Podcast
Unf*ck Your Biz With Braden
Hosted by Braden Drake · EN
On the podcast, we breakdown all the legal, tax, and money related stuff you need to be getting done in your small business.
20episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
368 - Big Business Changes Coming
Dec 19, 202400:28:11Tap to summarizeOn today's episode of the podcast, we're talking about big business changes that are coming based on what has and has not worked for us this year. One question I ask myself and continue to ask yourself is, "What can I do less of next year in order to spend more of time on what's working best? What's making the most impact and how can we do more of that?" Between multiple memberships, courses, social media channels, blog posts, podcasts, guest speaking, summits, bundles, stage speaking, I've been pulled in a lot of directions, especially as our business keeps growing which is fantastic, but comes with push pull. When you say yes to one thing, you say no to something else. I've seen areas of growth, I've seen areas of decline, and I'm sharing today how that's impacting what we're doing in 2025. What's working for us: 1. The Contract Club 2. Speaking 3. Affiliates What's Kind of Working1. Threads (Great for business connections, not as much for sales)2. Our quiz funnel (People are going through it, need to look more into conversion data)3. Our blogs (They're a resource, the SEO could be better, I'm not putting more resources into this) What's not working1. Instagram, especially stories 2. Facebook group, engagement is down3.Too many offers, too much we're trying to do What I'm not sure about1. This podcast Our 2025 Core Offer Suite1. Contract Club2. Compliance Club3. Unf*ck Your Biz4.Alumni offers for Unf*ck Your Biz students What we're doubling down on in 20251. Affiliates (if you aren't already an affiliate, you can become one at notavglaw.com/affiliate)2. Strategic partnerships/guest speaking in programs3.Core offer suite4 Stage speaking/podcast guesting 5. Threads and Instagram6. Quiz funnelWhat's getting the cut1. New offers, instead focusing on different launch strategies2. Growing my business TikTok audience3. Reddit4. Our Facebook group - I started this in 2018/2019. I started it as a list builder and as a way to cross promote my offers in the group. The group is now mainly people who are/have been students or bought a program and has mainly turned to a place where they are getting support for the programs they've purchased. Providing this community can be done within our offers in Kajabi. And most of the questions I get on Facebook already are not community-answer questions, they're questions for me and my team. 5. This podcast - I feel uncomfortable talking about this because I really don't know if it's doing much for us from a business perspective in relation to the effort and with the time saved not planning and recording podcasts, I can nurture other areas of our business, like our offers, so that people naturally want to share them and affiliate market. I've found that the podcast is very cyclical, people come for what they need to get answers for where they are in business. Do I talk about the same topics year after year so do I re-record that same episode about LLCs or direct you to a pre-recorded one? I'm not ready to make a decision on the podcast right now and have decided the best thing to do is to take a 3-ish week hiatus to spend time with family for the holidays and think about the future of the podcast. I'll be back in January with an announcement of what will be coming next. Thank you so much for tuning in! I appreciate you all more than you know. I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a DM on Instagram @notavglaw
Transcribe →367 - November Profit Report
Dec 12, 202400:40:12Tap to summarizeOn today's episode of the podcast I'm sharing Are you ready to unf*ck your biz? The doors are now open to our signature program, Unf*ck Your Biz, where we go through our six-part framework to get your legal and tax shit legit through our video course with group coaching support through weekly calls and a group Slack channel. You get access to our bookkeeping spreadsheet, quarterly tax estimator, contractor classification guides by state, our state-by-state business blueprints and so much more. The doors close on Monday, December 16th. Learn more at unfuckyourbiz.com November was an exciting month, we experimented with new strategies to lead up to the launch so we'll dive into the report but before we do, you can grab your free copy of How to Conduct a Profit Report for Your Business at www.notavglaw.com/355 to follow along with my step-by-step process and run your own