Funding provided by The Equifax Foundation is dedicated to helping people Build Financial Capability Because, a single financial opportunity Can change the trajectory of families and communities for generations.

Learn more at Equifax.com/foundation ♪ I've got brand new feeling - I'm Jacqueline Schadeck, and I'm soon to be your favorite certified financial planner.

♪ And I'm feelin' good - My name's Chris Corinthian.

I'm a financial literacy expert and financial coach.

♪ Ready for action - We are a professional powerhouse.

♪ I've got a brand new feeling - So I handle the numbers.

- And I try to see, what is their relationship with money?

- So we meld the two together to give you the most financial empowerment.

♪ And I'm feeling good ♪ Hey (bright upbeat music) - Jacqueline!

- Hey.

- Let's go!

What we got going on today?

- We are headed to go meet our next mentee on the east side of Atlanta.

His name's Bassey, he's 34 years old.

He was recently laid off from his job, so that has pushed him to pursue his passion in being a fitness trainer.

He's been training full-time for a year now, and him and his wife just welcomed a new baby.

- [Chris] Ah, I love it, I love it.

- My name is Bassey Inameti, I'm 34 years old, was working in the tech industry, had a massive layoff at the company that I was at, so it forced me to get into my bag, per se, and utilize the skills that I have that I've acquired over the years.

So with that, I'm 100% in fitness and loving it.

- If there's one thing that we know about entrepreneurship, it's that scared money don't make money.

- Scared money don't make money.

- [Jacqueline] Okay.

- And you gotta pay the cost- - To be the boss.

- To be the boss.

- [Jacqueline] Okay.

- 14, 15, come on, remember your why, remember your why.

Come on.

Good burnout, come on, Pete.

- Good burnout, let's go!

(both clapping) (all laughing) - What's going on with Chris, man?

Nice to meet you.

- Hi, I'm Jacqueline.

- Nice to meet you.

Oh, man, y'all pulled up on me.

- Yeah.

- Pop up more often, please.

- So immediately, I'm laughing, because I'm like, "Did he wear this Millionaire Man hoodie "because he knew we were gonna be talking "about how to get his millions today, "or does he wear that regularly?"

- Manifesting is what we're doing here, right?

Millionaire Man Loading, I love it.

- How long have you guys been working together?

- Ah, dang, what?

- Like August?

- End of August, yeah.

Since we started working out, I was what?

I was like 420, now I'm 340.

- Wow.

- Let's go.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Congrats on that, man.

- 5X.

- Yeah.

- We'll see you tomorrow.

4:00 AM?

- 4:00 AM.

- 4:00 AM?

- Or we can do three.

- Ooh, nah, we gonna stick to four.

We gonna stick to four, man.

- [Bassey] Okay, I love it, man.

- Nice meeting y'all.

- Hey man, nice to meet you.

- Where exactly are we?

- We are at Research & Development.

Some of my favorite equipment is in here.

It's coach Pat's gym.

I mean, he allows me to train here.

- Every new business owner needs proof of concept.

So I like the fact that Bassey didn't just jump out here and go get a loan for his space, and he's taking it piece by piece, and that's what every new business owner should do.

So where do you wanna go from this one year mark?

What do you see for the future?

- I'm wanting a facility like this or bigger, or with more equipment.

I need 12 more StairMasters, I need everything.

I wanna grow, I want the community to be involved.

I got a big, big vision for it.

- I love that, but I also want him to understand that there's numbers attached to everything.

And so we need to get really dialed in on what the numbers are in terms of how much revenue he has coming into the business, and then how much his expenses are.

- There's nothing wrong with being ambitious, but if you're going to be ambitious, you have to have the proper systems in place, and you have to know that what I'm doing is scalable.

- Who is your support team?

Who's closest to you right now that helps you with this vision and process on a day-to-day basis?

- My business partner.

Her name is Margo Inameti, that's my wife.

- Okay, okay.

- So it goes business partner, and then we got a CEO, his name is Elijah.

He really makes all the decisions.

- [Jacqueline] Do you think they would be open to having a business meeting with us?

- [Bassey] I think we should be good.

- Hi!

- Hey.

- I'm Jacqueline.

