As a homeschool leader, are you “a people person” and hate dealing with numbers or a budget? Do numbers or a budget stresses you out?
Numbers on a budget can help homeschool leaders plan and look to the future. A budget can do a lot to reduce stress.
I’m writing this during the COVID-19 pandemic, something none of us planned for! But hopefully, we will be returning to “normal” (whatever that will look like!) sometime soon.
Aren’t we glad that many scientists and hospitals had already made pandemic plans? Yes, we have had shortages and problems, but we’ve coped a lot better because some leaders made plans.
A budget helps you and your leadership team ask yourselves :
- What is important to us in our group? Is it cost, convenience or quality? You cannot offer all three! Choose two.
- Is it important that we keep the cost extremely low? A budget that aims for low cost is going to be a very different budget than one aiming for top quality.
Good, easy and cheap. Your homeschool program cannot offer all three!
A budget helps you focus, plan, and set your group’s priorities. So, believe it or not–having a budget might sound like it is a limiting thing, and some people don’t like budgets. But instead a budget can bring great freedom and relief from a lot of stress.
If you need help establishing a budget, start with my article Budgeting basics
And consider ordering my book Money Management for Homeschool Organizations.
This 115 page book will help you to open a checking account, establish a budget, prevent mistakes and fraud, use software to keep the books, prepare a financial statement and hire workers.
Sample forms and examples of financial statements in clear English are provided.
