Secrets to Success

What is your first reaction when you see this word…?

Money

Is it excitement, eagerness or anticipation? Is it a mix of feelings, like both wanting and uncertainty? Or is it worry, fear or doubt?

Money is an emotionally loaded word. After success coaching thousands of women entrepreneurs, I’ve observed that how we’re feeling about money shows up in our decisions and the actions we take.

When we’re feeling “in the chips” it’s easy to be confident and generous. At other times, when money seems to be tight, it’s natural to want to pull back. No matter what, our relationship with money can be seen first-hand in the health and well-being of our woman owned businesses.

I have a simple exercise that tells me precisely what your money consciousness has been “set to.” In success coaching, I call this your “money speedometer.”

Where your money speedometer is set tells me how much money you are comfortable making. Which means, I can predict how much money that you are likely to make over the next year in your woman owned business!

No, I don’t have a crystal ball! But I do know how to pay attention to what matters to women entrepreneurs.

Once you know what your money speedometer is currently set to, you can adjust it (up of course, says this success coaching expert!) so that you’re making more money… without more effort.

Sound good? Okay, here’s how to find out what YOUR money speedometer is set to so you can adjust it higher and higher:

Step #1: Calculate the average amount of either your five highest client payments or your five most profitable months of the past twelve months. This is where you pricing speedometer has been set.

Illuminating, isn’t it?

Now, are you ready to reset it so you can make more?

Step #2: How much do you want to increase this amount? This is your new pricing goal and it needs to be JUST outside your comfort level.

See? Didn’t I promise it would be simple?!

I make sure to check my money speedometer setting every five months. Wait too long and women entrepreneurs end up coasting on old beliefs.

For example, I just ran through this exercise again for myself. Then I compared it to the results I had from five months ago. The difference? A significant 30% increase in the income of my woman owned business!

Think of it this way, you’re paying yourself (a lot) for the few minutes you take to do this exercise for yourself!

My success coaching challenge to you: surprise yourself in 2008: and change the way you think about $$$.

Entrepreneurs are being compared to doctors in the sense that they also have responsibility to check the patient’s history before they will diagnose the patient’s illness or sickness and provide a series of medical tests. Like entrepreneurs, they would be pretty much the same as he should look after his customers as his patients.

In every situation, he should be able to determine what his customer’s need just like the doctors who knows pretty well on his patients. The entrepreneur must be careful to know exactly where his business is headed and also he should be sure he does not direct his customers in the wrong direction. If so both he and his customers could lose and be in financial peril.

The quality of an entrepreneur should be defined by his vision, and his action taking as well as pursuing his vision as one or many of the goals he has established for himself and his clients.

Another definition is getting your butt off that couch and getting out there and doing something. Some are not able to do it. Many become couch potatoes so to speak.

An entrepreneur must be buoyant person and must be able to foresee what will happen ahead of time. Some of these may hinder his progress.

An entrepreneur must be very artistic and able to foresee what will be the outcome of his thorough research that could help his business.

He must be a leader who possesses a life that is very stable but he must also be tough enough to handle physical, mental and social or emotional problems as they come up.

He must also be a risk taker and must have the guts and the balls to be able to jump into or plunge into a winning or losing situation. He must not be afraid of taking big chances when opportunity happens.

Another characteristic he should possess? He should be a very charismatic person, and have the intelligence to communicate with all walks of life he may come into contact with. He also should have a certain amount of magic when dealing with peers. He should be able to bring forth enchanting and convincing words that most powers cannot resist.

He must be energetic and willing to do whatever it might take in order to come out a winner. His eagerness should be at the top of his priorities and his exuberance must be very high all the times.

His greatest failure would be sticking with the mentality of being conventional. This would be one of an entrepreneur’s greatest downfalls. Think big, Act, Make your business dreams come true.

