Episode 9 SHOW NOTES Budgeting For A Small Shop

Everyday Woodworking Podcast Ep 9 

SHOW NOTES 

Setting Up A Small Shop – Working With A Budget 

WELCOME 

Hey everyone. I’m Ricky Fitzpatrick with Everyday Woodworking, your Podcast Home for tips, tricks and information on how to make the most of your woodworking time and money, every day. 

Well welcome back to the show. We are back at it, all up in our new series on Setting Up A Small Shop. And today we look at Working With A Budget. Or more specifically…how to make sure you can afford all those cool new toys! 

We’ll look at the basics of setting up a budget, things you can do to build financial discipline, and finally, sources of money for things you can’t afford yet. 

But before we do…a quick update on what’s happening in our world. 

 

CARPENTER BEE TRAPS 

One, I mentioned our Handmade Carpenter Bee Traps last week. And they are already taking off! 

But, I had a lady on social media express some concern with our “killing” of the carpenter bee, which, she noted, is one of nature’s great pollinators. And no disrespect, but every year, there’s always someone who gets upset because we’re doing anything other than leaving the bees completely untouched and unaffected. And…sorry…it bothers me. But, hey…I sort of get it. 

So I wanted to throw some info your way, in case you have any concerns, or in case you maybe make these for your clients or friends. 

I see the Carpenter Bee Trap as a way to help curb the carpenter bee population. And all without power, chemicals or dangerous side effects. And if left unchecked, Carpenter Bees can be incredibly destructive. 

With a little Googling, I found a number of sites that said the damage is exaggerated and “not really that bad”. Keep in mind, these are the sites that many CB “savers” quotes as fact…although they’re nothing more than opinion. 

I’d love to talk to that guy when the carpenter bees he loves to hear buzzing away in the wood around his porch, causes a rain leak that rots his roof and costs him a cool ten grand to replace. 

The fact is that CB do in fact cause incredible amounts of damage every year. And it isn’t just cosmetic. 

While (surprisingly) I haven’t been able to find any statistical data on the annual cost of CB damage, I would say that using my home as an example…over a 10 year period, if the CB deteriorates the wood to cause my shed to eventually collapse, that could cost me around $1,000 to replace. That’s $100 a year. 

There are currently around 5M homes in GA alone. Let’s just multiply that by 10 for the nation, or at least the South, taking into account homes without sheds and any other anomalies. (Although CBs are a concern throughout all of North America, not just the Southern US.) 

That’s 50M cases just like mine, times $100 per year, which equals $5 Billion! That’s not even including the costs of annual attempts to deter them. I’d say that’s quite substantial, and admittedly, it may be a huge over-estimation. But even at 10% of that, that’s still $500M. And guess what…that’s not covered by your homeowner’s insurance, buddy. 

So, with that in mind, make sure you head over to our online store and grab a little cheap insurance with a few Carpenter Bee Traps for around you house. When you do, our listeners can use the code EVERYDAY to get 25% OFF our regular price. 

That’s discount code EVERYDAY for 25% OFF our regular retail price. 

 

COFFEE MUGS 

Also, if you’ve watched or listened to us before, you know that I never record a show without having a cup of coffee in my hand. 

I try to give a shout out to some our favorite people by using a coffee mug with their company logo or favorite saying on it. 

But today, I’m drinking coffee out of a mug from someone we’ve talked about before on here, ETS Financial. With our show being all about money and finances today, I thought it very appropriate to remind everyone about planning for your financial future with our good friends, Eric and Missy Scoggins over at ETS Financial. 

I don’t even have the space to tell you all the things ETS can do for you, but in short, they are Retirement Income Planning Specialists. Their focus is helping people who are retired or nearing retirement to properly plan for the most important phase of their financial lives, “The Distribution Phase”. We’ll have a link to their website in the show notes, and I highly encourage you to contact them today for all the details about how they can help you prepare for your financial future. 

I’ll also have a link to Eric’s book on Amazon, Retire Strong, a must-read for anyone who is beginning to look at the need to plan for the coming years. 

I can’t say enough good things about the Scoggins and everything they do. They are a Godly, trustworthy family, and their reputation in business is second-to-none. Definitely get in touch with them today at ETS FINANCIAL. 

And hey, if you have a business and you like what we do here, send us one of your branded coffee cups and we’ll use it here and tell everyone a little about what you do and how to find you. 

Our address is I the show notes, so check that out and send us your awesome coffee mug, today. 

 

Alright…Setting Up A Small Shop. Working With A Budget. 

PART 1: SETTING A BUDGET 

Well to start…you need a budget. That’s like Money 101. If you don’t know where you’re spending your money, then you’re wasting your money. 

There are lots and lots of great apps and places online that will help walk you through the process of setting up a budget. Although, it isn’t rocket science. You decide how much you’re going to have coming in, decide what you want to spend, then keep track of what’s going out. 

But a few good free ones are: 

  • Personal Capital - https://www.personalcapital.com/ - Easy UI, but might be a little much for this application. 
  • Mint - https://mint.intuit.com/ - Mint is a biggie. It is very personal finance oriented. 
  • Budget Tracker - https://secure.budgettracker.com/login.php?sp=nouser 
  • Budget Pulse - https://www.budgetpulse.com/ 
  • Money Strands - https://moneystrands.com/ 

Dave Ramsey - https://www.daveramsey.com/ - One of the most popular financial resource sites right now is the Dave Ramsey organization. Their budgeting tool isn’t free though, but I wanted to mention it, since DR is so popular. I’m personally not a fan of the general premise of the DR group, but a lot of people swear by it. 

