As entrepreneurs ourselves, we understand the challenges associated with building your business from scratch, sustaining your business, and balancing running your business in the context of the rest of your life! So today we share 3 tips that can help set you up for success!

1. Get your finances in order

As a business owner, you are in charge of ALL THE THINGS. You’re responsible for creating your own revenue, saving for taxes, enrolling in your own health insurance, and creating your own retirement plan.

This is on top of all of the other things that come with managing your finances, like building up your short-term savings, saving for a big trip, getting life insurance, saving for retirement, etc.

Here are some steps to make sure your finances are in order so you’re operating from a place of stability which will allow you to thrive in your business.

• FIRST, what are your biggest financial goals?

Let’s dream big here and write them down.

Do you want to support 2 full time team members by 2025?

Do you want to fund a retreat for your community of bad ass biz owners?

Do you want to take your parents on a retirement trip of a life time to thank them for all of their hard work?

Write them down in your business journal or on a Google Doc that you can revisit at the end of the year, quarter, or whenever you do business planning.

• SECOND, what buckets of money do you have set up to fund those goals?

Let’s get organized and intentional.                     

Do you have a business savings account for monthly business expenses?

Do you have a business savings account for your retreat a year from now?

Where are your dollars located for the safari that you’ll be taking your parents on when they retire in 3 years?

Have different locations specific to each of your goals.

• THIRD, how are you allocating every dollar that you earn?

Whether you’re working from a percentage savings rate, fixed dollar amount, or your profit is sporadic, try to be intentional with where each dollar is going.

Do you want to at least save $100/month toward that big trip to make a sizable dent in the flight cost in three years?

Build that into your non-negotiables when it comes to allocating your dollars every time you’re paid.

And if you’re nervous about it becoming negotiable, put your savings on autopay so you don’t have to convince yourself.

• FOURTH, do you have tons of “bad” debt?

That’s okay! Meet yourself where you are with compassion and begin planning from there.

It takes most small businesses take at least 2 to 3 years to be profitable and become truly successful once they've hit the 7-to-10-year mark.

This might mean you had to take out loans or put your expenses on credit cards to reinvest into the business, to build up your inventory, etc.

It’ll take time and patience, so have compassion for yourself and begin planning from right where you are.

  2. Become very good friends with your calendar

As a business owner, having control over literally all of your time might make it tough to know what to do with that time because you can do…anything & everything.

Our tip here is to take ownership of the power to structure your own day to create your own routine specific to you. Become very good friends with your calendar.

Block off time in your calendar for things that will make you feel your best to be who you want to be for your clients and for your business.

If you know that beginning your day with time at the gym, hike, walk, or yoga helps you’re your mental clarity or will set you up for a good day, block off time for it on your calendar.

This might look like blocking off 20 minutes in the middle of the day for a walk to clear your mind and get your legs moving after sitting and looking at a screen for 2 hours straight.

This might also look like blocking off 15 minutes in your schedule to call a friend for a quick chat to get your mind off of the piece of content you’ve been working on to come back with a fresh new look at your blog post.

While you’re in the process of growing your business and achieving your goals, in terms of revenue, your working hours can be spent two ways:

Working ON your business: Business planning, tracking your revenue, planning your marketing and content calendar, getting updates from your team. 

Working IN your business: Meeting with clients, creating the good or providing the service for your clients, you want to have time in your schedule for both and identify where your time is most valuable. 

You'll need time to do both, so set aside time in your calendar to intentionally do both.

3. Set boundaries

Time boundaries

Do you find you feel the best when you’re home by 6pm to cook your own dinner, read a few pages of your book, and get to bed by a certain time?

It might be a good idea for the quality of your mind, your work, and your relationships to set a boundary that you don’t schedule meetings after 5:00pm.

There are settings on Calendly, a scheduling app that I use with my clients and colleagues, that allow your clients, prospects, and colleagues to schedule meetings with you within a certain time frame.

You can also set a max on how many meetings you are keeping per day on Calendly.

Relationship boundaries

Communicating to friends and family about your unique schedule. Letting them know that although you structure your own schedule and set your own hours, you will still need to be accountable and working on your business most likely longer than a 9-5 work schedule. 

Learn to say no when you want to say (which is a full sentence)

Write down your Mission.

Having a clear mission will help you identify what you should be spending your time on. AND what you can say "No" to.

You will have better discretion when it comes to identifying a meeting with a potential partner, client, connection, and have a clearer idea of whether or not something aligns with your mission.

Knowing that anything you spend your time on is an investment will also require you to learn how to say no to certain things that might take away from your mission.

Learn what lights your fire and learn what puts it out. Listen to your intuition and keep reminding yourself of YOUR MISSION.

Conclusion:

Let us know if you have questions about how to execute any of these tips!

As we mentioned, this is a PRACTICE and work in progress for us too! So take one day at a time without judgment and we know you’ll do just fine. If you’re looking for a community to do it with, we got you! Send us an email or connect with us on social media. Instagram: @yesiandtori.