Classy on the Outside

As a business owner, how do you know when to say 'no' to a project or a prospect? There are some common red flags to watch out for, and we're discussing them on today's podcast episode. (show notes here)

There's nothing quite like a story or an example to help illustrate a point, and today's topic is no exception.

By day, I run a marketing and writing freelance business and recently made the decision to step away from a project with a new prospect that seemed really promising.

While I'm not providing any identifying details, there are some red flags that popped up with this prospect.

You probably have a completely different type of business than I do, but these signs will help you identify which projects or prospects you should say no to.

If you're having some trouble deciding whether you should take on a project, take a look at the interaction you've had with the prospect so far.

Here's a checklist for you:

It's totally okay to turn down a project! You're well within your rights, and even your duties, as a business owner.

If you choose to say no to working with a prospect or new client, just be tactful about it.

With the current COVID-19 pandemic, do you suddenly find yourself working from home and unsure how to adjust? I put together this episode to help you more quickly adjust to working out of your house, so grab your headphones and listen up.

The world is a crazy place these days. As I work on this episode, the COVID-19 pandemic is happening and me and my hubby are staying home as much as possible.

We're very fortunate in that we both have been working from home for quite some time. And, for the fact that we're able to work from home in the first place--there are so many people right now that must be at work.

Medical workers, emergency and law enforcement, and retail or warehouse workers. These people are amazing and I think I can speak for all of us when I say THANK YOU. That seems rather inadequate but, it's all I got right now.

Now, for those of you who have been told to work from home...how's it going for you? I know it can be a HUGE challenge to adapt to a home office, especially if you have kids or are an extrovert who thrives on being around people.

Let's talk about some tips and advice on how to help yourself go a little less crazy (just being honest!) while you get your shit done at home.

I know you likely don't have a spare room in your house, waiting empty, on the off chance that one day the world would freak out and you'd have to suddenly begin working out of your home.

But, you likely have a corner somewhere in your house or apartment that you can carve out that you can dedicate to your work hours.

If you're having trouble coming up with something, check out this helpful little article.

Having a semi-consistent routine to follow is going to be a sanity saver for you right now.

I have a morning routine I follow and I share it with you in the episode. Create your own habits to help yourself out as you adjust to your new home office.

You need to set limits on your time.

Sticking to set work hours will help you create boundaries between work and life as you navigate this odd time.

Be smart about it and adjust it when needed, but try to give yourself a time to be done with work for the day. Otherwise, you're going to burn out.

Thanks to my friend Heidi for inspiring this tip!

If you live alone or find yourself missing the buzz of a typical office, turn on the radio. It will add background noise and, strangely enough, help you feel less lonely.

Keep yourself on track by making a list every week with three columns. Keep track of what has to be done this week, what should be done this week, and what would be a bonus if you got done this week.

Trust me when I tell you that grazing while working at home is super easy to do.

Picking out times of the day to eat will help you cut back on this bad habit. It likesly won't eliminate it, if you're anything at all like me, but it will help.

How are you navigating the opportunity to work from home? Tell me by dropping a comment below or heading to Facebook to start a conversation.

Stay safe and stay healthy!

Note: please excuse the audio ‘skips’ here and there. Zoom was freaking the eff out during this call.

Pricing is such a huge topic for freelancers and entrepreneurs alike. There are so many variables and so many ways to unwittingly undercharge. In keeping with the theme of pricing your services appropriately, today’s guest, Ashley Quinto Powell, joins us to talk more about pricing.

Sales, self-advocacy & pricing

Whether you work for a company or organization and need help negotiating your salary, or you’re a solopreneur who needs help asking for prices that reflect your value, this episode is for you.

Ashley is a salary negotiation coach and speaker (and lots of other cool things) who jam-packs this episode with tips, tricks and tidbits about pricing.

Why is it so hard to talk pricing?

There are all kinds of people who struggle with talking about pricing. For this episode, we’re mostly focusing on female entrepreneurs in particular. However, anyone can learn from Ashley’s tips.

Sometimes, we’re just raised to be polite and not speak up. This is especially true for us Midwestern ladies in business, am I right? And if you’re in Minnesota, you’ll totally understand the concept of “Minnesota nice” which is actually kind of passive-aggressive, weirdly.

To effectively talk about money and pricing, we should keep these things in mind and learn to negotiate a little differently in order to be comfortable and effective.

You Sell Like You Buy

Seriously, this quote stopped me in my tracks.

Who are my bargain shoppers out there? I know I am proud to be a coupon-clipper and someone who loves a good deal. So it makes sense that I sell like I buy—I’m always looking for deals, so therefore I expect that everyone else is looking for deals also.

