Are you selling many small packages instead of larger packages? Are you frustrated because you’re working all the time and not meeting your sales goals?
Holistic Sleep and Parenting Coaches, Pam Larouche and Elisa Costanza-Reyes of Restful Parenting join me on the podcast to talk about how you can start creating higher-level packages that ensure your revenue is higher and you are happier.
How is money impacting your business?
How is your mindset around money impacting your business?
Money is a topic that comes up a lot in my business and in my clients' businesses - that they want to make more of it. That they're finally ready to invest in a coach because they've been trying to do everything along and they aren't getting any where. That asking for it feels so uncomfortable that they simply don't ask.
Dealing with the money stuff in your business is like peeling an onion – there are so many layers. This is because money affects every aspect of your life. It is an emotionally loaded subject.
I wanted to dig down through a few more layers so I invited Core Belief Engineering Practitioner, Megan O’Neill, to once again join me on the podcast to talk about money and business. Megan is a belief and mindset specialist who works with entrepreneurs on their mindset blocks and what holds them back in their businesses. She works with clients internationally via Skype and loves to talk about how people get stuck on money.
You can listen to the audio in the player above, read the recap in the blog post below, or scroll down to the bottom and watch the original live video!
Money is the number one mindset block that holds people back from moving forward in their business. This is because it runs through so many components of being a business owner – and believe it or not, the money issues we have as business owners are about more than just making money.
Business owners get stuck when it comes to pricing because they are under confident about what to charge. They're not clear or confident enough to charge their worth. Instead they “price source” – they ask other people what they should be charging for their products or services.
Entrepreneurs often make up what they think they should be charging or let other people have a big influence on what they charge. Instead of doing this, recognize your value and charge your worth!
Everyone has a different perception on what they should be charging for a product or service. For example, say I have a beautiful piece of paper towel that one person may pay $20 for, but another person may only pay two cents because they don’t value it quite the same as the first person. If you ask the person who wants to pay 2 cents what to charge, you're going to be making a decision based on someone who didn't even want your paper towel in the first place, and without taking into account what it costs or is required to create that paper towel in the first place.
Pricing is a learning curve. When you first start out you may undercharge and what ends up happening is you end up giving away a lot of time for free, which can burn you out and make you resentful. This may then push you to raise your prices accordingly.
Business owners and entrepreneurs often fear that if they charge too much they will alienate current and potential clients. They fear people will think they charge too much and won’t want to work with them. In essence, they fear being judged.
If this sounds familiar, you need to determine what you need to charge in order to make what you need to make. For example, if you have 30 hours available to work per week then how much do you need to charge per hour, etc. in order to make what you need to make in a week?
Be strong and clear about your pricing. There will always be people who challenge you about your pricing, but be confident. Those who object may not be your ideal clients.
You should also know that you can start lower and increase your prices as you grow. If you are struggling to increase your prices then you need to dig deeper and find out what is blocking you. Do you fear being judged? Do you lack the confidence to charge your worth?
There is an old belief that often lingers with business owners that sales people are pushy.
Sales are just communicating what it is you do and what you have to offer.
Someone comes to you with a problem and you present them you with a solution – this is essentially sales. You are offering a solution to a problem. What people feel like they're doing (or are afraid people are going to think they're doing) is yelling "Give me your money! Give me your money!" at them.
You need to remember that when you are selling to a potential client, you are offering them a solution for their problem and they can take it or they can leave it.
It’s the used car salesperson mentality that can make people fear sales. But you must remember that you are providing value, not just trying to 'get their money' and be confident in your product or service.
If the idea of selling still frightens you, when people approach you about your service or product, ask them what they need. This empowers you to give them a realistic answer as to how you can help them.
It can be just as hard to let money out of your business as it is to bring it in to your business, but investing in your business is one of the best ways to start seeing growth.
There comes a time in a business owners’ journey when they realize they can't do it alone. Whether that is building a website, or doing your own social media – you will need to outsource, but the need “bootstrap” might be holding you back.
"I can do that myself, or I can learn it."
"I don't have the money to spend on that right now."
This money mindset block holds you back from hiring for the tasks that you don’t need to be doing or from spending money on your business.
In order to overcome this block, you need to focus on the bigger picture. You need to see that in order to make money you have to spend money. You may see it as losing money as opposed to seeing the opportunities that can come from spending money on your business.
Think of it like this – if you can hire out something such as your weekly newsletter for cheaper than you charge per hour and to someone who can do it quicker than yourself, then think of how much more you can make by outsourcing this task. Not to mention, outsourcing the tasks that do not make you happy will make you happier in the end. Think of it in terms of money, time and happiness.
Business owners and entrepreneurs need to get conscious about their money blocks. Often these money blocks are old and prevent people from earning the money they need to make. These money blocks are often mistaken for being smart i.e., if I do it all myself I am saving money – and even though it may feel like it is the right thing it is not the thing that will help you grow your business.
Money is a DEEP topic - personally and in your business. If you notice yourself struggling with making enough money, with asking for the sales, with figuring out to get comfortable with your prices or with letting yourself get help with certain things, considering booking a call with Lara or Megan. There are practical ways to figure out what to do next, and there are ways to dig down deep into your belief systems to find the root of the problem. Don't get stuck feeling like you figure this all out on your own when there are people who have already figured out the path through.
