Creative Ways to Seek Funding to Invest in Business Development Services

Investing in your businesses can be a daunting idea–especially in the early stages and ESPECIALLY for folx who are identities that have been historically excluded and undercapitalized.

Here’s the good news, it’s not impossible.

And also.

Please do what *best* suits you and your budget. There will be opportunities for you to join programs during another cycle in the future. This is not your only/last chance.

Sometimes a program or service or group is the absolute right thing at the wrong time. That’s ok, trust yourself and honor your financial boundaries.

I’ve gathered up 9 Creative Ways to Seek Funding for Business Development Services (all of which I have tried or used at some point in my entrepreneurial journey).

💸Look for or ask about a payment plan

💸Apply for PayPal credit to cover the cost

💸Apply for/use business credit card or line of credit associated with your EIN (separate from personal credit)

💸Check if there are money mindset blocks getting in your way and work through them with a coach

💸Brainstorm ways you could bring in extra money to cover the cost

💸Some businesses offer services like WizeBank, FundMyContract, or other financing services

💸Check your eligibility for a Personal or Business Loan

💸Do a crowd-funding campaign

💸Apply for business grants

As they say, “It takes money to make money,” and starting, sustaining, and scaling your business all require financial investments.

Sure, there are a lot of learning tools available for free online.  And also, some of the most valuable assets that you can invest in are the relationships with coaches, mentors, and colleagues who you can turn to for support, accountability, and training.

The key truth to remember is that when you are making wise investments in your business, there is a rich return on your investment.

      • When you invest in hiring staff, the work they do will 1) free you up to stay in your zone of genius and 2) should bring in more revenue because they are working on marketing, lead generation, and outreach systems
      • When you invest in software that helps you collect and track lead data that will help you turn those leads into clients, you don’t lose anyone slipping through the cracks
      • When you invest in a business coach, you are getting premium access to someone with the training, knowledge and experience to guide you in the next right steps of your business
      • When you invest in a mindset coach, you have a guide to help you move through the bullying beliefs that stand in your way of thriving
      • When you invest in a money coach, you have an expert in your corner guiding you as you price your products and services, as you allocate reveneue, and as you increase your profits
      • When you invest in a business attorney or a set of contracts created by a business attorney that protect your business, your Intellectual Property, and your money, you won’t lose money to unnecessary refunds, or stolen IP
      • When you invest in an Accountant and/or Bookkeeper, you will have financial experts who know how to keep your business on track with taxes, and to keep you in the know about everything that is going on with your profits, losses, and flows

Just to be clear, you don’t necessarily need to invest in all of these all at once.  Certain investments are valuable at different times in your business building process.  And the best news is that sometimes, you can find a 3-in-1 deal like me, who is a mindset, business, and money coach all in one amazing, neurodivergent package!

 

What comes up for you as you read this blog?

If you’re finding scarcity scars and money mindset issues surfacing and getting in the way of your expansive dreams, let’s talk about it–I’d love to coach you through them into financial liberation!

Click the button below to schedule a free Curiosity Call!

#Money #Funding #BusinessDevelopment #StartUp #Neurodivergent #Entrepreneurs #Founders #MoneyMindset #Business #Community #FundRaising #investing

10 Questions for Vetting a Potential Therapist

Ten Suggested Questions and Therapist Directory Links to Help you Find your Next Therapist

Finding a new therapist can be a daunting task any time, but it can be especially overwhelming when you’re already burntout, or depressed, or just survived trauma, or experienced a pile of old pain plop itself directly in front of you to deal with NOW.

I’ve put together a list of questions that you might ask a prospective therapist in order to help you find a best possible fit. This is not an exhaustive list, but a place to start. These are all questions I have asked of therapists or have been asked of me when I was practicing as a licensed therapist. I always encouraged clients to ask me whatever they needed to in order to make an informed decision. Remember, you are hiring a therapist to do a really important job, it’s absolutely appropriate to interview them for that role!

In general, licensed therapists can only see clients living in states in which they are licensed. Some therapists have multiple licenses or licenses that allow them to see clients in multiple states like PSYPACT states. I recommend starting by searching for therapists licensed in your state (more on that later). Licensed therapists have state board regulations to follow including marketing integrity standards; therapists who have active licenses in good standing will have that information clearly available on their website and directory page. It’s a red flag if you can’t find any information about a person’s credentials.

