Podcast

What caught our attention this week?

• Ready. Set. Go. Small Businesses And The Race For Round 2 PPP Funds
• Our Pandemic Summer

Discussion Topic

• How are we keeping structure in our lives during this crazy time?

Quick Tips

• Shut your devices off.
• Get a proper accounting system, separate business/personal, and pay yourself properly when you are working again.

Sponsors

• Acuity Scheduling
• The Jojoba Company
• Yomassage

Transcript:

Sponsor message This episode is sponsored by Acuity, our software of choice. Acuity is the scheduling assistant that makes it easy for both traditional businesses and virtual businesses to keep their calendar full. Acuity is the business suite that takes hours of work off your plate so you can focus on the fun of your massage business. From the moment a client books with you, Acuity is there to send booking confirmations with your own brand and messaging, deliver text reminders, let clients reschedule, let them pay online so your days run smoother and faster as you get busier. You never have to say, what time works for you? Again, clients can quickly review your real-time availability and book their own appointments. You can get a special 45-day free offer when you sign up today at massagebusinessblueprint.com/acuity.

Michael Reynolds Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Massage Business Blueprint podcast, where we are both freshly showered today. I'm Michael Reynolds.

Allissa Haines I'm Allissa Haines.

MR We're your hosts. Welcome to the podcast.

AH We are, and I'll just note that the only reason that I actually took a shower and fixed my hair is because Michael and I are doing a webinar for Acuity later in the day, and I knew I had to fix my hair [laughing].

MR [Laughing] I'm sure it looks lovely. I cannot wait to see it.

AH I mean, it's just combed. It looks normal, but --

MR Yeah, well --

AH -- I couldn't even bring myself --

MR -- that's a win.

AH Yeah. It is. I couldn't even -- it is more than I was able and capable of yesterday. So I'll say that.

MR I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you.

AH [Laughing] Thank you.

MR [Laughing].

AH What's going on, Michael? What are you reading?

MR What am I reading? All right. I am reading about the next round of PPP funds. As most of us know, the PPP funds ran out pretty quickly. PPP, for those who are maybe a little out of the loop, stands for Paycheck Protection Program. It is the program that allows small-ish -- I'm going to say small-ish because there's a big controversy there -- but small-ish businesses to get some additional funds in the form of a loan that is potentially forgivable under certain conditions, and that loan is designed to continue paying your people. And in our world, that counts as paying yourself because you are the people that is employed by your own business.

And so we know a lot of people that were successful in getting these loans, and again, in theory they will be forgiven. I have pretty decent confidence that that will work out. But it ran out, and there was some weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth as a result. And now, as I was kind of predicting, the second round of PPP funds has been passed by the Senate. Let me just verify that. Yes, been passed by the Senate. So it's basically on the way to the president's desk, and as early as by the time you listen to this podcast, it could be signed. We're recording this on Thursday, and Thursday is kind of the date where people are expecting it to be signed. So it could be today, could be tomorrow, could be next week. But that is what is happening.

So not much appears to have changed according to the sources I'm reading. It's an additional over $300 billion specifically for the PPP funds. It doesn't appear to have fixed some of the controversial issues people are a little bit mad about. One of those is that there's a loophole that allows large national corporations to act like small businesses because they're -- each location counts as a small business. So for example, Ruth's Chris has been -- people are picking on Ruth's Chris right now because they have multiple locations, each with less than 500 people -- or fewer than 500 people at those locations, and each location counts as a small business. So they got PPP funds.

I'm not going to talk about that today because that's a whole can of worms we could talk about. But I don't think those things have been remedied or those loopholes have been closed, but it looks like one of the interesting things is they are setting aside a specific amount just for smaller lending institutions to have available. So that's a little bit of a change. It looks like $60 billion are being set aside specifically for smaller institutions like credit unions and community banks. So again, this kind of aligns with what I've been telling people for a while, being a few days I guess, that hey, look to your credit unions and community banks. Look for one that did a good job last time around, and verify with them that they are willing to work with newer customers or members, and set up an account with them so that when the funds open up again, you are able to apply if you want to apply.

That's what I'm reading about, so we'll see how that turns out. But that appears to be in the works.

AH Thanks, Michael.

MR Yeah.

AH I've kind of had to put my head down and step away from news and stuff for a few days just because it's so overwhelming and stressful. And I was super underinformed. I knew a second round was coming, but I didn't know much about it. So I very much appreciate you sharing that resource.

MR Yep.

