Stellar Solopreneurs: How a Digital Marketing Consultant Does Money

Digital marketing is a valuable and sought-after skill, and with more and more businesses trying to reach their audiences online these days, there’s usually plenty of clientele. But how do marketing consultants turn bustling businesses into a money systems that sustain and support their lives?

In our second installment in Stellar Solopreneurs this month, we’re hearing about just that from Tracey Lee Davis of ZingPop Social Media. Not only does Tracey deliver professional excellence (I can personally attest to this as a happy former client), but she also has a lot of wonderful words of wisdom for solopreneurs looking to build confidence around their money systems in their businesses. She is one of my bookkeeping clients, and one whose sterling money habits I continually admire! Check out what she has to say:

What are some financial habits you use in your business that help you stay calm

and confident about money?

VERY early in my career, a cohort in a networking group shared with us that she owed over $10K in taxes that year, and she didn’t have it. That absolutely terrified me. I already had a plan for saving for taxes, but that moment solidified that I would never “fudge the numbers” with that account. So every week, I make sure that I am dividing up my income based on paying me, paying my taxes, and paying my business. I have never had an issue paying my taxes in my almost ten years of business! Whew!

How do you prepare for taxes in your business?

I used to painstakingly create an Excel spreadsheet that was many tabs in total. I would scour through emails and receipts to make sure I got everything listed correctly. And I relied heavily on my calendar to track medical appointments and volunteer miles. It took me hours to do all of this. Now that I am using Angela’s services, it is ridiculously simple to do my taxes every year. I really just need to keep track of my mileage, which compared to what I was doing before, is a breeze!

Are there any tips for financial record-keeping you want to share with other small

business owners?

While I am so happy using QBO for my bookkeeping, I started out using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my invoices. That early system really helped me with divvying up my income, and honestly, I couldn’t wrap my brain around how to easily continue to do that without that spreadsheet when I started using QBO. So I still use it, more for making the math easy and keeping track of my invoice numbers rather than for official bookkeeping purposes. Having that redundancy gives me an easy way to keep everything straight; I can leave myself notes, and it makes moving money into different accounts on my weekly money day so simple.

How do you make decisions on what to spend on for your business, and what are some

things that help you do that?

I am a very frugal person by nature, so I generally am very cautious when it comes to spending money. One of the biggest considerations is, “Will this investment ultimately save me time in the long run or make my life easier in some way?” So getting a bookkeeper, getting a VA, getting a CPA, all of these are smart investments for me because they do their job so much better than I can, and they do it faster, too. So it frees up my time to work on the things only I can do and the things I love to do. Also, if I am spending my free time doing something business-related because I don’t want to take away from my time for client work, it is absolutely worth investing in having someone help me with that task. Our free time is so valuable!

Another thing that has made a difference in making decisions on what to spend was getting a business credit card. I functioned for many years in my business without one, and that was fairly limiting if I didn’t have enough cash in the bank for a big purchase. My business credit card has definitely made a difference in that regard!

What are some financial goals in your personal life that your business income has

helped you reach, and how do you make sure that’s happening?

Travel is important to me. I have friends all over the world and seeing them in person is balm for my soul. When I finally took the plunge to get a business credit card, I made sure to get one that gave me travel rewards. This has allowed me to take a number of trips that I wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise.

What’s something you wish you’d known about the financial side of running your own

business when you got started?

I started my business in December/January. I didn’t think at all that a lot of annual costs would need to be renewed in those months. I also didn’t know they would be the slowest months in my business. So while I wouldn’t change when I started my business, I am glad to be able to let people who are starting to think about opening their own consider when you will have other big expenses in your life and when your business will have natural lulls. There have been a number of years when the holidays, my recurring business costs, and slow business have been a bit uncomfortable, but hallelujah for that business credit card!

