You're Busy, Broke, and Buried in Paperwork
Let's fix one of those
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—Angela, Katie, and Gen
On to our story.
“No! Stay back! Don’t come in!”
I feel this way every time someone comes to our front door. The clutter in my house is so embarrassing.
During Covid, our housekeeper left to go home, and we are still waiting for her to return.
Waiting…waiting….waiting.
My house hasn’t been deep-cleaned since 2020, and I am at a loss for where to start. Every time I think maybe she’s not coming back and I need to hire someone new, I remind myself that I need to clear out all the clutter first.
So I don’t hire anyone. And I don’t clean the clutter. I take a nap.
Maybe tomorrow. It makes me tired. Too overwhelming.
If that is the current state of my home, you can only imagine what my books and record-keeping look like.
Yep, it’s a hot mess.
Katie makes fun of me. She says that every year, starting in August, I start declaring that I have to do my taxes. I say it every day until I turn them in by mid-September (if my accountant is lucky).
For me, “do my taxes” doesn’t mean doing taxes. That means gathering all my statements and entering sales and expenses into a spreadsheet for the accountant.
I leave the hard part for the professionals.
Just as I need to declutter my house, I also need a good system for decluttering my finances.
— Angela
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Enter Gen:
Genevieve Nicholas is joining our new division, Rancho Encino-The Business Tea.
She is bringing all her decades of bookkeeping experience to help us organize our equine business finances and create systems that will keep us organized.
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
Life isn’t simple. Some days are great, and others just feel like a mess.
Running an equine business can be the same way.
One minute you’re on top of it all, and the next you’re wondering how you’re going to get everything done. You need to feed the horses, clean the stalls, run your programs, talk to people, and somehow you’re also supposed to sit down and deal with your finances.
I get it. It’s a lot.
And let’s be honest, when life feels loud and overwhelming, it’s hard to know where to start, especially with money stuff.
So we usually avoid it.
Not because we’re bad at it, but because we don’t have a simple way to jump in.
That’s the problem. We think we need hours of free time or a full day to sit down and "get organized." However, what we need is a system that suits our lives and a habit we can stick to.
That’s what the SOAR Method is for. It’s a straightforward way to stay on top of your bookkeeping without feeling overwhelmed.
Here’s what it stands for:
Sort
Organize
Assign
Record
We’ll go into each step next week. I’ll show you exactly how to use it to get back on track, without it taking over your life.
—Gen
But until then, here’s a quick win you can do this week.