Managing Irregular Income 

Because I work for myself I have irregular income, which makes it very important to set aside for bad times or when there is no project. It means sometimes earning all the money for half a year in one week! It also means don't spend all of it in that week. Based on my experience with this I developed the eCourse Manage Money Better.

Earn Less And Do More

I started to work more and more with the Profit First idea. I already seemed to be doing it partially without knowing the term. I started making a budget for my business. At the time, I knew what I had to earn to cover my fixed costs for Databeet. By also creating a budget for private and including it in the Databeet budget, I had an idea of ​​what my fixed costs are for both private and Databeet and how much I should earn.

Put Aside

I didn't stop there. I also started saving, how small the amount was at the start of my entrepreneurial career. That's why I built a buffer for myself and my company, Databeet.

Pay Myself

After reading Profit First I started paying myself a salary. I didn't stop there and started saving accounts for every type of expense I had. Every invoice that I sent and was paid, I divided the invoice amount over the various saving accounts according to a fixed percentage per cost type. I created one regular business account, one personal account, and seven saving accounts. I have given the 7 savings accounts the following names:

• Study--> From this account I pay for all studies that I want to do

• Marketing--> With this I pay for all marketing things for my company

• VAT and taxes--> This account pays all my VAT and taxes

• Travel expenses--> I sometimes travel for business. This is paid through this account

• Crowdfunding--> By opening this account I try to work on my pension money. I invest in crowdfunding and bonds to make more money

• Profit--> This account is my profit account. I am building a buffer with this account. So that my company can survive difficult times and also buy special things. I was happy with this account during the lockdowns and saw it shrink

• Fixed costs--> All (fixed) costs of my company are paid from this

• Private--> And the account called Private is my private account. The money in this account can be used for my private expenses and savings.

As seen in the picture 2, each cost gets a fixed percentage of the invoiced paid. I tried this for a year. I liked it and changed the fixed percentages until I found the right one for me. And when I found that this worked, I wanted to do this for my private account as well.

Private Account

Now I am the proud owner of several private accounts, so that I have more control over my money (Picture 3). The accounts I made for the various costs looks like this:

• Fixed costs--> Costs such as rent, municipal taxes, water, electricity and heat, etc. are paid from this account

• Saving--> On this account I save to have a buffer and also special things I want

• Groceries--> With this account I pay for the groceries

• Travel--> Yes, I love to travel, so I make sure that a fixed amount goes towards this important item

• Clothing--> Yes, I need some clothing all year round, I make sure to earn money for it. This account is not always filled only when is needed

• House and balcony--> The house needs things like plants or when things break they need to be replaced. With a separate account for this, I know that when I need the money for it, it will be there. This is not an important account for me. That is why I oly fill it when there is abundance.