For most entrepreneurs, generating revenue is seen as just one of those tasks that you have to do, but it isn’t the primary reason most people go into business.
They go into business because they want the freedom to be their own boss. They want to have more flexibility with their time, make a great impact or difference for others, express their creativity or help other people.
A business can’t be a business until it generates revenue, which puts many entrepreneurs into an unconscious struggle between doing good and doing well. If the struggle remains unresolved, the business owner manifests some very common money situations—things like being careless with money.
I know that might sound odd, but a lot of entrepreneurs are careless about money. An example of this is, not knowing how much money they have in their account, bouncing checks, not knowing how much is owed to them or allowing people to owe them money without following up on it. These are just a few ways of being careless with money that I’ve seen.
Another way that the unconscious struggle between doing good and doing well shows up for entrepreneurs is through over-delivering—meaning, they are putting too many services, components or time into packages, particularly packages at the lower end of their service level.
Another way is in undercharging. Undercharging is not charging enough or having fees that are too low, especially when compared to how much value or time is being given.
I want you to think of this unconscious struggle this way. The more struggle someone feels about money, the more money struggles they’ll experience in their business.
Of course, if they’re experiencing it in their business, it’s in their life as well. That means that the entrepreneur is not making their potential income. They’re not keeping enough of what they make or what they’re really destined to be able to make.
What can help are three simple steps.
Step 1 is to get conscious to the specific ways in which you may be giving away your power with money.
This may be undercharging, not asking for the sale, overspending, creating debt, having carelessness with money in some way, not having accounts balanced, not knowing how much money is in your accounts, flamboyant spending or over-delivering. These are some of the different ways.
You want to get conscious to the specific ways in which you may be giving away your power with money.
This is not the time to be making excuses or saying, “That happened because of such-and-such or so-and-so.” Those are excuses. This is the time to be honest and say, “This is the way in which I have not been standing in my power with money.”
Step 2 is to identify new, simple actions that you can take, starting today. Let me give you an example.
For under-earning, raise your fees and/or repackage your programs and services more strategically, where you’re not giving away all of your time, especially in your lower-level offers.
Another simple action to take may be to go get a client. A lot of entrepreneurs spend an enormous amount of time and money investing in building certain foundation pieces in their business, such as their website, getting fancy brochures made, and doing different things like that.
The truth is that they just need to go get a client. You don’t need much else except for a clear marketing message and a clearly marketable product or package to get a client. That’s all you need, and you also to be in conversation with perspective clients. (As a Personal Branding Strategist & Money, Marketing and Soul coach, I can help you put into place the essentials that will allow you to go out and confidently and authentically get a client.)
When you’ve gotten conscious to some of the ways you’ve been giving away your power with money, you write down some simple actions you can take.
Step 3 is an interesting one. It is to discover your Money Archetype.
With a simple assessment that takes just a few minutes, you can discover what your money archetypes are. There are 12 different archetypes in the Money Archetype system. They are the Alchemist, Artist, Maverick, Ruler, Humanitarian, Hero, Innocent, Teacher, Explorer, Romantic, Jester and Nurturer.
Each of these Money Archetypes has its own spiritual money path. For example, the Humanitarian money archetype’s spiritual path is to do good for others and do well for yourself. Many of my clients have the Humanitarian money archetype.
What’s also fascinating is that each of these 12 archetypes has a basic motivator or driver for how you are motivated to engage with money, both in a positive and a negative way. Let me give you an example.
For the Humanitarian, it’s actually about accumulating. They are primarily driven to accumulate. That sounds kind of interesting at first because you think a humanitarian is more about giving than accumulating.
Here’s the thing; there’s both a positive aspect to this and a shadow side. For the Humanitarian, it’s about giving themselves permission to accumulate so that they can then give more generously to others.
When someone is not fully in their power with money and has the Humanitarian archetype, they may shy away from or avoid accumulating income because they’re so quick to give everything away that they don’t have anything for themselves.
Another piece of interesting information about your Money Archetype is the shadow side. The shadow side is very specific behavior that you may be engaging in that’s the shadow side of your Money Archetype and really isn’t serving you. It’s important to understand this and pinpoint it so you have an opportunity to transform it through the spiritual money practices.
Spiritual money practices: This is where the healing can happen. Healing your relationship with money occurs from the outside in—meaning very simple, specific actions you take on a daily, weekly or monthly basis can help heal your relationship with money. It also occurs from the inside out.
Inside-out means that the way you think, believe, and are in relationship with money shifts and changes, bringing you into harmony, alignment, or a supportive, connected relationship with money.
Each of these Money Archetypes, in addition to having the core motivator, spiritual money path, shadow side and spiritual money practices, also has freeing money words or different kinds of money words.
When you hear these money words that are connected with your archetype, they’re freeing money words. For the teacher, they’re words like happiness, choice, legacy, talent and spotlight. Words like these are very exciting for someone who is the Teacher money archetype. You hear words like these, and they’re motivating. They help you get into action or stay on track in a positive way.
The key to starting to heal your relationship with money, so you’re moving forward in creating a healthy, generous, loving kind of connection, allowing money to be part of your spiritual path, is to take it one step at a time.
To find out what your Money Archetype is and how your Money Archetypes can specifically help you break free of the unconscious behavior and instead step into your power and role as a leader with money, contact Lisa Hromada at http://www.lisahromada.com/bizsuccess.
Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved
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Known for her creativity, gentle disposition, enthusiasm, and passion, Lisa Hromada is a leading Personal Branding Strategist and Money, Marketing, & Soul Coach who specializes in empowering women entrepreneurs to find the clarity and focus they need to create a thriving brand while still having the time and energy to enjoy their other priorities. Find Lisa's FREE gifts and more at: http://www.lisahromada.com/bizsuccess
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