367: Build A Budget On Any Income Whether You Are Starting A Business Or Side Hustle, A Solopreneur, Entrepreneur, Mompreneur, Freelancer, Accountant, Bookkeeper, Virtual Assistant, Business Owner
- Financial Adventure, LLC
- Jan 21
- 10 min read
367: Build A Budget On Any Income Whether You Are Starting A Business Or Side Hustle, A Solopreneur, Entrepreneur, Mompreneur, Freelancer, Accountant, Bookkeeper, Virtual Assistant, Business Owner, Or Self-Employed
I’ve been getting quite a few messages from business owners saying that they are struggling to create a budget for their business. Some are just getting their business up and running, and others have been in business for a few years. Either way, having a budget for your business will allow you to dictate how you want your money coming in and out of your business to flow. When you don’t have a budget, it is easy to lose track of your numbers or your goals for the year. I often hear business owners say it is hard to create a budget, or they don’t know where to start. In today’s podcast episode, I am going to dive into how you can easily create a simple budget for your business and how you can get started. It doesn’t have to be hard, and it doesn’t need to take a long time when you know what you need to do in the first place. So, whether you are using a computerized software system like QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, or FreshBooks for your business finances, or if you are doing your bookkeeping manually with an Excel spreadsheet or even a Google Document, knowing how you can create a simple and easy budget for your business will help you stick to your goals and allow you to track exactly how close you are to your original budget numbers. Whether you are starting a business or side hustle, you’re a self-employed individual, a solopreneur, entrepreneur, mompreneur, freelancer, small business owner, a remote, virtual, online, or in-house bookkeeper or accountant, a virtual assistant or VA, or other professional; you want to take the time to really look at your numbers, create a budget and use your budget as a compass to help guide your finances throughout the year…
Join us in a community built specifically for accountants and high-stress professionals. You’ll receive support, accountability, and a community that understands what you’re going through. We focus on stress reduction, increasing productivity, time management, goal achievement, health, happiness, and desired lifestyle:
Schedule your Complimentary Stress Audit And Clarity Session, where we’ll work together to create a clear and focused plan and overcome the obstacles that stand in your way so that you can move forward and immediately start enjoying your life with less stress, increased productivity, and more time to spend doing what you love with the people you care about:
Accountants, CPAs, Bookkeepers, Tax Preparers & Financial Professionals, sign up here to get updates on upcoming opportunities & grab the Audit Of Your Well-Being & Balance Guide here:
Ready to set up your business? I have a program to help you get your business set up so that you can start making money. Sign up for this program here:
Are you ready to try coaching? Schedule an Introductory Coaching Session today. You’ll have the opportunity to see how you like coaching with an Introductory Coaching Session:
Join us in the Mastering Your Small Business Finances PROFIT LAB if you are ready to take control of your business finances and create the profitable business you are striving for. Are you ready to generate revenues and increase the profit in your business:
If You Are Ready To Choose, Start Or Grow Your Side Hustle, Get Your Free Checklist And Assessment Here:
Grab Your FREE guide: 5 Essential Strategies For Stress-Free Bookkeeping:
Your FREE Online Virtual Bookkeeping Business Starter Guide & Success Path Is Waiting For You:
Join Our Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/womenbusinessownersultimatediybookkeepingboutique
The Strategic Bookkeeping Academy, including Bookkeeping Basics, is open for registration! You can learn more and sign up here:
Looking for a payroll solution for your business? You can get an exclusive 15% discount on your payroll services when you sign up here:
QuickBooks Online - Save 30% Your First 6 Months:
Sign up for a virtual coffee chat to see if starting a Bookkeeping Business is right for you:
Show Notes:
I’ve been getting quite a few messages from business owners saying that they are struggling to create a budget for their business. Some are just getting their business up and running, and others have been in business for a few years. Either way, having a budget for your business will allow you to dictate how you want your money coming in and out of your business to flow. When you don’t have a budget, it is easy to lose track of your numbers or your goals for the year. I often hear business owners say it is hard to create a budget, or they don’t know where to start. In today’s podcast episode, I am going to dive into how you can easily create a simple budget for your business and how you can get started. It doesn’t have to be hard, and it doesn’t need to take a long time when you know what you need to do in the first place. So, whether you are using a computerized software system like QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, or FreshBooks for your business finances, or if you are doing your bookkeeping manually with an Excel spreadsheet or even a Google Document, knowing how you can create a simple and easy budget for your business will help you stick to your goals and allow you to track exactly how close you are to your original budget numbers. Whether you are starting a business or side hustle, you’re a self-employed individual, a solopreneur, entrepreneur, mompreneur, freelancer, small business owner, a remote, virtual, online, or in-house bookkeeper or accountant, a virtual assistant or VA, or other professional; you want to take the time to really look at your numbers, create a budget and use your budget as a compass to help guide your finances throughout the year…
Welcome Back…When you hear the word budget, how do you feel? Do you feel like creating a budget would be too hard? Do you feel budgets are difficult to understand? Do you feel like your business is too small to even have a budget? Well, today I am here to tell you that you don’t need to think creating a budget is hard or difficult to understand, and even if you have a small business, it is recommended that you still do a budget to keep you on track.
First, let’s start off by talking about what a budget actually is. A budget is simply a projection of how you would like to see your money coming into and out of your business. It is a plan for how much you are anticipating your income and expenses during a certain period of time.
I understand that just getting started with a budget when you don’t really know how or what you should be doing can be a bit frustrating. Today, you are going to get some tips to easily create a simple budget for your business that will help you stay on track for the year, and right now is the best time to make sure you have this budget in place.
