If you have been in this online entrepreneurial space for any period of time, you have likely heard people talking about your Money Mindset. 

It’s something we talk about with our clients a ton since it totally impacts the way you deal with all of the money things in your business (and in your life).

These are the messages you heard (and continue to hear) from your family and friends and the media about money, business, wealthy people, poor people, The IRS, all those things.  They are in your subconscious and many times, we aren’t even aware of all of them.  And, you know I could climb up onto my soapbox to talk about all of the messages we have absorbed – but today I am speaking just to the money side of things.  

What does this have to do with taxes, specifically? 

Well, I want you to think for a minute about what you hear everywhere about taxes and how that might be impacting your business.

Many of the messages that we have embodied about taxes include them being scary, hard, complicated, and unfair (whether that’s actually true or not doesn’t matter).  

That oftentimes leads to us having feelings of shame, fear, and avoidance.   

And, when we feel those feelings we are most likely to avoid the conversations completely – especially when things feel icky – like you get a letter from the IRS asking for payment on something that you don’t understand. Totally easier to just throw it in your drawer and ignore it, right? 

Perhaps your mindset is causing you to not take proactive steps to save money for taxes because you don’t even know how much to save. Plus you don’t feel like you have any extra money to save anyway. 

Or you end up saving WAY TOO MUCH because you would rather be safe than sorry after listening to so many horror stories from friends who had huge tax bills from their businesses? 

Maybe you are working with an accountant who reinforces those things to you and stirs up those feelings you have of shame when you have your conversations with them. 

So what do you do?

Well, you can do mindset work for years (and it should really be a regular part of your self-care every day, to be honest) but here are some easy steps you can take today.

1. Recognize the thoughts.  Even just having awareness of your thoughts can be so powerful.  Then, when you start to go down the road of having a thought that you don’t think will be helpful you can step in and redirect it somewhere else. Look at what you wrote down in your answers to those questions I posed. 
   
   When you think about what’s not working right now with your taxes, write down the thoughts that come up.  Write down what thoughts you have when you think about taxes and about talking with your accountant. What are you actually afraid of?  Oftentimes putting the fear down onto paper makes it seem like a less scary monster.    

2. Examine which parts of those thoughts might not be true. Are you willing to accept that taxes might be fun? That you could enjoy paying your tax bill every year? That the IRS is just a group of people trying to do their job who sometimes use their language to get you to pay attention?    

3. Change your language. Changing the things you say can dramatically shift the thoughts you are thinking. You aren’t going to jump from hating taxes to loving them just by changing your language, but you can move gradually there.  
   
   Taxes are scary and I am afraid of them.  << To>>  I am learning more about taxes so I can feel more confident and know what I need to do each week.     

4. Neutralize the emotional charge that you feel around them. The pit in your stomach when you have to talk with your accountant?  When you see a letter from the IRS? If you can detach yourself from the emotions, it’s much easier to just deal with the issue at hand and not make it mean anything about you. 
   
   Getting a letter from the IRS doesn’t mean you are not a successful business owner.  It doesn’t mean you are bad at math or bad at business or that you are going to jail.  Then you can boss up and just make the phone calls and deal with the paperwork. 
   
   
5. Get the right support.  Please don’t work with a financial team that isn’t speaking to you in the way you deserve, using fear-based language instead of empowering language. Or reinforcing the thoughts that you are thinking about how you are spending your money, what you saved or didn’t save for taxes, or how you should be different from how you are.

If you’re working with an accountant that makes you feel judged, shamed or makes you want to run away from your money, there is a better way! It doesn’t have to be that way. Book a chat with our team.

This is provided as information only and as a starting point for a conversation with your own legal and accounting team, this should not be considered legal or financial advice.

All of these decisions are based on a number of factors and we cannot guarantee that you will experience any specific results based on any information provided. Please speak with your own retained professionals to ensure that you are making the best decisions for your business & personal situation.

Please speak with your own retained professionals to ensure that you are making the best decisions for your business & personal situation.