#awinewith Soojee Ford
MEET Soojee
Soojee is the Co-Founder of The Good Studio.
Find Soojee here:
The Good Studio website or Instagram @thegood.studio.
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:10):
Amazing. Suji, thank you so much for being here on Spark tv. It is an honor to have you.
Soojee Ford (00:17):
Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to sit down and have a chat.
Danielle Lewis (00:20):
Awesome. And the place we like to start on Spark TV is just by sharing your backstory. So when I found out about you, I did a little bit of research on the Good Studio and the brands that you bring to life are absolutely incredible. So I can only imagine that you have had a wealth of experience leading up to this point. I'd love you to tell everyone what the Good Studio is, but also how you got here. Was there a career beforehand? Were there other businesses? What does that process look like?
Soojee Ford (00:55):
Oh, how long have you got? Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (00:56):
Exactly. Sit back, crack a bottle of wine. You can't, but
Soojee Ford (01:01):
I've got a water. I've got a water. I probably will need to top up at some point. So let's start at the beginning. What is the Good studio? What do we do, et cetera. The Good Studio, we are based in Lander on the Sunshine Coast. Geographics do come into it. So essentially we are a brand and digital studio, and our real specialties are helping establish businesses who have been around for a while, but they sort of feel like they've diluted or lost what that is, that real point of difference out in the market that could also be in the market, but also with their employees. So we help reposition them through brand strategy and say, Hey, here's the things that make you really amazing for who you are, but also differentiate you amongst your competitors. That's the strategy. And then we get to have all sorts of fun turning that strategy into creative. So we handle copy and messaging, brand identity design and websites and our whole value proposition and what we really believe in is that being boring is bad for business.
Danielle Lewis (01:55):
I agree. I love it.
Soojee Ford (01:57):
Want to just, we find what makes someone different, but then we have fun with it. And so it's really playful words and lines design. We want people to feel something when they see the brand. So thank you for saying that. You can feel something with the work. That's our goal with the brands that we create and how I got here. So I'm the brand strategist, I have a business partner, Joel, he's the creative director, and we embarked on a business together about two years ago as the Good Studio. So it exists. The Good Studio existed as Joel's sort of a solopreneur style business. And we really saw that hey, we can put two heads together, be bigger and better than what we're able to do individually. And there's a gap in the market on the Sunshine Coast. No one's owning that brand space just yet.
(02:41):
So we're like, let's try and build that, which is really exciting. And so that's how we met and how we started working together. We worked in a coworking space and we sort had a couple of years to suss out whether we liked each other's working styles and skills, which was pretty cool to cross paths in that coworking space. And before I really became a only brand strategy, so I let go of design. So before that I was a art director, creative director, and I've always kind of dabbled with words. I feel like design is a representation of words and when we joined together I was like, I'm going to let that part go and I'm just going to focus on the strategy and the words. And when I was a creative, I feel like I'm kind of going this backwards, tangent. That's
Danielle Lewis (03:27):
Alright. I like
Soojee Ford (03:28):
It. I like it.
Danielle Lewis (03:29):
Perfect.
Soojee Ford (03:30):
Yeah, there was a career in art direction and creative direction. I worked in Brisbane for a really long time in agencies and that was amazing because it was throwing it into the deep end as a junior designer came out the end of it, understanding strategy, brand marketing, really fast paced and that I think was so formative to understand how brands really work. But of course being a business owner, it's a totally different ball game again.
Danielle Lewis (03:57):
Oh my God, totally. I love it. And then I assume, because now I'm backtracking, you obviously studied design or something to get into that
Soojee Ford (04:07):
Space initially. So funnily enough, I've always bounced between business and design. So I kind of started in the business world at university in Brisbane was like, I'm doing business. And I was like, this is so boring. This is, I just,
Danielle Lewis (04:21):
It's not quite the same. Is it studying business and running your own business? It's very different
Soojee Ford (04:26):
Report writing, all of that sort of stuff. I was like, this is not me, let's go and do graphic design. Did that for a while, but then I got into graphic design and I was like, oh, okay, I sort of want to have a little bit more input. And then so graduated as a designer, I graduated in the G ffc. Is that familiar to you as well?
