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.

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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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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

By |2021-10-15T11:43:38-07:00October 15th, 2021|Categories: Cash Flow, Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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How to Prepare Your Business for a Fulfilling Last Quarter

Preparing your business for the final quarter of the year is crucial to both business profits, and your own personal fulfillment. It’s easy to get caught in the holiday rush. Instead, set aside some time to be more intentional. Think about how you want the next three months to go.

Today, let’s talk about a couple different exercises you can use to reflect on your year so far and plan for the time ahead. If you’re feeling ready for a fully fleshed-out review process, you can also check out my article on doing a business check-in.

Reflect and Celebrate the Past 9 Months

Take some time to acknowledge how far you’ve come in the last nine months. If you set yearly goals, check in with the progress you’ve made. Then take a look at all the other things that came your way this year. Even the most focused of us get sidetracked by one thing or another. Running a small business involves a lot of surprises and opportunities. What did you do this year that was unexpected? What are you glad you had the chance to do or participate in? 

Take stock of all the progress and change from this year. If it doesn’t feel like much, compare where you are now to this time last year. Celebrate and congratulate yourself. If you have a profit account, distribute your profits and reward yourself. 

Review and Tweak Your Goals

Now, take another look at any goals you’ve set. Ask yourself a couple questions about them:

  • Do you need to tweak them or change them to make them more realistic?
  • Do they still resonate with you?
  • How can you reach out for support with meeting these goals? 

Factor in the holidays and make sure you’re giving yourself the time and space you need for other parts of your life as well. Any income goals you’re working toward should be based on your actual lifestyle needs, not just numbers that sound nice.

Backwards Timeline

Once you’ve got your goals in place, it’s time to make a plan to reach them over the next three months. One technique I love for charting a path toward goals is called backwards timelining. Essentially, this means is planning backwards from the point in time when you want to have achieved the goal. Make a plan for each goal, divide the plans up into baby steps, and map them out over time.

In this case, you would plan backwards from December. I highly recommend that you also plan to take some time off for the winter holidays, so factor that into your plan! If you don’t want to be working up until the 31st, start your timeline at Friday December 17th, or a similarly spacious date.

Along with considerations for what will likely be a busy holiday season in your already full life, it’s important to keep your time optimism in check. “Time optimism” refers to a person’s tendency to overestimate how quickly they’ll be able to get a specific task done. Especially if your plan to reach a goal requires doing tasks you’re less familiar with, it’s important to ward against time optimism. You’re likely unsure how long those unfamiliar tasks may take to complete. A simple technique to give yourself ample time to complete a task is to simply double the amount of time you think you’ll need.

If you enjoyed this resource on preparing your business for the last quarter of the year, you’ll probably also like reading The Cash Flow Reboot Guide, my free eBook on adapting your business to changing financial circumstances. It’s 9 pages and full of quick tips and ideas to help you plan out a stellar last quarter of 2021. Download it for free here.

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Angela

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez

By |2021-10-08T11:29:12-07:00October 8th, 2021|Categories: Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Boost Your Happiness By Clarifying Your Lifestyle Costs

Your business exists to support you; to fulfill your needs. If you don’t have a clear picture of what those needs are, it can be difficult for your business to fill them.

That’s why it’s so important to have a clear idea of your lifestyle costs. This gives you a foundation for your income goals. Here, you can clearly see the relationship between your personal and business finances. Below, let’s talk about a couple reasons why getting clear on your lifestyle costs is key.

Set Clear Goals

When you are clear on your lifestyle costs, you’re able to set income goals in your business that reflect how much money you actually need to live a satisfying life. You can make decisions about how much of your lifestyle costs you want/need your business to cover. As your business grows to support you, you gain a sense of fulfillment from running your business, and living an abundant life.

“Fulfillment” is a great destination – figuring out what income number feels like enough to take you there is the important part. Your income goals provide you with a roadmap for your business, so making sure they’re based on covering your needs and wants is paramount.

Create a Solopreneur Paycheck

Your solopreneur paycheck, or owner’s pay, is the result of a finely-tuned money system that connects your business and personal finances. You can create a regular monthly paycheck for yourself, even if you don’t have a regular income. This can be especially helpful for people who go through feast-or-famine cycles in their finances, like performers or realtors.

Money-mapping is a great visualization tool that can help you build a solopreneur paycheck. Understanding your lifestyle costs and how much you want your business to support you will help you start to fill in the blanks.

How Do I Figure Out My Lifestyle Costs?

Ok, you’re sold. You’re ready to figure out how much your lifestyle costs, so you can start incorporating this figure into your business goals. So, how do you figure them out?

I have a couple resources for you! First off, the process of doing this is outlined in How to Tailor Your Income Goals to Your Lifestyle. This process mostly discusses things from a manual, paper-tracking point of view, but I also recommend using money-tracking software if you’re looking for a digital solution. Lastly, if you’re more of an audio/visual learner, you might like to hear what I had to say about how to define your lifestyle costs in last week’s episode of Financial Self Care Friday.

If you enjoyed reading this, you’d probably enjoy my free eBook, 9 Secrets to Financial Self Care. This 12-page e-Book will give you nine different steps to take towards creating a solid financial self care routine.

