The RDtoCEO Podcast
Dive into The RDtoCEO Podcast, hosted by Registered Dietitian and CEO, Eva Haldis, where she shares her journey in entrepreneurship, with discussions on the basics on building a private practice and becoming a confident CEO. The RDtoCEO Podcast is your go-to resource for mastering the art of transitioning from a dietitian to a successful CEO.
The RDtoCEO Podcast
Let’s Talk Money! Part 2: The One Where I Share Actual Financial Numbers
Coming back for part two of the money episodes, today we kick off with a personal story as I recount the nerve-wracking moment i disclosed my earnings to a friend and how that moment haunted me for almost 3 years! With this episode, I hope to alleviate the shame you might feel if you feel like your practice isn't growing financially fast enough. Because what you may be comparing it to is a highlight reel on IG and not what a lot of business owners face as they slowly grow their practice.
We go through the evolution of my business and the profit and loss totals, from 2020 to end of year 2023. Yes, the actual numbers! We'll chat about some of the things that impacted both revenue and expenses, offering a real-world look at the complexities of growing a small business as a Registered Dietitian in private practice.
Join us for an honest conversation about the financial realities of entrepreneurship and be sure to check out some of the resources mentioned below!
And as always, *this podcast episode is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Please consult with a qualified professional for personalized guidance on your specific situation.*
Resources Mentioned:
Tori Dunlap - https://herfirst100k.com/
Her book, Financial Feminist - https://herfirst100k.com/financial-feminist-book
Her podcast, https://herfirst100k.com/financial-feminist-podcast/
Want a question answered on the podcast? Send me a message, or a text message, and maybe it'll be featured in an episode!
You can send me a message on IG -
https://www.instagram.com/evahaldis_rd or https://www.instagram.com/rdtoceo
Find more about RDtoCEO at https://www.rdtoceo.com
For episode updates and coaching packages, check out our website - www.rdtoceo.com
Affiliate Links Often Mentioned:
Gusto for Payroll - https://gusto.com/h/eva6486
Practice Better- https://practicebetter.partnerlinks.io/evahaldis9298
*Please note that while we strive to provide valuable insights, our podcast is not a replacement for personalized legal or financial counsel. We strongly advise consulting with qualified professionals for specific advice tailored to your individual circumstances.*
Welcome to the RD to CEO podcast. I'm your host, eva Haldis, registered dietitian, who one day found herself a whole CEO of a business. Join me as we navigate the world of entrepreneurship so you can go from being an RD who sees clients in private practice to a confident CEO growing the practice of your dreams. Hi everyone, Welcome back to another episode of the RD to CEO podcast. I'm very excited for today's episode and a little bit nervous, because today we are going to be talking about money and very specifically, the money that my business has made in the last five years of being a business. My LLC was originally filed, I believe, in June of 2019. And as of today, when I'm recording this, on June 3rd 2024, it would make about five years of being a business, which is so strange to really think about. But I'm going to be pulling up my QuickBooks technically from 2020 on, because for some reason, I have no data in QuickBooks around what happened in 2019. But it was towards the second half anyway, so I'll be able to sort of speak to what it was and wasn't then. But I'm really excited to share a little bit more details about my money Before I do that. Details about my money Before I do that, though, I want to say, if you haven't already done so, be sure to go back and listen to part one of this money episode, where I talked much more about some of the unrealistic expectations that are set around what money generating options are for dietitians, specifically in private practice. There's so many coaches out there who do a lot of amazing work, but sometimes we see a lot of people talking about multiple six figures they're making and this big ticket item that they're upselling, and that can feel really daunting for a private practice owner and it can also feel really shameful if you feel like you're not meeting those standards that somebody else is setting. And that was a really big motivation for this episode was seeing a lot of posts about money and just feeling like I've been there where I've seen these posts and been like I want that, and then feeling bad if I didn't do that where now I'm like, actually that's not being marketed to me at the private practice owner, even if they say they are marketing it to you. Well, maybe they are. It really depends on what you're looking for, if you really are the person and this is why this podcast, you know. It's really important that I make that clear sometimes. This is really going to be helpful for folks who are in private practice, who are doing the more traditional model of being local, or even if you're virtual, but whether it's billing, insurance or having private pay clients, our work is going to look much different than maybe an online business that's selling bigger ticket items, big groups and all these other things. So that's what part one really is all about. So if you haven't done so already, please go and listen to that.
