Emily Merrell  0:04  

Welcome to the sixth degree Podcast, the podcast where we grill our guests about the things that make them tick and find out how human connection plays a role in their life. I’m your host, Emily Merrill.

 

I’m your host, Emily Merrill. And today I’m thrilled to have she means profit founder and CPA, Melissa Houston on the podcast. Melissa, welcome to the show. 

 

Melissa Huston  0:31  

Hey, Emily, thank you so much for having me today. I’m super excited to be here. I am so happy to have you here. And it’s it’s funny, I always pause. I paused on your name because my brain went to Houston Street in New York City. Which, if you’ve been to New York, but it’s that one silly street that takes Houston and transit into Houston. I know. And it’s funny because being Canadian, all I really heard of it was Houston. And I was amazed since I got married. How many people asked me how to pronounce it. And it took me a while to understand the Houston Street versus Houston.

 

Emily Merrell  1:12  

I also fun fact, on the same random tangent, I found out that in in LA they have Rodeo Drive. But once you leave Rodeo Drive, it turns into rodeo. I did not know that. In fact, it’s a fun fact. I don’t know what what part it’s like maybe the ciency shops then it turns into rodeo. But once you leave roadeo and so I don’t know. I don’t know how that happened or like pronunciations. Always weird. But anyways, I also love that you’re in Canada. I mentioned earlier. I’m married to a Canadian. Canadian. What’s his word? Canadian person?

 

Melissa Huston  1:49  

Yes. That’s awesome.

 

Emily Merrell  1:51  

We always say Canadia. We call them Nadia.

 

Melissa Huston  1:54  

I don’t know. For fun. For fun.

 

Emily Merrell  1:58  

We we we do a lot of poking fun at him. It’s just more fun that way.

 

Melissa Huston  2:04  

Sports, right?

 

Emily Merrell  2:05  

Really? And I learned sorry. Doesn’t mean Sorry.

 

Melissa Huston  2:09  

No, sorry. Does not mean Sorry. And it’s funny because I was meeting my business coach a couple of weeks ago up in Rochester, New York. And she’s like, Oh, you say sorry, a lot. Like sorry, doesn’t mean Sorry.

 

Emily Merrell  2:23  

Saying Screw you. And yeah,

 

Melissa Huston  2:26  

yeah, we my husband says sorry, to me. Sometimes it’s like, yeah, that hurt.

 

Emily Merrell  2:33  

You know the truth. I I also love the A my my dad’s from Michigan. And so he says a, I think it’s close enough to Canada. But do you find you say a jeep?

 

Melissa Huston  2:48  

I say it all the time. All the time, especially. And I really noticed that when I’m talking to Americans, because I’m like, I can’t believe I just said that. So you’ll probably hear me say it a bit on the on it throughout our conversation.

 

Emily Merrell  3:01  

Let us try to attend to a drinking podcast or to do something. What’s the annoying American thing that

 

Melissa Huston  3:08  

you notice? Annoying American thing?

 

Emily Merrell  3:11  

I’m sorry, an A is not that annoying, but just like saying,

 

Melissa Huston  3:15  

Oh no, I don’t take offense to that. No, I’m just like, I don’t really think I have anything that annoys me. That’s a stumper.

 

Emily Merrell  3:23  

Wow. I feel like all my friends from other countries. They say Americans always say oh my god.

 

Melissa Huston  3:31  

Oh, but that’s typical in Canada to you.

 

Emily Merrell  3:35  

I think it must be more of a like, Oh, my Latin friends. Okay. Oh, Americans. You go and you go oh my god. It’s so cute. That’s so cute.

 

Melissa Huston  3:45  

Oh, my God wants to? Oh, my God. A. Yeah. Well,

 

Emily Merrell  3:49  

let’s dive in. I want to hear how did you Melissa get started as a CPA?

 

Melissa Huston  3:56  

Well, it’s kind of funny because I am an accidental CPA. So I had started off my first career was in social work. And I realized very quickly that it was a high burnout. So I knew I wanted to move over to business, but I didn’t quite know what I wanted to measure. And my dad’s like, we’ll have an accounting. I’m like, okay, so then I ended up majoring in Accounting just because I didn’t know what else to do. But it turned out to be a really smart move. I really enjoy the work that I do, but I enjoy it more. So now that I’ve started she needs prophet. Because I get to help people. I combined my social work skills, with my knowledge of numbers, and I can really help entrepreneurs and business owners how to create wealth for themselves through their business.