Want to connect with Tracey’s wonderful digital marketing services? Check out her website and join her mailing list. You can see a full list of her offerings, from webinars to memberships to 1:1 coaching, right here. I highly recommend her membership – my business benefited greatly when I was in it!

If you enjoyed Tracey’s thoughts on small business finance, you might also like to check out our free resource, The Cashflow Reboot Guide. Download your free copy here or by clicking below.

Stellar Solopreneurs: How an Herbalist Does Money

Have you ever wondered how an herbalist makes money? This month on the blog, I’m running an interview series called “Stellar Solopreneurs!” We’ll hear from a couple different small business owners about their own financial insights and how they set up their money systems for financial success.

Today we’re hearing from Madeleine (aka Magic), who is the Head Content Creator for At Peace With Money, but also the herbalist extraordinaire of Roots in the Cracks Herbal Hub! Magic teaches online and local classes on herbal medicine making and identifying medicinal plants, and also runs an online educational membership, The Autonomous Herbalism Learning Community. Check out what they have to share about the financial side of their business:

Are there any tips for financial record-keeping you want to share with other small business owners?

I run a very simple business that’s service-based, so although I sometimes purchase supplies, I don’t typically have many transactions. I do all my financial record-keeping in a spreadsheet with a couple different tabs. Maybe I’ll outgrow this at some point, but for now, it works really well. I want to share this because I want other people to know you don’t have to overcomplicate things. As long as I stay on top of my record keeping and do it regularly, this very simple spreadsheet system works for me.

How do you prepare for taxes in your business?

My main strategy for this is that I have a tax savings account, very similar to what’s suggested by Profit First. I make sure that I factor in how much I need to save for taxes into my prices. This has been especially helpful when I’m preparing a new class series and figuring out how to price it. I know that a certain percentage will get taken off the top for taxes, so I price with that in mind. It’s really helpful to have the money on hand when it comes time to pay and helps me avoid emergencies.

How do you make decisions on what to spend on for your business, and what are some things that help you do that?

One time Angela gave me the advice to think about spending decisions in my business by asking the question “Will this help me make more money?” It seems like a simple question but it’s really helped me prioritize and think about what to invest in.

This advice helped me make the decision to hire PedX Courier & Cargo, a local bike courier co-op, to put up flyers for me, because paper flyering seems to be the best way to market my classes. Doing this increased enrollment and also freed up a lot of time for me because I wasn’t the one pasting up flyers all over the county! (I highly recommend PedX for people in the Santa Cruz area, by the way!)

What’s something you wish you’d known about the financial side of running your own business when you got started?

I wish I’d known better how to price my classes and membership. In the last year or so, I’ve had to reconcile with the fact that in some ways, I was running my business at a deficit to myself.

Now I try to ask myself questions like “Ok, how much am I getting paid to teach this class/run this membership? Is that enough for me to sustain myself and not feel scarce or burnt out?” Pricing is a much bigger part of the process of producing each class I teach, because I put a lot more time into thinking about how I can be financially accessible but also sustainable. There’s a lot of math involved, but it’s worth it because I get to still offer classes on a sliding scale, something that’s really important to me.

Want to connect with Magic’s herbalism work? Check out their website and join their mailing list, Herbal Magic Notes, to receive free recordings of the herbal workshops. If you liked their thoughts on small business finances and want some more ideas, check out my eBook, Reach Your Life Goals: A Business Owner’s Guide! Click here or below to download your copy.

4 Simple Tips for Keeping Your Small Business Finances Organized

 

In the midst of tax season, a lot of us are looking to do better on our finances. Maybe you got a big tax bill and are now wondering where your earnings went. Perhaps you were a little less organized than you would have liked. Or maybe this time just makes you extra aware of where your business is financially.

Whatever the case, mid-points like this are great times to give your finances a makeover! Here are my 4 simple tips for keeping your small business finances organized and intentional.

