Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: I went from $50 in my bank account and struggling for groceries to closing 150 deals in a year and cracking the code on why sales reps fail.
Speaker: I teach you how to avoid the mistakes I made and bring in the top solar dogs of the industry to let you in on the secrets of generating more leads, falling up like a pro, and closing more deals.
Speaker: What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
Speaker: A solopreneur is a new breed of solopro that is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve mastery, and you are about to become one.
Speaker: Hey, solopreneurs.
Speaker: Today, we're going to talk about some important financial principles that every solopreneur professional should know.
Speaker: Whether you are new to the industry, whether you experienced, some of these you may know, some of them you might not have any idea.
Speaker: Some might be considered basic, but some, they took me a long time to learn.
Speaker: So hopefully you are managing your money well, but if not, then especially this episode is for you.
Speaker: Hey, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker: My name is Taylor Armstrong.
Speaker: We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals.
Speaker: and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry.
Speaker: Some of you know, I recently got back from Sardinia, Italy.
Speaker: I was out there over the last week for Jen's Bunnell's Momentum.
Speaker: It was like a couples retreat type thing.
Speaker: Had a great time.
Speaker: Definitely recommend Jens's programs, courses.
Speaker: I'm actually going to one next month, but he just really helps you see things in a different perspective and really unlock some things in the mind that I think are just as important, if not more, than all the sales skills we can learn and all the techniques, ninjury, all that stuff.
Speaker: Just important to master what's going on
Speaker: up in the head.
Speaker: So if you would like to join me at that, hit me up.
Speaker: It's Jen's, I think it's Momentum Retreat.
Speaker: It's going on in Utah, October 17th through the 20th.
Speaker: But anyways, that part of what
Speaker: I thought was valuable at this couples retreat that we were at in Italy is we were around some very high level people, very wealthy people.
Speaker: I think Kiv mastered the financial game, mastered the money part of it.
Speaker: And it just got me thinking how important it is to not only make the money, but also manage it and also know how you're investing it.
Speaker: And know how to not be broke, constantly broke, because there's so many people in the solar industry, I'm sure you've seen them, where they make all this money, but they're still broke.
Speaker: They still don't have a lot to their name because they just spend it, spend it, spend it.
Speaker: And I know there's something to be said for people that are broke because they generally get out and hustle more because they have to replenish that money.
Speaker: But rather than being broke yourself or telling your reps to spend all their money, why not teach them how to invest it, how to be a good steward of that money and how to multiply it.
Speaker: because so many people on solar aren't doing it.
Speaker: So if you are currently investing, great.
Speaker: And just to preface this episode, I am not, I wouldn't say I've mastered the money part of it.
Speaker: I know there's
Speaker: guys that have way more investments than I do.
Speaker: There's guys in solar that have made multiple millions, that have huge real estate portfolios, et cetera.
Speaker: So I'm not there yet, but I think I have done some basic things correct.
Speaker: And hopefully, especially if you're struggling with money, I think there's some things that you could take from this episode.
Speaker: Okay, so today we're going to get into four things you should be doing.
Speaker: four important principles that you should be applying and also teaching your reps to apply because nothing discourages people more in solar when they're broke.
Speaker: And I think that's why people quit solar.
Speaker: They can't overcome the ups and downs of the solar coaster.
Speaker: and they're not managing their money very wisely, they get stressed and they leave to another industry.
Speaker: Okay, so let's jump into these four principles.
Speaker: Would love to hear your thoughts or comments.
Speaker: If you have principles, things you're doing that are more useful, that have helped reps, maybe on your team or maybe the manager would love to hear them.
Speaker: But I'm going to get into four things that I've done that have been invaluable to me in my solar career.
Speaker: Okay, so the first one is
Speaker: Well, I guess just to preface even before number one, everyone should have their LLC set up.
Speaker: Everyone should have a good tax guy, a good accountant.
Speaker: Hit me up if you need recommendations for that.
Speaker: But you should have some basic things done.
Speaker: You should have the business registered set up.
Speaker: LLC created a business bank account.
Speaker: A business credit card would definitely recommend.
Speaker: Get in the habit of putting all your business expenses on that same business credit card and using something like QuickBooks, keeping track of your receipts, your expenses.
Speaker: So just very basic.
Speaker: Everyone should be doing this.
