From Essentials to Aspirations: Budgeting for Business Success | Ep. 297
In this empowering episode of Money Talk With Tiff, Tiffany Grant welcomes the dynamic Brieanna Lightfoot Smith to delve into the crucial topic of strategic spending for small business owners. As a seasoned entrepreneur, Brianna brings her insightful approach to making smart investments that fuel business growth without breaking the bank.
Brieanna kicks things off with a counterintuitive tip that will have you rethinking your startup strategy – hint: it involves your business website and what you really need to focus on instead. She then unveils her transformative framework that categorizes business expenses into essentials, opportunities, and aspirations, guiding you through financial commitment stages as your business evolves.
Whether you’re a product-based business owner eyeing inventory management or a content creator looking to upgrade your tech game, this episode is a treasure trove of wisdom for anyone aiming to make prudent financial decisions while chasing their business dreams.
Remember, it’s not just about spending money; it’s about investing where it counts. Let’s get to the money!
About Our Guest
Brieanna Lightfoot Smith believes a peaceful home and a purposeful brand can coexist. As a business owner, productivity coach, and systems strategist, she loves helping women, especially fellow moms, gain clarity and confidence. As someone who passed out in her car at 7 months pregnant, she’s extremely passionate about helping people create a life they love without burning out in the process. You can connect with Brieanna on her website at brandsbybrie.com.
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Instagram: @blightfootsmith
B. Light Podcast: http://brandsbybrie.com
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Transcript
Intro/Outro: You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk
money with your money nerd and financial coach.
Speaker:Now tighten those purse strings and open those ears.
Speaker:It's the money talk with tiff. podcast.
Hey, everyone. I am so excited because I have
Tiffany Grant:Brianna Lightfoot Smith on the line now. Brianna is here to talk
Tiffany Grant:to us about something that's really interesting and something
that small business owners or aspiring business
Tiffany Grant:owners kind of struggle with at times, and that's making sure
Tiffany Grant:that you spend your money on the right investments, so
making sure that you're purchasing things that have
Tiffany Grant:some lifeline to it and not just throwing money in the
Tiffany Grant:wind. So, hey, Brianna, how are you?
Brieanna Lightfoot-Smith: Hey, Tiffany, how are you? Thank you so much for
Tiffany Grant:having me.
Tiffany Grant:Yes, my pleasure. So let's just hop right
in. First and foremost, let's just talk about
Tiffany Grant:some of the things that business owners spend on
Tiffany Grant:when they first get started, that you're like,
no.
Tiffany Grant:Brieanna Lightfoot-Smith: Yes. I tell people it's
Tiffany Grant:ironic because,
when I first started my company, I was doing
Tiffany Grant:website development and I was also
Tiffany Grant:doing social media management. And I think
that something that's so ironic is now
Tiffany Grant:I tell people, I'm like, hey, you don't need a business
Tiffany Grant:website to get started. You just need a way
to, accept payments from people, and you need to
Tiffany Grant:be able to track the people that are coming
Tiffany Grant:in so that you're able to manage those leads. Right.
So I'm like, okay, you can really get started with something like
Tiffany Grant:acuity. You can get started with just PayPal
Tiffany Grant:invoicing. the reason I say that is
because after having worked with
Tiffany Grant:dozens, if not hundreds of small businesses, what I
Tiffany Grant:saw was that a lot of times people would hire me
to develop their websites, right? And
Tiffany Grant:then their business model would change. They
Tiffany Grant:would do maybe an accelerator program
where they were able to get more clarity around their ideal
Tiffany Grant:customer, or they would do,
Tiffany Grant:kind of an intensive. Maybe they work with a
coach. especially in New Orleans when I was,
Tiffany Grant:working with small businesses, a lot of them would participate in
Tiffany Grant:these incubators. And by the end of the program,
whether it be eight weeks or twelve weeks, their
Tiffany Grant:business model had completely shifted. But they already
Tiffany Grant:invested this money into
a website that talked about this offer that they no
Tiffany Grant:longer have. So I really believe
Tiffany Grant:that, your website is so
essential when you get to a point where you know
Tiffany Grant:for sure what it is that you offer. But if you're
Tiffany Grant:just kind of experimenting with some things,
save your money in the beginning, get clear on what your
Tiffany Grant:offer is, and in the meantime, in between
Tiffany Grant:time, use things like payPal invoicing, use
stripe, use calendar, schedulers to
Tiffany Grant:be able to accept you.
