When I thought about starting my photography business, I was excited to be my own boss, photograph sweet couples, and do something I love…EVERYDAY!  What I didn’t want to think about were the numbers!  I knew I wanted to be profitable (who doesn’t 🙂 ) but the thought of writing excel formulas and keeping up with Quickbooks was overwhelming!  Yes, I took accounting in college but that was a few years ago, and to be honest, it wasn’t my best subject.  Thankfully, for my husband Matt, it was.

After I officially set up my LLC, Matt said we should sit down and get my finances in order!  At that time I was still working with the goal of making photography my full time job!  I also had a TON of new equipment I wanted to buy.  I knew that creating a budget and tracking my accounts payable and accounts receivable would be essential to reaching my goals.  This is where Matt came in.  Together, we sat down and created a Cash Flow Worksheet to track my inflows, outflows, and cash flow summary.  Well, Matt created it…I danced around our living room and plugged my ears singing la la la when the numbers got too confusing.  Mature, I know!

When he finished, I looked at his hard work, impressed!  In one glance I could see how much money I had coming in each month, what my business expenses would be, and how much money I was left with.  I could easily project that I would be able to go full time in three months, buy my new camera in five, and take the trip out to WPPI in Vegas like I always wanted to do!  I previously looked at numbers with a frown on my face, but now I was smiling!  I felt happy and confident that I was headed in the right direction and that my business would continue to hep provide for our family for years to come!

Last night, Matt and I hosted a Quickbooks party at our home!  We got together with our photographer friends in the area to share our knowledge on the subject and to learn from each other!  Matt explained the difference between a debit, credit, liability account and asset account, and talked about important things to keep track of each month.  He demonstrated how to pay our taxes, and showed us an easy way to export our records for our accountants at the end of the year.  Most importantly, he pulled up the Cash Flow Worksheet he created for me and showed everyone how to adapt it to best fit their business.  You can check it out here.  If you think it would be helpful to you, feel free to download it by selecting file, download as, and saving it as an excel worksheet!

Matt, thank you again for your help, willingness to share your knowledge, and your constant support!  I LOVE YOU!  To everyone who attended, thank you for sharing your knowledge as well!  I feel truly blessed to have such an incredible group of friends to learn and grow with in this industry I love so much!

To start the evening, Matt put together a list of suggested accounts to keep track of in Quickbooks!

I am not going to lie…I loved watching Matt teach!  I feel like I learned so much as well!

After Matt taught us a little about Quickbooks, we taught him about photography! 🙂

Kylie even learned a little from her seat on the stairs!  If you have any questions about Quickbooks, the Cash Flow Worksheet, or keeping up with your finances in general, feel free to leave them in the comment box below!  I don’t claim to be an expert, but I will do my best to answer!  HAPPY THURSDAY!