April 29, 2024 • 23 mins
Step into my office every Monday and you'll find me working on the business money. I call it Money Money! It's a non-negotiable date with my profit and loss statement and all the numbers that go into running my business and has become a weekly ritual which makes me more money!
In today's episode, I'm sharing exactly what I do on Money Monday so you can do the same in your business. I'll show you how a single, dedicated hour once each week can help transform your business's financial health – no more guesswork, just strategic mastery over your money matters. From dissecting business reports to the art of invoice management, managing expenses and cash flow to chasing up those payments and saving for those inevitable taxes. It's all about the numbers and how to make more profit and I'm here to be your numbers guide.
So tune in, take notes, and get ready to take control – your business's financial future starts now.
This episode is brought to you by Become A Business Money Magnet - Simple habits to manage your money and supercharge your profits!
Want 30 Ways to Save Money in your Business? Download the guide here.
Need a business finance coach or want to get your pricing sorted? Book a Strategy Call NOW.
Join the conversation
Connect with Justine:
Instagram
Facebook
LinkedIn
Website
Discover the Secrets of Successful Business Facebook page
Follow Justine on Instagram @flossifiles or @secretsofsuccessfulbusiness
Host: Justine McLean – Flossi Creative
Producer: Leah Stanistreet – Snappystre...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to the Secrets of Successful
Business podcast, your go-tosource for business tips, tricks
and proven strategies that willhelp you create a streamlined
and profitable business.
We chat to the best minds inbusiness about their journey.
It's my business and I'll do itmy way, how they started,
rather than going harder to getmore focus on growing more with
(00:25):
what you have.
What they learned along the way.
How long are you going to givethis?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
What compromises are you going to make Just because
you can do it?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
doesn't mean that you should do it.
It's really important toremember that it's a long game
and, of course, we'll ask themfor their secret sauce for
creating a successful business.
If you're not failing, you'renot doing it right.
You should be struggling attimes.
That is part of the journey.
Join us as we take a sneak peekbehind the curtain.
Talk solutions for thosebusiness pain points, working
(00:52):
smarter, not harder, mindset andthe challenges of fitting it
all in with the demands oftoday's busy lifestyle.
If you're a business owner,side hustler or just starting
your business journey, thispodcast is for you.
Now here's your host, businesscoach and content creator,
justine McLean from FlossieCreative.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Hello and thanks for joining me on the podcast today.
In case we haven't met, I'mJustine, a small business owner
on a mission to uncover andshare the secrets of creating
and running a profitable,sustainable and successful
business.
I've been in business for over20 years now and I get to use
all that I've learned along theway to help other women in
business reduce the overwhelm,gain visibility around their
(01:37):
numbers, charge what they'reworth and make more money.
It's about designing a life youlove that fits into your
definition of success.
So if I can help you create theprofitable business you deserve
, please reach out Now withoutfurther ado.
(01:58):
Let's dive into today's episode.
Hi, everyone, and welcome tothe podcast Now.
This is a shorty episode.
I wanted to put this episode inbecause one of the questions
that I get asked all the time ishow can I make a really fast
change in terms of my businessfinances?
What's the one thing that I cando that is going to be a game
(02:21):
changer in my business and thatI can do really simply?
And my answer is just as simple, and that is to set aside an
hour of your time every singleweek, whether that's a Money
Monday, a Finance Friday or someother alliteration that you can
think of.
I couldn't think of any for theother days of the week, but
(02:41):
it's essentially just pickingone hour every single week and
that in that hour it's all aboutthe business finance.
Why do I say that that's thebiggest game changer?
Because consistency in businessis absolutely critical and for
me it's all about creating goodhabits that are going to change
(03:03):
my business and then have thatknock-on effect and change my
life as a result.
And I think if you're someonewho never seems to have time to
look at the numbers whetherthat's your mindset or your
money block stepping in the factthat you think that you don't
do numbers, something like thatI think if you just choose to
pick a time every week, make ita consistent time and day, and
(03:27):
then you choose to dive into thenumbers, it's actually going to
be a game changer because themore you do it, the more
consistent you become at it.
It's like any other habit, itjust becomes second nature.
So in this episode I'm going toshare with you exactly what
I've done in my business.
(03:47):
When I look at my money, whichis on a money Monday typically
Sometimes it's a finance Friday,but usually the Monday, and
hopefully you'll get someinspiration to add this into
your business as well.
So, as I said, the first stepreally is just about choosing
your hour on the same day everyweek.
(04:09):
Now a lot of people will say tome you know, there's no way I
can get all of this done in anhour.
And that might be absolutelytrue.
But look, start with an hour,because it seems less
overwhelming when you start withjust one hour and call it
something Money Monday, ceo Hour, finance Friday, whatever you
want to call it.
