Don’t Let Impostor Syndrome Fuel Overspending In Your Business

Here are three tips to help you curb overspending or impostor-syndrome-based emotional spending in your business:

Create Financial Clarity

Oftentimes, an unclear financial situation in your business can contribute to your feelings of impostor syndrome. Whether you’re unclear on whether your business is actually profitable or accidentally underpaying yourself, financial murkiness can lead to several issues that leave you feeling “not good enough.”

The antidote to this is to build a restorative money system for your business and make a habit of checking in with your finances regularly. The more you know about your business’s finances and take action to influence them positively, the more confident you’ll feel about your business overall. This tip also has the added bonus of bringing you more awareness around what types of spending decisions you can or can’t currently afford to make, thus curbing the potential for overspending even further.

Take Stock of Your Goals Before Making a Spending Decision

If you want to make spending decisions from a calm and confident place, it’s important to give yourself a chance to step out of the emotions that impostor syndrome might bring up. This means checking in with your goals for your business and your values for your life. Ask yourself, “Will this investment bring more of what I want for my life and my business?”.

Sometimes your main interest in making an investment can be traced back to simply feeling “not good enough.” Reconnecting with your goals and vision for your business can help you release this mindset and instead consider whether a particular spending decision fits well into your overall business plan.

Weigh the Costs and Benefits

I encourage my clients to consider the question, “Will this investment help me make more money?” This is a question that can often easily be answered with some math. I highly recommend reading my article “How Much Should You Invest in Your Business?” which goes into detail on how to weigh the costs and benefits of purchasing equipment or supplies, hiring an employee, and getting coaching or further training.

If you enjoyed this post, you might like to join my newsletter list! Each month I send out a tailored newsletter with business finance tips for the month, solopreneur features, and sometime other fun stuff, like giveaways! Subscribers also receive my weekly blog posts straight to their inbox. It’s pretty great. Click here or below to join us:

Why You Don’t Need to “Spend Money to Make Money”

A big myth that many small business owners fall victim to is the idea that you need to “spend money to make money.” This couldn’t be further from the truth – there are many ways to be creative when starting a business that don’t demand a huge amount of startup capital. Let’s take a look at a few different ways this myth can show up in small business spending, and why you don’t need to repeat the same mistakes in your own business.

You Don’t Need a Huge Amount of Startup Capital

Starting a business can be much more financially accessible than many of us might believe. Depending on what type of business you’re starting, you can begin to pilot your business idea and make a profit with only a little bit of startup cost.

Many service-based businesses require very little upfront investment. Product-based business will require expenses for inventory, but these can still be managed and kept low.

Evaluate what your goals and values are for your business, and be thoughtful about how you can achieve your goals while keeping your expenses low.

You Don’t Need to “Keep Up with the Joneses”

Teddy Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of joy,” and he was certainly right when it comes to small businesses! Comparing your branding, your website, or any other aspect of your business’s appearance can lead to emotional spending decisions and a desire for perfection.

The irony of comparing your business to another is that you usually have no way of knowing how other businesses are doing financially. For all you know, they could be close to bankruptcy, no matter how slick their branding or packaging is.

Instead of trying to “keep up” with other businesses and striving to achieve a perfect image of what you deem is professional, evaluate what’s truly important to your business. With each spending decision, ask yourself a couple questions: “Will this help me make more money?” and “Is this aligned with my goals and values for my business?” If your spending decisions are being influenced by comparisons to other businesses, take some time to ask yourself why you feel the need to do that, and how you can take that pressure off. Your business is yours, do it your way!

You Don’t Need to Take Every Training

Being experienced and well-trained is important. However, there is a strong tendency, especially among women who run service-based businesses, to over-invest in trainings, masterclasses, and certifications in their field. This typically stems from impostor syndrome, or some other version of the feeling that they are “not good enough.” This can prevent a variety of issues for the small business owner, but one of them is definitely overspending.

Reconnecting with your values can help you see past this impostor syndrome pitfall. Take some time to take stock of what you already know, and any certifications or experience you already have, before spending money on another. It might be helpful to keep a compliment file of positive feedback you’ve received on your services for when you need a reminder of the value of your abilities. Any or all of these ideas can help you re-evaluate overspending on education.

I hope that breaking down these 3 myths helped you see that spending money to make money is not necessary. If you enjoyed this post, you’ll also probably like my eBook, Reach Your Life Goals: A Business Owner’s Guide. Click here or below to download your free copy.

