table of funtents

1. 👋🏼 it’s me, hi

2. 💰 a year of financials

3. 💩 no bs good to knows

4. 🎁 from my ops toolbox

5. 👑 misfit wisdom nuggets

👋🏼 it’s me, hi

WE MADE IT ANOTHER WEEK, PARTY PEOPLE!

It’s destined to be a good one, because 🥁🥁🥁

IT’S KESHTY’S FIRST BIRTHDAY TODAY and I’m not crying - you are (jk, I’m 100% crying).

On this day one year ago, I launched keshty 🚢 with no website, no clients and no clue.

In today’s episode, I’m going to do something 100% taboo across all cultures and share the No BS numbers. Call me crazy, but in a sea of trash (sadly, literally and figuratively), y’all need facts, data and truth bombs.

Get your scuba gear on and let’s dive in (to hygienic water, obvs).

💰 a year of financials

You: Neds, you KNOW you’re not supposed to talk about politics, religion or money at the dinner table, right?

When I started keshty, I was bombarded with noise disguised as financial advice.

• “ALWAYS tell people business is bad 🧿” - Persians, everywhere

• “HERE’S HOW I WENT FROM 0-100K MRR IN 90 DAYS” - LinkedInfluencers

• (Painful smiling) “I haven’t paid myself in 5 years but everything’s going exactly as planned!!!” - Founders

• “People aren’t ready for fractional. Go for a £200k+ COO job at a startup, lead them to a big exit and then go all in with keshty.” - Mentors

I’m not going to pretend my journey was the right or best way. One year in and I still don’t have it all figured out.

But in the spirit of No BS learnings: hiding behind numbers, sharing a highlight reel or conversely only telling the “woe is me” story isn’t the vibe.

I’ll show you the data and let you decide what to take on board.

1. the quantitative data

For context, at keshty we (I say we, it’s me) offer two dedicated client services:

• Fractional COO: higher touch, higher ticket offer @ 1 day x week (32 hours x month). As a fCOO, I’m considered an employee and sit internally as part of the leadership team.

• Scale Advisory: lower touch, lower ticket offer @ 12 hours x month. As a Scale Advisor, I mentor founders and their leadership teams, but don’t do any of the doing and sit external to the business.

Aaand likewise, a little throwback to your 10th grade econ class:

• Revenue: How much you make from selling

• Total Costs: How much you spend to produce / run the business

• Profit: Revenue - Total Costs

With the above in mind, here’s how keshty performed in her first year of operation:

2. the qualitative story

Now let’s bring these numbers to life with the No BS big picture:

October ‘23: I loaned £5k of my savings into keshty as startup costs (not including setting up the company, which I had to do before opening the business bank account). I agreed not to spend a single cent more until I broke even. Between November and March, my total operational costs were £1916 (about £383 per month).

November ‘23: Started working with 2 test clients at a highly-discounted rate to test and refine my offer.

December ‘23: Wrapped up with both test clients who, whilst recognising the value-add, said they couldn’t pay beyond the discounted rate (we’ll get into pricing and why you shouldn’t simply chase cash in a future episode).

January ‘24: Started getting traction via LinkedIn, intros and networking events. This led to 4 proposals - all of which were declined. I made £0 of revenue in January.

February ‘24: Had a snowball moment. I landed my first 2 ICP (ideal client profile) gigs: 1 Fractional COO, 1 Scale Advisory and broke even for the first time.

March ‘24: Started paying myself, hence the spike in costs.

April ‘24: Signed my second Fractional COO gig. As I’d planned to be off for most of May, I spread some of May’s time to April and June which explains their two spikes.

May ‘24: Was off for 3 weeks and thus generated less revenue this month.

June ‘24: Same set up as April.

July ‘24: Began sunsetting my first Scale Advisory client as a project. They’d now get in touch on a needs-basis.

August ‘24: Dedicated my time between 2 fCOO clients and ad hoc supported the Scale Advisory client. With roughly 2 days a week going to client work, I used the remaining time to standardise my practices, solidify my working rhythms and plan for keshty year 2.

