Let me guess: You are a woman over 55, getting busy with holiday preparations, traveling plans, and family gatherings with children and grandchildren. Maybe you have your business matters to wrap up and touch base with friends. Or maybe, for once, you just want to stay home alone.

How do you balance everything at the end of the year: the time you spend (coming and going), the energy (going out of your way to nurture someone in need), and the money side of things?

Years ago, as the holidays were approaching, I was going through a painful divorce, having to be a single mom to my two daughters at 3 and 5. It was December, and I had landed my first job as an accounts payable clerk at a national bank.

This was a great opportunity for me in a lot of ways. However, it broke my heart to leave my girls during the day with their Grandma so that I could work at a paying job. My monthly salary was $450. My house note was $387. That did not leave a lot to pay for food, clothing, utilities, and transportation.

With two young children and working, I was always behind on doing laundry. Like it was yesterday, I remember my friend Jennifer stopping by on Christmas Eve to say hello. She helped me fold clothes! So, that year, she was my “Santa Claus.”

We all need a thoughtful friend, so let me share 5 tips I’ve used to help myself and others to keep smiling.

Tip #1: Smile at Everyone

Smiling prevents wrinkles – seriously! When I look at pictures of my Grandmother, I see myself in her, and not just because fat cheeks run in our family. When we smile, it’s like a Christmas tree, all lit up. And when we frown, our checks sag, showing how unhappy we are.

Even if you don’t have fat cheeks, smiling creates positive energy that boosts your spirit from the inside. It’s a great way to help yourself be happier while also spreading the feeling to those around you.

You should try smiling at someone who looks miserable. If you keep smiling, they will almost surely follow your example.

Tip #2: Give Time to Someone New

If you’re not yet retired, or have decided to continue working a bit longer, you probably know that getting paid by the hour defines time as money. So, giving time to someone new – helps you keep things in perspective.

When I say ‘things’, I mean having a home, a family, food in the fridge, transportation to come and go, network of friends, other things. Think about making a ‘blessing’ list of all the things that you have, which you often assume everyone has.

When temperatures were below freezing last year, I met someone new at church – a guy named James. He was sleeping under a bridge with cardboard as a mattress and a thin blanket coverlet.

He told me he was new in town and had landed a job that started the next Monday. After he got paid, he would be able to rent a room somewhere until he could afford something better.

James made me think about all the things I was taking for granted in my life. James was simply thankful to have a job lined up and had no complaints of his current circumstances. He made me more aware and got me thinking about how I could share what I had in ways I had not thought of before.

Tip #3: Balance Your Checkbook Before Going Shopping

Years of balancing your checkbook (or maybe not enough years?) have probably made you despise doing it. But go ahead and balance it today. Why? So that you can plan ahead for any extra expenses during the holidays.

One method I have used in the past is the envelope system. With so many bank transactions now electronic, sometimes it is easy to lose track. So, you can simplify the balancing process by setting aside money for gifts and party expenses using an envelope for each category.

That way, your budget is in each envelope, and you can manage how much you spend or save during this time of the year. When the envelope is empty, hopefully you will have made all your planned purchases and will not be tempted to keep on spending money that you don’t have.

Of course, these holiday spend envelopes would be in addition to keeping up with your regular bills and expenses. However, starting the new year with a clean slate and being up to date on paying your bills creates a good feeling!

Tip #4: Look Up and Out, Never Giving Up

For those of us who own a business in retirement, we are familiar with the phrase “working on your business, not just in it.” This tip is to look up and beyond today.

You might consider using the following steps for goal-setting and timelining your next steps:

What is it that you want to accomplish next year? (For example, make another $1000 a month = $12,000 next year.)
What action steps do you need to take in the next 30 days to work toward accomplishing your goals? (For example, identify and connect with job opportunities that you expect will lead to at least $250 additional income every week.)
How do you want to measure success? (For example, number of contacts made for job opportunities; number of contacts who said “yes”; dollar amount earned toward the monthly goal of $1000 in additional income.)
Repeat every 30 days for 12 months to reach your goals for the year.
You may also find helpful my Cash Maker Goal-Setting Calendar template, so email me if you want to try it out.

Tip #5: Prepare for the New Year

In the preparation stage is where the real fun begins, when we purge the old to let in the new. This tip is twofold – financial and non-financial.

Do Up the Financial Side
Gather all your financial and other documents for the previous year to organize for your year-end reporting. Consider using Dropbox or Google Drive to scan and digitally store your yearly documents, setting up similar files for the coming year.

