Having a budget written down on paper does not do much good unless you actually use that budget to guide your business. A working budget needs to be user-friendly and it needs to be an accurate representation of both where you are now with your home business and where you want to go. In order to make a budget fully functional, you will need to prioritize what is important and what you really want to make happen in your operations.
Every person is different and that is why businesses are all different. If you want to truly stay motivated and build your business, you will need to determine what is important to you, what is really, truly important to you (and not what you think other people want you to think is important) and use that to guide your budgeting.
Are you driven by a strong mission? Are there things that you really want to accomplish and ways that you want to make the world a better place and you are using your business to get there? Then that needs to be reflected in your budget. You might need to invest in development and projects that will get you closer to that goal—but that other people might not think are necessary expenses.
How important is it for you to have an income from your business and how much do you need to make? Are you willing to work long hours or do you need to keep your work time in check because of other obligations? How important do you feel it is to share value systems with clients and customers? You can now see how digging in and figuring out what your priorities are can have a direct impact and influence on how you design the budget for your home based business. Figure out what really matters to you and then you can make sure your budget reflects that.
See Also: Money Blog: Budget Strategies