Tiffany Grant:Gotcha. And that makes so much sense. And as
someone that loves to dabble in
Tiffany Grant:tech and spend way too much money
Tiffany Grant:in doing things and redoing things, I can
definitely resonate with that. There's so many
Tiffany Grant:half finished projects that I have out there that I
Tiffany Grant:was like, oh, I want to go this direction. And then, oh,
actually, never mind.
Tiffany Grant:Brieanna Lightfoot-Smith: right, domain names purchased for days and you're like,
Tiffany Grant:what was this one even for? I don't even remember.
Exactly. So let's go
Tiffany Grant:into your framework because I feel like it
Tiffany Grant:is, very important for these business owners
and aspiring business owners to kind of categorize these
Tiffany Grant:expenses in a way that will best benefit them.
Tiffany Grant:I love your approach, of let's get to the money first.
So when they're thinking about these expenses, how should
Tiffany Grant:they categorize them?
Tiffany Grant:Brieanna Lightfoot-Smith: Yes. So whenever I have a class
called building a business on a budget, right, because we've
Tiffany Grant:all been there, and especially if you're somebody
Tiffany Grant:who maybe you're married, right? And your spouse
is like you doing what with what you need to be
Tiffany Grant:able to say no. Okay, listen, it's not going to take a lot for us to get
Tiffany Grant:started. So I like to categorize things into
three categories. I like to share with my
Tiffany Grant:students that you should look at your business expenses
Tiffany Grant:as essential. You should look at
opportunities and then your aspirations, right? So
Tiffany Grant:your essential things are what do you need to actually
Tiffany Grant:be able to make money from this? sometimes that's going to
be tech, right? But it doesn't have to be expensive
Tiffany Grant:tech. We have computers as
Tiffany Grant:phones, right? So people who are even saying, oh, I want
to start a YouTube channel, baby, let's get consistent with your
Tiffany Grant:phone first. Before you say I need the latest
Tiffany Grant:Nikon or I need the latest canon, this is really going
to be the thing that makes my content top tier
Tiffany Grant:because you want to be able to get consistent first.
Tiffany Grant:Then when it comes to your opportunities, as
you're starting to gain that traction, that's where you might say,
Tiffany Grant:okay, we're going to upgrade to maybe a better
Tiffany Grant:camera. not because I'm trying to
become like a short film producer,
Tiffany Grant:but because I'm m even maxing out the storage on my
Tiffany Grant:phone, right? So it becomes an opportunity. And then once
you've, matched that and maybe now you're at a place where you're
Tiffany Grant:monetizing your content for a YouTube channel,
Tiffany Grant:now you're looking into the aspiration section
of your finances where it's like, no, I can actually invest
Tiffany Grant:in not only really great equipment, but now
Tiffany Grant:maybe I'm going to start investing in a
editor to,
Tiffany Grant:take my YouTube videos and also
Tiffany Grant:export them for different formats
for TikTok or for Instagram.
Tiffany Grant:Right. So I gave a specific example because I'm the kind
Tiffany Grant:of person who I'm like, okay, show me what
that looks like. And so to use the example of a
Tiffany Grant:YouTube creator, your essential would be, you need some
Tiffany Grant:way to film. That could just be your phone, and you're already paying
that monthly bill. Your opportunity may be, okay, I'm going to
Tiffany Grant:get a camera that is either used
Tiffany Grant:or, it's just not as expensive. Maybe I'm going to
look out on those. Like I know a lot of people did for Black
Tiffany Grant:Friday and Cyber Monday. Right. I'm going to grab one of those
Tiffany Grant:cameras. And then your opportunity, I mean, your
aspirations would be, now I'm going to get the best equipment
Tiffany Grant:that I can get, and I'm also going to invest in a team.
Tiffany Grant:Yes, I love that. And now that you put it like that,
I'm thinking back towards the money talk with Tiff
Tiffany Grant:podcast. And when I got started, it was a
Tiffany Grant:$20 mic from Amazon. and then I just
worked my way up to this $1,000 set up
Tiffany Grant:that I have. But it took time. It took at least
Tiffany Grant:two to three years or so to get to that point.
