They Reduce. I Reuse, Recycle &/or Repurpose

I’m on a fairly strict budget right now, because my savings cushion is less than I’d like and we’re remodeling our house. So the general rule is “I’m only allowed to buy things for the house that will improve the long-term value of the home.” That’s the practical money side.

On the not-so-practical emotional side, I want to decorate my new house and make it a home. Our new-to-us home is 500 square feet larger than our last home, we don’t have many things to begin with, and I hate my current color scheme (in my defense, it has been a decade of black, white, red and browns).

So, what’s a girl to do?

FIRST, I let my friends and family know that I’m interested in their unwanted goods and I have Uhaul on speed dial if needed.

The chairs and foot stools were from a previous ask.

I’m always amazed at how much stuff people get rid of or are willing to part with because they don't really need it anymore. In just a few months, we found ourselves with two washing machines (one top loader and one front loader), one clothes dryer, full size gas BBQ, 5’ x 7’ area rug that looks amazing in the dining room, heavy punching bag, vintage butterfly chairs, 50’s metal outdoor dining set, vintage metal rolling table, vintage desk fan, and a heavy duty metal work table.

This isn’t about hoarding or flipping for me, so I turned down a couch, loveseat, and three sets of fluffy fancy towels (from three different households…) because they didn’t go with my new color scheme. And the extra washing machine went to my mother.  

SECOND, Keep an eye out on the free piles.

We live very close to a nice neighborhood and people are always throwing things away or putting free piles in their driveways. So while walking the dog, we’ve acquired two practically brand new cordless home phones with answering machine, road bike handle bars and bar ends, road bike race bars, cashmere sweater, stack of 2’ x 4’ wood sticks, great old books on sailing, and some holiday string lights.

This works best outside of garage sale season. And the best finds are the things that people leave on the sidewalk because they don’t fit in the moving truck.

THIRD, Repurpose. Repurpose. Repurpose.

When I’m not on a budget, it’s so easy for me to buy something, use it, get bored of it and store it in the back of the closet, never to be seen again. There are three main events that get me hunting in the back of my closets: moving, spring cleaning and when I’m on a budget.  

I’m always pleasantly surprised when I go digging in the back of my closet because these are things that I once loved, which means there’s a good chance that I will love them again, as long as I can find a new use for them.

Bonus: the prints are more fun than traditional 
curtains and the sewing is already done.

The first repurpose of this house was out of necessity; our house has 18 windows and not a single usable curtain when we moved in. And no, this is not about using sheets in place of proper window coverings…although we did do, just until we got our curtains. Curtains are a necessity, so that expense was justified, but I was able to save money on the smaller windows, by using the printed cloth napkins and dishtowels that I already had.

My next project was to reupholster a living room chair that I’ve had since I was 16 and has been a redone more times than I can count. Since I couldn’t go out and buy new fabric, I had to “find” some. Turns out there was a perfect piece in the closet that was once a tablecloth and was just waiting for a new purpose.

Being restricted on some purchases can be a bit of a bummer, but it gives me an opportunity to be resourceful. Plus, I just think of the next trip that I’m saving up for and in the grand scheme of things, traveling is more important to me than a perfectly decorated house.   

- Leah Schonlank

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The Power of Community

I had a client once who I’d been working with for about a year. Her finances were in a bit of a shambles when she showed up. She wasn't earning enough, was overspending, had no reserves and a lot of debt. She made incremental progress, but not enough. No where near enough.

About half way through the year she decided to train for a marathon, even though she had never even ran a 5k. It was with great interest that I watched her jump in. She had fear and trepidation, but she jumped in nonetheless. She put her running shoes on and stepped out the door. She announced it to all her friends on Facebook. She declared she was doing it. She asked for money. She tracked her progress. She inspired everyone around her. Within less than a year she went from not being a runner at all to running a marathon.

Meanwhile, she was making progress, small progress, slow progress, on her finances. When I asked her why she was so successful in one seemingly insurmountable goal, and making only margin success in the other, she responded with great thought:

I love how the marathon training makes me feel;

I made a commitment and that anchored me; and

I’m excited (and scared) about the marathon.

What would it take to feel that way about your finances? How could you get to a place that you loved the way working on your finances made you feel? What if you made a commitment right out there on Facebook to “run a marathon” (e.g. achieve 3 months reserves, pay off all of your debt, etc.) What if it wasn’t a secret but instead, you inspired those around you to do something bold by saying “I’m showing up differently to my finances.” What if you were excited about your money? What if you said out loud to someone “I’m a little scared too.”

What is missing with our financial lives is that sense of community. When we jump into a group effort to raise money for a great cause and shout it out to everyone we know, we are inspiring those around us and providing ourselves with the anchored commitment that “we’re going to do this thing.” A sense of community is how how farmers’ barns were built and how enough money is raised to build our great cultural institutions. But we have no sense of community with our personal finances. It’s our little secret. For many of us, it’s our dirty little secret. We’d rather share details about our sex lives before details about our money.

And why? What would happen if you shared how much debt you had? Would you someone’s lose respect? Lose a friend? Or would you inspire others to do something about their credit card debt.

What would happen if you were on a Team in Training for your financial life?

- Stacey Powell

Finance Gym offers personal finance coaching in professionally facilitated peer-advisory groups. 

Are you ready to reach your financial goals? Get motivated. Get support. Get results!

Entrepreneurship and Making ‘Adult’ Financial Decisions

When I launched on Forbes.com I promised myself that I was going to start Telling the Truth. It’s easy to be a financial guru, talk at people, and tell them, “This Is How You Should Handle Your Money.” It takes more courage to be transparent and share stories not just from our clients, but from ourselves, and even more courage to share not just from our past, but from our present. So here I am, being courageous.

