The Accountant Who Broke All the Rules: Making Finance Sexy for Soul-Led Women

The Accountant Who Broke All the Rules: Making Finance Sexy for Soul-Led Women How to Maximize Profit Without Getting More Clients or Working Harder

What happens when young girl (less privledged in a single parent home in Taylors words) from a council estate decides to revolutionise finance for female entrepreneurs? You get Taylor Smith - and she's about to blow your mind about profit vs revenue.

In this game-changing episode, you'll discover:

🔥 Why your £5M revenue means NOTHING if your costs are £5.5M (and how to fix it) 

💰 The profit maximisation secrets that let you earn more without burning out 

📈 How to grow your business without the "more clients = more chaos" trap 

✨ Why avoiding your numbers is literally costing you freedom 🚀 The mindset shift that transforms spreadsheets from scary to superpower

Taylor's incredible journey:

• From single-mum household with no choices to Finance Director of £400M companies
• Breaking barriers as a young Black woman in old-school finance
• Turning accounting from "boring" to business transformation tool

Perfect for you if:

• You're a soul-led entrepreneur avoiding the "money stuff"
• Your revenue looks good but profit feels non-existent
• You're working harder but not seeing wealth increase
• You want financial freedom without sacrificing your values
• You're ready to make finance work FOR your mission

Key Topics: Finance for female entrepreneurs | Profit maximization strategies | Revenue vs profit | Mindset around money | Overcoming financial fear | Business growth without burnout | Wealth building for women | Financial confidence | Entrepreneurship | Business strategy

This isn't your typical finance podcast - it's wealth creation for women who refuse to choose between purpose and profit.

Ready to stop working harder and start earning smarter?

Listen now and discover why Taylor Smith is the finance revolutionary every soul-led entrepreneur needs to know.

Mentioned: Soul Speaks Live London event, high-ticket client strategies, investment mindset.

⏩ SECURE YOUR SEAT AT SOUL SPEAKS LIVE ⏪

Connect with me your host: Laura Beddoe-Collins.

THE COMPLIMENTARY BUSINESS LOUNGE (Over 500+ Female founders)
www.facebook.com/Laura.Beddoe.Spiritual.Coach
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https://www.tiktok.com/@laura_beddoe_mentor

Taylor Smith: https://www.instagram.com/taylorsmithandco/

#FinanceForWomen #ProfitMaximization #WealthMindset #FemaleEntrepreneurs #BusinessGrowth #SoulLedBusiness #FinancialFreedom #PodcastForWomen

Transcript

Laura Beddoe- Collins: Welcome back to the podcast for soulful women in business, and today we have the honor of having my headline, speaker and sponsor for The Soul Speaks Live in 2025 in London, in a castle in Crystal Palace, which is absolutely stunning.

And your. Guest speakers are not going to disappoint, and today we are gonna give you a snippet of what that is gonna be like when you join us in person and what it will be like to be in the room with these powerhouses. Taylor has been in the accountant. Sector for many, many years, and the reason that her application really jumped out to me and FYI, there were over 400 and there were other accountants [00:01:00] that applied and people that were in finance.

The reason that hers jumped out to me was because she's not only. Interested in the practicalities of making your money work for you, she is also interested in the mindset that goes behind that, and she combines the two with NLP to make your money. Make you more money essentially.

And how to not just think about the revenue in your business but start to make profit. And we hear so much online about X amount of, I make X amount. But actually if you got behind the scenes of that person's business, they might be making less money than somebody works at McDonald's. Taylor really is gonna teach us all about how to maximize [00:02:00] profit, and I'm all here for it. Welcome to the podcast, Taylor. 

, Thank you so much for your lovely introduction. I'm so happy to be here. 

Yes, and I'm really happy for you to be here too. So as always, I ask my guests, what is it that really captured your.

Your attention when you applied to Speak at Soul Speaks, and why is it that you are on this mission and movement with me? 

So I think it, the name almost says it all, like Soul speaks. . There are so many incredible women that do incredible things, like incredible, and it's all from the soul.