Speaker 1:And now we can talk a little bit more about my money. And now we can talk a little bit more about my money. I'm going to tell you a quick story before I do that. Maybe two stories. The first one is okay.
Speaker 1:So when I was starting my practice, I had a full-time job, and so my first, I would say, year in practice, I had a full income from my full-time job, so I didn't really need to spend any of the money that I was making in my private practice, which, thankfully I did that because once I quit my job and had a six-week hold at home and had to slowly build up my practice, that was a really nice nest egg to have as I was making that transition, so that worked out well in that case for me. But it can be hard if that's not, maybe, your situation. But if your private practice is your side hustle, I mean, that is really a good time to sort of like you know, a lot of people have anxiety about leaving their full-time job, which is so understandable. But if you are growing your private practice on the side and you don't need that income to supplement your life, it is a good way to sort of just like keep expenses low and just sort of have that money there. So when you are ready to leave your job, you do have that nest egg there for you. So that was sort of something that helped me. I also was able to take advantage of the small business PPP loans, which was a good chunk of money. It wasn't a ton, but it was a nice little amount. So that also really helped, because I will say I was very anxious to spend any money in my business account once I actually quit my job, because I had just been sitting there for so long and, yeah, I was just nervous to do it. So that's also normal, right, because if you sort of save up a lot of money, it's going to feel sort of scary to start spending it.
Speaker 1:So, coming back to the story that I want to tell, I think it was my. I think it was a summer, after my first year of hiring an employee. I was at my best friend's house who, if she's listening hi, she is not a dietitian, but she is my biggest cheerleader, so she's probably listening. I was at her house and her fiance was asking me about you know, how's business going, how's your employee? And he said you know, do you mind my asking like, how much, how much money did you bring in last year? You know? And, by the way, this is not like a weird thing for him to ask me, like we're friends, like I don't. I don't feel weird about the fact that he was asking that I would want to know too, but I was so embarrassed to tell him that I think that year so I think that was probably 2021.
Speaker 1:So my total revenue for 2021 was $44,000. But my actual take home that year was it looks like 25,000. And I told him that and he was like, oh, wow, he's like I don't know why, but I thought you would have been bringing in like thousands at that point, you know, like hundreds of thousands. And I was like, oh yeah, and I will tell you, I thought about that, for I thought about that until last year, when I finally hopped into the six figure revenue and finally made back my actual salary that I was making at my old job. That was like in the back of my head always because my own money, stuff, right. I was like, oh my God, does that mean that my business isn't successful because I'm not bringing in all this money? And now he asked me that. And now somebody knows that my business isn't making a lot of money. What am I even doing? Is it so stupid? Right?
Speaker 1:All these like stories I was telling myself which, by the way, in the reality of the situation was I was working in 2021, I was working definitely less than like 15 hours a week because it was still like post 2020. We didn't have any childcare. I started having more childcare, I want to say probably in 2022. So in 2021, I was really like limited in the time that I had to work. So, honestly, like $25,000 for the amount of hours I was actually working is actually probably pretty great, but that number itself felt like so little compared to, you know, a lot of my friends who were in their careers, getting raises and getting increase and being promoted and doing all these things, and I was seeing was my money going down right, like I was at a salary and I was making way less money, and so that really sort of like was a money story that I was telling myself was like I'm not doing enough and my business isn't doing well, which is nowhere near the truth. And I've since, obviously now that I know and kind of can understand what the realistic expectation around money is. So I wanted to just share that because I don't want it to seem like, oh, look at her, she's got all these employees and she's got a podcast and she must be just making all this money.
