I think this topic resonates with people because they’re tired of feeling like their
self worth needs to be tied to the amount of money they make
or that their choices to work with people with less money, or to take
time off for fun are wrong. And maybe they liked knowing that someone
they might have assumed always had money sometimes went broke.
But since writing it, I’ve wanted to write this to talk about the other side of it: sometimes you
are tired of being broke.
And that’s okay too.
Sometimes it can be fun to be reckless and a bit irresponsible and go
on adventures, buy things we shouldn’t because it adds joy to our
lives.
And sometimes there’s the aftermath.
- extreme self care practices: this is a time to get
into physical shape, meditate, journal – whatever helps you feel
stronger, more directed, more full – do it. When you’re in a financial
crisis, it’s easy to cut your self care out but it’s actually the most
important thing to boost. The better you feel about your self the better
you can do all of these other steps.
- clean up your home and office: nothing signals
fresh start like clearing out a space. Do a massive purge and clean. You
will feel amazing and full of energy after you do it. You will feel
energized about handling your money. And, every morning when you wake up
and see it, your environment will inspire you to stay on track. Clean
it and keep it clean.
- eliminate what’s draining your energy: this is
huge. There are likely certain people, situations and dynamics that are
draining your energy and, when you’re in crisis, having your energy
drained is not an option. It’s time to say ‘no’ to anything that is
sucking your energy. This can be a time where you need to take space
from certain friends and family. There are things you are ‘tolerating‘ that take so much more out of you than you can imagine.
- stop wasting time: do you spend too much time on
facebook, surfing the net, watching TV? Consider going on a fast from
those things or giving yourself a hard limit of 30-60 minutes a day.
- ask for any money that is owed to you: do you have friends or clients who owe you money? This is a good time to follow up on that.
- get a part time job: for some reason, this feels
like failure to a lot of people. But it’s not. Sometimes you just need
to get a job to tide yourself over. And sometimes people realize that
being an entrepreneur isn’t for them. Which is a huge relief. I’ve seen a
number of clients let go of their ideas about being self employed, go
back to a job and watched them experience an immediate increase in
happiness, financial stability and overall well being. Getting a job
when you need it isn’t failure, it’s self care. And sometimes it’s just a
matter of timing and you need to get a job and slowly build your
business on the side until it’s at a point you can invest more.
- get out of any commitments you can to free up time:
this is also huge. Are you on a board or committee that isn’t 100%
filling you up? Are you volunteering somewhere? Look at where you’re
spending your time and eliminate anything you possibly can that isn’t a
100% ‘yes’ to you.
- set a goal and create a plan to make money (and start with the low hanging fruit):
sit down with a pen and paper and give yourself an hour or two to
really get clear on what your goal is around money and how you can best
achieve it. Is it to get a job? Do a major promotion of some product or
service? If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
- set aside chunks of each day where all you focus on is making money and growing your business:
it’s easy to make a plan and then not do the plan. Set aside time (one
hour a day, four hours a day or one day a week) where all you’re focused
on is making your plan happening. Allow zero distractions during that
time – cell phone off. Social media off. Lock the door. Focus. Most
people are blown away with how productive they are when they do this.
- get support: this is so huge. Maybe you need to
hire a coach. Maybe you need to get a friend of colleague who you can
chat with once a week to stay accountable. Maybe you need to get some
kind of to do list manager.
Maybe you need to read a marketing book. Maybe you need to trade with a
friend for web design. Whatever support you need, it’s time to get
honest with yourself about that and get it. And you might want to
consider therapy around money too. If this has been a lifelong struggle,
there’s a good chance there are some deeper issues worth facing.
Dealing with money issues might just be the most powerful personal
development work you ever do.
- brainstorm on how to cut expenses: can you move to a
cheaper place? eat in more? ride your bike vs. driving your car? Where
can you trim expenses in your life? Most people would be shocked at how
much they can save with a little thought and creativity.
- stop working on creating more free content: unless
they are a direct lead into your products or services. It’s easy to want
to keep creating more free content (like me here on this blog when I
should be working on my Niching for Hippies program (#doasisaynotasido)).
- focus: speaking of niching – pick one and focus on
it. When you’re in a crunch is not the time to try and ‘reach everyone’.
You absolutely need to focus on something in particular that you’re
offering to a particular crowd of people. And it’s a good idea to focus
on just a few marketing approaches and really work them. Maybe all you
do is public speaking. Maybe it’s all virtual presentations and
webinars. Maybe it’s networking events or hosting events. Whatever it
is, I wouldn’t have more than three marketing tactics you’re using. When
you’re in a crisis, you need to focus.
- create a higher end product: My colleague George
Huang created a six figure income in 72 days using five simple steps to
fill up his high end coaching program. You can read about them here.
- connect with hubs: And how do you promote and get clients for your programs and products? You need a way to not only identify but then keep track of potential partners and hubs you come across. Unless you want to be stuck at the ‘cold’ level of marketing you must start thinking about your hubs.
And then I recommend connecting with one hub a day getting to know
them, what they do, how you can help them and how they might be able to
help you. Just ask them out for coffee or to skype to chat and ask their
advice on how you should grow your business.
What other ideas and insights do you have here? If you’ve gotten yourself from being broke to having money, what did you do?
US president, Barrack Obama was a guest on Ellen’s show on thursday and he revealed he would be spending Valentine apart from his wife, Michelle Obama.
