Let’s think for a moment about a baseball player that has just hit a grand slam into the stands. The hit brings three of his teammates across home plate, as well as himself. It means four points scored for the team.
That grand slam is backed up by hours, months, and years of practice and commitment. He didn’t just wake up that morning and say, “Hey, I think I’ll try baseball, today.” He didn’t just walk onto a Major League Baseball team. He spent years working and training hard in order to hit that grand slam.
To him, this moment makes all of his hard work and sacrifices worth it.
Let’s apply this type of commitment to your business. In order to “hit a grand slam”, you must commit to hard work and practice; success doesn’t just come overnight. Success is also achieved through stability. You need to create a sound, foundational practice of keeping your business’ financials updated and tended to. We get it, though; keeping up with your financials can create a whole other level of stress and anxiety. It may take your eye off the ball.
But, it doesn’t have to.
Here, we’d like to share a few key tips and mindset practices you can put into play that will help you remain committed to the success of your business:
- Investment in future ease vs. time wasted compiling reports now: This is just our fancy way of saying that taking the time to do the books well, now, is an investment in creating more ease for you in the future. When you commit to routinely updating your books—whether it’s every Friday afternoon or on the first Monday of each month—you are staying afloat with your records, rather than trying to catch up with months of records, later.
- Entrepreneurship takes time. Just like a baseball game, the end goal—winning—is not a quick feat. It takes time, practice, strategy, and focus. In order to meet your end goal, you will need help along the way. One baseball player, alone, cannot win the game; you need other players. When it comes to your business’ financials, you need a professional. Someone who will be diligent about ensuring that all of your receipts, transactions, spending, and more are being reconciled and tracked effectively. Bringing in a talented bookkeeper is not only a smart addition to your team, it’s the key to winning.
- Success is a journey, not just a point in time. Financial reports do not reflect the success of your business; they simply reflect where you are in your business right now and at this moment. Every day consider what else makes your business successful. Such as you’ve hired two new employees to help; you have new technology to help you move through the day more seamlessly; you encourage weekly meetings over lunch, rather than in the office, to help keep the dialogue open and honest. Success can be measured by milestones and how abundantly happy you are to have the life you do.
Ready? Batter up!
