If you’re like many of the women entrepreneurs I work with, you might not feel very confident when it comes to your business finances. You might be stuck in one place or maybe you’re scrambling to get a handle on things as you grow. Either way, your finances are a source of stress instead of what they should be, which is something that makes you feel like an empowered lady boss.
Luckily, I’ve got the secret to becoming the boss of your finances and reaching your financial goals: practicing healthy money habits! Healthy habits are the key to staying on top of your money now so that you can reap the benefits later. Incorporate them one at a time so you can sustain them in the long term. Here are three you can tackle in no time:
- Track all of your expenses. This includes anything and everything related to delivering the services offered by your business, from contractors to the supplies you use. Your expenses play into many aspects of your finances. They’re important to track for filing tax deductions so you can earn back what you deserve during tax season. They’re also relevant to how you price your services. You don’t want to get into a cycle where you aren’t earning enough to cover what you’ve already spent.
Some financial goals this habit will help you reach: Reducing expenses (of course), taking home a higher revenue, paying yourself, improving your profit margins, being prepared for taxes
2. Track your time. When time tracking, you’ll want to pay attention to a couple different timeframes: your time on operations, your staff’s time on operations, and the time spent on each service. There’s so much you can learn from this information, whether it’s seeing where you could be more efficient or taking time into account when pricing your services. You might notice areas where you feel you’re spending more time than you’d like or realize tasks you haven’t made time for. As the CEO, you get to arrange things so that you work primarily in your genius zone. However, you still have to make sure to set aside time for working on your business like looking at your finances and creating systems.
Financial goals this habit will help you reach: Pricing for profit, increasing the amount of services you deliver for higher revenue, creating a better budget
3. Use your numbers to inform your decisions. You should understand your money so well that you know when to stop offering a service and when to put more resources behind a service. Don’t spend any more time on things that aren’t benefiting your business or your finances.
Financial goals this habit will help you reach: Making more confident financial decisions, improving your profit margins, managing your cash flow
Believe it or not, you can get in control of your finances. Even as you grow, maintaining healthy money habits will keep you on the right track and allow you to remain sustainable for years to come. So go on and set those goals because they’re more attainable than you think!