- I'm Margo.

- Nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you.

- I'm Chris, nice to meet you, too.

- Nice to meet you.

- [Chris] Now that we've met Bassey's family, which is a great experience, it's time for us to really get down to the numbers.

- So Taking Action is the name of your company, right?

- Yes, yes, yes.

- So how much action have you taken in actually getting the business set up?

- Ooh, that's a good question.

- You got a name.

Have you filed for your formation?

Do you have a bank account?

Where are you with that?

- Yeah, so I have gone through a third party to start my LLC.

So I can't open a bank account until I get that information.

- I'm glad you know that.

- Yeah.

- Mm-hmm, exactly.

Okay.

- That's good.

- So we need to get a couple more foundational pieces laid for the business.

- Absolutely.

- So that we can keep building in that way.

- When it comes to like, your goals for your business, like, what are some of your short-term goals?

- I have currently 27 clients.

It is switching into spring, so it's time for bootcamp season, so I'll have my solid core clients, as well as other clients coming in from, "Hey, I just want a quick 30 minute "to an hour class in the gym," or I have some stuff outside, I have four online clients right now, so those are my main streams.

My prices keep going up- - That's good.

- Like you're supposed to do.

So I would love to get to that point where I have a consistent base of people coming in to where if I need to raise my prices and do what's necessary for the business to evolve, I can do so.

- Sometimes, you increase the price points and you're able to give a more premium offer- - Absolutely.

- To those premium clients.

- So the money that's coming into the business now is taking care of expenses at the home- - Absolutely.

- And business expenses.

- Absolutely.

- So we're breaking even?

- We're breaking even.

- Okay.

- Like, how much profit do you wanna be making at the end of each month after everything is paid for?

- Man, that's such a tricky question.

I've been battling with that number, what does that even look like?

Am I trying to take home a lot?

But does that mean my business is not getting what it really necessarily needs, so I'm not just throwing out, "Yeah, I want 200K a month."

- Right, right, right.

- One of the most important things to remember as a new entrepreneur is that you have two pockets, one pocket that's your personal finances, and you have another one that's your business finances.

So we need to make sure that we're maintaining these two pockets separately and helping to propel both of them forward on your journey through entrepreneurship.

- Absolutely.

- This is a great starting point for me to work on his financial plan.

I think I've identified some of the holes that we need to fill in order to make him a successful business owner.

We believe in you, and we're gonna get this plan done for you.

- Let's get it.

- Sound good?

Perfect, let's do it.

- All right, let's go.

It's super important for my immediate family to get to this next level of entrepreneurship, and I think this is a great opportunity for me to take this foot forward and take my life to the next level and realize whatever I was making is peanuts to what I can.

♪ Hello, hi, what's new - [Jacqueline] Let's meet outside of the office to open up our creative juices.

Now we have our hot tea for this very hot conversation, where we are going to talk a little bit more about Bassey's finances.

- One of the things that I was thinking about is just trying to help him focus on that mental transition, right?

Because when you're working with someone else, they give you the things to do and you can go and do it, but then when you're an entrepreneur, everything's on you.

So making sure that he has himself accountable in both those areas so that he can know exactly what milestones to hit when he gets there.

So doing that as well as, you know, exposing him to what it's really gonna take, right?

Like, how is the actual business set up to be successful, and how he's gonna be able to stay moving forward is really gonna be key.

- So when I meet with him, and we have our one-on-one, I want us to talk a lot about numbers.

- Okay.

- And I think that as a new entrepreneur, a lot of people make the mistake of doing mental accounting.

I think one of the marks of a good business owner is really being able to just pull your numbers out at any time.

So I want him to be able to pull out his phone at any time and say, "Hey, these are my numbers, "this is what I'm doing."

Because seeing it down on paper can help you to visualize exactly where you need to go, and it can help keep you motivated to get things done.

Part of that mental accounting is making sure that you have the proper account set up.

Because so often, it's easiest for us to say, "Okay, well all my money comes into this one account, "and then I just pay everything out of that one account."

Well, what about all the other things that need to happen in your business?

- I like those plans.

- Yeah, I think it'll be good.

And I think he needs an actual business plan down on paper.

