How did I get this far behind?

If you’re self employed, you’ve had that sinking experience of being so far behind with your financials that you can’t pay bills because you don’t know if you have any money because you haven’t invoiced for ages and you haven’t even kept track of what you can bill and to whom…

Sound familiar?

Most of us start our businesses because we’re really good at something that we absolutely LOVE to do. Most of us (unless we’re bookkeepers and accountants) don’t like keeping track of money… money going out, out, out and money coming in.

Setting up a simple set of books is just that… maintaining those books is easy, too.  But both take some time and for the small business owner there are always more interesting things to do. If you want your business to grow well and solidly, it begins with the money side of things.

As you look at your week, you’ll notice there’s a day and a time every week when it’s impossible to reach anybody.  That’s the time to set aside every week to tackle your billing and your bill record-keeping.  It’ll take about a half hour and it’ll save you missed deadlines, invoices that never get paid, arguments with customers, and tax deadlines that have just gone awol and are now much bigger than they needed be.

Open your i phone, your Black Berry, your daytimer… whatever system you use to keep track of your appointments.  Choose the same time and day of every week and write it in… give yourself two hours at the beginning and you’ll notice how fast you are and how much time you have left over.Write this appointment with your financials every week for the whole year.  Make it a habit.  It’s a habit that will pay huge dividends!