October 10th 2012 Ezine -  Volume 2. Issue 109    

Rachel

p.s Did you check out my crazy 'pay what you want' offer yet? Get all the details below.

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People usually start a home based or small business for a couple of reasons:

• To make more money in a way that can provide long term returns & security
• To have more time to enjoy life & be there for their family whilst still earning a good income
• To create a business around a passion or expertise they'd love to spend more time developing and sharing

All three reasons are good ones and have something in common.

MONEY. Yes it all revolves around money even if that may come as a stomach churning reminder to some.

The first reason clearly relates to money, the second one can only work if the money is
handled because you can't enjoy relaxing time with your family if you're worrying about money.

If you have tried to then you'll know what I mean. I find it amazing just how much money you need to do fun stuff with your family such as eating out, a day trip or visit to an attraction.

Yes there are experiences that can't be bought with money but in this abundant world everybody in the family just expects to have more cool stuff and going on your dream holidays & living in a nice location costs lots of money!

No one likes to feel they have to say no to things they'd like to say yes to and for that very reason more and more people are now wallowing in debt.

If you're a solo or home business owners it's even trickier to balance because you need to invest in your self education to get the marketing knowledge & personal development to grow.

Add to that bills, your mortgage, travel expenses, food, clothes and stuff for your loved ones it's not long before you might find there is too much month at the end of the money as dear Jim Rohn used to say.

So when is it a good idea to get into 'debt?'

It's not a good idea to use credit cards for luxuries if you don't have the income to pay them off each month.

Falling into the credit card trap just so you can have more Ikea tables, a new T.V and more whiz bang techie gadgets is something I learned not to do the hard way!

Climbing out of credit card debt is a lot harder to do than getting into it!

Using credit cards can be a good way of funding your business start up and education program as long as you track your expenditure carefully & create a payment plan to repay at least the minimum each month so you don't fall foul of nightmare interest rates.

I wish when I'd started that I'd set a limit for how much I was willing to invest to grow my first business rather than just going in deeper until I turned it around.

When you have an opportunity to switch a credit card balance to a lower or 0% interest rate do your research and consider doing that.

Debt can be positive when it's being used to develop ASSETS for you but just keep that in mind next time you are dazzled by the latest clothes collection in your fave boutique because jeans are not an asset.

Sofas and jeans don't pay you a monthly return whereas investing in property & creating your own business assets can.

Always read documents carefully and one of the things that has helped me manage my cash flow better is to sleep on it before investing in courses costing more than $500.

Some courses will be life and business changing so it's well worth investing in you as long as you commit to following through on what you learn.

To wrap up here are a few final tips that have really helped me stay in control of my expenditure and climb out of the dreaded credit card pit.