As A Doula Am I Really An Entrepreneur?

• Transcript

  Kaely Harrod 00:04

  Welcome to doula Tips and Tits. This podcast is a place where we answer one question about doula work, both to support you and to help you support your clients. I'm Kaely Harrod. I've been supporting families in this perinatal space since my oldest was born 12 nearly 13 years ago. I am a birth and postpartum doula childbirth educator, La Leche League Leader and a doula coach. I love guiding and supporting doulas as they work out their doula business, it is a tremendous joy to be trusted in this way. Thank you for joining us on this journey. Hello there. And welcome back to doula Tips and Tits. Today, I want to make the argument that as a doula, you are also a business person. Now before you sign off, and just write me off is irrelevant to your life. Now that I'm talking these crazy nonsense things, I want you to take a minute to really consider what it means to be even an independent contractor, if that's how you're kind of living this life out as a doula if you're working for agencies, or if you're primarily taking births as like a backup, you are still a self employed person, at least to some extent, okay. Now, the reason that I like to bring this up that I kind of come back to this topic on a regular basis, is that many of us as doulas get into this work, because we love helping people because we love the kind of interaction, the emotional support that it is, and the advocacy that's involved. And those kinds of awesome aspects of our work is part of what we love. And the primary reason that we do what we do, right? That means not many of us have a background in things like marketing, or accounting, or legal anything, right, or copywriting, or any of the skills that it takes to be a business owner. Now, again, resist the temptation to turn this episode off, walk away due to overwhelm, I promise, I am not starting this off by being like, so if you don't know all those things, you're not going to do this. Well, you need to learn all those things. That's not where this is going. Okay. I want you to take a minute to think about how a business shows up in the world. Now, for this argument, maybe just think of like, in your sphere, in your town in your area, right? They you hear about them either from like, you see signs around, you've like seen them on social media, you've heard someone talk about them, someone else knows someone that has mentioned something to you. These are all different ways we become familiar with a business now. For doula work, I think we kind of start out sometimes thinking like, I'm just gonna, like, find pregnant people somehow and be their doula. But the reality is that the business aspect of it has to also be something you're working on. Now. I will not make the argument that you can't be a good and wonderful doula. If you suck at business stuff. That is not the case. And in fact, I would say that you have the capacity to learn all sorts of skills that you do not currently have. So if currently, at this very moment, when you're listening to this episode, you do really suck at business stuff. That's okay. You are not a lost cause. Okay? And it's fine to continue to show up in your like, kind of crappy way, if that's what you feel like you're doing right? When I talk about social media, I often say things like, scroll back through my Instagram, and look at what I used to post and my Instagram, I will be the first to tell you, it is still not like a you know, amazing level of social media marketing. It has gotten 100% Better from what it was when I first started and I literally was like, I guess I should post some stuff on social media. Like that is literally where I started. So if you're thinking I guess I should post something on social media. That is actually where my business began in terms of social media presence, right? So that is a normal place to begin. So do not think okay, I have to now add this one more thing to my list of things I have to like Master before I really start being full time as it Lula, no, that is not what I'm saying here. That is not the point of this episode. The point of this episode is to get you to think about what things about business do you need to learn, at least in a rudimentary way, in order to do this work really well and set yourself up to not have a lot of headache later. Now, some things that I will just start out with. To give you a sense of what I think should be kind of your beginning point. One is absolutely taking good care of your finances. What I mean by that is keeping track of them. Like, What things are you spending, are you buying food, when you go to a birth, keep your receipt, do you use gas, when you drive places, most of us do that, or you take metro or train or a bus or something like that, then you paid for your fare to be on that public transit, then you that is all stuff that are expenses for your business. The reason that it's important to keep track of expenses is that those are all write offs in your taxes, if you're listening to this, and you're not in the US disregard this little tiny portion of it, because I don't know the tax system outside of the US at all. And I would argue I don't even know the tax system in the US all that, well. I am not an accountant or a CPA or any of that. But if you are self employed, or if you're a 1099 employee, you pay your own and employment taxes, meaning that you maybe have had a job before where every month taxes are taken out of your salary or your paycheck or whatever. In a self employment situation, that is not the case. So that means you're paying potentially a larger chunk of taxes at the end of the year than you would otherwise pay. If you had like a W two employee kind of position somewhere. What helps to counteract that is having your expenses clearly tracked so that you can counter them from the amount of taxes that you're needing to pay. I use a program called QuickBooks, there are tons of other programs out there, that program is the one that feels easiest to me, I've been using it for a long time, so I know it really well. And so I use that to track my mileage to track my expenses to put in receipts, etc, etc. It also is really lovely because it connects with how I do my taxes, which is TurboTax. And so I can kind of upload everything there. And it makes the whole process much more streamlined.

