Fostering Financial Well-being for Single Mothers in Business - Part 1

Unlock the potential of businesses with a conscience on Mindful Marketplace, where profitability meets purpose. Join me, Joel Skeen, and Courtney Shaughnessy of Alchemy Financial, as we navigate the crossroads of fiscal responsibility and social impact. Courtney brings her marketing smarts and financial acumen to the table, offering a unique perspective on nurturing businesses that care. Together, we celebrate the successes of worker-owned media like DeFactor and dissect Google's antitrust tumble to Epic Games, pinpointing lessons for entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts alike. Plus, we'll shed light on a local church's compassionate endeavor to wipe out medical debt, reflecting on the hurdles they face when up against the Goliaths of the healthcare industry.

Hear how Courtney's financial prowess is empowering solopreneurs, especially single mothers, to achieve economic independence without sacrificing their values or well-being. Our conversation traverses from the personal motivations that fuel our guests to the strategies that sustain small businesses and their communities. With a keen eye on financial sustainability and responsible growth, this episode is a treasure trove for those committed to making their mark ethically and effectively. You'll leave with actionable insights on integrating social responsibility into your business model and a deeper appreciation for the financial guidance tailored to the nuanced needs of solo ventures. Tune in to transform your business ethos into enduring success.

https://www.alchemyfinancial.co/

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Transcript

Joel: 0:33

What if investing in each other could change the world? I'm Joel Skeen with bizradious and this is the Mindful Marketplace, and we are back for another edition of the Mindful Marketplace here on bizradious, if this is your first time with us. On this program, we talk to the entrepreneurs, advisors, industry leaders and economic experts who are not only solving a market problem to make a profit, but who are also solving a social problem to make an impact. It's where we learn how to connect our money and businesses to our value, our community and ourselves. Today I'm excited to be getting to talk with my friend, courtney Shostney. She's the owner of Alchemy Financial. But first we got to hit on the balance sheet the assets, liabilities, debts and investments. So first, in the assets column, I want to talk about and highlight the success of worker-owned website DeFactor, which has released its third annual financial report showing a raise in annual revenue up from $3.8 million to $4.5 million in 2023. This success demonstrates the potential for worker-owned media to thrive, as evidenced by the launch of new sites like Aftermath and 404 Media, which aim to provide high quality content without being at the mercy of a private equity or VC growth imperatives.

Joel: 2:02

The rise of worker-owned media reflects a broader trend of worker-owned power across various industries, with more journalists branching off from traditional publications to launch their own cooperatives. This shift is driven by a desire for editorial freedom and the ability to operate without the constraints of corporate ownership. Worker-owned media companies like DeFactor and 404 Media are embracing subscription-based models offering a pathway to sustainability and independence. Despite the challenges and complexities involved in establishing and maintaining worker-owned media, the successes of these ventures signal a shift in the media landscape, where journalists are taking control of their work and pursuing alternative models that prioritize editorial freedom and sustainability. All right in the liabilities column. So good news. In the liabilities column, we often talk about big tech monopolies as a liability. So good news. In the liabilities column, we often talk about big tech monopolies as a liability.

Joel: 2:58

And in a recent San Francisco jury trial, google lost its first antitrust case, with the jury finding that Google harmed rival Epic Games in the $48 billion App Store Android market. The case was initiated by Epic Games, which sued both Apple and Google to break their control over App St stores. The trial revealed that Google's goal was to maintain its dominance by preventing the emergence of other app stores, and the company had engaged in anti-competitive behavior. The jury unanimously found that Google has monopoly power in the Android app distribution and in-app billing services market and that Epic was injured by Google's behavior. The judge will determine remedies next year and Google has announced that it will appeal the decision. But this case is significant as it marks Google's first antitrust law and sets a precedent for future cases. The decision has implications for Google's control over the mobile app ecosystem and may lead to remedies that loosen its dominance. The case also highlights the role of private litigation in addressing antitrust and the importance of injuries in making such decisions. The outcome suggests that more suits along these lines may follow. Overall, the verdict signals that big tech companies are not above the law and that private litigation can play a vital role in addressing issues of monopoly power and anti-competitive behavior in the tech industry.