Danielle Lewis (04:48):
Just navigating all of the fabulous market changes we go through as business owners.
Soojee Ford (04:53):
It kind of makes me feel low. I dunno if you feel the same way that we got through that. I've seen how the world comes out the other side, it will be okay.
Danielle Lewis (05:00):
Oh, a thousand percent I feel like it's like, well what's next? There will be something. There's always some kind of challenge like market change, industry upset. There's always something. I think as business owners, your ability to be resilient and problem solve is kind of the magic that keeps you going.
Soojee Ford (05:23):
Yeah, definitely. And not to be too over-leveraged, we've been really mindful, I'm going in huge tangents here, but yeah, be really mindful of not being too over leveraged so that when things do happen, you've got a bit of safety. I'm not a super risk high risk person. It's a bit of risk but not
Danielle Lewis (05:40):
Fully out. Totally. Well, and look, I mean a lot of people really came unstuck when the pandemic happened. I know we were talking GFC, but even just more recently pandemic, it really, really rocked a lot of businesses. Not all businesses survived. So I feel like being risk averse might not be a bad thing.
Soojee Ford (05:59):
Just being since have a few contingency plans. That's how I like to do it. So yeah, graduated in the GFC as a designer and then a couple of things are happening. I've always thought about this, it was like, oh, I want more input, but also there's not a lot of jobs, so I'm just going to take a design job in an agency. And I was lucky that it was a fantastic job. That same time I decided to do something crazy and finish off that marketing degree. So it's just been this constant overlap of creativity and marketing and brand and in hindsight, after all along hours, it has really helped me get to where I am today.
Danielle Lewis (06:35):
That's so good. And I mean that's how it is though. It is often those hard yards in the early days and trying and experimenting till you kind of finally land on what the magic thing is for you.
Soojee Ford (06:48):
And it can definitely feel like at the time, what the hell am I doing? I'm taking a step left, five steps, right forwards backwards. But yeah, that's true. Once you have a few years under your belt, you can reflect back and be like, aha, that's why I did those things.
Danielle Lewis (07:05):
Yeah, no, I love that so much. So I've got so many questions for you, but I thought I would start with, so thinking about the Good studio and what you guys are great at, so thinking about that brand strategy, I love what you said that you really helped these brands who have existed in market for a little while find their spark or find their magic again. And what's unique to them is there, I mean obviously you guys offer that as a service, but if brands are listening in or businesses are listening in and they're feeling a little bit underwhelmed with themselves, is there anything that you would suggest that a business does or reflect on to reignite that magic inside their brand?
Soojee Ford (07:48):
Brand? Yeah, definitely. I think the first thing to do is step away from the day to day. So take yourself out of the office, out of your usual workspace and just turn off your emails, clear your agenda, be like a, I don't have to solve anything today, but just acknowledge that it's time to recalibrate a little bit, look back a bit and then also get back to that why as well. And just sit down and ask that question. Why if you're a founder, why am I doing this and start journaling or I'm a bit of a talker so I like to talk things through, but I know other people like writing can really help. I think our first port of call is often to go to what we do and the services and the clients, et cetera. But I think you need to dig deeper if you're really looking for that differentiation.
(08:31):
It's like, well how do you do that? That's different. What do you really enjoy about those? The way that you provide your service? What do you think clients get out of it, start kind of attacking, I guess looking at the question a little bit differently from those initial surface level questions. What do we do? Who do we do it for? There's always a little bit more there and I think a big one, and my business partner is really big on this. He believes everyone starts a business for a good reason and sometimes we just lose sight of that. So it's just going back and it's those introspective questions and trying to connect then, okay, well my personal why, but also what does the day-to-day look like? How can I connect those two together?
