Over the past three days, you have reflected upon the last year, created a list of your core values, and have revealed  how balanced you are in your life. Today we’re going to explore why you are here.

Stephen Covey, the author of several "7 Habits" books, writes in "First Things First", writes about how humans have four fundamental needs to feel complete. They are:

1. Physical – our basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, health and economic well-being.
2. Social – our need to relate to others, to love, be loved, and to belong.
3. Mental - our need to continue learning to develop and grow.
4. Spiritual – our need to have a sense of meaning, purpose, contribution and personal congruence or alignment.

In a simple sentence, Covey says the "essence of these needs is captured in the phrase ‘to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy’."

This is another facet of looking at the whole picture of our lives. Yesterday you got to see how balanced you were in specific areas of your life. The model that I’m now presenting melds those areas into these four facets of our basic needs. Stephen Covey goes on to explain in his book that when we are able to view these needs in a way that overlaps, as demonstrated here, we can see how they interrelate. In order to feel fulfilled and joyful in our lives, we must take care of ourselves in all areas of our lives. When one area suffers, it affects the whole.

Do you see the section in the middle that is red? This is called "The Fire Within". Covey explains, "Fulfilling the four needs in an integrated way is like combining elements in chemistry. When we reach a ‘critical mass’ of integration, we experience spontaneous combustion–an explosion of inner synergy that ignites the fire within and gives vision, passion, and a spirit of adventure to life.

The key to the fire within is our spiritual need to leave a legacy. It transforms other needs into capacities for contribution. Food, money, health, education, and love become resources to reach out and help fill the unmet needs of others."

Exercise:

Think about a time in your life when you felt really alive. Answer these questions:

• What was going on in your life at that time?
• Who were the people in your life?
• Were your basic needs being met?
• Were you mentally stimulated?
• Were you doing something meaningful?
• Would you say that all your four fundamental needs were met in that moment, and that what you felt was a Fire Within?

I want to sit with this memory for a while, and when you’re ready, answer the following questions. You may want to do this with a friend or partner.

• How would it feel if you could live your life from day-to-day, feeling this Fire Within?
• Picture yourself at the end of 2009, and you are living life with this Fire Within. Close your eyes with you feet flat on the ground, and really feel this Fire. Where are you? What are you doing? Who are you with? How do you look? Where is your family? What does your business look like? How much money is flowing directly to you? Who have you become?

Now, I’d like to think about what you need to do to get from where you right now, today, to where you are at the end of 2009:

• What do you need to take care of your physical needs of food, clothing, shelter, health and economic well-being?
• What do you need to take care with your relationships? Are you willing to let go of relationships that are draining your energy? What can you do to actively nurture the relationships that mean the most to you? Are there people in particular or a group of people with whom you’d like to create relationships with? How will you do that?
• What do you need to learn in the next year to become more effective in your work and your life? What new skills do you want to learn, and what skills do you want to improve? Do you have certifications to complete? Workshops that you’d like to take? Do you want to learn more about business, or becoming a better parent, or something as fun as art, music or gardening classes?
• What activities inspire you? What centers and grounds you? What actions can you take on a regular basis that calm you, give you joy, and allows you to lose track of time?

Working on your doula practice means working on your life. When you feel mostly joyful in your life (let’s be realisitic — we all have bad days now and again!), your work will flow more easily for you. Your life will flow more easily for you. When all your fundamental needs are cared for, you have the energy, or the Fire Within, to serve others more fully. You will feel less like you’re beating against a wall and more like everything is falling into place.

The exercise you’ve just completed are the goals you will take to live your best life in 2009. What do you think about that? Send me an email, make a comment below, or Tweet me @savvydoula.

Join me tomorrow and we’ll explore more deeply into ways to accomplish the goals you’ve just set for 2009. Have a great day!

Other Savvy Posts You May Enjoy:

1. Day 7 of Reorganize Your Doula Biz for ‘09 – Incorporating the Big Rocks Into Your Life
2. Day 3 of Reorganize Your Doula Biz for ‘09 – How balanced are the various areas of your life?
3. Day 21 of Reorganize Your Doula Biz for ‘09 – Where Do You Fall Short and What To Do About It

What should those products be?

First, look into your background, your life before you became a doula, and examine those things that you are good at, any skills you might have, any trainings you’ve done or certifications you possess. For example: Do you sew? Are you artistic? Have you taken massage workshops? Do you like to scrapbook? Are you a dedicated yoga student or fitness buff? Did you used to sell cosmetics?

