EP13: Money & Business - How to let go of Fears

In this Episode of Soul Aligned CEO I am starting a conversation about Money and our perceptions and relationship to it, specifically when starting a business. 

This is a broad topic and I plan to have future episodes breaking it down further.  I have divided this episode into 2 parts: first, our emotional/mental relationship with money and how we speak to ourselves about it and second, some basic practical discussions on money topics that new entrepreneurs face.  

In this episode I discuss: 

·         Money fears – unworthy, uncertain and scared 

·         How language is so important to frame our perception about money 

·         Why planning is key to help ease those fears

·         How to determine fair prices for your offerings 

·         Setting realistic financial expectations 

·         How to decide what to invest in for your business 

·         Why finding a good accountant you can trust is key 

Soul Aligned CEO 

Follow on IG --> @soul_aligned_ceo

You Tube -- >Soul Aligned CEO

Transcript

Jenni (00:01.038)
Hello and welcome to Soul Aligned CEO Podcast, the show that shares the journeys of entrepreneurs from all around the world who have started businesses and they are doing that Soul Aligned. I'm your host Jenni Morey and on today's episode we are going to discuss money. Money and business.

Now, this is a very broad topic and I foresee a series of episodes on the podcast regarding money, but I want to start the conversation as money is really a foundation of business.

we sell a service or a product and in exchange we receive money as a form of payment. And so because of that, our relationship with money is so important and really feeds directly into a mental, emotional, spiritual, and even physical relationship.

with money. And so that's why I feel like it's important to start the conversation and really understand money and how we interact with it and what role it plays in our business. So that's the focus for today. I am going to break this down into two sections. So first is that relationship with money.

so your emotional and mental connection with money. So I wanna talk a little bit about that. And then second, I want to begin to discuss some foundational things regarding money and business, especially for newer entrepreneurs. So I was able to get some really great questions.

Jenni (02:16.014)
from the podcast audience, so I will be answering as many of those today as possible. So I really appreciate that. I do just want to say that none of this is in any way financial advice. I am not a financial advisor. I can share with you my perspective and insight on how I have seen

my own relationship with money over the last two decades as an entrepreneur and can give you some information about different things that I've done. So I just want to make sure that everybody understands that I'm in no way trying to financially advise anyone. I'm merely trying to share some insight that might help you along the way. So let's get started.

Now, the topic of money, when you hear that this episode is about money, you probably did one of two things. One, you probably were like, you know, I don't really want to have a conversation about money. And that's totally natural. I think a lot of us, especially in today's society, have an uncomfortable relationship with money.

and that's part of why I want to start having conversations about it. If your reaction was hesitant or frustrated or annoyed, you know, know that that's completely normal. And many people, I'm sure, feel that way anytime someone wants to talk about money. Now, maybe another reaction might be, oh, awesome. Like, I want to learn. I want to expand. I want to...

know, really set goals for myself, you know, and that's really awesome too. I feel like people either have kind of a uncomfortable relationship with money or they have a comfortable relationship with money. There's not a lot of in between and I've really seen that even on my own journey with business and in my personal life. So I just wanted to say that. So whatever emotion first came

Jenni (04:39.102)
is about money is okay. Like let that emotion be and we'll kind of talk through different points during this episode and let's see how you feel at the end. Okay. So your relationship with money. We are here on this planet earth and like I said before money is an exchange and so we have.

come up with this rule that, you know, in order to receive goods, services, products, coaching, whatever it is, in exchange for that, we are handing over our credit card now or, you know, going online. Back in the day, maybe they used to exchange you bags of gold. But today you are typing in your credit card number.

and then you can instantaneously have access to whatever it is that you want to buy. Now I joke around a little bit because I am trying to make everybody feel a little bit more comfortable, but that relationship that you have with money really is deep rooted and it is something that you know starts as a child really and how those around us viewed money.

If you grew up in a household where money was tight, money was a struggle, there was never enough money, then you can see how that would formulate a certain perception about money versus if you grew up in a family that was more comfortable and had enough to meet your needs and even, you know, extra money to do fun things.

that may have developed into a different perception of money. And then there's even the further extreme that maybe if you were in a family that had an abundance of money or what we would call in Western society, maybe wealthy, then maybe your perception is money is easy and money, you know, isn't something that you have to worry about. So you can see how throughout your childhood,

Jenni (07:02.09)
You know how those around you perceived money is going to lay your initial foundation of how you perceive money. And then as you get into school and then start interacting with other children and other families you then your awareness begins to expand and lo and behold you know then you become a young adult and you have some money story. Whether that's good bad.

wonderful, indifferent, you have a relationship with money. And so looking at that relationship with money really starts with how do you speak to yourself about money? When I'm coaching entrepreneurs and they start talking about pricing and money and how they feel about it, it is almost instantaneously, I can tell, by their choice of words.

whether they say things like, well, I need to get better with money. I'm struggling with money. I am unsure of what I'm worth. I don't know what to charge. Those are very clear linguistic signals that you're constantly telling yourself there's something difficult about money. Now, probably the two most common things that people share with me is that they have a

fear of money or rather a fear of not having enough money. And the second thing is that they just are like uncertain, like they don't know what to do, but they maybe aren't necessarily afraid but they just don't know where to start. And so both of those have a connotation of it not being necessarily positive.