AH So what I'm reading -- I read this the other day -- is Our Pandemic Summer: The Fight Against Coronavirus Won't Be Over When the US Reopens. Here's How the Nation Must Prepare Itself, story by Ed Yong from The Atlantic, which is my preferred news source nowadays. It's longform. It's got a disaster specialist/homeland security expert, Juliette Kayyem, who I have mentioned a bunch of times. She writes for them, which is how I kind of -- I mean, I've read The Atlantic for years, but especially now. It's a long read. It's not a positive read. But it really talks about the trajectory and the options for, quote unquote, reopening the world, what's going to happen with reopening, and potential for having to lock down again as cases rise, which will happen as communities reopen and people start hanging out with each other again in one way or another. It talks about drug shortages, and it talks about a lot of stuff.

And I want to put some context around this, and Michael and I were just talking before we recorded. I read this article like three days ago and really started absorbing that this could be a long-term thing for many of us. At the same time that some states are sort of reopening, I'm absorbing that I will choose not to. And then the next day, which was yesterday-ish, I had a couple hours in the afternoon of really thinking about how maybe if I replace the carpet with hard floors in my office and make it so it can be sanitized between clients, and maybe if I adjust my schedule and my pricing and I only see three clients a day and there's an hour between them so I can really clean, and I get a really fancy air filter and I get the best kind of mask for me, and I screen clients differently so I'm maybe for a while not seeing immunocompromised or particularly fragile people, then maybe I can reopen this summer.

There's a real dissonance, denial, and resistance in my head to -- even at this point, what, seven weeks in -- the concept of closing my office as long as it will probably have to be closed. And it was really good for me to come back to this article this morning, and I've read some other stuff this morning too, and realized that I need to be bracing myself for a longer-term thing. From the beginning, I've said this is going to be long term, but I hadn't quite absorbed it. And that level of awareness of that changes from day to day depending on my stress level and everything else going on, just, I'm sure, like everybody else.

So I just want to encourage everybody to make sure they are reading a variety of sources and pragmatic ones, not necessarily -- if everything you read is happy and shiny, then you're not reading a big enough variety. I'm reading happy, shiny inspirational things about what could happen here too. I'm also reading the pragmatic negative things because I think it's important.

So that was a long thing, but that's what I'm reading this week. And we'll have links to that in the show notes.

MR Right on. Thanks for sharing that. All right. Let's talk about some stuff, but first, let's talk about our sponsor Yomassage. What's up with Yomassage?

AH Yay, Yomassage.

Sponsor message You, my friends, can become an expert in all things restorative stretch, mindfulness, meditation, and therapeutic touch in a comprehensive three-week virtual Yomassage therapist certification. In this training, you'll learn practices you can offer your clients virtually and an innovative modality that enables you to serve clients in a group setting or a one-on-one setting. You will build community with the other therapists going through this virtual training. I have only heard good things about it, sidebar. You will have assignments due each week, weekly discussion posts, live Q&As, weekly quizzes, lots of one-to-one feedback from your instructor, and tons of post-class support.

Payment plans are available for the May and June virtual trainings. This training offers 10.5 NCB- CE hours. And our listeners can get $50 off courses May through June. So you can use the code BLUEPRINT, all caps, one word, B-L-U-E-P-R-I-N-T. And you can learn more and register for trainings at massagebusinessblueprint.com/yomassage.

MR Yay. Love the virtual trainings.

AH I do too. I think it's really interesting, and I like working with Yomassage. They have their crap together, which is nice.

MR Yeah. Absolutely.

AH [Laughing] That's one of the nicest things we can say --

MR I know, right?

AH -- about any massage-related company or educative -- they have their crap together, and I --

MR They really do.

AH -- really appreciate that [laughing].

MR Yeah [laughing]. I agree.

AH All right, Michael. What are we talking about today?

MR Structure. We've had a couple questions recently from members in our audience about structure and kind of how you keep a structure in place during these crazy times. So I'm pretty excited because I really like talking about structure. So you're going to have to rein me in a little bit, probably.

AH Yeah, and we are -- this is inspired by an email from one of our members who -- we do these live office hours, which are just little web meetings. And when we talk about -- we ask each other how we're doing, and we talk about making sure we're being flexible and forgiving about our productivity levels right now and what we can manage. And it was really great to get this email from our member who said, listen. That's all great, but I don't do well in that kind of non-structured, flexible stuff. So she asked us, she said, "I need help to spend this time off efficiently and make the most of it. Maybe it's my personality, but I'm a better person, more motivated and efficient, when I'm busy and making money."

