What's My Next Business Step?
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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 Kaylee Harrod. I've been supporting families in this perinatal space since my oldest was born, 12, nearly 13 years ago.
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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.
00:36
Thank you for joining us on this journey. Hello and welcome back to doula Tips and Tits. Today, we are talking about what step do I take next? Now, this is, of course, in the context of your doula business.
00:49
What is your next step? I have had the absolute pleasure in the last week of doing a few business strategy calls with some folks who came to the masterclass last Monday when I'm recording this. And so I have been able to connect with folks in a way that I kind of get to see the back end of their business.
01:11
And honestly, the more I do that, the more I see that everyone is really struggling with the same three categories of things. Now, it rotates, right? So I'm not saying everyone's always struggling with these three things right this second, but these are three of the main things people struggle with.
01:29
And there are other things too, but these three I find are incredibly common. The first scenario is what kind of logistical step to take in your business. Now you might be beyond this potentially, but as revenue grows, as your client load grows, this comes up over and over again.
01:46
So it's not just about getting like the LLC and the EIN number correctly and like established well and legally. It's also about business management as things grow. The other thing I see is keeping track of clients.
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I very distinctly remember a conversation with Adoula when I was pretty new. And she said, you know, does anyone else like forget who was who? Like between the time that I talked to them in the consultation and they hired me, I'm like, I don't even know what you look like.
02:19
I don't remember who you were. And I was like, no, never. And she's like, that's cause you've had like 11 clients. You know, and I was like, oh, maybe. You might be right. But I think as your client load grows, your need to organize that information also grows.
02:38
And that might look like something as simple as a spreadsheet. It might also look like, you know, having a system in place or knowing like, at what point do you do the prenatal visits so that you make sure people don't fall through the cracks.
02:50
It looks different for everyone, but that is the thing that comes up for all business owners. The third thing is handling hard scenarios. Now this could be hard scenarios in terms of interaction with your client's birth team.
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It could be hard scenarios in terms of your client. It could be hard scenarios in terms of yourself and your body and your brain and how you responded to whatever was happening, even if your client feels amazing about it.
03:18
So I'm gonna dive into each of these a little bit and I want you to have kind of an open mind as you're thinking about them, knowing that there's not just a one size fits all category in these things and also there is not a one size fits all answer to these things, okay?
03:37
So the first one, you need help starting business stuff. I think the biggest thing here is knowing that yes, you can mess it up, but if you're doing your research, meeting with a lawyer, like meeting with a CPA potentially, the messing it up is pretty minor in the early days.
03:58
So if you are still like picking a business name, right? There's not a lot you can mess up. Now you should be using a business name finder to search and see if that business name is available, et cetera, but it shouldn't be something that's causing you a great deal of harm as you do that process, right?
04:18
So when we think about business stuff, I want you to think about ways that you can go about having the next best step and also not reinventing the wheel because I think that as doulas, we need to rely on the things that other people have made a lot.
04:38
So number two, how the heck do I keep people straight? So I would say there's system for everyone. Like there, I am a person that starts a system and doesn't complete a system. Like I would guess I'm a little on the ADHD side from my family history and whatnot.
04:59
but I have a few things that I do really religiously. One is I have a client notebook for every calendar year. Now this tells me like okay from the beginning of the year until now these are the people who are due.
05:17
You get added to that notebook as a client when we've had our first prenatal visit. So at that first prenatal visit I'm making sure to note down any health issues that are of note. Any concerns in the pregnancy.
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Hopes and fears around birth. Partners name and information. Hopes and fears. And then we're also using it to jot down questions that they have and write out like resources to send them and things like that.
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And then the nice thing is it's a pretty small notebook. So when I go to a birth I can just toss that in my bag and I know that I have it ready in case there's something about this client that I need to be reminded of.
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I think the other nice thing is that you can actually do this electronically but I find that my brain holds on to things a lot better when I write them down on paper and so I choose not to do this electronically.
