Your Ultimate Small-Business Spending Decision Tree

As a small business owner, you have to make a lot of decisions. Most of them are pretty important. Your spending decisions are no different. Especially when you’re getting started or working with a small budget, it’s important to view your business spending decisions as investments. These investments influence the value you offer your customers, and the overall success of your business.

One of the biggest worries I frequently hear from the small business owners I work with is about their spending decisions. Whether they’re concerned they overspending on the wrong things, oversaving and not investing enough, or spending at the wrong time, it all boils down to concerns over spending.

To help diffuse these worries, I’ve created this decision tree to help you make business spending decisions. Turn to it when you need some guidance or are faced with an important decision. Even if this guide doesn’t walk you through everything you may want to consider when making a spending decision, it’s a good resource to get you started!

Keep Your Expenses Low

Let’s start off this guide with a note about where this perspective is coming from. From all my experiences working with solopreneurs and small business owners, I personally can say I believe it’s almost always advantageous to keep overall business expenses low whenever possible. The lower you keep your business expenses, the closer you get to creating a supportive and financially sustainable business. 

Speaking of sustainability I also believe that incremental change is better than radical change and incurring a bunch of expenses all at once. Even if a certain expense doesn’t make sense for you right now, you can always make a new decision or scale up in the future.

What needs have I identified in my business that will be satisfied by this investment? Is this solution the best fit for my business?

Ask yourself: Is there another product/service/offering that is lower cost that could still satisfy my business needs? If you’re not sure, consider doing a bit more research before proceeding. 

Have I had any experience with this solution, direct or indirect? Was it satisfactory?

For example, perhaps you’re wanting to invest in some scheduling software. Maybe you’ve had an opportunity to try a free trial or have spoken to a colleague who uses the same software. Consider what you know from this experience and whether the software would be best for your needs. If the answer is yes, move forward.

Remember not to be a perfectionist here, though! You can always change your mind and make a different decision later, and there’s no harm in trying something out. The goal of these questions is help you make balanced decisions.

Can I afford this expense?

If you’re not sure, take a quick look at your cash on hand. (This is something you can do regularly in a weekly money check-in to stay on top of your business finances.) Refer to your business spending plan for the month and any plans you have for business savings you might have.

Taking all of this into account, can you afford to make this investment right now? And if not, how are you planning to finance it? How quickly will you be able to pay that financing off? Make sure you are comfortable with these spending arrangements and that they make sense for your business before proceeding.

Do I have a reasonable expectation of seeing a return on my investment either financially or in my own personal growth or capacity?

These questions are last, but definitely not least! It’s important to essentially ask yourself with any business expense you’re considering, “Will this help me make more money?”. If the answer is no, this is a good place to stop and reconsider. If your goal is to run a profitable business, then financial concerns need to be considered as a top priority.

If you’re not sure, think about how this expense will affect your work life. If, for example, it’s an investment that will save you time and allow you to do more of the income-generating tasks related to your business, then this could be a great investment. Consider how much time it will save you and try to quantify that when thinking about what your return on this investment will be.

To consider the second part of the question, refer back to your values. Ask yourself, will this investment bring more of what I value into my work and life? It can be difficult to quantify how much money something like this might be worth to you, which is why it’s important to consider your answer to this question alongside your answers to all the others in this guide.

Special Note About Impostor Syndrome and Spending on Education/Training

Especially when it comes to spending on things like trainings and certifications, many small business owners, and particularly women, sell themselves short when it comes to their own expertise and feel like they “need” more training. This same phenomenon can also apply to branding. Some business owners can spend themselves into a hole trying to make sure their business branding looks professional.

This spending behavior often stems from an emotional root of not feeling good enough, commonly referred to as impostor syndrome. If this is something you know you struggle with, I encourage you to refer to a couple more resources along with this guide when making spending decisions. Here’s a great decision tree shared by business consultant Shaneh F. Woods, and my article “Don’t Let Impostor Syndrome Fuel Overspending in Your Business.”

