Business Budgeting for Irregular Income + How To Use Savings in a Slow Month | Lessons from the Sessions | 589

0:00They're going to be negative by$2 ,000. She's about to get on all of these sales calls. Transfer this$2 ,000 from savings. If it's savings, make the transfer one time. Your brain can focus on what you need to focus on. Do you make good money but have nothing to show for it? Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck? Do you have big dreams for your financial future? Do you want to get debt free but you don't want to live on beans and rice? Or you don't want to give up those pumpkin spice lattes? If you don't already know how to budget or if you're using credit cards to get through the month.

0:30if you want to seem like you have your finances all together or you're not on the same page with your spouse when it comes to finances. We know what you're doing probably isn't working, but guess what? You're in the right place. We're Shana and Vanessa. We're best friends, business partners, and master financial coaches trained by Dave Ramsey. We've been in business since 2019, helping hundreds of amazing people like you create budgets, get out of debt, stop living paycheck to paycheck, and know exactly what to do with their money. In this podcast, we'll share with you everything we know plus everything we're working on with our clients so that you have the best chance at reaching your financial goals.

1:04We want to help you take the guesswork out of your budget, improve your marriages, and even bring your kids in on the conversation. We can help you no matter where you're at, whether you're the single mom who's never had$500 in her savings account, or the millionaire who's paid off four real estate mortgages. And we're not going to shy away from the tough love. We'll tell you what you need to hear and encourage you at the same time. This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. I have a client who has her business and her personal budget. So we do both. And her personal budget is taking some hits.

1:37And if her business doesn't grow, the personal budget doesn't work, work. And nobody's really helping her. And that's a side lesson. That's a side lesson. I found some scripture to send her. It's just you're in the circumstance. You're in. God has put you in it. He can see. He will see you through it. You're capable. You can do it. It still sucks. I'm sorry. right? And so anyway, the point is, it's all on her. It's all on her, which is tough. But the long story short is, let's be real honest, they were not going to make their budget for the month, they were not going to hit the numbers, they're going to be negative by$2 ,000.

2:09And fortunately, she started running ads. Remember I told her? Yeah. And her business was going was starting, but it hadn't it wasn't there yet. So we were gonna have a month that they were gonna be$2 ,000 in the home. There's literally nothing they can do about it. There is, but there's nothing anybody else was willing to do about it. That's what I'm going to say. And so she was in this moment where she thought every time there's something, I'll just do a little transfer, do a little transfer, do a little transfer to hopefully make ends meet. From her business? No, just from savings. Sorry. Okay.

2:38Okay. And so when we met, I said, okay, let's look at everything. Let's look at how it's all going to play out. You need$2 ,000. That's what we ended up coming up with based on When we get on with you, Vanessa said in another episode, we go transaction by transaction because we're learning, right? We're learning together. Not that you ever always have to. It's not shameful. But it's also not forever. It's just while we're learning. Right. And so when we finally get all the math, maybe$2 ,000, she needs to completely close out the month. And this was last week. So this was the first week of the month.

3:11So we knew by then, because she's one of those, I don't know if you're like that. My husband's like, pay the first. I want all the bills done on the first. Whatever. It's fine. And so she was almost done. And they also obviously have kind of a smaller budget. And so I told her, I said, here's what you should do. There's no magic fairy tale where you're going to come up with this money. Move it from your savings right now. Put it in there. That's your emergency fund. That's what an emergency fund is if you can't. And this is their regular budget. This is not. Nobody's doing anything special ever in their budget.

3:41So it's not, oh, you should cut the traveling trip that you're taking. No, it's just like you have to eat. They're already living. Yeah, they're living. Yeah, minimalist. So I said, what you want to do is transfer this$2 ,000 from savings, which you're going to slowly consternate over a little bit here, a little bit there. Do it. And then I want you to close it, close it. And now your whole focus is able to be on your business. And you can put all of your energy into making money. And theoretically, you can pay it back. You will be able to pay it back once you've done that. And I need you to be able to not have to consternate over this and not be stressed out of it and then be in the minutiae of it.

4:16you're just close it and be done with it. And then now you can put all of your energy into making money. Because when you're in business, you don't want to have to come from scarcity. She's about to get on all of these sales calls. And you don't want it to be like, I need your money. I need your money. You want it to be you be able, you're stress free, you're able to show up as the person you need to be in your business or in your job. And just make that money, honey, and make and do what you do best. And let the let that eventually make you money is what I'm option. It's just transfer it from savings and then get about the work to pay it back.

4:50And I think transferring it the one time, I think that is what we want you guys to hear, is instead of saying, oh, and we have heard resistance from this, and I've actually heard a lot of resistance, a lot more from the husbands when they're on the call, but it's, oh, I'll just transfer it when I need it. And I'm like, we don't know when you're going to need it because your automatic transfers are going out from your bills to your spending. You have automatic bills being paid, like when are you going to, and why do you want to be in the account that much or on the budget that much to go like, okay, today is the day I need to transfer 50.

5:19And then tomorrow needs to be 70. And then this needs to be a hundred. No, just if you have the availability of the cash that, like she said, the emergency fund to make the one-time transfer, or maybe you have to do it twice around the month or whatever that looks like for you from your business, or if it's savings, make the transfer one time, then go about your life and live that month in your business, be focused, be present with your family, whether it's business, all of it, like your clients, and then you know exactly what you need to do next month to make up for it. Yeah. And I think that works, Vanessa.

