You shouldn’t be lying awake
doing mental arithmetic in the dark.
You’ve built a profitable business.
So why is cash still tight?
Here’s the thing…
From the outside, your business looks like it’s working.
Revenue’s there, work’s coming in, and on paper it all stacks up the way it should.
But that’s not really how it feels day to day, is it?
There are still those weeks where things feel tighter than they should. You end up moving money around just to make sure everything lands when it needs to. Payroll always goes through, but there’s still that little exhale when it does. BAS comes up and it’s more of a “right, we’ll deal with this now” than something that’s been sitting there ready.
And the weird part is, none of that lines up with what your profit is telling you.
So naturally, you think the answer is to push a bit harder. Take on more work, bring in more revenue, keep building on what’s already there. Because that’s what should fix it.
That’s a lot of work, huh?
And then nothing really changes.
More money comes in, but nothing actually gets easier. It just feels like there’s more moving parts to keep on top of.
You’re making calls without the full picture. You’re relying on instinct more than you’d like. And you’re carrying a level of financial tension that doesn’t quite make sense given where the business is at.
Here’s what matters…
This usually isn’t about how much money you’re making.
It’s about how clearly you can see what’s actually going on.
Which is exactly why more revenue doesn’t fix it. It just gives you more to manage, without fixing the part that’s creating the pressure in the first place.
so what’s actually going on?
Most business owners are looking in the wrong place.
They’re watching revenue, watching profit, and assuming those numbers should tell them everything they need to know.
But they don’t.
Because profit doesn’t tell you when money moves. It doesn’t tell you what’s already been committed. And it definitely doesn’t tell you what’s about to hit your bank account next week.
So you end up with a business that looks healthy on paper, but feels unpredictable in real life.
That gap, between what the numbers say and what your bank account is doing, is where the pressure comes from.
And until you can see that clearly, it doesn’t really matter how much money you make. You’ll still feel like you’re trying to stay one step ahead of everything.
Here’s what matters…
This isn’t about working harder.
It’s not about pushing more revenue through the business.
And it’s not about becoming better at “managing money” in the way people usually mean it.
It’s about understanding how your cash actually moves, and structuring it in a way that gives you visibility before decisions need to be made.
Which is exactly why most business owners feel relief the moment they see it properly.
Not because anything dramatic has changed…
…but because for the first time, it actually makes sense.
The Jar Principle
The simplest way to think about this is that most businesses are trying to run everything through one place.
Money comes in, money goes out, and you’re left looking at one number in your bank account, trying to work out what’s actually available. Some of it’s yours, some of it’s already spoken for, some of it belongs to the ATO… but it’s all mixed together, so you’re constantly making judgement calls on the fly.
Which is where the pressure comes from.
The Jar Principle just separates that out.
Instead of everything sitting in one bucket, your cash is split into clear purposes. So when money comes in, it’s not just “there”, it’s already being directed to where it needs to go.
You can see what’s yours, what’s set aside for tax, what’s there to run the business, and what’s being held back so things don’t feel tight every other week.
It’s not complicated. That’s kind of the point.
But once it’s set up properly, you’re not guessing anymore. You’re not opening your bank account trying to piece things together in your head. You can actually see what’s going on, and make decisions from a place that feels a lot more certain.
Where this starts to feel different
Once you can actually see what’s going on with your cash, things start to feel different pretty quickly.
Not because anything dramatic has happened overnight, and not because you’ve suddenly doubled your revenue. It’s just that you’re not constantly trying to piece things together in your head anymore.
You know what’s sitting there, you know what it’s for, and you know what’s coming up.
So little things start to shift.
Payroll doesn’t carry that same edge to it. It’s just another thing that gets paid. BAS isn’t a scramble, it’s already been accounted for. You’re not opening your bank account wondering whether there’s enough in there, or what you might have forgotten.
And that mental load that’s always running in the background, that starts to quieten down a bit.
You’re not making reactive calls just to keep things moving. You’ve got a structure underneath you, so decisions feel a lot more straightforward. You can actually plan, instead of just staying on top of things.
It doesn’t mean everything’s perfect. That’s not the point.
But it does mean you’re not carrying that constant, low-level pressure anymore, the kind that doesn’t quite make sense given how well the business is doing.
And once that’s gone, you’ve got a lot more space to focus on the parts of the business that actually move things forward.
This is what people said after reading it
I’ve spent years working with business owners who are doing well on paper, but still feeling constant pressure behind the scenes.
Different industries, different stages, but the same pattern keeps showing up.
And if I’m honest, I’ve been there myself. That same disconnect between what the numbers say and how things actually feel day to day.
This book came from trying to simplify that, not by adding more complexity, but by putting a structure around something most people are already dealing with.
A few early readers described it better than I could.
This is for you if…
You’ve built a business that’s doing well, but cash still feels tighter than it should.
Not in a dramatic way, nothing’s falling over, but often enough that it’s sitting there in the background. You’re keeping things moving, but it feels like more effort than it should take at this stage.
You’ve probably had moments where you’ve looked at the numbers and thought, “we should be fine,” and then looked at the bank account and felt something different.
So you adjust. You move things around, you stay on top of it, you make it work. Because that’s what you do.
But at some point, that stops being a great long-term plan.
You want a clearer way of managing your cash, something that actually shows you what’s going on without turning it into a whole separate job.
And you’re at the stage where guessing, even educated guessing, isn’t really good enough anymore.
If that sounds familiar, this will make a lot of sense.
...What this could look like
Once you’ve got a clear structure around your cash, things start to feel a bit different.
Not overnight, and not in a big, dramatic way. It’s more subtle than that.
You open your bank account and you’re not trying to work out what’s going on. You already know. You can see what’s there, what it’s for, and what’s coming up.
Payroll just runs. There’s no second layer of thinking behind it, no quiet “is this going to be tight?” sitting in the background. BAS isn’t something you deal with when it arrives, it’s already been accounted for before it even shows up.
And that constant mental load, the one that’s always ticking away in the background, starts to ease off a bit.
You’re not making reactive decisions just to keep things moving. You’ve got a structure underneath you, so things feel more predictable. More settled. The business itself hasn’t changed. But the way it feels to run it has.
And that’s usually the point where things start to open up again.
Get the book first
The Jar Principle is being released soon.
If you’d like to read it when it’s available, just leave your details below and I’ll send it through as soon as it’s available.
Just the book.
Where should I send your copy?
About Alexandra
I’m Alex, founder of Venta Belgarum, a boutique accounting and advisory firm based in Perth.
I work with business owners who are doing well, but want more clarity and control over their numbers, particularly when it comes to cashflow.
Over the years, I kept seeing the same pattern show up. Businesses that were profitable, growing, and doing all the right things… but still feeling constant pressure behind the scenes.
And if I’m honest, I’ve felt that myself at times too. That disconnect between what the numbers say and how things actually feel day to day.
This book came from trying to make sense of that in a simpler way. Not by adding more complexity, but by putting a structure around something most business owners are already dealing with.
That’s what The Jar Principle is.