I’m working with some incredible business owners as part of my elite mastermind program, Simply Business Accelerator, and part of that program involves keeping a close eye on your business finances… AND reporting on them each month. 

Each month the members are accountable to being able to share whether their revenue and profit are up or down, and what some of the key contributing factors have been. We don’t share specific numbers and of course there’s confidentiality wrapped around all of that, so it’s a really safe space, but just the sheer fact that they have to come and report on their finances means that they’re being so much more proactive in terms of knowing what’s going on in their business. 

Many of these women (along with almost all of my coaching clients) will openly tell you they were a little bit scared of “the numbers” when we first started talking about them. They’d happily talk about their customer journey, marketing analytics, even innovating with new products or services. But the minute the conversation would turn to finances, they’d go quiet. 

“Can we talk about ANYTHING other than that” tends to be the sentiment I get! Ha!

I’ve had a REALLY steep learning curve when it comes to knowing the numbers in my own businesses, but finally embracing this conversation and being open to better educating myself about all-things finance has truthfully changed my business trajectory and enabled me to make really good decisions. 

I’m not perfect. I’m absolutely not an accountant. I’m nowhere near a bookkeeper. But I know exactly where the money is coming in and going out in my business.

• I know what my expenses are each month.

• I know what my outgoings are. 

• I know what revenue I can expect and can make projections. 

• I can anticipate months in advance based on previous trends.

I want you to have that satisfaction in your business as well. Not only is it far easier than you’re probably anticipating, it’s actually EMPOWERING. 

→ You can make decisions based on the financial impact it has the potential to make on your business. 

→ You can start pricing your products and services accurately, instead of pricing out of comparison or by guessing. 

→ You can make plans for the future that are based on reliable data. 

If you’ve never made a business budget before, let’s take a Budgeting 101 approach to keep things simple. 

Instead of creating a whole-of-business budget, create a budget for something specific, like an upcoming product or service launch, for example. 

→ Start by accounting for all of your expenses. How much is it going to cost you to produce this product / event / service? 

→ Now consider various price points and how that impacts the number of units you’re going to need to sell to A: cover your costs, and B: reach your desired goal. (Not all goals have to be financial, remember. You might be okay simply covering costs if the brand recognition this product will create for you is going to be the real “win”. But you’ll never know this without doing the budget!) 

I know it seems big and it might even feel scary and intimidating, but if you set aside 20 minutes, I reckon you could get it done *and* I think you’ll probably end up spending an hour or more on it because you’ll find it really interesting!