6 Month Finance Check

We’re officially halfway through the year and that means it’s time to do a six-month check on your financial goals.

A mid-year check is so important because it really helps you see how far you’ve come and how far you still need to go.  It also shows you which months you rocked and which could have gone better.  Checking in now allows you to set some things in place for the upcoming Christmas season to ensure you meet that big, scary, wonderful money goal you set in January.

So, what should you be looking at during your check-up?

• Total income to date.  This will be your biggest number so it feels pretty good, right?
• Total profit to date.  This gives you a way better idea of how your business is doing because if you’re taking in a ton of income but there’s no profit, you’re never going to see your business succeed.  If your profit isn’t as high as you’d like, it may be time to consider raising prices, finding a way to cut costs on supplies, or streamlining your work to shave off production time.
• Money goal – total income to date.  What works even better here is to divide how much money you still want to make by 6.  That will show you how much you need to make each month to meet your goal.  You can go a step further and divide that number by 4 to see how much money you need to pull in each week.  And if you really love control, divide THAT number by 7 to see how much money you need to bring in daily to reach your financial goal.  If that doesn’t make you feel in control, I don’t know what does.
• Cost of supplies to date.  Personally, I like doing this one to see just how much I’ve been spending on supplies because it helps me see if there’s a better way to buy.  Perhaps bulk would be better on certain items but I don’t realize that until I take a step back and notice I’m buying 100 of something every two months.
• Cost of shipping to date.  Compare this to the income you’re getting from shipping.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to raise my shipping costs simply because the cost of postage goes up or I’ve completely underestimated how much it costs for a package to fly to Australia.  Raising your cost of shipping for the customer is so simply and yet it could help you increase your profit.  Plus, most people understand that shipping is expensive and don’t mind that it costs $8 to get a print across several oceans.

This isn’t something you should be afraid of.  In fact, if you are afraid of it, it means you need to do it because you’re not being honest with yourself about your financial state.  So take out your pencil and paper, a trusty calculator, and your spreadsheets, and start crunching those numbers!

I want to hear all the success stories too.  I just did this over the weekend for my own business and I was thrilled to find I was only $500 short of my mid-way goal.  Where are you?  Have you already passed the halfway point?

{Featured image via Cameron + Whitney}