#74 - Fun Funds Framework; Quick Cash Hacks for Crafting a Growth Budget in the New Year

 FUN FUNDS FRAMEWORK + COUNTDOWN TRACKER - FREE DOWNLOAD

 SUMMARY 

Ever wondered how much your business could save by adopting some simple yet super effective strategies? Well, I've got the lowdown for you in our latest episode, where we unravel the art of freeing up cash for your business in just three months. Trust me, it's a game-changer!

In this episode, we're all about setting clear goals and celebrating even the tiniest wins. Join me as we explore how getting organized, connecting with others, embracing a healthier lifestyle, and making sustainable choices can have a massive impact on your finances.

Feeling a bit lost when it comes to spotting those hidden benefits in your daily spending? No worries! Let's dive deep into preparing for savings and I'll teach you how to uncover those hidden gems. We're talking tracking spending, scrutinizing expenses, and maintaining a sturdy budget. And guess what? I've got four key areas where you can seriously cut costs: organizing and decluttering, meal prepping, recycling for cash, and trimming down on those phone apps and memberships. Oh, and I'll spill the beans on how connections can be your secret weapon. Think swapping festive outfits with friends instead of splurging on new ones – it's all about tracking your savings and putting those relationships first.

But wait, there's more! Let's chat about business growth while keeping those savings in mind. I've got the inside scoop on how minor changes in transportation, housing, health, and sustainability can result in major savings that'll benefit your business. From hopping on public transportation or biking to downsizing

If you want to build or grow your business in textile crafts, why don't you join our online community for a small, monthly contribution of only 10 euros, which is $10 ish. You get to hang out, learn from and share your business. And your craft journey with all the lovely people there, support the podcast at the same time and you get everything wrapped into one loving package. I would love to welcome you there.

Go to Patternshift.fm and click

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Your business needs money and how do you free up some of it in not much time. This is Pat and Shift and my name is Saskia the Fighter, and on this episode I will be talking to you about freeing up some money, saving some money and investing it in your business at the end of the process. I hope you're as excited as I am. I'm feeling a little bit nervous about this one, I have to say. Talking about money is always uncomfortable in some sort of way, and we all live different lives and we all have different meanings and emotions around money. So what? My aim with this episode is to get you enthusiastic, to get you inspired, to get you to take some action, to free up some money, because there's always little things that we can do to just have a little bit more wiggle. And the most important thing is to kind of psych yourself up to make it into a project and to really make this the focus of what you are doing in the upcoming weeks and months. So if you're ready, then I am too.

Speaker 1: 1:56

Day to day life as a creative business owner can be very lonely and overwhelming, leaving no time to actually grow your business. The Pat and Shift podcast gives you business insights and actionable tips to help you rise out of the day to day swamp and start to become more visible and move your business forward. Find out how you can be part of helping crafters move away from fast fashion and become a value-based business owner who's on top of things, running a business that's more sustainable for themselves and their planet. So how do we free up cash instantly and with less effort than it seems to need? It's so hard to save money, especially when you feel like you have nothing to spare. At the same time, one of the most known sayings in business is you cannot make money if you don't spend money. So I was thinking at the end of the year. December is one of the most expensive months, but then the beginning of the year is a time where you want to start doing things in your business differently, investing in something new, taking courses like employing graphic designers at who knows what you're going to do in 2024. The world is your oyster, and it might seem that your wallet is an oyster as well, and you cannot open it and there's nothing in there. So what we're going to talk about today is some tips that might inspire you to get some extra cash and to pull it to the side and save it for investing in your business later on.

Speaker 1: 3:54

As I said in the intro, it is sometimes really uncomfortable to talk about money. God knows, I have a very complicated relationship with money. I'm not going to go into that part of it in this episode. This has just meant as a lighthearted way of looking at collecting little bits and bobs from different spaces and places in your life. But I've thought about a way to do it that is going to motivate you, hopefully, because I'm connecting it to other parts in your life that you might also want to engage a little bit more in.

