JLD: Boom, shake the room Fire Nation. JLD here and we have an audio master class that I am particularly passionate about because I had a crazy thing happen in my business very recently. I tell the whole story during this master class. It’s a crazy story, you’re going to shake your head at really. It really blew me away when it happened. This audio master class is about how to take control of your business finances and I searched high and low for the right person/company to do this because it’s so important to get your finances in control. And the person I chose was Sterling Snow of Divvy, that’s d-i-v-v-y. He’s the VP of marketing over at Divvy and this episode is so important because you’re going to hear about how a company like Divvy, which by the way is free, can just absolutely save your business.

A couple of stories he tells are absolutely mind blowing and by the way, I’m just going to lay it out here right here at the beginning, not only can you take a demo of Divvy for free but they’re going to pay you 100 dollars to do it. That’s how positive they are that you’re going to love that 20 minute demo. So listen to the entire interview, your mind is going to be blown with some of the stories that we tell. Absolutely crazy stuff. Then of course, head over to get divvy, that’s d-i-v-v-y, getdivvy.com to sign up for a 20 minute demo where they’re going to pay you 100 dollars just to sit through that 20 minute demo to see how amazing their software is. True story, I’m doing it, I can’t wait. So we’re going to thank our sponsor and then dive right in. Sterling say what’s up to Fire Nation and share something interesting about yourself that most people don’t know.

Sterling: What’s up Fire Nation? I’m Sterling Snow here at Divvy and something most people don’t know is that I’m the biggest Lakers fan in Utah.

JLD: That’s probably pretty true. I mean I don’t think there’s that many Lakers fans in Utah, how did that come about?

Sterling: Well I’m from Nevada so I basically have to pick all my sports teams and just a huge Kobe Bryant fan growing up.

JLD: Not anymore if you’re a hockey fan, now you have a hockey team.

Sterling: Yeah, now we have the Knights so I have an allegiance apparently.

JLD: Awesome stuff. Well fire nation, Sterling is going to be dropping some value bombs on the master class. Specifically how to take control of business finances and let me tell you, so many businesses, they don’t run out of ideas, they don’t run out of even sales in some situations, they don’t run out of products or services, they run out of finance. They run out of runway, they run out of the opportunity to keep the doors open. If they could just have figured out a way to do things right to maybe spend less, then guess what, things could be a lot different for a lot of companies out there. So Sterling, give us just a little teaser of a few things we’re going to talk about today?

Sterling: Well we’re going to hit hard on what you just mentioned, why businesses are closing their doors. The thing that they don’t have that they need, is the ability to see in real time how their financial health is as a company and as an organization. We’re going to talk about that. We’re going to talk about how we’ve been kind of raised and tricked into a reactive environment when it comes to our business finances and we’re going to talk about how to fix that. We’re going to hit on Divvy history, just kind of who we are, where we came from and what we’re doing. And we are going to talk about really the right way for a business to grow.

JLD: Well let’s talk real, real quick and then we’re going to of course like you said, dive into it more later. But I want Fire Nation to know why I brought you on as the master class expert here. So what does Divvy do?

Sterling: Divvy is a proactive expense management solution. We help companies spend smarter by giving them real time visibility, security and convenience with the health of their organization.

JLD: So Fire Nation, you can see why I brought Sterling on to talk about this because this is exactly the problem that his business solves. So let’s talk about these issues. How are companies spending money just sillily? Like that’s not even a word, but how are companies spending money not intelligently? What are they doing wrong there?

Sterling: Yeah, good question. So it looks like this for a lot of businesses, there are a few folks who have access to a corporate credit card and they spend and then submit their expense reports. Then there are the vast majority of employees who are spending on a personal card and then using some type of a software or system of receipt submitting to get reimbursed. So inherently what that does is, it puts you behind the eight ball because you don’t know the financial health of this month until 30 or 60 days after the fact. You have to hound people to get their expense reports in, you’ve got to reconcile all that, you’ve got to send it back because they messed up on their expense reports and all these other things and you don’t know how you did today for 30 or 60 days in the future. And by then, that’s where a lot of businesses figure out they’re in trouble, but it’s too late to really make a difference. So that’s what’s happening today.

JLD: Fire Nation, if you don’t have your finger on the pulse, it literally can be too late before you can take the appropriate actions. You need to know this stuff not 60, 90 days in the rears, you need to know this stuff day to day to day. I’m going to tell you honestly, I come from a financial background. I worked in corporate finance with John Hancock for a couple of years in Boston and that really got my head on straight about finances and how important that was. How that can be the heart and the life blood of a company and I’m not going to lie to you, like I value my time to a really high degree but every single morning one of my “internet sweeps/morning routines” with my business is going through my financials.