 

Avoid This Impostor Syndrome Pitfall By Connecting With Your Values

One major impostor-syndrome-induced pitfall I see people struggle with is this: overcompensation. Perhaps they’re not getting enough paying clients, or not keeping track of their finances. Or they’re missing some other metric in their business that makes them feel like they’re “getting somewhere.”

Whatever the reason, people in this type of situation can sometimes fall into a pattern of overcompensating. This can become a financial or non-financial issue. For example, many people in this situation may feel their circumstances are due to the fact that they need to learn more. Other people can struggle with feeling like they need to “spend money to make money” and get preoccupied with gear, expensive software, etc.

Especially because you’re the one calling the shots in your business, making these decisions all comes down to you. That’s why it’s important to work through emotional mirages like impostor syndrome before making a financial or business decision. Let’s dive into both of these examples, and then talk about banishing impostor syndrome by connecting with your values:

“I Don’t Know Enough”

People with this story can get caught up on an information hamster wheel. This is especially easy to do with the whole Internet at our fingertips! People might feel that their business isn’t succeeding because they’re missing something, or don’t have the right training, etc. As a result, they sign up for courses, trainings, and coaching engagements. Or perhaps they spend a lot of time listening to podcasts and working through free opt-ins. Whether this version of impostor syndrome results in financial investments or not, it can also make running your business feel murky and difficult.

Exercise: Show yourself what you do know. If there’s a particular subject or specialty that you’ve been researching or wanting to get training in, spend some time writing down everything you already do know it. Just taking a breather and doing this for 5 minutes can remind you of all the knowledge you already hold!

“I Need to Spend Money to Make Money”

This is one of those longstanding business myths that many people can get convinced of unknowingly. I wrote about how people just starting businesses can avoid this pitfall here. What’s important is to keep in mind how you want to do things, rather than looking at how other business owners do them. If we play the comparison game we ultimately end up losing. Social media and comparing yourself to other more established businesses can intensify this feeling.

Exercise: Take stock of what you have. What software systems, supplies, gear, business accessories, etc. do you have that you love working with? Celebrate those and be thankful for them, just for a few minutes.

The Answer? Connect With Your Values

Just to be clear, there isn’t really a one-size-fits-all solution to impostor syndrome. But connecting with your values by tapping into what feels authentically joyful for you is a great step forward. You don’t have to be the industry expert or have all the bells and whistles to run an awesome business! You just have to do things in the way that feels right for you. So take some time to consider what that actually looks like!

It might be the case that you really do value education or having the latest tech for your business. Just make sure you tease those values apart from the feelings of urgency and “less-than” that come with impostor syndrome. Let yourself come to conclusions about what you want on your own, without outside influence, as much as possible.

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll probably like reading through my free e-Book, Three Essential Steps to Starting a Business, particularly the section on having a purpose and a plan for your money. Download it here!

☮

Angela

Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash

Want to Grow Your Business? Check Your Impostor Syndrome First

Financial anxieties hold us back in many ways. Oversaving can prevent us from living our lives fully and meeting our needs. Similarly, impostor syndrome often holds us back from investing in our businesses and developing our experience as business owners.

“What if I’m not _____ enough?”

Out of all the questions impostor syndrome brings out of the shadows, this one is probably at the root of all of them. You might find yourself stalling on getting further education because you don’t feel ready. Perhaps you’re refusing to take the leap and hire an employee or purchase some equipment because you feel like you “can get along well enough without it.”

While this may be true, when we don’t take these steps because we’re internally blocking our own growth, this can have longterm effects on our wellbeing and satisfaction in life. In some cases, doing any of these can make a huge difference to you and your business. Are there places in your business where you’ve been wanting to grow but are holding yourself back mainly because of fear? Are you afraid of success or growth? Take some time to sit with these questions and separate what you truly want but are keeping out of your life based on fear from what actually doesn’t sound fulfilling to you.

Look at Your Numbers

Sometimes having unclear finances can fan the flames of your impostor syndrome. That means the first step is to get clear on where you stand financially, in your business and your personal life. I have a lot of resources for getting started on this process on my blog, but you might like to start with my e-Book, 9 Secrets to Financial Self Care.

Once you’ve got the big picture cleared up, refer to this post from last week, “How Much Should You Invest in Your Business?” which can help you think through how much money is reasonable to spend here. Rather than relying on your feelings about money and your business, let the numbers do the talking. Seeing how much money you actually have available to spend is much more reliable for decision making than listening to your impostor syndrome.