Holla! I totally get that. So she's got a routine going of waking up and exercising and then getting her business stuff done first thing, first part of the day, and avoiding falling into the couch and Netflix too early in the day and then getting nothing done and feeling crappy at the end of the day and feeling crappy the next morning. So she asked us very specifically, what are our routines? What is the thing that we do every morning to keep on track, and what do you avoid that's a time-suck?

So Michael, I want to let you go first.

MR Oh, okay. Cool. I can do that. So I like to think of work as a flow. So I know a lot of people -- maybe not a lot of people. I don't know. I just kind of assume that people out there are like, oh, I've got this rigid to-do list and things. And to me, that's not realistic. So I'm pretty ambitious. I like to put a ton of things on my to-do list, and I never get them all done. But I just kind of accept that.

So I have a -- first of all, what I do is I have one trusted to-do list. So I think it's really important to have one trusted list. I talk to a lot of people that -- they can't seem to get anything done. That's because they have a piece of paper here and a Post-it note there and an electronic list there and a notebook over there, and they just write things down willy-nilly. And your brain can't handle that. Your brain cannot handle things that have to get done in many different locations because that means there is no one trusted system.

So I think it's really important to have one trusted to-do list, whether it's a notebook or a notepad or electronic thing or whatever. In my case, it's Microsoft To Do, which I've talked about in the past. It's the replacement for Wunderlist, and it's electronic. It's got a desktop app. It's got a mobile app. It's got a web. So that is my central location for all my stuff. It's segmented by context and by business, so I've got Massage Business Blueprint stuff on the list. I've got family stuff on the list. I've got other stuff on the list.

And so it's all in one place. So when I say I think of it as a flow, I allow myself the flexibility to say, okay, if this doesn't get done, it's going to roll to tomorrow, or I'm going to roll it to next week. I'm going to just roll things forward. And so I get done what I get done, and then the rest just flows to the next time period. And by allowing myself to intentionally accept that as how I structure things, it really releases me of a lot of guilt and judgment on myself. Oh, I didn't get anything done. You know, it doesn't matter. It's a flow. It flows along, and sometimes I hit a rock, and I have to flow around the rock. And sometimes I hit some debris, and I've got to flow around the debris, and it slows me down; then I keep going. So that's kind of how I think about it. It sounds really floofy, I know. But anyway, so that's kind of how I approach it.

And then as far as kind of what I do consistently, the reader also asked, what is one thing I do consistently to kind of get things done? So I do the opposite of the eat-the-frog method. So there's this eat-the-frog philosophy out there, which is great -- a lot of people love it -- that says, hey, when you have stuff to do, do the hardest thing first that you don't want to do, and that makes the rest of the day easier. Now, that sounds great, and a lot of people do love it. I'm like the weirdo that doesn't love that. It's the opposite for me.

So what I do is I have maybe -- let's say I have like seven things on my list to get done, and one of them -- or two of them are really hard. One of them is super hard, and I don't want to get to it. And then there's three or four easy things. I tackle the easy things first because I want to roll up into the hard thing and then focus on that with all my attention. I call the little ones ankle biters. If I have these little ankle-biter tasks just hanging out there, then my brain just thinks about them all the time, like oh, I've got to do this little thing and that little thing, and that'll take five minutes, but it's on my list still.

So I knock out the ankle biters first because that kind of lets me clear the deck and focus on the one or maybe two big, harder things that require focus. It's the same reason the debt snowball method works for paying off debt. You knock out the little stuff first to get it out of the way so you can then focus your attention on the big thing. So again, a lot of people love the eat-the-frog method of getting the hard thing done first. I'm the opposite. I like the -- kind of the task snowball method of knocking out those ankle-biter tasks first.

And then, finally, she also asked what we try to do to -- what do we not do, or what do I not do, to be more productive? And I try really hard to stay off Facebook. It's a losing battle, but it's a struggle, and I try to avoid Facebook as much as possible. So that's kind of my take on this question.

AH And I love it.

My tips are not unlike Michael's. I've had to create a new kind of structure for being home and specifically being home with kids, and that's been a real struggle to figure out everyone's needs and their best times to function and make it all fit together like a puzzle. So for me, I have my coffee preprogrammed to start brewing at 7:15 in the morning, and that is the thing that -- literally the thing that gets me out of bed. I will lay in bed for way too long thinking, oh, I don't want to have to get up and make the coffee. So if it's ready, I am usually up and alive and standing there with my mug, ready for the second the last drip hits the coffeepot.