Speaker: And if that's not basic to you, then definitely...
Speaker: read some books.
Speaker: There's some great books from Tony Robbins.
Speaker: There's some great tax books on the spot.
Speaker: I'm drawing a blank, but hit me up if you want recommendations for books to dig a little deeper on these basic things.
Speaker: But hopefully if you're listening to this, you already have those things set up.
Speaker: Okay, so step number one.
Speaker: A basic financial principle is just pay yourself first.
Speaker: And it's easier said than done.
Speaker: So many reps are just making the money.
Speaker: They're spending it.
Speaker: They're wondering where that money is going.
Speaker: But pretty much every financial professional you talk to, every book you read,
Speaker: including all the Tony Robbins books.
Speaker: He has some great books.
Speaker: Money Master the Game.
Speaker: Unshakeable is another one.
Speaker: I think he just came out with a third one.
Speaker: Great books.
Speaker: You can get them on.
Speaker: I think a lot of them are actually available on Spotify, included with your Spotify subscription if you have that.
Speaker: So check some of those out.
Speaker: But Tony, he talks about pretty in-depth this principle of just getting in the habit of paying yourself first.
Speaker: And what he recommends is just have these things happen automatically and
Speaker: And there's actually ways you can set up to where when you get paid, and it gets a little more complicated, admittedly, if you are on commission like us, but you can set up to where a certain percentage of your paycheck automatically goes in to a separate account.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And Tony, he recommends just having at least to start out with 10%, no matter what, just go to a separate account or being set aside, however you want to do it so you can pay yourself first.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Because that's the biggest mistake most people make is when they're trying to invest, when they're trying to save, they're just doing it maybe when they get a bigger paycheck and
Speaker: They're doing it maybe when they remember.
Speaker: But if you can get the habit of taking 10%, if not 20%, Tony recommends 20 if you can, just having it automatically, no matter what the paycheck is, 20%, 20% going directly to a separate account and paying yourself first.
Speaker: So some of you already know that I run my own door-to-door sales team here in San Diego.
Speaker: And as we are gearing up for the summer, I realized if we do the same thing we always did, we're going to get the same results.
Speaker: But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
Speaker: Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout.
Speaker: But it's not a door knocking app.
Speaker: It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
Speaker: It shows us who has previously applied for solar but later canceled the deal, who has moved in recently, and even how much electricity the homes are using in a given neighborhood.
Speaker: It's been working for a lot of teams across the country and now I'm on board too.
Speaker: I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego so I decided to partner up.
Speaker: But I told them, hey, if I'm going to talk about SolarScout on my show, you need to give my listeners a great deal.
Speaker: And they did.
Speaker: So go to solarscout.app forward slash Taylor and book a demo with them and you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up.
Speaker: That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
Speaker: Okay, back to the show.
Speaker: Okay, and you should have, you know, as 1099 people, which most of us are 1099 independent contractors, you definitely need to do this as well, have money set aside for taxes.
Speaker: I've learned this the hard way many times, still on a payment plan to the IRS where I was not doing this.
Speaker: So, you know, if you want to be super safe with that, I would set aside even 25% on top of that 20%, you know, for taxes.
Speaker: So if you're doing that already, that's what, 45% of your incoming paychecks should be set aside.
Speaker: Okay, so that's the ideal thing to do.
Speaker: And if you want to take it to the next level, you can separate even more percentages.
Speaker: Maybe you have 10% going to this investment, 10% going to, say, self-improvement, self-development, should be investing in yourself.
Speaker: But yeah, the basic principles here is just pay yourself first.
Speaker: So number two.
Speaker: Number two is just set up a emergency fund.
Speaker: And it blows me away how many people do not have a basic emergency fund.
Speaker: And I will say this is saved my bacon many times where I haven't had commissions come through in a while and had to dip into that emergency fund.
Speaker: Luckily, it's been a while.
Speaker: I've had to do that, but especially in people that are newer to commission jobs, that are newer to solar, make sure you set up an emergency fund where it's three to six months savings set aside to where if you don't get paid for two, three months, you're fine.
Speaker: You can, worst case, you can dip into that emergency fund.
Speaker: And what that will allow you to do is just not sell desperate.
Speaker: Hey, once you have that emergency fund set up, you don't need to have the commission breath.