Prioritize Your Why

Above all else, when faced with a decision around your business, refer back to your money why and your core values. Ask yourself, “Will making this choice bring in more of what I want?” If it’s a yes, even though it might bring up anxieties, you know the way to move forward.

Happy investing! If you’d like to work through this process with an expert guide, check out my services and set up a Financial Self Care Consultation! I’d love to see if we can work together to help you bust through emotional and financial blocks.

☮

Angela

How Tailored Income Goals Keep Your Business On Track

When you’re running a business on your own, it’s easy to get swept off course. Solopreneurship and small business ownership are both full of moments where we waver, question whether our dreams will work out, and look to what others are doing. This can easily fuel impostor syndrome and turn into a full-blown comparison fest. When this happens, you may lose sight of your own goals and values.

Last week, we went over how to set income goals that are tailored to your lifestyle costs and needs. Today, I want to share with you how doing that groundwork can help you stay focused on your own bottom line, and ultimately help you reach your goals more quickly.

Avoid Comparison

It can be tempting to run your business in a way that is essentially some version of “keeping up with Joneses,” but as you might guess, that’s not very fulfilling. Other businesses can provide healthy examples of what we do and don’t want, but it’s important that we don’t compare our business to others, especially in the monetary sense. We don’t know what other business’s numbers are like on the inside. The businesspeople we admire could be grappling with debt, struggling to pay themselves, or overworking.

Stick to Your Game Plan

Instead of playing the comparison game, I suggest taking regular time to get back in touch with your vision – your “money why.”Doing this will keep you in touch with your own goals and help you keep moving toward them. It can also increase your capacity to appreciate all the hard work you’re already putting in, and feel grateful for all the opportunities available to you.

If you haven’t done the work to investigate what your values are, and what you really want more of in your life, take some time do that. Then figure out what financial figures you need to make those dreams come true, and there you go – you’ve got a game plan to stick to.

Skip Marketing Gimmicks

If you’ve spent much time in the business coaching sphere looking for advice, you may have come across someone’s ad inviting you to work with them to “Have your first 25k month!” (or whatever the promise is). While these nice round numbers might sound nice, they’re really there for the slogan, not for you.

Your financial goals should be based on your values. They should be designed to bring you whatever you want more of in your life. Those nice round numbers won’t do much for you in the way of life satisfaction if they’re not connected to a larger vision of what you want for yourself. Having income goals that are tailored to your life can help you sift through the barrage of marketing messages and financial advice out there.

I hope this post inspires you to keep working to create a business that truly meets your personal needs. If you would like to work with an accountability partner and guide to identify your values and shape your finances around them, check out 4 Week Money Refresh, a package of 4 private 1 hour personal financial coaching sessions, available through April 30th!

☮

Angela

Image: Eye for Ebony

Why Your Finances Might Be Feeding Your Impostor Syndrome

If you’re not aware of how your business finances look, it might be feeding your imposter syndrome. Ignoring the financial side of your business prolongs the anxiety that surrounds that part of your life as a business owner. Impostor syndrome can be detrimental to your business. It undermines your success and obscures opportunities for growth. Let’s take a look at the different ways impostor syndrome affects your business.

Anxiety

Impostor syndrome is commonly marked by a feeling of not fully trusting your own success. This anxious feeling says “Don’t let them find out who I really am!” and fails to recognize all your accomplishments. If you feel uncertain about your business finances, this takes a toll on your stress and anxiety levels. Consequently, your relationship with your business can feel increasingly strained and uncomfortable. Financial uncertainty and related stress can create a vicious cycle.

Under-Compensation

If you’re not looking closely at your business finances, you might be under-compensating yourself without even knowing it. Whether your prices are too low, or you need to cut back your operating expenses, you may be underpaying yourself. Finding yourself scrambling and struggling to get work done for less pay than you need is disappointing for many business owners. It can add to your feeling that you aren’t truly succeeding.

The Solution: Look at Your Finances

In short, there’s a feedback loop between your finances and your identity as a business owner. Therefore, the best thing to do is to really look at your business’s finances. If you feel underpaid, research changing your prices. Study your personal lifestyle and establish an income goal, and then look for ways your business can bring in that income. Go over your business expenses with a fine-tooth comb. Most importantly, remember that there are solutions to your financial woes, ones that you have the ability to find and implement! I believe in you!

If you want more of my thoughts on this, check out this facebook live video I made on the topic.

☮

Angela

Go to Top