So… What is Accounting?
Bookkeeping? Accounting? Same thing, right? Is there a difference? In a word, YUP! There’s a difference. So…What IS accounting? What IS Accounting? In the last post, I briefly answered the question “What is Bookkeeping Anyway?”… which naturally led to the question, what IS accounting? Accounting Defined: ac·count·ing /əˈkountiNG/ Noun The action or process of keeping financial accounts **Record scratch**… Say what??? Isn’t that the same thing as bookkeeping?...
read moreSo…What Is Bookkeeping Anyway?
Question… What IS bookkeeping? I mean seriously, what the heck is it? At some point, your business coach has told you (or will tell you) that you need to let some things go. That you can’t do everything by yourself. That you need some help doing the things that you probably aren’t all that good at… Starting with your bookkeeping…. she told you that you need a bookkeeper, accountant or CPA but wait a second… What the heck is bookkeeping? What the heck is accounting? What IS Bookkeeping? Bookkeeping...
read moreOh So Sexy: Goal Setting And Budgeting
Budgeting. Goal-setting. Oh so very sexy, right?!?! Not really. But, oh so helpful as a road map and a blueprint for your life and your business. So stop groaning and hating life and just do it already. What is a budget, anyway? Budgets defined. A budget is telling your money where to go instead of later wondering where it went.” ~Dave Ramsey, The Total Money Makeover Budgeting doesn’t have to be a scary exercise. Budgeting for yourself, your family and your business can actually be fun. Okay, I...
read moreThe Big Picture: Work Life Balance
Studies show that stress is a killer. Finding work life balance can be hard. When you start a business, stress is inevitable… right? Maybe. Maybe not. Stress doesn’t have to be a part of the package. You can find some balance but you’ve got to start from the beginning. Make it a priority for you and your business right from the start. Start At The Beginning If you want to be stress-free (sorta), start at the beginning. It is my opinion, that in order to really be stress free when it comes to creating a business and working...
read morePackaging, Pricing, Presentation – Looks Matter
So you’ve packaged your services. And you’ve priced them. But WAIT. Presentation matters. Placement matters. Looks matter. Before you go slapping your product and service packages up on the ol’ website. Consider this. Looks matter. Location matters. Presentation matters. When you were in grade school, you were taught to color in the lines… This is kinda the same thing. A Few Presentation Tips Tip #1 – Start with your premium package When presenting your packages start with your “Big...
read morePackaging, Pricing and the Time Continuum
Packaging, pricing and time… they all seem to be connected at the proverbial hip. Have you ever read a product or service description… a squeeze page… a sales page… and wonder… how do they do that? Packages, Pricing and Time – Oh My! How did they come up with their packaging structure? How’d they come up with their prices without using the billable hour? Have you struggled setting prices? Have you wanted to use something other than the billable hour? But you aren’t quite sure how to go about...
read morePricing Halo: Different Flavor, Different Size
Pricing Halos. More, more, more. Kinda feel like Billy Idol all of a sudden. Anyway. Can’t stop, won’t stop. There’s more to pricing halos than meets the eye. Much more, more, more. In addition to using your anchor to halo a product or service, you can also use internal comparison pricing to halo them. Comparison Shopping How, you ask? By comparing not only your products to each other with anchoring but comparing a product to itself with value-pricing. Have you heard of a little thing called “suggested retail...
read moreAngelic Pricing – Where’s Your Halo?
Do you see that pricing halo? Not sure what I mean? It’s right there! It’s the angelic glow emanating from your perfectly positioned and priced service package and product. IT’S RIGHT THERE. Oh, you don’t see it… because you don’t have one. And you don’t have one because you don’t know what it is nor did you know that they (pricing halos) exist. The Halo So what IS a pricing halo? It’s when you use your pricing anchor to make a specific product or service look better by comparison. When...
read moreStand Firm: Do You Have A Pricing Anchor?
So your prices are expensive? Or are they affordable? Maybe. Maybe not. It’s depends on perspective. It’s all relative to the perspective of your buyer. Pricing Perspective Buyers are fickle creatures. And as you may have guessed, they are notorious for being a bit irrational and unpredictable. I know because I am one. And so are you! But in all of that crazy, buying behavior and unpredictability, there are some documented patterns. I know, it’s a bit weird but it’s true. (Want a little more on that? Check it out...
read morePricing Roulette – Which Is Best?
I have a quick question for you. How much thought do you put into the pricing of your products and services? Are you just winging it… are you playing pricing roulette? Wait. You Are Killing Your Sales! Stop it right there… hold your horses. If it hasn’t become evident to you already, the numbers you use in your price are almost as important as the product and service itself. So take a little bit of time to choose wisely. Now… where did I put my magic wand?!?! More Number Magic I’ve mentioned numbers and...
read more
Let’s Get Social
As Seen In…
Joyce M. Washington is a CPA, Consultant, Coach who teaches small business how to look beyond the numbers. She is the founder of Common Cents and creator of The Blueprint and QuickBooks Basics.