The Real Reason Why You Are In Business
Do you know the real reason why you are in business?
The first response I hear most often to that question is to be of service. That is a wonderful reason and very true for the majority of individuals in a service business, including myself. However, there is a key component of to that answer that is missing. That missing component is why so many of us experience difficulty manifesting abundance and prosperity in the form of money. We have no trouble attracting clients, just attracting clients who can pay us.
That is why it is so important to be extremely clear with yourself about the real reason is why you are in business. That reason is:
To be of service AND to provide those services in EXCHANGE for FINANCIAL COMPENSATION
That certainly sends a clear message to the Universe – doesn’t it?!
There is another form of payment that happens when we are being of service to our clients. It is the gift of seeing how you have positively affected another human being and that gift fills you up.
Consciously, we may believe that we deserve to be paid but somewhere in our unconscious mind, we don’t believe that we deserve any other form of payment. Our conscious mind makes up 10% of our brain and our unconscious mind makes up over 90%. The 90% – unconsciously believing we don’t deserve any other form of payment – is the vibration that we are sending out in the Universe.
When you are struggling to make the mortgage payment each month, the worry and stress you are feeling comes through the service you are providing and is energetically felt by the client. At first, it may not affect them and they will continue to work with you, but at some point the service they are receiving will no longer feel good and they will seek that service from another source.
Do you see how not knowing the real reason why you are in business compounds negatively upon itself?
When you are clear about your reason for being in business and you have that resonating in your body, mind and spirit that energy will emanate forth from you and you will attract clients who will willingly pay you for your services. You in turn will receive abundance and prosperity in the form of the seeing how you have positively impacted another human being and monetarily. Resulting in ever expanding abundance and prosperity for everyone involved.
Just remember:
□ You are in the business of providing a quality service.
□ Clients hire and pay you because they are in need of those services.
□ You provide these services for financial compensation.
Repeat these three lines, as often as needed.
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
In the late fall of 2008 I made a promise to myself to clear out what was no longer working in my life and figure out what I truly wanted for myself. What I didn’t know then was that I was jumping on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride!
The past year has stressful, eye opening and full of blessings beyond my imagination! I now clearly see without a doubt how each of is 100% responsible for our current situation. We are constantly manifesting – our thoughts and feelings are what bring about the events we experience – the good ones and the ones with all of those ugly warts. They show up and lead us to where we need to be healed.
My healing usually manifests itself through my financial well being. In the past year I experienced a whole host of financial wake-up calls from paying for a service and not receiving the quality that was promised to receiving an unexpected cash influx only to have it go immediately out the door to cover an unexpected expense.
Hitting my pocketbook is how the Universe gets my attention. When my cash flow stagnates it has nothing to do with my earning potential (I know how to make money) and everything to do with my self worth.
For me, my root issue is feeling supported. When I don’t feel supported, I don’t feel safe and those are the feelings I am sending out into the Universe further perpetrating the experience that no longer serves me. Money is repelled by negativity.
To counterbalance this I have incorporated into my daily life time for ME – yoga, mediation, taking myself out for breakfast. I get bored easily so I like to shake things up by doing something a little different every day. An important component of each activity, no matter which one I choose is envision my heart’s desire. I play it like it’s a movie in my head AND I feel the joy, light-heartedness and happiness of what I am seeing. That is how to bring about the positive change we want to experience – see it and feel it as though it is already happening!!
We all are deserving of the abundant riches the Universe offers each of us every single day. Take a closer look at your financial hiccups and see if you can see the recurring pattern.
Join me for my free call on Wednesday, March 10th at 7pm EST.
Money and Forgiveness
I kept hitting a roadblock so I decided to revisit and study the Universal Laws of abundance and prosperity. Pretty much whenever you read about abundance and prosperity, gratitude it is one of the keys that leads to abundance and prosperity. As I read the word gratitude, my intuition told me this is where I was hitting that roadblock.
I know I am grateful and yet I am having a hard time feeling gratitude. Then it dawned on me! I had no idea how gratitude felt in my body! So before going to bed the other night I asked my guides, guardians and helpers to please show me why I am having difficulty feeling gratitude.
