All posts by SeattleMoneyCoach

Seven real reasons why women are behind in retirement

Underearning 101

I can’t resist commenting on this bankrate.com article titled Why Women Fall Behind in Retirement, by Sheyna Steiner. I was pretty impressed with it. It didn’t give simple answers. The reality is that we are behind in our retirement savings for complex reasons—a huge one being that we don’t make as much money as men do!!!

But this article also commented on the fact that so many women are ambivalent about finances. They find finances “boring” and let their partners handle it. Working women also do way more chores than working men and thus have less time to attend to personal financial planning. (I say that the greatest discrimination in the United States happens in the home!!!) And women are so focused on taking care of other people (like funding their children’s college) that they risk their own futures.

When you add to these reasons the fact that women are more risk adverse then men and report that they feel less confident then men do with managing money, well, it is no surprise that only 20% of women feel they will have enough money in retirement. It’s a short article and packed with a lot of food for thought. Share the article with other women and start talking about these factors. Silence does us no good.

It’s time to tighten your cancellation policy

Practical Money Path

Remember that underearning is the pattern of earning below your potential. In order to avoid it, you must charge appropriately for your time and you must protect your time. If you are in a service based business, you must make sure your time stays filled with clients. It doesn’t matter if you always charge your full fee if you are plagued with no-shows and late cancellations. This requires two things: you must have a cancellation policy and you must enforce your cancellation policy.

Give every new client a written copy of your cancellation policy. It can be simple and included with other information, such as how to pay you. Here is mine:

Cancellation Policy: I require 48 hours to cancel your appointment. (This allows me to sometimes put other clients in your cancelled spot.) When possible, I will attempt to accommodate a moved appointment with less notice. But if the appointment cannot be moved to a different slot in the same week, this will count as a cancelled appointment if there was less then 48 hours notice. No shows and last minute cancellations will be billed at the full rate as a private session.

Feel free to use it. But here is a crucial point. It is not enough to simply hand new clients a form and have them sign it. You must point it out and talk about it. Give them examples. For instance, I say, “Yes, I really do have a two day cancellation policy so I can fill your spot. So if you are going to cancel on Wednesday, please let me know by Monday. And if you are not feeling well on Monday and think you MIGHT cancel your appointment, let me know what is going on…..”

You MUST talk about it. Out loud. But even that is not enough. Every January, I remind all my current clients about my cancellation policy. I give them the written policy again and tell them, “I know you already know my 2 day cancellation policy, but every January I give everyone a copy again…” (So they don’t think you are singling them out.)

Lately I’ve found that even THAT is not enough. People are very squirrelly lately with the economy. So last week I took a bright green stickie and wrote “48 hours” on it and put it in my appointment book. Every client that booked with me last week received a verbal reminder about my cancellation policy. The stickie just reminded me to remind them. So tighten up your policy!

Stressed about the economy? Five things to do to help yourself and your business

Metaphysical Money Path, Practical Money Path

When my local barista (someone who makes coffee- I’m in Seattle!) greets me with, “Hey, haven’t seen you in a while. How are you surviving this economic crisis?!” You know everyone is worried.

Let me share a few things that will help you.

First, stay out of the money fog. This is the worst time to be foggy. Keep your business account balanced and stay on top of paying bills. I know this is hard if you are worried about money. But if you spend more time on money, you will likely make some different decisions about how you are spending your business money. Make sure you always know what your balance is. No one ever benefited from free-floating anxiety. Get clear.

Second, look at your expenses. I took a hard look at my business expenses recently. I went through them all line by line and lowered a few. (You can scan your QuickBooks register or go through your on-line banking, line by line.) I don’t throw the baby out with the bath water, though. Some things I need to keep putting money into to keep growing, such as professional development and support. But some things can wait. I decided against a business trip/conference I really wanted to attend. And some tasks I can do myself. It’s hard, because I would prefer to delegate more tasks to my assistant. But there are a few tasks I have temporarily taken back to keep my business expenses down.

Third, tighten your cancellation policy. Simply put, I have been reminding all my clients about my cancellation policy. My clients know I will enforce it if they cancel at the last minute, so guess what—they show up or give me plenty of notice. (I’ll do a whole post on how to do this one next week.)

Fourth, stay curious. I say to myself, “I’m curious if anyone will be interested in this program.” “I wonder what will happen.” I stay curious, as opposed to worried. When worry comes up, I replace it with curiosity. I know that sounds simple, but it helps. Stay curious.

Fifth, remain grateful. Last Tuesday I went in early, grabbed a notebook and went to a café before seeing clients. I sat there and created a gratitude list. I listed out all the things I was grateful for in my business and career. It really made me think. It wasn’t easy at first and I started with small things. But by the end, I felt a whole lot better.