Once you find a couple therapists that meet your initial criteria, below are some sample questions you might ask to get a better sense of whether or not you will jibe with this person and will feel safe enough from the start, to begin building a therapeutic relationship.

Questions to ask when Interviewing a Potential Therapist:

 

Ask about Therapist Identity.

For many folks who embody targeted identities and multiple intersections of said identities, Therapist Identity is an important factor in deciding with whom you want to work. For example, when I was practicing as a therapist I was clear about being a queer, fat, Autistic, ADHD, disabled, anti-racist therapist whose pronouns are she/they. This is one of the very first examples of what can help you filter candidates.

Ask about the therapist’s values & philosophy.

For example, do they align with the medical model or are they working to deconstruct that in their practice? Are their practices trauma informed? Do they work from a justice-oriented perspective? What kind of work are they doing personally and professional to decolonize their practice and to dismantle systems of oppression?

Ask about what they are doing to actively deconstruct ableist ideaology and practice from their work and self.

Ask about how they create accessibility.

If sessions will be in person, you might ask:

    • Are there gender neutral bathrooms available?
    • Is there an elevator?
    • Does the therapist have awareness of diverse sensory needs like lighting, temp, smells, etc?
    • Does the therapist have animals in their office as therapy animals? (This may be a trigger or may aggravate allergies).
    • Is there adequate, affordable, and accessible parking?
    • Is the office near or on a bus/metro route?
    • Can a wheelchair fit in and maneuver around the therapy office?

For telehealth sessions, you might ask:

    • Does their video platform offer closed captioning?
    • Is the therapist open to sessions with no camera?
    • If client isn’t able to be verbal is there a secure chat messaging feature available?

Ask about their idea of the Client-Therapist relationship.

Is it collaborative or hierarchical? Is their work “client-centered” or “client lead” vs. “therapist as expert” approach?

Ask about their specific experience and training in the area you want support.

How many other clients have they worked with with those same needs? Can they talk about their specialized training, continuing professional development, and consultation they pursue around this topic?

For example, a therapist might have “LGBTQ+ friendly” on their bio or website but it’s important to ask more about that. What is their relationship to the queer community? Do they work from an actively affirming and inclusive perspective? How much training, supervision/consultation have they had in this area? Do they have any lived-experience?

Another example is trauma. **Not all therapist work from a trauma-informed place.** And sadly, not all who claim to be trauma-informed actually are.  Specifically ask how they approach trauma work

Ask about what modalities they practice.  If you are Autistic and/or ADHD modalities like CBT and DBT are not always the best fit.

Ask what specific kinds of trauma does a therapist work with.

These are specialized areas that require extra training, lived-experience, and personal healing work on the part of the therapist: complex trauma, developmental (childhood family of origin) trauma, religious trauma, survivors of ABA treatment and/or conversion therapy, refugee trauma, trafficking trauma, veteran trauma, interpersonal violence/domestic violence, racial trauma, colonizer trauma, survivors of homeschooling trauma…etc. 

Ask if they see their own therapist and how important their own wellness practices are to their professional work?

A green flag to look for is a therapist who is in continual work of personal growth and development.  Therapists and Coaches have a deep responsibility to continue investing in our own health, wellness, and growth in order to show up as our best, ethical, present selves. 

 

Ask about what books are they reading? 

Who are they learning from right now? What interesting trainings have they attended lately? 

 

As you read their website do you resonate? 

Does their copy sound like who you want to work with or does it feel detached and generic? Do you get a sense of that therapist’s energy, approach, style enough to want to schedule an initial call with them?  Do they have a blog – what kinds of things do they write about? 

Therapist Directories and Related Sites

This is by no means an exhaustive list and will likely be updated from time to time. I am happy to help guide folks in this process so you can find a good fit and get on with the healing work you want to do!

 

My all time #1 go-to directory is Inclusive Therapists. It allows you to search specific areas like Therapist Identity, Insurance, Language, Areas of Experience, Therapy Modality (like EMDR, IFS, etc).

Neurodivergent-Affirming Therapists:

Racial Affinity Directories:

Non-Religious & Religious Trauma Focused:

Deaf Therapy:

Queer and Gender Expansive Affirming:

Lower Cost/Sliding Scale Fees:

Where possible, I encourage you to stay away from “corporate online therapy” as you don’t have as much autonomy over who you work with, and they have a record of engaging exploitative pay practices with their therapist employees.