Every summer I head to Dallas for the annual eWomen Network Conference. I look forward to it all year long. It’s the largest business women’s conference in North America, and an amazing place to learn, connect and be inspired. Sandra Yancey, CEO of eWomen Network, provides the incredible opportunity to learn from a long list of business rock stars: Michael Gerber, Tony Hsieh (Zappos),Robert Stephens (Geek Squad), Lisa Nichols, Zig Ziglar and the list goes on. This summer, I’m not going.

What’s an ‘Adult Financial Decision’?

Adult financial decisions are logical decisions—ones we intuitively know are good decisions even though every other part of our being disagrees. When we make adult financial decisions, our inner child screams, “But I wanted that!” or our lips pout or our hearts feel heavy. Last month I made the adult financial decision that my team was not going to the conference this year. As a result, I’ve been walking around pouting and having a heavy heart. And then I heard a voice shout: “Stacey, how many hundreds of times have you advised people who were conflicted about when and how much to spend on professional development??? Stop being a weenie and write a blog.”

Entrepreneurs make the assumption that they are the only ones making emotional spending decisions. “If I just ran my business more like a business owner, I don’t think I’d have these cash flow issues.” The truth is that entrepreneurs are human beings, and most of us humans make emotionally-based financial decisions. That’s not a bad thing. It’s when we don’t balance emotionally-based decisions with logical ones that imbalance can capsize our ship. Over the past year, my business has made a number of bold spending decisions, some logical, some emotionally-based. We’ve also pruned our client tree (let a few clients go who were no longer a good fit). The end result is that our reserves are at low tide.

Could we go to the conference? Yes. Do we have the cash? Yes. Would there be consequences? Yes. Is it worth the consequences? Logically, no.

When do you spend money on Professional Development?

The short answer is every year. If you aren’t learning, you aren’t growing, and you aren’t serving your business or your clients. Every major corporation has a budget for Professional Development in the neighborhood of $2,000 annually per employee. Investing in your people is critical to the success of a business. The American Society for Training and Development says that an increase of $680 in a company’s training expenditures per employee generates, on average, a 6 percent improvement in total shareholder return. For solopreneurs or entrepreneurs with micro-businesses—those with fewer than 10 employees—the spending decision is often emotional and not logical. We logically know we should go to conferences, use coaches and consultants, and buy books. But we emotionally weigh the decision against having $2,000 more to cover payroll, invest in marketing, pay off a line of credit or build reserves.

Having an annual spending plan helps keep us focused on the logic of the decision, but when it comes to writing the check, an entrepreneur knows the pros and cons of letting that money go out the door.

What’s too much? What’s too little?

The most truthful story I’ve ever heard about the pains of investing in professional development is fromAllison Byrd. She’s an up-and-coming business rock star herself, and courageous for telling audiences her truth. She tells of driving through three states, staying in a run-down motel and barely having enough money for gas to be at a training she knew, intuitively, she had to be at. That was not an “Adult Financial Decision”; it was emotionally-based. And it was a good decision. It dramatically changed the course of her business. If I was her CFO, I wouldn’t have advised her to go, but as I say in “10 Decisions Not to Make Alone,” don’t always take your accountant’s advice.

People talk to me about money. People I’ve just met find out what I do, and then tell me in a quiet voice some truth about their money. I’ve heard many people share with me in confidence stories similar to Allison’s. But we don’t share with others. We show up at trainings and conferences and announce to the world that All Is Well and Business Is Great. It might be more helpful to our fellow entrepreneurs if, like Allison, we told the truth.

Here are some considerations when making your own adult financial decisions and emotionally-based decisions about spending professional development dollars:

• Did you integrate Professional Development into your annual budget? Less than $2,000 per employee or more?

• How much have you spent over the past few years? Have you seen a return on investment from those expenditures?

• Have you implemented what you learned from past trainings and conferences, or have the binders you brought back become ‘shelf-help’ rather than self-help?

• Do you have a stack of business books you haven’t even started reading? How many books have you read this month? This year?

Would you like to spend more than you’ve allotted? Here’s my favorite advice for how you can justify that decision. One of my favorite clients loves conferences and trainings. There is about $4,000 annually in her spending plan. She wants to spend more, but at this point in her business, the budget doesn’t allow for it. We developed a profit-splitting plan that puts a percentage of her business’ net profits into a savings account titled “Business Investments.” She doesn’t have to spend that money, but when a conference pops up that she wants to attend, she no longer has to discuss it with me or agonize over the pros and cons of the decision. If the money is in that savings account, she goes.

That is an excellent way to balance logic and emotions.

-Stacey Powell

Finance Gym offers personal finance coaching in professionally facilitated peer-advisory groups. 

Are you ready to reach your financial goals? Get motivated. Get support. Get results! 

The Secret of 1,000,000 Followers: Karen Hutton’s

Photo Taken by Scott Jarvie

I would be thrilled for any client to reach 1,000,000 followers, but it has been exceptionally thrilling watching photographer Karen Hutton reach the 1,000,000 follower milestone on Google+. While it is a great accomplishment, that’s not what has made it thrilling. The thrill has been that she reached the 1,000,000 mark without seemingly trying. It’s not your typical story, but not much about Karen is typical.

What does it take to reach 1,000,000 followers?

Most of the entrepreneurs I know believe that it takes the right investment, the right guru, the right system that will firmly place them on the path to entrepreneurial success. Most have invested tens of thousands of dollars into marketing, consultants and coaches. They've spent hundreds of hours of time implementing strategies, launching ideas and working, working, working very hard. Karen, much like her photography, has taken a different approach.

Karen’s path to 1,000,000 has been creative diligence and imaginative consistency. To be an amazing artist you have to be creative and imaginative, but there are thousands of amazing artists who never near critical or commercial success. To reach milestones of success in any field, diligence, persistence and consistency are qualities you must encompass. And it is just those qualities that have catapulted Karen on her path.

