BIRD WILLIAMS: You’re listening to Bird Means Business Episode 2.

Hi there! Today we’re starting something special. It's a 3-part mini-series on the top three lessons I've learned from owning my very first business. So if you don't know my husband and I own a warehouse gym in Houston, Texas called The League. I always joke that it's my first baby. I have two little human children. But The League was my first business baby. And this year The League turned six. This is particularly special because most small businesses fail within the first five years. And you know what, to be honest, it has been a wild, but really fun ride. So I want to share with you the top three lessons I've learned while owning the League, which I know will be helpful to you. I'll share one lesson with you over each of the next three episodes. So here we go. 

Lesson number one, take time to secure your money team. I call them your money team because they can make or break your money. And I know that sounds a little cheesy but it is real. The time and money and energy you will spend if you don't get this part right could be crucial in the staying power of your business. I'm talking particularly about your attorney and your accountant. From the outset, you need to hire your money team based on who will mesh well with you in your business culture, and who understands your long-term vision. What I'm saying is, this should not be your friend or cousin, unless they have a legit business and you are a legit paying client.

So before we jump in, today's episode is sponsored by our very own accountant, Alby Abraham. Y'all, this man saved us so much heartache and dollars wasted. When we came to him, it wasn't the prettiest picture. I mean it wasn't terrible, but we had a lot of things unorganized and had made a lot of mistakes when it came to how we did our taxes and all of that, the bookkeeping and everything. And he cleaned it up for us and I am forever grateful. And, you know, he was the fourth accountant we worked with. So, it took us a long time to kind of find someone who really works. And I can tell Alby and his team are amazing. If you go to birdwilliams.com/alby, you'll get all of his contact information, and you'll see the offer he has, which is if you mention ‘Bird Williams’, when you book with him, you'll get a free first consultation. So again, that's birdwilliams.com/alby to get all of his contact information and to book your first free consultation when you give him the code ‘Bird Williams’. 

I'm telling you this is not something you want to wait until you start things or you kind of figured some other parts of your business out. You want to make sure that from the very beginning, learn from me, from the very beginning, you have someone on your team who understands your long term goals, and is going to be able to help you shape how you structure your business, how you do your bookkeeping, how you're classified with the IRS, from the very beginning so that you don't have to make a whole bunch of mistakes and then figure it out later like we did. So once again is birdwilliams.com/alby. You'll be able to go there, see all of his contact information and then when you book, make sure to mention ‘Bird Williams’ to get your first free consultation. Alby is stationed here in Houston, but he works with anyone in the US, so don't feel like if you're not here in Houston, you can’t get his services. He's able to help you as well. 

Okay, so back to lesson number one, take time to secure your money team. I'm going to tell you a story of what we did, and I'm going to tell you how I would do it differently knowing what I know now. So I talked a little bit about our journey with our accountant, I'm going to give you the story of our attorney, our lawyer. So, you know, Terry and I, we get this idea of launching a gym. It was something he always wanted to do, and he didn't think it would be until like years from now. And I kind of built this business model and I was like, “Hey, this is what it is. It's gonna be great. Let's do it now.” And he was like, “Let's do it.” And we felt really good about our business model and we needed to raise capital for our business. So we started approaching angel investors, which are friends and family. And y'all, that was a roller coaster ride, another story for another day. Honestly, that will have to be an episode too, because, yeah, it was fun. And so it came time for us to get these contracts signed, our contracts with our investors, and also our business formation documents like our LLC paperwork and our operating agreement. And you know it was kind of a high-pressure situation at this point because things were moving very fast. And see that's one of the things about entrepreneurship. It’s like in the beginning, it's usually like you're doing all of the things. Oh my goodness. I'll get into that in one of the other lessons, later on in the mini-series. But there are just a lot of moving parts that you're trying to manage, and it's not like when you work a nine to five job where you have this one piece of the pie, you have this one specific role. No, you were doing everything. And so it can be really overwhelming and we hadn't thought of this idea of needing a money team or that we really need to build a relationship with a lawyer. We were kind of just winging it. 

