Hey there, gorgeous. Welcome to Chill & Prosper. I'm your host, Denise Duffield-Thomas, Money Mindset author, mother of three kids. I don't know, all the things. Welcome. Welcome. Today, we're talking about finding money leaks in your business. Now, this happens to me regularly actually, where I have to sit down and look at where costs have crept up in my business, but also where money is leaking out.

                                                Now, this is absolutely a money mindset thing because we want to be good caretakers of money. We want to make sure that money feels welcome in our life. But also, if you are feeling frustrated at the moment and you're trying to do some money manifesting, you're asking the universe for money and it's not coming in. Sometimes cleaning up some of these leaks actually helps you to manifest more money because it's almost like the universe is like, "Well, you've got it. You're just not taking care of it. You're not noticing that it's there." And so, you're discounting it and not realizing that you've probably hit that goal or the money's there, but you're just ignoring it.

                                                Now once a year, I used to lose my credit card at least once a year because I have ADHD and I would, yeah, sometimes be a bit disorganized or I would lose it when I was traveling or whatever. But now that everything's online and my cards are in my phone, I don't lose them as much. But it was actually quite handy to lose my card once a year, because once all of those notifications come in of going, "Oh, your payment declined." I was like, "Oh, I forgot that I was even using that subscription." I was like, "Oh, cool. This is handy." And so, I could cancel a bunch of stuff because I realized it was things that I never even used. And I went through it a little bit more.

                                                Now, nowadays, even though I don't lose my card anymore, every now and again, I have to sit down and look at my books and go, "Hang on. Why are we using that software? Why are we using this? Why do we need that for?" Or to justify and go, "Okay, are we getting the most out of that employee? Or are we getting the most out of that contractor?" To really just to have a look at some of those leaks.

                                                That's what we're going to talk about today is to find some of those places where you can take better care of your money. Obviously, from just a practical point of view, it's good to save money. It's good to not spend money on things that you don't need. But also, as I said, this is a mindset issue of it's safe for me to look at my expenses. It's safe for me to look at my numbers. It's safe for me to say no to things that I no longer need. It's safe for me to negotiate. It's safe for me to take care of my money. And all of that is brilliant for your money mindset and for your manifesting ability too, because decluttering always creates space for something new.

                                                Okay. The first thing I want you to think about, it's really, really easy actually to start with those subscriptions. And there's a couple of places that you can go and check out. If you have PayPal, there's something in PayPal called the recurring payments dashboard. It's a little hard to find, little hard to find. You might have to search around for it, recurring payments dashboard. And it gives you a list of all of those little subscriptions that it might be once a year, once a quarter, once a month. And that they're using PayPal as the payment for it.

                                                And then you can just, you can pause it, you can suspend it. Or you can go, "Oh, wow. I actually can downgrade that." And it's usually software and things like that. But you could realize that you have a payment going to someone that you're no longer working with, for example. It could be something like that. It's just a good process anyway, but to go and delete some of those things out, recurring payments dashboard.

                                                Now, here's one that I realized the other day too. If you use an iPhone or Apple, you can go to your Apple account and there's a subscriptions thing there too. And so I was like, "Ah, I'm using," it was like an annual astrology subscription. And I was like, "I never even check it. I never even look at it." I was like, it was just an easy thing just to go delete.

                                                I also then looked at something. I go, "Actually, I do use that a lot. I'm going to change to the annual subscription because I do use it and it will save me money." It was just really good to just go and have a look at that and see just what are those little subscriptions that are adding up. And they're just little money leaks here, there and everywhere.

                                                And then, of course, if you can, go look at your bookkeeping. Now, I'm saying this publicly, because I want to give myself accountability. Okay. There's a software that I've bought. And it's a really geeky software about keywords and things like that. And it's costing me $150 a month and I never use it. But I feel guilty about canceling it because I think, "But I will use it one day." And so, I'm in this push, pull of guilt of going, "I should use it. I know it's something that I should do, but I'm not."

                                                And so, there could be things like that you think, "This is a really good idea, but I'm not using it." Or give yourself that accountability to use it. Okay. There could just be little things like that come out on your card. It's a little bit harder to find, because you might need to go and look through some of your bookkeeping, but just check out what all those little money leaks are in your business of things that you're not using.

