Here's what you can

“I’ll never be able to break that six-figure earning ceiling”

“I’ll never be able to pay off all my debt”

“I can’t afford to recruit someone to take the pressure off in my business”

“I want to pay myself more from my business, but I don’t know how much is mine”

Do any of these sound a bit like you? I hear them from clients and people that I speak to a lot. Maybe not all the time, but whenever I see a post about money, or income streams, these sorts of statements usually follow in the comments at some point.

Whether you want to admit it out loud, I promise you that there are many people around you that think and feel the same way as you. You are not alone.

When it comes to running a business, and managing finances, we aren’t usually taught about this from an early age, so we take our lead from those examples around us, such as parents and family members. Which might not be the best place to start.

And, whether you like to admit it or not, you will have a money story that’s holding you back.

It really is no wonder that you might think those statements though; you’ve maybe never been successful at them, let along tried them before, or even know where to start by taking the first step. So it’s often easier to keep doing what you’ve always done. Familiar and uncomfortable is better than that scary path of the unknown, right? Maybe you hope for that bolt out of the blue, or a magic social media post, that will solve all your problems for you instead?

So you know change is needed, but you don’t know where to start.

You don’t know what you don’t know, so you don’t know what questions you need the answers to.

And you maybe aren’t all that confident with your finance systems to open up your financial knicker drawer to just anybody.

So what can you do?

Well, I hate to break it to you, but firstly that change has to start from you. Believing you can make change, and are deserving of all of the success that comes with that work, is probably the hardest part. But a necessary first step. Don’t assume that everyone you look up to has had it easy, or always knew what to do with their business; everyone has to start somewhere and the same applies to you. Reach out and ask the question, you just never know what response you might get back!

Having a good picture of where you are right now is the next thing you need to. A helicopter view of right now. It doesn’t matter what has come before, or where you are right now; you can’t start to make plans for where you’re heading if you don’t know your starting point.

Here’s what you can do right now to start to take back control:

Challenging those assumptions starts with awareness of what is holding you back – notice what you’re telling yourself you can’t achieve. Ask yourself ‘As the most successful version of me, what am I doing?’. What does that look like, and what’s standing in the way of you achieving it? Journal around it, if that’s your thing, and/or try meditation to see how it feels to have achieved that version of you already.

Create a small number of goals that you can start to work towards. Maybe they’re lifetime goals – retire by a certain age, or have x-amount in your retirement pot. It’s OK if that feels too big at the moment. How about choosing a goal that you could strive to achieve a year from now? Maybe that’s to make a certain amount in your business, to achieve a certain number of new clients, or to pay off a specified amount of debt. Make it specific, and put a deadline on it to be able to track your progress.

You have to want to change. No amount of inner work is going to change the outcome if your actions remain the same. Ask yourself what you want now, compared to what you want most, if you find yourself taking actions that don’t get you any closer to your goals.

It’s time to properly open those peepers to where you are right now in all aspects of what’s important to you to achieve those goals. Want to grow your business? What income streams do you have? What assets do you have? What regular payments and overheads do you pay that you need to cover on a regular basis? Want to clear down your personal debts, or save for a house deposit on your dream forever home? How much debt do you have? How many balances are you looking to pay off? How much is a realistic deposit going to be for the house of your dreams? I call this a Helicopter View – give it a try!

Show gratitude for what you do have, instead of focusing on what you want that feels out of reach. Sometimes it takes a good step back to review everything in front of you, and just how far you’ve come, to realise and remember just how bloody awesome you are. It’s why taking some time to work on your business, instead of constantly in it, is so valuable.

I would love to know how you get on and what your biggest take away from this exercise has been!