profit report. November Projections vs. Actual • Monthly Clients: $8,500 → $8,900• UYB: $0 → $0 (Doors were not open in November)• Compliance Club: $13,000 → $21,000 • Contract Club: $7,500 → $13,850 (We did a promotion before we increased the price and it closed December 2nd and we had over $15k those last two days so more will be reflected in our December report)• Trademarks: $2,500 → $6,750• Other: $2.500 → $1,500 Total revenue: $33,500 → $52,000 (A record revenue month for me) Profit Total revenue: $52,000Cost of Goods: $227 (printing my books)Expenses: $22,678Profit: $29,000Owner's salary: $5,300 Total business profit: $23,708 Notable Expenses • Employee wages: $8,500 (Pretty high, but I had two team members with me at Wedding MBA clocking extra hours at our booth)• Contractors: $4,000 This brings my team expenses to $12,500 • Monthly tools: $1,900 (Higher than usual, but I have an annual payment of $1,500 for Kajabi)• Affiliate payments: $380 • Marketing: $800• Hotels: $1,600• Trademark client fees: $1,900 How am I feeling about the numbers? Prior to November I was not feeling great, we had a pretty bad spring and summer. But November slingshot us over our adjusted goal of $270,000 good goal. We got to $280,000 and with our UYB launch in December, I know we'll be able to hit my adjusted best goal of $300,000 for 2024. This was a big profit month, but we know I love transparency, so a lot of this is actually going to loan repayments. In October I took out a $15,000 Stripe loan to help get out of the hole of the summer and run payroll and make investments into our November launch. We went from our Compliance Club launch to Contract Club launch to Unf*ck Your Biz launch. We did our workshops to launch UYB as a paid workshop because there was more content in it than past years but anyone who had the Compliance Club, Contract Club or came by my booth at Wedding MBA had the opportunity to register for free so we had about 700 registrants between our two workshops. Compliance Club Debrief We offered a few price points - $10/month or $180 for lifetime membership to this monthly compliance newsletter, private podcast and additional compliance resources. I started the lifetime membership at $250 and offered it first to the 19 people on our Compliance Club waitlist but even as warm, interested leads, 8 people opted into monthly instead of the lifetime deal. I lowered the price to $180 as I found that interest in a lifetime deals is best when the price of lifetime is just under the cost of 2 years so people would price anchor that at $240 and psychologically under $200 is more attractive. Once I lowered the price, 70 of the next 92 people who joined were lifetime. I capped lifetime at 100 members and we had 101, one person snuck in as I was toggling it off. I then changed lifetime to annual and made it $90. The Compliance Club is not currently open, but you can get on the waitlist at notavglaw.com/compliance. The Compliance Club is also a temporary upsell on paid offers like the Contract Club. Total revenue: $20,800• Lifetime: 101 sales• Annual: 22 sales• Monthly: ~80 sales Our launch goal was 50 monthly sales and 50 lifetime with a stretch goal of 100 lifetime sales. We surpassed those goals. Wedding MBA Debrief • 40 book sales• 35 Compliance Club lifetime memberships• ~40 Contract Club sales Current Project Plans • Wrap up Unf*ck Your Biz launch• Move into our Quiet Weeks • Run our clubs and programs to a higher level in 2025 • Doing less to do more in our business in 2025 (I'll dive into this on next week's episode) Key Performance Indicators • Bumps across the board on everything as a result of promotions• Instagram: +80 new followers• Facebook group: +50 new members • TikTok: -4 followers • Website: 40,000 unique visitors (about quadruple what we see in a normal month)• Quiz starts: 107 starts, 68 finishes • Email subscribers: Went up a bit despite higher unsubscribes due to promotion• Podcast downloads : down December Projections • Monthly Clients: $8,500• Contract Club: $22,200 (we did $18k in sales at the end of our Contract Club promo that fell on December 1st and 2nd) • UYB: $35,625 (15 full pay, 25 on monthly payments) I think we'll be a bit below this goal of 40 students based on current data, but we will see) • Trademarks: $5,000• Other: $2,000 Total: $70,875YTD Revenue • On track to finish around $330k which would be very exciting considering, especially how the first half of the year went after my mom was put on hospice and passed away. If you're dealing with anything in your personal life that's going to make this holiday season or next year rough, remember that you can always circle back to your business goals and take a break for your mental health or to spend time with family. I've been there and many of us have all been there. Keep that in mind as you do your own goal planning and figure out how you're going to make it through. Business is a roller coaster and we can do our best to make it look like a kiddie roller coaster, but there are always hills and valleys and we are here to support your legal and tax goals. If you enjoyed today's episode, share it with your biz besties and tag us on Instagram and Threads @notAVGlaw