 

Emily Merrell  4:44  

So in a way you took the desire to help people through social work, and you were able to channel that same desire through something that was helping people get wealthier and more strategic about their money. And then you think about The cyclical effects of what you’re doing like this, people can now give back more be more generous. So you’re like medically best social worker in the world? We all remember that one. Yeah.

 

I think next time, you just have to tell people you’re like, I’m still a social worker. And here’s how. Yeah,

 

Melissa Huston  5:19  

and it’s true, because you know, money is very emotional. And there’s so many sessions I have, where people start crying because they just get so frustrated or fearful, or, you know, just feel very intimidated by money. I think

 

Emily Merrell  5:34  

it’s, it starts from your childhood, right? The money stories that you were told when you were a kid?

 

Melissa Huston  5:40  

Absolutely. Everybody’s got a Money Story, and the impression that your child had has on you, I mean, most of us carry money stories that we don’t even realize that we’re carrying. So it’s really important for business owners to tune into any sort of money mindset issues that would be holding back from creating that wealth. Hmm, yeah,

 

Emily Merrell  6:01  

I think that’s such a great reminder and how many times business owners skip past the mindset part that needs to be operated on and go straight to like the management or straight to the building part when they have this like, subconscious block that’s happening to them. It’s so

 

Melissa Huston  6:18  

true, even I, you know, working in the accounting field for over 20 years and you know, basically being an expert in personal and business finances and thinking like I had it all under control, or you know, whether it however you want to phrase it, when I started my business, became a business owner, I was carrying money stories that I had no idea I had, and they were affecting me as a business owner. So I did the money mindset work myself, went through it and worked through my my money mindset issues. And now I’m actually putting a course together to teach others how to, to work out their money mindset issues, as well.

 

Emily Merrell  6:57  

Do you have you found a difference between American money mindset versus Canadian?

 

Melissa Huston  7:02  

Not the mindset part. But definitely the behavior part. I think that Canadians tend to be much more conservative when it comes to money. And Americans are bigger spenders. And not to say that they don’t save as much. Some do. Some don’t. I mean, that’s, that’s very personal. But I mean, Canadians and Americans, both have consumer debt issues as well. But Americans tend to spend more freely. I definitely

 

Emily Merrell  7:31  

think capitalism feels very front and center over here, as I know, it doesn’t candidate. But I think one of my favorite differences that I noticed is this obsession in America, myself included, of getting credit card points. We love getting

 

Melissa Huston  7:48  

the reward part. The reward, though, excuse me the reward points. Yeah,

 

Emily Merrell  7:52  

points. So we all have credit cards, like I have, like five credit cards that have different rewards. This one gives me 2% cashback. This one gives me you know, double, triple the points on Uber, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We’re in Canada. And it’s not, it doesn’t seem to be as common and they have like its own reward point system. When you go to a liquor store. They’ll be like, do an airline miles,

 

Melissa Huston  8:19  

we’ve got the air miles. And we’ve got, you know, like your credit card reward points. But yeah, you’re right. It’s not like it is in the States. And we don’t have access to credit as easily as you guys do as well. Yeah. And credit, we

 

Emily Merrell  8:33  

had a whole podcast episode with an incredible individual who works at a company called digit. We talked about I’ve heard of digit. Yeah, they’re awesome. Definitely check it out. Snigdha Kumar is the speaker, and about just how American credit is such a such a beast, especially if you’re coming from a foreign country and just how it it’s such a gateway to let you get into other things from housing to a car, even a job.

 

Melissa Huston  9:04  

It’s true. So you have to be so responsible with credit. And it’s so tempting when when it’s just coming at you.

 

Emily Merrell  9:12  

Yeah, you’re like, Oh, no limit limit. But yeah. So on that same vein, are there common mistakes that you’ve seen individuals make when they start their business?