We will get through this difficult time. So hang on.

I’m perfecting the art of learning to fail fast (you should too.)

Emotional Money Path

One of the most important aspects of achieving success in self-employment is learning to fail fast. Not failing doesn’t seem to be an option. Now I don’t mean “failing” in the oh-my-god-I-have-to-go-back-to-the-cubicle way. No. I mean all those small “failures”—our new niches that don’t work out; our new products that don’t sell; our seminars that don’t get filled. Women are so afraid of the word failure. We take it personally. We translate it to “We failed” instead of “Well, it looks like that new program didn’t work out”.

Case in point. I have killed a program- the Virtual Earn Your Worth monthly program for self-employed women. Perhaps I didn’t let it run long enough. Perhaps. But I think there were some serious flaws in it and I learned some really good lessons. For example, I tried some new technology and in reality, in was a pain in the butt and people didn’t really use it. I think a more important learning was that once a month is simply not often enough to meet as a group, if it is not in person.

The point is, when a program or product doesn’t work and you kill it, you have to learn as much as you can from the experience. But first you have to grieve it. I was really bummed for a couple of weeks. I wallowed away in indecision at first, then pulled the plug and wallowed some more. (If you read my blog, you know I hang out with plenty of supportive women who keep me balanced.)

When the wallowing was done, I listed out what I learned. I mean, this is an expensive lesson! I sure as hell better learn a lot!!! I think of the movie Awakenings, with Robert Deniro and Robin Williams. Deniro’s character has “awakened” from a debilitating disease due to the help of Robin William’s doctor character. But then Deniro’s character starts deteriorating again. It is just heart breaking! Robin Williams films his patient, trying to study the illness. At one point, in the middle of a filming session, Deniro’s character has an acute attack and Williams stops filming him out of pity. But Deniro begs him to keep filming him, shouting, “Learn! Learn! Learn!”

Okay, perhaps that is too dramatic, but you get the point. When things don’t work out, it is painful. But if you are going to “fail”, learn all you can from it. Learn! All learning is expensive, so make it pay. Whether you learn in the classroom or from the school of hard knocks, learn your lessons well. Don’t wallow too long. But don’t be afraid to fail. If you never fail, you are not taking enough risks.

I finally launched the program that people have been asking me for. Mikelann’s Three Month Conquering Underearning Program is a simple 12 teleclass program over three months. One class a week for 12 weeks. The Phoenix has risen out of the ashes.

How I cope with the stress of being visible (the hard part of being self-employed)

Emotional Money Path

Melody Ivory asked me a great question when she interviewed me recently (listen to the first audio with Melody- 12:58 minutes)—what is the most difficult part of being an agent of change? Said another way, what is the most difficult part of being successful? The answer was easy. The most difficult part of success to me is having to be so visible. I have to really put myself out there, and that is stressful and anxiety-provoking. I really do want people to like me, like most people pleasers, and I know that if I am really visible, chances are that I will rub someone the wrong way. Yep, not everyone will like me. Gulp.

My friend Joan Casey, a therapist who specializes in boundary issues, always says if everyone likes you, you must be doing something strange. Not everyone in the world is going to like you! If they do, you must be pretty bland Yuck. I don’t want to be bland.

And the truth is that I am pretty intense, and this intensity comes across in my talks. Undoubtedly my intensity rubs some people the wrong way. I could “tone it down”, but I don’t. I figure that people will self-select. I am simply too much for some people, or they don’t like my style. That is the way it is. That is not to say that I don’t strive to be a better speaker/facilitator/teacher. We can all improve our skills. And my topic is very sensitive, so I do need to be careful at times. But the truth remains that I am pretty intensive and I like to get down to brass tacks- both practically and emotionally. So there.

Having said all there, it is still difficult for me to really put myself out there at times. I suffer from the Good Girl Syndrome like so many others. Of course I want people to like me and I don’t like to piss people off. I really don’t. (Though I confess that making people a little uncomfortable at times can be a useful thing to create change…..)

The real question is this: how do I manage my anxiety and stress? Not having anxiety and stress doesn’t seem to be an option. I’m always growing, always at my own leading edge of change. I don’t sit still. So I use “The Sisterhood”. I have great women friends who are also self-employed. And we talk. I mean, we really talk. And walk. (And drink sometimes too.) My friend Kathy Clayton is a great personal coach in Seattle. And she is amazingly honest and self-revealing with her friends. We walk around our local park and share what is working and NOT working in our businesses. We share mistakes we’ve made. It’s amazing to me how it helps my stress to “confess” my foibles and mess-ups.

