Financial Literacy helps you play the long game.
What is Financial Literacy?
Financial Literacy is built by learning and using effective principles and resources of cash flow, investments and savings, credit and debt management and taxation.
Perhaps you have these elements handled by a third party, or maybe you invest the bare minimum in maintaining your books.
For too many SBOs, financial education and practice are the kids picked last in the business game. You know you have to use them, but you don’t want to babysit them.
But what if you train in the weakest parts of your business in the fundamentals again and again, no matter how tedious or painful? It’s possible, even crucial, to elevate financial literacy to MVP status in your business.
This can bring you into the major leagues of business.- eventually forecasting your opportunities and mitigating your threats with the cool use of well-practiced financial plays
Financial Literacy is the pre-game prep work of watching how your plays measure up against the plays of the game.
The Books Show You Your Plays`
How many hours do bookkeepers recommend you spend on bookkeeping duties?
This question is answered differently for a freelancer or solopreneur business than it is for a scaled-up business. But across the board, the financially-savvy business will have gains over their non-savvy counterparts. Proving that familiarity with figures allows you to strategize competitively.
Though today’s conversation around capitalistic competition can spark some of the most heated debates, the economics of small business and its impact on individuals and communities is worth protecting.
And if you are engaged in good financial practices, you enter the arena of high-performance competition. The whole industry and community can benefit from your financial and creative output. So spending time with your books and going over your plays is simply smart competing.
If you get caught playing the business game with little financial literacy it’s a sure way to get yourself sacked. And if you have a whole team playing the game with you, then loss begins to compound.
The loss of reputation, momentum, and morale can start to cost you more than you can afford. And if you don’t even know what inventory you are working with, then you don’t even know WHAT you can afford.
Financial Literacy is the pre-game prep work of watching how your plays measure up against the plays of the game. Bookkeeping is your highlight reel session; you’re better prepared understanding your best moves against the best moves of your competition.
For some, money is just the goal- for others, it’s a key player.
Monetizing a skill comes about in many ways. Many of you were driven by savage curiosity, some by cutthroat competition, others by obstinate creativity.
But once you’ve stepped onto the field with an array of talented, skillful, and shrewd players, you can no longer lean so heavily on the driving force behind the passion that got you started. In order to get better from here, you have to practice the same fundamentals, and run them through new drills.
And money matters are key business fundamentals.
It profits no one for an impactful business to go under because of financial illiteracy (or creative impotence brought on by financial stress). Few things directly affect your impact more. Projects and people benefit from knowing what plays to make and what resources are available to make them.
Your relationships will drive you into running lasting, community-impact business. But when financial knowledge becomes muscle-memory, you’ll be around long enough to see the market (and the rules) change, and you will be ready for it.
Exercising your Financial Literacy to become your MVP will keep you from a losing streak on the way to the small-business Hall of Fame. Empower yourself to make your profits for longer and your community impact stronger.
Here are a couple of resources for refreshing yourself with the basics. When it is easy to get into a rut of paying bills and making sales, sometimes you forget to get creative with streams of revenue and opportunities for growth. Don’t be afraid to go back to the fundamentals.
Consider sharing with the community your favorite resource for practicing your financial drills? Let us know in the comments!