Guess I Gotta Do It Now

So, the cleaning lady (Kelli) that I blogged about recently? She says she wants a copy of my business book when it's done. She wants to learn more about business.

I said she's my idea of a great small business owner already. She would be the example I would put forth to my readers!

She said "a day I don't learn something new is a sad day".

THAT, my friends, is a good small business owner!!

So, yeah, I guess I really am going to have to finish this book.....

Oh, dear, what have I gotten myself into?

I (finally) read a handbook on how to write a book and get it published and promote it. I had a vague idea that "some more stuff" happens after I do the hard/important part of writing the silly thing.

Oh my goodness. There's a lot to do and it is all very time-consuming, especially if I want a book to be remotely "successful" (that is, cover its costs and bring me some profit). I'm more than a little overwhelmed right now.

But the business woman in me says "right, then, pull on your boots and get busy! You know that writing a book is business and business = work. No whingeing!". The business woman in me is apparently adopting an Australian accent...

It may turn out that the writing was the easy part!

Taking it Digital

I just submitted my application to be a presenter at the two 2011 World Massage Conferences, all of it online.

Eeep!

It's part of (1) starting to promote my business workshops (I proposed doing an hour on "starter" business plans) and (2) getting my name out beyond the DC massage community. Plus, it gives me a chance to start practicing with putting stuff out there through the 'net.

I am a print kinda gal. Degree in journalism. 20 years writing user guides. I still prefer my books on paper in my hand and newspaper websites make me nuts.

BUT my target audience is getting younger and younger as the masssage community gets younger and they tend to go electronic first. So, I gotta learn how to do this too.

Truth be told, I also want to be one of the voices "out there" talking about what is possible as a massage therapist. A lot of the advice and direction new MTs are getting is all about "go to work for someone else". Nothing wrong with that but it's not necessarily the only option either. Some times it feels like the schools are turning out the equivalent of massage cannon fodder -- cheap labor for the larger entities that are gaining strength in our industry.

Somebody needs to be telling new MTs that there is another option and how to get there. And how to stand up for themselves and how to take themselves seriously as business owners and....OK, if you've ever taken one of my classes, you know where I'm going with this. ;)

Gotta put it out there if you want people to find it.

Three Lessons

The woman who cleans the apartment every week is a whirlwind and a savvy and self-aware businesswoman. We chat if I'm here about business (while she flies around the apartment). Today we talked about insurance and hiring employees and contracts and a host of things.

At one point, she said (from the bathroom) "There are three things I've learned about business from running my own cleaning company." Here's her three things...

Always have a contract

In any professional relationship have a contract and read the contract. She's been on both the winning and the losing end of not reading contracts. The contract is the beginning and end of your business relationship.

AND contracts are negotiated, not just signed.

I've advised students and new massage therapists to take your own contract to a job interview. The fact that the spa/hotel/salon/group practice already has their boilerplate contract doesn't mean you have to accept it as is. If you bring your own, you can use the two of them as the place where you begin your negotiations.

Get everything in writing

No matter how good your relationship is with a businessperson, get everything in writing. Did you agree verbally to a rate change? Get it in writing. Did you agree to change who carries the insurance? Get it in writing. Did you agree to a change in duties? Get it in writing.

Everyone's memory is as susceptible to modification and mis-remembrance. Any conversation that's reduced to "you said..." vs. "no, what I said was..." is a losing conversation.

Remember it's business, not personal

Actually, she said "don't trust your employees", which made the employee working with her today laugh. She corrected herself and explained that she meant never mistake a business relationship for a personal relationship and vice versa. Remember and maintain those good boundaries.

You can have a cordial, even friendly, working relationship but remember it's always about work.

Trust your gut/trust yourself

It turns out, she had lots more lessons learned but I liked this one best. She said that when she first started in business, she wanted to be nice and she wasn't entirely confident in own judgement so she tended to do what others told her to do, even when her gut/intuition told her differently.

And she always regretted not listening to her gut.

A corrollary to this was to develop a strong sense of who you are as a business owner and keep that in your mind as you do business.

She actually had lots of other nuggets of learned wisdom that kept coming once she got started. You may see her and just see "cleaning lady" but she has multiple home and business contracts, has a staff, works hard, and knows that she is a small business owner.

She's very much like us and we could learn a lot from her.

Slogging My Way Through The Words

Writing. Writing. Writing. Writing. Writing.

I actually went to college for this??

I'm back at the Brisbane Square library today for another 2-hour session in the learning lounge. The lounge gives me access to a PC with Word, fast internet, Publisher, etc. etc. etc. and a printer. I have been coming here to do my writing several days a week because (1) it helps me break the isolation of working alone at home and (2) they've actually got decent office chairs for working on the PC!

It makes a difference.

It's funny that every time I come over to reserve a space, they ask me what I'm working on (directly or subtly). This learning lounge is meant to be for working, not just surfing the web. (They have another busy lounge for that.)

I've been coming here 2-4 days a week for several weeks now and they still ask me every time. I don't know if they're getting more or less suspicious.

The plan for today is:

1. Get a couple more pages of the NCBTMB Approved Provider application finished. It's not a horrendous application but (1) it's long, (2) it's detailed, and worst of all (3) you can't save your work.

