“Math is just hard. And boring. I just don’t get it.” 

“Numbers don’t compute in my brain and I honestly kind of hate spreadsheets.” 

“I have a bookkeeper, and someone who does my taxes, so I’m good right?!”

Sound familiar? 😅

I think you might be a creative, huh? 😉

So many creatives have all the feels about their finances (including me!), but today we’re going to debunk some of these misconceptions.

Creatives tend to be wired to think outside the box, to dream big and create beautiful things from thin air, not punch numbers into tiny little rectangles on a screen, right? We’re told to outsource our weaknesses, so we get a bookkeeper, a tax accountant and maybe even a financial planner, thinking that should cover the bases.

But then we get our year-end financial statements and our bookkeeper says “Congrats! You profited more than ever this year!” and you sit there thinking “Huh…where is that money??”

Or maybe you’re more of an oversaver and when you come to the end of the year you’re exhausted from overworking, yet feel discouraged when you look at your bank account, worrying that it won’t be enough when the inevitable emergency comes around.

In this conversation, there’s 2 essential truths I want to share.

Truth #1: There’s a gap in your financial strategy.

A bookkeeper helps you keep track of what you’ve already spent. A tax accountant takes that data and tells you how much you owe the government. A financial planner tells you how much you should be putting away for retirement and how much insurance you should hold.

**please note that this is an ultra-simplified generalization. The range of what these services include is wide, but this is the norm.

All of those people are so valuable and I think you should work with each of them! However, they either focus on the past or the distant future, leaving a gap.

What should you be doing right now? How the heck are you supposed to make it through winter when all your income comes in the summer? How are you supposed to be able to work less when you can barely cover your bills now? How will you ever be able to hire employees, outsource your weaknesses or expand your business if there’s barely any cash left at the end of the year?

When we ignore this gap we risk closing the doors on this dream and going back to a 9-5. We risk losing the joy of creating we once had. We risk living a stressful life working 24/7 with no idea how to get out. We risk our health and our relationships because our money management is directly tied to our work/life balance.

This might seem bleak, but it 100% does not have to be that way. And the answer is in the gap.

The missing piece, the golden egg, the gap in your financial strategy is cash management.

You need a clear, do-able cash management system to clarify the day-to-day and keep you on the right track toward your dreams.

Did you know that 8/10 businesses fail and the #1 reason is a lack of profitability? 

But here’s the thing – did you know that profitability is a choice? It’s a decision you can make right now and a cash management system is the way you make that decision a reality.

It’s honestly so sad to me that so many creatives have this incredible talent, these beautiful dreams, but they barely get to see the light of day because the business and money side of things never get the attention they need.

You see, I’m really freaking passionate about your business. I’m really passionate about your success and your life. I want you to do what you love and live your life. I want you to live out your calling with freedom and JOY. I’ve walked the same path you’re on. I struggled through so much of business the hard way and missed out on so much life and freedom because of my poor cash management (or lack thereof honestly).

Before we talk more about what exactly cash management is, there’s something crazy important that needs to be said. It’s something that I absolutely know is holding thousands of creatives back just like it was me.

Truth #2: Your Creative brain is capable

After decades of thinking I was dumb and feeling SO insecure about my inability to remember simple math problems and using my fingers to count, a book fell in my lap that changed everything and showed me I was so much more capable than I gave myself credit for.

Profit First by Mike Michalowicz simplifies cash management and fills the gap in your financial strategy with the goal of “eradicating entrepreneurial poverty.” 

I love Mike’s heart for entrepreneurs and his hilarious writing style. I never thought a book about money would become my most recommended business book, much less that I would become a certified Profit First professional, but here we are! 😂🤭

So I want you to do me a favor. I want you to take all the labels and all the stereotypes about creatives and right-brains and throw them out the window, because they are nothing more than limiting beliefs keeping you from your dreams.

It’s time to step into your boss era and take back control of your money with a cash management system.

You with me? Yeah? GOOD ♥️👏🏼

So what the actual heck is cash management?

Well, let’s just say if you google it and your brain is anything like mine, you’ll read this definition and want to crawl back in bed 😂

“Cash management is the process of collecting and managing cash flows from operating, investing and financing activities. A cash management system allows you to manage cash handling from end-to-end and help automate it through to reconciliation.”

Umm what?? 🥴

Let’s simplify. 

A cash management system is an intentional way of saving and spending your money so you have cash when you need it.

Ohhhkayyyy that makes more sense, right? 😂

In order to have cash when you need it, you need to know when money is coming in and when it’s going out. You need to have a plan and a routine for making sure the money coming in is covering the money going out. 

And I’d argue that if you’re a creative, you need a way to do this that doesn’t require bookkeeping reports or an accounting degree.

You need simplicity. You need something that works with your creative brain, not against it.

Profit First laid the foundation, the Val Marlene templates give you the tools and my course, Creative Income Cure is the blueprint to bring it all together.

ps – all the templates + extras are included in the course! 🙌

So, whether you’ve never heard of Profit First, you need help implementing it or you want to make sure you’re doing it right and making the most of the process, I’m your girl.

Now it’s your turn to decide. Will you continue to live with the gap or will you throw off the creative brain stereotypes and step into your girl boss era to build a business that will actually last?

Join the course or schedule a vision chat to see if I’m the right person to help you ♥️