I’ve written a blog about Karen before: Creative Brain vs. Business Brain. It’s the story of how she ignited her long-smoldering passion for photography while bolstering her ‘real business’. The back-story is that, while her photography has catapulted her in the world of photography and Google+, it’s not her principle vocation. Karen is a well-known voice over professional: she’s the narrator of the Echoes of Creation film, the voice of the #1 GPS app, MotionX and she talks you through the world in Trey Ratcliff’s amazing Stuck in Customs iPad app.

For the year of 2010, Karen made a strategic business decision to “live her life as an artist.” And while that may conjure up visions of a year of whimsy and impulse, to Karen it meant diligently, persistently and consistently enjoying, learning and growing her love of photography. Her goal wasn’t 1,000,000 followers. Her goal was to bring joy to her life through photography. And she met her goal with diligence, persistence and consistency. Twyla Tharpe’s inspiring book The Creative Habit tells you that creative success comes from doing exactly what Karen did.

She consistently stepped outdoors with her camera to connect with her creativity, she studied other photographers’ work and methods and she began amassing a large volume of work. When she joined Google+ she didn’t just join, she began diligently, consistently posting her photos coupled with her imaginative prose. She found joy in joining in the renaissance community of photographers that have convened on Google+, both online and traveling in person to the photowalks that have sprung from the online community. Admired photographers became friends, and then admirers of her work. The tipping point was when someone at Google noticed her body of work and added her to the Photography & Art interesting people to follow list.

The marketing gurus will tell you to do much of this: joint venture, build community, post regularly. The uniqueness, though, of Karen’s path was that she wasn’t seeking an outcome of 1,000,000 followers; she was using creativity to bolster her life. She was simply having fun.

Are you using creativity to bolster your life and your business?

-Stacey Powell

Finance Gym offers personal finance coaching in professionally facilitated peer-advisory groups. 

Are you ready to reach your financial goals? Get motivated. Get support. Get results! 

Tax Day and an Entrepreneur’s Opportunity to Cut the Crap

I’m not one to use “Cut the Crap” kind of language. It’s a little snarky, and I’ve built my businesses on a philosophy of “come on in, the water is warm.” When your business is to get people to look at, talk about, and tell the truth about their numbers, you end up working through a lot of fear, avoidance, self-loathing, or simple vagueness with clients. There are so many of us that don’t like numbers or believe that we aren’t good at math. Layer that with our feelings about our finances, and you have multitudes of people who would rather do anything than look at, or talk about, their numbers. Well, come on in, the water is indeed warm.

There’s nothing like April 15^th to focus on your numbers. It’s a golden opportunity many of us only get once a year, even though we should be looking at our income every month. I started riffing on what “Cut the Crap” had to do with numbers because of an upcoming spot on a colleague’s podcast, Powder Keg of Awesome. It’s one of their taglines, and I wanted to be prepared to speak their language for their mostly entrepreneurial audience. So what does cut the crap mean in relation to April 15^th? Let’s do the math.

1. Go grab your tax return.


2. Get out a blank sheet of paper.


3. If you’re self-employed, look at Line 12 on your 1040. That’s how much your business made last year. Write it down.


4. If you’re incorporated or in a partnership, you’ll also need to grab Line 17 and, if paid via payroll, Line 7. Add those up. That’s how much you earned from your business last year.


5. Now, take those numbers and divide by 12. Write that number down.


6. That was your monthly income last year. Write “I earned this much each month” next to the number.


7. Now, divide that number by 173 hours (the full time equivalent hours worked in an average month.) Write that number down. Then write “this was my hourly ‘wage’ next to your number.

Simple. I know. But so few of us ever look at it that way. In fact many small business owners don’t look at their numbers on a monthly basis at all. And even those that do end up looking at lengthy and disorganized Quickbooks reports. The simplicity allows us to connect with our feelings. Or, cut through the crap.

When you write the number down do you feel a sense of pride, gratitude or pleasant surprise? If the feelings that arise from this simple exercise fall on the side of positivity, then you are likely well aligned with how your business is performing and how it’s supporting you and your family.

But if feelings arise that create a pit in your stomach, self-loathing, disappointment or unpleasant surprise, then it’s time to look harder. I know the self-loathing feeling. I did this exercise years ago and realized I hadn’t paid myself much more than my teenage assistant. I could have justified it all over the place; I was transitioning my business transition, blah, blah, blah. Instead, I chose to cut the crap. I chose to embrace the feelings, and the intensity of the feelings spurred me to make a change.

I believe less is more when it comes to numbers. The more numbers you have to read and digest, the less you can connect with your feelings and intuition. Your analytical brain kicks in. There’s nothing wrong with analysis; it’s important too. But equally important is connecting with your business’ numbers and the feelings that they stir. The final part of the exercise: go back to your piece of paper and write some of the feelings that your numbers spurred in you.

And then focus on what your sheet of paper will look like next April 15^th. Happy Tax Day.

Finance Gym offers personal finance coaching in professionally facilitated peer-advisory groups. 

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Where Should I Go To Get My Taxes Done?

This is a question I get asked a lot by friends, clients and other entrepreneurs. I have an easy answer for my clients: Mike. I’ve known Mike since my Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) days. He’s honest, dependable, smart and fair-priced. If a client were to get audited three years from now, I know he’s still going to be in business. He’s going to stand by his work.

When a new client asks me, with a tilt to her head, “Is he…creative?,” I say “On a scale of 1 to 10, Mike is a 5.” What I mean by that is that he’s a middle of the road guy. He’s going to get you the tax deductions you deserve but he’s not going to stretch any rules too far, make anything up or do any funny math. And I believe that’s just the kind of tax preparer you want.

