Starting a business is no small feat for anyone, but what many people don’t take into consideration is that most businesses owners are not trained in running a business; they know their product or their service but not marketing, sales, or finance. This is why it never surprises me that the most common answer I hear from new business owners when asked “What is the biggest problem you face as a business owner?” is always something related to money. For most startups, the pain is most easily seen in their number of customers (or lack thereof), but when is it time to get help?
When to Get Financial Training
Most business owners can recognize they need to get help with improving their skills in marketing when they want a website and have no idea how to build one (if you don’t know the term SEO, you fall into this category and I suggest you seek help immediately). But when starting a business, they may not connect that there is the same value in getting financial training. Most of our experiences as individuals (and business owners) are with our tax specialists and/or financial planners. However, you should be aware that most of these are neither business experts nor financial trainers (to be fair, some are, but most are not). Tax specialists help you reduce your tax burden from income and assets. Financial planners are trained in helping you with investing your money. Do you see what’s missing here? Both work with money you already have! Financial training is about teaching you how to make money. To answer my earlier question of “when is it time to get financial training for your business?”, the answer is: as soon as you want to start making money!
And when do you want to start making money? I would think that’s as soon as you start your business, right? A new business has costs before it even begins (i.e. fictitious business name statement, email address – please tell me you’re not using @gmail, etc.), so if you’ve never had financial training, it’s time to get started.
Road Blocks to Financial Training Success
It’s possible that a light bulb just went on over your head about no one ever teaching you how to make money and you’re ready to jump in, but for many entrepreneurs, getting financial help is an uncomfortable subject. Here are the top reasons I’ve heard:
- “I’m not very good at math.”
- “I’m not good at learning new things.”
- “I already know enough to get by.”
- “I don’t want to show my records to someone else.”
- “I’m embarrassed for someone to know my business is failing.”
If these answers didn’t surprise you, let me remind you that these are all from your subconscious fears and based on nasty little lies. Financial savvy is never too hard to learn, or beyond your ability to understand it. And by the way, financial training has very little to do with math! Don’t let anyone tell you that that no matter what you do, wealth is not something that will be in your future so why even try or that there is some secret formula known to only a few. Somewhere along the way, many entrepreneurs came to believe these lies as being true and came to conversely believe that they were never going to have a successful business. But the truth is that the greatest obstacle to financial mastery for our businesses is a lack of the basic skills training business owners need.
Financial Training is Financially Healthy
I invite you to shift your mindset and embrace the need for financial training as being an elemental piece for your business success either when starting a business or when you’re ready to grow your business. It is as important as learning how to market your business. Financial training will help you to uncover the simple steps and the little habits and structures that support success and profitability. It will change your entire experience with money and allow you to approach the financial health of your business differently.
