Yep, there are different kinds of money.  The most obvious is business money vs personal money.  If you own your own business, work for yourself, or are a commissioned sales rep, it can be pretty easy to confuse your business and your personal money perspectives.

Business money has different thresholds.

When I was a CFO I made $5,000 decisions in a flash.  A personal money decision involving $5,000 has me do research, compare vendors, and evaluate a great deal.  The two monies are different.  Not only is one mine, but one is corporate.  One has a bigger scale; larger sales, more expenses, different funding.

So here are you and I, in our own business, and those distinctions get muddier.  What’s the best way to handle the money in that case?  How do I make the distinction?  Not so easy, or obvious.

One of the bases for business money decisions is the ROI (return on investment).  How is this expenditure going to pay you back?  Is there a direct pay back, or is it more fuzzy?  Many business choices are more nebulous; a website, advertising, the better headset.  So for them, there is something about what else does that expense serve?  Sometimes it’s a matter of your time.  I spent more $$ on a better headset after I started going through headsets at about one every three months.  That wasn’t cost effective.  A more sophisticated, and yes, expensive headset has saved me time and hassles for over a year.  I spend 6 -8 hours a day on the phone, so any cost that improves that experience is worthwhile.  Where do you spend your time and energy?  What business expenses would improve that experience?  And how much more effective and productive would you be with an improvement there?  These are all good business money decision questions to explore.