Ever sat down to build your budget, only to realize you don’t even know what you’re building it for? A budget without a goal is like a map without a destination. In this episode, Danielle Hayden, reformed corporate CFO and founder of Kickstart Accounting, Inc., is pulling back the curtain on the exact step-by-step framework she and her team use with CFO clients to set financial goals first, and then create a budget that actually gets them there.
Key Takeaways:
- Celebrate the Wins (and Lessons) First: Before setting new goals, reflect on what you achieved last year and the hard financial lessons you learned. This helps you build from a place of clarity instead of starting from scratch.
- Big Picture and Dreams Before Details: Start with your 10-year vision, narrow it down to a 3-year target, and then break it into actionable 12-month goals. This ensures your short-term actions align with your long-term vision.
- Your Personal Life Matters: Your business goals must support the life you want to create, not work against it. Aligning both ensures sustainability and fulfillment.
- Define Your CEO Role: Whether you want to be client-facing, step fully into the visionary seat, or do a blend of both, knowing your role helps you make smarter hiring and budgeting decisions.
- Pay Yourself First: As the business owner, you deserve to be compensated. Budgeting your pay upfront creates healthy financial guardrails and sustainable profitability.
Topics Discussed:
(00:00) Intro: Why Your Goals Need to Come Before Building a Budget
(02:02) The Importance of Looking Back Before You Move Forward
(06:03) Setting Long-Term, Mid-Term, and Short-Term Goals
(10:27) What Mode Are You In: Aligning Your Life & Personal Goals with Your Business Goals
(12:44) Defining Your CEO Role and Team Structure
(14:54) Profitability, Sustainability, and Paying Yourself First
(18:30) Action Steps to Complete Your Financial Goal Setting Worksheet & Your Responsibility as a CEO
(19:33) Outro: Kickstart’s CFO Services, Like, Share and Subscribe!
Resources:
Financial Goal Setting Worksheet | https://kickstartaccountinginc.com/goal-setting-worksheet
CFO Services | https://kickstartaccountinginc.com/the-cfo-solution/
Healthy Budget Percentages Episode | Healthy Spending Habits: Business Budget Percentages That Fuel Sustainable Growth
Book a Call with Kickstart Accounting, Inc.:
https://kickstartaccountinginc.com/book-a-call/
Connect with Kickstart Accounting, Inc.:
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/Kickstartaccounting
YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@businessbythebooks
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/kickstartaccountinginc
Episode Transcript
00;00;00;00 - 00;00;27;09
Danielle Hayden
Tell me if this sounds familiar: You sit down to build your budget, but halfway through you realize you don't even know what you're building it for. A budget without a goal is like a map without a destination. In this episode, I'm going to pull back the curtain and the step-by-step framework that we use with our CFO clients, so you can finally set goals first, and then create a budget that actually gets you there.
00;00;27;11 - 00;01;02;12
Danielle Hayden
Welcome to Business by The Books, the podcast that helps entrepreneurs understand their numbers and finally step into their role as CEO with confidence. Let's dive right in! It's budget season right now, so why in the world am I already talking about goal setting you guys? There is a difference between budgeting and goal setting, especially for business owners. Now, I see way too many of our clients who show up for their budget call with our Kickstart Accounting team, and they don't know what their goals are.
00;01;02;13 - 00;01;28;26
Danielle Hayden
They don't know what their intention is for the business. They don't understand what they want their role to be in the business. And therefore, it's really difficult to plan out the blueprint for the next 12 months. Goal setting, it's what establishes our future. It is the financial vision of what we want to achieve. And budgeting creates the ability to make our goals smart.
00;01;28;28 - 00;01;56;08
Danielle Hayden
It is the tactical financial plan, the blueprint to actually reach those goals. So I really don't want you goal setting without a budget, but I don't want you setting a budget before you've looked at what your financial goals are for the next year. So think about it, can you really create a map to reach goals that you haven't taken the time yet to set?
