Corn Beef Bulls Keep After It, Little By Little

If your tendency is to let receipts and statements stack up until the end of the year, make 2023 the year you ask for help to start a new habit.

Set a goal to update your income and expense report at least on a monthly basis; aim to review operational goals quarterly or every six months. Write down your marketing plan each year, but be prepared to adjust as reality unfolds. If tracking and recording all this feels daunting, consider asking your accountant, banker or trusted adviser to set short, intermittent meetings throughout the year for check-ins.

“Having that meeting set where you know you need to have all your information ready, even just for the first few months, might be enough to get your feet under you and get you in the habit of tracking the data,” Bradley says. “It gets easier if you just keep at it.”

He likens it to simple household chores.

“We all know that if we load the dishwasher after every meal, or wash a few dishes every day, it’s way easier than waiting until the end of the week and facing that big mountain in a full sink. That’s when it feels overwhelming, and you just want to walk away,” Bradley says.

Find ways to make record-keeping a small habit so it doesn’t become a big burden at the end of the year. Many accounting systems now come with apps or cloud-based sharing software, so your records are accessible on your smart phone.

If that’s the case, use small pockets of time – waiting for the feed truck to warm up, sitting in a drive-through line or in a medical waiting room, for instance –when you might otherwise scroll through social media or respond to texts. Instead, use it as a small window to categorize expenses on your mobile Quicken or QuickBooks app.

When you’re in the office, start small and set a specific time – say, five minutes before you eat lunch. Or set a goal to enter three to five data points while the first pot of coffee brews each morning. These little bits of time add up if you keep at them consistently, and the small bits of data will add up to paint a powerful picture of your ranch’s financial fitness. ▫