Practical Tech Budget Approaches

[00:00:06] This is the Tech Arts Podcast, where we talk about tech, leadership, and all things that concern church audio, video, and lighting.

[00:00:16] Welcome to the Tech Arts Podcast and the Earthworks Audio Studios. My name is DL. So glad to have you joining us today.

[00:00:23] Well, today's podcast is going to be a little bit different. I spoke at CFX 2024 on practical tech budget approaches.

[00:00:33] And whenever I speak at a class, people always ask me, hey, can I have your slide deck?

[00:00:37] Or can you talk a little bit more about some of the things you brought up in the class?

[00:00:43] Well, we decided to do a podcast that essentially is the class that I taught today.

[00:00:48] So again, the class was Practical Tech Budget Approaches.

[00:00:52] And if you attended that class, thank you for tuning in today and going over what essentially was the class so that you can get the slide deck and things of that nature.

[00:01:00] And if you didn't attend the class, we're so glad to have you along.

[00:01:04] I believe that this podcast will help you.

[00:01:07] But before we get into the podcast, let me do a shout out to all of our sponsors.

[00:01:12] We have a brand new one, Paragon 360.

[00:01:14] Thank you for coming on board with us.

[00:01:17] ProLite, as well as Earthworks Audio and Digico.

[00:01:21] Thank you for being sponsors of the Tech Arts Podcast.

[00:01:26] All right, today we're going to be talking about practical tech budget approaches.

[00:01:31] And like I said earlier, this is the class I just taught at CFX 2024.

[00:01:37] And when I was in that class, I asked a few questions.

[00:01:40] Are you directly involved?

[00:01:41] Are you indirectly involved?

[00:01:44] Or are you not involved at all?

[00:01:46] Now, this is concerning your budget.

[00:01:48] Are you directly involved, indirectly, or not involved at all?

[00:01:52] I think that this class will help you whether you're in any of those three categories.

[00:01:57] But in the class, I asked the question and got some hands raised.

[00:02:00] And we had some discussion going back and forth that helped me kind of steer where things are going to go.

[00:02:06] But for today's podcast, we're going to try to help all three of those categories.

[00:02:12] All right?

[00:02:13] Now, the next thing that I want to bring up is what is the first question we need to answer?

[00:02:20] And it's pretty simple.

[00:02:23] Why budgets?

[00:02:24] The first question is, why budgets?

[00:02:27] Now, here's some answers to that.

[00:02:29] Number one, it'll help you prepare for the future.

[00:02:33] It'll also keep us on track with the vision.

[00:02:36] We have a vision that may be a year out or two years out, whether it be buildings,

[00:02:41] whether it be the single parents ministry, whatever it may be,

[00:02:44] the single mother's ministry, single dad's ministry.

[00:02:48] There is a vision out there.

[00:02:50] And we want to keep on track with that.

[00:02:53] And budgets help us do that.

[00:02:55] They also help us stay cash positive.

[00:02:57] And when you're cash positive, you have the ability to navigate emergencies a little bit better.

[00:03:04] Another thing that they do is they provide clarity and control.

[00:03:10] When you have a budget, it helps bring clarity to what's going on.

[00:03:15] And it also helps you control the situation and move the ball down the court.

[00:03:21] Another thing that a budget will do is it'll help you avoid debt.

[00:03:25] It'll help you avoid getting, you know, in above your head, having to have your snorkels up because you're drowning.

[00:03:32] It helps you avoid these situations, which really put pressure on you to make a certain different decision than you would normally make if you weren't in debt.

[00:03:44] It gives you informed decisions.

[00:03:47] It basically informs the decision that you're about to make and helps you understand the next step.

[00:03:55] It inspires creativity.

[00:03:57] Now, a lot of people will say, no, budgets don't inspire creativity.

[00:04:01] They kill creativity.

[00:04:02] I disagree.

[00:04:03] I think that part of the reason why budgets inspire creativity is when, let's take the government, for example.

[00:04:12] When the government just gets whatever money that they want, it tends to be mediocrity and they do the same thing over and over again.

[00:04:20] But with a budget, a limited budget, you have to figure out a creative way to get the job done.

[00:04:27] That's why I think it inspires creativity.