00;01;56;10 - 00;02;24;02
Danielle Hayden
So let's work on our goals first before we start budgeting with our money team as part of our CFO framework. When we work with our clients and our CFO services, we look backwards first. So assess where the business currently is. Then we look at the long-term goals of the business, a complete SWOT analysis, and then we create the detailed budget.
00;02;24;05 - 00;02;49;12
Danielle Hayden
Now I want to give you the tool to do this in your business right now. So I'm going to give you a sneak peek behind the scenes so that you can set these goals on your own. I want every single business owner to have the tools for success. Now you can go to KickstartAccountingInc.com/Goals to download the Financial Goal Setting Worksheet.
00;02;49;18 - 00;03;10;12
Danielle Hayden
This will be a document that you can fill in along with us, and you can take this document with you to your budget call with your money team to help you and your money team be able to create the budget and the blueprint for you and your business. All right, so what is the first step in financial goal setting?
00;03;10;15 - 00;03;36;28
Danielle Hayden
I have gone through this budget process for years and years in my corporate background, as well as with our clients. And I know that this isn't the sexy stuff. However, the first step is to look backwards before we can start looking forward. We all had to sit through history in grade school for a reason. So let's look backwards so that we can effectively plan for the future.
00;03;37;00 - 00;03;58;22
Danielle Hayden
So the first step is what are the financial goals that you achieved this year? Like, we as business owners--I know I do this. I am 100% guilty--but how many of us we set goals and as soon as we achieve that goal, we throw the milestone back out and we never take the time to actually celebrate them?
00;03;58;24 - 00;04;25;27
Danielle Hayden
We did this in a our leadership team meeting recently, where our goal was 68%, and Victoria, my operations manager said, great job, you guys, you did hit 60%. But now the goal is actually 70. So let's let's close another 2%. We as business owners do this all the time. So we're going to take a moment to celebrate. Next I want us to look at the hard truth.
00;04;25;29 - 00;04;50;19
Danielle Hayden
What is one hard financial lesson that you've learned this year? And if we don't take the time to build skills as adults, we can miss the opportunities to really grow. I did some research on adult learning, and for adults, we need to be able to apply our learning to what we're currently doing so that we can add these patterns onto our existing behaviors.
00;04;50;22 - 00;05;17;19
Danielle Hayden
And so what hard lesson did you learn? And I would love to focus on a hard financial lesson that you learned and how can we use that to stack our future behaviors in the future? Next is what were your three biggest expenses in the last year? Now our Kickstart Accounting, Inc. clients, they receive their top five business expenses every single month and year-to-date for a reason,
00;05;17;22 - 00;05;40;12
Danielle Hayden
because I want you as a business owner to look at your expenses that you're spending right now and does that align with your current goals? So when you think about the goals that you set for the last year, are you spending with intentionality? When my team gets on calls with clients, they tell us, you know, my goal is to hit $1 million in sales this year.
00;05;40;16 - 00;06;03;07
Danielle Hayden
Like, I want to get to the next level in my business. So we pull up the income statement. We say, all right, where are we spending money right now? We should see you spending between 8 and 10% at a minimum on advertising and marketing, if your goal is to grow top line revenue. So what were your three biggest expenses last year and did they align with your goals?
00;06;03;12 - 00;06;27;13
Danielle Hayden
All right, now that we've looked backwards, now that we've studied the history, let's start to look at the future. Now in order for us to set financial goals and to create a budget, I want us to go big first. And as a visionary, as a business owner, if you're anything like me, I love to dream, I love to really imagine what this business can be, and I don't have to commit to anything here.
00;06;27;15 - 00;06;54;23
Danielle Hayden
I don't have to know how I'm going to do it, but I want you to just take some time here to think big about your business. Where do you want to be in ten years? What are the big long-term goals of your business? What's that big purpose? And one thing that I like to use to get me in the mode of doing this is as a mother, I try to think about, you know, how old am I going to be in ten years?
