Money Matters: How to Systematize Your Business

Here’s an all-too-common scenario: A seemingly successful small business owner is hard at work growing her business. She’s working lots of hours, and her hourly rate is respectable. But her cash flow is dismal.

Why?

Because she’s working so hard that finding the time to actually take control of her money is impossible.

Invoices don’t get sent on time. Past due balances are ignored. Taxes aren’t done. And maybe worst of all, she’s got dozens of recurring payments that go out automatically each and every month, and she has no idea what they are or if she’s even using the programs she’s paying for.

Sound familiar? Sadly, that’s exactly what a lot of “successful” businesses look like. When you work at home, and you’re accountable to no one but yourself, it’s far too easy to let these little things slide until, like an avalanche, they have a devastating effect on your business.

The good news is, cleaning it up is easy, when you take the time to put some trusted systems in place.

Start with your billing. Sign up for (and use) a system such as Freshbooks or Harvest, which will automate your timekeeping and produce an invoice with a single click of a button. Then put your billing day on your calendar as an unbreakable appointment.

Log into your timekeeping app, generate your invoices, and click send. You’ll be done in a jiffy. Not only that, but most billing systems automatically send follow-up messages for unpaid invoices, so you don’t have to worry about tracking down those slow pays.

For your expenses, use a single system. That might be PayPal or a dedicated credit card or even your business checking account. Whatever it is, be sure it has a reporting feature that will allow you to send monthly statements to your accountant. At the end of every month, bundle that up with your sales report and your receipts, and send it off. When tax time rolls around, you’ll be sitting back with your feet up while everyone else scrambles to find documents and update their accounting system.

If you do your own taxes (kudos to you!) then look for tools that will talk to each other easily. For example, you can download a Quickbooks file right from PayPal for super-fast reconciliation at the end of every month. That alone will save you hours of “doing the books.”

Just putting these two simple systems in place can easily save you 10+ hours per month, but the even larger benefit is that the money work will get done. And what that will do for your cash flow is priceless.

Being You for Real

Friendships are a source of both joy and heartache.

Women have a greater need for friendships than men do.  Our friendships run deeper.  Men like to “do things” with friends.  Women want to “know things” about each other.  We like to do things together too, but we want to talk while we do it! We want to be real friends, who trust each other and are there for each other. Friends are part of your total prosperity, enriching your life in so many ways.

Girls are naturally drawn to each other.  A girl’s first experience with heartache may have been over a lost “best friend” rather than a “boy friend”.  When friendships are lost, women grieve. We do not just grieve for the friendship, but also for the secrets shared, the trust given and the acceptance enjoyed.  If betrayed, the pain runs deep.  No one can cause you more harm than someone you have deeply trusted.

Your best friend in school knew who you were afraid of and who you secretly liked.  She knew you still kept your Barbies in your room and that you cried for a week when Shaun Cassidy got married.  I’ll bet you remember a time when a friend you trusted proved not to be a trustworthy secret keeper.  It cut like a knife and that is when it starts – the creation of the wall and mask—your public facade.

The “you” you are willing to let the world see. You don’t want to risk letting people see the bad stuff, because if  they never see the real you,  you will be accepted and enjoy great friendships. Yes, we hide behind our constructed reality, thinking we are better off, but we lose so much.  If no one knows you are struggling, you deny them the chance to comfort you and keep you accountable.

If you are being accepted by people because of a facade you present, deep down you know it is only that disguise being accepted. The real you will be terribly alone and you know it.  That is why so many women you envy for their seeming perfection are struggling with deep insecurities, afraid to shine their light out in the world. One of the many teachings in Monetary Identity is to know who you are and what you bring to the table of relationships.

How do we start?

However your masquerade started and was reinforced, you need to look at how to take the mask off and start to be real.  Before allowing others to truly see us, we must accept who we are.  If you are not comfortable with the real you, you will always hide behind walls. Monetary Identity is a great way to begin and continue that process. Love to really see you there!

Monetary Identity Session 6: Putting It All Together and Moving Forward

The last session of Monetary Identity helps you generate a goal plan, a “gap map” for closing your gap by integrating values into your monetary identity. Start creating your own guidebook for your life!