[00:04:30] If you only have a few thousand dollars to do something, you have to come up with creative ways to do it.

[00:04:36] You have to find people who can help you.

[00:04:38] If you get all the money in the world, you can just go higher and do whatever you want.

[00:04:43] And it doesn't really inspire the creative element.

[00:04:46] So I believe it's the exact opposite.

[00:04:48] I don't believe it kills creativity.

[00:04:50] I believe budgets inspire creativity.

[00:04:54] Look at this scripture.

[00:04:55] The plans of the diligent lead to profit.

[00:04:58] Profit.

[00:04:59] As surely as haste leads to poverty.

[00:05:02] Proverbs 21, 15.

[00:05:04] Now there's two words I want you to look at in that scripture.

[00:05:08] And those two words are diligent and haste.

[00:05:12] I think this is very important when it comes to creating budgets.

[00:05:16] If you're diligent, if you take your time to figure out when you're going to do it and how you're going to do it,

[00:05:22] that leads to profit.

[00:05:24] If you're hasty, man, I got to get this project done next week.

[00:05:29] You tend to have to spend more money.

[00:05:31] So when you're building budgets, know this.

[00:05:33] Doing things quick will tend to run the budget up higher.

[00:05:37] Doing things methodical and in a timely fashion will tend to allow you to conserve on budget.

[00:05:45] It's scriptural.

[00:05:47] Doing things fast raises the cost.

[00:05:51] Doing things slow and methodical lowers the cost.

[00:05:55] All right.

[00:05:56] So a lot of you are saying this doesn't apply to me.

[00:05:59] Small church, big church.

[00:06:01] We're a small church.

[00:06:03] We don't need a budget.

[00:06:04] That's only for the big churches.

[00:06:06] Big churches.

[00:06:06] So I want to let this, I want to kind of let this sit out there for you to understand and hear.

[00:06:14] How did big churches become big churches?

[00:06:19] At some point in time, they were a small church and they had to budget.

[00:06:25] They had to understand things and they had to grow their budget and their people.

[00:06:31] It's the same concept as growing your church.

[00:06:34] If you're responsible with the people and the ministries and you're responsible with the budget, you're going to grow.

[00:06:43] So if you're a small church and you want to be a big church, budgets are important.

[00:06:48] So what I'm saying here is even small churches should do budgets.

[00:06:53] All right.

[00:06:54] So we talked about why budgets?

[00:06:56] And I think we provided a lot of answers to that question.

[00:07:00] The second thing we want to talk about is tracking.

[00:07:04] This is super important.

[00:07:06] And let me give you some things you should track.

[00:07:10] First off, repairs.

[00:07:12] Track that throughout the year.

[00:07:14] Understand what you're spending on repairs.

[00:07:17] Now, if you have a budget and say your repairs parts budget is $1,000 for the year,

[00:07:23] you want to know whether or not you're on track to spend that or you're going to go over that.

[00:07:28] And the reason why this is important is for next year's budget.

[00:07:32] If you're spending a lot more money on repairs parts, you need to increase your budget for next year or at least understand why you're spending a lot more money on repairs parts.

[00:07:45] And that kind of leads to the next thing, which is projects and capital expenses.

[00:07:52] Let's take house lights, for example.

[00:07:54] Let's say you have some old house lights.

[00:07:55] You have to change the lamps and the bulbs on them on a routine basis.

[00:07:59] And that hits your repairs parts budget.

[00:08:02] Well, if you have a project or a capital expense to replace those house lights with LED house lights, your repair parts budget may go down.

[00:08:12] And you want to track those things and see how they interact with each other.

[00:08:17] So let's say you have microphones that are older wireless microphones that are breaking a lot and you're having to get them fixed and repaired.

[00:08:25] I worked with a church that had Shure systems and we were constantly sending them out for repair.

[00:08:31] It really added to our repairs parts budget.

[00:08:34] When we bought new Shure microphones, which was a part of our capital expense, it decreased our repairs budget.

[00:08:41] So kind of tracking things like repairs and parts will help lead to a capital expense that may reduce those.

[00:08:50] But if you're not tracking it, you're probably not going to be able to do a presentation to help you get those capital expenses.