Add it to your calendar as arecurring meeting and, the most
(04:33):
important part, make itnon-negotiable.
Now, once you make thatdecision to do it, to do that
hour of money stuff, and thatyou get that into your diary.
It's about showing up everysingle week, no matter what,
turning off all the distractions, sitting in the discomfort of
(04:53):
the business money and doingthat over and over again.
Because, honestly, if you treatthat hour with yourself and the
money just like you treat anappointment with any other
paying client so, in other words, you only cancel in case of
emergency it is definitely goingto become a game changer in
your business Because, as I'vesaid before and I'll say it
(05:15):
again, for me, in business as inlife, the numbers are going to
tell the story.
I think we all deserve to bethe author of our own story, and
what better way to do that thanreally start to pay attention
to your numbers, even if you arenot a numbers person.
Now, when I share that, youknow Money Monday, finance
(05:38):
Friday, is the first, mostimportant thing you can do to
start making that big change inyour business.
The next question I always getasked is what are some of the
things that I can do in thatmoney hour?
And there are lots of them.
It's about batching all of thefinancial tasks that you have in
your business, reviewing allthose numbers, reviewing your
(06:01):
reports like the profit and lossstatement.
It's about checking cash flowand invoicing, following up
people who aren't paying you,who are those late payers,
paying bills, setting up directdebits.
And while it might sound like alot, you can definitely achieve
it when you batch all of thosebusiness tasks together, because
once your mind is on any task,like anything, you get in the
(06:24):
flow and you tend to just get itdone.
Sometimes it might take you afew hours rather than just that
one hour, but because there's alot happening in your business,
but when you focus on it and youkind of move through it.
You'll be surprised at howefficient you become at your
money hour every single week.
(06:46):
You know 100% that right offthe bat, when you start this, it
might be really overwhelming.
So I always say that the bestway around this is to create a
little procedure for yourself.
You can start with a small setof tasks, you can add to it as
you go and then eventuallyyou'll have a comprehensive list
of tasks that you either needto complete each week or that
(07:08):
are bespoke to your business.
So some of them you'll do eachweek, some of them might be each
fortnight, some of them mightbe monthly, some of them might
be quarterly.
Now I'm going to run throughwhat my Money Monday looks like
in a minute.
But if you're thinking, okay,what are some of the tasks that
I could be doing during thisbusiness hour?
I'm just going to run throughthose quickly now.
(07:30):
So during this session, as Isaid, it's about focusing on the
finance only.
You can add another one ofthese sessions for your personal
money as well.
Really great idea to do thatand, like anything, if you get
it done in an hour a week andyou can kind of then put that to
bed, it's not like you have toworry about.
Oh gosh, you know, have I gotthis outstanding bill?
(07:51):
Do I need to dive into the banktoday to do X or Y or Z?
You've done the hour and you'redone, you know.
Or you've done a bit more thanthe hour and you're done.
So in this session, some of thethings that you can do is you
can check your business bankaccounts, make sure they all
look in order and that there'snothing that's popped up, no
expense, no kind of strangeincome that's popped into your
(08:13):
account that you don't recognize.
You can reconcile your accountsif you use cloud accounting.
If you don't use cloudaccounting, you really should
think about that, because it isan absolute time saver.
If you are using spreadsheetsinstead of cloud accounting, you
can update those businessspreadsheets.
Look at your invoices, prepareany invoices that are due to go
(08:34):
out, or update those work inprogress invoices for the time
that you've spent on aparticular job in the previous
week.
Make sure you send out thoseinvoices, because so many people
prepare invoices or they do adraft of an invoice and then
they never send it out.
As unbelievable as that mightsound, it's so true.
(08:55):
And then, when it's time to sendit out, they feel embarrassed
because it's taken so long tosend the invoice out and then
all of a sudden they findthemselves discounting with
apologies to the client, and itends up a complete shambles.
So definitely prepare theinvoices and send them when they
need to go.
Look at all the invoices thatare outstanding and follow up
(09:16):
with those slow payers, thosepeople who have gone over the
due date.
You have to chase them up, nomatter how uncomfortable it is
for you.
If that's a task that you don'tlike and you use a bookkeeper,
you can always outsource thattask.
Or, as I've talked about before, create that accounts at email.
(09:37):
Create a fictitious accountsperson and send the email out
from that person.
You can pay all of yourbusiness expenses and schedule
any bills that have arrivedduring that week.
That way you don't have to keepdiving back into your bank
account to pay bills as theyfall due.
So if you have time left overin your money hour, you can look
(10:00):
at reviewing your expenses.
Choose a particular expense.
So let's say you choose yourphone provider.
Do a deep dive into whether ornot you can get a better deal on
your current service.
As I said, if you have sometime up your sleeve during your
money hour and it might be thethird week of every month.
(10:20):
You know that it only takes youhalf an hour to get things done
.