De-Clutter Your Home and Office to Free Space
Make a visual inventory of your home and workspace to identify clutter. This is an ideal time to de-clutter by storing or discarding items (or even giving things away) that are not creating joy in your life.

By de-cluttering, your mind will be more agile so that you can engage in new conversations and new activities without being bogged down.

Use these tips to help you do what you love and enjoy what you do! Be blessed.

How do you prepare for the holidays in relation to your personal and business life? What tips do you have for ending the year with a smile? Please share in the comments below!

Let’s Have a Conversation!

November brings traditional Thanksgiving dinners, often with large family gatherings and lots of cooking. We buy more food and cook more, which results in higher utility bills. During December, many of us exchange gifts with family members, friends, and clients.

All of this will cost us more money than we spend in any of the other months of the year.

We love our families and want to be engaged with them, but most of us need to do it in a cost-effective way. If we plan ahead, the financial part can be managed. Here are some things to consider.

Tip #1: Organize Your Records Year-Round

Take time to organize your financial records year-round in ways that are fun, so that you will love doing it. Start by looking for the best organizer tools that will make your life easier.

If you are a ‘paper’ person, we suggest that you shop for a cool three-ring notebook in your favorite color, colorful 1-15 numbered tabs, and clear sleeves that can hold documents with several pages. (Estimated cost = $30 US for materials plus an hour of your time to shop.)

Just so you know, my favorite color right now is lime green and my notebook is so cool!

One three-ring notebook should last for an entire year. Label it on the outside so that you can find it easily. For instance, you could write: “Your Name – 2018 Records”. Set up your tabs to organize “Cash In” and “Cash Out.”

Tabs can be named for things like monthly bank statements, monthly credit card statements, important receipts, past years tax returns, a cash budget, real estate records organized by property address.

If you are a ‘digital’ person, set up these same tabs as a folder on Dropbox.com or on Google Drive.

To get you started, a sample Table of Contents for your tabs or digital folders is shown below:

• Bank Statements (including copies of cancelled checks and deposit information)
• Credit Card Statements
• Child Care Costs
• Transportation Costs
• Insurance Policy and Monthly Receipts
• Charitable Contributions Receipts
• Cash Budget – Current Year
• Retirement Account Statements and Contribution or Withdrawal Documentation
• Tax Return – Last Year and Year Before
• Income Records – such as Pay Stubs
• Medical & Healthcare Records – such as Explanation of Benefits, Invoices Received/Paid, Lab Reports
• Birth Certificate & Passport
• Property Deed and Real Estate Information – by Property Address
• Automobile, Other Vehicle – Titles and Other Information
• Calendar of Deadlines for Filing Taxes and Dates to Pay Bills

Tip #2: Annual Cash Budget

Prepare a cash budget annually for each month during the year. This is a tool that you can print to keep in your three-ring notebook (or digitally) to refer to from time to time. Your budget will help you stay on track so that you are able to sleep at night and not worry about finances.

I recall the year 2008 when I closed my coffeehouse. We had been open for five years and, although it was a lot of fun, the coffeehouse did not make a profit. At that time, I put together a monthly cash budget to manage “Cash In” and “Cash Out.”

I used a one-page Excel spreadsheet and printed a copy to carry in my purse. That way, when I did have money to spend and needed food, clothing, or gas for my car, I would pull out this one-page budget to help me prioritize what to buy with the money that I had.

This budget tool was a life-saver for me and it helped me save my personal credit also – by being able to pay bills on time, using my budget as a guide.

These days, I still use a monthly cash budget to estimate how much I will need to pay bills, when they are due and what amount should be left over for savings or to put back into my business. Your budget should include all “Cash In” and “Cash Out.”

Be sure to include necessities like food and medicine, plus auto repairs and gas if you own a car, or transportation costs. It should also include entertainment and planned discretionary expenses. (Estimated time to prepare budget = 1 to 3 hours annually and half-hour updates monthly.)

Tip #3: Use Event Calendars

Consider developing an Entertainment, Birthday, and Special Events Calendar to help you track all activities a mature woman must engage in. This will help you plan ahead so that you can manage your money and organize your expenses.

If you own a business in your 60s, this type of calendar becomes even more helpful. It will help you know how to plan your spending on activities that are sporadic as well as spontaneous.

