Your Career Advancement Depends on Good Accounting

Posted by Betsy Pruitt

The Business of You is made up of the same departments as a traditional company. Simply flipping the script on how you see these departments in your own life can be key to taking your career to the next level. Today, let’s look at the role Accounting plays in the Business of You.

Your career advancement depends on good accounting. In our current recession and down job market, good personal accounting can make the difference between feeling trapped in a dead-end job you hate and perusing your dream job.

Just like a traditional business has an accounting department to keep an eye on its books and make sure it stays on financial track, you should also spend some time to develop a written accounting plan to help you reach your goals. The process is pretty simple: make a budget to know where your money goes, save up an emergency fund, pay off your debts, and quit financing things.  The book Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey lays this out in a very easy to follow plan, so I highly recommend giving it a read.

Having your financial life in order gives you career freedom.  I say that from experience because my husband and I experienced five layoffs and furloughs (or temporary layoffs as I like to think of them) within a 1.5 year period.  Ouch!

Was it scary? Not really. Here’s why – we have six months or more of living expenses in savings at all times and a minimal amount of debt (only our house). So during what may have felt like the Great Depression at any one else’s house, we pursued new career opportunities in the exact same way as we would have during boom times. We didn’t accept the first job offers that came our way.  If it was a bad fit or didn’t offer opportunities for career advancement, we declined the job offers.  Without having financial pressure in the mix, we had the time and flexibility to find the best career option for us. That’s career and financial freedom! And, it feels INCREDIBLE!

A big part of my financial philosophy is minimizing debt because it adds an unnecessary layer of pressure and risk in your life.  When you have car loans and credit card bills hanging over you every month, your decision-making abilities get clouded. If you lost your job today and didn’t receive any job offers for a couple months, you might start to doubt your skills and value on the job market. So when an low-ball salary offer comes along from a train-wreck of a company, you take it without hesitating.  Why? Because how else are these bills going to get paid. Having a good accounting foundation can insulate you from bad career decisions and keep you on track for career advancement.

You may be thinking, “That’s not how most traditional  companies and corporations handle their accounting.”  It’s true. They often take on excessive amounts of debt, but here’s the key difference between them and the Business of You.  If their business goes bust, the executives walk away unscathed.  On the other hand, if you go financially bust, your debt follows you around like a ball and chain until you die or file bankruptcy. Neither are great options!

When you do find companies that minimize financial risk, it’s easy to see why modeling the Business of You after them makes more sense. Apple is a perfect example. By keeping large cash reserves, it has the financial confidence to continually re-imagine the way we engage with software and electronics. If it weren’t for large cash reserves, Apple probably would have stuck with the status quo in personal computing instead of pushing the boundaries of technology and design. Financial stability truly fuels advancement.

Get out your calculator! I promise your career opportunities will multiply once the Business of You masters accounting.