4 Quick Tips to Get Your Finances Back on Track

Post 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.

Whatever the case, mid-points like this are great times to give your finances a makeover! Here are my top 4 tips for getting your finances on track again, whether that’s in your business, or your personal finances.

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.

By |2022-05-12T14:30:34-07:00May 12th, 2022|Categories: Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, Personal Savings, Personal Spending, Small Business|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Why Tracking Your Personal Finances is an Important Part of Your Business’s Money System

Even when they’ve got the basics of business finances down, many business owners I work with struggle with their personal finances. It’s important to keep the two separate, but equally important to apply your financial skills to both! Today, I’m sharing my top two reasons to track your personal finances. These are especially important if you’re a small business owner.

One Informs the Other

Here’s a quote from my article, “Why Your Business and Personal Finances are Definitely Interrelated”:

All of us have personal financial lives, and they dictate what we’re able to do in our business. In the same way, how our business is doing financially vastly informs what we’re doing in our personal financial lives.

As you can see, there’s a strong relationship here. When you’re keeping track of your personal finances, you have a much better idea of how much you need to make in your business in order to support your lifestyle costs. This information becomes extra valuable when it comes time to make financial decisions about things like pricing to ensure you’re getting paid a fair wage.

Reduce Your Stress

In my opinion, financial self care centers around meeting your financial needs. If your business finances are organized, but you can’t stop stressing about personal bills, this signals a need for change. Prioritizing your personal finances and integrating them into your money system creates a new level of financial confidence and clarity.

It’s important to consider why you started a business. It’s likely it wasn’t so you could stress out about your finances! Many business owners start their businesses to get closer to their creative passions, or to serve a meaningful role in other people’s lives. These are beautiful visions, and can be realized more fully by eliminating financial stress.

If you’re interested in using digital tools to track your personal finances, you might like to read “The Life Changing Magic of Money-Tracking Software”. Next month I’ll be talking more in depth about working with money tracking software in your finances.

You may also enjoy my free eBook, 9 Secrets to Financial Self Care. This eBook walks you through different ideas to sustainably care for yourself and your finances. Click below to get your copy!

By |2022-04-27T17:50:04-07:00April 27th, 2022|Categories: Personal Savings, Personal Spending, Small Business|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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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.

By |2022-04-21T19:15:26-07:00April 21st, 2022|Categories: Cash Flow, Financial Clarity, Small Business|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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How to Create Your Own Paycheck Using a Money System

 

I know you like being your own boss, but do you ever have paycheck envy? Do you ever wish you could get a paid vacation? Do you get tired of the feast or famine in your personal income? Especially with creative or freelance work, this can be a real issue for some of us. Fortunately, when you create money systems around your business income, you can create a solopreneur paycheck, by paying yourself first.

The System

Setting up a paycheck for yourself is simple. Every time you collect income, set aside a portion in a separate account just for your pay. Then pay yourself out of that account, but leave a portion in the account. The balance in this account will build over time so that you eventually have a cushion built up to even out dips in income, or even pay yourself while you take a holiday.

Determining Amounts

How much should you pay yourself each round? A good place to start is keeping track of your personal expenses and ensuring you cover those every month. After that, it’s a simple question of what to do with any extra income you may have made that month. You may choose to leave it all in the account to build up your balance, or take out an extra allowance if you’ve earned a reward. Setting up reward systems for yourself can be another motivator to keep your money systems consistent, organized, and ensure they meet your needs.

More in-depth information on creating a solopreneur paycheck can be found in my money mapping series. Part II discusses setting up a solopreneur paycheck in the context of your larger money system.

If you liked reading this, you might enjoy my free eBook, the Cash Flow Reboot Guide. This resource gives you a bunch of actionable steps to take to ensure that your business can thrive through times of financial uncertainty. Click below to grab your free copy!

By |2022-04-11T12:05:06-07:00April 11th, 2022|Categories: Profit First, Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Two Helpful Tax-Time Solutions to Implement Now

Planning ahead for tax season pays off. Whether you’re chugging along on this year’s taxes or all done, here are a couple tips you can apply to prep for tax time, any time of year.

