Kickstart Your Financial Journey with Danielle Hayden’s Expert Advice

Episode Overview

Danielle Hayden is the founder of Kickstart Accounting, a bookkeeping and financial services firm dedicated to empowering small business owners to take charge of their finances. Before venturing into entrepreneurship, Danielle spent over a decade as a Chief Financial Officer, where she gained valuable experience working closely with management teams and private equity firms. However, during her corporate career, Danielle saw a recurring issue: many small business owners were making decisions solely based on tax benefits rather than focusing on strategic growth. Driven to address this gap, she founded Kickstart Accounting in 2015, aiming to make financial literacy accessible and practical for all business owners, particularly those who may feel out of place in traditional financial settings. Danielle has made it her mission to help entrepreneurs understand and utilize their financial data as a powerful tool for achieving their business goals.

With a strong commitment to supporting women in business, Danielle actively works to break down barriers in a historically male-dominated industry. Kickstart Accounting goes beyond traditional bookkeeping by fostering a judgment-free environment where clients feel empowered to discuss their finances openly. Danielle’s team provides not only bookkeeping services but also regular financial review sessions, allowing clients to make informed decisions and celebrate their financial milestones. Her firm’s unique approach emphasizes the value of a “money team,” underscoring that financial health requires a collaborative effort. By educating her clients on financial fundamentals and best practices, Danielle helps entrepreneurs build sustainable, thriving businesses.

In addition to leading Kickstart Accounting, Danielle is the host of the “Business by the Books” podcast, where she shares practical insights on finance, entrepreneurship, and business growth. Through her podcast, Danielle reaches a wide audience of business owners seeking actionable advice on managing their finances and navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship. A passionate advocate for financial literacy, Danielle’s work reflects her dedication to transforming the way business owners engage with their finances. Whether through one-on-one consultations, group workshops, or her podcast, Danielle remains committed to providing entrepreneurs with the knowledge and confidence needed to make empowered financial decisions

Episode Transcript

  Kevin Rosenquist: Hey, welcome to Pay Pod where we bring you conversations with the trailblazers shaping the future of payments and fintech. My name is Kevin Rosenquist and thanks for listening. Danielle Hayden spent a decade as a CFO, and while those experiences were great, she realized that she wanted to do more. She wanted to help entrepreneurs and business owners truly understand their finances. So she started Kickstart Accounting, a bookkeeping and accounting firm that not only handles the books of their clients, but helps them manage their finances from a holistic point of view. They help business owners get a handle on what they’re spending, what’s coming in, and what changes need to be made to meet their goals and how to make it all happen. And they do it all with passion and compassion, always ensuring that they are operating in a judgment free zone. Danielle and I discuss entrepreneurship, finance, and how Kickstart Accounting empowers women entrepreneurs to navigate their financial journey with unshakable confidence. So please welcome Danielle Hayden. It’s always nice to chat with a fellow podcaster. I saw you just published your 182nd episode of business by the books.

Danielle Hayden: Crazy. I know if time flies, but yes, it’s been so much fun, I love it. Good for.

 Kevin Rosenquist: You. Kudos to you. I mean, it’s sticking with it’s hard. Most people don’t, you know, like it’s a labor of love for most of us who do this and it’s but it’s it’s fun.

Danielle Hayden: It’s like going to the gym, you know. I know my team uses it as a resource. My clients use it as a resource. So it is, you said, a labor of love. It is something that you really need to pour your heart into. But the good news is that I have a lot to say. Like all the time. So.

 Kevin Rosenquist:  Yeah.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Yeah I’m a, I’m a talker. So it’s a good industry for me. Yeah. So after a decade of being a CFO you realized you needed to do something different. What were you seeing and feeling at that time that pushed you to have such an introspective moment?