I just finished reading an article written by a good friend of mine who coaches companies and their employees to better performance. In this particular article, he was discussing women in business and the different set of attributes they bring into the workplace. And it got me to thinking. For a long time, women in competitive careers were led to believe (and many times rightly so) that they had to “play a man’s game” in order to progress and succeed in business. And though for years, women have been successful in business playing by “man-rules”, it’s absolutely not necessary, nor good advice for today’s success. What we now know of course, is that men and women may have different perspectives and approaches to business. But either can be successful in the entrepreneurial arena without giving up or giving over their own unique abilities. Men and women have various attributes in common that are of benefit in the corporate realm, however, women are at their unquestionable best when we use the characteristics and attributes that are unique to us. And, employing those attributes to our own enterprises can make a good business an absolutely phenomenal success. Examples of the unique perspectives of female entrepreneurs can be found in niche markets such as catering, personal shopping or commercial construction cleanup just to name a few. For those of you women who are about to delve into the world of entrepreneurship and are considering the type of business enterprise that you want to develop, here are some thoughts: First, and most important for both women and men, is do what you love. There is something in you, something you’re truly passionate about. Find a way to turn that passion into a business. I’ve no doubt that you have probably heard that advice before, it’s certainly not new. But there are several reasons that it is important. One, when you’re involved in doing something you truly love, your passion is one of your greatest assets in driving your business. When you interact with others about the focus of your passion, you’re animated, interesting and convincing in ways that would take much more time to practice and develop otherwise. Passion causes you to be much more motivated, in fact you become what could be called “ultra” motivated. This is key, especially during the period before the money starts rolling in. For you to work an 8-hour day after you’ve already worked an 8-hour day for someone else (something all women know a little bit about), you have to be highly motivated. While you’re building your business (and most people start businesses while they’re still earning their grocery money from an outside employer), you have to have a powerful reason that causes you stay up working until 3:00AM, when you have to be up at 6:00AM to go to your “day job”. Another reason for developing your business from your passion is that whatever it is you’re passionate about, more than likely you’re an expert on. You’ve been reading and reviewing information on the subject for years. You’ve taken trips, visited sites, and participated in activities or events having to do with the object of your passion. You’ve already become involved in or developed some type of “network” (and ladies, we all know how to network) of other like-minded individuals who are as interested and passionate about your interest as you are. These are all excellent resources for you and for your clientele as you establish your business. It also greatly shortens or eliminates any learning curve relative to your business product or service knowledge to free you to concentrate on building the business itself. In addition to pursuing your passion, another idea to keep in mind is that in the beginning, as you brainstorm ideas for your business development, let the sky be the limit. Use your wildest imagination to explore ideas and options. Don’t begin the process of developing your enterprise by making a laundrylist of all of the reasons that you can’t do this. Find absolutely as many reasons as possible to demonstrate why you can! Last, and this is very important, be very selective about listening to the advice of friends and relatives. While they ultimately mean well (at least most of the time), the people around you are used to you and your life as it is. And, they’re comfortable with that. Whenever you contemplate change, especially the types of changes brought about through successful business ownership, people can get uncomfortable. And when people are forced out of their comfort zone, they will fight tooth and nail to get back to it. If that means discouraging you in the process, then so be it, too bad for you. Don’t fall prey to the fears and negativity of others. If you can’t seem to be around positive and encouraging people, find a new group of people to be around. And, if that’s not possible, then be your own best friend. Solitude is much sweeter than failure at the hands of selfish people. Be encouraged by your history. For hundreds, even thousands of years, women have been successful entrepreneurs. Our unique mindset, viewpoints, attitudes and skills as women have all contributed to our successes in business. Let that be your legacy to a new generation, and bring your own bit of spice and flavor to the business table.

Women continue to open businesses in the U.S. at twice the rate of men. So why don’t they have million dollar bank accounts that reflect their hard work? According to the Center for Women’s Business Research, there are 10.4 million women-owned U.S. businesses. What people aren’t talking about is that women-owned businesses aren’t doing all that well. According to the Women Presidents’ Organization (comprised of women whose businesses annually gross over $2 million):

* About 43% of all women-owned businesses have revenue of $10,000 or less per year.

* Over 70% have revenue of less than $50,000.

* Only 3% have revenue of over $1 million (compared with 6% of men-owned firms).

Today’s entrepreneurial woman wants control over whom she works for, what she does, how she spends her time, and how much money she makes. Most of all, she wants to know that what she is doing is making a difference in the world. So why aren’t women-owned businesses more successful? Often the barriers to business success for women are self-imposed.

What Women Do Wrong

1. They dismiss their intuition. They dismiss their inner knowing. They don’t take their intuition seriously. That’s not hard to do when today’s business culture scoffs at women’s intuition, makes fun of their intuitive knowing, and pooh-poohs intuitive insight. Intuition is not a hunch, a suspicion, or a guess. Intuitive knowing is deep, sure, and trustworthy. Know this!

2. They wait for approval and permission. Women have the hardest time with this. Instead of making a decision for themselves, they look to others for approval and permission before making business decisions. Wake up! You do not need anyone’s permission to do anything. Men know this much better than women do.

