When you become an entrepreneur, the dynamic of your life is likely to completely change. Not only may you find that your days consist of back to back meetings and reviewing contracts, but you may also have to become accustomed to learning a lot about finances. Often times, there isn’t much focus on how entrepreneurs stay afloat outside of office hours. This can especially be true when it comes to coping financially in the first couple of years. In this article, you’re going to find a few tips on managing your personal finances as an entrepreneur that you may be able to apply to your situation.
Shutterstock Licensed Photo – By Andrey_Popov
Separate Business and Personal
At the incipient stages of starting a business, it’s imperative that you learn how to separate your finances. If not, you may find that moving forward your finances become a blur and you can’t tell how well your business is truly doing financially. You should make sure you open separate accounts and avoid mixing them. Another tip for keeping your business and personal finances separate is to keep your receipts in separate places as well. In addition, getting a separate business credit card is a good way to separate expenses and build a credit history for your business.
Learn to Live Frugally
Some people go from earning a decent and consistent salary to having to live on less, especially in the first year or so of business. This can be difficult if you’re used to a certain lifestyle, however, learning to live frugally is important. If you don’t, you may find that you continuously overspend and end up dipping inside of business funds to stay afloat. This could be dangerous to the financial standing of your business as well as cause a negative downturn if caution isn’t taken. You should, therefore, pay yourself a salary that your business can afford and make sure you live within your means.
Keep a Good Credit Score
As an entrepreneur, you enter into a level of uncertainty. You can’t always predict whether you’ll have consistent revenue and which direction business will go in. It’s important on these premises that you’re always equipped with a plan B. This could be needing to take out a payday loan on months where things aren’t going according to plan, for instance. In order to borrow during tough times, you’re going to need a good credit score, however.
If your credit isn’t in good shape, it may be a good idea to look for reputable credit repair companies such as https://creditrepaircompanies.com/credit-people/ and see how they can help your predicament. Ultimately, the better your credit score, the more likely you are to be able to take out credit when you need it. Only taking out what you can afford to pay back, especially if your income is irregular, is also critical.
Have an Alternative Stream of Income
In continuation of the previous two points, you need enough income to survive as an entrepreneur. This is why it is sometimes advised that before starting a business, you have a sufficient amount of savings set aside. If not, having another source of income could definitely go a long way. You have several options when it comes to this depending on your skill set as well as how much spare time you have. For one, to make extra money outside of your business, you could decide to become a consultant. This is a way to share your expertise with those who need it, and it isn’t always time-consuming.
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You could also become a freelance writer for well-established sites and blogs as a way of building authority in your sector and generating extra income as well. Other ideas are becoming an online tutor or a social media influencer if you have a strong following.
Invest
When you run your own business, you’re the boss, and you create the rules. This means that everything from saving for retirement to planning your financial future is in your hands. On that note, you should try your best to remember to factor retirement into your plan by putting money into a private pensions fund. In addition to this, think about long-term investment options as there’s no guarantee when it comes to business. You want to be sure that no matter what happens, you have options and money to pull out from somewhere.
Entrepreneurship is a road paved with many lessons, and one of them is how to manage finances. It’s a transferable skill that once mastered can be used in just about every area of life.
