Things You Should Know About Making a Budget for a Small Freelance Business

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Things-You-Should-Know-About-Making-a-Budget-for-Your-Small-Freelance-Business

Making a business is one thing, but keeping it is another.  Budgets play a big role in keeping your business running. Many business owners are too lazy to keep track of the money, so they lose a lot over the years.  I know budgets take a lot of time and thinking, but it also saves you money and your business. In this post, you will get info on how to start making a budget.  I’m telling what works for my business and hope this helps you. ps you many need to add printing into your budget like flyer printing, business cards and so on.

1.)  Track Your Budget for the Week and the Month:

Track your budget for the week and the month

When starting your business, it’s very important to know your budget for the week and month.  It can get crazy trying to stay within a budget when you’re busy with work.  Just remember that budgets help the business going.  Your budget might change from time to time.  Unexpected things can happen like a computer breaking, software not working, etc.  The more you stay on track, the faster your business will grow.  Clients are a big part of your budget.  Clients will ask to make changes, so they should always be a part of your budget because you will need to get the right person to take care of added costs.  Keep track of all paperwork.  This will help you stick to your budget and also, comes to good use during tax time.

Key things about a budget:

  • Make a budget and stick to it.
  • When tax season comes around, you will be 100% prepared.
  • Makes it easy to keep track of your money.

Bad things about a budget:

  • Take up a lot of your time.
  • When one thing changes in your budget, everything changes.
  • keeping track of every penny.

2.) How do I keep Tack of My budget:

How do I keep Tack of My budget

By now you’re asking yourself this.  Keeping track is not the fun part, but you must know how much you will be using each week.  Add everything to a list where you can check off what you don’t need later.  Things to add for example:  (I’m a web designer, so my list would have more along the lines of)

(lunches, client lunches, coding hours, traveling costs, software, all repairs, paying staff, office rent, and extra on the side for changes that come along.)

This is just to give you guys an idea of what should be in your budget list.  Don’t add things for your only personal life like food shopping, clothes and so on.
Also write a list of things you need for your business and add this to your list.
For example:  computers, updating software, coffee

I normally write down what I need, see how budget for the week is doing, then I would go ahead and buy things I need.

Key things to help:

  • There are a lot of websites or phone apps to help you manage your budget.
  • Make the updates to your budget on a daily basis.
  • List every little thing, edit later.

3.) Review your budget every week, month and year:

Review your budget every week, month and year

Try to review your budget every week.  You always want to see where your money is going.  It helps to cut back on things you don’t really need. Reviewing catches loop holes if money is missing.

Key points of reviewing your budget:

  • Helps you manage your cash.
  • Very useful when tax season comes.
  • Helps you keep track of your cash flow.

4.) Your Main Goal:

Your Main Goal

What is the main goal by making a budget?  For me, it is to save money and have more coming in.  It’s a good idea to make budgets a part of your  life, not just your business.  Once you master this, your business will take off.  Clients will be happy and you will be happy too.  Small businesses fail within their first year because they don’t really focus on goals and budgets, so they end up blowing all their cash.

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Creative Director

Creative Director

My name is Julio A Rivera, I'm a Creative Director/Web Designer from New York City and I'm the Founder of Underworld Magazines also Mydesign7.com. I'm happy to share some of the web best resources and give you Inspiration. Follow me on Twitter @mydesign7
Creative Director

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  • http://www.bloggingtechnews.com blogging tech news

    wow. nice tips. Try to implement it.

    [Reply]

  • http://www.underworldmagazines.com Creative Director

    Cheers!!! thanks for reading always like to help out.

    [Reply]

  • http://warstwy.com dumazz

    Very specific article. These publications are needed, because opening the eyes of the welds of finance. And here all the time you need to tweak something.

    [Reply]

    Creative Director Reply:
    May 10th, 2011 at 9:51 am

    thanks yea everyone looks to start a business but cant because of this.

    [Reply]

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  • http://51websitedesign.com 51 Website Design

    I plan on initially starting my career as a freelance web designer next month. So, I’m very glad to know this. Thanks Julio.

    [Reply]

  • http://youridealgraphicdesigns.com Popartgal

    Very information and straight to the point. I total agree, having a business and keeping it running are totally two different things. I am currently in the midst of finishing this website I’m currently working on. It’s not so easy to create one. I realized! Thanks for sharing :D all the best! cheers!

    [Reply]

  • Kundan

    Thanks it is very helpfule..thansk for sharing ur knowledge would love to gain more knowledge from u…wish can work with to know the best from u :)

    [Reply]

  • http://www.opportunitiesplanet.com Opportunities

    It is very important to keep track of your budget regularly in order to set goals and be able to measure the level of accomplishment, this is very important not only for companies but for freelancers too

    [Reply]