And I have an editor now when I was editing my
Tiffany Grant:own episodes, so I can totally relate
Tiffany Grant:to how that kind of comes
about, as you grow and as you learn more about
Tiffany Grant:your business. Had I waited until I was able
Tiffany Grant:to get $1,000 set up and all of
this and all of that, and then started the podcast,
Tiffany Grant:it probably wouldn't have made sense just in case I
Tiffany Grant:didn't like it. What if you get all of that
equipment and you don't like doing the podcast or you don't like
Tiffany Grant:doing whatever it is that you put all this money into?
Tiffany Grant:And so I completely agree with you there.
Brieanna Lightfoot-Smith: That's awesome. Yeah, that's a perfect example, too.
Tiffany Grant:Yes. So let's talk a little bit, because
Tiffany Grant:I know we have a variety of different business
owners out there, so I also want to give
Tiffany Grant:a product example, too. So how would this
Tiffany Grant:look in a product based business, if they wanted to
do this framework as well?
Tiffany Grant:Brieanna Lightfoot-Smith: That's a great question. So when it comes to
Tiffany Grant:product based business, my husband actually has a product based
business, and he does apparel
Tiffany Grant:and for him, when it came to
Tiffany Grant:essentials, that's one
area where I would say having a website
Tiffany Grant:probably makes sense very early on, but it doesn't have to be an
Tiffany Grant:expensive one, right? So you need a way to sell
your products. People may say, oh, well, you can just
Tiffany Grant:start with pop up shops. But the things that people, I feel like, don't
Tiffany Grant:understand about pop up shops is that you're going to need that
inventory typically on site. And so
Tiffany Grant:you're going to have a higher cost
Tiffany Grant:of goods right in the beginning if you're trying
to have at least 25 products at your
Tiffany Grant:first pop up shop. So what's really nice
Tiffany Grant:for, a product based business is that you can do something like
drop shipping, right? there are websites
Tiffany Grant:like printful and printify that
Tiffany Grant:will allow you to
upload your designs directly into their platform,
Tiffany Grant:and then they'll ship the items out for you.
Tiffany Grant:What's really nice about that is that you don't have to manage
inventory, right? You don't have to
Tiffany Grant:worry about like, oh, I ordered too much of
Tiffany Grant:this. You're able to just kind of have, okay, I
got one order in and I'm sending one order out. So the
Tiffany Grant:essential for a product based business would absolutely be a place where
Tiffany Grant:you can sell your products. And typically, it
would make sense to start with a
Tiffany Grant:website just to make it ease of use. But what's
Tiffany Grant:also really awesome is that we're in an age
now where Instagram, makes their
Tiffany Grant:posts shoppable, right? And you can upload products directly
Tiffany Grant:into Facebook marketplace or
know their platform, in order for you to be able
Tiffany Grant:to purchase things that way. So that would be an
Tiffany Grant:example that I would give. The aspiration
would know, potentially your own store
Tiffany Grant:at some point where you're like, okay, I've done this on my
Tiffany Grant:own and I'm going to expand. I even think about
a, friend of mine. She has a, I guess you would just call
Tiffany Grant:it a sweets business, right? She does cookies and she does
Tiffany Grant:cakes. And when she first got started,
she, had it where she would just send you an
Tiffany Grant:invoice for your product,
Tiffany Grant:for your cupcakes or your cookies.
You would pay the invoice, and then she had it where you
Tiffany Grant:could pick the items up directly from her, or she would ship
Tiffany Grant:it to you. And then the nice thing was, as she's
grown, that's when she really developed out her
Tiffany Grant:website. And then now she's looking at getting a
Tiffany Grant:flagship store, by 2026.
So she's really had some awesome
Tiffany Grant:traction. But she was willing to kind of,
Tiffany Grant:there's a scripture that says, do not despise small beginnings.
And that was really her. She was like, listen, I'm going to send
Tiffany Grant:you this invoice for this half a dozen order of cookies, and
Tiffany Grant:then we'll keep growing from there.
That is amazing. And congrats to the friend, if you're
Tiffany Grant:listening. Congrats to you. but I love
Tiffany Grant:this framework, essentials, opportunities, and
aspirations, because we talk a lot on the podcast
Tiffany Grant:about budgeting, and it is very
Tiffany Grant:similar in how we break down our budget.
