Here’s How We Help Our Clients Manage Their Creative Businesses /  by Paco de Leon

A Christmas Carol tells the story of Ebenezer Scrooge’s redemption. Our main character, Scrooge, starts as a cranky old man who hoards his wealth, treats his employees like garbage, and bums people out with his bad vibes and lack of generosity. Throughout the story, we bear witness to Scrooge’s transformation. He is visited by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and what is yet to come. These spirit guides help Scrooge slowly gain clarity on who he has been and wants to become.

Through these visions, Scrooge recognizes the error of his ways, and by the end, old Ebenezer finds the willingness to change. If you haven’t read Charles Dickens's novella, I’m sure you’ve seen some version of it. Some old 90’s sitcoms have used this same framework to help the hero of a story emerge on the other side a better, more aware version of themselves.

Weirdly, the work we do at Hell Yeah Bookkeeping is a bit like this story. Thankfully, our clients aren’t cranky old misers. Instead, they tend to be insightful, creative business owners. And they need our help to become better, more aware captains of their company. In perfect conditions, we take our clients through a similar, but less dire, Scoorge-like journey where the ghost of business-past, business-present, and business-future all help our heroes have clarity and inspire a change to be better business owners.

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What My Clients Taught Me About Pricing and Building a Sustainable Business /  by Paco de Leon

Here are all the lessons I’ve learned from all the business owners with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working. They helped me build my sustainable business first by being paying customers, but I’ve also had the unique viewpoint of watching them grow their businesses from the inside out. Watching and playing a tiny, supporting role in other people’s success has been really fun.

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What Is In Store For 2024? My Predictions and Outlook On Creative Businesses In the New Year /  by Paco de Leon

Here are my predictions for what’s in store in 2024 and what that means for creative businesses. They’re a result of reflecting on the last year, observing larger trends and chatting with folks across various creative industries, from creators who make money on social media to to small business owners, artists, and folks in the podcasting industry. A lot of this may be anecdotal, but some of these patterns are worth paying attention to. Let’s dig in.

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What Playing in a Band Taught Me About Making Money /  by Paco de Leon

I spent most of my young adulthood and late teenage years playing in bands with my friends. But it all started with a simple question.

One day, a classmate who eventually became one of my best friends casually asked, “Do you want to start a band?” Surprised and intrigued, I asked her what instrument she played. She said something about taking piano lessons as a kid.

“Well, do you want to learn how to play the bass?” I thought about the cheap, $ 40, midnight blue electric bass guitar I begged my dad to buy earlier that year from a stranger selling it on Craigslist. “I have one you could use.”

“Yes,” she said with the kind of confidence reserved for youth, “Definitely,” 

I took the bass to school the next day. As I handed it to my friend, not realizing how this little action would seal our fates and friendship for decades, we agreed to have our first practice later that week on the last day of our junior year of high school.

We’ve played together for years. On and off. And in different projects. We still tinker around to this day. Throughout all the years playing together, we learned our instruments, made lots of mistakes, and even more memories – like the great tequila embargo of 2014.

As the years accumulated, I wondered how playing hundreds of shows and writing countless songs would fit into the bigger picture of my life. Starting a band is a lot like starting a business. 

Even though my constitution will always require playing and making music for the sake of silly art and self-expression, I also learned many invaluable business lessons along the way. Here they are in no particular order.

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The Lazy Person's Guide to Building Wealth (Part 2): Investing for Beginners /  by Paco de Leon

Welcome to part 2 of “The Lazy Person’s Guide to Building Wealth.” If you missed part 1, get caught up here. If you’ve ever been curious about investing in the stock market but are honestly puzzled about how to get started, this guide is for you. If you question whether investing in the stock market is a realm reserved only for Wall Street moguls or the already rich, this guide is also for you. By the end of it, you’ll have everything you need to know to start investing.

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An Open Letter to Buy Now, Pay Later Companies. Your product is like cigarettes for people’s financial lives. /  by Paco de Leon

Dear Buy Now, Pay Later companies,

The path to hell is paved with good intentions.

“Consumers need this,” you say. “We’re giving them options and flexibility in uncertain economic times,” you say. If you shut one eye and squint the other, you may be able to fool yourself into seeing what you want to see. That’s the beauty and the curse of the human mind. You’re asking them if they’d like to be kicked in the crotch or punched in the face. Options!

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The Secret to Managing Money as a Couple: Split the Check /  by Paco de Leon

Navigating the intersection of love and money can be tricky, especially if one partner is more of a spender than the other. There is one method of managing finances that can help every couple find the balance between working towards the same financial goals, while also maintaining some level of autonomy. It’s called “splitting the check.”

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Five Financial Rituals to Adopt in the New Year /  by Paco de Leon

We don’t always get what we give. At least, that’s what the Italian economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto discovered in the 1800s while harvesting peas from his garden. Pareto observed that 80% of the peas came from only 20% of the peapods, demonstrating an unequal relationship between inputs and outputs. Wondering if this pattern would repeat itself in other areas of life, Pareto began to look at different data sets to confirm his findings. 

While this principle might skew and not always hold one hundred percent of the time, the general principle that 80% of effects result from 20% of causes holds. Less than 10% of the population owns 80% of the stock market. Few social media accounts are responsible for most misinformation across platforms. And we’ve recently seen, in a pandemic, that roughly 20% of the most infectious individuals are responsible for 80% of the transmission.

Knowing 80% of your success and results come from only 20% of your efforts; you can apply the 80/20 rule to your financial lives. Here are the five financial rituals you can focus on that will impact results the most. 

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A Black Friday Survival Guide /  by Paco de Leon

The shopping season is here, and it’s coming for your wallet. Not only do we have Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, but this American tradition has also spun off into a string of frenzied buying days. There’s now Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday. Of course, I’m not a monster. I do love a good deal. But it’s hard not to be cynical and critical of our hyper-consumerist society. So for anyone looking to mindfully shop this holiday season, here are some things to consider before venturing out into the wild.

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