                                                This also is in your personal life. Because money is money. The energy of money is money. Where are there things in your real life, like gym memberships, or things like that you're paying out of guilt and obligation and you could just get rid of them? A lot of those cable TV things add up too. And I realized I had one that was $100 a month in Australia. And it was basically the only thing I watched on there was Saturday Night Live. And I'm like, it's not worth it. It's not worth 100 bucks a month to watch that. I was like, "Oh, yeah. I'm going to get rid of that." That's definitely one.

                                                Now, here's something that so many of us have. Okay. You're going to laugh. URLs, domain names that renew. Okay. If you are a creative entrepreneur and you buy domain names all the time, log into where you buy your domain names. Have a look at all of them and see, "Cool, that was a good idea. Or that was not a good idea." Now some of them you can try and sell for sure. Go sell them if you want. But sometimes it's just like, "Oh man, I'm never going to use that. It's totally fine." And it's just an open loop in your brain. You go, "I'm never going to sell it. That's fine." And just untick that subscription thing. It's totally fine.

                                                Now, here's where you start to go, "Oh, it's about people now." What memberships do you no longer need? This could be online memberships. This could be masterminds. It could be things that you just do not use, you're not a part of, maybe you've outgrown. And you're keeping it out of a sense of guilt or obligation. And I totally get it. I really do. I absolutely get it, but it is a money leak. It's absolutely a money leak.

                                                And it could be you're just doing it out of, "Oh, I want people to feel like I'm a nice person," or whatever. And it's totally okay. It's totally okay just to let them go. All right. Where are you paying for things? I mean, in my world, I call this ADHD tax because I have ADHD. And sometimes, I'm spending money on things just out of not being organized.

                                                And so, that could be late fees. It could be that you are paying too much interest on something and all it would take is a call to your bank to reduce the interest rate. Maybe you don't realize that you are often introductory period of something that you never intended to use. And suddenly, it's at the top rate.

                                                Sometimes you can call. And we've called, we've got a couple of investment properties and we were using the same insurer for all of them. And so, it was just a conversation just to say, "Hey, like we've got X many properties with you. Can we get a discount?" And they were like, "Of course." Like, "Ah, sweet, thanks."

                                                Same with, we use a real estate company to manage those properties. And again, we said to them, "Well, if we give you all of the properties to manage, how's about a discount?" And they're like, "Of course." And so that might be not necessarily a leak, but it's an opportunity to pay attention to your money, to look at what's appropriate for your level of business.

                                                And you might even discover two things that it's a money leak, but not in the way you think. I see this a lot with people go, "Oh, I'm on the free plan for my email service, to send out my newsletter. I'm on the free plan." That's a money leak. Go up and make sure you've got space so you can actually have customers. You might think money leaks are only one way of money that you're wasting, but actually, that's a massive opportunity that you could be wasting that you're doing it to save money, but it's actually leaking money because of the opportunity of being able to make more money.

                                                Okay. That's what we're going to talk about after the break, the opportunity costs of some of your money leaks. Woohoo. Okay. I will see you straight after this very quick break.

Sherry Vargas:                   Hi, this is Sherry Vargas from Vandalia, Ohio. And I just finished Chill & Prosper. And once again, Denise Duffield-Thomas delivers. After reading Get Rich, Lucky Bitch, I discovered that it really is about alignment and focus. And really just following very simple steps to reveal my prosperity and my abundance every step of the way.

                                                I am so grateful for the writing and for the mentorship. And I absolutely appreciate this book. Anybody who's looking to increase their abundance consciousness and to do it from a place of alignment and learning how to relax into their good, this is their book. Thank you so much.

Denise Duffield...:            Hi, welcome back. We are talking about money leaks in your business and what to do about them. In the first part, we were talking about just looking for some of those little subscriptions and recurring costs of things that you don't need to spend. And sometimes we can get really caught up in that and get too cheap with ourselves. And look for those little costings that actually then doesn't save you anything really.

                                                Okay. Don't go too overboard with that. Just look for the obvious wins of where money could be leaking out in lots of different ways. And it could even be, it's not even so much money. It could be time, which is your money. Where are you over-delivering? Where are you not including real costs into your business? Maybe you're stressing about paying PayPal fees. And you just need to make sure your costs, it's the cost of doing business, but you're expanding worry on things or time on things. And that is a leak.