00;06;54;25 - 00;07;14;08
Danielle Hayden
How old are my kids going to be in ten years? What do I want my personal life to look like in ten years? Once I have that frame of reference, I can start to think about where I want my business to be. Now for us here at Kickstart Accounting, Inc., we have our BHAG, our big hairy audacious goal.
00;07;14;11 - 00;07;46;18
Danielle Hayden
We want to serve 1 million business owners through our services, the podcast, our social media. We want to help change small business. Gone are the days of us doing bookkeeping for our tax return. We are on a mission to disrupt this industry so that we are using financials to make business decisions every single month. I believe that no matter how small your business is, you deserve to have access to your numbers every single month.
00;07;46;21 - 00;08;08;08
Danielle Hayden
You deserve that information as a CEO of your business. That's our big purpose, and I want to share that with you so that you have an example. So where do you want your business to be in ten years? What are those long-term goals? Think about your big purpose. Next we're going to do three years. Where do you want your business to be in the next three years?
00;08;08;08 - 00;08;30;20
Danielle Hayden
This feels a little bit more tangible for me and actually feels a little bit more difficult. In my opinion, ten years allows me to dream big. I'm less worried about exactly how I'm gonna get there, and I can just really be in dreamland as an entrepreneur. Three years I have to start to think about what's really actually possible and where do I really want my business to be in three years?
00;08;30;23 - 00;08;51;22
Danielle Hayden
So reflect on this and you can use that same frame of reference. How old are you going to be? How old will your kids be and what is your personal life going to look like? Because if your personal life is in going in one direction, your business isn't going to be able to go in the opposite direction. I've shared this on the podcast before, but I'll share the story of my son.
00;08;51;23 - 00;09;13;00
Danielle Hayden
So he turned 16 this year, and for me, I knew that the last year or two I didn't want to be traveling. So I don't want to be doing a lot of live speaking engagements because I wanted to be here and to be the one to teach him how to drive and just be here with him. And honestly, that's my goal for the next two years.
00;09;13;02 - 00;09;41;06
Danielle Hayden
I want to be here to enjoy this time with him. I want to be at every single football game and every single basketball game, and I want to really enjoy being a mom of a high schooler and support my daughter while she's in college. And I can't do that in my three year plan of business if my business has a schedule to travel every single month, then to do a keynote speaking and to be out networking and traveling in my business.
00;09;41;06 - 00;10;02;28
Danielle Hayden
So my business can't have one goal where my personal life has another. So my business has to be structured where I want to be personally over the next three years. Now we're going to start to focus on the next 12 months, see how we have to pull back in our long-term vision to get to where we're going right now.
00;10;03;00 - 00;10;25;00
Danielle Hayden
Now, our short-term goals, our plans for the next 12 months need to support where we're going in three years. We have to take action in order to guide our business to where we want to be in three years. So really pay attention as you're thinking about the next 12 months. Is this going to help you get to where you want to go in three years?
00;10;25;02 - 00;10;41;29
Danielle Hayden
So what is your intention for the next 12 months? And I want to be clear, we are not all in high growth mode. We have had several clients come to us over the last few years to say, I'm in maintenance mode. I'm in work life balance mode. I want to be home with my kids. I want to support my family.
00;10;41;29 - 00;11;03;17
Danielle Hayden
I love my team and I love what I do, and I want to continue to serve my clients in the best way possible, but I'm not currently in scaling mode. I don't need to open up a second and third location. I want to really focus on this current location that I have today and make it world class. So we're not all in high growth mode, so I don't want you to make that assumption here.