These six Monetary Identity posts have been overviews of each session. We are giving you the complete list below, which is much more comprehensive and reflects the depth of this learning experience. Register now!  Use code gap to get $50.00 off the tuition.  You deserve this!

Monetary Identity 2017 Complete Subject List

  •  Class One Understanding the Gap
  • Ten Areas of Monetary Identity
  • Poverty Mentality
  • Growth Mentality
  • Survival Mentality
  • The Myth of American “Classless” Society
  • Could You Survive in Poverty?
  • Could You Survive in Middle Class?
  • Could You Survive in Wealth?
  • Key Differences Among Social Classes
  • So what keeps people, especially women, from moving into higher income levels?
  • Questions for Class One
  • Class Two: Values-Based Lifestyle
  • Objective: Identify your top five values and describe how or what resources are being directed towards your values.
  • Where do/did your values come from? What beliefs do you have that no longer serve you?
  • Generational Influences
  • Find Your Strengths Checklist
  • Evaluating Your Strengths and Weaknesses
  • Core Beliefs
  • Sample Values List
  • Define Your Core Values—In-class Activity. Do Not Try This at Home!
  • Ten Types of Capital
  • Class Three: Life-Force Energy
  • Invest in What Feeds You!
  • Class Four: Monetary Identity Part 1
  • Levels of Growth Goal Setting
  • My Growth Goals
  • Introduction to Philanthropy
  • What is your personal legacy?
  • Three types of contributors
  • Meaning of Philanthropy Handout 1
  • Meaning of Philanthropy Handout 2
  • Questions for Class Four
  • Class Five Monetary Identity Part 2
  • Questions for Class Five
  • Class Six Putting It All Together and Moving Forward
  • Pulling It All Together
  • Making 2% changes is a Rich Chicks core belief –because it works!
  • Rich Chicks Top Ten List

 

Monetary Identity Session 2: Values-Based Lifestyle

Hesitant to sign up because you don’t know what Monetary Identity is all about? Read our series of blog posts that explain the amazing content.

What do we mean by living a value-based lifestyle?  We mean truly understanding what your top five (approximately) values are that you absolutely stand by.  These are the brick-and-mortar foundation of your beliefs of what it means to be you and supports the actions you take.

It is hard work to identify your top values and actually explain them to yourself and others. Monetary Identity takes values clarification to the next level by allocating resources to those values. Your values show up in how you make decisions, how you live your life, how you spend or don’t spend your money. Register now to be be part of this life-enhancing process. Use code gap to get an impressive $50.00 off the price until March 17.

Values are different from beliefs, and many people get them confused. People use both to guide their actions and behavior, but they are essentially different. Values unite people—beliefs separate. Many people are not aware of many of the limiting beliefs they have about money, work and their own talents. These are the beliefs that will push prosperity away from you.

Values and beliefs both guide your decisions—sometimes subconsciously. Bringing them into the light and examining values and beliefs often surprises people. The values clarification part of this series has been life-changing for many of our students.  Register now

 

 

Monetary Identity 2017™ FAQs

What is it, anyway? Monetary Identity™ is our relationship to the resources around us, combined with our core values and personal goals.

A new skill set is needed for those who have worked to their natural potential and yet intuitively feel that the internal picture in their mind is not matching the feelings that are in their hearts. Creative problem solving is one way to look at it but it is far more complex- it is aligning your resources in a way that fits into your belief system to create a seamless road map of identity.

Creating a Monetary Identity is one of the most important things a person will ever do for themselves and for their family because it is the keystone for creating a prosperous lifestyle.

Each person’s Monetary Identity is unique, complex, and ever-expanding as they move through economic ladders. Getting a Monetary Identity takes a careful course of action to help you get from where you are to where you want to be. Rich Chicks™ will be here every step of the way.

So what’s it like, this class? Each of the six sessions builds on the next. So we start where you are now and go from there. Learning is in-person, with Skype available for those who don’t live in the Greater Twin Cities.