Both of these will get you started off in a right direction. Perhaps you’ll find that you can make your own decision tree to encourage yourself to make balanced spending decisions!

If you enjoyed this article, then I bet you’ll love my free E-Book, “Reach Your Life Goals: A Business Owner’s Guide.” Click here or below to download your free copy.

How to Prep for the Holidays as a Service-Based Business

We tend to think of product-based businesses the most around the holidays, but services-based businesses can easily participate in the season too! You may feel your business isn’t  seasonally relevant, or that your offerings aren’t well-suited as gifts.

However, with a bit of creative thinking, you can find a way to position your offerings for the end of the year. Getting creative at this time can help you meet your income goals and experiment with different offers. Here are a couple different ideas to help your service-based business get prepped for the holidays: 

End-Of-Year Specials

If your services might be hard to frame as a gift, say something like bookkeeping or social media consulting, think about how you can create an offer or special around the holidays or the new year.  This look like an end of year bookkeeping review package, or a holiday sale on social media consulting sessions. Focus on helping your customers reduce holiday stress.

Likely whatever service you provide can be tied into that theme somehow, whether you’re offering more convenience or an expert solution to a problem. Keep in mind what your target market is thinking about during the end of the year. How can you help them solve problems and enjoy the season?

Gift Vouchers

Many business can offer great gift-vouchers for their customers. Consider offering vouchers at a discount for your repeat customers. This an excellent way to attract more clients. When people receive a voucher for your service, it will also come with a glowing recommendation!

Holiday Packages

Services or products can be bundled together to create holiday-themed packages for your clients. Try including a free holiday gift with an extra purchase. You could also consider theming a bundle of different services around the holidays. For example, if you’re a teaching artist, you could bundle together online courses under a holiday sale designed to help people make their own gifts!

This is also a great opportunity to collaborate with other business owners. Perhaps you run a massage studio and you partner with a chiropractor to offer a holiday package that includes a discount on both your services. This is a great way to cross-pollinate your customer bases while also reaping the rewards of holiday season marketing.

Thinking ahead about the holiday season can help you turn plans into action items. This can also be a chance to do one last push toward your annual or quarterly income goals.

If you liked this post, you’ll also probably enjoy being on my newsletter list! Every month my subscribers get a newsletter tailored to small business owners and the best tips for their finances, plus my weekly blog posts! Click here or below to get signed up. 

 

Why Your Payment Processing Software Is Only Telling You Half the Story

Payment processing softwares – like Square or Stripe – are a very important tool for any small business owner who does business online. But they’re not telling you everything you need to know about your business finances. Check in with your business’s money system, and make sure you’re getting the full picture by looking beyond your payment processing reports.

Only Half the Story

Payment processing software is an incredibly useful tool. Your payment processing landing page might also be a place you visit often. Perhaps you check in once a week as part of your weekly money check-in. It’s fun to see the money roll in!

However, checking those numbers is not all you need to do. When you see the income your business is making as its reported by your payment processor, it’s important to remember that your profit and your personal paycheck are going to be different numbers altogether. Why is this? Because although your payment processor does a great job reporting your income, it shows you nothing about your expenses.

Get Clear on Your Expenses

Instead of stopping after looking at your income every week, the next step is to get clear on your expenses. I’d like to add that both your savings for taxes and your operating expenses are important to account for during this step, as they are both things you’ll want to put some of that income towards.

For more ideas about thinking more holistically about your money as a system and getting clear on how much money your business is really making, I’d recommend reading my series on money mapping. You can start here.

If you enjoyed this article, sign up for my newsletter so you never miss a post. Along with weekly blog updates, you’ll also receive my special monthly tailored newsletter. Click below to join us, it’s a good place to be.

How to Prep for the Holidays as a Service-Based Business

We tend to think of product-based businesses the most around the holidays, but services-based businesses can easily participate in the season too! You may feel your business isn’t  seasonally relevant, or that your offerings aren’t well-suited as gifts.

