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The business and entrepreneurship series: 26 most common money mistakes entrepreneurs make – Part 3

By Lanre Olusola
13 July 2017   |   4:22 am
Daily track your expenses and balance it with your income. “Beware of little expenses. A small leak can sink a great ship”- Benjamin Franklin. To avoid this mishap you must track your daily expenses...

Lanre Olusola

20) Not Tracking your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly Expenses
Daily track your expenses and balance it with your income. “Beware of little expenses. A small leak can sink a great ship”- Benjamin Franklin. To avoid this mishap you must track your daily expenses, it’s much easier to stay on track with this than waiting till after a long while or when you get into trouble to do this exercise. When you don’t allow the little expenses to creep up on you then the big ones won’t. Little drops of water they say makes a mighty ocean. Setup a good system for tracking your expenses. Get an app on your phone, buy a notepad, or create a spreadsheet on your laptop that helps you monitor your inflows and outflows daily.

Using only your debit card or Internet banking to pay for everything also helps you at least capture your outflows. Receipt every inflow when they come in so you document everything. Following where your money goes daily helps you determine if you really need to allow your money to keep going that way. When you spend cash, get receipts but try very hard to use a card for your expenses so that you can accurately track every expense and note down the purpose as you spend the money.

Also pay yourself a certain fixed percentage of your income before you start paying your bills. Even if you are only able to save 5% – 10% consistently, start now.

21) Chasing money instead of solving problems and fulfilling your God given purpose and vision.

Focus on adding value and solving problems daily. Every one wants to make money but money does not have to be the have all and be all. Don’t let money drive you. At the end of the day the money you’re chasing is what you want to indirectly use to buy fulfillment, satisfaction, peace and joy. The guaranteed way to find fulfillment, satisfaction, peace and joy is to live purposefully, add value and solve problems.

The more problems you’re able to solve the more fulfillment, satisfaction, peace and joy and ultimately the more money you have the potential to make; For as long as you follow the other fundamentals of business success such as Branding; Positioning; Pricing; Promotion etc. Keep solving problems until you become indispensable and you’re paid what you’re really worth.

22) Don’t Buy too much for your child or spend too much on them:
Spend wisely on your children. Every first time parent makes this mistake. You’ve got to come to terms with the rate at which children out grow things and get bored of new things and seek the next new thing. You can’t keep feeding that insatiable desire that children have. Your best friend should be NO. What’s the point in buying designer things for children when they will soon outgrow them?

Also a lot of parents feel guilty about their own inadequacies and the lives they couldn’t live and try to compensate for that through their children hence they spoil their children silly and give them the things they really don’t need. For a second Just imagine how much money parents spend on cute clothes, shoes, toys, things that these children quickly outgrow. Remember how many things you have had to give away and how much this cost you. Hence, don’t keep making the same mistakes. And for the parents that use their children as prizes to compete with other parents, you’re only going to destroy your children’s lives because even though you can afford it now does not mean that child will be able to afford it in the future. Protect your child’s future by restraining yourself from over spending on them today.

23) Don’t get married without talking about finances:
Discuss money matters with your fiancée before you marry. Even though money can be a very touchy subject you have to come to terms with the fact that it can make or break your marriage, business and life. It can be the Number 1 cause of conflict and pain in your marriage in the future. So you must sit down and talk about your financial habits and your financial past, present and future. If you can’t have this kind of difficult conversation now you won’t be able to in the future. It is very important to share similar values and beliefs with your spouse or at least know the values and beliefs of your spouse around money. It’s worthy to note here that approximately 45% of marital problems is caused by money.

24) Neglecting your children’s education or Putting too much importance on your children’s education over your retirement plan:
Make your children’s education and your retirement plan your priorities. Plan your children’s primary, secondary and university education ahead of their arrival and continue to consistently put something aside for it, this is very key. Plan what schools you want your children to attend get the budget and plan how you’re going to fund it. However also work out your expenses in your retirement and put money aside at the same time for this also. Invest in your children’s education and your retirement today.

25) Not investing in time management

26) Not investing in your personal development and knowledge base

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