Instead of providing discount prices that don’t reflect your value, be like Louis Vuitton.

How do you know if you’re not charging enough?

Ashley helps us discover if we’re not charging enough with some fresh new advice that complements our previous episodes on pricing. Ashley recommends reflecting on whether you are booked out for months. If you are, you are likely not charging enough.

Tips to stop undercharging and set appropriate prices

If you discover that you are, in fact, undercharging, Ashley offers up some additional advice to help you set prices that are more appropriate.

Instead of asking yourself “How much do I need this project to make me?”, ask whether the price reflects what value your customer receives from you.

If you aren’t sure where to start out with rates as a freelancer, pick something and slowly increase the rate with each client that says yes.

If there’s a project that isn’t that exciting to you, ask yourself what price would get you excited to do it. Then ask for that price.

The budget question

As entrepreneurs and freelancers, we’re all familiar with the awkwardness that can happen around the question of pricing, proposals and asking our clients or prospects for their budget.

Oftentimes, clients won’t give us a number if we outright ask for their budget for the project.

Instead, ask them where they’d like you cap the proposal. That will likely elicit a more specific response from them and leave you less uncomfortable asking about money.

Pricing and Female Entrepreneurs

Now you’re armed with even more helpful knowledge and advice on how to set your rates. Go out there and ask for what you’re worth with confidence this week!

Setting prices is seriously a struggle, am I right? You're the business owner, so you get to pick your pricing. How do you prevent yourself from undercharging though? And are there some tips to help you figure out if your pricing is too low?

This episode answers all those questions--and more.

Back in 2018, I interviewed Hannah Martin of Talented Ladies Club. We talked for over an hour about lots of business-related topics, including the pricing struggle.

After careful consideration, I chose an impactful segment of that original podcast episode for your listening pleasure today. Seriously, if you're a business owner looking for some tips on pricing in your business, have a listen to this mini-episode.

When you have more time, you can check out all the other amazing information in the full episode. Oh, and don't forget to download this guide to help you figure out if you're undercharging for your work.

It's not always easy to know whether your pricing is too low. Hannah has some tips to help you determine whether or not you're undercharging. These tips include asking these questions:

If you've determined your pricing is too low at this point, don't worry. Hannah has some pure gold in the form of common sense wisdom to help you out. Plus, she gives us some solid advice on how to answer people who asks for discounts.

Her advice? Flip the script.

If someone asks you for free or discounted work, stop and consider how they would answer if you asked them to do work for you for free.

They'd probably say no, right? Well, so should you!

There are always extenuating circumstances but in general, your business can't survive for long on pricing that's too discounted. So don't feel obligated to give away or undervalue your work.

Here's where one of those extenuating circumstances comes in: the launch of a brand new product or service.

I'm talking more specifically about my new online course, Podcasting 101. It's my way of helping you cut through the confusion of beginning a podcast, and I help you go from idea to launch.

Since it's new, you have the opportunity to lock in a huge discount. But only if you sign up for the waitlist so you'll be one of the first to try it out. (Do it now!)

It's hard to believe that so much helpful information is packed into this short episode, isn't it? Head over to the show notes for the full-length episode for more helpful advice about pricing. It'll blow your mind!

There are plenty of tough things that pop up for entrepreneurs that work from home, but there are plenty of good things too. Let's explore the top five perks of running your business from home in today's episode.

No list of perks about working from home is complete without mentioning the fact that working your business from your home means you can wear your pajamas.

Can I get a hell yeah from my fellow Minnesotans?! Winter is brutal and there's nothing like getting shit done during a blizzard while I'm in my pjs, working away on my business in cozy warmth.

My personal favorite of all the perks that come with working from home? Flexibility.

I can run errands during the day when no one else is around and it's glorious. I can work early in the morning or late at night or on the weekend. Or maybe not even at all if I decide to clear my schedule and take a little break.

Ah-mazing.

You run your own business so you call the shots. That includes saying no to clients, potential clients and other people you deal with throughout the course of doing business.

You don't have a boss looking over your shoulder and telling you that you have to do something "because I said so." (Insert eye roll here, am I right?)

I know a lot of us entrepreneurs struggle with setting our prices, but it is kind of an amazing perk. You can be flexible with them if you want to, or stick to your guns.

It's totally up to you!

Working in an office comes with so many distractions! Working from home means no parade of coworkers through your office, looking for a venting session (again). You can do your work and do it well, typically in a fraction of the stereotypical '9 to 5' workday that comes with most full time jobs.

