Every Business Owners Can Grow Using These Five Simple Tools

Recently, Ashley and I have had the privilege of meeting with some young couples and talking to them as they're just coming into marriage or preparing to be married. They often ask us a variety of questions, as you would expect from anyone talking to a couple who’s been married for a while. One of the big issues that consistently comes up early in marriage—and continues to show up later—is the issue of money. That’s been true in our marriage as well.

It makes sense that money and finances are also a very real issue for business owners, especially those who are married and both spouses work in the business. So let’s have that discussion. I think it’s really helpful, and I want to drill it down to one financial dashboard that can bring clarity. Because that’s our ultimate goal—to liberate you from chaos and make time for what matters most.

By the way, my name is Scott Beebe. If we haven’t met yet, I’m part of the Business On Purpose team. A lot of times we meet people who say, “Hey, I’ve got a vision for what I want to do.” Great! We help you write that down. We’ve got a vision story framework that does that well. One of the next steps is to build out your financial dashboard. This involves subdividing your cash accounts and will help you gain a much clearer picture of your actual financial health. Instead of lumping everything into one, two, or three bank accounts, it requires about six or more.

Now, I know that sounds hard, but I promise it’s not. Once we do that, we can begin to isolate the cash in your business and start tracking different aspects of your finances. By breaking your finances into categories, you can more easily monitor the flow of cash. We like to say “flow of cash” instead of just “cash flow,” because for many, that term brings to mind complex reports. This method also allows you to allocate resources effectively and make informed decisions—because now you can actually see where the cash goes. It's kind of like Dave Ramsey for business.

Having that level of monetary organization lets you track progress toward any kind of goals—generosity goals, profit goals, reinvestment goals, and more. You can adjust your strategy as needed. Visioning and financial planning is not a one-time event. (And when I say financial planning, I don’t mean what a financial planner does—I mean you allocating cash to plan the future of your business.) It’s something we must regularly revisit and refine as the business grows and evolves.

So, what can you do first? Start with a simple spreadsheet to track your cash balance every single week. You might ask, “Can we do this in QuickBooks or Xero?” Theoretically, yes. But you usually won’t—and it serves as a great discipline to do it manually. That foundational step of a spreadsheet allows you to create a realistic budget for the year ahead. Look at your existing profit and loss statements and chart of accounts. If you don’t know where to start, look at last year’s P&L. That’s a great starting point.

Don’t worry about being precise with your budget at first. Budgeting is more of an art than a science. Once you’ve got your vision statement and a basic financial dashboard in place, it’s time to build out your organizational structure. So now you’ve got a vision and a financial dashboard—now build an organizational structure to know who’s going to handle the financial “fuel” driving the business forward.

Think of this like creating a skeleton for your business, similar to the human body. Instead of focusing on specific individual names, focus on the roles. We say “role first, people agnostic.” This lets you structure your business based on responsibilities instead of personalities.

Next, identify and map out each process required to run your business. You’ve got a vision, a simple dashboard, subdivided bank accounts, and a consistent snapshot of those accounts. Now you can create an org chart to know who’s doing what—and then define what they’re doing.

These processes fall into four core systems: marketing, sales, operations, and admin. List the processes under each of these categories. You don’t need detail yet—just broad items like “website,” “social media,” or “outbound calls.” This gives you an overview of your operations.

Once that’s in place, you can map out your company culture using what we call the “Anchor.” You’ve got your vision, your cash tracking, your roles, and your processes. But how do you build culture into that? Use the Anchor.

Create another spreadsheet. List the weeks of the year across the top and your cultural elements along the left-hand side. These could include team meetings, performance reviews, birthday celebrations, anniversary celebrations, training schedules, and more. Then plot these cultural events across the calendar. Assign one person to manage the Anchor and you’ll have a visual representation of your business’s RPM culture—Repetition, Predictability, and Meaning.

It’s about creating a framework. It doesn’t have to be perfect from the start. The goal is to have these pieces in place and work them with consistency.

As you implement these steps, you’ll gain a much clearer picture of your business’s structure, finances, and culture. It allows you to make better decisions and build a stronger foundation for growth.

So we started with money—realizing that money is just fuel. It’s a tool to pursue your vision, build clarity around your structure, understand your processes, and foster your culture using simple, actionable tools. If you don’t know where to start, here are five good tools to begin with:

1. Vision Story – Lay out where you’re going.
2. Financial Dashboard – Track your cash.
3. Organizational Structure – Clarify roles and responsibilities.
4. Processes – Know what needs to be done.
5. Anchor – Build and maintain your culture.

That’s the glue that holds everything together.

So just like those young couples ask, “Where do we start with money?” I’ve just walked you through five simple tools to start building intentionality into your business. Why? So you can be liberated from chaos and make time for what matters most.

Hey—make sure to go to mybusinessonpurpose.com. You can check us out there. And if you go to mybusinessonpurpose.com/healthy, you can take a five-minute health assessment to understand the strength and sustainability of your business’s backend.

 

Want help building a clear financial dashboard? Visit mybusinessonpurpose.com/ask to connect with a BOP coach.

To check the health of your business, visit mybusinessonpurpose.com/healthy today!

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