Content creator Danielle Ryan on learning from her mistakes, and sharing it all online

For this week’s MVP, we’re chatting with Danielle Ryan, a B.C.-based content creator.

Known online as “your small business bestie,” Danielle Ryan creates videos that break down the essentials that Canadian entrepreneurs need to know. From bookkeeping basics to customizing your website, she shares helpful instructions and step-by-step guides. But it’s her candour and no-frills delivery that have endeared her to thousands of followers on Instagram and TikTok.

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Her first piece of entrepreneurial advice? “Don’t do what I did.”

In 2018, Ryan quit her full-time government role to start a yoga business. “If I wanted to start a business today, I would definitely build it on the side of my job,” she says. “That way, I’d create financial stability, and be able to prove that I had a viable business idea.”

Four years later, she took another leap of faith. Ryan rolled up her yoga mat (professionally speaking), and moved from Ontario to B.C. to pursue content creation full-time. Today, she produces UGC videos for her channels, as well as for clients. (UGC means user-generated content. Companies, including finance and tech brands, buy her videos to use on their own accounts.)

For this week’s MVP column for The Get, Ryan shares how to test your big idea, and her favourite ways to keep business finances stress-free.

In a world where nearly everything can be turned into a side-hustle, how do you know if you have a viable business idea?

It’s really a matter of doing your market research, asking people not “Is this something you’d be interested in?” but, “Would you be willing to spend money on it?”

I’m always an advocate for scaling your business idea down.

What do you mean by that?

My initial idea was to build a full-scale yoga studio. When I didn’t have that opportunity, I thought, “How can I take this idea and make it so that the financial risk is less? I’m going to turn it into a mobile service.” So, I tested by buying 10 yoga mats and 10 blocks, putting them in my car and driving around offering the service. You don’t have to start with your big idea. Figure out a way to test it first and prove that it’s viable. Then scale it.

How did you go from teaching yoga to being the internet’s small business bestie?

It happened organically. I had my yoga studio during the pandemic. TikTok was taking off, so I started posting about a day in my life as a yoga studio owner. Then people started asking questions like, “How do you pay your taxes?” And I’d answer.

I was really fortunate when I wanted to start my business, because one of my childhood friends is a chartered professional accountant. I took her out for coffee, and she taught me everything I needed to know. Most people, presumably, don’t have that option.

So, if I can share information or resources that are going to help someone, I will. My goal is always to make small business as accessible as possible, to as many people as possible.

What’s one thing you think entrepreneurs should do more often?

What I’ve always done is have a 15-minute time block in my calendar. Every Friday, on repeat. I force myself to sit down and look at what money came in that week and my expenses. I track it all and then move on. Taking that 10 to 15 minutes is better than having to sit down for 10 hours, six months from now, to figure it all out.

You shared how much you made in one month on TikTok. What inspired that, and what was the response like?

I wanted to demonstrate that there are many ways you can make money as a creator. To be honest, the response was a bit overwhelming. I assume many people don’t realize the potential that is available. 

How do you set your pay, when your monthly income fluctuates?

I pay myself the same amount twice per month. I set that number based on what my bills cost, my investment goals, and a reasonable budget for anything non-essential. I have a buffer that sits in my business account, and that covers the slow months. This way, my personal budget never has to depend on whether a client pays on time.

You also talk about moving money into high-yield savings accounts. Why? 

I have three separate high-interest accounts: business income, sales taxes and income taxes. Earning interest instead of having my money sitting there doing nothing is a no-brainer. More importantly, it gets money out of sight. If my tax money is sitting in my chequing account, it looks like money I can spend. 

As a self-employed person in Canada, I’m responsible for my own income tax and sales tax. So, I move any sales tax collected, plus 30% of every payment into their respective accounts as soon as it lands. This way, I know anything sitting in my business income account is fair game to allocate to expenses or my pay.

Why do you think it’s a good time to be a Canadian entrepreneur?

We live in a time where it’s a really unique opportunity because the barrier to entry is quite low. There’s so much less friction, in terms of trying, testing and finding the thing that’s actually going to work. Obviously, that’s dependent on the type of business you want to start.

On that same note, because there’s so much noise out there, it’s also really easy to pivot. If I launch a business idea and it’s a flop, I can move on to something else relatively quickly. It feels really high stakes when you’re emotionally invested in something and you think you’re going to be judged. In reality, no one is really paying attention for more than five seconds.