Speaker 1:It's about the money, it's not about the money. Of course it's important to make money and be compensated for our work. We live in a capitalist society, as I've mentioned, so it's like we require money to live and survive, work in alignment with the values I have, and I was in one of the main things of like outside of that stuff. I wanted my own business because I always hated. I hated being at my jobs that I was at before, where I was like required to be there, even if the actual work was done, hated that Hated to have to stay till five for no reason. And so having that flexibility in my life has been amazing.
Speaker 1:And I think this is really where it's important to also look at not just the money number and what it means, but think about the hours you're working or think about the other benefits of why you want to be in private practice. Is it because you wanted that flexibility? Is it because you want to be in private practice and do other things? Is it because, for you know, for me, I love group practice because I, you know, while I love being a clinician, I also love mentoring, I love leading, I love, you know, organizing stuff, like I love, you know, providing materials for my team and resources. And now I've been shifting and doing business coaching and doing this podcast, and I've been able to sort of keep growing with my interests and doing this podcast. And I've been able to sort of keep growing with my interests Spoiler alert I have ADHD as well, so you know, those interests change quite a bit and I get bored easily. So private practice allows me to really be able to live the life I want to live with all those things.
Speaker 1:Money isn't everything, and so I have to sort of come back to this constantly for myself when I'm feeling maybe judgmental or feeling a little like download dumps on myself or whatever. I have to remind myself that this business started with $0 and zero clients, and that even if you have one client and $1 in your bank account, it was zero before that, and so you have to really look at where you started to where you are now. It's going to be much different than day one, right, and so that's something I always come back to as well. But I wanted to share this episode because, once again, I think, as I'm here talking about business, it's probably like this assumption that I have all my shit together or that I know all these things, and I certainly don't. I'm on a journey with my finances. This year, I work with a financial coach. This year I'm really trying to get it together, and it's a new space for me, because one if you've ever read Tori Dunlap's book Financial Feminist, or listen to any of her podcasts and if you haven't, I'd highly recommend them Women are not taught to make money honestly, and as dietitians, in a predominantly female identifying field, a lot of jobs out there are not paying a ton of money for dietitians and one of the things that Tori's book.
Speaker 1:I remember listening to her audio book and I was driving and listening to probably the first chapter and as she was talking I was thinking, oh, I really got to get better about budgeting. I got to get better about spending less money at Target and Trader Joe's and all the other places. I spend a lot of money on Target and Trader Joe's and all the other places I spend a lot of money on. And Tori goes if you search women and finances or something I don't remember exactly what she said, but it pulls up all these links about basically how to budget the home and how to cut back on spending and all these things. And if you search it for males, it comes up with all these articles about investments and really building wealth and growing our finances in that way. And I was like, oh my God, I was called out in that moment because right away my brain went to like how do I adjust my spending versus how do I actually make more money or how do I like make money in a smart way? And that's really when I started learning so much more about all the things.
Speaker 1:So if you haven't listened to any of Tori's podcasts or if you haven't checked out her book. I highly recommend it. I will definitely be linking it in the show notes. It really was like a big game changer for me and really took me on this financial journey that I am currently on learning on how to, yeah, understand money in a better way. So I'm in no, and I'm very early in my journey on money, by the way, so I'm in no shape here to say to give anyone advice on, like, what to do, but I really wanted to just share what it was like and what it is like now so that you maybe have a more realistic understanding of what private practice growth could look like, versus the highlight reels that we see online and on Instagram of like, look at this big business I have and all this money I'm making and da, da, da da. There's a lot of steps along the way that it takes to get there. So I'm hoping by the end of this episode, you're feeling a little bit less shame around your money stuff or at least feeling like okay, not everybody has it all together, not everybody's making all the six figures in the world right away and all this stuff Before I get started, I do want to obviously acknowledge some of the financial privileges that I have, because that's obviously going to make a big difference to somebody who maybe doesn't have the same privileges or has less or just a different circumstance altogether.
