5 Questions with. . . Clever Girl Finance’s Bola Onada Sokunbi

Hi everyone!

We’re very excited for part two of our new ‘5 Questions Series’ although we’re cheating today and we have seven! As we are an organising blog we want to see how other bloggers keep on top of their busy lifestyles and their tips on staying organised! Today we’re chatting with Bola Onada Sokunbi from Clever Girl Finance! Bola’s blog provides women with financial tips and budgeting tools to inspire them to pursue their dreams of financial independence. Bola also aims to empower and educate women to make the best financial decisions for their current and future selves. Getting organised greatly helps us financially, so I was really interested to hear her views on organisation.

1.As a busy business owner and influencer what’s your number one tip for staying organi​s​ed?

​My number one tip for staying organised as business owner (and mom of twin toddlers) is making lists! I make lists in my planner and on my phone and it helps to keep me on top of the things I need to get done, allows me to track my ideas and keeps me sane.​

I have a number of different lists that I track on a daily basis. For example some of my lists include –

1 Things I need to do for my business
2 Business ideas that come to me that I’d like to look into further later
3 Groceries I need to buy (I add things to my list as they run out)
4 Things i need to do for my household and kids
5 Bills I need to payetc

The other things that really helps me is using my calendar to set completion reminders for the various lists I have. This way i don’t fall off track and can reschedule the things I’m not able to get to in time.

2. A two part question here: Do you think being organised has contributed to your success – both for 1. building up your business and 2. improving your finances? If so, how?

​Yes being organised has 100% contributed to my business ​success as well as my finances. There are so many moving pieces in my business that if i didn’t have some sort of organisation it would be a disaster, from client sessions to tasks for my intern and VA to creating content and managing my marketing I have to stay on top of things.

When it comes to my finances because I’m so busy, it’s a must for me to set reminders for my bills and around saving money for my short and long term goals. Because I am a full time entrepreneur and my income is some what inconsistent, I ‘m not able to automate everything so i set aside time on my calendar once a week to go over things.

3. Do you consider yourself an organised person? If so, what do you love organising most? – for example: a space in your home, office, your time…or perhaps it’s your finances?
​
Yes I’m very organised ​(sometimes to a fault) – I have to be otherwise I lose my mind. I love to keep my kitchen organised there’s just something I love about having a tidy kitchen but my favourite thing to organise is my finances – I love giving every dollar I earn a job to do for me. It’s also of utmost importance to me as one of my main goals is to be able to build long term wealth as well as a legacy for my children.

4. Is there anything you’re absolutely OCD about?
Y​es – my kitchen (lol)​ and making sure they are no unmade beds in my house.

5. What area of your home/ business/ life can you never seem to keep organised?
​When it comes it to business ​my biggest challenge is keeping my email organised. I get a lot of email and sometimes I set up rules but then when I set up a rule for an email to go to a different folder I sometimes forget to check the folder. I just recently discovered “Boomerang” which reminds you about emails in your account – to send them and to follow up on them – and it’s a game changer – I love it!

At home the area i struggle with keeping organised is my kids laundry! There’s always laundry to do because they go through wearing clothes so quickly and then there’s the ironing….. I try to get a lot of it done on Sunday afternoons so I don’t stress out about it during the week.

6. What messy habit of your partner/ family member drives you mad?
​My husband is pretty ​good when it comes to helping us stay organised at home. I think he’d rather help to keep things in order than deal with crazy Bola.

7. Is there a particular storage solution or business tool that you love to use to keep you organised? Eg: diary/ app/ makeup organiser/ drawer dividers…

​I use my Clever Girl Finance planners to keep my life and business organised! I designed my planners based on the gaps I found ​when I was trying to find a planner that worked for me – one of the big elements of keeping my life organised overall is my finances and so I incorporated financial tracking / planner into both of my planners.

Happy Organising!