Red Numbers Are Better Than No Numbers
“I used to dread this. But now it feels like a game I can win.”
That’s what a client said after finally facing something he’d been avoiding for months: His forecast.
Not the creative work. Not the client delivery. Just the uncomfortable task of looking at the numbers.
Earlier this month I chatted with Jodie from AccountArts. We go way back. For years we've shared a common passion-slash-curse: we genuinely love the creative industry.
Jodie, as a virtual CFO, works with creative founders every day — often right at that tipping point between “getting by” and “I can’t keep running like this.”
“They’re not bad with money,” she said. “They’re just too deep in the work to stay on top of everything. Even things like uploading a receipt or reviewing cashflow fall to the bottom of the list... until it all feels too big to look at.”
The trouble with that kind of avoidance is it slowly eats away at your confidence. You get that feeling of not being "qualified" to run a business, or that you should be better at this.
You lose momentum... because you simply don’t know where you stand.
But clarity doesn’t come just from earning more (although that helps). It comes from understanding what you have, and what it’s doing.
As Jodie puts it: “Even if the numbers aren’t where you want them, at least they’re real. That gives you something to build from.”
Something we 100% agree on. Every time we put a forecast in place, regardless of how 'red' the numbers look... it's certainty. It's a position that we can do something about.
You don’t even need to track every cent (don't tell Jodie I said that part). But you do need enough visibility to make confident decisions. To know if the “busy” you’re feeling is productive, or just noise.
Jodies advice? Start small. Make it part of your rhythm, even 15 minutes a day looking at the numbers. Just to see clearly enough to choose your next move.
That’s what being a business owner looks like.
And how you shift from a creative-in-chaos to Creative CEO.