When you think about your essentials, you're thinking about
Tiffany Grant:the roof over your head, the food in your
Tiffany Grant:belly, all of those things. And then your
opportunities, those might be like your cell phone bill. So
Tiffany Grant:it's not like stuff that are essential to live,
Tiffany Grant:but it's stuff that you might want. And then the
aspirations might be when
Tiffany Grant:you're looking at, oh, I want to go out with
Tiffany Grant:my friends or those types of things. And
so I definitely see how there
Tiffany Grant:is a congruency there between
Tiffany Grant:your framework and not only applying it to
business, but also to your personal, expenses
Tiffany Grant:as well. So I really appreciate that.
Tiffany Grant:Brieanna Lightfoot-Smith: Yeah, my pleasure.
So let's, talk a little bit, though,
Tiffany Grant:about your course that you had
Tiffany Grant:mentioned. because I want to give people a little sneak
peek of what they may get, before we wrap
Tiffany Grant:up, of course. Don't give it all away, but, just a little sneak
Tiffany Grant:peek of what they would get with your course.
Brieanna Lightfoot-Smith: Yes. So, inside of the build
Tiffany Grant:your business on a budget course. And it's really short,
Tiffany Grant:y'all, because, listen, just like. And I know tiff keeps
her, podcast episode short. It's the same thing
Tiffany Grant:with that training. It is not longer than an hour,
Tiffany Grant:and it's very hands on. And so I walk
you through those essentials, through the opportunities,
Tiffany Grant:and through the aspirations inside of it. You also
Tiffany Grant:get, a budget spreadsheet
that has those categories broken out. And then I give some
Tiffany Grant:examples, because, as I shared with you all, sometimes it's like,
Tiffany Grant:I don't know, what's the difference between the essential and the aspiration
and the aspiration and the opportunity. And so I have
Tiffany Grant:those things broken out by category.
Tiffany Grant:I also talked about the power of
bartering in that, training,
Tiffany Grant:because sometimes we're out here like,
Tiffany Grant:okay, well, I can just spend this much,
and you could actually have to spend nothing. One of the
Tiffany Grant:examples that I give inside of the training is that I got,
Tiffany Grant:photos done, which we all know a good
photo shoot can run. You quite
Tiffany Grant:a bit if you're moving into more of that
Tiffany Grant:opportunities and aspirations category. Right.
and this particular photo shoot was about
Tiffany Grant:valued at about $500. And I just knew I
Tiffany Grant:didn't have that to invest. I was like, sis,
I know that your stuff is quality. I've
Tiffany Grant:seen your stuff before, but I'm just in the very beginning
Tiffany Grant:stages of my business. But what I did have at
that time was, a podcast that was reaching
Tiffany Grant:the exact demographic that this woman had because she was
Tiffany Grant:primarily targeting black women who
were in business or wanted to start a business. And so
Tiffany Grant:I said, here's what we could do, or here's what I can
Tiffany Grant:offer. And I did not know if she would say no or yes, but I
said, I have this podcast, and what
Tiffany Grant:I could possibly do for you, if you'd be interested,
Tiffany Grant:is record three,
ads that I can put at the beginning of the
Tiffany Grant:episodes, and people can use a specific promo code
Tiffany Grant:to sign up. And I don't even know if I made the promo
code a heavy discount because I was like, well, if we discount all
Tiffany Grant:your services, this is not really the best thing for you.
Tiffany Grant:I want to make sure you're getting a return on what you're giving
me. And so anyway, I did a promo for her on, three
Tiffany Grant:podcast episodes. And I also said, hey, if we
Tiffany Grant:have any in person events, you can come
and talk about your business there. And she was
Tiffany Grant:interested. We signed up an agreement
Tiffany Grant:because you should get everything in writing. We signed an
agreement, and she did my photo
Tiffany Grant:shoot on, my end for free. I mean, I was
Tiffany Grant:exchanging my time and my platform for
this physical product that I was able to get. And I tell
Tiffany Grant:people, that was years ago, and
Tiffany Grant:I still use a lot of those images, for
my website, I use a lot of the images in my social
Tiffany Grant:media content. And so that's one of the things that
Tiffany Grant:I talk about within that, class as well,
because, again, sometimes we put ourselves
Tiffany Grant:in these binds where we're like, oh, my gosh, I really want
Tiffany Grant:this thing. And then I'm too embarrassed to tell this person that
I can't afford their services instead of just looking and
Tiffany Grant:saying, what do I have that's of value that I could offer this
Tiffany Grant:person?