Set Money Aside Ahead of Time

I’ve spoken with many business owners who’ve told me they regretted not setting aside money for taxes. Some also tell me they were initially surprised by the additional self employment tax. Clients often come to me after they’ve been hit with the tax bill. At this point, we have to pay off the tax debt and save for this year’s taxes. Doing both is tough, and can make a real financial mess for new business owners. 

To solve this problem, I recommend two things. First, work with a tax preparer or bookkeeper who will help estimate a percentage to be held out for taxes. You can read more of my advice about working with a bookkeeper here. Putting money aside will help avoid that nasty surprise.  This can also be a precursor to implementing the Profit First system, which is designed to keep your business prepared to pay its expenses, and pay you a fair wage.

If you want to go the extra mile, you can also read my article 5 Steps to Prepare for Tax Time. Although recovery from this type of situation needs to be thorough, it’s a chance to implement new and better systems and get your business organized.

Learn to Read Your Quickbooks Reports

Bookkeeping is essentially a simple process, but it requires attention to detail. Whether you DIY your bookkeeping or work with a professional, hours can be saved by learning to read your QuickBooks reports. This can help you double check whether you’re entering everything correctly, or whether there’s any mistakes. Sometimes when I work with clients, we have a big mess on our hands that can be traced back to a few minor errors. Reading your reports regularly helps prevent this! If you’re interested in learning more, I offer QuickBooks trainings and love helping small business owners understand their finances better.

If you enjoyed this article and would like more insights into your business finances, subscribe to my newsletter! You’ll receive my weekly blog posts along with a monthly tailored newsletter that includes relevant financial tips for small business owners.

By |2022-03-21T12:26:24-07:00March 21st, 2022|Categories: Profit First, Small Business, solopreneurs, Taxes|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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3 Things to Look For During Your Weekly Money Check-In

One of the best ways to feel better about your money? It’s to check in with it regularly. In my most recent episode of Financial Self Care Friday, I shared how paying attention to our money, rather than ignoring or avoiding it, helps reduce anxiety and fear. In my e-Book, 9 Secrets to Financial Self Care, I’ve shared the importance of weekly “money time”– time where you sit down and check in with your finances.

Now that we’re clear on how important a weekly money check-in is, what do you actually want to look for when you’re doing it? Here are my top 3 suggestions. You can start with these whether you’re checking in on your personal or business finances.

Review Expenses

First off, review your recent expenses that have unfolded since your last money check-in. You want to make sure that everything looks familiar. Watch out for any surprise fees or other charges. This is a good way to catch subscriptions you need to terminate, identity theft, or other concerns.

It’s also good to make sure your expenses are aligned with your spending plan for the month. You might notice your expenses are a little bit over, or a little bit under. That’s important information that can help you make financial decisions the rest of the month.

Look Forward

Next up, look forward to big expenses coming up. Examples of regularly occurring (and often large) expenses include mortgage/rent or credit card payments. There are also periodic expenses, or expenses that occur less than monthly, but are still expected, such as car maintenance, medical bills, etc. Look ahead for the next month and see when these expenses are coming up. Move cash around to different accounts as needed so that you’ll be able to pay when the time comes.

Quick tip: If you haven’t yet automated your bill payments, set aside some time during your weekly money check-in to do that! As long as you feel confident about having money available for auto-pay, this can be a great option to stay organized and avoid late fees.

If you discover at this stage that you have more than enough cash on hand, take some time to consider what to do with it. For example, this is a great opportunity to donate some money or top up a savings account.

Clear Your IOU’s

This last step is particularly important for business finance weekly check-ins, but can also apply to personal finances. Make sure everyone who owes you money has paid their invoices. If not, send a reminder out! This may seem obvious, but sending invoices and reminders regularly is key to keeping a healthy cash flow in your business. Many business owners don’t get to it as regularly as they’d like. By establishing this step as part of your weekly money check-in, you can make sure you’re getting paid more quickly.

Sending a reminder to anyone who owes you money is also a good weekly practice for personal finance check-ins. During this step you can also consider what other opportunities you have to generate some funds. This can be particularly helpful if you noticed during the second step that you’ll need some more cash on hand soon.

If you liked this article, you’ll probably like my free e-Book, 9 Secrets to Financial Self Care. I talk more about creating regular “money time” and how to develop other good financial habits as part of a self care routine. Click here to download.

