Photo by David Iskander on Unsplash
“I’ve been so embarrassed by my business books that I’ve avoided reaching out for help.”
I can honestly say that this is the first phrase that I hear from almost every small business owner I meet for the first time. The truth is that for adults, finance issues evoke the same feelings and behaviour that we’ve all experienced at some point as children in a parent/child relationship.
Think back to a time when you didn’t follow your parent’s instructions and ended up hiding the truth from them to avoid getting in trouble. Fast forward to your “adulting” years. You start a business. You end up becoming busy before you were ready to be and all of the steps you knew you should have taken to manage the business never got done. 1, 2, 3, 6, 9 years pass and voila! Those same feelings crop up again and again and again.
No judgement here
I want to reassure you that falling behind on bookwork is not the exception…in my experience it’s the rule. I’m not your Mom. You don’t answer to me, so you can let those feelings of embarrassment go.
Life happens when we’re busy making other plans and the first tasks that get pushed aside are the ones that aren’t customer facing, don’t generate income and for most people, aren’t enjoyable! I actually enjoy managing numbers but I really do understand that most of the world doesn’t. It’s okay…that doesn’t hurt my feelings.
Catching up isn’t easy
I won’t lie to you. Catching up isn’t easy. Digging up old information and trying to remember what you did, why you did it and where on earth you put the receipt for it is time consuming work. However, the feeling of satisfaction and relief when you’re all caught up is so worth it. Let’s make a plan to get you caught up and then we’ll celebrate!
Spend the rest of today day letting any embarrassing feelings go. Tomorrow you can contact me and I’ll help you start getting caught up.