My staff asked me to focus this blog on how to maximize tax deductions; to share some secrets and tricks. The truth is, it doesn’t work that way for "the 99%". (More accurately, probably 90%) For low and middle income wage earners that don’t own a home, the deductions are fairly standard, pardon the pun. For home owners, there are more deductions, but they are still fairly standard: interest, property taxes, etc. As your income rises, it’s likely that there are more opportunities as you’re likely spending money in areas that are indeed deductible. But I’m not talking rising from $40,000 to $80,000. I’m talking rising well into the six figures.

For consultants and small business owners, it’s a bit more complex, but not much. Deducting office supplies, employee’s payroll and auto mileage isn’t rocket science. If you spend money on your business, it’s most likely deductible.

I think many business owners suspect they’re missing out. They suspect that if they had the RIGHT tax preparer, they would maximize their deductions. That myth gets perpetuated by radio commercials that inform us we’re missing out if we don’t incorporate and by home-based business experts that declare you can deduct the cost of your dog because it protects your home office. Really? I suppose it could be argued, but I wouldn’t want to sit across from an IRS officer trying to explain why I wrote off dog food, unless I was a professional breeder.

The simple truth is that, until you amass significant wealth or own complex businesses, the choices for tax preparation are fairly simple. They boil down to software like Turbo Tax, retail tax preparation companies like H&R Block, or choosing a tax professional ranging from an Enrolled Agent to a Certified Public Accountant to an attorney that specializes in taxation.

And here's my opinion of the options:

Turbo Tax (or any other reputable tax software):

Pros - This is a great option for those that are comfortable with computers and don’t have any situations that are too complex such as multiple businesses, uncommon deductions or specialty credits. I often recommend this as the best option for someone who is newly in business, but only when I’m certain the person will use the power of Turbo Tax and not just blow through it as quickly as possible. The value of Turbo Tax for a new business owner is that when you follow it down the paths of its questions, it then educates you on the convoluted rules of business deductions. It synthesizes the 72,000 pages of tax code into user-friendly questions, and then, if you ask, it tells you the rule behind the question.

Cons – There is no human review function. For my clients that use it, I glance at their return before they send it in. An educated second set of eyes is always good practice, whether using Turbo Tax or a $300/hour tax accountant.

H&R Block (or any other reputable retail tax preparation company)

Pros: The cheery green and white balloons you're greeted with.

OK, seriously. I must admit I’ve previously disparaged this option because I believed H&R Block to be mostly staffed by intermittent near-minimum wage employees. But I’ve changed my perspective over the past few years. I’ve had the opportunity to work with a long-time H&R Block tax preparer who knows her stuff and has handled one of my clients with some complexities very well. H&R Block also has a solid training and review process in place. If you don’t have the time or inclination to use Turbo Tax and have a typical tax situation, H&R is a smart and economical choice. (Many tax accountants will disagree with me, but that's my opinion based on years of listening to others experience.)

Cons: Most of their storefronts close for over half the year. If you’re a business owner, I believe there’s great value in checking in with your tax accountant a couple of times throughout the year. That's not possible when they aren't there.

Enrolled Agents, Certified Public Accountants and Tax Attorneys:

There is a wide gamut of professional options to getting your taxes completed. They can run anywhere from $50 per hour to $500 per hour, and more. I’ve seen really good ones in each of the categories and really bad ones. There are some qualities that are important to find in your tax preparer:

• For wage earners: do they talk to you and teach you about your options, do they ask questions about your life that might impact your return, do they return your calls and do they finish your return in a timely manner? How long have they been in business? If all they do is have you fill out a form and don't have any meaningful conversation with you, find someone else.


• For business owners: All of the above questions, with a much greater emphasis on education. Do they walk you through the honest decisions involved in corporate or sole proprietor status, or do they automatically tell you to incorporate…always a red flag. Do they connect with you a few times throughout the year to see if your profitability has significantly increased or decreased; a trigger that could potentially change your need to squirrel money away for a large tax bill on April 15^th.


• For high wage earners, individuals who own multiple businesses, and any other complex tax situation: The more complex your tax situation, the more you’ll benefit from a more experienced, more licensed professional. Decisions for this group are beyond the scope of this blog, but what I will say is, by hiring the right professional, you will almost always see a definite return on investment from the tax planning you receive. Joel Stein wrote a humorous article Joel Stein Has Four Accountants on Bloomberg Businessweek last week and he said it well: "What a higher-end accountant does is look a my financial situation holistically and think long-term."

In the research for his article, he discovered that not all tax preparation options are equal. His remaining taxes due/refund ranged from $4,544 due, to $2,387 due to a refund of $469. That’s not including the $119,554 refund he calculated from TaxSlayer.com, surely an operator error.

What he clearly points out is that all the options are not equal, and who does your taxes can be an important decision. Over the years I’ve seen some horrible outcomes from some ‘great accountants.’ If your neighbor or colleague tells you about their really great tax guy (or gal) that always gets them a refund but they’re not really sure how, think twice before you bite. The after effects of tax accountants that push the envelope too far can be devastating. While the chances of you being audited are miniscule, the chances of one of the tax preparer’s many clients being audited are much greater. When the IRS sees a pattern with a tax preparer, they swoop in and look at the returns of his or her other clients.  I’ve seen perfectly upstanding, ethical business owners have back tax bills as a result of tax audits of this type, sometimes to the tune of thousands of dollars. And the tax accountants they used were seemingly ethical. They weren't outright frauds; they just pushed the envelope way too far. And it's the tax payer who is ultimately liable.

The final piece of advice I have, no matter who does your return: read it. It may read like Greek to you, but read it anyway. Every year, you'll learn just a little more.

____________________________________________________

Stacey Powell builds financial muscles at TheFinanceGym.com and shows off Financial Art at Facebook.

Financial Accountability and the 21 Day Accountability Challenge

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What could you accomplish in 21 days if you knew someone was watching you, checking in on you, facebooking and tweeting about you? Would the goals that you daydream about become clearer, more tangible? Would you be inspired to turn them into SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely)? Would you triumph under the magnifying glass of accountability?

