UnMortgage Yourself – Defat Your Spending
Have you heard the idea that by ‘saving a hundred dollars you’re actually saving $200, because $200 is how much you’d have to earn to inject $100 of useable money in your business, after the tax?’
Whether or not you’ve read ‘Multiple Streams of Coaching Income’ or ‘Money, Meaning & Beyond’ you may have noticed I have a distinct appreciation for an offbeat viewpoint. 
No surprise then, that I’m a huge fan of the ING Direct advertisements that exhort us to ‘save our money’ with an ‘Un-Mortgage.’ Well, I’m just-about-as-outspoken a supporter of reducing expenses in businesses as a whole!
In fact, it’s one of the first things I do when consulting biggie clients and that’s ask “Where’s the Fat in your spending?”
It’s a little known fact that while managing Thomas Leonard’s multi-million dollar businesses, there was always a backup plan known as ‘If a recession hits, we’ll cut back to just you, me and the basic website costs…’
The thing is, that kind of thinking made growing big much more stress-free – we knew exactly what it would take to ‘stay alive’ if the going got tough. (About $5000/month, believe it or not.) Compared to six-figure-per-month earnings, the low expenses really went a long way towards making us ‘recession-proof.’
Not that there’s any threat of recession on the horizon, but when was the last time you thought about the importance of saving m’oney, reducing expenses, and making it easier for you to show a profit?
Because there’s a lot of talk about prosperity, abundance, and the principles of attraction in businesses that serve others for a living, it’s become rare indeed to talk about how to save m’oney – perhaps because it can seem like scarcity thinking – but nothing could be further from the truth.
The below ‘Top 3′ article runs along those lines and helps answer the question ‘Why Bother Looking At Your Expenses…if I just ignore them, won’t they be fine??!’
If this topic is of deeper interest to you, be sure to consider joining me in October for 3 one-hour group coaching calls designed to plant ‘Abundant Frugality’ into your mindset and implement 5 ways to reduce your expenses, step by step.
We’ll take some of the big-thinkings in ‘Multiple Streams of Coaching Income’ and ‘Money, Meaning & Beyond’ and make them really real.
You’ll also receive a complimentary copy of my next print book when you register by September 29, 2006.
For now, here’s that article. Won’t you come get cuddly with the idea of your ex’penses with me?
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3 Major Reasons to Look Consciously At Your Expenses
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(1) Streamlining your expenses is a lot like decluttering your home.
In the passion of startup, many entrepreneurs invest in a variety of tools and services. ‘Just solve the problem’ and ‘get cash flowing’ is the order of the day.
But when the dust settles, it can pay to look closely at where you might have bought twice as much as you need. While you were shopping around, did you sign up for several things and now need only one? Maybe you opened two bank accounts and have let the one collect dust. Whatever it is, streamlining your expenses not only leaves you with more m’oney at the end of the month, it declutters your business ‘environment.’
In fact, human beings in general have a propensity to overbuy. Just think about all the storage units and garage sales and you’ll recognize this as a greater truth.
So just like you weed a garden on a regular basis, I encourage you to cultivate a habit of winnowing out needless expenses and discover newfound breathing room in your head AND in the cash flow you thought you didn’t have.
THAT could be worth looking at your expenses, right? It doesn’t have to be painful…
(2) Getting a handle on your expenses is a concrete way to demonstrate you’re ready to earn more.
As the good folk at Peak Potentials like to say, ‘If a child can’t handle a single scoop of ice cream, would you give her a double scoop?’
To earn more money you must demonstrate you’re ready for it. By creating a Quick List of your major expenses, prioritizing them, and knowing which you could live without… you show you’re ready to earn more and allocate the m’oney wisely when it arrives.
You wouldn’t keep pouring money into a bucket with holes, right? In much the same way, plugging the holes of neglected expenses will prepare you for the bigger money that’s on its way to you.
It’s actually just another facet of the principles of attraction you’re already so familiar with…yet in my experience, tending to expenses is one of the most overlooked areas of business there is.
What are you willing to do today, to be an exception to the rule?
(3) Getting healthy with your expenses allows you to spend freely and joyfully without fear.
Most of us know by now that everything – without exception – is Energy. And without the energy of joy, money will not flow. So we’ve become intent on creating businesses that bring us both money AND meaning, a very good thing.
But if ignorance is still coloring your relationship with how you spend your m’oney, there are always going to be moments of ‘Yikes, I don’t know whether I’m having a good month or a bad month,’ ‘Um, I may have a problem on my credit cards…’ and even guilty thoughts of ‘How am I going to pay my VA in two weeks?’
And then the panic starts to come out – crazy fear-filled efforts to make just a little more by the end of the month, when a little conscious planning on the spending side of the equation would have prevented this.
If this is you at all – even in rare moments – consider 5 ways you could reduce your expenses this month. And ask yourself – of all the investments you make – which are essential (non-negotiable musts), which are nice to haves (could live without) and which are the expenses which aren’t even being used?
Once you’ve answered this, take action accordingly.
I’m guessing you may find at least several hundred dollars of ‘found money’ that you can put to use somewhere else. Remember every dollar is a seed…
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Would You Like to Save up to $2500 of Your Very-Own M’oney before End of 2006?
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What you may *not* know about the Multiple Streams culture is that we are in fact ‘Very Frugal’ behind the scenes. I don’t say cheap, because cheap somehow implies ‘foolishly so.’ But ‘Very Frugal’ is definitely smart and gets us a long way for both us and our clients.
Which is why I’ve designated the month of October to focus on “5 Strategic Ways to Reduce Expenses (Up to $2500 before the end of the year) in Your Business.”
So we can share how our ‘Very Frugal’ mentality has helped bring so many businesses up to six and even seven figures in profit (after expenses!)
Are you ready to take a leadership stand on what you’re spending in your business, AND make the most of your investments so you can grow your earnings? If so, and you’re ready to implement real tactics, consider joining me for 3 weeks of Advanced Coaching in group format.
Why 3 weeks on the one topic?
The first week will give us time to share 5 specific cost-cutting, freedom-creating methods of saving money; and the second and third weeks will be about role plays, laser coaching, demonstrations and Q&A specific to your situation. Because it’s no longer about more information – it’s about how you apply that info that really counts – and don’t let anyone tell you differently, please!
That’s why I’ve designed each month of Advanced Coaching this way – centered around a theme – with plenty of time to integrate.
By reducing the money leaking ‘out’, you’ll make room for more to flow ‘in’ and stay in, the definition of sustainability in business.
Visit the link to read more about this month of ‘Spending Less, and Making More’ in addition to the subsequent months of our Advanced Group Coaching activity. Whether you sign up for one month or more, the advanced coaching promises to be mindset-shifting in a personal, **very economical** format:
http://www.msoci.com/andrea/archives/2006/09/5_strategic_way_1.php