[00:08:58] But a part of tracking is also tracking the projects.

[00:09:02] Did they go over?

[00:09:04] Did they come under budget?

[00:09:06] Understanding how much you spent on them and why they ended up where they ended up money wise.

[00:09:13] Operating expense changes.

[00:09:14] This is important.

[00:09:16] Lunches that you do for volunteers or different little operating expense budgets.

[00:09:21] Track those and see where they're at as you go throughout the year.

[00:09:24] Not only to stay on budget, but to understand them for the next year.

[00:09:29] Failures or issues due to budget cuts.

[00:09:33] This is an important one.

[00:09:34] You present a budget.

[00:09:36] They cut certain pieces of the budget and you have a failure because of that.

[00:09:40] Now, you don't want this to be an I told you so, but you definitely want this to be something that you can present from a vision perspective that tells people,

[00:09:51] hey, we cut this repair part budget or we cut this capital expense that we were going to do and we had a failure because of that.

[00:10:00] We have one computer that's running all of these things.

[00:10:04] We asked for a second computer as a backup but can also run other things.

[00:10:08] We decided not to do that.

[00:10:10] The one computer failed and now we're in the situation we're in.

[00:10:14] You want to be able to track those things so that you can tie them back to failures due to budget cuts.

[00:10:21] I like to know where the income is at.

[00:10:23] Now, not all churches can share income.

[00:10:26] It used to be back in the day.

[00:10:28] Every week you could go to the little bulletin and see what the income was for the church.

[00:10:32] I think it's important that you understand income and that it is tracked throughout the year.

[00:10:38] The reason why is if you are bringing in 10% more than you budgeted on the income side of things, it doesn't mean you're going to spend more in your budget, but it does mean that the flexibility inside that budget is still there.

[00:10:52] But if 10% less is coming in, then it probably means we need to tighten our budgets a little bit or figure out some areas to cut.

[00:11:02] I'm a big fan of six months into the year re-evaluating the budget and understanding where income is at and making cuts where appropriate as you head into the latter part of the year.

[00:11:14] All right.

[00:11:15] We talked about budgets.

[00:11:16] Why budgets?

[00:11:17] We talked about tracking.

[00:11:19] The third thing we want to talk about is cost analysis.

[00:11:23] Did I say that word right?

[00:11:24] Analysis.

[00:11:25] Yes, I believe I did.

[00:11:26] All right.

[00:11:27] So compare, contrast, and context.

[00:11:30] The three C's, right?

[00:11:32] Compare, contrast, and context.

[00:11:34] During your calendar year, I say make sure as you're tracking your 20, this is 2024, as you're tracking your 2024 months that you have 2023 right beside it and that you're seeing what you spent in 2023 compared to what you spent in 2024.

[00:11:53] And you're able to contrast those things and figure out on the calendar why they're more or less.

[00:11:59] And then provide context to those.

[00:12:02] Have a notes section where you can say, hey, here's why we spent more.

[00:12:05] Here's why we spent less.

[00:12:07] Here's some things that happened on the calendar that caused this situation.

[00:12:12] Have multiple budget segments.

[00:12:14] I've worked with a lot of churches that just have one.

[00:12:18] Here's our budget.

[00:12:19] Boom.

[00:12:19] Here's the budget for tech.

[00:12:21] Here's the budget for worship.

[00:12:22] It's just one big budget.

[00:12:23] No.

[00:12:24] Have multiple budget segments.

[00:12:26] Multiple operational segments like, you know, food, repairs parts.

[00:12:32] We talked about capital.

[00:12:34] Sometimes that's held a little bit separate.

[00:12:36] But have a line item, gas, you know, just different segments that allow you to build up to a full budget and to understand as you compare, contrast, and show context why those different areas are more or less money.

[00:12:54] So we want to compare, contrast, and provide context for our repairs parts budget, for our projects and capital expenses, for our operating expense changes, for our failures or issues due to budget cuts, and our income.

[00:13:10] We want to do that on a monthly basis so that we can kind of see it as we track through the year.

[00:13:15] And we want to make notes, compare, contrasting, and providing context inside that budget so that when we go to make next year's budget or if you do a six-month reset in the middle of the year, you understand why you're running ahead or running behind on the budgets.