Review Your Goals

After a big financial event like tax season, the financial goals you set earlier in the year deserve a revisit. Check in with them and ask yourself if they still fit. If not, give your goals a nice update! Make sure what you’re aiming towards is relevant to you. You can check out my article on doing a mid-year review of your finances right here.

If you don’t have any financial goals, now is the time to set them. Harness whatever financial fervor tax season (or whatever other financial situation brought you to this post) has instilled in you.

What are your ideal financial conditions? Dream them up, write them down, and come up with a plan. If you need some pointers, here’s my article “4 Strategies for Setting Doable Financial Goals.”

Set Up a Weekly Money Check-In

So much of creating the life you want is about habits. One of the best habits to adopt, in my opinion, is regular “money time”. Find time each week to check in with your finances. Start with a short chunk, to make it feel more manageable. Fifteen to thirty minutes should suffice.

Use this time to check in with your expenses, upcoming bills, IOU’s, and more as needed. Here are my suggestions on what to look for during your weekly money check-in.

Make a Plan to Stay on Top of Your Books

Especially if organization was an issue this tax round and you run a business, making a plan to stay organized until next tax time is a great thing to do right now. Ask yourself what you need to be able to do this.

Do you need to work with a bookkeeper? Do you need to get some training on how to do your bookkeeping yourself? Identify your needs and take some steps to set yourself on the right path.

Find a Money Buddy

It’s my personal belief that anything can go better when you have an accountability buddy. Find someone in your circle who has a financial goal they’re working on too, and join forces! This might be a fellow business owner, or someone from your church, or another mom from a play group.

“Why You Need a Money Buddy”

Once you’ve found your money buddy, establish the terms of your accountability partnership. How often do you want to meet? How do you want to do check ins? Do you want to learn about finances together, or just trade tips on goals?

These 4 tips will help set you on the right path. If you’re a small business owner looking for more ideas, you might like my free eBook, the Cash Flow Reboot Guide: A Guide to Thriving in Uncertain Times. Click below and get your free copy.

Estimated Taxes: A Complete Guide for the Small Business Owner

What are estimated taxes?

Estimated taxes, which are also called estimates or quarterly taxes, are basically the IRS’s way of collecting tax on the money that self-employed people and small businesses earn throughout the year. Since you’re not an employee with tax withholding taken out of your paycheck, estimated taxes are the DIY version of this. 

The payments are made throughout the year and they go toward your final tax bill. Think of these payments as estimated installments. The great thing about paying in installments is that your tax bill is spread throughout the year, making it easier on your finances than one big payment!

Who has to pay?

According to the IRS, “Individuals, including sole proprietors, partners, and S corporation shareholders, generally have to make estimated tax payments if they expect to owe tax of $1,000 or more when their return is filed.”

Generally, if your business is relatively profitable and you are self-employed, you can bank on paying estimated taxes. 

How do they work?

You make four payments at four different times throughout the year. At the end of the year, you file your taxes. Once you do this, you find out how much you owe, and whether you under- or over-paid in your installment payments. 

If you underpaid, you need to pay to make up the difference at tax time. If you overpaid, you can opt for a refund, or apply the overage to your next installment. 

How much do I owe?

The first option is to base your payments on the previous year’s taxes. After filing, you should receive a form that tells you how much your installments should be. This works well if you have consistent income year to year. 

However, many people experience fluctuations in income. If this is the case for you, calculating your payments in real time is a better option. This can help you avoid vastly underpaying on your installment payments and ending up with a huge bill at tax time. 

How do you calculate in real-time? First, figure out your net income for the period of your estimated taxes. If you use bookkeeping software, you can run a Profit & Loss report to figure this out. If you don’t, subtract your expenses from your total revenue, like this: 

Revenue – Expenses = Net Income

Next, divide your net income by 30%. You might ask, why so high? 

A portion of your estimated tax payments cover your self-employment tax, which is 15.3% (read more on the IRS website). Your payments also cover your income tax. Your exact income tax will depend on your tax bracket, but 15% is a good estimate for most people. If you use Profit First or money mapping, then this is the amount that you save in your tax account. 

