Vita's Tip in 10: How Easy is it for You to Ask for Money?

Hello, hello friend, and welcome to a brand-new episode of Vita’s Tip in 10! I have really been enjoying these conversations around money, the energy of money, and your mindset, so today we are going to continue to lean into this topic. Today we're going to be talking about how to ask for money and the challenges that you may have doing so. Specifically asking your customers to pay you for the services that you are offering to them. 

I want to start by saying that this will not be a podcast about your pricing strategy, whether you’re charging enough, and how much you are worth, that deserves its own separate podcast that I may do one day. Today, I want to spend the next ten minutes with you exploring the ideas behind simply the act of asking for money. Interestingly enough, I had a recent experience with my kids that I would love to share with you. 

We recently got back from a family vacation to find that our shipping and receiving room was busting at the seams with new products. The room was filled with fabric bolts, boxes, hardware, you name it, it was there. Normally, our installer is the one to open and receive all the incoming packages, but as we have been extremely busy lately, his time was being spent on actual installations, which is his first priority. My second in command, our officer manager, was also swamped with tasks and was unable to process the shipments. After a second of brainstorming, we came up with a solution. 

I called in the reinforcements: My 14-year-old son and my 10-year-old daughter. Together, we tackled the boxes and new products, which is a job that requires more muscle and less expertise. Even with the three of us, it took us quite a few hours, that span over several days.  My kids are always a great help for tasks like that, and I always pay them for their services. 

However, it just so happened that as soon as I got back to work after vacation, I got so busy that I forgot to pay them for their hard work. For days after, I kept reminding myself to pay them, and after each time I would usually forget because some other distraction took my attention way.  

It got me thinking, why are they not asking me for their money? 

They deserve the money, and they certainly want the money. There is candy, super special sun glasses my son wants, and fancy sneakers that they want that Mom and Dad are not paying for. So, they definitely want it, but they are not asking for it. So it occurred to me to use this as a teaching moment for them. I sat them down and explained to them the translated Ukrainian saying, “Money deserves to be counted.” Therefore, if you have money that is owed to you, then it is your responsibility to ask for it, collect it, and track it. 

My friend, I always go back to the belief that money has energy and that the way you treat money is how money will treat you back. So, if you are afraid to ask for money, that could be interpreted as you are not showing it the respect it deserves by not tracking it. To put it simply, if you are not proactive in respecting your money, the money will not show you the response of showing up in abundance as we all desire. 

I tried explaining this to my children, and if I’m honest, 90% of it went over their heads. It's not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that I talk with my children about money. At the end of our conversation, I gave them tips on how to ask for money. You don’t have to be aggravated.  You don’t have to yell. You don’t have to be mean. Overall, the concept of asking for money is easy-peasy, as our friend LuAnn would say. Simply saying, “This is the money that I have earned, and I would like to have it” is the perfect starting plan for asking for money. 

For my kids, I wanted to give them examples of the wording that they could use when they are asking for money. Like “Hey, Mom, remember we worked for you a couple of weeks ago. We were wondering when you might be able to give us the money we earned.” Or, “Hey Mom, would today be a good time for you to pay us for the services rendered?” You see, it can be very easy to ask without strong emotions attached. A very simple, nonchalant way of saying, “We did this, when will you have the opportunity to pay?”  

This can be applied to our window treatment businesses. 

At Vitalia Inc, we never, and I hope that you never, render a service without deposit. And after the deposit has been paid, and the project has been completed, you are going to have to ask for the remainder of that payment. Most of the time, our clients usually pay after the first ask, and there are some that need to be reminded. When this happens, we already have a template of text in place that reminds them of their balance due, and which forms of payment are acceptable. See? It’s easy-peasy. 

The collection of the balances due is usually much less challenging in terms of asking for them and can be much more challenging in terms of how time-consuming it can be.  

Where it may be a bit more intimidating, is asking for the first payment to secure the project. So, what I want you to do, is to come up with something different from assigning negative feelings to the first ask. Stop thinking, “Oh my god they are not going to want to pay me”, “they don’t like me”, “they don’t like my ideas”, “what if they say no?”, “what if they say they have to think about it or ask their husband?”, stop working yourself up and overthinking to the point where you are too afraid to even ask. Just set those negative emotions and thoughts aside, and simply ask for the payment as the next step in your process. 

I’ve sure you have listened to some sort of sales presentation, whether it was calling to ask about hotel rates or getting a quote for a house project. And what I’ve noticed in a really good sales presentation, is after they have explained all the features and benefits, they almost always end with the salesperson or consultant or estimator asking, “How would you like to pay for it? You can pay by credit card or check.” 

You can also incorporate this line into your presentations as part of your process. Alternatively, at the end of your presentation, you can say, “The project is $10,000 overall, and to get started we require a deposit of $5,000. We accept deposits by credit card, check, or Venmo, which method of payment would you like to use today?” 

So, my tip for you today is to make asking for money, whether it is the initial payment or the balance due, a natural part of your process. Do not stress over it, and do not assign any negative emotions to money. You've made the presentation, you've made the pitch, you've put together the proposal, and now naturally, you’re going to ask for the deposit. And when the project is complete, the next step is naturally collecting the balance due. Easy-peasy my friend. 

Let’s always remember that every time you show money that kind of respect, then money will reciprocate that energy by showing you that same positive treatment. If you are courageous in asking, counting, and tracking money, it will come to you in abundance.  That is my very strong belief about the energy of money. 

That’s it for today, my friend! And if you are looking for more tips just like this, if you’re looking to feel more confident about money and your business finances; if you’re looking for ways to enhance your productivity and workflows, if you’re looking for ways to start using a digital project management tool, if you are looking for ALL the systems to run your business like a well-oiled machine – you have two ways of working with me personally.   

One is through LuAnn University, my Systems Driven Operations class. And the second is a two-day in-person intensive where I hand over all my systems for you to use and put to work immediately in your business. I want you to check out both tools because they are different and equally applicable depending on where you are in your business and how fast you want to achieve your goal. And in the meantime, I will be working on my next episode of Vita’s Tip in 10. See you next Thursday!