21 days ago, my company, Creating Answers, launched the 21 Day Accountability Challenge. We asked people to send in their goals and we chose one lucky person to support, watch, Facebook and Tweet about his or her progress towards his goals. And the lucky winner was:

Kevin Knauss of Insure Me Kevin. Hands down he was the winner. He sent us nine goals and he was clearly excited and ready to hit the ground running. We were concerned that his nine goals were a bit lofty, so we did what we do. We sat down with him and helped him translate his goals into numbers.

3

“Make my website a wealth of information and the hub of my marketing efforts” became “Blog at least 3 times per week,”

100

“Expand my small group health insurance clients” became “Complete 100 direct mailings each week for the next 3 weeks,” and

1,500

“Expand and fine tune my social media marketing plan” became “Have 1,500 Twitter followers by March 14^th.” As of March 13^th, he’s at 1,300; go follow him @InsureMeKevin!

Being an entrepreneur requires a unique kind of willpower. There’s no one, in the short run, watching you every day and holding you accountable. You have to really want to do what you’re doing, and you have to follow through. In the long run, your customers will hold you accountable. If you don’t provide value, they won’t return and you’ll run out of money. That’s long term accountability. But in the short run, no one is paying attention to how you show up in your business. Kevin has made amazing progress in the past three weeks because he was willing to expose himself while propelling himself forward.

When it comes to managing our money, many of us have willpower issues. For those of us that are single, there is no one else giving us feedback about our financial decisions or asking us if we did what we said we were going to do.  We have no one to be accountable to, no one to answer to when we spent twice what we said we would on eating out. Rarely does anyone ask us the question: “are you funding your retirement?” or “do you have 3 months of reserves in the bank?” Even for those of us in a relationship, the money is often handled by one person, and the other person doesn’t really want to know what’s happening. I’ve had many a client lament that his or her partner won’t even talk about financial decisions. They just want it handled.

How can you use accountability to propel yourself forward with your finances?

• Write your financial goals down and share them with a trusted friend. Check in once every few months and tell them how you’re doing.


• Work with a Certified Financial Planner that will ask the hard questions and be honest with you about your financial health.


• Join the online community at Get Rich Slowly’s Fiscal Fitness Journals.


• Become transparent and start a blog like Save Karyn’s Grand Debt Tally.


• Join a mastermind group that focuses on your money like Financial Boot Camp.

________________________________

Stacey Powell builds financial muscles at TheFinanceGym.com and shows off Financial Art at Facebook.

Growing Your Business Through Practicing Gratitude

It’s the time of year we all give thanks for our many blessings. It’s a good practice in our personal lives, and an equally good practice in our business lives.

On the Wednesday of Thanksgiving week it is my tradition to spend the day calling clients, past clients, colleagues who refer business to me and anyone else who has impacted my business over the past year. The calls aren’t sales calls, they’re gratitude calls. My intention is to thank those that have positively impacted my business’ growth as well my own personal happiness.

I’d like to say that I started this practice because I’m such a good person. But the truth is that I started it some years ago when I was scared to death to make sales and marketing calls. Picking up the phone and asking someone to become a client or refer business to me was terrifying. This gratitude concept that I began was a kinder, gentler (or perhaps spineless) approach.

The first year of the tradition I landed a big client. It was someone who I knew desperately needed my help. I hadn’t heard from him in months, and he was thrilled to hear from me. He was finally ready to face his financial issue and I called on just the right day. What I realized for the first time that day was that he needed my service more than I needed his money. The calls I was making weren’t about generating business, they were about serving others. After that experience, sales and marketing calls became much easier.

That was just the beginning of understanding of the role of gratitude and service in business. The more I began to weave it into my business, the more I recognized how gratitude was impacting other successful businesses I worked with.

• One very successful colleague writes her thank you notes every morning at the breakfast table with her husband. It’s a sweet practice, and I believe a cornerstone of her success.


• Another successful entrepreneur I know keeps a gratitude journal, writing in it each day that which she is grateful for.


• Sandra Yancey, the phenomenally successful entrepreneur who began eWomen Network says that behind her company’s motto “Give first, share always” is a sense of gratitude. She ensures from the top down in her company that gratitude is practiced amongst the members and with not-for-profit causes.

One of the business coaches that has most influenced my happiness as a business owner had me start our work together with a gratitude practice. I’m an accountant. Not a curmudgeonly one, but definitely not the first person to be open to the kind of advice that goes like this:

“Stacey, I want you to write down 25 things you’re grateful for every day.”

“25????”

“Yes, 25.”

I thought to myself….”that’s stupid.”

But I was unhappy at the time, and thus willing to try new things. 25 was a lot. After the obvious:

• my daughter,


• my cat,


• sunshine,


• my health

I had no idea what the other 21 should be. But kept thinking and eventually I’d get the 25 down, and every day it got easier, and eventually I realized that the gratitude practice was helping me on a daily basis assess what it was I LOVED about my business, and what it was I dreaded.

Focusing on gratitude brought to the surface that I had been burning myself out spending time doing tasks and taking care of clients that I didn’t have a passion to serve. Focusing on gratitude, and really noticing on a daily basis which clients I was grateful for helped me become very clear about the mission of my business, and it was then I renamed the business Creating Answers and made a bold decision: I was only going to do work I loved, and I was only going to work with clients that I loved; ones that I felt grateful for.

I’m not always successful; I suppose no one is. But what I am is happy. Almost every day when I go to work, I am happy. And I attribute my business’ growth to that happiness, which grew from the gratitude practice.

What are you grateful for?

-Stacey Powell
_____________________________________________________

Finance Gym offers personal finance coaching in professionally facilitated peer-advisory groups. 

Are you ready to reach your financial goals? Get motivated. Get support. Get results!

