Welcome to The Cash Diaries with Sage, the place we dive into the funds of enterprise house owners and uncover how they take care of cash issues every day.
We’re asking entrepreneurs how they’re managing their funds over a seven-day interval, to provide you an image of what incomes and outgoings actually appear to be from their perspective.
In the present day is the flip of a skincare aspect hustler who’s juggling a busy IT job on a full-time foundation.
And be sure to take a look at Reader’s Response at the end of this article, the place accountant and best-selling creator Carl Reader reveals his ideas and shares some prime suggestions for our entrepreneur.
Right here’s what we cowl on this article:
Meet our entrepreneur and check out their Money Diary
Meet our entrepreneur and take a look at their Cash Diary
- Business: On-line pure skincare retailer.
- How lengthy you’ve gotten been an entrepreneur? 17 years.
- Day job: I work for a tech startup.
- Location: London.
- Wage: Wage from enterprise, £0. Wage from day job, £50k.
- Family: I stay alone in a flat in Kent.
Day 1 – Monday
Opening balance at the start of the week: £9,722.13
I went to bed with a lot of things on the brain, and I slept terribly last night. I hope I don’t pay for that later.
With a demanding full-time job (we’ll call it Project J) as well as the business to run (Project B), it’s sometimes tricky juggling everything during the week and trying to work in parallel.
I give all my staff Mondays off, which gives me space to plan the week and try to get ahead of things.
I decided to try and work from home as much as possible for the next few weeks to keep unnecessary spending down.
Petrol prices are through the roof, so I’m not moving my car unless I have to.
I went out to buy a coffee and decided that it would be better to buy some coffee beans and get 15 cups for the price of one.
I had a couple of early wins on Monday morning with three investors I’ve been trying to pin down agreeing to meet me later this week and one next week.
This is great because I’m hoping they can either add to the round or push me in the direction of another angel who will.
Fingers crossed.
The company I work for is also five days from launching the business. It’s been a demanding couple of weeks and now it’s all hands on deck to get everything ready for launch.
With quite an important role in that business I’ve ended up working until 9pm tonight. I’m shattered.
Hopefully a heavy sleep is in store.
No major spending today other than a bag of (what turned out to be terrible-tasting) supermarket coffee for £4.60. I’ll need to rectify that later in the week.
Raw material replenishment for one of our products came to £1,165.75.
Money earned: £2,541.68
Money spent: £1,170.35
Day 2 – Tuesday
Tuesday morning and I slept like a log last night. Good start – or so I thought.
Project B (Skincare side hustle)
I woke up to two emails that I didn’t really need.
We sell our products in over 100 stores across the country. We typically partner with independent stores because payment terms are more reasonable, and we get the opportunity to have a direct relationship with the owners.
One of our largest partners stores in Scotland emailed to let me know that they are going out of business.
They’ve really felt the hit of the pandemic and now with the fuel prices and sensitivity in the market they can’t sustain the business anymore.
Terrible news for them, for us, and for the market as a whole, because I feel like it’s indicative of what’s to come this year.
Project J (Day job)
This broken project is turning out to be an absolute nightmare.
It’s 4pm and I just realised I’ve only had a cup of coffee and a banana all day.
Time to hydrate and refuel.
Project B (Skincare side hustle)
Yesterday in my planning session, I realised there is a gap in my website offering and I need to get some custom development done to help bring up my AOV (Average Order Value).
I had a meeting with my developers in Vietnam and they can do the work in two days.
Working with them saves me a lot of money but it means there is less room for interpretation. I need to be extremely explicit about the development work which is demanding.
The upside is I get the work done for $200 instead of $2,000.
We produce all products in-house to maintain consistency and keep the business lean. My production team is on site today making products.
Everything is running pretty smoothly there.
The second email I got this morning was from the fulfilment centre we use to pack and ship all of our products.
They too are suffering the pinch of the climate and have had to remove the credit facility for all customers.
This means my account is now in arrears and needs to be cleared.
This is going to really mess with my cash flow this month.
I screamed a few unpleasant words at the computer. I don’t think it cared very much and now my neighbours probably think I’m nuts.
8pm. It’s been a solid 14-hour stint and my back has had enough. I decide to go for a walk to get some fresh air.
