Why Your Business Isn't Making Money and What to Do About it TODAY!

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Welcome, welcome. Welcome to another episode of teachers in business. I think friends that this might be episode 50 Nope, it's 51. 51! That's crazy. So today we're going to talk about why your business isn't making money right now, we're going to talk about what's happening. Especially if you are a teacher turned entrepreneur. Odds are you aren't making money in your business for a very small set of very particular reasons. And we're going to outline them today, we are going to share, I'm going to talk about why people aren't responding to your offers, because that is one of the most common issues that people come to me with as a coach, we are going to talk about the big mistakes that people make in pricing time and time and time again, that I see with clients that we fix immediately. And really the only thing you have to do to actually make a sale today. This is really vital, because this is how you actually make money in your business. Like it's great to have a business but if it's not making any money at all, it's not really a business right? And and odds are you don't have left teaching or on your way to leave teaching or you're in your business full time, even if you weren't a teacher. And in what you need to do is have it make money because that's the whole point of this. You need the freedom and the flexibility. But you only get that if you have income. Before we dive in, what I do want to do is talk to you for a second about the fun things we're doing in my small group program right now. My small group coaching program is called charting business success. And it is a hoot. We are doing a ton of really important things in there in my small group right now. And we're three weeks in or actually we're four weeks in, we're three weeks in when I'm recording this. And it was funny, I sat down the other day and was like, okay, so what Has everyone gotten out of the first three weeks, we're doing 16 weeks together. And I sat down and I looked at the list. And I realized that we've gotten some really big progress out of three hours of meeting so far. Everyone in the group right now has a well defined goal that they understand can articulate fits with their business aligns with what they're doing. They have a dead simple offer. They know what they're going to offer people, they know why it matters. They have a yes, this is a great price, I can get this out of my mouth, it's worth the money and it's not too low. And then they have clear next steps. They know what the next thing they have to do to get even closer to that goal is individualized for them. Like that's three meetings worth I made that list I was like, huh, imagine how far we're gonna get in 16 weeks. So that this small group program is one I'm going to run again in the new year. So if that's something you'd like three weeks in the program, then by all means keep an eye out, I will let y'all know when it comes up again. But it's coming in the new year. So let us get into it. What I want to do to start is I want to tell you a little bit about my own experiences with this about running a business that wasn't making any money that wasn't performing that wasn't giving me the flexible time that I wanted, the income I needed wasn't giving me any of those things right out of the gate. And so what I want you to know is that I've made all the mistakes we're talking about today, repeatedly in some cases, and I have read all the same books you have I have approached solving the problem and fixing it. So like business not making money, the first thing you do is go okay, like maybe I don't have the right funnel, maybe I need the shiny new tool, maybe I need to do it more like she's doing it maybe I need to go read that book. Maybe if I join that group program, it will fix me. 

