Monthly Archives: January 2010

7 Secrets to Stimulate Your Cash Flow

By Denise Michaels

If you’re like millions of business owners you put on a happy face to the rest of the world that says, “Everything’s great!” but on the inside you’re concerned about what’s happening with your cash flow lately.

How do you stimulate your own economy so you get the results you deserve rather than getting caught up in the mass consciousness of lack that’s become so pervasive? This article provides seven stimulating secrets that’ll get you back on track. Wealthy people depend on these principles to keep their cash flow humming so when someone asks them about their business they can honestly and enthusiastically say, “We must be doing something right. My business hasn’t been impacted at all.”

• Stay away from the nattering nabobs of negativity. Whether its cable news with a constant stream of negativity, or, just the people you meet at a networking mixer who seem desperate, steer clear of anyone who’s less than optimistic. About 10-15 minutes of news a day is all you need to keep up to speed with what’s happening. Turn off the news and focus on the 99 percent of the world that’s just fine.

• Make progress every day and give yourself credit. Focus on doing what gives you the greatest results. Creating a successful business is about moving energy and building momentum. Consider all the thrust it takes to get a jet off the ground. Except the most important work you do may not be about running around. The most important work can be about consciously shifting your mindset. Then, when you take action amazing things happen.

• Speak with enthusiasm and passion. Wealthy people attract others to their dreams by speaking with passion, enthusiasm and confidence. They give the impression they just know their product or service is amazing and their business will be a winner. Once you launch your business stop looking for validation. Get over feeling like you need “permission.” If you offer good value and products or services that help others you don’t need permission or validation from anyone.

• Be bold. One bold stroke to get the word out can do much more than dozens of hesitant, little moves. This means expanding your comfort zone because your business growth doesn’t happen any faster than your personal growth. This mean when you decide you’re going to get on a radio talk show or do some other promotion that’ll make a big splash you do it with your head up, with boldness and confidence.

• Understand the importance of marketing. Marketing is about building relationships – but it’s more than smiling and chatting with other business owners at a mixer. Your marketing message goes out ahead of you. It precedes you. It should filter out people not likely to do business with you and filter in people likely to do business with you. Filtering means when you talk with a prospective customer chances are they already know about you and are partially pre-sold making selling easier.

• Be emotionally compelling. People still have wants and needs. What’s lacking right now is confidence. When people feel you understand, empathize and have a solution for their problem they will do business with you. Too many business owners try to play it safe because they think customers will buy based only on features or having the lowest price. They must see how your features and benefits help them solve their problems.

• Ask for the sale. Some business owners enjoy building the relationship however they’re afraid they might mess it up by asking for the sale. Don’t be pushy but be willing to confidently guide and direct a conversation. After I’ve explained everything about what I offer, my fees and answered questions and gotten strong signals that a prospective client is interested my closing question is, “When would you like to get started?”

By following these seven secrets you’ll crack the code on stimulating your own economy. You’ll discover more people are receptive and open to what you offer. They will come to trust you, have confidence in you and as a result your cash flow will increase. You will be in your own flow of wealth and abundance so when people ask you about your business you can sincerely smile and say, “My business is great!!”

Denise Michaels is author of the business bestseller, “Testosterone-Free Marketing” and founder of EmpowerUAcademy. Her mission is supporting people in going for their dreams and she’s known as The Marketing Maven and as an Empowerment Expert. You can also find out about one-on-one mentoring with Denise at her website MentoringwithDenise. All rights reserved.

Do You Cheat Others When You make a Profit?

One impressions I get from many women is that deep in your heart you may have a subconscious belief that you’re cheating others and are somehow bad if you make a profit.

Do you feel guilty when you make a healthy profit on what you do?

Do you charge enough for your products and services or do you undercut yourself at times?

Yesterday I had a meeting with a lovely woman who owns a business but spends all her time promoting others. She doesn’t take any money for doing this. In fact, when she’s tried to charge for helping others in this way – sending out notices for others on her e-newsletter and other promotional strategies – people are actually angry with her and say she should be doing it free.

In the meantime, her dear husband is working his tail off trying to make ends meet and his job is based on earning commissions. Unfortunately over the holidays the commissions were very low and now they’re trying to figure out how to pay all their bills.

I asked some probing questions of this woman and discovered that her Mother was a stay at home mom who only worked part time on an infrequent basis. My client got a lot of deeply negative messages about women who promote themselves and try to be anything but humble and meek. Messages like:

“Don’t get a big head.”
“Don’t be conceited.”
“Don’t be selfish.”

The message she got was that when she is nice and gives everything away and constantly helps others she’s being “a good woman.” When she does something for herself – she’s not a good woman. So, she keeps creating circumstances that reinforce that perception.

The challenge is when it’s time to pay the bills – if you’ve shorted yourself on what you charge, you end up falling short when it comes to your lifestyle and paying your bills. You can’t exactly go to your mortgage company or the grocery store and say, “Um, I’m a really nice person. Would you give me a little extra discount?”

Of course we know that’s silly. Why? Because these real businesses don’t give extra discounts. So if you consider yourself a real business – why are you undercutting yourself?

Here’s where it comes back around: In the real business world people don’t say, “Gee, that’s so nice. She’s only charging me $$ instead of $$$.” Instead they silently think, “She’s charging so much less than market rates – she must not be as good.”

Traditionally women always gave away our work. We have a history as volunteers. And, for centuries we were at the bottom of the totem pole when it came to jobs. Women were praised for being selfless and for constantly giving with no expectation of ever receiving anything in return except the warm fuzzy feelings of knowing we’ve helped. We made our husbands look good in the community while he took care of the messy job of going out and slaying dragons. Additionally, many of us have dealt with boyfriends, husbands and partners who became threatened when the woman they love made significant money or enjoyed a level of success.

We live in a very different world than the world our mothers lived in when they raised us. We were raised to be good wives, moms, sisters, daughters, friends and maybe a good employee. But we certainly weren’t raised to be a good business owners. And, it’s extremely difficult in this day and age for husbands to carry the whole load.

What thoughts, beliefs or attitudes were you raised with regarding the money you earn? Was it different for a girl in your home or your community compared to a boy? How much is enough? Is it fair for you to get a healthy profit? Will those warm, fuzzy feelings pay the rent or the mortgage?

Women are now starting businesses at double the rate of men. This has been true for over five years now. But many women business owners struggle because they’re uncomfortable about what it says about them to be successful when they feel a societal expectation for women to keep give everything away. Is it a good thing to make a profit? Or, does it mean you somehow had to claw over others to gain success? Is your business struggling because you’re new and just getting off the ground? Or are you struggling for other reasons?

All the best,

Denise Michaels
Author, “Testosterone-Free Marketing”

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