00;11;03;19 - 00;11;24;11
Danielle Hayden
Some of us are in maintenance mode. You know, we love what we're doing and we're going to do it really well. Now, other business owners--I am in high growth mode here at Kickstart Accounting. We have a big mission to get to in ten years. And I love growing this business. I love what we do. I jump out of bed so excited every single morning--drive
00;11;24;11 - 00;11;57;14
Danielle Hayden
my team nuts, but I get so excited every morning. And so we are in high growth mode. So when I think about setting my intention for the next 12 months, my intention is how do I continue to grow the business and serve our existing clients in the best way I possibly can? I want to have world class service for our current clients and our framework becomes the sought out business tool that business owners cannot live without.
00;11;57;16 - 00;12;18;29
Danielle Hayden
I want our Snapshot to be the thing that business owners use as part of their success every single month, but I know what my intention is for the next 12 months. And so really think about what is yours? High growth mode, maintenance mode, work life balance. Maybe it's a focus on profitability then. What are your short-term goals for this year?
00;12;19;01 - 00;12;44;11
Danielle Hayden
What are some tactical things that you want to achieve? Maybe it's hiring a VA, hiring a bookkeeping firm, hiring a CFO, bringing on a first, second, third team member, moving your contractors to employees, open up a second location, change your business model, launch a new product. You know, what are those short-term business goals that you want to be able to achieve over the next 12 months?
00;12;44;18 - 00;13;09;17
Danielle Hayden
Now I want to focus on you as the business owner for a moment. What is your role in the business? And I want you to focus on this, because this is going to help you decide what type of team you need to hire. Now, we see our clients need to make this decision, especially when hitting around $250,000 a year in revenue in order to scale to $1 million.
00;13;09;20 - 00;13;40;23
Danielle Hayden
We need to be really intentional about our time as the business owner. Now you have a few options. As a business owner, you can be the leader, visionary, and manager of the people of your team who are going to be serving your clients and generating revenue for you. Another option might be that you stay client facing that you as a business owner are the one who is coaching.
00;13;40;23 - 00;14;02;11
Danielle Hayden
You are the one who is serving clients and that you have a team who supports you in servicing them. And there might be a combination of this where maybe you service some clients and then you have a methodology or framework that you are training other people in so that they can deliver that client work and service to your clients.
00;14;02;11 - 00;14;27;22
Danielle Hayden
So what is your focus for the future? Lead your team? Transition to the visionary CEO seat? Is it to generate revenue to be client facing? Is it to be client facing alongside of your team? I really want you to show up for your budget with this nailed down. Because when you start to think about who do you need to hire for the next 12 months, this is going to be really important.
00;14;27;22 - 00;14;54;04
Danielle Hayden
Because if you are going to stay client facing, then maybe we need to focus on more support staff. If we are hiring client facing strategists, do we have the standard operating procedures in place? Do we have the framework dialed in the training? Are you ready to be able to lead and manage other team members while still serving clients and holding the visionary seat of the business?
00;14;54;04 - 00;15;18;12
Danielle Hayden
And then how much do you want to be paid for this year? As a business owner, we are not going to pay you last and I absolutely refuse. You as a business owner deserve to be paid. So what is the amount that you need to have as owner’s payroll via payroll or draws for this year? And you need to know that amount of money before you go into the budget.
00;15;18;14 - 00;15;47;25
Danielle Hayden
Because when we go into a budget, when we create that blueprint, we have to enter in that number. And if you don't know what you're spending personally, if you don't know what your goals are personally, how do we put that number into your blueprint? Come prepared to your budget call with the number that you want to have paid for you as a business owner, so that we can design the spending so we can create guardrails around your spending to protect those dollars, to get you paid.
00;15;47;26 - 00;16;08;18
Danielle Hayden
Lastly, what is the amount of final net profit you would like to see in your business this year? And I just want you to give a percentage. Now here at Kickstart Accounting, Inc., we believe that a healthy business operates between 5 and 15% of profitability. After we pay you as a business owner, maybe that doesn't feel right for you.