[00:13:31] Number three, cost analysis.

[00:13:34] We talked about comparing, contrasting, and context.

[00:13:37] We talked about calendar.

[00:13:39] We talked about budget segment, bids, quotes, or interviews.

[00:13:44] I think this is maybe a little bit of a sidetrack to what the class really is talking about.

[00:13:49] But I want to get into it.

[00:13:51] As you're doing a cost analysis for the different areas, as we talked about comparing, contrasting, and context, when you go through the year and you go to do a capital project, a lot of times you're asked for three bids.

[00:14:08] How many churches out there require three bids?

[00:14:13] And what is the difference between a bid and a quote?

[00:14:18] A lot of people, a lot of churches think, well, when I ask for a bid, I just go to three different companies and say, bid the sound system.

[00:14:29] Nope.

[00:14:30] You're essentially asking for a quote.

[00:14:35] So let me give you the difference between bids, quotes, and interviews.

[00:14:40] All right?

[00:14:40] So when you're budgeting with bids, this will allow you to get an apples-to-apples comparison.

[00:14:47] If you're getting bids back that don't give you an apples-to-apples comparison, you're not doing a bid.

[00:14:53] You're doing a quote.

[00:14:54] So let me give you some context here.

[00:14:56] In the bid approach, a list is created either by you or a consultant, and the company submits bids based on that list.

[00:15:05] This process may require a larger operational budget to account for any unforeseen oversights.

[00:15:12] Bidders are only responsible to the provided information, which means they follow your system that you gave them or your consultant, and they're not following their ideas, potentially leading to gaps in coverage.

[00:15:25] So if you're doing a bid correctly, you're getting an exact apples-to-apples, and you're essentially telling the company what they're going to quote.

[00:15:37] Now, let's talk about budgeting with quotes.

[00:15:40] And I'll come back to all three of these and kind of tell you what I think you should do and the good and the bad and the ugly of bids and quotes in interviews.

[00:15:50] But I just first want to break down.

[00:15:52] We just broke down what bids are.

[00:15:53] Let's break down what quotes are.

[00:15:55] You don't get an apples-to-apples comparison with quotes.

[00:15:59] In this approach, a company is asked to quote a system.

[00:16:04] They are responsible for everything, and it leads to less gaps, but it does not give you an apple-to-apples comparison.

[00:16:11] So if your elders are asking for bids, this, in my approach, the quote approach, is actually better because you're going to get a full turnkey system that works,

[00:16:21] but it's not going to satisfy what your elders are wanting, which is a bid.

[00:16:27] And companies can get real cheap on this, too, by the way, if you're not careful.

[00:16:32] This is the downside to the quote side of it because they can vary wildly, right?

[00:16:38] You say, hey, quote me the sound system.

[00:16:40] One person may quote Meyer, a really good sound system, and one person may quote another speaker manufacturer that's really cheap and not very good,

[00:16:48] and it throws out a skew, it throws in, I don't know what the right word is, it throws out a whack what the elder is looking for from a bid perspective.

[00:16:58] So if you're not doing a bid and you're doing a quote, this is where you have to be a little bit careful.

[00:17:05] Now let's talk a little bit about interviews.

[00:17:07] And again, I'm going to come back to all three of these and kind of tell you the approach that I think you should take.

[00:17:11] But with interviews, you're also not getting an apple-to-apple comparison.

[00:17:15] You're essentially interviewing a company to do the job.

[00:17:19] And in this approach, companies are interviewed and they're asked to provide a holistic turnkey system,

[00:17:25] but you're not really necessarily having them bid and you're not necessarily asking for a quote.

[00:17:32] You're telling them, I want you to put together the system.

[00:17:37] This tends to lower operational costs for misses, but raises the project costs because they are catching every little thing

[00:17:45] and making sure their labor is covered and you're telling them, I want a turnkey system.

[00:17:49] So they're probably building some pricing protection in there as well.

[00:17:55] In my opinion, most churches are happier with the results of an interview-driven approach.

[00:18:02] And I'm going to get into why.

[00:18:04] Why?

[00:18:05] But you're saying right now, I'm required to bid, so what should I do?

[00:18:09] It sounds like bid's not the way to go.

