So you're ready to put goodness out into the world and let your light shine, but you're wondering, "Do I really have to create a business and charge money for my time and talents?"

The answer is a resounding YES! There is absolutely a place for volunteer work and non-profits. But putting value into the world requires hard work and monetary resources. Without getting paid, not only is your organization not viable, but people won't appreciate or value your offer without investing money in it.

Let me help convince you why you need a business and how to charge for your skills!

Want to start a business but feeling overwhelmed? Join my Finding Your Side Hustle Course and learn the step-by-step process for starting the business you've been dreaming of.

Ready for one-on-one guidance? Schedule a free coaching call with me so we can make progress on your dreams.

Microphone (2- ATR2100x-USB Microphone):

You're listening to episode

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26 of Burning Brightly.

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Why business?

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This is burning brightly, a podcast

for Christian moms who are feeling

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called to build a business and

share their light with the world.

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I'm Bonnie Wiscombe, a life

coach, mom, and entrepreneur.

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And I'm honored to be your guide.

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As you face this business building

adventure full of highs, lows,

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and everything in between.

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This is where we help each

other find the courage to shine.

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Microphone (2- ATR2100x-USB Microphone):

Welcome back, friends.

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Today, we're going to dive into

why business, meaning why are we

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building businesses out of all the

things that we could be doing with

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our extra time that we're carving

out from our families, from our,

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, responsibilities within our community.

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Why in particular am I talking about

business versus a million other things?

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Well, I named podcast burning brightly

because I want to inspire women of faith.

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to make themselves more visible

in the world and specifically

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to shine God's light.

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And one way to do this

is to build a business.

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Now, it's not the only way, obviously.

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We can volunteer in our communities,

which I'm sure many of you already do.

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We can fight for justice and

freedom and awesome values.

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We can run for public office, which

is amazing for some people and would

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be a terrible idea for me, but I'm

glad some people like to do it.

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We can start a nonprofit.

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We can foster a child.

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We can do so many things that

put goodness into the world.

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So starting a business

is just one of them.

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But on this podcast, I

only talk about that one.

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So why?

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Well, because businesses

make the world go round.

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I think they are amazing.

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So incredible.

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I was not, exposed to a lot of

entrepreneurial examples as a kid.

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Maybe you haven't been either.

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so because of that, you might still think

of business as this big, massive kind of

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corporate entity that would just offer

you a job and products that you need.

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isn't necessarily doing much good in

the world, but I want to reframe how you

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think and feel about businesses today so

that we can put our efforts into building

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our own and know that it is going to put

the good that the world needs out there.

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So let's redefine business for a second.

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A business is simply an organized

means of exchanging value.

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That's it.

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It's just a way to exchange value,

but it's organized so that there's

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particular steps someone goes through

to get the value that you offer.

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A business is usually created when one

person or a group of people see a need, i.

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e.

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a demand, and they know how

to create a solution, i.

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e.

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a supply.

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So they see that somebody needs something

and they know how to create that solution.

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When they organize themselves to meet

this demand, then that's a business.

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So it could start with one person

offering, lemonade on the corner.

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And then once they organize themselves

into a legal entity and they start

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doing things on a massive scale, then

it becomes a business and they're

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then selling their lemonade to

larger amounts of people, hopefully.

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So that's one very simple

example of a business.

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A couple of other examples of small

businesses could be a plumber that knows

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that people need good, honest, reliable

service, and he knows how to give it.

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Awesome.

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New business.

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What about a seamstress who loves

to sew and wants to help people with

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alterations that nobody ever seems to

know how to do for themselves anymore?

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She sees a need, she

can supply a solution.

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Or a piano teacher who is great

at inspiring kids and happens to

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know that her community is full

of such kids and parents who

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really want their kids to learn.

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An instrument.

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Great.

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A need, a solution.

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Okay.

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That's all a business is.

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One person or group creates the

value and exchanges it in the form

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of money of the country's currency to

someone who really wants or needs it.

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You guys, we engage with

businesses all day long.

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Stop and think about it for a second.

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It's fascinating.

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Sometimes minute by minute, we're

engaging with a new business.

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Right now, let's just talk

about what I'm doing right now.

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Right now I'm using my computer brought

to me by Cox who gives me my internet

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And Apple, who created my laptop.

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I'm also wearing clothes thanks to,

let's see, Free People and Target,

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I think, Two more businesses.

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You are listening to my podcast via

my hosting platform and whatever

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phone you're using, that brand, And

your phone company that you pay for.

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We are comfortable in our homes thanks

to air conditioning or heat companies

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and realtors, builders, right?

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So many businesses come together

to offer us the things that we need

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if you're listening to your car,

think about all the people that come

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together to create an awesome car.

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all of the parts that go into it.