Are there other directories I’ve missed? Please let me know, I’m always wanting to expand the mental health resources available to folks!

If you need other resources for support, please visit my RESOURCES page.

Mess is Morally Neutral

Musings on releasing clutter shame as an act of radical self acceptance

I first encountered this phrase from KC Davis, LPC who is the brilliantly relatable human behind Struggle Care and @DomesticBlisters on TikTok. 

It is a phrase that I sit with and work to accept as true, and especially, true for me.

I grew up in the impeccably neat and organized homes of my parents and grandmother.  It was a part of my upbringing to do chores, from as early as I can remember.  As a young child I embraced the “out of sight out of mind” philosophy of cleaning and shoved everything under my bed or in the back of my closet when it came time for room inspections.  Every time I was found out and then had to began the task of actually putting things away—folded, neat, orderly.

When I was a kid there was a great deal of cultural attitude around cleanliness…it is next to Godliness after all!  Cleanliness and mess were absolutely made out to be moral reflections of a person’s character and I, as an ambassador of the family had a responsibility to uphold certain standards of presenting myself and my spaces.

I got it, to a degree.  There are definitely perks of having a tidy space that is ready to work or create in whenever you like without having to first clean it up.  I enjoyed that feature.

Later in life during a transitional period when I first moved to Texas, I worked as a professional organizer going into people’s homes and guiding them through organizing pantries and closets and personal business documents.  I loved it!  It absolutely sated my enjoyment of creating order and putting my Autistic organizer brain to use.  And it was other people’s stuff so I enjoyed no attachments or history with those things.

This was also during a season before a major loss in my life occurred and I was lost in the pit of cPTSD, depression, and grief.

My home space began to disintegrate as I got deeper into grief and processing trauma with my therapist.

Jennifer Alumbaugh, MS

I was suddenly acutely aware of my bandwidth and how I rarely had any surplus after a day of therapy and work, to then come home and make a meal or wash a dish or sweep the floor.  I didn’t understand how I was loosing so much functioning when earlier in life I knew how to keep a home space clean and tidy and guest-ready.

Then I began to learn about the links between clutter, mess, and trauma.  I began the work of deconstructing the nasty, mean, and shaming mentality I had toward myself.  Healing doesn’t happen all at once, especially in this area.

I have a lot of conversations with clients about some of the heartache of healing is also being left with things we have to fix from when we were not capable of dealing with them in a grief or depression or cPTSD place.

I wish there was some “get out of mess free” card that people got after healing through their trauma that magically cleaned and organized spaces for them….but alas, none exist.

Instead, I am grateful for resources like what KC Davis creates.  On her website are a slew of helpful downloadables including things like: Closing Duties Checklist, How to Build a Cleaning Kit, Neurodivergence To-Do list, Cleaning Your Depression House, and more!  Additionally, she has a 6-month online course to provide support, motivation, and boosters for folks wanting to tackle their doom piles…all for $15!  I love that her work is financially accessible, is inclusive of neurodivergent brains, and is broken into tiny, manageable sound-bites.

KC also just released a book, How to Keep House while Drowning, which I totally just got on Audible (it’s read by KC herself!  I love books read by their own authors)!  It’s a quick 3 hour read or listen and as I was reading reviews, I saw that many folks played the audio book while they organized a space and found it deeply motivating and affirming.  So, I will be trying that out this weekend!

For a number of reasons, mess is so often shrouded in shame that we don’t talk about it and the not talking about it grows until it feels like this “big dirty secret” that we are hiding from the world.  I’m right there with you! 

Today, I am embracing the idea that “mess is morally neutral” and I am going to see what changes when I treat myself with kindness and compassion around my messes, and what happens when I can celebrate and feel good about small wins.

What’s your relationship with mess? 

What if you could see a pile of dishes, or stack of unfolded laundry and *not* experience shame and judgment of yourself? 

What if you were able to connect with the motivation to tidy driven by a belief that you are worthy of a tidy space, rather than driven by harsh criticism and blame? 

What if you could find value and gratification in the small victories? 

 

I’d love to walk with you on this path, not because I have it all figured out, but because I get it, I’m right there too learning and growing into self acceptance in this area. 

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