So what we did is, we said okay we got to get these documents signed. We've got to find these documents. So we were just texting, friends. We were like scrambling. “Does anyone know a small business attorney?” And we found this guy, and we had to kind of just go with him. And this guy was really nice. He was great. But, y'all. When he told me that he charged $400 per hour I almost peed my pants. And you know I know now that that may be a standard rate for an attorney. But then, I mean, I was appalled and I hadn't really planned on it. I hadn't really planned on having that expense so early on. But again, my hands were tied, so I kind of just went with it. I remember telling him something like, “Do you know the exact number of hours that this is going to take?” Because I was afraid that if he came back with like 10 hours, we were not going to be able to pay him. But anyway, he does all the work. And we get the documents, and we're just, okay we can keep moving forward. Let's keep going. Now fast forward a few months and guess what lands in our lap, a lease agreement for the warehouse space that we were so excitedly trying to find. We had gone to all these different places to find the best space for our gym, and we finally landed something. And we have this lease agreement, and it was pages long. And y'all know what my first thought was. I was like, there's no way we're going back to this man with this long document, and he's gonna spend hours working through it, and I'm just gonna review this bad boy myself.

Side note, and I really need you to hear me when I say this. It is not advised that you review any of your contracts yourself. Like, I loved my business law class in college, and I low-key wanted to go to law school at one point. I kind of geek out over contracts. But please hear me when I say do not do this. And do not have a friend do it. No. That will only be a short-term solution anyway. You're going to eventually need an attorney, again and again, so it's best to find someone who will grow with your business. So, this whole process kind of kept happening. We'd work with an attorney and kind of get what we needed together and then we'd wait. A few months would go by and then we would need an attorney again and we'd kind of have to re-explain our story and what we were trying to do and on and on. That is not the way it should work. 

So let me explain how I would do this differently. If I were you at the very beginning of my process, once I had a really good, I should say a pretty good, solid layout of a business plan. Because side note, that is an important first step. When you meet this attorney, they should ask you questions about what you're trying to do. And if you haven't worked through the steps of a business plan, you won't sound very knowledgeable, and you might think, well, I'll do a business plan later. But then what will happen and what happens when you go through the business planning process is, you're kind of proving your business model to yourself. So, things could change. So let's say you get an attorney and you tell them this is what we have going on with the business. This is what I think we'll need based on what we're going to be offering. And then later on you go into a business plan, and you realize, wait, we should really change that because that doesn't really make sense when I think about our purpose and so on and so forth. And so then, now you're going to have to go back to that attorney and change language, potentially, and you don't want to have to do that. It's better to just start with a business plan. But that's another story for another day. 

So after I had a pretty solid business plan, and hear me I don't mean it needs to be perfect. I don't want you to get held up here. I don't want you to stop everything else until your business plan is perfect, but you want to have a pretty good idea. Once that's drafted, I would go start interviewing my money team. Meaning, I would make the space and time, and energy to vet these very crucial members of my team. So I would sit down with an attorney, several attorneys, several accountants, and I would tell them this is what I'm doing, these are my goals, these are my needs. And I would see how they responded to what I said and what they said they could offer. 

Okay, so these are the type of things you want to look out for when you're in these meetings, these interviews. Number one, how quickly do they talk about money? There's nothing wrong with that. They obviously need to get paid and that's important. But is the whole conversation centered around this idea? Is that what they're kind of jumping to? Might be a little bit of a red flag. 

Number two is how many questions do they ask you about your business? Do they seem engaged and interested or would you just be like another client? I want to work with an attorney who kind of gets excited about what I'm doing. And then lastly, how much value do they give you during this time? It can be weird sometimes in those kinds of consultation interview meetings where you know you can kind of tell if someone's not really trying to answer your questions because they're waiting for you to be a client. I don't know. For me, generosity is so important. So, I always look out for, like, are they open? Are they trying to help me or is it just all about them? 

All in all, I'd make a proactive decision rather than a reactive decision. Don't wait until you need the contract reviewed this Friday. Don't wait until you're in the heat of a launch and things are just speeding by you and you have to kind of make a rash decision. Right now, while you're still working your nine to five, you can do some groundwork so that you're ready to go when the time comes. 

I had the same story with our accountant. We went through four different accountants before we finally landed on someone that really vibed well with us. But man, had I found Alby in 2013, I would have saved tens of thousands of dollars. I mean, it kind of hurts my heart, even just saying that. But look, you don't have to make the same mistakes as me. Make the choice now to make that an important piece of your process early on. 

So there it is lesson number one. As you start laying the foundation for your business, consider your money team. They're just as important as your marketing strategy or your website or your logo, etc. So this is what I want you to do. Whether you're still in the planning stage, or if you have a launch date set, or you might even be like us, you might have had a business for a few years. Take some time, invest in your money team. Don't skimp on that part. And I promise you will thank me. 

All right. So, I'd love for you to leave me a review on Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes), and to subscribe to Bird Means Business so that you're able to get all of the episodes. Also next week we're going to continue our 3-part mini-series with lesson number two, “How Every Client is Not Actually a Good Client.” Yikes. Talk to you next week.