Financial and Lifestyle Freedom for UK Business Owners

The first way to know if you are getting bad financial advice in your business is when the advice starts with, “My friend told me” or “I heard that.” I have people tell me all the time that their friends are doing X, Y, Z and so they want to do that too when it comes to their business’ finances or their tax situation. Unless your friend is a qualified accountant, or perhaps an economist, then relying on their second-hand description of a financial strategy that they think you should employ is not the way to have sound financial advice. The financial strategy of your business should hinge off your business, and your vision, as well as your own personal circumstances. There is not a one-size-fits-all financial strategy, and so the advice that your mates might give you down at the pub, although I am sure 100% well-meaning, is not the way to go when it comes to your business’ finances. 

The next way to know if you are getting bad financial advice in your business is when it comes from a professional, or otherwise, who has not actually asked you about your needs and your business’ needs. You cannot get great advice around your business’ finances if the person has not asked you a lot of questions about your business and the financials, questions that go deeper than they can just read from a profit and loss account. Does your accountant really understand your business? If they don’t, if they don’t really understand what you do, if they don’t really understand your vision, then how can they support you fully in achieving it? The short answer is that they can’t. Sure they can pull together your annual accounts and your tax return, but are they really supporting your business and your business’ finances, and are they actually in reality best placed to be giving you financially strategic advice? 

The third way to know if you are getting bad financial advice in your business is if you feel pressured or rushed into a decision by the person giving you financial advice. You should never feel pressured into accepting financial advice from anyone, whether it be your bank manager, an insurance sales person, or your accountant. Finances are extremely important and if you need time to think through decisions that affect your financial situation that is neither good nor bad. It is what it is, and you should be respected in that decision. 

So how can you protect yourself? First off, trust your gut even if the other person is a financial professional. If you don’t feel happy with the advice then don’t take it. If you need to seek a second opinion on that then do it. Next, understand what you are looking at when you see a profit and loss and a balance sheet. Know what your business’ financial reports are telling you. If you don’t understand then ask someone to explain them to you. It is not a stupid question. It does not make you seem silly in any way to ask for those things to be explained, and make sure you check out reviews and recommendations for the financial professionals that you do choose to use. 

I hope this episode has been useful for understanding how to know if you are getting bad financial advice. I also want to invite you to step into the Uncover Wealth Community. This is my private community on Facebook. You can search Uncover Wealth Community in the search bar or you can go to annetteandco.co.uk/fbgroup. I do a live teach in there every single Tuesday for training Tuesday where I dig deeper into a number of subjects and I would love to have you there. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, let’s find the clarity in your numbers, increase your wealth, and get more money in your pockets.

Here is the exercise for you today, but the exercise is to put down on a piece of paper what your current price is and put down all the things that are included in that price, even the things that you don’t mention to clients, but you do anyway. Perhaps you send them a welcome gift, for example, or perhaps you share some of their posts on Twitter. Whatever that is, list every single one of them down. Every single piece, list that out. List that out and say, “These are all the things that I include, whether the client knows it or not for this price point.” Then I want you to double the price point, and I want you to say, “Okay, if I was now delivering at this price point, what would that look like? What could I promise them? What could I deliver to them? What would they get in terms of tangibles and intangibles for this doubled price point? What does that now look like?”

We started off with our original offering, what that is, and included every single thing that we include for that, whether the client knows it or not, whether they’re aware of it, every single piece of the puzzle that is part of your offering, your tangibles, your intangibles, every single piece that’s on a piece of paper.

Now we’ve got the next piece of paper and we say, “Okay, if we double our prices …” Let’s say our price doubles. What would we include for a service that was twice the price? What would we include? Again, I want you to list everything out so that you feel in total integrity that you could charge this doubled price for what you’re listing out.

Then I want you to double the price again. You’re doubling the doubled price. This is going to be four times the first price, doubling the double price, and I want you now to list out everything that you would include in that price, every single thing that you would include in the doubled, doubled price bracket, every tangible, every intangible, everything that you are delivering that you might make the client aware of where you might not surprise things, all that. I want you to write that all down, every single thing that you can possibly think of that you would include for that doubled, doubled price.

So we’ve got our original, what we offered, we’ve got what’s included in that offer. We’ve got our doubled price and we’ve got what we would include in that. We’ve got our doubled, doubled price and we’ve got down now everything that we would include for that doubled, doubled price.

Now, what I want you to do is go back to the middle piece with the first that doubled. That price, I want you to charge that price for the highest end service delivery if you possibly can. So what you are doing now is you are doubling your prices, your prices are twofold, but you are giving fourfold value for that. Usually, that can really help people with increasing their prices, with stepping up, with increasing the service and the delivery that they make to their customers or clients. What you are doing is you are now going out into the market with your price doubled, but you are giving quadruple value compared to what you are just now because that is what your doubled, doubled you would deliver for.

I hope this makes sense to everybody because this can be a really good way about thinking about how can I raise my prices, how can I get that higher level of customer or client, and will they be willing to pay me more for it?