The Power of Tracking Your Numbers: Step #3

This is the 3rd in a series on creating a financially healthy life. If you jumped in and did the first two steps, Just Do It and Reality, Get a Dose, this one might be the one you might need extra support in accomplishing. Lots of us like to do projects. We like to plan. The first two steps were projects.

This 3rd step requires consistency. Yes, consistency. This is where many of us jump off the financial band wagon.

I liken it to the health band wagon. Most people can stick to a diet for awhile. It might be challenging, you may not like it, but if we knew that we only had to change our eating habits for 3 months to impact our physical health for the rest of our lives, would we do it? Most of us would.

If I told you that getting into financial action for 3 months, really making a consistent commitment, would change your financial life for the years to come, would you do it? You’d have better results if you agreed to do it for a year, for 5 years, or for the rest of your life. But tracking your numbers for just 3 months will make an impact as well. It will reset your clock, equilibrate the way you look at your spending, and serve you in truly seeing your income versus your spending.

The Human Experience of Christmas

I’m not a writer. I’m an accountant. (Except now I’m a writer and a financial coach, but that’s another story.) When I feel stuck, that I have nothing useful to say, I read Susannah Breslin. She reminds me how to be a writer.

In her latest series on journalism (and strip clubs, but that’s another story) she reminded me that what a writer does “…for a living is attempt to chronicle the human experience.” Oh, I get it. I’m supposed to be teaching my readers how to have a healthier financial life through telling stories and providing corresponding helpful financial advice.

I realized that in my last blog, I tiptoed. I was cautious. Sure I told stories. And I gave creative and useful ideas. But all over the web are advice blogs about a frugal Christmas, making your own gifts and starting a Santa Saver account.

What is unique about me, what I do that few other financial writers do, is to tell the real human experience of what our financial decisions, or indecisions, do to our self-esteem, our relationships, our happiness and our lives. What was missing in my last blog were these naked emotional truths that clients and friends have shared with me over the years. More people have talked to me about the anguish and pain and simple embarrassment that Christmas can bring than have talked to me about the joy that it brings. Here are some threads of those conversations.

Reality, Get a Dose: Step 2

In the first of this series on financial well being and health, Just Do It, we walked through the steps of a Fully Fit Plan. I encourage people to take a look at where they want to be before they look at where they are.

It’s the same philosophy as Jim Rohn’s excellent quote “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” If you’re hanging out only with your current spending plan, only looking at your current reality, energetically you’re creating the same plan for yourself, repeatedly.

If every month you first look at your Fully Fit Plan, it will remind you where you’re headed, where your intentions and dreams are. Simply writing the Plan out declares to the universe, and to your subconscious, that you are on a path.

It also prepares you for a dose of reality: your current spending plan. Now it's time to look, see and tell the truth.

It’s true that not everyone reading this sees their current spending plan as dismal, tight, something to move beyond. But I’m thinking many of you do. If you’re current spending plan had an extra $1,000 a month in it, you probably wouldn’t be reading my blog, you’d be at Intelligent Investing reading Chris Barth.

Just Do It ~ Nike: Step 1

The secret to financial well being and health is: be in consistent action. Or as Nike so powerfully declares: Just Do It!

©beugdesign-fotolio.com

That’s the key that separates the successful from the unsuccessful in improving financial health. Those that spend consistent time every month working on their finances build their financial muscle and create a financially healthier life. Those that consistently put a little bit of money away every month, even just a few dollars, create a financially healthier life. Those that learn a little something new, consistently, create a financially healthier life. There is no better, faster, more effective approach to financial health than simply being in action.

One frequent mistake I see, and I’ve made it myself, is that we only take action when money is tight, when something’s wrong.  It’s kind of like only going to the gym when you’re overweight and out of shape. You’re spending time just trying to get back to some baseline of health. You never get the opportunity to fine tune your health and strength.

Entrepreneurship and Making ‘Adult’ Financial Decisions

When I launched on Forbes.com I promised myself that I was going to start Telling the Truth. It’s easy to be a financial guru, talk at people, and tell them, “This Is How You Should Handle Your Money.”

Adult Financial Decision?

It takes more courage to be transparent and share stories not just from our clients, but from ourselves, and even more courage to share not just from our past, but from our present. So here I am, being courageous.

Every summer I head to Dallas for the annual eWomen Network Conference. I look forward to it all year long. It’s the largest business women’s conference in North America, and an amazing place to learn, connect and be inspired. Sandra Yancey, CEO of eWomen Network, provides the incredible opportunity to learn from a long list of business rock stars: Michael Gerber, Tony Hsieh (Zappos), Robert Stephens (Geek Squad), Lisa Nichols, Zig Ziglar and the list goes on. This summer, I’m not going.

What’s an ‘Adult Financial Decision’?

3 Words to Small Business Success: Easy, Fun and Popular

What’s the attitude you show up to in your business each day?

Are you having fun?

Does it lift your spirit to connect with those you need to connect with to be successful in your business?

In my blog Community Service, Leadership and Small Businesses, I told the story of how my best friend Tina Reynolds, long-time small business owner of Uptown Studios, uses her love of community service to drive the marketing for her business. I met Tina 15 years ago, when she was doing volunteer work for a local HIV/AIDS service organization, and through the years I cannot begin to recall how many organizations, actions and activities she has led or been part of. Her dedication and stamina for community service are unparalleled, and as a result she frequently receives awards, honors and nominations.

At this week’s California Small Business Day, she was honored by California’s Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg as the Capital Region’s Small Business of the Year. Senator Steinberg made an excellent choice. From the vantage point of a best friend I’ve watched Tina’s business grow, and then sputter, and then grow again. I’ve watched her maneuver through the economic challenges of the past few years, always with a positive attitude.

So how exactly do you get to be a Small Business of the Year?

Date Night With Your Finances

Date night with your finances? What’s that supposed to mean?

