The final part of creating my business plan was doing the left brain stuff a.k.a doing the finances.

The part I most dreaded was looking at the ins and outs of the money aspect of my business. Without it you have no business but still dreaded looking at dealing with the numbers. Now that I’ve done it I don’t feel so bad. I now have a framework to move forward with.

A business plan is supposed to be fluid not static.

So I now know where to put my attention in my business and what product and services to create and which ones are not worth pursuing.

If you don’t have a written business plan I highly recommend doing one. I thinking having it as reference is a great resource. If it is on paper you can still make changes nothing is written in stone.

The areas I covered in the finances were:

• Cost of my services
• Cost of my products
• Business expenses e.g. Advertising, Printing, Membership dues, etc

© iStockphoto.com/BartCo

It’s no secret that the financial industry has a serious image problem at the moment. They also don’t have the most user friendly websites either. There are two financial websites that I think are getting it right. They are listening to feedback from their users and making changes that are useful as well. Sometimes those changes meet with resistance but at least they are constantly striving to improve.

The two sites I am talking about are Mint and Smartypig. Mint is a free personal finance, online money management, budgeting, and financial planning software. Smartypig on the other hand helps you save money for specific savings goals, allows friends and family to contribute, gives incentive boosts.

Mint has introduced some really great changes. They have improved the design of the budgeting features within the application. Mint makes financial software easy and fun to use. It can help you focus on your goals and see where your money is going and help you spot trends. I love getting the emails telling me I’ve spent more than I’ve budgeted for coffee. It’s virtual scolding but hey whatever works to get you to manage your money better.

SmartyPig on the other hand is your own virtual piggy bank or as they say “social banking” at it’s best. You can save for a specific goal or have others contribute to your goal as well. Need help saving for baby furniture perhaps? Or your next computer? This is the place to do it.

I used SmartyPig to save for my new sofa. I’ve watched it change since I signed up several months ago. They’ve added a visualizer so you can see how your money grows across your accounts. They are pretty active on Twitter as well. They offer customer service and hold contests. They were on there before it was “hot”. Smartypig also integrates with other financial software sites such as Mint, Geezeo, Wesabe, Rudder, Yodlee and Buxfer.

The bigger corporations should take a cue from these smaller sites. Listen. Innovate. Then innovate some more. It’s not rocket science make a product people like to use and people will use it.

Follow Mint and SmartyPig on Twitter.