Ever gotten that feeling of anger and despair when you thought of working out a budget? Then the odds are good you’ve never looked up the word in a good dictionary to find out what this word really means, and thought about how you can use that to your business’s financial advantage.

Want some really good News? Running your business on a budget does not entail cutting back on the quality of the things you buy or denying your company anything it needs to operate. What it does mean, is that you have to figure out how to make enough money to afford the items your company has to have and to keep your spending within the limits of your income.

There’s more good news! The most valuable asset you have is you and your staff, and your income earning potential. If you want more money to spend, then figure out ways you and your staff can be more productive to bring in more money.

Another definition you need know is this: a BUDGET is the amount of money required for the business to operate, and to attain its financial goals.

Let’s consider the first part of the definition; how much is needed for you and your company to run. Add up all the money you spent in the past year to see how much money went out the door including what you put on credit cards plus interest. Divide the total by 52 weeks, and multiply it by 1.136. The result is what your weekly budget is. That is the amount of income your business has to bring in just to function plus barely keep up with increases in the cost of doing business. That doesn’t include paying compund interest on credit card debt.

More than likely, you have financial goals you also want your company to attain; That’s the second part of the definition. Reaching those goals must get added to your budget as well.

Here is an example: a company owner wants to purchase new office furniture 6 months from now that costs $2,000. They divide the cost of the furniture by the 26 weeks they have before the target purchase date and learn they have to set aside $76.92 every week to have the cash for the furniture. This gets added to the budget, meaning the additional amount of income they have to put into the bank every week.

Most importantly, if you, the company owner, want to attain the goal of financial freedom – working because you WANT TO instead of because you HAVE TO — then the most important part of the budget needs to be the wealth building cash you set aside in a savings plan and never touch.

Figure out how much money you would have to have in savings to live without working. Divide that dollar amount by the number of weeks until the time you would like to be financially free. Figure out how to make that much more income each week, and your budget is on the correct path to achieving financial freedom.

How badly do you want to be a millionaire in 20 years? Figure out a way to increase the company’s income enough to stash away $961.54 a week in savings for the next 1,040 weeks and you have made it to being a millionaire! The additional interest earnings on top of that will be a a nice add on perk that more than keeps up with the rise in the cost of living every year.

Today, with computers in every organization proper budgeting is accomplished much more efficiently than ever before by using Money Management Software, such as shown in this video. This software can work as a companion to your accounting software for really easy day-to-day operation.

Sandra Simmons, President of Money Management Solutions, Inc. specializes in helping business owners and individuals manage their money to achieve financial freedom. Claim your FREE Debt Reduction Solutions Guide

© 2008 Sandra S. Simmons. All Rights Reserved.

Do you need some debt relief? You are not alone. Here are 5 tips on reducing debt that you can do right now.

1 – Knock Off Using Credit

The place to start is by locking away the credit cards and figuring out how to cut expenses back to function within your income. Figure out ways to increase your income and instead,use only cash. This is the single most effective action you can take.

2 – Never Commit to Spending More Than Your Company’s Income

When you pay for an item with credit because you don’t have the cash, you are committing your business’ future income to pay the credit company. That’s the recipe for economic slavery. Evaluate whether or not the item will increase the company’s production of income. If the item will increase the business’ production of income, work out how to set aside the cash to pay for it over a short time period instead of whipping out the credit card. Find ways to increase the company’s income and use it to pay both current expenses and pay off credit debt.

3 – Pay More Than The Minimum Payment That’s Required

An effective way to reduce the debt every week is to take 10% to 15% off the top of the company’s income and use it to pay down the debt. Set a goal to pay at least 3 to 5 times the minimum required payment on each credit card and line of credit. Set aside some of the payment money every week before the statements arrive in the mail. It is less difficult to set aside a smaller amount over 4 weeks than to try to come up with a big chunk in one week.

Your debt reduction program should also include the strategy of paying more on the highest interest rate card. Another strategy is paying off the lowest balance cards as fast as possible. This will free up more cash to pay against the higher interest rate cards.

