All posts by SeattleMoneyCoach

Keep the Faith- 3 Ideas for Pricing

Practical Money Path

I want to remind you that “underearning” is about your personal pattern of earning less than your potential. Underearning is not about the economy.  It is about you and your history and feelings around charging people and receiving money.  The economy is an outside factor that may also be affecting you.

When you undersell yourself— setting your fees too low and not raising them appropriately, that is underearning. When you habitually don’t ask for what you need and want, that is underearning. When you ignore opportunities or don’t market yourself consistently, that is underearning. The list goes on. And now more than ever, it is important to look at your part in this.

The truth is that women who have a clean relationship with money are not as affected by outside factors such as the economy. Are they still affected? Yes, they can be. But women who fall into the pattern of underselling themselves and their services are far more affected when outside factors strike.

Earning your worth is part of a personal growth process that all women must go through. This process should not be suspended when outside forces hit! It is about valuing yourself and knowing that your work is worth good money. Outside forces come and go, but the process of earning your worth should never stop. Don’t let outside forces keep you down! Even now, in the midst of so much confusion, you should still be focused on not underselling yourself.

If you take a moment to separate out how you are being affected by the economy vs. how you personally feel about charging people money, you will see that they are two different things. So if you are concerned with the economy but devoted to earning your worth, here are some ideas about pricing:

Price Adjustment
Instead of telling your clients you are raising your fees, consider calling it a “price adjustment”. You should raise your fees by at least 5% every year simple to not fall behind! It’s called inflation. And simply raising them 5% doesn’t honor that fact that you are becoming more experienced. But if you simply can’t imagine raising your fees right now, consider a simple 5% price adjustment. For example, you could say, “In light of the economy I have decided to only implement a five percent price adjustment.” This way you won’t fall behind.

Value Added Route
Go the “value added” route. Instead of discounting your services (I know some of you are tempted!) can you hold firm on your fees and find something of value to entice new clients? For example, can you include an eBook or a tips report? Can you give them a one-time only extra 30 minutes? Make sure that if you do give something away, you let them know it loud and clear so they don’t take it for granted. On the invoice you should list the full value of what you did and then say “no charge”. Make sure people appreciate you.

Hold Your Ground
Hold firm. Don’t back down from your fees. If now is not the time to raise them, so be it. Can you simply stand your ground and make good use of any extra down time you have? Over the last three months I have used extra time to update my bio on my website, finish writing a new workbook and start working with a new marketing consultant. I’ve been doing a lot of writing! I did pair back some expenses and then I held my ground on my fees. After three months of slower work, the phone started ringing more, partly because of all the marketing I did in my down time! (And as I’ve shared with you before, I start each day with a gratitude practice. It keeps me sane!)

Keep the faith that it IS possible to earn what you are really worth.  Take heart and don’t give up! Know that you do deserve to earn good money. This is a process. Commit to working on your relationship to money and it will pay dividends long into the future. In the meantime, I vote that you hold your ground.

Join me this Wednesday evening

Underearning 101

It’s true—I haven’t posted for a while. I am busy doing a ton of writing, as well as working with a new marketing consultant. I’ll be “debuting” new content for you soon. In particular, I’ve been working on the “metaphysics of money”. I believe that now more than ever, we need to use every tool in our arsenal to stay on top of earning what we are worth. So stay tuned…

In the mean time, please consider joining me this Wednesday  night (March 4th) at the Women’s Earning Institute in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. I am putting on an evening seminar on how to conquer underearning, even in this economy. I’ll go from 6:30 to 9pm. It is a pretty intense evening and women really rave about. We will:

* Identify the five hidden forms of underearning (and how they may be costing you money!)
* Explore the concept of “noble poverty”—is it holding you back?
* The impact of the “money fog” on our earning ability
* How women under price themselves and what to do about it
* Two powerful negotiation strategies that conquer the “good girl syndrome” and bring you more money

It’s only $59. http://www.womenearning.com/an-evening-with-mikelann-valterra/

If you are far away, stay tuned for more teleseminars.

Broke is Temporary. Poor is Eternal.