It's because they want to support and uplift and help others, and that's something that really aligns with me. I specialize in numbers and finance. That's my background and [00:03:00] what I've found since working in the entrepreneurial space. Is that's maybe an area that so many business women avoid or skirt around.

They just hand it over to an accountant, don't really get involved, whether it be through oh, it's just not the sexy side of business, or it boils the hell out of me. Or maybe there's some fear around that. Whatever the reason is, it's often the area that's overlooked and what I want people to understand.

Is, it can be such an asset. Like to understand the basics. I'm not, you don't have to be an accountant. You don't need to load loads of rules and all of that sort of stuff. There's some fundamentals that if you understand those, it can help you so much. It can help supercharge your business. If your business does well, you can support others and help them as well.

So the fact that you are supporting, but coming from a place of supporting souls, [00:04:00] that really speaks to me and making sure that people feel heard and seen, and it's a safe place for people to come and learn and connect and collaborate and all of these wonderful things. That is why I chose to apply for your event.

I just feel like it really aligns with what I'm trying to do as well. 

Taylor Smith : I'd love to hear more about what is that mission that you are looking to achieve, and how did you pivot from being an accountant to then going into the coaching side of things as well? 

Laura Beddoe- Collins: It's an area that, like I said, so many people almost shy away from now.

I was in corporate for many years, very successful corporate create finance director of multiple companies growing these companies into 400 million sales a year. It was incredible. It was amazing. I got so much experience. [00:05:00] However. When I started my own accountancy firm, I thought that was my get out of corporate.

Oh my gosh, I'll start my own accountancy firm and then I can have my freedom and then I can have this, it's gonna be amazing. That's, that was what I first thought was what was gonna be fulfilling for me. But once I got into it and started speaking with clients and supporting clients it became quite clear to me that the conversations that people wanted to have was.

But how much tax do I have to pay? When do I have to pay it by? Which are two very important questions, but it isn't what lights me up inside. It's not, yes, I can tell you that, but why don't we talk about how we can maximize this? What can you do if you get X, Y, and Z? What can we invest to to grow your business even more?

Those are the kinds of conversations that I enjoy having. Trying to have those conversations as an accountant it's just not the same. And you just say the [00:06:00] word accountant and I'm not even joking. People's eyes gss over that's why I'm like considered like in my talk should I throw that in the beginning and just watch everyone's eyes just gloss over?

I don't dunno. I dunno what just to add in or not. You say that word and people are just like, oh, okay, yeah, let's move on. And so I decided, okay, finance is the lifeblood of a business. It's so important. So many entrepreneurs are avoiding the finance area. They either leave it till last minute or they just hand it over to a bookkeeper or an accountant and don't know how it all runs and how to maximize profits.

So I thought, okay, I can bring my experience and my knowledge. Simplify it to a way that you know, to so many entrepreneurs are creative and they don't want to know to how to do X, y, z. They just wanna know simple things to help grow the [00:07:00] business. So I've taken that knowledge, I've simplified it, and now I'm helping entrepreneurs to use those numbers, to use the templates to use.

What I have available so they can help grow their business , and also get that freedom back. So another thing that I noticed in the entrepreneurial , so many people are working so, so hard. All the hours under the sun. It's almost like you replace your nine to five to with a seven to 11 and it like fitting it all around all the time.

So yeah, that was the other thing that I wanted to do. Free up people's time. 

Taylor Smith : Lots of women that will be listening to this. I think when you get into that habit of just pushing the finances to the side, like you said, or

it's not the sexy part of your business, sometimes I think. From clients that I've worked with, then they can get into this kind of snowball effect of actually, I feel too ashamed to talk to anybody about this. [00:08:00] So how would you, what would you say to women that are experiencing that and they've got into this habit of having a quite an avoidant relationship with money, and what would you say for them to make that first step?

Laura Beddoe- Collins: First thing I'd say is, please know you're not alone. It's more common than you think and don't think you are a terrible person because you've almost sidelined it a little bit and tried to avoid it. You are not alone and. You can get support and no one's saying that should be, like I said you shouldn't be like a qualified accountant and know where everything goes and all that.