Speaker 1: 4:35

Okay, let me explain. It's kind of a roadmap type thing, so we are beginning with a preparation, so I'll get into that first. And then there is let me see four aspects of this whole plan that also talk about different parts of your life. So, okay, hear me out. Number one organizing. Number two connecting to others. Number two connecting to others. Number three healthy living. And number four sustainable choices. So these four items will be focusing on how to save money in these areas of your life so that you can get a double benefit from it.

Speaker 1: 5:28

Now, if that's not motivational, I don't know what is. So let's get started, and we'll start off with the preparation, because preparing is half the battle one. I'm learning all kinds of English sayings when I'm doing these kinds of things, when I'm doing my research. Preparing is half the battle one. It's actually the same in Dutch, so not really learn something in there, but said a little differently. So don't charge into applying the tips that I will talk about later without doing this work first. Now I'm going to go through this quite fast.

Speaker 1: 6:06

This episode is so full of information. Every little single step could be like a workshop in itself, but let's just make it actionable, practical, fast and fun. So first of all, set a goal. It's important. I know here we go again with the goals. It is just important to know what you are focusing on. So it's simple. It's just one sentence. Finish this sentence I want to save dot dot dot amount by dot dot dot date, so I can dot dot dot verb. So I want to save 1400 euros by March 2024 so I can take the Yeville Business Circle Program, who's starting March 24. So that's really important. Write it down, take your notebook or, if you want it front and center, put it on a sticky note, put it on your computer, on your mirror, and know what your coming weeks months are going to be about.

Speaker 1: 7:17

Now number two a mindset shift. Yeah, that's the thing You'll need determination and motivation. So to get to that point, you need to kind of jazz up yourself. You need to get into that vibe of okay, let's go, I've got this project, it's going to happen, I'm going to give it my all and if it's not going to fully work, then it'll at least partly work and I'll do everything I can to get there.

Speaker 1: 7:47

So, as I said before, you'll have to focus on a time period, make it short term and celebrate when you're done and if it's needed, you can continue to save. So what I want to say with this is if it's a short time period, it feels like it's attainable and it's not going to be such a long stretch where you don't have grip on the situation. And when it gets harder, if it feels like it's going to last forever, that is just going to bring you down. So for me, I think a three month period is always a nice amount of time to really get something done and to feel like you're not super stressed out about it all the time. Of course, it depends on the amount of money that you want to save and what is possible. There's like this balance you can find, but we'll get into that later.

Speaker 1: 8:45

So focus on a time period and keep your eye on the prize. So what I mean? That, literally, when I said before, with the goal on a sticky note, you need to visualize the moment that you reach your goal. Think about how you will feel, think about what your day will look like. Write about it if that's your thing, or go to Pinterest and make a Pinterest board, I don't know. Just write a short page about what your day will be like when you reach that goal. Try to connect to the feeling of getting there every day. And if you do that better by watching, looking at a picture or a mood board or a reading, a powerful sentence or a quote, do it, do whatever works. You need to get into that mindset. And then the other thing is connected to other benefits, which we will be talking about connecting it to organizing, connecting to others, healthy living and sustainable choices. That's what we'll be talking about today.

Speaker 1: 9:57

Step three in the preparation is track your spending. I know it's horrible. I don't like it either. It's like tracking your diet right. I've done that so many times. It's always the same. I don't even want to go there. But we have to track what we spend so that we know what we spend. If you are not on top of your spending anyways every day I know I'm not then you really should get insights in what's happening. The small things sometimes really add up and if you have it all in front of you, it's much easier to know where your stands and what you can do, where you can shift. If you cannot do it through bank statements for the last three months which is best, I'd say, perhaps you keep your notes in your seats and you go through them. If you cannot do that, start by keeping track of it from now and give it at least two weeks before you really start saving. Have an insight of what is happening. Take a notebook, write it down every day, write it down in your phone, but start tracking. Actually, when you track, you can also start saving, but it won't give you a clear view on what you have been doing before and compare to what you will be doing. Kind of group your spending and they give you a quick overview in where the money goes.