Emotional Money Path, Metaphysical Money Path

Money is energy. It ebbs and flows. Some of you are very frustrated right now that the “flow” feels blocked.  Perhaps it is. But if you are experiencing this, you must tell yourself that this is temporary. When our income goes down the danger is that we tell ourselves horrible things—and we feel bad about ourselves. We scare ourselves and say “I’ll never get ahead. I’ll never make enough.” Stop that!

I tell my clients that “Broke is temporary. Poor is eternal”. Everyone goes through periods of being “broke” in their lives. Like I said, money is energy. It ebbs and flows. If your cash flow is down, do NOT tell yourself that you are poor! You may temporarily have to get very creative about getting your needs met. This happens. Life happens. But feeling “poor” is a very negative state of mind. Being broke is a temporary state. (And if someone says that they’ve never been broke, I likely wouldn’t believe them.)

I’ve gone through periods of being broke. Gasp! Did the director of the Women’s Earning Institute just cop to being broke at times? Sure. My family has dealt with unemployment and other unexpected life curve balls. I’ve had to temporarily get very creative about getting our needs met. But I also tell myself, “This is a temporary state of being. I am an abundant person.”

Remember this: Money—having it or lacking it—cannot change the essence of who you are. You are wonderful. You are a divine child of the universe. Money is a lovely tool. And we do want more of it to make our lives easier. But money is our servant. We are not the servant of money.

I sometimes think that part of why some people fear money is because they fear it will somehow change them. But money does not have this power. You have this power. If you are a strong, ethical, generous person, you will be this whether you have a lot of “flow” in your life right now or not! The amount of money in your life has nothing to do with who you are. (A line from the movie The Matrix is running through my head: “The Matrix cannot tell you who you are!”)

So, it is okay to admit you are “broke” right now, if this is the current truth. This will pass. How do you communicate this to others while still focusing on the positive and getting your needs met? Try this: “I’d love to go on our yearly Las Vegas trip, but my cash flow is down right now. How else can we have a lot of fun for less money? I really want to get together.” This is living in integrity with money. It is honest. And when you are honest, it allows others to be honest too.

Lastly, now is the time to start a gratitude practice. Make a list of all the things you are grateful for. Spend time on this list. When you focus on all the good things in your life, you feel better. And money flows easier when we feel good about ourselves, so stay focused on all the amazing goodness that is in your life.

A good friend of mine lies in bed every night going through all the things she is grateful for. She often falls asleep somewhere in the middle. She credits this practice with helping her get through a temporarily difficult financial time in her life. She stays focused on the positive.

So remember—being broke is temporary.  Be mindful of what you tell yourself. You are an abundant person. Remember that.

Want more help transforming your relationship to money? Check out all the eBooks, audios, and more robust products Mikelann has created. Are you ready to break free of the “money fog” and step into earning what you are worth? Are you are ready to get in touch with your emotions so you never feel out of control around money again? Are you ready to love your financial life? Let Mikelann help you get there. Free items are at the top of the page.

Goal Setting: Be Specific. Don’t just ask for “whatever”

Metaphysical Money Path

I love being self-employed because I always feel like I have such control over my life. Now we all know that this feels good and bad at different times. There is no one telling us what to do! (How often have I thought, “Should I be the one making this decision here? Surely someone else should make it!) But to me, being self-employed is about living life the way I want to live my life. It is about consciously creating my life on my own terms. My life is NOT accidental, even if I can’t always control everything that happens.

Planning and goal setting helps me guide my life. I’ve been reading and following Edwene Gaines’ work—she is a great prosperity teacher in the Unity church—which is part of the New Thought movement that I follow. (Edwene wrote The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity.) One of the laws of prosperity is learning how to set goals. Edwene says that being specific is crucial. (You can substitute the words “the universe” for God.) She writes

If you want to start effective goal-setting, where you are clearly conveying to God (the Universe) what it is that you want, then you’ve got to first get it clear in your own mind. After all, if you don’t even know what you want, how can you ask God to send it to you? Can you imagine calling up a clothing catalog company and telling the person who wants to take your order, “Just send me something you think I’d like”? It wouldn’t work at all.

