An Easy Way to Track Your Expenses and Profits As A Small Business Owner | Business Systems & Workflow Educator Dolly DeLong Education

An easy way to track your expenses and profits as a small business owner

Do you own your own business or are you currently in a side hustle that you are wishing could become a full-time business? Well, there are many steps you need to be taking in order to ensure that you are doing all that you can in order to achieve your entrepreneurial dream, and one of those steps is getting well acquainted with the numbers of your business. In other words, you should start taking the necessary steps in becoming more confident with the numbers that run your business! And yes, you CAN do this! 

You do not have to be an accountant or even love math to have a relationship with money. But for the sake of your business, you should take the time to be well acquainted with all the numbers of your business. 

If thinking about numbers overwhelms you and you feel absolutely paralyzed in where to begin, I have a very simple and easy solution for you. Yes, it does involve spreadsheets  (just one spreadsheet to be clear), and yes it does involve you actually sitting down and inputting numbers, but once you see how simple this tool is, you are going to feel more confident about how you treat the numbers of your business. 

Long gone are the days of having a checkbook ledger and keeping track of all your spending because (I mean, I distinctly remember watching my dad balance the checkbook in the early 90s, and then I would ask him if I could have a ledger for myself to play “bank” with) it was an early introduction to keeping track of my spending and incoming profits for sure. 

But once my business took root, that is when my husband encouraged me to track the numbers of my own business because I was guilty of not truly keeping up where all of my money was going. I did not have a system, I was unorganized all the time with my numbers (and spending habits), and to be honest, because I had student loan debt I was traumatized by debt and money altogether. I knew that I had to make money to run my business, so I would run myself dry to just get clients, make money and do that month after month. But I had no plan and no aim or streamlined goal with how I was tracking my expenses. 

So here was my solution in my early business days

My husband, Ty, created a very simple excel spreadsheet for me that had three columns. The first column was for me to input ALL of my profit (money)  I had earned from my business. So it was up to me to be disciplined to put in the specific money that I was paid after every single photography session. When I did that, my husband had created a column to automatically add everything up, so that I could see what I had made so far in the year  (which I enjoyed watching that Number grow). 

In that same spreadsheet, I had a second column where I had to type in ALL of my expenses for my business (so from what it took to run my business, to client gifts, to travel expenses, literally ALL the numbers I input in on a weekly basis because I had recurring subscription fees or I may have purchased a course to help me with an aspect of my business, I put in everything). As I put in those numbers, it would AUTOMATICALLY subtract from my income column (that first column) and then I could see what my true profit was total. 

Again, I didn’t have to do any math, because all the formulas were already built into this spreadsheet. 

The third column was simply the Total Income Earned – (Minus) My Business Expenses = Profit. 

That’s it, very simple and very straightforward and for some reason, a light bulb went off for me in my head. 

Did you want access to the Free Template? You Can click here

Actually just seeing all my numbers of my business laid out in one simple spreadsheet was enough for me to see the importance of tracking everything (because honestly there were some months where I “saw” I was earning a lot of money from my business so I would SPEND money for my business, but it would put me dangerously close to red at times) which clued me in on the fact that just because I have extra money, it doesn’t mean I should spend it AND it also clued me on on the importance of keeping any extra money and putting it aside to not only pay for business taxes BUT to also open up business savings account for future expenses. 

I am so happy my husband took the time to create something as simple as an excel spreadsheet for me to better understand & track & STREAMLINE the numbers of my business because I guess I just needed a visual to help me see a bigger piece of my business puzzle. 

I used this system for several years before upgrading to this spreadsheet; But overall, I am so happy I had this SYSTEM in place for me to be less afraid of the numbers behind my business.

So, if you  are also afraid of the numbers behind your business and if you would like to have a simple way to track your income and expenses of your  business, I have a FREE download for you here

Again, this is the exact same template I used for myself, and I even created a tutorial video to help you understand the layout of this 3 part spreadsheet!

It’s so simple! 

So now,  my question for you is this: if you are running a business (or side-business) and you are afraid of the numbers of your business, what is stopping you from taking more initiative in understanding the numbers (the expenses and income) of your business? 

I know I am a workflow & systems educator, but  I am a firm believer that there are SYSTEMS and WORKFLOWS for every aspect of one’s business, and I have loved taking more control of the numbers of my business by setting up a SYSTEM  that works for me (and again that system was that easy to use in template form-such as this one).

I hope you know that you are so smart and intelligent because you have started your own business and because you are capable of dreaming up your own business, you ARE capable of understanding the numbers behind your business too! Yes, you are!

I  look forward to seeing how you use this simple tracking system to help you out with the numbers behind your business!

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Meet Your Friendly Nashville Branding Photographer & Business Systems + Workflow Educator

Dolly DeLong is a Nashville-based family & branding photographer and a creative business owner who educates on all things Pinterest & Dubsado (and how to use these platforms as systems in your business)!  Dolly loves serving families, and business owners with her timeless, radiant photography.  And, she also loves educating other business owners on how to set up systems and workflows that will ultimately help them save time in their business.

She has a heart for serving the larger business community. Dolly shares her knowledge of tools like Pinterest, Dubsado, Email Marketing, and Business Systems with new creative business owners & family photographers in an encouraging and supportive way because she believes that even muggles can become automating wizards!

Dolly’s faith and love for her family motivate her to help other business owners find the joy and freedom she’s found in running a successful small business.

Whenever she has a spare moment, she enjoys watching TV (i.e. Survivor), loves eating way too many sweets, and listens to podcasts while running or walking. To work with Dolly DeLong Photography LLC, fill out her contact form here.

Interested in learning how to best automate a part of your business but you have no clue where to begin? Check out www.dollydelongphotography.com/automate to begin your automation journey today!