[00:18:11] Well, let me give you some answers to that question.

[00:18:15] Bids, quotes, or interviews.

[00:18:17] I believe you should combine bids with interviews to get a quote.

[00:18:21] So it's not one or the other.

[00:18:23] It's really all three.

[00:18:26] Provide a short list of gear that is challenging but easy to bid.

[00:18:31] So what I'm getting into now is how you approach these companies in a way that gets you to a result that allows your elders to do some apples-to-apples comparison

[00:18:42] and allows you to pick a company.

[00:18:44] So the first thing you do is provide a short list of gear that is challenging but easy to bid.

[00:18:50] It's somewhat what you want.

[00:18:52] Hey, I want a sound system.

[00:18:53] So you're giving them a list of sound pieces that you want, but it's not the entire thing.

[00:18:59] You're keeping it short but challenging and easy for them to put some numbers to and to put some labor to.

[00:19:07] You send that out to three to five companies and then you score them.

[00:19:12] We'll get into how you score them here in a minute.

[00:19:14] But then you interview the top two.

[00:19:17] So the top two that came back and passed that scoring, and again, we'll get into the scoring in just a minute.

[00:19:23] Those top two, maybe three.

[00:19:25] I like to get it down to two.

[00:19:27] But you interview those top two.

[00:19:30] And then once you interview them, you ask them to provide a holistic quote that is turnkey and does not require the church to fill any holes.

[00:19:40] So they're taking care of everything.

[00:19:43] All right.

[00:19:44] Now, how do you score them?

[00:19:46] That's a key piece to narrowing things down to figuring out which company that you like.

[00:19:52] So here's what you do.

[00:19:53] You got to collect some data.

[00:19:55] Who followed your BOM?

[00:19:57] That short and challenging list that you sent out, who followed that?

[00:20:01] Who gave you line item pricing?

[00:20:03] Who is the most responsive?

[00:20:05] The fastest?

[00:20:06] Who is the geo closest?

[00:20:08] Like who's close to you versus in another state or across the country?

[00:20:13] Who gave you the best pricing?

[00:20:14] Who does more church installs?

[00:20:17] Who has the best and most manufacturer access?

[00:20:20] So how you get that one is when you send your list out, it's good to vary the different manufacturers in there.

[00:20:26] Like, hey, sound system.

[00:20:29] I'd like you to show me what a Meyer system costs and I'd like you to show me what an L acoustic system costs.

[00:20:35] So they have that on their list.

[00:20:38] The two pieces of gear.

[00:20:39] And they come back and say, well, we can't provide Meyer, but we can provide L acoustics.

[00:20:44] And then another company comes back and says, well, we can provide both.

[00:20:47] Well, now you know that this one company can provide both and they have a little bit more manufacturer access than the other company that can only provide one.

[00:20:57] You can also put some stuff in there that's not necessarily strict factual data.

[00:21:01] Like, who's your favorite?

[00:21:04] All right.

[00:21:04] Who's my favorite?

[00:21:05] Who's the pastor's favorite?

[00:21:06] You can put that into your scorecard.

[00:21:08] And let me show you what that scorecard looks like.

[00:21:11] This is kind of small.

[00:21:12] So let me zoom in a little bit.

[00:21:13] It's a very simple scorecard that I've made up.

[00:21:16] You put in your three companies.

[00:21:19] Who followed the BOM?

[00:21:21] You rank them one, two, or three.

[00:21:24] Who had line item pricing?

[00:21:25] Who is the most responsive?

[00:21:27] As we go along the scorecard here, who turned in the fastest quote?

[00:21:31] Who is the GEO closest?

[00:21:33] Best pricing?

[00:21:34] Does more church installs?

[00:21:35] Best or most manufacturing access?

[00:21:39] And then, you know, my recommendation or the pastor's recommendation or your recommendation.

[00:21:43] You rank them one, two, or three.

[00:21:46] And then as you can see here, you total them up at the end.

[00:21:49] Whoever has the lowest score is the best in terms of this scorecard.

[00:21:55] Now, notice company number three there has the lowest score.

[00:21:59] But if I go back, company number three did not have the best pricing.

[00:22:04] So there's some other data that goes into this, right?

