How to Stop Financial Stress from Slowing Down Your Business
You started your business to do what you love—not to spend sleepless nights worrying about cash flow, bookkeeping, and taxes. But for many business owners, financial stress becomes a daily reality. That’s where we come in. 👋
Here at People First Finance, we partner with business owners to simplify their finances so they can focus on what they enjoy, and sleep like babies at night. Let’s review the most common pain points business owners experience and how we work with our clients to avoid them! ⬇️
1. Lack of Clarity
When it comes to building a financially stable business, it takes a lot of knowledge and clarity around your accounts.
We often hear from business owners that they:
Don’t always know if they’re profitable or where their money is going.
Struggle to understand their financial reports.
Are making gut decisions instead of data-driven ones.
Some entrepreneurs thrive on gut decisions, but for most, this approach leads to financial stress and uncertainty.
How do we help you find clarity?
Our team is focused on demystifying the finance experience.
Have a question? Ask it!
There’s no silly ones. We all learn by learning!
So we’re here to help you learn about the best ways you can support your business via answering your questions and regularly providing clear, easy-to-understand financial insights.
Think up to date Profit and Loss statements, Balance Sheets, Tax Savings, and more.
2. Inconsistent or Messy Books
Imagine this… You sit down to pay your bills and you have no idea if these numbers are accurate, if you’re on track with tax savings, or if you even paid your office rent last month. Anyone else having nightmares right now?
Good news — it doesn’t have to be that way! 🎉
So many business owners feel like:
Their books are always behind, incomplete, or disorganized.
They’re nervous about tax season because their numbers aren’t ready.
They’re relying on spreadsheets or DIY bookkeeping that isn’t scalable.
But with the right support, you can open those books with confidence.
Where do you find bookkeeping confidence?
If your business can afford it, we suggest bringing in an expert. If that’s in your budget, our bookkeeping services ensure that your books are complete, accurate, and up to date! With up to date books, you can confidently pay your taxes, and make decisions for your business.
If hiring a bookkeeper isn’t in your budget, make bookkeeping a habit—not an afterthought.
Take 5-10 minutes a day, or a couple times a week to double check:
What’s coming in.
What’s going out.
Categorize your transactions.
Review projections for taxes.
If you can take a few minutes a couple times a week to check in, you’ll sleep easy at night knowing you're in control of your finances.
3. Taxes Are A LOT
We won’t cover tax filing specifics here, but it’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed by the process.. Filing taxes as a business owner is a whole new world!
Most business owners admit to feeling like:
They don’t know how much to set aside for taxes.
They’re overpaying or getting hit with surprise tax bills.
They’re unsure if they’re maximizing deductions.
Working with a tax professional year round can you help stay on top of these!
When we’re tax advising, we work with our clients to set aside the right amount, take advantage of tax strategies (like the S-Corp Election!) and understand how to avoid costly tax bills!
While many people offer tax strategy services, it’s important to remember that your finances center around your bookkeeping! If your accountant isn’t in your books or reviewing books with updated and accurate numbers, they won’t be able to provide the best advice for you to plan for tax season.
4. Cash Flow Stress
So many business owners are constantly stressed about what they are going to make, how much their business needs and if they will still have money in the bank when all the bills are paid.
Many business owners are:
Struggling to pay themselves consistently.
Unsure if they can afford new hires or investments.
Experiencing cash flow rollercoasters and last-minute scrambles.
While this can feel like an impossible cycle to break, we believe you can do it! This is part of what we help our clients achieve — stability. However, if you’re in a DIY phase of your business, here’s how we suggest thinking about revenue and profit to build in some stability.
When you look at the money coming into your business start organizing and categorizing it like this:
30% of your revenue > cost to deliver your service.
20% of your revenue > overhead costs.
Remaining 50% > tax savings, growth, and owner pay.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
Calculate your total revenue from the past 6 months.
Calculate 30% of that total revenue.
Calculate 20% of that total revenue.
Divide each of those numbers by 6 to get your monthly values.
If paying yourself more than 50% of revenue isn’t realistic, consider cutting expenses, adjusting pricing, or analyzing your service profitability. Need help doing that? Chat with us here!
5. Scaling Without Financial Strategy
Many business owners believe making more money will solve their financial stress—but without a strategy, higher revenue doesn’t always mean higher profits.
A lot of business owners start to experience things like:
Growth but not seeing more take-home pay.
Not knowing when (or how) to hire financially.
Expenses are increasing, but profit isn’t.
For so many, the solution of “making more money” ends up not being helpful at all! It leaves them more stressed, and that’s why we support clients in developing a system that makes it easy to make profitable growth decisions. We want you to watch your revenue, profit, and peace of mind all grow together!
6. Decision Fatigue & Time Drain
Business owners are not immune to overcoming the tendency to avoid the tasks we don’t love.
Ignoring your finances can lead to these warning signs:
Spend too much time trying to ‘figure out’ finances instead of growing their business.
Tired of second-guessing financial decisions.
Wanting to delegate but worry about finding the right support.
The idea of letting go of a major (and personal!) piece of your business can be really scary. Here at People First Finance, we get it! It’s hard to stay on top of all the little things, and when it comes to finding actually helpful ways to take this off your plate, it can be tricky.
That’s why we’re committed to providing you with clear, easy to understand, and up to date information on your businesses finances.
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If you’re tired of feeling beat down by these common pain points, this is your sign to invest in financial support. Want to learn more about how we can help your business thrive?
Reach out here.
