5 Reasons You Need to Stop Ignoring Your Small Business Finances - Andi Smiles (2024)

Let’s talk about your small business finances. Oh, you don’t want to? Rather talk about something else? Like the latest episode of the Bachelor?

Okay, I’m being facetious, but if this is you every time your small business finances get mentioned, let’s talk- for real.

Business finances can be really daunting. Maybe you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing, are overwhelmed by everything you have to learn, or rather work on something fun in your biz. Whatever the case, the money stuff gets exiled to the bottom of the to-do list and there it lives FO-EVA!

Here’s the thing- engaging with your small business finances can have some pretty awesome side effects. From the practical to the emotional, when you actively participate in your finances and stop ignoring them, magical things start to happen in your business and your life.

Don’t believe me? Check out these 5 reasons why you need to stop ignoring your small business finances:

Engaging with your small business finances can have some pretty awesome side effects.Click To Tweet

You’ll save time

Eventually you will have to get your financial information organized, even if it’s just for taxes. And if you’ve been ignoring your finances, it’s going to take you WAAAAAAAY longer. Just finding the information you need is an adventure unto itself (why hello piles of crumpled receipts) and we’re not even talking about remembering what all this stuff is for!

Think of your finances like your kitchen. If you never wipe off the counter or wash the dishes, things pile up fast. Soon the kitchen is a jungle of moldy pots and pans, crumbs in every crevice, and oil stains etched into the stove. #notcute

When it’s time to *finally* clean the kitchen, it’s such a mess that you’re overwhelmed and have no idea where to start. You totally wish that you dealt with the mess sooner because now your blissful weekend is going to be spent scrubbing ick off of your favorite mug.

The same is true for your finance. If you pay attention to them and keep them tidy from the get go, you’ll have lots of blissful weekends watching Gilmore Girls reruns in your underwear.

You’ll stop losing money

Ignoring your small business finances means that you’re losing money all over the place!

Leaving all the financial work until the end of the year often means a rush job and that’s a surefire way to forget about expenses that are valuable tax deductions.

Also, you might be paying for stuff you aren’t using. This is common with recurring expenses that get forgotten. If you aren’t taking the time to carefully review your finances every month (or better yet, every week!), these expenses will accumulate over time- costing you hundreds of dollars!

Finally, you’re probably overspending. Often we have an out of sight, out of mind mentality, and if we don’t see how much we’re actually spending then our patterns continue.
How many times have you looked at your bank account and wondered, “Where did all my money go?”

This type of question keeps us in check and helps us see beyond what we hope to be true about our money and to see what’s REALLY going on.

Ignoring your small business finances means that you’re losing money all over the place!Click To Tweet

You’ll stop living in a perpetual state of stress about money

You know the feeling- a clenched stomach, tightening in the jaw, and breath that never seems to get exhaled. Or how about waking up in the middle of the night frantically doing calculations in your head or wondering, “Should I have bought that?”.

Yup- that’s money stress for you and a few years ago that was my all day every day.

Even though I was determined to completely ignore my business finances, there was a small tugging in the back of my mind that worried and fretted over my money. And even though it was small- it was mighty. The tugging turned to stress and the stress turned to anxiety and the anxiety turned to way too many sleepless nights!

Not knowing what’s happening in our money doesn’t save us from the money stress- it makes it worst. It’s always lingering in the back of your mind, content to stay put until you least expect it then BAM! you’re crying because they were out of banana ice cream.

The only thing that can truly make that feeling go away is to look at your finances. Only by knowing will you stop stressing. Even if it’s worst than you thought- you know what you’re up against and can get your butt in high gear to make a plan and move forward.

You’ll know if your business is profitable

Just because a business brings in money doesn’t mean it’s profitable! A big mistake business owners make is assuming that because they have clients, sales, and are making money, their business is profitable.

Profit means there is something left over after your expenses, which are necessary to operate your business. Now, just because you don’t profit one year or one month doesn’t mean you’re a terrible business owner. Lots of businesses have years that they take a loss, especially if they are new or trying to launch a new product.

What’s more important is that you KNOW if you’re profitable- and if you’re not, why.

Paying attention to your business finances helps you answer this question and the why. You’ll know exactly what the trends are in your business and be able to make informed choices about how you run and scale your business based on this information.

You can plan for your future

This is my favorite reason to stop ignoring your business finances! Often we think about our finances as just something we deal with at tax time or when we need a quick bit of info on our business- but actually your business finances can help you plan for the long term.

And I’m not just talking about planning for your business’ future- I’m talking about YOUR future. Yes, you, the owner of your business.

Having a healthy and engaged relationship with your money will help you strategize on how to reach your personal goals. Want to save more money? Take more vacations? Live debt free? Work less?

All of these decisions can be made and planned for using information from your business finances. In fact, it’s actually pretty easy, but the trick is you have to be up on your money and willing to dive deep when you need to.

Ready to stop ignoring your small business finances? Enrollment for my course Bad Ass Business Finance is now open! BABF is an 8-week course that teaches you how to build healthy financial habits into your biz so you can stop feeling scattered and overwhelmed by your money and start feeling like the true money bad ass that you are.

A healthy relationship w/your money will help you strategize reaching your personal goals. Click To Tweet