Being OK in the middle of a financial storm

How many times do you have to get caught out in the rain 🌧🌧🌧 before you go out better prepared with a rain jacket?

Is that the same, less, or more than the number of times you get caught in a financial mishap (a metaphorical rainstorm) before you get savvy and prepare by putting aside some savings (your metaphorical rainproof jacket)?

If you don’t think you can plan for a financial mishap in the way you can plan for bad weather, you need to read this blog post. (If you live in Scotland like we do, you likely always have a rain jacket with you – even when wearing your shorts – so you already know something about planning ahead!)

Consider this:

• What comfort(s) would you need to feel OK during a storm?
• Or, to put it another way, what would you need to have done, or put aside, to be OK when nothing is going to plan?

I recently got caught in a torrential downpour. I had gone for a walk, but had seen the black clouds coming and grabbed a rain jacket on my way out the door.

But my jacket was soon soaked though! It was drenched about 10 minutes into my walk. In another 10 minutes, the rain had made it under my jacket to my clothes.

I took a short cut and quickened my pace a bit but I still had a quarter of a mile to go. The roads were like a river and every step of the last 5 minutes, had my trainers squelching🌊.

I could have been miserable, but I couldn’t stop laughing. I was laughing because it was actually quite fun! But, and here’s the thing – it was only enjoyable because I knew my house, less than a few minutes away, was warm and I had dry clothes to change into.

It got me thinking, once I was all wrapped up in dry clothes back home, how we could find comfort knowing it will all be OK when our business is going through a financial storm. What would it take for us to laugh like I did?

What would comfort you in a financial storm?

The most obvious answer is knowing you have invoices awaiting payment – and trusting they will be paid on time (you could get invoice financing to help with this). Alternatively, perhaps knowing you’ve had a lot of sales enquiries and that more are continuing to come in would be the thing to help you feel comfortable in the storm.

It could, though, simply be knowing you have savings tucked aside, or a full freezer of food as well as fully-stocked cupboards. Perhaps it could be reviewing your personal finances and knowing you would be able to live on your partner’s income if you had to.

Give it a go… Answer these questions for your business and your situation (then you can start planning)…

• What do you have that would or could bring you comfort during a financial storm?
• What is accessible to you that would metaphorically dry you out and warm you up?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Helen Monaghan is a Chartered Management Accountant, accredited NLP Practitioner & Finance Coach. Both a psychology graduate and an accountancy graduate, she has authored three business books, which beautifully bring together psychology, finance, and tax to empower the reader about money. Helen is the CEO of HM Finance Coaching & Advisory Ltd, a company that provides financial education and business mindset coaching to small businesses across the UK, in addition to accountancy services for limited companies in Scotland and across the UK. Helen is also the founder of The Financial Resilience Hub – find out how we can support you, and your business, to be financially resilient through our monthly membership.

© Helen Monaghan