Episode 101
Why We LOVE Novo - the BEST Bank for Freelance Writers
Bank Novo is the perfect banking solution for freelance writers and authors. With no minimum balance requirement, no monthly fees, and free transfers, it offers a hassle-free banking experience. The mobile app allows you to easily scan checks and check your balance. You can also create and send professional invoices with its invoicing capabilities. Bank Novo even has an automatic allocation feature for setting aside funds for taxes, savings, and other categories. It integrates seamlessly with popular services like Stripe, Square, and Shopify. With its simplicity, reliability, and helpful customer support, Bank Novo is highly recommended for all your business banking needs.
LINKS:
- https://writing.fyi/novo
- Liz Wilcox's Email Marketing Membership at http://wmdeal.com/liz
- Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
- Write with us! Join Chris, Gena, and Rene each Wednesday at noon Central and let's get our writing DONE! https://www.writingmoments.com
Transcript
What's the best bank for freelance writers and authors?
Speaker:We can help with that.
Speaker:Hey, welcome to Writing Momentum.
Speaker:I'm Christopher Maselli here with my wife, Gena.
Speaker:How's it going, Gena?
Speaker:It's going great.
Speaker:Oh, is that something you'd bank on?
Speaker:That is something I would bank on.
Speaker:Today, I will bank on it.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:What are we talking about today?
Speaker:We are talking about banks.
Speaker:This is a little bit of a, a little bit of a departure.
Speaker:A lot of times we talk about publishing, we talk about writing,
Speaker:we talk about marketing, we talk about all of these things.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But we really have seen, because we have been freelance slash contract, slash
Speaker:traditional, slash independent published writers for multiple decades now, we
Speaker:thought we would talk about something that is real nuts and bolts to us.
Speaker:And that is banking.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You gotta have a good bank.
Speaker:If you're going to be a writer, if you're going to be a freelance writer, you're
Speaker:going to be a, just an independent writer.
Speaker:You need to have that bank account that Amazon can deposit into.
Speaker:You've gotta have somewhere that you can trust and somewhere that
Speaker:really integrates with a lot of those services and makes it very easy.
Speaker:And hopefully, doesn't have some large fees like a lot of banks do.
Speaker:We found a place like that, that we absolutely love,
Speaker:and it's name is Bank Novo.
Speaker:Now we're going to get into that in a little bit, but first of all, Gena, why
Speaker:is it important to have a bank as far as all your transactions goes right?
Speaker:Why not just put it right into your regular personal banking account?
Speaker:I think for tax purposes, you need to have a separate account and we find that it's
Speaker:better for us to keep our business account separate from our personal account.
Speaker:I also personally like to have a business account that is
Speaker:separate from my personal account.
Speaker:It's just another level of safety.
Speaker:I think for us that we keep things a little bit separate.
Speaker:And as we're signing up for Amazon or for all these different
Speaker:sources, freelance work that we hire different things like that.
Speaker:It's nice to know that is all coming out of a separate account that isn't
Speaker:tied up to our personal account.
Speaker:So that just for tax reasons, it's separated, but also so
Speaker:that we can handle our personal.
Speaker:Buying groceries, taking care of our kids, all of that.
Speaker:And so if something were to happen with something it's a stretch,
Speaker:but it's nice to know that there's a bit of separation there.
Speaker:Yeah, there's nice to have separation, but it's also nice when you're preparing
Speaker:your taxes, if you do so on your own, or if you've got an accountant
Speaker:that does it for you, it makes it so much easier when all those business
Speaker:transactions are in the same place.
Speaker:So then you don't have to go through your personal versus
Speaker:your business transactions.
Speaker:And it just, it makes it easier.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:When we're doing taxes and we're going through and we're saying this is this,
Speaker:and this goes into this category, it absolutely having it all in one
Speaker:place and having it not muddied up with a lot of personal transactions.
Speaker:It just makes it a lot simpler.
Speaker:But that said, as a freelancer, a lot of times you need to be able
Speaker:to access your finances quickly and get them into your personal account.