Speaker 1:I live in a double income household. A lot of my benefits come from my husband's work, so there was a lot of things that I didn't have to necessarily worry about when I quit my full-time job to pursue my practice once my son was born. I have a lot of unearned financial privilege as well of circumstances and support that I was given growing up, and so that obviously shapes a lot of things as well, and support that I was given growing up, and so that obviously shapes a lot of things as well. Money stuff is hard. It really runs deep for a lot of us. I can still think about stories that have shaped my life from when I was a kid to now around money. So money really is going to just run deep, and so I want to be clear on that before I dive into any of this episode.
Speaker 1:Is that at any point you feel you're comparing yourself and feeling like bad about where you're at with your private practice? I want you to pull back, take a pause, maybe stop listening and remember it starts at zero. Even if you have $1, that's $1 more than it was, and it has to start somewhere. And what my journey was is not going to be your journey, but I'm hoping, hearing my journey, with the very few hours that I had to grow my practice, you know that there is a lot of potential for making a decent, livable wage as a private practice owner, and what really group practice owning looks like, financially at least, as it was for me. Other things to keep in mind I live on the East Coast. I live near Philadelphia, so I'm near a major city, but I don't live in a city. Philadelphia's cost of living is not the same as somewhere like New York or California, so it's going to also be different than maybe some other rural areas or other parts of the country. So keep that in mind as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, now let's actually talk about money. All right, so in 2020, and so if you use QuickBooks, this is another thing that I'll probably make an episode about. What do all these words mean? Because I certainly feel like I now finally understand QuickBooks, but didn't for a really long time. So if you get, you know, if you have QuickBooks, if you have a bookkeeper who does this for you, and they give you something called a profit and loss report. I always think of, like total revenue is like the number on the top, and then your income is like the money on the bottom, and so what that means, total revenue? That's like literally just the money that's come in, right, so all the money that you've gotten from clients, insurance companies, et cetera, that is your revenue, and then, after all your expenses, the actual income or your profit is that number that's going to be on the bottom. That's your net income.
Speaker 1:So in 2020, in the beginning of the year, I was still at my full-time job, so I really didn't need to one pay myself. But also I didn't really have a ton of expenses because my dear friend Sarah, who's now my partner in our Reclaim Collective, let me use her office. So I didn't really have any office expenses. I was a solo provider. So my EMR practice better, was much cheaper. I don't really think I had that many other. Yeah, I don't even know what my expenses really were, other than some office supplies and some like supervision. So that year my revenue was $25,965.53. And my net income that year was $21,793. So that's not bad. It's like a side hustle. You know that I worked on throughout the year Really not a lot of expenses that year. You know, total expenses ultimately were around four grand. You know, like I said, I didn't really have a big overhead at that time, so it worked out nicely and this really did give me that nice nest egg. So I felt good about that because it was like oh, this is my part-time thing, I'm not like I'm working full-time. That's great.
Speaker 1:So in 2021, our revenue was $44,062.40. And this was the first year that I did have an employee and so the net income for the business was $25,844, which this net income basically is my income that I had. I did have an employee that year. The payroll expenses that year were only around $4,000 because the employee that I had was still pretty part-time, but nonetheless there was that added expense I had to pay for the taxes from the previous year. That added on to some expenses some legal professional services I was paying for supervision, some other things still no office, but nonetheless still did have some bigger expenses.
Speaker 1:It looks like I did a bunch of continuing education, but that's really nice too, because I was able to probably do a little bit more around for myself and for my clinician, offering some continuing ed. Yeah, it looks like a lot of different things. Oh, this was the year that I hired that business coach. So that was a big expense. The business coach that ultimately did not work out. That was a big expense that I had and a loss of money pretty much, but nonetheless. So that was 2021. That was my year that I felt embarrassed about.
Speaker 1:Cut to 2022, I started growing my team more and so this was really when I brought in my first full-time clinician actually about two full-time clinicians, but I would say one was like probably more full throughout the year and the other one was like just kind of growing towards the second half of the year. So in 2022, our total revenue was $85,949. And get ready for this. So the net income so this was the profit. This was so way less money, profit wise once I grew my team the biggest revenue we've ever had and the lowest net income. So why is that? Where did all that money go? Good question.