Looking at what was charged to my credit card yesterday, how much money actually came in the door yesterday, I have all these reports set up because I need to know this stuff so that I can catch red flags sooner than later. We were just overcharged by 1000 dollars just yesterday by a company who literally didn’t even know it themselves they overcharged us. And I’m telling you like, this is the kind of stuff like 1000 bucks, you’re like oh that’s not going to kill me and it might not. But multiply that by 365, what if that happened every single day of the year? You didn’t even know that and that’s just one example. So let’s talk about some options for spending processes at a company Sterling. Like what are some options that entrepreneurs have?

Sterling: Well a lot of folks are doing something similar to what you described, only they’re not as vigilant. So they’re spending on credit cards, they have kind of an idea but then it’s really hard to keep track of okay, did a vendor over charge me? Am I still paying for a subscription that I’m not using anymore? Are we still paying for Lincoln Navigator licenses for sales reps that have already left? There’s a bunch of stuff like that, that just no one understands and that’s where Divvy is really coming in and flipping the situation on it’s head. We have a virtual card that has a one to one relationship with every vendor that you have.

That means you set a card limit, so if that who overcharged you by 1,000, you would have set his limit at the maximum amount that he can charge you and if he tried to charge you 1,000 dollars more, it would have declined. So we do one to one relationships, we create virtual cards for every software subscription because we have found that businesses lose 5-7 percent annually being overcharged on their software subscriptions. And who has time to keep track of 50, 100, 200 different software subscriptions. That’s why you set your card limits one to one ratio with a virtual card that merchant locks, so you’re only able, you know hub spot has the only access to that virtual card for the set amount that you said.

They can’t overbill you, no one can hack that information. That’s one of the ways that we’re switching the way that businesses spend and changing it for the better.

JLD: This is going to kind of blow your mind Sterling, I’m not going to lie, it literally blew my mind when I heard this and I’m telling you this is exactly verbatim the words that came out of this company’s mouth. And the reason why I’m telling you this story Fire Nation, is because you have to be your best advocate. Stop thinking that there’s other companies that actually care or even have a thought of your business in mind. They really don’t, they’re just doing what they think they need to do or what they’re doing, they’re not over watching. You need to be that individual that’s doing that or of course, this is why we’re talking to Sterling with Divvy right now, have a company like Divvy in place of this.

And again Sterling, you being a business guy this is going to blow your mind. I call that company that charged us 1,000 dollars for no reason and the representative literally said, “yeah, well one of our other clients won’t pay us so we decided to charge another customer.” And I was like, I really hope that you’re not representative of your entire company because I think you must just not know anything about what you’re talking about right now because that is absolutely the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard a company say to anybody else ever. That somebody else isn’t paying their bill so we’re going to charge one of our other customers what they owe. I mean, can you even believe that Sterling?

Sterling: It’s just asinine. But the problem is John, that kind of stuff happens. It happens and we’re just not paying attention to it. Business owners, finance leaders, and when you’re living in a reactive environment you don’t catch that for 90 days, yeah good luck going back and disputing that charge. You’re going to have to fight with those guys, you’re going to fight with the bank, with the credit card company and it’s going to be an awful process. It’s going to take you away from the things you need to be focusing on to run your business, but that stuff happens all the time.

JLD: Exactly and because I found that out the next day by the way, you know the charge hadn’t gone through it was just in one of those preparing stages, they were able to go back and refund but if that had been 90 days in the rears or even 60 or 30, I mean we’re talking about unbelievable amounts. Especially when their representatives have an attitude like that. It is absolutely ridiculous and I’m not going to lie Fire Nation, with my process I miss stuff for sure. I was just traveling for two weeks, I wasn’t as vigilant as I sometimes am, as I always try to be when I’m here in Puerto Rico but man, that kind of stuff just baffles my mind and I know that I need a better system.

And again, Sterling is on today because Divvy is one of those companies where I’m like, this guys does this, this is what this company does, this is what I need to have to make sure that my business isn’t going to be tanked by some absolutely horrendous company that just doesn’t even care and is absolutely asinine like he said. So Sterling, I want to keep chatting about these issues and how company expenses are handled. Like let’s talk about that, like talk about these issues that you’re seeing at your place within Divvy.

