Welcome back to the My first hire course, we are on our third lesson now. So by this point, you have had a little bit of time to think about the why of your business, the how of your business and the kind of vision that you're bringing into the world, you have gone through and listed out all the things that you do, and then sorted through them to create skills buckets. So these are like the skills that you're looking for in someone that you hire. And then we have transformed that into a job ad. And so we are well on our way towards getting the word out there about this position that you want to hire for. But before we do that, we need to figure out the money, the money part of this. So right now, we are going to cover building your business in a regenerative and reciprocal way, developing a supportive pricing model for that regenerative business, understanding what people charge for their skills. So when people have different levels of skills, they tend to charge certain amounts per hour for those skills. And so we're going to talk about that. So you kind of know what is available on the market, and then figuring out what is affordable for you and planning for your future. Okay, so when we think about how finances relate to hiring, we think about it in relation to these three things, regenerative practices, supportive pricing, and affordability. And so regenerative practices in business are those that create a reciprocal relationship between you and other people, including other resources. So a reciprocal relationship between you and your client, between you and the person that you're hiring into your business between you and the financial investment that your client is making into working with you, between you and your time and energy investments in your work. So we want to create businesses that are regenerative, that have reciprocal relationships so that they are sustainable so that we don't burn out. So that these are things that we feel like we can keep doing, as long as we want to keep doing them. The supportive pricing piece of this means that the pricing structures that you have support your needs. And you are also able to talk about what you're providing your product or your service in a way that expresses its value. So that your client, your customer understands the value of the the service or the products that you're bringing forward. So an example of unsupportive pricing. And it see this often where people under price themselves for the work that they do. So an example of this for my own business is that a couple years ago, I was doing employee handbooks, full employee handbooks, as many rounds of revisions of the handbook as a person needed for $300. And that was unsustainable. It was too much time work, technical energy investment, for the return. And so you want to have pricing that supports your business and then also your financial needs. And we're gonna dig into that a little bit more. And then the other part of this is affordability. So when we're thinking about hiring, we're thinking about having practices that are regenerative, a supportive pricing structure, and then creating affordability when we bring on more people into our team and affordability, it can come from that person generating their own revenue. It can come from You incorporating the cost of this person into your pricing structure? And those are kind of the two main ways that I see affordability created within this model. So first, we're going to look at building a regenerative business and what a regenerative business looks like for each person is different. But when I think about my business, and what makes it regenerative, these are the things that come up. And I, I encourage you to spend some time thinking about this question of if I am designing my business in a way where it is regenerative and sustainable for me, then what does that look like? So an example of this, for me is that I receive in an equitable proportion to what I give. And that doesn't mean that I that it's necessarily equal, right, it doesn't necessarily mean that the time that I give is the same as the time that someone else is giving to participate in a program with me, right? It doesn't necessarily mean that that the investment that one group of people can afford to work with me is the same as the investment as another group of people can afford to work with me, right. So this is the equitable piece is essential to me and what my business does, so that I am giving in a way that feels equitable to what I am receiving. That I am supportive physically, mentally and spiritually, so that my body is well nourish and healthy and has the energy that it needs in order to do my work. And to participate in my whole life. That mentally I have the capacity to do whatever it is that I need to do that day, for me being like, in really public facing roles is taxing on my energy in one way. Whereas, you know, writing a whole bunch of things is taxing in another way. And so I want to be able to have enough of the different kinds of energy that I need mentally in order to be able to do all of these things. And then spiritually, for me, business is a manifestation of my purpose for being in the world. And so my business has to be aligned with my spiritual needs as well and helping to bring those into the world in order for it to be regenerative for me.
Because without that, for me, it just feels extractive
that I am able to access my state of slow in my work. And when you're working, there's like kind of a couple of ways it can go, there's like the whole list of things that you have to do, and you get through them. And like you feel like even more stressed out sometimes by the time you're done. And then there's the state of flow, which is that you kind of easily move through the work that's in front of you, and you feel complete with it when you're when you're done. And so that state of flow, which is something that I've learned through art, and through dance, is something that I like that I need to be able to access in my business on a regular basis in order for me to be able to keep going,
that I'm able to afford my expenses with my income. So both my business and my personal expenses have to be supported through the income that I'm generating through the business. And so we're gonna get into more detail about this part in a few slides. And then I have the support of my community and then I am also supporting my community in order for this to keep going. It's all about relationship, building and being a reciprocal relationships with people.