Danielle Hayden: You know, most business owners, regardless of industry, they don’t know where where they’ve been, meaning they don’t have the bookkeeping in place to then be able to make decisions to manage their business and then, you know, make the best decision decisions for their business to achieve their goals. So I was working as a CFO, and so I worked with the management team, the board of directors, private equity firms on. Here are the numbers. Let’s use them to hit our numbers, to hit our goals. Yeah. And it felt very black and white. And I said, all right, how do I help other business owners do the same thing? Like we need to make better business decisions. So what I find is that most small business owners, they’re making business decisions for tax. Like what is going to be my tax write off. How much is this going to save me in taxes? What am I paying in taxes? Oh, I’m going to go on vacation and put it through my business. And why are we making these decisions? Do they align with where we want to take the business? And so I wanted to take that approach with small business owners to help them use the bookkeeping. Right. Like we all have to have bookkeeping in place. Otherwise you can’t do anything else. You can’t file your taxes, you can’t create a budget. Nothing. Use bookkeeping as a tool to say, how do I manage my business so that I can hit my goals and that be the priority over taxes?

 Kevin Rosenquist:  That’s interesting. I mean I guess I guess it makes sense especially for larger companies. They’re always trying to figure out ways we all want to pay as little taxes as possible. I mean let’s be honest. But yeah that’s interesting that instead of being more of a sort of a holistic view of everything, it was kind of focused. You found people were focused more on just the tax piece.

Danielle Hayden: Yeah. Small business owners, they want to use their business as their personal tax write off. I’m going to put all my car and all of my meals and my vacations all through the business. And I’m like, well, how did your business actually perform? You know, like you also want these heavy revenue growth goals and maybe sell your business one day and, and hire a new team member, but you can’t afford to hire the new team member because you’re putting all this, this personal expenses through the business. So you have a tax write off. How about let’s let’s run the business for what the business needs in order to grow. Hire the team member and stop using it as a personal tax savings vehicle, and really use it as the business that it’s meant to be. So, you know, I love what we do, and I love being able to help our our clients. We’ve helped thousands of business owners now. And our our passion really is helping them understand those numbers and how they can use those numbers to. I mean, it sounds so like eat your salad, but like, make better business decisions, you know?

 Kevin Rosenquist: Well, it’s funny too, because like, you know, you maybe it’s not seeing the forest for the trees. Like, if you save, Ave. You know, if you put your efforts into instead of putting, you know, using it as a tax write off, if you put your efforts into making the business more money, well, then you have more money in your pocket to do all that other stuff that you want to do. So yeah, it makes sense to me. It does. You spoke about passion. You can feel your passion and your team’s passion. You know, I looked at your website, I listened to some of your podcasts, I looked at your socials. It’s just feels authentic. It feels like you guys feel like you actually really love helping people.

Danielle Hayden: Yeah, we do really care when people ask, what makes you new, different as a tax and bookkeeping firm? Like we actually care about you. Like, you know, we want to get back to your emails because we care about you. Yeah. And, you know, not just another client. You’re our priority, right.

 Kevin Rosenquist: And you so you founded Kickstart Accounting at the start of 2015. God, that feels like a lifetime ago now, doesn’t it? The world’s world’s been through a lot since then.

Danielle Hayden: Not much.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Uh, but so as you pointed out, you help entrepreneurs not only handle accounting and bookkeeping, but also understand finance as a whole. As an entrepreneur yourself, is there is there sort of a kinship that gives you extra motivation to educate and help fellow founders?

Danielle Hayden: Yeah, I want to take everything that I’ve learned from big business. So I think I’m not one of those people who left my corporate days of like, oh, you know, burn the ships as I leave. Like, I really appreciate everything that I learned in corporate. And I worked with some amazing business owners and private equity firm owners and some incredible, incredible people. And I said, how can I take what I learned from every single one of them? Like, what were the tools that the CEOs that I worked with and for? How do I use those same tools that they used and bring it to small business? And to say, how can we as small business owners, again, regardless of industry, how do we use these tools to grow this, this business? So, I mean, it sounds so simple, right? When I say it loud, it does.

 Kevin Rosenquist: I mean.

