Posts Tagged ‘mindset’

You can be your own best friend or your own worst enemy.  It is the beliefs you have about yourself, others or situations that moves you forward or holds you back. Your belief system creates how you see the world and the possibilities or barriers within it.   When self-limiting beliefs create roadblocks to your success, the result can stop you from living your best life.

A couple of months ago I attended the W.I.S.E. Women’s Annual Breakfast hosted by the Greater Lowell Chamber of Commerce. The guest speaker was Hank Phillippi Ryan successful author and award-winning investigative reporter for WHDH TV Boston.

Hank told the story of when she was writing her first book, Prime Time. She was speaking with her mother telling her that she was unsure if she could finish the book; she questioned if she had what it took to complete the project. Very simply her mom replied, “You will if you want to.”

How many times have you started a new project or was in the process of announcing a new product or service when you stopped and began to have doubts whether or not you could pull it off? I know that I have had those doubts creep into my mind on more than one occasion. But I also know that Hank’s mom was 100% correct when she passed on those words of wisdom to her daughter.

I want you to think for a moment about the conversations you have had with yourself today. Did you tell yourself you were phenomenal, successful and talented or did you tell yourself you were unorganized, forgetful, and lazy?

Most of the time we don’t even realize that the negative thoughts are playing like a tape over and over again in our head.  They have found a place in our mind so comfortable that we accept them as true rather than what they really are, an unproven self-limiting thought.

Your mind is an incredible tool that believes what you tell it, so why not challenge the self-limiting beliefs you currently hold as true.  What if you discovered that they were not true and could finally discard them and create true direction instead of a misguided story line?

When you banish self-limiting thoughts, you can make significant changes and begin to live life with joy, power and clarity. That clarity will allow you to see things differently.  It is a wonderful experience to be free of those negative beliefs and to make room for positive thoughts that move your forward!

As a business coach, I hear these negative beliefs from my clients all the time. We work through them by having them challenge their thinking and replace them with a new belief that is true or truer than the original.

Author Byron Katie, has done a phenomenal job in addressing limiting beliefs in her book titled The Work. I suggest you read the book to get the full understanding on the methodology. In part Katie suggests that we challenge each limiting belief by asking four questions:

1. Is it true? The answer is a “yes” or a “no” only.  If your answer is “no”, continue to question three.
2. Can you absolutely know that it is true? What proof do you have that it is true?  It most cases you will find it is not true.
3. How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?
4. Who would you be without the thought? Close your eyes and drop your story just for a moment and notice, who would you be without that thought? Who would you be without your story? How about if you were not capable of believing that thought.  Turn the thought around. Reverse the thought as many ways as you can and ask yourself if these reverse versions seem as true as or truer than your original thought.  http://www.thework.com

By challenging those negative thoughts you are now free to replace it with thoughts that empower you and move you forward into the business and life that you want.

Picture this…

You’ve just had a great meeting with a potential client and you’re ready to reveal your fee.  You smile and tell them your rate; you go cold waiting for their response.

While you are anxiously awaiting their response crazy thoughts are running through your head like a steam roller.

Will she hire me?

Will she think I priced my service too high?

You hear “Your hired!” and a wave of  other thoughts begin to flood your mind…now you begin to second guess your pricing!

Did I low ball it in order to get the job?

Should I have gone higher?

You know what I am talking about; you’ve been there and you know what’s coming next.  The project always takes more time than you realize and you end up feeling overworked, undervalued and underpaid.

So what is a phenomenal woman to do who knows that she is worth so much more but is not sure about setting her fees?  Follow these tips for better fee setting.

1.  Know What You Are Worth

When you are setting fees how do you go about landing on a price?  Do you throw darts and see where it lands?  Pick a price out of a hat?  Or worse yet do you look to your competition to see what they’re charging?

None of those methods are going to give a price point that addresses YOUR worth.

If you bill hourly remember that many factors go into determining your price point.  So many entrepreneurs fail to consider all the factors so remember the following:

• First figure out how much you want to be making a year
• What are your subcontractor expenses (if you have any)
• What are your other expenses
• How much profit do you want to make
• All these factors make up  your “required revenue”
• Divide your “required revenue” by number of billable hours and you have your rate.  Don’t forget that your total number of billable hours is never 40 hours a week.

Is this rate acceptable?  If not raise your fees.

2.  Give Them Results

Clients are paying you for results.  Technically they’re paying for a service but in reality they are buying a solution.   It’s your job to make sure that you communicate those results clearly so that people know what to expect.

Will she get more clients?  Streamline her processes?  Be more confident when having a selling conversation?  Know the benefits and communicate them effectively!

3. Create A Haggle Free Mindset

Don’t haggle with clients about money.  You’re not selling junk at a yard sale  you’re selling yourself and you have allot of value!  When you engage in haggling it immediately lowers your perceived worth and once that happens you are sunk!  When you haggle you set yourself up for a continuous relationship by which your clients will nit pick you to death over everything…and NO ONE wants that kind of client interaction.

4.  Not Everyone Is Your Client

There will be times when you will have to walk away; when a potential client will not be willing to pay your fee.  That’s OK; they were meant to be your client.  The right client who IS willing to pay your rate is just around the corner.

Pricing your services is one of the most difficult  tasks a business owner will ever undertake.  Be a smart and savvy businesswoman and be prepared by reviewing the project and price.  It will save you a ton of heartache in the long run.

Today, I was at my BNI Meeting and was discussing my networking event that is coming up next week (you can find out more about it at http://tinyurl.com/ce3nfc).  My friend Lynn, was telling me a story about a conversation she was having at the May, DARE To Be Phenomenal Networking Event.

She had asked one of the participants for her business card.  The individual asked her in reply what she did for a living.  When Lynn explained what line of work she was in, the women said, “Oh, my business has nothing to do with your business…we wouldn’t be able to work together and you couldn’t give me many referrals.”  She was flabbergasted….and quite frankly so was I!

This women made the mistake, like many people do,  that just because you are in completely different lines of work you can’t help each other grow your businesses.    What a mistake!

The reality is that every person you meet is someone that you can help AND that can possibly help you.  That is the RIGHT mindset to have. Not the kind of mindset that was demonstrated by this particular person.    If she had gone to the event thinking about how she could be of service to others and less focused on her business and what she was going to get out of the event she may have found herself in a win-win situation.  Instead she  closed the door on a potential hot bed of  referrals (my friend Lynn is a big on giving referrals!).

Next time you are at a networking event don’t make this same mistake.  Instead go into the moment with the mindset and attitude that you are there to  help others and see how much help YOU get in building YOUR business.