Transcribe →BONUS: You're Invited to an Open House + Unf*ck Your Biz is Now Open
Dec 9, 202400:11:23Tap to summarizeOn this bonus episode of the podcast, I'm inviting you to my open house on December 12th and sharing all the details about how to join Unf*ck Your Biz before the doors close. If you've been wanting to get your legal and tax shit legit to start 2025 off feeling secure in your business protection, now's the time to join! The doors are now open for our signature program, Unf*ck Your Biz. Learn more at notavglaw.com/uyb Doors close on Monday, December 16th. Have legal and tax questions? Considering joining Unf*ck Your Biz but aren't sure if it's a good fit? Stop by our open house on Thursday, December 12th at 10:00am PST/1:00pm EST and we can chat, get your questions answered, and go through a run-through of the program. Sign up at notavglaw.com/openhouse To learn more about the Unf*ck Your Biz program, check out today's episode or visit the website where we cover what's included and the framework of our 10-week, high-touch group program. Get all the details at notavglaw.com/uyb The Unf*ck Your Biz Framework 1. Account - Update your books, learn how to create and analyze a profit and loss statement. 2. Tax -Learn how taxes work, what you need to pay, how to calculate your quarterly tax percentage and how to save. 3. Unf*ck - Complete any back tax strategy, fix any business entity errors, and determine worker classifications.4. Layer - Update contracts and business insurance and obtain trademark searches. 5. Form - Learn how business entities work and form or update your LLC, S Corp or Corp. 6. Flow - Learn how to pay yourself and complete your cash flow policy. We'll go through the framework, with implementation weeks built in so you can get the unf*ckening done with the help of the course, weekly group coaching calls and a group Slack channel.
Transcribe →366 - Why You Need to Own the Role of CEO of Your Business
Dec 5, 202400:15:02Tap to summarizeOn today's episode of the podcast we're talking about the importance of leaning into the CEO role of your business. The doors are officially open to Unf*ck Your Biz: Your step-by-step framework to get your legal and tax shit legit. The program will help you get your 2024 taxes and bookkeeping wrapped up, make sure your business entity is properly formed going into 2025, getting your legal protections in order including contracts and trademarks and more. It's our signature program that's only available a few times a year and you can join now until December 16th at notavglaw.com/uyb. To announce the launch of Unf*ck Your Biz, I hosted two workshops today to help you at your stage of business. If you missed our workshops, check them out at notavglaw.com/masterclass Legally Launched: The Absolute Legal and Tax Essentials for New Business Owners The 6 Figure Tax Blueprint: The Roadmap to Money in Your Pocket At and Beyond Six Figures When you run a business, it's important to have an understanding of everything that goes on in your business. CEO may stand for Chief Executive Officer, but I often say it also stands for Chief Everything Officer, which is very accurate as a small business owner, especially before we hire anyone. As CEO, we need to know all the core aspects of business. Would a CEO ever get handed a P&L statement from the accounting team and not know how to read it? They have to have basic knowledge because they can't make business decisions if they don't know the numbers. As CEO, it's important to consider that you're building a business as an asset that's ideally going to provide you, family members, team members, etc. a livable income. You may also decide you want to sell your business one day, even if that doesn't seem possible or of interest right now. What legal structures do you need in order for this to happen? You need layers of legal protection to protect your business. These are the foundations we grow our business on. Even if you hire other professionals to manage things bookkeeping or tax strategy, you need to know enough to have savvy conversations with them. When do you go to your lawyer and ask for a new trademark? When do you need to tell your accountant about changes to your business or your personal life that may impact your taxes? No one is keeping track of your business 24/7, you need to proactively be talking to your professionals in order for them to be able to help you. If you want to put on your CEO hat, check out Unf*ck Your Biz at notavglaw.com/uyb