Danielle Lewis (09:11):
I love that so much because, and I love what you said about, we forget why we started. It's so easy to get overwhelmed with the day-to-day grind of all of the things on your to-do list and kind of forget what lit us up in the beginning.
Soojee Ford (09:28):
Exactly. And also talking about, well, what type of life do I want to live? Is it Monday to Friday, nine till five, or is it something else? And why do we have to put in these traditional hours or frameworks, et cetera, if that's not the life that we want to live?
Danielle Lewis (09:47):
Yeah, that is so cool. I don't think often enough as business owners, we kind of get permission to stop and reflect. And it's funny, oh my god, it's funny. I was recording a reel today as you do, trying to get on the bandwagon.
Soojee Ford (10:05):
That's so
Danielle Lewis (10:05):
Hard. Oh my god. But it was funny because the little tip I was giving is that you don't always have to do what everyone else tells you. And as I was kind of reflecting on that myself and my journey, I was like, yeah, I feel like I thought that there was a way to do business and you kind of looked around and had to follow a formula that everyone else was following. And it's only been later in my business life that I've kind of gone, hang on a second. If I have to show up to this thing 24 hours a day, seven days a week, damnit, I want it to be something I love.
Soojee Ford (10:41):
Exactly. And it's like, well, even on the old pros and cons list, it's like what are the things that I love? What are the things that I don't like? And why am I doing these if I am my own boss? Do they have to really questioning? Do I have to be getting back to emails in a certain timeframe? Do I even have to be on emails five days a week?
Danielle Lewis (11:01):
Yeah. Oh my God, that would be a game changer. I hate my emails right now.
Soojee Ford (11:04):
It's so stressful. It's so
Danielle Lewis (11:06):
Funny. It's though. No, it's so awesome because I think you're spot on. We really need to do stop and reflect and think about that magic because I think then there is a flow on effect to our messaging, how we show up on social media, how we reply to emails, how we do proposals, if we're forgetting about that business brand magic and why we were in it in the first place. I think that our ability to connect with the end customer starts to decline as well.
Soojee Ford (11:36):
Definitely. And I think when you are really clear on your values or priorities or what you enjoy and what you don't, then you have this different way of approaching business. You have a different way of approaching your emails. You might be more casual, more straight to the point, cut out all of the fluff and all of a sudden that differentiates you and how you deal with your clients. And then it's also lighting you up because it's like, well great. I got rid of all the fluff that I didn't enjoy doing before.
Danielle Lewis (12:01):
Yeah, I love that so much. So obviously we took that little journey back in time where you went from business owner to solopreneur to working in agencies to studying. What was it like for you going from employee to business owner?
Soojee Ford (12:19):
I was a little bit, I think obnoxious and thought I could do it. I love it. Yeah, maybe a little bit. You have to be, yeah, I probably blunt just a bit. I have idea. I had no idea. And design's this thing, you can freelance really easily and you can subcontract and it gets you feeling like, oh, I've got this, got this momentum. It's like, it's all good. I can do this. And you kind of go through this growth and then you hit it down and all that sort of stuff. But Instagram made life easy back in the day as well. And it's like the first few years I did find just everything sort of fell into place. That was great, but I just wasn't loving working by myself when I did my initial starting out was really working for myself. It's like I want a team around me. And that's when I got quite challenging. It's like, well how do you budget for that? And we're still working out business finances now. I learn something every day about finances. Oh
Danielle Lewis (13:15):
My gosh, tell me about it. Yeah,
Soojee Ford (13:17):
Why didn't I know this?
Danielle Lewis (13:19):
Yeah, where was that in business school
Soojee Ford (13:22):
Tax? How does that work? How does super pays you go? What is hall stuff?
