Want to make next year’s annual expenses easier on the monthly budget? You can protect your monthly income by starting what I call a “Cyclical Fund” (C-Fund). When you start your Cyclical fund, you will deposit a smaller amount each month towards these costs and save enough over 12 months to have all of them covered when they come due! The alternative is what most of us do now, having to pay the large bill is all at once out of one month’s income. That can be very stressful and hard on your monthly spending plan!

3 STEPS TO START A CYCLICAL FUND:

1. MAKE A LIST OF ALL YOUR NON-MONTHLY EXPENSES. INCLUDE THE THINGS THAT RENEW QUARTERLY, SEMI-ANNUALLY, AND ANNUALLY. MOST BUSINESSES HAVE ABOUT 5-6 OF THESE. THINK ABOUT:

    • Business and professional license renewals
    • Subscription renewals for things like software
    • Membership fees
    • Annual domain and website renewals

2. TOTAL UP ALL OF THESE EXPENSES AND DIVIDE BY 12. THIS IS THE AMOUNT OF YOUR MONTHLY DEPOSIT.

3. SET UP AN ACCOUNT AND MAKE YOUR FIRST DEPOSIT. 

Do not open a savings type account if you will make frequent withdrawals to pay these bills as they come due. In the US, “Regulation D” limits the amount to free transfers or withdrawals to six each month. Then the bank can charge a fee for every subsequent withdrawal.

 

 

 

These 3 steps are a surefire way of starting and growing your cyclical funds!

It’s so easy to get frustrated when we forget when the annual bills come due, and of course, they still come due.  Start your Cyclical Fund to put a little away each month to cover what you will need. The stress is really reduced when the amount you need for an expected expense isn’t squeezed 100% from the same monthly budget.  Take time this week to sort this out and you will have a jump start on next year’s renewals.

There’s still time to join the  Q1 2021 Income and Profit Planning Intensive Session to have an actionable plan for your business offers, income, and profit through March 2021.

Visit this  link to register,  the next workshop is on December 12th.

 

Q1 2021 Income and Profit Planning Intensive Session

 

I only learned about this idea of gratitude mindset about a year ago. And I resisted a bit only dipping my toes into doing the work, always looking around to see if it was effective. I had a successful business with my husband before and we didn’t have any mindset. It was all grind, all the time.

But it finally hit me that had we actually learned about mindset work nine years ago, our business probably would’ve been more enjoyable. Since this is Thanksgiving week, I want to share my “learning to have gratitude” practice over the last year. 

I seriously embraced managing my mindset around everything since May. I took a course on money mindset, one on growth mindset, another one on having a mindset for pleasure every day as an entrepreneur. As much as I embraced the training, embodiment seemed to be a real sticking point for me.

My coach Emily had assigned me to write everything great that had happened to me and my business since October, and I had 85 amazing things to be grateful for, but I still didn’t “feel it.” Why practising gratitude initially failed for me? I’m quite left-brained, analytical, and cerebral, and I really struggled with over analyzing everything I was learning.

I finally had a real breakthrough in August. I’m not sure what clicked exactly, but I had a switch inside. It’s so amazing that we can hear something a million times before we “get it.” This was no different. All of a sudden it started really making sense for my life. And I started writing gratitude lists. Not every day, but more frequently. so, here’s how to practice gratitude in my opinion.

I started being grateful throughout the day, not just in my journal.

Thankful for the way my day was going. Thankful for the dog hair on the couch, because I get to work from home with my dogs. I don’t do it perfectly every day, in fact, I often forget to be grateful, and maintain that gratitude mindset.

Now I am adding in a bedtime practice of being grateful for three things that happened that day.  I’m doing this because I can more easily remember when I tie a practice to an event or habit. I’m a work in progress.

The biggest lessons I have learned over the last year of doing this work, all point to knowing myself better.

What works, what doesn’t, what I have to put in place to be successful. I’m still working on it. It’s not perfect, but it’s so much better than before.

Because, I really have a lot to be grateful for. And it is so nice to remind myself daily. It has really changed my perspective on everything.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, celebrate all things with gratitude.

In the beginning,  our business planning is focused on just making sales. To almost anyone. We are excited about the new venture, the logo and the website, and sometimes we haven’t really given a second thought to our pricing and profit plan, because we just didn’t. We go with what the market charges, what feels good as our first price point.