With a bit of creative thinking, however, you can find a way to position your offerings for the end of the year. Getting creative at this time can help you meet your income goals and experiment with different offers. Here are a couple different ideas to help your service-based business get prepped for the holidays: 

End-Of-Year Specials

If your services might be hard to frame as a gift, say something like bookkeeping or social media consulting, think about how you can create an offer or special around the holidays or the new year.  This look like an end of year bookkeeping review package, or a holiday sale on social media consulting sessions. Focus on helping your customers reduce holiday stress.

Likely whatever service you provide can be tied into that theme somehow, whether you’re offering more convenience or an expert solution to a problem. Keep in mind what your target market is thinking about during the end of the year. How can you help them solve problems and enjoy the season?

Gift Vouchers

Many business can offer great gift-vouchers for their customers. Consider offering vouchers at a discount for your repeat customers. This an excellent way to attract more clients. When people receive a voucher for your service, it will also come with a glowing recommendation!

Holiday Packages

Services or products can be bundled together to create holiday-themed packages for your clients. Try including a free holiday gift with an extra purchase. You could also consider theming a bundle of different services around the holidays. For example, if you’re a teaching artist, you could bundle together online courses under a holiday sale designed to help people make their own gifts!

Thinking ahead about the holiday season can help you turn plans into action items. This can also be a chance to do one last push toward your annual or quarterly income goals. If you decide to pursue a holiday-related offer in your business, I recommend reading my previous post, 3 Tips to Financially Prepare Your Small Business for the Holidays. It will give you some ideas on what kind of prep you need to do in the coming weeks.

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Angela

Image by Toa Heftiba 

3 Tips to Financially Prepare Your Small Business for the Holidays

It’s important to be proactive when it comes to the holidays. They bring a host of financial challenges and opportunities for small businesses. Let’s talk about three ways you can prep your business for the holidays, so that you’re able to have a profitable and satisfying holiday season, without stressing out.

Reflect on This Time In Past Years

Look back to your records to see what happened in your business in past holiday seasons. Which events, specials or sales, and products were the most profitable? If something didn’t go the way you planned, how can you improve on what you did the last few years? This will give you good data to help you focus your offerings this season.

If your business is relatively new, you can simply reflect on the past year and what’s been most profitable for you. Chances are you know what your best-selling products or services are. How can you make sure you have the resources to sell a lot of them? What strategies do you want to use to promote that offering during the holiday season?

Having access to clear financial records is extremely helpful when you’re doing business planning like this.

Plan Sales and Specials

Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday are coming up soon, as well as a host of other times when businesses typically offer sales or specials with their products. Consider whether you’d like to participate in these dates, and how your business is best suited to do that. Perhaps you can focus on promoting packages to up the dollar amount spent by each customer, or offer a deal on your bestselling offering.

Alternatively, you may decide not to participate in these dates, or to do so in a different way. Some small business owners choose not to take part in these events, because it doesn’t feel right to them, or because they choose to celebrate Buy Nothing Day. Even some larger businesses opt out, or take a different path. Deciem, a large skincare brand, holds an annual sale for the entire month of November, to discourage “hyper-consumerism.”

The choice is ultimately yours. Whatever sales schedule you decide to follow, you will also want to take into account your production timeline. Right about now is when many product-based businesses start beefing up their inventories. Here’s an article I wrote for product-based businesses on how to financially survive this process.

If you’re a service-based business or selling digital products, there may still be some considerations for you around your schedule during the holidays. If you’re providing 1-to-1 services, for example, how will your availability change during the holiday season? How can you allocate your resources to ensure you’re able to deliver and make a profit?

Prep for Events

You’ve likely signed up for whatever craft shows, expos, or web events you’ll be participating in during the holidays (or maybe you haven’t yet and now is a good time to think about that!). Now is the time to think strategically about what you can do to get the most out of these events. I wrote an article on upping your profit during holiday events which you can read here.