[00:22:08] If the project is a $10,000 project and company number three there comes back at $30,000,

[00:22:16] well, they may be eliminated just on price.

[00:22:19] But the reason why you want to use this scorecard or something like it is so that you're not looking

[00:22:25] at just the price.

[00:22:27] You're looking at recommendations, best, most manufacturer access, all of that data that's

[00:22:32] on there.

[00:22:32] You're looking at all of it and scoring so that you get an idea of who you should be looking

[00:22:37] at.

[00:22:38] Because if all three companies are pretty close and number, company number three scored

[00:22:43] the best, then maybe that steers you in that direction.

[00:22:47] Very important to remove some of the emotion out of the scoring and just bring some data

[00:22:54] into the scoring.

[00:22:56] All right.

[00:22:56] So bids, quotes, or interviews, combining bids with interviews to get a quote.

[00:23:01] And here's a recap of what we talked about.

[00:23:04] Providing a short list of gear that is challenging but easy to bid.

[00:23:07] And use this list to figure out if they have good manufacturer access as well.

[00:23:12] But keep it short enough that they can stay apples to apples.

[00:23:16] You send it out to three to five companies.

[00:23:18] Use the scorecard we just talked about to score them.

[00:23:21] Then you interview the top two.

[00:23:24] And maybe somebody gets eliminated in that interview.

[00:23:26] So then you would go to the next company, right?

[00:23:28] The third company.

[00:23:29] But you interview the top two.

[00:23:31] And then you ask them, if you like them, to provide you a holistic quote that is turned

[00:23:37] key and does not require the church to fill any holes.

[00:23:40] You can help guide them on the manufacturers you would like to see in that quote.

[00:23:45] But you kind of turn them loose to make their own quote at that point.

[00:23:49] So they did the bid up front.

[00:23:51] You kind of narrowed the companies.

[00:23:52] Now you're doing the interviews and asking for the holistic quote.

[00:23:57] That is how you use bids to come up with a good capital budget and to pick a company

[00:24:04] that's right for you.

[00:24:07] Now let's talk about timeline for budget items.

[00:24:12] I like to tell people have patience.

[00:24:16] But small items are going to take you six to 12 months to get them into the budget.

[00:24:21] And let me give you an example.

[00:24:23] Something happens in February.

[00:24:25] House lights fail.

[00:24:26] Microphones fail.

[00:24:28] It's considered a small item that you can get around.

[00:24:31] You know, it's not all the house lights that went out.

[00:24:33] It's not all the microphones that went out.

[00:24:35] So it's considered a small purchase that you can kind of get around.

[00:24:40] You go and make a request for that.

[00:24:42] They say, hey, we'll put it into next year's budget.

[00:24:46] If it's January, maybe you revisit the budget in June.

[00:24:49] So it's going to be at least four or five months before it gets into the budget for that year.

[00:24:54] Or if you do things annually, it's going to be at least 12 months before that purchase comes in.

[00:25:00] So have patience.

[00:25:02] Be able to define if it's an emergency or not an emergency.

[00:25:06] Be able to define if you can move money around to make the purchase right now.

[00:25:10] But if you don't have the money, your small items are probably going to take six to 12 months to get in.

[00:25:17] Large items are going to take 12 to 24 months.

[00:25:19] Hey, I need a new soundboard.

[00:25:21] I need a new sound system.

[00:25:22] I need a new video room.

[00:25:24] Those are big capital items that you're going to have to do the interview and scoring process that we just talked about.

[00:25:32] And the likeliness of it making it in in 12 months, it's not high.

[00:25:39] Okay?

[00:25:40] You're going to make the presentation.

[00:25:42] You're going to tell how much money it costs.

[00:25:44] And in October, November, December, when you're building a budget for them, they're going to say,

[00:25:49] we can't afford it this year.

[00:25:50] And it's going to get pushed to the next year.

[00:25:52] I find that the average on new upgrades is about 18 months from the time it's decided we need an upgrade to the time it's quoted to the time it makes it into the budget.

[00:26:04] So have some patience.

[00:26:06] I run into a lot of churches and a lot of people who say, man, I've been presenting this for the last 6-12 months and nobody's listening to me.

