Do you find yourself with sweaty pits when it comes to tax season? Does the thought of organizing your finances stress you out to no end? You’re not alone! I’ve tried every budgeting tip and trick and none of it ever worked.

Keep reading and you’ll walk away knowing:

• That you don’t have to be a numbers person to be successful in business

• What I do every single day to track my finances

• The budgeting trick that ACTUALLY works for neurodivergent brains

You’ll learn that it can be simple and easy to organize your finances, you just have to find what works best for you.

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The Stress-Free Way to Organize Your Finances (Even If You’re Completely Disorganized)

I’m gonna be completely honest with you friend, I am not a numbers person. 

I’ve tried every single budgeting app, trick, tip, and hack and nothing seemed to work with my ADHD brain until I came up with my own way of organizing my finances!

This is going to be life-changing if you’re anything like me and you’re not a numbers person. 

Maybe you’ve taken some classes. Or you’ve downloaded the apps or the spreadsheets that have promised to make money and finances work for you and yet, they still don’t. 

And maybe that’s made you feel stupid or dumb because it’s “supposed to be” simple but it’s not simple for you. 

I think numbers and finances are my biggest Achilles heel that I have in business. 

“Just Do It When…”

I’ve had my fair share of accountants over the years. All of them have been extremely talented, but they haven’t been able to explain or educate me in a way that I understand. 

When I first started my business my dad told me that doing my own books would take me 10 minutes every day and I just needed to commit to doing it at the end of each day. 

This was before I was diagnosed with ADHD and I didn’t have any understanding of executive dysfunction. Now I know that simple tasks are the hardest for me because they’re too mundane and not challenging enough for my brain. 

I remember feeling really stupid that I couldn’t keep my books. 

One of the first things I hired out was a bookkeeper. And while it was scary to spend money when I wasn’t even making any, I knew that it would save me headaches, stress, frustrations, and ultimately money!

Imposter Syndrome

I often felt like I wasn’t meant to be a business owner. You see, I assumed that people who owned businesses were good at numbers and finances and had a complete understanding of it all. 

It made me feel like an imposter from the start. 

Tax season would come and accounts would ask me for things that I didn’t understand. I was so scared that if they knew I didn’t understand that my business license would get taken away, so I played the game of pretending like I knew what was going on. 

I specifically remember getting a new accountant in Calgary and I was so excited about growing my business. The accountant told me I was making more money than most hairdressers they knew and they asked me why I would want to continue to grow my business. 

I was shocked and dumbfounded. What accountant asks you why would you want to continue to grow your business? I clearly had goals and dreams that I wanted to achieve.

And while that has absolutely nothing to do with numbers it really confused me and made me feel small.

What’s Simple For You

Then I had the next accountant telling me I could just do my QuickBooks on my way to work. They were telling me that it was so easy and once again, I felt dumb. 

Why is this so hard for me when everyone keeps telling me it’s so simple??

I would sit at home feeling embarrassed and I’d cry wondering what was wrong with me. 

I tried so many different ways that didn’t work. 

I think we should stop saying that things are “super simple” because some things that are easy and simple for one person are really hard for someone else. 

My Easy Budgeting Trick

Alright, I know you’ve been anxiously waiting to hear what did work for me. 

I look at my bank accounts every single day. 

Does that make me budget better? Honestly, I don’t know. But it does create an awareness of how much money I have. 

The other thing I’ve done is written down all of my fixed costs for every month. And I’ll be honest, it took me weeks and weeks to finish that tedious task. But now I know how much money I need every single month.

I also make sure to know how much money I cannot spend. I make sure to put aside money for taxes, payroll, and savings in my business. 

I don’t budget. I don’t allocate money to certain things. That doesn’t work for me. 

I want you to start thinking about the fixed and variable costs that occur monthly in your personal life and your business. What are the fixed costs? What are the variable costs?

Make a list in your notes app, or if you’re a spreadsheet person, you can make a spreadsheet. Do what works best for your brain. Have a list of all the things that are fixed and variable costs. 

This will give you an overall look at what comes out each month. You’ll know what to expect and what’s coming out each month. 

Let that be your motivation to know you gotta earn this much each month. 

I often think it has to be complicated or it has to be hard, but it really can be this simple. 

This is going to be a game-changer for you. Don’t overcomplicate it or get too much into the details. I know I can overwhelm myself and I end up creating something that I can’t maintain. 

Don’t forget to enjoy your holidays. I don’t want you to feel like you need to dive into business stuff right now. 

I want to encourage you to start your year off by enjoying calmness, rather than that urgent, frantic energy. 

Until next time, friend. 

Let’s be besties?