And so the first thing that I suggest and we can all do this, we can all really stop and throughout our day really look at our inner dialogue. Now if you are a new entrepreneur and you're starting a business and maybe you don't have the client base or the income coming in that you'd like, you could find yourself saying to yourself that you're struggling with money.

Jenni (09:29.906)
Now I guarantee you 100% that if you are every day waking up afraid of the bills you need to pay and are struggling, you will continue to struggle. And so what I suggest is reframe that language. And it may sound oversimplified, but it makes a big difference. And even if you can do it in stages,

I'm really struggling with money. I'm not making what I want to be. I'm not getting the number of clients I want. This is really a struggle. So let's reframe that and get off of the struggle bus and maybe you need to say, well, I am reformulating my relationship with money. Maybe you're not ready to go all in and say,

I have a fantastic relationship with money. Money flows to me easily. If that doesn't feel natural, take it a step away from the struggle and just say, I am reformulating or reframing my relationship with money. So take it from a negative connotation to a more neutral conversation in your mind. And then from that neutral place, feel comfortable there.

and you've lost the struggle. Now you're kind of reevaluating reframing that position and then from there you can take the next step and actually have a positive reference to money. Now again, you know, it may sound silly and I'm not trying to regurgitate some secret manifestation stuff from you know, 15 years ago.

But language is really key. And I guarantee you that if you stop and think about how you talk to yourself, that inner voice about money, every time you need to pay rent or your car payment, or you're looking at your banking account, how you word that to yourself is putting that energy right back out into the universe. And so language is something that you can all give it a try.

Jenni (11:55.454)
And like I said, if you're not really ready to go from struggling to, you know, a wonderful relationship with money, like at least take it halfway. And I'm laughing because and I'm in no way making light of the situation, but it makes such a difference. So I really challenge all of you over this next week after you've listened to this episode to catch yourself. And if any point in time you are.

having a fearful thought, an uncertain thought, a struggling thought about money, just stop and get yourself to a neutral place and say, okay, I acknowledge that this is what I often tell myself, now I'm gonna give myself the space to reevaluate that and reformulate my position on that. So give it a try. That's something that doesn't cost any money to do and it actually really makes a big difference.

So surrendering, so being uncertain is a big thing, especially starting a new business, because maybe you have gone from a salaried position where you had a consistent income and now you are in this space of unknown. You don't necessarily know what your next offering is going to bring in. You don't necessarily have an idea of

how many new clients you're going to sign next month. And so that uncertainty is real and really valid. And I think with that, what I have found really helps is laying out a plan because if you plan, you are setting yourself up to have something to aim for and a goal. And a lot of times, especially with newer entrepreneurs,

dive in and create all these magical, wonderful, creative offerings, but don't really have a game plan for how you're going to share the marketing of those offerings, how you're going to really communicate and sell, really. And so to make things less scary and less uncertain, if you lay out a plan of here's what I'm going to do.

Jenni (14:21.122)
Here's my offerings that I am going to have for this next month or this next quarter. Here's how I plan to market those offerings. And then that game plan gives you very actionable and tangible steps to work towards and having tangible actionable steps allows your brain to like settle out of the uncertainty because you're doing something you have a plan.

And again, that might feel oversimplified, but it's something that, again, doesn't cost any money, but to actually just lay out a monthly quarterly plan of what you want to achieve, and then you break it down by week to the individual actions on how you achieve that. And so those two things, I think, are the biggest shifts that I experienced.

15 years ago when I first started my consulting business because I'm really the kind of person that just dives in headfirst and like I have an idea. I'm just going to run hard at it and of course it'll work right like I just I am fearless in that regard but I don't always slow down to really look at what is it that I'm trying to accomplish. And so what really helped me is.

One, being very aware of my language. No matter the lack of money that I had at any point in my new entrepreneur journey, I never thought of myself as poor. I never thought of myself as struggling. I merely thought of myself as working towards what I knew that I would achieve. And so I was very careful always with language.

And then with that, I became very good at setting goals for myself and planning out monthly and quarterly actions that I wanted to take that would help me achieve those goals. And by doing both of those things, it really helped me work through the fear and uncertainty that I had. So I hope that those two things will help you.