Next, look at the things that you have genuine interest in and aptitude for. Would those things match up well with a business that provides support for childbearing families? For example: Are you curious about massage, aromatherapy, eco-friendly living, life coaching or breastfeeding?

Look within and without yourself for skills and opportunities for learning that will benefit your clients. Go back to previous clients and ask them what other services they would have found helpful during their childbearing year.  Examine what services you would enjoy providing to mothers, partners and children.

Here are some suggestions:

Possible Products

• Childbirth Education – Private, Group, Christian, Sibling, Homebirth, Hypnotherapy
• Photography – Home Birth Photography, Home Birth Videography, Pregnancy Portraits, Breastfeeding Portraits
• Birth Art – Belly Casting, Belly Painting, Portraits, Name Art, Scrapbooked Birth Stories, Placenta Prints, Jewelry
• Slings – Sales Only, Sales & Manufacture
• Eco-Friendly Products – Natural Personal Products for Mothers, Natural Personal Products for Baby, Cloth Diapers
• Books/eBooks – Childbirth Preparation, Nutrition for Pregnancy, Fitness for Pregnancy, Smoking Cessation, Breastfeeding Basics, Comfort Measures, Newborn Preparation
• Diaper Cakes
• Baby Event Coordination – Blessingways, Showers, New Baby Party, New Baby Party for the Adoptive Child, New Baby Announcement Cards/eCards

Value-Added Services

• Massage – Traditional, Aromatherapy, Foot, Back
• Breastfeeding Counseling
• Home Child Safety Consultation
• Financial Preparedness Consultation
• Babywearing Consultation
• Birth Art – Birth Portrait, Birth Story – Text, Birth Story – Scrapbook Page
• Handmade Rice Bag
• Personal Coaching – Health Coaching, Life Coaching, Financial Coaching, Fitness Coaching, Nutrition Coaching
• Personalized Wearables – Onesies, Hats, Blankets, Booties
• TENS Machine Rentals
• EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques)
• Coupons, Discounts and Gift Certificates For Partnered Services

As you can see, there are a lot of products and service offerings that can enhance your doula business. Some require new trainings and certifications and some require skill and aptitude. All would increase you’re your ability to create income as well as differentiating you in the marketplace.

As we come the end of this series on increasing your income potential, I want to draw on your expertise. What are some of the diversified products and added benefits that you offer your clients?

Leanne Palmerston is a doula, childbirth educator, radio personality and writer in Hamilton, Ontario Canada. She’s writes about birth issues at Hamilton Doula, a crafty life with kids at The Clever Mom and whatever strikes her fancy at Momcast. You can also find Leanne on Twitter and Facebook.

Many thanks to Leanne for taking the time to create this article series. If you would like to be a contributing guest author on the Savvy Doula Business Blog, please send me an email at Darlene@SavvyDoula.com, or send me a DM via Twitter @savvydoula.

Other Savvy Posts You May Enjoy:

1. Increasing Your Earning Potential, Part 2 of 3 – Two Types Of Products, by Leanne Palmerston
2. Powerful Descriptions To Sell Your Doula Services
3. Day 9 of Reorganize Your Doula Biz for ‘09 – 10 Tips for Taming That Paper

Adding multiple products to your offerings results in new earning potential. You can attract clients who might not want to purchase Service A but who do want to purchase Service B. You can also sell both A and B to clients who originally intended to purchase only a single service or who are interested in multiple services.

This often happens with childbirth education. A woman and her partner hire you to provide their private childbirth education. They build a relationship with you over the course of a few weeks and decide that your birth support services would be perfect for them.

The reverse also happens often. A couple hires you as their birth doula. Discovering that you provide private childbirth education, they decide that having you provide them with their prenatal education would be a good fit for them and they purchase this service from you, as well.

Each of these services, childbirth education and birth support, are stand-alone products. This is one type of product. It can be sold independently as a single product offering or in tandem with complementary services. Essentially, though, each is a single offering.

The other type of service is the value-added service.

A value-added service is not something you sell separately but something that you add to your regular offerings to increase their value.

By adding value-added services to your offerings, you can increase the amount you charge for the offering and (or) distinguish it from the other similar offerings of doulas in your local market. Potential clients will see your services and know that choosing you means they are getting more than from other service providers.

Bottom line: To increase your earning potential you must offer multiple stand-alone products and add value to the products you currently offer to clients.

In the next and final installation of this three-part series on increasing your earning potential, we’ll investigate different types of stand-along and value-added services you can add to your offerings. I will give you lists of products and value-added services you can add to your product line, making your services more attractive to clients and increasing your chances to earn income.