A new business owner has to have a business plan.

- When you have that in place, and then we talk about that mindset, both of those things are gonna work synergistically together to create a whole package.

- We're gonna get him flexing that CEO muscle.

- Let's go.

- [Bassey] I'm on my way to see Jacqueline now, and all I can think about is, what does she have in mind for me?

What is she gonna present?

I really need a system, I really need something that's bite-sized that I can apply to me and to my business.

- Well, I'm glad you could come in today.

Today, I wanna talk through a few things, all right?

The main things that I wanna hit is your actual business numbers, and then the five business bank accounts that you need to have once you're a legitimate business.

- Awesome.

- Sound good?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

Let's dive into your numbers specifically, okay?

So I'm gonna put 'em up on the board and I'm gonna have you calculate them on your phone.

- Okay.

So this was the first time I was able to whiteboard my numbers and see everything all painted out.

- All right, expenses.

- It's amazing to see those numbers and the potential that I have and what I can reach and obtain.

- That would mean that you're netting about 6K a month, and this is what you're using to pay your bills, savings.

All right, so this is a good start for us.

So now, my question is, how are you going to structure revenue versus expenses when you open your business and you now have a business bank account?

- That's a great question.

- Mm-hmm, okay, let's work through that.

(both chuckling) All right, so I'm gonna have you write down the five business bank accounts that you need.

- Okay.

- Every new entrepreneur needs to have five business bank accounts.

You have to keep your business and your personal monies separate so that we are not commingling or mental accounting with our money.

If you're trying to do all of this in one account, you're just doing too much mental accounting.

- Whoa, she's talking about me, and she knows my situation very, very well.

I definitely can see the importance of making sure that you have your funds separated and how clean it can make everything go for your business and just for your mental space to know that everything's where it needs to be.

- Bank account number one is your revenue account, right?

The most important account.

There's a difference between revenue and income.

- Okay.

- All right, so revenue is money that you make in your business, the income is the money that you're gonna pay to yourself.

So in the revenue account, the only thing that's going to come out of your revenue account is just transactions to transfer money to other accounts.

Now, from revenue, you're gonna wanna send money to your first partnership account.

- [Bassey] Okay.

- If you decide, hey, I want to do business, or I wanna open up a bank account, I wanna open an investment account, you enter into a partnership with the IRS, okay?

So as an entrepreneur, I want you to start reframing your mind to remember that you didn't actually make 8,000 fully, you need to set aside between 20 to 30% for taxes, okay?

Other things you need to pay, expenses.

So you need that third account.

Expenses would also include you paying yourself, because you need to become an employee of your business.

- Yes.

- Right?

- How do you make that decision?

- One of the easiest ways to do things is by percentages.

- Okay.

- Because you're gonna different payments, right?

You got some people paying 200, some paying 350, maybe you have somebody that will pay you in a six-month chunk.

Then what do you do?

So you know what percentage needs to go into the tax account, right?

20 to 30%.

Then you'll know what portion needs to go into the expenses account, another 20 to 30%, right?

And then you can decide from there, how much are you actually going to pay yourself?

What else do you need to do?

You need to get clients into your business.

- Yes.

- So you need a marketing account.

- Okay.

- It's a reason why these big companies are all over the place in front of us, because branding and marketing matters.

So don't neglect that account.

Make sure that that account gets some money every month.

- Refund it.

- Yes, exactly.

We've got our revenue, we've got our taxes, we've got our expenses, we have marketing.

And what's the final piece of your business?

The part that you really want?

Profit.

- Profit account.

- Exactly.

And this is where you, as the business owner, or business partners, are gonna get their additional share.

Okay?

That's it.

Nothing should come out of these accounts except for what they are marked for.

- Gotcha.

- There's a couple reasons why this works like this, all right?

One is just for the easy accounting.

One of the very important things that a business is going to ask you for, if they are wanting to give you a loan, is, "Can we see your bank statements?"

So you're going to be able to provide them bank statements for your revenue account, and what is in that revenue account?

Revenue.

- Yep.

- Transfers.

That's it.

It's not messy, there's not a whole bunch of expenses, there's not a whole lot to explain.