Well, in the world of running your own business, the sky is the limit. What do you want to ask for? What are your specific goals? A couple of years ago my objective was to be more visible professionally. Well, that’s nice. It’s actually a great business objective, but not much of a goal. So one of my goals was to start writing a newsletter. I wanted lots of people to read me. I thought about it for a long time with no action. Then I realized it still wasn’t specific enough. There was no time line, for one thing. So I revised it to: My goal is to write a monthly newsletter by August 1st that I send to 1,000 people. I then wrote this down where I looked at it every day. It was still a bit overwhelming. So I started breaking it down.

Breaking a goal down into manageable steps is key. It is so satisfying to cross items off your to-do list! The first thing I did was block out one hour each week to work on the project. Then during that hour I started brainstorming topics, looked at newsletter templates and looked for an editor. I also realized I didn’t have 1000 people in my database! But as I kept looking at my goal, ideas kept coming to me. I did do a lot of speaking, but up until then, I had not collected many names. So I started collecting email addresses. I was so fixated on my goal that at one point I accepted a speaking engagement just so I could get to 1,000 names on my list! This is the power of goals.

It’s likely that you’ve read the end result of that goal. Now I put out a monthly newsletter as well as a blog. I wanted readers and I wanted to share my ideas. I’m glad I didn’t ask the universe to send me “whatever”.

One Way to Keep Your Goals in Front of You

Metaphysical Money Path, Practical Money Path

Well, it’s January and I am knee-deep in work. Luckily, I’ve also set some time aside to work on my goals for the year. I think the topic of goal setting gets a lot of lip service, but I suspect many of us fall short in actually setting good goals for our businesses.  What about you?

Part of the “gift” of being in business for yourself is that you have control over your work life—and control over the money you earn. Yes, yes. I know it doesn’t always feel that way! Self-employed women can earn less than their salaried counter-parts as we struggle with pricing ourselves right and being visible enough to land customers. But when you look at lists of wealthy women in the United States, you will see a large percentage went into their own business. Oh, the possibility! And what did they all do? Set goals!

Simply put, setting goals is key to earning more money. After all, being self-employed means you are the captain of your own ship. So where, exactly, are you steering your ship? Are you even steering? Or are you simply drifting about, happy that you are not sinking? (Are you pre-occupied with taking on water?) Goal setting is about setting a direction. You may not end up exactly where you thought, but you’ll land someplace really cool if you set the course and actively steer.

Over the years I’ve learned that goal- setting is not an event, but a process. For example, I have a spiral notebook that I carry with me everywhere. The front cover always says “work journal” with the date on it. I use this for to-do lists, ideas, note-taking etc. Not every page is important. But there IS gold in there at times. (Countless times I’ve written down a great idea and then forgotten about it. Later I go back and see it and think, “Wow, what a great idea I had!”) It takes me about six months to fill a notebook. I then put an end date on the cover and file it. I have about 15 of these now in my file cabinet. They are the true history of my business.

Why am I sharing this with you? On the very first page of each notebook I write down my current goals—both personal and professional. I make them “SMART”. (I’ll blog about that later.) Everyday, before I check my email, I open to the first page and read my current goals. I read them three times. Then I go about my day. Whenever I start a new spiral notebook, the first thing I do is re-write the goals into the first page, often changing them, dropping some I’ve accomplished and writing new ones. This makes it a living, breathing process.

 What can you do to make goal setting a process and not an event?

Voluntary simplicity vs. noble poverty- one woman’s story

Emotional Money Path

Susan walked into my office and flung herself in my chair. “I think it’s time to simplify. Yep, it’s got to be back to basics for me.” At 46, Susan was a successful psychotherapist who enjoyed her work, but was tired of feeling financially stressed out. She had come to me for typical reasons—credit card debt, underearning, and a pervasive feeling of being in a money fog. We had spent time looking at where her personal money went and started a proactive planning process about how she WANTED to spend her money. Big questions were coming up for her.

I asked her, “What does it mean to simplify? And do you want to simplify your life?” Big questions. One of the things we had discussed was the difference between “voluntary simplicity” and “noble poverty”.

Voluntary simplicity is the conscious choice to lead a simpler life. If you simplify your lifestyle, you may need less money for some things and your life may be less complicated. On the surface, Susan was really drawn to the idea. It sounded more spiritual to her. And she said that in the past she had felt guilty for wanting more money.

