How FreshBooks Helps One Solopreneur Create the Life She Wants

How did Jenn Green Marketing get started?

Jenn: I was an actress until I peed on a stick and realized I was pregnant and that I needed to do something else. So, I opened a postpartum fitness business while I was on mat leave, which is when I first started using FreshBooks. Then, after about six years, COVID hit, and I knew it was probably time to pivot. I’d always loved writing, so I got certified as a digital marketer, funnel pro, and copywriter. 

Now, I work with women-identifying service providers who are trying to do really wonderful, beautiful things in their communities and own little corners of the world. It's almost like the opposite of a pyramid scheme. By helping them make more money, they can invest that money back into their communities. It’s an ongoing chain, which is important to me. 

What does a day-in-the-life look like for you? 

Jenn: I’ve been running my own business for over 12 years and running Jenn Green Marketing for six years. I wish I could be like, “At 9 a.m., I do this.” But there’s nothing typical about my schedule. 

The reason I built my business was because I wanted to be there for my son and my family. I knew I wanted to be in control of my time and my money so I could go to his soccer games and choir practices and be the field trip mom. 

So, my business is really built around flexibility—and life first and family first—which I value more than money. 

What challenges do you face as a small business owner? 

Jenn: More and more people want to work one-on-one, as opposed to taking my courses where I teach them do-it-yourself. People are like, “No, I don’t want you to teach me how. I just want you to do it.” For me, that’s been a big shift over the past year or two. People are overwhelmed with learning. 

With people wanting more of my time and attention, it’s challenging to scale. So, I’m constantly having to look at my hours and price points. The number one thing business coaches have been telling me for years is that you have to hire out if you want to scale. 

But I don't ever want my business to get to a point where I'm managing other humans and not actually doing the creative work and the strategy work—that is the stuff that I love. I love face-to-face contact. I don’t want to get to a place where I’m outsourcing it. 

As a hands-on business owner, how does FreshBooks help?

Jenn: I know that lots of people hire bookkeepers, but I like looking at my money. It helps me see if I need to bring on more clients or reduce my expenses. Having access to that without just handing it off to someone else is, I think, one of the reasons for my success. 

So, I needed a platform that I was going to be able to look at easily and quickly see where I was: Am I in the red? I'm in the black this month. What does that look like? How do I move forward? How many more clients can I take on based on the hours that I've worked this month? 

[When I started my first business], I went into QuickBooks and was just kind of baffled. It was not user-friendly. I remember asking on the Internet like, “Hey, is there a QuickBooks for dummies? Is there a version of this that I can just manage on my own?” And that’s how I heard of FreshBooks. With FreshBooks, everything is super easily accessible. 

What FreshBooks features do you use the most?

Jenn: Definitely invoicing and keeping track of where my invoices are at. I have retainers, and I have projects. So knowing where projects are in their payment plans, knowing where my retainers are at, and just being able to automate that is huge. Being able to just look and see like green [for paid], yellow [for invoiced and not yet paid], and red [for overdue invoices] seems so simple. It’s what allows my brain to be able to process information quickly. 

Expense reports allow me to get a bird ’s-eye view of everything. I also integrate Stripe and ThriveCart into my FreshBooks account. I sell low-ticket offers into my funnel and have them directly connect to FreshBooks. That means I’m not spending hours and hours at the end of the month trying to hunt down all those tiny transactions. To have them automated is great.

What’s tax time like for you as a FreshBooks user?

Jenn: Because of the ease of FreshBooks, it’s saving me an exponential number of hours. Now, I do my expenses at the end of the month instead of just before tax time—having a program that’s easy to use means I’m not dreading it and putting it off. It’s, like, bringing joy to that piece of my business, a bit.

My accountant loves having direct access because everything’s just done for her and she can pull reports really easily. And if I have a meeting with my financial advisor outside of tax time, I can be like, “Here's what I'm looking at this year compared to last year,” and they can pull reports really easily as well.

So being able to have that whole financial team have access to that information is so, so, so helpful.

Do you have any advice for other small business owners?

Jenn: I think that one of the most powerful things you can do is control your time and money. 

With FreshBooks, you’re able to see it in real time: Seeing those invoices come in and those expenses go out. Being able to keep track and control of your finances is so empowering. It’s just really valuable to be able to say, “This is how much I want to make,” or “I want to make less so I can relax more.” Whatever that thing is for you, right?

Rapid fire questions

Morning bird or a night owl? Night owl

Drink of choice when you’re sitting down to do invoicing? A mochaccino

How many unread emails are currently in your inbox? A lot. Like 100. I’m an email marketer. I have to sign up for a lot of people’s emails.

If you had an extra hour every day, what would you do with it? Be by the water, whatever that is, a lake, an ocean, a pool.

Expenses: track as you go or upload in a batch? Upload in a batch every month

If your business had a theme song, what would it be? Players by Coi Leray