Joel: 4:20

Next in the debts column. So there's a church in Winston-Salem, north Carolina, that gained national attention earlier this year for its remarkable act of erasing over $3 million in medical debt for 3,355 local families living below the poverty line. Despite its small size, with an average attendance of about 75 on Sundays, this church raised $15,000 and partnered with RIP Medical Debt, a national nonprofit that buys unpaid medical debt and then forgives it. However, major hospital systems Atrium Health and Novant Health are now refusing to sell or donate their bad debt to RIP, preventing the organization helping these families in Charlotte. This issue is particularly significant in Mecklenburg County, where 18% of families have medical debt in collections, compared to the national average of 13%, and it's where medical debt is a leading cause of bankruptcies. Rip Medical Debt's efforts to alleviate medical debt have been met with challenges, as major hospital systems have been unwilling to collaborate, citing existing charity policies and financial assistance programs, despite the charity's assurance that its programs would supplement, not conflict with, the hospital's financial assistance programs. The reluctance of Atrium and Novant has hindered the organization's ability to address the pressing issue of medical debt in the community. The situation underscores the broader challenge faced by individuals and families in managing medical expenses, with nearly seven in 10 adults receiving medical bills they cannot afford and two-thirds of bankruptcies citing medical debt as a cause. Despite the obstacles, the efforts of Trinity, moravian Church and other organizations highlight the critical need for addressing medical debt and the potential impacts of community-driven initiatives and alleviating financial burdens for vulnerable populations. Just a reminder in order to help combat the debt crisis, the Mindful Marketplace is providing all of our listeners with a free, customized report on how to best eliminate personal or business debt, based on your unique situation. Lots of families and businesses have been able to use this report to eliminate their debt, including mortgages, in nine years or less without spending any additional money. So get free from debt by going to mindful marketplace showcom.

Joel: 6:35

All right, in the investments column, I want to highlight an article on Main Street Journal about the improvements to crowdfunding for local investors. So in the world of crowdfunding, there's this fairly risky thing called a simple agreement for future equity or safe note, but honestly, they should probably call it an unsafe note, because it's a bit of a shiny carrot for early investors, but there's no set time for when the conversion to stock would actually happen. Even if it does so, you might end up putting more money into the company than you ever got back through stock value, and if the company goes under, safe note holders might not get anything back because there might not be any assets left. Now, while venture capitalists might talk up safe notes, it's been local investors who usually end up feeling the pinch. So Justin Renfro at WeFounder, which is one of the big crowdfunding platforms, says that revenue sharing or profit sharing is more likely to give early grassroots investors a good return. So WeFounder has started with five companies using the revenue share model on their site, and other platforms like MainVest are doing the same. In addition, crowdfunding portals are starting to use the quote testing the waters offerings, where a company can see if people are into the idea before they go all in on formal funding. So great improvements there for local investors.

Joel: 7:57

All right, all right. I am excited to get to talk to Courtney today. She is the owner founder of Alchemy Financial. Courtney, welcome to the show. We're happy to have you on today.

Courtney : 8:10

Thank you so much, Joel. I'm excited to be here.

Joel: 8:12

Yeah, thanks so much. I find your business, Alchemy Financial, really interesting, filling a really great need and, like we said, not just filling a market, solving a market problem, but also solving a social problem along the way. But first tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into the work of financial planning?

Courtney : 8:31

Yeah, so, interestingly enough, my undergrads in marketing, I had no plans of going into accounting or finance. I sort of fell into it, so to speak. I started my career as a pricing analyst at a large international bank before the subprime bust, so I found myself laid off and then ended up in general contracting and construction, and so that's where I really got into accounting and where I've been working since 2007, 2008. And yeah, as they say, the rest is sort of history. I spent a lot of time working in corporate America and, within the last couple of years, went through my own existential crisis around how all of this operates and how this works, and so hopefully that answers your question and how this works, and so hopefully that answers your question.

Joel: 9:28

But that's the short of the long.

Courtney : 9:32

So, yeah, so tell me a little bit more about that decision to take that leap and to go out on your own? Yeah, so, like I said, I really became disillusioned with just the accounting industry as a whole. I did not come through sort of the traditional way where you go to school, you go into public, you get your license. I went into industry and then went back to school and got my master's in accounting and I was just really, I guess, hopeless. I had, like I said, an existential crisis and I thought there has to be a better way to do this, Even within accounting firms. The grind, this expectation of you're going to have a busy season, kiss your life goodbye. This is just suck it up and grind it out and get it done. And this is the way it is. And I really came as a mom and having young children. I just was unwilling to do that and I wanted to find a way to serve businesses, do this work, do it well and not at the expense of myself or my family.

