The key to designing a business with more freedom and less late nights at your laptop? You're not going to like it

Numbers!

They're the key to unlocking freedom in your creative business

If you’re a creative business owner, chances are you’ve said one of these before:
‘I’m not a numbers person.
‘I’ll look at my numbers later.’’

But the reality is, avoiding your numbers will keep you stuck in cycles of feast or famine, overworked, and stressed.

Why? Because our numbers tell us a story, so at my recent masterclass, hosted alongside Abby from Waffle Advisory, we broke down the finance ‘blah’ into insights that every creative entrepreneur needs.

Here’s what they mean for you.

1. Stop confusing your bank balance with profit
Money in your account today doesn’t equal long-term stability. Once you strip out taxes, expenses and invoices due, profit is the real measure of what you can pay yourself.

2. Tracking just ONE number can shift everything
If you feel overwhelmed, start small. Track one key number weekly, like your average client spend, rebookings, or monthly revenue. Clarity builds confidence and your confidence will build over time.

3. Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, cash flow is reality
A ‘big month’ doesn’t mean you have a thriving business. Profit ensures sustainability. Cash flow ensures you can breathe and step away (when did you last take a holiday without checking emails?...)

4. No goals = A reactive business
Without financial goals, you’ll always chase clients and scramble to fill gaps. Goals give you focus and stop you from saying ‘yes’ to the wrong work.

5. Reverse engineering turns dreams into to-do lists
Instead of dreaming about $10k months, break it down: how many clients is that? At what average spend? Suddenly it’s a clear plan, not a pipedream.

6. Small tweaks create big wins
If each client spent $50 more, you could halve your workload and still meet your goals. That’s working smarter, not harder.

7. Pricing and margins > Endless hustle
If your pricing is wrong, no amount of new clients will save you. Protect your margins first, then you can scale with confidence.

8. Start messy. Perfection delays growth
You don’t need spreadsheets to get started. A notebook with one number tracked weekly will change how you run your business. You can add, tweak and optimise as your financial literacy grows.

9. Compare against yourself, not others
Industry benchmarks are useful, but your best metric is your own progress. Look month to month, not sideways at your competitors.

10. Marketing spend needs margin confidence
If your margins are tight, throwing money at ads won’t help. But if your numbers are strong, you can confidently invest 10–30% of your revenue into marketing.

Numbers aren’t a punishment. They’re your roadmap to a more creative, profitable business that gives you freedom, not just clients and cash.

👉 Want help making sense of your numbers and building a plan that actually works?

Book a 1:1 Strategy Session  and turn your goals into a profitable roadmap

And if you're looking for someone to bounce ideas off, come say hi over on insta