Making money feels good. You make the sale. Sign the contract. Land the client. Send the “we did it!” text to your business bestie. Success!
But Thrivers, we know that making money is only one part of building a financially healthy business. You also need to collect the money, understand where the money is going, decide how much should stay in the business, and build financial systems that can support where you want the business to go. And then you need more people to know that the business exists.
After listening to several episodes of the Women Thriving in Business podcast, three ideas kept coming up: know your money, prepare for growth, and build relationships that create opportunities.
Thrivers, making money is exciting. Knowing what to do with the money and opportunities when they arrive is how we build businesses that last.
Know Your Money: A Sale Isn’t Finished Until You Get Paid
Do you know what is happening with your money? Like REALLY know what is happening with your money? Nikki Rogers, host of the Women Thriving in Business podcast, spoke with Kathy Svetina about how to create a million-dollar business, and Kathy’s explained how the biggest issue for business owners is knowing their numbers.
Start with something simple. Look at your vendor list.
- Do you recognize all of those vendors?
- Do the expenses make sense?
- Are you still using everything you’re paying for?
- The more you look at your numbers, the more you understand what is actually happening in your business.
This matters because almost everything you do eventually impacts your finances:
- Hiring someone impacts your numbers.
- Changing your prices impacts your numbers.
- Marketing impacts your numbers.
- Adding another service impacts your numbers.
Sometimes what looks like a financial problem may even reveal another problem in the business.
But Thrivers, you do not need to suddenly develop a passion for spreadsheets because you started a business. But you cannot hide your head in the sand and hope the numbers figure themselves out. Dee Bowden made this even clearer when we talked about collecting cash.
In her episode called Sales Are Great But Cash is King, Dee shared that, “The sale is not complete until the cash is in the bank.” Read that again.
Often as business owners, we think the presentation was fun, and everything is great because the client said yes. The team gets excited. Then you send the invoice, and suddenly asking someone for the money they agreed to pay feels…awkward.
You can have $100,000 in sales and still have a cash problem if the $100,000 is sitting in unpaid invoices. You don’t want to ruin the relationship by asking the client to pay the invoice, but you cannot pay your team or keep your website running without paid invoices. For some odd reason, as business owners, we think you look broke when you have to follow up on invoice payments.
But listen to Dee: asking a client to honor your agreement is part of the relationship. This is why payment expectations need to be clear before you start working.
- When will you invoice?
- When is payment due?
- Do you require money upfront?
- What happens if someone needs different payment terms?
Sometimes as business owners, you may decide to make an adjustment for a customer you trust. Business is about relationships, and relationships can require flexibility. However, flexibility and avoidance are not the same thing.
Trust your gut and do not make a blanket rule that no clients get extra terms or extended payments. If you know that you need to receive payment upfront, make that clear. If you are comfortable negotiating terms with a longtime customer, do that. Then track the invoice.
Dee reminded us that tracking invoices isn’t “a black box of calculus.” Thank goodness! You need to know what you billed, what has been paid, and what is still outstanding. If money makes you uncomfortable, start small and learn. Learn about invoicing. Learn about billing. Learn about your sales. Hire someone who understands the things you don’t.
You don’t have to become a CFO. You do have to become a business owner who knows whether she got paid.
Learn more by listening to these episodes Making a Million Dollar Business with Kathy Svetina, Sales are Great But Cash is Kingfeat. Dee Bowden, and Breaking Through: Wealth Management for All of Us feat. Kaitlyn Carlson of the Women Thriving in Business podcast.
Prepare for Growth by Building Relationships: Build for the Business You Want
Now that we know where the money is, what are we doing with it?
Entrepreneurs have an interesting relationship with reinvesting. We make money and immediately think of seventeen things the business could use.
- New website!
- New software!
- New employee!
- New marketing campaign!
- New course that will definitely solve every business problem we’ve ever had!
- Your business becomes your baby, and it can become easy to pour everything back into it.
In the episode Breaking Through: Wealth Management For All Of Us with Kaitlyn Carlson, we discussed how entrepreneurs can become addicted to reinvesting in their businesses.
You tell yourself that you will worry about building personal wealth later: When the company gets bigger, when revenue reaches a certain number, or when you finally sell the business. But what if the business isn’t supposed to be your entire financial plan?
Thrivers, your business should support the life you want to build. You shouldn’t have to wait for some hypothetical exit before you start building wealth for yourself.
That may require getting help from others and consistent learning by hiring. As women thriving in business, we are becoming more comfortable hiring business, leadership, and marketing coaches. But what about money coaches?
Financial planners and wealth managers have coaches that every woman thriving in business could benefit from utilizing.
Why wouldn’t we? As your company grows, the type of financial support you need may also change. A financial planner can help you create a path toward building wealth. A wealth manager or financial advisor can help manage investments. A bookkeeper can help keep your financial records organized. An accountant has another role. A fractional CFO has another.
Kathy Svetina reminded us that every fractional CFO isn’t right for every business because you must have a bookkeeper and accountant in place first. The question is not simply, “What professional do successful entrepreneurs hire?”
Ask: What does my business need? More importantly, what will my business need?
