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4 Financial Secrets For All Solar Pros
103 Plays1 year ago
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The SOLARPRENEUR podcast is here to help you close more deals in the solar industry, generate more leads and referrals, and hopefully, have a much better time and situation.
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Transcript
From Financial Struggles to Solar Success
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Solarpreneur Podcast, where we teach you to take your solar business to the next level.
00:00:08
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:00:10
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.
Teaching and Learning from Industry Leaders
00:00:19
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.
00:00:31
Speaker
What is a solopreneur, you might ask?
00:00:33
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.
Financial Principles for Solopreneurs
00:00:41
Speaker
Hey, solopreneurs.
00:00:42
Speaker
Today, we're going to talk about some important financial principles that every solopreneur professional should know.
00:00:48
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.
00:00:56
Speaker
Some might be considered basic, but some, they took me a long time to learn.
00:01:01
Speaker
So hopefully you are managing your money well, but if not, then especially this episode is for you.
00:01:07
Speaker
Hey, welcome to the podcast.
00:01:09
Speaker
My name is Taylor Armstrong.
00:01:10
Speaker
We're here to help you close more deals, generate more leads and referrals.
00:01:14
Speaker
and hopefully have a much better time in the solar industry.
Insights from a Couples Retreat
00:01:18
Speaker
Some of you know, I recently got back from Sardinia, Italy.
00:01:22
Speaker
I was out there over the last week for Jen's Bunnell's Momentum.
00:01:29
Speaker
It was like a couples retreat type thing.
00:01:30
Speaker
Had a great time.
00:01:32
Speaker
Definitely recommend Jens's programs, courses.
00:01:37
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.
00:01:56
Speaker
Just important to master what's going on
00:01:58
Speaker
up in the head.
00:02:00
Speaker
So if you would like to join me at that, hit me up.
00:02:03
Speaker
It's Jen's, I think it's Momentum Retreat.
00:02:08
Speaker
It's going on in Utah, October 17th through the 20th.
Earning, Managing, and Investing
00:02:12
Speaker
But anyways, that part of what
00:02:16
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.
00:02:25
Speaker
I think Kiv mastered the financial game, mastered the money part of it.
00:02:29
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.
00:02:39
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.
00:02:49
Speaker
They still don't have a lot to their name because they just spend it, spend it, spend it.
00:02:54
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.
00:03:01
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.
00:03:14
Speaker
because so many people on solar aren't doing it.
00:03:17
Speaker
So if you are currently investing, great.
00:03:21
Speaker
And just to preface this episode, I am not, I wouldn't say I've mastered the money part of it.
00:03:28
Speaker
I know there's
00:03:29
Speaker
guys that have way more investments than I do.
00:03:32
Speaker
There's guys in solar that have made multiple millions, that have huge real estate portfolios, et cetera.
Essential Financial Principles for Solar Professionals
00:03:38
Speaker
So I'm not there yet, but I think I have done some basic things correct.
00:03:43
Speaker
And hopefully, especially if you're struggling with money, I think there's some things that you could take from this episode.
00:03:49
Speaker
Okay, so today we're going to get into four things you should be doing.
00:03:54
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.
00:04:06
Speaker
And I think that's why people quit solar.
00:04:08
Speaker
They can't overcome the ups and downs of the solar coaster.
00:04:12
Speaker
and they're not managing their money very wisely, they get stressed and they leave to another industry.
00:04:17
Speaker
Okay, so let's jump into these four principles.
00:04:20
Speaker
Would love to hear your thoughts or comments.
00:04:22
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.
00:04:30
Speaker
But I'm going to get into four things that I've done that have been invaluable to me in my solar career.
Business Setup and Financial Tracking
00:04:37
Speaker
Okay, so the first one is
00:04:39
Speaker
Well, I guess just to preface even before number one, everyone should have their LLC set up.
00:04:45
Speaker
Everyone should have a good tax guy, a good accountant.
00:04:49
Speaker
Hit me up if you need recommendations for that.
00:04:52
Speaker
But you should have some basic things done.
00:04:54
Speaker
You should have the business registered set up.
00:04:56
Speaker
LLC created a business bank account.
00:04:59
Speaker
A business credit card would definitely recommend.
00:05:02
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.
00:05:12
Speaker
So just very basic.