I hope that this episode has been useful for understanding how you can raise your prices and create a win/win where everyone feels great. I also want to invite you to step into the Uncover Wealth Community. This is my private community on Facebook. You can search Uncovered Wealth Community in the Facebook search bar, or you can go to annetteandco.co.uk/fbgroup. I do a live teach in there every single Tuesday for Training Tuesday, and I would love to have you there. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, let’s find the clarity in your numbers, increase your wealth, and get more money in your pockets.

Money, we all want it, but so few people actually talk about it. We don’t do that do we? Especially in the UK, no talk of money, religion, or politics, that’s vulgar. It’s not nice to talk about money. It’s not nice to want money. It’s not nice to crave money, is it? Tell me, what are some of the things that you have heard or tell yourselves around money? Money is the root of all evil, it’s the source of happiness, you have to work hard to make money, only crooks have money, rich people are never happy, all those things. I am sure that you have others as well. Things that perhaps your parents used to say when you were a child. Things that your spouse might say to you, things that you say to your kids, they come out your mouth and you think, “Why am I saying that?”

How are those things serving you? Are they serving you as an individual? Are they serving you as a partner, a parent, a son, a daughter, a friend, a spouse, a whatever? Are they serving you as a business owner? And those things that you are telling yourself about money, are they serving you?
Here’s an exercise to try. I want you to write them down. Those money things you’re telling yourself, the things that come up for you about money. Write them all down, brainstorm them out, get them all on a piece of paper, every single one. Take as much time as you need and get them on paper. You can pause this podcast if you want to do that now or you can schedule in time in your diary to do it later. But I want you to spend some time thinking about it.

And then next, once you’ve done that, I want you to write beside every single one why they are not true. What evidence do you have to the contrary that these thoughts are actually just not the case? They are just your thoughts and they are not reality because I promise you they are not true. What evidence do you have? Write down the evidence beside each money belief that you have been consciously or subconsciously telling yourself. Because something like, “I can’t make that type of money in my industry.” Well, I know a life coach that’s on track to make $100 million this year in their coaching business, so can’t it be done? Or if you say, “I’ve always been bad with money.” Really? Is that true? Have you ever actually given yourself a chance to be good with money?

Write down all those negative thoughts about money. What you’re thinking now and what evidence do you have to prove otherwise?

I hope that this episode has been useful in thinking about your money thoughts and asking if they are actually serving you.

I also want to invite you to step into the Uncover Wealth Community, this is my private community on Facebook. You can search Uncover Wealth Community in the Facebook search bar, or you can go to annetteandco.co.uk/fbgroup. I do a live teach in there every single Tuesday for training Tuesday, and I would love to have you in there.

Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, let’s find the clarity in your numbers, increase your wealth and get more money in your pockets.

Who wants to impact people’s lives with the work they’re doing? Who wants to have an awesome effect on the clients they serve? I am thinking that most of you are probably putting your hands in the air right now, but can you do that with the money you are currently making? Can you make the impact in the world that you want to make at the moment? See, the thing is that money helps us amplify the impact that we can make in the world. Therefore, instead of being something to not be talked about in polite company, it should be something that is celebrated by awesome people doing amazing things in their business.

You see, our old money stories, they stop us from dreaming that we can have the money that we want, they stop us from doing the things we need to do to get the money we really want, and they stop us taking action to turn dreams into reality. The thing is that making money gives us options in life. Making money means that we’ve helped lots of people achieve amazing things, and who wouldn’t want to do that? So making money in business is key to your business’s survival. Not only that, the more money you make, the more people you impact.

I ask you to think, what is the vision you have for your life? Not just in your business, but your life. What does it look like to you? You might want to write it or draw it, but what does it look like? Dream. This is your life. What is a wonderful life for you? Take a few minutes to think on that. Write it down, draw it out, whatever works for you. I want you to dream the ideal. What is it? Pause this podcast if you need to and start writing, start jotting it down.

Importantly, when you’re thinking about this, when do you want this to be achieved by? When do you want your vision to become your reality? Put a timeframe on when you want to achieve it. It is so important. I see too many people say they want to achieve something in five years, but a year from now they’re still saying five years. Put an actual date on your vision. When do you want to have it by.

Now, what does your business really need to do in order to support that vision? Because you can build a business to support the life that you want to live, but you need to understand what that business looks like and how to build it. It might be that you want a six-figure business while working three days a week, leveraging courses. It might be that you want a six-figure take home, which of course is very different to a six-figure business, something that a lot of people don’t focus on. Whatever that looks like to you, you get to decide and you get to choose. You get to choose the life you want, not what your partner wants, not what your coach wants you to do, but what you want. Get it on paper, because that is the first step in making it into reality, getting to plan it out. We can’t know what we need to do each day, each week, and each month in our business to live the life that we want to live if we don’t actually understand what that looks like.

