Budgeting for Tradies – The Simple 6 Step Guide
Why Budgeting Is a Valuable Tradie Tool
Budgeting seems to be one of those things that we all know we should be doing but tend to avoid. For tradies in business, it’s important to have a budget in place so you’re keeping up with your expenses and can manage your cash-flow. To get started, there are a few simple steps you can take to put a simple and regular budget in place.
6 Steps To hassle free budgeting for your trades business:
- Write down where your money goes – The best way to start is to write down all of your expenses. This includes things such as rent or mortgage, bills and utilities and credit card repayments as well as day to day things like entertainment and food. This will help you clearly see where your money goes.
- Make small goals – Don’t be unrealistic about your budgeting goals and go too hard too soon. Cutting out your entire entertainment budget may seem like good idea but you won’t be able to keep this up. Small goals such as making your lunch for work instead of buying it is realistic and you won’t feel like you’re missing out.
- Use automatic transfers – Set up automatic transfers on your online banking account so expenses like mortgage and credit card repayments are taken out as soon as you get paid. Eventually, you won’t notice because the money is gone so quickly.
- Set some savings goals – Try to save at least a small amount each time you get paid and put it into an account which doesn’t have card access. Aim for saving 5% of your pay and increase this over time.
- Consider cash – It’s so easy to whip out our bank cards to pay for things and it can be hard to keep track of what you’re spending. If you’re one of the people who find it harder to part with cold, hard cash, keep your card at home and have some money in your wallet instead.
- Do your research – If you’ve been with the same companies for your phone, utilities and insurance forever, it might be time to do some research. Have a look around at different deals that are available and you might be surprised at how much money you can save. Insurances packages for example are constantly changing and by speaking to your insurance broker from time to time you could find a newer package that could be more suitable and still benefit from saving some dollars.
Simple Changes – Big Difference
Making a few simple changes can make all the difference when it comes to your budget and you’ll hopefully no longer feel the panic of managing the cashflow side of your business.