Danielle Hayden: But I want to take everything that I learned from them and cut that in that time in half. Now, I’ve also been a business owner. So when I speak to on the podcast, when I speak on our podcast business by the books or when I’m here, I’m also a business owner. And so I’m going through it right with you guys in that I’m reviewing my finances. I’m talking about how I use my numbers to make business decisions. You know, we just decided to sign a huge contract with a new software company, and we did that based on our numbers. And, you know, I want to keep on sharing that with people because business owners feel alone. Like how many people do you know that are business owners that feel alone? They don’t have anyone to talk to?

 Kevin Rosenquist: I agree with you on that. Actually. Too many. Really?

Danielle Hayden: Yeah. You’re not. I mean, maybe your spouse gets it, but they don’t really get it. Like they’re not they’re not in it with you unless unless they’re in the business with you or.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Even if they’re a fellow business owner, they at least understand some of the things that you go through. But you’re right. It’s more of like, yeah, they don’t. They can’t relate as well.

Danielle Hayden: Yeah. I mean my husband, he’ll listen but he doesn’t get it at a deep level. You know, you can’t call your mom and say my mom is one of my best friends, but let me tell you, I’m not talking to her about anything about my business because she doesn’t understand what I’m going through. , you’re not really calling your friends to say, oh, my God, I hit $100,000 this month. This is my first month in my entire life of my business where I am doing $100,000 a month in revenue. Could you imagine calling your friend and telling them that if they’re not a fellow business owner, they’re like, oh, cool, you’re buying dinner this month? This week?

 Kevin Rosenquist: Yeah.

 Kevin Rosenquist: So you got drinks on Friday? Is that what you’re saying? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, totally.

Danielle Hayden: So I think for a.

Danielle Hayden: Business owner, that’s one of the, you know, when I talk about having a money team and having this, you know, we provide the bookkeeping, CFO and tax part of the money team for our clients. And part of that is just celebrating when things are going really well and having someone to call and say, guess what, guys? Like I finally signed that client. 

 Kevin Rosenquist: And I’ve been in marketing for a long time and I’ve known some brilliant people who are amazing at what they do. But you know, you write about sometimes being alone as founders and stuff and, but they’re also pretty damn clueless when it comes to marketing. Like, I just don’t really get it, do you? Is that often the case with entrepreneurs and finance as well?

 Kevin Rosenquist: Yeah, yeah.

 Kevin Rosenquist: That’s kind of what I figured. Just cause it’s not they’re not where their mind goes, you know.

Danielle Hayden: Exactly.

 Kevin Rosenquist: It’s not you know.

 Kevin Rosenquist: What do you just gotta be brutally honest. Like, how do you start that conversation? Because it could probably get a little dicey, I suppose if you’re kind of like, hey, you’re everything you’re doing is wrong, you know?

Danielle Hayden: Well, we never say it that way. Right?

 Kevin Rosenquist: So even if you want to.

Danielle Hayden: Even if we want to, we really try to coach our clients. So every single one of our clients has an option for a financial review call. And so we’re doing the bookkeeping for all of our clients. And then they have an option for a monthly or quarterly financial review call. And when we get on the call with them, we’re reviewing the numbers and asking what’s working and what’s not working right? The numbers are trying to tell you that story, and that always sounds cliche when I say it, but it is that their numbers are telling you what’s working and it’s your job as the business owner. Again, no matter if you consider yourself a creative person or you consider yourself a numbers person, it doesn’t matter when you are looking at the numbers, it’s your responsibility as the business owner to be able to say I am. I am responsible for figuring out what works in this business, and I want to do more of that. And it’s my responsibility to figure out what’s not working so I can stop doing that. Because the minute we take out an LLC, right, like the minute we become a business owner, we now have a responsibility to our clients, to our vendors, to stay in business. And if we’re not willing to say, oh my God, I should not have hired that person, they are draining my bank account. I am not profitable. Revenue is not coming in to offset that. And if I don’t let them go and or I don’t reduce these costs in some other way. This business is in trouble. Well, like we’re saying it very nicely of like, hey, these are the costs that are increasing. How does that serve your goals? And what should we do about it? Right. Like how do we decide whether or not to continue with this cost or to eliminate this cost in the future?