Use the other half hour to lookat your expenses and see where
you can save some money.
Now the other thing that youcan do during your session is to
pay wages for yourself, yourstaff, transfer those
superannuation commitments toyour super fund.
You can look at transferringtax savings rainy day savings to
(10:44):
the respective accounts.
If you are doing profit first,you could transfer your
allocations as well.
And the other thing you mightlike to do is to update your
cash flow forecast.
If you don't have one, youcould create one.
So, again, if you have that timeup your sleeve, you don't quite
get to the hour.
Just think to yourself okay,what else can I do to flesh out
(11:07):
this hour that I have, that I'veset aside to do the finances?
What can I implement in mybusiness to improve?
Is it deciding on a new profitnumber?
Is it looking at an offer thatyou have and really deep diving
into that offer to make surethat you are getting bang for
your buck every time you deliverit, that you're getting paid
(11:28):
what you should be getting paid?
You might also like to take oneof the hours in each month and
review your pricing.
So there are lots of differentthings you can do.
You can set money goals.
You can choose to spend thehour talking to an expert about
money.
Just think one hour a week allabout money, and the sky is the
(11:50):
limit with what you want to putinto that hour.
But, as I said, it's reallyabout choosing what you want to
go into that hour, making a listof all the tasks, of all the
possibilities, things that youmust do, things that are nice to
do, and then essentiallycreating a procedure for your
business so that not only canyou follow that every week, but
(12:13):
if you bring in additional staffas your business grows, they
can also follow that reallysimply, without too much fuss.
So here is what my Money Mondayor Finance Friday, depending on
what day of the week I'm doingthis tends to look like, and it
will give you just an example ofwhat happens in my business,
(12:33):
because, even though I coulddefinitely outsource this, it's
something that I like to keepreally close and I choose to do
myself.
So the first thing I do is Isit down, I open my Xero Cloud
Accounting and I reconcile allof my outstanding transactions,
then I go and have a look at allof the payments received and I
(12:56):
immediately follow up anyoutstanding payers that I have.
I simply send them an email inthe first instance, and if there
was a time when I had someonewho was not paying even after
I'd sent out that first email, Ijust jump on the phone and give
them a call, because I findthat sometimes emails get lost.
Sometimes there are extenuatingcircumstances, reasons that
(13:19):
people don't pay you or can'tpay you, and a conversation is
all it takes to get it sortedout.
The next thing I do is to lookat my invoicing, so I create any
new invoices that I need tocreate and I send them out to my
clients and then if I amworking on a progress job with a
(13:40):
particular client so let's saywe're doing a deep dive into
their accounts then I will sendthem the next progress payment
if that is due at the time.
Once I've done all of that, Ithen jump over into my bank
account and I make sure that alllooks in order, because once
I've reconciled zero, I have arough idea of what I should have
in my accounts, how they shouldlook, and so I go over into the
(14:02):
actual bank accounts and makesure that you know they look in
order, that the numbers are asthey are, reflected in zero, and
if they're not for any reason,I'm going to go and take a bit
of a deep dive and have a lookat what might be going on.
The other thing that I do, orthe thing that I do next, is I
go, because I've got the bankaccount open in front of me.
(14:24):
I pay all of my bills, but I notonly do that.
I like to set up all of thebills that have arrived through
the week, and the reason that Ido this is because I just don't
want to be diving in and out ofmy bank account every single
week to add or every single daysorry, to add another bill into
(14:45):
the system.
I sort of like that.
You know one touch system, seeit once, handle it once and then
move on.
And so that's why I always liketo schedule my bills Now,
because I have a cash flowforecast that is set up and I
roughly know what to expect andwhen.
It's pretty simple for me toknow what's coming and that when
(15:09):
I am actually setting up thosebills, when I'm scheduling them,
that I'm going to have enoughmoney in my account to pay them.
So that really is important.
There's reasons why youwouldn't schedule your bills,
and that is if cashflow is tight, because the last thing you
want to do is to be paying feeson bills that are bouncing
because there are no funds there.
(15:29):
The next job on my list is tocheck on or make transfers for
tax savings and profit, just toensure there are no hiccups.
So I usually go ahead and lookat all of the income that I've
had in any one week and Itransfer 10% of that over to my
tax savings account.
Because I've gone ahead andI've paid my wages for myself,
(15:51):
my staff, I go ahead and I makethe wages transfers, but I also
transfer across the tax that'sdue on those wages and in
addition to that, I like totransfer my super.
So I transfer superannuationevery time I run a payroll.
My payroll is fortnightly,which means that my super fund
(16:11):
and my staff's super fundreceive their money every single
fortnight.
Once I've done all of that,close that business bank account
, I go in and I just have a lookat my cash flow forecast.
