Shore Thing

I hear a version of this constantly: “Everyone else seems so much further along than me.” Said by business owners who are eight months in, comparing themselves to accounts and colleagues who’ve been doing this for six or eight years. That comparison isn’t just unkind to yourself. It’s mathematically off. What you’re actually seeing. When you look at someone else’s business — their polished website, their fully booked calendar, their confident social media presence — you’re al

I want to give you some permission you didn’t know you needed. You don’t have to enjoy bookkeeping. You don’t have to find it interesting, or satisfying, or anything other than necessary. I work with plenty of people who are great at their businesses and genuinely uninterested in their finances, and that’s completely fine. What’s not fine — what I’m going to push back on gently — is using “I’m not a numbers person” as a reason to not know your numbers. Because here’s the thin

Nobody talks about this part, so I’m going to. When small business owners avoid their books — and most of them do, at some point — it’s rarely because they’re lazy or irresponsible. It’s because looking at the numbers feels like a verdict. And if you’re not sure the verdict is going to be good, it’s easier to just not look. I get it. I run my own business. I know what it feels like to be afraid of your own bank account. But here’s what I’ve learned from working with a lot of