As an entrepreneur, your money mindset affects EVERY aspect of your business.
Things you might not even realize, like these:
- Undercharging for your products or services
- Being afraid to “put yourself out there”
- Not following through with potential clients
- Missing deadlines
- Trying to “go it alone”
What makes money mindset so tricky (and insidious) is that you often can’t see it for yourself. You make up perfectly logical-sounding explanations: “If I raise my fees, I won’t get any clients.”
When I first opened my private practice, I fell prey to that one myself. I was making an average of $47 per therapy session. Why? Oh, I had lots of “reasons” for undercharging, but they all boiled down to one thing:
My money mindset would only allow for $47 per client.
I just wasn’t able, at that time, to see any other possibility. It felt like those were the only clients I could get. My money mindset was preventing me from seeing anything else.
I made a whopping $21,000 my first year in private practice. Not exactly the business of my dreams. I was barely staying afloat, with no idea how to change. I wasn’t even certain I could afford to stay in business another year.
Something drastic had to change for me.
I started to look around me at what other people were charging. Other therapists in my area were easily charging $150 – $200 per session and getting it. Why wasn’t I?
Instead of thriving, I never had quite enough to go around. The moment I realized this, it struck my like a bolt of lightning. I had grown up hearing that one phrase, “never quite enough to go around,” repeated over and over and over again. It had been programmed into me from the earliest age: We were a family with never quite enough to go around. That was simply a truth from my childhood.
Now, here I am, a grown woman, a business owner, and guess what I had inadvertently created? Yep, the same darn thing I grew up with.
Let me just say that realization rocked me to my core. At the time, I didn’t know anything about money mindset. But as a family therapist, I know a heck of a lot about family patterns.
Family patterns are passed down from generation to generation, and generally accepted as “truth” until someone consciously challenges them.
You’ve probably got all sorts of family patterns you learned growing up that you continue to carry on to this day. Some of these patterns are helpful, like connecting over family dinners. Others are detrimental, like overspending.
I hadn’t even realized that there were family patterns about money and how they shaped my own beliefs.
Once I had this moment of clarity, I was able to see the patterns that made up my own money mindset:
- Don’t ask for too much, or you might make someone angry
- There’s never quite enough to go around
- Take pride in “hard work”; never be a “lazy” or “greedy”
I had re-created ALL of those patterns, without even realizing it. It was at that moment that I realized that my current money mindset wasn’t going to support the business and the lifestyle I truly wanted for myself.
I couldn’t continue to believe those things AND be successful. I was determined to be successful, so I had to make some changes to my money mindset beliefs in order to get there.
Here’s what I did to shift my thinking:
- I defined the money mindset beliefs I DID want to have. This was truly the hardest part for me, because I had no idea what successful entrepreneurs believe. So I immersed myself in learning, reading, and coaching to learn what money mindset beliefs would support the success I wanted to create.
These are the money mindset beliefs I wanted to have:
a. Clients are willing to pay premium fees for my services
b. Money flows easily to me
c. I always have more than enough to go around - I focused on these beliefs EVERY SINGLE DAY. I had them on 3 X 5 cards in front of my computer. I re-wrote them in my journal. These beliefs were foreign to me at the time. They didn’t feel like truth, so the moment I let my guard down, the old money mindset programming would sneak back in.
- I looked for evidence of these new beliefs being true. I found a dime in the parking lot? Proof that money flows easily to me. I have $6 left in my wallet at the end of the week? Proof that I have more than enough to go around.
In the beginning, it took a lot of effort to find this evidence. Even the smallest thing got included.
As a therapist, I know the power of our beliefs and patterns.
I know how they have this invisible force that drives our actions and our outcomes. I knew that if I could truly change my beliefs about money, the results HAD to change.
My first “big” goal for myself was to make $3,000 in one month. (Now, I know how silly that might sound to some of you, but trust me that was a stretch for me at the time.)
At first, it seemed like nothing was happening. But after a few weeks, I started to notice little things changing for me. I booked a client for $125, well above my $47 average. I followed up with a client who owed me several hundred dollars, and she paid her balance. I had a little extra money to go get a manicure.
After 60 days, I broke my goal. I earned just over $3,000 that month, and it felt fantastic. I was proud of what I’d accomplished, and I knew that I had FINALLY overcome my major obstacle to success.
From there, my goals went from $3,000 per month, to $6,000, then $8,133, and continued to go up from there. I’ve learned that whenever I aim for a new target, the first thing I have to do is examine what beliefs I need to get myself there. Each level requires a new set of beliefs and skills. But I know that as long as I start with developing the right money mindset to achieve that goal, I’ll be set up to accomplish it.
Now, your family patterns and your money mindset are probably different than mine. But they ARE there, and they shape every aspect of your business.
Want to see how YOUR money mindset is affecting the results you’re getting with your business? Click here to take my Money Mindset Quiz for entrepreneurs. CTA: Money Mindset Quiz
