Some days I wonder if being a business owner is just not right for me. I do fine when I have a lot of calls coming in, as I did earlier this year (Did $50k in business between April, May, and June) but when the phone stops I start biting my nails, metaphorically speaking. The summer school break has always been a slow time for me, though last year was not nearly this slow…
Every year I worry, but every year I have made more than the last. The highs are high and the lows are low, I guess.
I think we all know what you are feeling. Being a pressure washer in late July/early August is weird man Calls are still coming in and requests for quotes for big jobs even are coming in here and there but not like it was 1-2 months ago. The typical slowdown, happens every year.
What has helped me is to build up several funds in my business accounts. I like to give myself a reliable owner share per month, its a bit higher than my family’s living expenses so it covers us completely. Where this money comes from has grown over the years a bit so there’s more of a cushion. I don’t have worry about whether or not I can take my owner share the rest of the year at a certain point in the year because I know the money is there, waiting to be disbursed into my personal account. I have a fund that this money comes from and its completely separate from operating expenses and equipment purchasing funds (those two are separated from each other too). I also have a winter living expense fund that is personally held and that is prepared as soon as possible in the year, usually I can cover that before Spring is over so I know from late November to early March when my income will be pretty much zero I can still take my living expenses out so we’re stable in our personal accounts.
This kind of separate accounting has really helped me out over the years. You can extend it to your personal financing too, IRAs, emergency funds, stock portfolio. Those are all important to incrementally be contributing toward. Every dollar that comes in has its designated place it goes to and a job its doing.
Funnily enough, it’s not necessarily that my account is running dry. I have a comfortable amount of money saved up. It’s more about anxiety that my business is going to shrivel up, if not entirely, to be much smaller. For my first 5-6 years in business, I was under $55k per year. Marginal growth each year. Then I suddenly jumped up to $103k in business in one year. I have never gone backwards, but that is the first time I’ve seen such a jump like that and $100k was my long-time personal benchmark for when I could say “I’ve made it.” Not that that’s rich or anything, it was just my personal benchmark. When I was just making ~$50k, I wanted out. I guess with the phone slowing down I am anxious that I am falling back to that point.
Which is probably silly, since numbers-wise I am still a little ahead of where I was at this same time last year. The monthly distribution of revenue is just different.
Calls are still coming in and requests for quotes for big jobs even are coming in here and there but not like it was 1-2 months ago. The typical slowdown, happens every year.
