How Financial Awareness and Responsibility Are Key To New Paradigm Startup Success
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For the purposes of this post Iโm speaking to those of you who:
- Are choosing to enter into business partnership or commit to a group project;
- In devotion to a Vision that you really care about;
- With people who you really care about;
- Where you want decision-making and responsibility to be more evenly distributed (particularly around finances), rather than (defaulting to) top down; and
- Where each person is also maximally empowered in your individual and group development journey.
๐๐๐๐: ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ท๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฏ-๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ฑ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด, ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ท๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ช๐ด๐ฏโ๐ต ๐จ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ช๐ฑ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฅ๐ข๐บ-๐ต๐ฐ-๐ฅ๐ข๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ด๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด.
In my recent article, โ๐๐จ๐ฐ ๐๐จ ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ ๐ง ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐๐ ๐ ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ ๐๐ง๐ญ๐จ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ข๐ง๐๐ฌ๐ฌ ๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐ง๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆโ we talked about energetically aligning how resources flow in and through your organism, and how you can set things up such that resources are dynamically mirroring and flowing with real-time contribution.
In that article one of the pieces I mentioned was about how:
โ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถโ๐ญ๐ญ ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ด๐ถ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ข๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ-๐ด๐ช๐จ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ค๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ท๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ตโ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ, ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ถ๐ข๐ญ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ช๐ญ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ๐ค๐ฆ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข๐ค๐ค๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ข๐ฏ๐ค๐ช๐ข๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ค๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ-๐ฎ๐ข๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ.
๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ช๐ฆ๐ค๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ง๐ถ๐ฏ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ด ๐ข ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฐ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐ถ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ฐ๐ท๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ, ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ค๐ข๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ก ๐จ๐๐ก๐-๐ง๐๐จ๐ฅ๐ค๐ฃ๐จ๐๐๐๐ก๐๐ฉ๐ฎ ๐๐จ ๐ ๐ ๐๐ฎ ๐๐๐๐ง๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ง๐๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ค๐ง ๐๐ก๐ก ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ข๐๐ข๐๐๐ง๐จ ๐ค๐ ๐ ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐ฉ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ข ๐๐ฃ ๐ค๐ง๐๐๐ง ๐๐ค๐ง ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ค๐ง๐๐๐ฃ๐๐จ๐ข ๐ฉ๐ค ๐ฉ๐ง๐ช๐ก๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐๐ง๐๐ซ๐.โ
Because hereโs the thingโฆ..
If the members of your team ARENโT taking responsibility around the finances , then the experience of being in partnership with them can feel akin to raising a child with a parent who is irresponsible with money;
It can feel really heavy and destabilising for the rest of the team, making it hard to relax, or feel like they can lean out or let go.
But if the members of your team ARE taking responsibility around the finances, then the additional awareness, clarity and empowerment about your financial reality that this provides (because itโs actually connected to reality based on a clear assessment of real information) is like a supercharger that tฬณuฬณrฬณbฬณoฬณ ฬณbฬณoฬณoฬณsฬณtฬณsฬณ the Shared Vision that youโre actualizing together.
Because with each member of the team taking the steps to get your ducks in a row, you are effectively aligning with reality and opening the floodgates for resource to flow in.
And hereโs why:
When it comes to startup money matters, founders often spend considerable time and energy thinking about and feeling into questions like:
Dแด แดกแด สแดแด แด แดษดแดแดษขส?
Hแดแดก สแดษดษข แดษดแดษชส แดกแด สแดษด แดแดแด?
Hแดแดก แด แด แดกแด sแดแดษดแด ษชแด?
Wสแด แดแดษด แดแดแดสแดสษชแดขแด แดกสแดแด แดกแด sแดแดษดแด ?
Hแดแดก แดแดแดส แดแดษด แดสแดส แดแดแดสแดสษชแดขแด?
Hแดแดก แดแดแดส แดแดษดแดส าแดส แดแดx sสแดแดสแด แดกแด แดแดแด แดsษชแด แด แดแดแดส แดแดษดแดส?
Wสแดษด ษชษด แดสแด แดแดษดแดส แด แดแดs ษชแด แดแดแดแด sแดษดsแด แดแด แดแดส าแดส แดกสแดแด แดกแด ษดแดแดแด ?
