Posts Tagged ‘money’

Did you know how much money you make and how much you charge for your services is a reflections of your self worth?

It’s true.

I know for some of you that statement conjures up all sorts of feelings.  And you know what, I understand how hard it must be to realize that the small amount of money you’re making is in direct correlation to your self esteem.

That’s a hard pill to swallow.

But it doesn’t have to be that way forever.  You can do something about that money reflection that’s staring back at you in the mirror.  You can change it!

But first I want you to consider a few things:

1.  Do often offer discounts?  Do you even offer them BEFORE your even asked?  This type of behavior is often reflected in a person who has poor money boundaries.

You make an assumption that your perspective client can’t afford your services so you jump to discounting without having all the necessary information.  Sound like you?

The reality is that if your services are seen as valuable to the client they will buy from you.  But that’s another article.

Do you barter or trade?  That’s another indication of poor money boundaries.  Money needs to flow.  When you barter you block the natural energy of money from flowing to you and back out again.

Please don’t barter, ok?

2.  When was the last time you raised your fee?  If it’s been two ore more years or if you raised your fees but only by some minuscule amount of money then you lack money courage.

You’re typically  the person who likes your fees somewhere in the middle.  You don’t want to be the cheapest out there, but you definitely don’t want to be the most expensive.

The bottom line…your afraid to raise your fees and because your afraid, you don’t.

Fear is your primary motivator behind every excuse you make for why your fees are they way they are.

Check back later this week as I reveal two additional money reflections and some tips for helping to conquer your money self-saboteur.

If you enjoy what your learning here come to the Diva Toolbox Conference for Women where I will be revealing even more information and exercises you can do to put your money self-saboteur away once and for all.

The other day a networking friend invited me to her office so we could get to know one another better.  When I walked into her office space I had to stop myself from gasping.

You see, this women’s space was a mess.  There were papers strewn about, unfiled, even on the floor.  She had dirty dishes and glasses on her desk, garbage overflowing from the can and there was barely a place for me to sit.

What came to mind immediately for me was. “If her office is a mess, I bet her money situation is a mess too!”

Now maybe your office space isn’t as bad as this woman’s  but do you see any similarities?  Could your office use a clearing and cleaning out?  What about your finances, your wallet, and your bank statements?  Are they in disarray too?

You see there is a direct correlation with how our offices and environments look and how we handle money.

If you office is in shambles I want you to make the commitment to do the following:

1. Get everything off the floor.  Nothing should be on the floor but your rug, furniture and your pets.  So, if you have any other items on the floor put it in a big box and put it in the garage or attic.
2. If you don’t have anything on the floor then I want you to clear out your bookshelves. Put all the crap that is lying on the shelves in a box and put that in the attic or garage too.
3. Next, clear off your desk. You must be able to see your desk when you are through.  Get rid of the junk, dirty dishes, old papers and pack it up!

Now, look around and feel the expansiveness that you have just created.  By clearing out this clutter you are making more room for money. Isn’t that cool?

Next, I want you to tackle your money in a more direct way:

• Create a filing system and start filing your papers and receipts.  Hate to file?  Hire a high school or college kid or even a stay at home mom who might need some extra cash.

• Get your books in order.   I once asked my client how much money she made last year and she was unsure because she hadn’t finished her taxes yet. Unbelievable I know, but I bet some of you reading this don’t know what you’ve made to date this year.

I know the balances in all my bank accounts and I can tell you to the penny how much money I’ve made so far this year.

• Finally, make sure all bills are current. Put a payment schedule together and start paying your bills on time every month.

The goal here is to rid yourself of any and all money drama that you’ve created and replace it with an environment which supports the flow of money into your life with ease.

The other night I was having a conversation about, you guessed it: money. A dear friend was telling me how every time someone says “I can teach you how to make money in your business” she hears skeptical remarks like, “How do we know she makes six figures, she’s probably lying” or “Everyone says that and I don’t think it’s true.”

When I heard this, I was immediately struck with the idea that these people’s doubts were really their own self-doubt about their ability to make six figures. It was a projection of their own fear.

Fear that they can’t do it. Fear that they’re not good enough. Fear that they’re not worthy to make a grand sum of money. Fear they’ll fail trying.

The truth is unless someone is willing to show you their bank account there is NEVER a way to verify the accuracy of a statement like that. You know the old saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” So even if you think someone doesn’t make six figures, you really have no way of knowing for sure.

But that’s not the point. The point is if you want to make more money in your business or life you have to stop judging. You can’t aspire to have more if you are skeptical of others who claim to have it AND of how they did it!

You must choose to think in ways that support your happiness and success instead of ways that don’t. That’s the plain and simple truth.

