I woke this morning with it dawning on me just how reactive I am to things in my business.
Definitely prompted by yesterday’s nightmare of sorting out my end-of-tax-year expenses.
Paying bills is just one of those things I react to.
I don’t think about recurring bills much. But they keep showing up (dang it!).
And every time, I keep scrounging for cash to pay them.
Although it tends to be for the yearly things. That are more out of sight and mind.
The monthly things, I do a bit better with.
Particularly the likes of paying my BerserkerMail bill. I mean… I wouldn’t want you to miss a single day of my email capers because I’m not on top of that expense! 😜
I’m a bit over reacting.
(DON’T read that as “overreacting”… although… sure, I guess I have those moments).
I’m over it because I don’t need the stress.
I create enough for myself on a daily basis… I don’t need a surprise from left-field.
I also don’t need the extra time spent messing around with things I’ve not factored into my week or month.
So… I took some action…
And it’s rough as guts…
But I now have a handy new spreadsheet for expenses.
So I can see at a glance what month payments are going out for.
It has the months across the top and the description of the expense down the side. Things like “Zoom subscription” or “Break an Egg membership”.
If it’s a yearly expense, I’ll put the price in the month column for when it’s due.
If it’s a monthly subscription, then it will be spaced out with a price for each month.
There’s totals at the bottom. With a grand total too.
Super-simple.
But… you know what? …
Until now, I’ve not had that level of visibility for my business expenses.
Crazy, right?
Heck… I couldn’t easily tell you what next month’s expenses were going to be.
Let alone the amount for the coming year.
Now, after less than an hour mucking around with a speadsheet, I’ve got that.
And after yesterday’s expenses-wrangling… when I went through every single expense for the past year … I made sure I put everything in there.
And the cool thing?
I’ve already put a line through a few things that I really don’t need anymore.
Most notably, a few domain names that I brought for projects. But I know I’m not going to use them.
No use paying for past “one day maybes.”
Yes… it’s simple. And it’s a spreadsheet (not a whizzbang SaaS app or something).
But I have a simple business. (That’s by design.)
And so will work great for now.
This isn’t the only accounting stuff I’ve got going on. I have a handy app that pays all my tax etc.
But these insights into my expenses are invaluable.
Now… this is probably all basic business stuff.
But no one’s born knowing it.
It has to be learned. Sometimes, through painful experience.
But I’m happy for this whole end-of-year fiasco. And getting my expenses and business insights into better shape through it.
Then I can make better decisions. And be more than just a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants business owner.
And some expenses I’m super-happy to have on my new spreadsheet every month.
Like SavvyCal.
It’s easy to book times with me. And I LOVE the pay-to-book feature. Great for clients to book paid consultations.
I see it more as an investment. Because it helps grow my business.
Find out about it here… https://milham.me/savvycal
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Chris Milham