Dinner is going to be instant ramen. I can’t muster up the energy to cook or chew anything else.
The upside is I spent a total of £0 today on personal items. Lots of software costs have come out today. Google, Deputy, Web Hosting.
It never feels good finishing the day in net negative.
Money spent: £3,410.45
Money earned: £842.40
Day 3 – Wednesday
Wednesday morning and I can’t put my delicate and refined palate through another day of this terrible coffee.
I’m up and out to go and get some better coffee beans.
I head to one of the ‘more upmarket’ supermarkets and grab a few bags of their best beans. £6 for a bag is still a bargain so I grab two.
Oh, and some freshly squeezed orange juice because I couldn’t resist. Oh, and some seeded bagels.
And this is how things get out of hand.
I rush out before I pick up anything else I don’t need.
Project J (Day job)
In the 9am meeting, I was informed that my project fix needs to be ready for the testers by close of play today.
I think I’m going to have to turn off my Slack notifications if I’m to finish this work.
Stress is an understatement. I hand off a few pieces of work, meet with my line manager and go dark on Slack.
Headphones on.
Time to get busy.
Project B (Skincare side hustle)
A number of notifications have come through on Instagram. We’re being tagged a lot in something. I’d normally ignore it but I’m curious.
I open Instagram and it’s bad news.
One of our biggest stores in London is closing down. We’ve been tagged by customers asking where they are going to get our products.
It’s a great sign that customers care that much.
It’s a terrible sign because that’s two in a week.
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Challenge J (Day job)
I’ve cracked it.
A stray piece of code has been inflicting this complete drawback and I’ve discovered it. Now it’s simply time to rebuild the 45 pages with the brand new repair.
Challenge B (Skincare aspect hustle)
I acquired an bill from my copywriter. It’s massive.
She is value it however it’s extra money within the ‘out’ column this week.
My government assistant primarily based within the Philippines has been affected by an prolonged bout of bronchial asthma assaults over the previous two weeks.
She has requested for a few days off to relaxation.
After all, her well being is a very powerful factor, however it means I want to select up the slack for a few days. I’m undecided the place I’m going to search out the time to be trustworthy.
Challenge J (Day job)
I’ve determined to usher in a colleague in to assist me churn out these 45 pages.
I made a Loom video (display recording instrument) exhibiting how you can do the repair and we cut up the work in half. We get it completed and delivered by 3pm.
3:30pm and I’ve executed it once more.
No break. No breakfast. No lunch.
I actually can’t stay on espresso alone, so I cease to make some baked beans and vegan sausages with a few of these beautiful bagels I purchased this morning.
Challenge B (Skincare aspect hustle)
The 2 main retailers going out of enterprise this week has made me realise that we’re actually weak on this space.
That’s 4 this quarter.
I want a again up plan.
I jot down just a few concepts about how I can get into extra shops. I’ve assembly with my head of gross sales and we devise a plan. It means I have to do extra improvement work on my web site although.
Fortunately, I can do that a part of the work, so it’ll price £0 in money however it’s numerous my time.
5pm and a purchase order order from considered one of our shops is available in. Some excellent news lastly.
5:30pm, it’s the primary of my three investor conferences.
This investor is one I’m fairly conversant in as we’ve been in touch for over 18 months. He’s by no means been within the place to speculate and nonetheless isn’t.
The deal isn’t fairly proper for him in the mean time as he needs to concentrate on tech.
He’s tremendous useful although and guarantees to provide me three introductions by electronic mail after the decision.
I did some analysis. One of many corporations appears to be like actually good, one I gained’t qualify for, and one has invested lately in my direct competitor.
I’ll get the deck reworked and hearth it over to him sooner or later this week. Hopefully one thing comes from it.
A day of products and bads. I’m exhausted. 00:31 and It’s in all probability time for mattress.
Whole spend: £17 in breakfast meals however it would final me the remainder of the week.
Cash earned: £ 6,513.63
Cash spent: £ 685.90
Day 4 – Thursday
Thursday morning begins with espresso and a full breakfast.
New day, new me.
Nicely probably not, however I determine I have to gasoline higher for the day forward. All gadgets from the pantry so £0 spent. Win.
7am. An excellent good friend has requested me for a session on his enterprise. That is one thing I do usually.
Talking with different founders to assist them flesh out their concepts.