Judging, masked behind fear, is definitely not a supportive thought pattern. So my advice: change your thinking about money so you can find the inner happiness that opens the door to greater abundance.

I love when someone pays attention to me, don’t you?  Well, money is the same way.  Money likes to be shown the attention and respect it deserves.

So what happens when you ignore money? Not sure what I mean? Jot down the answer to these couple of questions and keep them in mind as you keep reading:

• Do you pay your bills on time?
• Do you allow clients to waffle on agreements and pay you late?
• Have you developed a budget and stuck to it?

Well, unless you answered positively to all of the above questions you’re more than likely ignoring money and asking it to leave you alone.

Here are two quick tips for paying attention to money so that it doesn’t find a negative way of getting your attention.

1.  Stick To A Budget and Pay Your Bills On Time

When you develop a clear budget you give money the attention it deserves.  First, you have a clear understanding of your current financial situation and second you now are in a position to establish a saving and spending plan based on a full and complete awareness of what you make.

Once you can see the big picture it is vital that you pay your bills on time every month.

Paying your bills late or inconsistently is scarcity behavior and does nothing except to perpetuate that feeling.  Instead, pay each bill on time, at the same time every month.

2.  Always Focus on Value

People love to say the economy is the reason their business isn’t thriving.  But the fact is, your clients will buy from you IF you provide them with valuable information, services and programs that meet the needs that effect them most.

There are a limitless, ok maybe not limitless, but there are at least 10 ways that you can provide new value to your clients and when you do they will be happy to purchase from you.

It’s your job be creative and introduce these new innovative programs, products or services to them.

So, get your thinking caps on!

We all know what the process of manifestation looks like — thoughts lead to feelings, feelings lead to actions, and actions lead to results. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?

If you have a poor person’s mindset, then you probably “think” about being rich. Maybe you even wish about having more money.

Possibly, you sit and meditate about money, visualize it and say countless affirmations that sound something like, “Money is flying at me in all directions!”

I don’t know about you but money hasn’t flown into me lately…instead I have had to actually do something for the money to appear.

Which brings me to the point: affirmations, visualizations and meditations are all wonderful tools, but if you want to change your financial circumstances you are going to have to take action!

Actions are what help to bridge the inner world, where all the meditations and stuff go on, with the outer world, the world where you need to actually do something.

So what stops us from taking the action?

Fear, doubt and worry are the top contenders and are the roadblocks to our success and happiness. But here’s the difference — people who have accumulated wealth do not let fear stand in their way. In fact, they act in spite of that fear. Poor people let fear stand in their way.

Which one are you?

There are so many ways that we as business owners prevent money from flowing to us. Look around. What do you see? Which areas of your environment are likely holding you back from making more money?

Not sure what I mean? Well let’s start with Physical Clutter. Now you might be asking what physical clutter has to do with opening the floodgates to making more money; but rest assured it has a lot to do with your ability to attract and make more.

Is your office or home a mess? Do you have papers strewn all over the place that need to be filed? Does your office have files that should be removed and put in storage? I want you to look around and see if you have clutter in any of the following places:

• Desk Clutter
• Email Clutter
• Bookshelf Clutter
• Newsletter Clutter

Take the time to clear out this clutter. This clutter is an energy drain which takes your attention away from and blocks your ability to make more money.

Make the commitment necessary to clean out the clutter from your life.

In my last post I talked about the feelings of envy, jealousy and resentment at people who have more money or wealth and the dilemma this raises if you are aspiring to be like them.  The two feelings almost cancel each other out.

On the one had you want more money and a successful business and on the other, you resent the heck out of people who are better off than you.  Feel the disconnect?  Understand how impossible it is to achieve greater success when you feel envious or jealous of those more fortunate?

A friend wrote me after my blog post and told me that he often struggles with these similar feelings as well as confusion around his mindset which tells him you can’t be a good person and be rich.  In other words, you can’t be spiritual and wealthy…you need to be one or the other. I know where this belief came from and I want to help you realize this old belief system is false.

There was a time when I was exploring my spirituality and was reading anything and everything that I could get my hands on.  I grew to love reading and listening to Marianne Williamson and her talks on the principles of A Course In Miracles.

Marianne states:  “Like everything else, money is either holy or unholy, depending on the purposes ascribed to it by the mind. We tend to do with money what we do with sex: we desire it but we judge the desire. It is the judgment that then distorts the desire, turning it into an ugly expression. Because we are ashamed to admit that we want these things, we have insidious ways of pretending that we don’t – such as condemning our desires even as we act them out. “

The reality is, our judgment of money is just our ego’s way of making sure we don’t have any.

