching and, um, reiki master and like more like what I considered my energy work. And I was very drawn to like, wanting to have an impact and, and really help people. And at some point the two kind of got blended together and I realized like this skillset I had developed could really serve people who were making a difference in the world and that would be my impact.

And so I just called it like heart-based or purpose-driven entrepreneurs. And I’ve since come to know the term conscious entrepreneurs, which is out there. There’s a conscious capital group, and you might think of the big companies like Patagonia that we know are trying to do good things. In the world with their money, but it is as impactful as the mom and pop shop that maybe does a little like fundraising through their business or does some donations.

So people who you know are very values-based, values aligned, trying to incorporate their purpose into what they do and either are maybe directly giving money or really doing good work with what they do, where they’re helping people. It kind of fits all of those people. So in my mind, I just define it as good people and.

And my job is to help them feel better about their money. ’cause I trust that good people do good things with their money and that’s a way we can change the world. Like that’s really my mission behind it.

Michelle: I love that. And you, you also mentioned sort of the two paths. So the bookkeeping and then CFO light.

Can you tell people what that would be? CFO, light.

Kelly: So I call it CFO Light. I am much, I’m more interested in kind of, I don’t wanna word this like, it’s like blending the practical and the energy parts of money. So I like to help with some of the practical, but I’m not looking to. You know, be in somebody’s business every day managing their cash flow.

Like I wanna help them strategically look at that and maybe make a plan and then. I will support them with it every month, but I’m not necessarily kind of in the day-to-day running the business with them. So CFO, you hear that it’s a very broad term and a lot of people use it differently and I don’t think I’ve totally, I use financial wellness coaching a little bit more.

CFO kind of came out earlier. Um, ’cause there are some people that just call me their CFO, but I don’t necessarily identify that. So I say CFO light to just imply that I’m doing more the advisory strategic part and less of the. Managing the cash in their business day to day. And I feel like that way I can help more businesses that maybe don’t need somebody in there every day, or couldn’t afford to have somebody in there every day, but want that person in their back pocket that can, they can ask a question about a financial decision.

They can make a plan, or they might need me to do a spreadsheet to see a forecast. ’cause that’s not their language. Spreadsheets are not their language. It’s my language. And so that’s how I. Define that, or that’s the term I use is, you know, a loosely UCFO, but it’s really much more around that advisory side coaching.

But I pull in some of the other practical things that maybe a business coach wouldn’t, or, um, yeah. Does that answer it? That was a really long-winded.

Michelle: No, I think it does. Okay. Yeah. And uh, I think I remember seeing on your website something like we are numbers obsessed, basically, so you don’t have to be Yeah, yeah.

So that the business owner can just focus on whatever it is. Yeah. Right. If, whether they’re an online business or brick and mortar and, and certainly I think, you know, acupuncturists and we have some naturopaths and chiropractors and massage therapists who tune in. Yeah. I. All of those people are very typically very heart-centered.

Yeah. And it’s really what helps us. Just like keep going as business owners. ’cause sometimes it, it’s just hard, right? There are challenges, but when you are so committed to your mission and your values and your reason for showing up, yeah. Again and again, every day it sounds pretty much like we are your people.

Yeah,

Kelly: yeah. For sure. Yeah, I would agree.

Michelle: And I love the, the idea of the CFO light and CFO is. Chief Financial Officer, right?

Kelly: Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Yeah,

Michelle: I like the idea of that because I can think of plenty of like one-off financial decisions that I’ve had to make over the years where I just am like out of my depth and I, I like finances, I like researching.

I find it interesting. I do like spreadsheets, but sometimes it’s like I just don’t have the experience to know. You know, I have these two options. What are the potential outcomes? Right. And I, I feel lucky. I’m, I have a really good, like a retirement advisor. Yeah. And we’re pretty close in age, and so I can always shoot him a message.

And he’s one of the few people that I have actually, like, he knows. What my finances look like. Big picture. Yeah. So you can help me with that. But it is hard for people because I think a lot of us are not talking with our, I don’t know, like our, our friends or our aunts and uncles are like, well, this was my incoming and this was my outgoing and this is my savings and this is the decision I’m trying to make and how will it impact?