If this post was helpful for you, you might like checking out my free eBook, The Cash Flow Reboot Guide. This 9-page resource can help you brainstorm to get prepped for a profitable holiday season. Download it for free here.

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Angela

Photo by Kira auf der Heide

Why You Need to Consider Your Hourly Wage As a Business Owner

How much does your business pay you, hourly? Whether you’re working on a pricing strategy or just feeling burnt out by your business, this can be an important thing to consider.

Why Think About Your Wage?

Knowing your hourly wage can help you be more aware of the time and effort you’re putting into your business, and what kind of return you’re getting. Calculating your hourly wage can be a great tool for a perspective shift. For many business owners, even if they work 12-hour days and have just enough to cover bills, they might not see that their business isn’t paying them enough until they’ve figured out their hourly rate. If your hourly wage would make you want to leave your position if you were an employee, that’s a great clue that some new thinking about your pricing is in order!

Appropriate Pricing

Understanding what your hourly wage is (and what you want it to be) can be a huge help in pricing your products appropriately. First you need to understand your money why, or why you earn the money you take in from your business.  This will help you understand if your current prices can really sustain the goals that you have financially. You can learn how to set informed income goals here. Once you understand what your income target is, you can work backwards and see how much of your product or service you would need to produce and sell in order to make that income. 

Take a moment to consider the cost of low prices, too. Look around at what other people in your industry are selling their product for. If you’re giving your goods away because they’re priced so low, you’re not doing anyone any favors. Remember, selling more doesn’t mean you’re necessarily making more. You aren’t making money, you’re reducing the value of what you do in the eyes of the buyers and you’re making your industry fellows unhappy.

Consider Your Time

When you are considering how to price your product or service, you may take into account the cost of supplies, transportation, and other materials. However, you must also take into account the cost of your time. If you were working for someone else and getting paid, you would receive an hourly wage, so consider that just as important in your own business. If you hired someone to help you with production, you’d need to pay them an hourly wage too. If you’re planning to scale up a business you’ll need to be able to hire other people and your prices need to be able to sustain that.

Another thing for product-based businesses to consider when looking at your pricing is your interest in wholesaling. When selling wholesale, you will typically  sell at 50% of your retail price. If, at this price, you’re not covering your costs, labor and making a profit that supports your financial goals, you need to raise your prices. 

Taking your hourly wage into account can help you accurately price your products and meet your income goals. If you’re interested in learning and thinking more about pricing formulas, I encourage you to check out my interview with Megan Auman. Our talk, plus my articles on how artists define their own success and how business skills and artistic sense can coexist, are great resources for anyone with a creative business looking to tinker with their profit model. Enjoy!

 

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Angela

Photo: bruce mars 


This blog post is a tweaked and re-published version of the original, posted in 2019 as part of a series for creative business owners. Check out more articles on that topic here

How To Plan for Surprise Expenses

Did you have a nasty surprise yesterday with the estimated federal tax payments deadline? Or perhaps in your business you deal with other surprise expenses – things that add up. Worker’s compensation, insurance payments, replacing equipment, etc. can surprise business owners and knock you out of a financial groove very easily. Whether these things are a big issue in your business or not, I’m a huge proponent of planning to address them, just in case. How do we do that? Well, let’s talk ideas: 

Have an Emergency Fund

Having an emergency fund saved for your business can be extremely helpful. Whether a surprise expense comes up, or some other disaster strikes, having between three and twelve month’s worth of expenses set aside is great in a pinch. This strategy can be particularly helpful in emergency situations, but for taxes and other types of expenses that are somewhat predictable, try some of the other strategies below.

Set Up a Money System

If you’re a regular reader, you know how much I love money-mapping. Setting up any kind of money system can help you think more broadly about how much you need to put aside for operating expenses and taxes, well before it’s time to actually pay for those things. Checking out my articles on money-mapping is a good intro to money systems if that’s what you need to get started. If you’re a seasoned veteran with money systems, or have at least tried them before, maybe it’s time to do a business check-in and see where your business is at financially. Assess the situation and make a resiliency plan.

