April 18th to 25th is Money Smart Week. Originally started in 2001 by the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago, the purpose of Money Smart Week is to boost public awareness for consumers to better manage their personal finances. You can attend many different seminars and workshops provided by the Money Smart Week partners for free. There are even kid competitions, teacher curriculum guides, and online games.
As business owners who work to create a legacy business that has long lasting impact, we need to be forthright and savvy about our finances, too. Sometimes I find that clients have fallen into bad financial habits that are hurting their chances of long-term success and hampering their impact. Here are a few bad financial habits we might fall into.
- Investing in training or coaching and not implementing what is learned
- Attending conferences or workshops for the content and ignoring the networking
- Failing to invoice clients or customers in a timely manner
- Avoiding conflict when there is lack of payment
- Getting behind in bookkeeping or refusing to hire a bookkeeper
- Not knowing what the average cash flow per month is for the business
- Having no clue what the operating costs of doing business are
- Not taking profit from the business for personal use
- Failing to realize that businesses require investment of cash to grow
- Being fearful of raising prices when costs have increased
I personally believe that all of us can learn to handle money better and be less fearful of it. Money is simply an exchange of energy. How we handle it can make it shrink or grow. For those of us who are in business for the long term, we need to make sure it’s growing. One book I love about women and money is Barbara Stanny’s first book Secrets of Six Figure Women. In fact I used to run a discussion group with other businesswomen teaching this book. It’s a great resource for changing your perspective and feelings about money and making money.
My Smart Money Checklist will give you a way to self-assess if your business is having the impact and reach it can have. You can get a complimentary copy of it by clicking this link: Get Smart Money Checklist
You can get a list of participating organizations and what they are offering for Money Smart Week by clicking here. I encourage everyone to take a look at the above questions, and see where you might become smarter about your money. It’s the mark of a good businessperson, after all! I’d love to hear how you educate yourself about your business finances in the comment section below.
I’d never heard of this book before either but am going to check it out for sure thanks. One of the biggies I see is not hiring a bookeeper and keeping on top of your finances – how can you ever hope to improve if you dont know where you are in the first place!
Sue,
You bring up some really great points about investing and ROI. The #1 issue I see is people investing in training or coaching and not implementing what is learned. Really great tips all the way around.
Now, if more people would take ownership and implement…
Write on!~
Lisa
Never heard of this book, I will have to check it out.
In the groups I run on mindset and empowerment this
topic almost always comes up for the women in the group.
Ohh that book looks interesting – I’m going to have to read it! thanks for the recommendation
I’m good at many of these things…and especially good at not buying or doing a program until I’ve finished the previous one and implemented what I’ve learned. It’s a tough one sometimes (bright shiney ideas syndrome) but it’s working for me.
Great article, Sue. I always love your practical articles. I’m going to check out the book you recommend above. I think all these things are important. One of the biggies for me right now is implementing what I invest in. I have no less than 5 programs I’ve invested in and I’ve gone through one of them! I’ve vowed not to invest in anything else until I get through the 4 I have left!
Hi Tandy,
I appreciate that you are going to step up to reading and implementing what you’ve bought. Awesomeness!