Duped by the do-it-yourself money leak
By Becky J. Benes, MPS
Originally published in v11n2 and reproduced with the permission of choice, the magazine for professional coaching
Most people look for their money leaks on their accounting spreadsheets in the form of costs, spending and expenses. While these are important numbers and areas to consider, they do not bring to light one of the biggest money leaks: wasted time.
Wasted time comes in many forms and its costs to business can be elusive and hidden from awareness. Here are just a few areas of unconscious time-wasters that are major money leaks for many entrepreneurs:
1. Not setting clear boundaries.
2. Not empowering or hiring appropriate support team.
3. Do-it-yourself mindset.
4. Procrastination.
All of these issues are reflective of different sacred money contracts and types. We all have innate sacred money types and contracts that allow us to generate an abundant and successful lifestyle and business with ease and grace when we are in alignment with our contracts.
There are eight specific money types which influence our ability to make and keep money: Accumulator, Alchemist, Ruler, Celebrity, Romantic, Connector, Maverick and Nurturer. Each money type has a sacred contract we came here to fulfill. Within each money type, there are empowering and/or disempowering behaviors and mindsets that move us forward to success or keep us stuck. These innate money relationships subconsciously dictate our ability to attract and manage our money.
However, by becoming aware of one’s sacred money type and contract, we have the choice to honor our strengths and work through our weaknesses so that we can bring our contract into alignment and fulfill our sacred money destiny.
Let’s just take one example that happened to me recently. I am an Accumulator, which is the Inner Banker (or what I call my inner tight wad). My sacred money contract is to respect the power of money by investing to create freedom. Respecting the power of money is my strength; I easily accumulate and hoard money. However, my stretch is to invest money to create freedom.
You may be asking, especially if you are not an Accumulator and don’t have a stock pile of money, “Why is stock piling money a problem and how does it keep one stuck?” I actually said the same thing and was indignant, feeling financially superior and not having an issue with money. That was until I began to see how my resistance to spending money to free up my time truly did limit my ability to increase my income.
In order to come into alignment with my contract, I am challenged daily to look at areas where I do and do not invest money in myself and/or my business to free up time and energy and then adjust my mindset and behavior around spending.
Here is a simple example. My accountant needed one of my expense column entries divided into three separate categories and my bookkeeper had left for the day. I “did not want to bother her,” which is another way of saying, “I did not want to spend the money to have her come back to work.”
So I decided that I could just find the information myself. After all, how hard could it be, right? (This is a huge sabotaging money leak pattern for the Accumulator/Do-ityourselfer – not empowering your staff!). Long story short, 10 hours later, completely spent and exhausted, I surrendered, cried UNCLE and finally called my bookkeeper. She was at my office the next morning, spent 45 minutes with my spreadsheets, and gave me the information needed. However, she was a bit miffed and upset that I had not called her first making her feel undervalued.
She also informed me that if I had hit the save button after my meddling on the spreadsheets, I would have lost months worth of work. My bookkeeper was able to find the information with such grace, ease and joy because money details and systems are her magic and are in alignment with her sacred money type: Ruler. However, for me, money details and spreadsheets are not my strength and stress me out.
How did this create a massive money leak for me?
• Trying to save a few dollars, my energy was spent doing something that is not my strength and not doing what I do best, creating income and working with clients.
• I disempowered my team creating tension and angst which took additional energy and time to rectify.
• The 10 hours completely created undue stress in my work environment and in my body. The next day, my neck was stiff and my back was tight making it difficult to work and to focus. Thus, costing even more time and lost income. (It did offer a great excuse to make an appointment for a massage.)
So, what can we learn from this?
1. It is important to understand my gifts and talents and those of my staff.
2. Set and keep boundaries so that people (you included) are not treading on others territories. In this example, her job is bookkeeping and my job is connecting and working with clients. I can review the books, but it is not my job to mess with her systems.
3. Empower and allow your staff to do their jobs. Make sure everyone is in the job that they do with grace, ease and joy.
4. Do not engage in activities that you can hire someone else to do at a fraction of the cost.
Can you see in this seemingly small and insignificant decision and my desire to save money by doing it myself cost valuable time, energy and a lot of money in lost revenue?
One more time, I, the money breakthrough coach, got duped again by another sneaky, unconscious and disempowering money type behavior of the Accumulator.
By knowing and understanding your sacred money types, you are able to bring these issues to the surface, see the patterns and plug your money leaks. It is an ongoing process of awareness and a daily practice that will, slowly but surely, plug your money leaks so that you can step into your money power and experience financial freedom.
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