Center for the Childbearing Year, LLC » Doula Business Advisor

2012 Goal Setting for Doulas, Part 4

Patty Brennan — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 06:00:18 +0000

Previously in this series on 2012 Goal Setting for Doulas, I have referenced a “marketing calendar.” Here is an excerpt from my plan, focused on the professional training aspect of my business.

Goal: Sell at least one Postpartum Home Visitor Training in 2012.

History: new program has been sketched out and description is on website; one party has expressed interest; none sold to date. Why is this a good goal for me? Because (a) it has the potential to increase my annual income by $3,000 per gig; (b) it would be a fun class to teach; (c) it would expand my reputation/visibility throughout the state and thereby increase interest in other programs my business offers; (d) has the potential to go national; and (e) has built-in continuity, meaning buyers will come back for more on a regular basis as new staff need to be trained. So, all in all, a good business goal for me, though admittedly one of several.

Action Step: Create list of contacts who form potential market for this program (by end of January).

pull current contacts from my database
brainstorm additional contacts with Wise Woman Group
generate list, with contact information

Action Step: Speak with leaders in the field (marketing research) (by end of February)

create list of questions: current training used, training gaps, biggest areas of challenge, training budgets, cooperative possibilities

Action Step: Develop foot-in-the-door strategy (by end of March)

refine existing program content, sales copy, and pricing structure, based on feedback from leaders in the field
brainstorm attention-getting strategies (use both Master Mind groups for help)
identify plan for implementation of marketing strategy

Action Step: Implement the plan (by end of April)

target three top contacts with proposal/sales strategy
have student intern generate comprehensive mailing list of home visitor programs throughout the State

And so on …

It’s all about how to get from point A to point B. All journeys begin with one step! I hope you have found this series of blogs helpful and inspiring. To keep yourself on track, join me for my “Building Your Birth-Related Business” full-day workshop, offered this coming May, wherein I will be sharing MUCH more on the subject of marketing your doula business.

The Doula Business Advisor blog is designed to support the establishment and long-term sustainability of private doula businesses. Patty Brennan is the author of The Doula Business Guide: Creating a Successful MotherBaby Business.

2012 Goal Setting for Doulas, Part 3

Patty Brennan — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:00:37 +0000

Doulas and other small business owners may need to procure help in order to achieve their goals. Help might be in the form of hiring a professional (for example, a web designer), or it may be in the form of getting the whole family on board with the idea that mom has specified “work times” that need to be respected, perhaps even hiring a babysitter so that you have a dedicated business development time each week. Figure out what you need to make it work! Building a business is a creative act.

The idea of the “Master Mind” group was first proposed by Napoleon Hill in his now-famous book, Think and Grow Rich. The Master Mind concept involves a special type of professional support group wherein a dynamic exchange of marketing ideas takes place. I participate in two Master Mind groups: a “Wise Women Marketing Group” that is childbirth-industry specific and one that involves entrepreneurs from a variety of industries (we’re talking heating and cooling businesses, carpet cleaners, and so on) and includes both male and female members. Each group comes together once a month and each member is allotted a specific amount of time (anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes or so, and we set a timer!) for all group members to focus on your business.

The group can critique your overall business plan, or provide feedback on a specific marketing piece you have developed (e.g., brochure, flyer) or copy you have written to promote a new product. Or, they can brainstorm new outreach venues, networking opportunities, or marketing strategies strategies … whatever you are working on or need help with. Group members can also share resources and professional contacts for contractual services (such as business coaches, graphic artists, web designers, accountants, etc.). It’s a pooling of brain power and resources.

In the industry-specific Wise Women group, we have a lactation consultant, a childbirth educator/doula trainer, a postpartum doula, a birth photographer, and a retired homebirth midwife now starting up a new business as a home funeral guide. Lots of diversity, but no overlap or direct competition. It’s really helpful to have a group industry insiders, each with her own realm of influence, sharing a dynamic exchange of ideas.

The beauty of the broader Master Mind group is that each of us can also benefit from the perspective of folks who are not in our same field. This group will cause you to identify assumptions you are making about your audience and help steer you away from insider jargon abuse. Every birth junkie knows what you mean if you call yourself a “MotherBaby advocate,” but an expectant father may draw a blank (or worse, feel excluded). Master Mind group members can often help by simply observing, “I don’t know what this means.” You will also be drawing from a wider, more diverse range of contacts, experience, knowledge, and skills. And, here’s a secret: If a marketing technique works in one business, it can be adapted for use in another. Bundled services, “upsells,” coupons, gift certificates, and referral rewards work for doulas too!