There's money that comes in, it's money that goes out, very plainly.

That's gonna help you in actually securing the loan, okay?

- I'm learning the importance of making sure that these accounts are clean.

I think the fact that I have this history of doing such amazing work and everything's been clean with my books, it gives me the opportunity to scale and do other things and have that leverage.

- For Bassey's homework, I'm gonna send him over a business template to give him a good outline of things that he should include to understand where his business is going.

So your homework is to get the business plan done.

- Yes, yes.

- You got it?

- I got it.

I'm ready to go, I'm ready to take action, I'm ready to take it to the next level, and I'm ready to build this legacy, so homework it is.

(bright upbeat music) - All right, Bassey, what's going on, man?

How was everything yesterday with Jacqueline?

- Everything yesterday was amazing and she really broke it down for me.

I'm excited to see what today's gonna bring, as well.

- Today we're taking Bassey to 4th Quarter Performance.

My goal for Bassey is to really see what it truly takes to grow a successful business, more specifically, to grow a successful fitness business.

- Oh, snap, that's 4th Quarter?

- Yes, it is.

- [Bassey] I see my Instagram all the time.

- Okay, cool, man.

Let's check it out then.

- I'm Joshua Jackson, owner and founder of 4th Quarter Performance.

Fourth Quarter is a place of like-minded individuals, high performers that are really wanting to work on themselves physically, so that way, they can go out into the world externally being the best version of themselves.

Welcome to 4th Quarter, man.

This is my home, this is the headquarters, this is my baby.

- Thank you for actually taking the time to meet with us.

And we would just love for you to be able to share us like, the ins and outs of the things that he might not see right now, and what he needs to know to, you know, move forward in success.

So you mind if we sit down and chop it up for a little bit?

- Let's do it.

- All right, cool.

Let's do it.

(laughs) You know, Bassey wants to open up his own gym, as well.

- Okay.

- You know, so, one of the things I really wanna talk about is like, the things that he may not see yet.

You know, like the specific things as far as the business part.

The business part of the whole operation, right?

- You know, moved into the space, I already knew what I wanted to build, but it was when, when do you do it, you know?

One of the big things I always tell anybody is don't do this by yourself.

You know, when I first came into this, you know, there wasn't no funding, I was the funding.

- It's gonna take a community or it's gonna take a village.

There are a lot of helpful organizations around the city of Atlanta that I believe will go perfect for what Bassey's trying to do.

Jacqueline and I could come together and find a really good resource for him, or perhaps one of those organizations that could help him take it to the next level.

- I've built the business, LLC-wise, like all the backend, but systems and automations, hands down are the biggest thing that I preach to anybody that wants to do their own thing, 'cause it's easy to just be a trainer.

Systems and automations rule everything.

- As far as systems, like, what have been some of those high-impact systems?

- CRMs, SEOs.

CRM system is probably one of the biggest things because it runs all the backend admin and all the backend, like, leg work for you.

You know, we're in 2024, like, cold call, there's ways to do everything.

But the CRM system really just helped me really be able to focus on pouring into the community instead of trying to be the admin, trying to figure out the emails, you know, trying to figure out where to send them to.

It does all of that, so that way.

I can really focus on what I do best.

- All I'm hearing is a reoccurring theme of systems, systems, systems, systems, and that's all I'm looking for myself, is the systems that I can implement.

And I think the quickest one that I can probably implement is the CRM system where I can get the people's information, get emails and videos and things sent out that can help bring me customers as well as retain the clients that I have currently.

First year of you being into having your own facility, what did that look like?

What was the biggest hurdle?

- When you first opened up a LLC, the bank told me I can't do funding at that moment, right?

So I had to wait.

So in the midst of that, "I'm like, man, all right, "I got some 200, $300,000, you know, 400,000, "half million dollar ideas."

Everything isn't always going to be a field goal.

You know, it's not gonna automatically just happen.

And I've had to literally, this is probably the biggest lesson I had to learn, was I hate losing.

Like, I had to look at losing as a lesson.

Like, I didn't take a loss, I took a lesson, because now I'm able to apply that lesson to the next one, to the next one.

- Now, let's look at the personal and the business when it comes to finances.

