For the May  FinanciElle Bookshelf, I picked Work Party: How to Create and Cultivate The Career of Your Dreams, by Jaclyn Johnson CEO and Founder of Create & Cultivate

I feel like I say this with almost every book I pick to review but I loved this book, basically ever second page is underlined and dog eared (this is why I still love a physical book – there’s something so satisfying in underlining and tabbing your favourite pages to go back to over and over again)

FinanciElle is a community about women making money moves, so obviously one of my favourite parts of the book was all the money talk. So for this review that’s what I’ll be focusing on – my favourite quotes or pieces of advice on money.

I hit what I thought was the first important money piece in Chapter three: What have You Got to Lose? (Apparently a Lot). There’s a very good story shared that lead to Jaclyn’s lesson learned (you’ll have to read the book to hear it) but I will share some of my underlined pieces:

“The problem is we didn’t talk about how much money, where that money was coming from, and how we were spending that money. We weren’t on the same page. Money is an uncomfortable topic for most people. And as a twenty-something businesswoman, I wasn’t equipped to have that conversation and just assumed that we were both on the same page when it came to the dollars and cents of the business…. And my mistake was that I didn’t ask to dig deeper. I didn’t question -I wasn’t the finance person. I wasn’t involved in the day-to-day finances at all.” – Jaclyn Johnson

How many people in business are in this position? This breaks my heart.

We hit my next round of favourite money talk in Chapter Seven: You Gotta Pay the Cost to Be the Boss (But It’s Worth It).

“Whether we like it or not, money is power. Money gives you opportunity. It “talks”, as they say. The more women we have in positions of power, making or handling money, deciding who that money goes to, the better. We need women hiring women, women giving women that meeting, that chance to build something. That is how we will start seeing real change in the workplace.” –  Jaclyn Johnson

I don’t know if some take issue with power because it’s traditionally thought of as power over but I prefer to think of it as power to – to make change, to make the world a better place, to invest in other women, to be financially healthy and well, to put back into my community….

“And this is one of the best parts of being the boss. When you get to the place where you have decision making power, you get to give that money to other people, and the majority of those people for me are women. Just like in Spider-Man, with great power comes great responsibility. Championing other female business owners. Becoming an angel investor in female-owned companies that deserve an angel. It also means promoting your current female employees and particularly placing women into positions of power. “ – Jaclyn Johnson

The whole of chapter nine was on Negotiations, which I thought was fantastic and it started with yet another quote that I loved.

“However, I’ve seen the clouds parting, with more women at the helm of large budgets and leading prominent companies. That’s why it’s important for more women to excel in the financial aspects of running a business and managing the budgets, especially when it comes to funding, investing, and raising money so we can help balance gender inequality and get more money in the hand of women entrepreneurs. “  Jaclyn Johnson

In chapter ten:  Getting Paid is her Forte, Jaclyn covers business valuations, why raise money, when to raise money and scaling.

There are so many good pieces of advice on the money side of the business. I loved how all the advice, not just money related, was weaved into Jaclyn’s story of building Create & Cultivate and her personal journey and how at the end of the book there are interviews with other female entrepreneurs.