The Profit has been a favorite T.V. show of mine for a long time. Marcus Lemonis is from Chicago and helps small business profit while earning money in the process. What I love about Marcus is his famous quote of “Respect your Mom and your money, or both of them will slap you.” What tickles me about this statement. Truth.
If you are disrespectful of the money you earned through your business endeavors, and squander it away, you will regrettably be looking for a bailout or folding up shoppe. Why not make strategic choices? Squirrel away most of it, focus on growing your relationships with people. Update your IT skills through college courses or even You Tube. Unfortunately, I witnessed a lot of people getting that jingle lingle ling of a big wad of cash in their pocket and end up borrowing more.
Money Waste
Spending more time and money on advertising then what you spend on your clients’ projects. Ouch, burn. It’s true though. Have a checklist of what they need done, the ads can wait. The three hour blogs can wait. Take care of your people first.
Having three of everything. Office supplies, promotional items, business cards, and it all adds up! Although these items are tax deductible, if you don’t have a ton of start up money, don’t buy too much.
Opting for an expensive lease option instead of a “Work Share.” Having a place to meet clients is key, investigate your local businesses to see if Work Shares are an option at a fraction of the cost.
Re-Work Cost. I’ll explain. You start out asking a team member to complete a project, half way through the project, you hire someone else at a much hire rate who is an influencer. The team member ditches the project immediately. I don’t blame them. So now you are stuck paying two people for one job. Hear that again. Two people took YOUR money, to do the same job.
Putting Everything on a credit card. Stop.
Long seminars that make you fall asleep. Go for the virtual webinars that have meaningful networking in less working hours.
An expensive Accounting System that no one in your company wants to bother with. Simplicity is key to getting all on board the accounting train. Paperwork takes a chunk of time, so make sure it’s an easy process.
Changing Project Management programs to “find the next big thing.” Groan, from every team member forced to “relearn” a new app. Stick with google sheets in the beginning. I’ve found it more useful than having to log on and find, click up sent me an email, four times with old information. Very frustrating.
Like Marcus says, Slap you!
Non Waste
Webinars turn network opportunities. These pay off! A $30 webinar could turn into hundreds of dollars in your pocket if someone wants to do business with you. They may have been praying to find someone with your skill set and price point. I found a tourism one, that landed me a dream client.
Notebooks, USB drives and pens. These are the staples of any blogger, accountants and business owners. Tax deductible and cost effective.
Creating Standard Operating Procedures. If you go through freelancers, this is key. Why spend more money re-training a freelancer when they could learn it through what your last assistant created. It’s a win trust me.
Educating yourself through You Tube and college courses. It’s not necessary to get degrees in everything. Just cherry pick the courses your clients have told you they need you educated on.