So what's happening over thenext sort of four weeks to make
sure that I've got the fundsneeded to cover all of the
(16:32):
things that I've just put intothe bank, to make sure that, if
I need to be saving up for a bigbill that's coming, that I've
got that on track.
And also to adjust the cashflowforecast for any invoices, any
new business that I've justwritten or any changes to
existing invoices that have goneout.
Finally, I open my profit andloss statement because the
(16:56):
profit and loss statement thatis spat out of Xero is only
going to be as good as thereconciliation you've done, the
information that you haveprovided inside of the platform,
and so once I know thateverything is absolutely up to
date, I open that profit andloss statement.
I run a report and I ask thesethree questions Did I get the
(17:21):
income that I expected in thisparticular month or am I on
track to get the income that Iwant this month?
Do the expenses all appear inorder?
Is there an expense that'sreally standing out because it's
particularly high?
And it normally isn't.
So I do a check there and thefinal question I ask is my net
(17:42):
profit number on target?
Now you can go back and listento my episode all about profit
and why you should do that.
I've also got an episode onprofit first coming up very soon
, so keep an eye out for thatone.
But for me business is aboutprofit.
It is definitely the sanitynumber.
It's that money that I makeover and above everything else.
(18:04):
That gives me that peace ofmind that my business is on
target and thriving.
So I want to make sure thatwhatever profit number I've set
for myself, that I am reachingthat and that's it.
You know, my money Monday isdone.
When I've done those things,I'm out.
I can move on to the next partof my business.
I don't have to worry anymoreabout money.
(18:25):
Have I paid that bill?
Has that client paid me?
It's done.
My money hour for that week isdone and I can move on in
absolute confidence.
That side of the business issorted.
Interestingly, I had adiscussion in a group chat with
someone this morning where theysaid that they have just been
(18:46):
doing money Monday now for aboutthe last eight weeks and it was
something that they hadprocrastinated about for six
months.
And the reason that they hadbeen procrastinating is because
of the concern that they weren'tgoing to like what they found
when they sat down and reallytook that deep dive or took that
look at their money, theirbusiness money.
(19:07):
So they have essentially beenworrying for six whole months
about this possibility thatseemed to be out there, and so
we're reluctant to actually takethat next step and have a real
look at the numbers.
And they said to me thismorning that when they actually
took that first look at theirnumbers in the very first Money
(19:30):
Monday it was like a dark shieldhad been lifted away because it
just wasn't as bad as what hadbeen building up in their mind
over the last six months.
And whether it wasn't as badbecause it had been six months
worth of building up tosomething that sort of was like
(19:50):
waiting for the epic end to amovie that never comes, I'm not
sure, but it was wow.
This is such a relief becausedoing this exercise, spending
this one hour, made me realizethat things just aren't as bad
as I thought they were.
So sometimes ripping thatbandaid off and really getting
into the business moneyparticularly if you have mindset
(20:11):
issues around money or you'renervous about looking at the
money because of what you mightfind is the best antidote
because it might not be as badas you think it's going to be
Now.
The other thing to be said aboutyour money Monday or your
finance Friday is that it's agreat time to touch base with
your bookkeeper or anotherfinancial professional that you
(20:34):
use in your business, just tomake sure that everything is on
track and looking okay.
A number of the tasks that I'vementioned that can be done
during Money Monday or duringyour money hour each week can be
outsourced to a bookkeeper.
But if they're managing themoney for you and you don't have
to worry about that day-to-daythat nitty-gritty, my
(20:54):
recommendation is that you stilltake that hour and that you
either allot your financeprofessional tasks so, in other
words, you know, let's do a deepdive this week into
subscriptions.
Let's see where we can savemoney.
For example, you check in withthem to see how you're going.
But if you don't need to do anyof that, then I would absolutely
(21:17):
say that at a bare minimum, yourun your profit and loss
statement and you have a look atthat to see where your business
is at and to see what nextsteps you might need to take to
either grow your business, toboost your cash flow, to claw
back some debt that you've gotand to take the temperature of
(21:39):
how your business is going.
Really important because, whileit's absolutely okay to
outsource the finance side ofbusiness, it's never okay to
abdicate your financialresponsibility.
So, in addition to your P&L, ifyou've got nothing else to do,
spend some time and get a bitmore educated on the business
money, for example, because Ithink, when you're in that
(22:02):
financial headspace, when you'rechoosing to be the author of
your own story, as I always say,the numbers tell a story, so
choose to be the author of yourown story.
As I always say, the numberstell a story, so choose to be
the author of your story.
Don't let someone else do it.
You're more likely to considersignificant strategic decisions
in your business that are goingto be of a benefit of your
business, to your business, butthat are all based on the actual
(22:27):
numbers, what's actually goingon in your business, and that,
my friends, is the key tosuccessful business.
So that's how you get startedwith your Money Monday Finance
Friday your one hour of moneystuff every week.