Transcribe →365 - Debunking the Legal and Tax Advice You See on Social Media
Nov 28, 202400:33:22Tap to summarizeOn today's episode of the podcast I'm talking about terrible advice I see on the internet and how to avoid it. Next Thursday, December 5th, I'm hosting two workshops - "Legally Launched" and "6-Figure Tax Blueprint," tailored to your needs as a business owner. You'll leave with the core takeaways you need to take action after the workshop. Learn more about which one is right for you and register for the workshop(s) at notavglaw.com/masterclassI'm only sharing 10 of the terrible pieces of advice I often see on the Internet, but I could have made this a multi-part episode. 1. Don't form an LLC until you hit $30,000 in revenue. - I hear lots of mythical revenue markers but there's no magic number because LLCs provide liability protection at any revenue. The more money you make, the more liability you're likely open to because you're more working with more clients which can lead to more problems. The longer you wait the more hassle it is to form an LLC. 2. Form an S Corp right away. - When you form an S Corp you are legally required to put yourself on payroll, pay yourself a reasonable recurring salary, and have profit leftover in your business which you can't do if you aren't making money when you start right away. We'll dive into this deeper on the 6-Figure Tax Blueprint workshop. 3. Just use LegalZoom. - I'm not a huge fan for many reasons including lack of added benefits. They ask you questions to fill out a form you can fill out for free yourself online. They charge you to get an EIN when you get your EIN for free on the IRS website. 4. Just do it yourself. - If you scroll through social media I frequently see people say "use LegalZoom" or "do it yourself" or "go work with a lawyer." I suggest somewhere in-between. The problem with doing it yourself is we've seen clients who did it incorrectly. Once you file, you need to maintain your LLC compliance requirements including back franchise taxes. I believe in a well-rounded approach of doing it yourself, with guidance which is why I started creating courses. 5. You don't need trademarks. - This is kind of like telling someone you don't need health insurance. You hope you'll never need to enforce it, but if you need to use it and don't have it, it's a problem. 6. Trademark everything. - It depends on who you are as a business owner and what you're launching. 7. Don't trust templates. - The person who writes the contract template understands your industry, your business, and these templates are typically based on contracts they've custom written for clients. 8. You don't need to do that. - This can refer to a lot of things, but I see it often with things like BOI (Beneficial Information Ownership reports), testimonial requirements, website compliance, etc. Too often people think these laws are for big corporations like Amazon or Target and not small businesses like us, but we see it happen to small businesses all the time. 9. Just write it off. - Not everything is a tax deduction! You need to be using it for business. And writing it off doesn't make it free. Focus on buying things that have a high ROI. 10. You can pay $0 in taxes. - Not every strategy is helpful, even if it's not fraudulent. You may end up owing more in the long run and all tips don't apply to all businesses. Register for our December 5th workshop(s) at notavglaw.com/masterclass
Transcribe →BONUS - Why the Contract Club Price is Going Up
Nov 25, 202400:21:46Tap to summarizeOn today's bonus episode I'm sharing the why behind our decision to raise the price of the Contract Club, how you can get it before the price goes up, and, of course, I tell you all the revenue and profit numbers that went into this decision. Join the Club: www.notavglaw.com/club (Price goes up Tuesday, December 3rd) History of the Club - Launched January 2022, originally called the Contract Vault. Prior to this I had a Contract Template Shop that wasn't very profitable and frankly, a pain in the ass. - Did almost 1,000 sales in the first year- 2023: Started our affiliate program- 2023: Sold more passively and did about half as many sales as we did in 2022. $17,280 in revenue, averaging 48 sales/month (Compared to 80/month average for 