Session #1 Understanding the Gap. Poverty vs Growth Mentality. Describe your own gap by identifying old patterns and reward systems that no longer fit.

Session #2 Values Based Lifestyle.Identify your top 5 values. Sounds easy, and maybe you think you know your values already. Understanding the values that you absolutely stand by and applying them consciously to your life. Does your life reflect those deeply held values? Intense work!

Session #3 Life-Force Energy. Identify the importance of time in relation to your values. What resources are you pulling towards your values? Identifying your personal energy pattern.

Session #4 Monetary Identity, Part 1. Identify the multitude of monetary relationships and how your time, resources and values create a monetary identity.

Session #5 Monetary Identity Part 2. Create a holistic monetary identity that corresponds with your current values, resources and goals.

Session #6 Pulling it Together and Moving Forward. Generate a goal plan, a “gap map” for closing your gap by integrating values into your monetary identity. Start identifying 2% changes you can make. Register now.

Who teaches this class?

Mickey Mikeworth,(Mikeworth Consulting), Prosperity Leader, Chief Financial Officer Strategy, and a whole lot more

Mickey is owner and CEO of Mikeworth Consulting. As a consultant, teacher and creative lead, she’s the executive’s confidant — not to mention the inside source to new ideas in personal and professional wealth management strategy. If a project needs a little vision (or a lot, for that matter) and a fair share of planning, Ms. Mikeworth is the wealth wonder of the world. She has many resources at her disposal and is one of the most energetic people you’ll ever have the opportunity to meet. She will find a solution specific to your needs and make you laugh while she’s doing it. Mickey prides herself on being a light for many. And being a two-time winner of the Top Women in Finance, that light is pretty bright. You can guarantee that she knows what she’s doing.

Mickey has received many awards for her work in the financial arena, including receiving the Top Women in Finance award twice. This honor, which is hosted by Finance and Commerce Magazine, has been given to just twelve women in the history of the award, entering her into the elite Top Women in Finance Circle of Excellence. Out of 22,000 wealth managers in the state of Minnesota, Mickey ranks in the top 300, and received a listing in the Five Star Wealth Awards hosted by Mpls- St Paul Magazine.

Mickey’s approach to education is innovative, her information is up-to-date and informed, and her energy is contagious. You will want to be one of the people who catches the Mickey Mikeworth energy, enthusiasm and knowledge. Register now—class size is limited.

Assisting Mickey Mikeworth

Karen Karsten CPCC, CAC Executive Director, Rich Chicks, Creative Principle, Think You Can LLC

Karen is a writer, poet, recovering middle-manager, and best of all—a certified prosperity and creativity life coach. Karen has reinvented herself several times during her working career, both by necessity and choice. Each career was a building block that helped her create the life she has now as a coach, writer, executive director of Rich Chicks and creative principle of Think You Can LLC. She delights in helping others choose to find their own power and prosperity through personal growth and discovery—at every cycle of their lives. Karen has a wide background of active involvement in women’s issues and organizations.

Karen believes that it is never too late to be who you always wanted to be, and that you should try things even if you have been told you are bad at it (or maybe because someone told you that). She says, “Many people don’t dream enough, and are at a critical Dream Poverty Level. Dreams can be made real—so dream, baby, dream.” Register now—class size is limited.

Investment: Education: $294.00; Materials Fee: $35 Total 329.00    Payment plans available–ask us!

 

 

Art is part of prosperity–make something, move something

downsized_0417151356For your micro journal today, reflect on some kind of art that inspired you today.  It could be…

* a piece of music

* a work of visual art

* the dance or movement of a person

* a poem or piece of writing

* a piece of YOUR OWN creative work

* make your own magic!

Didn’t get the micro-journal? Here it is again.

Directions for folding journal   micro Journal

Easy Peasy Budgeting

budgetBeen talking about getting a better handle on your finances? The best way to do that is to create an actual budget. You might think budgets are kind of a pain, but they don’t have to be. Make it Easy Peasy–think about the process as a spending and savings plan. Figure out your resources and then decide how you want to allocate them. Viola! You have the beginnings of a budget! Sometimes it’s good to start with the basics, such as the basic outline for a budget and the categories you want to include. Here are some tips to help you create a simple family budget.

