Money Monday: Make That Paper - Change That Rate

Make That Paper

When I was at my mechanic, spending money again on my little Audi wagon with a turbo engine that I won't give up, I noticed the picture of his rate sign, and took a picture. Notice the numerous scratch outs for rate changes over the years.

The first time I went to him years ago, I think it was $70/hr. Today, on top of all of those scratch-outs, which are possibly with white-out marker (does he need to hire us for print branding, possibly?). This day, it looks like it's $120 or $180. Can't tell. I don't care. I just pay the bill on my Old Navy credit card to get the free clothing points, and pay down the card ASAP so as not to lose the free clothing dollars to a 29% monthly interest rate.

The reason I don't care is because I can walk to his shop, which causes less time for me in my life with kids to get a car serviced, and I trust him. He in turn cares for me, gets my exhaust system replaced on my massive 4WD truck before a major snowstorm so that I can drive through the mounds of snow to the grocery store, etc.

What Does This Mean For Your Rate?

If you're struggling with a lot of clients or product sales right now, it may be time to look at your rates, and raise them. If you're too busy with not enough money, you might not be earning enough. Conversely, if you're getting zero business, it may be time to lower the rates. I know we are in a pandemic, and there is a lot of sensitivity to what people can afford right now, so lets get down some tips to consider:

• Rates Can Always Be Special
  If you set your rate on your website (you do this if you sell products...it's our service-industry friends who don't always share their rates publicly), you can always make a private arrangement with a person who cannot afford that rate, but would be a great project for you and a good client fit. You can make the decision to lower your rate for them.

• Raise The Rates; Bring Them Down
  Our rate has always been like the stock market. If we're really busy, the rates go up because we can't service everyone and put out original content. However, the rates can stay the same if we bring on additional team members to spread out the work. Building a team is an art, and requires nurturing. That in and of itself takes time. But builds a solid team which is very worth it in the long run for everyone.

• Discounts
  Yes, even service-industry people can offer a discount! Who doesn't love a good sale? Your price needs to be flexible enough to absorb this discount. For instance, here at Tin Shingle, we offer a 25% Discount on services we offer, like Private Training. It adds value to the membership, and makes it easier to afford what you need.

• Totally Slash The Price Whenever You Want To
  During the pandemic, I had a soft spot for restaurants and farmers. I watched my egg farmer get disconnected from her Farmers Market customers when the 100% shut-down happened last year, and as winter approached for her, I feared for her, being that she didn't have a website. Over at our sister media company, Katie James, Inc., we slashed our website price and designed her a website in Shopify that she can utilize from her phone, as she doesn't have a computer. Round of applause for the Shopify app! She is also getting training in how to use her Instagram, and will get Social Media Cards from us in order to quickly share a regular statement, like "FREE DELIVERY 7 DAYS!" or "SNOW DAY AT THE MARKET - ORDER ONLINE AND I'LL DELIVER"

• Make It Easy To Pay You
  Credit cards. You need to accept them. If the credit card fee is holding you up, put that concern aside and build it into your pricing. Do not add a "Processing Fee" to your checkout, which covers that credit card fee, because that just frustrates a customer. Make it seamless. Take checks too! But get paid up front because you don't have time or a billing department to chase payments.

• Communicate With Your People
  Caring for your clients and customers is the #1 best thing you can do for a lasting relationship, and production of great work. Make communicating with your clients, customers, and your own staff your #1 priority. Everyone is allergic to meetings these days, but having short and efficient ones, and sending emails responsively, will make a big difference. Especially during this time of isolation.

How Can You Pitch Something Like This To The Media?

If anything presented here sounds like something you can pitch to the media, do it! Tin Shingle has Media Contacts you can sort through, as well as a Google Group to send your thoughts to and get feedback from the group. Members of Tin Shingle get 24/7 access to these tools.

All I Want For Christmas Is A Bunch Of $0s: Zero Debt Balance

Shopping and holiday gift giving this year took a turn for extra merry, as we have more permission and justification than ever to buy from our favorite businesses (local, small business, independently owned big business, even big box stores if you want to be able to walk around in them), in order to keep these businesses alive as scientists figure out the virus, and health care workers work on patients with severe symptoms. Your own marketing to your customers and future customers via your newsletter and social media is dialed way up right now, and you yourself are receiving the temptations and good ideas from everywhere.

But - the real life scenario for many people may be that their gift budget is super low right now. Business owners themselves may be down, like restaurant owners who have to drastically change how they serve customers, or dog walkers who have less clients now that owners are home. Some people are thriving in an unexpectedly strong industry. Some industries are tanking like hospitality, airports, move theaters, theme parks, etc, where flocks of people have been laid off.

The media industry is used to this - when flocks of people are laid off, like at Walt Disney Television Group as they restructure - the count is up to 32,000 employees by March 2021 of mainly resort and theme park employees - and the ending of Radio Disney after 25 years of production, which will end 36 people’s jobs.

