Episode #79: My Biggest Money Mess Yet, and the Financial Habits That Saved Me

In 2024 I made a difficult money mistake that ultimately became a turning point – moving from avoidance and shame into clarity, responsibility, and real financial awareness. It’s a reminder that understanding your numbers, simplifying your expenses, and treating your business as its own entity isn’t just practical – it’s what allows you to feel safe, grounded, and ready to grow.

And underneath it all, it’s really about self-trust: learning that messing up doesn’t mean you’ve failed – it means you’re evolving into someone who can hold more money, more responsibility, and a more sustainable version of success.

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[00:00:00] Ruth Poundwhite: This one is a little vulnerable for me to share, but I know it is an important one, so I’m sharing it anyway. In 2024, I really messed up with the money in my [00:00:10] business. It was such a hard lesson that came with a lot of shame and stress, but also so much growth. Since looking back now, I can honestly say it has made [00:00:20] me a stronger business owner.

[00:00:21] So in this episode, I’m opening up about exactly what happened. What I have learned about managing my money and the mindset shifts that have [00:00:30] helped me move from shame to taking control of my financial situation. Welcome to the Soulful Sales Show where we talk about believing [00:00:40] in the value of your offers, getting them in front of your right people, and selling more of what you do in your unique way.

[00:00:47] Hi, and welcome back to another episode [00:00:50] of the Soulful Sales Show. Today I am getting a bit. Vulnerable and sharing something that I really messed up with in [00:01:00] 2024, which was managing the money in my business in my limited company. Now, I have actually learned [00:01:10] so much from this. I think it has kind of been a blessing in disguise as a lot of these things are when you can look back in hindsight.

[00:01:19] So I wanted [00:01:20] to share. Those lessons with you because they’re super, super helpful. And this is not the first time that I have messed up with my money, and maybe that would be a good place to [00:01:30] start actually. So I remember a few distinct times when I have really freaked out about money in my business, [00:01:40] and the first time was when.

[00:01:42] Because when I started my business, I started as a copywriter in 2008. I was not charging much at all, so I was not earning much in those first few years. [00:01:50] And when I started earning a bit more, I remember when. Um, I had to pay, make a payment on account, and those of you in the UK who are registered business [00:02:00] owners in the UK will probably relate to this.

[00:02:02] I didn’t know that this was gonna happen. I didn’t know that I was gonna have to pay 50% of my estimated tax in advance for the next year. Totally [00:02:10] freaked out and you know, in hindsight it was all fine and you know, obviously then you get used to it and you get in the system of it, but absolutely did not set aside that money at the time.[00:02:20]

[00:02:20] Um, second time was when I had, again, not set aside enough money to, for tax. I was still a sole trader. I, my income had [00:02:30] jumped massively, which is great, but when you then think that you can spend all that money and don’t set aside the money for tax, then you end up with the problem again. [00:02:40] And that was what forced me to become a limited company, to get an accountant who actually understood online business.

[00:02:47] And actually that turned out to be a great. Shift [00:02:50] in my business. She saved me a ton of money. I didn’t have to pay all the tax. I thought at the time I thought, and it all worked out fine again. And that brings me to [00:03:00] my most recent mess up, which is, you know, it’s a similar thing, not setting aside enough money, but the reason it happened was because I didn’t understand the [00:03:10] intricacies of having that limited company.

[00:03:12] Also, I have to say that I was going through a very. Bad time with my mental health. I have always been someone [00:03:20] who has actually enjoyed bookkeeping. Maybe I’m a bit bit of a weirdo for this, but I’ve never employed a bookkeeper. I have an accountant, but I like doing my own bookkeeping. So in the [00:03:30] many years of having an online business, first as a copywriter and now doing what I do now, I’ve always done my own bookkeeping.

[00:03:35] I’ve always been able to figure it out when there’s been issues and I’ve [00:03:40] always kept up to date with it. It’s kind of like a little mindful activity that I like to do very, very regularly. But in the years, in the last few years since, I guess, since having my [00:03:50] son. I was getting more and more behind with it, which really culminated when I had this bad mental health period at the beginning of 20, uh, 20, 24.

[00:03:58] I got very, very behind with it. [00:04:00] I’m talking like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of transactions that needed to be sorted, and it just felt like a massive task. This was the start [00:04:10] of why I totally messed up, because when you are not keeping on top of the numbers, you don’t know the facts about what’s in the business.