So how do you take that and then create a supportive pricing structure?
So last year, my business went through a big transformation. And one of the shifts that I made was with that handbook creation program, I changed it from, like 300 bucks for your handbook with like, barely any structure around how that looked to a very structure
For the program, that we're also brought on the support of a copywriter to help with the writing process,
which is fantastic because it adds value for my clients. And it helps me to not have to spend my time and my energy on writing and editing, which is not something that really fills my cup.
But in order for me to bring on this copywriter, and to have this more structured approach to writing handbooks, I had to look more holistically at what I was charging for it.
At the same time, I found out that the living wage where I live, and went up. And so the living wage is a study that is done every year by MIT. And it tells you in every county in the United States, how much a person needs to make in order to be able to afford to live there. And it's basic expenses. It's not like, you know, fancy vacations or anything. And it was a big leap. And so using the living wage as a base amount of pay of what I want to pay people is really important to me, I think that people should be able to afford to live,
where my business is located.
Regardless of where they live, it's that has to do with anti colonization and imperialism. And, and I have podcasts that are all about that. So if you want to check out more about that, I recommend the hearth podcast, I think it's episodes
979, and 11, or somewhere in there.
So anyway, bringing it back.
So when I was, I found out that information, I knew my people weren't making enough in order for me to be able to be in integrity with my values. I knew that I wasn't charging enough in this particular program, and then also in other programs that I had as well. And so but how do you decide what something is worth? Right? How do you decide that?
The process that I've found helped me that that
is a filter that you can use is first looking at personal expenses? So what does my company need to pay me? In order for me to be able to keep up with my personal expenses?
What, you know, rent, groceries, all the things right savings, all that? What does my business need to make in order to support it's expenses? So if I have a copywriter, who's now working for me, then how do I incorporate that? A virtual assistant, bookkeeper, all these different pieces? What are all of those expenses? You know, what are the automations that I, you know, have the different subscriptions that I belong to? What are the professional programs that I'm participating in? What are all of these things? Right?
Then, once we look at personal expenses, and business expenses, we'll look at what what am I offering my clients right now? What are the programs or the products that I am offering my clients right now? And how does
that what I am offering fit with my own capacity. So it could be that I'm offering a bunch of different things, and I have a lot of capacity still. And so there's a lot of room for me to increase. The amount of income that I have, by selling more of these kinds of offers are more of these kinds of products. It could be that I'm offering, you know, a certain number of things right now. And I'm totally beyond capacity. And I have no more room in my schedule to be able to add anything else. And so when we look at that, we look at what is the difference between my current offers, how they're priced, and then my capacity and my financial needs. That's like the magical square triangle. So what am I offering? How am I pricing it? How much capacity do I actually have to do that? And if I'm at my full capacity or close to my full capacity
Am I meeting my financial needs? If all of that is working, then there's a supportive pricing structure, right? You have offers that are priced in a way, so that when you're at capacity, you're meeting or exceeding your financial needs.
Minimum
just wanted to see if there was anything else related to that that was coming up.
Okay. So when we have a supportive pricing structure,
we can then fit into it.
Hiring help, right? So the help that you hire into your business becomes a type of business expense. And so that can be incorporated into how you are pricing your offers and the number of offers you're selling and what your capacity is, oh, yeah, that was my thing about capacity. So I think people sometimes will think about capacity being the full amount of time that they can work in a week. But really, if you spend all of the hours that you have available, just working with clients, then you're not working on growing your business, and you're not working on your business, like on the inside of your business. And so you need to think about your time in kind of these areas of
how much time do I want slash need to be working with clients? How much time do I want and need to be working on growing my business, and then how much time do I want and need to be working on my business.
And so you can split it up into thirds, and do you know,
a third year, third year third hear, or you can, you know, divide it up in any kind of a way that makes the most sense for where you're at in your business right now, I try to keep it in thirds, does not always happen.
But if I keep it in thirds, I find that I'm making good progress with my clients and making good progress and growing my business. And I'm making good progress in refining the systems and the offers that I have in my business.
