You’ve just spent years studying and learning how to be the best practitioner possible. Maybe you had to take an exam to get certified and then finally you opened your new practice.

For the first couple years your inspiration and  excitement might have moved you forward because you couldn’t wait to help people with their health issues and be able to use your expertise.

Whether you are an acupuncturist, a naturopath, coach or therapist the challenges are similar.

You want to help more people, make a bigger difference and also feel successful.

What you weren’t prepared for was the challenges involved in running a business. These skills weren’t taught in your program. That initial passion started to be replaced with business stress.

It’s hard knowing you just spent thousands of dollars in your program but it was only focused on the skills of your practice, not on how to be a business owner.  So what happens is that instead of you having a full practice where you feel like a competent practitioner you feel some of these ways:

•  Self-doubt about your ability.
•  Lack of confidence.
•  Comparison to peers.
•  Fear of moving forward.
•  Lack and constriction.

If you have felt any of these ways, you are not alone and it only means you need to change your focus. I am going to share with you the  #1 most important shift you can make.

Most  health and healing practitioners get stuck  when it comes to self-promotion. If feels icky and uncomfortable. It is much easier to promote products or other people but very hard to talk about how great you are. If you are trying to do that it will bring up all the issues I listed above.

Your focus needs to be on giving value to your patients or clients, and not on your own issues. Your entire marketing plan needs to be focused on your niche clients and not about you.

•  You must have a strong niche who you are marketing to.
•  Your website homepage needs to be all about your niche clients and how they feel and what they want.
•  You need to look at multiple ways you can give value to these people.

It is your clients or patients you need to promote and keep your focus on. It might be a shock, but these people don’t care about you. They care about themselves and their issues.

Is it easy to shift your business from yourself and onto your niche clients?  Was it easy to go through your medical or health training program and learn those skills?  It was hard work and you needed help.

Same with business development.  It’s easy if you get help and focus the same attention on becoming a successful business owner as you did on becoming a practitioner.

Begin by deciding to get help. You are committed and want to get past your self-doubt. It is very hard ( almost impossible) to do this yourself. It’s about keeping your own issues from creeping in and sabotaging your success as well as learning sound and structured business skills.

•  You will begin to feel confident in your ability to grow your business.
•  You will know what to do to bring in prosperity.
•  You will be able to acknowledge your expertise and help more people.

Welcome to the world of identifying as an entrepreneur first and a practitioner second. The ironic thing is that when you do this you will be helping way more people!

I have read those organizational books that talk about prioritizing and time management and none of  them work for me!  They are all written by people who are good at organizing anything and everything.

My vision is that those folks have desks that totally clear and empty all the time and their documents are neatly stored with systems that allows them to find them within seconds.

They also know exactly what they are meant to be doing everyday. In some ways I envy those people who, I imagine never question what they are meant to do first! I tend to be the more creative, kinesthetic type.

What this means is that Monday morning arrives and my brain is filled with tons of creative ideas of what I want to accomplish in the early morning hours before my first client meeting.

I can feel the juggler inside my brain excited about all the options. The problem is they are all important in their own way. So, to keep myself sane, I have created my own system to help me focus.

I use my white board and write everything down. I use colored markers to make it more fun. (Big thanks to whoever invented whiteboards).

No more juggling the minute my stuff goes on the board.  This morning there were three items that were all competing in my head. Once I wrote them on my white board it became obvious that the first one would take 15-20 minutes. The second one is a longer process so I’ll do it second. The third one doesn’t really need to be done until tomorrow. Easy.

On my whiteboard I have added the one, two, three and as the first one was writing this blog post so I am almost ready to be able to erase that one. It is only 8:15AM on Monday and I have already accomplished the first thing on my list.  So there, Steven Covey!

I first heard this phrase, “Pay yourself first”, about twelve years ago when I had a part time business and often felt like I was just scraping by.

I had a separate bank account for my business, however I really didn’t understand how to manage it. I never really paid myself, I just earned money and spent it. Sound familiar?

At that time just about all my earnings got transferred to my personal account and I put every little money into my business. Many solo-business owners operate this way, by juggling money because of inconsistent income.

A year or two later I moved back to USA and decided to turn my business into a full time venture. This meant building a website, paying for hosting, printing and countless other expenses. It was a big shift!

I had lots of money going out and I began to pay myself in little bits and pieces just to keep my personal account above water.

It went on like this for quite awhile. I worried about not having enough, not bringing in enough income and was anxious if my bank account dropped below a certain point.

Then I again heard this phrase, “Pay yourself first.”  I didn’t know how to do this but I delved in and began to learn more about money management and how to run a business. Now I understand  what this means and the reasons to do it.

•  It is always good business practice to pay your employees first and foremost, so why would you treat yourself with less respect?

•  It is impossible to budget and plan your personal life if you don’t have a pay day and an amount you can count on.

•  If you don’t pay yourself first, you are nurturing an attitude of lack instead of abundance.

What you need to do:

1. Come up with a figure of what you absolutely need to pay yourself to sustain yourself and to feel good!
2. Divide it into two payment amounts. 
3. Schedule your paydays and write it on your calendar.
4. On that date write yourself a check or transfer the funds online.
5. Give gratitude for your business and your abundance.

If you want to add one more positive bit, decide on your next pay increase and plan and schedule it ahead.  Watch your income increase to meet that intention. It is like magic.

Most of us who began solo have learned how to  cut dollar corners by doing virtually everything ourselves!  It is really a crazy idea but in fact almost all self-employed solo-biz owners begin this way.

The focus is on cash flow and the idea of hiring someone to do anything translates to money going out.

I coach my clients to set prices for their services that allow them to get paid what they need in order to run their business and make a profit.

I see way too many service based new entrepreneurs under-charging and falling into the trap of wanting to help everyone.  But, I am getting side-tracked here. The point is, I can never complain about anyone’s prices. If anything I know people are under-charging not over-charging.

There comes a point though, where you must bring in a team of people to help you run your business because it will become impossible to do it yourself and still grow your company larger. You need to pay people for the help they give you.

I am just in that place now and I am excited about the changes happening and the amazing people who are helping me. I feel  blessed by  my team. They are all people who have been my clients so what comes around goes around. I love hiring my clients. But I am still putting out a couple thousand dollars for  my new website and design and the help to get it all happening!

In order to do this I needed to see your return on my  investment. How do you know if money you spend will bring you more money in the long run? You have to map it out and  ask, “If I do this, what will be the expected outcome?”  Trust your instincts as an entrepreneur and get valued opinions. I did wait until it was the right time.

The biggest mistake I see people make is to wait too long and cut too many corners, not invest in their business and and end up staying small and struggling.  Here are possible issues have that I have seen:

• Your prices are too low and you are under-valuing yourself.
• You feel self-doubt and are making decisions from that place.
• Your marketing is poor and there is no plan to follow.
• You are lacking a  vision for your fully developed business.
• You are trying to to sell something that has no driving need.

There are other reasons and maybe some of you can share.  I’d love to hear from you. Really the term solo-business doesn’t truly mean  ”solo.”