Don't blow the budget

'Tis the season to spend money. But without trying to be the grinch of 2016, let me urge you not to spend too much this Christmas.

It is so tempting to go all out at this time of year, when marketing pressure combines with summery good cheer, and kids' wishlists get ever longer.

It is only natural to want to do the best you can for your family, staff and anyone else close to you - especially when you have been working hard all year and feel you deserve to see something of a payoff for that.

But it is easy to get carried away and blow any semblance of a festive budget - leaving you starting the new year on the back foot.

This is particularly a problem for people who are newly self-employed.

When times are good, as they have been for a few years now, it is easy to think this is the way it will continue to be.

If you haven't suffered through a downturn, you are unfamiliar with how quickly things can change and how you might have to change your business to tackle that.

I see a lot of new businesspeople brimming with confidence, which is great.

What is not so great is when that leads them to take out big loans for things such as pricey Christmas presents.

To avoid a disaster, set a clear budget, covering what you will spend on your business celebrations, what you would like to have available for your own family Christmas and what, if anything, you can expect to have coming in to your bank account over the festive period and early new year.

Make sure you leave enough of a surplus to allow you to comfortably get through to the start of the next business year, as well as to begin accumulating or adding to your rainy day fund for the next downturn.

Make this Christmas one to remember for the right reasons - not the year you blew all the proceeds of 12 months of hard work.

- Jeremy Tauri is an associate at Plus Chartered Accountants.