60 % of the female business owners do not make a financial plan.
It is therefore not a surprise that 35 % of the female entrepreneurs have less than 25.000 euro turnover. You cannot call that a business!
In 2016 I studied female entrepreneurship because there was so little to be found on the internet about women in business, in my country Holland. I questioned nearly 400 self-employed entrepreneurs and business owners.
Some of the results shocked me. (if you are interested in the total report, you can download it for free here)
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I remember very well that I was well on my way as a business owner when I made my first financial planning. It was after 15 years that I decided I needed to make one.
So you don’t need to tell me that it is possible to run a business without and my business was making a profit. Although that always was a lucky surprise to me. But I can also tell you how stupid it is not to make one. Only when I started making financial planning I realized how much it helped me to gain control over my business.
It gave me more confidence, I had a tool which I could monitor. I now felt like a real business owner.
Maybe you recognize some of my reasons as one of your own?
They outsource their finances, which is totally fine. But this is also the reason why, often, they have no clue how they are doing financially.
I am a firm advocate of outsourcing whatever you are not good at or what you don’t like to do.
But you need to know your numbers.
Usually, a bookkeeper does what you ask them to do. So you need to know what to ask.
For me, this is so weird and this needs to change!
Overall women are naturally not very good at finances. Now you cannot be good at everything but finances are essential parts in the business.
Although I know many women want to argue with me about this. Most of the time these are exactly the women who do not have a thriving business. Often it is easier to say that money is not that important then to have a good look in the mirror and acknowledge that they are being ignorant.
Yes, you need a very good service or product and yes you need to give a lot of value. But money makes doing all of this possible. Your business cannot grow without money and it all starts with knowing your numbers.
Only then you can see which actions you need to take.
For example:
Most of the time your bookkeeper has done this already without even asking you. You just ask for this overview. This is a very good exercise to do because then you will see immediately how much you spend on each category. And often you can see very easily where you can cut expenses if you need or want to do this.
If you have different products and services you can allocate how much you want to make per product or service. See what it was like last year. Think of which promotions you want to do and then predict how you want it to be for this year.
If you want to grow your business usually this can be done by increasing marketing and or sales activities. As well as online as offline. If you want to grow substantially you need to allocate more money to salaries, because you will need to employ or hire more staff.
Now you know how much you want to grow and what all your expenses are.
Your expenses should be less than your turnover. The difference is your profit.
Next, you need to look at is your productive months. Every business has month’s that are destined to be better than others. Due to seasonal influences, holidays, or other issues.
How many productive month’s do you have. If this is 10, you divide your total turnover by 10 and that will be your monthly target.
So every month you need to make a minimum of this amount to stay on track with your financial planning. This means you need to stay on top of your sales. Good is to check this once a month, but better is to do this every week. If you are behind you know you need to start making some phone calls, or increase the advertising budget or see what else you can do to get more clients.
You can either allocate the moment that you confirm the sale to your monthly target, or the month that you can send the invoice. That is up to you. I did the last. Especially by the end of the year that is the best way to do it.
All of this might seem like a lot of work. The first time I made my financial planning, took me half a day, so that is not so bad.
And guess what. It became so much easier for me to make money. Every month I knew whether I was on track or not. I felt a lot more relaxed, at ease, and in control. Also, I knew when we needed to step up a little more and take some more action.
So start making your financial planning now!
And I think it is needless to say that together with your financial planning you also need to make your year planning for your business.
You have allocated a budget now to the various categories. What actions are you going to take to spend this money and by when and with who?
If you are ambitious and you love to grow your business join our international Facebook group where businesswomen from all over the world share their ideas about growing their business.” And besides that, you’ll get a ton of value of the admin of the group, Tineke Rensen. Check out the website why you should become a member.
Tineke Rensen is in business for 29 years. She built an international Outdoor and Survival business from scratch and sold this after 22 years. Tineke was a national whitewater kayaking champion.
She now is one of the most all-round business accelerators you can find. There are very few topics she cannot help you with your business. Many people find it hard to believe when they hear this. How much do you think you know about a topic if you live it day and night for 28 years?
Tineke works with female business owners to grow to their full business potential. She uses her own system the “Blueprint for a Successful Business Makeover”. She is a women’s business coach.
Tineke is the author of “Maximum Business Growth For Women”
If you want to watch business videos with Tineke Rensen you can like the Powerful Business Academy Youtube Channel
info@PowerfulBusinessAcademy.com
You can call, email or send a direct message for a response.