However, if you know you’re in a higher (or lower) tax bracket, you can adjust your percentage accordingly. For people in higher brackets, try dividing by 35% instead. For people in lower brackets, 25% may suffice. 

Let’s look at an example: A photographer has a net income of $20,000 for the first quarter of the year. They divide their net income by by 30% and get $6,000. That’s their estimated tax payment for the first quarter. 

$20,000 x .30 = $6,000

You might be wondering how somebody can make sure they have $6,000 laying around every quarter. The answer is to save for your taxes incrementally. 

This is where a strong money system comes in. The Profit First methodology and money mapping are both methods of ensuring that you’re regularly saving for taxes, ideally every month. 

How much should you save each month? We recommend saving 10-15% of all revenue and setting it aside in a separate account.  If you are just getting started and this doesn’t feel feasible, even 5% will help you avoid the surprise of a large tax bill.

When the quarterly deadline rolls around, all you need to do is transfer the money in this account into your checking account and make your payment. 

How to pay?

You can pay online or write a check. Here’s more information from the Franchise Tax Board (California-specific) and the IRS

When are payments due? 

It’s important to pay estimated taxes on or before the due date. Otherwise, you may receive a penalty. 

Check with your state requirements to see when your payments are due and how much they should be (in terms of percentage of your income). If you are in California, I have the Franchise Tax Board link for you right here

Want further reading? Here are two great articles I recommend for further reading and resources: 

You can also get in touch and schedule a free 15-minute Financial Self Care Consultation with me if you’d like to work with a guide to get your business finances on track. 

Maximize Your Profits With Bookkeeping: How To Get the Valuable Info Your Financial Records Are Hiding

Your financial records hold the key to profitability in your business. Want to know how to find that key? Any time of year, but especially during tax season, this valuable insight is available to you. All you have to do is review your financial records.

Let’s take a look at the steps you need to take to get this information. Good bookkeeping practices can help you unlock profits!

Step 1: Review Your Financial Records

This is something you can do anytime of year, but it may be particularly easy to do during tax season, or at the end of the year when you’re reviewing. Take a look through your past financial records, with an eye to sales.

If you do not have your bookkeeping up to date, this is a good time to pause and get that done first! This will help you move through the rest of the process.

Specifically, it’s important to take a look at two things: which time of year and which offerings bring in the most revenue.

Step 2: Take Note of Time Cycles and Best Offerings

By studying your financial records with an eye to times of the year, you can learn a lot about how your business behaves over time. Whether your business is product- or service-based, it is likely subject to fluctuations. It’s likely that these fluctuations are seasonal, or else focused on specific events.

For example, let’s say you own a craft business that brings in the most revenue in the spring and early winter. If you look closely at your records and what you’re doing in your business throughout the year, you might realize these spikes in revenue come from particular sources. In a craft business, it might be that there are several public craft fairs you like to attend in the spring. In early winter, perhaps people buy your products as Christmas gifts. (For some advice specifically about craft fairs, please check out this post!)

By analyzing your financial records, it becomes more apparent to you what times of the year and what offerings bring in more revenue. This makes it easier to direct your energy towards maximizing your profits.

Step 3: Using this Info

Now that you’re clear on the products or services that bring you the most revenue, as well as the time of year, events, or other factors that effect this, it’s time to put this info into action. How can you re-create these conditions to bring in more revenue?

For example, perhaps you have one product that’s particularly popular – can you create variations of this product? Maybe it’s especially popular during summer – can you do extra promotions or bring in more stock? How can you expand here?

Ask yourself the questions above, and think about what results you’d like to achieve. Would you like more revenue? More sales of a certain offering? Or perhaps you’re just not clear about what’s working best in your business. Analyzing your financial records can help you figure this out.