 

Melissa Huston  9:24  

I see a lot of mistakes. From from the very basic mistakes, it’s not having a separate bank account, your personal bank account, your business bank account should absolutely be separated, and not taking the time to get your bookkeeping straight. So that’s one of the things that people tend to wait on. And you need to get your bookkeeping done right away so you can afford to avoid big messes. And then you know, like there’s tons of larger mistakes, and I would say the biggest one is not knowing if your business is profitable or not.

 

Emily Merrell  9:59  

And I I’m still with you with a bookkeeping and I was definitely one of those people the first year where I cut corners and was like, I’ll teach myself QuickBooks and ended up hiring someone for a more expensive price to fix it, because I had no idea what I was doing. Well, and that’s

 

Melissa Huston  10:14  

1. That’s the problem, right? You think that you know what you’re doing? And it ends up costing you 234 times the amount of money? Have somebody fix it? Yep. I always encourage people to hire qualified bookkeepers, because having been on the other end, like the receiving end of getting books that are filled with mistakes, it’s so frustrating to fix mistakes, it’s easier to just start fresh, but you can’t do that. Right? So it’s really, you know, that’s definitely something that you need to invest in, make sure that you were using a bookkeeper who is qualified.

 

Emily Merrell  10:50  

I Amen to that. And I think the same idea, you’re, you’re not an expert in this, this isn’t your wheelhouse, and that’s okay. It doesn’t have to be your wheelhouse.

 

Melissa Huston  11:00  

zactly.

 

Emily Merrell  11:03  

So we talked about, you know, knowing your numbers, and I’m so with you, I think a lot of people will kind of pray and spray their life, their their business away, they’ll just, oh, I got a sale. I don’t know how much is in my bank account. Got a bank about a man keep going. So can we talk a little bit about like, knowing the net profit and margin and all of the all the fancy business? CPA words that an accounting words that we have nightmares about?

 

Melissa Huston  11:32  

Absolutely. So one of the biggest mistakes that business owners make is by not tracking what their revenue is, and what their business expenses are, right? Because you’re going to want to understand that so because how you calculate profit is revenue, less expenses. But you’ll also need to be careful, because when you’ve got your profit, you also have to plan for paying taxes on that profit. Right. So I’ll just take a little bit of time and walk through each step. So basically, your income statement is going to show you how your profit is calculated in your business. And it takes all the revenue over certain periods. So whether you run your income statement for a month, six months, a year, whatever, it takes all the revenue for that period, and then all the expenses of that period. And what you’re left with is your profit. Now, you want to pay attention to your profit margins, not just your profit numbers, because your net profit margin is a KPI, which is a key performance indicator that you want to track, every business owner should be tracking their net profit margins. Now there’s confusion because there’s gross profit and net profit. And you want to track the net profit, you can track the gross profit to but net profit is what we’re talking about today. And what happens is like, let’s say you’re growing your business. And in month one, maybe your profit margin was at 30%. And then in month two, it dropped down to 25%. If you’re not looking like you’re maybe your revenues increased, but your profit margin decreased. So what that means is your expenses increased as well. So if you’re not looking at your net profit margin, you wouldn’t realize that you actually dropped 5%, which can be huge, because 5% of $100,000 is $5,000 versus 50. No, it’s 50. Let me count calculator.

 

Emily Merrell  13:35  

I’m like, I still count with my finger.

 

Melissa Huston  13:36  

You’re nodding you’re like

 

Emily Merrell  13:37  

yeah, sure, sure. That sounds right. Yeah. Move to zero. Yeah.

 

Melissa Huston  13:43  

So anyways, so that’s a big loss. So if you’re not monitoring that, you’re losing this money, you’re not realizing it. So you want to make sure that as you grow your business, or just as you continue your business, whatever is going on, that your net profit margin stays consistent, or that it increases, but if it decreases, that is a red flag.

