When it comes to making a budget, good intentions only go so far. Find out how to keep your budget realistic.
If you’re a local artist or craftsman that’s turned your passion into a business, you’re quickly finding out the reality and needs of budgeting. Here are 3 common errors you’ll want to avoid:
1. Not Thinking of Upcoming Costs
With all you have on your plate today, it’s hard to even think about tomorrow let alone what’s coming up in the next 6 months. But planning for those things today will give you so much more peace in the coming months. Think about demand for your product or services in the next 6 months to a year. What’s a slow time you have coming up? What’s a peak time and how do you budget that out to cover the slower time. For example, if you’re a wedding photographer, you can’t plan on being busy in the winter so, how do you make income from the wedding season cover the offseason?
2. Not Having a Specific Goal
Hoping to make more this month than last month is not a goal. How much more you want to make is a goal though. When you exhaustively write down all your costs and have a cushion for unexpected costs paired with specific goals to increase revenue, you’ll get much closer to achieving them than you would without.
3. Setting It and Forgetting It
Managing a budget is an active ongoing exercise that evolves overtime. Setting up a spreadsheet and walking away is useless. You have to be able to adjust and improve the budget in the moment on a regular basis. Set aside a time every month to do this and you’ll see your money grow.
Remember to always consult with a professional financial advisor. You do your thing you’re good at doing and we do ours. Let’s partner together today!