For a complimentary one-page calendar design, email Nita Black for a copy. (Estimated time to prepare calendar = 1 to 2 hours annually and half-hour updates monthly.)

Use these ideas to help you do what you love and enjoy what you do! Be blessed.

How do you organize your finances? Have you tried going at it on a monthly basis rather than doing it annually? What tools do you use to help you organize your finances? Please share any strategies that you find useful!

This article first appeared on Sixty & Me

In 2003, I opened a retail store near the University of Memphis.  Originally this was a music store for independent musicians and artists to have a place to sell their original music or artwork.  The store evolved over the next five years into a coffeehouse which offered live music and original artwork.  The whole experience was a trip!  Even though the store is now closed, I don’t regret making that investment.  During that time I figured out a few things and for some of us, we have to learn by doing it.  We can read about, talk about it, listen to others, watch others, but we actually have to do it and make adjustments as we go to be successful at it.

Between the stock market decline, costly mistakes I made in running a retail store, and vacancies in rental property, I burned through most of my cash and IRAs.  So now I am working on making my second million!

Making money usually happens inch by inch, yard by yard, mile by mile.  So how did I start to rebuild cash?  When my store closed, I was looking at unpaid bills and credit cards with high interest rates.  Initially I used a green columnar pad to forecast how much cash was needed to make regular monthly payments and to repay credit card loans.  After landing a job which paid every other Friday, I sketched out when money would be coming in and what money had to go out.  Squeaking by for a few months by deferring payments until the very last due date, my credit report was not severely impacted.  I am now down to one credit card balance with three credit card lines open.  My spreadsheet includes money coming in from all sources (when and how much), expenses associated with one rental property, expenses associated with the business consulting company, and ongoing monthly expenses such as utilities, insurance, food, clothing, auto maintenance, mortgage note, charitable contributions.  At the bottom of the spreadsheet are goals for how many clients I need paying at an average ticket price to cover the business consulting company expenses and also make a profit.  If I had more than one rental property, this section of the plan would include the number of tenants with average rent paid in to cover expenses and make a profit.

The spreadsheet is now on my computer and ends up being one page so I can carry it in my purse.  I use it as a tool to make decisions on how much to donate to others, how much should go to savings, how much is forecasted in each area, and then how much is discretionary for other things.  This helps me control spending and stay focused on the plan to increase cash within my own personal limits.  It includes my day job, pet projects, the rental property numbers, and a savings plan for the next “project”.

Sometimes it is hard to talk with others about money.  So there, I have told you at least part of my story.  I made it, lost it, and am re-building it.  Life is not all about money but I like to see progress in accomplishing my goals which are now written and revised when needed.  There are many people who are like me, trying to figure it out as we go, working hard to keep the pieces of the puzzle together.

1. Use a good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. Personally, I use #cloze. This is where I can sync my umpteen emails into one place. I can respond quickly from each specific email that I own. My phone calls, emails, and calendar are sync’d into Cloze, and I am getting ready to upgrade my subscription to do more via cloze. A CRM tool helps you organize everything into one place so you can find things later, communicate well with clients and prospects, and schedule posts, emails, and tasks.

2. Use a good Task/Project Management tool. I have used several tools in the past, like Clickup and Trello. Right now, my favorite is #Any.Do. It is really beautiful, gives me encouraging messages when I finish tasks, and maneuvers easily on my phone. A good Task/Project Management tool like Any.Do can be sync’d to your calendar and other tools to help you complete work on time.

3. Use a good Bookkeeping tool. My go-to is QuickBooks Online (QBO). It allows me to sync bank and credit card accounts into QBO. That makes it easier to check off and “accept” into QBO what posts to my accounts and categorize income and expenses accurately. When your chart of accounts is set up correctly and you accept entries correctly, QBO financial reports (Balance Sheet, Profit/Loss, Accounts Receivable Aging, and more) help you review your numbers on a regular basis throughout the year. Keeping your QBO current every week helps you wrap up year-end accounting quickly so you can do year-end tax reporting or provide accurate information for someone else to do the taxes for you. I outsource payroll processing (which includes tax reporting throughout the year and year-end reporting) to a third party who specializes in payroll. Payroll is my least favorite thing to do, from a financial and accounting standpoint.

What tools do you find helpful? Please share what works well for you as technology as well as business is always changing. For more information feel free to contact me.

