I got to say that the other day and it made my day as soon as the words came out of my mouth. Why? I don’t like numbers one bit. Math is my enemy and has been for years. We’ve never had a good relationship and had a really rough patch from grade 8 straight through to grade 11 when I no longer HAD to take math. The part of the brain that is dedicated to math doesn’t exist in my head, I’m almost positive. I’ve heard this is normal actually. ‘Creative’ types are typically not mathematically inclined and the reverse is said to be true as well. Either way, I don’t like numbers and they don’t like me. So there.
I’ve been in business for just over one year and each time a month came to an end, a voice in my head would say, “You need to do your month end bookkeeping, it’s already the 3rd of the month!” in a really annoying, sing-song voice. I’d turn up my music or create another priority action item that trumped doing my expenses. The system I had set up was simple; believe me, it wasn’t rocket science or remotely advanced. But it was math and that was enough for me to procrastinate until my conscience would reach its limit.
Remember a few months back I wrote about delegating tasks that I didn’t enjoy and/or excel in doing? Well, after searching for a bookkeeper/accountant who was located close enough to meet monthly to hand off my envelope of receipts, I found one. Where? In the parking lot of Wal-Mart in North Vancouver, naturally. My new hero, Noel, was parked beside me and he and his family were packing up their van. I noticed his decals offering his services and I sparked up a conversation. We exchanged cards and off we went.
I met Noel a few weeks ago to go over my needs and when I left the meeting (and a big, fat folder of receipts and spreadsheets filled with numbers) I had a spring in my step. Ahhhhhhhhh. I had officially done the hand off to an expert and I no longer had to do my monthly financials! What a feeling!
Noel whipped up an amazing system for me that is so simple, I could probably do it myself but…I don’t want to…at the risk of sounding like a small child. A friend and I were talking the other day about business expenses and write offs and as mentioned, I got to say, “I’ll have to ask my accountant” and it felt great. There really is something to be said about delegating things you don’t enjoy or things you’re not good at (in this case both apply). It was a matter of practicing what I preach too. It’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day requirements of running and empire and then suddenly snapping out of it and realizing, “Wait a second, why am I doing this?”
I love to hear different takes on how others handle the tasks they don’t like or just flat out aren’t good at. Drop me a line and tell me a story of how you’ve cleared your plate of a task that made you cringe. Or, even better, I challenge you to delegate something that you absolutely dread and report back with how it felt to hand off of that task.
You may be asking, “How’s the bookkeeping coming along so far?” To that I respond, “I’ll have to ask my accountant.”