Go ahead, dive in, see how itfeels, and I would love to know.
Shoot me an email, send me amessage on Instagram at Flossie
(22:49):
Files.
Let me know what's happened,how your business has improved
by just adding that dedicatedfinance hour each week.
And until next time, keepliving your version of success.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Thanks for listening to the Secrets of Successful
Business podcast.
For more information on allthings business, head to
flossycomau and make sure youhit subscribe on the show so you
don't miss another new episode.
If you're enjoying the show,please give it a quick rating or
review, share it on yoursocials or with friends who
might enjoy it.
(23:26):
Catch you next time.
You're listening to the Secrets of Successful
Business podcast, your go-tosource for business tips, tricks
and proven strategies that willhelp you create a streamlined
and profitable business.
We chat to the best minds inbusiness about their journey.
It's my business and I'll do itmy way, how they started,
rather than going harder to getmore focus on growing more with
(00:25):
what you have.
What they learned along the way.
How long are you going to givethis?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
What compromises are you going to make Just because
you can do it?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
doesn't mean that you should do it.
It's really important toremember that it's a long game
and, of course, we'll ask themfor their secret sauce for
creating a successful business.
If you're not failing, you'renot doing it right.
You should be struggling attimes.
That is part of the journey.
Join us as we take a sneak peekbehind the curtain.
Talk solutions for thosebusiness pain points, working
(00:52):
smarter, not harder, mindset andthe challenges of fitting it
all in with the demands oftoday's busy lifestyle.
If you're a business owner,side hustler or just starting
your business journey, thispodcast is for you.
Now here's your host, businesscoach and content creator,
justine McLean from FlossieCreative.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Hello and thanks for joining me on the podcast today.
In case we haven't met, I'mJustine, a small business owner
on a mission to uncover andshare the secrets of creating
and running a profitable,sustainable and successful
business.
I've been in business for over20 years now and I get to use
all that I've learned along theway to help other women in
business reduce the overwhelm,gain visibility around their
(01:37):
numbers, charge what they'reworth and make more money.
It's about designing a life youlove that fits into your
definition of success.
So if I can help you create theprofitable business you deserve
, please reach out Now withoutfurther ado.
(01:58):
Let's dive into today's episode.
Hi, everyone, and welcome tothe podcast Now.
This is a shorty episode.
I wanted to put this episode inbecause one of the questions
that I get asked all the time ishow can I make a really fast
change in terms of my businessfinances?
What's the one thing that I cando that is going to be a game
(02:21):
changer in my business and thatI can do really simply?
And my answer is just as simple, and that is to set aside an
hour of your time every singleweek, whether that's a Money
Monday, a Finance Friday or someother alliteration that you can
think of.
I couldn't think of any for theother days of the week, but
(02:41):
it's essentially just pickingone hour every single week and
that in that hour it's all aboutthe business finance.
Why do I say that that's thebiggest game changer?
Because consistency in businessis absolutely critical and for
me it's all about creating goodhabits that are going to change
(03:03):
my business and then have thatknock-on effect and change my
life as a result.
And I think if you're someonewho never seems to have time to
look at the numbers whetherthat's your mindset or your
money block stepping in the factthat you think that you don't
do numbers, something like thatI think if you just choose to
pick a time every week, make ita consistent time and day, and
(03:27):
then you choose to dive into thenumbers, it's actually going to
be a game changer because themore you do it, the more
consistent you become at it.
It's like any other habit, itjust becomes second nature.
So in this episode I'm going toshare with you exactly what
I've done in my business.
(03:47):
When I look at my money, whichis on a money Monday typically
Sometimes it's a finance Friday,but usually the Monday, and
hopefully you'll get someinspiration to add this into
your business as well.
So, as I said, the first stepreally is just about choosing
your hour on the same day everyweek.
(04:09):
Now a lot of people will say tome you know, there's no way I
can get all of this done in anhour.
And that might be absolutelytrue.
But look, start with an hour,because it seems less
overwhelming when you start withjust one hour and call it
something Money Monday, ceo Hour, finance Friday, whatever you
want to call it.
Add it to your calendar as arecurring meeting and, the most
(04:33):
important part, make itnon-negotiable.
Now, once you make thatdecision to do it, to do that
hour of money stuff, and thatyou get that into your diary.
It's about showing up everysingle week, no matter what,
turning off all the distractions, sitting in the discomfort of
(04:53):
the business money and doingthat over and over again.
Because, honestly, if you treatthat hour with yourself and the
money just like you treat anappointment with any other
paying client so, in other words, you only cancel in case of
emergency it is definitely goingto become a game changer in
your business Because, as I'vesaid before and I'll say it
(05:15):
again, for me, in business as inlife, the numbers are going to
tell the story.