Sterling: We see a lot of employee fraud. It’s hard for companies to understand and know how their folks in the field are spending and if it really is on the behalf of the business or if it’s them taking advantage of a system. That’s something that we see a lot and we also just inherently know that businesses are not as vigilant about keeping tabs on everything that they have going on at all times. Particularly as you grow in scale, it’s just hard to have your finger on the pulse for everything, throw in on top of that the fact that you don’t have your data for 30, 60, or 90 days after the fact. And that just creates a recipe for companies to find themselves in a world of hurt or at the very least, not being as efficient and optimized as they can be.

JLD: So I had a lot of friends in my 20s who were pharmaceutical sales reps. That was their jobs, awesome good for them. Do you know how many dinners I went on where I was the “Doctor”? I mean, it just was a lot of filet mignons for JLD back in his 20s being Dr. Dumas, let me tell you that. So let’s just be honest, employee fraud it is out there. Let’s talk kind of in detail about why expense reporting is so important. Like why are you such a believer in that?

Sterling: There has to be a system of accountability and frankly, Divvy automates expense reports. So if you want to get right down to it, I’m not a believer in expense reports. I think that whole process needs to be automated and needs to go away because the way that it’s set up currently is yeah, it’s a lot of filet mignon for JLD. That’s what the expense reporting system has given us, it’s given us those kinds of loop holes and those kind of breaking points where businesses are just getting screwed and they don’t even know it. They just kind of assume it’s the cost of doing business and that’s the environment that Divvy is aggressively fixing and that’s where we’re seeing the traction that we are. It’s not because we’re throwing money in marketing, it’s because people get the problem we’re fixing, they’ve experienced it and they’re sick of it.

JLD: Well let’s talk about cost. Let’s talk about like hard costs because I really believe that that’s one thing that Fire Nation can really resonate with. I mean, they’re an entrepreneur, a solo-preneur, a small business owner, they’re around the world and it’s costing them and their businesses a lot of money to handle their current expenses, but how much exactly? Like you know the numbers, like what are some of the current costs for this type of stuff?

Sterling: Well you have pretty readily available fraud statistics that vary depending on your source. You see things as high as 20-30 percent of overhead being due to employee fraud. Then you see the 5-7 percent that subscriptions overcharge on an annual basis for services that the companies aren’t using anymore. And you know every business is a little different and they have their own numbers, but when you start plugging in those kind of percentages, that is a very meaningful revenue that companies are just letting out the door.

JLD: Incredible, crazy stuff. So what are the options to control these losses? Like what are things that we has entrepreneurs can actually do to make sure that our business is running as efficiently as possible?

Sterling: Yeah, well you can have a lot of really tight controls and you can be hyper vigilant on the expense reports that come in and you can send them back and do all of those types of things. And that’s the way that some businesses do it but frankly, most businesses don’t want to take the time, effort or energy to run that the way that it needs to be run. So that’s where a company like Divvy comes in and provides the viable alternative of okay, let’s set up all of your budgets, all of your controls, all of your subscriptions right here, one time and then we don’t have to worry about it again. You can check it as often as you like, it will always be real time and up to date but your controls are already in place proactively as opposed to reactively and as soon as you or anyone at your company swipes the credit card, your expense report is done. And that person was authorized to make that purchase because you set up those controls on the front end. That’s what is resonating with businesses and entrepreneurs all around the world as Divvy came out of beta in January.

JLD: So Sterling, you live in this world. Like, I want you to tell us a story of one of the crazier situations that you’ve seen. I mean we of course can keep everything anonymous, it doesn’t have to be one of your clients per se, but just what is one of those situations that you were like wow that could have been prevented or wow that was just absolutely crazy, that is mind blowing that that would happen?

Sterling: So I don’t even have to go back that far. There was one that happened this week where the customer reached out to us, told us what happened and said basically praise the heavens for Divvy being around. So what happened is, this was a company that had given one of their Divvy virtual cards to a vendor. It was a vendor that they hadn’t done business with before and that vendor added zero essentially on what was supposed to be a 13,000 dollar charge, it was a 130,000 dollar charge. So it declined right away, no problem right? But the thought and this is why this business owner reached out was the thought that he could have been wrapped up in trying to get 130 grand back from a miss charge, it scared him.

And basically you know helped him again with the valued prop. Another example again from this week, these are our customers they just reach out to us, this is true disruption and they are experiencing it. So one of our larger clients, the controller reached out and said I used to spend the last week to week and a half of my month tracking down every single expense report and reconciling that against our books. And he said I literally don’t do it anymore, I check to make sure everything that is in Divvy flows to my net suite or my QBO and I’m done. And those are the kinds of things that real automation, real software can provide for folks when we look at a problem in a different light.

