Most solopreneurs know they should keep up with their books. Far fewer actually do. On this episode of The Life-First Solopreneur, hosts Carly Ries and Joe Rando talked with Shawn Kuehn, founder of Work Faster Play Longer, about why so many business owners avoid their numbers and how a few simple habits can turn bookkeeping from a source of dread into a tool for more freedom.
When Shawn opens a client’s books, the first thing he checks is the date of the last reconciliation. If it was last month, the owner is on top of things. If it was six, nine, or fifteen months ago, that owner is likely running the business on their bank balance, checking the app every morning to make sure there’s still money in the account. According to Shawn, that gap usually comes from fear, both fear of what the numbers might show and fear of not knowing how to do it.
Many people think of bookkeeping as history, a record of what already happened. Shawn reframes it as an answer key. Your past numbers already show your slow seasons, your quarterly bills, and your annual renewals. With that information, you can predict what’s coming instead of being surprised by it. As Shawn puts it, you can’t run a business on hope. You have to run it on facts.
Shawn shared a story about a national steakhouse chain that ran out of prime rib at 7 p.m. on a Friday, during its own weekend special. Solopreneurs make the same mistake when a slow February shocks them every single year or an annual software renewal catches them off guard for the third year running. The data was there all along.
After your transactions are categorized and reconciled, run your profit and loss statement (also called an income statement) month by month. Look for the spikes. If an expense averages $800 a month but jumps to $3,200 once a year, dig in. It might be an annual insurance payment you prepay for a discount. That’s a smart move, but you need to have the cash ready.
Freedom is what gets sold, through passive income promises and four-hour workweeks. But Shawn’s model only works in one order. Numbers come first, because you can’t systematize what you can’t see. Systems come next, so the business can run without you. Freedom comes last, when you can take a vacation with your phone off and know things will keep moving. Your business exists to give you the life you want, not to eat all of your time.
Borrowing from Dave Ramsey, Shawn encourages solopreneurs to name their profit. “I want to make more money” doesn’t motivate anyone. A family trip to Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort does. If that trip costs $23,000, it breaks down to roughly $2,000 a month, $500 a week, or about $100 a day. Suddenly every daily decision connects to something you actually care about.
Shawn’s first step is simple. Open the bank transactions page in QuickBooks and categorize each transaction by answering two questions. Who did you pay, and what was it for? Once everything is categorized, reconcile starting with the oldest unreconciled month and work forward. If the difference is zero, you’re done. If it’s off by a few cents, set a threshold and write it off rather than spending hours hunting. If there are hundreds of transactions or big discrepancies, ask for help.
Pay attention to what they lead with. A seller leads with features and benefits. A partner asks about your life first and works backward, wanting to know what “done” looks like for you and whether that afternoon school pickup matters. A partner will also tell you what you don’t need to buy.
How often should a solopreneur reconcile their books?
Monthly is the goal. Shawn says if your last reconciliation was last month, you’re in good shape.
Can I reconcile last month if older months are still open?
No. You need to start with the oldest unreconciled month and move forward in order.
What if my reconciliation is off by just a few cents?
Do a quick scan for obvious typos, then write off small differences. Decide on a dollar threshold ahead of time so you know what’s worth investigating.
What is a P&L statement?
A profit and loss statement, also called an income statement, shows your revenue and expenses for a period, with your profit at the bottom.
Find Shawn and his work at workfasterplaylonger.com and on social media under the same name.
Listen to the full episode of The Life-First Solopreneur on your favorite podcast platform or YouTube, and share it with a fellow solopreneur who’s been avoiding their numbers.
EpisodeTranscript
Carly Ries: What if the scariest thing in your business isn't a number at all, but a date? Today's guest, Shawn Kuehn, of Work Faster, Play Longer, opens every client's books by checking one tiny thing first, and it tells him exactly how that owner feels about their entire business. If you've got your bank app on your home screen and you check it every morning just to make sure everything's still okay, this episode might be for you. So let's get to it. You're listening to the Life First Solopreneur, the podcast for those in pursuit of a life first business.
I'm Carly Ries, and my cohost, Joe Rando, and I spend every episode with solopreneurs who are proving there's a better way to run a one person business and experts who are helping make it happen. We like to say life first then business. So let's get right to it. Well, Shawn, when people hear your tagline, I mean, or when I saw it, I was like, I wonder what this is about. And then you started talking about numbers in your business, Not your specific business, but you help people with the numbers in their business. I was like, woah, this is taking a turn. I'm very intrigued. I love talking to people that talk about business, financials, numbers, anything, because people have such different takes, and yours seems really unique.