[00:04:17] Your accountant cannot tell you. [00:04:20] How much money you can take out of the business because you have not kept up with bookkeeping. So I was really not in a great place and then I got really behind and my [00:04:30] accountant was chasing me up to do my accounts by the deadline, caught up on the book bookkeeping because I had to to in order to submit my company accounts on time, and [00:04:40] she dropped something on me that I had no idea I had been doing even now, even though I know that this situation was a blessing in disguise.

[00:04:49] [00:04:50] It’s still really hard to say out loud, but basically I had taken too much money out of my business because I now have a limited company. I can’t just take money out of my business as and when I want to. And [00:05:00] I knew that the problem was, I didn’t know how much money I was able to take out. And this had been going on for a long time.

[00:05:07] I, I mean, when I say a long time, you know, [00:05:10] probably like the period of the last year, right. And she told me that I was gonna have to pay 33% tax on the amount that I had. Overpaid myself [00:05:20] unless I paid it back in from my personal funds, which I thought about doing, but would be a lot of money. And anyway, I made the decision to [00:05:30] take the tax hit.

[00:05:32] The good news is it is a temporary tax, which which is paid back when you clear that deficit, it’s basically to stop directors taking loads of [00:05:40] money out of their business without paying tax, which makes sense, but I can’t tell you how much shame I felt. When this happened, like I felt like a complete idiot.[00:05:50]

[00:05:50] I had always felt like I was good with money. I’d always felt like I was good at keeping up on, um, up with my bookkeeping, and I felt like an idiot. I felt like I was a [00:06:00] problem client for my accountant. I felt like I had put my family in a bad situation as the breadwinner. That adds a whole other level of stuff, and I just felt like a [00:06:10] complete idiot.

[00:06:10] Now, bear in mind, I had been going through a difficult mental health time, so. All of this stuff is compounded when you are not in the best head space [00:06:20] anyway. So it was horrible. It was really stressful and it forced me to [00:06:30] really look at the numbers, and these are the lessons that I’m gonna share with you in this episode.

[00:06:36] So number one, I sat down and I went through [00:06:40] every single expense in my business because I now had this deficit of money that my company had loaned to me personally. I wanted to make more [00:06:50] money to make up for it, and I looked at every single expense I had in my business. I with a fine tooth comb. I went through absolutely everything and I am [00:07:00] more on top of my expenses than ever.

[00:07:01] I definitely went through a more spendy phase in the business where I would sign up to stuff very easily, and I think, you know, a lot of those investments served me well. [00:07:10] But a lot of them, you know, were things that I, I wasn’t making the most of or I didn’t truly need, or that didn’t have that return on investment.

[00:07:17] So I went through with a fine tooth comb, really asking [00:07:20] myself those questions and what was worth the return on investment. I was also really, really honest with myself about the money that I spent on [00:07:30] coaching and being in high ticket masterminds. I have, this could be a topic for a future episode, but I basically reevaluated my relationship [00:07:40] with certain coaches and I felt like actually that was one of the key reasons that I spent, um, too much money on my business.

[00:07:46] ’cause those expenses were way too high. So it wasn’t necessarily [00:07:50] the problem that my business wasn’t bringing in, in enough. It was a problem that it wasn’t profitable enough because I had very high expenses in that area. Which looking back I would do [00:08:00] differently. It’s always a lesson, right? But like I said, that could be a whole other topic.

[00:08:04] Another big lesson that I learned at this time was to actually be honest with my [00:08:10] accountant. My accountant is lovely, but she is an accountant, and the email exchanges we have are more just a fact and a fact, right? It’s not really about the feelings, but I did. [00:08:20] Share with her about my mental health stuff and that I was getting back on track and you know, she said she was sorry to hear that, and I just felt good having opened up about it because it kind of [00:08:30] took away some of the shame around.

[00:08:33] This being my fault and me messing up. And I think actually that was a catalyst for me claiming more support in my business as [00:08:40] I have done over the last year. So I also applied for a government grant called Access to Work, which is it for people with certain disabilities. [00:08:50] Um, mental, physical health stuff, neurodivergence, and it took a long time to come through, but it has come through now and it’s very, very helpful.

[00:08:57] I have some money from the government to help [00:09:00] support me with software and team to, um, help with some of the things I struggle with the most. So it was all part of a process of accepting my [00:09:10] brain. Accepting my struggles, accepting that I do need help. And when I’m at my best, I might not need all of that help, but it’s there to prevent me [00:09:20] getting to that really difficult place that I was in.