You know, I've done all of these things. And what I've found in making these mistakes is I remember you know I before I say that I remember what it feels like to look at the business bank account and have it say zero and like less than zero because in my in my like banking software, I knew I was spending money that the business wasn't making. I remember trying to fix it desperately and just sort of throwing fixes at the problem like reading all the books, taking all the courses getting all the freebies I remember doing this and thinking like right but like I see it is working for other people so why can't it work for me and I also remember very well the tremendous hit my confidence started to take because it's like okay, if fixing my business if the way to fix it is x way that is Expert suggests and it seems to work for other people, because they have people on their website that say it works. And I can't do it, is it them? Or is it me? Right? And it starts to feel like you are the problem, but you are not. You're just making the common mistakes that business owners make. Especially if you're coming out of teaching, some of these problems are really just normal course in you don't know that they're there. It's like the first time you teach something to a class of kids, and you don't know how to anticipate the things that they're not going to know how to do. Like, I can remember teaching kids slope in middle school. And by the third year of teaching it, it was like, Okay, I'm gonna teach this once now and pretend like it never happened to the teacher again later in the year, and then they'll be ready. But like, the first time around teaching it, I was like, Oh, my God, I must be doing this terribly wrong, because there, none of them are getting it. Oh, yeah, because it's a really hard concept. And there's lots to unpack there. And I didn't know how to do that yet. So I have made all these mistakes that I'm going to share with you today on my way to running a business that really does make money on running a business on my way to running a business that really does actually help people and make a difference for more than just free for them. And for me, and I have made all these mistakes on my way to, you know, having money in my bank account and having profit. My experience was very much early in my coaching business in particular, well, early my first business like I spent all the money, I built the website, I had all the experts weigh in. One of the other things we did is we planned for, like every problem we could have for the next six years and didn't even have the problems that were first on the list. So we are solving things that didn't need to be solved. We were spending money that we didn't need to spend, we were buying tools we didn't need to use. I mean, I did all these things. And then when I started my coaching practice, a couple years into that business, I also, you know, made a couple of mistakes in that. I wandered. Like I wandered from idea to idea, I just did things without really understanding what I was doing. And I didn't understand what the role my mindset plead in all of this was like, I didn't understand that, like, being overwhelmed all the time was a choice. There was a bunch of stuff about time and space, and how I could think as a business owner that I just, I hadn't figured out yet. So I get it. And I'm sad to say that like, this is a pretty normal entry into entrepreneurship experience, right? Like it is pretty normal to make all of these mistakes. And it sucks. But it is so common as a new business owner to make all of these kinds of mistakes, especially if you're coming from teaching. And that's why we're going to talk about it today. So the three biggest mistakes that I made, when I started my businesses that really are the ones that you know, like spending money on the website, wasn't a great idea. But it didn't. I don't know, it slowed us down. It wasn't money I needed to spend. But it didn't stop me from getting clients, the things that stopped me from making money are the three that I'm going to talk about here. So the first one, which is a tremendously big mistake that everybody makes early in their business, it is very normal is that you make it all about you. 

So when you go to solve a problem, you think about how the fix you're looking for is going to impact you. When you make a post on social media. You're telling people all the things that you are doing. When you explain the pain points, you explain them from your perspective. When you think about the issues that you're trying to solve in your business, you explain it from your perspective as the business owner, what you're not doing is talking about it from their words in their perspective, you are not thinking about it through the lens of the people that are looking at you you're thinking about it as you looking at them. And it is a very hard shift to make on a consistent basis. becoming really consistent at I can speak their language, I can say the problem better than they can. I can state it in their words back to them. I've talked to enough people that I understand how it sounds. I have worked with enough people that I understand how to know when it's not happening. I know the difference between when my marketing really connects and when it falls flat because I was making it about me again, these are, the first really big mistake is not being able to literally get out of your own way, and hear what other people are telling you and take it from their perspective. The second mistake that I think is like shattering a lot of times. And actually, before I do that, that first mistake, is the reason people don't respond to your offers. 

