Life After Training – Part 1: Build Your Support System
Jan 1st, 2010 | By Darlene MacAuley | Category: doula business tips, Marketing, Starting Your Biz
Image by daemonv via Flickr
After coming down from the high of attending a your training workshop to be a doula or childbirth educator, or finishing your schooling and getting your degree, license or certification, are you asking yourself what to do next? If you have not owned a business before, navigating these uncharted waters can be overwhelming.
In this three-part series, I’ll discuss some of the basics to help get you started. Some of these topics, especially in the early phases of your business, are not fun or glamorous. However, this process is very similar to building a home – the cement slab is not the most exciting part of the house, but it’s the foundation and must be strong to support the rest of the building.
The topics to be discussed in this series include:
- Start Building Your Business Support System
- Research the Federal and State Requirements to Start a Business
- Enroll in Small Business Classes
Today we will look at building your business support system.
Start Building Your Business Support System
I believe that one of the most important elements of success in business is the strength of your support system. Even though you are “self-employed”, you don’t have to be in business alone.
Find people in and out of the birth industry who are supportive of you and your endeavor and who want to help you succeed. Surround yourself with people who will feed your passion and drive to create a successful practice, and limit your time around those you give you negative feedback or tell you why you cannot be a success. Your support system can consist of:
- Family and friends. Your family and friends may not have the business expertise that you need, but they can sure offer you a lot of moral support.
- Online forums and email lists. As a doula, of the most useful online forums that I am a member of is AllDoulas.com. I feel that this is site was the most helpful for me when I became a doula. You can register for a free membership here, and the women on this list are all so helpful and business-minded. Most fields have online forums or Yahoo Groups for that are especially helpful when you are looking for medical research or have questions specifically for supporting mothers. I will provide links to subscribe to some of these lists at the end of this article for doulas. If you know of additional links for other fields, please add them to the comments. If you are unable to find any, create your own! Facebook and Yahoo Groups are both great ways to create a presence for professionals to connect with one another.
- Local birth network and non-birth-related networking groups. See if there are any doula networks or birth networks in your area. Get to know experienced childbirth professionals not only in your community, but anywhere! Involvement in groups like these can provide you with many opportunities to meet others and get your name out there. Non-birth-related networking groups can put you in touch with other professionals whose services you may want to use, and you can educate others about what you do as well. Many groups offer business development opportunities in the form of guest speakers at meetings or special workshops. Affiliation with some of these programs may offer you discounts for business services and products in your community.
- Organizations and schools that offer small business training programs. Learn about business. Even if you are not at all interested in the subject, it’s vital that you understand the nuts and bolts so you can create a strong foundation, and you will likely avoid mistakes that might be more costly to fix later.
- Professionals such as accountants and attorneys. Find out either from friends and family or from others you meet in your networking groups for recommendations. It’s helpful to have an attorney look over your doula contract. It also makes sense to let an accountant help you set up your bookkeeping software or help answer your questions about deductible expenses so that you have a clear understanding about how to keep your books and what information to track and save.
Developing a strong support system will provide you with a great deal of resources as you build your practice, so you can get going more quickly and confidently. You will be seen as a professional, and you will also very likely gain referrals from your networking efforts.
Building a strong foundation for your business will create many opportunities for you, as well as provide you confidence to step into your community as a professional. In Part 2, we’ll look at researching federal and state requirements for starting a business.
Helpful Links:
Doula-Related Yahoo Groups:
Networking Opportunies:
- Do a search on Google for “birth network” or “doula network” in your area
- Lamaze International’s list of birth networks
- Do a search on Google for the “Women’s Chamber of Commerce” in your city or state
- Powerful You Women’s Network Chapter Listing
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