Speaker 1: 11:32

I'm not even really talking about just your business money, also your personal account. Just get an idea of how you spend money and step four then review. Look at all of that and see where your biggest money pits are. Are you getting takeouts a little too much Could be anything. Basically, I'm starting to give examples but that'll take way too long. Just look at it and see where the bulk of your money goes and especially what areas are you spending your money on that are not super necessary. Look at it through a pair of glasses. That shifts luxury from essentials. That's basically what I'm saying.

Speaker 1: 12:18

Step five budget for the essentials and start to pay in cash so you don't spend more than you want. To Define what the essentials are, budget for it and stick to it, and a way to help you stick to it is by paying in cash. So old fashioned, I know, so inconvenient. It's just that's why this is only a short amount of time. You don't have to do it forever, and that is really helpful to know that. It's only a few weeks, a few months, and then you can go back to what you've been doing. This is just to give you that extra bit of cash that you need to focus on something that you choose to spend your money on in 2024, a bigger thing.

Speaker 1: 13:12

Number six make a tracker. You know it's fun, but it also really helps to see where you are. So it's very simple you can divide your goal by the amount of time that you will be saving and save that amount per day or per week. What's important here is that sometimes it feels like a big chunk and you cannot do it every day, but there are ways that you can save money that are bigger steps than even one or two days, and then you cross off some days ahead and then that gives you kind of a balanced out. It's also very motivational if you do a big save and then you have a week of oh, I already did this week, although you should really try to keep it going on a daily basis. Obviously, I will be making a tracker and you will be able to get it through a link in the show notes. I hope that really helps you to get where you want to be. Every tracker might be different because you have a different goal. I will be focusing on making a tracker for the amount of money that is the cost of the Yavl Business Circle program that starts in March and I'll be helping you to get to that point so that you can take the program, if you want it. Enough about that back to the plan.

Speaker 1: 14:42

So just going back to the preparation Step one set a goal. Step two make sure you're in the right mindset. Step three track three months of spending. Step four review what your biggest money pits are and focus on luxury versus essentials. Step five budget for the essentials and paying cash. And step six make and keep a tracker. Great, so this is the preparation. We've done it. We're good. I deal that you can do this like in a few days. Take a day or two and you'll have the preparation done.

Speaker 1: 16:05

Now, if you're all psyched and excited and ready to go, let's have a look at the four double benefits areas that we can save money in. First, we'll start off with organizing Right. So organizing and decluttering brings calmness into your mind and your home, it makes you feel good and it will give you some extra cash. I'm sure you've heard most of these tips before. I'm just here to remind you that these things really do give you some extra cash, and saying that I almost forgot to tell you whenever you save money, you need to track it because you will start saving money and that money needs to go in a separate account piggy bank. So when you save it, you need to track how much money you are saving at that moment and keep it separate. That's going to be interesting, sometimes difficult, but very necessary.

Speaker 1: 17:17

Number one cook in larger amounts and meal prep for multiple days. Now I'll explain what I said before just with this first tip, and that is, if you buy food in larger amounts and you prep for multiple days, let's say you do a pasta, a chili and a soup and you prep it for two days each, go back to your weekly spending for your grocery and see where the difference is and save that difference. So that's how you need to think about these things differently. You can go shopping and spend less money, but if you then spend it somewhere else, then you're not actually saving it. So that is the most important part of this whole process. Okay, bring away glass, plastic cans and all those kinds of recyclables that give you money in return. That's the case in the Netherlands. I don't know if it's like that way you are, but if you can do that, do it and don't spend that money. The money that you get goes into the bank.

Speaker 1: 18:34

Okay, cull your closet. Sell your clothes, your shoes, your gadgets, your furniture. Let's say one or two hours a day for a room. You can do a lot in a short amount of time. Perhaps you should focus on the more expensive stuff first and then go into the smaller items or the less valuable items. It's great to do a closet cull. We do it in the Yavl community all the time. It helps you to focus on what you have, what you need. What you really don't need was just taking space, and it feels great to have a closet, a wardrobe that just offers you what you love. Basically and the same goes for gadgets that are just lying around a collecting desk, a desk collecting dust and even furniture. It's just such a great feeling to have more space in your spaces and in your minds. It takes work yes, it does, but it also gives you some extra cash.

