What is Your Money Mindset in your Business? That’s the theme of episode 45 of I Hate Numbers.

Certainly, a lot of people talk about why Money Mindset Is important. Firstly, we need to understand your current attitude to Money. Secondly, we need to know the reasons why.  Most importantly, there are many reasons, but you can’t fix a problem unless you know what’s causing it.

Listen to find out more

Numbers and money

Numbers are your best friend in business. Above all, they do not lie to you and are the words to your business story.

For me, loving Numbers and a positive Money Mindset is easier than for others. Even established businesses of many years have challenges towards Money.

But that’s not the point, and the I Hate Numbers podcast is not aimed at me.

Your money mindset is vital for your business to survive and thrive.

A strong, positive money mindset helps give you the lifestyle that you want. It helps you deliver value to your customers, strengthen and improve your business direction.

What can a change in Money Mindset do?

Well ask yourself these basic questions

• Is your time important to you and your family?
• Does reducing the anxiety about your business future matter to you?
• Would you like to know what profits you are making now?
• Is making Money in your business important to you?
• Does the idea of knowing what your future bank balance will look like sound good?

In conclusion, don't be like the rabbit that's stuck in the headlights. Get to grips with, and strengthen your money mindset.

In This Episode

• Understanding what Money Mindset means in your business
• Appreciating the reasons why many business owners have negative Money Mindsets
• Tips to improve your Money Mindset
• The importance to your business of embracing a Money Mindset
• Developing your own Numbers confidence and decisions
• Take more control of your numbers to help make you money, survive and thrive

Links

https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/proactiveresolutionss-podcast/id1500471288

https://play.google.com/music/m/I3pvpztpjvjw6yrw2kctmtyckam?t=I_Hate_Numbers

https://open.spotify.com/show/5lKjqgbYaxnIAoTeK0zins

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/proactiveresolutionss-podcast

https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business–Economics-Podcasts/I-Hate-Numbers-p1298505/

You are listening to the I Hate Numbers Podcast with Mahmood Reza. The I Hate Numbers podcast mission is to help your business survive and thrive by you better understanding and connecting with your numbers. Number love and care is what it's about. Tune in every week. Now, here's your host, Mahmood Reza.

The biggest battle business owners have is the battle between their ears. It's mindset, it's attitude, it's behaviors towards things that influence how successful or otherwise we will be in our businesses. In today's podcast episode of I Hate Numbers, the battle that I want to talk about is a critical one that determines how successful your business will be, whether your business is sustainable, whether your business survives and prospers, and that's your money mindset.

Not just having a money mindset, but having the right one. Now, in this podcast episode, I'm going to be looking about money mindset, what it is. I'm going to be talking about what we can do to try and resolve it, to strengthen and improve our money mindset for the better, why our money mindset is important, and we'll share some tips as we go through as well.

Now, a vital ingredient for success, in my opinion, is money mindset. It's the attitude, the right attitude, and dealing with money as part of your business success, prosperity, and sustainability. Money is your best friend in business. Numbers do not lie to you. Numbers tell you what's going on and numbers represent the words to your business story.

Now, not everybody shares that view. I've been involved in the world of money and numbers for quite a few decades. For me, it's natural. Ever since I was a kid, when I was playing mental gymnastics, as I was riding the bus, looking at house numbers, playing around with them, getting familiar with money at an early stage in my business career, being an entrepreneur at school and beyond

as a qualifying accountant, as somebody who's worked in the industry, public sector, internationally and nationally, money for me is not a major stumbling block. It hasn't always been so, and so it's not unremarkable what I find clients, businesses, colleagues who have issues and challenges with having what I call the right money mindset.

Now, we may be thinking, well, why is that so important in your business, Mahmood? Well, let me tell you why. If you want to have a business that's sustainable, if you want to have a good lifestyle, if you want to serve your customers well, if you want to be here the year after next, if you have a responsibility towards your various stakeholders in your business, your suppliers, your staff team, then it's critical that money plays essential theme.

And by money, we are referring to making a profit. Now, there's a good reason why people have what I call mindsets to money, which can be improved for the better. It may be that as you're a kid, as you're growing up, money was a topic that wasn't often talked about, and if anything, some may see that as quite a vulgar thing.

