I am so tired of make believe business owners

Maybe it's middle age - but I seem to be doing a lot of ranting lately.

But the amount of 'junk' I hear daily from business owners has me wanting to stir the pot a little - maybe just be honest about how I feel about it.

I mean really - can't anyone be honest any more?

"$200.00 to attend the weekend event? Oohhh I can't afford that". "$45.00 for a meal and a speaker - ohhhh - that's too much".

These are the words coming from the lips of micro business owners - who will always be micro business owners and never make more than just enough to pay the bills. And that is ok if that is where they want to stay.

But these same business owners are the first to whine about not having enough business. These are the business owners who continue to advertise using poor copy - and subsequently spend hundreds on an ad that no one reads or responds to. Or they have a website built from a template that they never update and complain that they are not getting any traffic on their websites.

Yet if you ask them what they want to achieve you will hear them say - next year I want a six figure income.

Not using outdated strategies and penny pinching they won't. In fact they will stay exactly where they are. And that's ok if that's what they want.

But pleeeaaase don't tell me how hard it is to get business when you are not willing to spend money on your business.

And come on! How do you expect to keep up with everyone else when you refuse to invest in yourself and learn new business strategies?

And get real! Do you really want to keep going to the same place month after month, meeting the same people over an over again - talking about the same issues - and making the same money (and mistakes) as you did 15 years ago?

If you really, really want to grow your business invest in yourself. Stop whining. Think from the end.

Yes $200 can be a lot of money. But what if you learned one thing, just one thing that would raise your yearly income by 10 to 20 %? Wouldn't that more than cover the $200?

You know it would be much easier if you were just honest with yourself and the rest of us. Why not just say - "you know I really don't want any more business - I just like to come out to dinner and socialize once a month". Or maybe admit, "I really just enjoy getting paid once in a while for my work - but I really don't want this to be a big business - it's too much trouble and just interferes with other things I would rather do."

Great. I can respect that. But please stop pretending to yourself and the rest of us that you are trying to build your business. If you are unwilling - yes UNWILLING to invest $200 in learning something new then you are not serious about your business.

There I said it. Now let's get some serious work done. Those of you playing at business can go back to your game of make believe.

By the way - we have a great business event in Hamilton October 16th and 17th. Why not join us. But be advised - this is serious stuff. You might even learn something new.

Nickle and diming ourselves to death - Shrinking thinking!

When I was a little girl, I remember my Dad using the expression "nickle and diming ourselves to death". The Beatles were becoming popular, Twiggy was in vogue, my allowance was ten cents a week and I still had a pixie cut! Over the years I heard that expression may times when my mother and father were shopping, or talking about finances. My understanding was that pinching pennies could put one in the poor house. Today we understand much more about the universal laws that govern personal finances. I am careful not to fall into scarcity thinking, but also not to carelessly live outside my means as well. It can be a fine balance. However over the last 12 months, I have watched as business owners became fearful of their financial situation and began to 'cut back' in places where they thought it would help their businesses. Unfortunately, this hurt them more than they may know. I was at a business dinner last week when I heard someone say, "Hey, why don't we just all meet here for a dinner, order off the menu and save ourselves $15.00. I just shook my head in disbelief. Why? Many psychological reasons and universal principles come to mind - but logically there is a dollar and cents (sense!) reason. Had these ladies gotten together for a meeting and all paid their own dinner - it may have cost them $25.00. Unfortunately, according to CRA, only half of that amount can be written off as a business expense. However if they attend a meeting that is catered, the full amount of the ticket is tax deductible. In other words their business can write $40 off (or whatever the ticket cost) against $40 worth of income. If they had paid for their own meals, they could have only written off $12.50 off of $40 of income - AND they would have had to suck up the other $12.50 as personal expense. So in other words, someone who 'cheaped' out and paid for a meal instead of attending a meeting spent $12.50 of personal money instead of being able to write it all off on the business! Not only that, but the ever searching attitude of 'look, look, look, oh let's find it cheaper somewhere else' energetically sets a person or business in a negative process. It is scarcity mentality. It is not expanding and creative thinking - it is negative, penny pinching, shrinking thinking! It will bring us nothing but more need and want and will lead a person into poverty. Now I know what my dad meant when he talked 'nickle and diming ourselves to death." BTW, Join us for a great event where business and creativity meet: Rebuilding the Dream - in Hamilton Ontario. Read more here!

HYPE without substance - how I hate it!

OK, time for a bit of a rant and a lesson for all of us... As many of you know - my hubby has been managing a campground this summer, while I play catch up with Roaring Women. I have been blessed with gorgeous mountains and fresh air. But I got a bit cranked earlier in the week. We have always prided ourselves in being 'green' - or as green as we can. We are careful of our water, electricity and gas use. And we have been told over and over again by the media and government that the planet benefits and that we also benefit financially. But I am wondering is all this a bunch of hype? I digress... back on point Mandie.... So because we have been away from home - we have not used any water except for the odd toilet flush when we return home to get the mail. We thought - wow - because we are using the shower in the RV which uses very little water, we are really adding to the green planet conservation efforts - and saving money. (we also have used less than $25 in propane for the entire summer - cooking water heat included) Well, we may be helping the planet - but the money saving thing is all a bunch of hype. After reviewing the bill last month and this month- I noted we saved $2.03 in July and $2.30 in August. Yes we saved less than $5.00 in two months for using little or no water at home. So I called the utilities department at the city. The clerk was amazed at how little water we use normally and looked at the graph that showed we used 1/10th of what we normally used in July last year. Add yes the savings was $2.03. (Over $40.00 of the bill is service charges) I thought back to all the times I take a short shower to save water and cash. Then I thought of all the times I berated the teens over the years about their water usage. Then I did a few calculations. It seems that if I run the shower for 1 minute it costs less than 1 penny in water usage. So for an extra 10 minutes in the shower every day for a month, (oh how luxurious) my bill would go up a measley $3.00. So what is my beef? Advertisers and marketers know that when you talk money, people sit up and listen. But I really am tired of being roped into a pile of hype about a benefit that does not even exist. If you promise me big savings on a water bill because I conserve - I want to see big savings. But if I do not save much - appeal to my sense of responsibility - don't try to sell me a bill of goods that do not exist. Do I want to help the planet - yes I do. I want my grandchildren to be able to shower. And I want under privileged countries to have better access to water. And so I will continue to conserve water. But come on Calgary, if you want to play on the savings because I conserve - you had better change your billing structure so that your promises can be realized! Let's put some honesty back into marketing - PLEASE!