Monica Shah - Ladies Who Launch Blog Posts

8 Breakthrough Steps to Doubling or Quadrupling Your Income

Ok, so this week I am getting ready for The Cash Control Tour’s second stop in Boston. It is simply an incredible to be present with other entrepreneurs that are ready to grow their businesses. We still have two more stops on the tour so please join us if you haven’t registered already.

Here are 8 Breakthrough Steps that I’ve compiled this year. They are the essential ingredients to your six-figure or multi six-figure breakthrough. Here’s to You!

1. Be Passionate about What You are Doing. When it comes right down to it, you can’t build a business overnight. In fact from what I’ve gathered from most of the successful women entrepreneurs it took at least 3 years before they were really up and running. And the first year can be tough. So what keeps you burning the midnight oil and helps you bounce back from the defeats – Passion. Know that what you are creating is a legacy – and legacies take time. If you feel like your passion has dried up or it was never really there – then you’re probably not going to last that long in the entrepreneurial game.

2. Pick a Clear Target Market/Niche/Ideal Client. You can call it what you want, but focusing in on a particular group was something that almost every successful woman entrepreneur mentioned. I know that many of you out there carry a lot of fear about narrowing your niche. I get it – I was there for many years. What I suggest is that you pick 2-3 potential niches and date them for a while. Get a few clients in each niche, put them through a program. Try it out. And after you have more information, it will become much easier to decide.

3. Stop trying to Do All Your Marketing Online. Did you know that 67% of people that are searching for an item online – found out about that item off-line? The fastest path to cash is always in an in-person meeting. I filled my first practice in 7 months through in-person speaking and networking and it worked like a charm. It took me about 11 months before I started getting high quality leads consistently, solely from online sources.

4. Stop Working Alone – Darn It! Every single person I talked to cited that the year they hired support was the year that they made their biggest leap forward. Ask yourself “What could I create with five extra hours of time?” Then, find yourself a virtual assistant that can give you that extra five hours.

5. Raise Your Prices and Create Premium Programs. It’s simple math, you can’t reach six figures with low priced programs unless you want to be working around the clock. Creating high-end programs is the fastest way to make a major leap towards creating that elusive six-figure number. Start by working on your own inner game of money and make sure you understand what you are worth. Then, practice offering higher prices programs in your sales sessions. Just be persistent about ASKING more and more folks to work with you. Soon enough you’ll meet someone who can afford your premium prices.

6. Hire a Coach or Mentor. Every single successful woman entrepreneur I know speaks highly of the coaches and mentors she has hired along the way. Many of them plainly state that they wouldn’t have made it through the tough moments without the support of a really good coach. My good friend Elizabeth Purvis once pointed out how she had to literally “Move Mountains” to be able to afford her first high end coaches. It just makes sense. Why try to do it alone? Hire someone who’s done the learning for you and you’ll move that much more quickly.

7. Ask For The Sale. This one is a favorite of mine. You can’t sign a client before you ask for the sale. And in order to ask for the sale, you must set up some sort of initial meeting. That means the bulk of your time should be spent looking for and setting up initial meetings or free sessions. Note that I didn’t say fixing your website or looking at your branding.

8. Set Up a Smart Business Model. Set up your business so that your one-on-one coaching is at the top of your triangle of offerings. Your free gift is at the bottom. In between you can offer lower priced items such as e-books, teleseminars, clubs etc. After a person buys your free gift, they slowly keep buying your products and services until they reach your one-on-one coaching. You are constantly filling your pipeline with leads that are floating upwards. This doesn’t mean that people won’t start at the top or in the middle, but it does mean that you’ll always be cultivating people that may someday turn into high-end clients.

Ok, I teach entire courses on these eight principles and many more, but these tips should give you a place to start from. However, if you are shaking your head with confusion, please check out my Cash Control Tour.

Dealing with Fear – Three Steps to Being Courageous In Your Business

I’m so proud of my Revenue Breakthrough and Platinum clients. They are using the tools I teach to get clients, do speaking events and really put themselves out there.

As I taught class on Tuesday, I noticed that many of them were experiencing fear, anxiety and discomfort around trying new things.

Many of my students are leaping beyond their comfort zones when it comes to marketing. They are meeting with large companies, speaking in front of new groups and working with higher-level clients.

And the natural emotion from this kind of stretching is discomfort, fear and a bit of anxiety. All emotions that are great signs of growth.

Here are three tips to reduce the discomfort:

1. Entrepreneurship isn’t about being perfect. It’s about experimentation. We were all taught in school that you had to finish your paper perfectly prior to turning it in. So we spent ages working on that paper. And we were mortified (and duly punished) when there were mistakes. Entrepreneurship just isn’t like that! You have to make mistakes to learn. There is no other way to play the game.

Even if you try your hardest to learn everything you need to be perfect, life will get in the way and you’ll either adapt or fall on your face. And the falling on your face usually comes first.

The fear and discomfort many of you feel has to do with your fear that you won’t get it right or that you’ll look stupid.

The truth is that you probably will mess up every now and then. But then you’ll pick yourself up and do it better next time.

So go out there and play big and know that it’s all an experiment.

2. Rest. As a business owner, you mind is on all the time. You are learning how to run your business better. You are getting better at your trade. You are working through your fears. And all of this churning uses up quite a bit of mental and physical energy – more so than the average person who works a regular job.

So make sure you set up moments in your day and during the week to rest in the way that you need to rest.

It can mean that you watch episodes of your favorite TV show, eat popsicles, go for a walk, stare at the ceiling, play a video game – whatever works for you.

