The Empowered Messenger – The heroine whose message burns inside her, begging to be released. Even though her pen may quiver and her voice may shake, she knows it is time to stand in her power – clear, confident, courageous. She says yes to the call, and she shares her message, because she was born to inspire.

Question: I want to invest in my business and hire a business coach, but I don’t have the money in my business yet and I share personal finances with my husband. I don’t know how to communicate how important this is to him. I worry that he’ll think it’s a waste of money. How can I convince my husband that business coaching is a good investment?

Answer: Great question! I have a three step system that I would like to invite you to engage with in order to answer this question. The acronym for the three steps is MEN.

M is for Make a Decision!

You first need to make a clear decision and commitment to getting the mentorship and the coaching that you need in order to make your business a success.

What coaching and mentorship will do for you is short circuit all of the blind passes, all of the speed bumps, all of the challenges you’re going to run into inevitably on trying to do this on your own, and it will literally shrink the time, sometimes tenfold, sometimes even a thousand fold in your learning curve. That means you’re actually going to have a business that will be getting off the ground and be profitable sooner rather than later.

The essential value in hiring a mentor or a coach is that you get to stand on their shoulders and receive the distillation of their wisdom from all the mistakes that they’ve made. You get the benefit of what they have experienced and all of the investments they’ve made in themselves that they are now transmitting to you, so it shortens your learning curve significantly and allows you to start profiting handsomely in your business sooner.

If you are not clearly committed to getting this coaching for yourself, don’t even bother having the conversation with your husband, because he will know immediately if you are uncertain. Also, don’t even start the conversation with him if you’re not completely clear on who you want to work with, exactly how much the investment is, and whether you are clear that regardless of what he says, you are going to be committed to making that happen.

This commitment  process is something you’re going to come up against again and again and again in your business, whether it’s asking your husband or colleagues for their support, or going out into the world and asking for money from clients and potential customers. You’ve got to be solidly committed in your belief and the value of what you have to offer, because ultimately this is a selling conversation with your husband.

So the first step is make sure that you have made clear commitment and a decision. You’ve already decided that one way or the other, it’s going to happen, with his support or without it. And you’re coming to him asking for his support.

E is for Educate Your Man

You want to educate your man on a few things. First, the value of your vision. You want to educate him on the value of your vision, and again, that comes back to you. How committed are you to seeing this vision come into full fruition?

The second thing you want to educate him on is the value of coaching. Coaching is going to shrink your learning curve and get you to profitability multiple times faster, exponentially faster than you could ever get there on your own. It’s like having a Sherpa to take you to the top of Mount Everest versus trying to figure out how to get up Mount Everest on your own with no map, no compass, and no help.

The third thing you want to educate him on is the value that you see in this particular program that this particular coaching is offering. So again, you want to be very very clear about whether or not the program is going to be a right fit for you based on where you are in your business journey.
If you’re at the very beginning, you definitely want to be investing in a mentor or coach who’s going to be helping you do just a few basic things in your business:

1-Really strengthen your commitment to your vision.

2-Help you get clear on your message so you are putting this message out in a consistent, powerful, and compelling way into the world.

3-Learning how to convert your prospects into clients, and convert your calling into cash flow.

These are fundamental basic things that any business owner needs to be having in place and have running in order to be a successful business.

N is for Negotiate Fairly

When you’re having this conversation with your husband, there’s no manipulation. Don’t be holding back your affection to manipulate him into supporting you. He’s either going to support you or he’s not.

If he’s not going to support you, then you need to be ready to move on to your next steps. If he says no, notice: is he supporting you, or is he sabotaging your dream and your vision? That’s an important thing to notice, because it might mean you need to make some decision about your relationship.

That’s my three step system for having a conversation about getting an investment out of the joint finances in your relationship with your husband.

We’d love to hear from YOU…

Have you ever discussed investing in your business with your partner? What are your tips for communicating in your relationships? Leave your answer in the comments below!

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business coaching, business owner, entrepreneur, investing in business, money and marriage, money conversations, online business, September 2016 Issue, women in business