Jenni (16:39.43)
Please let me know if you try either of them and you know, if it does help you and it's really a process again It's not something that you can think yourself into having Abundance and success, but I'll tell you if you think yourself into struggle and lack you for sure perpetuate that and so It's a practice like working out like eating healthy

anything that you're doing from a perspective of consistency, it's the same thing with your thoughts and everything that you're telling yourself. So stick with it. It's something that builds and you start to see the energy that is being attracted to you. So now the second set of questions that I received really revolved around some initial

of practical applications as far as money and newer entrepreneurs. So things like how do I set fair prices? Like how do I decide what to charge? Like what is the value of what I am offering? And that's a really great question and it's something that all entrepreneurs face. And I'll tell you this, I can't tell you.

You know, I can't pick a number and say yes, your services are worth $100 an hour or $250 an hour. You have to know what you're offering, but you can also do some research. And what I suggest to the entrepreneurs that I work with is to really look at the marketplace because if in your particular area of business, the going rate.

for one-on-one sessions is something like 75 to $125 an hour, and you feel like you're going to charge 200, you might want to reconsider and look at what the market value and market rate is, and then kind of gauge, you know, what are you offering compared to what similar services or products are offering. And that's necessarily...

Jenni (19:00.258)
that's necessary in any business, really looking at the market and looking at competition. You want to see where you fit into the marketplace. And obviously there's other factors that play into that, such as your experience, what you bring to the table, your gifts, your knowledge and so forth. But what you don't wanna do is out price yourself from the market and then make it so that

a potential client or customer doesn't see the value. Often I'll recommend for newer entrepreneurs, you really want to offer an entry level price point that people can get exposed to what you're offering, whether it's a product or a service, but it opens the door into your store. And I know a lot of you have virtual stores.

But if you think about it like this, like if you're walking on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills or Fifth Avenue in New York, you know that those stores have five, 10, $20,000 handbags and watches that are $50,000 plus. You know that price point. So if you're not wanting that type of product, you don't go into that store.

And so it kind of is the same thing from an online perspective. And so people will look at your link tree or they'll look at your website and look at your offerings and kind of see a price range. And a lot of times, if you have an entry level price range, you know, something that's in the like $50 or under $100, that price point often speaks to people as being safe and being something that they feel comfortable.

investing in because they can relate it to something that they've perhaps spent money on, like maybe dinner and a movie. And so that's a comfortable entry level price point often. And then you can have mid-range and maybe even higher range price points if you're offering longer courses or one-on-one consulting or things of that nature. And so you do want to look at how accessible

Jenni (21:14.962)
you are making yourself, especially as a brand new entrepreneur, and really consider the market when you decide to price yourself. So that's what I would say to that question. The next question that I got is setting goals and business plans. And I talked about this really briefly in the first half of this episode, but planning...

you either fail to plan or you plan to succeed is really the truth of the matter. And I know that it can be somewhat daunting to think about this concept of a business plan. And this isn't like back in the day where you had like this 200 page typed up thing with like graphs and charts. That's really not necessary. What I mean by business plan is what I spoke about briefly

Jenni (22:11.914)
And so if you know that you want to make a thousand dollars a month or five thousand dollars a month, okay, that's great. So now what are the types of offerings that you are going to have and present for sale in order to generate that kind of income? So you know if you offer a workshop or a course and the entry level price is a hundred dollars and you want to make a thousand dollars a month.

before expenses, you need to sell at least 10 enrollments of that at $100. Now, again, that might seem oversimplified, but really what I see a lot of entrepreneurs doing is just kind of jumping in and offering something and offering something at a certain price point, but not really thinking about where am I trying to get from this. And so when you have that really tangible goal of

hey, I want to be making a thousand a month or five thousand a month. Then you can back out from that and really think about, okay, that means X number of coaching sessions. That means X number of people signing up for my workshop. And so again, those tangible actionable steps also help your mind calm down and kind of step away from the fear because you have a plan.

Does that make sense? And so I really work with all of my entrepreneurs that I'm coaching to really understand the importance of a plan and how that really helps them in multiple ways throughout their business journey. All right, making investments into your business. And so this is one that I also hear quite a bit. And when you start a new business,

My biggest rule of thumb is that you want to keep expenses to a minimum. You really don't want to be investing in all of these different types of things when you're not generating any income. Now with that, I will say there are certain things that are a logical investment depending on whatever your business is.

Jenni (24:34.39)
So if you are starting out and you feel like you need a way to communicate what you're offering, no, you don't need like a grand $10,000 website. Maybe you might need a simplified sales page or a really clear and easy to use linked tree. There are kind of steps and progression. And what I really try to help entrepreneurs understand

is along with the business plan, looking at the income that you want to bring in, in tandem to that, you kind of lay out your planned investments or expenses into your business. And so you need to have a budget for that. And so if your desired goal is an income of a thousand dollars a month, and then maybe your expenses are a hundred and fifty dollars a month.