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Sometimes created by various different

companies, the oil companies that

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create the gasoline that we need

to get from one place to another.

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It is just amazing when you

start to think about it.

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So many businesses are required

for you and I to just go about our

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daily lives and live comfortably.

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This is the miracle of

the industrial revolution.

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We live in amazing and amazing time.

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So before you brush off business as

something that's not for you, or something

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kind of cold and faceless, think about

all these people that started with

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just one person or just a handful of

small people, and then decided to offer

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something of value to those who needed it.

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So basically what I'm trying to

do here is to help anyone who

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has negative associations with

the word business to understand.

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It is just an organized

way to exchange value.

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So can we survive in our day

to day without businesses?

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Of course.

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People did it for thousands of

years, but life is a lot harder.

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We actually really need each other

to survive and to thrive, especially

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in our modern days where we have

so many resources to do amazing

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things like put out podcasts.

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Thousands of years ago,

people had to create.

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A lot more tools and

resources than we do now.

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They had to rely on themselves

for almost everything.

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if they wanted milk, then they had to

own the cow and know how to milk it.

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If they wanted clothes, they needed sheep

and then they had to process the wool and

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make it into fabric and sew it together.

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It was a much bigger deal to get these

basic human needs that we fulfill

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just by driving down to Target.

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Humanity then progressed from creating

our own things to bartering, maybe,

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the dairy farmer would swap the

milk for the wool from the sheep

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farmer, but access to our wants and

needs was still very, very limited.

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Now we have access and almost

instantaneous access sometimes to

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literally anything we can dream of.

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Really money is the only barrier.

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All we need is money and we can get

that thousands of different ways.

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Think about all the different ways, you

know, that people make money through

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their jobs or their businesses or

any, you know, selling things on the

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internet, a million different things.

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It is so fascinating.

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So I personally have never milked

a cow in my lifetime, but I

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enjoy ice cream all the time.

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Isn't that a miracle?

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I've never built a car.

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I've seen one built.

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It's pretty fascinating, but I can get

to drive everywhere because somebody

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else did that hard work for me.

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Also, never designed a computer, see me

inside, looks like gobbledygook to me,

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but I use one every single day, thankfully

for other geniuses who put their time

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and effort into their business to create

the computers that we use every day.

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So I think we now know just how vital

and just how important businesses are,

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but let's move on to the next step.

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Why is it important for you and

I to create or build one of these

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organizations that exchanges value?

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Well, because you and I are full of value.

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Do you believe that you truly believe

that you have value to give the world?

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If not, then we need to have a

conversation, preferably on a

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coaching call where I can help

you parse out some of those

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thoughts that are not serving you.

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But I firmly believe that every human

being on this planet is full of value

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that they can give to other people.

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We know how to love people and

teach them and inspire them and

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encourage them wherever we go.

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And some of us are more practiced

than others, but the world has

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need of what we have to give.

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Especially, I believe God's

faithful women are so powerful.

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And I believe that he's calling

us to step into that power and to

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show it to the rest of the world.

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Sadly.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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The modern society that we live in has

caused a lot of physical disconnect

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with friends, family, even strangers

that previous generations didn't

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have in order to barter those goods.

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They had to walk down the street

and talk to their neighbor.

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They had to go to a farmer's market.

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We don't need to do that.

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We can literally live inside of our

house with almost zero human interaction.

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It's very sad.

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I mean, it's great for those

of us who are introverts.

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But do you guys remember the movie The

Net with Sandra Bullock from the 90s?

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Back then it seemed like science fiction.

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A woman could live in her house and

not know anyone physically, and no one

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could vouch for her identity because

so few people knew her in real life.

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And that is our reality today.

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You can DoorDash everything.

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You can Amazon Prime everything.

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And have so little human interaction.

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So I think that we really need to take

advantage of the internet that we have in

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order to create more connection, not less.

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So the upside to having access

to the internet is that now we

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have access to the entire world.

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I can put out a podcast that a

woman finds inspiring in Japan or in

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Australia, and those women can put

value out into the world that could

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benefit me all the way in Arizona.

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It's so amazing and I love it.

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But there are pros and cons, of

course, as we see this physical

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disconnect, but then we can reach

people further on the internet.

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So can you see why God might

be calling you to do this?

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It's because he needs your talents and

skills put out into the world and on the

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internet where thousands upon thousands

of people could benefit from them.

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Now, don't get freaked out by

the thousands and thousands.

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We're going to start with just a handful.

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Thankfully it takes time

to build an audience.

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I say thankfully because most of the

time it's really nerve wracking to get

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on the internet the first couple of

times and building an online business

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is full of scary moments like that.

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But it's going to take time for more

than, you know, just your friends

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and family to follow you and see what

you're putting out into the world.

