December tired is its own special thing.

From the outside, it looks like everything is going well. 🚐 Vans are out early. Laptops are open late. 🔥 Ovens are on. Orders are coming in. People keep asking if you can “just squeeze this in before Christmas”. Friends and family tell you how brilliant it is that you are “so busy”.

Inside, it feels very different.

You are dragging yourself through dark, wet mornings. 🌧️ You are hoping the card machine does not die on you, the software does not crash, or the client does not move the goalposts again. You are mentally adding up how much January is going to cost while someone asks for “just one more favour”.

If you are flat out and still worried about money, let us start here: you are not the only one, and you are not doing it wrong. December is a stacked deck.

🎭 The lie of the “Christmas rush”

Every year, we see the same story rolled out.

December is sold as your golden month. It is supposed to be the time you “make it all back” – whether you are on site, in a kitchen, behind a bar, at your desk, or in a studio.

The pressure is quiet, but it is there. 💬 Make the most of the rush. Say yes. Stay open. Take the booking. Run the event. Ship the work. Keep everyone happy.

When we look at the numbers 📊, the picture is very different. Turnover goes up, but so does everything else. More staff. More hours. More ingredients. More travel. More last‑minute costs. More of your energy.

On paper, the top line looks strong. In the bank, it often feels thin. Emotionally, it feels worse, because you gave December everything you had and it still has not delivered what it was supposed to.

💷 “I am working all the hours – where is the money?”

We have lost count of the number of January conversations that begin with a version of this:

“I do not understand. We were rammed. Why does it not show?”

It is a horrible feeling, and it can very quickly turn into: “I must be useless with money.”

You are not useless with money. You are operating in a month where costs climb 🚚, work may have been priced months ago, favour jobs and mates’ rates pile up quietly, and VAT and tax are still sitting there in the background, waiting for you in the new year.

By the time the dust settles, you have survived another “make or break” December and started the year tired, overdrawn, and wondering what you are missing.

You are not missing a trick. You are running on fumes. 🧯

🧠 You are not broken. You are exhausted.

We are accounting professionals and business advisors who live in the numbers every day. But we are also people who have lived long hours, tight margins, and that sinking “how are we going to make this work?” feeling.

So when someone sits in front of us in December or January and says “I am just bad with money”, we do not agree. 🚫

You are not bad with money. You are overloaded and under‑supported, trying to make decisions at the worst possible time of year. No one makes their best choices when they are cold, tired, and up against a deadline.

You do not need another lecture. You need a clearer picture 🗺️ and someone on your side while you look at it.

We sit in that middle ground a lot of small businesses need: accounting professionals who handle the day‑to‑day reality of your numbers, not just a once‑a‑year set of accounts.

❄️ December is not the month to fix your whole life

If you scroll through social media in December 📱, you would think everyone else is quietly planning their goals, colour coding their year ahead, and reinventing their business from the sofa.

Most of that content is not written by people who are standing in a kitchen, on a site, in a studio, or keeping a small team going through the dark months.

If you rely on your own time and energy to keep the business moving – whether that is hands on work, client work, creative work, or service work – December is not the month for grand overhauls. It is the month for getting through safely, not making panicked decisions you will regret in February, and keeping just enough track that you are not walking into January blind. 👀

If all you manage this year is to stop the hole getting deeper, that is a real achievement – even if it does not feel like one.

☕ So what can you actually do now?

When we talk to clients in December, we are not pulling out a neat five step plan. We start by talking like human beings, usually with a hot drink nearby. ☕

The first thing we usually ask is how you are. Not the polite “yeah, busy” answer – the real one.

Are you sleeping? Are you avoiding your bank app? 📱 Are you one more email away from snapping at someone who does not deserve it?

There is no clever spreadsheet that fixes exhaustion. The most useful thing we can do together is be honest about how run down you are, because that shapes what is realistic for the next few weeks.

The second thing we look at is what is already baked in. By the time December arrives, most of the big pieces are fixed: projects, bookings, menus, events, contracts, staff rotas, supplier orders. We are not going to tell you to tear all that up. 🔧

Instead, we go through what is locked in, what it is likely to cost, and whether there is anything that can be simplified, moved, or quietly let go. Often it is not a grand gesture. It is deciding not to squeeze in one more “quick job” that you already know will drain you and make no money.

Then we get to the question that really matters: how do we protect “January you”? 🎯

When we talk about “January you”, we mean the version of you who has to sit down in the cold light of the new year and deal with whatever December has left behind. That person deserves a bit of support from present day you.

So we ask some very practical questions. What big bills are coming up in January and February? Which ones absolutely have to be paid? What is the minimum that needs to be covered so you are not lying awake at night? 🌙

From there, we are not building a perfect budget. We are ringfencing what we can. It might be wages. It might be suppliers. It might be a VAT or other tax bill you have been trying not to think about.

It can sting to put that money aside when everything in you is saying “we need every penny now”. But “January you” will not be sitting in the dark, wondering how on earth you are going to pay for it all. That is the difference. 💡

🛠️ You do not have to do this on your own

We are not the “see you in nine months with a set of accounts” type of accounting professionals.

We are the “sit down, tell us how it really is, and let us untangle it together” type. 🪢

Whether you run a trade business, a creative studio, a hospitality venue, or any other small business that leans heavily on you, December can feel like a test you are supposed to pass. If you are not ending the year with a fat cushion in the bank and a glossy plan for next year, it can feel like you have failed.

You have not failed. You have made it through another year in a brutally hard environment. That counts. ✅

What we can do is help you make sense of what this December has actually done to your numbers, translate that into a simple picture of what needs to happen next, and build routines that fit around the life you already have, rather than some fantasy business in a textbook.

🤝 If you want some backup, here is where to start

If this December has left you tired, confused, or wondering what the point of it all was, you are welcome to reach out. 💬

You can send us a message and describe, in your own words, how this year has ended for you. Or, if you would rather do it with a bit of structure, you can book a quiet new year Financial Fitness review. We will sit down together, look at the numbers, and make a plan that respects the reality you are in.

No judgement. No jargon. No “you should have sorted this ages ago”. 🧡

Just two people who understand what it is like to run on empty, helping you find a steadier footing for whatever comes next.

👉 Book your new year Financial Fitness review here