Budgets, Financials, & Business
Managing our business can seem 24/7 at times but one of the things we should have on our ‘to-do’ lists is setting goals (or mile markers) & a budget. So often we simply go through each day making it work, trying to speak with leads/prospective clients, and doing our client work. Therefore, trying to fit in financial goals and a budget seems far down the list. What exactly do we need to do for our budgets, financials, & business to stay on top and even ahead of things?
Bookkeeping
I raise my hand as well here. I find it a bit ironic as I used to love financials, accounting, and budgets — numbers in general. Yet, after doing bookkeeping for years and years I found myself burnt out in this area. Now, it is simply the last thing I want to do these days.
It is, however, very important that you keep up with your bookkeeping on a regular basis. If you do not want to do this or are not using a good system to keep up you may want to hire a Bookkeeper or Accountant to do it each month. Most service-based businesses will not take long to update monthly unless you sell a ton of programs and/or digital products.
SCORE Article
I came across this SCORE article by Sharita Humphrey and wanted to share its tips and smart acronym with you. I hope it will be of some value to get you thinking about your financials and staying on top of them.
I have added some of my thoughts to these as well. Click on the link above or below to read the article in its entirety.
Financial Tips For Your Business
1. Set & Evaluate the current year’s financial goals — take a look at a Your financials for the past year (when able to compare to the year before also). Set achievable goals based on the last few years of growth. If you consistently increase revenue by 10%, 25%, etc. then set your goals accordingly. I suggest also that you set attainable goals according to the sales so far this year. We always hope that they will be increased each year but unless you’ve added employees or a sales team it is unlikely to double or triple this year.
2. Detail your goals — set up detailed goals. Don’t simply say I want to earn $100k this year (esp. if you are making 25k right now, as this is unlikely unless you are experiencing some surge in your industry). You need to Outline each goal & give specific ways you can achieve these goals.
3. Break down your goals — break the goals into chunk sizes so they are attainable. Each goal broke out into bite-size chunks that ‘feel’ doable. Then create due dates and add them to your calendar. This is especially helpful. Be sure to look at our Free Planner for a quick easy way to do this with your goals.
4. Sort your goals — sort into short and long-term goals. I also advise sorting by priority. Perhaps you have goals that are a higher priority than others. Something like the need for a printer may be immediate and a high priority whereas a new office chair my lower on the list as you can use your current one.
5. Make them SMART (see below).
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-based
Summary
It is important to set financial and budget goals for the quarter and for the year. Take time today to do some planning so you meet your desired financial goals this year in your business.
For More Information from this particular article Click Here.
If you need help doing this or would like help with starting (or re-starting) OR scaling & growing your business be sure to contact us today.
As always, I thank you, my friends, for reading another of my articles. I would also truly appreciate it if you would share it with others on your social platforms. I hope you have a wonderful day and I look forward to your visit again.
To Your Continued Success,
Tammy S. Durden
*Article has been previously published on Fearless Business Boss’ website