So to start, you say the first thing you look at when you open someone's books, isn't a number. It's the date on the last reconciliation. Can you walk us through what that one date tells you about how the owner feels about their whole business?
Shawn Kuehn: Oh, sure. Yeah. I mean, that is the tell. So every time I do open somebody's books, I look at the reconciliation date. It's the very first thing I do because that tells me everything I need to know that they're afraid to tell me. If it was last month, they're up to date. They may not be doing it correctly, but they are on top of things. If I see that it hasn't been done six, nine, twelve, even fifteen months ago, I know that they are basically running their business on their bank balance.
They got the app probably on their home screen, and they check it every morning to make sure there's money in the account. And, you know, that's fear that shows where the biggest gap is that I have to overcome because they don't know. it's like your favorite question.
What's your budget? Most people are like, oh, I don't know. I'm gonna base it. Does it sound right? Does the amount of money scare me, or does it seem reasonable? Well, if you had your books up to date, I could show you exactly how much you should be budgeting for whatever that question could be.
And it's like going back to the last question. The same person who hasn't reconciled since March is the same one who can't take Monday off because they don't have their days and weeks and books organized.
Joe Rando: Can I ask a question on that? Because you're basically, I think, saying that the people that aren't doing it aren't doing it because they're afraid of what they might see. Is that fair?
Shawn Kuehn: Both. They're afraid of how to do it and what they might see.
Joe Rando: Okay. So it's also a fear of how to go about it or, yeah, with a lot of solopreneurs, it could be a matter of time. You're not good at it, it's gonna take you a lot of time to reconcile your books, in which case they're like, oh, I could be making money doing this. I can't make money doing that. But still, you want to know how your business is doing.
Shawn Kuehn: Of course.
Carly Ries: Well, it's funny because my first thought is well, the people that do it every morning and are on top of it, they're the a plus students. And the people that aren't, they're failing the class. Like my brain just immediately goes into school mode. But your big reframe is that numbers aren't a report card that you look at after the fact. They're actually the answer key that somebody already wrote for you.
Can you break that down for a solopreneur who's never thought about their books that way?
Shawn Kuehn: Yeah. Of course. it's like if you've only talked to an accountant about your books, the old adage is accounting and bookkeeping were historians.
We just record what happened, But it actually is what is going on at the moment. And, you know, a slow last season in last year's numbers might be a quarterly insurance bill in your register. What you actually are paying for versus what you already quote, that's already written down. And the test is what hasn't happened yet.
And what you're allowed to look at. So your own history is already written down. With that knowledge, you should be able to predict exactly what is going to happen. Do you know if your business is seasonal? Do you always have a slow February? These are things your numbers tell you.
And, the bank balance business owner, try to say that three times real fast, is always checking his balance. They're guessing the rest. And you can't run a business on hope. You have to run a business on facts.
Joe Rando: I just want to double, Triple support what you're saying because it's so powerful if you have good records to see into the future. And so much of my energy on my last startup was was spent with the controller, looking at what happened, looking at what was happening at the time, and putting that out eighteen months to say, what can we do? What can we get away with investing in? What's our budget to grow?
And we did that with confidence instead of going, oh, I don't know. My bank balance is... So I just cannot support what you're saying more. It's right on the money.
Shawn Kuehn: And, you know, There's no shame in any of it. Nobody failed the test here.
They just never got shown or told how to use their numbers. A lot of people are so busy around their day to day lives and they think that their QuickBooks or their financial statements are something you give the accountant when he asks for it. You know, instead of using it as a daily, weekly, monthly tool.
Carly Ries: Yeah. Absolutely. I like to tell stories in this scenario because like I was saying, Some of these are foreign concepts to me, but you're saying everything so eloquently. But I think a story would be helpful. So can you tell us the steakhouse story that you mentioned to me in an email? Where do you see solopreneurs making that same mistake, being surprised by something their own numbers predicted?
Shawn Kuehn: So this true life story, we went to a national brand restaurant. And it's a steakhouse. It was Friday around seven, 08:00, so it's still early in the dinner hour at least here.