Speaker 1: 19:46

Next step in organizing is organize your phone. Get rid of all apps you are not longer using or don't really really need, and remember this is a short period of time. What can you do without for the upcoming weeks or months that you're deciding to do this project? Delete them and the memberships. It took me some time to figure out where these things are. So go into your phone and organize it. Get rid of all apps you are not using or you don't really really need. This is just a short amount of time, so you can always go back and re-upload them.

Speaker 1: 20:27

Look at your memberships. You can find them on your phone. You don't need me to find your memberships. And if you can't, there's always YouTube and Google. Go to the memberships and say goodbye, don't need you right now. If it's a year membership, you won't really benefit from it now. But this might as well be a good moment to have a little look and see if you need those things. They will save you money in the future, but the monthly memberships will save you money now. So go there and then here it is. You can do the same with your TV memberships. A lot of people have multiple ones. You can pause them and come back to them later and watch national TV for a bit or read a book, and we'll get to the next area things you can do when you don't have all your TV memberships.

Speaker 1: 21:22

And then what I want to say is December, I think, is a great period to be offline anyway, a little bit more analog, a little bit more connected to your friends and family, which leads us into the next area of saving connection connection to others. Doing stuff together with friends is fun, it's great for building relationships and it can be absolutely free. Now it's all about mindset and making the decision to do these things. And remember, it's just a short period of time. You can go back online and do all the things in a while. So here we go when you've culled your closet and you put your wardrobe and your clothes aside that you don't need, you can organize a festive outfit swap with friends.

Speaker 1: 22:12

So, focused maybe on the December holidays, and look at party clothes. For me, I have some party outfits and they're practically I wear them every single time. I don't mind. I usually dress them a little bit different, with another, different scarf or different a jewelry or something, but I've been wearing my Christmas skirt, I think three years now. So it's really fun to do a swap with friends and you can swap it back after the holidays if you want to, but you don't need a new outfit if that's what you were planning. So that's really fun. It's also free for your Christmas outfit shopping. And yeah, I'm gonna say it. Please, please, please, please. Do not buy another Christmas sweater One. They're usually made of plastic and we don't need them and they're fun, but they're also ugly, but they're fun, I know. So swap one with your friends and feel like you have a new one. Okay, got that out of the way. Do board games instead of going out. Make your own popcorn and iced tea and make it a December cozy evening in with friends a light candles, put on some nice music and it's gonna be a great night. Just make it. A thing. I think that is important in this whole project is the mindset, and making it into a thing like inviting people with their handwritten note cards for board games evening is just fun.

Speaker 1: 24:01

Another thing about connection go on daily walks and invite your friends for a catch up and just catch up and stroll and talk about the past year and the year ahead. It's lovely to do walking and talking together and really connect to each other. It's different than talking on the phone. The friends that you have locally will be excited to hear from you and to do something like. Another thing you can do is go to year compass and I'll share the link, and that is a great project to do with friends to look at this year and the upcoming year and really reflect and make plans for the new year. It's really nice to do this together I've done that couple times and really opens your mind to ideas that other people have and it helps you to get inspired for yourself. Alternatively also you can do this with a group is start a bullet journal. Not start a bullet journal with a group. Each has his own bullet journal, but you can start doing it with a group and I'll share a video below on how you can make that start and you'll have each other to help each other go through the process and figure out how everything works. Alternatively, you can come to me and ask me about it.

Speaker 1: 25:28

Another thing to make connections with other people is around the holidays. Share power tools for cutting trees, booktuner, baking utensils, fondue sets. Share them with your friends and neighbors. There's no need to buy new things because everyone around you probably already has them and you can share. Perhaps you can do one Christmas tree in adjacent gardens outside of inside or in a communal garden, or a set of string lights crossing two balconies. Share, come together in the December holiday month and save some money while you connect to other people. All right.

