Monique Lusse | equitybydesign

Susanne Ballard

August 15, 2012 by Monique Lusse Leave a Comment

My husband and I have been working with Monique since October 2011 when I met her in our GOLD Mastermind retreat and I must say that we are blown away by how she simplifies our finances and strategically helps us organize them. My husband manages our QuickBooks and was a true novice and she has gently and patiently taught him how to use it and do so with our long-term goals in mind.

She meets with me and helps me incorporate our financial life into our business plan in a meaningful, productive manner. If you are not on top of this part of your business or need to take it to the next level, then I encourage you to invest in Monique Lusse and take control.

What we’re getting goes far beyond QuickBooks- it’s getting us clear and focused and setting us up foundationally for a successful, long-term business.

Susanne Ballard, RPh,
aka the PharMomAssist
Drug Proof Your Home, Be Safe Together and Alone
www.pharmomassist.com

Share this item with a friend

Belva Davis

August 15, 2012 by Monique Lusse Leave a Comment

Congratulations on taking the important step of starting your own firm. You are a talented woman who has the ability to make the most veiled accounting matters clear.

Writing a book is one of life great challenges, but understanding the accounting systems in the publishing world almost matches that effort. My thanks to you for your help. It was good to work with someone I could trust.

Whenever you told me something was going to happen..it did…and that was a joy.

Good fortunes ahead,

Belva Davis
Award-winning Journalist, Author and Pioneering Feminist
www.belvadavis.com

Share this item with a friend

Rueben Barnes-Levering

August 15, 2012 by Monique Lusse Leave a Comment

I started my screen-printing company from scratch, fresh out of college – and for the 6 years following continued to build it layer by layer. I came to Monique after getting to a place where we had employees, accounting practices, consistent and growing business – yet still couldn’t seem to break over the hill of true profitability! We seemed to be stuck – and growing – at a subsistence level; where every extra dollar we made, was spent on extra expenses.

I told Monique that we wanted to get from subsistence to sustainable, and over the next several weeks she dug into my business – asked me the tough questions and forced me to make some tough decisions – and laid out a plan that shed new light on our business model.

I would highly recommend Monique to business people who know what they’re doing, but have an inner voice that tells them that they can be getting to higher ground – if only they had a trail guide!

Reuben Barnes-Levering
UmbrellaShirts.com

Share this item with a friend

Marilee Emerson

August 15, 2012 by Monique Lusse Leave a Comment

When I left my University position to start my own business, I was excited and a bit overwhelmed.
Although I’d been perfecting my craft for more than 25 years, I had little to no experience in how to be a business owner. It was all brand new to me. Before I began working with Monique, I used a simple spreadsheet to “keep track of things.” I was organized, but I knew my simple solution was not the most effective and efficient to run my business.

Monique helped me lay the foundation for my business from day one. I learned how to manage my finances so that I was not reactive when my business started to pick up. I now have sustainable systems in place, and the confidence and peace of mind to do the work I love without worrying about the financial aspects of my business.

I’m truly grateful for Monique’s guidance and teaching. She taught me so much more than just the practical aspects of business finances. She helped me build necessary habits, routines, and mindsets that help me stay grounded. When I’m grounded, I serve my clients more fully.

Marilee Emerson, M.Ed.
President & Founder
www.mymarilee.com

Share this item with a friend

Jack Kinley

August 1, 2012 by Monique Lusse Leave a Comment

I’ve been working with Monique Lusse as my accountant and advisor to help me shape up my QuickBooks. Before I found Monique I was spending a lot of time doing things that needed to be done for my business in terms of planning for upcoming expenses, monitoring my income, trying to gauge the level of success, level of profitability of my business with systems that didn’t function efficiently. So, I spent more time using Excel, I spent more time writing things down on notepads, had my calculator nearby most of the time to run calculations that really should be more simply executed.I knew it was time to shape up the QuickBooks. I had some experience in it, but wasn’t entirely comfortable working with a bookkeeper or accountant who was wanting to swoop in and take over my books.