And, we order the food. I placed an order for prime rib because it's their special for the weekend. The waiter comes back ten minutes, tail between his legs, his head's down, and he comes down, leans over the table, and he's like, we're out of prime rib. And I'm like, it's 07:00. All you guys serve is steak.
Like, What are you gonna do for the rest of the weekend? And he's like, I know. So if a corporate successful business isn't even looking at how much prime rib they sell. And clearly, this is the beginning of the weekend, not the end of the weekend.
Sunday night, 09:00, forgivable. Friday, 7PM, that is unforgivable. So, the solopreneurs, they do the same thing. If they're shocked by a slow month that comes every year or they're surprised by a huge bill that comes every quarter, it's because they weren't on top of their finances.
The more sightings to pick from, you know, January cash dip after December that they might have forgotten to invoice or annual software renewals that come out of nowhere, the third year in a row. These are the things that you need to be prepared for and your books absolutely will show you, so you are not ambushed by them.
Carly Ries: So what are those signs? What do they actually show you? What should people be looking for that you could call easily?
Shawn Kuehn: Okay. So what I would always do is after the books are categorized and reconciled, you run a P and L month by month. And They're never gonna be straight across.
There are gonna be ups and downs. And those are the exact places where you look in your expenses and say, hey, why does it jump from $800 a month and then one month out of the year, it's 3,200. Let's be prepared for that. So you drill down, you find out that, oh, well, that's my insurance policy.
I pay that to get a discount so I don't pay it every month. Which is awesome, right thing to do, but you gotta be prepared and make sure you have the cash on hand.
Joe Rando: I just want to clarify, because I try to avoid not defining kind of technical terms, which, this isn't really. But p and l is profit and loss statement. Also called an income statement.
Shawn Kuehn: Right.
Joe Rando: Yeah. So you're looking at your revenues and your expenses, and then at the bottom, you see your profit.
Shawn Kuehn: Yeah. Exactly. And that should be your main tool. That is where all your budgeted items live, on the p and l. And if you run it month by month every column, It will start to show that things will jump out at you. And those things that jump out are the things you need to manage for.
Carly Ries: Quick question before we get back to the show. Did you leave your job for freedom only to build a business that bosses you around more than any manager ever did? Well, we call that the ownership trap, and it's why we built Lifestarr. Join us in Lifestarr Intro, and you'll gain access to the Lifestarr Academy, which is full of free courses and videos on building a life first business, including topics on marketing, sales, AI, money, and we also have routes that walk you through each topic step by step. As part of Lifestarr intro, you also get the Lifestarr app, which keeps track of every promise in your business, the ones you made and the ones made to you.
And of course, there's the community. Monday meetups, live sessions, and people who actually get it and are also trying to build a life first business. So the academy, a free version of the app, and the community, they are all free. I don't know how many times we can say that. They are free forever.
Of course we have paid tiers too where you can get some extras. But you guys, that is all free. So here's my question for you. If you designed your life first, what would your business look like today? Come find out at Lifestarr Intro, and that's at lifestarr.com/intro, and sign up.
It's quick. It's easy. Can't wait to see you there. Okay. So, Shawn, your whole model runs in one order. You go numbers, then systems, then freedom, and you are adamant it doesn't work in any other order. Why does everyone want to skip to freedom? I mean, I feel like that might be a given, but I want to hear your take on it. And what happens when they do actually put freedom first?
Shawn Kuehn: Yeah. Well, freedom's the thing that's sold. Right? That's the solution to all our problems. The four hour work week, the eight minute or six minute abs or whatever we're down to, for working out. Passive income everywhere. You know, fire yourself. Outsource everything. Nobody sells reconciliations. No one sells the boring stuff.
But the reason why it's boring is because it's only step one. You can't systematize anything you can't see. So the first thing you need to know is to be able to see what is actually happening. And if you don't like it, we then fix it.
If we find out what's Going great, then we have to document it and make sure there are no holes in there and that that system can be repeated without you. Because once you start to build systems from good numbers, That's where the delegation happens. And when you leave and hopefully it's a scheduled vacation and you can leave your phone off and not worry about somebody calling because they don't know what to do, You have the systems in place that carry the business forward.
it's like, remember, the word business, right? You could say it a different way. You could say it's busyness. It's a set of activities that happen to create hopefully money or value for your customers. And that busyness is a bunch of systems.
And whether it's your cold outreach, whether it's your production, if you make something. And all of those things can only be done if the numbers are correct and based on a good foundation. it's like we had said before to each other. The business is supposed to hand you your life back rather than eat up all your time. There are so many people that are in the business just because this is what I've always done.
