Category Archives: Practical Money Path

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 

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.

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?

Small Business Recession Woes: avoid the temptation to discount your services

Practical Money Path, Underearning 101

The word “recession” is in the air and lots of people are nervous. Businesses are reporting that new business is down and current clients are taking longer to pay. What is a small business gal to do? First of all, don’t panic!! This is normal. Yes, it is normal. The economy goes up and down, and business slow downs are a normal part of life. And I know you may be tempted to discount your services, but resist. Remember, you are charging people for the value you bring, not the exact amount of time you put in.

One key to surviving a recession is to focus on your current clients. It is far easier to sell to current clients than it is to bring in new clients. Bringing in new clients takes time and money. Marketing is expensive, even if you shoe-string it. And remember, your time IS money. (I am not saying to stop all marketing. No, no, no. You want to keep your pipe-line full. )

A former client emailed me to say that she is picking her 10 most high-value clients and taking them out to coffee or lunch, one per week, to thank them for their continuing business and referrals. Since she has more time on her hands due to business slowing down, this is a great way to spend it. But she is not discounting her services for these people. They know her and like her.

Instead of discounting, can you find a way to add more value to your current clients? (The woman above took them to coffee or lunch!) Perhaps you can offer an additional service to your current clients, with their pocket book in mind. In my case, I run groups. It is less expensive to attend my groups than to work with me one-on-one. I’ve had some clients cut back their one-on-one time with me and attend these groups. This way, they get lots of value and pay less.

 

Stay focused on your current clients and take good care of them. But always go the added-value route. Not the discount route.

Escape the Money Fog and Earn More (article from Mikelann’s newsletter)

Practical Money Path, Underearning 101

A dense fog surrounds some of us—a money fog. This fog wraps us in a fuzzy embrace, whispering that perhaps everything is ok. Maybe you have enough money. Maybe everything will be just fine. Maybe. But an ever-present anxiety seems to go hand in hand with this fog.

When you don’t know exactly how much money you have, how much money you owe, or where all your money is going, you are in a money fog. It’s that last one that is a particular problem when it comes to earning enough money to live the life you want.

Think of it this way—if you don’t know where all your money is truly going, (not what you THINK you spend) do you really know how much money you need to earn?

Of course this gets complicated fast because many of us are uncomfortable with where some of our money goes. And some of us feel that there is not enough money to begin with, so looking at our financial lives feels depressing. (We just know we need to earn more….) But this leads to vagueness and stress. If you walk around saying “I need to earn more money!” this will likely lead to free-floating anxiety. It is simply not very helpful. How much more do you need to earn, really?

I had one client track where all her personal money was going. (Gulp!) After a few months, the money fog started to recede. She got clear about what she actually needed. (And yes, she did make some spending changes when she saw what was actually happening.) Then, when we looked at her small business, we were able to see exactly what she needed to earn. We broke this down into how many more clients she needed to see. I had her raise her rates. We started planning her business spending. And one day, she realized that that ever-present anxiety was gone.

Here are the common signs of being in a money fog:

  • You don’t balance your bank account
  • You don’t know where all your money goes (both in your personal life and in your business)
  • You don’t know what you owe in debt
  • You are not clear on your investments
  • You have no plan for how you want to spend your money in your personal life and your business life.

If you identify with any aspect of the money fog, start by picking ONE action you can take. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Do you know a friend who regularly balances her bank account? I suspect she would be happy to share with you how she does it. Can you pull out your credit card statements and write down all the balances on a sheet of paper?

If you are feeling foggy and overwhelmed, try this: print out your on-line bank statements from the beginning of the year and write down all your income deposits on a sheet of paper, by month. You will see what you are earning each month. Do this for June also, and you will have six months of data to look at. (If you divide the total by the number of months worked, you will have your average monthly income.) Then double this six month total. If you continue to earn at the same rate, this is how much you will bring in for the year. How do you feel about this? (Is it time to charge more money?)

Coming out of the money fog is a process. It takes time. But when the fog clears, you can see your life ahead of you. Possibilities take shape. You are in control and life is good.