Lessons

Lesson Info

Invest in Yourself

Let's tackle less than one lesson one is invest in yourself. When was the last time someone told you to invest in yourself? Probably not, not not soon enough. So what's your riel goal. We all start businesses for all sorts of different reasons on sometimes the reasons that we're running our business evolved over time, and no mine has. When I first started my business, my goal was just to bring in a little extra money on the side. I was a stay at home mom on I thought, you know, if I could just get a business started, if I could just bring in even a couple hundred dollars a month, I'll be set. I wasn't making a whole lot of money and my job previously it didn't seem like a big deal to make a little bit a little bit more money, then my goal involved tio what I really wanted was to let my now ex husband quit his job, and so I worked my butt off to make that happen, and it happened within a year and a half of running my business, that was the goal that I was focused on, and that was what I...

was able to accomplish. I got all sorts of other goals beyond that. Now my goal to bring it full circle was to buy my boyfriend a house. So that he didn't have to work and he could just all day long make me shake eatery cheese and rubio dots the bowl for my business he's very happy with it I'm very happy with it it's happening like it's it's like right now we're moving into the house and he's not working anymore so those are the kinds of goals to get you motivated those are the kinds of goals that really make a difference but what I see happened so often is that we're just trying to make our businesses work we're just trying to make our businesses work and we don't know what that means a lot of times we think that means replacing our old salary or we think that means just bringing a little extra revenue and those are fine goals but most at the time the vast majority of the time those air just kind of goals of convenience they're not intentional I want to know what are you really working toward what do you want from your business not what did you used to have not what seems reasonable what do you really want from your business you have to use what you want not what you have as your baseline if you're always just trying to get what you already have from your business enough to pay the mortgage you have enough to have the car that you have enough to have the kinds of vacations you take now you are always going to be on the edge of falling short of those goals because that's all you're working toward if you're working towards something well beyond that if you're working towards something that right now seems a little crazy if you fall short of that, you're still going to be ahead of where you are now and that's a pretty darn great place to be so use what you want not what you have is your baseline because you started a business for you whether you want to run a business on the side, you've got a day job and you want to do this you know after five o'clock every day whether you want to run a lifestyle business where it's providing really well for you and maybe a couple of a couple of team members in your whole family or whether you want to run a multi million dollar designer brand your business needs to suit your personal goals your business doesn't suit your personal goals why are you doing all this work thiss work I don't care how much you love it if you love it, I kind of do it for you if you're going to run a business and put the work you need to put into a business, make sure it's getting you where you want to go so that's where we need to start just like you can't try to just make your business work without knowing what that means to you you can't make your prices work about knowing what you're trying to accomplish with them what are you trying to d'oh with the money that you're bringing into your business so that's what we're going to talk about in this first lesson the prices in your business need to be a function of the goals that you have for yourself not just a reflection of the material costs of an item is this message getting old yet because you're going to hear it about thirty more times today it's not just about the material cost of the item it's about what you want which can be a little scary but it also could be super liberating so our next question that I need you guys to weigh in on for me if you could make one big change in your life with the help of your business in the next five years what would it be you could make one big change in your life with the help of your business what would it be tweet me at terry gentilly used the hashtag craft week twenty fifteen let's find out from the studio audience first tiffany so I'm kidney staley and I make the law less scaring for creative entrepreneurs and you can find me if the artist jd dot com and twenty sixteen I am going to buy an airstream and a truck and take the show on the road yeah that's exactly what you're going to do in twenty fifteen I love it perfect. So getting rid of everything and buying the stuff we're going to maintain teo I think that it makes sense to get rid of things at least in the short term so pared down and just ah live that lifestyle for a little while and then maybe, you know, find a little place uses a home base late tonight very nice fantastical love it somebody else yes, my name is anitra to row. My business is reflection designed with a k not a c and reflection and I designed vibrant to core for the culturally inspired and twenty sixteen I'm traveling to south africa to celebrate him milestone birthday but also to be hands on with the textiles that I love so much that go into aa my products in my brand fan tastic I love that I love how like goal oriented you guys already are so exciting about one more yes um I'm element easy I have a company called juvenile hall design where a custom make home to court. Um