5 Best Budgeting Tips for Grooming Business Owners

Starting a business means freedom, a chance to develop your niche, and having more control over the money you earn. With this freedom comes the obligation to deal with budgeting issues without the luxury of an accounting department. Here are five useful tips that can help any grooming business owner or solopreneur manage their budget and make it work effectively.

Consider Memberships or Weekly Pricing

It can be tough not knowing whether your current amazing clients will push their 4 week to 6 week because “they just doesn’t need it yet” or are going to “skip this month” because they’re going away on vacation. This uncertainty can put a strain on planning your budget. Reduce this uncertainty by encouraging your clients to sign up for a membership or switch your pricing to reflect how many weeks they wait. This way, you will have a clearer idea of how much money you will earn or at least protect yourself against people trying to save money to your detriment.

Incentivize loyalty by offering the best prices for those who are on a monthly maintenance schedule or sign up for your membership.  If you increase prices for those over 4 weeks it will be a no brainer to book a regular appointment and keep it!  One of my students priced her grooms at $100 for 4 weeks, $150 for 6 weeks and $200 for 8 weeks (and consultation grooms) all of a sudden everyone was happy to be on a 4 week schedule and when they pushed their appointment out to 6 weeks she did not lose any money.  Memberships are also a great way to guarantee money since you will automatically have that money in your account each month.  Plus many consumers are more interested in a subscription if it carries a discount or offers something of value, which a membership model done right does!

Separate Business and Personal Expenses

One way to avoid a budgetary mess is to separate business and personal expenses. This will make tax time much easier and will eliminate the need to search for papers or documents at the last minute. Have at least one account strictly for business purposes and use your business account for professional expenses only to keep things neat and orderly all year round and especially at tax time.  Remember, treating your business account like your personal piggy bank is not only embezzlement but it’s going to create this cycle of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ which can make you feel more out of control than you actually are.

Keep a Sinking Fund for Large Expenses

Some opportunities only come along once, it is important to have the funds available to take advantage of these opportunities, especially if they are potentially game-changing for your business. It could be a flash sale or black friday sale, an item posted at a deep discount on a facebook marketplace. Putting money aside regularly for this sinking fund will ensure you can make the investment when it comes along.

Automate Your Budgeting Tasks

If you are still figuring out your budget and expenses with a pencil and paper, it’s time to get automated. Entering income and expenses into a software accounting program on a daily basis will make budgeting easier and will provide metrics that will help you monitor your business’ growth daily. Getting rid of those notebooks and slips of paper will also make your bookkeeping more efficient.  If you are a pen and paper kind of person consider hiring a virtual assistant who can upload that pen and paper information into something like every dollar or quickbooks.

Schedule a Monthly Budgeting Review

Every month schedule a time for a full review of your budget. If you have followed the steps above to automate and calculate your expenses and revenue as you go, these reviews will be as easy as looking at what you have earned, what you have spent and deciding what areas of your business can be run more efficiently and with fewer expenses. Being pre-emptive and solving issues before they arise is much easier than solving problems later on.

Taking charge of your budget is one of the main elements of grooming business owner or solopreneur success. Automating tasks, keeping personal and business expenses separate, and taking stock of your business finances every month can make your business more productive and successful.

Are You Making Some Common Money Mistakes? 

Now that you’ve got your business budget under control, what other money mistakes might you be making? That’s the topic of my free workshop!  Very often we fall into bad money patterns or habits and we don’t realize we’re making serious mistakes because this is how we’ve always handled money. Join me to investigate if your money mistakes are holding you back from the profits you deserve! 

www.savvygroomer.com/4moneymistakes