[00:26:14] They're listening.

[00:26:15] There's just some things going on in the background that doesn't allow them to place it into the budget and make the purchase right away.

[00:26:21] So timelines for budgets, small items will typically take you 6-12 months to get them in.

[00:26:27] Large items typically 12-24 months as you run through the process.

[00:26:32] All right, let's talk about presentation of budget.

[00:26:35] I think this is super important.

[00:26:39] Always present your budget.

[00:26:41] Never just turn it in.

[00:26:43] I don't know how many churches I come across.

[00:26:45] They build a budget, small or large, and then they just send it in via email.

[00:26:51] Not cool.

[00:26:53] Look at this point.

[00:26:55] Always present your budget.

[00:26:57] Never just turn it in.

[00:27:00] Have a meeting to explain your budget.

[00:27:03] Who is in the meeting is important.

[00:27:05] Now, your initial meeting may be with your boss, right?

[00:27:08] But then ask your boss or whether you're a paid boss or a volunteer, whatever they are with the church, ask them if you can make sure that a numbers person is in the next meeting, that a lead pastor is in the next meeting, or a decision maker is in the next meeting.

[00:27:27] And maybe your boss is that person, but at the end of the day, you can always ask for a second meeting and try to get more people involved as you present your budget, okay?

[00:27:40] Because that's important.

[00:27:41] Make sure decision makers are in there.

[00:27:44] Maybe your first presentation with your boss is a very extensive presentation, and then you say, hey, can I do a presentation with our lead pastor or their executive pastor with the decision maker who makes decisions on budgets?

[00:27:56] Maybe it's head of accounting, maybe it's head of accounting, who knows?

[00:27:58] But can I have a second meeting with them and you, and we can talk through in a maybe more abbreviated high level what I have in my budget?

[00:28:07] Let me talk about vision.

[00:28:10] Present your budget with a vision.

[00:28:14] Don't present it from the perspective of, hey, we need to replace the X32 or we need to get the model 25C.

[00:28:22] Present it from a perspective that makes sense to an elder or a leader.

[00:28:30] How are they going to receive the budget?

[00:28:33] That's how you want to present it.

[00:28:34] And let me give you some examples on that.

[00:28:36] You want to present it in a way that you're remembered.

[00:28:40] You want to talk about things like the single mother ministry, the young adults ministry, the kids ministry.

[00:28:51] You want to talk about those ministries and how your budget helps and assists them.

[00:28:56] Stories about new budget items saving the church on, say, repairs parts, for example.

[00:29:01] I'll give you an example on this.

[00:29:03] Let's say you're spending $10,000 on repairs parts and $8,000 of that is a part of replacing lamps for your house lights.

[00:29:13] Well, maybe if you have a capital budget put together for new house lights and let's say that's $15,000, that's going to save you money in your repairs parts budget.

[00:29:24] So for only an increase of $6,000, obviously you have the capital budget side of it, so it's more than $6,000.

[00:29:31] But for an increase of $6,000 that year, you are saving X amount of dollars in your repairs parts budget.

[00:29:38] Those are things that elders and leaders understand.

[00:29:41] And if you're applying it to a vision perspective of, hey, if we save this money, that's more money we can spend on our single parent ministry.

[00:29:52] This is a way of presenting a budget that takes the numbers and turns them into people.

[00:29:58] It turns them into a person that you're helping.

[00:30:02] So keep that in mind.

[00:30:03] Be remembered and present from a vision perspective.

[00:30:10] Another very important thing with your presentation is know your numbers and reference them.

[00:30:15] When they ask you, why do you have so much money in your food budget?

[00:30:19] Know the reason why.

[00:30:21] Hey, we want to take our volunteers out to eat more so that we know what's going on in their lives.

[00:30:26] Or we want to do a quarterly thing with our volunteers, a quarterly party, a quarterly get-together

[00:30:33] that allows us to recruit volunteers to that get-together and show appreciation for them.

[00:30:42] Know why you have those numbers and reference them.

[00:30:45] The format that you present your budget is also very important.

[00:30:51] You want to have a cover letter that summarizes what your budget is talking about.

[00:30:56] You want to show the tracking data from last year.

[00:30:59] Hey, this is where we're at in 2023.

