Plan Your Income Before You Plan Your Spending
How I plan next month's work before I decide how to spend a penny of it.
I invoice my customers monthly, so my income comes in monthly.
That means I plan my finances once a month. And before I plan how I will spend my money, I plan my income for the next month.
It is such an important subject that I want to say a little more about it.
What income planning is
Before you start spending money, do Income Planning. It is planning your week, month or year: what and HOW you are going to get your income.
That then tells you where you need to spend your money.
An example
Take a look at the sales already in the pipeline for the coming week or month. Say you notice it is not quite enough to cover your weekly or monthly expenses. So you need more sales.
Where and how will you get them? Most likely with some marketing and promotion. Questions to ask:
- Is promotion ready to go? If not, the marketing plan needs work.
- Do you still need to do some surveys, to find out what people need and want that you can provide?
- What are the buttons to use? Buttons are words or statements that entice people to buy your services or products.
- Do you still need to design your promotion? Have it printed? How will you distribute it?
The answers tell you what actions to take this coming week or month. They also tell you what your expenses will be, and those go into any financial planning you do.
How often
It is an excellent idea to do this regularly. The frequency depends on how your income comes in.
If income comes in daily, do your financial planning weekly. Mine comes monthly, so I do mine monthly.
Planning my income for the next month tells me my work load and what production actions I need to do. If there is not enough work lined up, it tells me what promotion to do so there will be.
It is also a good idea to look a few months, or a year, ahead. Is the predicted production and sales load enough for you? If it is not, that is when to start planning how to increase it.
Ask people what they want
If you have had successful promotion before, revive it.
If you have none, start from scratch, and start with surveys. You may have ideas about what people want. But is it your idea or theirs? Your ideas may not be correct.
The best way to find out what people want is to ask them. Once you have surveyed, you have the data to plan and design your promotion.
Try it.
As always, keep it simple and... Flourish and Prosper. Lisa
P.S. If you would like me to look at your own numbers and say plainly what next month looks like, call me on 07729 524611, because a first chat is free and I would rather you went into the month with a plan.
