“My business is going great. But I have no idea how much money I’m making!” she said.
Hannah Marcotti had inadvertently stumbled on to one of my pet issues.
“What?!” I exclaimed, not sure if I kept the horror in my head or let it creep into my voice.
If you don’t know how much money you’re making, how can you say business is going great? Beyond that, business could be so much better if you had an idea of how much money you’re making.
It didn’t take me long to figure out that this is not an isolated problem. Hannah has good company in flat out ignoring the money side of her business.
Our relationships with money are so volatile that we think ignoring it is a good strategy.
Ignoring your relationship with money won’t make it go away, in fact, you’ll only be sucked further into the financial screaming match.
In Hannah’s case, she’s an entrepreneur with an online business, the solution is simple. She set herself up with an account on Outright.com. Outright is my bookkeeping platform of choice. You link up your PayPal account, credit cards, or bank account and track your business income & expenses while you sleep.
Special deal from Outright!
Whilst this post was waiting to be published, Outright contacted me about offering YOU an extension of their FREE trial period. The first 25 readers who sign up using the code “scoutout” will receive a free 90 day trial of Outright. How cool is that?!
I check in with Outright a few times per week, being careful not to become too addicted to the numbers. A simple green & red bar graph tells me how I’m doing for the month and I quickly do a little math to see how I’m doing in relationship to my goal.
I am always aware of my income for the month and profit for the year. And I put that information to good use.
As a business owner, you simply must be aware of the flow of your money. Money must inevitably flow in and inevitably flow out. Without the ebb & flow, there is no business.
Once your mindfulness around your money grows, you will feel free to start creating financial goals, investing in yourself & your business, and bringing in help to allow you more freedom.
So what’s happening with Hannah?
Looking at my income for the first 6 months of the year, I instantly thought “Okay, I can triple that.” That is a huge jump for me to even believe that. If I wasn’t looking at real numbers how would I know what triple it was?
Instead of allowing her business to happen to her, Hannah is taking control of her business. Instead of grabbing at the money that flows by her, Hannah is making a plan to channel it in her direction.
Of course, now she is wondering what to do knowing that she has more money. When you know you have more money, you automatically want to put it to “good” use. Now she’s working on creating a plan for saving, investing, and earning more. But that’s a post for another day.
Entrepreneur, do you know where you money is?
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