Many commentators, many businesses I see when we talk about, you know, what drives them, what they figure is important, money is seen to be that little grubby subject that we shouldn't really talk about. We should have more virtuous things behind our business, which is all very good. Ethics and integrity play an important part, but actually making money has to be there as well.

It may be that money is associated, whether it's from a friends and a family background, money's associated with something quite negative. It may be a cultural norm that money is a topic that's not discussed, not talked about. It could be an issue of financial education, where at school it's not a main curriculum topic there as well, and there are lots of reasons why money does not have the importance it deserves.

It's considered, and I can see why, quite a dry, boring topic, and it's not what business is about in some people's minds. It's about media marketing, delivering value to customers, doing all those wonderful things here, but actually making money is not really at the top of the agenda. Now, even a successful and established business will have a similar mindset.

Not every business, some businesses get to connect with their numbers. Some businesses put money at a very important part of their business success and DNA, but you could have a business that's established. But ask yourself this question, do you know how much you are spending? Do you know where your profits derive from?

Do you know how much money is in your bank? Are you feeling anxious about the future? Are you diversifying, doing new things? Is there a financial economic storm coming across and you're feeling slightly concerned about what the future holds? If you have that level of anxiety and you don't actually know where you stand financially, then I would say you have a money mindset that can be improved.

Now, money for me is liberating. Knowing where we stand financially, knowing what we should be charging customers. Do you have that idea that you feel slightly nervous about talking pricing with customers? Where does money figure in your conversation with clients? Do you discuss that out front? Do you feel quite uncomfortable about potentially discussing putting up prices? If customers don't pay you on time, how do you feel about chasing that debt up, that money that's owed you? If you feel uncomfortable,

if you don't feel particularly assertive in that direction, you are not alone, then you have a money mindset that can be improved. Nobody's talking about being aggressive here or very unfriendly, but money is a natural part of it. Money has been with us for thousands and thousands of years here, but within a business environment, many business owners dissociate themselves from that facet.

When we set goals, which we're very keen on, financial goals should also be part of that lexicon. Financial goals should be there to be established at the forefront. Now, if you recognise that you may be in that situation where your money mindset can be improved, where your money mindset can be strengthened,

then there are things that we can do to improve that. For me, look at numbers, look at money as telling the story of your business. So, maybe, think about your bank statements like reading a good book. So, once a week for about 30 minutes, grab your bank statements, whether they're online or physically printed,

and have a look at them. Read them. Read them as though you are reading a story. Look at the transactions that appear in your bank statement. Do you recognise them? Do you know what they are? And have a look over the last few weeks of your bank statements. Can you see a pattern emerging? Can you see what's coming in?

What's coming out? And you're making a closer connection to the activity in your business, and that makes you a step closer to being more comfortable with money. Other things that you can do is make sure that you've got a good system for capturing, for doing the heavy lifting of what you are spending.

Nowadays, you can invest in digital platforms, in digital software that does all the heavy lifting or record keeping for you. No need to plow through spreadsheets, no need to add up numbers on a piece of paper. For less than the price of a cup of coffee every week, you can have that digital access.

Knowing where you stand financially for me is a massive, cathartic exercise. It's liberating. It reduces anxiety. Having some degree of certainty what the future might hold financially, getting to grip through things like planning and cash flows, which we've talked about on previous podcasts, and I'll add that in the show notes at the end, is an immense, liberating feeling.

Don't be like the rabbit that's stuck in the headlights. You need to get to grips and strengthen your money mindset. Alright, folks, that's enough for me for today. All I want to reassure everybody and to emphasise is that having a strong, positive money mindset is essential for your business to be sustainable, to prosper, and to grow, to give you the lifestyle that you need,

to make sure that you're still here to deliver value to your customers, and to actually strengthen and improve the direction that you take in your business. I hope you found this podcast of value. Love it if you give us some feedback. Share it with your friends and colleagues. Until next time, have a good week.

We hope you enjoyed this episode and appreciate you taking the time to listen to the show. We hope you got some value. If you did, then we'd love it if you shared the episode. We look forward to you joining us next week for another I Hate Numbers episode.