Did you know you can wipe away your financial stress and overwhelming frustration without being an accountant or a bookkeeper?
Quilt shop owners often get constant email reminders from their CPA asking about their financials so they can get the quarterly taxes submitted.
Unfortunately, it’s common for shop owners to struggle to find the time to catch up on their finances. And even more common for them to not know where to begin. Bookkeeping is meant to track progress towards financial goals and ensure taxes get done accurately and on time.
Without a solid financial foundation and bookkeeping steps, shop owners may be dead in the water before they even start.
But there is a better way follow these steps!
Start with a solid sales system
You should start with a solid sales system to grow your business or grow it to the later stages in business. This includes a solid sales and marketing plan to enhance your customer experience. It is the vision and goals of your company. What is driving you, and why are you so passionate about your quilt shop?
Without this in place, it’s like you are paddling in a lake with only one paddle. You’ll go in circles, but every once in a while, you may get something that points you in the right direction. But then you’ll start going in circles again.
When you clearly define and write down your vision (aka your why) for your quilt shop, that gives you a second paddle and a life vest so you can keep going.
Cash is King
The second thing is to actively manage your cash (aka money in the bank). Your cash flow is the lifeblood of your business. Without cash, you can’t keep your doors open.
Are you effectively managing your cash and finding new ways to bring cash into your business? Do you have a plan not to waste those newfound dollars?
The best system I have found is the Profit First System. In my own quilt shop, we used this system to pay off tens of thousands of dollars of debt in less than a year.
I’m a CPA, so I know how the financials work. I understand how they operate, what impacts different decisions, and how to create a more positive financial impact down the line.
The Profit First system brings so much clarity to your finances. It teaches you how to manage your money, how to spend it, when to save it, and how to be cash-flow positive.
If you didn’t know, Cash is King! Without cash in your business, you can’t keep your doors open. Profit First helps curb that gut feeling and enables you to grow a healthy quilt shop.
Systematize your processes
Once you have your sales and cash flow system in place, it’s time to work on systematizing your business. That means that your employees are doing the work the same way you, as the boss, are doing the work.
If you are the only employee, you should be documenting the processes as you do the work. Then when you are ready to scale and grow your business, it’s easier for you to hire and train, so they do the job precisely the same way.
There are several ways you can document the process. You could record a video, write it down, or even type as you go in a word document.
Whenever you create these processes, you need to ask yourself, “What is the reasoning behind this work?” Then when your employee is reading those instructions, they will understand why they are doing what they are doing. It allows you to scale and grow your business at a profitable rate. You’ll feel much more involved and appreciative of your business.
The goal is to improve your customer experience and growing a healthy quilt shop. That’s the reason you went into business in the first place, right?
We are here to support you, so you don’t get lost in the details of owning a quilt shop. You don’t need to be paddling in circles and going at it alone.