Check In With Your Finances Regularly

Ideally, you have a bookkeeping pro doing this, someone who can regularly look at your numbers and pull out important insights. Or, if you’re doing it on your own, you have someone that you consult with on a semi-regular basis to review your books. Even when you’re not working with a professional, regularly looking at your finances is the way to go if you want to be prepared for surprise expenses. The more aware you are of where your business is financially, the more prepared you will be to deal with an issue when one comes up. I recommend finding a way to make regular intentional time looking at your finances fun, like finding a money buddy or setting money dates.

Note Potential Future Expenses

Take time to think about what potential expenses may arise in the future. Perhaps you use a lot of special equipment in your business, and some of it is getting into disrepair. Maybe you simply have a hard time remembering when insurance or tax payments are due. Take note of all of these things and factor them into your money system or savings plan. Write important due dates on the calendar well ahead of time so you’re aware of them. Have an equipment replacement fund set aside for when your laptop or pottery wheel or farm vehicle finally busts or needs repair. The more you can anticipate these things and incorporate some wiggle room into your money system, the less you’ll be knocked sideways financially when they do come up.

I hope this list has given you some good ideas for dealing with surprise expenses. If you need more ideas about developing financial resilience in your business, check out my free e-book, Cash Flow Reboot Guide: A Guide to Thriving in Uncertain Times.

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Angela

Why You Need to Consider Your Hourly Wage As a Business Owner

Have you paused to consider what hourly wage your business pays you? This might not seem important – maybe you think that as long as you have your bills paid, you’re all set.

Why Think About Your Wage?

The thing is, this is really about pricing your products appropriately. First you need to understand your money why, or why you earn the money you take in from your business.  This will help you understand if your current prices can really sustain the goals that you have financially. You can learn how to set informed income goals here. Once you understand what your income target is, you can work backwards and see how much of your product or service you would need to produce and sell in order to make that income. The next step is to see whether that’s realistic. 

The Cost of Low Prices

Look around at what other people in your industry are selling their product for. If you’re giving your goods away because they’re priced so low, you’re not doing anyone any favors. Remember, selling more doesn’t mean you’re necessarily making more. You aren’t making money, you’re reducing the value of what you do in the eyes of the buyers and you’re making your industry fellows unhappy.

Consider Your Time

When you are considering how to price your product you may take into account the cost of supplies, transportation, and other materials. However, you must also take into account the cost of your time. If you were working for someone else and getting paid, you would receive an hourly wage, so consider that just as important in your own business. If you hired someone to help you with production, you’d need to pay them an hourly wage too. If you’re planning to scale up a business you’ll need to be able to hire other people and your prices need to be able to sustain that.

Another thing for product-based businesses to consider when looking at your pricing is your interest in wholesaling. When selling wholesale, you will typically  sell at 50% of your retail price. If, at this price, you’re not covering your costs, labor and making a profit that supports your financial goals, you need to raise your prices. 

I hope these thoughts of mine have helped you consider how taking your hourly wage into account can help you accurately price your products and meet your income goals. If you’re interested in learning and thinking more about pricing formulas, I encourage you to check out my interview with Megan Auman. Our talk, plus my articles on how artists define their own success and how business skills and artistic sense can coexist, are great resources for anyone with a creative business looking to tinker with their profit model. Enjoy!

 

☮

Angela

Photo: JOSHUA COLEMAN

Why DIY Business Owners Can Still Use a Bookkeeping Partner

Why DIY Businesses Can Still Use a Bookkeeper: At Peace With Money

Recently, several people have reached out to me who prefer to do their bookkeeping on their own, but want to have a second set of eyes on their numbers. I can’t tell you how pleased I’ve been to receive these requests. I think consulting someone else about your books is a great idea, even if you typically keep your records yourself. There are two main reasons why I think occasionally working with a professional bookkeeper, even if you’re a whiz on your own, can greatly benefit your business.