 

Emily Merrell  14:02  

Yes, I think that’s such a great, great, great, great reminder. So lesson number two, know your numbers and know your your profit margins, your net profit margin, so you can speak the next day you were called on to Shark Tank you would be able to perform and to be able to be grilled inside and out on all of those things. Exactly. intimidating. And I find from my own personal experience, when I ignored my numbers. I had no idea what I was doing. And I was overworking. And then when I actually knew my numbers and like studied my numbers, I was able to work smarter, I was able to focus my energies in places that actually move the needles versus just like pray and sprain my way through the business. So it’s exactly

 

Melissa Huston  14:45  

and that’s so smart of you to get to know your numbers. And this is why I encourage every business owner to do that because it does allow you to work smarter, not harder. And it allows you to bring in a lot more money with less effort. Some people hesitate to look at their numbers because they tend to tie emotions to it. It’s like it defines their net, their worth, not their net worth, but their worth. You know, they’re like, if if I look at my numbers, and it shows that I failed, that I’m a complete failure. And that’s not the case. Because, you know, there may be areas that need to be tweaked, but you’re not failing. Failing is a harsh word like failing means. Okay, that’s it, you’re done, you packed up, you’re going home. But if you’re looking at, okay, well, I could improve on this, that makes a difference. If you reframe your thought process, and you’re like, Okay, so I can look at these numbers, not tie my worth to it and see where I can improve and make more money in my business. And it works so much better in the long run.

 

Emily Merrell  15:45  

That’s a win win, win win, I completely agree. And I think the worst part needs to be separated and stepped away from, so you can actually be the business owner you desire to be or that you want to be exactly. My next question for you. Oh, this is something that I think we all are aspiring for. I look at these individuals where I have friends that are at this point, but these millionaire women, and I think we all should talk about money a bit more. I think we should talk about our salaries more, we should get pissed off more about what we’re being paid or advocate for ourselves. So I want to know, in your opinion, why do you think we need more millionaire women?

 

Melissa Huston  16:28  

First of all, I think that women do a lot of good in the world. And it’s funny, because I just wrote a blog article about this too. And the more wealth that goes into women’s hands, the more good that can be done. And in fact, statistically proven that there’s less corruption among women than there are among men, which is kind of sad in itself. Yeah, yeah. But so the more women are involved, and you get more money in women’s hands, we give back to the community, we build socially responsible enterprises, we look out for each other, we mentor each other, we want to see other women succeeding. So there’s a lot of reason why women should have more wealth for themselves. Now, sadly, it’s been my experience that a lot of women feel very guilty about making money, they feel like there’s a lot of greed attached to it. Like if I want more money than I’m greedy, or people won’t like me, or I’ll be that mean, rich bitch or whatever. You know, whatever story is going on in their head. And I just, I beg women, if you’re, if you’re listening, and you’re thinking, Well, yeah, that’s how I think to, like, reframe that story. Because so much good can be done with money. And you can give back to the community, you can donate, you can build not for profits, that are going to help other people who are economically disadvantaged, like there’s so much good you can do with money. And it doesn’t have to be a selfless thing either, right? You can, you know, create all this great stuff, but still have money left over for yourself,

 

and your family. Go shopping,

 

shopping, send your kids to school debt free, um, you know, take vacations, you know, as long as you’re living fiscally responsible, you’re not putting yourself in debt. You’re setting your your financial future up for, you know, financial security and success and such, whatever makes you happy, you don’t have to justify to anybody, whatever amount of wealth you feel comfortable with that you want. That’s your decision. You don’t have to justify it, you can do great things with your money, or you can, you know, find other ways that you want to spend it.

 

Emily Merrell  18:50  

I think that’s such a great point to be had. And I love that reframe back to what we talked about at the very beginning, essentially, you’re a social worker, you’re a social worker for women. And I think that one of the things that I always think about and when I journal about making money is that it would allow me to be even more generous, it would be allowed me to hire that person to help buy the gifts for the holidays, and for the birthdays I forget to pick up lunches. So it just I feel good when I am generous. And that is something that makes me perform in a certain way. And why not be able to do it every single day, if I want to

 

Melissa Huston  19:29  

exactly it, the more generous you are, the more generosity flows out and flows back in and it’s just, it’s continuous. Bada bing, bada boom.