Speaker 1:That year, like I said, I started hiring more. This was also the year that I opened an office with the Reclaim Therapy team and we created the Reclaim Collective, if you listened to our first episode. And so we had to put in a little bit of money into the office itself because they had to sort of rebuild it for us and we bought a ton of furniture and there's a lot of expenses that year because we were opening our office and so, yeah, that was a big year. I will say too this is something that was added into it is that we also were able to write out some expenses for my home office. So, because I work from home, one of the things that we're able to kind of write off as an expense is some of our home bills. So that includes, like our cable internet, our home energy. So that was considered as part of like a business expense. But I wasn't really paying at it as it, you know, because because of my business structure, my income from the business is taxed as my own income. So that is something that we were able to expense for. So probably really, my take home that year was closer to $20,000. But still you would think, oh, my God, you're making $85,000 in your revenue, you must be making all this money.
Speaker 1:But really, as I was growing my team, the other thing that really happened was I was not able to see as many clients because I simply couldn't do that. I didn't have enough time. With more clients, that means more billing, more other things. I needed more support. I did start to have child care this time of my life, which was not an expense that we had to pay for, but still it wasn't a super profitable year for me, in particular as far as income, because I wasn't seeing as many clients as I used to, so a lot of that money was going towards paying for a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1:I remember actually I think it was last year with one of my business coaching clients pulling up my QuickBooks and I think I even said to her don't judge this, I don't really see clients. I still felt embarrassed about it, whereas now I feel very comfortable. This is what it is. This is the part of growth that is realistic. If you're in group practice and you're still seeing your own clients, there's going to be a period of time where you are still seeing clients because it's still allowing you to have your own income, but at a certain point, something has to give, because you can't manage a full team and handle all the admin parts of that while also seeing your own full caseload. So it's really going to impact your revenue or your personal income. Actually, not so much revenue.
Speaker 1:I remember listening to a podcast from my business coach, hannah Turnbull, and it was actually with her business coach and they were talking about like why you shouldn't look at the revenue as like the only measure and I was like, oh, called out for that one because I was always looking at our revenue and I still do, because it is still cool to see like wow, we're bringing in so much more money. But really the important number at the end of the day is like what's coming out at the bottom of it, like what's your actual profit, what's your actual income? Because if you're bringing in a ton of revenue but you're spending it all in other places whether it's like your team or other expenses that you have, you know this is that's that's really going to still doesn't mean anything, right, cause that money's not there for you. And you as a clinician whether it's you are in solo practice or in private or, I'm sorry, in group practice you still deserve to have an income as well because you're still doing work, especially in group practice. Right, it's different type of work, but you still should be compensated for that. All right.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, that brings us to last year, 2023. I finally hit the six figure mark in my business in the revenue right. So this is the money that we brought in, and I was very excited about this. We brought in $208,959.88. So I was really pumped about that. I'll be honest with you. When I saw that number get to 200,000, I was like, wow, that story. I told myself many years ago that, oh my God, what am I doing? Did heal a little bit.
Speaker 1:Apart of that, the best part of this was, though, not just obviously having a high revenue, but the income at the bottom number, as I like to say, was closer to what my salary was at my full-time job, so it was around $52,733.22. That was the net income. So that was our profit from last year and my last full-time job, I think I was getting paid like $55,000. So I finally felt like I was like okay, I'm finally back to where I was no-transcript, you know and we really have to come back to. Okay, that income is from how many hours of working? I'm still working less than 20 hours a week. My son is now in daycare, but I still really only have like 20 hours or less to work and so like, if we think about it, I'm working half the amount I was working at my full-time job. So you know, if I was making that and being able to work more, there would probably be more income for myself.
Speaker 1:But I'm really so proud of my team, really, because this is really just a testament to like how amazing and awesome my team is and how much growth we've had over the last couple of years. You know, a lot of things have changed and this is really where I talk about shifting from being that RD who has a private practice to being a business owner that has a private practice and a business, because I had to really change. Okay, how am I networking? How am I marketing? How am I supporting my team? You are the ways that we're doing things and really started to understand what's going on with the money.