Accountability

Having someone who regularly looks at your books, even if it’s only once every month or so, motivates you to stay on top of them. Regularly scheduled reviews can help you maintain consistency and accuracy in your record keeping, which can streamline your business even further. It’s easy to fall behind on your books if no one’s watching. Having someone else look at them every now and then encourages you to keep up.

Accuracy Check

Your financial records are something you don’t want to mess up. Mistakes can be terribly inconvenient at best, and very costly at worst. Plus, if you are working to learn the skill of bookkeeping, it’s great to have an expert on hand to review your work. That extra pair of eyes can help keep your records orderly.

My Story

When I was running Dolce Beada, I knew how to do my bookkeeping, but I still had someone come in once a month to make sure I stayed on top of all the entries. Having someone look at my records regularly kept me in the habit of recording my numbers and keeping my books from getting messy. I also really benefited from a monthly numbers-check, just to make sure I was doing it right. 

Some business owners may feel that they are not ready to hire a bookkeeper, so they prefer to keep their own records. If this is you, you can still benefit from having a bookkeeper review what you’ve done. Or perhaps you need some training on how to set up and maintain your bookkeeping – an expert can offer this too.  Many solopreneurs also benefit from Profit First Financial Coaching in order to set a revenue goal for their business, fully understand how much they are spending both personally and in their business, and prepare to pay themselves and all taxes as they come due. All of these business concerns require some financial work, and an expert who can coach you through that work can be an invaluable resource. 

If you’re interested and want to learn more about the Profit First and financial services I offer, check out my services page, and book a call with me!

Angela

Image Source: Ashkan Forouzani

Pick One of These 5 Ideas To Automate Your Wealth

Pick Pick One of These 5 Ideas To Automate Your Wealth: At Peace with Money

Last week we talked about loving our future selves, and dove into the world of IRAs. Today, I’d like to share a way you can love yourself and share the wealth with both future and present you – automation! I’ve written about automation before, and why it is so beneficial to our financial lives. The idea is simple: by automating your finances, you reduce your decision making, thereby reducing your chances to change your mind  or forget about saving money or paying a bill in full. Automating your finances make saving money easier and less of a mental effort. This principle is what Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg employ in their wardrobe choices. They’d wear the same thing every day so that they could conserve their brainpower for other more important decisions!

Here are my five ideas you can use to dip your toes into the world of financial automation. Start off slow – just pick one and try it out. If you like your results, you can come back for more!

Automate a Savings Goal

Set up an amount to automatically be sent to a particular savings account for a goal you’re pursuing. Don’t worry about the amount, any amount is great! Simply trying this is the most important step. 

Automate a Bill Payment

Automating a bill payment insures you will not pay late fees. In the long run, this could save you a lot of money. 

Set an Alert

Many banks offer to send alerts when your account hits a minimum balance. Set this up so you don’t overdraw your account. This way, you can avoid those pesky overdraft fees. 

Connect Your Accounts

Connect your accounts to a money management system or app so you can  really see where your money is actually going. I use Mint and I love it! Personal Capital is another I’ve heard of, and many people also swear by YNAB, or You Need a Budget

Set Up Direct Deposit

Have your paycheck automatically deposited into your checking account! This is so much more simple than Pick One of These 5 Ideas to Automate Your Wealth: At Peace With Moneyhaving to take all that time and effort to take your paycheck to the bank. Even if you have your own business and have varying income, you can create a solopreneur paycheck using the Profit First system. If you’re interested in reading more about this, I recommend my posts Create Your Own Paycheck  and How to Pay Yourself First.

If you enjoy these tips and want more resources on automation, I’ll happily recommend The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach. This book emphasizes how savings habits and automation can help you build up savings for retirement. He also has a variety of free resources available for download on his website, so go ahead and take a look at those too! And of course, if any of this has piqued your interest, I’m happy to talk to you about setting up money systems for your business. Take a look at my service packages and schedule a curiosity call!

Angela

Image Source: Rodion Kutsaev

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