00;16;08;23 - 00;16;28;27
Danielle Hayden
Maybe for you, you run an online business and you'd really like to be closer to 25 to 30% profit. That's okay. I want you to be paid as much as you want to be paid as a business owner. And so if you are aiming for 25-30% profit, I would encourage you to look, do you have enough support in your business to make this a long-term sustainable business?
00;16;28;27 - 00;16;52;05
Danielle Hayden
Maybe last year you experienced a loss and that's okay. Please do not sit in shame. I want you to forgive yourself and then learn from it. What went wrong? Where did you invest money that you can make changes? And learn from that as a tool this year. And so if you lost money last year, maybe the goal this year is to breakeven or to generate 2 to 3% of profit.
00;16;52;07 - 00;17;08;21
Danielle Hayden
So I want you to understand how much you need to have in your business and profit. Not all profit is created equal. We had a client who came to us a few years ago and she said, well, I'm doing so good. I have about a 50% profitability. And I just, I, you know, I just feel like this is super,
00;17;08;28 - 00;17;33;20
Danielle Hayden
you know, this is super successful. More profit, the better. And as we continue to talk, we found out that she's actually working 60 hours a week. It's not sustainable. And she’s actually pretty miserable in her business. You guys, I don't know about you, but I love being a business owner. I love what we do here and I want to continue to show up and do this for a long time.
00;17;33;22 - 00;18;05;08
Danielle Hayden
And so for me, that means having a team who can support me, having people who are in the business doing the things that they're good at so that I can stay in my zone of genius and do the things that only I can do in my business. And so that requires me to pay my team. And so we will never generate 30, 50, 60% profits because I will always prioritize paying my team so that we can all be in this healthy business for a really long time.
00;18;05;13 - 00;18;30;10
Danielle Hayden
But I know that. And you know how I know that? I set my ten year goal. My three year goal, and we have a very specific budget mapped out for the next 12 months. This is your invitation. I know that this stuff doesn't always feel easy. It comes very natural for me because I love it, and I hope that this guide can help you fall a little bit more in love with this process.
00;18;30;10 - 00;18;53;18
Danielle Hayden
I like to pair this type of activity with a trait. So maybe you take this worksheet with you either hiking and then you work to complete this worksheet afterwards, or take it to your favorite coffee shop, whatever that needs to be for you. It is your responsibility as a CEO to do this work, and your business needs you to create the vision.
00;18;53;21 - 00;19;25;07
Danielle Hayden
Where are you going? It is your responsibility to paint that picture for your team or your clients, for your family. This isn't a luxury. It is a responsibility. As a CEO of your business, and I want to invite you into this process. If you need support, we would love the opportunity to be your money team. Once you've created this goal setting worksheet, you are prepared for the next step to create a budget.
00;19;25;07 - 00;19;53;20
Danielle Hayden
The Kickstart Accounting team cannot wait to help you draw out your blueprint for the next 12 months. Because if this feels impossible, if you feel like you're not able to, in isolation, map out the next ten years, I want to invite you to check out our CFO services. You can go to KickstartAccountingInc.com/CFO. This is the framework that we walk our CFO clients through, and here's why it works:
00;19;53;23 - 00;20;17;19
Danielle Hayden
Because there's an amazing, incredible team behind those services that walk and guide you through this type of analysis. There's some additional activities alongside this within the framework. So if you feel like you cannot take this on in isolation, we would love and be honored to serve as your CFO team. Thank you for listening to today's episode of Business by The Books.
00;20;17;22 - 00;20;45;08
Danielle Hayden
I appreciate your time and I can't wait to be back with you next week. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of Business by the Books. Don't forget to hit like and subscribe! This is the number one way we can help other entrepreneurs find this podcast, because here at Kickstart Accounting, Inc., it is our mission to help entrepreneurs understand their numbers, get access to this information, and grow and thrive in their business.
00;20;45;08 - 00;21;10;28
Danielle Hayden
So please help me, help other entrepreneurs understand their numbers so they can finally grow and thrive.