Speaker 1: 26:15

Number three time to get into the next area of saving and getting other benefits, it is health. Staying happy and healthy doesn't have to cost a lot. In fact, I am giving you permission to cancel that unused gym membership right now. Yep, go ahead, just do it. You're not using it, it's costing you money. Just figure out how to get from under it and just cancel, cancel, cancel. Instead, go for daily walks, with or without friends, as I said in number two connection, and do yoga exercises on YouTube. You can go for runs, you can go for bike rides. There is so much movement, healthy movement available for free, and if you are not into that, then that's okay too. But know that for this time being, while you're saving, you don't need to just sit on the couch. You can still do a lot of things for free, right back into health. If you are the kind of person that is like me, really likes to relax every, for me it's. I forget a lot of the times, but every few months I might get a manicure or a pedicure or a facial or a massage, something like that, and it's really a treat for me and I find this very relaxing. Instead, scratch those appointments and do meditation or breathwork exercises. You can find them online for free.

Speaker 1: 28:02

Two things on health to finish off. The health department is about drinks and food. I'd say drink water all day, every day. It is cheap, it is from the faucet, healthy, it is best for you. Obviously, tea works as well and you'll get a lot of benefits, especially if you don't drink all that much water. It sounds really horrible when I think about it. Okay, we're saving money. All you can do is drink water. That's not what I'm saying. But if you're out, if you are traveling, bring your water bottle. Don't buy fancy drinks and stuff, just water. Focus on water.

Speaker 1: 28:52

It goes back to the luxury versus essentials, and this in terms of health extra water, I think everybody can use a bit of it. And then the last one no more pizza. It's too expensive and it's unhealthy, and I'm talking to me and my family. We tend to get we have pizza nights way more often than we should. Yeah, that could save you a whole bunch of money.

Speaker 1: 29:17

Right, moving smoothly into number four sustainability, which might be one of my favorite ways to save money while you're also saving the earth. Little steps at a time, but they all count, so you can make your own cleaning products and shampoo things like that. It is fun to do, it is a creative thing. Lots of people try it. Not everybody keeps using them, but I think everybody should at least try it for a while to see what is actually possible with very cheap products combined into cleaning products, body and face care. Recipes are available online and probably you have a lot of what you need already in the house. So give that a shot, and don't forget to note the six to eight euros that you spend on your shampoo otherwise and put it in your saving bank. Put it in your piggy bank. And put it in your piggy bank, all right.

Speaker 1: 30:30

Sustainability Make Christmas gifts or make Christmas gift cards for spending time with someone. Make. Do Not Buy. This is one of obviously my favorite ones, but it needs quite a bit of time. Zoe Edwards of Check your Threat has done an episode on Christmas gift sewing, so go and check that out and get some really good ideas to get your gifts from the scraps you have lying around in your house.

Speaker 1: 31:01

All right, going into the next thing Buy only what you actually need. But if we all would do that, right, but it's not as easily said as done, but because we're now into our mindset, focusing on a short period of time, we can do it. We can just buy what we need and, who knows, that might inspire us for a whole year of not buying, which I've done for a year, which was great, and I want to do it again, but that's another episode. And buy secondhand or swap. If you actually do need something, go there first, so you save money and it's great for the environment. Also, repair and mend what you already have before you even start thinking of buying something new. Go into local repair cafes or find tutorials online and then buy food that will be thrown out otherwise. So there's apps. You can go to the farmers market at the end of the day to get cheaper food or get the as we have in the Netherlands, to go stickers on the food from the supermarket and save a bunch of money. And we are now to the last of the five areas where we can save money.

Speaker 1: 32:22

Grow your business while saving money Interesting, huh. Okay, I saved the best for last. Saving money while growing your business. That really seems like a dream. How does that work? All right, if you haven't adjusted your prices in the last year, that was a good day as any. I think a lot of small businesses feel uncomfortable upping their prices, but we all have to do it. It's just the fact of life these days that things are more expensive, not just for your customer, for you as well. So don't forget to look into your prices and up your prices, adjust them.

Speaker 1: 33:04

Another thing you can do is organize a pay challenge for your audience via Zoom or email. It's really fun. If organizing is your thing, go all in. This can be so much fun. Find a challenge that matches your core business or your core principles, what you stand for. Do something together and ask for a ticket price. Make sure that you make it a big party and that everybody is excited. And don't forget that people that buy these tickets, they are adults. They decide if they want to pay for it or not. If they think that it's worth the money, they will, and if they don't, they won't. But if it's a good challenge and if at the end of the challenge, they will be in a place they weren't before, and then you have a really cool thing going.