00:05:14
Speaker
Everyone should be doing this.
00:05:15
Speaker
And if that's not basic to you, then definitely...
00:05:19
Speaker
read some books.
00:05:20
Speaker
There's some great books from Tony Robbins.
00:05:23
Speaker
There's some great tax books on the spot.
00:05:27
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.
00:05:33
Speaker
But hopefully if you're listening to this, you already have those things set up.
00:05:36
Speaker
Okay, so step number one.
Paying Yourself First
00:05:38
Speaker
A basic financial principle is just pay yourself first.
00:05:42
Speaker
And it's easier said than done.
00:05:44
Speaker
So many reps are just making the money.
00:05:46
Speaker
They're spending it.
00:05:47
Speaker
They're wondering where that money is going.
00:05:49
Speaker
But pretty much every financial professional you talk to, every book you read,
00:05:54
Speaker
including all the Tony Robbins books.
00:05:55
Speaker
He has some great books.
00:05:56
Speaker
Money Master the Game.
00:05:58
Speaker
Unshakeable is another one.
00:05:59
Speaker
I think he just came out with a third one.
00:06:02
Speaker
Great books.
00:06:03
Speaker
You can get them on.
00:06:04
Speaker
I think a lot of them are actually available on Spotify, included with your Spotify subscription if you have that.
00:06:10
Speaker
So check some of those out.
00:06:11
Speaker
But Tony, he talks about pretty in-depth this principle of just getting in the habit of paying yourself first.
00:06:18
Speaker
And what he recommends is just have these things happen automatically and
00:06:22
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.
00:06:40
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:41
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.
00:06:55
Speaker
Okay.
00:06:55
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
00:07:05
Speaker
They're doing it maybe when they remember.
00:07:07
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.
00:07:24
Speaker
So some of you already know that I run my own door-to-door sales team here in San Diego.
00:07:29
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.
00:07:35
Speaker
But if I want to increase my deal flow, I need to do something different to get an advantage.
00:07:40
Speaker
Then we discovered an app called Solar Scout.
00:07:43
Speaker
But it's not a door knocking app.
00:07:45
Speaker
It's a data platform that shows us who is likely to go solar in our market.
00:07:49
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.
00:07:59
Speaker
It's been working for a lot of teams across the country and now I'm on board too.
00:08:03
Speaker
I'm going to be one of the first to use SolarScout in San Diego so I decided to partner up.
00:08:07
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.
00:08:12
Speaker
And they did.
00:08:14
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.
00:08:23
Speaker
That's solarscout.app forward slash Taylor.
00:08:26
Speaker
Okay, back to the show.
00:08:29
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.
00:08:40
Speaker
I've learned this the hard way many times, still on a payment plan to the IRS where I was not doing this.
00:08:47
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.
00:08:56
Speaker
So if you're doing that already, that's what, 45% of your incoming paychecks should be set aside.
00:09:04
Speaker
Okay, so that's the ideal thing to do.
00:09:07
Speaker
And if you want to take it to the next level, you can separate even more percentages.
00:09:10
Speaker
Maybe you have 10% going to this investment, 10% going to, say, self-improvement, self-development, should be investing in yourself.
00:09:20
Speaker
But yeah, the basic principles here is just pay yourself first.
00:09:24
Speaker
So number
Importance of an Emergency Fund
00:09:25
Speaker
two.
00:09:25
Speaker
Number two is just set up a emergency fund.
00:09:29
Speaker
And it blows me away how many people do not have a basic emergency fund.
00:09:33
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.
00:09:44
Speaker
Luckily, it's been a while.
00:09:45
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.
00:10:00
Speaker
You can, worst case, you can dip into that emergency fund.
00:10:02
Speaker
And what that will allow you to do is just not sell desperate.
00:10:06
Speaker
Hey, once you have that emergency fund set up, you don't need to have the commission breath.
00:10:12
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.
00:10:22
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.
00:10:39
Speaker
So you don't want to be that rep.
00:10:41
Speaker
No judgments.
00:10:42
Speaker
I have been that rep, but you want money set aside so you don't have to ask for gas money.
00:10:48
Speaker
You don't have to beg for food, whatever.
00:10:51
Speaker
And you don't have to sell with commission breath.