Truly. You can enter all the info you want into this 35-page online application but you can not save your work. I found this so incomprehensible I actually called their offices (yes, from Australia) and they confirmed that, yep, that's how that works.

They agreed it's not ideal and suggested I print off each page as I get it complete. Since I don't have a printer in the apartment, I have to work on it here.

2. Whack away some more at chapter 1 of the "Travel Guide for the Spiritual Journey" book (my working title). I've finished a rough draft of the introduction and I'm now working on chapter 1. I've got a detailed outline but it's still a lot of work to turn that outline into readable prose.


Do I sound a bit whingey (translation: whiny)? I feel a bit whingey. I've done a lot of writing this week and my word brain cells are getting a cramp. I remind myself how fortunate I am to have the freedom and support to just write, something I've fantasized about (and, yes, I did go to college for this. I have a degree in journalism and spent 20 years making my living as a writer before switching to MT). But I'm kinda dragging today.

It is work. Struggling for the right word or sentence construction. Making sure I don't over-use phrases (and that is sooooo easy to do!). Analyzing the flow of information through the paragraph, the chapter, the book. Re-arranging and re-arranging and re-arranging. What if I put this sentence there? Does it read better if I swap these paragraphs? Oh but that would mean deleting this sentence and I really like this sentence! Am I using the same phrasing I used in the introduction (because I should be)? Am I still being engaging? Is this sentence too long? Should I expand upon this idea or is it self-explanatory? Do I sound arrogant? Do I sound simple-minded?

Work.

Maybe after my two hours are up here, I'll go grab my togs (translation: bathing suit) and head over to the manmade beach on Southbank and ogle the life guards.

It's a living.

Thinking About Money

I've been thinking about money lately. Not just about whether I have it or not but about the role it plays in our professional and personal lives.

Insight #1: Money Has No Intrinsic Value

If I hand you a random piece of paper with green ink and a profile on it, is it money? In the US, that's all our money really is (in other countries, they get to use a wider range of ink colors, darn it!).

It works as a medium of trade but only because we all agree to see it that way. Yes, there's that whole "backed by a heap of gold and silver in Ft. Knox" but have you ever actually seen that pile o' gold and silver? Me neither. I'm taking that on faith too. And I don't recommend you walk into a bank and ask to change your dollars for gold and silver.

If we all woke up tomorrow and decided that those pieces of paper didn't look all that valuable any more, our economy would collapse. Money is a mass delusion but a mass delusion we've all agreed to and gotten (more or less) comfortable with.

Insight #2: Money, Like Energy, Has To Move

I may get a little prejudicial with this.

Because money has no intrinsic value, because it is strictly a medium of exchange, I think it has be be, well, exchanged. It makes sense to lay a little aside for things you know you'll need it for in the future -- next month's rent, next year's vacation, your retirement -- but I think money actually....stagnates if you lay too much aside just because.

We've all met people whose whole sense of security comes from the number of zeroes in the bank / retirement / money market / etc. accounts. They can be reluctant to actually spend that money, however. It's existence in a place they can call their own is all that matters.

They often say they might need it for an emergency or "just in case". True enough. But I've met a few people who I think don't ever intend to spend it, not if they can help it. Money's whole value is that their name is attached to it and it's not going anywhere.

I also find these people tend towards a certain stagnation in themselves (yes, this is the prejudicial part). The more energy / attention / moments of your life you spend stacking up dollar bills just to have a stack of dollar bills, the less of that energy / attention / moments of your life are available for, well, living.

Insight #3: Money Picks Up The Energy Of Our Intentions

Yeah, I'm gonna go all woo-woo on you here. You have been warned.

American paper money is made from organic matter -- a blend of cotton and linen (Australian paper money is made from polymers). I teach in Energy 101 that all matter has an energetic signature. So, dollar bills have an energetic signature, even before anyone has done anything with it.

But think about how many hands a dollar bill goes through. Each of those hands has a feeling about the money, has intention for it, assigns some emotional and energetic significance to it. That energy has to end up in the fibers of that dollar bill somehow.

I wonder if money is some of the most energetically charged things we touch on a daily basis? What difference would it make to that cotton and linen if the energy we touched it with was the energy of thanksgiving and pleasure vs. fear and insufficiency? Joy vs. anger? A spirit of plenty vs. a spirit of poverty?

Does money live differently in your pocket -- and affect you differently -- if you accept with an open attitude of thanksgiving? And give it out the same way?

I don't have an answer. I just find myself thinking about this a lot lately.

On the Strength of My Own Determination

While I was at the AMTA conference in September, I introduced myself to each publisher that was there. I explained my business book and talked to them about whether it was something they would be interested in.

Most of them focus on textbooks and I don't really envision this as a textbook. Lippincott Wilkins and Williams (the biggest publisher in our biz) were at least intrigued. I got a biz card and said I'd follow up when I got back to Brisbane.

Which I did. And heard back on Friday that they are unlikely to be interested in the book. They feel they already have enough "massage business" books.

sigh

I'm glad she responded. She encouraged me to keep writing, if for no other reason than because I clearly believe so strongly in the book. And I will. I do believe in this book and I really want to write it.

I'll focus on self-publishing now (once I figure out how that actually works). I don't know that this book will ever be a best-seller, even in our small industry. But I still believe it has value. I still believe it's unique. And I'll keep writing.