Danielle Lewis (13:26):
Yeah, a hundred percent. So how did you go, I mean obviously that's such a journey. How did you find out those things? Were you just a take it as it comes? Did you go through courses? How did you, I guess, level up to that kind of more CEO business owner mindset
Soojee Ford (13:44):
Still feel like that's a work in progress?
Danielle Lewis (13:47):
Yeah, always.
Soojee Ford (13:47):
Yes. There was one course or community mentoring group that I did join early on and I'll totally, hopefully this is okay in your show, edit it out. Oh yeah, totally. Owners collective. Pru Chapman, I joined her.
Danielle Lewis (14:02):
Oh, I know her. Yeah.
Soojee Ford (14:03):
Awesome. She's amazing. And so I did that early on and just that network and the couple of courses that I did with just, I think so much was covered from the practicality to the mindset and that it's really cool. That network is still connected to me in the business these days as well. That's cool. Which was really helpful. And a lot of the stuff was just trial and error. No,
Danielle Lewis (14:26):
I do love that you mentioned that seeking a community because I think that there's a tendency for business owners to kind of feel a bit lonely and they've got to figure everything out themselves. And I mean, yes, absolutely sparks and community, but I'm like, there's whatever problem you have. I think there's a solution for now, whether it's marketing, whether it's finance, whether it's just I to be in a community of female business owners, whatever the problem is. I kind of feel like there's some amazing people that have grown courses, programs, communities. You don't have to do it alone anymore.
Soojee Ford (15:05):
So true. And even just troubleshooting all that morale. I think the really cool thing about being a female business owner, and I noticed the difference between a male business owner and a female business owner is we have this cheer squad behind us, all these little communities. And I don't know if it's harder for men to connect into them or it's just a different culture, but I don't see it as much in my business. Partners, relationships and networks.
Danielle Lewis (15:31):
Yeah, I mean, so on that topic, what's it like having a business partner?
Soojee Ford (15:38):
So I've had two, so the first in three years ago, so when I had my first kid, so also context, I'm about to have a second child,
Danielle Lewis (15:46):
That's why we're drinking water today.
Soojee Ford (15:48):
Exactly. Yeah. Love it. Love it. In a couple of weeks it's always, again, funny things happen, children and business at the same time. We've got a three-year old and another iteration, because I had this thing where I wanted to really work with somebody was a digital agency and another friend of mine was a developer, was doing design. We teamed up, then I found out I was pregnant and I was like, wait a minute, this is not going to potentially work. But James was actually like, no, it's probably fine because I think I want to move overseas to Berlin anyway and we can just do this remote. So this was pre Covid, obviously where it was. That was pretty, that was a big, that
Danielle Lewis (16:24):
Was revolutionary.
Soojee Ford (16:25):
It was revolutionary. Oh my God. But the practicalities of that Berlin's time zone is literally opposite to ours. And it was just not great, but it was just not possible to keep that up in a sustainable way. I loved that experience though, of having somebody else who cared about your business as much as you do and you can brainstorm off each other completely different skill sets. A developer versus a creative was amazing. And then, yeah, so I kind of went into this new business partnership with Joel knowing, hey, I can do this. I see all the pros and cons. Yeah. I personally love having that. Someone standing shoulder by shoulder with you.
Danielle Lewis (17:11):
Yeah, I mean I think that I've certainly experienced negative situations with co-founders, but what the thing I love about co-founders is exactly what you said. There's somebody who actually cares about your business as much as you do. It's funny, I talk to founders and they're like, my employees just don't put in as much as I do. And I'm like, well won't, it's not
Soojee Ford (17:37):
Their business,
Danielle Lewis (17:38):
It's not what they're getting paid to do. But a co-founder will be that person that you get excited on a Sunday afternoon and you can call them and they're so happy to be on the phone sharing in some kind of new strategy, excitement, whatever, versus an employee who's kind of that. I'm Monday, Friday, nine to five. Thank you. Yeah,
Soojee Ford (17:59):
I've got to go. This is a great conversation. But I have to go. I
Danielle Lewis (18:01):
Have to go. I've got things to do.