I think we all deserve to bethe author of our own story, and
what better way to do that thanreally start to pay attention
to your numbers, even if you arenot a numbers person.
Now, when I share that, youknow Money Monday, finance
(05:38):
Friday, is the first, mostimportant thing you can do to
start making that big change inyour business.
The next question I always getasked is what are some of the
things that I can do in thatmoney hour?
And there are lots of them.
It's about batching all of thefinancial tasks that you have in
your business, reviewing allthose numbers, reviewing your
(06:01):
reports like the profit and lossstatement.
It's about checking cash flowand invoicing, following up
people who aren't paying you,who are those late payers,
paying bills, setting up directdebits.
And while it might sound like alot, you can definitely achieve
it when you batch all of thosebusiness tasks together, because
once your mind is on any task,like anything, you get in the
(06:24):
flow and you tend to just get itdone.
Sometimes it might take you afew hours rather than just that
one hour, but because there's alot happening in your business,
but when you focus on it and youkind of move through it.
You'll be surprised at howefficient you become at your
money hour every single week.
(06:46):
You know 100% that right offthe bat, when you start this, it
might be really overwhelming.
So I always say that the bestway around this is to create a
little procedure for yourself.
You can start with a small setof tasks, you can add to it as
you go and then eventuallyyou'll have a comprehensive list
of tasks that you either needto complete each week or that
(07:08):
are bespoke to your business.
So some of them you'll do eachweek, some of them might be each
fortnight, some of them mightbe monthly, some of them might
be quarterly.
Now I'm going to run throughwhat my Money Monday looks like
in a minute.
But if you're thinking, okay,what are some of the tasks that
I could be doing during thisbusiness hour?
I'm just going to run throughthose quickly now.
(07:30):
So during this session, as Isaid, it's about focusing on the
finance only.
You can add another one ofthese sessions for your personal
money as well.
Really great idea to do thatand, like anything, if you get
it done in an hour a week andyou can kind of then put that to
bed, it's not like you have toworry about.
Oh gosh, you know, have I gotthis outstanding bill?
(07:51):
Do I need to dive into the banktoday to do X or Y or Z?
You've done the hour and you'redone, you know.
Or you've done a bit more thanthe hour and you're done.
So in this session, some of thethings that you can do is you
can check your business bankaccounts, make sure they all
look in order and that there'snothing that's popped up, no
expense, no kind of strangeincome that's popped into your
(08:13):
account that you don't recognize.
You can reconcile your accountsif you use cloud accounting.
If you don't use cloudaccounting, you really should
think about that, because it isan absolute time saver.
If you are using spreadsheetsinstead of cloud accounting, you
can update those businessspreadsheets.
Look at your invoices, prepareany invoices that are due to go
(08:34):
out, or update those work inprogress invoices for the time
that you've spent on aparticular job in the previous
week.
Make sure you send out thoseinvoices, because so many people
prepare invoices or they do adraft of an invoice and then
they never send it out.
As unbelievable as that mightsound, it's so true.
(08:55):
And then, when it's time to sendit out, they feel embarrassed
because it's taken so long tosend the invoice out and then
all of a sudden they findthemselves discounting with
apologies to the client, and itends up a complete shambles.
So definitely prepare theinvoices and send them when they
need to go.
Look at all the invoices thatare outstanding and follow up
(09:16):
with those slow payers, thosepeople who have gone over the
due date.
You have to chase them up, nomatter how uncomfortable it is
for you.
If that's a task that you don'tlike and you use a bookkeeper,
you can always outsource thattask.
Or, as I've talked about before, create that accounts at email.
(09:37):
Create a fictitious accountsperson and send the email out
from that person.
You can pay all of yourbusiness expenses and schedule
any bills that have arrivedduring that week.
That way you don't have to keepdiving back into your bank
account to pay bills as theyfall due.
So if you have time left overin your money hour, you can look
(10:00):
at reviewing your expenses.
Choose a particular expense.
So let's say you choose yourphone provider.
Do a deep dive into whether ornot you can get a better deal on
your current service.
As I said, if you have sometime up your sleeve during your
money hour and it might be thethird week of every month.
(10:20):
You know that it only takes youhalf an hour to get things done
.
Use the other half hour to lookat your expenses and see where
you can save some money.
Now the other thing that youcan do during your session is to
pay wages for yourself, yourstaff, transfer those
superannuation commitments toyour super fund.
You can look at transferringtax savings rainy day savings to
(10:44):
the respective accounts.
If you are doing profit first,you could transfer your
allocations as well.
And the other thing you mightlike to do is to update your
cash flow forecast.
If you don't have one, youcould create one.
So, again, if you have that timeup your sleeve, you don't quite
get to the hour.
Just think to yourself okay,what else can I do to flesh out
(11:07):
this hour that I have, that I'veset aside to do the finances?
