When I got my biz started initially in 2006 I was reading tarot cards a bit here and there online but I was working two days at week at a local metaphysical shop. Oh how I wish had some screenshots of that horrid website {and I have looked and all there is on the Way Back Machine is the text which isn’t as bad without all the crappy graphics and papyrus font}. Then for the next 6 years I was just “kind of a tarot reader” who was mainly a blogger offering readings through a pretty unassuming link on my site. When I did get a reading request I was charging bottom dollar and that meant that the money went as quick as it came in. It wasn’t a business, it was a hobby. Something had to change if I was going to do anything worthwhile here.
In the years since I’ve learned 2 very important lessons about my business and how money should work and flow within my business.
1. You have to be daring enough to look at the money.
2. You have to know the “what” and “how” behind it.
This seems pretty obvious, right? Of course you should look at the money and know how it’s getting there. But do you actually do it?
Do you do it on days when you haven’t made a dime or do you get stressed out about it?
Do you look at it when you KNOW there is a zero balance in your PayPal or bank account?
When you know you have $1000 in your account do you know how it got there or are you just thankful you have it?
The big problem for me ended up being not knowing how much I had and how it got there. I had this attitude that as long as I knew there was something in my account I was good and I was thankful for whatever brought it there. And that’s all great! You should be thankful and you should have gratitude for whatever money your business brings in, no matter how big or small. But that’s only half the puzzle to actually making money in your business.
I am extremely passionate about this because spiritual entrepreneurs and biz people have a tendency to downplay the money side of things which can often lead to burn out and eventually giving up because they can’t make ends meet on their spiritual biz alone.
I’m certainly not going to fill your head with fluffy bullshit telling you that doing what I’m going to share is going to be the key to making $5000 a month doing tarot readings or anything like that! We are still living in reality here! But it’s a start to a path of financial success with your purposeful business.
Your purposeful business, your spiritually based, heart-centered work, is all encompassed in feminine energy. And that’s lovely!
However the business side, the numbers, the plans, and the systems are all full of strong, and sometimes heavy, masculine energy.
For heart-centered business you have be able to work with both, and many people in this type of work find the masculine hard to wrap their heads around because it doesn’t speak to them. They want to spend their time creating and helping others not balancing spreadsheets and tracking sales.
Spiritual business is a balancing act between the masculine and feminine energies. If you’re going to succeed you have to be a juggler!
This could mean outsourcing the stuff you hate to someone who knows how to do it with beauty and grace, but if you don’t have the cash to hire a team, you need to accept that if you don’t do it yourself then things aren’t going to get anywhere. That was the big lesson I learned and once I became a juggler of energy in my business things shifted from lack to abundance quickly!
You have to be daring enough to look at the money and shift based on where you are right now. That means if you are only bringing in $200 a month but you need to bring in $2000 a month to fulfill your basic needs {rent, bills, food, etc} then you need to create a plan. The best way to do that is to start with what you’re already doing that’s getting you $200 a month.
That’s where lesson two comes in. You have to know how you’re making your money. That means tracking your sales. Knowing what sells and what sits collecting virtual dust.
Let’s say you’re a reader who also offers Reiki healing sessions. Last month you made $200 on readings and $150 on Reiki sessions. Relative to their price, what sold more. Not what made more money, but what actually sold more sessions, your readings or your Reiki? What did you enjoy more, your readings or your Reiki? What did one sell over the other? Did you run a sale? Did you talk about one more than the other so it was in people’s minds enticing them to book a session? Based on the time of year was one thing more likely to have people ready to invest than the other?
Once you know some of this you can start planning. If your reading sessions sold more during December and people were looking for readings to know about the new year, you may find that your readings drop off in January because people have now gotten their 2014 predictions and they don’t need more readings just yet. So you may want to position your Reiki sessions as the thing people need for the new year?
How about talking about how Reiki can help renew their energy for the start of a new year? Talk about how Reiki can help with the post-holiday energy we always end up carrying. Offer up info on how Reiki can clear out the energy of the previous year to open up for new beginnings in 2014.
Without knowing what’s selling and what’s making the money…and when things are selling as opposed to other things you’re selling…it’s hard to plan out how you’re going to make $2000 rather than $200 a month.
You have to look at your money and you have to know how it got there!
At the end of 2013 I was floored to discover I made SIX TIMES what I made in 2012 as a result of these shifts. I had created and instituted some new systems in my own biz that caused huge shifts in my outlook which allowed me to make plans that caused more money to come into my business than ever before.
I’ve put all those tools together and created something that I know will help you in your purposeful business for 2014. It contains all my tools that I use long with journaling exercises to gain crystal clarity and lots of planners to create goals with paths to get there. You’ll have all the trackers and tools I used, and continue to use, as well as mini-biz lessons on blogging, pricing, and investing that I often share only with my Soul Biz Clarity clients.
It’s the ultimate biz kit for the hear-centered, spiritual biz soul!
I’ve poured myself, my heart and passion into creating what I know will be a truly transformative tool for you and your business!
For 2014 I want to see more spiritual biz people out there getting their message out and being supported in the process. That means earning a living from doing your passionate, spiritual work in the world. The world needs your message and healing now more than ever and you can only do that when you’re being sustained by a live you love and that means financial stability.
