small business Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Solopreneur Profit Coach |

What is the Feminine Economy?

As someone who’s been involved with finance throughout my career, I love hearing about and researching new financial ideas. When I came across Proposals for the Feminine Economy, a talk given by Jennifer Armbrust, it piqued my interest. Immediately, I began to see the parallels between Jennifer’s ideas and Profit First ideology. Today, I want to share these parallels and discuss how we can apply these ideas to our business as solopreneurs!

Money as Water, Business as Art

Jennifer speaks about thinking of money as water, flowing where it is needed. She maintains that a business is a “needs-fulfillment machine.” To me, this aligns directly with the Profit First philosophy of creating a business that meets the owner’s financial needs. My objective is always to help my clients align their business profits with their life goals. This includes making sure their business is supporting them financially and meeting their needs!

She also suggests that we treat business as art, as a process of experimentation. She encourages everyone to monetize their natural skills and abilities and build business structures that allow for growth. Her emphasis clearly lies on building business and a larger economy that meet the needs of the people running them. In her book, room for growth and meeting personal goals are also needs that a business can serve to meet.

How Can We Use This?

First, if you haven’t viewed the talk yet, I suggest watching it! Jennifer’s solopreneur story is one full of creativity and inspiration.

Next, take some time to think over these ideas and apply them to your business. Perhaps it might be helpful to list out all your needs. Think about things like time spent with your family and doing social activities, your involvement in your community, the amount of money and time you’re able to give to causes you care about, your diet, health and exercise, time for creativity and expression, your spiritual needs, etc.Which of these needs is your business meeting? Which ones are not being met, and how could you adapt your business to better serve you in that area? What are your goals? Is your business helping you meet those? Answering these questions can help you discover whether your business is truly supporting you in all the ways it could. Approaching your business with a creative eye can help you create something more supportive. That’s Profit First in action!

I hope these ideas have piqued your interest just as they did mine!

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Angela

Image Sources: Omar Lopez , Hian Oliveira

The Cash Flow Problem Facing Healthy Businesses

business desk with flowers It’s great to have a healthy cash flow, but a cash flow without a plan? Not so great. Lacking a plan when it comes to managing cash flow can definitely cause problems.

Let’s say Barbara owns a business. She makes a nice cash flow every month. She pays herself a high salary and maintains a fun, comfortable lifestyle. Barbara also has a large monthly payment for last year’s taxes, past-due vendor bills, and every week she scrambles to make payroll. Barbara makes her decisions based on the fact that the money just keeps flowing. This is bank-balance accounting. It’s a stressful game that is played almost weekly, with a few sleepless nights here and there.

What if Barbara had a plan for all of that cash coming in? What if she actually allocated some portion of it to work in her business, some portion to pay taxes, and a portion to pay for her lifestyle? With a bit of planning and a few adjustments to her habit of treating her cashflow like a personal piggybank, her business would be much less stressful.

Profit First is that cash flow management system. This is the methodology I specialize in helping small businesses implement. You can schedule a call with me for a discovery chat about Profit First, or read up on the system here.

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Angela

Image Source