– The Foundation of a Company

Solid financial planning is one of the most important foundations for your business. Only when your finances are in order, do you, as an entrepreneur, have the freedom to make spontaneous decisions. Important entrepreneurial decisions are often connected to investments because these are necessary to grow or further develop your company. Investments can be made in a variety of areas, such as personnel, equipment, training, marketing or sales.

It is not enough for just the business finances to be in order, private finances also need to be in order. As an entrepreneur, it makes sense that you pay yourself a fixed “salary”, which should be sufficient to finance your private life. If this is not calculated properly, there is often a constant excessive outflow of funds from the business to the private sphere, which reduces the potential of your business.

This is how to move forward:
Planning should always be done for an entire year. Create two separate lists (business/operational and private) that includes all months from January to December. If the data is not yet available, estimate the amounts and revise your planning regularly.

Operational/Business:
1) Record your income. If you do not know it exactly, estimate it and then allocate the income to the different months. The allocation can be directly assigned to the corresponding months for recurring income or evenly distributed on average over the year.
2) Record your planned income under that, ex. for new business, new products or new customers.
3) Record all expenses. These can be monthly fixed expenses or planned investments for the future. Your personal salary should also be one of the fixed monthly calculations.

Private:
1) Record all income. This includes your entrepreneurial salary, rental income, interest income, child support, etc.
2) Record all expenses. These can be fixed monthly expenses or planned investments for the future. This should include all expenses like food, toiletries, entertainment, etc. It’s easy to overlook how much money you spend on small daily expenses (like the coffee and pretzel on the way to work). Keep a budget journal in which you also record all cash payments.

If you consistently and regularly revise these lists, you will always have a complete overview of your finances.

If you need help with your financial planning, please feel free to contact me at julia@buhmann.consulting. I look forward to hearing from you.