Payment with Crabs
Payment with Crabs
When I was around 7 years old I remember very vividly live crabs walking around our kitchen floor. You see, my Dad was an optometrist and he had accepted payment for his services with two large bags of live crabs. We lived on the Oregon coast in a little town called Astoria, so there were lots of fisherman in our town.
I remember holding my black kitten in my arms to keep her safe from the wandering crabs and that my little sister and I were thinking this was a great fun adventure. My Mom however was having a much different experience.
My father was a kind and generous 6′ 7″ tall man. Astoria is a small town and he loved to give to others. The challenge of course was how was my mother going to pay the bills with live crabs. And there were so many crabs that we didn’t have enough pots in our house to process them all, so the neighbors were invited to come and take some home!
I see this so often with beginning entrepreneurs. Where they are giving away their services through under charging, taking payments in trade, like my Dad did, or over delivering on services. While we may think that we are doing a kind and generous thing the truth is when we are doing this at the wrong time in our wealth development it is not about generosity at all, it is about fear.
Fear that there are not enough people who can and will pay for our services.
Fear that we aren’t developed enough in our skills to actually charge what we are worth.
Fear that people won’t like us if we deliver only what is good and right for us to deliver.
So where in your business are you accepting crabs for payment? What would your life and your family’s life be like if you stopped that? Generosity is truly only generosity when it is given from abundance.
In business being connected to your numbers is what will allow you to know when you are charging appropriately and when you are accepting crabs. It will let you know when your profit margins are allowing you to care for your loved ones in an appropriate manner and give to others.
If you don’t know what your profit margins are today call me for a free review of your numbers. Stop accepting crabs and step into growing your business in a way that supports you and your family and allows for generosity!
In Abundance,
Sue Thompson
Financial Management Expert
www.abundanceaccounting.com
www.themasteryofmoney.com
