Money is such a loaded topic because we all arrive into adulthood with different stories or views about what money and wealth mean. This opens the door to so many feelings around the idea of making money as a creative business owner and worthiness when it comes to financial compensation.
Seriously, think about some of the money messages that you received as a child. Which of those did you carry into adulthood? Probably more than you’d like to admit.
Those early money messages set the stage for how you approach money in your business. Am I charging enough? Will people pay me for this? Are my clients going to think I’m a fraud because of what I charge? There’s a lot to unpack and learning to slay your money dragons takes practice.
The way that you view and interact with money is probably the biggest obstacle standing between you and your ability to run a successful and profitable business. In this episode of Pimp Your Brilliance, I’m sharing 5 mindset shifts that you need to make now if you want to earn more money in your business.
Two Types of Mindsets
So what makes the difference between a creative business owner whose finances are thriving and one who’s barely covering their monthly expenses? Their money mindset.
You are what you think. So you either have an abundance mindset or a scarcity mindset.
An abundance mindset is a belief that there is enough for everyone. The focus is on what we do have which allows us to see possibility rather than limits.
A scarcity mindset is a belief that there is not enough to go around. People with a scarcity mindset, believe that there is a finite amount of resources so if one person gets a larger share there is less for everyone else.
I know this sounds very ‘Woo’ but it’s not. Your mindset can be traced back to your personal belief system. If you believe that money is a resource that’s readily available to you, you’ll figure out ways to make more money and if you don’t believe it, you won’t.
Mindset Shift #1: You are not your ideal client.
This is a mindset shift that I struggled for years to accept. I remember the very first person to tell me this was my best friend, Brandy. She told me that she had to learn not to price based on her own pockets.
Brandy works in a high-end salon with clients who expect a certain level of service and expect to pay a certain amount. She cannot price her services based on her own pockets or financial situation, because if she did that, she would not make enough money or get the kind of clients that she wanted. What her clients are willing to pay for services is not what she’s willing to pay.
It took me a long time to accept that because I over-identified with my ideal client. So I wouldn’t charge what I was supposed to for coaching services or even products. And I always felt really uncomfortable sharing my prices. When you do that, you stagnate the growth of your business.
You need to understand that you are not your ideal client. There may be similarities between you and your ideal client but your pockets are not your client’s pockets. You should be charging based on value, not what you feel you would pay if you were the client, because you’re not the client.
Mindset Shift #2: You need to invest in your business for it to grow.
This is a mindset shift that newer business owners get stuck into because they’re not making a ton of money. Instead of spending money to grow their business, they hold on to every single dollar that they bring in.
Yes, you can start your business by being scrappy but you can’t grow it without making smart investments. As your business grows, you’ll need to invest money into better tools, resources, acquiring knowledge, and hiring help. Those things take real money.
Now that doesn’t mean that you need to spend wildly or overextend yourself paying for things. You can still bootstrap your business and make strategic investments that will help save you time or make more money.
For example, you may want to invest $300 into a yearly subscription of software like Coschedule which would allow you to batch schedule content so that you save time and stay consistent with your posting schedule.
Mindset Shift #3: Always pay yourself something.
While it’s important to reinvest in the early years, you still need to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Otherwise, what are you working so hard for?
Get in the habit of paying yourself. Come up with a schedule, whether it’s monthly or biweekly, and transfer some money to yourself.
Seeing that extra money in your actual bank account and not just your business bank account shifts what you believe is possible. Imagine if you were able to double or triple the amount of money your business is currently bringing in.
This is why I think it’s really important to always pay yourself something. It can be $20. It doesn’t matter. Pay yourself and get into the habit of doing that early on. Don’t just reinvest every dollar back into the business.
Mindset Shift #4: You can be nice and still enjoy making money.
Lots of creative business owners struggle with this one myself included. The belief that having lots of money makes you selfish or a bad person is definitely a message that many of us carried over from childhood.
You can be a nice person and still enjoy making money. If you are showing up and serving your audience, you deserve to be compensated for that.
It isn’t selfish to want to make money. It’s actually really important that you make as much money as you can because money is a tool. It can be used for good just as much as it can be used for bad. Making more money gives you the option to spend money on causes and things that you care about.
Mindset Shift #5: Success isn’t measured only in dollars.
There are plenty of ways to measure your success. The amount in your bank account is not the only way.
When you are using money to measure your success, sometimes it doesn’t feel like it matches up to the amount of work that you’re doing or the impact that you’re having.
Find some non-dollar related ways to measure your success and what that looks like for you. I want to encourage you to keep a healthy sense of perspective, that money is not the only indicator of whether or not you’re successful.
Mindset work is an ongoing process. Don’t get discouraged if it feels like you’re taking a long time to make these shifts. Remember you are unraveling stories and messages that you’ve carried for years.
I’ve found that talking about money with other creative business owners normalizes the desire to make money and helps shed the discomfort. Many of us are working through similar issues.
If you’re looking for a place to have open and honest discussions about money, accountability, and a genuinely supportive group of people, you can come and hang out with us over in the Brilliance Lounge.
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