Solution #4: Money and Finances

What it feels like:

I’m useless when it comes to money. Where does it all go?

How do I budget money when I don’t know from week to week how much I’ll bring in?
How do I know when I’m making enough money from my art to quit my day job?
When I start thinking about dealing with money my mind turns to mush and I’d rather do just about anything other than deal with this.
Money is a total mystery to me – Where’s Merlin when I need him?
Or, you think, if only I had more money, all my problems would disappear.

For many people in the Art and Entertainment Industry, it’s also not about working with a monthly salary, but the uncertainty and the irregularity of a free-lancer’s income. Going from gig to gig, commission to commission or even private student to private student, it seems impossible to create a sustainable living doing what you love.

Success Solution:

There are two aspects to this issue – dealing with your work like a business (managing cash flow is a key component to a successful business) and dealing with your own inner money issues and money management skills. For the purpose of this article, I’m going to focus on the latter. Because I’ve found that once you deal with your internal money stuff, it becomes easier and clearer to deal with your creative career as a business.

I’ve worked with many, many clients on money issues. In fact, it’s one of my specialties. And the bottom line is this:

Managing money is just like any other skill, you can learn how to do it.

And having this skill will create tremendous freedom and space for an abundance of opportunities to flow into your life.

Money is actually a very simple thing and the people who are good with money understand this. But for most people, their beliefs about money are so complex, contradictory and unconscious. And these beliefs give the illusion that money is scarce, hard, even evil. They can’t even begin to see how simple and abundant money really is.

We forget that money is merely a physical manifestation of energy. Somehow it has acquired a life of its own. The truth is that money is not evil. And it’s also NOT the solution to your problems or the answer to all your prayers.

It’s just energy to be used however you choose to use it. And just like electricity (another form of energy) it can be used to do magical things. But it isn’t magic. And you don’t need to be a magician to manage it. Also like electricity, money is completely neutral, depending on how you use it, it can be constructive or destructive.

If you keep wishing you don’t have to deal with your money, you won’t. Because if you keep wishing it away, that’s exactly where it will go – AWAY!

So, what’s the solution?

Look at it. Be real, honest and detailed. Track your money, in all of it’s forms including checking, savings, credit card, debit card and cash. Reconcile your accounts every month, including credit card, checking, savings and cash (yes, cash). Learn to use Quicken or QuickBooks or some other accounting program of your choice and track every penny of it.

Once you know what you have, what you spend and what you need, you can begin to build the financial management systems to use your money constructively and effectively.

I’ve written an eBook which will give you the seven step process that I walk my private clients through when they want to create a shift in their relationship with money: Build Your Financial Foundation Workbook.

Actions

These include just a few of the actions from the Workbook:

Begin to log every penny you spend to get real about what your spending, where and how.
Create a spreadsheet of your Assets & Liabilities and compute your net worth
Create a spreadsheet of all your credit card debt and make a plan for paying it off
Create a budget for your business and personal spending
Separate your business accounts from your personal accounts and track them separately
Buy Build Your Financial Foundation Workbook and download it immediately.
Set aside 1-2 hours every week in a firm appointment with yourself that you KEEP every week. Print out one section at a time of the workbook and work through each section in order during this time.
Buy and read – Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Buy and read – Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
Get support from a coach, or a friend who has also purchased the workbook and is working through the process. Or even better, form a group to work through the process together.