Absolutely. And I love that I have
Tiffany Grant:bartered many of times, for services and
Tiffany Grant:products, and it works you all, and you never know
what someone's going to say or do, and
Tiffany Grant:so just acts, put it out there. So I love that you
Tiffany Grant:go over that in your, course as well.
So thank you. So much, Brianna, for coming on the show
Tiffany Grant:today. Now, if people were interested in
Tiffany Grant:learning about the course or learning more about
you or is following you on social media, where could they find
Tiffany Grant:you?
Tiffany Grant:Brieanna Lightfoot-Smith: Yes, they can go to my website,
brandsbybree.com, and that has all my links
Tiffany Grant:to social. It has links to brands by Brie
Tiffany Grant:Academy, which is where that building up business on a budget
class lives. and
Tiffany Grant:there's also a link for you to join my email list. I send out
Tiffany Grant:emails every week to business owners with just, like, a
word of encouragement because we know it can be hard out here. You're
Tiffany Grant:like, why am I doing this thing? That's very insane that
Tiffany Grant:no one else wants to do. I also send
resources because, again,
Tiffany Grant:sometimes it's like, hey, there's this thing that you might
Tiffany Grant:be about to pay for. And I actually found a place where you
can get it for free. for places that I have
Tiffany Grant:relationships with, I include, like, affiliate links
Tiffany Grant:where you can sign up for something like honeybook and get
50% off, or sign up for something like flow desk,
Tiffany Grant:which is what I use for my email software.
Tiffany Grant:And so I just try to make it like a one stop
shop for women in business.
Tiffany Grant:Because, again, this is no,
Tiffany Grant:I think about, the poem that talks about how life is
no crystal stare. Entrepreneurship is not a
Tiffany Grant:crystal stare. Okay. But I think what I
Tiffany Grant:have seen, it's not you all. So if that's why you're
signing up, maybe look at something else. But
Tiffany Grant:it's a beautiful thing, though, to be able to do the work that you
Tiffany Grant:love.
Yeah, for sure. Well, I will make sure that I
Tiffany Grant:have all of those links in the show notes, so
Tiffany Grant:definitely check those out. Thank you so much again
for coming on the show, and I'm excited. Hopefully
Tiffany Grant:somebody took at least one takeaway from
Tiffany Grant:this. And if you didn't, I'm going to give
you one. Essentials, opportunities,
Tiffany Grant:aspirations. That's all you need to know.
Tiffany Grant:All right, well, thank you so much.
Brieanna Lightfoot-Smith: It's my pleasure. Oh, and one thing,
Tiffany Grant:I will give you all a special, price on
Tiffany Grant:those classes inside of brands by Brie Academy. But
I want you guys to use the word aspirations because
Tiffany Grant:that's how we'll know that you listen to the end. I know sometimes people do like
Tiffany Grant:the podcast name and stuff like that, but it's
kind of like looking for clues in one of those Disney movies or
Tiffany Grant:Marvel movies or something like that. So, yeah, if you use promo code
Tiffany Grant:aspiration on any of those, you'll be able to get a
special price on those classes.
Tiffany Grant:Yes. I love that. Come on, Easter eggs. So
Tiffany Grant:aspirations is the code, and
I'll make sure that's in the show notes as well, in case you're doing
Tiffany Grant:something, driving, whatever, and you can't write it down, it'll be
Tiffany Grant:there for you. So thank you so much, Brianna, and I hope you have
a wonderful rest of the day.
Tiffany Grant:Brieanna Lightfoot-Smith: Thank you for having me.
Tiffany Grant:Bye.
Intro/Outro: Thank you for listening, joining, and being a part of the Money
Tiffany Grant:talk with TIFF podcast this week. You can check Tiff
Tiffany Grant:out every Thursday for a new Money talk podcast,
but if you just can't wait until next week, you can listen
Tiffany Grant:to previous podcast
Tiffany Grant:episodes@moneytalkwitht.com
or follow TIff on all social media
Tiffany Grant:platforms at moneytalkwitht. Until
Tiffany Grant:next time, spend wise by spending less than
you make a, word to the money wise is always
Tiffany Grant:sufficient.