Once you’re clear on what your goals are, and what offerings and times of year are the moneymakers in your business, you can put together a strategy based on your findings to create more profitability in your business.

Conclusion

To maximize your profits, focus your business’s energy towards your most profitable offerings and times of year. Reviewing your financial records will help you determine this information.

This is also one of many things a good bookkeeper can help you discern from your records, and something that I regularly do with my clients. If you’d like some support in this process, you are welcome to schedule a curiosity call with me.

How to Get the Best Financial Advice: Build a Financial Advice Team

Money is a team sport. Although we have an unfortunate notion in our culture that talking about money is taboo, we need to do our best to break it. By collaborating with others and building a team of people we can trust to talk to about our money, we can start getting the help and information we need.

There are many different people who can make up a money team. Money confidants, such as close friends and coaches who you can confess your financial feelings to, and receive good advice from, are one good example. Your bank can be considered a part of your money team, especially because good customer service is an important aspect of banking. Similarly, your tax prep person, financial planner, accountant or bookkeeper, and even the people you get financial advice from, are all important parts of your money team.

These “team members” fall into three different categories: people in your life, trusted professionals, and advice sources. Let’s take a look at each category and figure out how you can find good team members.

People in Your Life

Anyone in your life who you’re able to talk to about money falls here. Most importantly, these people are able to provide you with space to air your feelings. In some cases, they may also offer good advice. For example, if you’re friends with an accountant or a retirement planner, you’ve hit the jackpot! If not, good friends that you can open up to are still very helpful. The more we air our feelings about money, the more we’re able to think clearly and pursue practical solutions

If you don’t have anyone in your life that you’d consider a financial confidant, don’t worry. Run through your list of connections and identify some people with whom you might feel safe sharing thoughts, feelings, and ideas about money. Then, try approaching them with the idea of sharing these things. Many people are happy to have someone to talk to about this, so it’s worth a shot. For more tips, you can read my article on Why You Need a Money Buddy.”

Trusted Professionals

Here’s where your team members might get more diverse. Financial coaches, bookkeepers, tax preparers, and financial planners all fall into this category. Not everyone will need to refer to every one of these professionals, and perhaps not on a regular basis. However, working with professionals in all of these areas can do wonders for your financial life.

Like a money buddy, coaches are there for you to confide in, but are also trained to help you find specific solutions. Good bookkeepers are able to deliver valuable financial insights about your business and follow appropriate record-keeping laws. If you run a business, you might find you appreciate that someone else does your record keeping, while you get to do whatever it is you really enjoy. Here’s an article about how to find a good bookkeeper.

Tax preparers are great to consult with during tax season. The most helpful tax preparers help you get a better idea of what you need to file, what you can write off, and if you qualify for any credits. Depending on your assets, you may or may not need to have a financial planner you can regularly work with. If you want to do some complex planning, it might be good to consider adding a financial planner to your money team.

Advice Sources

The last category is made up of public figures and advising entities. Your bank is probably the most important member of your money team here. If you don’t have a bank that provides good customer service, or if you’re getting charged bank fees, switch, and fast. Being able to sit down with a bank employee when you have questions is an important aspect of building your money team. Bank fees are just annoying, but also totally avoidable! Read my articles about “How to Avoid Bank Fees” and “How I Broke Up With Wells Fargo (And You Can Too!).”

Earlier in this article, I mentioned that a financial planner can be a good reference, but another option is to simply meet with a planner at a firm as needed. I had one client who, when planning for retirement, made one appointment at a firm and got all her questions answered. No commitment needed, and a good source of advice.

The last member of this category is public advice figures. There are quite a few out there, so finding the ones who give the best advice for you might require some sifting. These articles contain some of my thoughts on finding good financial advice. Also, here are a couple of my personal favorite resources.

Building a money team takes some work, but when you have a network of people, professionals, and resources who can help you solve your money problems, you’ll be glad you did it! If you enjoyed this article, you might like my free e-Book, 9 Secrets of Financial Self Care. Click here or below to get your 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. 