Income

What do you have coming in? The first place to start in the outline of your budget is with your income. There will be some estimating here, no doubt; but make sure it’s estimation, not dreaming! The income area of your budget is not the place to write down wishes or maybes. Simply take a look at your net income over the last three months and estimate an average monthly income. Or you might have income that changes very little month-to-month; it should therefore be pretty easy to figure out your monthly income.

Expenses

Next up is expenses—all of them. It’s good to include enough detail that you have a grasp on things, but splitting your expenses into dozens of little categories will probably only frustrate you. Try to make your categories fairly general – “entertainment,” for example, is a more general category than “computer games, movies, cable, and DVDs” listed as separate categories. There will probably be more estimation here than in the income category.

As you break down your expenses into understandable categories and numbers, remember that charitable giving or any giving away of money should be also listed as an expenditure.

Actual Expenses

Estimation gives way to “real” numbers when you write down your actual expenses during the month. This is the last section of your budget plan. Keep a running tally of your expenses for several weeks, and then look at where you are. Are you surprised at the actual expenses you have?

Some Basic Guidelines

* Are your expenses actual needs or wants?  This can be a hard one, but it’s vital for a budget to function properly. Watch out here—don’t convince yourself that a want is a need when it isn’t – you may just be trying to find an excuse to buy the item. Real needs are things like clothes, food, and shelter; but designer clothes, gourmet food, and a palatial dwelling are more like wants!

* Duh! Expenses should not exceed income. You may find yourself surprised the first time you do a budget and discover that you actually don’t make enough money to cover your expenses. If you discover this, you need to look carefully at your income section and see where you can increase it, and look just as carefully at the expenses and see where you can make cuts.

Life Changing: Monetary Identity

funjpg“Life changing” is the most often-heard comment about the Monetary Identity six-session class
So what changes happen?

We teach prosperity from the inside out–expanding your attitudes about money and seeing it as only a portion of your total prosperity.
The biggest change is understanding the wide spectrum of  resources that are NOT being used that is the biggest light bulb.

Most people do not know how to create a life that has a bell ringing WIN (doing things that create happiness) on a daily basis. They feel a win is really only fate or chance when all the bells can ring. It is not about chance or fate–you can create a life where the happy bells to go off every day.

One person figured out that if she worked from home one day a week all the laundry would get done, she could pop a quality meal in the oven, rest her brain, save on gas, and she could go and play that night with loved ones with no guilt 52 times a year.
Finding out that a having a job that pays really, really well is not a crime, but feeling like you had to hide it from your friends who make you feel like “You have it so good and I do not.” was the real crime. Time to get a new posse!
These are just a couple of examples–are you ready to change YOUR life? Sign up for this class.

Skype option available if you are not in the Twin Cities’ area!

Interview with Mickey Mikeworth on Monetary Identity: Prosperity from the Inside Out

This is an interview with Mickey Mikeworth, who teaches the Rich Chicks’ six class series Monetary Identity, which starts October 1, 2014. Interviewer is Sharon Leah

Smart Chick Discount until September 15. Click here to reserve your space!

Mickey Mikeworth

Mickey Mikeworth

 

What is monetary identity?

It is about your relationship to your resources and how to use those resources in a way that fits your fully-explored belief system.

 How did you identify Monetary Identity as an element in a persons financial makeup? 

Usually when I see someone hit a wall of why are they not moving up the financial ladder is when most people naturally look at their Monetary Identity. A new skill set is needed for people who have worked to their natural potential and yet these people feel lost like “this is all there is?”  People can intuitively feel that the internal picture in their mind is not matching the feelings that are in their hearts and their present life, but they just cannot add it all up in a way that makes sense. Creative problem solving is one way to look at it but it is far more complex- it is aligning resources in a way that will create a symphony, not a cacophony of grating sound.

If it is part of who a person is- how can learning about it make a difference in your workshops?

Rich Chicks is a prosperity-based education company and believes that education should reach every part of your brain. Our brains grow from experience and have to be trained to accept new information about old ideas and then to manage the difference between the two with positive action.