 Kevin Rosenquist: I think to like at least from, from people I’ve met a lot of, you know, founders, entrepreneurs, business people, whatever they kind of have. Like, I don’t know if it’s arrogance or if it’s just this, you know, I want to handle this stuff. I know how to handle. I can do this, I can do this. So is it difficult sometimes to have those tough conversations? Is it difficult because you are kind of telling somebody, hey, you need to make some changes here. You know, if you want to keep this going, you got to make some changes. And I just, you know, if there is, is it hard to kind of break down the arrogance that some people might have on occasion, or even just pride in what they’re doing?

Danielle Hayden: Not usually because our clients are. They trust us.

Danielle Hayden: Oh like we’re a judgment free zone. So like we’re never like.

 Kevin Rosenquist: It’s like Planet Fitness. Same way.

Danielle Hayden: I know I go there every morning and I’m like oh there I think I’ve been saying it before that. But you know we’re never ashamed of you. You’re spending too much money here, right? Shame on you. You know, like stop. It’s never it’s more of. Let’s seek to understand and let’s help you understand. Hey, client. How did it feel when you spent money there last month? Like, how does it feel to watch your bank account? You know, reduce cash? How does that align with where you see yourself? They’re really more coaching questions like you have a goals for a business owner and how is this aligning to those goals. So my team over the years has struggled with this because like I told that client how to save themselves, you know, two years ago and now they’re going out of business. I have to remind my team all the time. It’s not our job like our job is to present, you know, do the bookkeeping, present the numbers, help them understand and be there for them as they celebrate and commiserate. You know, through the years.

 Kevin Rosenquist: I can see that being kind of defeating you when you try so hard with a company and then they don’t listen or they don’t want to make the changes that need to happen, and then and then they go under. That’s gotta be tough on people. Speaking of team, I was curious, like as a leader and as someone who focuses on passion, focuses on helping, truly helping people. How do you go about finding people who fit your company vision?

Danielle Hayden: That’s been, I think, a challenge for every business owner out there. , over the years.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Especially, I feel like when you have you have seem to have a clear cut vision of how you want to present kickstart and how you want to help people and that, you know, and it’s a great it’s a great vision, but it’s got to be very specific on what you need.

Danielle Hayden: Yeah. So we’ve changed this hiring process throughout the years. Currently we’re using a tool called Predictive Index for we have a tool that’s been built specifically for our company. And we use that to find the right personality assessment match to the role that we have available. And then from there we go through a pretty lengthy interview process. We do a coffee chat, one hour interview, and then they come back for a third interview that we call a Core value Core values interview. , that’s where they’re meeting directly with me to talk about the core values and how they align with our core values. And then new team members go through a pretty lengthy training process where for the first 90 days, they’re going through our proprietary system. So we have in Member Vault our set of videos or a system that we know when applied to the right person, really helps them understand our vision. So then they go through that, that training program. And if they make it through the first 90 days as a core value fit, then we’ll extend them to continue to stay on. But we do a lot in terms of culture. We have a daily huddle every morning, a monthly team meeting. Our account managers meet with every single team member at least once or twice a week. So a lot of time connecting. We run a virtual team as well. So having those connection points because most importantly, we want to keep the energy alive. Our team, like what we do, is so freaking cool. We’re not just bookkeepers.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Yeah, like, yeah.

Danielle Hayden: Go do bookkeeping anywhere. Like we’re making a difference. So when we help our clients, they now get to turn around and go hire people and make spending in the economy. So for every business owner that we empower with, with financial knowledge, like they now understand their financial statements and they get now feel confident to go hire somebody like, wow, we get to make an impact in their community. How cool is that?

Danielle Hayden: Very.

Danielle Hayden: And so we want to communicate that to our team over and over and over again. We have a chat and our team that’s called client wins. So we just recently had a client who she started with us two and a half years ago, and she filled out our financial goal setting worksheet when she started as a client. And in the financial goal setting worksheet, she shared with us that she wanted to pay herself $100,000 like it was her goal to replace her salary from her corporate days. And she was going to get there. And we had been meeting with her monthly every single month. And I’ll tell you, there was months. That was really difficult because she was not able to pay herself enough. , she had to make some tough choices in the way that she spent money and the way she increased her revenue. And my goodness, she finally did it.

