First things first: a quick note about this post. In this post, I am not going to tell you that you need to get better at managing your money (even if it’s true). What I am going to do is help you figure out if your beliefs about money are getting in the way of you booking clients and making sales.
Sound good? OK then.
In a Facebook Group I’m in for freelancers and entrepreneurs, I recently asked the question of what is the one thing that is bothering people the most or what is the one thing they would like to fix in their businesses. Do you know the prevailing answer?
Finding more clients.
And what does that really translate to?
Sales skills.
So many of us feel icky about the idea of selling. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I want to help you feel comfortable with the idea of selling, so you start talking to clients and making sales without breaking a sweat.
There are two key things that underpin our distaste for the idea of selling and I’m going to talk about one of them today:
Money.
Work on your relationship with money and you will – I promise you, for real – see an improvement in your ability to find clients and make sales for your business.
Let’s Talk About Money Issues
Money issues. We all have them. Whether we realise it or not, we all have a relationship with money and more often than not, that relationship is complex.
Facing up to our issues or beliefs about money, however, will make finding clients and creating sales so much easier. More of that in a bit.
Talking About Money is Taboo
So many of us are brought up with money being a taboo subject and even now it often still is. Do you know how much each of your closest friends earns? How often do you talk about money – other than to complain about there not being enough – with someone other than your other half?
We just don’t do it. I think it is made even worse for us Brits by our deeply ingrained British reserve.
Money and Your Upbringing
When you were growing up, you will have been aware of money and your parents’ attitudes towards it. This will have had an impact on your current relationship with money.
There are lots of different ways this can have panned out for you. I’ll tell you my story so that you can start thinking about your own.
My Money Story
Growing up my mum was a single parent until I was well into my teenage years. She had a great job, was well paid for a woman of her generation and was sensible with her money. So far so good, right?
Yes and no. She taught me how to manage money well and to this day I am good at budgeting and saving. Thanks Mum!
But. And there is a but. She worked very hard. And spent a lot of her working career very stressed. She had the burden of being sole breadwinner and the added disadvantage of being the only woman in a very male business environment. She worked extra hard to prove she was as valuable as the men. She worked extra hard to try to escape the various rounds of redundancies over the years.
Even after she remarried and there were now two incomes so that the burden was eased, she and my step-dad worked very hard to build the life that they wanted, which included an early and comfortable retirement, and lots of foreign travel. They succeeded.
The only trouble was that to achieve it they worked very long hours. They didn’t sleep well as they were always thinking about work. They were often away travelling with work. They found it hard to wind down. They lived for those 5 weeks of holidays per year.
I watched this all from the sidelines and came to the conclusion that making decent money = stress and no work/life balance.
I now know this doesn’t have to be true. But it took me a lot of years to figure that out and in the meantime I held myself back in my career, being afraid of ambition as I equated that with stress, lack of sleep and ill health.
Your Money Story
Have a think about your formative years and the beliefs about money that you formed during this time. Are those beliefs still sticking around?
Money: Your Twenties and Beyond
Chances are, whatever your upbringing and starting point in your relationship with money, you and money have had a bit of a bumpy ride since then.
Maybe you are saddled with student loans. Maybe you’ve found yourself in credit card debt that got a bit scary. Maybe you had some positive times too. Perhaps you got a great bonus in your job. Or won some money on the lottery. Or inherited a helpful sum.
Whatever the case, it is really helpful to look back on your adult years to date and think about the highs and the lows with money. Each peak or trough will have contributed a little bit more to your ongoing relationship with money and deep seated beliefs.
Take some time to have a proper think about your views on money and how money makes you feel. Jot your money beliefs down. Be 100% honest with yourself – no one else has to see your notes. You might be surprised by some of the opinions you have about money.
When working with people on their money mindset I have found the below statements to be common. See if any resonate with you:
- Money is the root of all evil (we’ve all heard this one before, right!)
- Wanting to make lots of money is greedy
- People who are fixated on making money have their priorities wrong
- There’s never enough money
- Money is something we don’t talk about
- I’m not good with money
- I avoid thinking about money
You’d be surprised how common it is to have at least some negative beliefs about money.
So Why Does Money Mindset Matter?
So glad you asked. Because your money mindset could well be preventing you from booking clients and charging your worth.
Why?
Think about it, if we’re taught that talking about money is taboo, to want money is to be greedy etc. those thoughts and feelings are in our subconscious, making us feel awkward every time we have a sales conversation with a client.
Because a sales conversation at some point, will touch on or even just imply the exchange of money.
If you feel embarrassed – or worse like it is somehow wrong – to take money from someone, that will negatively influence your sales skills.
If you feel like money is taboo, or you don’t like talking about money, when a potential client asks you for details on your pricing, those beliefs will impact how you respond.
And worse than that, you will likely under charge.
So there we have it; your negative beliefs about money could well be hampering you attempts to attract new clients. But the good news is: changing our money beliefs is absolutely possible. Stay tuned as I’ll be addressing how exactly we can go about changing that money mindset very soon.
Remember I told you that money mindset was half the reason why you might be finding it hard to book clients?
Well >> click here << to find what the missing piece of the puzzle is.
