I want to talk about five money mindsets that to me are essential for you to master.
1. Know What’s Happening With Your Money
The first thing is to know what’s happening with your money. With your business, you want to know where the money is coming in. Where do people have debt to you? Why do people have debt to you? Why do they owe you money? Which insurance companies, if you take insurance, take 30 days to pay, two weeks to pay, or 90 days to pay? These are really essential things to know your numbers with regards to the flow in. But, even more important is the flow out. To decide where you want your money to go, what do you want to budget each month for rent, for marketing, for internet, for all these things that can add up. It’s really smart to reinvest in your business if it’s building that infrastructure. But, if it’s not, you really want to evaluate where that money is leaving.
Also, knowing your numbers is true in your personal life, i.e.: to know how much you’re spending on groceries, your cars, rent or your house, etc. as much as it is true for your business.
2. Raise Your Rates
The other mindset is that you should be continually raising your rates. As you start to grow, as you start to bring in the amount of money that you need to bring in, you should be raising your rates. Then, you’re in a position where if you say no to somebody, or they say no to you, you’re able to keep growing and keep leveling up. Keep testing with those new clients the newest highest rates for them. Then, each year, you’re going to realign. Send your clients an email in October/November that says:
‘This is the time when people are signing up during open enrollment. You may want to look at your out-of-network benefits, since we’re private pay. This is also a great time to evaluate what you’re putting in to your HSA, your flexible spending. Right now, this is your rate. Here’s the rate that new people are paying. I’m going to be raising your rate up to just underneath that amount.’
3. Look at Money as a Tool for Growth
Next, we want to look at money as a tool for growth. When you think about hiring a virtual assistant, for example, if you’re charging a $150 per session, and if you do one extra session, or you work a little bit later / through lunch, then, if you make $150 and you pay someone $15 an hour, that one hour now has bought you 10 hours of time. Of course, there are expenses and all of that, but just really simple math, it’s bought you time. It’s a multiplier. It’s helped you be able to get more done. So that person may blog for you, do some SEO work, answer your phones and do scheduling, do some design work, or they’re going to take a Facebook live like this and turn it into a YouTube video and then turn it into a blog post and then repurpose it into something that you sell later on. It’s really a tool that’s going to help you grow.
4. Money Does Not Equal Happiness
We know from positive psychology, and from economics research, that if you’re super poor and you have no money money, it does bring happiness to be able to feed yourself and your family and have basic essentials. But, around the $80,000 mark, we know that between $80,000 and $120,000 is when you get diminishing return for that. So, there are things like intentional activities that are significantly more valuable to put your time and your money into. For example, having work that has a purpose, meditating, exercising, socialization – research shows that all of these things will give us more happiness than the time we put into trying to make more money.
5. Money is Not Bad
Lastly, money’s not bad. Money is a tool which is going to multiply and magnify whatever you already are. So, if you are a greedy, horrible person, and you’re poor, when you make more money you’re going to have more opportunity to be a greedy, horrible person. But, if you’re a compassionate therapist that wants to see the world become a better place; if you have ideas that are going to change the world; that money is going to help you be able to do more of that. Assuming that you still stay in line with your original purpose and you stay focused on it. I think often in our field what we see happen is that people say, ‘Well, I didn’t go in it for the money’, or ‘I don’t want to make money’, or ‘I want to make money, but I don’t know how’. All these limiting beliefs where we think that you’re only going to make $40,000, I don’t buy that. If you do good work, if you create a big business that is able to serve people, is known in the community, and has therapists that work for you, you can build a business that’s a multi six-figure / seven-figure practice. So, stop yourself from having those limiting beliefs. In reality, it’s you saying, ‘I think if I make money, then my peers are going to think that I’m a bad person’. But, you are amongst a group of peers that say, ‘No, you’re not a bad person, you’re going to become a better person and we’re going to challenge you to use that money to help the world in a number of different ways’.
Joseph R. Sanok, MA, LLP, LPC, NCC
Joe Sanok is an ambitious results expert. He is a private practice business consultant and counselor that helps small businesses and counselors in private practice to increase revenue and have more fun! He helps owners with website design, vision, growth, and using their time to create income through being a private practice consultant. Joe was frustrated with his lack of business and marketing skills when he left graduate school. He loved helping people through counseling, but felt that often people couldn’t find him. Over the past few years he has grown his skills, income, and ability to lead others, while still maintaining an active private practice in Traverse City, MI. To link to Joe’s Google+ .