What can I implement in mybusiness to improve?
Is it deciding on a new profitnumber?
Is it looking at an offer thatyou have and really deep diving
into that offer to make surethat you are getting bang for
your buck every time you deliverit, that you're getting paid
(11:28):
what you should be getting paid?
You might also like to take oneof the hours in each month and
review your pricing.
So there are lots of differentthings you can do.
You can set money goals.
You can choose to spend thehour talking to an expert about
money.
Just think one hour a week allabout money, and the sky is the
(11:50):
limit with what you want to putinto that hour.
But, as I said, it's reallyabout choosing what you want to
go into that hour, making a listof all the tasks, of all the
possibilities, things that youmust do, things that are nice to
do, and then essentiallycreating a procedure for your
business so that not only canyou follow that every week, but
(12:13):
if you bring in additional staffas your business grows, they
can also follow that reallysimply, without too much fuss.
So here is what my Money Mondayor Finance Friday, depending on
what day of the week I'm doingthis tends to look like, and it
will give you just an example ofwhat happens in my business,
(12:33):
because, even though I coulddefinitely outsource this, it's
something that I like to keepreally close and I choose to do
myself.
So the first thing I do is Isit down, I open my Xero Cloud
Accounting and I reconcile allof my outstanding transactions,
then I go and have a look at allof the payments received and I
(12:56):
immediately follow up anyoutstanding payers that I have.
I simply send them an email inthe first instance, and if there
was a time when I had someonewho was not paying even after
I'd sent out that first email, Ijust jump on the phone and give
them a call, because I findthat sometimes emails get lost.
Sometimes there are extenuatingcircumstances, reasons that
(13:19):
people don't pay you or can'tpay you, and a conversation is
all it takes to get it sortedout.
The next thing I do is to lookat my invoicing, so I create any
new invoices that I need tocreate and I send them out to my
clients and then if I amworking on a progress job with a
(13:40):
particular client so let's saywe're doing a deep dive into
their accounts then I will sendthem the next progress payment
if that is due at the time.
Once I've done all of that, Ithen jump over into my bank
account and I make sure that alllooks in order, because once
I've reconciled zero, I have arough idea of what I should have
in my accounts, how they shouldlook, and so I go over into the
(14:02):
actual bank accounts and makesure that you know they look in
order, that the numbers are asthey are, reflected in zero, and
if they're not for any reason,I'm going to go and take a bit
of a deep dive and have a lookat what might be going on.
The other thing that I do, orthe thing that I do next, is I
go, because I've got the bankaccount open in front of me.
(14:24):
I pay all of my bills, but I notonly do that.
I like to set up all of thebills that have arrived through
the week, and the reason that Ido this is because I just don't
want to be diving in and out ofmy bank account every single
week to add or every single daysorry, to add another bill into
(14:45):
the system.
I sort of like that.
You know one touch system, seeit once, handle it once and then
move on.
And so that's why I always liketo schedule my bills Now,
because I have a cash flowforecast that is set up and I
roughly know what to expect andwhen.
It's pretty simple for me toknow what's coming and that when
(15:09):
I am actually setting up thosebills, when I'm scheduling them,
that I'm going to have enoughmoney in my account to pay them.
So that really is important.
There's reasons why youwouldn't schedule your bills,
and that is if cashflow is tight, because the last thing you
want to do is to be paying feeson bills that are bouncing
because there are no funds there.
(15:29):
The next job on my list is tocheck on or make transfers for
tax savings and profit, just toensure there are no hiccups.
So I usually go ahead and lookat all of the income that I've
had in any one week and Itransfer 10% of that over to my
tax savings account.
Because I've gone ahead andI've paid my wages for myself,
(15:51):
my staff, I go ahead and I makethe wages transfers, but I also
transfer across the tax that'sdue on those wages and in
addition to that, I like totransfer my super.
So I transfer superannuationevery time I run a payroll.
My payroll is fortnightly,which means that my super fund
(16:11):
and my staff's super fundreceive their money every single
fortnight.
Once I've done all of that,close that business bank account
, I go in and I just have a lookat my cash flow forecast.
So what's happening over thenext sort of four weeks to make
sure that I've got the fundsneeded to cover all of the
(16:32):
things that I've just put intothe bank, to make sure that, if
I need to be saving up for a bigbill that's coming, that I've
got that on track.
And also to adjust the cashflowforecast for any invoices, any
new business that I've justwritten or any changes to
existing invoices that have goneout.
Finally, I open my profit andloss statement because the
(16:56):
profit and loss statement thatis spat out of Xero is only
going to be as good as thereconciliation you've done, the
information that you haveprovided inside of the platform,
and so once I know thateverything is absolutely up to
date, I open that profit andloss statement.
