You’ve already taken the biggest step on the path less traveled. You’ve determined the right way to balance your earnings, your responsibilities and your life is to start your own business. You’ve forgone the corporate ladder no matter the rung you climbed to, and you’re out here, in the bright wide open, going your own way.
CEOs in the corporate world are usually highly educated, with degrees from the Ivy League and lots of hand holding and executive coaching by the time they open their corner office door on mahogany row.
They’re accountable for the company numbers and if they’re publicly traded companies, they’re accountable to Wall Street. You can bet they’ve got teams of people accumulating and accounting for the management of those numbers.
These kinds of CEOs might be flanked with more folks in suits, but knowing how to manage your numbers is critical to on-going business success no matter the size of the company you grow.
Here are the 4 Ways for Entrepreneurial Woman to Manage Money Like a Pro:
- Accept it—You’re the Boss
Of course, the first thing any Chief Executive does is accept her role with or without the corner office. So, your first step is to accept your role as it is right now. Hire yourself. Appoint yourself. Roll your shoulders back, stand proud—you’re the captain of your business ship and you have already set sail.
What I’m suggesting here is a powerful mindset shift. I want you—today, now—to appoint yourself the CEO of your Personal Financial Future Corporation (PFFC). This is the company you always own no matter the fate of your business ships.
This may sound a little silly at first, but it makes it very clear what role your play in your financial life, and helps you get into the right mindset to make powerful, confident, profit producing decisions that result in the earning, growth and protection of your own personal wealth.
- Throw Money Baggage Overboard
It’s time, now, to throw all the emotional baggage you’ve built up about money overboard. You won’t need it. There’s nothing it can do for you and it will never be valuable.
Just allow for the possibility that everything you’ve ever thought about money is tainted with a kind of programming you unwittingly installed as a child.
It’s time to get acquainted with the that money operating system so you can de-install it and put systems of automation in place so your money has clear channels to flow to easily and often.
Dumping this baggage is the first step to getting on the profitable track to personal wealth building through your business.
- In the Beginning, Bootstrap
A Chief Executive who just secured her first round of funding would pay herself a minimal salary and hire an executive team who would also take company equity in lieu of current income. They’d work out of home offices, a garage, or some other low-cost space. The start ups that turn into successful corporations that change the landscape of what’s possible as business success never entertain conversations that they needed to spend money on Class A office space with a view to appear bigger or more successful than they are. They’re authentic to the realities of their current situation and mindful of their long-term, blue chip dreams.
In the beginning, every dollar counts, and you want your investments to pay off. You don’t need expensive suits or cars or office digs to impress your future clients. You need the tools that will help you do your job and earn the business that helps you grow profitable.
Pay cash while you’ve got it. Be mindful of the obligations you take on. Don’t load yourself up with debt. Don’t mortgage tomorrow to pay for today.
Have a plan—a real plan you stick to daily, that you’ve written down and automated to:
Pay off debts,
Layaway earnings as savings for quarterly tax obligations and other big expenditures,
Activate your affluence mindset and
Notice, with a plan in place, the confidence you have when making decisions to spend.
While you’re bootstrapping the first years of your business dream, keep lifestyle expenses low. Maintain your financial plan and budget for the joys you want to add into your life experience. A good saving and investing plan will scale like a startup in real time. As your business succeeds, your plan will help you know when to channel income out of the business, into personal earnings. The plan for these funds will help you earn, grow and protect your personal wealth.
- Never Lose Money
“Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No. 1”.
~ Warren Buffett
If you’re running a business that should be making you money and doesn’t—stop. Get customer feedback, iterate the product, create a new product line, raise your prices, fold the firm and start a new one. Don’t be afraid of prototyping and failing fast. It takes, sometimes, hundreds of efforts to find the right formula. Don’t give up, and don’t keep doing what doesn’t work. Find the fortitude to keep re-inventing your approach to building a profitable company that generates personal wealth.
Whatever you need to do to stop what doesn’t work and find what does.
It’s likely that running a company that doesn’t make money, or that doesn’t make you money, co-exists with some awful and untrue thing you think about yourself. Please, I ask you, please stop that. Stop accepting less than you want.
This is that recurrence of financial baggage. Make sure that as new money shadows surface, you shine the brightest light of daylight right on them. Know your worth, focus on building profit, commit to staying the course, following your plan, recommitting to smart business principles that work.
If you’re considering liquidating your retirement accounts or life savings to start a company because you’re afraid to ask for investor money or don’t want to give up control—DON’T. Keep your retirement accounts whole—and don’t withdraw from them to pay for lifestyle or business expenses.
Think of it like this: large corporations like Intel incubate startups extensively. They dedicate time and financial resources to an idea, but they never risk everything. Don’t let yourself get into the quagmire of allowing your startup concepts to be more important than your own financial future.
- Grow the Company Through Mergers and Acquisitions
Now, think of it like this: when big companies merge, they choose to do this in such a way that assets are preserved and maximized. Look for ways to leverage existing assets, skillsets or relationships by joining forces with others.
Look for slack resources you can put to work. Look for partners whose existing assets can amplify yours, and then negotiate satisfactory terms for yourself. To succeed at anything, you’ll need to partner with talented others to grow your business from idea to profitability to personal wealth. If you’ve risked this much—to boldly go where no one has gone before into your own business, your own enterprise, be certain you have the team alongside you to go the distance.
Now, in the comments below, let me know what you’re doing to grow your profitable dreams into personal wealth?