If you have been following this series you can see that we start with the ‘inner journey’ marketing pieces of Positioning and Messaging and today we look at how to take our time and LEVERAGE it.

Why?  It’s two fold.  First, if you are a service provider at a certain point you will run out of hours.  So your money leaks will happen because you can’t give any more to the business. or because your time is spent on activities that aren’t bringing the big dough in.

Next, with the proper business model you can leverage your talent by finding ways to reach more people in a variety of delivery methods.  The cool part here is that this gives you much more reach and the ability to help people all over with the content you create.  So if making more money and having more time and helping more people are things that interest you…keep reading!

To leverage your time, the simplest process is to follow yourself around for 3 weeks, noting what you do.  Ok, you can literally follow yourself, but you can make lists and track where your time goes.  Next you make a decision to give yourself x amount of hours a week where you can do things like marketing or other activities designed to get you out in the world or clients in the door.

Let’s say you decide to give up the checking email portion of your business or want someone to help get your content out in the world in a bigger way than you have time to do.  Finding a VA for that would be the first step.  (And I have a great referral if you need one!  Check out Renee Charbonneau for this)

After the decision piece, you commit to how much $$ you’ll be able to invest in getting help so you can peel off some pieces that you are doing that may not make you a happy camper.  In my call next week on 5 Business Leaks That Are Costing You Confidence, Credibility, Clients and Cash I’ll be sharing some of the secrets to figuring this out in a more detailed and personal way.  Head over to that page and register so you can get the process for how to make this work for you.

The funny thing about this delegation/leverage stuff….it seems like it should be a no-brainer.  We know we need to get some support, yet I often find some mindset blocks around either asking for help, admitting that you need some, feeling like no one can ever do it just as good, or maybe even a deservability issue.  So if you have tried to outsource and haven’t been as successful as you want with it, dig in and see if there is some little voice running around in your head telling you that you are tough and can do it all yourself!  WE gotta fire that Inner John Wayne!

My suggestion to you this week is to go through the process and DECIDE that that you are going to get some support in this area.

Next post will be leveraging part 2 – how to leverage your talent.

Blessings….

Oh, and I’d love to have you hope over to my site and join my list so you can get the latest offerings, newsletters, tips, and great resources.  Click here and you’ll get  a special report about plugging the Money Leaks in your business.

In the first post of this series I described two of my clients and how they each reacted to the concept of charging what they are worth.  Client #1 embraced it and raised her rates by 25%.  Client #2 struggled with feelings of guilt about raising her rates. Now let’s look at the outcomes.

Client #1 states that she shows up more fully and that her clients get better results because she wants to give more because she’s charging more. Did you get that? By charging MORE, she was giving MORE. It’s surprising that even though you think you are giving a lot, simply by raising your fees, you have to grow into a person and deliver a service worth of what you are charging, so you will improve your outcomes.

Sadly, client #2 is feeling some resentment toward her clients because she knows she’s giving it away for too little. (But thankfully she’s fully committed to changing this so is doing the mindset work necessary to make the shift.)

Let me give you a couple more examples of how this sneaky and creepy feeling comes in if you haven’t set your fees according to your value.

One client who was a VA found herself really angry when her client always complained about not being able to pay her fees, yet would spend $1500 buying jewelry and stuff from QVC! My client continued to keep her fees low and even allowed late payments from this woman! Definitely a place for resentment to begin to fester.

A colleague of mine who coaches chiropractors realized that he had charged a doctor $5000, but because of his suggestions, his client was able to grow their bottom line by about $200,000! It was at this point that he decided to shift his model and move to a profit sharing fee – something I have just begun to play with as well.

Do you see yourself in any of these examples? If so, let’s now look at how we can shift this.

The first place I want to start is with mindset.

Three questions here –
Is there a little part of me that is resentful now, or am I at risk of being resentful in the future because I am not charging the right fees?

What beliefs/inner dialogue is going on in my head that keeps me stuck? (This is where you look at your self talk. As an example, client #2 would remember the conversations she had where her clients complained about their financial situations and then hear herself say, “I can’t charge them more money….they wouldn’t be able to afford it and it’s not right of me to mess up their finances by doing that.”) Write down what you tell yourself to keep stuck in this loop.

What new belief would I have to install to be able to comfortably charge the fee that is right for ME? Some examples may be, “I give tremendous value” or “There is enough money out there” or “I only attract the clients to me who value my services and happily pay my fees.” Begin each day by looking at your new beliefs and repeating them until it becomes your natural way of being.

Now that we’ve visited what’s going on in your head, click here to read the next post where we’ll talk about what’s going on with your pricing.  You’ll see how being honest with yourself both areas will make all the difference in feeling great about being compensated for the value you provide.

Blessings,

Therese