It’s like they don’t, they don’t know all that info and they might not. Be comfortable sharing it with them. Right. So that’s where a professional is super helpful.

Kelly: I, I wanna just add something else that comes up a lot is somebody may have a professional, maybe it’s their mm-hmm. Tax preparer or their financial advisor that Yeah.

Is Heather hasn’t created that. Pathway to ask that kind of question. Right. Or they feel stupid asking ’em that question. And we, we kind of have a, there’s no stupid question policy, like this is a no judgment zone that we work in at my company.

Michelle: Yeah. So

Kelly: people do feel more comfortable asking us that question.

Even if they then need to go on and talk to their CPA, there might be, we don’t do taxes. They may still need to have that question, but they’ll feel more comfortable starting with us and then, right. I can help them maybe frame the question or give them some background so that they feel, um, more empowered when they go talk to that person.

But I think you should feel comfortable with your financial team. I really think, and if you don’t, that’s a question to think about of maybe, um, that’s not the right person on your team. ’cause you should be able to ask any of us your questions. Right. And feel good about that. Yeah.

Michelle: Yeah. I am the queen of prefacing a question with, with, this might be a stupid question, but I’m gonna ask it

Kelly: anyway.

Yeah, yeah. And that’s good because a lot of people, they, there’s a lot of shame when it comes to this too. And you know, there’s, there are a lot of people that don’t, don’t, wouldn’t say I love finances or I love a spreadsheet. So that alone can make them feel shameful as a business owner. They know what they do and they’re really good at that piece.

Mm-hmm. And then you might feel really good about their impact with that, but they might feel some other kind of way about the. The finance side, the business finance side, and like, oh, I should know this. I should, should, should. Mm. Yeah. And it’s not true that you should know that. Like, that’s okay to get that education as you build your business.

And, and I think that’s scary for a lot of people. They think they should know all the answers at the beginning, and it, it evolves and you grow your literacy, your financial literacy as you grow your business.

Michelle: Mm-hmm. Yeah. That’s such a nice way to think about it. Mm-hmm. It’s almost like mm-hmm. How can you expect to know the answers to all these financial questions from the beginning of starting your business?

You can’t, you can’t even know what the questions are. Right. Until you’re like moving through all the different phases Right. Of your business. Yeah. And then they just pop up organically.

Kelly: Yeah. True. Yeah. And then be willing to find that out and not, not feel the shame about it. Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle: You have a really fun quiz on your website, which I have taken.

Oh good. And I bring it up. ’cause we we’re talking about like how people feel about their money. Yeah. And you know, what, how, how, how would you describe. The results of the quiz, it kind of tells you like what is your approach to money, how you feel about it. Yeah.

Kelly: I think of it as money filters. So it’s the Sacred Money Archetypes.

Mm-hmm. And it is something maybe people have heard out there. It was created by Kendall Summerhawk, um, and I was certified in it. You’ll see it. If you’ve ever heard of Denise Duffield Thomas. She’s, um, she’s a money mindset person that’s a long short child preneur and, um, get rich, lucky. Can I swear on your podcast?

Oh, yes. Yeah. Yep. So in her book she refers to it and so she was certified in it too. Just to say that it’s just in case that rings any bells for people, but mm-hmm. I found early on, ’cause I, I’d always had the bookkeeping part and there, there were a lot of money lessons I’ve learned through my life. A lot of money healing.

Mm-hmm. I’ve done through my life. But then when I first started this business, I was doing some bookkeeping, but I was also really new to that. Type of coaching. I’d done other coaching, and there was a disconnect between when I’m having a conversation and maybe I’m trying to get somebody excited about money or driven by the money part, and they just, that didn’t resonate for them.

Well, they’re not driven by money, but I didn’t know. Yet, and I didn’t know how to support people. So Earl, pretty early on, somebody introduced me to Kendall’s work and I got certified in this. And it has been such a game changer for me to understand the motivations with people and money. And so what the quiz does it, it, it’s insightful in and of itself.

It’s a good exercise just to take it and, mm-hmm. I don’t know, there’s a lot of questions. Is it 80 questions? I think total 60 questions somewhere. There’s a lot of questions.