06:15
Although I do like write the birth plan and stuff online and share that with them via Google Doc. So the third thing, handling hard scenarios. So this is really tricky because you don't know what things are going to come up until they come up, right?
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And honestly, wouldn't life be easier if we all knew what we were about to face? I mean, I know. I would have been less... I don't know if that's true. As I'm about to say that sentence, I would have been less stressed if I knew I was about to break my ankle.
06:43
I don't think that's true. Now in the middle of April, still with a broken ankle, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have made me less stressed, but you know, here we are. But I think in birth work and especially in this kind of client care, there are going to be scenarios that are unfortunate.
07:03
Whether those are clients that are upset about something, whether it's providers that are being like ridiculous and dismissive to you, whether it's outright like abuse from providers that, which sadly does in fact happen, all of that, all of those things are things you sort of have to process and work on as they come up.
07:27
Although you can make sure that you have some skills that's around it. So why am I even talking about this today? Well, if you listened to the last episode on Wednesday, you heard that the doula Biz Blueprint self -paced class is open for enrollment for one more week.
07:43
So at the time that this comes out, it's open for literally one week from today. So what this class is, is going into each of these three topics that we're talking about in great depth and not just from the perspective.
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of like you just finished your training, you awesome doula. No, but also from the perspective of like your business is ready to grow and how do we help you get there. And this course is honestly life -changing for your business.
08:12
Like gives you the structure, it gives you the steps, and in most cases it actually gives you the document. So one of the things I've included in there are things like intake forms for clients and my welcome email that I am fine with you just copying and pasting into your own email.
08:33
Now you of course should like make it your own, right? Like this sounds like me and it is me writing this email so you should maybe tweak it a little to sound like you and to be authentic to who you are and the jokes that you make and things like that.
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But you do not have to sit down and stare at your computer and write out a freaking welcome email because it's all right there. The other thing that's included are tutorials on the tools I use and also copies of the tools I use if there are things that I have made myself.
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So I cannot tell you how many hours of work this is that you are saving yourself by having this class. Because as you get more clients, let's say you have a bunch of postpartum clients. You need a way to track their hours and this spreadsheet gives you just that.
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And also it's literally yours for free. So I cannot emphasize enough the absolute gem of a course that this is for a doula business and how it will help your business and other businesses in the future thrive for many many years to come.
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So I'm excited for you to check out that course and get in there with me. The other thing that's included is once a month Q &A with me that is face -to -face live on zoom with anybody who's in the course so that you get some actual like in real -time answers and support.
10:06
So it's not just self -paced and like best of luck kind of self -paced but it is a self -paced where you then have access to the instructor and I mean to me right to the instructor and doula coach Kaylee Harrod.
10:20
But also that you can continue going back to it and I've had doulas do like module number one two or three or four times to really solidify the way they're doing their business assets and the way that they're doing their business set up initially and all of that.
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And that is exactly how I want you to use this program. Okay so I'm excited to see you on the inside. Please click the link in my bio if you have questions for me or hit me up on Instagram at Harroddoula and otherwise I will see you in the next episode.
10:59
Thanks for joining us for this episode of the doula tips and tits 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 hara doula so we can celebrate alongside you.
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If you found this podcast helpful we would so appreciate you taking a second to leave a rating and a 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.
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It is not medical advice or business advice. Please consult your own medical or legal team for your own needs around your health and your business. We'll see you again soon.
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Having your own business can be a little scary and it’s hard to know the next steps. There are so many unknowns that can happen. Today we are talk about three common things business owners struggle with like business management and handling tough situations.
“So the first one, you need help starting business stuff. I think the biggest thing here is knowing that yes, you can mess it up, but if you're doing your research, meeting with a lawyer, like meeting with a CPA potentially, the messing it up is pretty minor in the early days. So if you are still like picking a business name, right? There's not a lot you can mess up. Now you should be using a business name finder to search and see if that business name is available, et cetera, but it shouldn't be something that's causing you a great deal of harm as you do that process, right? ”
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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
