From "Can I Even Afford You?" to Paying Herself with Mari from Market by Mari

Welcome to the Creative Mind Smart Money Podcast, where we turn financial confusion into creative confidence. I'm Samantha Ek, the keeper and fractional CFO for creative entrepreneurs. Each week, I'm sharing my financial expertise and actionable strategies to help you build a thriving creative business. Plus, you'll hear from industry experts who bring fresh perspectives on growing your business beyond the numbers. Because building a successful creative business starts with strong financial foundations. Your next chapter starts now. You're listening to the Creative Mind Smart Money Podcast, and today I'm here with the second of two case studies with Marie from Market by Marie. She is one of my clients and we've been working together for quite a while now, but we recently started doing monthly bookkeeping and so we're here today to see her experience and I'm feeling like that. Thank you so much for coming on Marie. How are you today? Thanks. I'm doing so good. Samantha, I'm so excited to share how our relationship has blossomed from, I think, 2024. Is when we started? Maybe. Yes. 23? Yes, absolutely. Okay. So, first of all, when we first started working together, we didn't really fully jump into bookkeeping. Like we started with my very basic package. And even before that, we were just doing cleanup and then taxes. So the question I have for you is just to explain why we didn't start working together fully to start off with and what kind of problems were you trying to solve at the time when we just started working together? Yes. So when we started working together, initially it was just to file taxes. It was my first here on Etsy and I was like, okay, I have a W2 for my regular job and now I have all this Etsy stuff. I need someone to help me out. Thankfully you messaged me and that's what started it off. And then 2024 wasn't really, I would say the best for my business or anyone in the industry. So that's why I didn't really start working with Samantha initially, but I still had her cleanup my books and stuff like that. And then last year, 2025, I think I remember like halfway through or maybe early in the year. I was like, one of my goals is to start working with you, not just in a catch up cleanup since stuff like that. And the goal was to start like this year, but we kind of split that up and I think we started working together last June on like the plans, the initial plan. And so I think as my business grew, I saw a need of like getting help on the bookkeeping side because it's not my forte. And I'd rather work with professionals that love to do this because I don't have to do it. So I'd rather hire someone and work with someone that's understanding and can also like dumb it down for me in basic terms. Give it back. Yeah, no, absolutely. And I remember I think when we were talk last year, you were still unsure, you know, like I don't know if I can really afford it and stuff like that. So I think what we'd started off with was we did the cleanup and then you had me look at your books and say, okay, do you think I could afford it? And that's when we started off and said, yeah, okay, based on like what you had last year, you could afford it. And that was just because you were doing so well, like you had fair going, you had Etsy, you have Shopify, you have all these things that were coming in for you. And that was just so great without going too far into the numbers. But at the end of last year is when we really shifted into like kind of the advisory stage of things and kind of getting more into CFO things and stuff of that way. It created you the flames of ascendancy, which was the mid-tier package, which you get that video every month. And then we also added in the cash flow. Since we've added those, I know it's only been a little while, but do you feel like you have even more visibility, even more insight to your business that's helping you like generate stuff? I know we've already started to pay ourselves, but we feel like you have even like more visibility into what's going on with your business and what's happening. Totally. Like before we started into this next year, I was like, all right, it's a method that doesn't tell me that, you know, I'm in the negative. I'm cool. And so now that you and I work on like a weekly basis, I have more insight on like what's coming in and what's going out. And it's really helpful. And it helps me plan like, okay, I can afford X amount for future launches or I can afford this amount for photography or to pay myself too. So it has given me more insight as to my books and not just like, okay, as long as the method says I'm good, I'm good. It's like really going in there in deep. Yeah, yeah. And I think the biggest difference was like when we start off with the ignition point, we do a lot of PDF financials. And while they're good, if you're not fully, and like this is for anybody, if you don't fully understand what's going on or you don't fully understand like what's in the financials, to you, it just looks like a bunch of numbers, right? And I think you actually told me that at one point, you're like, it just looks like it's that good? Yeah. Is that okay? And I'm like, well, you know, there are ways that we could go deeper, which is why we went into flames a little