Michelle: Oh really? Gosh, I buzzed through it. I, it said it would take me eight minutes I think. I did it in five. Okay. It did not take long.

Good job.

Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. There’s a lot of questions in there. I should know that answer, but I think it’s 80. So even in that process, it helps you start to think about like what am, like get new awarenesses of yourself with money and then at the end of that you get a tally of scores and it’s. Totals by archetype.

So there’s eight archetypes, and this is based on that, an archetype system. And so your top three archetypes are the ones that are most impacting your decisions. And that’s where I think of them as like money filters. So as you’re faced with a money decision, you’re gonna run that decision through your filters and come to your decision.

Mm-hmm. Versus a partner, let’s say you have a business partner or a romantic partner, their filters are different. So you guys could get faced with the same decision. Or situation and come to different conclusions. And that’s because your filters are different. Mm-hmm. And, um, so I have found them really helpful for me to, to be like, oh, okay, that makes sense.

And then I can tailor my coaching based on that to help support them. So even if we’re not working together, it’s good, insightful information. Sure. And then, um, when we are working together, I’ll use that to, to tailor my coaching to support. People better so that I’m not speaking about something that doesn’t really matter to them.

So an example would be, I work with a lot of alchemists. So alchemists are people that believe in you might too in your world, I know that’s not top on yours, but alchemists are really all about transformation. They see possibilities for people. Mm-hmm. They’re really doing service of their heart. And when you’re in that place and providing service of your heart.

If you’re an alchemist, you may have trouble connecting money to it. It feels a little gross, like to connect money to the service of your heart. So what really helps an alchemist is for them to remember that the better they’re doing the in the world, because they’re not gonna, they’re not gonna seek money for money’s sake.

But if they can understand that the better they do in the world, the more they can help others. Now they’re driven by that. And if they can hold onto that as like, um, a mantra if you will, over, I need to make X number per month because that’s my goal. Like, it’s like, okay, with this I can help this many people.

Or just a filter through which they can shift things so that they can still heat their goals. The other thing with them, sorry, I could get on tangents all day with this, but an Alchemist is very much aware of everybody, the people’s. Potential, including their own, so they see what’s possible for themselves and they’re like, oh, I could do this.

But then there’s this disconnect when they connect their services to money and then they’re kind of falling short of their goals and it’s because they get feeling gross about the money. So we just really tie them to their impact versus their money and what kind of difference they can make in the world with their work, especially when they’re charging for it.

Because there’s things they can do with that. There’s ways they can change the world. They can continue to walk their talk.

Michelle: I think that’s such a nice perspective. And I worked with, uh, another acupuncturist years ago, and one way that she would try to like teach people to set goals was to. She always wanted them to tie it to something concrete, right?

Mm-hmm. And everybody always thinks of like, oh, well, for example, I wanna hit six figures this year. And as you’re saying, it was hard for a lot of people to connect with that and say like, well, what, what does that really mean? Right? And, and also, do I feel gross asking for that much money if it feels like a stretch for me?

So she would. Have them break it down and say, okay, well how many patients per week or per month would you have to help in order to ultimately reach whatever your financial goal is? Yep. So she would ask them to keep the six figures, for example, and say, well, I’d like to make six figures in 2026 by helping.

Mm-hmm. I can’t even, I don’t know. Would that be like 900? Providing 900 treatments or mm-hmm. Um, helping this number of people. Yeah. And that really helped them to connect it. Yep. Like you’re saying, like, oh, okay. Like, I’m gonna do this meaningful work. Yeah. For wow. For 900 treatments. Yeah. That’s good work.

And then the outcome will hopefully be, yeah, this number that’s tied to it that I love, that supports my life. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Such a nice way to think about it.

Kelly: So your top three, you had Maverick as your top ruler as your next, and accumulator as your third. And so Maverick is the risk taker. A lot of entrepreneurs have that like to take the leap into entrepreneurship, you have to be willing to take some risks and we enjoy that part of it.

Like we enjoy. Like looking for the win and looking, you know, really being clever and figuring it out. Yeah, and I have it too. It’s why I say we, that’s my, it’s almost tied with my first, I’m n I’m nurturer Maverick. Then your second one is ruler, which is really that natural leader, decisive. Um, really love to grow the type of business where everybody can thrive.