He needs to start out promoting his merchandise on Amazon.
We communicate in regards to the execs and cons and I give him some basic concepts about different issues he and his enterprise companions may do to retain prospects.
Challenge B (Skincare aspect hustle)
Thursdays are 1:1 days with my workforce, so I spend the remainder of the morning earlier than I’ve to clock on with Challenge J planning these conferences.
Challenge J (Day job)
T-2 days till launch.
Our 9am assembly goes properly, and issues are trying good. My repair was accepted by the testers and so it’s on to the subsequent subject.
Stress ranges are fairly low for many of us now as a result of a lot of the work is completed.
That is nice as a result of it means I can spend a little bit extra time on Challenge B at present.
Challenge B (Skincare aspect hustle)
I’ve one other investor assembly tonight that I have to prep for. I don’t know this investor so it’s at all times a little bit extra nerve racking.
I’ll take care of that later.
I additionally clear the arrears for the fulfilment centre to get our account again in good standing and pay the bill for my copywriter.
Each month, we run a giveaway to get new folks thinking about our model.
Our giveaway ended final night time so we ship out packages to competitors winners.
I additionally write an electronic mail to the losers to try to encourage them to strive our merchandise at a reduction.
35% open price and 4% of the checklist transformed (i.e. made a purchase order after opening the e-mail). I’m pleased with that so I’ll begin to plan the subsequent giveaway.
One other good-sized buy order has come by way of at present which is nice information.
A purchase order order, or PO, is principally a doc a vendor receives from a purchaser detailing the categories, portions, and costs of the services or products they’ve ordered.
Anyway, this implies we’ll have to seize some extra uncooked supplies from my suppliers. In a single hand and out the opposite.
New mission (we’ll name this Challenge C)
Sure! A mission C. A brand new mission provide has come on my plate.
An organization primarily based in Boston Massachusetts has requested me to do some consulting work for them.
It’s a fairly good gig that’ll hopefully solely require two to 4 hours of my time per week. The pay is absolutely good, and I don’t assume I can flip it down.
I inform the CEO that I’ll give it some thought and are available again to him on Friday night time.
Challenge B (Skincare aspect hustle)
The investor assembly is a bomb. A little bit of a waste of time.
I don’t assume they had been ever within the product, and he in all probability took the assembly with me as a favour to the one who launched me.
I actually want he hadn’t.
It will have saved us each a while. Doesn’t he know that I’m busy?!
Anyway, no worries. It’s all a part of the sport.
I’m not cooking tonight and I’m not not-eating for one more night time. I determine to blow the finances and order a supply.
A whopping £18 spent.
It was value it, though my physique mass index in all probability doesn’t agree.
Time to get down engaged on this new a part of my web site.
As a part of the event, I have to get a brand new designer within the workforce. I head to some freelancer websites like Upwork and freelancer.com to place just a few adverts up.
2:31am and I’m nonetheless sitting right here. That is onerous.
I’m 85% executed with the brand new part however one thing isn’t working correctly. I’m not a ok coder to actually unpack this.
I’m going to must convey someone in to assist.
I’m going to mattress. £18 spent on scrumptious fatty meals.
The remainder was a mix of workplace lease, residence lease, car rent buy, insurance coverage, and an enormous inventory replenishment of inventory so we are able to fulfil the big order that got here in at present.
Cash earned: £7,461.47
Cash spent: £5,486.24
Day 5 – Friday
Challenge B (Skincare aspect hustle)
6:22am and I can’t sleep.
I do know I can repair this with contemporary eyes. It’s solely been 4 hours, however I determine to rise up and deal with the web site once more.
I make a breakthough. I’m 98% there.
A giant win as a result of the developer will now solely price me about an hour to get it over the road.
I seize a vat of espresso and get ready for my 9am assembly.
Challenge J (Day job)
Final day earlier than launch. 9am and the morning assembly is one other good one. Nothing actually on my plate now. It means I get to work on Challenge B.
Challenge B (Skincare aspect hustle)
I spend a lot of the day filtering by way of Upwork and freelancer.com.
There is no such thing as a candidate that I like. I’m going to must rewrite this job submit and see if I will be extra particular.
Perhaps I’ll strive Fiverr, one other comparable website.