[00:09:22] And I will say that. Having financial stress, I realized is a huge trigger for my mental health. Huge [00:09:30] trigger, and I feel a lot better now that I’ve put other systems in place to make sure that I don’t get there again, but, but it was rough for a while, so I will say I’m fine now and I would not be [00:09:40] recording this episode if I wasn’t.

[00:09:41] But it is a massive trigger, so. If you are re resonating with any of this or you have any other kind of financial stress, maybe you are in debt, [00:09:50] maybe you know, maybe you haven’t saved enough for your tax bill, whatever it is for you personally, please know that it adds a whole extra layer of stress, which makes [00:10:00] it harder to see what you are doing well and much easier to focus on what you are not doing well as well.

[00:10:05] So just wanted to add that there as a side note. So the other healthy financial [00:10:10] habits that I put in place as a result of this were to firstly understand how to read my company balance sheet. So like I said, I do like doing the bookkeeping. I use zero for the bookkeeping. I [00:10:20] like a spreadsheet. I like getting stuck into the numbers.

[00:10:22] I actually used to really like maths at school. I’m that kind of person, but I never really. Understood the BA balance sheet. If I had understood the balance sheet, I [00:10:30] would not have gotten this problem. So now I know exactly what to look for on the balance sheet in terms of setting aside enough money for the salary, for the tax, and then knowing what’s left over in order to pay [00:10:40] dividends to the directors of the company and all of that.

[00:10:43] And I set up pots. So I use a bank called Starling and they have different savings pots for the business account and the [00:10:50] personal account. And I set up savings pots for. The salary for, um, expenses like team and ex uh, regular expenses with [00:11:00] software and stuff like that, and. Tax. I know that this is such a basic lesson, but I was not doing this before.

[00:11:08] I did not have money set aside in pots. [00:11:10] Now, when I log into my bank, I know exactly how much money I have to set aside for tax. I update that amount regularly based on looking at the company balance sheet in zero. And [00:11:20] I also have a goal to get to a certain number of months in advance when it comes to salary being covered months in advance so that I don’t feel that.

[00:11:28] Month to month cash [00:11:30] flow pressure. And this was the other problem because I was taking too much money outta the business. I thought personally, you know, I was earning pretty decent money, but I wasn’t leaving loads of money [00:11:40] in the business. That’s why I got into this situation. ’cause it wasn’t covering the stuff that we needed it to cover or it wouldn’t.

[00:11:44] End up covering it. So the accountant did not want us to declare dividends, which means I was not keeping much [00:11:50] money in the company at all, which means there is no room for having a bad month because month to month I would just be taken out maximum. Well, as it turns out, more than [00:12:00] maximum money I, I was supposed to, and if there was a bad month, it was super stressful because I wouldn’t have enough money to cover what I needed to cover.

[00:12:07] That is so not the way [00:12:10] that a successful business owner operates. And I guess that is my. The kind of final point is that it’s changing the way I see my business and myself as much more of a separate thing. [00:12:20] That was what got me into this problem in the first place. I just saw the business money as my money.

[00:12:24] It really is not, and I knew technically that it wasn’t, but now I know it. I really [00:12:30] know it. Me and the business are separate things, and I also act. As the business owner, I want to be like I, the version of me now, from early 2024 when [00:12:40] this first happened. So, so different. I treat money so differently. I treat expenses so much more rationally.

[00:12:47] I am so much more, I’ve, I’ve saved [00:12:50] up months worth of expenses. I have money in the business. I don’t see it as my money, you know? Maybe some of this stuff will sound basic to some of you, and it does feel embarrassing [00:13:00] for me to share it like I should have known better. I have had my own business since 2008.

[00:13:04] I have had a limited company since 2016, but the nature of my business [00:13:10] has changed. The expenses in my business changed. I has some significant investments in higher ticket coaching. Some of which I actually regret and would not do again. [00:13:20] And you know, mistakes can still happen after all of these years.

[00:13:24] So I do believe that this has been a really good experience for me. I think that my [00:13:30] identity as someone like being able to trust myself as someone who can manage larger amounts of. Turnover and income has shifted so much. I totally [00:13:40] trust myself to be able to handle that now. And that’s the thing, sometimes you are waiting for things to, you know, your success to rock it, and you need to be earning loads more [00:13:50] money.

[00:13:50] If you are not managing the money in the small amounts, then you are going to mess it up when it comes in, in the large amounts as well. Trust me. So I feel like I have cleared the [00:14:00] decks and I’m ready for more. And I also wanted to share that in. Uh, early 2025, I ran a, a summit called The Mess of Success.