So that brings us to hiring. And when you hire what people charge at different levels of support. So we have entry level. And entry level is really anywhere from minimum wage to $40 an hour, I don't recommend spending less than $15 an hour for work that you're wanting to get done. Because when you go under that amount, it's very difficult to hire people who have the skill set that you need.
And when we talk about regenerative, you know, finances and businesses,
when we think about the amount of money that people need it in order to survive,
it's difficult to survive on less than $15 an hour, there are some places where it's difficult to survive on even that, like where I live,
the living wage is almost $27 an hour. So that's the minimum that I would pay anyone.
And then it kind of goes up from there. But when you're in this entry levels zone, especially in the online market, you're looking at between 15 and $40 an hour.
On the low end of the amount of hours, people will generally work a week, you'll find people who work five, a minimum of five hours a week, I haven't found many people who will work less than that. And I think it's because you have to spend enough time with your clients in order for it to really make sense for you as the the person who's being hired to do the work.
And in order to be able to be effective and get work done. So that means on the low end of the spectrum, to hire someone to help you to do some work. It's around $300 a month.
That's someone who's making $15 An hour working five hours a week for four weeks.
On the higher end of the spectrum, you're looking at more like $800 a month and so this is someone who is more skilled and
in their area of expertise, but they're still learning, right. And so this level of support, when you hire people into this level, they require a little bit more training and more feedback and more ongoing kind of communication.
Then we move into the next level, which are skilled, skilled people, they're, they're professionals in their field. And they generally will charge between 50 and $150 an hour. So they're not they haven't moved into the realm of being a professional consultant yet.
But they are doing skilled work. So for example, my copywriter falls into this area, right. And
the professional consultant zone is someone who's highly experienced, who is oftentimes coming in in a strategic capacity to help you solve some kind of a problem or help you get over some kind of a hump that's happening for you. And so you can, most people will make their first hire in the entry level hourly position. But I wanted you to have an understanding of these other levels that are here that are available. So that you know that this is a wide spectrum, right. So you may hire a professional consultant for like, a one on one, you know, hour long session or a VIP day or something like that, where they're, you know, helping you with that piece, you may hire a skilled professional on a project by project basis, that's more common. And then you may hire an entry level or this kind of level of person
to be working for you on a regular basis consistently.
All right.
So then finding affordability. So this is that last piece of the puzzle here when we're hiring.
And before we get into just assuming that hiring someone is the right thing for you, I want you to ask yourself, if paying someone to help you is in alignment with your why, your how and your vision.
And there are all kinds of reasons why paying someone to help you may not be in alignment right now.
A couple of the things that are related are in this next section. So how much capacity is there to hire help at this moment. And so when we think about capacity to hire help, things that are included in that our finances, they are this alignment with your your why your how your vision,
there is also the amount of time that you have available in order to do hiring to get the word out there to talk to people. And then there's the amount of time and energy that you have to onboard the person to train them to give them feedback to bring them into the fold. And so it may be that your answer to one or both of the this kind of question is no, it's not in alignment with me right now to hire, I don't have enough time or energy for this, or this really isn't in alignment with how I want to run my business or why I'm even in business in the first place. And that's totally valid. Going down the path of hiring an independent contractor or an employee is not the right decision for everyone at any given time. Right? It could be that right now, it's not the right thing. And then you revisit it again in six months or a year. It could be that it is never the right kind of fit for you. But it's important to ask this question before you go into the hiring process because it does take time and energy to do it. And you want to make sure that it's really an alignment for you before you go down that path.
If there isn't capacity right now, then the question is what would I need in order to get there? If it is in alignment with your why your how and your vision and there just isn't the capacity right now, then that gives us the opportunity to do a little bit of planning and a little bit of
creating your runway. So in the time Peace
It could be that you just need to start blocking out some time every week to, to work on it.
And in the energy piece, it could be that you need to take away some things temporarily, in order to be able to prioritize the hiring, so that ultimately you'll be able to save yourself more time and energy in the future.
If it is a financial peace, it could be looking at how your offers are structured, how your product pricing is working, and shifting that based on your intention to hire someone at a living wage or a wage that is affordable for you.
And so if it's not a yes right now, then this is what you do you you either pause until it feels like there's alignment with your why your how on your vision, or if it is in alignment with why how envision then you work on the capacity, piece of time, energy and then the financial part. And if you're getting stuck in you need any help reach out to me I'm happy to help and I will see you in the next section.
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