Ohhh, look at me mentioning money in polite company! I’ve gone and done it now...
We’re often discouraged from talking about money as it’s not good manners, and I’m still quite the fan of not ‘banging on about’ at every opportunity. For example, I’ve never been one to market what I do in terms ‘work with me and you’ll make lots of money’. This happens of course, but I don’t like the whole make ‘£6figures’ and ‘£7figures’ marketing side of things–not least as, being the daughter of an accountant AND someone with a very good understanding of how numbers work in a business, I know that turnover means nothing and profit is what you really want to worry about!
So that’s the first lesson right there... make sure you’re making a profit in your business. Breaking even is not a ‘Thing’! You want to make sure that, after all your costs and expenses, there is at least enough left over to pay you–the business owner–a salary or wage AND ideally that there is extra for putting back into the business or taking as a bonus. Yes, I realise this is ‘Accounting 101’ but it happens more often than you may admit that you are working hard and selling your Thing and you’re not quite getting to that 'money left over' part.
Money also matters when you are asking people to pay. If your business is selling You (or even if it’s not, but it’s your Thing and ultimately your income), there is very often an ‘emotional’ connection when you sell. Now, having a great emotional connection with your prospect is a very good idea (I'm not talking about sales today but that’s definitely a part of the process!). The emotions I’m talking about here are yours! The ‘worry’ that you’re charging too much, the idea that if someone says "No" to buying your Thing they are really telling you that you’re a terrible person with a really bad Thing. The annoyance when you charge too little for your Thing and you beat yourself up for not being braver. There are a lot of emotions that can be in play when you price, package and sell your thing.
Sometimes even when you have got past the point of people saying "Yes" to your Thing, you find it hard to take the payment. Perhaps you delay, perhaps you go into waffle mode if you’re having a conversation, maybe you feel uncomfortable ‘chasing’ the money. **Ohhh yes, we can get very complicated about money given half the chance**
But here’s the thing: money matters. It’s how we demonstrate the value of our Thing, it’s how people show us they understand the value of our Thing, it’s the ‘exchange’ that happens when someone says "Yes, I need that Thing and I would like you to provide it for me". And it’s important. A very wise man (Peter Thomson) always said that money is the silent applause for a job well done.
It’s not ‘all about the money’ (that way danger lies...), but it’s definitely important to get paid for what you do that’s brilliant and be confident in charging, asking and collecting the cash. When it comes to your Thing, money matters–so make sure you’re getting paid!
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