Leanne Palmerston is a doula, childbirth educator, radio personality and writer in Hamilton, Ontario Canada. She’s writes about birth issues at Hamilton Doula, a crafty life with kids at The Clever Mom and whatever strikes her fancy at Momcast. You can also find Leanne on Twitter and Facebook.

Other Savvy Posts You May Enjoy:

1. Increasing Your Earning Potential, Part 3 of 3 – Product Suggestions, by Leanne Palmerston
2. Increasing Your Earning Potential, Part 1 of 3 – Diversification, by Leanne Palmerston
3. Day 27 of the Reorganize Your Doula Biz for ‘09 – What Exactly Am I Marketing, Anyway?

In order to have a successful business, it’s important to consider how successful you are in other areas of your life. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Are your relationships satisfying?
• Are you getting enough self-care time?
• Is your health where you’d like it to be?
• Is your home a peaceful, comfortable (or lively, if that fits your personality better) place to be?

If you answered "no" to any of these questions, think about how these other areas of your life affect your ability to enjoy and focus on your business. If these areas were to improve, would you have more energy and be more productive in your work?

Exercise:

Here is a great way to get a visual perspective of how your balanced your life is.

1. On a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being least satisfied and 10 being very satisfied, how would you rate the following areas of your life:

• Physical Environment
• Career/Business
• Money
• Health
• Fun & Recreation
• Personal Growth
• Significant Other/Romance
• Friends and Family?

2. Print or draw the following pie chart, then draw a line in each pie piece that matches your level of satisfaction. Color it in for a more dramatic effect.

Examine your results. How do you feel when you look at your Wheel of Life? Are there some areas that could use some attention? If it looks and feels pretty balanced to you, congratulations! If not, don’t despair. Awareness is the first step in making changes in your life.

This is a great exercise to do at least once a year. "Balance" doesn’t necessarily mean that all areas in your life will be rated a "10". You will find that at different times in your life, some areas will be given more attention than others, and it is always in flux. If you notice that something is lacking, however, this wheel can give you a visual representation of your life at a certain point in time, and you can make a deliberate effort to make changes to help you move toward a more satisfying and joyful life.

Did you have any "aha" moments from doing this exercise? Add a comment below or send me a Tweet @savvydoula.

Now that you’ve done some reflection, taken a look at your values, and have created your wheel of life, you are at a good place to do some goal setting. Join me tomorrow for our first goal-setting session!

Other Savvy Posts You May Enjoy:

1. Day 4 of Reorganize Your Doula Biz for ‘09 – What Will It Take To Feel The Fire Within?
2. Day 5 of Reorganize Your Doula Biz for ‘09 – Be SMARTER with your goals
3. Day 2 of Reorganize Your Doula Biz for ‘09 – What Are Your Most Important Values?

Welcome to the first of a three-part series on increasing your earning potential. In this series, we will look at specific things you can do to improve your bottom line and bring more money into your doula business.

The one thing I discovered when I became a doula was that being a doula is not enough. Because of the highly variable nature of serving at a birth – being on call for days or weeks, being at a family’s beck and call at any hour or day – making a livable wage as a birth doula can be a big challenge.

Even if we were able to fully book our schedules, many of us wouldn’t take more than 2-3 births per month, or about 1 birth per 10 to 14 days. When all is said and done, that amounts to little more than a part time income.

Success to some of us may be just that. However, I’m guessing that if you are a regular reader of Savvy Doula, you are interested in maximizing your bottom line.

In order to do that, you have to be more than just a birth doula. In order to increase the chance of creating income, you must diversify.

Often, a doula’s first step in diversification is to become both a birth and a postpartum doula. After all, providing prenatal, birth and postpartum support go hand in hand. A doula can offer both products separately and as a package, doubling her chance of creating income.

The bottom line: to earn more money, you must offer more products.

In the next article in this series, we’ll examine the two types of products doulas can offer to increase their earning potential.

Leanne Palmerston is a doula, childbirth educator, radio personality and writer in Hamilton, Ontario Canada. She’s writes about birth issues at Hamilton Doula, a crafty life with kids at The Clever Mom and whatever strikes her fancy at Momcast. You can also find Leanne on Twitter and Facebook.

Other Savvy Posts You May Enjoy:

1. Increasing Your Earning Potential, Part 2 of 3 – Two Types Of Products, by Leanne Palmerston
2. Day 20 of Reorganize Your Doula Biz – How Much Money Will You Make In 2009?
3. Day 14 of Reorganize Your Doula Biz – Books, Handouts and Birth Tools