My workforce are on mounted flexi-hours that they’re allowed to make use of in no matter approach they need. This often means they work from Tuesday to Friday however sometimes the workload is excessive they usually end on Thursday.
That is actually good for me at present as a result of it means I can work uninterrupted.
Challenge C (Consulting job)
I begin designing the answer for this new mission so I can current it to the CEO tonight.
It’s an enormous overhaul of their electronic mail and gross sales circulate, and hopefully it would automate the gross sales course of a little bit extra, which ought to herald some income for the enterprise.
Challenge J (Day job)
We’re all the way down to the previous couple of hours of the work day and the CEO schedules a check-in assembly each two hours to make sure every thing is roofed earlier than the weekend.
Challenge C (Consulting job)
The workflow resolution I’ve designed appears to be like good.
Assembly at 9pm tonight.
Challenge B (Skincare aspect hustle)
I’ve an enormous face-to-face investor assembly subsequent week and I have to make an impression.
I determine to drive to our workshop to organize customized packages for every investor. It’s about half-hour from dwelling so not too dangerous however it does imply my no petrol rule goes out the window.
It’s solely the second time I’ve used any petrol this week so I shouldn’t grumble.
The workshop is subsequent to my favorite fish and chips store. I can’t resist.
Medium cod and chips please. Further onion vinegar. Oh, and might of Coke. I’d as properly go full fats if I’m going to do it in any respect. £11.10 and once more completely value it.
Challenge C (Consulting job)
The American CEO loves my concept. I’m going to tackle this mission and flesh out the mission over the subsequent two weeks.
That is nice information though I’m not fairly positive the place I’m going to search out the time.
Cash out at present was 100% on considered one of my freelancers.
Cash earned: £271.34
Cash spent: £569.10
Day 6 – Saturday
Challenge B (Skincare aspect hustle)
Saturdays are at all times gentle workdays.
I spent the morning ending off the web site subject I had. It’s at 99% now and I can push it stay on Monday. I’ll repair the 1% within the subsequent week or so.
I’m shifting dwelling subsequent weekend, so I’ll spend the remainder of the day packing up the flat.
My girlfriend comes over and we go to dinner and seize just a few fancy cocktails in a neighborhood bar.
Dinner: £41
Cocktails: £45
She will get dinner and I get the drinks.
On-line gross sales account for all revenue at present. Saturdays are usually sluggish and at present isn’t any completely different.
Cash spent: £45
Cash earned: £473.89
Day 7 – Sunday
A full relaxation day at present.
I spend the morning packing up the flat and the afternoon strolling by the seaside and stress-free. I’ve obtained a busy week subsequent week.
A ceremonial chips and mushy peas had been wanted.
That’s three fatty meals this week. I feel I’m going to must have an intervention. £2.20 chips + £1.60 mushy peas. Whole spend at present: £3.80
Cash earned: £42.60
Cash spent: £3.80
Closing steadiness on the finish of the week: £16,498.30
Closing ideas on the week
My last ideas are that I spend numerous time juggling the 2 gigs.
Wanting on the cash this carefully on daily basis made me assume extra about our buyer acquisition prices and following the information extra.
I realised that I have to get an information analyst on the workforce as quickly as doable to assist us flesh out the information so we are able to comply with the cash in a greater approach.
I additionally realised that we’re fairly reliant on about 10% of the shops which have good quantity.
The others are usually not definitely worth the vitality as their worth to the enterprise isn’t excessive sufficient. this in additional element kicked me into gear to make an enormous change in our gross sales technique.
Additionally, petrol is absolutely, actually costly. Not driving my automobile this week saved me at the very least a full tank of petrol, which in the mean time is about £125.
It’s in all probability time to go electrical.
I used to be actually disciplined with cash this week and the one surprising factor that cropped up was having to clear our fulfilment centre (basically a packing warehouse) charges.
That was an enormous hit and we’d have ended up with a significantly better steadiness if that didn’t occur.
If I may give recommendation to any founder or entrepreneur, it will be to comply with the information.
By trying extra carefully on the information this week I’ve had numerous new insights. Each financially and in a extra basic enterprise sense.
Reader’s Response
And to wrap up… what are Carl Reader’s ideas on the monetary habits of our skincare aspect hustler?
Try the video beneath to search out out…