[00:31:01] This is where we're at in 2024.

[00:31:03] This is why I'm asking for money in 2025.

[00:31:06] You want to show how it enhances and supports the vision of the leadership, your vision,

[00:31:12] which also supports where you're going with the church and why you're asking for those dollars.

[00:31:22] Because those dollars support the vision of the church.

[00:31:26] You want to also show the numbers, obviously.

[00:31:28] You want to have those numbers in there when you make the presentation.

[00:31:32] And then a summary at the end that summarizes why you're asking for the different items that

[00:31:38] you're asking for and why you're wanting your budget to be what it is.

[00:31:43] Here's another item you need to be prepared for.

[00:31:46] Cuts.

[00:31:47] I've never worked with a church where they said, hey, we're going to give you 50% more

[00:31:51] in your budget.

[00:31:52] They always have to cut something.

[00:31:54] So know what cuts will hurt the church and need defending.

[00:31:59] Yeah, that's right.

[00:32:00] If they come after your repairs parts budget and they say, hey, we're going to have to

[00:32:03] cut that from $10,000 to $5,000, be prepared for that and know that, hey, maybe we can move

[00:32:09] things from our food budget.

[00:32:10] So the volunteer party that I wanted to do with the volunteers three times a year, maybe

[00:32:17] I can only do it twice a year.

[00:32:19] Know where you can move money around when they decide to cut something that may hurt the

[00:32:25] church.

[00:32:25] It's very important to be able to suggest other areas that you can cut when they decide

[00:32:33] they want to cut something that you just know based on 2023 and 2024 is going to be at that

[00:32:40] number or higher.

[00:32:43] I want to touch on the last thing here when you present your budget.

[00:32:47] Trust.

[00:32:49] You have to end the meeting with trust.

[00:32:53] It's very important.

[00:32:54] At the end of the day, trust your leadership.

[00:32:58] What they're asking you to do, you need to be able to do with a happy heart.

[00:33:05] Budgets are guidelines.

[00:33:07] Now, I'm not saying here you can throw the budget out once you get out of the meeting,

[00:33:11] but what I am saying is they help steer us towards the vision.

[00:33:16] And in my opinion, some of the constraints of a budget help with creativity.

[00:33:21] Like I said earlier in the podcast, completely opposite from what most people think.

[00:33:26] Most people think budgets kill creativity.

[00:33:28] I think the constraints help creativity.

[00:33:32] So know that there are guidelines and you may have to move and manipulate some things as you

[00:33:37] go through the year.

[00:33:38] It's why I'm a big fan of in June, reevaluating the budget for the rest of the year.

[00:33:45] You may not get everything you need, want, or feel has to be done, but trust.

[00:33:51] And work with what you have.

[00:33:55] Now, you may have listened to this podcast and said, man, I have a lot of questions.

[00:34:00] If you have questions, email me at information at digitalgreatcommission.org.

[00:34:06] I'll be happy to answer those questions.

[00:34:09] Also, if you want us to come on site, we offer free on-site visits.

[00:34:13] Go to audiovideolighting.com and click schedule a call.

[00:34:18] That'll start the process for us coming on site and doing a free on-site visit.

[00:34:22] We'd be happy to come to your church 100% free of charge.

[00:34:27] See what you got going on on the weekend and help you with some of this budget discussion.

[00:34:32] Well, that wraps things up for today's podcast.

[00:34:35] I can't wait to talk to you on the next Tech Arts Podcast.

[00:34:38] Until then, I'm David Leuschner, signing off by wishing you a great day and praying God blesses every moment of your week.

[00:34:46] See you soon.

[00:34:47] You have been listening to the Tech Arts Podcast, presented by Digital Great Commission Ministries.

[00:34:53] DGCM is a 501c3 nonprofit that was started to help churches with all things technical.

[00:35:00] Whether you need help building a team, finding the right gear, or just a better understanding of the church tech world,

[00:35:06] DGCM is here for you.

[00:35:08] Find out more about our free on-site visits, reports, and consulting by going to audiovideolighting.com.

[00:35:15] Digital Great Commission Ministries will help you run your church service like a pro.

[00:35:20] Find out more at audiovideolighting.com.