Here in the Pivot: SHIFT Ahead community, we focus on growing, learning, and improving how we do things by talking to smart people. Chris LaGarde, a leadership coach located outside Philadelphia has been in the real estate industry since 2006 and coaching others since 2018. His passion is helping people figure out their approach to money.

As Chris shares, there’s often a stigma associated with money. In fact, it wouldn’t be too far to say that some even name feeling of shame around it. If this sounds like you, you’re not alone, yet, it can hold you back from reaching your true monetary potential. Chris wants to help you normalize your approach to money.

How?

It starts with awareness. After all, awareness leads to choice and choice leads to change.

How do you think about money?

Take a moment to reflect on how you think about money. According to Chris, you likely fall into  one of two categories: anxious or avoidant.

Those who are anxious about money tend to know what their money is doing, but don’t want to let it do what it is supposed to do. In other words, instead of using it in the best possible way, people who are money-anxious tend to not even spend it on things that would benefit them like growing their businesses or on their family.

People who are avoidant in their behaviors regarding money tend to stick their head in the sand about it. They don’t want to pay attention to what they are using it for or how they could be using it better.

Which category do you fall into? Once you identify which one describes you best, you can find ways to counter this behavior.

Ask yourself if you are paying as much attention to profit as you should be.

The next step in becoming financially aware is to get clarity around what’s going in and what’s going out. This means consistently knowing your income, expenses, and margins.

Agents often overlook this step because it can feel overwhelming. Instead, we tend to focus more on figures like GCI and the number of homes we’ve sold. And while these numbers may feel good, they don’t tell us if our business is profitable at the end of the day.

Selling more homes doesn’t automatically mean you’re more profitable. In fact, your profit may not be where it needs to be and you won’t know it if you’re only looking at sales and commission numbers. This can be a hard lesson to learn.

Separate Personal and Business Finances

It’s also essential to avoid the mistake of blending personal and business money. As Chris explains, when everything co-mingles in the same account, it becomes nearly impossible to understand profitability.

Separating accounts gives you greater insight into your financials and instant visibility into what the business actually earns, what it costs to run the business, and what’s available to pay yourself.

Once you know each of these numbers, your decisions will likely feel cleaner and have less emotion tied to them.

Track Your Numbers Weekly

When it comes to knowing your financials, getting into a weekly rhythm will help you stay consistent. When you know the patterns to look for, such as where you are spending money and where you aren’t, it becomes a simpler task week-in and week-out than a larger quarterly or annual project It also enables you to catch overspending or other problems before they happen. In other words, you can be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to your money. And as Chris reminds us, the more frequently you look, the less intimidating it becomes, so you can be more confident in the choices you make.

Use Your Awareness to Make Better Decisions

Once we know our numbers, track them consistently, and understand profitability, our decisions can become easier to make. For example, business expenses such as leverage and marketing or saying “no” to other business opportunities feels less risky because we have the necessary data to back our decisions.

At the end of the day, long-term profitability comes from being financially aware. And when your decisions around money support your professional and personal goals, your business can become not only more sustainable but more enjoyable to run.