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So once you get confident, then

you can go reach the thousands

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and it won't feel quite so scary.

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All right, so we've established

why businesses are not, mean, nasty

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corporate entities necessarily.

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Maybe some are.

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That they are valuable organizations

that exchange value and why we

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might need to start a business to

put our own value into the world.

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But I know what some of you might

be thinking now, okay, you get it,

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but why charge money for this value?

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If it is such great value and God wants

us to put it onto the world, why not

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just volunteer or create a nonprofit?

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Of course you can volunteer.

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Of course you can create a nonprofit.

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I highly recommend you do,

especially if you feel called to it.

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But there are two main reasons why

charging for your knowledge, expertise,

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or your creativity is worthwhile.

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So hear me out.

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the first one is that

you deserve to be paid.

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Okay.

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So putting goodness out

into the world is hard work.

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And in order for it to be sustainable,

meaning last more than about two

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months, value needs to change hands.

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Meaning you need to receive money

for what you're putting out there.

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Not only do you deserve it, but it

actually costs money to disseminate

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information content products to the world.

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So your business can only be viable

while money is changing hands.

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Now you could make it super cheap, but

wait for number two and you'll, you'll

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learn why you might not want to do that.

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So essentially you can only put goodness

out into the world until the money runs

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out until you don't have money to pay for

your hosting platform or your website.

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Okay.

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So that money has to change hands

to make it worth your while and also

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to continue putting it out there.

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The second main reason why charging

is essential is because people value

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things more when we pay for them.

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Tell me you don't think this is true.

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It is absolutely true.

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We all know this is true.

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When I have access to something

free, I'm either super suspicious

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and I don't take advantage of it.

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I'm like, why is it free?

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Right.

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Or I just don't value it at all.

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When we charge people money first, it

shows them that what we are offering is

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valuable and it communicates how valuable.

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So, a Gucci purse is more valuable than

a purse from Target for multiple reasons,

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but not the least of which is cost.

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It's about 500 times more expensive.

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Ergo, it is 500 times more valuable.

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Now, people can argue whether

it's actually higher quality.

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That's not what we're talking about here.

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What we want to understand is that

the money tied to a particular

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item, service, piece of information

shows the world how valuable it is.

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And then also, of course, charging money

communicates to the person receiving

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the item or the information that

they should take it more seriously.

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The things that I own that have

cost me a lot of money are treasured

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and cared for way more than

the things that I got for free.

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Not only do I not care for the free or

the cheap things as much, I don't spend

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as much time or energy enjoying them.

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I figure since it was only 5

or 25 or whatever, I only have

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to enjoy it 5 or 25 worth.

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If I invested 100 or 200 or 1, 000

in something, I know that it is

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more valuable and I spend more time

and effort enjoying it or getting

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that amount of value out of it.

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So when I invest serious money into

something, it reminds me that it's worth

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having in my life and I allow it to take

up more space in my life or in my brain.

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I just know it's more valuable.

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So, unfortunately, way too many female

entrepreneurs worry about charging

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money for their products or services,

especially large sums of money.

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And they worry that it's not

Christlike or something because

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they're focusing on bringing in money.

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But do you see how undercharging

could also be really terrible?

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Not just for you and your business,

but for your customers or your clients.

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When you undercharge, you diminish the

value you are bringing to the table

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and you're effectively communicating

that your product, services, whatever

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you're offering is not valuable.

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So you might be thinking, well,

I'm only going to charge 15 or 20

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for this thing because I want it

to be affordable or accessible.

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But when people see a price tag of 15

or 20, you know what they're thinking?

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This is cheap.

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This is not valuable.

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It's not certainly not as valuable

as that thing over there that's 250.

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Okay.

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So keep in mind both

sides of the equation.

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You have to require people to pay you a

high value so that you are communicating

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the value of your product or offer.

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Don't forget that because you don't

want to cheapen your business.

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You don't want to cheapen your

experience, make your business not viable.

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You also don't want to cheapen

the experience you're giving

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to your customers or clients.

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Now I'm also not a fan of overcharging

for no reason just because you can.

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We do want our services to be accessible.

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We do want people to benefit from the

value we're putting out into the world,

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but not at the expense of us or them.

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And we can do so by charging a fair price.

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So, if you believe that you can help

people change their lives, which I believe

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you can, communicate that by charging the

amount that that transformation is worth.

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Not your time, not the energy required

to produce that offer, but what the

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transformation you are selling is worth.

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That will make all the difference.

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I firmly believe that as more amazing

women organize these businesses and

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start creating more value and then

exchanging them for value in their

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life, everyone's lives are blessed

and the world becomes a better place.

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So let's get out there and

build those businesses.

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I'll talk to you next week, friends.