“I wish I would have waited to believe in myself,” said no one ever

If you don’t believe in you, then how can you expect others to?

It’s simple really. But sooo many people struggle with this. Especially women. I’ve had this one client who bravely left her corporate job to find creative freedom to become her own boss. It was amazing. She loved entrepreneurship for the flexible hours and the ability to share her craft to the world.

But she also expressed to me that she was frustrated with entrepreneurship because, while she was doing what she loved, she was also broke af.

This caused me to look at her wide-eyed and confused.  I asked her “you set your prices and are always busy working…why are you broke?”  Come to find out, she was hella undercharging her services by 3x. That’s THREE TIMES yall! She was making $50k a year and could have EASILY cleared $150k by charging the VALUE in which she was providing. Let me repeat that.

She was selling her services which were VALUED at $150K but getting paid only $50K.

She believed if she charged more, she’d lose clients.  And for years, she suffered believing entrepreneurship equated to being broke.  How sway?

Women, especially WOC, we need to stop doing this. You have to value yourself first if you want to be valued by others.

If you think about it, the only thing coming in between you and success is yourself. Not money or a lack of knowledge or even timing.

If you want to become the polished CEO badass you know you are inside, then you’d find a way, no matter what.

If you don’t have enough money, then put in overtime.
If you don’t know enough, then google the information.
If it’s not the right time now, it’ll never be the right time.

Sure, it won’t be overnight but the life of an entrepreneur is not about instant gratification. It’s about putting in the work for the career you are passionate about and feeling proud when you reach success after success after success. You’ll feel that way because you will know you gave it your all –and on your own, at that!

Believing in yourself is not easy. Even though I’m a decade in the entrepreneurship game, it didn’t immediately start that way.

It took one particularly busy tax season for me to sit down and ask myself: where did I want to be five years from now?

I knew I didn’t want to be as stressed as I was then in the next year. I wanted to reach seven figures in my business (challenges build character). Deal with fewer clients (quality over quantity). Travel around the world (memories are forever). Have time to develop new hobbies and experiences (shout out to Bikram yoga). Maybe settle down and have a few kids (the idea of mini-mes make me smile).

All of those goals required me to buckle down and triple my focus. To scale up. Think big. After that, I launched #ChikasTaxTips and for nearly six months, I shared the best tax tips I’ve acquired as a CPA for 10 years with a group of the most motivated women. Ever.

And it just keeps growing.

Now, every day feels like a purpose in my long term goals. It started with me being honest AF with and believing – at every step- I could do it and it WILL happen.

Start believing in yourself ASAP. If you don’t, then who will?  

With love,

Chika

P.S. I have some BIG things coming. I’ve been cooking up something special for y’all. I’m also, hosting my FIRST live workshop on March 22, the registration will be out soon.

P.p.s. You know the FB group is poppin’! Join Chika’s Tax Tips. Connect with other entrepreneurs and have your questions answered. Oh, and follow me on Instagram @chikaobihcpa. Just cause 😉