Do you pay yourself first with the business or you pay yourself outta the business?

Or do you pay yourself a salary?

- I actually had a financial advisor, you know, that gave me a game plan, you know, a forecast of what I could do in the next 10, 15, 20 years, right?

I started paying myself first, 'cause if I'm not good, nothing else in here is gonna be good.

Getting a CPA was one thing that I did, right?

So I learned from the CPA enough to be like, "All right, the CPA, I need to make sure I meet with her "on these times of the year."

I may not need to meet with her every week, but I'm meeting with her enough to know what's going on.

Financial literacy, making sure that you're listening to the financial advisor and even doing your own research.

This is what we need to be doing for credit, this is what we need to be doing for funding.

An accountant is good, because you need to really focus on what you do best and letting them do what they do best, so that way, the numbers make sense to you.

Final advice that I would give Bassey going into this journey of entrepreneurship, of opening up a gym, is to run your own race, to have fun with this, and to hold yourself accountable to your systems, your processing, and to not let go of the vision that you originally had.

Y'all owe me a workout next time.

- [Chris] Okay, we got you.

- I am pumped, I am motivated, I'm excited.

He's given me the blueprint and he's shown me that it is possible for somebody like me to be able to do exactly what I'm looking to do.

So I'm ready to take action towards my goals.

(bright dramatic music) - So we've invited Bassey out to RICE, which stands for the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs.

This is a great opportunity for him to be exposed to a place that supports entrepreneurs.

- You don't always get a chance to pitch your business and get genuine feedback.

We're putting on our investor hats today, and he's going to pitch that business to us.

We're gonna see.

- We're gonna see.

- So I'm walking into the room, I see Jacqueline, I see Chris, and I'm like, "Who is this?"

- We wanted to introduce you to Ms. Kim Addie.

She is a stakeholder here at the RICE Center.

- [Bassey] Okay.

- And so she's somebody that you can lean on for some advice and some guidance when it comes to your business.

- Awesome.

- And I work for the Atlanta Wealth Building Initiative.

- Do you now?

- Yes.

So we focus on building Black wealth.

And so what that means is that we help support the business ecosystem.

So I have a sense about the things that you could and should be navigating.

So you are in the right place, the Russell Center, RICE for short, is a great place for entrepreneurs.

They help organizations and entities like yourself from startup to scale.

- She is amazing, and she's giving me some great information.

- Good luck, good luck!

- Thank you so much.

- You're gonna do great.

- Thank you.

- All right?

And make sure you come back to RICE.

- Oh, no, you locked in.

We are locked in.

Okay.

(laughs) (Kim laughing) - So now it's time for the real test.

- Yes.

- We got your business proposal, we have it loaded and ready for you to go.

Are you ready to pitch to us like we are gonna give you a million dollars?

- A gazillion dollars?

Yes.

- Okay.

- A gazillion dollars, okay.

- Gazillion dollars.

- I'm ready, I'm ready.

- [Chris] Okay.

I don't know why I thought this man who's almost seven feet tall was gonna come in, scared to present his business plan to us, but he seemed pretty confident, and maybe I'll be willing to write a check.

- He's asking for a gazillion dollars.

So I'm not sure if you got that check for a gazillion, but I might have to contribute.

I mean, I put five on it, okay?

- So I wanna say thank you guys for taking the time to hear my pitch, to hear my heart, to hear my passion.

Let's get into it.

- [Chris] Okay.

- Let's do it.

- Let's do it.

- Take it away.

- All right, so we have our agenda here, we got our executive summary, our business description, our market analysis, marketing sales, and our financial plans.

Our primary goals is to deliver personalized training and mindset coaching, meticulous, crafted to aid individuals, and realizing the health and wellness objectives.

My future offerings and services that I intend to have for my business will have a gym membership, bootcamp classes, custom merch shirts, fitness journals, sauna and a cold plunge in the facility, a smoothie bar with supplements, as well, and a massage chair, as well.

- I like a good massage chair.

- Marketing and sales strategy.

- This is where my ears perk up.

We get the business, we understand the programs, but now the biggest question that you have as a business owner is, how do I continue generating cash flow?