JLD: Fire Nation, these are just two of hundreds of thousands of tens of thousands of stories that are happening everyday around the world to small businesses. Again, this happened to me just this week that I just told you about that 1,000 dollar charge. Again, it wasn’t going to be a game changer for me but it could have been a huge pain in the butt that was avoided only because I caught it luckily, again if it had happened two weeks ago in my travels I would have missed it, period. It would have happened and what if it was a 10,000 dollar or 100,000 dollar charge? I mean, that would have just been an absolute nightmare.

So you need to think about this stuff and we have some incredible value bombs that are going to be continued to be dropped when we get back from thanking out sponsor. So Sterling we’re back and I really want to dive into the Divvy history because you are an entrepreneur, this is Entrepreneurs on Fire, I want to hear a little bit more about your story. Like how the ah-ha moment happened, I just want to hear how this process happened because we learn so much Fire Nation, from other entrepreneurs who are successful and how they became successful. How they had the idea, the obstacles they had to overcome, how they actually run and operate their business, these are some things we’re going to be talking about right now. So break that down for us, give us some Divvy history.

Sterling: Well in 2006 the two cofounders, Alex Bing and Blake Murray had this idea. Both of them were running separate businesses and started to understand there was no dynamic solution for them to enable employees to spend on behalf of the business and there was no way for them to accurately see a report on what was happening when those employees spent, much less the organization as a whole. So they started to identify this problem, and it had been mandated with different expense report solutions and that was kind of what had really helped the market, it was basically like a stop shoving receipts in your pocket and start taking a picture of them was kind of the big revolution that happened a couple years ago.

And Alex and Blake sat there and said, that’s not the potential of software. Software can automate this all for us and we can put the controls and the policies in place on the front end so that by the time you swipe, you know exactly what happened, how it happened and why it happened. So that was 2016 and the next two years was really just building the product. You hear a lot of minimum viable product discussions that folks throw around. There’s this idea that you kind of rush to market with the bare bones and then you iterate from there. That wasn’t the approach here at Divvy. They worked on the product for two years until it really was world class and then we opened the doors and it’s just been a deluge of companies signing up with Divvy ever since.

Obviously there were a lot of ah-ha moments that happened along the way. There were different features that all our beta customers helped us develop and build and bake into the product but it was really realizing there was a massive problem that had not been addressed with the power of modern software and technology.

JLD: So a lot of times when it comes to growth I talk a lot Sterling about how it’s not important to focus on getting bigger, it’s important to focus on being better. And I think that’s what you’ve done at Divvy so well, you’re always looking to improve, improve, improve and bake in that customer feedback and just make a lot of things better about the product itself. So besides the obvious, which is the fact that it’s an awesome product, what are some of the other keys to Divvy’s growth you can tangibly identify?

Sterling: I think you hit on one of them, it’s our product focus. And you know we’ve raised 57 million dollars to date. The line shared that always goes back into the product and that’s us talking to our current customers, talking to our prospective customers and making sure that we are building something that fixes their problems, because that’s really what’s going to allow us to be successful. Any company can go out and spend 20-30 million dollars on a marketing and sales push but you’re not going to keep anyone and you’re not going to make anyone happy with what you’re offering. So the product focus is the first one, the other thing I would point to is the way our business is set up, it’s a no brainer.

And it was built to be a no brainer every step of the way, that’s why we are 100 percent free, that’s why we allow companies of all sizes to onboard and use the platform. That’s why everything is automated and you start talking to either business owners, entrepreneurs or corporate controllers of larger institutions and it becomes a no brainer for them at every step of the process to use Divvy. So I would say the no brainer aspect and the product focus really enable us to be successful.

JLD: So let’s talk about the real time information that you guys are able to deliver and just overall how Divvy does help you kind of take control of that spending and those reports and all the finances that kind of go along with running a business. Like kind of break that down for us.

Sterling: Yeah, so because Divvy is the actual credit card provider with MasterCard, we see every transaction within real time. That transaction is automatically mapped to a budget or a category, so if you’re on mobile or on web you can see by the department or by spend group what’s happening in real time so you know if hey, we’re on track to end our goal spending as much as we wanted to spend on marketing. Or hey, we need to throttle up or throttle down and you know that today. Not at month’s end, not 30 days after, you know that right now so you can make intelligent, in the moment decisions based on everything that’s coming in. And that’s one thing that’s certainly been lacking. We talk a lot around here about dashboard fatigue. We feel like businesses have dashboard fatigue because they have to scroll through 4, 5 or 6 different dashboards to get all of the information. Divvy literally has all of your financial information in one place, in real time.