My personal favorite is to watch re-runs of Charmed and order in Afghan Kababs. But clearly not everyone is like me (thank goodness).

The point is, do what you need to turn your brain off and really rest, even if it is only five minutes. And don’t let anyone make you feel guilty about it.

3. Celebrate the Journey. It is easy to look at the steps in your business and only pay attention to the work that you have ahead of you. And that can be pretty darn scary sometimes. But take a moment and look at how far you’ve come.

Sometimes you need to look back at the starting line instead of wishing you were closer to the finish line.

Then go ahead and give yourself kudos. Yup, brag a little – out loud. Call a friend, post on facebook…give yourself a treat. Acknowledge you. You are the only one that can.

And know that if you got from there to here, you can definitely get from here to there.

Here’s to your growth, your actions and taking it day by day. The fear and discomfort may come, but now you’ve got some steps to help take it down a notch.

Don’t Let Debt Get You Down

I spend a lot of time speaking to owners of businesses who provide services. And the number one concern of many of those businesses is the amount of debt that piles up during the first two years of business.

You start your business and there is so much investment in the beginning. You may need to buy a new computer, a new printer, perhaps new office equipment. Then you may need a new website, branding, logo design. Next you sign up for newsletter software, teleseminar services, customer relationship software. And you may hire a virtual assistant, a bookkeeper, an accountant. Finally your biggest investment is usually in business coaching and/or business training programs.

You do your best to learn everything you can and get clients as quickly as possible to keep up with all of the mounting expenses. By all of your best estimates, you are doing fairly well. You are signing new clients, becoming better at your trade and learning more and more about how to run a business.

But despite your best efforts, you just can’t keep up with all of the expenses. And by the end of year one you have amounted several thousand dollars in debt. By the end of year two, you have even more.

The thing that is most frustrating is that you love what you are doing and your business is growing. It’s just not growing fast enough to be able to live well, pay your business expenses and pay off your debt.

If this is your story – know that you aren’t alone. And more importantly, you didn’t do anything wrong!

Here’s a statistic you should know: most brick and mortar businesses take between 3-5 years to break even (think restaurants, stores, product lines).

Please read that line more than once. I don’t share it with you to scare you. Nor does it have to be true for your business. In fact most service oriented businesses break even much faster due to the lack of fixed and other large expenses (no buildings, factories, products, or large teams).

I share the statistic above with you to add a dose of reality to a marketplace that is full of “you’ll be rich tomorrow” promises. I also share it with you to let you know that credit card debt shouldn’t be a source of shame.

So how do most companies get off the ground and stay in business those first couple of years?

They get a loan or credit line from a bank.
They have investors in various forms.
They get a loan from friends, family or followers.
They have a secondary income from a spouse.
They have a large savings account.
They have another job.

Many of you didn’t have any of the options above. You jumped straight into your business and ran as fast as you could to grow as quickly as possible.

Credit cards became your source of funding.

And I’d like to say something quite radical here: there is no shame in that.

You used your credit cards as leverage to learn your trade, to learn how to run a business and to buy the tools you needed to get the business started.

Know that the core principle of creating a service business is building the “know, like and trust” factor with your clients. And that doesn’t happen overnight. So know that as long as you keep marketing consistently, are good at what you do, and follow the steps below, it will get easier and easier to generate revenue. Therefore, you’ll be able to pay off most of that debt over time. The key is consistency and persistence. I often see entrepreneurs make huge leaps in terms of being able to keep more money in the bank in years 3 and 4 of their businesses.

Also realize that as you grow you may need to continue to use debt to leverage certain aspects of your business. For example, if you want to do an event, you may need to put the $5,000 food and beverage deposit on a credit card. There is nothing wrong with that either (just make sure you get that room filled).

Ok, so now that you’ve released the shame and restored hope, how do you start getting ahead of the game to pay off large portions of debt? Here are three steps:

1. Get a plan. If you aren’t clear about your brand, your target market, your marketing strategy or your income goals, it’s time to get some help. Invest in some one-on-one help from a business mentor who can make sure you are on a lucrative path and give you a step-by-step plan. That way you aren’t working hard, but running in the wrong direction.

2. Focus on Revenue Generating Activities. Many of you would much rather work on your website than follow up with clients. You’d rather work your restaurant shift than walk the streets looking for speaking event opportunities. Know that not all “work” is equal as an entrepreneur. If you aren’t focused on revenue generating activities (RGA’s), you won’t increase your revenue. Once you let go of the “I’m freaked out about my debt and this should be working faster” feeling, you should have more energy to focus on RGA’s. Those actions will create momentum and momentum creates cash. Trust me, money will start to come in from places that you can’t possibly predict.

3. Get a loan. Sometimes I meet clients that just can’t seem to get ahead of their debt and expenses and they become paralyzed with fear around money. This usually coincides with money that was spent to cover a sickness, an accident, a messy divorce or some other unforeseen tragedy. If this is you than you may need to get a business loan of some sort. For most people this looks like a job. For others it looks like a loan from a family member. For others it may be investors.

Know that getting a job is not a cop-out. I’ve seen countless clients get jobs and then watch their businesses take off. Why? Because when they were able to finally stop worrying about money, they attracted so much more of it.

I got a job during my first year of my first business, and it was the best thing I did for myself. It allowed me to hire my first high-end coach, pay off all my expenses and sleep well at night.

Don’t let debt get you down. For many of you it was a necessary tool that you needed to get your business started or get you through an uncomfortable period in your life. Release the shame and guilt and use that energy to generate revenue and pay off any large portions of debt that are bothering you. Now, doesn’t that feel better?.