I think my big goal that I would like to have is to have a home where my husband and I could actually stay home and work on our art and make all the products and write books that we like to do um enough that we could travel maybe three times a year to different countries and teach fantastic great wonderful kenneth yeah, we have some tweets coming in and jazz else says I would like to retire my husband I find that is such a common goal ah swimmin in our watch out dio watch out we're coming for your job she wants to retire her husband and moved to a rural area and then mark eurest rules on twitter says I want to buy a new house for her family fantastic I love I love all the home by angle yeah yeah and we've got k r w knitwear remove all debt but mortgage create teach grow I want to buy a new car with cash well that's a good goal that is a good goal do you find that people have a hard time identifying what they actually want? Absolutely absolutely we have been told so often that wanting more than what we have is greedy or that it's short sighted or that we should want something else instead of what we really want and you know, sure saver for retirement absolutely yes you should do that. Of course we're gonna have some guys come on in a little bit and talk specifically about that some but you should also go after those things that really make you happy too because again why else are you running this business? Why else are you doing all the start work absolutely it's really difficult for people to pinpoint what it is that they want and I think it comes down tio giving yourself that permission and that's what we're learning through all these different ways. Like how pricing your craft is actually part of giving yourself permission to live the life that you want. Exactly who, exactly? All right, so here's the thing most of us are not motivated by money. If I went out and told you I need you to make a million dollars or even one hundred thousand dollars with your business next year you'd be like, why writes why, sure, that'd be great. One hundred thousand dollars million dollars that's. Fantastic. Why? Most of us are not motivated by money were actually motivated by those things that we were just talking about buying a house, getting really bottle of our stock and buying an airstream going to south africa, retiring our husbands, I hope whoever that was, I hope that your husband is also making you should criterion cheese and beer so thes and the things that really motivate us these are the things that get us out of bed every day. These are the things that give purpose to all the hard work, all the hard conversations, all the hard decisions that we have to make that when it goes into our business so tiger business goals, those financial goals to personal milestones gives you the context you need to keep moving forward, so as I said before, you got to use what you want not what you have as your baseline, so we're going to create a personal spending plan. As I said, this is kind of like a reverse budget budgets are this is how much you can afford to spend for a certain amount of the money that you bring in every month, so you know you've got you get your paycheck every month and you break that down, I can spend this many dollars on housing I can spend this many dollars on entertainment I can spend this money dollars on clothes I don't want you to think that way because that's unemployment mindset it is time to start thinking with the business ownership mindset with an entrepreneurial mindset because the fact is you can make as much money as you need to live the life that you want to live isn't that liberating what I figured that out it was like angels were singing, doors were opening, bright lights were shining, I can make a cz much money as I want to make toe live the life I want to live, but to do that I need to know how much money that isthe because the fact of the matter is we may not be motivated by money but the easiest way to create marketing plans the easiest way to create pricing strategies sales strategies is to start with a financial goal because it then it's just a numbers game you just break that down so we're going to start off by thinking about what you want to spend every month what do you want to spend every month what do you want your rent or mortgage to be are you happy with where you are now are you really happy with where you are now or do you maybe want to start planning to make a move? What about entertainment? What kind of things are you entertaining yourself with every month if you have time for those kind of things I ideally you do have time for those kind of things so you set a dollar amount for that I want to do these kind of things every month and that costs this amount food you know this is a this is a big place where people kind of scrimp and safe and understandably so food is really expensive for me I've chosen to make my spending plan much, much, much smaller in some places like my rent slash mortgage is a much smaller percentage of my income that it could be then a lot of people you know relative to me would have it but that's because I spend a lot of money on food every month like only lot on that's okay because I've got a plan that accounts for that that allows it's for that. So how much do you want to spend on food every month? You want to shop at whole foods every week? Do you want to shop at the farmersmarket every week? Do you want to go out to eat four times a week? You can do it if you want tio make it part of your plan how much you want to spend on clothes every month I've just decided to pare down my wardrobe tio kind of the uniform capsule dressing thing I don't want to be spending money on clothes every month anymore on beer but that's a conversation for another day but you might really love shopping for clothes that might be your thing and I totally get it s so how much are you