As a business owner, those books are near and dear to my heart. They paint an accurate picture of the success level of my business and it was crucial to me to understand how successful my business was, how much money I could afford to turn over to an accountant or a bookkeeper before I relinquished control. For me, control was a big issue, and Monique stepped in, helped me solve that problem that no other bookkeeper and no other accountant was willing to do with me. It was a true partnership. It was a course that had a schedule that was reasonable to me. A schedule that worked well with my busy schedule, and gave me enough time to absorb the information and gave me a strong agenda so that I had expectations for great outcomes at the end. Now, I have QuickBooks setup. I understand how it works. I am able to gauge outstanding invoices, I have systems that are much more efficient and at the touch of a button, I know what needs to happen in my business to boost revenue or simply send out invoices on a weekly or monthly basis.

If I were to encounter someone on the brink of deciding who to hire next and how to really shape up their financial systems, I would encourage you to work with Monique. She is very patient, she listens to your unique needs, and she meets you wherever you are on that learning curve. Whether you’ve never opened QuickBooks before or, like me, you’ve opened it, you’ve made a little bit of progress, but aren’t quite sure how you’ve done it. She cuts to the core and made it simple to understand, and has really transformed my business by helping me understand these systems and allowing me to get back to the work that I truly love.

Jack Kinley
Founder and Creative Director
www.LabMonkeyCommunications.com

Share this item with a friend

How I Got Out of Debt

July 21, 2012 by Monique Lusse 3 Comments

When I first began healing from 15 years of debt, I despised the word “patience.”

The fact that it comes from the Latin pati, meaning “to suffer,” didn’t help. But here’s the thing: that same root gives us “passion,” which in addition to its erotic conotations, means “boundless enthusiasm.”

When I learned that, I looked at “patience” in a different way. It wasn’t about “suffering in silence” or “resignation.” It was about deciding to face what needs to be faced with excitement and desire for change.

Now this wasn’t a “New Year’s Resolution” kind of thing, where I let myself off the hook around February 5^th because it was just too damned hard. This was a “I don’t know how I’m going to do it and I have no clue as to how long it’s gonna take, but I’m going to get out of debt.”

And I can’t really explain what made that difference. Call it “grace” or “hitting bottom” or just being plain sick and tired of living on the edge. I think you know what I’m talking about: there’s a different feeling in your body when you commit to a decision. It’s complete and irrevocable. Deepak Chopra, in his “Creating Affluence: The A-to-Z Steps To A Richer Life,” talks about the power of decision as the cutting off all other possibilities so that you’re left with a single focus not countermanded by anything. At first I thought he was a bit radical. But now I see that it really is a “no turning back” kind of thing.

And while he also talks about how healing can happen “with the flick of an intention,” sometimes there’s a lag time between the inward decision and the outward manifestation. And here’s where patience comes in.

It took years between the decision to be debt free and the actuality of it. To get out from under tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt I got help from the San Francisco chapter of Consumer Credit Counselors. They advocated for me and got the banks to stop their collection calls, suspend interest charges, and to agree to a workable payment plan. My job was to work the plan. Which I did. And it took over two years of slow, steady monthly payments.

Looking back on it now, all these 30-something years later, I realized that the healing did happen in the “flick of an intention.” As soon as I made the decision, I was operating from where I wanted to be, not from where I was. And yes, it took a few years to clean up the consequences of all those past decisions. But it all started with “boundless enthusiasm.”

Share this item with a friend

How to Think Strategically About Your Business

June 15, 2012 by Monique Lusse Leave a Comment

I believe that no business owner should have to move off of their genius work to learn how to actually setup their QuickBooks themselves. Notice I said “set it up themselves.” This is important.

What I do believe is that every business owner should know how to think about their money. And if you, like so many purpose-based entrepreneurs, struggle with organizing the financial side of your business, then listen up!

The first thing we do when we setup your books, whether in QuickBooks or any other accounting system, is to design what is called a “Chart of Accounts,” which is a list (chart) of all the possible unique categories (accounts) that each and every business transaction takes. The term “accounts” here does not refer to bank accounts, but to General Ledger accounts. And it’s OK if you don’t know what “General Ledger” means. It’s not important here.