And in order to do that, I need leads into my business.

- Leads is the number one thing that I have on here.

So lead generation, generating leads through digital marketing channels, such as Facebook ads, Instagram ads, you have your Google ads and your email marketing.

- [Jacqueline] That marketing number looks a little bit low.

- What I believe, which is free marketing, is doing your basic reach-outs, because I've seen it work.

- Okay, so will you increase that number as your business scales?

Like, as your money is growing, do you see yourself putting a lot more into it?

- That is the goal.

- There's two ways to think about marketing.

You can think about organic, which is marketing that you don't spend any money on, or you can think about paid marketing.

- Bassey's talking about doing the free way, doing it by himself, but that's not sustainable nor scalable.

He has to be thinking as a business owner to be able to scale his business, so paid ads is right on it.

- Also, have my projected expenses, which you know, of course, it adds up.

The space that I was looking at in particular, that's what it was gonna look like to lease a month there.

And you just have your gym supplies and everything just breaks down and gives me the profit that I have at there, right there.

- There you go, Bassey.

Digging deep into the numbers.

No longer doing mental accounting, having everything broken out.

That's what you need to do to show your real CEO muscles.

So how much money do you need?

- Startup, so I'm looking at at least 150 plus is what I'm anticipating.

- Okay.

Is this a loan?

Is it good will?

How does this work?

- Yeah, so this is looking more of like a loan.

- I want him to focus on getting some grants for his business.

He's in the health and wellness space, and there's a lot of money available that he could tap into that he wouldn't have to worry about paying anybody money back.

- So that's my spiel there, and I really hope that you guys take the opportunity to take action and invest into an amazing company.

(both clapping) - Let's go, baby!

(Chris chuckling) - Hey, why are you clapping?

- I don't know, I felt good.

- No, this was awesome, this was really great.

We can tell that you really did your homework and you really looked into the numbers, you dug deep, you took action to make a plan, and you need this plan, not only for potential funding, but just to make sure that you have a roadmap for where you want to go.

What I would really like to see you do is really hone in and focus on one piece, because it's important to understand that your wealth is going to be built through concentration, focus on one thing, and then your wealth is going to be preserved through diversification by adding in other pieces to that.

So I want you to focus on what your first layer is and then add things on top of that.

What is your bread and butter?

What is your main focus?

Because if you have a diluted focus, you're gonna get diluted results.

- So do you have a plan where you're gonna have like, a minimum amount of supplies and equipment, and then as your company grows, as your business grows, then you'll start adding everything on?

Or do you want to have all these things before you open up shop?

- I know with the community that I have, the community that's around me, as long as I have the necessities in my gym, we can build to this.

- You can start in phases, and start with that bootstrapping attitude.

I'm gonna grow my clientele, and as I become more profitable, then I can perhaps add on some of these other things.

- We see you being really successful in the future.

We can see you making a huge impact in the Atlanta community.

- Lead with your heart and passion.

And it's like, we can feel it.

When you enter the room, your presence is known.

That just radiates the type of person you are.

- I feel like it's possible.

I feel like it's already done.

The information that I've gained from the banking with Jacqueline to putting systems together, to marketing, to physically touching a building, to being in a facility like RICE, the whole package of this experience has really given me the knowing that it can get done and that I can get it done quickly.

- You have so many opportunities ahead of you and so many avenues for success, and we can't wait to see you be successful.

So let's get out there and take action.

- Let's go.

Let's go, man!

(Chris laughing) I am so excited for Bassey.

I'm looking forward to this gym, this journey that he has on, 'cause I'm gonna pull up to one of these gyms and I'm gonna give him those two pushups.

He asked for two, and I'm gonna give him two.

- [Joshua] Don't hurt nothing now.

- [Bassey] Nice.

Nice, nice, yeah.

(Joshua and Chris laughing) (upbeat hip-hop music) Find more My Money Mentors financial advice, tools, and resources at MyMoneyMentorsShow.com Funding provided by The Equifax Foundation is dedicated to helping people Build Financial Capability Because, a single financial opportunity Can change the trajectory of families and communities for generations.

Learn more at Equifax.com/foundation - [Announcer] WABE.

(bright music)