My highest recommendation for backing up precious data is to subscribe to an online backup service. Once set up, your data will be backed up on an external server somewhere, automatically and in the background, so you can still work while your data is being backed up. My companies use Carbonite and pay $50/year for online backup services per computer. My husband, who is very rough with his laptop and literally wears them out, has used the Carbonite backups a couple of times to restore his files.

If you are the type of person who is very good about backing up your data manually, please share your method and what you do in a comment or on the Savvy Doula Business Group on Facebook. If you would prefer an automated option, Carbonite is a good option. There are definitely other options out there for online services, so I encourage you to do your homework to make sure you choose a service that works for you.

Join me tomorrow when I talk about organizing your books, teaching materials and supplies you take to births. Have a great evening!

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For the first five years, my doula business finances were a mess! I was getting plenty of births, but I had no idea if I was making a profit, how much, and when it came to the end of the year, figuring out my expenses for tax time was just awful!

And then I stumbled on a product that has solved all most of my accounting problems. It’s called the “File-it!” calendar, and I’ve used it for the last five years with great success.

This calendar hangs on the wall – essential to not getting buried in mounds of stuff on my desk – and I use it to record the places I go and the mileage. I do NOT use it for appointments I’ve not attended yet, or for non-business related stuff. I just record trips after the fact.

Each month of the year is printed on a file folder sized pocket. I put all the receipts for business related expenses in this pocket. When I deposit a check from a client, I write the client’s name on the bank receipt and it goes in the calendar, too. If a non-business related receipt ends up in there, no big deal. Again, it’s on the wall, so I never have to go looking for the place where the receipts go.

At the end of each month, I tear off the file folder pocket for that month. I go through my purse looking for more receipts. (Bonus! Purse gets cleaned out once a month, too!) I enter all the miles, deposits and receipts on the computer. After I’ve entered in the miles, I figured out the dollar deduction for those miles (using the current IRS formula –for 2009 it is 55 cents per mile for business trips) and reimburse myself for those, too. I personally use an Excel spreadsheet with different tabs for income, expenses and miles driven, but you could easily use Quickbooks, MS Money, or another program for this.

And to motivate myself to actually DO this every month, all monies I get for my doula work go into a separate bank account for my business. At the end of the month, I write myself two checks: One reimbursing myself for expenses paid, and one paying myself any profit I can withdraw at that point. Can’t get the money into the non-business account without doing the accounting!

When I am done, the file folder pocket goes into a drawer in my desk. At the end of the year, I bind a year’s worth together with a rubber band and move it to a filing cabinet for more long-term storage. This has been amazingly helpful for me. Just having it on the wall as opposed to in a drawer or shoebox makes it always easily accessible. I’m not promising myself to write everything down as it happens – because I know myself and I won’t do that! Forcing myself to balance the accounts once a month helps me to keep my finger on how well my business is doing financially and how much money I have to spend on things like conferences, books, etc. And I spend a lot less time trying to figure out what the receipts mean, as I can more easily remember a transaction from February 12 on March 1 than at tax time the next year!

I don’t have any connection at all to this calendar company, but I have found this calendar to be so helpful to me in keeping a simple, doable accounting process for my business. Now that I know better how much I make and where the money is going, I am better able to find ways to do things I love, like attending big conferences every year, while still making a profit.

I hope this tip is helpful to Savvy Doula’s readers!

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Andrea Lythgoe is a DONA-certified doula, hospital-based Lamaze childbirth educator, and instructor at the Midwives College of Utah. She is the author of the website UnderstandingResearch.com where she aims to help those just beginning to read research to understand the language of research. When not doing birth work, she enjoys learning photography and watching her three daughters perform in plays.

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Many of these articles are perfect for parenting educators, birth doulas to give to clients at postpartum visits or for postpartum doulas to offer to their clients, covering everything from sleep, to routines, to sibling adjustment. What a great way to have a set of professional handouts to give to your clients on a variety of topics that will help them adjust to parenthood.

Visit Elizabeth Pantley’s site today and request a set of articles to begin your document library.

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If you would like to have a free listing on her site for your services, you can visit the site and see what the listings are like. Use the contact form to send an email request to be added to the list.

