Attached Mamas Working Outside the HomeDo you face the unique challenges of balancing your career with your children? Come on in and talk with other moms who find ways to make their situation work for the whole family.
Hi, Let me start by saying I have been feeling a wee bit negative about my business lately. My advice to you would be to put your business on a budget, just as you would do your house hold, then figure out how many clients you need to see each to meet your goals. This may seem obvious, but most small businesses operate w/o a budget. To me it is very tempting to spend a lot of $ on my business, I want it to be a beautiful relaxing place to come. Advertising is another way to spend a ton of money that oftentimes does not pay off. I think that if you are meeting all of your expenses and bringing home the $ that you want to within a year, you are doing REALLY well.
I will let you know when I relax about my bottom line.
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~Gael~
Mom to Grace 11 and Santino 5 months
Hello Ladies...
Right now, the worst thing is just figuring out how to set everything up. I've started with about 35k capital, so I'm just trying to leave 5k in the bank for opening day to rebuy inventory with. Yeah, it's stressful.
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LP
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Well, I'm really lucky because my start up is very minimal. I'm renting a space in a professional office building and all I have to pay is rent, phone, and secretarial services. I had most of the "stuff" I need, so my start up was probably less than $5K. I'm doing very little in the line of advertising because I'm listed on Psychology Today and that has been bringing in many referrals.
My problem is that I"m a bleeding heart and if someone doesn't have the ability to pay, I'll see them for what little they can aford. I figure that I need to bring in about $45/hour to cover rent, expenses, childcare, and enough to make it worthwhile to go to work.
I have a budget that I'm trying to stick to. I'm trying very hard not to buy beyond my budget, but I'd love to go out and buy a bunch of psych testing stuff, a couple of cozy chairs, a cozy couch, a coffee table, and a fish tank.
I'm finding that my biggest problem is not valuing my time and that of my family. I need to become a bit more rigid about expecting people make their payment and being okay about referring those who cannot pay to the community mental health center with the exception of 1-3 clients which I could keep on a pro-bono basis.
It sounds like you're thinking along these lines already, but I was going to suggest figuring out how many full cost patients you need to see to cover one pro bono patient. I don't know whether your referrals are coming from colleagues you know, but if not maybe you could refer them to the community center without feeling bad? What I mean is if the patient hasn't seen you yet, (s)he won't know how awesome you are so (s)he can't feel bad that (s)he ends up seeing someone else.
I have yet to have a single day when I am not sweating over the bills coming up in the next few weeks.... and honestly, I have yet to pay myself. I DO pay our sitter out of the store (owner draw - then pay from our account) so that working doesn't actually cost us money but then again it doesn't pay us, either. I know I'm sitting on a significant amount of inventory and could sell the store so I am creating real value - but adding money to our family budget or even just socking it away for retirement is my goal. I do hope to get to the point of paying myself within the next 18 months.
That might sound desperate - but since day 1 of opening the store I have been able to pay every bill fully, on time, and never bounced a check. It's the sweating over the budget and only ordering what I can pay for that has really paid off. I just recently got a great line of credit from the bank for emergency protection and hope to have a big loan lined up by the end of the year so that I can expand and relocate to a bigger store.
So - getting back to your question - I guess my initial plan is a three year plan - with the goal of paying myself, having a larger more extensively stocked store and offering more services and having more business by the end of year three. The plan for the next few years after that is even more ambitious - and my kids will be in school.
There is a real difference between a service business (yours, Rebecca) and a product business (mine, Louise's). Your cost of doing business is significantly less - but then you little business value to sell when you pull out. YOU are the product. For Louise and I the products are the very expensive part of the business to create - but at the end, those products are sitting on the shelf to sell.
As far as decorating your business to make it feel like you - I'd support you completely on that. Decorating my store was imperative to me - but I did it in increments and also on a budget - frequently yard sales. The art was not yard sale - but I did a few pieces every six months. It really really mattered to me to feel a sense of my own identity in the store and to have it be warm and inviting. Otherwise I somehow didn't feel that it was mine, if that makes sense.
So yes! do it. But do it on a schedule so you can see progress and pay for it too.
As far as decorating your business to make it feel like you - I'd support you completely on that. Decorating my store was imperative to me - but I did it in increments and also on a budget - frequently yard sales. The art was not yard sale - but I did a few pieces every six months. It really really mattered to me to feel a sense of my own identity in the store and to have it be warm and inviting. Otherwise I somehow didn't feel that it was mine, if that makes sense.
So yes! do it. But do it on a schedule so you can see progress and pay for it too.
Well, here's my plan:
I'm not currently getting regular payments from insurance companies and many insurance companies are still getting set up to pay me (some haven't paid me for work done 6 months ago), so I have a bunch of $$ out there that may or may not come in at any time. I'm not counting on that.
I figure I'm just covering my operating costs (including salary) without these insurance payments (it's tight however). Once they start coming in, it'll be like "extra" money I haven't been counting on.
So, the first $2K that comes in is going directing toward purchase of a new testing computer (the one I'm using is a dinosaur) and some really necessary testing equipment. That comes first because that helps generate additional income. I'm hoping to be able to do that before the end of this year.
Then, the next $2K that comes in will go toward a nice, comfortable, relaxing sitting area and wall art. That should be good and I should get that by no later than March (at which point by billing would be a year behind if these insurance companies do not start paying - I cannot imagine that happening).
I should be okay, it's just that it seems as if I should have been okay by now. I'm guessing that it really takes about a full year of doing business before things really get in a "normal" groove. It's only really been 6 months at this point. And, I'm in the process of expanding. I'm just really looking forward to not stressing so much about the money part.
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