Now we are a little bit into being a business owner and may have faced a few financial bumps in the road. We are making some money, maybe not keeping any, but we are cruising along and feeling a mix of frustration and accomplishment. The business planning tumbles. We all go through this phase.

The next thing we know, we are busy and feeling overwhelmed, not sure how to get through this bottleneck of growth, and maybe thinking about the business finances for the first time. I mean really thinking about them. Like you need a system. A Plan. You don’t want to worry month to month anymore and you need something to change.

This is when you need to create a profit plan. You need to put it on paper, how much you are going to make, how much you are going to keep, and what the heck you are going to do with it. This plan will help you make solid financial and business decisions. Here are the top three reasons to make a profit plan for 2021:

You aren’t supposed to just break even.

You are in business to make money. And if you aren’t making enough or you aren’t keeping any, you may have a pricing mistake, or perhaps your expenses are high. Whatever the root of your financial issue, know that you are in business to have an income. Really make money. 

Profit is impact. You need to make it to make a difference.

Ready to hire that new team member? How about committing to a monthly donation to your favorite cause? Joining a service-based organization in your community? Guess what. All these things take profit.  You won’t be able to make a sustainable impact in your business, community, or society without having profit for these things.

You need it to make growth decisions.

 When exactly are you going to be able to add that new service or hire that virtual assistant? Your general business planning and profit plan can help you know when you will have the cash to grow, when you need to invest, and it will help you decide from the choices in front of you and your business.

With your plan on paper, really well thought out and accurately reflecting your current and future business, you can make decisions with less stress and more confidence.

If you need to learn how to create an income profit plan for your business,  join me for the Q1 2021 income and profit planning intensive next month.  It’s three hours of designing your income and profit strategies through March 2021. Watch for the Entre Money Coach Black Friday Offer- you can get the planning intensive for 75% off… only $47.00! 

I completely understand the desperation of wanting to grow a business and feeling like you

are stuck. Such a situation begs you to overcome that frustration in order to move forward. My pivot online has been challenging, from learning how to generate leads to the tech stuff that was so unfamiliar.

The funny thing is that it has only been a little over a year ago that I started moving my business into the internet space. Yet, I was feeling discouraged that things weren’t moving quickly for me. I was seeing others announcing $10k and $20k income months on social media and I was struck with comparisonitis.  I kept thinking, “I was doing everything” and it wasn’t happening for me. 

In all honesty, I wasn’t doing everything. And I wasn’t being realistic. I was trying to build and grow my business with my old approaches, that worked before but wasn’t working well this time. I didn’t overcome my frustration and it kept affecting my energy and my emotions.

So, something had to change. I had to really start doing everything, in an effective, productive, and practical way. I had to figure out where I got off track a bit, and to get myself back to feeling good about myself and my progress. 

If you are feeling this way and aspire to grow your business, I hear you. I can happily say that I was able to turn things around very quickly. Here are the exact business development activities I took to make changes and grow my business.

The first business development activity I recommend is… getting support from a coach.

I scheduled a VIP intensive to get another set of eyes on what the heck was going on. I was able to really look at all that I was doing, what I wasn’t doing, and where I had resistance in adopting strategies. Yes, I found a ton of resistance in myself.

I recommitted to myself and followed the coaching I received. And I started taking action immediately. So, here’s my advice if you’re doing everything and still feel stuck: Get support!

Next, I created a 90-day commitment to a visibility plan and a main business development activity

And I have been sticking to it. Having a plan for Instagram stories, sending emails, videos on Facebook, social media posts, webinars, blogging, all the things. Intentionally being more visible. Intentionally spending time creating a content plan each month. Not using one from someone else, but my own plan for sharing my message as widely as possible.

So, to overcome frustration, take the time to plan what you are going to say! Communication with your audience will give you confidence.

My final recommended business development activity is to start being really proud of your  work.

I was now really doing everything, why not take a moment to appreciate my own efforts. This was a huge mindset shift. I had the testimonials, my clients had the results, yet I was still being timid in my message. Why?

A little imposter syndrome, a little struggle with clarity.  Even with the evidence in front of my nose, I was holding back. I allowed myself to look at myself, not my clients. I wasn’t focused on being in service. If you are in this mental space, It’s time to remember that you are given a message for a reason. Grow your business around that idea!

If this resonates with you, turn your frustration into action, intentional action to get yourself re-focused. Let me know what steps you are taking to get back on your journey with a new plan. Just email me assist@entremoneycoach.com I’d love to hear from you. 

