Archives for June 2014

I am About to Lose a Massive Deal because of my Accounts

June 25, 2014 by Georgette Rowland Osborne

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

About to lose a massive deal because of accounts

Are you the type of person who sells like Brian Tracy but tracks your money like Enron?

Well, I’ve got a true story about a client that you might want to hear.

Let’s just call him Kevin….

To download the audio file to your computer, please right click on this link and choose save link as, or save target as, depending on your browser.

Be a part of the Financial Gym Inner Circle for Free and be one of the first to get:

Updates on ways to improve your day to day business money and productivity issues
Real life stories
Free video tips and tutorials
Downloads and templates to keep and use in your business

Click here to subscribe to my mailing list

Resources and Items Mentioned

Have a pressing issue with your business finances? Click here for help

You Don’t Need Willpower in Your Business, You Need a Cut Man

June 13, 2014 by Georgette Rowland Osborne

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

Don't need willpower, need a cut man

To download the audio file to your computer, please right click on this link and choose save link as, or save target as, depending on your browser. If you would rather read while you listen or you prefer to just read without the audio or video, we have provided the full transcript below.

Why is it that no matter how important or life transforming it would be to change a behaviour or to follow through on a promise to ourselves; why is it so easy to sabotage everything we have worked for or that we dream about?

Over and over again.

So often, before I can truly help someone make a shift in how they set up their accounts or finances, I find myself fascinated by the obstacles that they throw up for not wanting to do even the simplest of tasks.

In the early days, in my naive self I thought that as long as I shared what I knew with someone, that person would be able to move forward. I was innocent enough to think that as long as I was giving knowledge, that was the key. They already had the willpower right? After all they had come to me, not the other way around. So that meant they were ready to get to work.

I quickly learned that is not so. Unless the motivation or the fear is identified, all the knowledge in the world will not make any difference.

My journey of up and down finances and up and down weight had nothing to do with my lack of knowledge. I am trained in accounts, and I can tell you the calorific composition and fat content of most foods from the top of my head. That is how much of a food nerd I was.

I was a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno when they were still bodybuilders and the general public had no idea who they were. Yet it didn’t stop me making poor health choices, and trusting my finances to people who were obviously not right to advise me, and told me what I wanted to hear. That allowed me to avoid what was hard, painful and confusing.

Every time I put on a few pounds I would read more, join another group or buy another DVD.

When all I had to do was commit to making small manageable changes. Then do them over and over again until I did them despite how I felt or what had happened that day. I also hadn’t learned that to do that is easier when you have someone in your corner. No matter how good a boxer you may be, you need a cut man in your corner to patch you up. The person to tell you that you can do it, and to give you some quick tips to get you back on track so that you can go back out into the ring again feeling confident.

The problem is that the fear of feeling foolish can get in the way of even finding someone like that although you know you need them.

The subject of money and weight brings out the evasive side of us. How many times have you been asked a direct question like “How much do you earn?” or “How much do you weigh?” and given answers with lots of words but no numbers?
Practical questions met with emotional responses.

Then you feel silly and inadequate and silently vow to get yourself sorted out. Willpower goes into overdrive, you feel revitalised and then slowly but surely, you slip back into the old pattern. With me a bad day would send me running for scones with cream and jam. Just the one, I would say and then I will start again tomorrow. But then tomorrow would come and I felt so annoyed with myself for the slip up the day before, I would have a cheesecake to make myself feel better.

I knew that one cheesecake or scone wouldn’t pile the weight back just like that so I have time to get my willpower back in gear. Then 6 months later when I can only fit into one third of my clothes, it would dawn on me that I left it a little late. Things only really began to improve when I stopped trying to do it all on my own; with only willpower and information overload as my support team.

How does this play out with business money?

Picture the business owner stung by late penalty charges. He or she vows to be on time with their business taxes and pay them on time next year. That is willpower at play.

Now picture the business owner stung by late penalty charges who hires a bookkeeper so they don’t have the same mad rush at the end of the year. Now that is putting a cut man in the corner of the ring.

Someone that deals with the cut while it is fresh, while there is still a chance of winning the bout.

There may well be some people in this world who are so self-motivated, self-disciplined, do not suffer doubt, rarely procrastinate, and are able to keep their emotions out of all business decisions. If this sounds like you, you are truly a rare breed.

If not, then understand that as talented as you are, ambitious, determined and knowledgeable as you may be, you will slip up or slip back.