Speaker:And so when we were looking for a bank, we found one that made it easy
Speaker:for us just with the click of a button to transfer money from our business
Speaker:account to our personal account so that we can move money around like
Speaker:that and be a little more fluid.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And really, we've talked a lot on this podcast about handling
Speaker:your writing as a business.
Speaker:And so this is just one element of that as well is handling your banking like
Speaker:a business would handle it as well.
Speaker:And for those of you who are already entrepreneurs, that
Speaker:is not an unusual thing.
Speaker:You're probably already set up in something.
Speaker:But for those of you who may be new, you're setting up or you're just getting
Speaker:started in your writing, this may be something new that for you, and so we just
Speaker:want to share with you what we have found.
Speaker:And I will say we've been doing this for long enough that we've
Speaker:tried a few different options.
Speaker:And we've had to make adjustments and you've been really good about
Speaker:researching and finding the one that works, that is easy enough for me to
Speaker:use and easy enough that when taxes come, that it's not just a nightmare.
Speaker:And it's easy enough that when it transfers to our personal account,
Speaker:it doesn't take tons of time.
Speaker:Yeah, and with a good bank account, a good small business bank account, it's really
Speaker:not hard to set these up either, right?
Speaker:It's really just opening an account.
Speaker:These are, this is an online bank.
Speaker:Bank Novo is actually the Middlesex Bank out of New England, but this
Speaker:bank has a strictly online presence.
Speaker:So you're not going to have a local bank to go to, but we'll show you
Speaker:how they help you work around that.
Speaker:And we've just found it wonderful.
Speaker:We've also been able to get rid of QuickBooks.
Speaker:We used to have QuickBooks as well as a business bank account.
Speaker:Now this is all combined into one and it's so much easier to use.
Speaker:If you use QuickBooks, it's not easy.
Speaker:This is easier to use than that.
Speaker:So this is what we love.
Speaker:So it's called Bank Novo.
Speaker:We've got the link right in the show notes so that you can click
Speaker:on it and check it out yourself.
Speaker:But we just want to go through some of the benefits that we find from it
Speaker:and and just share those with you.
Speaker:Gena, first of all, what are some of the basic benefits that they offer
Speaker:that you can count on as a freelance writer that is good for us as authors?
Speaker:I think it's really nice when there's no minimum balance.
Speaker:So you don't have to be watching your balance and there's no minimum
Speaker:requirement for opening the account.
Speaker:And then I think something that you mentioned for those of you who have
Speaker:not used online banking, you may be thinking, but what about ATMs?
Speaker:What about ATMs, Chris?
Speaker:What Novo does is if you make an ATM transaction, they will refund those ATM
Speaker:fees at the end of the month so you can use ATMs anywhere with this card and
Speaker:we love that because there are times when you're on a trip and you need to
Speaker:have some cash for something for your business and you're looking around and
Speaker:the only ATM wants to charge you five to seven dollars to use that they will
Speaker:refund that fee which is really nice there are no monthly fees for using the
Speaker:account and even transfers are free.
Speaker:So if you need to transfer from your business account to your
Speaker:personal account or to another account, doesn't cost a penny.
Speaker:You just go in, go into the app, say, I want to transfer from this account to
Speaker:this account and it takes care of it.
Speaker:Yeah and they send you a debit card so you're able to use it as
Speaker:well as you have a virtual card and talk about the virtual card.
Speaker:The virtual card is cool because what the virtual card does is it
Speaker:protects you a little more online than regular credit cards do.
Speaker:There's a lot of banks that are issuing these now.
Speaker:And basically it's a separate card number that ties to this account, but it's got
Speaker:a little more protection, and you can find out more about that on the website.
Speaker:Plus, we love the mobile app, right?
Speaker:Whenever you're using a bank, you want to have a good mobile app where you can scan
Speaker:checks and deposit those right in there.
Speaker:You can find out what your balance is, you can mess around with stuff.
Speaker:Really, I don't think there's anything that you can do on the website that you
Speaker:can't do in the mobile app, including...
Speaker:Some of the features we're about to talk about that really set
Speaker:apart Bank Novo because everything we've talked about so far you can
Speaker:find in some business accounts.
