I made these changes to align the business to focus on Forecasting, create space to keep offering the Finacial Forecasting Experience, and help more people know and love their numbers.

     I had a powerful realization as I went about my life feeling really well. I asked myself why I felt so good and realized that no work things were weighing me down. I used to punish myself by fixating on things that needed fixing. I love solving problems, so up until now, I've looked for problems to solve. I was collecting problems for my brain to solve.

“You can boil your whole life down to a single suitcase if you desperately had to.” - Jodi Picoult, Vanishing Act.

The constraints of space and time have been at play in my life as it reconfigures itself. I’ve reconfigured my business by releasing nonaligned work.

   Your business doesn't have money blocks. Your business is a separate entity from yourself. Even if you are a sole proprietor and the IRS says you and your business are one and the same for tax purposes. You are not your business, and your business is not you.

   Pricing is a powerful lever you can use to increase profitability and is good for your customers.

   The customers who stay provide more profit, and you may end up doing less work for more money.

  As you make these changes, you might experience a dip in revenue, but you will be more profitable from the work you retain.

   Letting go is hard, but I know it is best for all concerned. I have been putting it off like it will take care of itself in the future. It hasn’t, and now it’s time to act.

   Why do I resist? There are two reasons why releasing them is difficult.

   So, if you feel bad about not knowing your numbers, know that you don’t have to be someone who can memorize numbers to be a good financial steward of your business.

   There is a big difference between what it feels like to look at reports (eyes may glaze over) and the tactile interaction with the information that happens through Forecasting

   We often feel gratitude AFTER we receive something, but we can use gratitude as a powerful catalyst by flipping the equation to feeling gratitude BEFORE something happens.

   Feeling gratitude before we receive the results we want is a part of The Financial Forecasting Framework.

   In The Financial Forecasting Experience, I told everyone that the tools are 20% and that having time on the calendar to show up to spend time with your numbers is 80%. You know the 80/20 rule. It shows up everywhere!

   Nothing happens if you don’t do it. And, like self-care during the holidays, it’s easy not to make time for it. I know.

   I want to share the idea that bookkeeping can take a lot of time or a little time. It depends on how often you do it. The more often you do it, the less time it takes.

   Another advantage of doing your bookkeeping more often is remembering what happened because it just happened. You save a ton of time not trying to remember or research something that happened months ago.

   It's fascinating to see how quickly people start to feel better about money when they can see the big picture and evaluate it rather than experiencing their financials as a collection of responses to individual transactions that happen all the time in our daily lives.

   Things like:

   Does the thought of joining the Financial Forecasting Experience feel intimidating?

   How do you feel when you think about the state of your bookkeeping?

   Does it feel daunting? Are you hiding from the situation because you don’t want to deal with it?

   Are uncomfortable emotions coming up?

   I’ve been talking a lot about Financial Forecasting lately, and maybe you are wondering why you should listen to me anyway?

   So, I wanted to tell you a little about myself, why I started Love Your Numbers Now, and how I became so passionate about helping entrepreneurs have up-to-date financial information they can use to their advantage.

   I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of Practice Takes Practice.

   I love the idea that if you want to get good at something, you must do it.

• If you want to be a runner, you must run.

• If you want to be a writer, you must write.

• If you want to be an artist, you must make art.

   How do you feel about bookkeeping? Do you wish you didn’t have to do it?

   It takes so much time and is often bothersome to a business owner. Back when I had young children at home and before the invention of bank feeds to help automate bookkeeping, I was always behind.

   Today I want to talk to you about two key numbers to know and my thoughts on how to start consciously working with numbers as DATA instead of DRAMA.

   They are:

   If you don’t ask for a payment, leave it hanging around as a loose end, or make it difficult, they will not trust that you can deliver on your customer promise.

   I’ve talked to entrepreneurs who tell me they are terrible at getting paid and don’t have a system for collecting money. They scramble around to collect it when they need to pay their bills.

I promised to share how financial forecasting is a tool used to change your money consciousness. I'll start with an example of one of my clients, Cindy Ingram. Cindy has a very successful business, creating art curriculum to support teachers in their time of great need.

When we first started working together, Cindy believed she WASN’T good at money.

   Our money consciousness is shaped by many things, like our experiences, how our parents spoke about money, and our ancestral history. We all have our money stories, which are at play in our lives even if we aren’t aware of them.

   I’d like to tell you a story about my childhood:

   Unfortunately, having a business comes with bookkeeping. It can be challenging to stay on top of and hard to free ourselves from the nagging feeling of being constantly behind in this area. Even if you outsource your bookkeeping, you still have financial tasks that only you can take care of, like invoicing your customers or updating your Financial Forecast.