This episode was a new style, originally broadcast as a Facebook Live conversation and then brought in to the podcast. Did you like this format for the show? Would you like to see more conversational style podcast episodes? Leave a comment and let me know, and let me know what other topics or guests I should have on!
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When it comes to running your business, what is your relationship with money? Are you charging your worth? Are you spending the money necessary to grow your business? If you struggle with your relationship with money—you’re not alone. Many entrepreneurs and business owners don’t know their numbers or they’re afraid to talk about money.
Johanna Lynn joins me on the podcast to talk about the relationship we all have with money. She works with what we inherit from our family. She believes none of us are who we are by accident; our childhood blueprint shows up in more than you may think, including in our relationships with people and with things, such as money. This is all due to our family and how we were raised.
Even though money is so important, no one really teaches us about money and finances. As adults we make every day decisions when it comes to money and with those decisions come emotional attachments that live right below the surface.
Whether you are wealthy or struggling to get by, there are common themes in people’s relationship to money. You need to look at what is running you on the inside when it comes to money. It is more than just skills learned through financial books; we need to understand our feelings around money.
Think about it: you could have two successful women entrepreneurs who own their own business, who are married and are both mothers and on the surface it may seem like we have some of the same things, however our blueprint, set out by our relationships with our parents, is different. It is our blueprint that makes people think and act differently from one another. Those two woman can make vastly different decisions with money, impacting how they spend it, how they receive it and how comfortable they feel with what they have or don't have.
When it comes to money you either think you have enough or you think of money in terms of scarcity – in turn this affects your relationship with money, right down to the little purchases you make. Money is a big part of being an entrepreneur. You need to spend money to earn money, whether that is investing in a business coach or equipment. So, you need to be comfortable in your relationship with money.
Believing you’re born a spender or a saver is an unconscious loyalty that can come from seldom allowing ourselves to do better than our parents. If you have parents who were all about keeping up with the Joneses but did not have the money to support this habit, then as children we notice the strain of living beyond our means. In turn we grow up to repeat the same behaviours or grow up to do the opposite: save every penny we earn to avoid the strain our parents had.
Regardless of which path, our relationship with money is often not our own but is a subconscious relationship based on the relationship our parents had with money.
Your relationship should not be the same, though. You would not want your children to fall into these pitfalls and neither do your parents—they do not want you to make the same mistakes they did with money. At the same time, letting the pendulum swing too far the other way isn't necessarily a solution either.
It all comes back to clarity.
A fulfilled life is a lot more than just doing what you think you should – it’s thinking about what you really want. Does your spending match with your desires? If you’re overspending, but realize you want a different life then you need to examine what that is and match your spending to match your savings.
The grass is NOT always greener on the other side
We need to get clear on what we want. We can easily get caught up on the idea that making a certain amount will make us financially free. But what does that number mean to your ideal lifestyle? Will you keep working for it? Does your work make you happy?
Many people easily fall into a pattern of doing over being. This comes from an early memory in our body where we needed more from our mothers than she was able to give us at the time. We take this memory and turn it into our relationship with money – it’s never enough (money, affection from my spouse, etc.).
Society’s picture of success is not your picture of success. It’s what’s behind your desire – is it paying off your mortgage, or paying off your car? Get behind your “why?” By getting clear on your money relationship you get a lot more clarity around how you are going to get to your ultimate goal.
Your relationship with money is a lot deeper than recognizing your credit card debt. It’s recognizing the feeling places in your body and how you feel when that credit card bill comes in and how it feels when you have to ask to borrow money to pay it off.
Johanna has spoken with multi-millionaires who are still not secure with their money because they are constantly afraid the rug will be pulled out from under them. This is about more than just the money, there is another underlying reason for their relationship with money that needs to be investigated and uncovered.
We need to look at how our early templates were formed and how they are affecting our current relationships. What were your parents like? What was your childhood like? We are affected up to three generations back as to how we will react with money. We need to understand our influences in order to get clear on why we make the decisions we do.
Money patterns are multi-generational and influence us until we address them by becoming conscious of our own patterns and then tracking it back to how we fit into our entire family system.
Johanna’s virtual workshop: Your Inner Relationship with Money
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As this new podcast gets off the ground, I’d really love your help to make sure that it gets in front of the right people. The first weeks of a podcast’s life are the most important in terms of the opportunities for iTunes to showcase you to other listeners. Because of that, I’m starting out this new podcast with a bang. There are 3 episodes available for you right now, and there will be at least two more episodes every week for the remainder of the eight weeks.
I thought I’d find some extra ways to thank you for all the sharing and supporting you do of the new podcast so every week until July 15th I’m going to be giving away one of my favourite business books to one person who either:
In all cases, you need to make sure that I either know who you are (email me a screen capture of the review or showing you are subscribed) or that the posts on social media are public and tag me (@larawellman) or the Biz Studio (on Facebook you can tag my page).
Each week I’ll be announcing the book winner on Wednesdays on my Facebook page
Some of the books I’ll be giving away are (I’ll be adding more titles soon):
So get out there and start sharing your reviews and sharing the podcast and good luck. AND THANK YOU!