Whenever I start working with business owners I ask ‘how much money do you want to make?’ and inevitably the reply is not a dollar amount.

I hear replies like - I just want enough to pay the bills, I want to offer really good services to people – the money is not important or my favorite – I’ll let the accountant take care of that.

The other set of responses I hear are a bunch of excuses as to why making more must be a lot more work or why they can't make more because they're "just getting started" or I hear a long, detailed story explaining what they're planning to do etc. etc.

It is only after a lot of encouragement that the business owners actually state a figure.

Why do we do this? Why is it so hard to put a monetary goal into your business? I think for many people we have been brainwashed into the idea that it’s not ‘nice’ to talk about money. Or that making lots of money is somehow not spiritual or just plain bad!

These are...