Why your personal finances matter in entrepreneurship by AishaTaylor

Entrepreneurship is a way to increase your income and pursue your dreams. However, many people don’t realize their personal finances can matter in business. Managing a business is more than just selling a product or service.  It requires financial discipline. Successful personal financial management can help you practice and develop the critical skills and habits needed to assess business spending, income, financial position, and the value received from business investments or spending.

This post will share 4 reasons why solid personal financial management can help you better manage your business finances.

Better manage business expenses

When you practice financial discipline by reducing impulse spending, you are training yourself to say “no” to the things that don’t matter and say “yes” to more things that add value.  This will help you to avoid succumbing to the temptation to purchase the fresh new product, coaching program, or hot new thing your competitors are doing. Instead, you will decide to focus more on free tools, follow a business budget, create a strategy for things that you will invest in with a clear return on investment in mind, and ultimately develop more discipline with how to approach business spending.

Know where you stand financially in your business

A critical component of managing a business is financial reporting (especially at tax time) and keeping track of income and expenses to ensure that your business is profitable and is able to fulfill customer orders.  If you get in the habit of finding the time and discipline to review your personal finances monthly, then you will also be developing the discipline to do the same in your business. Not only will this make tax reporting easier, it will also help you avoid running out of money which means you may not have the resources for the things you need to grow, expand, or even fill customer orders.  If you are a full-time entrepreneur, then failed to adequately manage business finances can even lead to business closure and returning back to work.

Obtaining a business loan and credit

If you are a sole proprietor or are just starting your business, then the bank may review your personal credit before extending business credit.  If you sign a personal guarantee when taking out a business loan, the bank may review your personal credit history to determine the likelihood the loan will be repaid. Therefore, when establishing business credit, it is also important to work on your personal credit as well.

Funding your business

There may be times when your business isn’t making the income needed to cover your business expenses.  Additionally, you may even need to allocate a portion of your paycheck to help fund start up or relaunch costs.  If this is the case, then review (and if necessary revise) your personal budget to include the amount you are allocating to your business.

Hopefully, these tips help you to understand why your personal finances matter in business.  Leave a comment to tell me how you will implement the tips.

Learn more about Aisha Taylor at  www.FNPhenomenal.com, Twitter: @FNPhenomenal

Balancing Your Personal Leadership by "BOSS Influencer" Dr. Jacquie Hood Martin

Life is filled with strange encounters. In a moment and at times without notice, a situation arises that dumbfounds you. A place in your heart that is almost mended, a relationship that is just about repaired, or a wound that is nearly healed. Yet, out of the blue a trigger of how hurt you really were by it, causes you to realize you have not come as far as you think!

Living a life of balance is not just how well you handle your finances, manage your affairs, keep up with meals, children, and exercise. It is at times how you balance yourself within the engagements you have with other people. Family, friends, co-workers, bosses, church folk, neighbors, and sometimes casual acquaintances can throw you off balance when you engage in their hurts. These real-life encounters can set anyone (yes, even you) off balance and off-kilter. As you consider how well or not you are balancing your life encounters, consider and remember you are a leader of one; one single person: self. There are times when you must step back, step away, and stand clear of what you are doing in order to re-evaluate your true effectiveness. This is where hindsight and foresight meet. Everyday lends itself to new opportunities and challenges. As you face the day, allow yourself to take it all in. Don’t panic, shy away, or brush off too casually an encounter that may be God-sent.

Sometimes, the best way to learn new coping skills, new ways of viewing a situation, or even improve your avoidance tactics is to take it square on! Yet, other times, it’s a clear directive to steer clear. Either way, you can learn valuable lessons and enhance your ability to lead your own life. Today is the day you start to matter! Sure, you never really meant to doubt your ability, but things happened to shake your confidence. Well, it’s time to regain perspective and put you back in first place in your life. Balance is a state of mind. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. Proverbs 23:7

Whatever you do today, be sure your heart is in it. If it’s not, walk away and find a path that suits your heart. Pray this week to begin afresh with people who have a heart for what you do, and to be on one accord with you. If they can’t go the distance, take them as far as they can, then release them to find their ‘heart-path.’ And, consider you too may need to do the same.

Today take a moment to review who is in your space, rethink their place, and reassign value to them so that you are not physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, or spiritually off-balance by your interactions with them in your life.

Jacquie Hood Martin, PhD, CSSGB, is a full-time Master Coach Trainer, and CEO of J. Hood & Associates Life Management Firm, a professional development 501(c)3. Her company offers Coaching, Coaching Certifications, Leadership Training, Strategic Planning, and Professional Development services for individuals and companies. More on her website at jhoodandassociates.org. Twitter: @jhoodmartin

Wait! Don’t Quit, Yet By "BOSS Influencer" Yvette Gavin

How to write a resignation letter made Google’s top 10 most searched ‘how to’ questions earlier this month. Congratulations if you’re among the folks moving on to a promising new job. But, wait. Don’t resign your current position or jump the gun by making announcements on social media until you’ve made it through the background checks and the offer is official. Here are three things you should know before giving your resignation letter:

I have a friend who lost a job offer after a lemon poppy seed muffin caused her to fail a drug test. You may not eat muffins, but there are other reasons the offer could fall through. On that note, you can’t put yourself in any situation where your job offer may be compromised. In other words, if someone else in your presence is smoking illegal substances, you need to remove yourself from the situation.

Drug tests aren’t the only thing that can go wrong at this point. A gentleman I know lost an offer for his dream job when the company discovered he had a felony conviction. More than two decades had passed since he committed the offense, and he'd never had another

run-in with the law. Because it stopped showing up on background checks after all that time, he almost forgot about it. However, this company’s research was so thorough that they discovered the conviction and, as a consequence, withdrew the job offer. Unfortunately, this man had already resigned the position he’d held before the offer was made. The loss left him devastated, and what had promised to be a significant advancement for his career turned into the beginning of a long period of unemployment.

You may be breathing a sigh of relief because you don’t have a criminal record and you can pass a drug test and financial background check with flying colors. I advise you not to get too comfortable. Things happen, so don’t give your resignation until you’ve completely locked down the new job. By completely locked down I mean making sure you have passed all background checks before giving your current employer a letter of resignation.

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Yvette Gavin has coached individuals into higher paying jobs, more rewarding careers, and personal spiritual growth. A dynamic organizational leader, Yvette has helped Fortune 100 companies and small businesses to improve the quality of their deliverables and to build stronger and highly productive teams. Yvette is the author of Recalibrate! Navigating the Job Market with Confidence. Visit www.YvetteGavin.com Twitter: @yvettegavin