By |2022-02-24T14:09:36-08:00February 24th, 2022|Categories: Personal Savings, Personal Spending, Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Why You Need a Year End Bookkeeping Review

As the year wraps up, I want to encourage all solopreneurs to engage in a little financial self-care, by reviewing your 2021 books! There are several reasons to review your financial records at this time of year. They  can benefit from the eye of an expert. If you don’t already have a bookkeeper and would like some oversight, schedule a review with someone! The financial insight will go a long way for your business.

Here are my top two reasons for reviewing your books now.

Tax Prep

First of all, straightening out your 2021 books to prep for tax season simply makes sense. Hiring an expert to help you do this can ensure that your books are accurate. That extra bit of readiness will feel so good come tax season, I promise! It will save you some stress and last minute rushing come tax time. Think of it as a holiday gift to yourself!

Where Did You Make Your Money?

My second reason for scheduling a bookkeeping review with a professional is so that someone with a trained eye can go over your books and help you discern where, when, and from what you made the most money. This kind of insight is invaluable to any small business, especially if your goal is growth. Your financial records hold this info. Work with someone willing to help you find it! For more about finding and working with a bookkeeper, check out my post “How to Get the Most Value From Your Bookkeeper”. The insights you gain from a good bookkeeping review could help shape your plan for your business in 2022 – all the more reason to review them now.

Going over your books with a professional will save you a lot of stress and provide you with knowledge needed to run a successful business. Please consider scheduling a year-end review – you’ll thank yourself later! I offer bookkeeping services along with strategic advising. If you’re looking for someone to work with, don’t hesitate to schedule a curiosity call with me.

Here’s to tying up your financial loose ends!

☮

Angela

By |2021-12-07T13:50:25-08:00December 7th, 2021|Categories: Bookkeeping Business, Financial Clarity, Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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The Most Important Question a Business Owner Can Ask Themselves

It’s easy to get caught up in the “How?” and the “When?” questions of running a business. However, the most important question a business owner can ask themselves is “Why?” Specifically, “Why am I running this business?” Recently, I shared on social media that I’ve been doing some of my own personal reflecting on my why. I’m about four years into running this business, and though I’m in a good flow, sometimes even the best things start to feel a bit stale. Reflecting on my why helped me counteract this and bring me back to a place of feeling fulfilled in my business.

My Why

One thing that’s always motivated my passion for helping people find peace with their money, is my past experiences with my family. When I was growing up, both my parents experienced a lot of financial stress. This issue affected our whole family, especially my mom, very deeply. As an adult, I knew that I didn’t want to follow in their footsteps. Beyond that, I also wanted to make it possible for other people to avoid that level of money anxiety.

At Peace With Money was born out of a desire to help business owners create money systems that were restorative to them, rather than demanding machines that set the pace for the rest of their lives. Continuing to reconnect with this purpose of my business keeps me feeling fulfilled in my work.

Letting Your Why Inform Your Offerings

As business owners, we need to make a lot of decisions. Referring back to our why when we need to come up with offerings or think about who we want to work with can be immensely helpful. I encourage you to spend some time thinking about your why and your current offerings, and how they’re related. Is your why reflected in what you offer? Do you feel fulfilled by offering those products or services?

Business Why vs. Money Why

In the past, I’ve written about discovering your Money Why. This is a bit different than the why I’m talking about today, which we can call your Business Why. Your Money Why is a purpose and a plan for the income you make; your Business Why is more about the purpose and meaning you derive from running your business. It’s about considering what you want to see in the world, and how you want to make a difference. Both are very important to consider! If you’d like to learn about establishing a Money Why, read more here. I also recommend checking out my free e-Book, 3 Essential First Steps to Starting a Business. This one has a whole section on getting clear on your why that you might find helpful.

☮

Angela

By |2021-11-12T10:09:24-08:00November 12th, 2021|Categories: Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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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.

☮

Angela

Image by Toa Heftiba 
By |2021-10-22T17:19:49-07:00October 22nd, 2021|Categories: Cash Flow, Small Business|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments
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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.

☮

Angela

Photo by Kira auf der Heide

By |2021-10-15T11:43:38-07:00October 15th, 2021|Categories: Cash Flow, Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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