How Katie Found Her Perfect Freedom Business Model and Increased Profits 400%

Katie Hurst jumped into business head first at 20 years old, when she and her husband started their own company. To support the business, Katie worked 20 hour days, seven days a week for six and a half years. Despite working with a good accountant who taught her business finance and how to keep books, Katie found that as fast as they made money, they had to put it right back into the business.

While the business was growing exponentially, Katie’s personal life was struggling. After a grueling six-and-a-half years, her marriage ended, and she left the business she had put so much of herself into with nothing.

On top of this private turmoil, she developed a rare form of arthritis from the non-stop work and for 16 years went from surgery to surgery. Side effects from the constant pain medication resulted in liver disease and impaired her memory.

Between the ages of 27 and 39, a total of 29 surgeries left her in massive debt and deep financial ruin. During that time, she remarried, and she says without her husband and parent’s support, she couldn’t have made it through those years. Her parents sacrificed their retirement savings to help care for her.

So in December 2014, Katie took control of her health. After her doctors told her that, even though she doesn’t drink she had the liver of an alcoholic, she knew something had to change. With her “all or nothing” personality, she decided to stop the medications and treat her arthritis with physical activity and a healthier lifestyle. In January 2015, her doctor gave her permission to return to work.

Giving It Another Go

Katie started working part-time in the financial department of a film company. But before long, she was antsy to set out on her own again. This time she would take the lessons from her past to be smarter and more intentional about how she treated her body and grew her business.

Katie’s first business revealed her love for bookkeeping. In this new endeavor, she found her niche assisting clients who are borderline insolvent. She found she has a special knack for finding where the money is seeping from their business.

“At the end of the day,” Katie says, “When a client comes to me, because you’re putting in every single transaction that has happened for them either personally or in their business, you know their life story. It’s not done in judgement, it’s done so that you know what’s happening to them, for them personally. And that’s actually really important, because a person can tell you what they think is happening. But when I look at their financials, a picture is painted on that piece of paper for me—and it comes to life.”

Katie was well on her way to a successful and more balanced business, but her health was still an issue. Two more surgeries in 2016 interrupted her ability to work with clients and disrupted her cash flow.

She knew something had to change, so she attended an event where Dr. Tony was the keynote speaker.

After meeting Dr. Tony and one of MindShift.money’s certified coaches, Julian Musgrave, (who soon became her personal financial advisor) she gained a clearer understanding of how to leverage her clients and business more efficiently—while growing her money outside the business. This MindShift changed how she approaches her work and has helped her grow her business despite ongoing health problems.

Identify The Business Model, Increase Profit

[memb_has_membership memberships=”MS.m BUSINESS OWNER”]

The most instructive part of her journey with MindShift.money and the Business Owners Only Community has been figuring out what type of business she has. Katie categorizes her business as a Profit business meaning the core value of the business centers around her time and skills. Unlike other types of businesses, since Katie plays such an integral role, she’ll likely have difficulty selling.

Time is the biggest profit driver in Katie’s business. To truly ensure her business unlocks her Personal Financial Freedom and stability, Katie needed to minimize overhead and streamline processes to free up more of her time. By focusing on activities that generate the highest revenue for her, she could grow the profits in her company faster. Before starting her MindShift.money journey, Katie was only billing 50% of her time and dedicating the other 50% of her time to non-billable tasks. To ensure she could generate a consistent salary from the business and be able to build her Personal Freedom Generator outside the business, she needed to reach 75% billable time.

With this a-ha! moment, Katie set about automating administrative business tasks and shifting that time to client-focused activities. In addition, she realized she needed to release the clients who were devaluing her time. She let them go and found clients who better fit her niche.

As a result of these changes, her projected revenue for 2017 increased by 400%. In 2016, although a few months were interrupted by health problems, she brought in $5,000 a month in revenue. Thanks to what she learned from Julian and MindShift.money, she projects she’ll bring in $25,000 a month in 2017.

Building the Future

Because she’s able to keep her overhead low much of that revenue will turn into gross profit. She’ll invest that into her Emergency Buffer, debt termination and building her Personal Freedom Generator. On top of getting her own financials under control, she plans to provide financially for her parents who sacrificed so much for her. MindShift.money has given her the system she needed to meet those goals.

“It doesn’t matter that I may have studied finance or worked in this field,” Katie says. “We don’t get taught how to maneuver our money between our personal world and our business world. I learned the hard way twenty years ago how to split my business and my personal finances. What MindShift.money does is it provides a system. It provides a methodology that is proven.”

For more information about the Cash Flow Cure Program and Business Owners Only community Katie is a member of click here.

[else_memb_has_membership]

[memb_include_partial id=8]

[/memb_has_membership]