00:10:53
Speaker
You can just go out there, you know, sell without having to have that desperation.
00:10:58
Speaker
And then once you have, as far as setting up the account, I would put it in a high yield savings account.
00:11:06
Speaker
Hey, one of my guys actually introduced me to a account.
00:11:10
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%.
00:11:25
Speaker
per year, which is really good.
00:11:27
Speaker
I haven't seen one better than that.
00:11:29
Speaker
So I will actually include that link.
00:11:31
Speaker
It has a little link where I can refer you to it.
00:11:35
Speaker
And I think it gives you an extra boost on your APY if you want to use our link for that.
00:11:40
Speaker
But yeah, I would send it to that.
00:11:42
Speaker
And then you're compounding that money too.
00:11:45
Speaker
I'm making sure it's not being lost to inflation.
00:11:47
Speaker
I guess that's step number two.
Investment Diversification Strategies
00:11:49
Speaker
Number three, just diversify your investments and get used to investing in the boring things.
00:11:56
Speaker
Hey, there's so many.
00:11:57
Speaker
I remember when crypto was going crazy, when you had all these NFTs and, you know, the apes, the...
00:12:07
Speaker
All the crazy low cap crypto stuff.
00:12:10
Speaker
And I felt victim to some of those.
00:12:14
Speaker
I made some crypto investments.
00:12:17
Speaker
I invested in some of these like they're like the low cap coins or something for crypto.
00:12:22
Speaker
And the stuff that was super high risk, lost a decent amount of money in that.
00:12:28
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.
00:12:36
Speaker
I just recently saw a meme where Justin Bieber had bought a NFT for 1.1 million in that same NFT.
00:12:46
Speaker
I think it's one of the boring ape ones or something.
00:12:49
Speaker
The same NFT is worth, I think it was like 40 grand is all.
00:12:54
Speaker
So think of that down from 1 million down to like 40 grand.
00:12:59
Speaker
Most people that that'd be devastating.
00:13:02
Speaker
Justin Bieber is probably like whatever, but yeah, just make sure you get used to investing in the boring things.
00:13:09
Speaker
Okay.
00:13:10
Speaker
Just open your Robin hood account, invest in,
00:13:14
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.
00:13:27
Speaker
Okay, not crazy returns, but solid returns and especially...
00:13:33
Speaker
You know, it also depends on your stage of life.
00:13:35
Speaker
Maybe you can afford to be a little riskier if you're younger.
00:13:40
Speaker
Just starting out in solar, hey, maybe be a little riskier.
00:13:44
Speaker
But myself, I got three kids now getting up there.
00:13:49
Speaker
I mean, I'm 31 at the time of this.
00:13:51
Speaker
So I'm not like crazy old, but I can't be as risky as I once was.
00:13:57
Speaker
You know, I got mortgage to pay.
00:13:58
Speaker
I got kids, got mouths to feed.
00:14:01
Speaker
So, hey, got to measure my risks a little bit more than I used to.
00:14:04
Speaker
But yeah, diversify the investments and get used to investing in the boring things.
00:14:09
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.
00:14:16
Speaker
But stay broke because you're investing that money.
00:14:19
Speaker
You don't want to just have 100 grand sitting in a savings account.
00:14:23
Speaker
You want to get your emergency fund.
00:14:25
Speaker
And then from there, you want to invest as much as you can.
00:14:30
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
Responsible Credit Card Use
00:14:41
Speaker
helped me.
00:14:41
Speaker
So should go without saying, but I am not a financial professional.
00:14:47
Speaker
This is not investment advice, all that stuff, right?
00:14:51
Speaker
So proceed with caution.
00:14:54
Speaker
But the fourth thing that I have done that I think everyone should be doing is utilizing credit, like credit cards.
00:15:03
Speaker
Everyone should have credit cards and buying as much as you can on the credit cards.
00:15:07
Speaker
I know if you're following like Dave Ramsey, there's people that bash on the credit cards.
00:15:12
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.
00:15:22
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.
00:15:32
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.
00:15:47
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.
00:15:55
Speaker
So I guess there is an argument for that.
00:15:56
Speaker
Like, oh, I have this credit card, these benefits.
00:15:59
Speaker
I'm going to go out and spend money that I wouldn't have been spending.