What we repel against, we can never have.  But on the other side, what we bless, we draw to ourselves.

It’s our small ego’s that make us believe  we have to sacrifice if we are to be spiritual or a good person.  This just isn’t so.  The world is there to support us and lead us to whatever abundance awaits.

I know that many people intellectually understand the statement, but there is a lot of work to be done to overcome the feelings and old beliefs that we carry around with us, weighing us down and preventing us from having all that we desire.

My coaches request to you today is to try on this new mindset:  Be open to receiving money and trust that it always will find its way to you.

This small but simple mindset shift will have a profound effect on your ability to start attracting money into your life.  Post your comments as I would love to hear how this mindset shift helps you.

When you drive down the street and see a home that is a great deal nicer than yours, what is your reaction? Do you feel jealous, envious, or resentful?   Do you think the people in the house are “lucky” or “rich a—holes?”

Does this sound familiar?  Are you spewing anger and resentment towards people who are better off than you?

I have a friend who has displayed this type of bitterness in the past.  Oh, she has proclaimed more than once to me that she desperately wants to change her financial situation.  But how on earth can she improve her circumstances and create wealth when she clearly despises the very people she is attempting to become?

Many years ago I started a cleaning business.  My company cleaned some of the biggest homes in the area.  I am talking multi million dollar homes in some of THE best neighborhoods.  When I would pull up to these homes I was always excited to see what the house would look like inside.  I enjoyed walking through those homes and complimenting the owners.

I understood that most, if not all of these owners worked very hard for what they had.  Nobody handed them this terrific home in the most upscale of communities.  In fact, most of them where business owners who worked round the clock for many, many years before enjoying the success they had today.

They were my hero’s.  If they could achieve this success, I knew I could too.  I never did and still don’t feel one iota of jealousy, hatred, envy or resentment towards them.

But this doesn’t mean those feeling don’t creep up in other situations from time to time.  Sometimes I find myself making disparaging remarks to people who drive nicer cars than me.  I’m pretty sure it has more to do with their driving abilities (or lack thereof) than the car they are driving.  I realize my human tendency and stop the negativity immediately.

You see, you don’t have to be perfect in your thinking or behavior to achieve greater financial success, but you do need to be able to recognize it and change directions when it surfaces.

Here’s my request to you: If you are committed to achieving financial freedom, then the next time you hear yourself saying disparaging remarks to those with bigger bank accounts immediately stop yourself and release the negative energy.  Now think of more supportive thoughts and behaviors that will spur on your financial growth and increased awareness.

Remember, your thoughts are neither good nor bad.  But they can make or break your efforts in achieving financial independence.  Replace the negative dis-empowering thoughts with positive empowering ones that support your desire to achieve greater wealth and you will be making the strides necessary to turn your financial destiny around.

The outside of our business often has an uncanny ability to mirror for us what’s up for us on the inside.

That’s why when my business is experience an ebb instead of the flow, I immediately see it for what it is – an opportunity for a breakthrough.  Typically that breakthrough involves money.

Many of us carry around mistaken ideas around how making and keeping more money might change us.  We get this idea it will change us in a negative way, which is simply not true.  So when there is a lull in my business that lasts beyond a few days, my first step is to realign myself with my Money Goal.

Here is a list of questions you can ask yourself to guide you through this process:

ü  Is your money goal big enough?  Maybe you made your money goal a while ago and it’s no longer big enough.

ü  Does your money goal still hold meaning and significance for you?

ü  Are you passionately connected to the bigger why of what the money is for?

ü  Which belief are you challenging by creating a breakthrough about money?

Having the courage to answer these questions completely and honestly will help you get your business out of the slump and into making more money!

I recently added a new Money Reflections Section to my newsletter.  Here is the first addition with many more to come.  Hope you like it.  If any of it resonates with you I would love to read your comments.

Do you give your power away with money? In business, women typically give away their power in one of these four ways:

1. They decide in advance how many people are going to sign up for the next offer or they decide in advance how much someone is going to pay and they do this in a way that artificially suppresses their success by keeping their numbers much, much lower than they could be.
2. They don’t understand or they don’t see why people would pay more for their services.
3. They give away their power by giving away an abundance of their time.
4. They give away their power by overspending in different areas of their life and business.

Which is your pattern?  Figure out which one of these really hits home for you and then ask yourself this question:  “What need is being served by giving away your power with money in this way?” Maybe it’s your need to be liked or the need to avoid rejection or the need to avoid being seen as powerful by others.    Now consider and ask yourself, “As someone who meets that need and is fully standing in my power with money what is the action I should now take?”

Let me know what it is, ok?