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1. Make the decision and say to yourself “I own a doula business”. Does it feel different to say that as opposed to “I am a doula”. As doulas, we are nurturing, caring, creative and passionate about birth. We hold energetic space for a woman. We use our intuition often. It’s a boldly feminine role. On the other hand, running a business is more masculine in nature. It must have its own structure and operate within bigger structures (as in state and federal government structures). We operate the business according to systems we put in place for ourselves, we put ourselves in the public eye through marketing and advertising efforts, and we hold our clients within a framework of expectations. Being a business owner takes recognizing not only who you are as a doula, but acknowledging the fact that you own and must manage the day-to-day tasks of a small business. Both sides of the coin must be balanced.
2. Create a plan for your practice. Business planning helps you to set goals, find out about your competition, determine what your clients want and see what money-making potential your business has in store for you. If you are the sole owner of your business and you are not planning to go into business with others or need outside funding, you don’t necessarily need to create a full-fledged formal business plan. Karyn Greenstreet, one of the business coaches I like, wrote an article highlighting the points you should explore when creating a plan.
3. Maintain a professional presence. You don’t need to wear a suit when meeting with other professionals and clients, but you should dress professionally. Communicate via email without shouting (typing in all caps), the use of slang, emoticons or acronyms (ie: LOL, IMHO, etc) and by all means, use your spell check. Be on time for your appointments and have an agenda to follow for your interviews, prenatals and postpartum visits.
4. Get some business cards. Business cards help to communicate who you are, what you do, and how to reach you. It’s much more professional than giving someone the same information scrawled onto a napkin. Business cards can range from free to fancy. I’d discourage the use of cards printed on perforated business card stock because the perforations are visible and don’t look very good. A variety of cards can be created inexpensively on VistaPrint using their free templates, or you can upload or create your own card using your logo and branding.
5. Create and have your clients sign a contract. Whether you charge for your services or not, you need to have a contract. Contracts help you define your policies and the boundaries you choose to work within and helps you to communicate those with your clients. It is also advisable to have an attorney look over your contract. If cost is an issue for you, see if there is an attorney referral hotline and ask if there are any attorneys who offer pro bono services. Some SBA offices may also be able to refer you to resources for reasonable or free legal services.

Be proud of yourself. You are a doula. You own a doula business. There are many other factors that make a business owner and a business, but the five tips I’ve given you will help you be perceived as a professional and will help you to increase your confidence.

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Here is how you can help to increase awareness about your business and your support for this project, and promote the mission of creating transparency in maternity care:

• Re-connect with your past clients. Send them an email with the link to the Birth Survey site and encourage them to participate in the survey. Also tell them to forward your message to their friends, mother’s groups, LLL and API groups.
• The Birth Survey site has a variety of PR material for you to utilize. Download buttons for your website and postcards and flyers to distribute. You can also visit the Central Texas Birth Network’s site and download a full-page flyer that can be posted and distributed.
• Encourage those in your professional network to distribute these flyers. Send them an email with a copy of the brochures and links to The Birth Survey website.
• If you are planning to have a booth at a baby show, create a flyer to hand out. Add this statement to the bottom of the flyer: “Provided by [Your Business Name] – [your website name]. Ie: Provided by the Central Texas Birth Network – www.centexbirthnetwork.org.
• If you run a Birth Network, add buttons and links on the Network’s website.
• If allowed, email your women business network groups and let them know about the Birth Survey.
• Email your friends and mom’s groups and let them know about the project.
• Write about the Birth Survey on your professional and personal blog.

Share how you are spreading the the word about The Birth Survey with me by adding a comment below.

This project is exciting for birth professionals and birthing women. What a wonderful way to encourage accountability of birth providers and hospitals. I hope this provides women a way to have their stories heard about their birth experiences, good and bad.

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What is a Team 100 List?

The Team 100 is a list of 100 people with whom you have a professional relationship. These can be fellow colleagues in your field, other birth professionals, and any business owners who you would like to refer your clients to, and who could reciprocate the favor by sending clients your way.

For step-by-step instructions on creating your Team 100, read this article by marketing coach Ronnie Noize. Ronnie also has other great articles about marketing and business building and will be a great resource for you.

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Microsoft created this service with business professionals in mind. Unlike other free website services, MS Live sites don’t have ads at the top of the website, and you can have your OWN domain name rather than a name that is a subdomain of your provider.

Some of the services include:

• Free website hosting
• Up to 100 email accounts (great for birth networks or multi-doula practices)
• Online site design tool, no html or CSS knowledge required. The service does allow you to add sections with html code and allow you to make some changes to the header and footer CSS code.
• Site traffic report tools
• Free tech support by phone and via online forums
• Email can be integrated with your MS Outlook, so you don’t need to check your mail through the MS Live service.
• Free blog that can be integrated into your site (not as good as other blog services, though)

Well, it IS free

As can be expected with a free service, there are some quirks:

• Sometimes the formatting of text on your website changes after you save your work.
• The site will look best in MS Internet Explorer. It may not look quite right in other internet browsers
• It’s difficult to set up Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools with MS Office Live sites. There is a lot of help in the forums and you can find some coding to help you utilize some of those tools, but it’s not easy to take advantage of everything those tools have to offer
• There are a set of templates you can use, but they’re not very customizable.

There are lots of great resources in the form of articles and forum postings to help you make the most of this free service. Microsoft Live offers upgraded services for a monthly fee, but for most doulas wouldn’t need to upgrade their service package.

Other caveats

If you are looking for a way to make a simple and professional website, MS Office Live is an excellent way to do it. However, if you know you want to change to another web host at some point, be sure to find out the process to do so. Since you are using the MS Office Live templates, you will likely have to redesign your site when you switch.

There is a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it and learn how to work around its quirks, it’s fairly easy to create new pages for your website, and there are many free and inexpensive services available to make your site more interactive.

What information to I include on my website?

You should include at least the following information:

• An explanation of what a doula is and does
• A description of your services
• Information about your philosophy
• Your contact information

Some doulas include their rates, some do not. Some doulas mention they are in training, some do not. There are differing opinions on this. If you want to explore the reasons, look to some of the doula forum archives.