Like that’s just that natural leader. And then the third is accumulator and accumulators. Um, one of the terms in there is inner banker, like they typically love to save and, um, can be really good at living below their means. Probably the most important piece of it is they’re driven by security, so your top maverick is risk, loves risk.

Your third accumulator loves security, and I have a lot of clients that have those two in their top three and that what can. What can be tricky is sometimes, you know, you can feel that push pull of that, and that might show up in like, oh my gosh, I love this. I’m gonna take a risk and leaping, and then the accumulator gets scared and stressed out.

So they’ll like pull things back or halt things or, you know, crave the security. And so instead of letting that happen, when you’re aware of this now as your two archetypes. That can conflict each other. It’s like, okay, what if they could balance each other out? What if my accumulator could make sure that there’s enough there?

Maybe it’s in recurring revenue, you know, you’re gonna have this many patients every month, and so you can be comfortable in that and know that I’ve got that covered, my foundation’s covered, so now I can go play and create something else. Yeah. So thinking of them working together in balance versus. You know, this conflicting energy of push pull, and so just this awareness today could create that where you’re like, I decided I wanted to take this risk.

I have enough in the bank accumulator. We’re okay, let’s go for this. Versus allowing that accumulator to maybe sabotage something before you really got it off the ground. Or on the flip side, your maverick. Instead of letting your maverick just run everything all the time, oh, I gotta create a new offer that’s not working.

Da da. You know? And always looking for a new thing, saying, let’s build this foundation. And that’s very much in my business how it had to show up. I kind of resisted the bookkeeping for a couple years. I was building a coaching business. Mm. And then I kept signing bookkeeping clients, and then I realized, you know what?

This could be kind of neat. And as I learned this. The archetypes, I realized that’s my foundation, that’s my bread and butter because that’s recurring revenue. Yeah. So now I can build that, create safety, and I can still do coaching, which is maybe how I get cashflow injections or something fun I can play with, you know, and go create something else.

Um, so that’s just an example of how, when there’s conflicting archetypes, how they could show up and a little something for you personally.

Michelle: Thank you. This really makes me think about the process that I am going through right now, of hiring a second, uh, second associate acupuncturist at my practice. And I definitely feel the, the maverick risk taker piece that’s like, it’s gonna be great.

Mm-hmm. You know, I love marketing. I can figure out how to keep both of their schedules filled and I know it’s gonna be a challenge, but I love the challenge. Yeah. That is conflicted with the, what was it called? The accumulator. Accumulator? Mm-hmm. On the security piece. Yeah. Which is. It’s just making me, um, go through the process extremely slowly.

Kelly: Yeah. Right. Yeah. That

Michelle: somehow in my brain, that’s how that compromise comes about. Yeah. Where the accumulator is like, okay, if we’re gonna do this, then that means it has to be a really slow process of bringing on this new person, introducing her to people over weeks or even months. Sending out individual emails to the patients I know are gonna be nervous.

Kelly: Yeah.

Michelle: And helping them, like she came to open house, people could meet her. So now we’re finally in the process where the last couple of days she has been meeting the patients. And so many people are, they’re just enthusiastic about it. Yeah. Right. And they’re, they’re making appointments with her. And so it’s sort of realizing like, oh, it’s.

This kind of push pull, this tension process. Yeah. We’re like, we’re gonna do this big scary thing, but we’re gonna take it excruciatingly slowly. Yeah. To make sure that risk is minimized. Yeah. But that just tends to be how my brain works. Yeah. And it’s, it’s sort of like I could see that someone who, um, you know, just wanted to get the process over with.

Yeah. It could be excruciating for them.

Kelly: Yeah. Or imagine they’re working with a business partner. That doesn’t get that. You know, I would say another way that if I were working with you and we were planning for it is, you know, if you have three months of savings for that person’s payroll or something, if that, I don’t know if they’re mm-hmm.

Employee or not, but like that would be another way, like ways that you can create comfort for your accumulator. Yeah. And allow your maverick still to grow and do those pieces so. There’s lots of ways to approach that too.

