Removing the Stress of Money in Your Business – Step 1

I’ve had times in my business where the money is rolling in. Things are great, clients are paying, there’s money in the bank, I’m paying bills on time, and life is good.

But then it hits again. Another low. Nobody is buying, I’m behind on paying vendors, I haven’t paid myself, and I’m stressing. I start making desperate decisions, I’m moody at home, and I can’t think straight.

My anxiety goes through the roof, I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this low, and I want to quit and get a stable job.

I need some money. That will solve it all. I want money, and I want it now so I can stop stressing and things can go back to normal.

Many of us entrepreneurs experience this same roller-coaster ride.

We worry about money, and for an obvious reason! We need money for our businesses for a lot of things. We need money like a car needs oil. Cash flow keeps the machine operating efficiently. Cut the oil, and you have a danger of the engine blowing up.

Money in our businesses keep the lights shining, the computers humming, and the employees buzzing. It also helps us go on vacations, pay for our kids’ schooling, and keep food on the table.

But because money is so important in our society, it’s crossed an invisible line of what it can buy us, and come to represent non-material things too.

For a lot of entrepreneurs, many means security, confidence in the future, and control of our company’s destiny. The amount of money in our bank account is tied to our future success, and this is a dangerous place to be because no matter how much money we have, that stress won’t disappear.

My goal is to help you reduce your stress by cutting the association you have with your sense of security and the amount of money you and your business have.

If Paul knows what it is to be in need, and knows what it is to have plenty, and has learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or want, then this proves to you that there’s a clear separation between money and contentment (Philippines 4:12).

Jesus gives us an amazing metaphor so we can divorce our sense of security from our bank accounts.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life ? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:25‭-‬33 NIV)

Like the birds, you too can move away from stressing about money and fly towards peace of knowing God is always there, helping you towards the vision He set out for your business.

But this doesn’t mean you sit back and do nothing. No. You must still learn financial responsibility, sales, marketing, and operations in your business.

What Jesus wants to do is guide us away from stressing about money and points us to the quality of God that we need to focus on.

We don’t need more money; we need more God. If God takes care of all the animals (who don’t work for money), then what are me and you worried about?

Instead of worrying when times are low, we need to take the opportunity to trust God and that He’ll take care of us like He takes care of the birds in the sky.