The answer did come to me and it hit me like a bolt of lighting! Underneath it all I didn’t feel as though I deserved what I had in my life. I felt guilty. Guidance further went on to show me that I am capable of feeling gratitude however, my feelings of non-deservability were overshadowing my ability to express gratitude in a deep and meaningful way!
So I have began searching, delving deeper into why I didn’t feel as though I deserved abundance. The next level again took me by surprise. Old situations began to resurface where I still had unresolved feelings – guilt, resentment and shame. These situations are long past and yet I had not forgiven myself for being human and doing the best I possibly could at the time.
Did I learn from these situations – absolutely yes! Have I repeated the pattern – probably! But holding onto the resentment and shame was serving no one, especially me. In your life experiences you will find that, when the good you wish has not appeared, it is usually because you need to release and let go of something to make room for it. In my case that was forgiving myself.
Forgiveness creates a vacuum within which your desired good can begin manifesting. Nature abhors a vacuum, and when you begin moving out of your life what you do and do not want, you automatically are making way for what you do want.
Perform this exercise in forgiveness to create a vacuum within which your desired good can begin manifesting. Whenever you dare to form a vacuum the substance of the Universe rushes to fill that empty space. This applies on the spiritual, mental and physical planes of life.
Exercise: Forgiveness is the Answer
1. Find a quiet spot and take several deep breaths. Allow your mind to wander and let rise to the top anything you are out of harmony with, feel badly towards or are concerned about. Have you criticized or gossiped about anyone? Are you involved with any legal matters that are causing you stress?
2. Acknowledge the situations and/or names that come to your consciousness by writing them down on a piece of paper. Do not judge or edit.
3. State the name each person on your list and repeat the following:
“I fully and freely forgive you. So as far as I am concerned, that incident between us is finished forever. I do not wish to hurt you. I wish you no harm. I am free and you are free and all is well between us again.”
Repeat this step as many times as needed for each situation and or name until you feel a sense of release. (Your body will feel lighter.)
When you have gone through all of the names on the list, shred the paper and throw it away.
4. Then forgive yourself by declaring the following:
“The Universe’s forgiving love has set us free. Divine love now produces perfect results and all is again well between us. I behold you with the eyes of love and I glory in your success, prosperity and complete good. I am forgiven and governed by Universal love alone and all is well.”
Repeat this step as many times as needed for each name until you feel at peace.
5. Thank the Universe.
Join me for my free call on Wednesday, March 10th at 7pm EST.
What Marketing Phase Are You In?
Last night I was talking to a friend who commented that I had become quite a marketer. I really don’t think of myself as a marketing person, just someone who knows a lot about finance/accounting and a little bit about marketing. Today I thought it would be fun to share with you my history as it relates to marketing. Read on for a good laugh!
Phase I – Minimal Effort
When I first started my business, I was naïve enough to think I did not have to do any marketing or what I refer to as my minimal marketing phase. I made a few contacts, had a few clients and thought I was golden. When I found myself sitting around twiddling my thumbs, I then entered the stop/start phase.
Phase II – Start Again/Stop Again
This is when I would start marketing doing a variety of activities, get new business, stop marketing because I was busy, wait for the “busyness” to slow down and then start the cycle all over again. After I had repeated this a couple of times, I entered the “let’s run around like a chicken without a head” phase.
Phase III – Running Around Like a Chicken without a Head
In this phase, you probably met me because I attended every possible networking event that existed – no kidding! I was exhausted from all of this running around and completely discouraged because I was seeing very little return for all of my marketing efforts. Let’s not forget to mention all of the money I spent attending these events.
Phase IV – Peace and Consistency
Somehow sanity returned and I entered the peace and consistency phase! Ok, a mentor of mine sat me down and said “What are you doing? Take a look at what has worked in the past, what you like and don’t like about it and come up with a new plan.” That is exactly what I did.
When you are the owner of a small business, marketing is the lifeblood of your business. Without it, there are no clients – without clients there is no cash – without cash there is no business. Here are a few tips that helped me regain my marketing sanity, are effective and helped me to even out the flow of new business my company receives each year.
Target Your Marketing Efforts – you cannot be everything to everyone, when you try, your marketing message is confusing and not effective. Take the time to truly define who you are targeting. The more you can niche your business the clearer your marketing message is. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that you won’t work with anyone outside of your niche. The clearer your marketing message, the more prospective clients are attracted to you.
