Soul Proprietor – Are you doing business like it’s still the sixties? 

I have a friend who is an old hippie.  He’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet and smart as hell.  But when it comes to business…well let’s just say he’s still stuck in the sixties.

A few years ago, he opened up a bookstore with a few of his buddies.  They had big plans for this bookstore…kind of.  He invited me to check it out and when I walked in, it was straight out of a hippie flop house with ramshackle recycled bookcases that were cluttered with an odd assortment of books, a coffee machine, counterculture leaflets, and pillows on the floor with a mix of young artsy types and heroin addicts reading or nodding out.  Grateful Dead was playing in the background and incense swirled around the room.  It was certainly a chill place.

I looked around and asked some simple questions about business plans and marketing.  Blank stares and snickers told me that no one really put much thought into any of that stuff.  They looked at me like I was some sort of “square” or narc for even bringing the topics up.

As we walked out of the store, my friend asked me what I thought.  “It’s going to fail.” I said.

He got angry at me, called me a “bummer” and thought I wasn’t very nice.

But you didn’t need to be a “sell out” to smell the patchouli on the wall.  There was zero effort to treat this like a real business and there was a slacker vibration that said “we hope this will work out somehow…maaaannnnnn….”

Of course, the business failed a year later.

My hippie friend has another business that he’s been running for many years.  At one point, it was thriving and profitable. These days, not so much.  He’s refused to adapt to technology or raise his rates.  He’s barely making ends meet and the only things that keep him from closing the doors are the few long term loyal clients and the lone hippie employee left who is totally dependent on this job – and needs to get paid under the table.

Every time I visit his work place, I give gentle suggestions but he’s determined not to “be a capitalist pig” so there it sits.  A relic of a time gone by when business was done differently.  Sigh.

Hey, even if you were born in the summer of love, a business powered by hope and flowers isn’t going to cut it in the long run.  You need to get current – and businesslike.  Here are some signs that you’re stuck in the past and running your business like an out-of-touch love child:

You’re hosting events & retreats where you “break even” or lose money because profits make you uncomfortable and you want to be as cheap as possible.  You assume that people won’t pay anyways.

You’re giving away your services for free, constantly. Because you’re “nice” and “generous”…  (Psst…free love doesn’t pay your bills.)

You’re “bartering” your services for incense, gems, massages, and patchouli oil.

When people visit your website, they have NO idea how to actually hire you or pay you.  Your site is vague & confusing like a sloppy plate of lentil curry…lots of groovy images but not a PayPal button in sight.

You don’t even HAVE a website.  (There is NO excuse for this. NONE.)

You don’t have a business plan.  Cause you’re spontaneous and like “winging it”.

You shun social media because it’s a “plastic hassle” to learn.

You open your office when you “feel like it” rather than keep regular hours.  (This was one of the reasons why that bookstore failed.)

You never raise your rates.  You’re charging the same prices that you did ten years ago.

If you have a physical location, people “hang out” all day like it’s a clubhouse or a love-in – and they never buy a thing.

You blame “the man” for your lack of success rather than your own work habits.

You deride anyone who is successful as a “sell out” or a “yuppie”.

Sound like a bunch of stereotypes?  I’ve seen this more times than I’d like to count. Especially with mind-body-spirit business owners. Many times when they’ve hired me for coaching and then balked at my suggestions because it seemed “too hard” to update.

So they remain where they are and, eventually, they fold.

It doesn’t have to be like this and big news: making small tweaks is not as difficult as you think.  The hardest part is often just gathering the courage to do it.

Start here:

– Charge enough so you are making a living wage.  Raise your rates if you haven’t done so in a long time.

– Get a website.  In this day and age, it’s not hard and it’s cheap.

– Find one social media platform you like – and then master it.

– Scared of computers? Take a class or hire a kid to help you out (seriously – kids are growing up with this stuff and know all the dirt).

– Stop bartering.  NOW.

– Crunch the numbers BEFORE you open the doors for your event or retreat to make sure you are making a profit, even if the turn out is small.  (Breaking even is not a success.)

– Keep regular hours.  Show up when you say you are going to show up.

– Craft a simple plan for your business.  Update it every year.

Breathe.

Simple but modern (and smart).

There is nothing wrong with being old skool in some things (I’m no spring chicken and I still appreciate Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific shampoo) but when it comes to your business, don’t operate like you’re in a purple haze.  Get with the times.

Peace out man,

Theresa

image from stock photography

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