by Angela Taffs | Mar 21, 2019 | Business Success, Finance, Tax and NI, Running a Business
Everyone tells you to visualise and focus on what you want to achieve and it will come but try as you may, when the chips are down and you don’t know how you are going to pay the mortgage this month, staying positive and seeing a wealthy future is nigh on impossible.
You try to focus but every thought is consumed by the blinding panic of knowing the money has run out. Your chest feels like it is being crushed and you struggle to control the rising panic.
But it will be ok. Just read another self-help book and manifest the money.
Here’s the flaw in the plan.
Manifestation gurus tell you what to do but then also include their disclaimer that things don’t happen overnight. But you need the money now!! You don’t have time to let the manifestation work its magic. Time has run out.
What can you do to stem the rising panic that is threatening to engulf you and suck you in into its dark depths forever, never to return?
Get some perspective.
This will not kill you. There are others who have gone before you and will follow. They have survived and will continue to do so.
Take control.
Sit down and look at your exact financial situation. Do a cash flow spreadsheet. You now know exactly where you are and can now plan to bridge the gap of where you need to be.
Cut costs.
Look at your cash flow and cut out the luxuries. Don’t despair. This is a short term solution until you are back on track. Cancel sky tv. Change your mobile contract to the cheapest available. Cancel subscriptions. You can survive without all these things. Just take a look at those in third world countries. Life doesn’t end when you don’t have 100 tv channels to choose from. And you may just find your life feels freer without them.
Increase income.
Can you take a part time job. Sod losing face. This is about survival! What can you sell? All those clothes you have sat at the back of the wardrobe .. sell them on eBay. Do you have a spare room? List it on Air B&B.
Talk to someone.
One of the worst things is trying to remain looking super successful to the outside world and bottling everything up inside. This is like a pressure cooker. You will explode. Find someone to confide in. Someone you can be honest with and have a breakdown in front of. Sometimes jut having a bloody good cry and letting it all out can work wonders. It lets off all that steam and allows you to see clearly again
Whatever you do, don’t just bury your head in the sand. Take control and get the help you need.
by Angela Taffs | Feb 9, 2015 | Finance, Tax and NI
Do you take financial responsibility for your business or do you keep getting tempted by bright shiny objects?
One of the things you need to do when running a small business is to keep a close track on your spending and take financial responsibility for every penny spent.
Too often we get sucked into impulse buys and then have a ton of things we don’t really need or use. How many highlighters, shiny notepads, diaries, planners and magazines does one girl need? This all then adds to the clutter on desks and bookcases that in turn takes time to sort through and get rid of. And of top of this, how many courses have you signed up to that you have never completed? I have four outstanding at the time of writing. Shameful I know!
If this resonates with you, go out and purchase yourself a small notebook (or use one of the many shiny, colourful ones you have stashed away. At the top of each page, list how much money you have in your monthly budget to spend on non-essential items for the month and then every time you make a purchase, deduct it from the amount available to try and help you keep on track.
If you aren’t still a feather quill and ledger type of person, there are numerous mobile apps out there that can help you keep a track of your daily spend and the majority of them are for free. You can also use just a simple spreadsheet on your phone. A couple of apps that I use are MyMoney and I have also just downloaded ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner which lets you scan a barcode of a product and then lists where you can buy it at the best price.
Since I have put this into practice, I have already stopped and thought twice about making a couple of purchases and not gone ahead with them. By setting myself a limit, I know that by making those ‘small’ purchases now it will reduce my overall spend and I may see something else that I prefer later in the month.
This is all such simple and basic stuff but what so many of us forget to do by letting our financial responsibility slip. We then find we have overspent and end up feeling stressed when we check the bank balance at the end of the month.
And finally, the best of thing of all that I have done is gone and bought myself (yes, I have entered it in my notebook!) a good old fashioned piggy bank. I love him and have promised to feed him daily with at least one gold coin out of my personal money so that at the end of the year I will have a minimum of £365 to reward myself for taking financial responsibility for my business. Happy times!