Here’s the story of my blessing in disguise, how I became a better businesswoman after a tragedy.

I had just checked into the hotel where I was staying the night before the attorney ethics exam at Mercer  University in Georgia. My phone rang, and my son told me that my husband had fallen off a ladder and was in very bad shape.

That event marked the end of life and business as we knew it in 2013 and started us on the journey we travel today, and made me a successful business woman.

We just marked the 7-year anniversary of Mike’s accident. For those who are new to my community, Mike and I had a multi-six figure consulting business, named UNEQ Consulting, which we started in early 2011.

On November 1st, 2013, Mike’s near-fatal accident changed everything for us. Mike lost his hearing and suffered four skull fractures and a severe head injury in the accident.

Our company closed. We went from upwards of $200k to zero. We were in severe financial distress.

It changed my trajectory to consumer law and financial coaching. And has helped me become a much better businesswoman that I wouldn’t have been if UNEQ was still running. Here are a few ways I have grown in business. 

 

I am 10x better and more successful business woman when it comes to business planning, strategy, and managing as a CEO now

 

UNEQ operated (rather successfully) from a lack of real planning as to the direction of the company. We had client projects, yes, and a calendar for execution, but I cannot remember a single time Mike and I sat down and asked, “Where are we going this quarter, and how do we get there?”

This lack of planning was quite a liability when the company closed because we didn’t have an emergency fund or continuity plan, so we had to turn back all of our contracts for 2014. All $375k worth of contracts. 

How did I become better?

Now, I make sure that the annual, quarterly, and monthly planning is done. What is offered, when, how much we are bringing in, the content we are putting out, and when I need to add another hire.

I make the time to create a business strategy, not just sales, and marketing, to drive us toward the future I see for Entre Money Coach. I also give myself a regular CEO space to step into powerful successful business woman energy.

That is just time to brainstorm and be with myself and my vision for the company. This is the time I let myself have a higher-level plan and I have the 3 year and 5-year goals for where we are going. 

I always try to operate from a place of service, knowing that there are no coincidences

 

I believe that people are put in our path for a reason. I didn’t believe it then. We lived in a company bubble and believed that people existed because we had a great team and great project execution. One thing UNEQ suffered from was a tinge of arrogance. 

We were good at what we did, not too many companies did it, and we were thriving on referrals and without marketing. It made us a little bit too confident.

We took risks we shouldn’t have, didn’t always pay attention to the finances, and because we always had another contract coming, allowed our personal lives to sort of suffering. We operated from contract to contract, doing a great job- but not from the perspective of being in service to our clients. 

Today I operate from a completely different place. I have become better as I see myself first as being in service to my clients.

Sometimes that means a lot of hand-holding, sometimes it means a little bit of tough love, but it is always in service to their company and financial goals. I see myself as on a mission to help my clients become as profitable and successful as they desire.

 

I make decisions without fear, based on the best information I have at the time. With no regrets

 

During the UNEQ years, I spent way too long worrying about making decisions and worrying about making mistakes. I would game plan 100 different things and constantly second guess myself when I finally chose to do something. For this reason, Mike made a lot of daily and weekly decisions.

My fear of failure was to a level of causing anxiety. After the accident, I was put in charge of making the decisions surrounding closing the business, Mike’s medical care, and anything else related to our daily lives. I actually didn’t always get the chance to think about failing, I just had to make a decision and we moved on it. 

My coach James Williams declared, “You either win or you learn.” And I resisted this for a long while. I was still wavering a lot on making decisions for Entre Money Coach.

  • Do I hire social media support?
  • Should I pay a copywriter?

Honestly, for the first months, I struggled with this. I lost the art of making decisions the way I had in the months following the accident. But I started to embrace, “you win, or you learn.”

There are no mistakes, and I don’t have time to regret it. I do the planning, the due diligence, and I have clear goals for this journey.

So, now that I feel I have become better and grow into being a successful business woman, with that confidence, I just decide. And I keep moving forward.

This is the time of year when many small businesses make the bulk of their revenue. In fact, a third of all U.S. small businesses report that 4th quarter is their biggest earning quarter. It can be very tempting to take the additional income generated through December and tackle debt, especially this year when so many businesses incurred debt to stay open.