Joel: 10:40

Yeah, I think there's definitely a misconception out there about accountants. We had on Veronica Edwards, the owner of Balance Virtually, and she's also a biz radio host. Everyone should listen to her and she cleared up the misconception on here that all accountants are tax preppers and, I think, without us even saying it, she also cleared up the misconception that all accountants are boring people, and you seem to be doing both of the same there. So tell us a little bit about how Alchemy is different. Who do you guys help and how does the business part operate?

Courtney : 11:12

Yeah. So yeah, I'm definitely not a tax person. I'm always very quick to let people know. I know enough to be dangerous. I don't even do my own taxes and that's honestly a thing that kept me from going into this, not to go down another tangent. But I only ever saw CPAs and accountants who did tax and I thought, well, I don't want to do that. And then I connected with someone who was doing CFO, fractional consulting, and that opened up a whole new world of accounting to me. But in terms of and I'm sorry, can you repeat the question?

Joel: 11:44

up a whole new world of accounting to me, but in terms of and I'm sorry, can you repeat the question? Yeah, no, I think you're right on track and please go on tangents. That's what we're here to do, so, yeah, so I guess, tell us a little bit about Alchemy.

Courtney : 11:55

Yeah, yeah. So I provide strategic financial consulting for socially conscious businesses, and that is out of out of again that period that I went through a boundary that I set for myself and for my business, but I was only going to work with businesses who are at least open to a certain set of on, and you know. So that's really what was. My ultimate goal is I want to help small businesses do good in the world, because I think there's a lot to be said. Small businesses make up the most right, the majority of businesses in our country, and there's a lot of influence and there's a lot of change that can be affected by them and a lot of times that comes through how they spend their money, how they plan for their money, how they forecast their money, and that was my ultimate goal.

Joel: 12:57

Yeah, I recently got to talk with Michael Schumann from the Main Street Journal and he echoed exactly what you're saying. He said that we don't realize it. But in between, depending on how you define small and local, in between 60 and 80 percent of our economy is local businesses, because oftentimes, when we think about you know job creation, or we think about investing our money, or we think about you know all these different things, what we mostly think about are big companies. We think about you know the Coca-Colas and the Walmarts of the world, but actually the small, local, independent businesses make up so about two thirds give or take of of our economy, and so it's awesome to see you put that same focus in the in the right place, in the place where the money is going to stay more locally.

Joel: 13:46

When we buy things that are local, most of that money is going to stay within our community. When we use a local credit union, most of that money is going to stay within our community. When we spend it at Walmart, the money is in Bentonville. By the end of the night it doesn't stay put there. I am curious when you talked about having your services primarily focused on helping socially conscious businesses. What type of businesses. Have you guys been able to help so far?

Courtney : 14:16

I primarily work with agencies and service providers. I've done a little bit of e-commerce, but it's mostly in the service industry. Like I said, I spent a lot of time working in general contracting. That's like a whole new thing that I want to work on in the next few years is finding where are those ethical, socially conscious contractors who are making waves in housing and land development. But that's TBD to come, but for now mostly service providers.

Joel: 14:50

Gotcha, okay, and I guess, what type of then services are you? So you've got a business that is a service provider or a general contractor and you're helping them in the financial world of things. What is it about your services? For them that's different than what they might find at any other CPA shop?

Courtney : 15:12

Sure, that's a good question. So a lot of what I focus on so it goes all the way from a solopreneur to someone who's built a thing and they've got a whole team. And a lot of times it starts with someone who has an idea, they have a vision and they have a book of work and an area of expertise that they've developed. And being able to start and launch and have a business that sustains them is life changing, and that's been my experience and and so it's, it's helping those people get to that place where their business is sustainable to them. I work a lot with single mothers, um, women who are solely responsible for the financial provision of their household, um, and and so helping, helping them get to that place of financial independence. And then someone who's built a business and they have a team helping them keep it sustainable because there's, I think sometimes we get to this place where you hit the seven figure marks, right, that idea of scaling, and they're exhausted, they're burnt out, so figuring out how to make all of this work so that they actually enjoy being in their business.

