Do you need a budget?

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So we’ve just entered the fourth quarter of the year. Are you starting to think about next year yet?

Hi, this is Judi Otton with GrowthCast and I want to start talking about budgeting because it’s time for you to start thinking about budgeting.

I’m often shocked by how many businesses don’t put together a budget and in this series I’m going to make it really easy for you. But first I want to share some reasons why you should have a budget.

First of all, it’s a great tool for setting sales and general growth goals which all businesses need. Not only are you writing them down in the budget, but during this process, you’re going to need to think through what’s it going to take to achieve those goals. Are you going to need more people, more space, more equipment and of course we’ll budget for those things as well?

Second, it’s a really important piece of strategic planning. I love doing this with my clients because I get to talk through all of their goals for the future and all of the initiatives and all of the ways they want to improve their business and we can talk through the cost and the benefits and prioritize them. It’s a lot of fun.

Third, you want to be prepared for emergencies. Stuff happens, we know that, it happens all the time and in your budget, if you’re setting aside a little money, you’ll be able to weather those storms a little bit better.

Next, we all have heard about the issues with the labor market. Many of the businesses that I work with this year, 2022 budgeted for substantial increases for their folks and they’re doing so again for 2023. So this is a great way to plan your compensation strategy for the next year.

Next, you also want to make sure that you’re staying on track with your budget, is your business succeeding? How do you know? If you’re tracking budget versus actuals during the year, you’ll be able to tell. If you have debt to pay off, you need to budget for that.

And finally, this is a tool that’s going to help you make good financial decisions throughout the entire year.

So stay tuned. There will be more budgeting information in the coming series. So subscribe to my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/GrowthcastCash) and I’ll be back next week with a new Fiscal Fitness Tip of the Week.