Soojee Ford (18:04):
Exactly. And that is, it's so special. And I'm like, I probably take it for granted now. But yeah, when you sit down and you are bouncing off each other trying to solve a problem, I find that creativity that comes off that relationship is something that you can't expect an employee to bring.
Danielle Lewis (18:21):
Yeah, no, I totally agree. So what about challenges? So obviously you've been through different iterations of what your business looks like. Had a couple of different co-founders. What kind of challenges really surprised you in the world of business?
Soojee Ford (18:39):
I think the biggest one that comes to mind was we faced, we went through it probably about 12 months got started. So this time last year, really busy and it was amazing. This is all great. We took our foot off the marketing kind of pedal a little bit. We like, yep, cool. It doesn't matter. We'll sort it out in when we get back after the Christmas break. We were slow to do that. And then we started to learn as well. We were getting a lot of referral based work, which was great. That dried out as did the inbound leave. They dried up and then it was like January, February and March were really, really quiet. I've heard that other business owners experienced that too. We found our lead time was huge. So we started stepping up the marketing early in the year and it was like, but actually that's going to take three to six months for it to pay off. So that was hard because it's like looking at cashflow and going, oh God, can we pay ourselves? We know that the lead time to fix this problem, you've got to dig deep and have this faith that if we put in the hard work today and not let our attitudes or mindset wave too much that it will pay off. But it's a scary time. So now we're like, no, keep the foot on marketing all year round.
Danielle Lewis (19:55):
Oh, totally. I know I'm kind. So I'm a person by trade, so I am one of those annoying people that I'm like, you need to dedicate time to sales every day. But the reason is exactly that. When you're kind of going, oh my God, I'm coasting. Everything's good. We have so much work on, we actually can't take on more work. And then you do stop that kind of business development or marketing activities and you get to the end of the month and you're like, oh my God, I didn't hit my target. And it isn't one of those things where you can just send an email and especially if you have longer lead times, you can't just send an email and Oh, it's cool. All of the sales numbers are fixed. It is is that time and relationship building that you need to do. So making sure that you do it all the time is very, very important.
Soojee Ford (20:43):
And it's super hard to balance with the doing of the work.
Danielle Lewis (20:48):
I know. Well, so I have the reverse problem because I love sales. I hate delivery. So I always weight it towards what's the fun, shiny stuff that I can do. How can I be talking and freaking what we do and then not spending enough time actually focusing in on making sure that everything's humming over here. So yeah, I have to kind of dedicate time in my calendar to both so that I keep myself in check a little bit.
Soojee Ford (21:12):
Yeah, we gravitate towards certain things that we enjoy Ryan, and then it's easy to be just put that one to the side.
Danielle Lewis (21:18):
Totally. I'm like, can I outsource this yet?
Soojee Ford (21:20):
Yes.
Danielle Lewis (21:21):
Who else can do this job? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Right. And you guys have, is it just you two or you have a team or
Soojee Ford (21:29):
Just us in here or I'm sort of part-time at the moment somewhat as a business owner. And then we have a pretty broad range of freelancers that we pull in for projects.
Danielle Lewis (21:41):
Oh, cool.
Soojee Ford (21:41):
Yeah, we really like to work with people who are, we haven't bitten the bullet just yet and got a full-time. Creative. Somebody is really great at web design. Some people are great at copy, some people are great at development or brand. So we use a bit of a mix of people on a project basis.
Danielle Lewis (21:59):
Nice. And how do you find managing freelancers in the business?
Soojee Ford (22:04):
That's okay to me, and it baffles Joel sometimes I think. But for me, I don't know. It's just one of those things that I like doing. I did it a lot when I was in agency roles, just must be luckily one of those things. It's in my wheelhouse to get it doesn't stress me out.