2022)- End of 2023: Released our Contract Bot, a $70 upsell to the Contract Club that generates your contract for you from our templates - May 2024: Offered 100% affiliate commissions on Contract Club sales (meant we were losing money on processing fees). We had 248 sales and 30 Contract Bot sales. - June: Contract Club price went up to $50, Contract Bot price went down to $50. - June - early November 2024: Contract Club brought in $10,300, averaging 37 sales/month. Bot conversions went up from 10% to nearly 30% Our 2024 projected Contract Club revenue (assuming we have ~200 Contract Club sales this month as part of our pre-price increase promotion plus 60 bot sales): $41,520 Year-to-Year Sales Breakdown: 2022: 964 sales, $28,940 revenue2023: 576 sales, $17,2802024: 741 sales, $41,520 Why Increase the Price? I'm frequently asked why the price is so low (a flat $50 for all the contract templates you need) and the answer is because up until now we've been treating the Contract Club primarily as a lead generator. It brings us in the majority of our leads who bring us in additional revenue from higher ticket offers. I didn't get a lot of drop-off from the $30 to $50 so I figured we could up it some more since sometimes people tell us they didn't buy it because it was so low and it seemed too good to be true. I got this idea from the Kajabi conference this year and the message hit me at the right time. The message I took away this year was "make the main thing the main thing and do less in business." It really resonated and to me, "less" means just really focusing on the things that are already working. The price is going to become $200. I can justify a higher level of service to the Contract Club members, running more ads, divide our attention across less projects, and elsewhere, many people sell one singular contract template for $200 or more and you can get all your templates from us for $200 ($50 through December 3rd). Love the Contract Club? Become an affiliate and get paid to refer the club at www.notavglaw.com/affiliate
Transcribe →364 - The Finance Formula You Need
Nov 21, 202400:29:34Tap to summarizeOn today's episode of the podcast I'm sharing my finance formula and how to make it work for your personal financial plans. The Finance Formula is a bonus resource included in our Unf*ck Your Biz alumni membership. I am a very big advocate of people fixing their business before they dive too deep into personal finances so even if you're not a Finance Formula member, you can still learn a lot from this episode on how to implement this to improve your personal finances. It's hard to strategize how much money to put away for emergency savings or retirement if you don't know how much you're actually making. We need to know our income, revenue, business expenses, profit, tax rate and how much we should be putting away to pay the IRS quarterly. If your business is not really fucked up and you don't think you need this, I would challenge you on that because there probably are some things we need to fix. To get the most out of the Finance Formula, we need to start with our money mindset- Ask yourself questions like "What are some of your beliefs about money?"- Read a money mindset book or two (I recommend Denise Duffield Thomas)- Get as little or as much woo-woo as you want with itLearn the bare bones basics about retirement and get up-to-date on retirement plans. 1. Take advantage of 401k match if it is available to you or your spouse through an employment role2. Max out a Roth IRA3. Max out 401k if you have one4. Look into self-employed retirement options Tackle debt- I have a lot of feelings on Dave Ramsey, but his most popular teaching is his debt snowball method to help you pay off your debts from smallest to largest by making minimum payments on all your accounts. - What Dave Ramsey is missing is nuance, customization to our own individual needs, and that's where the Finance Formula comes in. The best way to look at this is with a hypothetical. Let's say you have four goals: - Build an emergency fund of $3,000- Pay your quarterly business taxes- Start a retirement account- Pay down, let's say, $3,000 in consumer debt What order do you prioritize them? How would this change if your consumer debt was a lot higher, like $50,000? There's not really a right and a wrong answer, it's personal for everyone based on so many factors like how old you are, how long you have until you want to retire, what your income looks like, etc. It's important to get the wheels turning so we can focus on our own individual goals. For more personalized examples of what your Finance Formula might look like, check out today's episode.