 

Emily Merrell  19:40  

I love it. You know, and on the same topic of wealth, I feel like we are in the middle of this. I don’t I don’t even know what we’re in right now ever inflation feels like another recession. We just got out of a pandemic. Are we still in a pandemic? You know, we’re in this Very, very peculiar place that I’ve been feeling it a lot in terms of my clients in terms of people, I mean, a lot of lack a lot of scarcity, a lot of people holding their money very close to their chest. And I feel like during the pandemic, there was a lot of ability for people to negotiate jobs and titles and benefits. And I think the tables are being turned a bit now. There’s a lot more layoffs, and so on and so forth. So $100,000 used to be like the gold standard of success. Oh, my gosh, I’m a six figure earner, I am essentially, Oprah, I’m up. I’m making all the money in the world. But if you live in pretty much any city now $100,000 Isn’t what used to be, especially coming from, say New York City or San Francisco, in particular. So I would love to know, Melissa, what is the net worth, you need to be making to be considered wealthy?

 

Melissa Huston  21:02  

Well, the last time I looked at the statistics, the high net worth earner would have a cumulative pot of money, like whether it’s fluid or not fluid, I’m not gonna get into all the detail, but your net worth would be $10 million, that would put you in the high percentage category, right? I think the top 10% is $1 million in assets. So this is, you know, it can feel a little discouraging, especially with what’s going on right now. It’s absolutely crazy. So understanding though, that recessions are a normal part of the economy, recessions come and go, they typically come every 10 to 15 years, the recession won’t be permanent, this is just a blip in the economic cycle. And knowing that you’re doing everything you can to ensure that your business is going to be there for the long term. And coming out of this is really the main focus of the next couple of months or next couple of quarters, depending on how long this lasts. And then you can start or unless you’re doing really, really well in your business during a recession, because that happens, too. You can start working towards putting that money away to attain that kind of wealth that you want to create. But you have to understand what the biggest money secret is. of the wealthy. Do you know what it is? Assets? No, no, yes, yes. And no. Yes. And no. I mean, assets are fantastic at getting your money working for you. So it’s, yes, yes. So putting your money into assets that are going to appreciate, but also that are going to make money for you. Right? So instead of going out and buying, you know, that handbag or, or that car or that bigger house, or whatever it is that you’re looking for, um, you can start putting your money into appreciable assets. So it’s whether the stock market or rental property or anything that’s going to start generating income for you in return is really ideal.

 

Emily Merrell  23:14  

Basically, not a boat. Just not a boat.

 

Melissa Huston  23:17  

No, a boat. A boat is better than a car, boat and appreciate Yeah, they depreciate at a slower rate than a car but they still depreciate. So you’re absolutely right. You know you want to you want to unless you’re renting the boat out.

 

Emily Merrell  23:32  

Yes, that’s true. That’s true unless you’re being with it. Or Wow, yeah, that’s a good point. My sister has a van like a band life thing and she rents it out she rents it out for like 400 bucks a night and it’s definitely amazing to see her like building that yeah, you’re so smart making it work for her but yes, exactly the idea of taking your your wealth and putting it into things that appreciate and not just sitting down or under your mattress or in a Chanel handbag, actually network unless you flip Chanel handbags or something

 

Melissa Huston  24:09  

which I read an article but how there’s such a great investment lately or something and I don’t know if I would agree with that. I think that might be a marketing ploy.

 

Emily Merrell  24:19  

Yeah, that sounds like a really good marketing ploy. I mean, I know some people who are obsessed with a Chanel handbag, I used to work in fashion, so I feel like my brain like knows how much stuff really cost. And so I’m

 

Melissa Huston  24:33  

not gonna deny it. I would love to have a Chanel bag, but I’ve got other things I need to get first before I get that Chanel.

 

Emily Merrell  24:39  

Yeah, yeah, not not a priority list, maybe like tires before the Chanel. Okay, so I have one more question for you. And then I’m gonna move us into six best questions. So knowing all of the information that we just talked about, what are your top basic financial means? management tips for small businesses.

 

Melissa Huston  25:03  

So I love this question. Because I work with small businesses, I created the five step cash confident framework. So I have five steps that I clearly map out for business owners, because they don’t teach business owners how to be accountants, I teach them to understand the high level financial information that you need to understand, to run your business and to make it financially viable and successful and to be around for years to come. So I highly encourage people to download that free five step, confident framework that I have.

