More Than WE Know

Wuvit?? Green Daisy?? Pretty, young, blond, smiling mom??

I have to tell you:

When I first picked up this book Mommy Millionaire: How I Turned My Kitchen Table Idea into a Million Dollars and How You Can, Too! with its flowery pink and green cover, I assumed that it was going to be one of those sugar-coated success stories telling how with a little cock-eyed optimism and bit of a spunk, you too could become an overnight business success, while also raising adorable home-schooled children, building a perfect marriage, cooking gourmet meals and keeping immaculately waxed floors…

…and I almost put it back on the shelf.

But they always say not to judge a book by its cover - and this is no exception.

Instead of a saccharine sweet story about a too-perfect princess, I found a true, edge-of-my-seat, gripping page-turner of a book about a down-to-earth woman, with a great idea, a lot of passion and little business knowledge, struggling to keep her family one step ahead of the bill collector.

Kim Lavine takes her readers every step of the way from her initial sales out of the back of her truck to her first trade show, her quest for exposure on QVC and her roller-coaster ride with venture capitalists. Along the way she learns the ins and outs of product manufacturing, shipping, wholesale and retail merchandising. She encounters many great mentors and almost as many hustlers and opportunists.

Over the three year period that she builds her business from the kitchen table to a multi-million dollar enterprise she also deals with a special-needs son, a terminally ill mother-in-law, and an out-of-work husband, all the while teetering perilously close to bankruptcy and financial ruin.

Kim is unafraid to tell you her doubts and fears. She reveals the dark moments when she considered giving up and declaring bankruptcy. She shares the frustration she and her husband felt as they slowly learned to work together and gradually grew to appreciate the strengths the other brought to the business.

Kim admits the regrettable times early on when she made parenting decisions that favored her business over her children. She shares the vow she eventually made to never again apologize for being a mother in business.

By the end of the book, you are cheering for this hard-working woman and wishing she could be your best friend.

Not only is this book a fascinating read of the inside story of the start-up of a multi-million dollar enterprise, it is also a great reference book. Kim provides pages of practical tips concerning how to deal with lawyers, manufacturers, bankers and investors. She provides forms, websites, and glossaries of business and financial terms.

She shares all of the mistakes she made, money she lost and decisions she regrets, so that you won’t have to - or so that you won’t feel so alone or foolish when you do!

And in case you’re wondering: Kim’s business is called Green Daisy and her multi-million dollar product is a wuvit - a fabric-covered grain-filled spa pack that when heated in the microwave gives off hours of moist heat, or when frozen becomes a no-drip ice pack. Kim even makes a wuvit for children - Sleepy-head Fred and has expanded into totebags and pajamas.

Kim Levine, Mommy Millionaire - Her products are great, and her story is definitely not to be missed!

(p.s.- in case you’re wondering - nope, I’m not affiliated with Green Daisy in any way - just converted from a skeptic into a fan!)

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Seth Godin has written a powerful little book about the wisdom of quitting. The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)He claims that the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people know what to quit and when.

Many activities such as starting a new business can seem exciting at first.  There is visible progress, and a lot to learn – it can be stimulating and engaging. But before too long the progress starts to wane and the struggle starts to increase.

It’s at this point that many people grow discouraged and give up.  

Godin reframes this dip in enthusiasm by pointing out that it is a barrier of entry for your competitors as well as for you.  If you can push through this rough patch and continue to gain momentum and market share, you can eventually become the best in the world, or at least the best in the corner of your world you are trying to conquer.

Godin also makes the important distinction between a dip and a dead-end.  Knowing which is which, and as soon as possible, can mean the difference between success and failure.  

Godin’s little book is packed with more insight than many much longer business volumes. You will find yourself reading and re-reading it, feeling at times exhilarated, frustrated, discouraged and inspired.

In the end, you’ll have a much keener insight into your own business activities – those that should be working and those that never will.  And you’ll never look at quitting in quite the same way again.       

Have you tried the Low-Information Diet?  

The goal is not to lose weight - but to lose over-work.  

This week in the Goal Setting Accountability update, I have a free gift for you. It is a new 16 page ebook from Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. 

The book is Tim’s email manifesto called  The Low Information Diet: How to Eliminate e-Mail Overload and Triple Productivity in 24 Hours.  Download here -> email-manifesto.pdf 

Tim has many good reminders for Women Entrepreneurs to create success that is both sustainable and scalable.

A key point that Tim makes in his Manifesto is that “trying to make everyone happy - besides being impossible - is the surest way to make yourself miserable”.

Additionally, Tim says, “If you don’t define your goals clearly, everything seems important and requires action.”

Both of these messages resonate with Women Entrepreneurs who frequently try to multi-task goals and work on business  in and around obligations to everyone else.

Check out Tim Ferris’s blog  for more information the 29 year old who has taken the work world by storm with his extreme views on delegation and business management. 

In the past few weeks, I’ve been reading about why women don’t earn as much money as men. I’ve read and written about our tendency not to ask for money and our limiting beliefs about money that hold us back.  This week, I thought I’d take a look from the other side, and read about male attitudes about money.

