The Hard Part of Business
At some point in time, many individuals decide to go into business, driven by passion, profits, and position, to help others, the list is long.
I fall into the first and latter category—passion and to help others and of course myself. But part of my reason for going into business, like for most, is a passion I had/have to overcome and stay as far ahead of poverty, as I possibly can. While doing this for myself, I want to assist as many others as possible with information, different ways of thinking about or approaching things, but most of all, to become at least financially stable. They say to teach a person to fish, not simply give them fish. I want to show people how to manage their income, expenses, assets and liabilities, without appearing to try telling them where or what to spend their money on; or tell them how much or when. I create software, so they can make all those decisions themselves, within the limits and procedures of the software.
A person or family can be financially unstable, stable, secure or independent. Maybe others or somewhere between those mentioned. Which is you? And if you don’t like it, what are you going to do?
We often hear these words thrown around, but do we all understand what they really means. Most of us probably do, but since I like to be involved in these things, I just thought I would discuss them here. These definitions are not exclusive or absolute and maybe described in other ways.
To be financially unstable can be for many reasons, but on the money side, it can be characterized by insufficient or infrequent income, mounting expenses and missed payments, and going without many things desires or needed.
To be financially stable can be seen as having enough, and maybe a little extra, to live within one’s means, without strain or worry about the basics. The larger the cash cushion the better.
To be financially secure can mean one has more than sufficient income, savings and investments, so if the source of income evaporated, they could live at their current level for the foreseeable future.
To be financially independent can mean having a self-sustaining revenue-generating source (a business, investments, etc.) and substantial savings, that relieve one of the needs to work for another.
In my opinion, when it comes to finances, a budget or financial plan is like manner (means, method, routine) from heaven, to make life like heaven on earth. I pinch myself every day, to reassure me, I’m really enjoying the benefit of all my hard work, self-restraint, and diligently managing my finances, that have allowed me to put so much distance between me and those cotton fields and very poor living conditions, that are so familiar, and I’ll never forget.
But escaping poverty has never and will never be enough for me, because I know the pain of poverty, so my passion, my mission is to try to help as many as possible get out or stay ahead of poverty or similar conditions. It’s not an easy task, as you may battle your own habits, the economy, and others in various ways to survive financially. So, I say again, a personal or family basic financial plan is one nearly sure-fire way to be financially stable, and perhaps then become financially secure or independent. If needed, find someone or something you can trust and create yourself a plan. And remember financial planning and financial management are not really or always the same.
Financial planning often involves working with professionals to determine what you should do and when. Financial management has more to do with day-to-day and weekly or monthly actions to recognize income, pay expenses, add to savings, and ensure insurance and other things are taken care of. My EFP software is about financial management, where you can implement decisions, you make or that you and your advisors make.
What I have done specifically, to demonstrate my sincerity in helping others, is as of December 31, 2024, I have spent about $6 or $7 thousand dollars, developing the EFP applications (working prototype). And I’m now involved, as I write, in shelling out another few thousand dollars, to have the recently upgraded desktop & Laptop version converted and programmed as a secure online version.
Remember, I said I’m driven by passion and the desire to assist others and manage well their income, expenses, assets (money and property), and liabilities, by using the EFP, a proprietary creation by me, for my business and benefit of those who will use it.
I’m very excited about the recent upgrade of the desktop/laptop version of the EFP. Now, by entering names in the Name Manager, setting up the Calendar year and Pay Dates, and completing the Profile form, you simply click a button (Send Profile), and BOOM! You got a budget, and you got a budget and you got a budget! Budget is not a four-letter word, but it is a ‘plan’, that can help you get the Big Picture of your annual finances, and allow you to record all your incomes, expenses, assets, and liabilities, including setting up your mortgage and debt minimum payments. All this after you complete the Profile, to get the Big Picture, and then click a button.
Ya’ll, I have burned a lot of midnight, early AM, and PM oil, even oil from the Gulf, Alaska, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Northern Brent crude! That’s a lot of oil to make this EFP real ‘slick’ in helping you get a handle on your finances.
It’s still early in the year and a perfect time for you to get the application and create your plan—in an hour, to better your life for the year and beyond.
Finally, I only create and sell software, but I do, through ] years of financial and managerial accounting education and work experiences; and personal financial experiences over the years, create or develop personal finance software, as easily as I once created the Job Cost Estimator, prior to retiring, which assisted production planner to preplan jobs, store and retrieve previous preplan, edit them for a new estimate. It saved us so much time, impressed management, and earned me a $200 cash award, from Wight-Patterson AFB headquarters MSEP inspection teams, as a ‘best practice.’ Could have gotten much more had I been working outside of the government.
They say people in the South are simple, it’s sometimes true, I’m from the South, and sometimes I feel simple, compared to people who grew up in more sophisticated places—we used to say of our friends who went up North, for the summer out of school, “Oh, so you done come back all citified” We are rolling!
But sometimes simple is best. My ESP has a simple appearance and workings, but the code and all it can do is indeed complicated—but you, the user, will never even know.
So, get the EFP and Have a Good Year.
FaraJi AH GoreDenna
Owner/Developer
Pick-N-Time, LLC
PO Box 976
Layton, UT
Impressive