bit. But I think that's so, like you're definitely a testament to like the perfect transition into the flames of ascendancy because you went from being like, okay, I want to know a little bit more about my numbers. Now you knew a little bit more, but you were like, I don't actually understand what's going on to now being like, okay, now I can actually make actionable choices based on what you're telling me. So I know what's going on. Totally. You know, like, you know, you just have a lot, a different level of comfort than you did like a year ago when we weren't working together consistently. Oh, yeah. Yeah. For sure. Like, even just the videos that you do on a weekly basis that helps me out a lot because I get to see broken down by like a month versus every six months, seeing like, I think that's how it's going. But now it's like month and even down to weekly as well, which really helps me out to see like, okay, I should expect all of my profits from fair, my profits from, I see my profits on Shopify to hit on this week and then on this other week, I have to pay my credit card. So I should expect that to come out. And so it gives me an insight as to like when my finances like ebb and flow to like seeing where I was a year ago to now, I'm like, I have more of a grasp and know where my money's going. Then I did a year ago. So all things just amazing. Yeah. I love that. And do you feel like, so let's just say, I don't know what your plans are for like expansion and things like that. But if you plan on like maybe hiring help or something like that, do you feel like you have the confidence and the ability to know that you can afford to do that and that's something you would be able to do if you needed someone to kind of join on your team or like maybe just help temporarily for like an event or something like that, but you have a lot of ability. Yeah, definitely. And I think working with you was that test because we did start off like me asking for a clean up and then we upgraded myself to the basic tier, which is still great. Like don't get me wrong. I still learned a lot. And then asking you, I was like, can I afford you for the next year? And then we moved on to that tier. So knowing that like it also helps me know that, okay, my business is doing well to where I can actually hire people, um, professionals and stuff. So I think the true test was you and I going to the second tier. Yeah. Absolutely. I love that. So what would you say to someone who might be feeling like a little bit anxious about their numbers or maybe they're like, I don't know what to do. And not just in the context of working like with me, but in general, like what would you say to someone who's really anxious about their numbers and their business and their finances? I would say definitely invest into a bookkeeper or an accountant. And if it's starting off small, definitely invest into it because I see that I was like a return into my company because now I get to see like I said earlier, where my money is going, where it's coming from. I get more insights. It's not just going into a bank account and me hoping that like, oh, I hope I have enough money at the end of the month or whatever. But I would say just start off small, invest in your own business. And then from there, you'll see that the added benefit of working with, you know, someone like Samantha in the future, it'll benefit you and it'll make your business grow as well. So and then you'll be able to forward that person, maybe like on a more full time basis or a different tier, anything like that. But definitely invest into a bookkeeper. I know it's scary at first. Trust me, I was scared too. I was like, Samantha, I want to hire you, but I don't know if I can afford you. But here I am, like literally a year later from actually now three years later from when we started to now, like if you were to ask me in 2024 that I was going to be working with Samantha on a weekly basis, I would have been like, you're kidding, right? But here we are. So no, that's very great. Well, I really appreciate you coming on today, Mariah and like really talking through everything. If anybody that's listening to this, maybe had any questions or they wanted to just like chat with you about working with me, would you be open to speaking with them about our, like our working relationship and how it's been working with me? Yeah, totally. You can always message me on Instagram, which is "Marcuit by Mari". I'm based in San Diego, so I'm in California, but like Samantha's in Texas and we still work pretty well together. So always message me. I'm in an open book. I've actually referred or I always am a big cheerleader for Samantha. So and I'd be like, she's great. She has helped me out so much. So I'm definitely open to helping others if they have any questions. Amazing, amazing. And just so the listeners know, Mari is on the, like, of send-in-c package with the cash flow add-on. So if you have any questions about either of those things feel free to ask her, feel free to ask me and I can point you in the right direction too. I can always, you know, refer her you to her as well. I appreciate you so much. Marie, for coming on and chatting about your experience working with me and to listeners, I appreciate you guys to look for a listing. Thank you so much and I really appreciate it. Thanks!