And last, but not least, the groups can be a means of helping you hold yourself accountable to your goals. If you are meeting once a month, or twice a month (like I do) to focus on marketing, you will need to prepare something to bring to that meeting or what is the point? The meeting serves as a deadline of sorts and we ALL benefit from deadlines. Being an entrepreneur is a lonely job at times. If that’s one of your obstacles, what can you do about it?

Join us next week for the final installment of our four-part blog series on 2012 Goal Setting for Doulas as we develop the marketing calendar tool.

2012 Goal Setting for Doulas, Part 2

Patty Brennan — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 06:00:08 +0000

In last week’s blog, I encouraged doulas to establish goals for the development of their businesses over the new year. We can think of this goal setting as a type of business plan or marketing calendar. Now, I invite each doula business owner to review the past year. Did you set any goals for yourself in 2011? How did you do (be ruthless here)? Let’s look at the goals themselves. Did they have identified action steps and deadlines attached? Would that have helped you? Did you abandon your plan altogether in the face of obstacles encountered? Have you identified obstacles that keep you from achieving your goals?

How can we work around the obstacles? Here’s a few tips:

Try to remove yourself from the emotions attached to the obstacles and take a more objective view. At this stage, we are simply identifying a list of what makes this hard for you. What frustrations have you experienced related to launching your business?
Examine your beliefs about the obstacles. Do you believe that they are insurmountable? Do you believe that there is only one path over or around that obstacle? Might there be more than one solution? Let your imagination soar. Be open to the idea that the answers will come to you.
Get this all out on the table without pre-judging it or yourself. “Just the facts mam …”
It just might be that the first part of your goal setting for 2012 will need to revolve around resolving fundamental issues, clearing a path to the next, more fruitful steps.
Ask for the help you need. This may be from family members, friends, or professionals. Identify what it is that you cannot accomplish with help or cooperation from others.

Often our unconscious fears keep us from even examining our situation and, until we do that, we can’t move past the obstacles in our path. Next week, Part 3 in our four-part series on 2012 Goal Setting for Doulas explores how to get the help you need to be a successful entrepreneur.

2012 Goal Setting for Doulas, Part 1

Patty Brennan — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:00:30 +0000

Welcome to my four-part blog series on 2012 Goal Setting for Doulas! Have you set up your doula business marketing calendar for the coming year? I don’t know why I am such a fan of New Years. I guess it’s the idea of a fresh start. As an entrepreneur (and yes, doulas may want to view themselves as entrepreneurs!), I’m also big on setting goals for myself and then, at the end of the year, measuring how well I did. For example, I increased my personal income in 2011 by 52%! My goal was a little more ambitious than that even, but I believe I am on track for achieving the more ambitious target number for 2012. Here’s a few tips:

Set your goals. Make them specific, focused, achievable, meaningful, and measurable. Better to overshoot a bit than to undershoot. If you undershoot, then you are stating that your intention is to do less than you are capable of and/or desire. If you overshoot, then you challenge yourself to do more, to be the best you can be. Warning: If you have too many goals, then there will be no focus to what you are trying to accomplish. Keep it focused!
Identify the action steps needed to achieve each goal. For example, if one of your goals is to complete your doula certification requirements, simply create a checklist of what remains incomplete. Those are your action steps.
Set deadlines for completion of each action step. Yes, really. Deadlines are your friend! Get a calendar, or create one online. Each action step must have a deadline attached.
Work backwards from the deadline to create a work/task schedule. In other words, in order to accomplish an action step by the deadline, what specifically must you do? Now, instead of feeling overwhelmed by the sheer abundance of possibilities of how to proceed, you have a plan. Just work the plan.
Hold yourself accountable. On at least a monthly basis, give yourself a measure of your progress. If you fall short, rather than abandoning your system, readjust as necessary to stay on track.

There is a saying, “Do you know how to make God laugh? Show him your plans.” And this: “Life is what happens while we are planning other things.” So, yes, we all experience unforeseen challenges and obstacles that can pull us off track. But without a plan, we are like a ship’s captain with no destination … when the storms come, we will be tossed about, but even in fine weather, we simply go wherever the current and the wind takes us. Once we commit to a destination, the odds are in our favor that we will get there. Don’t let your New Year’s resolutions become a “to do list for the first week of January!”

Anyone else have a System for Getting Things Done? Next week: Overcoming Obstacles.

Doulas Should Step Up to Help Breastfeeding Moms

Patty Brennan — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 06:11:09 +0000

Nearly 75 percent of U.S. hospitals do not fully support breastfeeding. According to the results of a national survey of maternity hospitals and birth centers conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2009– Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care (mPINC)–the majority of mothers and babies are not getting the support they need to sustain breastfeeding after leaving the hospital. The CDC surveyed maternity care facilities to ascertain how many of them were implementing maternity care practices outlined by the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding recommended in the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. Implementing the Ten Steps improves the initiation, duration, and exclusivity of breastfeeding.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is highly concerned because infants who are breastfed are less likely to become obese and subsequently to develop elevated cholesterol and blood pressure levels, as well as breathing and joint problems. Mothers who breastfeed are less likely to develop ovarian and breast cancer. The CDC estimates that suboptimal breastfeeding in the U.S. results in $2.2 billion in additional direct medical costs.