going? How much you're going to do then annually and this is where some of the really fun stuff can come up. How much do you want to spend on vacations every year? How much do you want to spend? Do you want a baby next year? Do you want to buy an airstream next year? These air these aren't expenses that happen every month, right? Their expenses that happened once and so we have to account for them once a year, right? Do you want to buy a new house? Do you need a down payment those things you can put in your annual plan where if not annual believe recurring you know this is a one time expense that I'm planning for in twenty sixteen for instance so let's switch tio hot seat I'd love to bring somebody up and actually hear about what some of those specific things are so you can hear from an individual a real person who is not me and obsessed with food what a spending plan could look like you have a volunteer come on up yeah bring your workbook jay what's on your personal spending plan mohr professional kitchen stuff nice. So do you have dollar amounts for some of those things tell me about some of the things that you want to buy it's a wide range I mean, I could spend you know, twenty bucks on ten things or spend you know, ten grand on one thing. Okay, so what what do you want to spend? Um you mean on a regular basis? No. Yeah, let's talk about this sounds like kind of more of an annual expense. So tell me about the kitchen that you really want it doesn't you don't have to be like, well, my absolute dream kitchen is blah bah bah bah but you I want to know like what? What is it that you want out of this kitchen ultimately and how much does some of those things cost I've been practicing making it really efficient okay so a lot less money than most people see on tv for a commercial kitchen expense so let's just say fifty thousand dollars would get the necessities tio work for the next I don't know five years creating beach oh sauce which is my product ok, which is you know a spanish sauce that's um it's my one and done you know a plan to make more stuff but there's there's one sauce that you could split into a million different ideas so it's like you know I educate people when they buy the product at the farmer's market or the store and like you said I mean there's like seriously like a common thread for me with like everybody talking here on especially the retiring your husband away to his own personal farm kitchen yes because yeah I mean gardening is like supremely important to me as a chef and then making a product that can the spanish topless culture is the word is convivial right which is meet your friend first then have a drink in the you know and then saunter around the town you know, meeting other people aren't going to buy spend more money on food let's put that fifty thousand dollars kitchen expense down in your annual column what are some changes you want to make maybe on a monthly basis um that would involve a little bit more cost here there changes to what I'm doing and home doing it just like your personal personal life fired do you send more money eating out on a monthly basis? Do you want to spend more money? Um, experimenting in the kitchen on a monthly basis? What are some of the changes you'd like to make their money? You make those two point because I don't go out as a chef, very troublesome tio other shifts in restaurant openly admit that? Yeah, but so yeah, I'd rather go out and buy, like really cool products at whatever store they're found in, you know, and bring him home sweet, ok, so that would definitely be something I'd put on your monthly spending plan is this is how much I plan to spend every month on amazing products from really great stores, really great purveyors on dh, you know, I'm going to my goal is going to be to spend this much every month not this is what I'm allowed, but this is this is my target not being afraid to spend, not being afraid to spend is going after it and making sure that your business plan really allows for that as well. Anything else? Um, uh, possibly, uh, nicer car, you know, big a instead of an apartment complex, I could have my own compound that's interesting because that could be both a monthly expense in an annual expense you might put the down payment for the car in the annual column and then put really account for that higher monthly payment if you're not going to buy it cash in the monthly column and so again then you're really building not spending plan these are the things that I want to be spending every single month so that as your business starts to row you're starting to put that money away but you're also starting to make some of those changes you know that allow you to do the things that you want to do perfect thank you so much for those examples that's it that's it that's it I know so much, so much more to come so what will it take to live the life that you want to live? That's the real question here that's what the personal spending plan is all about yeah, it kind of just looks like a budget except it's up is that what do you need to do? How much money do you need to make toe live the life that you want to live? This isn't I want to kind of put one final thought to this this isn't about living the life that other people want or that you see on the commercials or that you see on tv shows this is about living the life that you want to live. Not everyone wants the million dollar house, right? Some people want an airstream and that's. Awesome. So what is it that you want, and constantly as you're filling out that personal spending plan, be thinking about, is this something that I want, or is this something I'm supposed to want? Is this a should, or is this truly what it's going to take to make me really happy and feel really abundant, feel really rich, feel really affluent and flexible with my money? That's what the personal spending plan is all about.