Michelle: Taking a quick break to remind you about today’s sponsor, Jane, an all-in-one practice management software and EMR designed for health and wellness practitioners.

If the idea of switching EMRs feels overwhelming, I get it, but with Jane, you’re not doing it alone. Their award-winning support team helps transfer your files for you and is available by phone, chat, or email even on Saturdays. Ready to learn more? Visit Jane app to book a demo and use my Code Accu School one mo for a one month Grace period on your new account.

And the link and the code are in the show notes for you. All right, let’s get back to Kelly’s episode. And I, I really enjoy that. It’s like these big archetypes. Yeah. But they’re rooted in like what are the practical applications? Yeah. That can help you have success.

Kelly: Yeah. Through these archetypes. And there’s always a mindset that could support you and part of it’s really comfortable and then part of it is like the uncomfortable part.

So for your maverick, sometimes the biggest risk is investing regularly in the tried and true. So biggest risk, yeah, let’s go investing. But it’s in the tried and true. So that’s the part that’s more of a challenge. So there’s always there. The work comes with ways to work with our. Archetypes to be successful.

’cause the truth is, if we’re all leaning in our strengths, then we can be and aware of our, our challenges, then we can. And any archetype can be successful, but it’s the subconscious of that, like the non awareness that will sabotage us.

Michelle: Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay. Well we could talk about that a lot. Yeah.

Kelly: Don’t get me started too much.

Michelle: I did wanna talk about, um, the bookkeeping piece a little bit more. Yeah. Only because from a very practical perspective, I think that. It’s something that scares a lot of people. I have been teaching marketing in the industry for about 11 years, and so like business concepts always come up, like practice management is kind of rolled into marketing a lot of the times, and people will tell me that they just have their heads stuck in the sand.

They actually don’t know. How much they owe on their student loans. Mm-hmm. They don’t know how much money is coming in every month. They don’t know how much their overhead is and therefore how much profit they have. Yep. And therefore, what’s left over. Right. And. I don’t know. For me and the way that I approach it, I feel like that’s super scary.

Mm-hmm. But it, it’s almost like it’s so much scarier for certain types of people to really dig into that by themselves. Yep. Which is fair. Right. Because this is definitely not something we’re taught right. In school. Right. So I know that you have a three step methodology mm-hmm. For your bookkeeping that I really like.

Yeah. I like the setup of it and it makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And I think the first one, what is it? I am stalking you on your website as we speak.

Kelly: I know I had to, I don’t always speak about it in this way ’cause we have another way that we speak about it. But get clean, get clear and get going. Yes.

Michelle: Yeah.

So nice.

Kelly: Um, and that really is just true pure bookkeeping, like

Michelle: mm-hmm.

Kelly: Whether somebody comes in and somebody else has been doing the books or if they’ve been doing it themselves, or if nothing has been happening, we need to make sure what we’re working with. Clean, you know? Mm-hmm. Get everything caught up, get it cleaned up, caught up, whatever Their situation is organized, and that’s something we’re very comfortable with.

You know, sometimes we’ve even had to go back a couple years for people to, maybe even to get taxes submitted. Maybe they have really put their head in the sand and, and not done that in a couple years have, and mm-hmm. That’s o you know, that’s okay. It’s just better to deal with it and kind of move that boulder out of the way because Yeah, that you can’t grow if you don’t address it.

Like that’s something that you can only. Hide from so long if you wanna build your business. So that’ll keep people small if they don’t do that. And then the next step, it’s like getting clear or starting to understand like what, what are you making every month? What does need to go out the door for overhead?

What, what loans do you need to pay back or credit cards? That’s where that like getting clear and understanding that, um, what those numbers are. Um, that’s part of that. I mentioned financial literacy and that’s an opportunity to have when they have good numbers to look at is get clear. And then it’s used that information that you’re now clear on to grow and start to make decisions from that.

So, you know, it’s one thing to, if we don’t even know if you’re profitable now, then how do you make a decision about. Can I get some Google ads to get some traction, or can I hire another service provider on my team? Yeah. It’s really hard to make that decision when all you’re using is your bank balance to, to make that decision.