So then you can kind of see your net income is $850. So you always have to be looking at, what is the value that I'm getting from the expenses? And especially from an advertising perspective, I don't really ever suggest for brand new entrepreneurs to have this huge advertising and marketing budget unless you're working with some sort of celebrity that's going to help push your...

product or service out there, really as an unknown entrepreneur, spending a lot of money on Facebook ads and things of that nature aren't really going to generate the type of response that you want. And so again, I often suggest, you know, let's kind of be a little bit strategic and

like really mindful of how we want to spend whatever budgeted money that we have. With that though there are investments that make sense and if you have money upfront that you can put into your business as an investment that's a very different thing and so if you have money to be able to invest in some sort of

Jenni (26:51.406)
classes that help you as an entrepreneur or as a new entrepreneur if you really need some coaching to really help you get situated and organized and motivated because you can look at those types of investments as really speeding up your timeline whether you're going to kind of wander around on your own for a year or if you work with someone and you can really speed that up and get a lot of

that you need to look at the return on that investment. And so that's a balance also. And so you have to proceed with what feels right, what you can afford, and what feels comfortable to you. But there's a big difference in having business expenses and investing in something that's going to either speed up what you're able to achieve with your business.

And does that make sense? And so I can't tell you, you know, how much you should invest in your business upfront. I will tell you that the old saying that you need to spend money to make money is somewhat relevant. It's a little bit outdated in the respect of, you know, there's so many things that you can do now that really require just your time. And so from that aspect, it becomes a decision

you know, how much time do you have? Because if you are starting, for instance, a new coaching business and you have the time to put into creating some sort of sales page and learning how to do that yourself and learning how to really generate leads and secure potential clients, if you have the time to figure that out, you know, then you have to weigh how long is that going to take you?

versus if you have someone that has experience come in and help you, is that going to shorten that time for when you actually start making a profit? And so there's all things that I evaluate when I am having initial conversations with a new entrepreneur that's interested in coaching, because I never want to coach someone that is going to put

Jenni (29:15.714)
their expenses beyond their means. Like that's never going to be a healthy situation. And so you always have to evaluate, you know, where you're at and can you really afford to invest in either something or some service that's going to help your business. But that's a really great question.

And finally, qualities to look for in an accountant. And why I love this question is because once you get to a point where you are making money in your business and you're making a profit, I 100% recommend that the first person that you ever consider hiring or doing contract work with is an accountant.

And it's actually the very first role that I hired in my business as well. And an accountant is a very important person. And my suggestions for the qualities that you look for in an accountant are, first of all, trustworthiness. This person is going to have access to all of your financial information. So would you feel comfortable with this person?

having all the details of what you're making, payment methods, your business, EIN number, all of those things are very personal. And so for me, really trustworthiness is the number one quality and really how they approach security because in this day and age, with everything being online, you really wanna understand what types of services are they using to store.

your personal information and your business information. That's really important. And so the accountant that I work with has a secure portal that you can only access via an encrypted way. And so it's very, very secure. It's like a vault, but I'm entrusting the storage of all of my financial documents, tax documents, records, everything for my business and for me personally.

Jenni (31:31.666)
And so trustworthiness and security are probably the top two qualities to look for in a potential accountant. And then after that, just like timeliness and really able to provide the types of services that you need, and whether it's tax services, bookkeeping services, payroll services.

you really need to evaluate where you are in your business and what type of interaction you want to have. I work with my accountant on a monthly basis, but if I need something on a one-off basis, you know, that's totally fine too. And so, yeah, an accountant is like the first thing that I always suggest someone look into.

especially at that moment where your business turns from, you know, kind of breaking even to moving into the into the green and making a profit. So that's a really great question also. So I have really enjoyed this episode. And like I said at the beginning, this is such a broad topic and there is so much to dive into as far as our relationships with money.

money and how we kind of work with it in business in so many different facets. And so I really just meant for this to be the tip of the iceberg in kind of talking about these discussions that might feel uncomfortable at first. But I do hope that if you were someone at the beginning of this episode that was kind of like, oh, you know, she's going to talk about money. I don't want to listen to this. You know, how do you feel now?

can you get to a place where you have that kind of neutral conversation about money? And I would say, you know, that's really fantastic. And I appreciate you sticking with the episode and being interested to learn. And I do plan to speak more about money and all the facets of it in relationship to starting a new business. So I want to thank you for listening.

Jenni (33:47.314)
I hope that this was informative and you gained some insight and maybe you were even inspired. And until the next episode, I wish you much peace, love and joy as you pursue being soul aligned.