September ‘24: Launched this newsletter!!! The minority misfit is BASICALLY a whole client in that she takes up a day a week (from planning, writing, responding to your wonderful replies and analysing the data). We abso love her 🥰

October ‘24: Took on a new Scale Advisory client (as of this week!), bringing me up to 2x fCOO gigs, 1 advisory client and 1 minority misfit. My outgoings aren’t fully out for this month, so I’ve based costs on an average projection.

* As keshty commits to reinvest 5% of its earnings back into early-stage, minority-founded tech for goods, we’ve also made 2 angel investments so far and are about to close on the 3rd (update soon!).

💩 no bs good to knows

📈 Bootstrapping to 5-figure months

I wanted to stay solo and, in this phase of life, measure success via the gift of time. Forget other people’s “results” - drive outcomes and narratives that represent you.

This means closing yourself to distracting, shiny promises, e.g. ads for the “0 - 5/6/7 figure result.” Sure, if you’ve got plenty of capital, you too can quickly do 5-figure months. That doesn’t mean profit is 5 figures, they’ve broken even or take anything home. Always take these with a pinch of salt and focus on what matters to you.

🤑 Paying yourself

Everyone’s circumstances are different. I started paying myself when I had 2 clients. I did NOT increase that amount when I took on a 3rd in the event any of my current gigs changed. Remember - if you’ve got a limited company, you can pay your future self in other ways too (e.g. into your pension) without it being a salary.

🏝️ Vacation time

Money coming in is nice, but remember to budget for time off. You no longer work for an employer - you work for you, and only you can grant you paid leave. In fact, wonder what’s coming up for November + December? A BIG DIP IN THAT GRAPH, FOLKS. I’m closing out client work for the year, getting my 💩 together and spending the holidays with my loved ones. Exactly as planned.

🎁 from my ops toolbox

Staying on brand, what are my business finance go-to’s?

🧰 In my toolbox: Wise for business banking, Xero for accounting software and a truly brilliant accounting firm (email me if you’d like an intro!).

If there’s ONE thing I’ll outsource with zero guilt, it’s accounting. I don’t enjoy it and end up in rabbit holes trying to understand the figures (def due to a lack of generational / academic financial education ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).

Said brilliant accounting firm got me 50% off Xero for the first 6 months - so if you’re starting out, ask your accountant for recs and freebies. Xero integrates seamlessly into Wise business, and the firm handles my bookkeeping, payroll, VAT etc. whilst educating me (patiently) on my options.

If you’re not from a finance background or enjoy having quick access to ONLY the data you need, 11/10 recommend this setup.

👑 misfit wisdom nuggets

✍🏼 Kam Taj, Founder of KT Leadership Coaching and Exam Success Academy writes:

“The 2 biggest mistakes I made early in my career (that I'm still paying for today):

1) Over-valuing the credibility of my professional background, academic background, and my competence as a coach & speaker.

2) Under-valuing the power of authentic connection, helping without expecting anything in return & embracing the long-term joys of building a supportive network.

It's a mistake with roots in my academic and sporting journey, where prestige, short-term results & competition were prioritised over service, connection & collaboration.

95% of my revenue over the last 9 years has come through authentic connections & referrals. Much of those have emerged from helping without expectation of receiving anything in return.

You can't game this either. The minute you do, people sense it. You lose the sincerity and warmth that people resonate with. You begin to feel drained. You become a victim to a zero-sum game mindset. Your actions are fuelled by scarcity, not abundance. This is unsustainable.

Sustainable performance requires deep alignment and fulfilment to help you cherish the highs and accept the lows. Service, connection and collaboration are a potent combination to facilitate that. Prestige, results and competition - not so much!

It's great to have credentials & achievements - but those are your floor, not your ceiling. The ceiling is how you make the people around you feel when they interact with you. That's what makes them your champions, evangelists, marketers, clients - better yet, your friends, partners and companions on this journey.

Help them because you can, not because of anything you might get in return. Not only will your business flourish, but you'll find the journey pretty damn fulfilling.”

📣 HEY MISFIT! If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming issue, email me with your answer to this question and LinkedIn profile. Let’s learn together 🫶🏼

Thanks for joining episode 4, misfits! I’m off to celebrate keshty’s birthday and can’t wait to catch you again next Wednesday 👋🏼

Before you go, let me know what you thought of this issue with the pulse check below! Good intent feedback is always welcome ⬇️

xo, Neds