4 – Never Pay Late or Spend Over Your Limit

Never sabotage your debt reduction program by getting hit with $25 to $39 over-the-limit or late fees plus the interest on those fees. Plus, if you pay over 30 days late, your credit record carries that big black mark against you for 7 years – a whopper of a penalty.

Recently a Vice President of a U.S. bank appearing on the news stated that over 24 Billion dollars was paid in interest, late fees and over-limit fees last year on credit cards. I hope you don’t think the credit company minds too much if you go over your spending limit or mail your payment late. They collected billions because of it.

5 – Find Ways To Cut Expenses

A requirement of a debt reduction program is more cash as fast as possible to pay the debt off. Examine where your business’ income is going and reduce all unnecessary expenses that do not contribute to making more money. Before you spend, work out how much money each and every purchase is going to return to your company.

TIP: Continue promoting your your company and its products to everyone – this is one area you don’t want to stop spending on. Just make sure you are getting a handsome financial return on the promotional investment.

Correctly managing the money in a business to make sure it survives takes more than a program to reduce debt, but this is a great place to start. There are other steps in my money management software program that can be taken to increase the business’ income, pay bills on time, have savings for emergencies, increase profitability and pay yourself a bigger paycheck. Who doesn’t want that, right?

Sandra Simmons, President of Money Management Solutions, has years of experience helping professionals and private individuals manage their income to eliminate debt. Claim your FREE Debt Reduction Solutions Guide

© 2007 Sandra S. Simmons. All Rights Reserved.

 Transcript of Money Management Software Video Demonstration

Welcome to the Demonstration of the Money Management Solutions Business Edition software program.

Congratulations! You made a good decision when you decided to explore this program.

When it comes to money, cash flow can be a frustrating subject.

This program is a simple tool to help business owners and executives get relief from the frustrations of managing their company’s cash flow.

The average business owner gets frustrated trying to figure out how to control cash flow to achieve 4 basic goals.

1 – Increase the company’s income,

2 – Have enough money to pay all the bills on time and get out of debt

3 – Expand the company without going into debt,

4 – Make higher profits to pay themselves more money.

Using the Money Management Solutions program, achieving these goals IS possible!

This program works as a companion to your existing accounting system to manage your future cash flow. Standard accounting programs record your cash flow from the past.

This financial planning program works as a companion to your accounting program, and looks toward the future. Financial Planning occurs BEFORE the money comes in and BEFORE it is spent.

This is a simple program that helps you take control of your cash flow and predict your financial future.

There are 5 modules in the program; a module is a part of something that is combined with other parts to form a larger system or thing.

Let’s take a look at some of the features in these modules

Find out how much you are really spending. This determines your budget.

Find out how much money you are really making to pay the company’s expenses.

Discover for yourself why you are ahead or BEHIND in paying your bills. Learn the actions you can take to improve this situation.
Find out how much money you actually have to use to do financial planning each week, and learn the secret of always having more cash on hand than bills you owe.

Find out how much you really owe in bills and other debts. You can easily download your bills from QuickBooks®, and past due bills are easily seen by the due date box turning red

Deciding which bills you want to pay is easy. Click the box by the item you want to pay; the program automatically enters the payment. And you get a warning if you are overspending this week’s financial planning portion for bills.

This program teaches you the secrets of how to make your money make MORE money for you.

Learn the secrets to not overspend your budget.

Have money set aside in the bank for later.
 
Have money to increase sales through promotion activities.

Be able to pay ALL your bills and not miss any, and have plenty of money in savings accounts.

Can this program help you create extra money? Absolutely!

Print simple reports right from the program to help make your financial planning decisions fast, easy and profitable.

This program is easy to learn. There is a series of training videos built right into the program  that trains you to use it in less than an hour. And the program is easy to use. There are navigator buttons for working in each module of the program. Or you can use another special feature in the program: an interactive financial planning flowchart that walks you step by step through the planning actions in sequence. And, it has interactive buttons that can be used to go directly to the proper screen to do that step.

Learn the 7 simple steps to always have enough cash flow so you never have to be frustrated about money again.

This program is an investment in your financial survival. Buy it, use it, and you will be well on your way to achieving YOUR financial goals.

Learn more at http://www.moneymgmtsolutions.com

© 2007 Sandra S. Simmons. All Rights Reserved.

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