by admin on July 30, 2010
Welcome to the Soulful Affluence (formerly known as Sophisticated Woman and Mama). I want to thank you for coming to this site and giving me the the opportunity to create a dialogue with you. The name change better reflects these two ideas:
1) Money matters if you want to design a lifestyle that allows you to comfortably meet your financial obligations AND reflects your values and beliefs.
2) Marketing matters if you want to serve the many people who could benefit from your work . This web site is dedicated to helping creative entrepreneurs to generate more income from their work.
The goal of Soulful Affluence is to teach you how to generate more income from your passion. In short, to move you from inspiration to having paying clients for your work. I learned quickly that writing books while rewarding doesn’t pay the bills—creating a business from my writing and speaking however did. You’ll get to learn from both my successes and my mistakes.
Here’s Why I Can Help You: An introduction….
I have been a professional writer and speaker for 16 years. I established the print newsletter, Full Disclosure: The Business of Hip Hop as a law student. The newsletter provided legal and business information, in plain English, to aspiring artists and entrepreneurs. The success of the newsletter lead to a “standing room only” panel seried held monthly in Manhattan.
My panels discussion created a buzz for me that led to me to be becoming a sought after speaker at entertainment and professional conferences. I also wrote music business columns for several music publications including TheSource. com, where I began to focus on the intersection between politics and culture. In 2003 I was included in The Source magazines’ “7th Annual Power 30 Issue.”
Over the years I’ve had the honor of speaking at numerous schools including Columbia University, Harvard University and Duke University about politics and culture. I was also a regular contributor to National Public Radio. BTW, I am graduate of Fordham University School of Law and I am a member of the New York State Bar.
In 2004 I debuted my first book and became a mother.
Stand & Deliver: Political Activism, Leadership & Hip Hop Culture (Softskull Press, 2004) is still used in college curricula around the country and the reference book, Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip Hop Culture (Greenwood Publishing, 2005) has been called the most comprehensive to date. My work is also included in several anthologies including, We Got Issues: A Young Women’s Guide to a Bold, Courageous and Empowered Life eds. Rha Goddess and JLove Calderon (Inner Ocean Publishing, 2006). My lastest work is the motherhood anthology, Who’s Your Mama: The Unsung Voices of Women and Mothers. Foreword by Rebecca Walker (Counterpoint, 2009).
I Don’t Mean To Brag or Testify…
In my career I’ve gone from paying my own way to appear at conferences to being a speaker paid between $1,000 - $5,000 (excluding air fare and hotel) for a 60-90 minute talk or panel. I’ve received $500 for reprint rights for an essay (a year or two old) and up to $5,000 for a new essay. Having a book and a brand (reputation) helped me to garner great fees.
Like many of you, I experienced the “feast or famine” money cycle. I had periods of receiving checks and (the occaisonal limo) to times when the phone didn’t ring and work was non-existent. Like many folks I thought marketing was sleezy—my work should speak for itself. I have since learned that creating a business and doing regular marketing is the means to get out your message (or art ) and creating consistent income from it.
Over the years the common thread of my work has been to provide people with valuable information that can improve their lives and their livelihoods.
Soulful Affluence will be valuable to anyone who’s committed to a creating a business that provide personal satisfaction AND an excellent income. You can also follow me on Twitter. I f you want to learn more about how I help creative folks earn more money Click Here
Join the conversation; I cannot wait to meet you! I’ve had the great fortune of having some great mentors as I’ve went about blazing a trail that was authentically me. I understand how important it is to mentor women business owners. Think of me as a new girlfriend who’s willing to share her experiences with you. Pose your questions and your comments and I’ll answer back. Here’s to you and taking your career to the next level!
Step Into Your Greatness!
Yvonne
by admin on July 29, 2010
Why did you start your business? It’s not a trick question. Most folks will immediately say, “To make money,” but there is usually another reason lurking beneath that slick answer. Maybe you want to be able to provide your children with a great education and extracurricular activities; perhaps you’d like to retire with a nice nest egg. Maybe you started your business because you truly believe that your product or service can improve people’s lives. Financial success or failure hinges on your abilty to create a sustainable and profitable business.
It’s an important questions to ponder. Why? Because the underlying reason you started your business, not the dollar signs, is what will keep you motivated to slog through all of the terror and confusion that’s associated with being a business owner. Whether you having a successful business is to benefit you, your family or the world, you know that failure is not an option for you.
But if you’re like me, you may have started your business and then quickly realized that being an entrepreneur was no joke. You learned that having an idea or even a good product or service is not enough to create a financially viable business. In the beginning you may have poured money and time into your business without generating a dime of income. You may have also become overwhelmed by all of advice and strategies that are being touting as the “answer” to developing a money-making business.
After spinning my wheels for a bit, I’ve realized that regardless of the “system” or “blueprint” that is being discussed there are three (3) main components to building a sustainable business. I caution that these are not quick fixes to instant riches, think of them instead as building blocks.
1) Planning:
Call it goal setting if you like, but it boils down to deciding what you want/need to achieve within a given time frame. Do you want to launch a new product? Write a book? Get invited to speak at a professional conference? Open a an online or brick and mortar store? Clarity of purpose is important. Why is this goal important to the success of your business? It’s also important to set a deadline for the attaining the specific goal. Deadlines gives us humans a needed sense of urgency. I can’t forget this— You need to plan how much money you want/need to generate a month or per quarter. I personally learned the hard way that real businesses don’t run on a “I’ll make do with what I can make” basis. As a solopreneur, your income is tied to your revenue projections and your calculations on how you can achieve that dollar figure.
2)Execution:
Basically this involves mapping out the action steps that you need to take to support your goal(s). If you are launching a new product, your actions steps may include: doing some market research; writing or recording content; interviewing experts in the field; investigating vendors who can manufacture the product. If you plan to make $5,000 a month, then you need to determine how many units of your product(s) you need to sell or how many clients, you will need to achieve that income goal. Essentially each goal can be broken down into a series of smaller action steps.
3) Marketing:
It’s how you regularly educate your target audience about your product or service. Most of the experts agree that solopreneurs should be spending between 2-4 hours per day on marketing activities. It sounds like a lot of time, but what’s the point of working to refine your product or service when you have no clients? Marketing activities include: creating new offerings for your target audience (products, tele-classes, programs, services); researching and following-up on opportunities; connecting with your clients. Client contact can include one or more of the following: sending out regualar blog posts (written, audio or video); sending out a monthly e-newsletter; interacting daily via social media such as Twitter or Facebook.
Mastering the building blocks of business development is critical to your business. After you’ve got these principles down, then you can move on to the delving into the shiny, exciting bells and whistles.
Here are some related posts that you may find helpful:
Solopreneurs and Freelancers: Do You Have A Business Improvement Plan?
Chris Guillebeau’s Annual Review: Overview and Outline (It’s not too late to do the exercise)
Danielle LaPorte’s The Secret to Self-Promotion: Radiance and the Facts, Jack
P.S. If you enjoyed this post today, do me a favor and share it on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, or any of the other sites you see below as well. And I’d love to get your feedback
(Original version posted 1/10)