I run a report and I ask thesethree questions Did I get the
(17:21):
income that I expected in thisparticular month or am I on
track to get the income that Iwant this month?
Do the expenses all appear inorder?
Is there an expense that'sreally standing out because it's
particularly high?
And it normally isn't.
So I do a check there and thefinal question I ask is my net
(17:42):
profit number on target?
Now you can go back and listento my episode all about profit
and why you should do that.
I've also got an episode onprofit first coming up very soon
, so keep an eye out for thatone.
But for me business is aboutprofit.
It is definitely the sanitynumber.
It's that money that I makeover and above everything else.
(18:04):
That gives me that peace ofmind that my business is on
target and thriving.
So I want to make sure thatwhatever profit number I've set
for myself, that I am reachingthat and that's it.
You know, my money Monday isdone.
When I've done those things,I'm out.
I can move on to the next partof my business.
I don't have to worry anymoreabout money.
(18:25):
Have I paid that bill?
Has that client paid me?
It's done.
My money hour for that week isdone and I can move on in
absolute confidence.
That side of the business issorted.
Interestingly, I had adiscussion in a group chat with
someone this morning where theysaid that they have just been
(18:46):
doing money Monday now for aboutthe last eight weeks and it was
something that they hadprocrastinated about for six
months.
And the reason that they hadbeen procrastinating is because
of the concern that they weren'tgoing to like what they found
when they sat down and reallytook that deep dive or took that
look at their money, theirbusiness money.
(19:07):
So they have essentially beenworrying for six whole months
about this possibility thatseemed to be out there, and so
we're reluctant to actually takethat next step and have a real
look at the numbers.
And they said to me thismorning that when they actually
took that first look at theirnumbers in the very first Money
(19:30):
Monday it was like a dark shieldhad been lifted away because it
just wasn't as bad as what hadbeen building up in their mind
over the last six months.
And whether it wasn't as badbecause it had been six months
worth of building up tosomething that sort of was like
(19:50):
waiting for the epic end to amovie that never comes, I'm not
sure, but it was wow.
This is such a relief becausedoing this exercise, spending
this one hour, made me realizethat things just aren't as bad
as I thought they were.
So sometimes ripping thatbandaid off and really getting
into the business moneyparticularly if you have mindset
(20:11):
issues around money or you'renervous about looking at the
money because of what you mightfind is the best antidote
because it might not be as badas you think it's going to be
Now.
The other thing to be said aboutyour money Monday or your
finance Friday is that it's agreat time to touch base with
your bookkeeper or anotherfinancial professional that you
(20:34):
use in your business, just tomake sure that everything is on
track and looking okay.
A number of the tasks that I'vementioned that can be done
during Money Monday or duringyour money hour each week can be
outsourced to a bookkeeper.
But if they're managing themoney for you and you don't have
to worry about that day-to-daythat nitty-gritty, my
(20:54):
recommendation is that you stilltake that hour and that you
either allot your financeprofessional tasks so, in other
words, you know, let's do a deepdive this week into
subscriptions.
Let's see where we can savemoney.
For example, you check in withthem to see how you're going.
But if you don't need to do anyof that, then I would absolutely
(21:17):
say that at a bare minimum, yourun your profit and loss
statement and you have a look atthat to see where your business
is at and to see what nextsteps you might need to take to
either grow your business, toboost your cash flow, to claw
back some debt that you've gotand to take the temperature of
(21:39):
how your business is going.
Really important because, whileit's absolutely okay to
outsource the finance side ofbusiness, it's never okay to
abdicate your financialresponsibility.
So, in addition to your P&L, ifyou've got nothing else to do,
spend some time and get a bitmore educated on the business
money, for example, because Ithink, when you're in that
(22:02):
financial headspace, when you'rechoosing to be the author of
your own story, as I always say,the numbers tell a story, so
choose to be the author of yourown story.
As I always say, the numberstell a story, so choose to be
the author of your story.
Don't let someone else do it.
You're more likely to considersignificant strategic decisions
in your business that are goingto be of a benefit of your
business, to your business, butthat are all based on the actual
(22:27):
numbers, what's actually goingon in your business, and that,
my friends, is the key tosuccessful business.
So that's how you get startedwith your Money Monday Finance
Friday your one hour of moneystuff every week.
Go ahead, dive in, see how itfeels, and I would love to know.
Shoot me an email, send me amessage on Instagram at Flossie
(22:49):
Files.
Let me know what's happened,how your business has improved
by just adding that dedicatedfinance hour each week.
And until next time, keepliving your version of success.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Thanks for listening to the Secrets of Successful
Business podcast.
For more information on allthings business, head to
flossycomau and make sure youhit subscribe on the show so you
don't miss another new episode.
If you're enjoying the show,please give it a quick rating or
review, share it on yoursocials or with friends who
might enjoy it.
(23:26):
Catch you next time.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com