You know, they have a hard time relating maybe to a family member or a spouse. Hey, why do you do what you do, you know? Well, either my dad did it or I don't know how to do anything else. But no, your whole business exists to give you the life you want.
And if it's not doing that, then things need to be fixed. But we're so much more than just our job, and the business should be a business, should be a series of activities that create money, not your full time job.
Carly Ries: Yes. Said so well. And I want to Do another quote that you've said, because I want to quote you on that as well and like put it on a bumper sticker. But you also quote Dave Ramsey's. And he said every dollar should have a name.
Shawn Kuehn: Mhmm.
Carly Ries: And then extend it to profit. So how does giving a profit goal a concrete name like, my family is going to Disney later this year. So family trip to Disney, change the decisions someone makes day to day.
Shawn Kuehn: Right. You're speaking my language right now. So when I sit down with a client and We always start with the end in mind. And they're always like, well, you know, what is your goal this year? Oh, I want to make more money. That means nothing.
That literally means nothing. What is more? Why? So what we do is say, okay, here is how much money.
How much money do you need to make? How much money do you want to make? And what are you going to do with those things? Because a number does not have the motivation, the mindset shift, and the focus behind something like, you know what? We're gonna take that dream family vacation at the Polynesian Village Resort, and spend way too much money, you know.
And ironically enough, you know, We'll we'll quote out a vacation and be like, alright, this is gonna cost you $23,000 and yes, I'm being a little extravagant here. But, you know, how do we break that down? Alright. So that's an extra $2,000 a month. That's an extra $500 a week. That's a $100 a day. Now, let's work into what can we be doing?
Where can money be cut? Can activities be expanded and scaled up to bring you that extra cash? And this is why you're doing those extra activities on a day in, day out basis because they will end up giving you the money to do the fun stuff.
Carly Ries: And, Shawn, I don't know if 23,000 is that far fetched for Disney.
Joe Rando: Well, especially if you wanna get to the front of the line. Right? You gotta pay to play now. So Yes. It's probably 23,000 to actually get on the rides.
Carly Ries: Who needs college savings? Am I right? Let's just put it all towards Disney.
Shawn Kuehn: Well, let's say you only live once.
Carly Ries: Well, okay. So another question. So having been on both sides of avoidance during your twenty six years in a family business, what did your own numbers avoidance cost you before you fixed it? What was that turning point?
Because you're so great at identifying it now, but you were a victim of it.
Shawn Kuehn: Sure. Yeah. And the first third of my career, we ran as a bank balance business. And the difference in the register versus what was in the bank account, unfortunately, ended up being around $35,000. There were secret payments that were made to fraudulent Internet listings and directories at the time, and they would call our bookkeeper. Her office was down the hall, and so she thought this was advertising that we were doing.
They would send her bills. She would pay them, and we never knew it. And so she could never reconcile properly because she had not gotten permission to send these checks, and it was horrible. She had passed away. And when we opened up the books and started looking, and the first thing I did was I saw we didn't have a reconciliation for six years.
When I questioned the CPAs about it, they were like, oh, well, you know, don't worry. The numbers were all there. It's just a matter of software housekeeping. And when I went through it, caught us all up, this is when I found out of all that money that was spent that was never truly authorized, you know. And that was a fundamental lesson that we learned was, wow, we're not gonna be sweating every week hoping payroll clears.
You know, we're gonna have a clear line of sight into every single dollar that comes in and goes out of our business.
Carly Ries: Yeah. Wow. And that changed everything. The trajectory. So for solopreneurs listening right now who haven't reconciled in months, and they feel that pit in their stomach and they're like, oh my gosh, that's me, guilty. What's the first smallest step you'd give them to do today, tonight, ASAP?
Shawn Kuehn: Well, There could be a very bright light at the end of the tunnel. So the first thing I would tell anybody who hasn't looked at their QuickBooks file in a while is open up the bank transactions page. Categorize your transactions.
If there are hundreds and hundreds there, ask for help. Otherwise, you're only answering two questions. Who did you pay? What was it for? Get those cleared up and then, Only then can you start to reconcile. But reconciliation should just be a one click and it's done. QuickBooks does all the work for you.
Once you have your transactions categorized, go to the register, you click the reconcile button, it will automatically reconcile for you and tell you if there's a problem. That's number zero. Thank you lucky stars. You can move on. This isn't a scary place.