 

I want to caution you against really slamming down debt this quarter without having a plan in place to protect your business in January, February, and March, a time when many businesses have slower sales. This is particularly true for Business to Consumer sales companies. Now, to be clear, you don’t want a lot of debt hanging over your business, but before you completely pay off the Visa, do these two things first:

 

  1. Have a Bit of Money Put Aside for Unexpected Stuff. If you haven’t created an “emergency fund” before now, consider it. Have a few months of expenses in the bank to cover anything unexpected that may arise. You may not actually need it, and then you can make decisions to use the set-aside money for debt in the future. Just make sure your monthly operations are covered, first.

 

  1. Create Your Debt Snowball. A debt snowball is a great way to plan to pay off debt quickly, much quicker than making the minimum payments for the life of the debt. As a trained Dave Ramsey financial coach, I find his method of planning your snowball (and getting it done) to be the easiest and best. Here are the basic steps:

 

  • Step 1: List your debts from smallest to largest amounts. Don’t worry about interest rates or payments.
  • Step 2: Continue to make all of your minimum payments on all your debts except the smallest one.
  • Step 3: Throw as much money as you can on the smallest debt, until it is paid off.
  • Step 4:Move to attacking the next debt, adding the payment from the paid off debt to increase your monthly payment amount.

 

You will continue these steps until all the debt is paid, and as you go the monthly payments get bigger and bigger as each debt payment is rolled into the next one, creating the “snowball.” You should sit down and list the bills in order, the payments for each, and generally calculate the payoff dates. 

 

Now, you can throw extra money at the littlest one at any time. So, don’t be in a rush to tackle it if you are unprotected. I don’t want you to fear debt, just don’t plan to stay there forever. If you create your emergency fund, and sit down to define your snowball plan, you will be in great shape to get your debts paid off while you continue to operate with ease. Happy Entrepreneuring!

 

Are you struggling with your cash flow every month? Grab our free resource, https://entremoneycoach.kartra.com/page/masteringcash >Mastering Cash Flow!

Why Small Businesses Go Under

 

 

Not Putting In Systems Affects Your Bottom Line

Firing yourself from automatable or delegatable business tasks is how you grow

 

 

Why are your higher priced packages making you less money than the lower priced packages?

When I met this particular client, she was running a thriving dog training business for over 12 years and had a waiting list of clients eager to buy her business’ packages. 

Her top-level package was selling very easily for $1497, and she had no shortage of dogs in this program. When we dug into all of her numbers, however, this high-end package wasn’t really a big money maker.

She actually had other services at lower price points that brought more income and profit into the business, just in smaller amounts. 

This is a common misconception by many business owners: the highest price package is the best one to make money in your business. This happens because we get an influx of cash from the bigger sales, and they tend to add up quickly. Much quicker than the lower cost options. 

There are several reasons your highest packages may not actually be the best ones to offer all the time. Here are two of the biggest ones. 

The demand on your business capacity

Big packages require big investments in time to serve the client.  If your biggest package requires hour long weekly calls, plus email support, plus reviews of things, the time will add up. 

How many clients can you comfortably serve each week where there is a high time investment?  Contrast this with lower touch (and time investment) packages that still support your clients at a lower price point. 

Going back to my client, her biggest package had multiple hours of training in the first week, so she had to limit the number of dogs in her facility. 

She offered other programs that were 1-2 hours a week and could hold a larger number of clients in each class. 

You tend to throw in too many freebies and bonuses into your business packages

I can’t begin to count the number of business owners who throw in freebies and bonuses to the clients of the large package sale, but they don’t count the financial and time cost of providing those bonuses.

I’m not talking about templates or bonus videos, which don’t likely cost much if anything. I mean additional products given as gifts and bonus calls and other services that are a true commitment of resources. 

My client generously gave pet beds and electronic collars. Neither gift was cheap, and then she added additional sessions for the owners in her package. She was very, very generous. 

This practice was costing her money. Not just for the gifts, but the trainers, her time, and hours in the facility that she kept open for these sessions. 

Now, I want to say that you should sell your highest packages! But sell them so that they work best in your business. 

My client made a few adjustments not just to her flagship program, but to the others so that she could continue to be crazy generous with her clients. I love that. 

You get to decide what your business gets to look like. But know your capacity, and your numbers before you sell the big one. 

So… Are you ready to look at your business packages to ensure that they are the best offers for your business capacity and growth? Just grab a spot on my calendar.