                                                You can just go back and clean up some of these things. But for the second part, I want to talk about the opportunity costs that also is a money leak. And so, the first example I said was about just feeling like you have to be cheap with yourself. Okay. And the example I said was if you have an email newsletter subscription, and you're on the free plan or you're on a little plan and you can only send out X amount, you can only send out to 1,000 people.

                                                You can see how being cheap with that is costing you money because you know that being able to reach more people would help you make more money. That is an example of a money leak because you're not actually even letting money in. It's just like the opportunities are just passing you by because you don't have anywhere to catch that.

                                                Okay. The same thing, if you don't have anywhere for people to easily give you money. If you don't have something on your website. Say someone really likes your podcast and they go, "How can I work with that person?" If you don't have a book, a course, consulting, nothing. That is an opportunity leak. That is a hole in your abundance bucket. There's a hole in the bucket because nobody can give me money. That's what's happening.

                                                And so, that is a huge money leak in your business because what's the point of just entertaining people if they can't take the next step with you? That could be making sure that there's a big buy now button on your website, that you check your broken links, that you're making it easy for people to give you money. And that there's actually something for them to do.

                                                It could be a call to action at the end of every blog post. "Here's how you can work with me." A call to action at the end of every newsletter. "Here's how you can work with me." Otherwise, you're getting people's attention and it's just going out of the holes in your bucket. It just is just gone.

                                                You might be cheap with yourself in some things that are just draining you of time and energy. And yes, sometimes it means you have to spend money to make money. A couple of examples. One could be that you don't have the tools to do your business. If you don't have a computer that works, or a computer that's very slow. And of course, there's times in your business where you're like, "Oh," you just don't have the budget for it. But sometimes you're doing it because you feel like you have to suffer first.

                                                Or it's like, "Well, I'll do it when I make money in my business. Or I'll get childcare when I make money in my business." But it's a chicken and egg scenario. You're not allowing yourself to make money because there's no time, energy, capacity to do it. It's okay for you to have a tool that you need to do your business. It's okay for you to have a fast computer. It's okay for you to have the latest phone.

                                                You know what? If I was starting my business today, I would just buy a phone. Yeah. I use my laptop all the time, but my phone is my social media. It's my customer service. It's how I connect with people. It's how I create. There's a camera on there. I never use it for calling, but it's a business in a little thing and you can get a payment plan on it.

                                                But if the underlying mindset issue is, "I'm not worth it, I have to suffer. I have to do all this hard work first and then I'm allowed," it's just going to be really hard for you. Think about where you're holding yourself back from making money. And it could be that you are overstretched and have no capacity at the moment. And you need to hire someone. That is a massive leak because again, the opportunity's just going to pass you by. You will not have the capacity to do it.

                                                If you have energy limitations, if you have a chronic illness. And you have to be honest with yourself about what you can do, then embracing ease, embracing automation, getting an assistant, not having to do everything yourself. Allowing the ease into your life will allow money to flow to you. That's really the only way I know how to do it is just ease and ease and flow.

                                                You might be surprised to hear this. I didn't have a proper office chair until a couple months ago because I would always just work in bed. I'd work on the couch, whatever. And then when we moved, I threw out, I had just had a cheap chair. And I remember just thinking, "Oh, this is fun. I'll just work on a dining chair." And so I had a dining chair and then, I'd have a little pillar. And I was going to the chiropractor all the time because my neck and my back was so sore.

                                                And finally, I just went, "Oh my God, what am I doing? I deserve a good office chair." And that's me at multimillions. I can afford to do it. But there was something there still, that was like, "It's not allowed to be easy. I still have to create these barriers." And it was a money leak for me because not only was my wellbeing, not on track and I was getting a headache, so I wasn't able to produce my work. But it was actually costing me money in extra chiropractic, physio, pain killers even, and my quality of life. That was a just, yeah, money leak, where I was being way too cheap with myself.

                                                Now, you don't have to do everything yourself. Okay. But if you are, you could be burning yourself out, trying to prove that you're worthy. When it comes to the money leaks. We find the obvious things, things that you no longer spend money on. But the second list is so important. Things that are preventing you from making money right now.