Create your own sisterhood. Start a dinner group of self-employed women. You will have the juiciest conversation imaginable. You simply must find ways to manage your anxiety so you can continue being visible. (Listen to Mikelann’s 12:58 minute interview)

What did I have to give up to be successful in self-employment? Being scattershot

Practical Money Path, Underearning 101

In a recent interview, (The first one- 12:58 minutes long) Melody Ivory asked me a great question— “What do I have to give up, in order to make money?” What?? You mean, we don’t get to have it all? Nope, we don’t. I always think of the saying: You can have anything you want. But you can’t have everything you want.

I told her that I’ve had to resist becoming scatter-shot in my business offerings. I’ve had to hone my message and develop a more laser-like approach to my marketing. This is hard because there are many things I like to teach and write about.  For example, I could teach seminars on how to get out of debt, or how couple’s can communicate about money better. I have done these things and I do offer seminars on them sometimes. But these topics don’t come up in my primary marketing message. If you are seen as a “jack of all trades” you are not perceived as a specialist or go-to-expert for help in a needed area. You water down your message.

I think this is very hard for women .We have so many interests that we worry we will become bored with a single topic. And we naturally gravitate to being multi-dimensional since we seem ready made to multi-task. (Yes, I really can cook dinner, pay bills and supervise my son’s homework while talking to my mom on the phone! And I know you can do this too.) 

But if we practice a scattershot approach in our work and constantly change what we offer, we will confuse our audience and target market.

I had a colleague say to me, “I really admire that you can still focus on one topic. I get too bored to do that.” Well, first of all, it helps that my “topic” of women’s money and earning issues is very complex. It keeps me interested, to be certain. And if I did change horses (now I am the get-out-of-debt expert, for example) then what would become of my marketing from two years ago? I can’t tell you how many times people call me up for help and say, “I heard you speak three years ago…” What if I’d moved on to a new service? As much as we don’t want to hear it, it takes time to build a business. Don’t be scattershot. It just doesn’t pay as much.

So what have I given up? I’ve had to put a lid on some of my professional passions and interests. But I’ve learned that  if I target my meta marketing message, I still have room to offer other things that interest me, to my audience. But I don’t confuse my audience. And you shouldn’t either. If people are not crystal clear about what you do and what you offer, they will simply move on. That sounds harsh, but that is what everyone does. One of the keys to earning your worth is focusing in on what you offer. Trust me. You’ll make more money. (listen to Mikelann’s 12:58 minute interview)

Email as the new slot machine: stop underearning by constantly grazing your inbox

Practical Money Path

Recently I taught a class conquering underearning to a group of women in small businesses. We were talking about all the common ways women sometimes undersell themselves. Several of the women brought up time management. I’ve really pondered this, because time management wasn’t on my original list of “12 ways self-employed women undersell themselves.” However, if we can’t manage our time effectively and efficiently, we will underearn without a doubt! You simply can’t make the type of money you are truly worth if you fritter your time away on endless tasks that don’t really move your business foreword. My current favorite culprit: email.

We seem to treat our email like a giant slot machine. We are constantly checking it. Did something important or really cool pop into our in-box? Usually not. But sometimes! We are training ourselves just like those dogs we read about in our college psychology 101 courses. (Pavlov? Help me out here. That was a while ago!) We can’t seem to stop checking it!

Of course the darker side of email is that when we don’t check it, we feel like we fall behind. There will simply be more to sort through. I’m starting to read more and more articles on the time-sucking and energy sapping vortex that is email. I’ll share more answers with you as I play with various solutions. But there is one constant answer that really seems to work. Are you ready? Check your email only twice a day. And the most important thing of all- don’t check it first thing in the morning. Get something more important done first.

I hear the gasp. Many of us are trained to grab that cup of coffee and turn on the slot machine. But then we are thrown into reactive mode. We are immediately reacting to what comes in, letting our in-box dictate the most productive hours of our day. What if you were in charge of your time and not your in-box?

Case in point. The last thing I do each work day is create a fresh to-do list for the following day. I pick one task to work on in the morning. It is usually something that requires thought and uninterrupted time. (Neither of these works well in email land.) When I come in in the morning, this is the task that occupies my time while I drink my coffee. THEN I check my email. Right now it is 9am. I have been thinking about my blog and writing this post for about 30 minutes. I have not checked my email. I will dig through it at 10am and again at about 2pm. Now, I am not seeing clients today, so my schedule is different than client days. I have to adjust accordingly. But you get the point.