Speaker 1:I remember having a conversation with my bookkeeper probably 2021 or 2022, and saying like, wow, my expenses are really high and my revenue wasn't really showing for anything towards the end and I was like, what do you think I should do? And he was like you either have to cut your expenses or make, you know, increase your revenue, and so that's kind of what we've been doing is increasing our revenue by. Obviously I have more clinicians, that we've been growing and building caseloads and setting expectations around that and really growing a team. And you know it's really exciting to see those numbers go up. And you know it's really helpful to know that I can make decisions on these things like, okay, this is where the money is at.
Speaker 1:And at the end of last year I was like, okay, now I'm ready to add benefits right, like I was not ready to have, you know, enough money in the business to be able to offer significant benefits to my team. But having this information and understanding like what I'm looking at when I'm looking at my QuickBooks really gave me clarity. Like, okay, we're bringing enough revenue, our expenses are okay, I can offer more now to my team. And that's really my goal is to be able to continue to add benefits to my team, because not only do I want to pay them a little wage, but I also want to be able to offer them more benefit. So this year we have added health insurance, I'm hoping to add a savings account of some form soon and other things as well. So that's really the money story so far.
Speaker 1:So I hope it's helpful to hear some of this that it's okay if you're not making six figures in your first year of business. I don't think I would have been able to make the six figure quote unquote revenue which, by the way, is revenue and it's not actual income. So that's like money in the business, but not necessarily like money in your checking account at home and that, like you know, you have. I wouldn't have been able to do that, I don't think, without having a team, and so that is something to think about. But, once again, like I was talking about earlier in the episode, it's really going to depend on if you're in solo practice. Like you know that first year, 2020, when I made $25,000, I was working like super part time. I was probably seeing eight to 10 people, right. So, like you know, I could have if it was just me and I continued on myself, I probably could have gone up higher than that and had a higher revenue and maybe a higher income and offer different things if I wanted to stay solo, and having my group has allowed me to keep growing my business and paying myself. You know, income as well. But and this will be another episode for sure. I want to be clear. Hearing oh wow, eva made six figures in her fourth year in business Group practice adds a lot of other challenges.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's cool to see that money and I'm glad that I make kind of my old salary back. It also carries a lot of other things that I personally do enjoy. I mean it's stressful, right. There's a lot of responsibility that I hold for my team and for making sure that they have money and that they're getting paid and that we're making decisions that are in alignment and navigating a lot of different things. But I really enjoy that part of my work. Like I want to do that work and so like it can't just be. You know, I'm going to grow my team so that I can make more money, because I promise you, if you don't like it, it is not worth it in the end.
Speaker 1:Right, but there are other ways you can make money. If you feel like private practice, maybe one on one isn't for you long term. Or you feel like private practice, maybe one-on-one isn't for you long-term, or you feel like that's not making you enough. There are so many different offerings and I think this is really where those online coaches could come in handy of like. What other things can I offer to my clients to also bring in a little bit more revenue? There's a lot of different resources out there around, like blogging, and the Unconventional RD Dietitian Side Hustle podcast is another great one. Katie, she does a lot of work with bloggers. You know there's so many ways to make more revenue and more income for you outside of group practice. That's just been my thing because I really I really like it.
Speaker 1:I will make sure to include anything I mentioned in the show notes. I would love to hear from you. If you are not already on my mailing list, please make sure to go to the website wwward2ceocom. Join the mailing list there so you can stay up to date on new episodes. I have some free downloads on the website as well, hoping to create more things. I love tracking stuff on Google Sheets, so I have a lot of tracking spreadsheet kind of things in the works. So if that's something that sounds interesting to you, make sure you get onto that mailing list so that you can see things as they start to come out. I think that is the end of that. Thank you so much for listening and I will see you next time. Bye. Thanks for listening to the RD to CEO podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes for any resources mentioned or find more at wwwrdtoceocom. Never miss an episode by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. See you next time.