 

How to Reduce Financial Anxiety by Observing Business Patterns

Every business experiences fluctuations in revenue. With good bookkeeping, you start to see the patterns and can begin to leverage them to your advantage. This is a key skill for small business owners. Learning to harness the power of observing business patterns can lead to greater financial security.

Recently I was talking with someone who mentioned that she felt guilty taking a salary from her business, because she hadn’t actually made any money last month. The cyclical nature of her business meant that she made a lot of money during one part of the year, and not very much during the rest. The way I see it, there are several ways to approach a situation like this:

Notice the Pattern

This woman had already taken the first step, which is to notice what revenue patterns are coming up in your business. If you aren’t aware of your own business patterns yet, now’s the time to go back through your records (or get them up to date!) so that you can figure them out. Whether your business is product- or service-based, it is likely subject to fluctuations. It’s likely that these fluctuations are seasonal, or else focused on specific events.

Once you’ve learned where your revenue is coming from, it’s time to make some decisions. To ensure your financial security, it’s best to either focus your business more heavily on your best revenue sources. Sometimes that is either not possible or not preferable – perhaps you want to expand your business beyond a certain season or event. In this case, it’s time to think about how you can adjust your business and move out of that revenue pattern.

Make Adjustments

If you’ve decided you want to alter your business to be less cyclical, it’s time to find ways to avoid sharp drops in revenue during some parts of the year. Oftentimes, this can mean changing your offerings up to be less seasonal/event-focused.

It might also mean broadening the function of your business to more products or services, or more events over a wider range of time. Adjusting your business in these was is also called “diversifying” your business. Here’s an informative read on some ideas for doing this.

Capitalize on Your Patterns

If you are comfortable with the cyclical revenue patterns in your business and are not interested in diversifying, your other option for increasing your financial security is capitalizing on existing patterns. Take a look at what positively impacts your revenue. What are the products are services that do best, and when, where, and why is that happening?

Once you have that information, the next question is, how can you amplify those conditions to bring in more revenue? Can you create variations on a popular product or service? Are there events similar to the one where you always sell out that you can get your business involved in? How can you spend the “downtimes” in your business prepping for the upswings?

Solopreneur Paycheck

No matter which path you pick, creating a Solopreneur Paycheck for yourself will do wonders to ease financial anxiety. A Solopreneur Paycheck smooths out the rollercoaster ride of fluctuating revenue, by giving you a steady income amount each month. This can help take away the guilt of withdrawing money from your business even when you’re in the “off season”. Read more about creating one for yourself here.

If you liked this article, that might be a sign that some expert help with a year-end bookkeeping review could be just the ticket for you! Click below or right here to schedule a free Financial Self Care Consultation to see if a bookkeeping review can help you allay your anxieties and lay the groundwork for financial success.

How to Get Organized and Reduce Money Stress in Your Business

As a business owner, you are responsible for the finances of your business. That responsibility can come with a lot of stress. However, with proper management, the financial side of a business can become a seamless system that sustains you and your passion. The key here? Get organized.

What does getting organized look like when it comes to your business finances? It looks like solid record-keeping and the ability to look back at financial data easily. It looks like a good awareness of the money coming in and out of your business. It looks like knowing you have enough to pay yourself, pay your taxes, and run your business.

All of this can be done without the chaos, by implementing a few changes to how you do your business finances. What you need will vary depending on the type of business you run and its current financial conditions. Today, I’d like to share a couple tips on getting your business finances organized that seem to come up most often in my work with clients.

Create a Supportive Money System

Last year, I wrote a full series devoted to money-mapping, a practice you can use to visualize the flow of money in your business. Creating a money system, and a visual way to understand it, can help you recognize where the income you receive through your business is needed most, and how your personal and business finances integrate. By creating a money system that tracks every dollar (including cash) of income that you receive, you set yourself up for success. A good money system gives you an idea of the profitability of your business, so that you’re not guessing at how much you’re really making.

