We were set to get married in less than a month, when my husband of now 24 years asked me, “How important is money for you?”.
I was well aware of the mixed feelings out there swirling around the topic of money. So I considered that question carefully, and then said the truth, “Very important.”
Too often, we try to justify our answers to a question like that with ‘but my family is more important’, or ‘but only if I have earned it’, or ‘but it’s not more important than my integrity’, or ‘but I want to use it to do good in the world’ etc.
But to my would-be husband in that moment, I answered simply. The question was how important money was for me and I answered it without any preambles and caveats.
Luckily, he was a wise guy, and he didn’t try to twist my response to mean something that wasn’t true. Turns out, money was important for him too.
But here’s the thing: how often do we show that same kind of wisdom to ourselves? Especially us women. We’ve got this knack for downplaying the significance of money in our lives, almost as if valuing finances somehow diminishes the importance of relationships and other aspects of life.
And it’s not just in our personal lives. We carry that mindset straight into our businesses. We get so caught up in the flashy stuff like marketing, sales, social media, branding, customer service, hiring (all of which are crucial to the success of a business) but we forget to give our finances the attention they deserve, we ignore the stories our money is trying to tell us.
As a result, money stays in some corner of our business, ignored (Key Performance Metrics), carrying untold stories (data and charts), longing to be harnessed (data-driven decisions) and yearning for an opportunity to multiply (free cashflows and abundance).
I am here to shake things up with Ethical Financial Mentoring. I am here to change the way you think about money, business finances, business insights and data. And guess what, it doesn’t require you to do a complete life-overhaul. Some simple tweaks here and there and voila! You can transform into a money-savvy entrepreneur who knows how to listen to the tales their cashflow is telling.
Here are a few tips to get started:
- Financial goal setting with precision: Set up SMART goals for your business: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. Then break them down into smaller actionable steps. Revisit these goals and adjust at least every 6 months.
- An asset worthy of investment: Ongoing education, skills development and self-care practices are some of the ways you can invest in the most important asset for your business: You. Find bite-size time everyday in your routine to stay connected with yourself, so you don’t lose the macro picture of why you are doing what you are doing. Utilise books, online courses, and apps to improve your understanding of business finance and wealth management. I recommend ‘You are a Badass at making money’ by Jen Sincero and ‘Women and Money: Owning the power to control your destiny’ by Suze Orman. For online mini courses I recommend Coursera and Udemy. Beyond basic financial literacy, learn to delegate to experts, so you can focus on your core business.
- Risk and Reward: Understand the concept of risk management and its significance in financial decision making. Just like your goals, assess your risks at least every 6 months, if not more often, and mitigate in both personal and business finances.
- Pricing and negotiation: Price your products / services in an informed way. Negotiating better terms is one of the most undervalued techniques to improve your finances. Hone your negotiation skills and utilise while hiring staff or entering contracts or partnerships. Constantly review where this can be implemented to secure better terms for the business.
- Scaling and creating multiple income streams: In today’s world, Scaling is possibly the most important word to know in a business context. Constantly think about how you can have multiple and passive sources of income and how you can utilise benefits that come from being able to scale. Invest in understanding what that means and how it can be applied to your business.