How to Stop Worrying About Money When You Own a Small Business
There’s a story a lot of small business owners tell themselves when money feels stressful:
I just need to make more.
More clients. More revenue. A better month. Once the business reaches that next income goal, surely the money part will feel easier.
Sometimes more income really is necessary. There are situations where the numbers simply don’t work without bringing in more money.
But I’ve also worked with business owners earning very good money who are still worried about it.
They check the bank account before making a purchase. They aren’t sure how much they can safely pay themselves. They know taxes are coming but aren’t quite sure whether they’ve set aside enough. A great revenue month feels good, but they’re still wondering how much of that money is actually available to spend.
At a certain point, earning more doesn’t answer those questions. You need to understand the money you already have.
More Income Doesn’t Automatically Give You More Information
Imagine $20,000 comes into your business this month.
That’s good news.
But that $20,000 doesn’t tell you how much needs to stay in the business, how much is available to pay yourself, or what needs to be set aside for taxes.
It doesn’t tell you whether there are expenses coming three months from now that this month’s income needs to help cover.
And it definitely doesn’t tell you whether you can afford the new software, contractor, equipment, training, vacation, or home project you’ve been considering.
A bank balance can tell you how much money is sitting in an account today. You need more information than that to make good financial decisions.
When you don’t have a clear financial system, you’re left trying to make those decisions with whatever information you can see right now. Usually, that’s the amount sitting in the bank.
And that number doesn’t tell the whole story.
Owning a Business Makes Your Money More Complicated
Business owners are dealing with something most people with a regular paycheck don’t have to think about.
Your income may change every month.
A $30,000 month might be followed by a $12,000 month. You may have a large expense coming later in the year. Your business may need to hold onto some of the money you’re earning today to cover expenses months from now.
At the same time, your personal life keeps happening.
The mortgage is still due. You want to take a vacation. Your kid needs braces. The car needs tires. You’d like to put more into retirement. Maybe you’d simply like to buy something fun without wondering afterward whether you should have spent the money.
Your business finances and personal finances affect each other.
You need to understand how money moves through the business and into your personal life.
Without that information, you can have a very profitable business and still find yourself checking the bank account over and over again trying to decide whether everything is okay.
Why You Can Make Good Money and Still Worry About Money
You may know your revenue.
You may have a bookkeeper and clean financial statements.
You may know that your business is profitable.
Those are all useful pieces of financial information. But they may not answer the questions you have to make decisions about your money every day.
How much can you comfortably pay yourself?
How much of the money in your accounts is already needed for something else?
Are you prepared for taxes?
What does the business need to keep available for slower months?
Can you make that business purchase you’ve been considering?
Can you take a vacation?
Are you setting enough aside for your future while also enjoying the money you’re earning today?
Those questions require a different view of your finances.
You need to be able to see what your money is doing, what it needs to support, and what choices are actually available to you.
Making More Money Can Still Be Part of the Answer
I absolutely want business owners to make good money.
A profitable business can give you the ability to pay yourself well, hire help, invest in growth, save for the future, travel, give generously, and have more choices about how you live and work.
I want my clients to build wealth.
I also want them to enjoy their money now.
You shouldn’t have to wait for some future revenue number before you feel comfortable using the money you’ve already worked hard to earn.
More money becomes much more useful when you understand what you have and what you want it to do.
Otherwise, it’s surprisingly easy to reach the next revenue goal and discover that you’re still asking the same questions you were asking before.
How a Financial System Helps You Stop Worrying About Money
A useful financial system gives your money context.
You can see what money is available today and what needs to stay available for later.
You can prepare for taxes before they’re due.
You can decide what the business can afford to pay you and create more consistency around your personal income.
You can prepare for slower months while income is strong.
You can plan for expenses you know are coming instead of dealing with them when they arrive.
And when you’re considering a decision, you have information you can use.
Over time, you build a much more complete picture of your finances.
You aren’t relying on today’s bank balance to tell you whether you’re okay. You have a system that helps you understand what the numbers actually mean.
That’s where I see so much of the worry begin to change.
Variable Income Needs a Financial System That Can Handle Variable Income
If you own a business, your income probably doesn’t arrive in the same amount every two weeks.
Your financial system needs to account for that.
A strong month may need to support future months. Money you earn today may already have several things it needs to cover later.
You also need enough flexibility to adjust when reality changes.
Because it will.
You can have a fantastic month without assuming every month will look like it. You can have a slower month and understand whether there’s actually a problem or whether the system you built is already prepared for it.
That kind of information matters when your income changes from month to month.
You Can Learn to Trust the Information in Front of You
One of my favorite parts of this work is watching what happens when someone starts to really understand their finances.
The questions get better.
Instead of staring at a bank balance trying to decide whether something is affordable, they can look at the information they’ve built and make a decision.
They know what the money is already doing. They can see what needs to happen next.
And eventually, they start thinking beyond this month’s bills.
Maybe there’s enough room to take more money home from the business.
Maybe they want to build larger reserves.
Maybe it’s time to increase retirement contributions, prepare for a big purchase, take some time off, or spend some of the money they’ve worked hard to earn.
Maybe a new opportunity comes along and they can look at the numbers and decide whether it makes sense for their business and their life.
The important part is that they can see their choices.
As your finances get stronger, those choices can grow too.
That’s a big part of what wealth means to me. It gives you more choices and freedom as your life changes.
How to Stop Worrying About Money for Good
If you’re making good money and you’re still worrying about it, there may be more to understand about the money you already have.
You can learn how to organize your finances in a way that gives you useful information.
You can build a financial system that works with variable income and accounts for both your business and your personal life.
And you can learn how to use that information to make your own financial decisions.
That’s the work I do with my clients.
We look at what’s actually happening with your money, organize it in a way that makes sense to you, and build a financial system that works in your real life.
The bigger goal is for you to understand your money well enough to use it.
To enjoy your life today. To prepare for what you know is coming. To build wealth for the future.
And to stop spending so much of your life worrying about money.
About Amanda Brink
Amanda Brink is a financial coach and founder of Mindful Money Studio. She works with small business owners, individuals and couples who want to understand their money, build a financial system that works in real life, and stop stressing about money for good. Through one-on-one financial coaching, Amanda helps clients make sense of both their business and personal finances so they can enjoy their money today while building wealth for the future.