Creating a chart of accounts is not a low-level bookkeeping function. It requires a high level of strategic thinking. Creating your chart of accounts is very much like building a house: you have a much better chance of ending up with the home you want if you plan it out in advance. Otherwise you end up living in a rabbit warren!

So here’s what happens when you set up your chart of accounts: you think strategically. You understand the difference between types of expenses and why it’s important to group like expenses together in sections. Categorizing and segmenting your income and expenses is what gives you the reports that will tell you with pin-point accuracy how much you are making and spending. It gives you the ability to analyze where you’ve been so that you can plan where you want to go.

Say for example, that you’re putting together your budget for next year and you have a year’s worth of data to look back on. By segmenting your marketing expenses together, for example, you can create a report that shows how much you spent in marketing compared with all of your expenses put together. Say you know that successful companies in your industry have marketing expenses that fall in the 20-25% range and that yours were at 45% last year. You can make a strategic decision to reduce your budget for next year so that your marketing expenses get down to 25%. This is how analysis of historical data informs and shapes budgets. You look back so you can look forward.

Once you understand how to think about what to call your transactions, you can code them and a bookkeeper can do the data entry into QuickBooks. You can’t leave the coding and classification up to the bookkeeper. You are responsible for thinking about your business and translating that thinking into data; she’s responsible for entering that information into QuickBooks. A bookkeeper is never responsible for thinking about your business; she’s responsible for accurately inputting data into QuickBooks. That data then is organized by a well-designed chart of accounts to produce reports which provide you, the business owner, with information, so that you can think about your business and make strategic decisions.

You do the thinking, translate that thinking into data, your bookkeeper inputs that data, QuickBooks organizes the data into information, and you (always back to you) use that information to tweek and re-think. It’s feedback analysis, really. Voilà!, you’re now thinking strategically.

Share this item with a friend

Habits & Practices, Part 2

June 6, 2012 by Monique Lusse 1 Comment

You may have noticed that my last post was over three months ago (March 1, 2012, to be exact, but who’s counting?) I’ve noticed, but that’s because I’ve been so busy not writing it. This is only a problem because, well, back at the beginning of the year, I had set the intention of writing one blog post a week. So that means that for the ensuing 13 weeks, I fell off–and stayed off–the proverbial horse.

And what was the title of that long-ago post, you ask? Habits & Practices. Holy cow. Richard Bach wasn’t kidding when he said, “You teach best what you most need to learn.” Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977).

So, here I am, back in the saddle. And I want to tell you how I did it: I took action. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

What are habits and practices anyway? What’s the difference between them? Sometimes not much, it turns out. You can say, “It’s my practice to read the paper every morning.” Or you can just as easily say, “It’s my habit to read the paper every morning.” In this case, they both mean the same thing.

But here’s how they differ. A good habit is a regular action that you take, like balancing your checkbook every month on a specific day, or flossing your teeth (just the ones you want to keep) every night. A best practice is a documented process that will bring about the highest quality and excellent results, like a checklist specifying the necessary steps for how to balance your checkbook.

You can develop a habit to get a practice done, like scheduling a regular time on your calender to write your weekly blog post. You can also develop a practice to adopt new habits or strengthen existing ones. That’s the beauty and fluidity and inter-relationship between good habits and best practices.

But, and here’s the thing that got me out of the 13-week doldrums, I think that habits and practices are only two legs of the three-legged stool of getting things done. The third leg is what has been eluding me these past three months: take action!

It’s not like I didn’t have the time to write, it’s not like I didn’t have a fabulous technical VA to push it out to my list for me, it’s not like I didn’t know how to put a post together. No, there was an intangible, yet essential piece missing and now I know what it was: just do it! (Do I owe Nike anything for using that?)

What got in the way was this idea in my head that if I couldn’t do it perfectly, then I couldn’t do it at all. And here’s the kicker: I don’t even know, couldn’t tell you if you held a gun to my cat’s head, what “perfect” even looks like! So talk about a double-bind.

So here’s wishing you a comfortable seat on the stool as you move forward in your life and in your business. All the best.

