We all do it.  Making things complicated when it doesn’t need to be ….. and doing it with our finances is a well trodden path!

It’s easy to overcomplicate things

It’s so easy to become overwhelmed when trying to grow your business and profits, right? We all have a tendency to over-complicate things, especially in business. When we start to think about growing and expanding, our mind automatically starts churning out thoughts that expansion is difficult, it’s tricky, growing a business is hard, the list goes on and on. 

These thoughts then stop us in our tracks and we let the fear of complication halt our growth.

It doesn’t have to be hard 

But, we’re here to tell you, it doesn’t have to be that hard. There is always an easier way and simplifying each process makes growing and expanding so much smoother and less stressful, sounds great hey?

Track your finances 

One of the biggest areas and fears in growing a business is the financials, your money, your spondoolies, the bucks, the wonga, the dollar. While we understand the money fear, you have to take a deep breath and start looking at what’s going on in your money flow area. The best and easiest way to do this is to track your income and expenses.

Keep it simple

Remember we’re keeping this simple, you don’t need to have an expensive, fancy pants accountant set you up a complicated spreadsheet. You can DIY it with a simple spreadsheet - if spreadsheets are your thing!  You can even use a pen and paper but that’s actually going to create more work for you in the long run. 

So, if spreadsheets aren’t your thing, (and let’s face it, who sets up a business to pour over spreadsheets every week or month?!) then having Pocket PA, can make this side of things really. really super simple.

We have a great feature within the software that allows you to track your income and expenses by just adding it in using a + button, super handy, right?

How will you track your finances?

Decide what method you’re going to use to track your income, and every day, add your daily income and what you’ve spent into your system. Whether you’re using a spreadsheet, or writing everything down, or using our super easy software to log your cashflow, the main thing is that you need to be logging everything.

Because you can’t manage what you don’t measure. And as with every small business, YOU need to be in charge of your own stuff!

Do you know your profit margin?

Next, we want to have a look at the profit margin, as you need to know what your profit is if you want to actually be making money in your business or want to invest back in order to grow. 

Growing will look different to everyone.  It could be that you want to invest in a fixed work location, perhaps you’re mobile and the travel just isn’t something you want to do anymore. You’ll need to track your profit margin to make sure your business can afford to set up in a fixed location and pay the rent for example, or even buy a fancy new bit of equipment.

Unless you know YOUR numbers, you won’t know if you can afford it. 

What does growth look like to you?

Perhaps growing, to you, looks like offering a wider variety of services. You need to keep a track of your profits to ensure you can afford to go on the necessary training courses you might want to do, to become qualified in the new services that you want to offer. Don’t forget the materials that you then may need to buy to start offering these new services. 

If you don’t track your profits, you could end up spending out money that you can’t yet quite afford, leaving you stuck for funds in the middle of the month, or not being able to pay your usual outgoings or worse still, an unexpected bill that could crop up.

It’s not sexy but it works

Measuring your finances sounds dull, we get it, it’s not sexy on paper; it probably doesn’t thrill you to get down and dirty with your finances on a Saturday night ……. but if you look at it as a tool to getting yourself further in your business and life,and to SEE what money you’re making, what’s actually yours as profit, well suddenly it all just sounds a lot more appealing doesn’t it? 

We know that people are more likely to track their finances if it’s easy, which is why we made it so simple using Pocket PA. You literally add a payment in every time you get paid, and this will take you less than 30 seconds, and then you do the same when you buy something for your business and pop it in as an expense. We even added a camera feature so you can take a photograph of your receipt. Can it get any easier? 

Can you spare 30 seconds?

Spending 30 seconds entering every payment and expense each day, will only take a maximum of a few minutes out of your entire day. Every time you add a payment or expense, you’ll then know in real-time exactly how much your profits are. Well, you will if you have Pocket PA, because the profit section updates immediately, giving you that vital accurate and real time information.

It could take a little longer if you’re writing it down every day, but remember not to over complicate it. Just write down your payments received, the money you spend, and then work out the difference. The difference is your profit. But remember if you do this manually on paper and a calculator then you will need to keep revisiting it every time you add more to your lists. Not the best use of your precious time hey?

So, if you hate sums, like so many of us do, then sign up to Pocket PA, as it massively takes the hard work out for you. You can even try before you buy. Remember, no complicated spreadsheets, no collecting bags of paper receipts, no more endless calculations. 

You get what you measure. Want more profit? Start to measure and track it.

You’ll most likely want to measure different things at different times too.

For example, if you’ve added a new temporary offer to your business, you’ll want to track how well the offer is doing. How much profit it’s making you, how many are you selling, against what it’s costing you? Then you’ll know if it’s an offer that is working profitably for you and if you’ll want to put it on again in the future. 

If you don’t have any offers on, but you’re maintaining your prices and services, you might not need to track your profit every single day. With Pocket PA, it tracks your profits for you whether you have offers on or not.

We’d love to hear what your biggest take away is from our article, as managing money doesn’t have to be stressful. We pride ourselves at Pocket PA that using the tool really is a game-changer for your business, so give yourself the gift that keeps on giving and start your 14-day free trial right now.