Читать книгу Single. Women. Entrepreneurs. Second Edition - Erin Albert - Страница 57

I used all my own capital. I have one business credit card. There are no loans, now! When I had my gift store, I had loans, but I’m still repaying those loans. I just didn’t want to put myself in that position again. Unless I had angel investors who were clear on the vision and goals of my business, I might consider that source for capital, but I wouldn’t start a business again on credit. When you go outside of your financial plan and budget, you’re in trouble. You don’t want to be underfunded, but if you do use funding, you need to stick to your budget. You can’t just want something and have it. For example, when you open a retail store, you don’t have to buy everything brand new. You can buy used equipment and still get the same effect. If you buy the shiny new equipment, what happens when you don’t bring in the money?

The other major financial item with business plans is: be realistic. I’ve written about 20 business plans in my life (my degrees are in finance and accounting). Every six months, I look at my financial goals and make changes if necessary. If I’m not where I was expected to be, I need to change my numbers going forward to account for where I’ve been and where I’m going in order to create realistic expectations. I think women are afraid of the numbers because they don’t understand them, or they aren’t pretty and they don’t want to look at them. It’s OK if they aren’t pretty because they do tell you where to go. If you don’t look at them, you can end up in shock (and out of business). However, if you look at them at least twice a year, you can adjust for the rest of the year ahead of time. Be proactive instead of reactive.