I recently attended the first ever South Florida Blogger Awards. Whenever I attend any of these events, I always like to go out of my way to meet new bloggers and see if I can help them in any way. It’s what I needed when I first got started, so I like to pay it forward.
This time around, one of them asked me if I could teach some money management tips for newbie bloggers. “We don’t know anything about money as bloggers,” she said.
I get that. For most of us, blogging was a hobby we enjoyed. Once we realize the potential to actually earn a living doing it then it turns into a whole new ballgame. Suddenly we have to deal with cold hard numbers and cash, and it can be stressful if you’re not used to it.
The good news is it can be learned. I knew absolutely nothing about money when I first started blogging. Additionally, money management tips for newbie bloggers may not be as complicated as you think.
Get your personal finances together first.
When it comes to money management tips for bloggers, you may be surprised to learn that how you treat your money in your personal life could affect how you treat money in your business.
Before getting into it though, we must make one thing clear. Personal finances and business finances are separate (more on that in a bit) and slightly different rules apply. For example, I can take a calculated risk with an investment in my business, but I wouldn’t necessarily do that in my personal financial life.
However, in my time as a money blogger I’ve come to realize that if someone is having an issue managing the business finances, they usually already had an issue managing their personal finances. Sometimes they’ve gone years without knowing how to manage their personal finances and it spills over into how they treat money in the business.
So while business and personal finances are different and separate, they are still related. A good foundation in your personal finances can help give you a better understanding of money management tips in your business.
Don’t mix business and personal.
Out of all the money management tips for newbie bloggers, I’d say this is the one people have no idea about in the beginning: Newbie bloggers must understand that they can’t co-mingle their finances.
In other words, don’t mix business funds with personal funds. You also shouldn’t pay for everything with the same account. It’s a huge pain for taxes, makes money management nearly impossible, and affects your overall sanity.
The best thing you can do is get a separate bank account for the business (because a blog is a business) and then withdraw the funds you need into your personal account for personal expenses.
It may seem like an extra step for no reason, especially in the beginning, but as you start making more money and having more expenses, you need to make sure you’re paying for certain things with the business account and vice versa.
Just keep going.
Bloggers aren’t going to learn proper money management overnight. It just doesn’t happen that way. That’s why the most important money management tip I can give you is to just keep going. You can learn about money as you go along. Just don’t let the lack of knowledge stop you from moving forward.
