Are you ready to talk about money shifts? Because I sure am.  I am back to talk about hitting the elusive “10 million dollars in revenue” mark, and what changes I had to make, to get there.  While reading this Forbes article a few years back, I read that only 2% of women-owned businesses surpass the $1 million mark. This statistic is one of the reasons that I do what I do, and why it's so important for me to come on here and share my experiences in business growth and financial success. I feel determined to help increase the amount of female-founded businesses to break the $1 million in revenue mark.   Let's start with shift #1... Become familiar with your money story and work through it.  A money story is a personal narrative about money. It makes up your beliefs, thoughts, and feelings about money – and affects your financial behaviors. - Women With Money  What you heard growing up actually plays a huge part of the narrative that you tell yourself around money.  Did you hear your parents fighting about money? Were your parents/guardians in constant fear about not having enough money, or making ends meet? Did your parents say passing comments like “Oh that person must be made of money” or “oh must be nice to be rich”?  These comments shaped your money story, and unless you’ve gone in and done the work to revise that story, it might be holding you back.  I didn’t know I had a money story until I was confronted by it. I was sitting in a boardroom in a fancy California yacht club with 5 other men who were extremely successful. I was standing on the terrace looking at the massive yachts and I said, “I wonder what they do for a living, they must be so wealthy.” Michael, who was standing beside me said, they are no different than you, they put their pants on one leg at time. Do you see them as different from you? Do you believe that you can have this too?  When he asked that last question, I felt like I could burst into tears. I didn’t because I was in a room full of men. I didn’t at the time. I did not believe that I could be that rich and frankly until I was confronted with it, I was still aiming too small. Think of how you conduct yourself on a daily basis now. Do you procrastinate? Do you avoid following up with potential clients? Do you talk potential clients out of the sale? This shift-- addressing your money story will be the most important thing you can ever do for your business and your life.    Shift # 2: Know your numbers with precision I’m going to let you off the hook here by sharing an embarrassing fact with you. I didn’t track anything in my business for years. I didn’t have fancy spreadsheets or a pristinely organized Quickbooks account. I had a bank account that had money in it. If there was money in it, I was doing good.  But here’s the truth. That is a really stressful way to run and grow a business. So even if you’re just starting out, don’t make the same mistakes I did.  When you have data, months or better yet, years worth of data, you can see patterns, you’ll know that January is a slow month so when you only make half the sales you won’t panic. When you track and have metrics you’ll be able to plan for slow months by increasing monthly revenue goals in other months so that overall you hit your annual goal.  Tracking your business metrics gives you confidence and security when it comes to making growth-based decisions in your business. When you have historical data, you’re able to use that to predict with a degree of certainty.  Let me take a pause here for a minute because tracking your numbers requires you to face your own efforts-- and your money story. If you are not tracking your numbers maybe it’s because you think you don’t have to or because you’re not good at spreadsheets or math or it’s boring or whatever