Speaker:It's not real often that you'll find business accounts that have no monthly
Speaker:fees, but there are some out there.
Speaker:But then, Bank Novo takes it an extra step and they give you some
Speaker:other great features, which I know one of your favorites is.
Speaker:It's the first one we're going to talk about.
Speaker:The invoicing.
Speaker:Invoicing, yeah.
Speaker:Invoicing.
Speaker:It makes it so simple.
Speaker:I am able to set up the invoice for my clients and it's just super simple.
Speaker:I don't know how else to put it.
Speaker:It's just really simple.
Speaker:And it emails the invoice to them.
Speaker:It also, I have the capability of copying myself on the invoice if I want to see it.
Speaker:And then it's right there in the app to show me what's been paid, what hasn't
Speaker:been paid, what's still outstanding.
Speaker:And for the client, they're able to choose which way they can
Speaker:pay through that invoice, right?
Speaker:Now, we do have some clients that are still sending out physical checks, but
Speaker:most of them I think appreciate the fact that they can choose to either pay
Speaker:through Stripe, or they can pay through a direct deposit, which all of our
Speaker:information, we've already set it up.
Speaker:So it's just a link that the client clicks and then they can pay straight there.
Speaker:Or PayPal even they can do too.
Speaker:And with this invoicing, this is not just a kind of a standard invoicing.
Speaker:They allow you to upload your logo, to change the invoice,
Speaker:to look the way you want it to.
Speaker:You can save your clients in there and this is really cool.
Speaker:They allow you to have recurring invoicing.
Speaker:So if you have a client that you work for every month and you just need to
Speaker:have a new invoice kicked out to them every month, you can put in the date
Speaker:you want that invoice to be kicked out and it happens automatically.
Speaker:And then it'll let you know when they've paid.
Speaker:It just takes care of things for you.
Speaker:Or, if they do pay you by check, you can go in, you can deposit the check
Speaker:through the app, and then tie that check to the invoice that it connected
Speaker:with, so that you're always able to see the transactions together.
Speaker:That's wonderful.
Speaker:It really is, and it looks so nice.
Speaker:I think presentation is something really good that we want a good presentation
Speaker:if we want to be taken seriously, and we want our business to be taken
Speaker:seriously, so I appreciate that we can upload our logo, that we can add in
Speaker:comments onto the invoice, so thank you for your business, that kind of thing.
Speaker:I like that I can personalize that.
Speaker:I just, I really appreciate that when I know when my clients are getting
Speaker:it, that they're getting something professional and that looks really sharp.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yes, and not only that but every transaction that you have you can
Speaker:actually link to a tax category.
Speaker:So they've got a bunch of prebuilt categories in there
Speaker:and you can add your own if you want, but it makes it real nice.
Speaker:If throughout the year as you're making transactions, like once a
Speaker:week, you go in, you look at your transactions and you say, Oh, this was
Speaker:for dining out or this was for paying a contract or this was for something
Speaker:else and you tag it with those items.
Speaker:Then when it comes time to do taxes, you've already got all your
Speaker:transactions separated by category, which makes tax time super easy.
Speaker:And here is the other thing that is one of my favorites, and that is the
Speaker:automatic allocation that it does.
Speaker:So when some, when a payment is made to us, our account will automatically
Speaker:allocate a certain amount to taxes.
Speaker:It will automatically allocate a certain amount to equipment upgrades.
Speaker:What are some other areas that we allocate?
Speaker:We do savings.
Speaker:Yeah, so what how this works is what they have are what are called reserves
Speaker:And so what you can do is you've got your main account and then you
Speaker:can set up I think as many reserves as you want me or maybe it's ten.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:It's anyway, it's a lot, we've not used all of ours up and you can
Speaker:call a reserve taxes, for instance.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Now this is like a separate folder in your account.
Speaker:That's called taxes.
Speaker:You might have another one that says hardware upgrades and you put that
Speaker:on there then all of these are like sub accounts to your main account and
Speaker:when a deposit comes in you can say I want 5 percent of any deposit that
Speaker:comes in to go into hardware upgrades.
Speaker:I want 10 percent to go to giving.