Aสแด แดส แดแดสsแดษดแดส แดxแดแดษดsแดs ษขแดษชษดษข แดแด สแด แดแดแด แดสแดแด แดสษชs แดแดษดแดส?
Wสแดแด แด แด แดกแด แด แด แดสแดแดแด ษชษดแดแดสษดแดแดษชแดษดแดส แดแดสแดแดษดแดs แดษดแด แดสแดษดsาแดสs?
And these are no small questions.
In fact theyโre the sort of questions that take up considerable head space, emotional energy and attention both inside and outside of our conscious awareness.
Just take a moment to think about all the times you have drifted off into a daydream, been consumed by worry or been immersed in mental calculations and tallying around money, thatโs taken you out of being truly present with someone or something in the moment.
And thatโs not all that surprising given that, as weโve already touched upon in previous articles, money goes to the root of our safety and security.
Thatโs why money questions are the sort of questions that can literally make or break a business and why itโs no great secret that one of the biggest stumbling blocks for any startup is how the founders handle the money.
Money matters such as how to handle budgeting, bills, debt and taxes are hands down some of the most scary, confusing, exasperating and contentious issues within any business endeavour.
And so how we choose to navigate them is ๐ฃ๐๐ก๐๐ to our success.
Letโs take a simple (and common startup) example:
Letโs say your team is beginning to run out of financial runway and everyoneโs scrambling to try to get their basic needs met;
In those circumstances itโs not only hard to keep your energy focussed on the business tasks at hand, but itโs almost impossible to also maintain the openness of your body vessel while youโre doing it (which as weโve already discussed is key to emanating out the frequency of your vision from your being and magnetizing people and opportunities into your field).
When funds are getting low, the risk of not having our basic needs met (or any kind of scarcity orientation or scarcity response in general) will likely put us into a fear state, scrambling for or clinging to any kind of security we can find; and as such, that fear state contracts our body systems.
If weโre coming from a closed body system, then weโre out of alignment with the energy of the vision or the new world weโre envisioning (which is free of โproblemsโ like scarcity), and back to creating an experience for ourselves where weโre pushing the rock uphill ๐ฉ๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐ข๐๐ ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐จ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐๐ฃ, rather than surfing the wave of flow, taking inspired action and ๐๐๐๐๐ค๐๐๐ ๐กโ๐๐ ๐ก๐ โ๐๐๐๐๐.
Which is uncomfortable, unpleasant, unsustainable and likely to prevent any resource from actually flowing into the system because our body systems are closed to receiving it anyway.
OR
Hereโs another example of where some startups run aground without a distribution of financial awareness and responsibilityโฆ..
Letโs say everyone in the business is authorised to spend money and make financial decisions.
A participating partner in the tech department sees a huge opportunity to invest in some computer hardware, and seeing money in the bank account goes ahead and pays for it, not realising that the money thatโs in the bank account actually needs to go towards certain bills or repayments that come out on particular dates later in the month.
Bill payment time comes and the account is now dry of funds.
So as you can see, itโs obviously important for each person to have their awareness on the up-to-date financial position/status and any material financial obligations so that resources and cash flow can be allocated responsibly and accordingly.
Without this awareness of the company cash flows, itโs all too easy for the baby organism to inadvertently be left starving.
Ultimately, whatโs being illuminated here is that money management, both at an individual and collective level, is no small consideration and can often represent a significant cognitive and emotional load.
If that load is:
(a) distributed so that thereโs awareness, responsibility and clarity amongst the team; and
(b) ideally systematized as much as possible so even the group doesnโt have to think about it;
you can effectively free up most of the energy and attention that normally gets consumed by the typical thoughts and feelings relating to finances and resource allocation.
The group then has more energy to put behind aligned and empowered choices that serve to tฬณuฬณrฬณbฬณoฬณ ฬณbฬณoฬณoฬณsฬณtฬณ the Shared Vision that youโre actualizing together.
And if youโre intending on creating the kind of business and team where you can maintain your freedom, and ideally, access to your creativityโฆ..