Although 92.8% of hospitals provided prenatal breastfeeding education, 89.1% taught new mothers breastfeeding techniques, and 81.8% taught mothers how to recognize and respond to infant feeding cues, less than 15% had a model breastfeeding policy. According to the report, a strong breastfeeding policy is the foundation of quality hospital breastfeeding support and sets standards for the remaining nine steps.

To the detriment of infants, more than 80% of hospitals gave healthy full-term breastfed newborns formula, water, or glucose supplements. Only 26.8% provided adequate breastfeeding support and community resources at hospital discharge. The majority of hospitals implemented only three to five of the ten recommended practices and fewer than 1% implemented all ten recommended policies and practices to promote and support breastfeeding.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends exclusive breastfeeding (breast milk with no solids or other liquids except vitamin/mineral supplements or medicine) for about the first six months of infancy and continued breastfeeding with iron-rich foods for at least the first year of an infant’s life.

To facilitate and encourage mothers to breastfeed The Affordable Care Act now includes new insurance guidelines which require insurance companies to cover breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling. Employers also must provide reasonable break time and a place, other than a restroom, that is private and clean for a mother to express milk.

To support breastfeeding and educate mothers and health care professionals about the benefits of breastfeeding, download the CIMS Breastfeeding Is Priceless: A CIMS Fact Sheet.

Maternity care professionals, employers and the community can help to promote and support breastfeeding by acessing the U.S. Surgeon General’s Guide, Call To Action to Support Breastfeeding and other educational material posted on the CDC website.

DONA offers free resources for doulas

Patty Brennan — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 06:00:32 +0000

Doulas who are members of DONA International will appreciate these great, FREE resources now available in the DONA Boutique:

From Novice to Expert: The Five Stages of Doula Development. A fascinating look at how doulas experience growth and development of their skills and confidence.
Third Party Reimbursement Webinar. The “How To” Tutorial on Third Party Reimbursement for Doula Services webinar can now be downloaded from the DONA website. In addition, DONA has prepared a Third Party Reimbursement Packet, which provides information on how doulas can obtain their provider number, along with guidance on the best strategies to request and receive insurance reimbursement for birth and postpartum doula services in the U.S. An electronic version of the packet is FREE to DONA members. Please complete the Survey for each attempt at reimbursement so that DONA can track the success of reimbursement attempts. The Survey form is part of the Packet.

I believe that third party reimbursement for doula services is a key sustainability for doulas. I know none of us enjoys filling out forms, but cultivating the discipline to do so, means that we can all move this agenda along a lot faster.

OB/GYNS Call for Fewer Cesareans

Patty Brennan — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 06:00:30 +0000

In an ominous editorial in the August 2011 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Dr. John T. Queenan’s commentary, How to Stop the Relentless Rise in Cesarean Deliveries, warns readers that with almost one in three first-time mothers having a cesarean and decreasing VBAC rates since 1996, the U.S. cesarean rate is likely to reach 50% very soon. Dr. Queenan makes several suggestions as to how to reduce the cesarean rate including: achieving an obstetric department commitment to lowering cesareans; better evidence-based patient education on the risks and benefits of cesareans; achieving tort reform; using more nurse midwives; providing equal reimbursement rates for cesarean and vaginal birth and higher reimbursement for supporting VBACs. He also advocates for re-establishing the teaching and training for breech and operative vaginal births. “As of now,” he writes, “the problem is ours to solve. If cesarean delivery rates spiral upward, our profession will lose both credibility and the opportunity to determine our direction, as third-party payers and the government will become involved.”

In the September 2011 issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dr. Howard Blanchette of New York Medical College urges physicians to “reduce the primary cesarean delivery rate, and avoid the performance of a uterine incision unless absolutely necessary.” His commentary, The Rising Cesarean Delivery Rate in America: What Are the Consequences?, concludes that the dramatic rise in cesareans has not resulted in improved outcomes in neonatal morbidity or maternal health. In fact, he corroborates the evidence that has been accumulating for years. The rise in cesareans has led to increasing adverse outcomes for mothers and babies. Dr. Blanchette outlines the changes needed to reverse the rising cesarean rate in America and makes the following recommendations:

Promote trial of labor in women with one previous low transverse cesarean.
Provide extensive counseling on the risks of elective primary cesarean delivery on maternal request.
Avoid cesarean delivery for dystocia until the active phase of labor is firmly established, particularly in nulliparous women, and in induced labor.
Nurses, obstetricians and midwives must remain competent and current in their knowledge of fetal heart rate monitoring interpretation, given that the sensitivity of non-reassuring fetal heart tones as an indication is only 50%.
Compensate obstetricians at the same level for both labor after cesarean and elective repeat cesarean delivery.