 Kevin Rosenquist: That’s awesome.

Danielle Hayden: Yeah. And our team is, like, celebrating her. You know what I mean? Like, we all get to celebrate her and our team.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Well.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Yeah, you guys had a vital part of that, you know. And that’s, that’s that’s really cool. That’s really cool. Does that hiring thing that you were talking about, you’re talking about the core values and the process and all that has it. Do you find that it’s been successful? Has it been a better way to find the right people?

Danielle Hayden: Yeah, I mean, look, we’ve been in business for almost ten years. It’s changed a lot over the years. So we’ve learned a lot about the type of people who work and who don’t work in this industry, what experience works and what doesn’t work. So being able to look at a rese to say, hey, we find that normally when they have this, this type of background, they are better fit than this type of background. But you know what? All that comes from reflection of asking yourself what works and what doesn’t work. So every time we lose a team member or somebody doesn’t work out like shame on you, it’s like, what did we learn?

 Kevin Rosenquist: Yeah. What did we learn from that? Yeah, I’ve done a fair amount of hiring in my day, so like, I totally I completely understand what you’re saying. Like, you get duds every once in a while. It happens. It happens to everybody. And you got to figure out what went wrong and what you can learn from it. I totally agree with that.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Exactly.

 Kevin Rosenquist: You talk a lot about empowering women entrepreneurs as being a core mission of yours. Why do women face barriers when it comes to financial education and opportunity? Is it because we still live in a society that’s heavily male dominated white men at that, or do you see it as more nuanced than that?

Danielle Hayden: So we help both.

Danielle Hayden: Men and.

Speaker3: Women. Yes, I know I have.

Danielle Hayden: Male clients as.

Danielle Hayden: Well. No dudes allowed. Yeah. You know.

Danielle Hayden: We have just found so. So rewind a little bit. Accounting is historically a male dominated field. It just is. And so when women start new businesses, they are when they’re trying to find that that tax accountant, that bookkeeper, they’re looking in a male dominated field. And so it has been a passion of ours to be able to help women with this space where they can say, hey, I have no idea what you’re freaking talking about. Like you just said a bunch of words, and they make no sense to me. And it’s easier for that woman to come into my zoom office and say that to me than it is to maybe a male counterpart.

Danielle Hayden: And I use the story of my own experience of why we kind of shifted over the years. So my first year in business, I although I’m a CPA, I said I’m going to have somebody else do my taxes always so I can have that checks and balances. So I went to see Joe. Joe was my parents’ family friend. I remember going to Joe when I was a kid and having him do my parents taxes. So I was like, this is perfect. I’ll just go back to Joe. Feels familiar. Hot ser day. I drive out there and I’ll never forget walking into his office. He’s still got that. That old school paneling. Feels like his carpet hasn’t been replaced since I was a kid.

 Kevin Rosenquist: And drop ceiling. Fluorescent lighting.

Speaker3: Yep, yep.

Danielle Hayden: You know, you know the office? Yep. And I gave him my numbers. I gave him my bookkeeping. And as I’m sitting there, he shook his head at me and called it my little business. Your little business? And I’m not the only person who’s had this happen, right? Like, I’ve heard the story in 20 million different ways. And when I walked out of Joe’s office, I said, I will make sure that nobody ever feels this way. It’s not your little business. It is your business. It is not like we already are telling ourselves enough stories in our head. Every single one of us, right? Every single one of us has stories in our head. I’m not good enough. My second grade teacher told me I’d never amount to anything. My football. My football coach told me I saw. You know, we all have these stories in our heads, right? Absolutely. We need a supportive team in our business. Because all of those stories, all those things that happened to us growing up, they didn’t just stop the day we became a business owner. Carrying all those stories with us, and now our business owner. And we’re supposed to be responsible for a P and L. We’re supposed to be responsible for other people, customers, expenses, vendor relationships. We’re responsible for all of that. And that feels really, really heavy. And so we have found that if we could create a space for women to say, hey, I need help, I need to retire my superhero hero cape, I need somebody to tell me how I’m doing. We can do that in a really meaningful way.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Well, you said judgment free zone. I mean, that that’s perfect.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Yeah. Yeah.