My work around money mapping integrates the Profit First system’s allocations idea, to help business owners set aside money for various uses in their business. These include the important things, like paying your operating expenses, getting paid, paying taxes, and saving a portion of that money in a profit account. You can read the series on money mapping here: Part I, Part II, Part III, and a follow-up article on keeping your money systems simple.

Get Prepped for Taxes

One of the big themes in my guide to getting prepped for tax time is just simply keeping your documents organized in one place. Keeping all your paper documents in one physical spot, and saving all your digital documents to a designated folder, can save you from a lot of digging and stress when March rolls around. Creating a simple organizational system for tracking these things is a great preparation step for tax season, and a definite stress-reducer.

Show Up

They say that 90% of success is showing up, and this rings true when it comes to keeping your business organized and stress-free. If you’ve been reading this blog for a bit, you’ll know I’m a proponent of having weekly “money time,” which is for you to review your financial situation and do any financial admin work that needs to get done. This time is extremely important for financial self care. Perhaps even more important than what you do during this time, is simply scheduling it in and doing it. When you make a regular habit of revisiting your finances, you will naturally start to shape them to be more organized.

Use Helpful Tools

These days, we are lucky to have many tools available that can help us stay organized in our businesses. Here are a couple that I frequently help clients integrate into their finances:

  • MoneyGrit.(R) is a great tool for either personal or business use.
  • Mint has fewer features, but can be really helpful for solopreneurs with few transactions, or personal use.
  • QuickBooks Online is a classic and excellent for business use.
  • YNAB is a tool I personally have less experience with, but a few other coaches I know use it often and recommend it.

If you enjoyed this article, you’ll probably appreciate a copy of my free e-Book, the Cash Flow Reboot Guide. Click here or below to get your free download!

My Top Resources to Learn About Money Around the Internet

There are a lot of places to seek out financial advice on the internet. Which is great news!  Many of us don’t receive good education on finances when we are younger. When we become adults, we either don’t seek or don’t find the information we need to have healthy finances.

One of the main ways to fix this problem is very simple: self-education! Once you start learning about money and start paying attention to your own financial matter, the hardest part is over. And thanks to the Internet, that is easier than ever.

The last time I put out a resource list on financial education was 2018, and while those resources are all still wonderful, I thought it might be time for an update. So, without further ado, here are my current top resources to learn about money around the internet (plus a few books).

Business Finance Resources

Profit Boss Radio by Hilary Hendershott is a great resource on both business and personal finance topics. She focuses on financially empowering women to be financially successful business owners.

Hadassah Damien of Ride Free Fearless Money has become an inspiration of mine over the last few years. Her content is a mix of business and personal resources. She has an excellent blog, Diva is a Hustler, and a great podcast, Bottom Lines, Top Dollars.

Mikelann Valterra is an awesome money coach who has lots of great content that can apply to both personal and business/professional sides of finance. She has a blog and a whole tab of free resources

Personal Finance Resources

Afford Anything is Paula Pant’s podcast, chock-full of useful personal finance info and advice. She makes a lot of content specifically about investing and retirement.

The Bad With Money Podcast with Gaby Dunn is a great resource covering mostly personal finance topics that’s excellent for younger generations and queer folks who feel alienated by other finance resources. Gaby’s tagline say it all: “I’m a money podcast but I’m not scary.”

Karen McCall, creator of MoneyGrit (R), which is an excellent money management tool that I recommend for both personal and business finances, writes an excellent blog too! Her recent series on clothing deprivation and refreshing your wardrobe in a money-conscious way is a great resource.

Stacking Benjamins is a wonderful podcast I’ve been listening to for years. They provide great insights for overall financial learning and offer a lot of resources and interviews.

While we’re talking resources, I should probably mention that the At Peace With Money newsletter is a great free resource to subscribe to.

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