PART 2: STICKING TO IT 

Setting the budget is easy. Sticking with it is tough, at least for most of us, it is. The ongoing act of budgeting requires discipline and in many cases, a willingness to do things that don’t come naturally. That’s why there’s an entire industry of people who will help you stay on the straight and narrow. 

Most of the apps, above will do that. To a degree. But the biggest thing you can do is have a plan, and work it. For me, that means having a set of Budget Commandments, and sticking to them as if God Himself carved them in stone. 

Follow these Ten (OK, 11) Commandments and you’ll greatly increase your chances of succeeding. 

  1. With income, tithe first. – It ain’t yours. 
  2. Secondly, save at least 10%. - If you don’t pay yourself, no one else will. 
  3. Give thyself money to blow. – All work and no play make for a sucky life. 
  4. The 30 Day Rule. – Anything over, say $200, make yourself wait 30 days before buying it. If you still want/need it, you’ll have researched it out. If not, then you dodged a bullet. 
  5. Debt can kill you. – Don’t avoid it, but handle it carefully and quickly. Pay off revolving debt every month. 
  6. Keep your receipts. – You’ll forget. 
  7. Write it down. – On paper or digitally, it helps to see it in front of you. 
  8. Learn to love a sale. – Saving money is a good thing. 
  9. Be intentional. – Have a plan. Have a goal. 
  10. Expect to fail. – Have an emergency fund. 
  11. Be accountable. – Get a spouse, mentor, banker to check your books periodically. 

PART 3: SHOW ME THE MONEY 

Finally, when you need money and you can’t wait, where do you go? 

This is a dangerous area. As I mentioned earlier, debt is not a bad thing. But debt unmanaged and unaddressed, can destroy you. 

So using your credit muscle is a great way to keep it in shape. But make sure you’re doing it wisely. And pay it off as quickly as possible. 

  • Credit Cards – Easy. Fast. Dangerous. Pay it off quick. Don’t go crazy. 
  • PLC – Very short term. Only small amounts. 
  • Small Loan – Hard to qualify. Careful about your collateral. 
  • Micro Loans – Growing in popularity. Can be difficult. 
  • Crowdfunding – Very popular. Small amounts. Great terms. https://www.kiva.org/ 
  • Kickstarter – If your idea is amazing, its worth a shot. - https://www.kickstarter.com/ 
  • GoFundMe – Similar to Kickstarter - https://www.gofundme.com/ 
  • Home Improvement Loan/Refinance – Be careful. You equity is precious. Consider the life of what you’re buying. 
  • Debt Consolidation – Careful. Again, life expectancy. 
  • Retirement Withdrawal – Last resort. Remember the penalties. Payback yourself with interest. 
  • Angel Investors – Expectation can be high. 
  • Friends and Family – Very dangerous. Is it worth it? 

WRAP UP 

Alright. That’s it for our Budgeting episode. How was that?! I actually thought it was incredibly informative. I’m proud of this one. And I really think it could help you setting up your small shop. 

And of course, we’ll have links to everything we talked about in the show notes. LOTS of info today, so be sure to check them all out. 

Also, be sure to tune in next week when we’ll continue our series on Setting Up A Small Shop with a look at SHOP FENG SHUI! 

This is going to be fun. And no, don’t flip out on me…we aren’t going to be meditating and going “deep” in this one. But we are going to look at how to arrange your shop, considering things like work flow, tool selection, ease of movement, cleaning and more. Another must-listen for all you small shoppers out there! 

CONCLUSION 

Hey, if you have questions or comments about anything you’ve heard today, then definitely let me know what you think. I’m always looking for great questions! 

One last thing…if you enjoyed this episode, please take a second and leave us a great review. And, wherever you’re listening, we would love it if you subscribed to our podcast and became a regular listener. 

Also, if you’re watching us on YouTube, then obviously we post a video of each Podcast Episode on our Apple Valley Farm (our woodworking business) YouTube Channel. Definitely like, comment and subscribe to us there as well. 

And finally, if you’d like to learn even more about us, you can check out the show notes and head over to www.applevalleyfarmga.com for things like our store, our woodworking projects and lots, lots more. 

That’s it. Have a great day. Thanks again. And I’ll see you next time…on Everyday Woodworking. 

  • Apple Valley Farm – http://applevalleyfarmga.com/ 
  • Apple Valley Farm Carpenter Bee Traps - http://applevalleyfarmga.com/product/556860 
  • Apple Valley Farm YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/AppleValleyFarmGA 
  • Everyday Woodworking on Anchor.com - https://anchor.fm/everydaywoodworking 
  • Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AppleValleyFarmGA 
  • Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/applevalleyfarmga 
  • ETS Financial Services - https://etsfinancial.com/ 
  • Retire Strong! On Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/ETSFinancialServices   

We also couldn’t make the Everyday Woodworking podcast happen without a LOT of help from our friends behind the scenes. 

Thanks to the folks at https://www.online-convert.com/ for helping us convert our files into the formats we need. 

And Infinite thanks to the Audacity family. For helping us put it all together in the greatest audio production software on the planet. - https://www.audacityteam.org/ 

(The music we use here on EW comes to us courtesy of our friends at Purple Planet Music. All rights reserved. Used with permission. Music: https://www.purple-planet.com )

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