Danielle Hayden: And the other thing, you know, I just want to recognize Instagram and TikTok, right? Like social media, as much as it’s played a part in these online businesses that we support, there’s marketing out there that about women in their spending. And if you weren’t getting these before or now that I’m saying this, your phone is going to pick it up and you’ll probably get something right.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Let me shut it off.

 Kevin Rosenquist: You know, the.

Danielle Hayden: Woman who has an Amazon package every day? Or let’s go walk around target and spend too much money and get to Starbucks. Right. We’re programmed to be told we’re not good with money. We’re over-spend. Like, you know, we’re not financially literate. And then we come into business and we’re not spending money. And so a lot of our clients will come to us and say, Danielle, where should I cut back? And I’m like, cut back. You need to spend money. Like there’s a healthy amount of spending that needs to happen for you to help hit your goals. And so we also want to break down that barrier for women that we have to spend money in order to make money. But we have to spend and know where we’re spending money and keep track of it.

 Kevin Rosenquist: I mean, we.

 Kevin Rosenquist: I don’t want to get on a soapbox or anything like that, but, well, equality is something that should be foundational to us as hans, you know? And I wasn’t accusing you of being on a soapbox, by the way. I intend to do that. And I try not to do that, especially because of the fintech podcast. But, you know, equality is something that should be foundational to us as hans. It’s 2024. We still have so far to go between rights and wages and opportunities as a woman, an entrepreneur and someone dedicating themselves to helping encourage a more equitable business landscape. How do you continue to push, rather than let frustration derail you? Or do you see it as improving in your time?

Danielle Hayden: I see it improving. That’s great. That’s great. I mean, I, I don’t know.

Danielle Hayden: I think you, you see what you want to see a little bit. And it depends on the stories that have happened to you and your world and your peripheral. I have been so fortunate in my career to be supported, and I haven’t had much of that in my own personal career. And I see my clients rising like I see these small business owners who are thriving, so I don’t get as frustrated. I see so much progress being made day in and day out by these amazing entrepreneurs.

 Kevin Rosenquist: That’s great. That’s great to hear because I’ve definitely talked to other people on this podcast. And I mean, you pick up a, you know, read the news or whatever. And there are people in the financial world, not just bookkeeping, but an accounting, but the financial world is very male dominated. And it’s it’s hard for a lot of women to break through. So that’s really good to hear that you’re feeling like there’s a positive that things are heading in the right direction. And let’s hope that continues.

 Kevin Rosenquist: And if you’re.

Danielle Hayden: A man that’s listening, like you can play a part. And I always think the bosses that I’ve had in the past, who opened the doors and let me sit at the table, right. Like they weren’t a barrier for me to get to the table. You know, they literally pulled out a chair and welcomed me to sit at the table with them. And so when I received my first position as a CFO, I was welcomed by that management team, and I was the only woman that sat there. And not one of them ever made me feel like I didn’t belong in that room with them. I was I was treated as an equal in that room. No, I brought my weight with me. But of.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Course. Yeah. You were qualified. Yeah, right. Yeah.

Danielle Hayden: But they also supported me in that role. And so I think if you’re somebody who’s listening, who has the opportunity for a qualified person to be able to sit at the table with you, like, you know, we can all do our parts to continue to push this forward and have greater acceptance in it.

 Kevin Rosenquist: I like that, that’s good. That’s good for everybody. All the dudes out there to hear, you know, we don’t need to be like Joe’s little business, right?

 Kevin Rosenquist: Yeah.

 Kevin Rosenquist: Well, Danielle Hayden, Kickstart Accounting, thanks so much for being here. I really appreciate it. And I’m really excited to see where kickstart goes from here.

Danielle Hayden: Thank you so much for having me here.