#entrepreneurs #productivitytools #inspiration #businesstips

As entrepreneurs grow their businesses, they should consider whether to raise their prices. Some owners worry that they will lose customers by doing so.  They still need to weigh whether they are bringing in enough revenue to pay their key employees decently while also making a profit to use for future growth. Raising even some prices can move a business owner out of his/her comfort zone, perhaps inspiring the owner to improve the quality and/or marketing of his/her products or services. And remember, money is not the only factor that influences most purchasing decisions.

Here are 3 ways to analyze your price.  (1)  Take a look at what your direct and indirect competitors are charging for their offers.  Direct competitors are those who offer services very similar to yours.  For example, if you offer website design services, with whom are you most likely competing?  Indirect competitors are those who offer an alternative service.  For a website designer, an indirect competitor might be Facebook where the customer uses a Facebook page instead of a website. 

(2) Consider how much your prospects are willing to pay for your services and even ask them for feedback so you can find out what they are thinking in terms of price. 

(3) Look at your costs, your expenses, incurred in providing each offer.  Decide what your profit margin needs to be so that you can pay yourself and cover your fixed expenses.

Do not be afraid to price your offer based on the market and what your services are worth.  You will be surprised at how this will work in your favor in the long run.  If you are in business to make money, make sure that your price covers your costs, including your salary, plus a net profit margin to reinvest in the business.

For more information #talktonita or go to NitaBlack.com.  Cheers!

Empowering Business Owners to Reach Their Full Potential!

Have an idea for an Opportunity Zone project?

Opportunity Zones were created under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (Public Law No. 115-97). Thousands of low-income communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories are designated as Qualified Opportunity Zones. (Source – IRS.gov)

Nationwide, governors selected a total of 8,762 tracts as Opportunity Zones; 97% of those selected (8,532) were Low-Income Communities (LICs), while only 3% (230) were non LIC contiguous tracts (Theodos et al., 2018).

According to survey responses and other sources, most projects are real-estate focused. Through 2019, more than 6,000 Qualified Opportunity Funds had invested about $29 billion, based on partial data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). (Source – Novoco.com research report dated October 2021)

Last week we talked with one project owner who has a business idea who is looking for capital to launch an OZ business.

31.5 million people call Opportunity Zones home (35 million including Puerto Rico and the territories). The majority of Opportunity Zones residents, 57 percent, are non-white minorities, compared to 39 percent of the country as a whole. Black Americans are particularly over-represented in Opportunity Zones, constituting more than twice as large a share of the zone population as they do the national population. (Source – https://eig.org/opportunityzones/facts-and-figures)

Until 2008 this project owner had $1 million+ open credit lines in place. Even though he has an excellent credit score and industry experience, traditional financial institutions are not interested/not willing to approve his funding request. This is because there is no proof that the idea will work, no deal history, and not enough information to say “yes” to funding request.

Some funders and investors understand his business idea, but many do not. And when he has gotten a “no” in the past, there was never really a solid reason as to why they said “no” to the funding request.

Anyone in this situation would get discouraged and want to give up.

This gentleman has an excellent credit score, industry experience, lots of contacts and is passionate about the project. In an OZ a project like his also has an economic focus and making a social impact in the OZ, but he has been unable to access funding to move the idea forward.

We know how hard it is to access funding for new projects with no performance history. We have helped clients write their business plan, forecast cash flow, and clarify their pitch to engage investors, banks, and other funders. For Opportunity Zone (OZ) deals we collaborate with a network of OZ professionals through OZworksgroup.com to gain project clarity, resources, and improved access to funding.

Our 3-step process for OZ and other new projects is:

1. Consult on a complimentary basis to learn more about the idea and the client’s vision.

2. Prepare an Engagement Letter which outlines next steps and proposed fees.

3. Finalize Engagement and begin work to access desired funding.

Client information is confidential. We only accept client projects that are not in direct competition with other client projects. Client relationships are built on mutual trust and Integrity and professionalism in our work is guaranteed.

Schedule a call so we can talk about your project and how we can help you move forward. Go to nitablack.com to look at a sample of the tools we use to help business owners organize their idea and their business.

Take control of your business.

Move your new business idea forward.

Make funding pitches with more confidence and clarity.

Get better results that make it easier to access capital.

Our services help clients avoid months and sometimes years of delay in accessing capital, reduce the probability of funders saying “no,” and avoid continued project delays due to lack of capital.

Move from discouraged, with little or no capital, to “energized, project on go!” If you want to be effective/make a difference in OZ communities, schedule a consult so that we can get your idea moving!

