Dear Business Founder,

You are a visionary! You are special! You are walking in purpose. You are called! Thank you for pursuing your calling.

As a business owner and founder, you are committed to building a business that is successful, profitable, and impactful. To do this, it is important to avoid making these 7 major mistakes that business owners make with their money. Most business owners tend to do this because it’s easy.

In the early years, you are tasked with performing everything as it relates to your business…

• Accounting

• Operations/ Production

• Marketing

• Human Resources

This is how owners fall into the trap of commingling business funds and being unable to separate their business from their personal lives. When starting your business, it was practical to complete the tasks related to the various business functions but with growth and the evolution of the business, it’s important to source the proper experience. We often battle with this because we are considering costs while also doing some form of cost-benefit analysis and the response is almost always the costs outweighs the benefit. However, this results in the founder/owner completing critical functions of the business on their own and often times not in a timely manner because there is not enough time to complete it all with all of the competing demands.

It is important to balance. I know that this is easier said than done… but you must PLAN! Establish a plan that is all encompassing:

• Immediate goals

• Short-term goals

• Long-term goals

This plan incorporates business growth and development. This includes hiring people and relinquishing control. This is when your revenue is steadily increasing/stabilising and you are unable to adequately service your clients on your own. Therefore, this eliminates burnout. This includes assessing your financial performance and whether or not the business can afford staff.

As you grow, it’s important for your business to adjust with the changes or you will identify bottlenecks that will require much time to resolve resulting in critical delays.

Know that this is common, and that this forms a part of your dream – growth.

Therefore, welcome others, and train them!

It is now time to step out of the day to day operations. Train to ensure consistency and that your product/service is delivered as intended.

You are now left to focus on high level operations and growing the business – marketing and expansion whereas your employees are hired to drive the day to day experience.

Rest assured that there are levels to this. With each level, you must brace yourself for change. Challenge comes with growth but remember you founded a business. That’s a great accomplishment. Continue to build and try to avoid making these mistakes with your money!

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