Our workshops are designed to work with people on multiple levels and to build on small pieces of growth. Monetary Identity helps give participants action plans that will work at the particular learning level that they are currently at. Monetary Identity is a class that our students may re-take every few years because they are now ready to access a new part of the message. They are now ready to manage the actions needed to grow and process information within the unique framework of their OWN core values.  It is a difficult task and one that many put off because it is REAL WORK to commit to your own identity. I have never met someone who could do that work without a guide.

 Can you give me an example of how understanding MI has changed lives?

I think the largest part of is understanding the wide spectrum of their resources that are NOT being used that is the biggest light bulb. Most people do not know how to create a life that has a bell ringing WIN (doing things that create happiness) on a daily basis. They feel a win is really only fate or chance when all the bells can ring. It is not about chance or fate–you can create a life where the happy bells to go off every day.

People hit many stages of Monetary Identity. From the day that someone figures out that BIG GIRLS do not fix a broken hemline or their car with duct tape, to a sales person who knows they cannot drive a rust bucket if they want to be thought of as TOP SALES materials, to a CEO who knows that time spent in the community working as a layperson is not negotiable if you want to be a great leader.

From our members that have taken this class I would say ONE thing that each person has in common is that they have nothing in common.  Everyone is there to get the insight that is fortheir own special needs and no one but them can know the answer.

Here are just a few from the last class:

  • One person figured out why she was constantly floundering as a business owner. She needed partnership to feel connected and without feeling connected and part of something BIGGER she was left feeling like a kid that was sent to their room to color but had no colors or inspiration.
  • Another person figured out that she was constantly shopping or running ONE MORE ERRAND while dragging the kids home from school and trying to get a meal on the table and what that cost her in sanity and parenting time. She got a plan and tossed a HUGE list out the window and sat down to dinner FIRST.
  • One person figured out that if they worked from home one day a week all the laundry would get done, she could pop a quality meal in the oven, rest her brain, save on gas, be home with NO KIDS, and she could go and play that night with loved ones with no guilt and do it 52 times a year.
  • Finding out that a having a job that pays REALLY-REALLY well is not a crime, but feeling like you had to hide it from your friends who make you feel like “YOU HAVE IT SO GOOD and I do not” was the real crime.  Time to get a new posse.

And old ideas about wealth need to be reviewed. The ten types of capital Monetary Identity teaches help people realize how little of the wealth they already have is actually used or even thought of as a resource. It is like eating carrots your whole life and thinking that was ALL the vegetables on the planet.  Living well is not hard if you are willing to honor yourself and the importance of taking care of yourself.

Thanks for chatting with me, Mickey–see you in October!

 

The Sun is Beautiful–and Dangerous

by Karen Karsten (former Sunburn Queen)

Seems like a long time since we’ve had to worry about sunburn! Here at last is summer with all the glorious greenery and warmth. Just remember, protecting your skin is very important when you arsun facee outdoors.  

Sunburns can really put a damper on your life (it hurts!) and can cause premature aging and skin cancer.  Here are five tips to save your beautiful skin–toast a bit but don’t burn….

  1. Stay in the shade when possible.  Not only will this protect you from the sun, it will also keep you from getting so hot.
  2. Wear a good sweat proof sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher.  It only takes a few minutes to put it on before you go out, and it keeps you from having to worry about getting burned.
  3. Make sure you’re completely covered.  Areas that are often forgotten or not covered well when it comes to sunscreen include the ears, neck, and the portion of the scalp that is exposed by the part of your hair.  Our lips need sunscreen too, so invest in a good lip balm or lipstick with sun protection in it.
  4. Don’t underestimate the power of the sun.  Being out for as little as 30 minutes without sunscreen can produce a burn, especially if you have fair skin. 
  5. Be sure to wear sunscreen when you’re in the water.  You don’t feel a burn as easily, but the sun’s effects are actually intensified because the water reflects the sun onto your skin

Some forms of sun damage are very dangerous. Click here to receive a short ecourse to help you recognize them easily.

beach time