So that’s how those three work together. So something we work with in here that it, I don’t know if that’s to say, I don’t even know if they have it on the website. I’ve got it on Instagram, but we really work with care in our world. So that’s the bookkeeping process. And then for care for us is, um. That we really wanna be able to communicate that like our people thinks of us, thinks of us as their their expert and that they need to be able to communicate with us and ask us those questions I was talking about.

Yeah. And um, I’m just pulling it up ’cause I really don’t wanna misspeak on my, my acronym communication. So that’s really important to me in that they can. Rely on us as their expert and that they can communicate clearly with us and ask those questions. Um, the next one is authenticity. And so that’s, we’re always gonna show up who we are, how we are.

We take ourselves, our work seriously. We, we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Like we really are gonna show up as who we are. And my clients are that way too. Like they value that and that’s important. And then relationships, I like to, I have always had this in my work career, whether it was employees or working with clients is like.

My clients are my friends. We like build real relationships. I don’t, and my employees are that way too. So that’s really important to me and, and again, that they feel comfortable with that. And then entrepreneurship and kind of that belief about conscious entrepreneurs and how important that is to us. So I know that’s not what you were asking, but that was popping in my head.

So I just followed that little intuitive hit and thought I’d share that too. So our goal is really to care for our clients, and I want them to feel like relaxed the minute they say. Yes, you’re our person. I want them to feel relaxed about this part of their business, um, and know that we’ve got them and that we care about them and their business.

Michelle: Yeah, and I think, I mean, the communication piece, it just can’t be overstated, right? Yeah. Because if, if someone hasn’t. Really sorted through their books in, in a long time or hasn’t paid their taxes, which I think happens to everybody. Mm-hmm. Like at some point there’s always something messed up Yep. In your taxes as a business owner.

Yeah. And it’s terrifying. Yeah. That’s happened to me. And it, you don’t find out until three years later mm-hmm. And you’re like, wow, I need to ask someone for help. Yeah. And then you get it sorted, right? Yep. But I think it, it’s so important to have someone that you can communicate with that you don’t feel embarrassed to ask about.

Huge. Yeah, you described that as a boulderer, right? It’s like literally heavy. It’s weighing on people not feeling clear and organized about their finances, having unanswered questions. So yeah, they definitely need someone that they can just approach and, and trust that when I put this question out there that’s been weighing on me for several years, they are, first of all, they’re gonna be like, oh, yes.

Yeah. Lots of people ask this. Yeah. Right. It’s not sure. It’s not the first time you’ve heard anything. Um, and just knowing that you’re gonna receive that question just kindly with empathy.

Kelly: Yeah. It matters a lot for sure. And anybody on their financial team should, whoever you’re working with. Yeah.

Michelle: Yeah.

I’m curious, what is the biggest mistake that you see small business owners making with their bookkeeping?

Kelly: I, I know I’m like a, a little bit of a, um, beating a dead horse, but. I guess I’ll say it a different way, kind of in that like communication piece. One of the one that has been most detrimental to people is when they’re working with somebody that they’re trusting as their expert and they know something’s not right, but that.

But they’re trusting that person. Mm-hmm. Or they’ve asked a question and the person’s like, no, it’s fine. But, and they know it’s not right, not, not really following their gut. Like, you know your business and you know your numbers, so, you know, you may not know your numbers, but you know your business and, and you have probably got a good gut if you’re building a business and you’re at a place where you could hire somebody.

So don’t let that expert. Override your gut on something not being right and just trust them and then make you like, okay, well they said it was fine. Like if, you know, like make sure you get comfortable with that answer. ’cause more than once we’ve, we’ve cleaned up books where we found huge issues. Like there was one, um, we were working with and her, her prior year numbers, which was what was filed on her taxes, were $68,000 over reported in income.

And it was a tax guy who was claiming to be a bookkeeper who didn’t. He clearly got probably too busy and in over his head and thought he cleaned it up, but it was, it was wrong and she knew it. She felt it, but could, but asked the question.

Michelle: She had to be like, uh, I’m sorry, I, there’s supposed to be another $68,000.

Are you saying I spent that somewhere? Yeah. How’s that? Not in my bank account. And he

Kelly: lost and it got overridden. And, um, so we found it when we cleaned up, we were working on the following year and I said, this is, I caught it ’cause I, of where the other side of it showed up and we were, we did fix it and she was able to go back and amend her returns.