No matter what your budget, it’s time to focus on debt, and rein it in to $0. Banks won’t like this - they love making money off of us from interest and late fee charges (fight those charges! you can request to refund them, especially mentioning COVID). If you actually have no budget, I want you to take a cheerful approach to paying down your credit cards to $0. This is your Big Goal. If you’re not out there buying a ton of gifts, and giving in to all of us marketers who are hoping that you will spend (and we really, really do want you to spend…it does save businesses!), you and I and all of us need to shift life from the Land of Debt to the Land of Cash Saved and Invested.

To be honest, I have no advice for you as to how to live with cash saved. Once you get $0 balances on all of your debts, you will need a mindset shift. You may be so used to operating paycheck to paycheck, you might continue spending all of it. Advice for this is in another article. If this is your area of expertise, pitch Tin Shingle with an article idea.

Pitching The Media With Money Ideas

Is this your area of expertise, as a money and finance expert? Did you accomplish this goal as a business owner and want to get publicity for it? These are all good ideas to do, and you’ll find a few ideas on who to pitch, and which outlets to get familiar with before you pitch, in Tin Shingle’s Media Contact Idea Center. Available to Members of Tin Shingle.

Some names you’ll find in Tin Shingle right now. Deep dive into them, and get a spark of an idea for how to pitch them! A pitch to a person like this will be different for each person. They have different beats and different passions. You’ll want to pitch a media publicity idea according to what sparks their interest for their readers, viewers or listeners. Need ideas on how to do this? Join Tin Shingle today, and start communicating in our Community Forum for direct conversations.

Tin Shingle was designed for business owners and creators who are getting the word out about their business, and need a sounding board, media contacts, courage and strength to keep putting themselves out there.

Kathryn Finney
Named by Inc Magazine as one of the most influential women in tech, Kathryn Finney has made her mark as an entrepreneur, social media visionary, “women in” advocate, investor, writer, and television correspondent.
Areas of Interest: Finance, Money, Black Women, Black Women and Money, Black Media, Investors, Budgeting

Carolynn L. Johnson
CEO of Diversity, Inc.
Areas of Interest: Black, african american, black american, African American Interest, Education, diversity, minority, school, Business, wealth building, jobs, Money, entrepreneur

Farnoosh Torabi
Financial Expert, Bestselling Author and Host of the Webby-Nominated Podcast SO MONEY.
Farnoosh Torabi is one of America’s leading personal finance authorities — hooked on helping you live your richest, happiest life. From reporting for Money Magazine to hosting a primetime series for CNBC and contributing to O, The Oprah Magazine, Farnoosh has become a favorite, go-to money expert and friend.

Hannah Rimm
Associate Editor, Money Diaries at Refinery29, Inc.

Kathryn Tuggle
Writer, HerMoney
Listen to her latest podcast with the author and investor, Bill Perkins, “Die With Zero: Getting All You Can From Your Money And Your Life”

Money Monday: e-Filing 1099s With QuickBooks Is Finally Easy!

"Money Monday" at Tin Shingle is all about earning, spending or donating money from your business. Share your Money Monday experience or tip by submitting your idea here for consideration to be featured on Tin Shingle's blog.

Money Monday gets a gold glitter ball this week.

Every year, when prepping the books for taxes, I am so tempted to e-file the 1099s to our contract workers via QuickBooks instead of having our accountant prep them. Not that I don't love supporting another business owner! But he's going to get 3 sets of taxes to file from me, so this is chump change. The benefit, really, is the ease of use, and quickness of filing those 1099s.

QuickBooks has had an e-file 1099 option, but it's never been seamless enough for me to try. I'm error-prone, so if there is more than a 10% room for error, I abort and put it in the hands of the professionals. This year - and maybe it's just me - maybe QuickBook's platform has been the same all of these years, it's just me who grew more confident - I did it. I e-filed the 1099 through QuickBooks!

Took all of 5 minutes, after the prepping of each vendor - which consists of the following and is the same as if the 1099s were being submitted to the accountant:

• Checking for their social or EIN number.
• Updating their address and email.
• Checking money totals against the actual bank transactions.

I take that back. There is one step that was new, and that was selecting the number of Accounts and Vendors that would be included in this pull for 1099s. "Accounts" means that there are different reasons that you spend money, and when you do, you select an Account to attribute how that money was spent. That part didn't take long, it was just new for me, which made me nervous, and made me remind myself not to over-create Accounts and get too nitty-gritty, but I shouldered through and selected the correct Accounts. I checked the money totals against the bank transactions, and got matches.

Once all of that was complete, QuickBooks has you review your information before entering your credit card to pay. And the price of filing is quite affordable. Not only was it pricier with my accounting firm (again, I don't mind supporting my local firm), but I didn't have to drive there to pick up and sign my approval for them to e-file (not that I mind seeing my local firm either!), and stamping them and putting them in the mail. QuickBooks puts them in the mail!

The step of filing of 1099s is often a forgotten one done at the last minute. So this is a way to help businesses not need to file extensions, and start the tax year off right!