Budgeting doesn’t have to be hard, and just like anything you do for your business, the hardest part is to just get started. The first thing I want you to do for your business is to make sure that you have your bookkeeping up to date so that you know what your income statement or your profit and loss report is for this last year. If you don’t have your bookkeeping up to date, this will be the first thing you want to work on. You will need to have this information available to you anyway when you get your tax return done, so why not get it done now so that you not only know how your year is going so far, but you are also able to utilize this information to set up your budget for the next year. If you don’t feel like you can get your bookkeeping up to date, you may need to hire a bookkeeper to help you with this. I recommend you have your bookkeeping done on at least a monthly basis so that you can make sound business decisions based on your financial information.
If you’re an accountant or high-stress professional, you want to start enjoying your life more, both at work and at home. You’ve likely built a successful career, but at what cost? The problem is you’re so buried in deadlines and to-do lists, there’s no time or energy left for the things that really matter. You’re great at managing clients, deadlines, and numbers, but your own stress, time, and well-being, well, they always seem to come last. The constant pressure leads to burnout, guilt, and feeling like no matter how much you do, it’s never enough. I see this all the time. As a CPA with over 20 years of experience and a Certified Coach, I’ve helped high-achieving professionals like you go from stress and burnout to a more integrated and balanced lifestyle using The RE*INVENTION™ Process. This process helps you reduce stress, reclaim your time, and finally build a healthier, happier, more balanced lifestyle without sacrificing your success. The truth is, stress doesn’t go away on its own, and eventually, the cost isn’t just exhaustion; it’s your health, your relationships, and your love for the work you once enjoyed. If you’re ready to build a life you don’t need a vacation from, it’s easy to get started. First, schedule your Complimentary Stress Audit & Clarity Session, where in just one session, I’ll help you pinpoint what’s really draining your time and energy, create a personalized action plan to help you simplify your life, reclaim your time, and increase your productivity so that you start living with more energy, focus, and freedom. You don’t have to keep doing this alone. I can help you customize a plan to stop the overwhelm and start enjoying your life again. Go to www.FinancialAdventure.com, click on the Work With Me button, and book your free session today. Let this be the moment you stop just surviving and start living with more control and finally enjoy a more integrated and balanced lifestyle again. In the meantime, check out all the other resources and solutions on my website that you can immediately apply to your life so you can stop being stressed out and feeling like you're never doing enough, and instead breathe a sigh of relief at the end of the day, knowing you've accomplished enough and can enjoy your life more.
The next step is to take your income statement or profit and loss report and use these numbers to help you create your budget. You don’t have to start from scratch if you have been in business, and you have already incurred income and expenses. It is much easier to take a look at what has happened in the past and work on those numbers to get your new budget in place. I recommend looking at your income statement or profit and loss report by month so that you can see the breakdown of your income and expenses by month. If you are using a computerized software system like QuickBooks, it is easy to export your income statement or profit and loss report into a spreadsheet like Excel and then work on your budget numbers right in that spreadsheet. If you don’t use a computerized software system, you can always use your latest income statement and create your budget on a piece of paper. It doesn’t need to be fancy; you just need the budget to reference how you are doing throughout the year.
Let’s take, for example, you are looking at your income statement or profit and loss report, and you need to budget for your insurance. You may see on your income statement that you have incurred insurance expenses of a specific amount each month, or maybe you are paying your insurance expenses every six months or once a year. By looking back at your income statement, you will know exactly when you are going to incur these expenses again. Now, the only thing you need to do is to adjust these numbers for the upcoming year. If you think the expenses will be going up, your budget will need to reflect this higher expense. If the expenses will be going down, you can enter those lower amounts in your budget in the exact month or months you know you will be incurring your expenses.
Continue with each and every income and expense item you have on your income statement or profit and loss report. Once you have gone through each item, and you have adjusted the amounts to what you are anticipating for the next year, you have created your new budget. This doesn’t sound too hard, does it? Now that your budget is created, you can compare your actual amounts to your budget. I recommend looking at this on a monthly basis again. When you do this, you can see if you are over or under spending in a certain area, and this will help you to make any adjustments throughout the year to keep you on track for meeting what you have budgeted for the year.
You might be thinking that this is all simple and easy, if you have been in business already and you have an income statement or profit and loss report to look back on, but what if you are just starting your business, and you don’t have any data to look back on? Well, then all you need to do is grab that piece of paper and start by estimating where you think your income will be for the upcoming year. Once you do this, you can then work on all the expenses you believe you will incur as well as when you will incur them. I know this may seem a little harder to do, but I want you to know that your budget doesn’t need to be perfect from the start. You can always revise your budget along the way. Don’t look at your budget as something that is set in stone, and if you don’t meet your budgeted numbers that, you’ve failed. Look at your budget as a guide for what you’d like to see in your finances and easily make adjustments along the way. There are always going to be events that change or cause your business to pivot. Knowing that you can be flexible with your budget will help alleviate the stress from thinking that you need to get everything exactly right from the beginning.
By utilizing the tips in this podcast episode, you can easily create a simple budget for your business. If you have any questions about creating a budget for your business, you know you can always reach out to me by going to www.FinancialAdventure.com/Contact-Us. I personally respond to all my emails, and I love helping business owners out.
And, you know I’m going to ask…what’s at least one thing you will take away from this episode that will help your business succeed and grow your bottom line? If you want accountability or support, visit www.FinancialAdventure.com. You’ll find links to join our private Facebook community, connect with me on LinkedIn, and discover more free resources to help you reduce stress, boost productivity, and build a business and life you truly enjoy. I’ll see you there.
Comments