Speaker:You can set up things like that, and as you do, or 30 percent to taxes, right?
Speaker:As you do, as you receive income, it automatically files away,
Speaker:sets aside allocations of money to those different subfolders.
Speaker:Now, if you overdraw your main account, they don't bill you for that.
Speaker:All they do is they dip a little bit into the reserves, and they
Speaker:don't actually dip into it.
Speaker:They don't take money out.
Speaker:What they do is they just know that money's there, so they don't charge you.
Speaker:So if that money needs to be called on, they know it's there in the reserves,
Speaker:but they keep it in the reserves.
Speaker:And then when you refill the base account, You're all good to go.
Speaker:And yeah, it works really slick.
Speaker:Those allocations, I've not seen that on hardly any other accounts.
Speaker:I know that Ally does that on their personal accounts but certainly
Speaker:not on a business account.
Speaker:I've not seen that.
Speaker:And I'm telling you, it is top notch.
Speaker:And it really is wonderful.
Speaker:So as Chris is saying, you may have You know, $1, 000 in the account, but your
Speaker:reserves may be up to 10, 000 or 15, 000.
Speaker:And that's not money that's showing in your main account,
Speaker:but you can see it on your app.
Speaker:You can see how much you've saved for these different areas.
Speaker:But that's just really helpful come time to pay taxes, if you're paying taxes
Speaker:quarterly or annually, just to know that money is automatically being set aside and
Speaker:is growing over there, as well as giving or, if you're making some special purchase
Speaker:that you're saving for, it's just really helpful to have that just automatically
Speaker:going there that you don't have to think about each time a payment comes in.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And of course you have full control over it so you can move
Speaker:that money around as you want.
Speaker:And then the other thing that we like about Novo is it connects
Speaker:with Stripe, Square, Shopify.
Speaker:You can see those transactions from those services in your Novo dashboard.
Speaker:And with Stripe, there's no wait times for payments.
Speaker:So if you have an online course and you get payments through Stripe, it'll
Speaker:automatically show up in your account.
Speaker:You don't have to wait.
Speaker:And when it comes time to pay contractors, you don't have to send them checks.
Speaker:You could just get their routing number and their account number and
Speaker:you can directly pay them out of your account into their account.
Speaker:And our contractors love that because then they don't have to wait for
Speaker:checks, wait for things to clear.
Speaker:It's just a couple days later, it's there in their account, which is really slick.
Speaker:So yeah, this has definitely been one of those areas that, as we've tried
Speaker:different options, Novo has definitely made it simpler, and it's just slick.
Speaker:It just works.
Speaker:It looks beautiful.
Speaker:It looks, we can count on it, whether it's with our clients or whether
Speaker:it's money coming in, it just, on both sides, it works really well.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So check that out.
Speaker:It's called Bank Novo.
Speaker:You can see in the show notes, I think it's writing.
Speaker:fyi.
Speaker:novo that you can link to it and go directly to it and
Speaker:open up your own account.
Speaker:They do require a proof of small business ownership, which is usually nothing more
Speaker:than a letter that shows that you've become a business, that you've got your
Speaker:business name, something like that.
Speaker:Most authors have that, or they might use their own name.
Speaker:But you just need to send them something for that and they
Speaker:can give you all those details.
Speaker:They've been great to work with, they've got great support too.
Speaker:It's one of those services we highly recommend and we thought, we should
Speaker:take a podcast out just to let everyone know, Hey, if you need a
Speaker:good business account, this is a place to, this is a place to find it.
Speaker:It's called Novo and we love it.
Speaker:We do.
Speaker:Thank you so much for tuning in today and for watching us either on YouTube
Speaker:or streaming us on your podcast.
Speaker:If you would, do us a favor and rate this podcast, review
Speaker:it, subscribe it, share it.
Speaker:That would just be a great way for us.
Speaker:It would just be a real help to us to let others know about
Speaker:it and help others find it.
Speaker:And we are, we're just so thankful for you guys.
Speaker:We're thankful for you taking the time to tune in and for listening
Speaker:because together, what Chris?
Speaker:Hey, we have writing momentum.
Speaker:Bye
