Money mistakes are pretty much inevitable. They are going to happen. But they are going to happen because no one is perfect. But when you own your own business, there are some money mistakes that every business owner needs to avoid.
When you avoid making these big money mistakes in your business, then you just may end up making more money.
And you have your own business, so making more money is ultimately what you really want to do. Right? That's why you started your own business.
It is true when they say that there is no ceiling to how much money you can make in your own business. But you as the business owner do place your own beliefs on how much money you can make, unless you do the inner work and avoid making these money mistakes in your business.
What money mistakes do you need to avoid?
Track your bookkeeping from Day 1
Ah! Bookkeeping!
It's totally not a fun thing to do. Plus it makes you actually see what has been happening financially in your business over a certain period of time.
But it needs to be done from Day 1. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. You can also avoid making bookkeeping mistakes in your business as well, which is a completely different article.
By keeping up with your business bookkeeping, you are able to make tax season easier. You are able to see how much money you have really made. You are able to see how much money you have spent and where you spent it.
And you can analyze your spending and see if there are things that you need to change. You can't change any patterns if you don't know you have specific patterns.
This leads me into point #2.
Make a Plan to Make Money and Spend Money
Some call this a budget. Some call this a business plan. You can call it what you wish. But you need to make a plan for you money.
How are you going to bring money into your business? What are you going to offer to your prospective clients to get them to buy from you?
If you don't make a plan for your money, then you won't make any money. And I can tell you this from experience. For most of my business's life, I have just been flying by the seat of my pants. I would put out an offer whenever I got a hit of inspiration. I never really planned out in advance how I was going to make those offers. And because I didn't plan for it, I didn't make as much money as I could have.
I've recently started making a plan for my offers and how I make money in my business has changed.
But not only do you need to make a plan for making money, you also need to make a plan for spending money. You can't spend money you don't have. So you have to plan to spend the money that you are making.
The ultimate goal of having your own business is usually so that you can have some sort of financial freedom; whether this means being debt free, quitting your day job and being full time in your business, or just having a little bit of extra spending money at the end of the day.
But you can't achieve this goal if you don't make a plan for your money.
Build an effective profit plan in your business that will not only help you meet your income goals, but surpass them too.
This workshop gives you the tools and know-how to build an effective profit plan in your business.
Creating a Business Budget
Going off of both points #1 and #2, you also need to make a budget for your business.
Maybe you want to join a mastermind in the next few months and this mastermind costs several thousand dollars. But you have no idea where you are going to get this money.
Having a budget (and a plan, see above) will help you achieve this goal of being able to join this mastermind.
Create an Organization Plan
I get it, being an entrepreneur is an artistic feat and organization just doesn't happen very regularly. Being organized in your business takes a lot of effort.
But when you have an organization plan in your business, getting things done, and hiring the right people to help you get things done, suddenly becomes much easier.
When things are organized, you can easily find everything you need. The username and password that you created months ago that you can't find. With organization, you'll always know right where to look.
The exact order that you need to do a certain task in, having organization and a standard operating procedure, will help you complete it in less time than you thought possible.
If you think getting organized is a lot of work, it's even more work to not be organized.
Create folders in your email inbox to sort everything the way you need to.
Create folders on your computer hard drive to sort everything.
Organization just makes everything so much easier to find and in the long run, it makes it easier to get things done even more quickly.
Also check out: How to Organize Your Business Finances
Not Valuing Yourself or Your Time
This is a very common trait that most business owners share. So you are totally not alone in not valuing yourself or your time.
This valuation process comes into play both with when you work with clients and when you don't work with clients.
Are you answering and responding to emails at all hours of the day and night?
Are you doing client work the second they ask you for it?
Are you spending every waking minute attached to your phone, scrolling?
There are times that you need to take breaks. There are times that you need to put yourself first, before your business.
It's true that there are also times that you can work on your business when you should be taking time for yourself. But also remember to take time for yourself and really put a value on your time.
No one else can value your time, more than you.
Not Paying Yourself on a Regular Schedule
Like I mentioned above, most people start a business to have some kind of financial freedom. And I'm willing to bet that you are in that same group. Maybe you want to quit your day job and work full time in your business. Maybe you want to pay off your debt while still working your full time job.
What your financial freedom goal is doesn't really matter if you aren't actually paying yourself on a regular schedule.
How can you achieve your goals if you don't actually pay yourself?
You need to create an automatic transfer from your business bank account to your personal bank account to pay yourself at regular intervals.
And I know you are going to ask, well how can I pay myself regularly if I'm not making much money?
Well look back at point #2 and #3. Make a plan and a budget. You have to be regularly bringing in money into your business, or it's not really a business. Right?
So make money regularly and then pay yourself regularly.
Making money mistakes is a part of life. And it's even more a part of being a business owner. Nobody is perfect. But you can make small changes each day and in turn make money really work for you and your business.
Also check out: Paying Yourself in Your Online Business