Speaker: Because it should allow you to have the freedom to where if you're not getting a sell, if you're not seeing an install come through, it's not the end of the world because you have that set aside.
Speaker: And just recently, even I had a rep that I thought was, he's been getting sales, been doing well, but he hit me up for some gas money because he literally couldn't make it out to his area.
Speaker: So you don't want to be that rep.
Speaker: No judgments.
Speaker: I have been that rep, but you want money set aside so you don't have to ask for gas money.
Speaker: You don't have to beg for food, whatever.
Speaker: And you don't have to sell with commission breath.
Speaker: You can just go out there, you know, sell without having to have that desperation.
Speaker: And then once you have, as far as setting up the account, I would put it in a high yield savings account.
Speaker: Hey, one of my guys actually introduced me to a account.
Speaker: It's called Wealthfront, which as far as I know, I think it's the highest, has like the highest APY, annual percentage yield of like the high yield accounts has like five to 5.5%.
Speaker: per year, which is really good.
Speaker: I haven't seen one better than that.
Speaker: So I will actually include that link.
Speaker: It has a little link where I can refer you to it.
Speaker: And I think it gives you an extra boost on your APY if you want to use our link for that.
Speaker: But yeah, I would send it to that.
Speaker: And then you're compounding that money too.
Speaker: I'm making sure it's not being lost to inflation.
Speaker: I guess that's step number two.
Speaker: Number three, just diversify your investments and get used to investing in the boring things.
Speaker: Hey, there's so many.
Speaker: I remember when crypto was going crazy, when you had all these NFTs and, you know, the apes, the...
Speaker: All the crazy low cap crypto stuff.
Speaker: And I felt victim to some of those.
Speaker: I made some crypto investments.
Speaker: I invested in some of these like they're like the low cap coins or something for crypto.
Speaker: And the stuff that was super high risk, lost a decent amount of money in that.
Speaker: And so, you know, it can be good, but especially when it comes to some of these newer things, all the NFTs, all this crazy.
Speaker: I just recently saw a meme where Justin Bieber had bought a NFT for 1.1 million in that same NFT.
Speaker: I think it's one of the boring ape ones or something.
Speaker: The same NFT is worth, I think it was like 40 grand is all.
Speaker: So think of that down from 1 million down to like 40 grand.
Speaker: Most people that that'd be devastating.
Speaker: Justin Bieber is probably like whatever, but yeah, just make sure you get used to investing in the boring things.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Just open your Robin hood account, invest in,
Speaker: like the big companies, Apple, Netflix, Microsoft, Tesla, Airbnb, these things are all pretty much guaranteed that they're going to continue increasing and give you solid returns.
Speaker: Okay, not crazy returns, but solid returns and especially...
Speaker: You know, it also depends on your stage of life.
Speaker: Maybe you can afford to be a little riskier if you're younger.
Speaker: Just starting out in solar, hey, maybe be a little riskier.
Speaker: But myself, I got three kids now getting up there.
Speaker: I mean, I'm 31 at the time of this.
Speaker: So I'm not like crazy old, but I can't be as risky as I once was.
Speaker: You know, I got mortgage to pay.
Speaker: I got kids, got mouths to feed.
Speaker: So, hey, got to measure my risks a little bit more than I used to.
Speaker: But yeah, diversify the investments and get used to investing in the boring things.
Speaker: You know, once you've set up the money that you're paying yourself first with, you can use that money to invest and stay broke.
Speaker: But stay broke because you're investing that money.
Speaker: You don't want to just have 100 grand sitting in a savings account.
Speaker: You want to get your emergency fund.
Speaker: And then from there, you want to invest as much as you can.
Speaker: Hey, and then the fourth one, and we're not going, this is just, again, kind of a financial basics and just kind of some thoughts and reflections I have had, some things that have helped me.
Speaker: So should go without saying, but I am not a financial professional.
Speaker: This is not investment advice, all that stuff, right?
Speaker: So proceed with caution.
Speaker: But the fourth thing that I have done that I think everyone should be doing is utilizing credit, like credit cards.
Speaker: Everyone should have credit cards and buying as much as you can on the credit cards.
Speaker: I know if you're following like Dave Ramsey, there's people that bash on the credit cards.
Speaker: But in my opinion, as long as you're paying off that balance, you're getting some pretty awesome rewards for money that you are already spending.