But of course, that is only one part to it, because making money for most business owners means making more revenue, which is essentially growth. But unless you understand your costs too, then you’re going to end up in a place where you’re making more revenue but your costs are increasing at the same rate and you still have no more money in your own pocket for you and your family to enjoy. So what does this dream cost? Put some numbers beside the dream. What are the costs related to it? Because once you understand those costs, then you can start to understand what your business needs to do in terms of sales to support the life that you want to live, that dream, that vision.

Now that your vision is firmly in place, can you serve the clients that you serve in the same way that you are now to reach your vision? Does that work from a numbers perspective when it comes to your business supporting it all? How many people would you need to work with at your current prices in order to get the life you want, in order to reach your vision?

Do the back of an envelope calculation. Does it work for you? What is your average client spending with you? Does that work or not? If the answer is no, then what needs to happen in order to get you to that vision? What needs to happen in your business? Does the model need to be tweaked? Does the pricing need to be altered? Again, if that’s you, if that’s what it is, there’s no need to panic, but we need to know the answers to the questions. Ask yourself, can my vision be achieved with the way I am running my business now? If the answer is no, if the answer is that you need support, you need help, you need ideas, then work out how to do that.

Let’s get really practical and summarise what I’ve just spoken about. Step one, write down the vision you have for your life. Step two, put a really clear timeline on it with specific dates. Step three, put costs against that life. Step four, back calculate how much revenue you need to earn in your business, and by when, in order to support your vision. Step five, what needs to happen in your business in order for the revenue you need to happen? Can you do that with your current business model, for example? If not, get a plan in place to change things. Step six, work the plan.

I hope that this episode has been useful in thinking about you can live the life that you want to live. I also want to invite you to step into the Uncover Wealth Community. This is my private community on Facebook. You can search Uncover Wealth Community in the Facebook search bar, or you can go to annetteandco.co.uk/fbgroup. I do a live teaching there every single Tuesday for Training Tuesday, and I would love to have you there.

Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, let’s find the clarity in your numbers, increase your wealth, and get more money in your pockets.

Number one, not setting aside money for tax. Having the tax man on your back is no joke. It is not fun, and if you are not setting aside money for tax every single month instead of spending it, then remember, it’s not your money it’s the government’s money and they have the right to come and seize assets to recover the money owed to them.

Number two, not ensuring your business is being set up to run profitably. You can run a profitable business from the first sale as long as you set up your financial systems and processes to align with that. Overspending and having money leaks in your business puts a huge strain on cash as well as huge, usually, a huge strain on you, personally, too. It is avoidable if you plan for profit from the beginning. Or, if you are not at the beginning of your business journey, then change the plans now. Build out a profit plan so that you are profitable each and every month going forwards. It is completely possible.

Three, lack of accountability. One reason many people choose to run their business is to get away from having a boss, but what does work well in a corporate environment is accountability. There is usually a very strong structure that creates accountability, and having accountability with ourselves is really, really hard. This is a major reason why people seek mentors and coaches, the accountability aspect, but of course, when you’re seeking out a mentor or coach, you need to make sure that that is one of the things that they offer because many group programmes don’t offer incredibly close accountability. Of course, that is one reason why we do offer massive accountability within the business wealth engine and we have accountability coaches, because this is something that I see way too little of happening. Having external accountability will ensure you have greater likelihood of hitting your goals.

Number four, lack of strategy. Not understanding the direction you need to head in to achieve what you want will inevitably mean that you can’t up getting to where you want to be. It’s like getting into a car and not knowing the way, not turning on the satnav or looking at a map and just driving around hoping that you end up where you might want to get to. Oh, and by the way, strategy and tactics are not the same thing. When you are thinking strategically, please don’t get sucked into the tactics.

Five, inability to scale in the way you want due to your business model. If you have a vision of making 2 million a year, but your business relies 100% on you trading time for money, then the likelihood is that this model can break as you scale. Make sure that the business model you have is going to scale to the place where you want your business to get.

Number six, no handle on cashflow. 99% of businesses fail, do so because they run out of cash. Not having a handle on cash can literally break your business and it does for thousands of businesses each and every single year. Don’t bury your head in the sand and think that everything will be okay with just another sale, with just another sale, with just another sale. Thinking that will end you up in cash hot water, and that is not a fun place to be sitting. Be all over the cash in your business. Be in control of it.

And number seven, lack of consistency. Consistency doesn’t mean relentlessness. Consistency means being consistent. If you plan to release a podcast every Thursday, then do that. If you plan to go live every Tuesday at 8:00 AM, then do that. Be consistent. So I hope this episode has been useful for you in understanding some key pitfalls to avoid. I also want to invite you to step into the Uncover Wealth community. This is my private community on Facebook. You can search Uncover Wealth Community in the Facebook search bar or head over to annetteandco.co.uk/fbgroup. I do a live teach in there every single Tuesday for Training Tuesday, and I dig much deeper in there into some topics. So I’d love to have you in there. Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, let’s find the clarity in your numbers. Increase your wealth and get more money in your pocket.