Danielle Lewis (22:22):
Nice. Do you have any tips if you are a business owner who's gone down the freelancer route? I'm a big supporter of freelancers over full-time at the moment, or finding specialists at what they do rather than diving into having all these full-time staff that you might not quite be able to support just yet. And the tasks may not be there for them just yet. I think freelancers is such a good solution, especially now in this kind of remote economy that we're living in. Any tips if you're managing a bunch of freelancers on different projects?
Soojee Ford (22:56):
Yeah, definitely. I think the first thing that I like to do is if you've got people who come vetted or recommended, start there. And I'll talk a little bit to creative businesses first. If you're looking to outsource, say design, even writing, go and check. Say you've got a referral, that's great, go and check their work because creative, what is this assumption that if you're a designer you can do everything but more to what you're saying, people have skills and specialties and there is a difference and be really clear in your mind, okay, well what type of creative am I looking for? Or what type of even virtual assistant or what do they actually need to be really good at? And then go and look at their work testimonials and just be like, honestly, are they actually the right person for the job? Because that's the start of all, that's going to be where you get your most bang for buck the value. And you're probably happy to pay little bit more than your budget because the job will be done faster. So start there, be quite critical and find the right person. And then I think I like to always get on a call, so if you can meet face-to-face, amazing. But with Zoom and that sort of thing, you can probably do a call. And I like to give background to the jobs that we do rather than a list of things that we require. This is the why of what we're trying to achieve.
Danielle Lewis (24:06):
Yeah, I love that.
Soojee Ford (24:07):
And here's some of the things of what I'm suggesting are the deliverables and what, but you are obviously the expert in your area, so tell me what you think about that and be a bit collaborative. And then once that initial call's there, give them a chance to come back and process that and ask any questions. And then I set out a timeline and be like, okay, great. And I always add in a couple, we've got two or three weeks with the client to deliver a milestone. I'll try and meet the freelancer who's worked on the subcontractor on the first week so that this time if we didn't crack it together, because there's obviously communication, we are not down to the wire and I'm not sending it to the client the next day. It's like, actually we just need to bounce back and forth on this a little bit
Danielle Lewis (24:45):
Longer. Yeah, no, I love that. And you're so right. Communication is everything. Expectation setting is everything. And giving yourself enough time to make sure all of those in are in order is so important.
Soojee Ford (24:58):
You always need more time than you think.
Danielle Lewis (25:01):
Oh my God, yes. And not even just in managing freelancers in everything you do, whether it's development, whether it's whatever. You always overestimate what you can accomplish in a time period. It's ridiculous.
Soojee Ford (25:15):
Probably true for business.
Danielle Lewis (25:17):
Yeah. Oh, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I think as business owners we're overly optimistic people. Oh yeah, absolutely. I can build the empire this year.
Soojee Ford (25:28):
I should, I will be. And then when you don't, you're like, well, really hard on myself. Why didn't I do that?
Danielle Lewis (25:32):
Totally. You're devastated. Where did I go wrong?
Soojee Ford (25:37):
No way. It's just what you have to do.
Danielle Lewis (25:40):
Oh my God, it's so true. And how have you navigated? So you mentioned with the first co-founder, you found out you were pregnant, so obviously mom, so you said your little one's three. So how have you found navigating being a mom and business? Because business is hard enough, adding motherhood in on top?
Soojee Ford (26:00):
I don't know. I think I must be a bit of a fly by the seat of my pants person.
Danielle Lewis (26:04):
I think that sounds like every good business owner everywhere. Yes.
Soojee Ford (26:08):
It just happened. The baby was not planned. As the business was a little bit more planned and it was like, okay, we're here now. Cool. I've always been really sure that I did want to work for myself and coming from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast, it was just at the stage when I moved back, I was like, there's nowhere that I do really feel like it fits for what I want to be doing. So I was very clear, I'm going to work for myself. And I was just like, I'm just going to have to suck it and see. It was really hard that first, especially because it was like, oh, this partnership's not going to work on the time zone. The transition and the transformation, becoming a mom versus being a business owner was really hard for me. But I just kind of took it at a pace that was sustainable and the community around me at this time, I was quite involved in the course and the mentoring program with Pru that really helped. And then this time around, it's completely different. It's I just feel like I'm like, great. Both were planned.