Speaker: So I think the argument that Dave Ramsey, some of these other people make is if you're irresponsible, of course, should go without saying.
Speaker: If you're spending, if you're keeping a balance on your credit cards, not paying it back every month, then that is just a massive mistake because you're putting a financial anchor on yourself where you're having to pay these massive interest rates.
Speaker: But as long as you're responsible with it, and then as long as you're not spending outrageously more than you would have been spending.
Speaker: So I guess there is an argument for that.
Speaker: Like, oh, I have this credit card, these benefits.
Speaker: I'm going to go out and spend money that I wouldn't have been spending.
Speaker: But as long as you can keep it within reason,
Speaker: and pretty much keep the same lifestyle, pay the same bills, not like buy way more just because you have the credit card and are like justifying because you get some extra benefits.
Speaker: It's going to be way smarter, in my opinion, to have these credit cards because you're getting the points.
Speaker: You can use it for redeem for travel.
Speaker: You can just get statement credits for them.
Speaker: All sorts of things.
Speaker: And some credit cards I would recommend getting to start out.
Speaker: If you're new to this, I think the Chase Freedom Unlimited solid one.
Speaker: Everyone should start with that one if you don't have a credit card yet.
Speaker: Another one that's really good.
Speaker: I think the second one I got was the Costco credit card.
Speaker: Especially if you go to Costco.
Speaker: I mean, this thing gives you 4% back on gas.
Speaker: You get money back for when you go to Costco.
Speaker: So that's a super solid one.
Speaker: You should have the business credit card.
Speaker: I just get the Chase Inc.
Speaker: business card.
Speaker: Gives you some solid benefits that you can use in conjunction with the other Chase cards.
Speaker: Apple credit card, that's a good one.
Speaker: I like that with Apple Pay.
Speaker: I think it gives you 2% back on all your Apple Pay purchases, which is good.
Speaker: Okay, so hit me up.
Speaker: Again, I don't want to get super deep in this.
Speaker: I know this could make some people fall asleep.
Speaker: So I'm trying not to turn this in.
Speaker: Some boring financial lecture, but I would love to hear your thoughts.
Speaker: Do you like hearing more of the financial advice?
Speaker: It is important to have, I think, discussions about the financial side of solar.
Speaker: And if you are running a team, if you are running a company, I would recommend having trainings about these things here and there.
Speaker: There's so many people that are just not educated.
Speaker: We don't learn these things in school.
Speaker: And a lot of things that I assume most people will know, sometimes they don't.
Speaker: So I think especially if you're running a team, maybe you're a company owner, wherever you're at, make it a point to have trainings on some of these financial topics.
Speaker: We used to do a Finance Friday podcast.
Speaker: at one of my previous companies where every Friday we would just have like a financial discussion.
Speaker: We would have, you know, someone come on on Zoom or someone come to a guest training.
Speaker: where they would talk about investing, credit cards, all of these basic things, a lot of the things I've touched on today in this podcast.
Speaker: So we'd love to hear your thoughts.
Speaker: Let me know if you like hearing about topics such as these.
Speaker: And also send this to someone that maybe they're broke, maybe they're mismanaging their money.
Speaker: Send this to them and let's help them get their finances in order.
Speaker: So thanks for tuning in the podcast today.
Speaker: Would love to hear your suggestions for guests and upcoming topics.
Speaker: And we'll see on the next one.
Speaker: Hope you crush it this week and you get lots of sales and grow your business.
Speaker: Talk to you later.
Speaker: What's up, solopreneurs?
Speaker: Hope you enjoyed the episode.
Speaker: Before you run out and start selling more solar yourself, wanted to let you know about an exciting new cheat sheet we created specifically for you in mind.
Speaker: One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
Speaker: What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
Speaker: You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
Speaker: So what we've done, we created the top 10 most downloaded, most listened to, and I would say widely accepted, most useful podcasts that we've done here on Solarpreneur.
Speaker: We put them together all in one sheet so you can go, you can hit the ground running, especially if you're new and you do not want to not have this sheet.
Speaker: So go download it right now.
Speaker: It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
Speaker: Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
Speaker: We will have that in the show notes.
Speaker: Go download it right now.
Speaker: And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
Speaker: That's going to show you how.
Speaker: So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.