Just what it says. The phrase “Date Night” evokes thoughts of fun, special, coveted. For many, the phrase “Bill Paying” conjures ugh, drudgery, lack. What would it look like if we felt differently about our finances?

Most of us have it backwards. Its no wonder we think of our finances as drudgery. This is how the majority of us “do our money.”

• We squeeze the chore between the laundry and washing the dog.


• We collect our bills; we log in to get our bank balance (and hope that everything has cleared the bank); we pay our bills.


• We look to see how much is left, and hope there is some.


• Then, when we’re tired, over it, a little grumpy, and the dog still smells, we make the important decisions. This goes to savings, that goes to debt, and this gets set aside for car repairs.


• But the dog smells, and company is coming for dinner, so I’ll make those decisions next month.

Would you like to do it differently? Would it be all right if life got easier?

That’s a phrase I learned from Maria Nemeth, a pioneer and visionary in the field of our psychological and emotional attitudes about money. She published “The Energy of Money” in 1997, when few were addressing the important issue of how financial decisions are made.

When it came time for “Telling the Truth” and dealing with my own financial problems, one action I took was Date Night with my finances at my favorite café. Me, my portable financial binder, and my dreams. I coveted those luxurious Saturday nights, not squeezed between laundry and dog-washing (okay, I don’t really have a dog.) I used the time to dream, to look at the truth and to plan. Bill paying happened elsewhere. Each consecutive month, I got a little more clarity, planning became a little easier, and my dreams felt more attainable.

Our money and our financial decisions should not be a chore. Bill paying is a chore. Financial decisions impact our future, our dreams, our peace of mind. They intertwine with who we want to be and who we are. We should have a little fun. We should make it a date night!

-Stacey Powell

Finance Gym offers personal finance coaching in professionally facilitated peer-advisory groups. 

Reach your financial goals. Get motivated. Get support. Get results. Are you ready?

Entrepreneurial Passion vs. Sales

I was listening to a new client tell a story that I’ve heard many times.  She is in a creative field and passionate about her work. She really wants to work, but contracts aren’t coming and she is struggling financially. I asked the obvious question: “How are you marketing and selling yourself?” She looked a little blank; and then she scrunched her face; and then she launched into an explanation of the ways in which she was kind-of sort-of maybe marketing herself. Which really was to say: she wasn’t.

Through years of working with small business owners, many have come seeking answers to their financial issues. As an accountant, I would like to think that good accounting would provide the answers. But the truth is that it’s usually not about the numbers. The truth is that the most important component of impacting one’s financial issues is sales and marketing.

If you’re tempted to stop reading because you don’t own a business, please keep reading.

How Crayons Create Financial Peace

Chloe's Crayon Drawings: "How I spend my money now" and "How I want to spend my money"

My biggest revelation about how to help others with their financial issues came when I began working on my own financial issues. In Telling the Truth, I point out the rather obvious fact why so many American’s with money problems can’t seem to get beyond them: we don’t talk about money so we have no opportunity to tell the truth about it.

We are a financially illiterate society. There are few places that you can go to work on your money, talk about your money, make your money better. I lay awake at night sometimes dreaming up solutions to this societal problem. And bit by bit, I create answers. That’s how we came to start Financial Boot Camps, and that’s how I tripped upon creating this exercise for a Boot Camp: draw your financial life with crayons.

The accountant in me questioned the exercise that the right side of my brain had created. “Um, that’s silly.” But the right side of my brain, the creative side that has been fed and nurtured by studying a lot of research into the psychological and emotional aspects of our relationship with our money said: “Forge on!”

My Dad: Lessons In How NOT to Own A Small Business

Today is the anniversary of my dad’s passing. I learned a lot from him, many lessons to share with all of you about small business ownership. In summary: do not do it the way my Dad did!

First, to alleviate any perception that I am speaking ill of him, I want to share what a fine man he was. My love of community service comes from him. His dedication to making this world a better place is clear in this tribute:

http://www.fedflyfishers.org/Default.aspx?tabid=4520

Even his business ownership was, in a way, community service. He was ‘saving the family business.’ http://www.davidlnelson.md/FFF_FlyTyingGroup/Buszeks/BuszekHistory.htm

Now, on to telling the truth. As a child I watched my father work, work, work, and then work some more. He came home late for dinner, went back to work at night, and worked most weekends. Even our few vacations were often spent at work-related fly fishing conclaves or networking conferences. Both of my parents worked, hard, yet we never seemed to have any money. We weren’t destitute; dinner was always on the table. But money was always an uncomfortable issue. Always having a keen sense of numbers and business, even at a young age it was apparent to me that something wasn’t right. I often wondered, weren't business owners supposed to be rich?

As a teenager, I became the bookkeeper for my dad's business, and my childhood observations were clarified. The business was barely profitable. My dad either trusted me enough to let me see his truth, or he thought I was so inexperienced I wouldn’t get it. It wasn’t my place to ask.

But the questions I kept to myself then are the exact kinds of questions I ask clients now. And they are questions I want you to ask yourself if you own a business, no matter how large or small. Yes, even a side Tupperware business, or a little consulting gig, or do a bit of wedding photography. These are all businesses, and they do impact your family!

Here are 12 questions to ask yourself.

• Do you spend less time with your children, spouse, or friends as a result of your business?


• Have you ever paid an employee late?


• Are there months that your business doesn’t pay you?


• Do you ever put off buying basic things your family needs because your business needs the money more?


• Have you ever lied (or avoided the truth) about your business’ finances to your spouse?


• When was the last time you took a real vacation?


• Do you avoid asking for professional advice about your business’ health?


• Do you truly know how profitable your business is?


• Is your business contributing to a retirement fund?


• Do you have partnership agreements that aren’t in writing?


• How much have you borrowed against your family’s home, retirement, savings, children's college fund or inheritance?


• Does your spouse’s income support your business?

