Where are you in your business as it relates to the goals you set at the beginning of the year?
If you don’t know where you are right now and you don’t have a vision for where you’re going, how are you supposed to meet your target? Setting a target for your business is SO important. And the financial target is extremely important.
Let’s face it – at the beginning of each year you probably always think about your goals and what you want for the year. And maybe you have a system in place to track your business information. You start off strong! Your tracking your information, you’re working on hitting those targets you set each week for your financial goal.
And time marches on. Months are flying by. And you’re working your business. And life happens.
And you get sidetracked. Tracking your numbers just isn’t your thing. It’s mundane; it’s tedious, and it becomes overwhelming.
But ask yourself this: “Am I improving my business? Do I have enough cash flow coming in to meet my business obligations AND to pay myself?”
One of the things small business owners struggle with a lot is they’re not generating enough income in order to pay themselves. A lot of times, they feel like their working ALL THE TIME, but not reaping the monetary benefits.
And it comes down to this: GOALS.
- What are your goals?
- What do you want for your business?
- How much money do you actually want to make?
- When you figure that into the equation of how much you are charging for your services, is it enough to accomplish the goals you have set for your personal life as well as your business life?
One of the things I love to do is help my clients create a plan of action on how to develop a strategic goal for their business. One that helps maintain your personal goal as well.
Knowing what you want is the first step!
The second is the monetary benefit you’re receiving from your business. Let’s be honest, if you’re just giving services away in your business, are you REALLY IN business? Or are you being a non-profit? Ask yourself if you are putting forth the effort to help other people solve whatever pain point they have, or selling your product, or whatever your business is…you should be personally gaining from that.
You need to be gaining monetarily from your business and your efforts.
So…what is the strategic goal of your business? What goal did you want at the beginning of the year?
If your goal isn’t coming to fruition, often it can be due to lack of tracking and looking at your numbers.
Personally, I like to train my clients to have CFO (chief financial officer) days. YOU are the CFO of your business. Whether you have someone working with you doing your actual bookkeeping and accounting or you’re doing it yourself, YOU are still the CFO of your business and YOU get to direct the finances of your business.
Set aside time this week for your CFO day. Review your financials, review your numbers, and review your process and workflows to ensure things are moving through your business to capture everything you need. Are you tracking how many leads you’re getting a month? How many sales conversations are happening from those leads? And how many clients are you actually getting from those leads and conversations?
Review the numbers driving your business as well. For example, if you are running a marketing campaign, what is the ROI (return on investment) for that campaign?
Let’s talk for a moment about tracking your income and expenses, because that’s the driving force of your business. That’s how you pay your vendors. That’s how you pay yourself. And that’s where to start to gain profit in your business. As long as you don’t have expenses that exceed your income, then you have profit.
What systems do you have in place to track those things? How are you tracking your money? Are you using a software package? Are you using paper and pencil? Are you using an Excel spreadsheet? What are you doing to track the expenses in your business? Now, I am a big fan of QuickBooks online.
Whether you start with the self-employed version or you have one of the more robust programs, you need to start somewhere because it will help you analyze your business more easily.
If you’re tracking all of your expenses tracked in an Excel or Google spreadsheet, you will have a more difficult time searching, sorting and capturing the information that you’re looking for. Whereas if you’re using a program, you can put in filters and create customized reports that can keep you on target for what your financial goals are. Also within your system of financial tracking in your business, you’ll want to track how you’re spending your money and capturing the receipts and recurring expenses in whichever your financial system is.
These are the systems in your business that help you stay on track with your goals. Reviewing that information helps you stay on top of your business and be the BOSS of your business.
So schedule your CFO day now!
If you’re unsure where to start, I’d be happy to help you! You can always reach me for a FREE consultation at www.passiontoprofitsession.com