Now that you remember why you love working from home so much, check this out:

I'm going to help you launch your very own podcast. And I'm going to give you a steep discount!

I'm rolling out a podcasting course that will help you take your podcast from idea to launch and have created a waitlist for those who want some guidance in starting their podcast.

Head over here and drop your name and email into the short form to lock in your discounted rate. Easy!

Can introverts be successful entrepreneurs? {Spoiler alert: abso-freakin-lutely!} Adria DeCorte joins us again this week for a discussion about being introverted as an entrepreneur, the pressures and challenges that come with that and a few tips on overcoming those challenges. Grab your headphones, fellow introverts!

I asked Adria this question because some days, it seems like you really "should" be an extrovert if you're in business for yourself. From selling to phone calls to networking and everything in between, some days an introvert just can't win!

Of course, you do not have to be extroverted in order to be an entrepreneur. It can feel that way, but Adria and I talk about a few things that will help our fellow introverted entrepreneurs.

First of all, let's start with owning our introverted tendencies and making them work for us rather than against us. Adria has some great tips on this that she shares in the podcast, but here are a few highlights:

A lot of people are afraid of being judged, but introverts especially seem to have a deeper or more prevalent fear of this.

You can listen to Adria describe how this has impacted her in the show. She also shares even more helpful advice on how to overcome this fear:

There is a lot of great information packed into this short episode, so I encourage all my fellow introverts to listen in. (Put your headphones in, I know you've been looking for an excuse to tune out the rest of the world anyway!)

One other helpful little tip that Adria discusses is the book Quiet. (Yes, if you click this link and buy something I get a little commission. But I've read the book and actually own it so I do recommend it.) It's all about how introverts can use their tendencies to their own advantage in business and in life.

Check it out after you listen to the podcast!

Do you have clear messaging for your business? If not, you could be losing out on opportunities to connect with the people you want to work with. Learn how to clarify your business message with help from the amazing Adria DeCorte on this week's podcast episode.

Episode Notes:

Introduction of the podcasts

Do you remember the fabulous podcast episode from 2019 that featured Jenna and Ashley from Eff Perfect? (If you don't, I highly recommend taking some time to listen to it!)

Jenna reached out to me recently to introduce another amazing podcaster, Adria DeCorte. I'm so glad Jenna introduced us over email, because she's dropping some amazing tips on clarifying your business message today!

what does it mean to clarify your business message?

We probably all know by now that connecting with the people you want to work with is kinda important. (Okay, really important.) Does it ever feel like there are barriers in the way of that connection though?

One way to cut through a lot of those barriers is to make sure that your business messaging is clear and that it conveys the mission or the reason behind your work.

what will clarifying your business message do for your business?

Once you have a clearer message about what you're doing with your business, it's amazing what can happen. Put simply, having that clear messaging can communicate the value in your work and can help position you as a leader in your field or your industry.

What if you don't have a clear message?

We know what a clear business message can do for your business, but what happens if you have a message that's unclear? Or maybe no message at all?

One side effect could be that it's hard for you to let people see you. I don't know about you, but that sure resonates for me and my business!

Having an unclear message also means you likely can't communicate with your target audience quite as easily. It won't feel as natural, which all adds up to missing out on those connections.

Tips on clarifying your business messaging

Adria isn't leaving her fellow female entrepreneurs hanging! She's got you covered with a few tips on how to start clarifying your business messaging:

things to remember about the process

First and foremost, remember this quote from Adria:

Clear over clever. 

If you remember nothing else from this episode, remember this.

Your business will also benefit from you remembering that clarifying your messaging isn't a quick process. It's going to take some time and it's not necessarily all that simple. Plus, it's evolving so it will change as your business changes.

Do you have a clear business message, or is this something you're working toward? Join me on Facebook for this and more great conversations!

Links mentioned in the show:

Adria's podcast

Messenger type quiz

Adria on Instagram 

What's your least favorite thing about your business? What makes you want to run for the hills? Listen in as we explore what to stop doing that doesn't work for your business in 2020. Then, join the conversation with other podcast listeners.

Are you someone who makes resolutions and sticks to them? Or do they fizzle out at the end of the month? Perhaps you're like me, a New Year's resolution rebel who refuses to set them! No matter what, you'll want to tune in to this episode as your gentle reminder not to fall into the trap of comparison and crushing expectations. Listen in and head to the show notes to let me know which type you are. 

What can you learn from taking a little break in business? There are plenty of lessons to be learned, as it turns out. Listen in as we dive into my own break from podcasting and what you can do for you and your business in 2020.