Tips for Developing Budgets
Everybody knows what budgeting is – you just figure out where you are going to spend the money you earn, and that’s all there is to it – right? Well yes and no. Yes, going through the budget process does identify how you are going to spend the money you earn in the short term. It is a tool you use from day to day and from month to month. But it is a wasted effort if it is not also focused on the longer term and achieving your strategic objective – the vision of your business as it will be when it is fully developed.
Your strategic objective is a clear written statement, a detailed picture of the future of what your business will look like, act like, and how it will perform when it is fully developed. It is a commitment to the future, not just a wish.
The idea, then, is to establish the pattern of profits and sales that will get you to your strategic objective in the time frame you have set, and create a budget to make it happen. It’s a matter of plotting the annual progress you intend to achieve, and breaking those annual goals into a progression of monthly results.
Budgeting is one of those core business practices that every well-run business uses and is a crucial aspect of financial planning. It’s a fundamental management tool that not only keeps you and your people on course, but provides the radar to tell you when you’re off course and how far off course you are. Whether you are a beginner or a veteran at budgeting, it pays to review the basics. Here is an overview of the main activities of the budgeting process.
Budget Setup
The first step is to outline the ground rules you will follow to prepare your budget. What is the layout and formatting of the budget itself – will you build your budget on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis? Who will be accountable for generating the numbers and producing budget documents? How the review process will work – what reports will you need to compare actual results to budget and on what frequency?
Plan and Forecast
The budgeting cycle begins by doing the planning and forecasting that will shape your business in the months to come based upon your strategic objective or goals. Fortunately, most goals have a dollar amount attached to them and the basis from which you can create your budget – revenues and profits. And of the two, profits are the more important because profits are the key to the long-term financial value of your business.
The idea, then, is to establish the patterns of profits and sales that will get you to your strategic objective in the time frame you have set, and create a budget to make it happen. One way to create your budget is to base it on sales (revenue) forecasts and work through the line items to net profit. If that profit meets your goals, you’re set; if not, you can review the various line items to see where you can make adjustments to meet the profit goal. The better way is to start your profit goal and calculate the revenue you have to generate in order to achieve the required profits.
Chances are the initial budget you set won’t be perfect. Update your forecast quarterly or when new information or events impacts your company. Compare initial plans (budget) to what actually occurred (actual), and adjust remaining budget figures accordingly (forecast). By doing so, your budget will keep touch with reality and provide you useful information as part of your monthly, ongoing review.
Monitor and Report
Use your accounting system to gather and organize actual results, and create monthly budget variance reports that point out where actual results differ from your plan and how much they differ by. Then do some research as to what is causing the favorable or unfavorable variance. This information is the key to help you make the right decisions to move your company forward towards your strategic objective.
Review and Manage
Budgeting is where planning and implementation meet. Managing your budget is translating information into action. Your budget tells you what you need to accomplish. Your variance reports tell you what you are actually accomplishing. Your budget review process gives you the specific direction you need to focus your attention where it will do the most good, where it will get the best results for your business.
Study your budget and variance reports for clues on how to improve your business, spot problems before they become serious and generally “keep in touch” with the pulse of your business. Use this opportunity to review and confirm budget assumptions and revise them, as necessary. The point is, your budget gives you a “standard” to work for as derived from your strategic objective, your variance report shows you where you are in relation to that standard, and your review and analysis process helps you ask the right questions to ensure you get back on course.
As you refine your budgeting skills, fine tune your budget numbers, and become more imaginative in your review and analysis of your variance reports, all this will become second nature. You’ll scan the monthly variance reports, instantly honing in on the things that matter. You’ll have a firm grasp on the leverage points of your business. You’ll see problems long before they become serious, and opportunities will become visible at an early stage when you can maximize their benefit to you and achieving your strategic objective.
© 2009 Linda A. Hunt. Reprint rights granted to all online venues so long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end). Send a courtesy copy of the reprint to info@lahenterprises.com.