Danielle Lewis (27:05):
Excellent, excellent.
Soojee Ford (27:06):
The baby was planned and I've been through it before and I just kind of feel like I can put up good boundaries for when I need to be mom and family versus when I need to be on for work. And I think it's all about letting go a bit of the guilt around those things as well.
Danielle Lewis (27:22):
Oh, absolutely. I love that. Letting go of the guilt far out. I think that's such a good lesson just for every day as a business owner, there's always something that you were feeling guilty about not doing. Exactly why I was recording bloody reels a second ago because I was like, oh my God, I haven't done that yet. There's always something that you feel like you're not doing enough of. So being able to let that go and just think a little bit bigger and think of the strategic approach you're taking to your business and kind of giving yourself a bit less of a hard time never goes astray
Soojee Ford (27:58):
If you're not going to do something, if you go, it's not practical. I don't have the time or the money to do it right now. Just accept that decision and be like, this is what I am going to do, instead of sort of tormenting yourself over that decision. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (28:12):
It's so true because I find when you are tormenting yourself over that decision, you are actually not doing anything else. You get so stuck and blocked and overwhelmed and it's like you go, if you don't let it go, you actually may as well have done it because you're just spending all the time thinking about the fact that you're not doing it rather than just moving onto the task that you should be doing.
Soojee Ford (28:35):
Yep. It's a mental game. Yeah, totally. Such a mental game. And sometimes I think having a co-founder that is good, it can pull you out of that because you're sitting beside someone and they're like, what are you doing?
Danielle Lewis (28:46):
You are just staring at your laptop right now. Now what's going
Soojee Ford (28:50):
On? To take a minute.
Danielle Lewis (28:52):
Oh my God. So true. I love it. Okay, so let me wrap up with one last question for you. So anyone who's listening in who might be wanting to take the leap into business, is there any advice you might give someone who hasn't quite got there yet, but is loving the idea of jumping in and starting their own business? Any tip or anything you wish you knew when you got started?
Soojee Ford (29:17):
Yeah, it's a really boring one, but my first one is it's about money and work out what you want to be paid, but know that when your business, you have to end. I've heard this ratio and it's probably not as bad. This is being really, really conservative, but 30% of what you are billing out is expenses. That's your salary. 30% goes to tax and 30% put to profit. And the rest 10% GST. So when you look at a project fee that you are charging, if that's selling a product, just remember that only 30% of that is going to go in your pocket. And that really, I think sets the scene for how much you should charge, how much you're worth, how much you can earn targets, et cetera.
Danielle Lewis (30:01):
I love that so much. I was having a chat to someone the other day about revenue versus profit and just how so many people think about that top line sales number. So they go, okay, if I could just sell a hundred thousand dollars a year worth of stuff, things would be so amazing. I'm like, oh, do you know what's taxed expenses? All of those things. What is left? Not a lot. Yeah. You are not getting a hundred grand salary when you make a hundred dollars in revenue. So I love that idea of breaking it down and thinking about what you want to earn and what you're actually going to have to do to achieve that.
Soojee Ford (30:39):
And then talk to your accountant about those numbers because it's also really different for industries, et cetera, but they're like ballpark. So it's figures that yeah, you can work off.
Danielle Lewis (30:49):
That's so good. I love it so much. You are absolutely incredible. Suji, thank you so much for being here on Spark TV and sharing your wisdom and insights. You are absolutely incredible. Thank you so much for your time.
Soojee Ford (31:03):
Oh, thank you so much. It's been really great to have a chat.