If you don’t like your answer to more than a couple of these questions, it’s time to find a trusted advisor, a business coach, an external CFO, or a mastermind group and tell the truth. Print this blog out and put it in the front of a binder titled “Making My Business Better.” Make an action plan. Make it better. In six months, ask yourself the questions again. Then repeat.

What would my dad’s answers to these questions have been? 100% not good. In the 32 years I watched him run his business, I only saw his business run him. I’ve taken these lessons and have been committed to reverse engineer his mistakes into a balanced plan for running my business. I haven’t always been successful, but one of my life’s quests is to be just like my dad when it comes to community service, and exactly opposite my dad when it comes to small business ownership.

10 Decisions Not to Make Alone

We all make financial decisions every single day, some small, some large. Do I cook at home or go out to eat? Do I change banks? Do I clean my own home or hire a housecleaner? Do I buy a used car, a new car or lease a car? Do I start my own business or buy a franchise?

The original title for this blog was “10 things you might want to talk with your CFO about,” but most people don’t have a Chief Financial Officer (though I’m trying to change that.) Many people do, however, have a financial planner, a tax accountant, a business coach, or some trusted advisor. Rising in popularity is the type of financial and money coaching that I believe is so valuable.

Over the years I’ve had many a client announce, during their scheduled monthly appointment, “I leased a building last week,” or “my attorney submitted all the paperwork to change my business to an S corporation,” or “I took out a home equity loan.” I always wonder why they wouldn’t have waited just one more week to discuss the decision with me. I suspect it’s often our subconscious telling us to move forward before someone tells us "no."

Accountants get accused of being naysayers, and there’s a bit of truth to that. We’re conservative by nature. I’ll be the first to tell you: don’t always take your accountant's advice. But: do always ask for it. Discussing the facts of major decisions, as well as the feelings and the what-if’s, is invaluable.

What are the 10 things you should discuss before you jump in?

Motivation ~ Creative Approaches

Last February I promised myself that I would implement a creative motivating approach to ensure this January would not suck. In an accountant’s world, no matter how planned and prepared you are, the multiple January 31st bureaucratic deadlines wreak a bit of havoc on your business. This year was going to be different!

The first workday of January I handed 21 crisp $5 bills and 21 crisp $1 bills to my staff and had them hang three ‘clotheslines,’ $6 for each day

and one clothesline for each team member. The instructions for distributing the ‘prize money’ was as follows: I got the $6 any day I had to deal with January bureaucratic deadlines, and they got the money on days they handled it all. $5 went to rockstar team member #1, and $1 to the supporting team player.

Is $126 enough money to motivate your staff? Is it enough to motivate ourselves? No.

But the truth about motivation is that money is rarely the most effective method. (Unless you're Goldman Sachs handing out high six-figure bonuses. That's motivating.) For most micro businesses  that’s not an option. In a micro business, serving your clients and providing value is often the highest motivation.

How can we use money to motivate ourselves and our team? Here are some creative approaches we’ve used with clients:

Pay yourself first. This works for the business owner who always pays everyone and everything else first, and then doesn’t have enough left over to pay herself. She’s extremely motivated to pay her vendors, but not so much herself. We implement a bill-paying structure that puts her first, and by the end of the month, she's jamming to bring in enough money to pay her vendors, because she won’t let them down.

Put yourself on a commission structure. This works for the business owner whose monthly income fluctuates between high and low. He has a good month, he takes all of the profit and suffers during his next low month. For a commission structure to work, you need to learn how to set your base ‘salary,' which you can read here: The Power of a Salary Structure. Then create a motivating commission structure for yourself, document it, take no more, and take no less from your business.

Bonus your team based on your goals for the year. Small businesses rarely commission their employees, but if you want your team to be extremely clear about your goals, putting a commission structure in place for them, no matter what size, signals that you need their help in reaching your goals. It’s not just about the money, it’s about the motivation.

How do you implement creative motivation in your business?

• Choose one thing that consistently nags at you about your business and look at solutions from a creative vantage point.


• Choose a dollar amount you’re willing to invest in the problem.


• Use a creative way to come up with your implementation plan (mind mapping, journaling, drawing with crayons are a few great approaches).


• Then jump in and earn the results you want!

Creative Brain vs. Business Brain

I love working with creatives: artists, actors, healing professionals, writers, photographers, all of them. Our society has created a “right brain vs. left brain” mentality. If you’re creative, you aren’t a strong business person. If you’re a strong business person, you aren’t creative. But we know black and white statements aren’t true. Creatives can make great business people, especially when they provide themselves with structure. Creatives have the ideas, the willingness and the passion to throw themselves full force into their work. And that is what it takes to be successful in business.

One of my inspiring clients decided, as a strategic business decision, that 2010 was going to be her year of “living as an artist." She had long worked hard on her business; she had tethered herself to do the work, bring in the clients and earn a living. She had been successful enough, but by the time she got to me she wasn’t enjoying it much. Something needed to change.

"Creatives have the ideas, the willingness and the passion to throw themselves full force into their work. And that is what it takes to be successful in business."

So 2010 was her year of living as an artist. Her mission was to fully embrace her creativity and joy of being an artist. Her goals, strategies and actions all supported that mission. There was still some structure: billable work, marketing, financial coaching and professional development. But the focus was on enjoying her creative talents, not on meeting her monthly revenue goals.

And what were the results? November and December were two of the most profitable months she’s ever had. And, she’s happy. It was a year of transformation and expansion for her. She’s well positioned to focus on revenue growth in 2011. Most important of all, she was well cared for, and she is, after all, the most valuable asset in her business.

Why would I, an accountant, support that kind of strategy? Because I’ve seen its effectiveness and profitability, over and over and over. If it’s done with intention and structure, it can be a very effective business decision for both creatives and for any other kind of business owner.

What’s your mission for 2011? Does it include creativity? Art? Health? If not, weave it in, and then write down what kind of return on investment you expect from giving yourself that gift.