But it was what she. She was so angry with that expert, but also so mad that like she’s like, I asked and I, but then got overridden and um, and then that lasted for a little while longer. And then she just was like, Nope, I gotta find somebody else. But that could have gone on for years. And then we had another one.

They were paying a lot of money. They were working with somebody that was supposed to be doing bookkeeping planning. Um. On taxes and they had over, they put a loan in as income, which was $30,000. And then they didn’t put in the loan fee, so their income was over by $30,000 and their expenses were under by 37, 50 3,750.

And they, they wouldn’t have known until we were looking for the loan, ’cause we could see that there was a loan and we were looking for it. And that’s how we found it in the following year. So I just, in both cases, they knew it wasn’t right. Got. Mansplained or something to them of like, Nope, it’s right, you’re wrong.

You don’t, we’re the experts. And then come to find out, they were, right now they did move on, but it was, you know, they could have probably done it quicker. But I guess too, kudos to them for moving on. ’cause they, again, they could have lasted years with that. Yeah. And they knew it wasn’t right and got help.

So I would say follow your gut. Like don’t, don’t give up your gut. Too easy. And get satisfied with the answer. It’s okay to ask the question over and over again until you’re satisfied with that answer. So that was just a thought that came to mind with, to me, those are the biggest risks. I mean, there’s always doing it yourself too long where it’s like you’re now spending more of your time.

That could be go going towards building your business when it’s, you could. Pay a bookkeeper less than what you could make in that time that you could spend building your business. So that’s like a tipping point for people. There comes a time where it just makes sense to have somebody else doing it for you.

So maybe holding onto ’em too long. Those are the two biggest, and well, okay, I’ll say one more. Um, like. Making yourself wrong, like in the very beginning. It’s okay if you just have a spreadsheet. It’s okay if you’re writing it down on a piece of paper, as long as you have some comfort with those numbers being right, and then allowing the sophistication of your business system to grow with the business.

I would say the thing that comes up a lot is people feel like they should be doing something different when maybe that’s totally appropriate for where they are. So it’s, I guess, balancing those things of like, not making yourself wrong for doing it kind of in a manual, maybe in a way in the beginning of your business.

And then it’s just knowing enough to know when it’s time to, to get somebody else in to help. And then when you have that expert, you don’t trust ’em. Keep questioning it.

Michelle: I’m so happy to hear that because I still use spreadsheets. Yeah, totally fine. I, they’re the most meticulous spreadsheets, and as we talked about earlier, I like spreadsheets, so I enjoy updating them every month.

I have been told so many times like, why don’t you just get QuickBooks? Yeah. I’m like. This information is right here. Yeah. And someday it really will be too much for me. Yeah,

Kelly: yeah.

Michelle: Um, but for where it is now, I’m like, you know, what am I buying for the office? Tissues and needles. Yeah.

Kelly: Right. I, I think as long as you can get comfort with that, that I would rather somebody keep it in a spreadsheet longer.

Knowing that they’ve got their finger on the pulse of their business, then go to QuickBooks. Mm-hmm. And feel like I, I liked it. I’ve had this said to me, I liked my spreadsheets, I understood that, and then I went into QuickBooks and it all felt like a different language to them. Right. And it actually was a disservice where, where a software comes in is when people have too many accounts where it gets harder.

You know, bring the information in. Yeah. Or they’re outsourcing it to somebody else where, um, you save on the data entry and there’s some efficiencies you get with the software. The other thing that can happen with that is when we’re in a software, we’re getting everything. We’re making sure we’re getting all the interest expense or a bank fee.

Things that can be missed when we’re doing spreadsheets, but I think there’s nothing wrong with the spreadsheet until it’s no longer a fit.

Michelle: Right. Yeah. Yes. And then the, that day will come and then I’ll make a spreadsheet for something else. You go,

Kelly: then you go into analyzing the information you get. Yeah.

Making decisions off of that. Yeah.

