Think of it as fitness–but for your business.
If you’re into fitness routines and personal growth, you may already be familiar with The 75 Hard Challenge.
In it, each participant follows six rules a day for 75 days. The rules demand commitment and follow-through to develop habits that can lead to a healthier, well-balanced life. Most of all, the program promotes consistency and demonstrates what humans are capable of when striving for “mental toughness.”
We took one look and thought, you know what else gets healthy and well-balanced when you follow through? Your business accounting!
So we’ve put together our own rendition of The 75 Hard Challenge, this time for the busy business owners. Committing to these six rules for 12 months will transform your business into a lean, well-balanced machine. (And probably relieve a whole lot of stress, too.)
The Rules
Each month this should be your ideal to-do list to keep your business healthy:
- Balance & reconcile your business accounts. This is your power move. By completing this rule, you ultimately maintain proper control over your business finances. It also ensures that your financial data is reliable and trustworthy, instead of riddled with errors.
- Process your payroll. Guarantee that your employees are paid on time, and you’ll keep their trust and satisfaction to an all-time high. While it may seem tedious to you, the outcomes of this rule pay dividends in reduced turnover and increased customer satisfaction. Happy employees provide better service 100% of the time.
- Approve your tax payments. Consider this your self-help reading assignment. Yes, it can be boring and hard to push through at first. But the more you practice this rule, the more consistent you’ll become about hitting those all-important deadlines for paying business taxes. Which, as accountants, we have to admit is a thrill.
- Check your inventory (if applicable). For businesses that need to keep products or ingredients in stock, this rule will help you identify popular items, avoid overstocking less desirable ones, and prevent shrinkage from theft. Overall, it has a positive impact on your revenue stream and expenses.
- Review your balance sheet(s). This is a lot like the daily progress pictures from 75 Hard–but in this case, you only need to check the snapshot once a month. A balance sheet tracks the performance of your company. And unlike your income statement, it includes assets, rather than temporary income and revenue. In short, reviewing your balance sheet will give you a much more accurate picture of your business’s financial health month-over-month.
- Don’t check the box if you haven’t done it. This is about accountability. If you cross any of these rules off your list without doing them, just to say you got through the month, then you’ve defeated the purpose of the program. Instead, copy it over to the next month’s to-do list and check in again as soon as you’re able.
What Happens if You Miss a Rule (or a whole Month)?
Simple. Pick up where you left off. The goal is not perfection: the aim is to increase your awareness of your business finances in a tangible, actionable way–and to stay on top of them. So if life gets hectic between April and June (because let’s be honest, some years it does), make a commitment with an accountability partner to sit down again and walk through each rule for the month you missed.
Any Way to Make it 75 “Soft”?
Sure. This list can feel daunting, but it doesn’t have to. Here are a couple tips to make adopting these rules a little easier.
- Add a friend: If you have a business partner or a friend who knows about your business, plan to team up with them for the monthly “fitness” check. Maybe you two schedule a place to meet, order lunch, or just grab coffee on the way in.
- Repeat yourself: To build this kind of habit across multiple months, choose the same (or nearly the same) day each month to follow the rules. Maybe you review your balance sheets every third Monday. Or you process payroll every other Friday. Some folks thrive on crunching numbers right up against a deadline. Others find it’s easier to check off each rule by breaking them up over a month’s time. Just make sure you schedule the rules into your calendar so you don’t lose sight of the challenge.
- Build your tenacity: Start with one or two goals, then add two more as you get the hang of each quarter. By this time next year, you’ll have a solid understanding of what your business finances are doing and, even better, what they’re capable of.
The Potential Benefits
The original 75 Hard Challenge claims to improve your confidence, self-belief, perseverance, fortitude, and grittiness. Honestly, we think spending time in your small business accounting can do that too. At the very least it will kickstart healthy financial habits.
Annnnnnnd you won’t need to check with your doctor before starting this challenge. In fact, as your local certified public accountants, we highly recommend taking it on.
📲Save this article to your reading list and revisit it each month until you get the hang of your new habits!
(And if you have any questions about your business’s balance sheet, tax payments, or payroll, you can contact us here.)