JLD: Wow, I mean there’s just a lot of things that get me fired up about really getting a better control over the money that’s coming in, the money that’s going out, the whole feeling that my business is actually being watched when I’m not specifically watching my business like all the time. And that’s key for me Fire Nation, I hope that’s going to be key for you because this is circling back to the beginning part of our conversation where you need to be your best advocate. Like you need to know that those businesses fail because they run out of runway because there could be one major financial disruption that could be totally avoidable and thanks to companies like Divvy and products like that, it is avoidable.

Like you can avoid that stuff when you take these steps. So we have something pretty cool for Fire Nation here Sterling, but before we do kind of give us a break down on what you want to make sure our listeners really get about this whole topic that we’re talking about, about protecting you, protecting your business, protecting your finances, really having your finger on the pulse. What do you want to make sure that Fire Nation really takes away?

Sterling: Well I think you’ve done a good job of really hammering it home but it’s really the importance of that everyone wants to focus on the growth aspect but if you don’t keep a pulse and have a system for your finances and what’s going out the door, it doesn’t matter because you will not have the runway that you need to be successful. I think you’ve done a super good job, I would just reiterate that. And the other thing is companies it is worth the time to invest to get this done right one time so that you don’t have to worry about it again. It’s not something you should kick down the road and say you’re going to figure out when you have more time or you have more staff, or any of those excuses that I feel like business owners tell themselves. Because by the time you get serious about your P and Ls and specifically the Ls side of that, it’s too late. So the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time to plant a tree is today. So don’t put that off because it will make or break a business.

JLD: So I really do appreciate when the guests on my show give my audience a special offer. A lot of times it’s something free which is awesome because you know, something free is very cool, very great and has a ton of value for absolutely nothing except your time, but what’s even better than getting something for free, is getting something for free and also getting paid to do a demo. And I can be honest, I could have gone in a lot of directions with the company that I was going to bring in to talk about this topic Fire Nation, but there’s a reason why Sterling and Divvy are here now because I really want to let him take this away. But this is a pretty amazing offer Sterling, what do you have for us?

Sterling: We want to encourage people to take a demo and start using the product so for everyone who listens to Fire Nation, we’re going to give them 100 dollars to take a demo of the product and if they’re a business decision maker, that’s what they get. And allow for them to take a demo and that is on getdivvy.com/fire. They’re allowed to sit in, take the 20 minute demo, get 100 bucks and utilize the free software that’s saving businesses tons and tons of money.

JLD: Okay, so let me get this straight. So if we head over to get divvy, that’s d-i-v-v-y, so getdivvy.com/fire, not only are we going to be able to sit through this 20 minute training which is going to be very valuable in and of itself, this demo, but you’re also going to pay us 100 dollars to do that. Then again Fire Nation, you can’t just send like your assistant there, it’s got to be the decision maker in your business. I mean this is obviously an investment that Divvy is making in you, but you’re going to get 100 dollars Fire Nation, for taking this 20 minute demo. That’s happening, is there a cap or a limit on this Sterling?

Sterling: Nope, nope that’s it. We want come one, come all. This really is kind of a movement for us, we want to change how the system has kind of taught us to think about business finances. So we’re very passionate and eager to invest in that.

JLD: Fire Nation, put in your calendar make 100 dollars today for learning important stuff about my own business and that is for you going over to getdivvy.com/fire and it doesn’t matter when you listen to this. If you listen to this in 2018, ’19, ’20, ’27, it doesn’t matter, go over there because this is not capped, not limited. So get over there, invest in your business, and by invest in your business I mean your time, get paid 100 dollars for your time and then potentially be jumping on Divvy that’s going to potentially do some amazing things for your business. And I want to say is going to do some amazing things for your business and potentially save you from a financial disaster.

As you heard that story about the 13,000 dollars turning into 130,000 dollar billing, so insane stuff, super cool and as Fire Nation, you know you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You’ve been hanging out with SS and JLD today so keep up the heat and head over to getdivvy.com/fire. Sign up for that 20 minute demo, get 100 dollars sent to you and learn about a great product that might be great for your business. Sterling, thank you for sharing your truth brother with Fire Nation today. For that we salute you.