No one's expecting that of you. However, what I would say is if you can measure it, you can improve it. So if you are in a situation where you are not maybe getting the results that you want, but. You are skirting around the finances a little bit, [00:09:00] but maybe 'cause you don't feel confident or maybe there's a bit of fear there.

You almost have to make that leap and you have to be okay with the fact that it's gonna be okay if you need support in that area. Oh my goodness. Just ask for the support if you're skirting around it. 'cause you're like, I just can't get my head around this and I, I don't have the time or the capacity, or the energy levels to be able to deal with that.

See if there's a way that you can outsource some of that so that the burden doesn't all fall on you. You can, there are people out there that can support you with all of the day-to-day stuff or the monthly stuff, and you just get an end. This is how your business is running financially. But I would say that you at least want that.

You at least want that oversight to understand on a monthly basis how your business is. Performing financially. So if you are skirting around it, you don't need to go and do a [00:10:00] course on bookkeeping or anything like that. Please don't, you don't need to do that. But it would really be beneficial to start learning some basics and whether that's you reach out, I'm more than happy to just have chats with you.

If you just want a bit of guidance that's fine. Or I know there's probably tons of YouTube videos of things of. Basic things that I need to know in the numbers, and there'll be things that you can look at for free to be able to do that, but you need to do it. 

Taylor Smith : Yeah. And I'd love to know, obviously you've said that people's eyes glaze over when they about accountants and bookkeeping and spreadsheets.

What is it that, what is it that you found sexy about it? Why? Why did you get into it?

Laura Beddoe- Collins: For me, I, it wasn't even so much when I was younger. I wanted to be an accountant. I grew up [00:11:00] in we were a poor family. My mum was an absolute superstar raising three kids on her own and doing the best she could with what she had available.

However, for me, it just meant that we, there were a lot of choices We didn't have. Growing up as a there's lots of things we couldn't do that other my friends might have been able to do at school. And I just remember feeling oh, when I grow up and I and I can start owning money, I want to make sure that those choices are available for me and my family.

That was my aim. And I actually I think I spoke to one of my mom's friends about some advice I said to her. What job can I do where I won't have to work for someone for the rest of my life and I can make loads of money? And she said, you should be an accountant. I was like, great. Let's be an accountant.

And literally I think she, she got me some work experience in school and there was [00:12:00] like Excel spreadsheet. And ever since then I thought, do you know what? I could do this, I could do this. And then slowly but surely I got went through A levels and things like that. I didn't actually go to university.

For me, university wasn't an option because I know you can get grants and things like that, but for me, I couldn't afford it. I didn't want that level of debt, and I didn't have anyone to pay for it. So I had to find other ways. So I studied. Evenings, weekends, all of that, until I qualified myself and got my A CCA certificate and I ended up being really good at it.

I started at your basic, most junior finance role in a courier company making. Pennies, but I just worked my way up. I have so much work ethic and I will make this happen that over the years I just excelled, excelled, grew, learn, and yeah, to, to the point where, [00:13:00] you know, the peak of my career where I was Yeah, very in a really privileged position, which I was very happy and proud of.

Taylor Smith : Yeah. And has you ever experienced any setbacks through being in that? Industry being a woman or a black woman. Is there ever been any anything that you've experiences, biases, or anything like that because you have really grown to this height of success? 

Laura Beddoe- Collins: Yeah. I would say I, I definitely have experienced some interesting situations.

Yes. When I first started out and had no experience that. I found was the hardest because I would just needed someone to take a leap of faith on me. But I was a young black female going into these accountancy firms old, white male, and the looks that I was getting. It was just, It [00:14:00] was It was hard, but it was character building until I did one interview and it was actually a black manager who sat down. And I was just so real with him. I was like, look I don't have any experience. No. And I know you do wanna experience, but I promise you no one will work harder than me. No one in this company will work harder than I will.

And he looked at me and he was, I don't know, he just, he took that leap of faith. So I was very lucky in that because then as soon as I got in the door, I could then prove what I could do. So then I built the experience and all of that. But later in my career and actually where I was for a long time, it was actually in aviation, which is very, I don't know if much about aviation, but it is very.

