Copyright © 2007-2008 Mark Silver
Your marriage falls apart, you or your partner is laid-off, or your spouse gets ill and you lose half your household income.
The financial pressures sweep in like a sudden high tide, and as one of my clients wrote me, "I feel so pressured to make money I can't think." What do you do in a situation like this? "Forget about the bladdy-blah-blah of patience and organic growth, man! I need to make the rent like, yesterday!"
Okay, but first you need to know about the two wings of growth.
The Two Wings of Growth
The Sufis teach that in our growth and development as humans, we fly on two wings: Hope, and Fear.
The Wing of Hope is when our hearts sing. In the ego we know it as joy, in the heart as expansion, and deeper in our soul we know Hope as a state of Beauty.
But, flap too much with one wing, and we fly in circles. Too much with the Wing of Hope can carry us into heedlessness.
Extreme Hope leads to fantasy island, where nothing is real. In business, you can fall off the edge of the mountain because you spent so much time visioning, feeling good, having fun, that you aren't taking beneficial actions and paying attention to structures.
So you need the Wing of Fear. Fear? Yes, Fear.
In the ego we know it as fear, but in the heart we experience it as a natural state of contraction, and in the soul we know it as Awe and Majesty.
A certain amount of healthy contraction is a great way to grow. How else do you get the toothpaste out of the tube, eh? Urgency about paying the bills has moved more than one amazing heart-centered person out of the shadows into the limelight of successful business.
But, Extreme Fear is not a good thing either. Too much fear and all you do is spin your wheels, working harder and harder trying to make things happen. You forget that there is Hope, and that miracles are ever present.
Hope and Fear- your two wings for forward movement.
I'm still so scared about money I can't think.
If you're in the situation above, you have to flap your hope wing. You have to break the cycle of fear. How? Take a break.
Spiritual practice, and fun. Time in prayer, and time at the movies. Time shnuggling your partner, or child, or cat, and time on the meditation pillow resting your heart.
Fun loosens you up, brings you hope. Spiritual connection deepens your ability to contain and experience that hope. Fun distracts you so you can back up from the problem. Spirituality lets you take another look, and see a larger Truth in your situation.
Example: My client was panicked, and reached out for help to me, and to The Business Oasis (our heart-centered online business community). And then she also took time to hang out with her daughter and the dog, watch a movie, laugh, play, forget about her troubles for a little bit.
And she took time in her heart to see a larger Truth about the situation.
She came back refreshed, able to breathe and think, and to take in some of our good advice.
And about our good advice? Well, AFTER she flapped her Hope wing with fun and spirit, then came the action steps.
Keys to Quick Cashola (from the heart)
We have a tendency to think 'I'm making it.' or 'I'm not making it.' Look more closely. What's your true squeak-by financial needs? And how much is coming in now? The truth, not your 'hope-for.'
Example: My client, when she looked at how her new business was performing, and her squeak-by financial needs, she saw she only needed a few hundred dollars a month to bridge the difference. That, she knew, was doable.
The only asset that means anything in this situation, aside from cash in the bank, is a list. A list of people who have already told you they are interested in what you offer.
And, if you don't have a list like that? Who do you know that has a list? Churches, organizations, fellow business owners who have more developed businesses. People who like and trust you, who might be willing to introduce you to their list.
Example: My client realized that she already had some dozens of people on her email list. She also knew folks who liked her work enough that they might be willing to help promote her.
The final step is to make an offer. Don't get fancy about it- don't come up with some big seminar idea, or a shiny new product that needs to be developed.
Create some kind of one-on-one individual support offer. Price it at a rate that feels comfortable to your heart. Don't low-ball it, but don't try to stretch too much, either. Remember, you just got yourself out of the panic zone.
And package it so that it's not one session at a time. Take some time in your heart to ask what will it really take to get your clients results they want? Four sessions? Twelve?
See if your heart, and perhaps some friends, can help you find a middle ground between the ultimate package that will fix everything, versus something so small that they can barely get started.
Example: Someone in the Moneyflow class was talking about how her friends had signed up with a bodyworker for a five-session package. The results her friends were getting, after receiving a session a week for five weeks straight, really wowed her, and she's got her eye on signing up for a full five sessions.
A single session wouldn't have created the same wow factor. It also wouldn't have done the same thing for this bodyworker's cash flow, who is getting five times the business from the same customers, merely by having a package.
Remember first: fun and spirit. Then, what do you need to squeak by, what kind of lists of people can you access, and package your individual services. You may just be days away from getting out of the hole.
The best to you and your business,
Mark Silver
About the Author:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com
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