But I told her that those feelings of guilt were more likely indicative of being caught up in noble poverty, not a conscious choice to simplify. When people are caught up in noble poverty, they generally have an unconscious belief that money is bad, or really good people shouldn’t want a lot of money. And noble poverty often get’s confused with anti-materialism.

One way you can tell if someone is wrapped up in noble poverty is if they wear their frugality as a badge of honor. (“Look at me! See how little I can get by with!”)

Susan was starting to tap into a lot of good things she could do with money—better self care for herself was at the top of the list. She counseled her clients to take better care of themselves but often felt like she didn’t have the money to nourish herself the way she wanted to.

Susan also really wanted to give money to some great causes, as well as her church. Personally, I think that giving away money in a conscious manner is very important to keep the flow of money moving in your life. Consciousness is key, though.

I also pointed out that voluntary simplicity was not the same thing as suppressing one’s income. Just because someone simplifies her life is no reason to make less money. True, simplifying may take some financial pressure off. Susan had decided, for example, to take a less expensive vacation. (At first she was going to cancel her vacation due to cost, but she had a real need to take time away. We found a way to satisfy this need with less money.)

And there are many wonderful uses of money. Buying local is more expensive then going to Wal-Mart. We do want to give to good causes. And making enough money helps secure our retirement.

Susan did decide to simplify parts of her life, though in a very conscious way. She made sure she identified what she really needed. She decided to spend less on some things so she could spend more in other areas she really cared about. But as she became more conscious about money, she decided that she did want to earn more. She raised her rates (which were under her colleagues rates), tightened her cancellation policy and focused on a new specialty.

In the end, she lowered some of her expenses and raised her income. Wow. She felt freer. She gave more money away and she saved more money.

One day Susan said, “Before, I was “simplifying” my life out of fear. Truthfully, I was just depriving myself. I guess there really is nothing noble about being poor…. Now, I feel so free that I could burst!”

Get conscious about your money. It’s your life and you have many options. But I agree with Susan—there is nothing noble about poverty. If you decide to simplify your life, do it carefully and thoughtfully. Think about what you really need. And don’t assume you can’t raise your income also.

So here is to earning what you’re really worth AND spending your money consciously.

Ode to Five Percent—Coping with Client Cancellations

Practical Money Path

It’s snowing outside. And here in Seattle, where there are (maybe) three snowplows, everything stops. I mean everything. And of course this fairly rare occurrence would fall during one of my busiest client weeks. I could just scream! I am stacked back-to-back with clients every day this week, partially because I am not seeing clients the last two weeks of December. Today, I can’t even get to my office. And even if I could, many of my clients could not get to me. (Of course my clients that hale from the mid west laugh at us ridiculous Seattlites, and then exude exasperation as they take their four wheel drive vehicles onto roads that are not cleared of snow and try to weave between Seattle drivers who don’t know how to drive in the snow. It’s like being inside a video game. But I digress.)

The bottom line is that this is costing me a lot of money. So what is to be done? First of all, as soon as the weather forecasters started forecasting, I sent a proactive email to all my clients scheduled this week with a snow back-up plan. I offered to convert their appointments to the phone. Several took me up on it right away, as this is also a busy time of year. (Yes, not all of you can do your work via phone, I know. You can’t mail in your haircuts….) For my part, I took all my client files home with me on Tuesday in case I was at home the rest of the week.

Yesterday, I worked at home on the phone and “saw” many clients. It was quite nice, actually.

But there are some clients that I simply have to see in person. Two of those clients are cancelling today and will be re-scheduled for January. This one is truly no one’s fault. Many of my clients are self-employed and they “get it”. They don’t lightly cancel on me. (I have a clear cancellation policy in place that I do enforce, so generally speaking, my clients are very respectful.) But if neither of us can leave our house, well….

Why am I not super stressed out? (Okay, this is stressing me out somewhat.) Because at the end of every month, I add up my total business revenue (the total amount that was paid to me that month) and I tuck away 5% of it into a separate saving account. This is not my tax savings account. That is different (and a higher percentage!) This is simply my “five percent fund”—my business safety net account. A safety net account is used when there is an interruption in income, regardless of the reason. That is it’s only purpose. Maybe you pull from it to go on vacation (no clients that week!) Or maybe you pull from it when it snows and many of your clients cancel.