I chose Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Red Book of Selling: 12.5 Principles of Sales Greatnessbecause I think that Gitomer has a very masculine view of negotiation and selling.  To me, his worldview is far removed from the common view I hear from many of the Women Entrepreneurs I encounter.

Let me be clear, Gitomer’s principles are similar to those of More Than WE Know - he believes wholeheartedly in giving value first and on the importance of building strong business relationships.  He makes sales by understanding his customers and addressing their deepest concerns and fears.

But, in reading Gitomer’s books, I never get the feeling that he doubts his worth or would readily undersell his services.  He is in business to help people - and to make money. And he is just fine with that.

In my business and in my personal life, I see too many Women Entrepreneurs who are uncomfortable discussing money:

1) They almost apologize for their fees; when asked, they begin justifying the fee, offering a discount before one is requested, or letting the customer establish a price -by asking, “what do you feel comfortable paying?” 

 2) When setting their fee, they base it on how much of their own time the service is taking, versus how much value it is providing to the customer- in terms of time saved or expertise provided.  In other words, they charge for the hour that it took them to do the task rather than the five hours it saved the client by hiring them.

3) They believe so much in the value of the service they are providing, that they practically give it away. They consider earning money to be of secondary value to helping people.  This is certainly noble, but it misses the point that by earning money for their services, they will be better positioned to help even more people.

All too ofen I see Women Entrepreneurs who are too hesitant to establish a high enough price to start with, and too quick to cut it once they have set it.

On the other hand, Gitomer doesn’t try to make a sale by jumping to undercut his own profits.  He views issues of price to be an indication of a deeper issue the customer is feeling - the perceived risk of the transaction.  Gitomer works to reduce that risk rather than reduce the price.

For example, he might offer a money-back guarantee, a testimonial from a satisfied customer, or an extra bonus.  

According to Gitomer, “If the risk is price, than the compensation is value.”  

That’s a powerful statement. And not one I hear coming from Women Entrepreneurs too often.

Take some time to live with that thought. How would it change the way you view your services or products?

Try asking yourself, “If I absolutely couldn’t change the price, how would I deliver more value - a guarantee, a testimonial, better customer service, an extra gift, a membership, a discount on the next purchase ???”

If you are in a service business, take a look at your fee structure.  Re-read the article on negotiation to remind yourself of how those small reductions in fees add up over the course of a year, and a career.

If you sell a product, calculate how much money you are losing by under-cutting your costs. Consider how long you can afford to live on less.

In the US, and in much of the world, more women start businesses than men. But in general the businesses WE start earn less than the businesses started by men; WE have less revenue, fewer employees and smaller profits. 

This week, compare your prices to your competition.   Assume for the moment that you can’t compete on price - if you had to charge as much as they do - what would you do to compete on value? And then, ask yourself -  what would it take to really do it?

Ask yourself: Are you earning all you can with your small business?

Do you give as much value (or more) as your competitors but consistently charge less than they do?

Do you fantasize about starting your own business or expanding the one you have, but stop yourself from doing it because you worry you might fail or look foolish?

Do you have so many projects and ideas that you don’t know which one to start on? Or you work on all of them at the same time, never really finishing any of them?

Do you put everyone else’s needs ahead of your own - Spending only your spare time and left-over energy on building your business and advancing your skills?

Do you dread looking at your financial statements, bills and invoices? Do you hate following up on overdue payments and deadbeat customers? Do you avoid negotiating for better deals with suppliers and distributors?

If so, you are probably not earning all that you can with your business.

You may recall that recently I wrote an article on negotiating fees in which I reviewed the book Women Don’t Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation–and Positive Strategies for Change

That book pointed out that our tendency to ask for less during negotiations translates to hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in income over a woman’s lifetime.

Similarly, Barbara Stanny’s book Overcoming Underearning(R): A Five-Step Plan to a Richer Life and her companion CD Guided Exercises for Overcoming Underearning point out that many of the reasons that people underearn are due to habits and beliefs about money.

Barbara Stanny’s father was one of the founders of H&R Block (he was the “R”). As a result, Barbara inherited a sizable trust fund. You would think that Barbara, of all people, would have no money issues; but the opposite is the case.

Barbara had many of the same challenges that the rest of us do - believing it was somehow inappropriate for a woman to focus on money, feeling that her contribution was not valuable enough to be compensated for, and having difficulty distinguishing between intelligent and foolish risk-taking.

It was only after Barbara suffered financial setbacks due to her beliefs about money that she realized she could help other women ovecome the same challenges. She has written several books, including an interesting study of high-earning women,Secrets of Six-Figure Women: Surprising Strategies to Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life that help women overcome their issues with money. She has become known as the Leading Authority on Women and Money.

This is powerful stuff. It’s especially relevant to Women Entrepreneurs. Despite a more even playing field, WE still tend to earn less revenue, make less profit, set smaller goals, take fewer risks and sell our companies for less than our male counterparts.

This is in spite of the fact that WE know WE work just as hard, have just as much passion and just as much talent as the next guy.

I’m determined to get to the bottom of this puzzle. Over the coming weeks, I’ll continue to research the differences in the way women and men approach our business, our finances and our life.

WE work too hard to earn less than WE deserve.

What about you? Are you an underearner? Do you think you should be earning more than you do? How is your relationship with money holding you back from earning your full potential?