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Barriers to selling - give yourself permission to make money

Business9-Mar-2021

Maria Musgrove-Wethey from Get Savvy Academy discusses why your own mindset is often your biggest barrier to making money and advises on how you can re-frame your beliefs.

Don’t you just hate it when a bride adores your most expensive gown, but when she can’t afford it you feel sorry for her and give her the so-called “deal of the century”. Then when she comes in for fittings, she brings in not just one but two pairs of Jimmy Choo’s! Who is to blame? You, of course!

I hate the word “blame” so let me make you feel better and say that it could be something to do with your money story and the limiting beliefs you might have around money.

What I know as a Master Practitioner of NLP, is that there are lots of reasons why your inner game might be making you a bit of a pushover when it comes to a bride pleading poverty, which subsequently affects profitability and your bottom line.

So, here’s what might be happening with your money mindset and some simple strategies to give yourself permission to make money.

Your money story

This is linked to the unconscious beliefs you picked up as a child about earning money or what wealth means to you and how they determine how you live your life. The most common ones are:

More money means more problems
Money can’t buy happiness
Money is the root of all evil
It’s not all about the money

Given their inherently simplistic view, odds are these scripts are no longer serving you well today. In his book ‘Secrets of the Millionaire Mind’, T. Harv Eker talks about having the right set of beliefs that support success and financial freedom to achieve our life’s desires. He continues by saying that many of us have fear-based beliefs about money, wealth and success that were developed by modelling influencers like parents, friends, teachers, the media and even the web. Eker says that the good news is that beliefs are neither right nor wrong (they are only beliefs), which means you can change them if you want. Below are some of the strategies you can adopt to help change your beliefs.

Strategy 1

If you recognise that a belief isn’t helping you, simply replace it with one that does. Identify your fear-based, unhelpful beliefs around money and success, and choose to replace them with what Eker calls the ‘Millionaire Mind Beliefs’.

Here are a couple to get you started:

Fear-based Beliefs

I have to work hard for money
It takes a lot of money to start a business
More money means more problems
I can either make money or do what I love

Millionaire Mind Beliefs

I can do what I love, deliver dreams, and make a large profit
Starting my own business will alow me to have no limits on my income
More money means more choices in all aspects of my life
I don’t have to choose between making money and pursuing my passion as I can do both

The money script being played when our bride got the “deal of the century” was “It’s not all about the money”. This is common in bridal because we love what we do, therefore it can sometimes feel like focusing on money is somehow wrong. This can result in giving massive discounts or not charging for extras like rush orders by saying “money isn’t the most important thing.” Unfortunately, if we continue to follow this script, there likely won’t be money left to pay bills, pay ourselves, and we’ll end up bank rolling the business.

The other aspect of our “deal of the century” bridal example is that sometimes the barrier to making money is our own unconscious judgements on what we think our bride can afford to pay. Back in 2010 when the UK was possibly heading for a double-dip recession, I decided at Harrogate that I would keep my price point under £2500. Suzanne Neville’s ‘Gracie’ was my firm favourite but retailed at £3000 so I decided to pass on it. This was until the media campaign started and hundreds of calls came in asking for ‘Gracie’. I ordered one and it is the best repeating gown I have ever had.

Strategy 2

Ask yourself if you have any limiting beliefs on what your brides can afford to/will pay. Re-frame this by changing your mindset to a ‘Millionaire Mind Belief’ and see what a difference it makes. I would suggest you do this if you have a block about charging for appointments, extras, alterations, storage, etc. If all this re-framing of limiting beliefs sounds too complicated and you’re a KISS advocate, then you’ll just love the final simple strategy.

Strategy 3

Adopt L’Oréal’s legendary phrase “Because I’m worth it!” as your mantra. Giving ourselves permission to make money is linked with self-esteem but that’s a whole new topic for another article!

If you like these strategies and want to find out more about how Get Savvy Academy can help you work not only on your money mindset but on your business mindset, then visit getsavvycoaching.com where you can find details of our membership group, courses and one to one coaching.