If you are in business you must focus on making a profit. Without profit, without earning descent money, you don’t have a business, you have a hobby.
Putting your focus on profit doesn’t make you a Ferengi. It is a necessary part of the business world. When you have a j-o-b, someone else is responsible for marketing, office space, administration and designing a business plan. You show up, do your job and get paid for your time.
But when you own your own business, even if you have employees, you are ultimately responsible for every part of your business. That’s why you charge a higher hourly rate than you would if you worked for someone else. Very few entrepreneurs bill 40 hours per week.
But in spite of this, many entrepreneurs have an uneasy relationship with money. And it is a relationship, as I was reminded by Iyabo Asani in a teleseminar I attended last night. In this teleseminar she said that money represents an exchange of energy. You provide a services (expend energy) and the customer gives you money in exchange.
However, if you have a problem relationship with money, it spills over into other parts of your business life. If you always feel there is never enough money, then it is often because you lack value in yourself. This can manifest itself in a lack of clients or in attracting clients who can’t or won’t pay what you’re worth.
What Iyabo said made a lot of sense to me. I know in my own life, my relationship with money hasn’t always run smooth. I don’t come from an entrepreneurial background so making money isn’t always seen as a good thing. This makes for some interesting thought processes when you’re in business, let me tell you.
However, when I focus on money, when I focus on cleaning up my relationship with money, things improve.
How? A few years ago, I was attracting people who didn’t want to pay. They didn’t truly value my services yet they claimed the wanted to hire me. On more than one occasion I allowed myself to be talked into working for a reduced rate. Then the client kept adding more work.
The worst situation came when I was hired for what I thought would be an exciting project; something I had never done before. However, in the back of my mind there was a red danger flag waving franticly at me. But I ignored it. As a result, I was talked into cutting my rate in half. Then, a job that should have taken hardly more than a week ended up taking 8 weeks of my time, full time, and netted me less than $1,000.
After that experience I decided to get smarter. I wrote out a detailed description of my ideal client. This description included someone who truly valued what I offered and would readily and happily pay my full fee.
The result, it worked. I began getting better clients, clients who could and would pay me, happily and on time.
This happened because I knew what I was looking for. I was determined to never again be taken advantage of by others. I became more confident in quoting my fees. Clients sensed that and were less likely to try to get me at a discount.
Second, by focusing on what I truly wanted, the Law of Attraction could come into play. I know it sounds “woo woo” but when you know what you want and put it in writing, it has a way of showing up.
If you have an uneasy relationship with money, don’t bury your head in the sand. Look closely at it. It’s only once you deal with your money demons that things can improve.
Andrea J. Stenberg
This teleseminar I attended with Iyabo was part of the Masters of Client Attraction telesumit being presented by my colleagues Scott Shane Holt and Janice Wright. The list of speakers they have lined up is impressive. The Telesumit runs until April 12th. If you’d like to attend free, here’s the link http://tinyurl.com/ajsMOCA.
Yes, that is an affiliate link. Yes, if you upgrade to one of the paid versions of the Telesumit I’ll get a commission. But we’re all in business, so you won’t mind. After all, if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you should know I wouldn’t recommend anything I didn’t truly believe in.
