Business is personal. It’s a relationship with others and it’s a relationship with yourself. When I say business is personal, I don’t mean that you should get offended when someone says something mean about your business or someone decides not to buy your products/services. I have some thoughts on how personal you should make your business, but that’s another conversation for another day.

If you don’t get to know your business (code word for yourself), you’re going to have a world of hurt as it grows… if it even does. So what does knowing your business look like? It looks like:

Creating goals with deadlines

Without having any goals, what’s the point? You started a business, now what? These goals don’t have to be world changing, but you should absolutely have goals that you want to meet by the end of the year. Better yet, make some quarterly goals. 

Simplifying and automating

Find areas of your business you hate doing or you’re not good at doing and then find someone who can do it for you. This one is hard and I can promise you that everyone struggles with this. What parts of your business can be simplified? This can look like canned emails, schedulers, appointment reminders, workflows, etc.

Knowing your finances

Oof. This one can hurt. You need to know and plan for your finances and PAY YOURSELF. 3 easy categories to help break this up: Income, expenses, savings. 

What do you want to pay yourself? What do you need to make each month for it to be a livable wage or a comfortable part time gig? Is it $25/hr, $50/hr, $1,000/hr? 

I recommend saving 5-10% of your income for taxes, rainy days, random emergencies and maybe even some bonuses for yourself (or your team).

Then for expenses, start small and with your important pieces, first. What do you *absolutely* need for your business to function? Anything after that, figure out if you actually need it or I you can get by with out it. Or if you can find a new platform/software that can combine some things. 

Start with those things and make sure you check in on this regularly. Once a quarter at the very least. In order to keep your business healthy and functioning, it requires attention and some regular maintenance. 

If you need help with this, download this free 90 day planner.