- meaning youโre not consumed with management and tied to the day-to-day operations for an organism thatโs totally reliant on you and your decision-making -
โฆ.then youโll want to be able to relax in the knowledge that your teammates are financially responsible, youโve got some robust systems in place and youโre all showing up in a way that serves the financial health of the organism.
But ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ this stuff often represents a significant cognitive and emotional load, it can be valuable to be aware of the fact that it can also easily be one of the things that many business owners, whether consciously or unconsciously, avoid looking at.
Perhaps because:
- They donโt feel confident in their ability to manage finances;
- It all feels too overwhelming or they canโt keep up;
- Theyโre accustomed to receiving a paycheck and their former employer(s) took care of the taxes and deductions;
- Their family/parents have always handled their finances;
- Theyโve never been taught financial management;
- They have inherited a fearful and avoidant relationship with money from their family; and/or
- Theyโve been conditioned in a hierarchical system that taught them to give their power away to authorities and perceived โsuperiorsโ;
If there are members of the team avoiding looking at or taking responsibility for the finances (whether thatโs the bank accounts or the accountancy books) then the resulting imbalance can create a kind of ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ or ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ that can all too easily end up feeling like an uncomfortable parent-child dynamic or a codependent partner dynamic.
Which is totally fine if you are going down the employer and employee route;
Or the owner and contractor route;
But if your intention is to maintain a level of power equality and distributed decision-making (particularly around finances) between you and your teammates (irrespective of equity interest because the relationships matter to you), then youโll want to watch out for these kinds of disempowering and hierarchical dynamics sneaking into the mix;
Because perpetuating ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ and/or ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ isnโt going to maximally support your individual or collective development, nor will it allow you to birth an adaptable and responsive organism that doesnโt rely on your presence to thrive.
[๐๐ ๐ โ ๐ช๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถโ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ค ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข๐ฏ๐บ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ข ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ณ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฅ๐บ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฎ๐ช๐ค ๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ๐ด, ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ธ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ต ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ฐ๐ถ๐ด ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ข๐ค๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฆ๐น๐ถ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ต๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ. ๐๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถโ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ข ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ช๐ค ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ฑ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต ๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ฆ๐ค๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ธ ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐๐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ฃ๐ข๐ค๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ ๐๐๐โ๐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ด๐ช๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ].
So, with all this in mind, if youโre entering into the kind of business partnership with other members of your team where youโre choosing for some or all of your teammates to be equity holders, meaning they are opting into joint parenthood or stewardship of your organism with you, I invite you to ask yourselves:
(1) Hแดแดก แดกษชสสษชษดษข แดสแด สแดแด แดสส แดแด แดแดแดแด แดสแด สแดแด แดส แดา สแดsแดแดษดsษชสษชสษชแดส าแดส แดสษชs สแดsษชษดแดss แดสแดแด แด แดแดสแดษดแด แดแดแดแดs าแดส แด แดสษชสแด ?;
(2) Hแดแดก แดแดษดาษชแด แดษดแด แดสแด สแดแด แดสแดแด, ษชษด สแดแดส แดสsแดษดแดแด, แดแด แดสสแดษดแด แดสsแด แดษด แดสแด แดแดแดแด แดกแดแดสแด สแด แดสสแด แดแด แดแดแดแด แดสแดแดส าษชษดแดษดแดษชแดส แด แดแดษชsษชแดษดs แดสแดแด แดสแด ษชษด แดสแด สแดsแด ษชษดแดแดสแดsแดs แดา แดสแด แดสษขแดษดษชsแด แดษดแด ษชแดs แดแดษดแดษชษดแดแดแด ษขสแดแดกแดส แดษดแด แด แดแด แดสแดแดแดแดษดแด?; แดษดแด
(3) Iา สแดแดโสแด ษดแดแด แดแดษดาษชแด แดษดแด แดสแดแดแด แดสแดแด สแดแด, แดกสส ษดแดแด? Wสแดแด แดสแด สแดแด sแดษดsษชษดษข ษชs ษขแดแดแดษชษดษข ษชษด แดสแด แดกแดส?
So if youโre navigating this terrain right now and wondering how to engender more financial responsibility in your team, comment below or DM me to explore how I can support you.