But if that number is not zero, then ask for help. Let's look. Let's comb through those transactions. See what the issues are. It could be a host of them. You have to start at square one. And the the bonus on top of that is you can't do last month. You have to start with the oldest month that was not reconciled. You can't go backwards. You have to start from day zero and go forward.
Joe Rando: But let me ask you a question, because When I used to manually balance my checkbook as an individual, you're off by a few cents.
Shawn Kuehn: Mhmm.
Joe Rando: Do you just go, yeah, it's just a few cents, or do you go, I gotta get to the bottom of this?
Shawn Kuehn: Well, time is money, right? So, if it really is just a few cents, if it's 4¢, we're just gonna write it off. Maybe do a quick scan to make sure that a two wasn't a six or something like that. But, Again, you're not going to spend, because it could take hours, and you could create a whole bunch of problems for yourself by undoing things to get to that 4¢. But no. Just, have a number in your head and say anything over that is worth looking into. But anything under it, we're just gonna write it off.
Joe Rando: Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
Carly Ries: Well, so, Shawn, am I allowed to say WFPL, can I shorten the name? Do you prefer to spell it out?
Shawn Kuehn: I do it all the time.
Carly Ries: Oh, perfect. Okay. So you built WFPL after watching entrepreneurs get sold tools and courses by people who didn't care about the real goal. And the goal we care about, a better life. So what does a genuine partner do differently for people that are like, I don't know what you're talking about.
I can't do this by myself. How should a solopreneur tell the difference?
Shawn Kuehn: So the quickest way is what do they lead with? You know, a seller, somebody who's just looking to sell you something is going to lead with their product or service. Talk about all the features and all the benefits and oh, here's how great everything is going to be once you buy it. A partner is going to sit back and talk to you about your life goals and work backwards.
You know, nobody's course asks you what November looks like. But a genuine partner will. We're gonna ask what does done look like for you? You know, is the 3PM work, in your case of 03:45 pickup important to you during the week?
You know, this is what you don't need to buy. let's figure out What you can do by yourself efficiently instead of investing in software you may only use 5% of. You know, a partner has the answer, but a seller would just change the subject. So, we're not here to call out anybody or any gurus or famous courses or anything, but a lot of this stuff is not written for everybody.
It's not written for the customer. It's written for the seller. And that's just the way it is. but, you really want to invest in a partner who wants to understand the little things about your daily life and build the business around that.
Carly Ries: Yeah. I love it. Well, and as you've been saying, like we've been saying this whole show, we're life first then business, and you seem to have a pretty good pulse on that. So what is a life first piece of advice you have for our listeners today? It can be related to numbers or not.
Shawn Kuehn: Absolutely. Start with the end in mind. Play longer first. Put that on the calendar. Have the whole family focused on that day trip, that weekend, that vacation, whether it's a recital, a national dance competition week in my case.
You know, those are the things, those are the life milestones. Those are the core memories that you built your business to afford. So we want to put all of that stuff first and then work backwards from that. Again, every dollar has a name. We want to name what that profit is for and we wanna start to systematize your activities to give you your life back, so you can have the freedom to leave your business behind.
It's still running because you have these systems in place, and you're not constantly checking your phone or your bank balance. And yeah, that's basically it. You know, I want to say to everybody listening, what is the last date On your last reconciliation? What would you do with your next Friday if you could have it off? Think about those things and find out exactly where you are in your business and how you want to move forward.
Carly Ries: Love it. Well, Shawn, if people want to learn more about you and your business, where can they find you? Give us all the links.
Shawn Kuehn: Alright. Well, workfasterplaylonger.com is where you can find me. You can find me on all the socials, all at the same workfasterplaylonger.com because that is the message, that is the purpose.
Carly Ries: Shawn, thank you so much for coming on the show today. I learned a lot. I thought this was so helpful, and I think our listeners will too. Thank you so much for your time.
Shawn Kuehn: You're welcome. Well, thank you for having me.
Carly Ries: And listeners, as always, thank you so much for tuning in. We would love that five star review. It really helps us spread the word to other solopreneurs in your shoes. Share this episode with a fellow solopreneur, especially one that might be having troubles with their numbers and figuring out where they are in the business, and subscribe to our show on any podcast platform, including YouTube. And we'll see you next time on the Life First Solopreneur.