You will lose momentum and heart, because willpower tends to run out before we hit our goals. But that is because you are human, not to mention any other personal issues you may be dealing with at any given time.

It is quicker to build in mechanisms than to change a pattern. The trick is to have those mechanisms in place to keep you on track as you work on yourself or your situation. For me, it was Weight Watchers for 5 months; when it came to business, I joined BNI for a year, because both held me accountable when I needed it. Knowing that others had an expectation of me and that I could share issues speeded up my “transformation”.

It was tough but I wasn’t alone.

Fess up time

What are you dealing with alone right now?

What are you beating yourself up about that comes back to wind you up time and time again?

Are you avoiding asking for help because you feel asking for assistance would be an admission of inadequacy or failure?

What’s your story of financial willpower? Leave a comment below.

Be a part of the Financial Gym Inner Circle for Free and be amongst the first to get:

Updates on ways to improve your day to day business money and productivity issues
Real life stories
Free video tips and tutorials
Downloads and templates to keep and use in your business

Click here to subscribe to my mailing list

Resources & Items Mentioned

Book a Session

Are You Still Running Your Business Through Your Personal Bank Account?

June 12, 2014 by Georgette Rowland Osborne

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

Are you running business thru personal bank account

Do you use your personal account for business? Is it a good idea? Is it even legal?

To download the audio file to your computer, please right click on this link and choose save link as, or save target as, depending on your browser.

If you would rather read while you listen or you prefer to just read without the audio or video, we have provided the full transcript further down the page for you.

Be a part of the Financial Gym Inner Circle for Free and be amongst the first to get:

Updates on ways to improve your day to day business money and productivity issues
Real life stories
Free video tips and tutorials
Downloads and templates to keep and use in your business

Click here to subscribe to my mailing list

Resources and Items Mentioned

Open a business account in less than fifteen minutes right here

Transcript

It may seem simpler to use your personal account for your business, particularly when starting out.

But with the tax office always looking for ways to uncover irregularities in small businesses, there are definite pros and cons.

It is not a legal requirement to have a business bank account if you are a sole trader/self-employed or in a partnership. But it is if you are a limited company. So if you are a limited company, get it sorted.

I know there are sometimes reasons that make this difficult. If you have had previous credit problems for example, it may be difficult to open any current account let alone a business one but as your circumstances improve I would strongly advise it you to open one as soon as possible.

If you are a partnership, even though you are a collection of two or more sole traders, the fact that there is more than one of you means that the personal bank account thing is just too messy. Imagine separate accounts for each partner and trying to amalgamate them into one set of partnership accounts. Nightmare!

Banks do not want you to use your personal account for business because they are structured to cater to the two different types of account holder. And most importantly if you use your personal account for business, they make less money out of you because there are usually no fees attached to personal bank accounts for standard transactional use.

You may view this as a major advantage, which I agree; it is. But there are some real disadvantages that may outweigh them.

Once you use your personal account as part of your business dealings, if you ever had a tax inspection you have opened the door to your personal affairs for the tax office to walk through and scrutinise more than you bargained for. Inspections are limited to the boundaries of your business dealings. But if you bring your personal bank into the equation you stretch those boundaries and then they are all over you.

Unless that is – you have been scrupulous about keeping your business money completely separate from your personal money.

If you are using a personal bank account but every transaction on it relates exclusively to your business, and you can verify that with supporting paperwork then great.

But all too often I have seen accounts where this is the case (most of the time) and then random purchases for personal items pop up here and there.

Like the monthly car payments, which you have left as they are, because it would be too much hassle to move to another account.

Though to be fair; this happens just as often with business accounts too.

The difference is that with a business account items are regarded as business related first unless shown to be otherwise or are unknown. While with a personal account the opposite is true.

Come tax time you will have to separate your business income and expenses from your personal transactions. Not only will it take unnecessary time, it can cost you more in accounting fees because you are giving your accountant extra work.

I have even had clients who signed up for one of my bookkeeping packages that could have been paying much less. We would spend so much time dealing with lots of entries that were not business related, but because they appeared on the bank statement we had to account for them. So apart from the increase in price, they were paying for transactions that they could not even claim for so they were hit by a double whammy.

So to recap:

A) If you are a limited company and you don’t have a business account. Open one.

The money in the account belongs to your company not to you. Even if you and the company have the same name you are treated as separate entities.