Transcribe →363 - Stevie Dee Photography Interview
Nov 14, 202400:41:25Tap to summarizeOn today's episode of the podcast I talk with Stevie Dee about the AB5 law, its impact on her business, and how it effects all of us. Get in Touch with Our Guest Stevie Dee Photography Check out their website www.steviedeephotography.com
Transcribe →362 - October Profit Report
Nov 7, 202400:27:29Tap to summarizeOn today's episode of the podcast I'm taking you through my October revenue, expenses, profit and goals. I'm using my downloadable guide, How To Conduct a Profit Report for Your Business, to record this episode. Get your free copy of How to Conduct a Profit Report for Your Business at www.notavglaw.com/355 and listen to episode 355 to hear me break down step-by-step how I structure my own profit reports. October Projections vs. Actual • Monthly Clients: $9,250 → $10,220• UYB: $750 → $1,625 • Contract Club: $1,200 → $3,300• 1:1 Services: $2,500 → $5,050• Other: $4,000 → $2,100 Total revenue: $17,500 → $23,735 Profit Total revenue: $23,735Cost of Goods: $65 (printing my books)Expenses: $25,245Profit: - $1,500Owner's salary: $5,300 Total profit: -$6,800 While this is not great, I was prepared for the expenses to be high. I went to the Kajabi conference in Los Angeles and the hotel alone was $1,600. I booked hotel rooms for Wedding MBA and I had a team member forget to clock out so I paid them double as much (not a big deal, that will get remedied next pay period). Notable Expenses • Employee wages: ~$9,000• Contractors: $4,500 This brings my team expenses to $13,000 • Affiliate payments: $4,000 (This was high because we paid out some lagging affiliate payments)• Marketing: Higher than average due to conference planning Annual Goal Review • Annual revenue: $300k. We're roughly on target but need to have a pretty big November and December• Profit: 20% margins. I used to have a goal of 50% but I'm spending a lot more now on team expenses. Current Project Plans • Alumni membership launch for Unf*ck Your Biz students • Wedding MBA• Contract Club price increase promotion• Contract Club affiliate promotion - Become an affiliate at notavglaw.com/affiliate• Big December Unf*ck Your Biz launch• Launch the Compliance Club (aka the Not AVG Newsletter) - Learn more at notavglaw.com/compliance Key Performance Indicators • On our social platforms we had about double the amount of followers we normally get due to meeting people at events. • Higher completion conversion of our quiz November Projections • Monthly Clients: $8,500• Compliance Club: $13,000 (100 members between monthly and life time) • UYB: $0 (payment plans will be wrapped up) • Contract Club: $7,500 (150 joining before the price increase) - This should shift to December because if Black Friday is the 29th, this won't hit our bank account until December. • 1:1 Services: $2,500• Other: $2,500 Total revenue: $33,500YTD Revenue • Exceeded October revenue goal by almost $7,000• Exceeded October 2023 revenue by almost $4,000• Annual goal of $300k revenue looks possible if we have a strong promo for the Compliance Club, but that we could at least pass last year's revenue of $270k Get your free copy of How to Conduct a Profit Report for Your Business at www.notavglaw.com/355 and listen to episode 355 to hear me break down step-by-step how I structure my own profit reports. If you If you enjoyed today's episode, share it with your biz besties and tag us on Instagram and Threads @notAVGlaw
Transcribe →361 - 2024 Compliance Update
Oct 31, 202400:15:56Tap to summarizeOn today's episode of the podcast we're giving you an update on what compliance tasks are new in 2024 that you are required to complete as a business owner. Get your website compliance resources when you join the Compliance Club at notavglaw.com/compliance As a small business owner, we have lots and lots of obligations that we have to meet in order to stay compliant in our business. We call this our foundational layer of protection to keep our businesses legally legit and out of trouble. It's the most important thing and compliance basically just means complying with laws and obligations that we have. Keeping up with everything can seem like an impossible tasks as a small business owner, especially if you're a solopreneur. That's really why we're rolling out the newsletter so that we can set up alerts on all of the legal platforms that we're involved with. In this episode, we're going to do a little bit of a recap on some of the things that have updated this year and some of the things that you could expect that we would talk about in the newsletter once you become a member. 2024 compliance examples that we break down on today's podcast episode include: 1. Beneficial Ownership Information Report, or BOI 2. Unrealistic promises about AI powered services 3. Fake and unrealistic testimonials 4. Digital accessibility Check out today's episode and stay up-to-date on your legal compliance tasks by joining the Compliance Club at notavglaw.com/compliance
Transcribe →