Business & Networking

Financial IQ – Understand The 3 Basic Elements

Do you know how your money works? I bet you don’t. Don’t take that personally! It has been my very real personal experience that most people don’t understand how to use, save or manage their money. Until recently, I didn’t even understand it, and I still struggle with managing it and planning ahead for it sometimes.

There are three main parts to financial IQ that can be broken down into hundreds of sub-topics. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll focus on the three basic areas of financial IQ.

Making the switch

Thanks for the guest post by Neville Mcintyre

I’m so glad that I finally decided to sign up for 4G internet from Clear. I was thinking of changing for a while and have been so happy since finally taking the plunge. I don’t know why I was so worried about it.

I work from home so my internet service is really important. I need to stay available at all times so that I know what’s going on with my team. My company’s preferred method of communication is always email, so if I can’t respond immediately during business hours it’s a huge problem.

Now I can just keep my laptop in my car and break it out wherever I am. This is such a huge help. I used to try and do everything on my phone, but sometimes that is just impossible. I remember having to drive around and search for places that offer free wifi connections too. That was terrible and such a waste of time.I’m really glad that is in my past.

Now I have my own wireless hotspot, which has changed everything. It is so nice not being chained to my desk every day!

Greeting card and thank you organizer

Has it occurred to you to send out holiday or New Year cards to  your clients? Even a simple holiday post card thanking them for their business would be a welcome surprise in the day of email and online communications. 

Before you do, get organized.

Find each customers name and mailing address. Then organize by alpha bet, or most recent order, or highest amount of orders. Whatever criteria is most important to you.

Figure out what you want to send. Just a greeting and thank you, or a coupon code or special gift? Again, it’s up you to to figure out what fits best with your company brand and what you want to encourage from you customers and clients.

Now that you know what you want to send and who you are sending it to, go mail them!

For the new year, try a greeting card organizer. What would you like to remind or thank you customers for during the year? Their birthday? Their anniversary of their first order with you? 

A card organizer would look like a regular notebook or accordion file, but would list the important dates, names and addresses of the client for that month. So, you can pull out the list and a card and then send it out at the beginning of each month. Nothing like planning ahead! Everything will be right where you need it and you won’t have to search through a ton of info or paperwork to find who gets what and when. 

Time management for work at home people

You know how many times people say to me, “you are one strong mama!” But, in reality I don’t always feel that way, and I don’t always manage that well either. Seriously managing yourself, and the time you do things in is a serious aspect of running your business.  You probably already know how to use the kid’s naptimes to get some work done, but maybe there are a few things you haven’t even realized that you can do..

Have a clear purpose when you get on the internet. 

Before you sit down at your computer every day, make sure you have one purpose in mind. I like to use my daily To-Do list by writing down the top 3 things to do today, the night before. It keeps me from just checking email and goofing off with lots of useless time wasters.

Analyze your activities

Before taking any action, make sure you know the steps involved. Think about what you’ve been doing so far. Is it working for you? Is it actually moving you forward? So many times we mom entrepreneurs join safe lists and traffic exchanges. But does that actually get you sales or customers? Maybe, but you’ll need to analyse each action to see if it moves you forward or keeps you stuck?  mean you should be spending time doing it.

The best $20 you can spend on your business

If you have younger kids, spending money on a Mommy helper or some type of child care to keep your kids busy for several hours at a time.

Assembly Lines 

Put similar activities in groups. Start one task and keep going with it without interruptions. Check email once or twice per day and answer it all at once. When one child asks for a story gather them all around. Same thing for snacks. Run all your errands at once. Try to schedule blocks of time for each type of task.

Utilize Technology 

Can you get mobile? Wireless and a laptop are awesome. You could work from your living room, the front porch or even from your bathroom (if you have to hide from the kids).  Or, while the kids are out with friends, you can hit your local coffee shop with free wifi and do your work from there.

Use autoresponders, mailing lists and other resources to automate your business. If you find yourself typing out answers to the same questions over and over again, add pages to your website or create an ecourse or downloadable report that addresses those topics and refer your customers or downline or whomever to those.

We have to constantly work on being creative in our business management, working in time for kids and everything else that is required of being a mom. Throw in a business and it feels like too much some days, but you’ll get through it and you’ll even be happy you did.

To  help you out with your own Survival Kit, I’ve made a package of downloadable, printable forms that will help you start your business and track your business as it grows. Get the Idea Evaluation Worksheet for free right now.