Budgeting Tips for Small Business Owners from My Bookkeeper

Budgeting Tips for Small Business Owners from My Bookkeeper

I need to introduce you to someone who is the secret sauce of the numbers behind my business!

Her name is Anamarie Knapp. She’s my bookkeeper, my financial backbone, and one of the best investments I’ve made in my business. (Also, fun fact: I’ve been photographing her family since her daughter was a newborn, so we go way back.) What started as a photographer-client relationship turned into one of the most important business relationships I have. You never know where personal connections will take you.

Anamarie is the owner and CEO of Will & Abby Bookkeeping, a Nashville-based company that works with small businesses across the U.S. She named it after her kids, William and Abigail, and she specializes in helping small, service-oriented, solo-owned businesses get a handle on their finances. She has an MBA, is finishing an accounting certificate, holds QuickBooks certifications, and brings years of experience managing university-level budgets. All of that to say: she knows her stuff.

I brought her onto the podcast to talk about something most of us avoid like the plague: budgeting. And I recorded this conversation on Tax Day, because apparently, I think that’s fun. (You may disagree.)

You can listen to this podcast below or read the blog post

Your Financial Health Affects Everything Else

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of budgeting, Anamarie made a point that stopped me in my tracks: we talk about physical health and mental health all the time, but we almost never talk about financial health. And for most small business owners, it’s because the whole topic feels scary and confusing.

I can speak to this from personal experience. Before my husband Ty and I paid off my student loans (in 19 months, by the way), I dealt with financial stress by cracking jokes about it. Dark humor was my coping mechanism. I would say things like, “I guess my kids will pay this off,” and laugh my way through the anxiety. But after that, the burden was lifted? I could dream again. I wasn’t as anxious. The contrast was sharp, and I didn’t even realize how much that financial weight had been affecting me until it was gone.

So if you’re reading this and your stomach just tightened, I get it. Anamarie gets it, too. She told me that every single one of her clients has said, “I’m embarrassed for you to look at my books.” And every time, she reminds them: you have no reason to be embarrassed. Most small business owners don’t have a financial background. That’s the whole point of getting help.

Reactive vs. Proactive: Two Types of Financial Thinking

Anamarie broke down financial health into two categories, which changed how I think about my own numbers.

Reactive financial thinking is looking at what has already happened. That’s your income statements, your bank reconciliation, and your credit card statements. It’s important, and you need to do it, but it’s all in the rearview mirror.

Proactive financial thinking is budgeting. It’s your roadmap. It’s sitting down and asking, “Where do I want my business to go this year?” A budget isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it document. It’s fluid. Anamarie and I have adjusted mine multiple times since we created it last fall. That’s normal and expected.

Think of your budget as a living document that grows with your business, not a report card that grades you.

How to Build a Small Business Budget (Keep It Simple)

Here’s where Anamarie got practical, and I took notes. Her biggest piece of advice? Keep it simple. You don’t need a fancy app. You don’t need pretty graphs. You need a list.

Start with your expenses. Pull up everything you spent last year. If you use QuickBooks or similar software, run a report. (Quick tip from Anamarie: always enter a vendor name for each expense in QuickBooks so you can see exactly how much you’re spending with each vendor.)

Then sit down with that list and ask yourself:

• Why am I paying this?
• Is there anything I can reduce?
• Is there something I don’t need at all?
• Can I consolidate any of these into one tool or service?

This part is hard. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. When you’re a solo business owner, every dollar going out comes from your pocket. But Anamarie also reminded me: you have to spend money to make money. The goal isn’t to spend nothing. The goal is to make sure every dollar you spend is working for you.

Then list your revenue. What do you charge? What are all your income sources? Get creative here. Anamarie pointed out that there are probably sources of income you haven’t considered. For example, my bank gives a great interest rate on my business account, and that’s a small but real source of revenue I wouldn’t have thought about on my own.

Compare your revenue year-over-year if you have the data. Think about your market. Think about inflation. Think about whether your prices need to go up.

Then put it together. Revenue at the top, expenses at the bottom. That’s your budget. No app required.

Don’t Forget About Seasonal Swings

This one hit home for me. I run two businesses with very different income patterns. My family photography business is seasonal (hello, fall mini sessions), and my education business is more predictable but still has its own rhythm. Some months, I’m bringing in great revenue. In other months, I’m watching subscriptions drain my account while income is slow.