Courtney : 16:32

And I like to say, even though we're working with numbers and we're working with finance, there's a little bit of a coaching component to it, because sometimes you know they just need a place to vent about where they are and they need a safe place to talk about their money, especially with women.

Courtney : 16:50

There's a lot of shame that we have around our money. I cannot tell you how many times someone comes to me and they're like I just need to get my stuff together and when I look at it, I'm like you actually have it quite together, but they have this story that they've told themselves because, right, we're all. None of us are immune to the comparison of the highlight reels that we see in everyone's social media and that certainly there's no exception when it comes to businesses and helping them see because I get to see the back end of so many businesses, you know I can let them know hey, listen, you're actually doing really well, and give them that encouragement and confidence to say, okay, I don't need to stress about this, I don't need to. I can alleviate some of that anxiety that I feel around the finances or around how my business is doing.

Joel: 17:41

Yeah, you mentioned finding sustainability in business for single mothers in particular to be I think you actually used the word life-changing. What is so life-changing about that for them?

Courtney : 17:57

When you are the sole provider for yourself and for your household it's a big burden to carry, having been raised by a single mother. And when you get to a place of financial sustainability and you get to do it on your own terms, and when you own a business, you can have the freedom and the flexibility to earn a living and be available to your family. That's the life changing part.

Joel: 18:32

Yeah, no, it's. It's that hierarchy of needs thing is what it seems like to me. You know there's so many things that we would all love to do, no matter who we are in our life. You know fulfill our, you know our goals and our dreams, not just when it comes to money but when it comes to who we are as people. You know to grow. You know psychologically, spiritually, physically, you know to get healthy and to get in shape in all those different areas. But a lot of times, man, it sure is difficult. I had a mentor once say it's it's really tough to lead a lead a, really tough to lead an army into battle when you're worried about your cell phone bill. You know it's really tough to be your best and to kind of do, do everything that you want to do in life when you're feeling that, that crunch for people. Why, I guess why, has this been? You know, why has this been a passion of yours? Where does that come from in you?

Courtney : 19:25

Yeah, that's a great question, Having being a mother, even though I'm really lucky to have an incredibly supportive spouse, so I'm not doing this on my own I have had many bed desk, bed days working as an employee in a business where, even though I worked from home, I wasn't even seeing my own family, and that was a big wake up call for me and that I was just not willing to do that anymore.

Courtney : 19:54

And I know that I'm not alone in that experience and sort of having extracted myself from that system via launching my own business and then really making it my ultimate mission to help others do the same. And you know. But it doesn't stop there, because once you start the business and then you've got to keep it going and eventually it's going to grow and helping them figure those challenges out as they grow, as they scale, because you know it can also, as many business owners will say, right, if you want to work 24-7, 365, start a business and so figuring out how to do that sustainably so that you don't just end up essentially exploiting yourself instead of being exploited by someone else.

Joel: 20:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah, because if you just end up doing it to yourself, you could just stay in a job at that point, exactly. Yeah. So what I'm excited to? So, just for the audience to know, this is a two part episode that we're going to dig in here with Courtney, and I'm really excited for part two because she's going to share with us a few really practical and simple ways for business owners, whether they're social enterprises or whether you're just a small business on your own how you can embrace social responsibility in your finances. A lot of times, you know, we think of socially responsible businesses as you know, being green or being, you know, in a certain kind of field but we don't often think about it. How do we actually implement that when it comes to the financial side of our businesses? And so Courtney is going to shed some really great light on that for us. So please make sure to tune in next time on the Mindful Marketplace here on Biz Radio US, and in the meantime, Courtney, where can people find you?

Courtney : 21:43

Yeah, I am at alchemyfinancialco and you can find me on Instagram at AlchemyCFO.

Joel: 21:51

Awesome. Now make sure to subscribe. We are now on YouTube with our video podcast, but now we still are on iTunes, spotify, stitcher, iheartradious, to check out all of the other fantastic entrepreneur hosts that we have here on the only independent business talk radio station that I'm aware of. There might be others, I don't know about them, and so tune in next time and until then, remember we are each other.