5:47Sometimes we'll have clients that are there between jobs or whatever, and they are living off of their emergency fund, which is why it's there. But we want to tell you the same thing. You will transfer that money once like it's a paycheck, and then it's going to do all the things that you've set up for your budget. But we don't want you having lots of savings transfers anyway. We want it to be one time, and it's for a purpose to a certain amount because it's very easy to drain an IRS refund or whatever that you've gotten that you think, oh, I have all this money in savings. That's why we want to be very intentional.

6:16Put it in the budget. It's a one-time transfer, maybe like a paycheck or something. And then the idea here, business specific, was this frees up her brain to solve other problems and not be weighed down by this constant, what do I need to do here and there? But your brain can focus on what you need to focus on instead of saying stress on. It also removes the temptation of going, oh, well, I need 2 ,000. Oh, but I see this thing that I want. So it's only going to be 2 ,100 this month. And then you make a small another transfer. Oh, it ends up being 22. Instead of saying, nope, it's 2 ,000. I've already made the transfer.

6:51I don't need any more cash. And this is what I need to stay within to be able to make it work. I think that there is, it also adds a level of friction there because like I said, you've made that transfer and it's done. It's time to enter your coaching era because making good money should feel like making good money. Yeah. Imagine six months of private coaching where we'll tell you exactly what to do. No guesswork, no confusion, and absolutely no judgment. It's a done for you system that actually works. You don't know what you don't know, and that's not your fault. And that's why we're here. Financial coaching with us looks like two coaching sessions a month, personalized recaps, and after hour support, You can text and email.

7:30So you're never stuck wondering what to do next. Together, we're going to build your budget, set up your system, and tackle any challenges that come up along the way, which, by the way, they always do. If what you're doing isn't working and you're tired of trying to figure it out on your own, sign up for financial coaching at budgetbesties.com forward slash coaching before all of our spots fill up, and we will help you go further faster. Six months from now, you'll wish you started today. Okay, so I have a lovely client who has a business where income fluctuates throughout the year. And it was really hard.

8:04I've had her for almost two years now because we did personal, we did business, there's a lot going on. We paid a lot of debt. We've organized a ton of stuff. It's very integrate, okay? There's a lot going on. We have got her budget to where monthly, okay, she's covering bare minimum, but we have some back pay to do. And I haven't checked those boxes for the last couple months for savings. So she hasn't been able to fund her savings bucket for the last, I think where this is, we're in April, so January, February, March, hasn't been able to do all of them. She's been able to do a couple annual bills ones, but not necessarily some for supplies in different areas, marketing and different things for her business that she knows that she's going to spend money coming up.

8:47And I think by having her see the unexpected expenses that are coming up that she hasn't been able to fund is making her realize in these high months, when she wants to take the money, when she's used to being able to take the money for herself, or I don't know, spend it on other things, that you can't do that. So when you have a business, and you have a fluctuating business throughout the year that makes different amounts of income, different months, you need to really sit down and go, what does my business cost me in a year and decide, okay, in those high months, how much do I need to put aside to be able to fund those savings buckets?

9:26Maybe in the high months, I mean, you can't fund them in the low months and that's okay. Okay. But you are saving the money in those high months to be able to fund those savings buckets for the low months. So that way you can manage everything month to month and still feel like it's covered in that you're not in the negative. Well, I will say it's not necessarily even just the high months. In the beginning, when you're trying to figure this out, when you're trying to get started, again, savings buckets are not the first thing necessarily. You need to get this organized and figured out. And you might not find that you're able to do it once you start figuring.

9:57And a lot of times we'll have businesses especially, but personal too. You'll find things that you can cut. Nice. And then once you're paying attention, you naturally start spending less. And so all of that can lead to you being able to save more. But in the beginning, you might just need to give yourself the grace to just start and get going. And then as you progress in different areas of your budget, then you'll be able to do a lot more for savings and be able to put that money to use. Now, we do believe in bonuses. So I just wanted to throw that out there. I feel like we never talk about that for business.

10:27But save money to pay yourself a bonus. We're here for that. We are here for that. You just have to put it in the budget. So once you've got all your debt paid off, once you've got your bills, your payroll, your expenses, and your savings buckets, then throw another – that's another savings bucket – profit right there. Just put it right over there. Give yourself a little bonus here and there. We're here for that. Yeah. The way that we do our profit is every quarter, whatever's in our profit account, we divide it by half. So the half of it stays in there, and the other half is a bonus for us. We learned that from Mike Michalowicz's Profit First System.

10:58And we don't follow it exactly because we've tweaked it to fit our business model and what we have going on. But there are some things like that. His bonus structure, we're like, yes. We want that one. We will take that. And we will use it. And he says to start with like 1 % if you can't do anything. We're here for that too. Start that. Start with something. Yeah. Start with something. We're here for it. We're not just for the bills. We're not just here for the bills. Guys are paying off debt. We're here for all the bougie. Taxes and profit. Yes. adulting and then the fun stuff. If you make good money, but have nothing to show for it, this quiz will help you figure out what's really going on with your money and what your next step should be.

11:34You'll get a personalized result and a simple action step to help you feel more organized and less stressed. Go to budgetbesties.com forward slash quiz and take the free quiz today. That's budgetbesties.com forward slash quiz to find out what's really going on with your money.