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Angela

Image: Eye for Ebony 

By |2021-10-01T15:08:59-07:00September 24th, 2021|Categories: Personal Savings, Personal Spending, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , , , |0 Comments
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Avoid This Impostor Syndrome Pitfall By Connecting With Your Values

One major impostor-syndrome-induced pitfall I see people struggle with is this: overcompensation. Perhaps they’re not getting enough paying clients, or not keeping track of their finances. Or they’re missing some other metric in their business that makes them feel like they’re “getting somewhere.”

Whatever the reason, people in this type of situation can sometimes fall into a pattern of overcompensating. This can become a financial or non-financial issue. For example, many people in this situation may feel their circumstances are due to the fact that they need to learn more. Other people can struggle with feeling like they need to “spend money to make money” and get preoccupied with gear, expensive software, etc.

Especially because you’re the one calling the shots in your business, making these decisions all comes down to you. That’s why it’s important to work through emotional mirages like impostor syndrome before making a financial or business decision. Let’s dive into both of these examples, and then talk about banishing impostor syndrome by connecting with your values:

“I Don’t Know Enough”

People with this story can get caught up on an information hamster wheel. This is especially easy to do with the whole Internet at our fingertips! People might feel that their business isn’t succeeding because they’re missing something, or don’t have the right training, etc. As a result, they sign up for courses, trainings, and coaching engagements. Or perhaps they spend a lot of time listening to podcasts and working through free opt-ins. Whether this version of impostor syndrome results in financial investments or not, it can also make running your business feel murky and difficult.

Exercise: Show yourself what you do know. If there’s a particular subject or specialty that you’ve been researching or wanting to get training in, spend some time writing down everything you already do know it. Just taking a breather and doing this for 5 minutes can remind you of all the knowledge you already hold!

“I Need to Spend Money to Make Money”

This is one of those longstanding business myths that many people can get convinced of unknowingly. I wrote about how people just starting businesses can avoid this pitfall here. What’s important is to keep in mind how you want to do things, rather than looking at how other business owners do them. If we play the comparison game we ultimately end up losing. Social media and comparing yourself to other more established businesses can intensify this feeling.

Exercise: Take stock of what you have. What software systems, supplies, gear, business accessories, etc. do you have that you love working with? Celebrate those and be thankful for them, just for a few minutes.

The Answer? Connect With Your Values

Just to be clear, there isn’t really a one-size-fits-all solution to impostor syndrome. But connecting with your values by tapping into what feels authentically joyful for you is a great step forward. You don’t have to be the industry expert or have all the bells and whistles to run an awesome business! You just have to do things in the way that feels right for you. So take some time to consider what that actually looks like!

It might be the case that you really do value education or having the latest tech for your business. Just make sure you tease those values apart from the feelings of urgency and “less-than” that come with impostor syndrome. Let yourself come to conclusions about what you want on your own, without outside influence, as much as possible.

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll probably like reading through my free e-Book, Three Essential Steps to Starting a Business, particularly the section on having a purpose and a plan for your money. Download it here!

☮

Angela

Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash

By |2021-08-24T11:12:22-07:00August 24th, 2021|Categories: Money Mindset, Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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How Much Should You Invest in Your Business?

When you’re feeling ready to invest in yourself or your business, the next decision to make is, “How much do I spend?” This is different for everyone, but the key is to think about how the investment will pay off. How soon can you expect a return on purchasing equipment, or more education?

Below, I have mapped out some questions for you to think through when getting ready to make an investment in a couple different categories. Having clear answers to these questions can help you make a decision on what amount will be a sound investment for your future and the future of your business.

  • Buying equipment or supplies – With this one, ask yourself, how much extra are you going to make or save by buying that piece of equipment? Or, are there other ways this equipment or supplies will reduce costs or increase profits? Really sit down and do the math – quantify what your situation is now without the thing you want to purchase, and estimate what things would be like once you’ve made the investment. 

 

  • Hiring  an employee – Whether you’re considering hiring a VA or another type of employee, figure out how much of your time a task you’re going to turn over to them is absorbing for you. Try calculating your hourly wage, and considering what other things you could be doing with that time that may bring your business more profit. Weigh this against what it will cost to hire them, get them trained, get them on payroll and provide them their legal benefits. Plus include the cost of bonuses or whatever else you might want to factor in so you can be a kind and generous employer. 

  • Coaching or further education – This may be the least cut-and-dry category when it comes to calculating possible payoff. However, as someone who has personally benefitted tremendously from investing in business coaching and further education from people like Karen McCall and Kadijdja Yansane, I highly recommend making this type of investment after careful consideration. Vet the training or coaching out. What kind of results have people who’ve gone through the program achieved? Also, check in with yourself about what your goals are for this new education or coaching engagement.  Working through mindset blocks or knowledge gaps can be huge for your business. This can enable you to grow quickly and make the moves you want to make. However, make sure you have some clear goals you can name, and that you aren’t attracted to these programs purely because of impostor syndrome.

I hope these questions help you think through your potential investment. If you would like some assistance, I’m happy to join you for a free Financial Self Care Consultation, where we can discuss what you’re seeking and find out if working together might be a good fit.

☮

Angela

Image:  Iris Wang

By |2021-07-13T12:11:50-07:00July 13th, 2021|Categories: Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: , , , |0 Comments
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