Share this item with a friend

Habits & Practices

March 1, 2012 by Monique Lusse Leave a Comment

A Note From Monique

I met up with so many friends and clients back in January at Christine Kane’s Gold Mastermind Retreat. Here I am with my client, Wendy Schneider of www.artsontherocks.com. She is an artist and mentor to artists and she leads fabulous artist retreats on Saba, a small jewel of an island in the Caribbean.

Monique

Featured Article: Habits & Practices

A common question I get asked by people starting out in their business is, “What are the basic things a small business owner needs to know about record keeping?” A related question is, “What habits and practices should I be putting into place as I grow my business?”

The answer lies in that second question: develop habits and practices.

This’ll be a short post today, just a few tips to get you started thinking about this. I’ll be posting again about this important subject.

Tip #1: Identify and embrace your personal style.

Go with your natural tendencies, not against them. If you prefer to file your paperwork once a week, then keep a folder labeled “To File” to gather stuff throughout the week, and pick a day once a week where you file them away. If you’d rather file them away as you go along then, by all means, do so.

Tip #2: Do not be going to the bank to make deposits.

Argh!! This is such a waste of time. Instead, bill your clients directly from your QuickBooks and receive payments electronically into your checking account. If you are still taking paper checks, there are ways to scan them into your checking account. You don’t ever need to physically go to your bank again.

Tip #3: Balance your checkbook once a month.

I am stunned at the number of folks who don’t do this. I couldn’t sleep at night if I didn’t, but that’s me, I know.

Share this item with a friend

Do You Need a Business Plan?

February 23, 2012 by Monique Lusse Leave a Comment

A Note From Monique

Meeting up with my fabulous client, Belinda Smith of BelindaSmithCreative.com. She is an award-winning songwriter, singer and mentor in Nashville, TN and just a joy to work with! This was taken at our Gold Mastermind retreat in Asheville, NC in January 2012.

Monique

Featured Article: Do You Need a Business Plan?

Well, it depends. If you have big plans for your vision, and want to grow from your start-up idea to a mature six to seven-figure business, then the short answer is: YES!

That said, a business plan doesn’t guarantee your success. But, here’s the thing: most of the businesses that do make it had business plans at the get-go. And one thing’s for sure: without a business plan it is really, really hard to get anyone to invest their money or time in your idea.

A business plan is not just for raising money, so even if you have all the cash you need, you still might want to consider writing one up. Why? For a couple of reasons. It’ll go a long way in attracting the A-level talent you want on your team AND it will help you clarify and focus, two of the essential components needed for effective implementation.

So, you might be wondering what-all is involved in creating a business plan. Here are some common questions I’ve gotten from my clients.

Just the thought of doing this makes we want to curl up under the covers. Can I hire someone to do it for me?
No, no one can do it for you. This is because no one knows your business like you do. No one is as passionate and dedicated to bringing your vision into the world. That said, you absolutely can hire someone to guide you through the process. There’s no need for you to re-invent the wheel.

How long will it take?
A comprehensive, complete plan takes anywhere from 150-300 hours of YOUR time, and 15-30 hours of a consultant/guide’s time, depending on whether your business model is service-based or product-based.

What is a business plan exactly? What’s included in a business plan?
Right now you probably have about 25% of the business plan completed (and you didn’t even know!) The trouble is that it’s in about twelve different places, like emails, press releases, resumes, marketing brochures, grant proposals, job descriptions, and your head, just to name a few. A business plan gets all of those disparate materials into one place and brings them all in under one umbrella.

The plan will spell out the significant problem you can solve and how you are going to provide that solution. The document itself should be as short as possible, while still being thorough. To give you an idea of what-all it covers, here is an outline showing a typical break down.

1. The Executive Summary

2. The Industry and the Company and Its Products or Services

3. Market Research and Analysis

4. The Economics of the Business

5. Marketing Plan

6. Manufacturing and Operations Plan

7. Management Team

8. Critical Risks, Problems and Assumptions

9. The Financial Plan

10. Proposed Company Offering

This gives you a brief overview of what’s involved in putting a business plan together. As always, I love to hear from you. Please feel free to use the comments box below for any questions or, well, comments, that you might have.

Share this item with a friend