Get our free profit and loss business worksheet
Are you making enough money in your business? Do you feel in control of your time and decision-making? If not, this free business worksheet is designed to help.
Whenever I work with freelancers and small business owners in my business mentor programmes, I start them off with some important business foundations. Specifically, I ask them to:
- Keep a monthly profit and loss sheet
- Keep a timesheet for two weeks
These two sheets will hold a wealth of invaluable information about what is working and what is not working in their business, and enable them to make decisions that will get them closer to their goals and earning the money they want.
Usually I only share these sheets within my mentor groups, but they are so valuable that I have decide to make them publicly available.
So I have made a free TLC Business Worksheet here. On it you will see two tabs: a profit and loss sheet and a timesheet.
To get your own editable version of this Google Sheet, click File and Make a copy. If you prefer an Excel version, click File and Download.
Once you have your own version of the sheet, I recommend watching this quick video guide to using it:
Why is this free business worksheet so important?
Often, when I start working with freelancers and small business owners, they have no idea of what their monthly turnover or profit is. And they rarely can say how much they earn per hour. As a result, many are working for far less than they realise, or are happy to (or could afford)! Some find they are making a loss, while others are earning less than minimum wage.
I want to change how freelancers and small business owners view their finances. You put time and expertise into you what you do, and deserve to be paid accordingly. Imagine applying for a job and not asking the salary? Or agreeing to work for under minimum wage? You’d never do this, and yet could well be earning that little right now in your business.
As harsh as it is to realise this, it’s the starting point of positive change. By knowing how much (or little) you are earning, you can make a conscious decision to either carry on as you are, or make changes.
You can choose, perhaps not to continue with this business. Maybe you start another business or return to paid employment where you get a guaranteed salary. Or you can decide to get help to start earning what you deserve from your business.
You can only make these decisions when you know how much you are making from your business for the time you are putting into it. And that is what my free business worksheet will show you.
How to use the profit and loss tab
In the profit and loss tab you’ll see spaces to enter your income, and your monthly and ad-hoc expenses. Do edit this sheet to reflect your own business. Then start using one tab for one month. (The video guides you through how this tab works.)
I recommend setting yourself financial goals each month to work towards. These should be ambitious but achievable. There’s no point setting a goal that is so far out of reach you just feel demoralised. But equally, a goal that is too comfortable won’t spur you on to make tough decisions or take actions to bring in more money.
Setting these kind of stretch goals helped us make £600 in a couple of days one month with an impromptu Black Friday sale. We would never have planned that sale had we not been short of our monthly goal. So that is an extra £600 we made just from having a financial goal.
Think how much extra you can make over a year with bonuses like this each month.
How to use the timesheet tab
The second tab on our free business worksheet is our timesheet. On here you can record all the time you spend each week in different areas, in 15-minute increments.
I recommend recording time for things like admin, marketing, social media, etc, but also on specific products or services. This will give you an accurate idea of where your precious time is actually going. By adding in your weekly profit, you can also see how much you are earning per hour on your business.
This is the sheet that will give you genuine insight into how much your business is really worth to you, and enables you to make tough decisions on products that are working, and ones that are not, as well as your business as a whole.
You can use this tab to check that your time is being used in the most efficient way too. And it gives you a good benchmark on how much you are spending on activities if you are considering in outsourcing them, or investing in software to take some of the load off you.
For example, can you save yourself 20 hours a week on admin with the right software? Or get an expert to take over your social media activity? If the time you save can be used on activities that will grow your business and bring more money into it, you may decide it’s worth the investment.
You can read here how this activity helped Amanda Overend from Books & Pieces make a decision that led to her tripling her profits in just a few weeks.
You don’t need to keep a timesheet forever. Just two weeks can tell you a lot about where you are spending your time, and the value of it.
Start making more money in less time
My goal for everyone I work with as a business mentor is for them to make more money in less time by working smarter. And this business worksheet is the first, essential step I get them to take in this journey.
These are activities I use in my own business (I use the profit and loss sheet every single day) and have helped me grow a strong, profitable business I can now run part time. Just think what they can do for you, too.