B) If you are a sole trader of member of a partnership; the legalities are not as cut and dried as with limited companies but business is tough enough without making it complicated so I urge you to do one of two things:

I. If you are going to continue to use a personal account, don’t mix business money with personal money and use the account exclusively for business dealings. Have a separate personal account for your private affairs.

II. Better still, open a business bank account and be done with it. It will also make you appear to be a more credible business rather than someone who has a hobby that you make a bit of money from.

5 Tell-tale Signs You are Bored with Your Business

June 2, 2014 by Georgette Rowland Osborne

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

Overworked business people

To download the audio file to your computer, please right click on this link and choose save link as, or save target as, depending on your browser.

If you would rather read while you listen or you prefer to just read without the audio, we have provided the full transcript further down the page for you.

Are you bored with your business? Not sure? Here are 5 tell-tale signs to look out for.

Your Business Keeps Losing Big Contracts or Customers

It is a big blow for a business to lose a big contract or customer that brings good revenue to the firm. Although many factors can lead to a business losing a major source of revenue, a bored business owner can also play a role in that. Boredom can affect certain essential aspects of a business and even reduce the efforts made by the firm to keep clients happy.

Late Payments from Clients

When a business does not receive prompt payment from clients, it will of course adversely affect the amount of available cash. What at first glance appears to be a financial problem can often be traced back to apathy at the top. Proper communication with clients should keep them on their toes when it comes to paying their bills. However a bored businessperson does not have the drive to ensure that clients are paying bills on time.

Lack of Connection with Employees

Even the best business can experience an unusually high turnover of staff in a short space of time. Major changes such as a change of location, change of management, economic forces for instance can force people to make decisions about their work life they may otherwise not have made. But it may go unnoticed if a business has a steady stream of people who decide to leave. Or outsourced providers who are not as interested in working with them as they initially were.

Showing an interest in staff members as well as keeping them interested in the firm is an ongoing process that requires commitment from the top. In a business that is not performing well; efforts to keep staff engaged are low priority. Albeit unintentionally. In an environment where people feel they are not valued, even money ceases to be enough of an incentive for them to stay.

Reduced Credit Line

It is easier for a business banker to notice that a company’s viability in line with credits is slowly dwindling even before the owners or directors realise themselves. An increase in bounced payments and an ever increasing overdraft requirement is a red flag to banks. Before the credit crunch it was easy to trundle along not worrying too much until it came time to renew your facility. To their horror, business was finding existing credit under scrutiny. Much the same way, personal credit card providers reduce your credit limit if they feel you are struggling. It has also seen the rise of alternatives to the mainstream banks to cater to those entrepreneurs who feel they are held to ransom by the big banks. Or who themselves have found their bank unsympathetic during the tough times.

Where boredom exists, so does attention to details such as trends in the business. Or worse, the owner is fully aware, but procrastinates about doing what is necessary and settles for just getting by. Finally only spurred into action when a financial crisis hits and they are forced to act.

Lack of Fun and Motivation

Boredom cannot exist where there is fun and motivation, unfortunately, the reverse is also true. When something goes wrong in a business based on fun, it is seen as a blip. Where the landscape is negative, the same situation takes on crisis status.

If the business owner is intentional about concentrating on what it is about the business that brings pleasure to him or her. That will eventually translate to their team and crucially to their customers.

When you talk about your business do people comment on how “energetic”, “excited”, “passionate” you are. Or words to that effect?

If yes, then that’s great, but if no, or not for a long time. Maybe a glass of wine and a one to one with yourself about what makes you happy about your business is long overdue.

Share with us: Have you ever been fed up of running your own business? How did you overcome it? You can leave a comment below.

Be a part of the Financial Gym Inner Circle for Free and be amongst the first to get:

Updates on ways to improve your day to day business money and productivity issues
Real life stories
Free video tips and tutorials
Downloads and templates to keep and use in your business

Click here to subscribe to my mailing list

Resources & Items Mentioned

Alternative to Mainstream banks

Does Your Money Move Too Fast for You to Keep Hold Of?

June 2, 2014 by Georgette Rowland Osborne

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: RSS | More

To download the audio file to your computer, please right click on this link and choose save link as, or save target as, depending on your browser.

Money and Time

Be a part of the Financial Gym Inner Circle for Free and be one of the first to get:

Updates on ways to improve your day to day business money and productivity issues
Real life stories
Free video tips and tutorials
Downloads and templates to keep and use in your business

Click here to subscribe to my mailing list