Old white male lots of family money. You couldn't get more stereotypical. And again, you have a, at the [00:15:00] time I was a young-ish early twenties, black female coming into finance in aviation. So it was challenging, but they were incredible. Like I was very fortunate in that my.

Immediate boss the CEO of the company. They were so open-minded, even though. I had certain experiences whilst working there, which are questionable, like the leadership from the top really meant that I felt supported if and if it was bad, I know I could have gone to them and they were there to support.

So hats off to them definitely. But yes, I definitely experienced it and it just, I try not to take it personally. And use it as, okay, so that avenue might not be the avenue I want to go down, or maybe that doesn't quite work. How else can I do it? What other options are there? And you just, you find a way, you know that saying where there's a will, there's a way.

There's always a way like just keep pushing. 

Taylor Smith : But I just love that. [00:16:00] I just love, I love that it, when women have tenacity and I love it. Obviously my story is that I came from similarly to you, I grew up in this counselor estate, but my mom and dad owned the house, but we lived on the counselor state.

But actually that made me more of a target for bullying. Then lots of other things happened and it doesn't, the reason that I love talking to women and men about. Thriving through adversity. It doesn't matter even when you've overcome those biases, when you are experiencing those biases, it's shit.

But it makes you so much stronger Yes. As a person. So it's for instance, me, I worked in a corporate company and I was the only female in an office of 27 men. And it was like the boys club [00:17:00] and some of the things that I experienced there was awful, but I actually did just mold myself and became a bit of a chameleon to the culture.

And then when I stepped into running my company and obviously the brand that I've built today, so speaks all of that is built from not wanting it to be feeding into that. Culture and that toxic masculinity and that like that white privileged male culture that most businesses built on in this country.

Yeah. I'm glad that we touched on it because I just think it's so important for people to know that it doesn't matter where you are in your business, it doesn't matter. What your finances look like right now. It can change. Yes. When you make that decision and stop avoiding doing the hard [00:18:00] stuff sometimes you're like my business isn't quite where I want it to be and I'm just gonna keep trudging along and hoping it gets better.

But when actually, if you make a decision to speak to somebody. Like yourself. It could, it, you are ripping off that bandaid and then you know where you are and you know what you need to do to improve. Exactly. So with all of that, I would love to move on to our next question, and that is around what you're gonna be teaching us at The Soul Speaks Live in London in October 16th and 17th.

I cannot wait. 

Laura Beddoe- Collins: No, I can't wait ever. I'm very excited. So my talk is all around maximizing your profit because as you touched on earlier, so many business owners you'll see in the space oh, I've made 5 million in 2.3 seconds. I'll show you how which is all incredible. And they [00:19:00] probably did do that and that's amazing, but.

What is the actual profit? What's the money left over? At the end of the day, what goes into your pocket? Because that's what matters most. There's no point turning over 5 million. If your costs are five and a half million. You've got a loss making business like you are losing. So what you said a minute ago, it doesn't matter where your financials are.

If you spare some focus to your profit and if you understand what drives your profit, you can sometimes, even with very little effort, you can really make a change in your business. And I'm gonna share with you how you can make more money in your business. Without having to get tons more clients, because tons more clients means more workload, and more workload means extra cost, whether that's your time or whether that's having to hire the employees, whatever it might be.

So I'm gonna [00:20:00] share how you can make more profit without all of that extra. 

Taylor Smith : I cannot wait. And yeah. Something else that I see a lot of the women struggling with within my space is around not understanding what an investment actually means. So especially women that are really starting out in business.

And they don't really understand what, like the, when you are talking about investment and the return in investment and actually using the capital within your business to then build more profit. So I was just wondering if we could just touch on your views around that. 

Laura Beddoe- Collins: Yeah, sure. Yeah. So investments in my opinion, are really important.

You have to be really intentional and you have to really think about what it is you're trying to achieve. There's no point making loads of different investments across loads of different things, and they're all [00:21:00] out of alignment. You need to understand and make a plan about what you want, and then what can you invest in to get you there.

