Debbie LaChusa

One of the comments I hear most often from my coaching clients and students is that they are struggling to make a living with their business. They're very often in a position where they are in dire need of getting clients or making sales just to pay the bills. And when you're just getting your business off the ground this is to be expected. Because it takes time to get your business up and running and to market and to become known. It's not usually something that happens overnight.

Every time I've launched a new business, I've taken steps to ensure I don't end up in this dire situation. Because there is nothing more stressful than wondering if you're going to be able to pay your bills. Or feeling like if you don't start generating more income fast, you're going to have to give up your dream and go back and get a job.

So what are the steps I've taken? I've always made sure I have a source of income to support me while I'm starting a new business. Eight years ago when I began my marketing consulting business, I negotiated a part-time contract position with the advertising agency I was working with. I continued to work with them part-time while I was building my own business. That contract gave me enough income to get by and to finance the start-up of my new business, while also giving me time to spend on my new business.

I did the same thing when I started 10stepmarketing. I didn't dump my consulting business to start a new business. I started 10stepmarketing on the side, and slowly let consulting clients go as I started to generate new income. In fact, I still do some consulting as I continue to build 10stepmarketing.

By continuing to do work that generates income while I have started and built my two businesses, I have avoided a lot of stress and I've been able to finance the start-up phases and the marketing of my new businesses. For me it's worked well. So if you're currently struggling, you may want to apply this approach to your own life.

(length 3:36 minutes)

For many small business owners who have to wear all the hats in their business, managing their budget can be a real pain. I know when my husband started his business, he was at a real loss when it came to managing his business budget, because guess who had always managed the household budget? Yep, me! So the first thing I had to teach him how to do was use QuickBooks.

If you've got your own business and you're doing all the bookkeeping yourself, you need to use a program like Quickbooks to manage your budget and business finances. Better yet, hire a bookkeeper to manage it for you, but even if you do that, you still should know how to use Quickbooks. You never want to be totally hands-off when it comes to your business finances.

My mom is an artist; that is her business. Yet she manages her finances in Microsoft Excel. Now I love my mom, but I can't believe she still uses Excel for this. I've tried to tell her many times how much easier it is to use QuickBooks, or even Quicken, but she's pretty set in her ways.

The great thing about using QuickBooks is it tracks all of your expenses by category. So you will know at the end of the year what you spent your money on. That means you'll also have a very clear picture of what you spent on marketing.

And you'll know what results that level of marketing spending generated. Team that up with a good marketing tracking system (you don't need packaged software for this, this is something Excel is actually quite good for! In fact, I provide ready-made tracking forms in my Small Business Marketing Resource Center) and you've got the tools to help you become a very cost-efficient, effective marketer.

So if you're still doing your own books manually, take a trip to Office Depot, Costco or www.pricegrabber.com and pick up a copy of QuickBooks. It's an investment that will easily pay for itself.

(length 3:22 minutes)