It's never too late to get your act together
I am going to steer away from the normal bookkeeping blogs and write about an experience I had recently with a close friend of mine. As a bookkeeper, I often hear of the challenges that people have maintaining financial discipline. I realise that some of you have never had this issue and find it very easy to put money aside for tough times however others struggle to do so.
My conversation with this friend was a very honest and open one about money matters. She had reached out and asked for help. She has a couple of businesses yet could never meet payments on time for her bills. She worked tirelessly and made a good income but come the end of each month, she had no idea where it had gone. I was trying to understand why she was so indebted and how I could help. The most part of the conversation was trying to establish what her spending was on. It ended up being impulse buying. Now I do have my weaknesses too and I can’t say no to buying shoes, but hers was anything and everything. She knew that she was in a dire situation and could not afford any of these purchases but nevertheless felt comfort in getting something new as short lived as the purchase was. It was worth it in her eyes.
The most difficult part was understanding why she was simply blowing away her hard-earned cash. We worked on a few strategies, one of which was to have a couple of extra bank accounts where she would transfer funds to a spending account and a savings account. She was not to remove funds from the savings account at all, no excuses. Of course, funds dried out of the spending account very fast, but she knew she had to wait for an entire two weeks before she could have more spending money. We trialled this for five months and the shift in attitude was amazing. A self-motivated re-education as to what was important and what could wait. She went on payment plans for all the business bills and we could see a rapid progress and change in behaviour. Her partner was encouraging and helped her to succeed.
Ultimately it is never too late to get your act together and make things better for yourself. Small changes make a massive difference to the bottom line. Your cash flow improves, and you see and feel differently about your way of life. You don’t feel the stress and dread of finding funds at the end of each month to pay your creditors. Your perspective changes and you get to become a better business owner making sound decisions. My friend has inspired me to continue to help my clients, I can see the benefits of good bookkeeping practices.
If you know anyone who needs the help of a bookkeeper, please share this post and encourage them to contact us at Beyond Figures Bookkeeping. We promise to do our very best.
