However, you don't need to break the bank to manage a successful startup. Below, 12 members of the Young Entrepreneur Council share their top tips for maintaining healthy finances.
What is your best,
manageable tip for healthy finances?
If you write down your financial goals, they stay in your brain and force you to understand and remember what you are about to achieve. If your goal is to save $1,000 by the end
of the year, write it down and keep it somewhere you'll see it constantly.
–Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
Contents1. Write down your goals.2. Try to spend less than you earn.3. Establish a budget.4. Prioritize check-in.5. Configure alerts.6. Embrace technology.7. Implement weekly “pulse checks”8. Define monthly, quarterly and annual financial management tasks.9. Stay away from credit card debt.10. Always know where you stand.11. Have the right mindset.
Spend less than you
make. Get yourself on a budget, and whether that's saving money on
monthly bills or cutting back on entertainment or electronic upgrades,
sure expenses never exceed income. This way, you will have no chance of
falling into credit card debt.
–Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance
This may seem like an obvious trick, but so many people fail to set a budget and stick to it. Having a
budget will prevent you from overspending, whether in your personal life or
in business, and it will also help you see exactly where your money is going.
Remember not to also add a place for "savings" to your budget, as you
should set aside some money for that every month.
–David Henzel, LTVPlus
No matter how much
or how little you earn, adjust your finances to spend less than
you bring. Do this by establishing a budget that includes putting money away each month and sticking to it. It could look like $20 in savings
account to build an emergency fund or $3,000 in a diversified portfolio. Start
saving as soon as possible.
–Jared Weitz, United Capital Source Inc.
If you're bad
managing money, consider setting up alerts on your phone to remind you
of your goals. Sometimes all you need is extra motivation to save more,
so if you have something to remind you to do it, it just gets a whole lot easier.
–Jared Atchison, WPForms
Using technology
to manage your finances wisely can open up a whole new world. For example, apps
such as Clarity Money, Digit
and Stash can help assess areas where you may not be
spending wisely. Such apps can help identify trends in your spending
and recommend where you can save money and even transfer money for you. In short, they can help save time and money!
—Shu Saito, Godai
Finances are
the backbone of any business. At my company, my CFO and I will set up
weekly meetings to discuss recent trends, observations, and takeaways.
Some weeks our conversations are only two minutes long, but others will take
longer. Doing this consistently allows us to keep the numbers a top priority
and catch problems early on.
–Dalip Jaggi, Interactive Currency
We review all of our
monthly for credit and cash flow, review our subscriptions and
office data usage quarterly for new services or discontinuation, and
>Assess our credit cards and non-cash assets annually. In this way, we are
always looking for new ways to manage debt and generate lines of credit
through existing credit and by reducing the waste of products that we do not use.
–Matthew Capala, Alphametic
If you're in credit
card debt, do whatever you can to get out. It could mean living below your
means until you are free and clear. If you don't have any credit card debt, don't start. If you don't have the money, you don't need the thing. Some debt is OK,
but that debt should be limited to mortgages (within your means) and student
loans.
–Jeff Pitta, Health Insurance Plan Research
The best way to
manage your finances is to always know where you stand. It can be as simple
logging into your credit card and bank accounts every week or even creating
your own spreadsheets. The more you know about your finances, the less likely
you are to find yourself in trouble. Make sure to be authentic and real with your
Numbers; it's not something you want to mess with.
–Zac Johnson, Blogger
One of the toughest
hurdles to successfully managing your finances is mental. If you
find yourself in a survival-oriented financial mentality, it will be difficult to
make decisions that can improve your situation. Instead of trying to spend less
money than you earn, reframe your focus to focus on more money than you
spend.
–Bryce Welker, The Big 4 Accounting Firms