Sigh. At least it is very beautiful here. But I do confess that I’m one of those awful snow drivers you don’t want out on the roads.

How much is 2009 going to cost me? Being proactive helps combat fear

Practical Money Path

As you read previously, I’ve been working on my 2009 income and spending plan for the Women’s Earning Institute. I planned out all my income streams for 2009. It was quite lovely. Then I had to plan out what it would cost me…. The process below is what I would recommend you do for yourself—it is how to think about your own business money plan for the year.

There is a lot of fear in the air. Taking the time to actively plan before the year starts off helps us feel like we are in control. Don’t get caught in being reactive. Take the time to plan!

Periodic Expenses
Before I got too far, I made a list of my business “periodic expenses”. This is something I have my clients do. I have some business expenses that don’t pop up every single month, so if I don’t list them out, they can feel very “unexpected” when they do come up. For me, this is things like travel expenses, annual membership expenses and computer upgrades. Take the time to think about your irregular periodic expenses. (Periodic expenses are one reason why business owners underestimate the cost of business—they don’t come every month.)

Needs and Wants
Next, I spent time thinking about what my business needed and wanted this year. For example, I WANT to go to a couple of expensive trainings. And I want to renew an expensive membership I have, though I could let it go. I need to upgrade my computer. I need a new office chair. I want to hire a particular marketing consultant. I simply listed out my business “needs” and “wants”. Some of these things were on my periodic expenses list. Some came up for me as I simply thought about what I really wanted and needed in my business. What do you need and want for your business this year?

Expenses
Then I started working on my expenses for 2009. (I use a special planning tool that is a program that runs in Excel. I use it with many of my clients—be it personal or business finances we are looking at.) I simply went through my spending plan and put down what each category would cost me—rent times 12 months. Phone times 12 months etc. I put in all my “periodic expenses” like travel and computer upgrades.  I put in a lot of my needs and wants. Most important—I put in my salary! Wouldn’t it be great if I could increase it this year? This process will help me figure that out.

Big Picture
In the end, I sat back and looked at what my 2009 income plan was for my business and what my 2009 expense plan was for my business. Guess what—it didn’t work. Sigh. But that’s okay. The first time through feels a little bit like a skeleton plan. It gives me something to work on and think about. There are some decisions I need to make and seeing this laid out before me really has me thinking hard….

Tomorrow I’m taking my entire plan to a coffee shop to keep thinking. I’ve got to get this plan into balance! It makes no sense to start off the year with a plan that is out of balance.  Having a plan helps banish free floating anxiety! (Call me if you need help creating your own income and spending plan. 206-634-0861. Or see link to my private work.) I wish you abundance as you plan your next year.  Remember, you can be in control of your life and business.

Time to make a plan for 2009 income—and open up to prosperity

Metaphysical Money Path, Practical Money Path

I’ve been busy creating my 2009 income and spending plan for next year, for the Women’s Earning Institute. I do this work with clients all the time, and know first hand how powerful it is. (Don’t think for a minute that I don’t practice what I preach!) An annual income and spending plan process incorporates looking back at what worked and didn’t work, dreaming about your future, goal setting, running scenarios, looking at costs and getting realistic, all in one!

This is also about opening up to more prosperity in your life. The law of attraction, which so many people talk about, demands that we be specific in what we are trying to attract to us. So give yourself something specific to focus on! Exactly how much money do you plan on making in 2009?

The first thing I did was take a good hard look at this year’s plan. I looked at what I planned for my various income streams for 2008. Some things went exactly according to plan. I planned how much money I was going to make in my private money coaching practice, and it came in just about as planned. I planned my business support groups income, and there were no surprises there either. (Though knowing what the plan was for the year kept me focused on keeping my groups full!) But some of my income streams didn’t pan out. As some of you know, I’ve killed some programs. And I’ve launched programs that were never in my original plan for 2008. Back in July I took a good hard look at my 2008 plan and made some serious adjustments in some of my plans. What a relief to be able to adjust!