[00:14:09] This summit [00:14:10] was inspired by the fact that I went through this difficult time, not just with the money, but the mental health stuff. And one of the speakers I spoke to who absolutely has a [00:14:20] successful business that loads of us would aspire to and admire her like she is brilliant. Also shared with me that she had a similar [00:14:30] problem going to a limited company and withdrawing too much money from her business and having to pay this massive tax, having to massively reduce her salary.

[00:14:38] As a result, I forgot to say I had [00:14:40] to massively reduce my salary as a result. So it ma, it really affected my personal. Living expenses. Um, so yeah, I, I, it was amazing that [00:14:50] she shared that with me. I’m not the only one. If you have messed up in the same way as me or other ways than me, you are not the only one as well.

[00:14:56] But I absolutely believe whether you have messed up or not, [00:15:00] that knowing your numbers will increase your sales because you are prepared for more money to come in. I used to find when I was behind on my bookkeeping, for example, that [00:15:10] sometimes I kind of didn’t want more sales to come in because I would have to catch up with more.

[00:15:14] Transactions in my bookkeeping. Like how wild is that? So being up to date with everything and knowing that you have things [00:15:20] sorted, takes the pressure away from any one launch, especially if you are, you know, having months of expenses covered, which takes time to get there. Don’t get me wrong, it does, but it’s such a [00:15:30] great goal to have.

[00:15:31] It also means that you can handle it if more transactions come in your bookkeeping software and that you know you’re gonna be a good custodian of money when it comes in. [00:15:40] So yeah, that is how I messed up my money in 2024 and how I have sorted it, and it has made me a better and stronger business owner.

[00:15:48] I’m sure that I will mess up [00:15:50] in ways still to come as, as I shared at the start. This is not the first time I’ve messed up my money and my business, but I know through those other experiences that they felt huge at the time. And [00:16:00] then when I look back on them, I’m like, wow, that was just me learning. It’s absolutely fine.

[00:16:03] So I’m sure that I will feel this way about this latest mess up as well. Anyway, I hope it was helpful that I shared. [00:16:10] Please do come share with me if, uh, you have been through something similar. If this has helped you, no matter what situation you are in with money, it is never too late to start making positive changes.

[00:16:19] I [00:16:20] think that can be a big barrier as well when you feel like you’ve messed up too bad. It feels like, what’s the point? Even, but, but there is always a point in making positive changes and it’s never as [00:16:30] bad as you think. You’ve totally got this. And just remember, like you went into business to do the thing that you’re great at, not because you’re great at managing money, like.

[00:16:37] That’s another role we have to [00:16:40] take on, but it’s not our area of expertise, so it makes sense that we’ll mess up along the way. Anyway, I’m kind of giving myself the pep talk that I needed back then. Um, so yeah, hope that this has been helpful for you [00:16:50] and if nothing else, you feel less alone in your own mess ups.

[00:16:54] And I’ll catch you again for another episode as soon. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of [00:17:00] Soulful Sales. If you have a moment to rate and review, know that it really does make a difference, and if you would like to carry on the conversation, then you can connect with me in the free [00:17:10] community@ruthpoundwhite.com slash community, or my personal favorite.

[00:17:14] Join me inside the Soulful Sales Society membership@ruthpoundwhite.com slash [00:17:20] membership and keep doing what you’re doing because your work really does matter.

“If you are not managing the money in the small amounts, then you are going to mess it up when it comes in, in the large amounts as well.”

Show Notes

In 2024, I seriously messed up the money side of my business and it came with a lot of stress, shame, and some very real consequences. But it also became one of the biggest periods of growth I’ve ever had as a business owner.

In this episode, I’m opening up about exactly what happened, what it taught me about managing my finances as a limited-company owner, and the mindset shifts that helped me move from “I’ve completely failed” to feeling steady, confident, and back in control.

What I Talk About in This Episode:

The money mistake I didn’t see coming
Why shame kept me stuck longer
Financial habits that changed everything
Separating business money from personal money
Trusting myself with bigger numbers

💭 [5:43] “I can’t tell you how much shame I felt when this happened…”

💭 [12:07] “That is so not the way that a successful business owner operates.”

💭 [16:15] “ No matter what situation you are in with money, it is never too late to start making positive changes.”

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Episode #79: My Biggest Money Mess Yet, and the Financial Habits That Saved Me

Show Notes

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