I give myself usually like 30 or 40 minutes to kind of meander through getting dressed and turn the heat on in my little backyard office, and I grab a snack and get set up in my little office or at least at my kitchen table, depending on what the other family demands are of the day.

I find -- like Michael says he tries to avoid Facebook, I find that the biggest distraction for me is household stuff. So if I grab my cup of coffee but I realize that the dishwasher needs to be unloaded and there's like ten things in the way of the next thing that has to happen in the kitchen, I will procrasti-clean. And then when I start cleaning, I'll be like, oh, I might as well start the laundry and get that going so that that's ready to switch over later when I'm having lunch. I will go into full-on homemaker mode and won't get an ounce of my actual business-y work done for hours and hours. And I will lose this whole window of time I have in the morning because I have carved out 8 to 10 just for me to get my work done.

So I handle that by making sure the night before -- when I get the coffeepot ready, I make sure the kitchen is properly picked up so that I'm walking into a clean kitchen with fresh coffee in the morning [laughing]. That's a big thing. Like Michael, once I finally get myself sitting down at the table or in my little office, I play Amazon Classical Focus -- the Amazon Prime Music, they have a great Classical Focus station. And I have trained myself like a dog. When I start hearing that music, I can really focus really well. So I put that on, and I, like Michael, have a single running to-do list with due dates that prioritize what I need to get done.

So I try to just plow through everything I can get done, and I can usually gauge when I start working, do I have the brainpower for lots of little tasks, or do I have the brainpower today for a bigger, deeper task? Sometimes I don't have the option to choose. Sometimes there's just a deadline that chooses for me. But I try to do a good job of prioritizing in that manner and then using that time to plow through fairly well without too much interruption. And then I typically have a couple hours in the mid to late afternoon when I try to do the same thing and just plow through.

It really helps me if I prioritize my tasks the night before. So before I shut down at like 4 or 5 -- and this is a know-yourself thing. My brain shuts down around 4 or 5. I can't do thinky work. I just -- I can't. So I know that now. I don't try. So when I start to feel myself fade in the afternoon, I immediately stop working and put together my priorities for the next day so the next day when I get up and have my coffee and sit down at my desk, I know what I have to do. I don't wander from, oh, maybe I shouldn't do this, or should I do this today or that? And by then, by the time I decide, I'm three conspiracy theory posts on Twitter deep into my day, and I'm never going to get anything else done.

So that's how I handle stuff. I also brought this up to our office hours with our premium members and said, what about -- people who need structure, what are you doing to create that? And a couple people popped in and said that they found it was really important for a couple of weeks to take some rebound time and really not do anything and treat it like an actual vacation from work. It was to deal with the stress of this pandemic and the stress of having to shut our businesses down and the stress of all of a sudden either being alone all the time or having these people around you all the time that you're used to going to work and getting away from, that it was good to take a couple weeks to not force any structure.

But many people noted that that vacation was a little long and slothy. So here are some tips, and they're things you well know because we're grown-ups and we know these things. Get up at the same time every day. Go to bed at the same time every day. Not rocket science. Set your alarms if you need to. Honor your schedule. Honor whatever your body does best, and maybe that's getting up early or getting up late and staying up late. And that's okay. But honor that and do it. Figure it out and do it. Figure out how you feel best, and make alarms or some kinds of reminders to do that every single day and every single night.

One of our members noted that she already had started a twice-a-day meditation practice that was already established, and that has really been her lifeboat. So of course it's a little harder to start something like that, but there are plenty of apps and tools and alarms to make that happen. So even if you're just creating some kind of meditation or movement practice that is five minutes a day, that's a win. If it's structure and it's timed and you can fit it in and you can find a way to remember it, that's a win.

Someone else noted that they have adjusted their expectations to just do one thing each day; one thing, one task, one desire. They conquer that one thing, and then they let go of the remainder of expectations for the day. And that takes the pressure off, and they can still feel a little bit accomplished.

Someone else noted -- I'll just say Stacey noted this -- this is brilliant -- that she has a handful of alarms to go off on her phone several times a day, like four or five times through the day, and it's not an alarm that says, now it's time to do this thing. It's an alarm that says, hey, what are you doing? If you have found yourself falling into sloth, maybe you need to go for a walk. Or if you -- this alarm goes off and you take note of what you're doing and you realize that you have maniacally been cleaning your apartment for four hours, maybe it's time to check in and change your situation. And I loved this because it wasn't like you have to do a thing. It was just, hey, reminder to check in with yourself. Is what you're doing making you happier and healthier? And that's pretty awesome.