 

Emily Merrell  25:39  

Wonderful, I think that’s a great place to start for everyone. And, you know, for individuals that are listening, how can they learn more about you? And what’s coming up in your life?

 

Melissa Huston  25:50  

Yeah, so you can go to she means profit.com. And that is my main website, where I’ve got the blog, I’ve got a podcast, and a YouTube channel by the same name. And it’s tons of information there to help business owners create the most profitable business that you can create. And I also have a book coming out in May. I’m a Simon and Schuster author. So I’m super excited about that. Yeah, and thank you, and the name is cash confident and entrepreneurs guide to creating a profitable business. And it’s based on the five step cash confident framework that I was talking about it but filled with so much more information in there as well. So I’m excited for that to hit the bookshelves in May of 2023.

 

Emily Merrell  26:36  

We’ll have to talk about doing an event we can support it. Oh, that’d be awesome. We’d love that. That’d be so fun. Well, Miss Melissa, I would like to ask you some fast six questions. I am called 20 questions. I like to ask people a lot of questions. So I had to, I had to I had to narrow it down. I had to stop at six, it would be problematic. So are you ready?

 

Melissa Huston  27:00  

I think I’m ready. I always get nervous for these.

 

Emily Merrell  27:04  

You know, I wish I had like a an air horn or something.

 

Melissa Huston  27:09  

Race for a race.

 

Emily Merrell  27:12  

Okay, my first question is tell us an unknown fun fact about you.

 

Melissa Huston  27:17  

Fun fact, well, I’m an accountant. So.

 

Emily Merrell  27:22  

Well, that’s a good answer right there. So you’re a comedian. Yeah. Yeah, that’s

 

Melissa Huston  27:26  

a very unknown fact is that I’m pretty fun and funny. And I like to joke around and stuff. And I got a new puppy. And yeah, it’s pretty new. Yeah, she’s 11 weeks old. And she is the sweetest little thing. She’s a black lab.

 

Emily Merrell  27:41  

Oh, I love it. So that’s a very fun fact we can get. We love connections at six degrees society. So I want to know who would be a dream person for you to be connected with?

 

Melissa Huston  27:55  

Oh, that’s a good one. I mean, I want to say Oprah, but I feel like everybody says Oprah right. So somebody is on my list is you know, and it’s funny because I’m drawing a blank, but I know I have somebody on my list. Oh, no.

 

Emily Merrell  28:13  

It’s a hard question. I think one of the things here, let me reframe it for you. Whose taxes would you like to do? Your first name

 

Melissa Huston  28:24  

that popped in my head was Donald Trump. Just because I want to get down to the bottom of this. But uh, no, I

 

Emily Merrell  28:33  

just want to know, okay, well, this is we’re gonna answer that one in a creative way. Like you would be very busy. Let’s just say that. Yeah. What show are you currently watching and like can’t stop talking about

 

Melissa Huston  28:48  

shits Creek? Have you watched that? Or is Parsi have because Nene and husband

 

Emily Merrell  28:57  

he doesn’t love it. Like I love it. Like my family. We love it. His family loves it. I think because we love it so much. He’s like anti it a bit more.

 

Melissa Huston  29:06  

Maybe? Yeah,

 

I don’t know. Okay, the rebel.

 

I have watched that show over and over again. I just absolutely adore it.

 

Emily Merrell  29:14  

It’s like comfort food. It just means yes, it is. Yeah, double Yes. favorite character. I mean, I think everyone’s a Steve it isn’t it? Yeah, no, right. Moira is amazing.

 

Melissa Huston  29:29  

Oh my gosh. She does the

 

Emily Merrell  29:31  

wine. It’s phenomenal. That’s so perfectly cast. I cried hysterically. Like reunion thing. My sister the the in person reunion too. And she said that was

 

Melissa Huston  29:44  

Wow. Amazing. Big fans over here. I surely hope they do a battle or something.

 

Emily Merrell  29:52  

Feel like it’d be silly of them not to capitalize on that. Yeah. Right. Yeah. They’re not Thinking money. Well, and then what about what book? Are you reading? Or what? Is there a book that you always recommend? Besides yourself? Yeah.