3. They think something is wrong with them. When something goes wrong in their businesses, men focus on the business itself, looking for things they can change, correct, and fix. For women, however, it’s just the opposite. When something goes wrong in their businesses, women look for things they can change about themselves. 4. They think other people know best. Often their inner voicewhat I like to call a woman’s Inner Samuraiis giving them a clear indication of what is for their highest good and greatest well-being. Yet, because that inner voice conflicts with the advice and information they are getting from the outer world (often from those around them), they discount their inner voice in favor of another’s voice.

What You Can Do Right

1. Look outward for support. Look inward for guidance. Surround yourself with those who support your business vision and daily business activities. Go inward for guidance. Tap into your Inner Samurai. Understand that no one knows you as well as you know yourself. What other people think is best for you and your business is only an opinionperhaps a well-informed opinion, but an opinion, nonetheless.

2. Say yes. This is one of the hardest words for women to say. Women like to keep their options open, check everything out, and test the waters before taking action. Stop hesitating. Say yes. Move ahead. You don’t have to know how something is going to turn out before saying yes. Just say yes. You can handle whatever comes up. You can even change your mind.

3. Stop with all the positive thoughts and affirmations. Being positive and saying affirmations are not enough. You have to back those positive thoughts with focused, definitive action in the direction of what you most want to be, do, and have in your business. Fortune favors the bold.

4. Cultivate relationships. Women are naturals at building relationships and connecting to others. Connect, certainly, with other businessmen. However, be intentional about cultivating relationships with other businesswomen. Forget what they say about women being catty. Sure, some are. Most aren’t. Those are the ones you will intuitively be drawn to. Connect with them to build strong, mutually beneficial business relationships.

Women have been opening businesses at twice the rate of men for many years now. However, they have not been as successful at bringing in the big bucks as men. That’s because they try to run their businesses the same way that their male counterparts do from the head down.

Women, on the other-hand, do better when they build and run their businesses from the inside out and from the heart up, firmly connected to their Inner Samurai. Running your business this way means that you are in control of your financial future, you can have the life you’ve always dreamed of, and you can be in the best place of allmaking a real difference in the world.

I am a home-based entrepreneur. I own a tutor referral service in Southern California and have been a tutor broker for eight years. I just launched my second business. I authored a book about how to begin a tutor referral service and packaged it with a customized website and Accounting Software, support, ads, etc. and am selling it via the internet nationwide and in Canada. Having started two businesses, I have learned about small business planning and strategies for success. Here are my suggestions:

1) Outsource, outsource, outsource!

Small businesses don’t have the capital to devote to entire payroll departments, legal departments, etc. Outsource to independent contractors whenever possible. In the long run it is cheaper and is definitely a smart business decision.

2) Network as much as you can.

Join networking groups comprised of individuals who are entrepreneurs or small business owners. Not only might you find some professionals that will help you develop and grow your business, it is also an excellent way to spread the word about your company. Local networking groups usually limit the membership to one person per industry, so you will not be competing with anyone else for referrals.

3) Budget your expenses wisely.

If you can initially work from home, do so. Save the money you would spend renting or leasing an office space and invest in a decent computer system or advertising. Cut your costs wherever you can and take advantage of less well-known but dependable service providers, i.e. Vonage phone systems and e-fax.com.

4) Find a good publicist/virtual assistant.

It’s important to get the word out about your new business. Hiring a Public Relations firm is pricey and not always worth the money. Go online and search for a Virtual Assistant and publicist. Many will offer you a three month retainer at a lower cost than a fancy PR firm and the results can be extremely advantageous. Check out their references first and go with someone who has a proven track record. After the initial three months many VA’s will offer you an hourly or monthly rate.

5) Develop your negotiating skills.

Knowing how to talk to advertisers and getting the best deals you can will pay off big-time, especially when it comes to advertising. Ask your sales representative to tell you about any special rate packages they offer. Quite often, you will not know unless you ask. Tell vendors you are a new business and ask if you can pay for big projects (like a professional website) with monthly payments. If you are dealing with small business professionals, most of them have been in your shoes and will be happy to extend a monthly payment plan to you.

As a small business owner you must be creative yet frugal. Take every opportunity you can to tell people about your business. Word of mouth and referral business is priceless. Carry your business cards at all times and don’t be shy to talk about what you offer. You never know whom you may meet that might just turn into a wonderful opportunity!