When you're talking about you. People don't need to respond to that. People respond to you, reflecting them back to them. Right? When you reflect their experience, when you are the mirror for their experience, when you are clear in telling them that you totally get where they are. You totally like live inside their head. And you've had those experiences as a consumer where you think like, Oh, my God, how did they know I needed that? Oh, my God, or how do they know? I think that, how do you know when you feel that really like oh scene, like you almost feel like they can see straight into your brain. That's what that feels like. And when you hit that, that is when people take you up on your offers. When you they feel like absolutely, like you see inside their soul. It's like, oh, she gets me I need her, right. So when they're not taking you up on your offers 99% of the time, it's because you are making it way more about you than about them. And they're not going to take that up like nobody wants to buy something that's not for them about them, connected to them. When people connect. They're like, Oh, she really knows how to help me, she really knows how to get me. She articulates my problem in a way that like, Yes, that's it, that's when offers start to convert. The second mistake that people make time and time again, is around pricing. It is anything that really that brings the word affordable into the mix. Because affordable. And you have heard this before on this podcast, if you're in my Facebook group, you have heard this before, affordable is a judgement. Okay, when you, you know, you go initially and you do some thinking and you set your price for whatever service you're giving whatever you're trying to sell people, you may or may not do that, looking around at what other people are praising it. Honestly, for the most part, I don't encourage my clients to do that kind of looking around. Because you'll find the full range of prices. Like I said to you, okay, if you were a coach like me, and you were like, Okay, how should I price this, you're gonna find people charging $20 an hour, and you're gonna find people charging $1,000 an hour, and everything in between, and they're all successful. So it's like, Well, that didn't help that just made it worse. So, you know, pricing is about the value you can bring behind it. But it really is never improved by thinking like, how do I make this more affordable. It's also never approved, improved, almost never. And that's how like, I'd say that's like a nine times out of 10 thing, it is rarely improved by making it lower than your initial guess. Because when you lower the price, what you're doing in your head is trying to convince people now it's more valuable. And like this is like a a slow boat to crazytown. Because it really does. It messes with your head, it messes with their head, it's like okay, but if it still is valuable, like why does it cost less now? And what's wrong with her confidence? Like, did she think that it wasn't valuable at that other price? And what's happening, but if you're really focused on well, it needs to be affordable for them. That's, that's never going to fix the problem. It's never going to improve your pricing. It's never ever going to make people buy it actually kills confidence. Because here's how it goes. You think, Okay, here's my price, and then nobody buys it because they don't understand your offer your offers about you rather than them. They don't take you up on it. So you think like, okay, maybe it's out of reach for them, maybe I should lower the price, you lower the price, but you don't get the offer better. And then they still don't take you up on it. And then you lower the price again, and then you start to think like oh my god, I can't even give it this way for free. What if it's not valuable, and your confidence starts to dive. And that sucks. This is when things are going really, really wrong here. And this is like a recipe for a business that actually fails, right? Because if you never get out of that downward spiral, you you you don't make any money a and if you're not making any money, you don't get to stay in business. So that is the pricing problem. And then the third mistake that I think particularly teachers make is not focusing on the people just only the people who will say yes to you. Because as a teacher in a classroom, my job your job is to teach everyone in front of you is to bring everyone on board, to convey the content in a way that engages every child, every student, every human, and bring them all with you. But that is not what we do in business. In business, we sell to our yeses. 

