Every business has a soul. Have you ever sensed the soul of your business?
The soul of your business has its own character and vibration, quite often it is a reflection or extension of your personal soul.
How can you raise the vibration of your business, and unleash its potential, especially if you are a start-up or offering something new?
Here are 4 tips for you – highly recommended if you feel overwhelmed or stressed out by not making a living out of it yet.
1. Respect the soul of your business
Would you ever go on date with just anyone? Of course not!
Similarly, the soul of your business doesn’t just want to serve everyone/anyone either. By recognising this early on, it will help your business grow a lot faster and easier, no matter how new your business is.
If you take on things/people which are not in line with the vision of your business, not only will you feel resentful, but also the energy or ecosystem of your business will be thrown out of balance.
Although you’ll do everything you can to improve customer satisfaction, the souls of your business and your customers are equal.
Whatever you do, it must be a decision from within and there must be mutual respect, in order to build a solid foundation for your business.
And once you make a decision, eg, sending out a newsletter every week; it’s not just your personal decision anymore, it’s an intention of your business too. Respect that intention and stick with it.
2. Start charging or raise your rate to a fair value
Generally speaking, the more financial freedom you have, the better you can help people.
It doesn’t matter if you just kicked off your practice, have changed direction or crafted a brand new offering, it’s normal to fall into the trap by not charging people.
Free stuff might generate initial interest temporarily, but the message you are sending out to your pro-bono clients is: my stuff really isn’t worth anything…
What will then happen? Your free clients might not put 100% of their focus and energy into your offering, because the way you come across is that your service/product doesn’t have that much value, and they are only here to do you a favour by taking up your offering….
But if you convey the value properly, you’ll find clients are more likely to invest more time and energy into your service/product, and create more desirable results.
As a service provider, it is your job to convey the value to your prospective clients.
Don’t make them guess how much your stuff worth – make life easier for them!
I appreciate that when you try something new, it is essential for you to practise your skills and boost your confidence. If that is the case, I strongly recommend you to decide the maximum free products/services you will be giving away. 3-5 sessions? 1-2 products?
Let people know how much it is worth and why you are giving them away for free, show some appreciation of support? in exchange for a success story? potential referral? prize draw? etc
If you don’t draw this line, what will happen is that you will be perceived as a freeline, and it will be harder and harder for you to move from FREE to FEE in the future.
Or worse, you might burn out, slowly feel resentful towards your business, or stressed out that you can’t make a living from it.
Believe me, charging your service/product at a fair value is the best/healthiest thing you can do for:
– your clients (because they’ll put more energy and focus when consuming your product/service),
– yourself (you are far more motivated to serve if you are rewarded properly),
– and of course your business (from broke to self-sustained).
If possible, collect feedback from your free clients: find out what exactly you are the best at. Because if you are doing something you love so much, quite often you cannot see how good you are, because it’s so natural and it becomes part of you.
The good feedback will hopefully remind you how useful and helpful you are, and why your time and effort is valuable.
3. Set a clear boundary
Do you have any friends or family who don’t get what you do, calling your business a stupid business?
Or if you don’t have a flash office in the big city, then they don’t consider your business as a “real business” that their jobs are far more important than yours?
Do you feel pushed over by your associates, suppliers or clients while you are making a decision for your business?
If you tolerant such behaviours, it will hurt your business every single time.
And the Universe will believe this is what you want, and keep sending similar people/events your way!
Protect your business from unhealthy relationships/friendship. Stand up for your products/services.
You don’t have to be “mean” or dramatic about your boundaries, but set it in a simple and clear way.
It’s your RIGHT and RESPONSIBILITY to state clearly who you are, what you do and what works for you and your biz.
This is your personal boundary, you don’t have to over-justify to anyone. And believe it or not, people always respect that once it is there!
4. Make it fun
You are not a lone ranger who is trying to conquer the world 🙂
You are here to develop a business that you love and adore, and you don’t have to do everything by killing yourself.
You don’t have to make it any harder than necessary.
Get on one or a few networks of support as you need. Ask the Universe to send some fun, understanding and interesting buddies if you wish (this should happen naturally if you have done #3).
Fill in the blanks: It would be a support for my business, if I let myself:
1) ____________________________________________________________________
2) ____________________________________________________________________
3) ____________________________________________________________________
I’ll feel better about my business, if I have tried:
1) ____________________________________________________________________
2) ____________________________________________________________________
3) ____________________________________________________________________
The brainstorm above should assist you to come up with solutions and attract more support and help.
Enjoy the time building your business – it is your sacred companion, and your loyal vehicle for your mission.
If you find this post helpful, please share it on social media with your friends. Thank you!
All my love
Yiye
New here? you are invited to sign up, get a COMPLIMENTARY PREVIEW of my ebook Express the Master Within + free weekly update to turn your purpose into prosperity!
What a lovely list, Yiye! When I started my business, I struggled so much with #1. I thought the reason I was receiving difficult clients was because I needed to learn to better handle them, and that it was all about “personal growth” (which really meant being patient and kind while clients would behave like children). I still notice myself occasionally creeping back to that way of thinking, and the next time it happens, I’ll remind myself of what you’ve written here–that my business has a soul and deserves to be treated well by clients who are a good fit. Thank you!
Hey Jessica, thanks for dropping by, great to connect with you!
Great Post Yiye!
If I had read this a few years ago, and acted on your sage advice, it would have saved me a few bumps in the road! I have always said that I wanted my life and work to be congruent with who I am… but sometimes we make decisions and forget to hold those decisions up to our DNA and things go pear shaped and sideways…
Great reminder and great advice!
Thank you so much !
Cydney
hey Cydney, just love what you said: “sometimes we make decisions and forget to hold those decisions up to our DNA and things go pear shaped and sideways…”
It’s easy (and frankly quite normal) to off the track now and then. Great to see that you come out strong though! Keep it up. and thank you so much for dropping by.
All my love
Yiye
The “what to charge” is the hard part! Going to spend some time today on your brainstorm. Thanks!
Great question Karen! This could be whole different blog post in the future!
Overall, I’d recommend a price that both energise you to do this work in the long run, and motivate your clients put 200% focus and commitment into the offering.
You can always play around and test it.
thanks for dropping by!