So the idea is that you will spend money, spend time on the investment. What's important is the return that you get back. So maybe it will be data, for example. Maybe you'll get more of an understanding on your clients or the marketplace or whatever that might be. Or sometimes most of the time it's financial.

What monetary value will you get back as a result of doing X or offering this as a service? Because you've got this qualification, whatever that might look like, but. Investments, and it's important to call them investments as opposed to just costs. What does something cost? What does something cost?

It's important because it is an investment with the aim to make you money back, potentially make you time back and [00:22:00] grow, whether that be as a person or financially as your business. It's really an important part of your business, and it should be. You should take the time to seriously consider the investments that you want to make as opposed to just, oh, I was flicking through and I saw that and I thought, yeah, why not?

Yeah. You really be intentional. 

Taylor Smith : With that, I'm just gonna remind people about the investment of the Soul Speaks live. It is, I think the starting point when this goes out live is. 2, 9 9 for your standard ticket. We are actually sold out on the VIP and we have our premium tickets.

Now it is my promise that you're gonna walk away from the Sole Speaks event with a roadmap on how to secure your next three to five high ticket clients. . So when I say high ticket, what I mean is anything. So I [00:23:00] wanna teach you. There's gonna be, there's gonna be speakers teaching you about so many different things on how to get seen, get heard, and get paid.

But that is our promise that, that you will get that roadmap and how to use visibility. Next step, how to put together a minimum of a 5K offer and then three to five clients off the back of that. The investment off of that is more than 10 times the investment, so just wanted to drop that in to.

When you are listening to this and you think, oh, actually 200, 2 99 pounds is quite a lot or maybe you go for the premium offer and it's try to start to. Try to start to think about where do you want your business to go? Is you being in a room full of women that have already achieved the goals that you [00:24:00] wanna achieve, gonna amplify your business?

And if the answer is yes, then it's a no-brainer. So thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. What would you like to share as like your final thought or final golden nugget for people to take away now and to start to think about? 

Laura Beddoe- Collins: I think my golden nugget is if you are thinking about coming to this event, if something's telling you inside, oh, I'd quite like to go. I think you should take the leap and do it. The reason I say that is because, like you said, there's gonna be a complete roadmap. I'm gonna share how you can be more profitable. So many of the other amazing speakers are gonna show you how you can attract and get high ticket clients and just attract your next clients.

I think not only do you get this valuable content, but. The caliber of women that are gonna be in [00:25:00] this room could literally transform your business connections, collaborations. So if you're in a place where you're like, oh I wanna grow my business, and maybe you're not quite sure, maybe you're just starting out and you're thinking, oh I just wanna an easy way to get there.

How do I get those shortcuts? This is exactly. Why you put this event together, to bring all of these people together so you can not only learn, but connect with this caliber of women, a game changer. 

Taylor Smith : Yeah. I, if I hadn't, if I hadn't rocked up to my first conference like this one, five years ago.

My business wouldn't be where it is today. Exactly. And I went on my own. I went to an event in London and it had about 70 women at this event. I knew zero women and I walked away with women's phone numbers. I still speak to [00:26:00] today and probably will be in the audience. Yeah. And people that I've collaborated with, I've either spoke on my summits or we've done ID lives or this is how you start to, this is how women.

Do business? I think so well. It's by getting in the room and having those conversations and having, seeing behind the scenes as well. Like I know that when I'm at an event and I'm sure that people that are listening to the podcast, if you met me, I will say, talk more about my personal life and actually more about me.

Whereas some of the you get the highlight reel. On social media, and I think if you are not thinking about getting out in person to events in this day and age, social media. it's it's quite saturated. And again, you get the highlight reel. You don't actually get to see that person in the flesh and get those deeper [00:27:00] conversations.

So I'm really glad that you touched upon that. So I'm really looking forward to meeting you in person. If you have liked this episode, then don't forget to subscribe. Don't forget to screenshot it and tag my mine or Taylor's social media handles, which will all be in the show notes. The tickets for the London Live Soul Speaks event will also be in the show notes and every way that you can contact myself and Taylor.

Thanks and I'll see you next week. 

Laura Beddoe- Collins: Thank you.