January is my worst month for cash flow because that’s when all my annual subscriptions renew. By March and April, I’m fine. But if I looked at January in isolation, I’d panic.

A budget helps you zoom out to see the full picture instead of reacting to a single bad month. You can budget month by month (which Anamarie recommends for smaller businesses) or look at the year as a whole and compare year-over-year.

Track Your Actuals Against Your Budget

Once your budget is set, don’t just file it away. At the end of each month, compare what you planned to spend and earn against what actually happened. Anamarie calls that gap “the variance,” and tracking it helps you see patterns, catch problems, and make smarter decisions as the year moves forward.

If you use QuickBooks, pull your income statement and put it side by side with your budget. If you’re tracking things yourself, a spreadsheet works fine. The point is to review your numbers regularly, not just once a year when taxes are due.

Keep Your Receipts (Not Just for the IRS)

Yes, you’re supposed to keep receipts for IRS purposes. But Anamarie shared a side benefit I hadn’t considered: the physical act of saving a receipt makes you more mindful about spending. Some of her clients have told her that the habit of photographing every receipt made them think twice before buying something they didn’t need.

It’s a small system, but it works. And if you have a bookkeeper like Anamarie who’s going to ask for those receipts anyway, you might as well stay ahead of it. (I’m saying this as someone who uploaded a backlog of receipts the day we recorded this episode. Do as I say, not as I do.)

Your Budget Is Fluid, Not Final

This might be the most freeing thing Anamarie said during our conversation: a budget is not a permanent document. It’s a revision in progress. She and I have already adjusted my budget multiple times this year. Revenue came in higher than expected one month? We revised upward. An expense changed? We updated it.

Once you’ve done this for a year or two, the process gets faster because you understand your own patterns. And once you’re comfortable with annual budgeting, you can start forecasting. Anamarie makes three- and four-year budget projections for her own business to help with goal planning. Those projections are going to change, and she knows that. But they give her a framework for thinking about where she wants her business to go and what she needs to invest to get there.

You Don’t Have to Do This Alone

You don’t need a bookkeeper to budget. But having someone with an objective view of your numbers can make a real difference. Anamarie made a point that stuck with me: for solo business owners, your business income is personal. It feeds your family. It pays for your kids’ future. That emotional weight can make it hard to look at the numbers with clear eyes.

A bookkeeper, a CPA you meet with more than once a year, a financially savvy friend, or even your spouse can serve as that outside perspective. Someone who can look at the big picture without the emotional attachment and help you see what you might be missing.

Ty has noticed the difference since I started working with Anamarie. He appreciates that I’m more aware of the numbers in my business, and honestly, I feel more confident about where things are headed because I’m not guessing anymore.

Connect with Anamarie Knapp (and work with her!)

• Website: willabbybookkeeping.com *let her know that you came from my website (that Dolly sent ya!)

Meet Your Favorite Marketing Strategist and Business Coach for Family Photographers (Dolly DeLong Education)

Hi, I’m Dolly DeLong, a Nashville-based family photographer, marketing strategist, and systems educator for family photographers who want structure, clarity, and consistency in their marketing.

My photography journey began in 2006, and over the years, I built a sustainable family photography business while navigating motherhood, client work, and the realities of running a solo creative business. Along the way, I discovered something unexpected: I loved the backend just as much as the creative side.

What started as organizing my own workflows turned into helping other family photographers simplify their marketing, build repeatable systems, and stop relying on last-minute posting or panic marketing.

Today, I focus exclusively on helping family photographers intentionally market their businesses (not with trends but with consistently showing up).

I offer two ways to work with me:

• The Family Photographer’s Marketing Society: a systems-first membership that provides a clear weekly marketing cadence for Instagram and email, so you always know what to focus on without starting over.

• 1:1 Strategic Marketing Support for established family photographers who want hands-on guidance in building a sustainable, SEO-supported marketing system.

Through my blog, podcast, and YouTube channel, I teach family photographers how to think like marketers, plan ahead, and create marketing rhythms that support both their business and their family life.

I still photograph families around Nashville because it’s one of my greatest joys. But helping family photographers build calm, consistent marketing systems that actually fit real life is a close second.

I’m so glad you are here, reading this blog, listening to the podcast, or watching the embedded YouTube video. I hope this educational content was helpful. Please let me know what future systems content you would like me to create!