                                                And you can do a massive, big brainstorm of all the things that in your mind, there could be excuses, there could be complaints, there could be real logistical things. Write everything down and prioritize them. What is really stopping you from making money? And sometimes, it is a logistical thing of, "My website's not live." But it could be a logistical thing of, "I never have time and energy because I don't have any childcare." Prioritize them. You're not going to be able to fix everything, but there will be something there that might unlock other things. For me, when I had my first kid, I was like, "I need an in-person nanny. I need someone who can bring my baby to me when she needs to be fed. But then, will pat her for an hour while I need to do this call. And so I can have a shower. And someone to make me some foods where I actually eat it."

                                                And so that was the one thing that unlocked everything for me, because I actually was like, "I don't mind doing everything else in my business," but I found it really stressful to juggle that. Even when we have launches, we'll get extra care for our dogs because we just want one less thing to have to stress about during that time. Or we might get extra meals in. Or just something like that.

                                                And so, it's so personal where the money leaks are for you in your business. And you don't have to do all the things and you don't have to complicate it. Because you might think, "Oh, well I can't sell my course because I need a funnel and I need this fancy stuff." No, you could just have literally a sales page that says, "Hi, I've got this course. Here's the link." And then you make it more complicated later.

                                                But if you are over complicating things out of perfection, just find what's the path of least resistance. Who do you need? What do you need to get something to market? And then, you can improve it later. What do you need to free up some space? What do you need logistically to have people booking in with you? It could be buy a software like Calendarly, so people can book into your calendar. It could be just literally spending a couple hundred dollars, getting the cheapest, quickest website up. You have to know where those leaks are for you. It's things that are costing you money right now. And then things that are preventing you from making money.

                                                If you want to and you're someone who's been around for a while, you could do a third list, things that are stopping me from going to the next level. And that's where there could be some leaks around the people that you're hanging out with. The coach that you're working with at the moment, your family situation, your living situation, needing some time off, needing to restructure your business, needing to quit things in your business to free up some bandwidth.

                                                It depends on where you're at. Sometimes it's the dollars that are important, sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's actually freeing up time. But time is money, energy is money. Okay. It's fine for you to go beyond like, "Oh, I've got a subscription." I don't use go beyond that to see where is there a massive league? Because there are opportunities out there, but I just do not have the capacity to do it.

                                                And I would love to see your list. I'd love to see your aha around this. If there's one thing you go, "Oh, it's that and so many things will fall into place from that." Or it just something really simple. The more simple, the better. I love hearing everyone's tips because they're so different and it could be very symbolic to you that you go, "Wow, buying myself a proper chair would actually unlock so much because it's symbolic of what I'm worth and how I treat myself.

                                                Does that make sense? Please let me know. I'm @denisedt on all social media. I love hearing from you. Tell me what money leak you are either cleaning up or upgrading in your business. Okay. Well, we have one last break and then I have got a final thought. Sometimes I can't say it. I say final fought. Final thought for you right after this last break. Bye.

Steph:                                   Hi, I'm Steph, a physio from Bristol in the UK. And I've read Denise's book, Get Rich, Lucky Bitch. Oh my goodness. The title's triggering. And that's exactly why I read it. And you know what? By the end of reading it, the title didn't trigger me. It excited me. And I learned from Denise that you can get rich and be a lucky bitch yourself. Thank you. I'm excited for my future of riches.

Jen Ruiz:                               Hi, I'm Jen Ruiz, a travel blogger and author based in Puerto Rico. Get Rich, Lucky B is my money Bible. I listen to the audio book on repeat and every time I find another gem that I need to relearn. Just the other day, I was listening to the section on stagnant energy of money and found over $600 in old gift cards.

Denise Duffield...:            Okay, welcome back. My final thought is around suffering. You don't have to suffer to be worthy of any success in your business. You don't have to create extra pain for yourself to be worthy. It's allowed to be easy. It's allowed to be pleasurable. You are worthy of being taken care of. If today's episode triggered you a little bit, it might be just a reminder of, "I'm worthy. It's safe for me to have money. It's safe for me to have an easy, profitable business." You are worthy. Have fun finding those money leaks. Could be really, really fun. And I will see you next week on Chill & Prosper. Bye now