Here’s the problem with money…
Everyone assumes that “scale” is the only game in town.
Growth… scale… 10X baby!
True — for many startups, it is all about growth.
But, as an online business owner, you might have a different set of goals:
- Protecting a lifestyle you love
- Financial security for your family
- Creating alignment and balance in your life
- Time for travel and other passions
- …and also growing your business
Scale?
Sure…
At any cost?
Not so much.
Most online business owners would gladly sacrifice a few percentage points of growth in order to create a life of balance.
And this is where most talk on finance falls short:
It doesn’t acknowledge the fact that a business needs to work for you, too – not just the other way round!
And because of this, you need a different way to manage money in your business.
An approach that acknowledges you in the equation.
Over 10 years of building my company StoryLearning, money management has been by far the hardest lesson to learn.
Building your business…
Making money…
Honestly, that’s the easy part!
Managing money intelligently, so it works for me, eliminates stress and creates balance in my life – well, that’s a different kettle of fish.
I tried a bit of everything:
Most online business owners would gladly sacrifice a few percentage points of growth in order to create a life of balance.
And this is where most talk on finance falls short:
It doesn’t acknowledge the fact that a business needs to work for you, too – not just the other way round!
And because of this, you need a different way to manage money in your business.
An approach that acknowledges you in the equation.
Over 10 years of building my company StoryLearning, money management has been by far the hardest lesson to learn.
Building your business…
Making money…
Honestly, that’s the easy part!
Managing money intelligently, so it works for me, eliminates stress and creates balance in my life – well, that’s a different kettle of fish.
I tried a bit of everything:
I aggressively reinvested cash into the businessI aggressively took cash out of the business- I ran margins high… then low
- I read books on finance that put me to sleep
- I hired expensive investment advisors
- I hired financial controllers, financial assistants and God knows what else
- I paid myself dividends and took massive tax hits
- I made large investments into other companies
Heck, I remember creating an entire thesis on how I wanted to manage my money…
Shortly before ripping the plans to shreds and starting over a few weeks later.
Here’s what I learned along the way:
You have to try all these approaches. Experience them. Make the mistakes.
Learning to manage money is ultimately a question of understanding yourself – what are your life goals? What do you want from your business? What makes you feel safe?
… and then develop a personal operating system around money that has clarity and purpose, so that you:
- Reinvest appropriately into your business
- Build personal wealth and de-risk over time
- Never ever stress over taxes
- Create systems that remove admin from your plate
- Build stability and easily weather downturns
- And much more
This is about a holistic approach to money in all aspects of your business and life.
In 10 years of doing business, I’ve never heard other entrepreneurs openly talk about their finance mindset.
Sometimes, it’s because people feel stigmatised if they’re not “All in!”
Other times, people simply don’t have a clue… they’re just winging it.
Namaste,
Olly