Somebody else noted that they are spending more time on their bullet journal, which is helping keeping them organized, but also helping them feel creative and just more holistically together so they're not so scattered in their thoughts, and their feelings aren't so scattered. A lot of people are doing structured CE courses that are either mandatory for their licensure -- and also just topics that have interested them. So creating a schedule and saying, I am going to do one module of this or one hour of this every day, could be what you need for just a hint of structure.

And there was also some mention of external challenges, things that are out there in the world, on the web, or maybe social media that incite you to do something. So maybe it's -- specifically, someone mentioned the Apartment Therapy Cleaning Challenge that's like a totally clean house in 20 minutes a day, and it gives a task every day. And for a month, it works through your home, and you end up with a totally clean home after only spending 20 minutes a day or something to that effect.

Maybe there's a journaling challenge. Maybe you can find some journaling prompts online and spend a few minutes every day -- and it could just be a few minutes; it doesn't have to be a big, long thing -- doing some journaling. Maybe there's a yoga challenge. Once upon a time, I did a squats challenge that was like -- it was like a monthlong thing, and you had to do so many squats, and there are rest days worked in. And by the end of the month, you're supposed to be able to do like 100 squats without blinking. Ditto that for planking or any kind of exercise thing. Whatever structured thing is up your alley, give it a shot. See how it goes.

And that is the end of my tips for helping structure your day. There should be something in there for everyone. And I'll just remind us all that this doesn't mean you need to be overproductive. It just means that, yeah, we've got to do something.

MR It also doesn't mean you should be unproductive. If you thrive on productivity that's helping you mentally, then yeah, go for it. I mean, we've seen the spectrum. Some people just need a break, and some people need to be productive, and some people are in between, and it changes day by day. And that is okay.

AH Yeah.

MR Right on. All right.

AH What's next, Michael?

MR Next, let's talk about Jojoba.

AH Hey, Jojoba.

Sponsor message As you know, I recommend HobaCare jojoba for use in your massage practice since it never goes rancid. It's safe for all clients, and it won't stain your natural fiber sheets. However, with all the handwashing we're doing, it might be time to grab a bottle and use it for a bit of self-care. Jojoba is the closest thing in nature to the sebum that our skin produces. Our skin cannot keep up with the repeated washings and the soap that's going on and the sanitizer. So a couple of drops on the back of your hands is going to keep your skin soft and healthy.

Also, The Jojoba Company understands that stuff is hard right now. So from now until May 1st -- so you got a week -- they're increasing the discount offer through Massage Business Blueprint to 20% off. So you can go to massagebusinessblueprint.com/jojoba, J-O-J-O-B-A, and get your 20% off if you need some jojoba for your house.

MR Nice.

AH That's what I got.

MR All right. Quick tip time.

AH So my quick tip --

MR Do you want to go first?

AH Yeah. I'll go first. Mine is on shut off your darn device. I swear to God I'm going to have a stroke if I read anything else that people are saying online.

MR [Laughing] On the book of faces?

AH On the book of faces or anywhere else. You know that desire to stay in touch versus the desire to shut it all down because your head's going to explode? I'm struggling with that because part of my job involves being online. But I definitely feel better, and I haven't been able to shut my device off, but I have logged out of many things so that to view anything, I have to consciously enter a password, and that stops me from being idle and idly doing -- reading things that are going to make my head blow off.

I will say, however, I love me some Instagram. I love it. I love it. It's beautiful and fun, and I love watching what you all are doing right now. And I'm having fun with Instagram Stories, and I'm having fun sharing my homeschooling adventures. And there are some serious air quotes around homeschooling right there.

MR [Laughing].

AH So if I was a legit homeschooling parent who homeschooled all the time, I would be so annoyed with the appropriation of that phrase right now. So anyhow, log off of the things that do not bring you joy, and preserve your sanity. That's my quick tip.

MR Yeah. Okay. All right. So I've talked about this before, and I just have to talk about it again. I'm sorry. I apologize in advance, but I really want to bring this up again. And I want to say that I know that this is pending going back to work, but getting in the mindset of this while you're waiting to go back to work, I think, is important. And I want to say get a proper accounting system, separate your business and personal money, and pay yourself properly when you're working again. Get these systems set up, and get in that mindset.