These past weeks I’ve been debating my income streams for 2009. (I’ll talk about expenses in my next post.) I’ve gone to a coffee shop on more than one occasion with a calculator, notebook and hardcopy printout of my 2008 plan and actuals. Then I’ve listed out what I WANT to do in 2009. For example, I want to continue seeing private clients. I want to continue my groups. Then I listed out my other income streams: the rate-setting toolkit, live seminars, other product ideas, my 12 week (3 month) teleclass program, etc.

I kept asking myself: how do I want to spend my time? What makes me happiest? What do I want to do more of this year? What do I want to do less of? And how can I open up and stay open to more prosperity and abundance? I’ve done a lot of journaling in the last month!

Then I played with my trusty calculator and started running various scenarios. How many rate-setting tool kits do I plan to sell this year? I wrote down the total amount that I want the toolkits to generate. How many women do I want in my 3 month overcoming underearning teleclasses? How much money would this be? How many times will I offer live seminars on rate-setting and at what price point?

You get the point. It feels expansive and, truthfully, a bit overwhelming at the moment. I am planning some things that I know I’ll need help with. (Remember, I’ll talk about expenses in my next post.) But I am in charge of my life and my business. I have to decide what direction I want to go in. This is about living a conscious life. I’m not going to wander into 2009 without a good plan! Oh no. Of course, plans change and need to be adjusted. That is life. But a good plan will take you far. As for me, planning has taken me a long way!

Twitter and Social networking: How to avoid blurring lines and wasting time

Practical Money Path

Well, I’ve done it. I’m on Twitter (www.twitter.com/mikelann) and Facebook. Whether you call them social networking, microblogging, or life-streaming applications, they are here. The internet is changing right beneath my feet. So I jumped in. With both feet.

The obvious challenge is how to avoid wasting all your time wading through these sites while you try to find something meaningful and ideally post something relevant. (How much meaning can there be in 148 characters?!) For a long time I was part of the crowd that said they would “Twitter” when hell froze over. (I don’t need a chirp every time someone goes to the post office and sends out a tweet to let everyone know they crossed something off their to-do list. )

But…. The internet is changing. For business owners, social networking is the next wave of marketing and relationship building. (But it cannot replace face-to-face networking!)  You can ignore it, but there are risks. For one thing, email is becoming more and more problematic. For example, I write a great newsletter and send it out to my subscribers. But I know full well how many of my brilliant thoughts go straight to spam, and how many more simply never get opened because people are overwhelmed with their inbox. Now, I can post my articles on my site, and send out a 2-line synopsis to various sites. If you want more, click and read.

With Twitter, I post a “thought” each day on how to earn your worth. And there are people I do follow myself. Anyone can “follow” me on Twitter. I may or may not follow them back. I keep Facebook for colleagues and people I know. That is how I do it. Ask me next month and it may be different!

Still, the issue for many of us is how to make this really worth our while. And small business owners often have a hard time separating their business life from their personal life, and these applications can tempt us to blur the line even more. I do carefully protect my time, and needless-to-say, social networking CAN become a time-sucking vortex. So I NEVER check my work email on the weekend or in the evenings. (Read that again.) Hence, I never check social networking sites outside of business hours. This keeps me sane. I also only access Twitter via the web—not on my phone. Again, that is me.

I keep all my social networking business related and associate it with my business email address. Of course I post personal information at times, but clients and potential clients may read me, so I keep it pretty professional. (And I do enjoy catching up with what my colleagues are doing.)

I schedule time each work week to write and then schedule my posts. I can schedule my blog posts and there are applications to let you schedule your Twitter thoughts too. (I haven’t done it yet but will check it out soon.) Right now, I am spending 15 minutes a day on social networking. It’s part marketing and part relationship building. There are also applications that let you update many social networking sites at once. For now, my Twitter site updates my Facebook site. I’ll blog again as I figure out the applications. (And be sure to leave a comment with your own thoughts and suggestions.)

This is evolving and I am learning a ton. Yes, relationship building is important and applications such as Twitter and Facebook do allow us to stay connected. But like I said– small business owners often have a hard time separating their business life from their personal life, and these applications can tempt us to blur that line. Resist. Be intentional with your time and decide how you want to spend it. Figure out what works for you. Decide how you will integrate this into your workday and keep your personal time for personal pursuits. But during business hours? Follow me on Twitter! www.twitter.com/mikelann