Dr. Tami Michele agrees with Dr. Blanchette, and states that women themselves can take an active role in lowering their chance of having a primary or repeat cesarean section. “An experienced doula is essential in lowering the cesarean rate, and I encourage every woman to have one. Both doulas and childbirth educators provide education on avoiding induction of labor, methods to avoid labor dystocia, and effective pushing techniques for second-stage. While continuous fetal monitoring is mandatory in a hospital which supports labor after a cesarean, women without a prior cesarean can request intermittent fetal monitoring. When continuous monitoring is necessary, many hospitals have ambulatory monitors with the capacity to also be used under water.”

Child Passenger Safety Training Classes

Patty Brennan — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 15:04:01 +0000

Child Passenger Safety Technician Certification training classes are intended for persons interested in becoming a certified child safety seat technician. Go to Safe Kids to find a CPS instructor in your area or to discuss plans for upcoming local or regional trainings. This additional certification would be a great addition to your doula resume!

Doula Business Advisor: Checking Accounts?

Patty Brennan — Tue, 24 May 2011 06:00:30 +0000

If you are a doula operating as a sole proprietor with a Doing Business As (DBA) certificate from your County Clerk’s office, simply take the certificate to your bank to open an account. You have two choices here: setting up a separate business account or adding your DBA to your personal/family account. By adding the DBA to your existing account, you can most efficiently access your money. All deposits go immediately into your personal checking account. A separate business account will require you to transfer funds, after deposit, to the personal account when you want/need to get paid.

If you have formed a corporation of one kind or another, on the other hand, a separate business checking account will be necessary. First, you will need to obtain a federal Employer Identification Number (EIN). This can be done easily online at www.irs.gov. Take the certified Articles of Incorporation from the state and the EIN letter from the IRS with you to the bank.

The primary advantage of a separate business checking account is that the bookkeeping is cleaner. Psychologically, it may be less painful to pay out business-related expenses from a business account than it is from a personal checking account. It is much easier to track what is actually going on with the business if it is separate from your personal finances. You will have income, minus expenses, including taxes that need to be set aside. What’s left over is what you can afford to pay yourself as an “owner’s draw.” I think that the separate account helps independent business owners develop a business mindset. At the end of the year, your tax picture will be much cleaner as well. However, if you are just doing a little bit of doula work, supplementing family income here and there, you might want to forego the complication of a separate account.

Doula Business Advisor: How to Collect?

Patty Brennan — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 06:00:19 +0000

Are you having trouble collecting your doula fees? Consistency is important. Hold clients responsible to the agreement and call them on it if they are engaged in shenanigans. The old “I forgot my checkbook” or “the check’s in the mail” (when it’s not!) doesn’t work well if you are counting on your paycheck today and it’s not forthcoming. I have sometimes sat in uncomfortable silence as a response to the “I forgot my checkbook” claim, waiting for the client to work through how she’s going to solve the problem. If she’s not forthcoming, I might say “That’s a problem for me today. How soon can you take care of this?”

Remember, being “sweet” when someone is neglecting their responsibility
to you is an invitation for that person to continue bad behavior. You are not the one who caused this problem, and it is not up to you to fix it. Sweet isn’t really sweet when resentment is behind it.

What about the client who forgets to pay you? You have a lovely prenatal
visit together. You like her and her partner a lot. You are all excited about their upcoming birth. It’s time for you to hit the road. According to your contract together, their final payment is due tonight, and you really wish they would just pull out the checkbook and pay you. Here are some options for bringing up the subject:

“Do you have that final payment for me tonight?”
“Can we take care of payment before I leave?”

Whatever you do, don’t walk out of that house knowing that they should have paid you without having enabled or reminded them to do so. Remember, you are a professional with every expectation of getting paid. As you step into that role, as you own it and take pride in your work, all uneasy feelings about being paid, and paid well, for your time will drop away. The key to having clients who pay you faithfully is to have a matter-of-fact attitude about the business part of your business. Some people will try to make their money problems be your money problems, showing obvious pain as they write you a check or telling you about what they just had to spend to get their car fixed, and so on. You don’t need to engage, and you certainly don’t need to feel guilty (presumably they want your car in working order so you can make it to their birth!). Simply smile and say “thank you” when they hand you your check. It’s just business.