Most experts now say to turn your email off when you are not checking it. Stop grazing. And definitely turn off that pop-up window that shows you new email has arrived with the first alluring sentence. Turn off your email alerts. It will be there when you next check it.

Get something meaningful done. Stop letting the slot machine dictate your day.

What to say when someone says, “Can I pick your brain?”

Practical Money Path

 One of my newsletter readers recently wrote me with this question:

We are often asked for “advice” or asked “can I pick your brain?”  which often ends up being far more than just one question.  These kinds of inquiries often are more like consultations.  How can we stop giving away our valuable experience for free?

This is a wonderful question—one that I know a lot of us can identify with. First of all, when people corner you and ask for “quick” free advice, it is because:

  • They truly don’t understand the complexity of what they are asking
  • They are in their own world and unaware of how much time this is really taking
  • They don’t know you offer consultations on this exact issue
  • They are simply trying to get something for free.

Or any combination above. The first rule of thumb is to set an external deadline. “I have about five minutes before I need to go/ meet so and so/ make a phone call”. Yes, of course we can simply say that we are only going to give them so much “free time” but this often feels uncomfortable. So coming up with an external deadline makes it easier, even if you fake it.

But here is some food for thought. When people ask for free advice, it is really a marketing opportunity. Think of them actually saying, “Are you really an expert on this? Can you really help me? Please educate me on how to use your services.” Instead of saying all of that, they simply ask you a “quick” question.

So try this response. “That is a great question. It is something I consult with people on all the time. When I meet with them, I cover these related issues….. I bet you can see how these issues all inter-relate. Do you want me to send you my latest newsletter?”

For example, if someone asks me a “quick question” on how much money they should charge for their service, I respond this way. “That is a really good question. I do a lot of rate-setting consultations, as you can imagine. In a two hour session we cover issues like how to go about the research, what differentiates your service, and what are the underlying emotional issues that may be getting in the way. Then we develop an actual strategy to raise your fees. Do you want me to send you a great short article I just wrote on one of these aspects?”

The point of your response should be to:

  • Establish your credibility
  • Educate them on how to work with you
  • Create a connection (if you want one)

I hope that helps. What thoughts do you have on this important topic? How do you respond when people want a “quick moment” of your valuable time?

Small Business Recession woes? Take advantage of your down time

Practical Money Path

There is that word again. People are jittery and business may be down for you. But if you have more time on your hands, this can be a valuable thing. 

A client emailed me to say that she is proud she has not discounted herself even though her business is down. Since she had recently raised her fees, she is not hurting as badly as she would have been. She may hold on raising her fees again, though. But she does have more holes in her schedule. Here is what she wrote me:

 

I am focusing instead on using those gaping holes in my calendar to learn new skills and get my office de-cluttered and re-organized to energize my physical space for “incoming money”.  These new skills will let me be ready when new clients ask for those things.  I’m taking more short walks and working in my garden more to fuel my body and spirit so I’ll be physically and mentally refreshed when business does pick up again! 

 

This is the right attitude to have and I simply couldn’t have said it better myself. When I have downtime, I go to my “back burner” list. I catch up on blogging (like right now!). I recently updated my bio on my website when I had some client cancellations, and I spend time networking when my days are freer. When I am very busy, it’s difficult to find time to connect with people. So how can you best take advantage of your own “down time” and use it to propel your business forward? What have you been putting off doing due to lack of time???

Lessons from bikini waxing: don’t leave money on the table

Practical Money Path

I have a great bikini waxer. (Ok, there is a lot of Mediterranean in me. Need I say more?) But I realized one day that I didn’t know what other services she offered, and I was curious. (Talking takes your mind off the pain.) I mean, she couldn’t spend the entire day ripping out women’s leg hair, could she? Turns out she does massage, facials and all sorts of neat stuff. I told her to post a big fat menu of her services on the wall so all of her clients would be clear what else she could do for them. I mean, if I didn’t know, I bet other people don’t either! She said she just assumed that people knew the array of services she is licensed to give. (She is an aesthetician.)  

I stared up at her from my prone position. I can’t even spell aesthetician. Besides, that’s not the point. Even if her clients did know all her services, she would still sell more services if there was a beautiful menu to shop from, hanging right at eye level….

So last week I went in and there it was. A great menu. (I had no idea how many services I really want and need!) I asked her more about her massage services and she told me she does this really cool Balinese massage. As she described it, I wanted it! But how the heck would I even know she offered that? I told her she had to put up a special framed description of this particular massage and post it where all her clients would see it.

The point? With everyone worried about bringing in new business, there is money to be made from your current clients! Don’t assume people know every service you offer. And if they do, remind them of your offerings.

Are your current clients clear about all your services?