Speaker 1: 34:01

Organize your sock yarn challenge. Check out the patterns you will make next year, challenge Patterns and yarn from Stash Something like that, just something that people will get excited about, will is aim to the future, will solve a problem they have. Equally, you can create a PDF guide or worksheet that's really valuable for your audience for a low price. I'm talking about sock yarn. What kind of sock yarn works for what? For 20 ways to cost on, and I know that you can get that information for free online anywhere. But the fact that you've curated it, that you've brought it together, that they don't have to do the effort, spend the time online, finding it everywhere, that's worth some money. So if I would get like a resources list for something in particular, that would be worth something to me, because I don't have much time but I need resources. So here we go. There's an idea.

Speaker 1: 35:06

Another thing clear out your shop or your web shop and create Secret Center surprise packages from all the loose items that you have lying around but that have still have great value. I know from personal experience from when I had a shop that you will always have a couple of items left from something, especially with yarns, one or two skeins or stitch markers or all those things that you just have a couple of left. Just make surprise packages and send them at a different price point. People go crazy. They are curious, they want to know, they want to know what's inside, and you'll have to let them know that the value that's inside is worth more than they're paying, and that has to be the truth. But know that if you weren't selling them, you would still have the value but no cash in your pocket. Remember that. Another great way to mix the clear out, the organized section with the grow your business section, so that's one of my favorites as well.

Speaker 1: 36:21

Back to the memberships. If you have any business memberships that absorb tools that you don't really use or that you can do without for a couple of months, stop them, pause them, rethink them and keep that money in your pocket, put it into the piggy bank, all right. And then the last one I have for growing your business is do something that you never do, do something unique that you know that your customers will love, but you kind of don't want to make that your thing. But for now you could. I'm talking about limited group talks, one-on-one coaching or mentoring, personal shopping something that your clients love but you don't want to do regularly or you don't have the time to do it In the world of small textile businesses. The crafters really look up to the people that have the businesses and they want to know what they're doing, how they're doing it. They want to connect with them. So to make that connection with your customer is so valuable in so many ways. So throw party and ask people to come to the party and do a yarn tasting or something like that, something that will cost you some energy, some organization, but will also leave you with some extra cash. All right, okay.

Speaker 1: 37:58

So just going back to what we talked about, preparation is where we start. We set a goal. We have that mindset that we're ready to tackle this thing. We track three months of spending. Then we review what are the biggest money pits and we focus on that luxury essential balance. Then we budget for the essentials and we pay in cash. We make a tracker and make sure that every single euro, dollar, whatever is money to you, you put that on the tracker and you put that in your piggy bank away from the rest of your money. So that's something that's very important. Do that actively. And then the four benefits and I think I might have missed one in the beginning, the five different areas where you can get double benefits is organizing your spaces and devices, connecting to others, healthy living, sustainable choices and growing your business.

Speaker 1: 39:11

I'm excited to hear how much money you can save. I'm excited to hear if this was helpful at all. I hope I inspire you to at least try to get some money in the bank so that you can invest in your business in the upcoming year. Whether that be a full on Yavl Business Circle program or just a new tool for your business, it's all great. Everything that you can make happen with your creativity, your time and your effort is something to be proud of. Go forth and make Z-Money.

Speaker 1: 39:48

Don't forget to sign up for our meals, and you can do that by going to the show notes and click the link, and you will get notified whenever there's a new episode and also about our business circle program, and you'll find all the links there that I've been talking about in this episode. Until next time, and remember, every stitch counts as we work together and create a pattern shift for you, your business, the crafters and the fashion industry. I hope this episode helped you out at the end of the year, looking forward to the beginning of the new year, and I just wanted to wish you all a very lovely December month. For me, traditionally, december and the summer months are times when I take a break from work, so I'm taking a short break and I'll be back in January. I hope this episode helped you to get more ideas and will help you going forward into the new year. I wish you a very lovely December festive month and a happy new year. I'll see you next time. Bye.