Looking at various doula websites online is a great way to get ideas. DO NOT copy and use the text on other websites for your own, though; that is copyright infringement! When you explore others’ websites, answer these questions:

• Does the site look professional?
• Does the site explain what services are available?
• What makes this doula unique?
• Does what this doula say make you curious enough that you’d want to learn more about what she’s about?

The last two questions is what you should be answering when making your own site. If there are several doulas in your area, and everyone has similar rates and services, why should someone hire YOU? Your website is a great tool to differentiate yourself from others around you. Find sites of other doulas that draw you in, and figure out what it is about those sites that make those doulas interesting.

Will people be able to find my site?

You should definitely submit your site to the major site engines. Don’t waste your time using the free search engine submission services unless you want to be bombarded by junk mail. Find free directories to list website. A search in the archives at AllDoulas.com can help you find some of these directories.

In addition, add your website address to your email signature, your business card and your brochures. Consider joining a birth or doula network that lists members’ sites.

Don’t wait any longer… let people know who you are!

Having a website is a great way to announce to the world that you are a doula. It not only let’s people know what you do and offer, but it is a way to set yourself apart from the rest. Whether you use a free service like Microsoft Office Live or create a truly customized site, show the world who you are by communicating what you are passionate about and why. It will allow people to connect with you and will help you to attract the more of the clients that you want to work with.

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[Note from Darlene - You may have heard me talk about Ronnie Noize, my marketing coach. Her business is the SOHO (Small Office/Home Office) Marketing Guru, and she is everything she says she is! If you want to learn practical ways to market your business, Ronnie has a ton of resources. I love, love, LOVE her, and I'm pleased to have the opportunity to share an article she wrote. Enjoy!]

How do you find YOUR prospects? If you’re like many solopreneurs, very

Ronnie Noize a.k.a. "The Marketing Coach"

often your prospects find you. That means that somewhere somehow, someone is talking about you. That someone could be one of your clients, a colleague, or even your web site.

In the marketing business, we call that buzz about us “word of mouth” (WOM) and that’s what we all want because the more there are folks saying good things about us, the less we have to do ourselves.

But what if people AREN’T talking about us? What do we do then?

Creating positive WOM about yourself doesn’t have to be difficult, time-consuming, or expensive (unless you want it to be, of course). You can get your name out there very quickly, if you know exactly what segment of the population you want to reach, and you know exactly what you want to say when you’ve got their attention.

Once you’ve clarified your message (this means you’ve figured out what one thing you’d tell all your clients if you could speak to them just once), and you know what you want to be known for, you can start that buzz humming.

Here are five ideas to help you get folks talking about you:

1. Start speaking (publicly, that is). As I like to say, the best way to spread the word about what you do is to open your mouth, so prepare a speech that illustrates your expertise and outlines your key message, and start giving it for free at meetings and seminars. No speaking gigs? Start by giving a spotlight speech at your local trade association or networking group.

2. Teach what you know. Share your knowledge with others at learning centers, in workshops, or in classes. Get organizations to sponsor you, or sponsor yourself. One thing that I do regularly is lead free teleclasses. People from all over the world attend my classes, and tell their friends about what they learned from me.

3. Put it in writing. Write an article with the best advice, tips, or information that you have on your area of expertise, and get it published. Start with the article banks on the web, and soon your articles will be published in places you didn’t even know existed. If you’re feeling confident, approach your local newspapers, or ask your national trade and industry publications if they accept articles.

4. Build your Team 100. Once you’re out there talking to your referral partners about the specific clients you help and what they get from working with you, people will start talking about you. The great thing about my Team 100 script is that once your Team 100 members know what to listen for, they start hearing it said. Ever notice how the second you buy a new car, you start seeing them everywhere? That’s because you have increased your awareness of that particular car, and this same effect happens once you start building your Team 100 (but in this case, it benefits you!).

5. Spread the word yourself. Send out press releases to the media, a newsletter to your clients and prospects, and notes to your colleagues about all the wonderful things you’re doing. People want to know that you’ve published more articles (or better yet, a book!), been tapped to appear on Oprah, or reached an important milestone in your business, but they might not hear about it unless you tell them!

How to Get People Talking About YOU © 2004 Veronika Noize.  All rights reserved.

About the author
Veronika (Ronnie) Noize, the Marketing Coach, is a successful Vancouver, WA-based entrepreneur, author, speaker, and coach who helps small businesses attract more clients.  Ronnie’s web site is a comprehensive resource with free articles and valuable marketing tools for small office/home office business professionals.  Visit her web site at www.VeronikaNoize.com, or call her at 360-882-1298.

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Just visit the IRS website here and you will see the heading “Small Business/Self-Employed Virtual Small Business Workshop”.

Classes are about 30 minutes in length. The instructors discuss a variety of topics and also reference the Publications you can refer to for more information, which is also available on their website. If you have more questions you want answered, there are phone numbers available on the website and you can speak to an IRS employee. Whenever I’ve called in, the employees have always been very helpful.

Now is a great time to find out what you need as you get ready for the end of the year!

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