You are talking to the people that are sitting behind their computer screens going like, oh, I can't wait, she totally gets me. I can't wait to do this. It's like the one in 30 kids in your classroom that are like, yes, algebra is my jam, I cannot wait to go to algebra class today. I love her. It is only talking to that kid. Because in business, you sell to your yeses. And when we are selling to everyone else, our message gets diluted. We're trying to convince people that they need us. We're trying to talk to the people that are like, quote, unquote, our haters are the people that are never going to buy from us. And we're wasting time and energy on people who are not going to get on board. Like there are those kids in your class that are never going to get on board you try you bring them along as far as you can, but they're never going to be like, yes, algebra is my favorite thing, you're not going to transform that for them. Because they've decided you cannot. In a business, you get to simply focus on the people that want what you have. And when you are not doing that, you are shooting yourself in the foot, and you are making less money because of it. So when you stop making these mistakes, when you stop making it all about you and being really in your own way, when you stop focusing on affordability. And that's not to say that you're going to make it $5 billion your your price, it will be affordable for people it will be something they are capable of buying no matter how you price it, it is simply allowing the other people, the people that are doing the buying to make that judgment rather than you. And when you focus on your yeses. What you get is yeses. When you stop making these mistakes, you get people buying from you. You get people not only who buy from you, but you get people who are like hell yes, I can't wait to hand her money. You get people who happily come on board, who do not question your pricing, who love everything you share, who are your biggest advocates who refer you to other places, to other people to friends, you get people that pay right away that you don't have to chase? You get people that are like, hell yes. How do I pay you. And that is a huge transformation. That's not just making money. That's like making money and enjoying it. That is making money and having it be easy. And that is life changing. But all it comes from is from really being a mirror for their experience in the world, from really being intentional about how you're thinking about pricing. And from really focusing on the people who are really going to buy from you. That's all this is. So that results of making money is not that far away from you right now it might feel really far away. But actually it doesn't take that long to get. So the one thing that would really help right now the one thing if you walk away from this with one tip, one thing to focus on to do so that you can make money in your business right now. So that you can actually get what you need from people today. Is that making consistent consistently making clear, compelling offers that are rooted in the experience and the language and the needs of the people you are trying to serve? At a price that is your value that you both feel good about is the key. Okay, must say it again, make consistently making clear, compelling offers rooted in their needs, reflecting their way of thinking about their problem. That is at a price that gives you both the value you deserve, is what will change the game Okay, that is the difference maker, because it covers all of the sort of big problems. It is, you know, talking to yeses. It's talking to the people that are like Hell, yes, I value this. It is making it about them. And it is also pricing in a way that's effective. So if you really want to know how to do this, if can you experiment with this yourself? Absolutely. Are you probably yes, please keep doing that. But if you really want to make this simpler, faster, easier than you imagined it could be. Because right now, it probably feels like you know, I explained to somebody yesterday, it feels like trying to carry five pies. Like you can easily carry two pies. Maybe you can find your way to carrying three or four without dropping any but that fifth pie, it's like, Man, I don't have space on my arm, I don't have space on my hand, where do I put the fifth one? You know, it's when you're trying to do this really effectively, quickly. For today, for right now, it can really feel like you're trying to carry too many pieces, and you're always missing one, in order to make this process simpler, faster, more effective, and actually to make it to become automatic. So it is super easy. It's like what you do it's normal course, right? It doesn't feel like work anymore. That's what I do with people, as a coach, come work with me and I will teach you how to do this, we will make making these kinds of clear, consistent, compelling, offers effortless. And that is how you will make money in your business today. But well into the future. This is how you grow in scale a profitable business. Because when making offers reflecting back to people what they know and think and how they respond and talk when making your when your pricing is exactly right for you and for them. When you're talking to the people that are going to say yes, just all the time due course, then money keeps coming. 

And I can help you do that. That's what I help my clients to create. And they do time and time again, I have proof of that every day in, in my coaching calls with them, the changes in their businesses changes in their income level, the changes in the number of people they serve grows exponentially, especially over time. So if you want this help if you want this all to become effortless and automatic. The way you start is you book a free call with me. You go to my website, which is torpeycoaching.com

. You click the link that says let's talk coaching, you pick a time you fill out the form, we talk about it. That's all it is. And I promise it is not painful. We look at your what's in your way right now. We figure out a plan to move forward. And if you decide to say yes, we do that. And if you decide to say no, at least you know what to do next, like you don't lose in any way, by spending an hour with me, I promise you walk away with things that you're like, oh, god, okay, you will walk away clear. And if you are not in my Facebook group (Teachers in Business) where all the best stuff happens, this is where I give away a lot of stuff for free. But it is still sort of the slower boat, right? If you're not ready for one on one coaching though, you can come into my Facebook group and get help there. You can think about joining my group program that's going to come in the new year, the next round of it. But really, if you want the fastest, most built for automaticity most built for least effort. The way to do that is one on one coaching right now. Because by the middle of 2022, this could be on autopilot. Like it could just be something you don't think about anymore. We do six months together. And this, all of your problems will just be new problems like this will no longer be your problem. And that would be a huge relief. You'll have other problems. We'll make new ones because you'll want to do more better faster, right? But what if this problem could be solved? What if this is no longer a problem and you're 2022 How much difference would it make? Alright, I will see you all next week on the podcast. Have a great week.