Michelle: And I do wanna say that I, last year I tried to do my own taxes for my S corp, and that was just wild hubris on my part, thinking that that would be reasonable. And it took me. Easily nine hours. Yeah. It took me all day. Yeah. And it was, that’s so you start to think about the worst headache.

Yeah. I’ll never ever do that again. Yeah. I was like, well, I’ll save some money this year. Famous last words. How hard could it be? Oh my gosh. Yeah. That’s Nope, never. Never again. Yep. And so, I mean, you mentioned like at there becomes that tipping point. Yeah. Where the amount of time you’re spending and it’s not worth your time and you could be doing something else.

Yes and yes. That was a really good lesson for me, is

Kelly: I do not have to do everything and that’s okay. Learn that lesson and choose differently. Yeah. Yep. Yes, for sure.

Michelle: It was like torture. Well, thank you so much for being here. Um, thank you. I had a couple more questions for you. One is, is there anything else that you would share with people or you feel like you’ve, you’ve covered everything.

Pearls of wisdom to put you on the spot? I know you’ve shared quite a bit already.

Kelly: I think just that like. I know I’ve mentioned energy and like, you know, how we feel about our money, and that’s important too, like don’t let that get overridden either. Mm. Um, there is a black and white part to money, right?

There’s numbers on a page. But how we feel about it, how we, um, how confident it makes us in our business, or lack of confidence. Um. That all matters in our business. So I think that that’s really important and that alone can be something that keeps people from growing their business, kind of like the Boulder I was talking about.

Hmm. So, I, I really encourage people like, don’t, don’t dismiss your energy and your relationship with that, with money. And then if I can shamelessly plug, we have a Facebook group called the Prosperous and Profitable Conscious Entrepreneurs. So that’s a place Very nice. You know, we’re on Instagram and other places, but that’s a place where I like to hang out and kind of get to know people and, you know, really create a community over there.

Um, so I’d love to have people come hang out with us over there.

Michelle: Super. Can you say it again and we’ll link to it in the show notes? Prosperous and profitable conscious entrepreneurs. Perfect.

Kelly: Facebook group.

Michelle: Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. So then my second question for you is, what is your definition of success?

Kelly: I think that’s a tough one. Um, yeah. I, I think it is so personal. It’s what it, what? What works for us in our lives. So there’s no dollar amount specifically, there’s no, um, there’s no one thing. But it’s like, are we creating a life that works for us that while may not create balance, ’cause I don’t believe in balance in our life, but leads to happiness, um, and allows us to express ourselves in a way that we like to express ourselves, show up for ourselves, for our family, and, um, for our businesses in a way that feels really good.

So I think it’s very personal and I think, again, the biggest. And like, I guess talking about errors, the biggest thing I think people mistake people can make with that is let somebody else’s version of success be what they’re defining themselves. Because that doesn’t matter, you know, if you’re hitting your goals and, and hitting the things that matter to you, then you’re successful.

Um, and I think it’s really important to check in on those and pick those goals that are important to you and not. Do the comparisonitis or anything else that can lead to dissatisfaction when you could be very satisfied with what you’ve created for yourself.

Michelle: Hmm. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for being here.

Uh, would you mind sharing where people can find you online, how they can get in touch with you? Yeah. All that?

Kelly: Yeah. So we’re on Instagram. It’s at Terra Care Financial. We’re on that prosperous and profitable conscious entrepreneurs on Facebook. Our website is terra care financial.com and the quiz is out there, care care financial.com/sma.

But I hope we’ll link to that too.

Michelle: Oh yes, for sure.

Kelly: Yeah.

Michelle: And if I recall from stalking your website, I think people can also book a free 30 minute call. Yes. Um, if they wanted to work with you. Okay. Yeah. Gotcha. For sure. We’ll put all the buttons, all the links on there.

Kelly: Thank you so much.

Michelle: Yeah. Thank you for being here.

Kelly: It was my pleasure.

Michelle: If you enjoyed today’s episode, I’d love it if you could take a quick screenshot while you’re listening and share it on your Instagram story. And don’t forget to tag me at Michelle Grassic so I can see it and share it back. This helps other acupuncturists and wellness professionals find the show, and together we can grow our community support one another, and help more practitioners succeed.

Thanks so much for being here. I’ll catch you next time.