  Kaely Harrod 07:40

  So that's one thing is know your finances, keep track of the money you're spending both in trainings in like if you do doula coaching with me, that's absolutely a write off on your taxes, right. So keep track of that stuff so that you can get some of that tax credit at the end of the year. The next thing is have some brand consistency. And what I mean there is kind of choose the like vibe with which you show up, right? If you're a person that's like, always posting like super chill flowers, and like, I don't know pastel ish things or like neutrals and things like that. Be consistent there. Don't start posting like neon colors at some point. Keep a consistent idea of kind of where you're going in terms of branding. Now, I do have an episode coming up with an awesome guest who I have learned so much about branding and color patterns, color palettes and things like that from and so she is going to give you so much more information than I ever could give you about this specifically. So stay tuned for that episode, I will let you know when it is coming. It's coming soon. I'm interviewing with her very soon. So the other thing that I want you to think about is how you're talking about your services. Sometimes when we get started, we are kind of like hey, I'm a doula. And that's great, that's fine. That is okay. And also, it's important to like, have a sense of what potential clients need and want to hear from you. Because that will guide what you share on social media, but also how you show up and other places as well in your business. So that can be incredibly helpful in terms of figuring out what you want your messaging to be as you're like writing a post or talking to a potential collaborator or something like that. You have a better sense of what you even want to share with those folks because you have a really clear idea of what it is that you want people to know about how you function in this work. Okay. Now, the last thing I want you to think about for today, is not being afraid to mess it up. Now I say this of course with an entire entirely huge asterik that is, I get that it feels like the stakes are incredibly high to do business stuff accurately. I am not saying, Oh, just do it half heartedly and like, don't care if you mess it up. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, you're going to suck at some parts of this right now, and you'll be better at them later. So whether or not that looks like maybe later in your business, being able to afford someone who this is their whole job, I am really fortunate to have a virtual assistant at this point. But that is not someone I've had on my team for very long. And so she actually is the person who uploads these podcast episodes for you. I don't have to do that anymore. But that's something that I did for over a year before I brought her on. And so she is I can tell you 1,000% more efficient at doing this than I am, it's alarming how much time it was taking me to do it and how much time it takes her. It's like a 10th of the time it took me. And so she is clearly a tremendous asset to my business and my team. And I love having her on. And also I could not have brought her on to my team before this year, I did not have the income before that to really sustain having another person that I'm consistently paying. So it is possible that for now you just have to kind of do your best in some of these things. And then in the future, you can look forward to the possibility of outsourcing some of it to people who actually enjoy doing this stuff, or who actually do it really well. And it's not necessarily something that you will need to continue doing forever. Okay, just because you suck at it right now doesn't mean you always will. And also, it could be something that you just eventually get to outsource. So I do want you to stay tuned for the next couple. We have a couple episodes coming up soon about both copywriting and kind of your website information from an awesome copywriter that I have learned so much from in the last couple of years. And then also a conversation with a really fabulous branding specialist who works with color palettes and fonts and all of that, like what is your company's brand and style and vibe? How do you show up in this work, and she is such an awesome resource. And so I'm really pumped to have those two guests coming. And they'll kind of dive into a bit more detail about the parts of this that I don't know as well, because you benefit from that as much as I benefit from that. So in the meantime, I do still have space in the 2023 podcast schedule to add some questions that you have. So I would really love to hear from folks what your questions are, that could be added to that list for the podcast this year. Because it means so much to me to hear from you. And also because I want this podcast to be incredibly relevant to you. That is why I do this. And so please do reach out to me on Instagram or on Tik Tok. And let me know what your next episode question would be if you could ask anything and have it answered by me on this podcast. What would that be? And it can truly be anything I am happy to dive into it with you and if it's not something I can answer an episode. I'm happy to just answer it over message with you like have have a little chat online. So send me a quick message. Let me know what that thing is. And I look forward to connecting with you. Until I talk to you again. I wish you well informed consent filled doula experiences. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the doula Tips and Tips podcast. If you learned something today or had an aha moment, we'd love for you to share that on Instagram and tag us at Herat doula, so we can celebrate alongside you. If you found this podcast helpful. We would so appreciate you taking a second to leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast app that helps other doulas find us as we do this work together. This podcast is intended as educational and entertainment it is not medical advice or business advice. Please consult your own medical or legal team for your own needs around

You are a doula. You are also a business owner. You’re self-employed! That can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be! It is often something that I see doulas neglect. They want to be a doula, they are excited to work with clients, but they do NOT love the idea of running a business!

It’s okay to be nervous about that, and equally okay to go ahead and jump into it! One awesome thing about being a doula is that you learn to lead your clients through a variable experience and that ability serves you well as an entrepreneur. Do not be afraid to do a kind of sh*t job of things at first and then grow and improve with time. 

Another amazing thing to aspire to (or being with if you have the finances!) is to hire a team of contractors or employees who are helping to run the business parts that are not your favorite bits. I have a wonderful VA, Hunter, who I’d be lost without at the moment. She makes my life 100% easier and I am thrilled to have her. However, my business could not afford that kind of extra help until just these last few months. So it is not something you need, or always have the option of, rushing right into from the jump

Key Takeaways:

• You are a business owner!

• You are officially Self-Employed

• That doesn’t mean you have to become an expert on all things business

• But do the best you can so you can help your business move forward!

CONNECT with Kaely on TikTok or  Instagram

https://www.tiktok.com/@doulacoach

https://www.instagram.com/Harroddoula/

If you like this episode, don't forget to share it to your Instagram stories and tag me @harroddoula

Kaely Daily is produced by Kaely Harrod of Harrod Doula Services

It is sponsored by The Birth Prep Blueprint Childbirth Class

Music by Madirfan: Hidden Place on Pixabay