If you can envision yourself operating a multimillion-dollar business within the next few years, you cannot wait until you become that business to start thinking about the systems it will require. Maybe you need better financial controls. Maybe you need a bookkeeper. Maybe you need an operations person. Maybe you need to understand how commission-based salespeople work before you hire one.
And you may see another entrepreneur doing something completely different. Good for her.
By continuing to ask yourself what your business needs, you will know how to best serve your market, goals, capacity, and numbers. Build for the business you actually want, not the business you think you’re supposed to have. You know your numbers. You are preparing your systems. Now we need people to know you exist.
Thrivvers, expanding your business and brand visibility will help you attract clients, which is great. However, visibility is not simply posting more often or getting your name in front of as many people as possible. Growth also comes from credibility and relationships.
Gigi Peterkin offered a helpful way to understand the difference between marketing, sales, and public relations.
- Marketing is the conversation about who you are and what you do.
- Sales is the invitation to buy.
- Public relations is earned media. Someone else tells your story, shares your expertise, and helps establish your credibility.
If you want people to recognize you as a thought leader, you need thoughts. You’ve started putting your ideas into the world as a business owner. But let’s go one step further. Be intentional about how you plan to share what you know. Develop a perspective. Talk about your expertise. Give people a reason to associate your name with a particular problem, solution, industry, or idea.
Then go meet some people.
But please don’t run into the networking event throwing business cards at everyone you see. As Jessica Sinclair said in The Essence of Networking, “Networking is not about giving out business cards, but listening.”
Ask yourself these questions as you are preparing to attend a networking event or thinking about collaborating with anyone that you meet:
- What does the person standing in front of you need?
- What are they working toward?
- Who do you know who could help them?
Networking changes when you stop treating every conversation as an audition for your next customer. Sometimes the person you’re speaking with will never buy from you. They may know someone who will. Or you may know someone who needs them.
Jessica compared networking to dating. You might kiss a lot of frogs, but even if someone isn’t the right frog for you, you may know another frog who would be delighted to meet them. Thrivers, we’re building frog networks now.
We are building relationship networks: Intentional networking lets you listen, connect, recommend, refer, and help. That is a much stronger foundation than entering every room wondering, “Who in here can do something for me?” Instead, ask: Where does this person fit into the community I’m building? The answer may not immediately lead to a sale, and that’s okay. Relationships have a funny way of creating opportunities you couldn’t have planned for when you walked into the room.
Learn more by listening to The Essence of Networking feat. Jessica Sinclair, Why Public Relations Matter In Business feat. Gigi Peterkin, and Breaking Through: Wealth Management for All of Us feat. Kaitlyn Carlson of the Women Thriving in Business podcast, to learn more.
Growth Requires You to Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable
Money -> systems -> visibility -> relationships. These may sound like separate parts of running a business, but they all require the same thing from you:
Growth. And growth is uncomfortable.
Kaitlyn shared that she “used to be obsessed with perfection” but eventually realized that she had to “get comfortable with fear and being uncomfortable.”
Thrivers, entrepreneurship will give you plenty of opportunities to practice.
- It can be uncomfortable to look at your numbers when you aren’t sure what they mean.
- It can be uncomfortable to ask a client about an unpaid invoice.
- It can be uncomfortable to hire someone to do something you have always done yourself.
- It can be uncomfortable to invest money outside of the business instead of immediately putting it back into the company.
- It can be uncomfortable to share your expertise publicly.
- It can be uncomfortable to walk into a room where you don’t know anyone and start building relationships.
You can wait until those things stop feeling uncomfortable or you can learn how to do them while they are uncomfortable. That is the mindset shift.
Running a thriving business doesn’t mean you eventually reach a stage where you know exactly what you’re doing.
- The numbers get bigger.
- The decisions get bigger.
- The opportunities get bigger.
- Your responsibility grows with them.
Which means you need to prepare before the opportunity arrives.
Build the financial systems now. Learn how to collect your money now. Develop your expertise now. Build your network now. Learn what kind of financial support you need now.
Being ready is another way to believe growth is coming.
Listen to The Essence of Networking feat. Jessica Sinclair, Why Public Relations Matter In Business feat. Gigi Peterkin, and Making a Million Dollar Business with Kathy Svetina for more details about how to prepare for business growth.
Making Money Is Only the Beginning
Thrivers, a thriving business is not simply a business that makes sales.
You have to know your money.
Understand what is coming in and what is going out. Track your invoices. Learn what your numbers are telling you. Get help when you need it.
You have to prepare for growth.
Build financial systems for the business you want, not simply the business you have today. Think about your personal wealth as intentionally as you think about the company’s next investment.
And you have to build relationships.
Share your expertise. Increase your visibility. Listen to people. Make connections. Help someone even when there isn’t an obvious sale attached to the conversation.
Your business needs all three.
The relationships can create opportunities. The opportunities can create sales. The sales need to become cash. The cash needs to be managed. And the money should help you build both the company and the life you want.
So take a look at your business this week.
- Where is your money going?
- What haven’t you collected?
- What systems will you need if the business doubles?
- Who knows what you do?
- Who are you building relationships with?
- And are the decisions you’re making today preparing you for the business you say you want tomorrow?
Making money is exciting.
Building a business that knows what to do with the money, relationships, and opportunities when they arrive?
That’s how we keep thriving.
Keep thriving!