Tina started her career as a tax accountant and as she moved through her career to a tax manager she realized that many businesses needed help with prices, budgets and cash flow. 4 years ago Tina decided to start her own business in which she has helped companies with these needs.

We were lucky enough to have Tina stop by to give us 8 tips/steps to determine how to set your pricing.

8 Steps to Set Your Pricing

1. Have a Strategic Pricing Plan. When you are offering what your target audience wants it gives you the confidence to charge what it is worth. You would first dream a little bit about where your business would be: Small business or big business?

2. Identify and Measure the Value that You Provide. You do not want to have a price war. Think about the ways that you are different. Think about how you can increase your value so you can increase the price. Stop looking at the competitors and look at your value.

3. Calculate Your True Cost. Think through every single expense that...

Jessica Rector’s story is the ultimate making lemonade out of lemons.  After she found herself with an unexpected pregnancy, she not only decided to take on motherhood, but she also made it her mission to help other single moms.   Her mission is to help the moms out there who want to start making a life that they love versus just trying to get through the day. 

She joined us to share her story of this incredible business, along with telling us how she juggles a 20-month-old and a booming business.

How did ‘The Single Mom Movement’ come about? Jessica was a life coach, traveling all over the world and living life to the fullest. After becoming pregnant she thought her life was coming to an end. Being very career-focused she had no idea what to do or what her life would look like as a single mom and kept her pregnancy a secret as shame took hold of her. She ‘came out’ to the world through her blog titled ‘The Clueless...

Sue B. Zimmerman is a successful business owner who was all about using social media to bring business into her store on Cape Cod.  After she saw her daughters using Instagram, she wanted to see how she could use this tool for her business.  Well, not only did she use it for her business, but she has spends her time traveling the world, teaching others how to utilize it for their businesses.  We were lucky enough to have her stop by and share some amazing tips on using Instagram for your business!

Can you explain how Instagram can benefit you as a business? You can communicate what you do very efficiently, by your visual story. That means sharing things about your business like new products, people who you admire, or events that you attend. You can show what you are passionate about and what your business represents.   Sue has 6 accounts because she's found that the more that you niche down what you do and what you share the more likely you are to...

Michelle always wanted to have her own business but she, like many others, didn’t know exactly how to go about that. After going to business school and learning how to get a job, not how to start a business, she worked in banking for about 4 years. Michelle knew this was not how she wanted to spend her life and just became really burnt out. At the age of 30 she just couldn’t do it anymore and took a sabbatical to Europe really seeking what she wanted in life. She came back to the states and quit her job. She began working at a dot com and really enjoyed the entrepreneur environment and then moved to Microsoft. With her first coach and the idea of figuring out her purpose and how she wanted to make a difference in the world her 180 began.

So you have this urge to look into this coaching thing and then where did you go next? During this time she was really wanting to hold onto my corporate job and really didn’t see herself as an entrepreneur but she started going...

I'm so embarrassed to say this, but I used to brag about how my corporate job was 'so easy, I could do it in my sleep.'  Granted, there was something nagging at me, that it wasn't right, and I knew I should be doing other things.  However, I was pushing myself outside of the 40 hours I spent in corporate, and learning all about building businesses, etc.  However, I spent 40 hours of every week in just mind numbing work.  Why?  Well, it paid the bills, and it was easy.

I was watching Oprah's Master Class (Spend 10 minutes with me, and you'll soon figure out I'm an Oprah fanatic, as I refer to her shows often.  Oh, and I'm meeting her in September, but that's a whole other story for another time.)

But anyway.... I was watching her Master Class with Justin Timberlake, and he said something that completely hit home.  He never wants to do the same thing twice.  If he's done it, it's time to move on, and there's nothing more exciting for him to see...

I'm not sure if you're anything like me, but I have always found Trademarks a giant mystery.  I was never sure if you should do it when immediately starting your business, or if you should wait until it hits a certain threshold.  I also once tried to do the Trademark process on my own, and well, overwhelmed, is a complete understatement.  Tamsen Horton of Vujà Dé Law came for a visit again to break down trademarks, and she gave us some great information.

What does a trademark actually do for us? Trademark is the legal process that helps consumers identify the source of the goods. At its core, it is the tool that helps consumers know exactly where the product came from.

A trademark is different from a patent. Patents are when you are protecting the idea and how something works. This is also different from Copyright, which is more of music, lyrics and things that we create.

When should we approach the trademarking process? This process should...

Lisa was lucky enough to become employee #1 for a doggy day care facility in Atlanta, GA, back in 1999.  She made sure that outside of just working there, that she took it upon herself to really learn the business.   She met her now husband, and after the business exploded, they were offered an opportunity to move to Austin.  After they built that facility to a point of turning away business, they helped build a second facility in Dallas.

They were then given the opportunity to buy the two facilities, they worked so hard to build.  After securing a loan, they proudly became business owners.

What was the one thing that was a big switch for them going from just managing to actually owning?  The financial mindset definitely changes when you go from just managing to owning, and understanding now everything really does fall on your shoulders. 

How do they make the employee relationship work?  Lisa has had her managers for her facilities stay 11...

I get asked this a lot.  We're all told to live and do in life what we're passionate about, but what does that really mean?  So many of us have become so numb to our true calling and feelings because we're so busy making a living, that this answer becomes harder and harder to find, the older we get.  

It took me a while, but I finally got to that answer.  Before I spill those beans, I want to give you a little insight into my life, and give you some of the best advice I ever received.

In my early 30's I had a successful business, and I loved the building aspect of it, but I was burned out.  I also had a marriage that I never should have entered into, that was falling apart.  To say I was a bit lost of who I was, is a complete understatement.

My ex was in the psychology field, and he told me, as we were nearing the end that he was fixed.  He had done what all he could to better himself.  He went on to say if our marriage was going to survive...

Rey Brown is the smart phone guy.   He’s all about helping us figure out how to optimize our smartphones and tablets for business.

Refresh – It’s only available for Apple products.  The app syncs with your calendar on your phone.   And then it takes all of your information from social media and gives people ideas around what a particular person has as interests (and to help you try to find common ground). 

Google Now – Every Android phone has this on it (if you bought yours within the last 2 or 3 years).  It will sync with your appointments, and let you know based on current traffic, how long it’s going to take you and remind you when you need to leave so you'll get there on time.  

RSS Feed – (Really Simple Syndication) – You can take all the blogs that you like and put them all in one place.  It’s one source for all of your important news sources, and you can break them out into different...

I never love to see anyone hurting.  However, nothing makes my heart happier than to see someone take an extremely dark moment in their life and use it to completely turn things around.  That’s exactly what Shannon Kaiser of Play With The World did after she found herself clinically depressed, addicted to drugs, and suffering from eating disorders as she worked her corporate life, trying to do what every one thought she should.

After waking up one day, listening to her inner voice to tell her to ‘follow her heart’.  She realized life really should be more, and quit her ‘day job’.  Since then she has created a life for herself traveling the world, writing and running a business. 

Um, sign me up, please! 

I was so excited to sit down with her as she shared her story of her complete 180!

One of my favorite quotes of all time, Shannon gave us on this interview ‘Nourish the Nudges.’

What does following your heart...