00:16:02
Speaker
But as long as you can keep it within reason,
00:16:05
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.
00:16:16
Speaker
It's going to be way smarter, in my opinion, to have these credit cards because you're getting the points.
00:16:23
Speaker
You can use it for redeem for travel.
00:16:25
Speaker
You can just get statement credits for them.
00:16:29
Speaker
All sorts of things.
00:16:30
Speaker
And some credit cards I would recommend getting to start out.
00:16:34
Speaker
If you're new to this, I think the Chase Freedom Unlimited solid one.
00:16:39
Speaker
Everyone should start with that one if you don't have a credit card yet.
00:16:42
Speaker
Another one that's really good.
00:16:44
Speaker
I think the second one I got was the Costco credit card.
00:16:48
Speaker
Especially if you go to Costco.
00:16:49
Speaker
I mean, this thing gives you 4% back on gas.
00:16:53
Speaker
You get money back for when you go to Costco.
00:16:57
Speaker
So that's a super solid one.
00:16:58
Speaker
You should have the business credit card.
00:17:01
Speaker
I just get the Chase Inc.
00:17:02
Speaker
business card.
00:17:04
Speaker
Gives you some solid benefits that you can use in conjunction with the other Chase cards.
00:17:10
Speaker
Apple credit card, that's a good one.
00:17:12
Speaker
I like that with Apple Pay.
00:17:13
Speaker
I think it gives you 2% back on all your Apple Pay purchases, which is good.
00:17:18
Speaker
Okay, so hit me up.
00:17:20
Speaker
Again, I don't want to get super deep in this.
00:17:23
Speaker
I know this could make some people fall asleep.
00:17:26
Speaker
So I'm trying not to turn this in.
00:17:29
Speaker
Some boring financial lecture, but I would love to hear your thoughts.
00:17:33
Speaker
Do you like hearing more of the financial advice?
00:17:35
Speaker
It is important to have, I think, discussions about the financial side of solar.
Incorporating Financial Training in Teams
00:17:42
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.
00:17:49
Speaker
There's so many people that are just not educated.
00:17:51
Speaker
We don't learn these things in school.
00:17:54
Speaker
And a lot of things that I assume most people will know, sometimes they don't.
00:18:00
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.
00:18:10
Speaker
We used to do a Finance Friday podcast.
00:18:13
Speaker
at one of my previous companies where every Friday we would just have like a financial discussion.
00:18:19
Speaker
We would have, you know, someone come on on Zoom or someone come to a guest training.
00:18:24
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.
00:18:34
Speaker
So we'd love to hear your thoughts.
00:18:36
Speaker
Let me know if you like hearing about topics such as these.
00:18:42
Speaker
And also send this to someone that maybe they're broke, maybe they're mismanaging their money.
00:18:48
Speaker
Send this to them and let's help them get their finances in order.
00:18:53
Speaker
So thanks for tuning in the podcast today.
00:18:55
Speaker
Would love to hear your suggestions for guests and upcoming topics.
00:19:00
Speaker
And we'll see on the next one.
00:19:02
Speaker
Hope you crush it this week and you get lots of sales and grow your business.
00:19:06
Speaker
Talk to you later.
00:19:08
Speaker
What's up, solopreneurs?
00:19:09
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed the episode.
00:19:11
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.
Top Podcast Episodes Cheat Sheet
00:19:22
Speaker
One of the top questions I get asked on Instagram, on Facebook, by our listeners is, Taylor, where should I start?
00:19:29
Speaker
What episodes should I listen to in the podcast?
00:19:32
Speaker
You got too many podcasts, man, because now we have over 200 episodes.
00:19:37
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.
00:19:50
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.
00:19:59
Speaker
So go download it right now.
00:20:00
Speaker
It's going to be at top10.solarpreneurs.com.
00:20:04
Speaker
Again, that's top10, the number 10,.solarpreneurs.com.
00:20:09
Speaker
Don't forget the S on solarpreneurs.
00:20:12
Speaker
We will have that in the show notes.
00:20:13
Speaker
Go download it right now.
00:20:15
Speaker
And especially if you have not listened to them, go listen to them and you can re-listen to them.
00:20:21
Speaker
That's going to show you how.
00:20:22
Speaker
So go download it and we'll see you on the other side.