Nita Black
(901)413-1315
www.NitaBlack.com

Management Consulting | Business Planning | Strategic Planning | Accounting | Plan Implementation

Are you afraid to find out what you don’t know? Creating and growing a business is hard and it’s even more difficult without having a good working knowledge of your financials. Many business owners (you are not the only one) do not take time to organize their financial recordkeeping on a consistent, ongoing basis. They know how much money is in the bank, but they don’t know the amount of their profit or how much taxes they owe. Not understanding your financials can be devastating, cause you to be late or overpay taxes, and prevent you from taking your business to the next level.

Here are 3 things that we recommend for small business owners to get their records in order before year end.

1. Commit time to learning about business basics in accounting. Many entrepreneurs had no “book-learning” about accounting while in school. There are free video tutorials and books to help you learn more about accounting. Even if you decide to hire someone to keep your books in order, you still need to be aware of basics. Below is a link to a basic tutorial on Youtube for folks who have no background in accounting. This will help you get started in the learning process about accounting and business financials. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYNTBWBqncU

2. Do “your homework”. It is sort of like going to math class, listening to the instructor at every class, but not doing your homework. Pretty soon, you are so far behind that it becomes more difficult to catch up. When you don’t do your homework, particularly in a subject like math or accounting, you don’t understand how the numbers fit together to get to the right answer. Actually working through your numbers every week will help you understand what they really mean and how to make sense out of them. This knowledge helps you make better business decisions to grow your business. Use a free or low cost bookkeeping software like QuickBooks to do a lot of the work for you. Below is a link to a QuickBooks Online (QBO) tutorial for you to see how QBO works and the process you should use to invoice customers, pay bills, track job expenses, measure profits, and build net worth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5ihi8BsxwE

3. Monitor your numbers. By knowing more about accounting and then organizing your financial data in a bookkeeping software, you should be in good shape to run financial reports at least every month to see what happened and what didn’t. By that I mean you can look at sales, for example, to compare to previous month or previous year sales. Your reports should show different types of sales, such as revenue from different product sales versus from different services. You can use this information to know how much more you need to do in sales to breakeven or how much you have exceeded what was planned. Using this information, you can share selected data with your staff. This helps you as the owner communicate more clearly with your staff so that you can share with them what they need to do to help the business grow.

We understand how you feel and have helped 100’s of entrepreneurs get things under control before the IRS letter comes in the mail. For more information next steps are make an appointment with us, let us evaluate your specific concerns and then together we will explore the best-fit solutions for you to move forward.

#entrepreneur #leadershipmindset #financials #takecontrolofbusiness #businessstrategist

Here is a 3-step roadmap to help you move forward so that you enjoy what you are doing and know where you are headed.

1. Choose your services/products wisely. What is it that you love to do? What makes you jump out of bed every day because you just can’t wait to start the day? For some of us, there are many things that we enjoy doing. For your business, pick one core offer from which to build a service/product line. Your offer should be something you believe in AND your research shows people want it. Step 1 is to figure out what your main lane is, rather than trying to initially drive your business down an eight-lane freeway going nowhere.

2. Assess your 3 E’s. Expertise, experience, and education. What do you do that you are really good at, have the expertise and experience in doing it, and have the education for it? You want to be the very best you can be so your offer should line up with what you are good at and do well. This is likely something you really enjoy doing and matches well with Step 1 above. With focus on your 3 E’s your customers will buy from you because they know, like and trust you, because of who you are.

3. Answer the question – Who will pay me? Who is your ideal client, the individual or business your offer can help, the individual or business who wants your offer and is willing to/able to pay for it? If your choice in this Step 3 is an individual, also figure out a strategy to sell “in bulk”. An example for selling in bulk is someone like Holiday Ham which is a walk-in restaurant serving individual lunches for consumers (B2C). They also fill orders for 25+ or more lunch boxes at a time for small businesses nearby (B2B) to provide to employees and clients. Having a B2C and B2B growth strategy is critical to your revenue model. Step 3 is to identify your ideal client. This is someone who will pay for what you love to do (Step 1) and that you do well (Step 2).

You may have a process that works for you so please share this with us. As a small business owner, you can use this 3-step roadmap by focusing on your main lane and then expanding with more lanes as your business grows.

#business #businessowner #leadershipmindset #sweetspot #focusonrevenue #strategy

July 4, 2021 – Busy multi-lane freeways and overpass in San Diego, aerial view