Linda Hunt delivers simple, practical strategies for creating systems and structure that create stability helping business owners to grow their business and earn more money. For more FREE tips like these, visit her at http://www.sumsolutions.com
My Secret Goal Setting Formula
Goal setting is an important exercise and is crucial to the success of any business, but is particularly important for entrepreneurs who can become distracted with multiple priorities. Goal setting allows us to be proactive, instead of just being reactive. We’ve all had days where we just seem to leap from one crisis to another, but we know that is not a preferred mode of operation! Goals direct actions, give you something to aim for, and can serve as a yardstick for measuring your business’s success.
However, goal setting itself isn’t enough. Goal setting is just the first step to achievement but you also need to have a goal setting strategy to help you accomplish the goal you have set. Without a goal setting strategy, or series of actions, that you are going to use to work towards the goal, whether or not you achieve the goal you have set is just a matter of blind chance. And in today’s business climate, blind chance is no way to run a successful business. To be successful, you need to make things happen, not just let things happen.
So when you are setting business goals, or any other goals for that matter, I use a goal setting formula that a mentor of my taught me that incorporates a strategy or strategies for accomplishing the goal:
“I will (goal + performance measure) by (specific actions).”
For example, suppose that you want to increase revenue. First specify the goal. “I will increase revenue this month by 25 percent. Setting a specific goal builds in the criteria you will use to evaluate your success. In this case, at the end of the month, you’ll either have increased sales by 25 percent compared to the previous month or you won’t. Then, specify the strategy that you will use to work towards accomplishing the goal. “I will increase sales this month by 25 percent by offering a 10 percent off sale on all inventory and advertising this sale in the local papers.”
When you go beyond the basic step of goal setting evaluating your success or failure is easy, because your goal is specific rather than general. And suddenly, instead of just having a goal that you may or may not achieve, you have a specific plan to follow and achieve the goal you have set.
If you avoid goal setting, here are a few tips:
Have Short-Term and Long-Term Goals
The first thing I do when setting goals is to consider where I would like to be 5 years from now. Once I have determined my long-term goal or ideal scene, I work backwards breaking this ideal scene down into short-term goals, specifying those milestones that need to be achieved along the way to this long-term goal. I picked this tip up from reading The Millionaire Course by Marc Allen. It is a wonderful book business book that stresses the importance of visualizing and goal setting.
If it seems to daunting a task to start with a 5 year plan, establish 90-day goals. Limit them to 3 specific things that you want to accomplish – such as a monetary goal, developing a brochure by a specific date, or obtaining a new client. Write out each goal and put a due date next to it. Then write out each step that needs to be taken, by when and what type of support I need to accomplish that goal. Then take out your calendar and schedule in the time you need to honor the commitment you just made to yourself.
Be Relevant
Goals should help you attain a specific aim. Beware of goals that are just going to keep you busy but do not contribute directly to the overall goal you have set for yourself and the success of your business. If you don’t believe your goals are worthwhile, you won’t make the necessary effort to achieve them. For example, a couple of years ago I really wanted to work a 4-day work week. I set the goal, but did not really believe that I could or should only work 4 days a week – guess what it never happened because I was not truly aligned with this goal.
Review Your Goals Constantly
Review your goals daily. Keep them in plain view – by your desk or next to your computer. Goals are not something that you write down and file in a drawer. The more you embody your goals, the more real they become and the more aware you are of opportunities that cross your path to help you achieve those goals.
I put my goals on colorful 4×6 index cards and keep them by my bedside. I read them over first thing each morning and then again before I go to sleep at night. This keeps me focused and moving towards my goals.
Staying on Track
Once you establish clear goals you will begin to notice that a lot of opportunities will begin to present themselves. When this happens, I ask myself a very important question which helps me to decide whether I should look further into the opportunity or let it go – “Does this opportunity bring me closer to my goal or further away from it?”
By asking yourself this simple question you will be able to take decisive action towards accomplishing your goals. For example, a lovely sales person from ADP has been calling me to schedule a meeting to show me their services and how they have changed. By asking myself - “Does this opportunity bring me closer to my goal or further away from it?” - I have no problem figuring out whether or not I should schedule the meeting.
Linda Hunt delivers simple, practical strategies for creating systems and structure that create stability helping business owners to grow their business and earn more money. For more FREE tips like these, visit her at http://www.sumsolutions.com
It has been a real pleasure working with Linda. She has helped me to see what area of my business is really my passion and focus my attention on that area.