The flip side of budgeting

This week I offer my thoughts on budgeting and how it impacts on your business performance.

A few days ago while having a conversation with my wife who is a teacher by profession, we were discussing the effects of expectations and limiting beliefs on the young people she works with. As with most of us, those young people who have high expectations associated with them are often those you will see performing, while the opposite is true for the young people from whom their are not much expected at all.

Yesterday while having a Skype conversation with a business partner and while discussing the topic of budgets, it suddenly hit me, Your budget decides the size of your dreams.

When running my seminars with entrepreneurs and small business owners, I often hear people talk about how "hard" it is to budget at home or at work. The fact is, nothing could be further from the truth!

Done right, budgets are the sexiest, most exciting, challenging and delightful documents you'll ever read!

Your budget for 2007 tells you how much your business will grow, and how. Your budget tells you, in advance, what you will learn, what equipment or skills you will add. It gives you a "sneak peak" at your marketing, your new services, your new office, your new computer, and the world you will enjoy in the future.

It also simplifies decisions about the things you will not do. It tells you, in advance, that the car does not need replacing or that there is no room for that home theater system (as wonderful as it seems in the store).

Your budget foretells the future. Along with your goal statement and the calendar on your wall, your budget is a "crystal ball" that lets you describe, enjoy and celebrate 2007 in advance! Think of that! Everyone else has to sit and wait and wonder and hope. Those poor suckers don't get to celebrate in advance, but you do!

Your budget, both personal and business, describes the size of your dreams. It provides a glimpse and a map to the future. What is your budget saying about your dreams and who you are being as an entrepreneur?