And I have to say it again because I just keep encountering it. I'm on a soapbox. I apologize. I'm saying it again. But I've seen so many massage therapists who don't have an accounting system. They're doing things either on a spreadsheet or not at all in terms of tracking how their money is flowing in their business. They're mixing business and personal money together. They're buying personal stuff with their business money, they're buying business stuff with their personal money, and there's just this willy-nilly kind of going back and forth. And they're also not paying themselves properly. They're just -- basically, that mixture kind of bleeds into not paying themselves a proper distribution with a proper compensation, or they're just paying themselves kind of when they feel like it or when they have some money, and there's a lot of inconsistency.

Now, I realize that there's inconsistency in income. As a massage therapist, there's lots of inconsistency. You've got great months and low months, et cetera, and that's a whole different topic that we probably want to unpack at some point. But it is possible to achieve consistency or at least semblance of consistency. So this PPP stuff and the CARES Act and the financial aid available to businesses is really uncovering a lot of massage therapists who don't have their act together from a financial statement standpoint.

So again, I've said it before. This is probably the third or fourth time I've soapboxed about this on the podcast, but use this time to set up a proper accounting system. You know how much I love QuickBooks Online and how much Allissa and I love to rumble about this. I'm going to say get Wave Accounting because it is free.

AH It's free.

MR Wave Accounting is free.

AH You know what else is free? A spreadsheet [laughing].

MR I'm going to argue with you on that. I don't like a spreadsheet.

AH I mean, I like Wave, but if that is out of your reach and you're spreadsheet savvy, then that maybe is your second go-to. But I agree with Michael that Wave is free, and it should be your first choice if you don't -- haven't already purchased something like QuickBooks or Quicken or Banktivity or whatever.

MR Yeah. Yeah. So again, I love QuickBooks Online. I think it's worth it. But if free is better, it is free. It's free-99. It's free. Go get it now. Allissa uses it. She loves it. It produces reports. So go get something. FreshBooks is an alternative as well. Those are kind of the top three I'd recommend, QuickBooks Online, Wave Accounting, FreshBooks. Get something in place and start managing your books. Start categorizing your expenses and your income, and get --

AH And --

MR Yeah, go ahead.

AH I'm going to plug. If you don't know how to do that and you don't know what we're talking about and you're still dealing with pieces of paper -- okay. First of all, if you do your books on paper and that works for you and you've never had a problem and you have all the numbers you need for all the things you need all the time, then never mind. But if you need a better way to do it or you just want to brush up, we are literally dedicating every column in ABMP's Massage & Bodywork magazine -- every column this year is part of 2020 Mind Your Money. And the first three are up. Actually, the one that just published this week is all about how to pay yourself and deal with inconsistent income, just like Michael talked about.

All you have to do is go to abmp.com/money. See every column. You don't even need to log in. See every companion video. Get the companion worksheets. And then you won't be so behind the eight ball and embarrassed when you don't have -- because you'll have your money together, and you'll be able to apply for funding and stuff for the next pandemic.

MR Yeah. Yeah.

AH [Laughing].

MR Thanks for that plug. Appreciate that.

And if you have trouble doing it yourself, I know that money is an issue right now, but it's probably worth spending a little bit of money to hire someone like Kim and Julie or your favorite accountant to clean things up for you and at least get you up to speed. And then, again, separate business and personal. Business money is business money. Personal money is personal money.

The only time they should cross over that boundary is when you are paying yourself, and you should pay yourself by transferring money from your business account to your personal account. You call that a distribution or owner's draw or dividend, whatever you want to call it. And that is categorized in your accounting system as that distribution or your owner's draw, and that is how you pay yourself. And you want to do that consistently.

Again, I know things are crazy right now, but when things are back to some semblance of normalcy -- you're working again -- get in that mindset. That is how you pay yourself. Try to make it consistent, and think of it as if you're getting a paycheck from a regular job. That's going to go -- all this stuff is going to go a long way toward helping you have clean finances for when you have to apply for loans and things like this and also helping you run a business like a real business that's an asset and not a hobby.

So I'm sorry I'm soapboxing. I'm stepping off now, but I just -- I wanted to go there again.

AH And I appreciate that.

MR [Laughing].

AH All right. We're done. You guys have been lectured enough. Thank you for sticking with us.

MR All right [laughing]. With that, let's end there before we do any more damage.

Thanks for joining us today. You can find us, as always, massagebusinessblueprint.com, and we'll keep you posted on all the things that are happening. And we'll see you next week. Thanks, everyone.

AH Bye.