Written by: Kathy Grassett, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Nearly every problem in your service business can be traced back to money in some way. If you want to elevate yourself to the unstoppable, confident CEO of your dream business, reach bigger and bolder income goals, and enjoy the time and financial freedom of being your own boss, you likely need to think about and engage with money very differently than you do today. So, the way to stop struggling and start moving forward is to improve your money mindset and routines. Here are three of the most common, most impactful money mistakes you may be making, the impact they have on your business, and what to do to correct them.
Mistake No.1 Living Out Someone Else’s Money Story
Whether you realize it or not, we have all been conditioned since childhood to think about money a certain way. Most of our major beliefs about money are formed in childhood by watching and listening to our parents and families.
If your parents constantly used phrases like: “Money doesn’t grow on trees,” or “Money is the root of all evil,” odds are you grew up to believe that money is really hard to come by and nothing good can come from having a lot of it anyway.
Did your parents advocate for you to become a doctor or a lawyer or to get a good office job just because those jobs would pay well? Did they tell you that you have to work really hard if you want to make good money? You may have come to believe that enjoying your job wasn’t necessary so long as it paid the bills and that you must work demanding hours to truly earn your keep.
Did your parents fight about finances? Did one parent hide spending from another? If so, you may now believe that money leads to nothing but heartache or that spending money is shameful.
All these situations seep into our subconscious and form our beliefs about money, and they can be detrimental to your success in business. Our beliefs about money influence how we actively think about things and make decisions every day. For example, if you believe that it’s incredibly difficult to make money, you may worry that no one will pay you for your services and then significantly undercharge to get more clients. If you subconsciously believe that making the income you desire can only come from working 70-hour weeks, you are going to overwork, overdeliver, and get burnt out. (I talk more about the practice of undercharging and overdelivering in Is This Common Mistake in Your Consulting or Coaching Business Costing You?) The truth is that you become only who you tell yourself you can be. If you don’t believe financial abundance is possible, you will never find it.
So, how do you fix this? The good news is those beliefs aren’t yours. Ask yourself what you’d rather believe instead. You do not have to continue to live out this old money story. You can change these beliefs that are limiting and restrictive and rewrite your own money story, one that’s positive, expansive, and exciting. Then move forward in a way that’s aligned with those new beliefs, even if they feel awkward or untrue. When you start to own them as your own, you will have a fresh, new perspective and your brain will begin seeking evidence that they are, indeed, true.
Mistake No.2 Keeping Your Head Buried in the Sand
Another major mistake entrepreneurs make is to ignore their finances altogether. Do you know your numbers, from your monthly and annual expenses to how much money you bring in every month to how much you owe on your credit cards? Do you know when your subscriptions will renew? Do you procrastinate performing money-making activities? Do you hesitate to open bills, look at your bank statements, or even send out invoices or requests for money? Do you just keep telling yourself, “It’s fine. Everything will work out!” All of these are ways that you’re keeping yourself in the dark about your finances. Keeping yourself in the dark prevents you from planning appropriately, making informed decisions, and growing your business.
With any change or growth plan, you must know your starting point, your desired endpoint, and the road to get from one to the other. There is no right or wrong when it comes to assessing the position from where you’re starting. It is what it is. But you must know what it is to be able to create appropriate goals, determine what needs to be done to achieve them, take steps forward, invest responsibly, and be able to measure your progress. You must know your numbers every step of the way. None of this happens blindly.
So, if you’re making this mistake, how do you fix it? Well, if you truly want to feel more empowered around money and make the insane amount of money you deserve as the CEO of your business, be able to level up over time and make important financial decisions, you must take a real, honest look at your financial situation right now. So, dig in. No more hiding. Step up as the badass business owner you want to be and look at those numbers. Hire help if you need to.
Mistake No.3 Not Having a Vision for Your Business’s Financial Future
It’s really hard to “get what you want” when you don’t know what that is. This goes hand in hand with the second mistake. Because if you’re prone to keeping your head in the sand around your money situation right now, it’s also just as likely you don’t have a clear vision for what you’d ideally like your financial future to look like.
Simply thinking you want to be rich or you want to make “more money” isn’t enough. There’s more to it. It’s easy to get sucked into thinking short-term because things “feel okay” or because you can’t imagine anything different than what you have now. But short-term thinking will never get you long-term results. Your current financial situation does not have to represent your future. To win at the money game, you need to get super clear on your long-term, big-money vision.
Let’s just take a moment to think about it. Think about what it would look like if all your money problems were instantly solved and your financial life was completely transformed. What does your financial life look like? How are you making money? Where are you living? Are you on track for retirement? How are you investing in your personal development? How does your relationship with money feel in the future? Do you still hide your head in the sand, or do you feel confident and capable, and empowered around handling your money? Do you know exactly how to attract more money, keep it, and make it work for you?
Sounds pretty incredible, right? Now I also want you to think about what your life might look like in three years if your relationship with money doesn’t change. What does that life look like? Probably not quite as fabulous right? The truth is time is of the essence when it comes to becoming a financially empowered CEO. So, take some time to create specific financial goals for the next year and targets for 3-5 years from now. Plan the activities that will achieve those goals and targets. And always ask yourself if the action you’re about to take or the decision you’re about to make is going to move the needle closer to reaching them.
The beliefs most people have about money and behaviors that support them are counterproductive to growing a business. Not fixing your money mindset and routines and letting go of your financial fears is the most expensive choice you can make. But master your money story and get real about your current and future financial picture and you significantly increase your chance of entrepreneurial success, making a lot more money with a lot less effort, in a way that is powerfully authentic to you.
Kathy Grassett, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Kathy Grassett is a business coach, speaker, and leader specializing in career reinvention, business growth, and money mastery after a life in corporate. After a successful 20-year corporate career in IT, she had trouble adjusting to life as an entrepreneur and realized her lingering corporate identity was limiting her potential. Kathy now teaches clients her strategies for shedding the corporate layers that are holding them back and creating a simple but lucrative business model that will power them into exciting new levels of impact & income. Kathy’s mission is to help her clients surpass their corporate success by making a lot more money with a lot less effort in a way that is powerfully authentic to them.
