My Experience With Running A Metaphysical Business
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
I have been part of running both successful businesses and unsuccessful businesses. I have experience with both success and failure! I have lost money on trying to start businesses that failed but as you can see all is not lost and you can always live to try again another day. Do not be afraid to fail. Even if you lose money, the worst that will happen is that you simply have to start over again. Do not let fear of losing money paralyze you. Statistics say that most people who have a successful business had previously failed at business several times before they created one that worked for them. This does not negate the fact that some people have beginner’s luck and their business takes off right away! You may be that kind of person.
One of the things I would advise is being very careful not to leap before you look. Take calculated risks and try not to act on anything through impulse. The times when I have lost money were those moments when I didn’t truly take the time to think about whether this was a realistic expense, product or service that I really needed in order to launch or run my business. Ask yourself every time you are presented with an expense: do I really need this to run or start my business? Sometimes there are less expensive alternatives as well. Make sure you examine all your options before choosing. Do not go with the first thing that comes along. Make sure you shop.
Now, there are many practical things to know about running a business, but you could do all the right things and advertise in all the right places, but if you are not doing the energy work that it takes to create a metaphysical business, all your efforts will be to no avail. I wanted to have a metaphysical business long before I actually had one that created right livelihood. I discovered that what I was missing was the spiritual maturity that was necessary. If you are finding that your metaphysical business is like trying to push a river in its opposite direction, it may very well be that you have not reached the spiritual maturity yet that is necessary. That was what the issue was for me, even though I didn’t know it consciously at the time. I had to do more of my own spiritual homework and personal growth before I had much to offer to anyone else. Only when I had reached the place of peace within myself did my metaphysical practice take off. In fact, not until I could maintain a still mind and stay in the present moment did I have anything truly to offer.
This is not to say that I didn’t have some success with it before that, for I did have a small practice on the side that supplemented my income, but it was not the sole source of my income like I wanted it to be. I gave private readings, did vibrational healing sessions, taught classes and even facilitated small workshops. However, I still held another job that actually paid my bills. My metaphysical practice was a supplemental income only and could not be depended on to pay my rent and utilities. This is how it may start out for you, and this is okay. Let this be all right in the beginning. As with all things, we grow and learn as we go along, and later because of our experience we are better equipped when the time comes that our metaphysical practice is larger. Just keep doing your own spiritual homework, growing and becoming the best human that you can be and sooner or later your metaphysical practice will manifest in larger and larger ways. You could throw free workshops and have many attendees, but if your energy is not charismatic and attractive, that will be the last time you see those people. You must possess a certain magic, a particular divine light, that people are attracted to and want to know more about. If you do not exude this, then your metaphysical practice cannot and will not take off. There is only one way to achieve this, and that is to do your personal spiritual homework every day and never forget that you are always the student and life is your guru. Even great Masters are always in a state of learning, growing and deepening the experience of the eternal self within. This is what people want to know about, and if they see you living a lucid life, exuding through your eyes and your demeanor the wisdom of one who “knows” the answers to the questions they have, they will come to you for more. People get to meet you, decide they like you and that you have some wisdom to impart to them. This is the most important quality to have in order to create a successful metaphysical business. You yourself must be the proof of what it is you teach. If you are not a peaceful person, how could others be convinced that you are able to teach it to them?
I taught at several metaphysical centers, and without fail my classes filled every time. Other teachers whose classes were small wondered what I was doing different. I offered a class series to them that helped some of them attract more students to their classes as well. It all had to do with finding future students on the inner planes and calling to their souls if they wanted what I had to offer. By doing this, they would find me on the inner planes “somehow.” You learned about how to do this in the UMS courses Attracting Clients. This is where the ads come in and their energy signature that transcends space and time. Of course, I always picked juicy subjects to teach in classes, like astral projection, lucid dreaming, chakras, aura viewing, meditation skills, pranayama meditations, etc. Make sure your subject is something people will be interested in.
This addresses the energy work that you must do within yourself to make yourself a viable channel for divine energy to come through you. Becoming still and ever present in the moment seems to be a key to setting yourself up for being an efficient lightworker on this planet. However, there is more to it than just being a spiritually mature person. It also takes energy work on the inner planes by calling to the souls who could be helped by you. Earlier in this course it was mentioned that your ads may be overlooked unless you put some light on them, or infuse them with your energy. This is so true, and I cannot say it enough how important it is to do the energy work on your advertising and your business in general. I have found from personal experience that ads that did not have the energy or light work done on them did not pull very well, whereas the ones that did brought new students and clients without fail.
I charge ads with energy all the time. I do not advertise without this exercise, for otherwise advertising could be useless. I call to the souls of the people who can be truly assisted by what I have to offer, and of course at the same time honor the freewill of those who are not interested. I never do the hard-sell type of thing, trying to talk people into things they don’t really want to do. I only offer my particular brand services and those who wish to be exposed to my services come to partake of them. Have you ever been in a bookstore, without the intent to buy anything at all, but just the right book was there and you bought it anyway? Perhaps you are one of those people who picked up a magazine in a store that you were thinking about passing by in that moment, but something made you walk in and see the magazine that had the ad for UMS in it. This is how light on ads works. Your angels made you look there. Your own guidance brought you to that place where you were to receive the next step in your path. We receive countless reports from people who say they found UMS “by accident.” There was no accident! This is how it works when you charge your ads with light and energy. You make your ads visible to those who should see you, those who can most benefit by your work. This makes it easier for the angels and guides to make the person who should know about you aware of you. It will remain invisible to those who are not able to be helped by you or your business.
Think about where your ad is going to appear. How many copies will be printed? 1000 copies? 5000 copies? 100,000 copies? How many copies of your ad are going to be entering the world? Follow in your mind’s eye where all these ads go, what stores these magazines and newsletters end up in, and who picks them up. Now think of the person who is holding each of these magazines and newsletters in their hand, and see the page open to where your ad is. See it light up and the person’s attention directed toward it. Whether or not he or she is attracted to what you do is not necessarily the point, but the fact the he or she at least sees it and becomes aware of it is what is the goal. Among the many ads in any given publication, yours can easily become lost, and readers are often immune to even the most blaringly loud ads. However, yours can stand out because the energy of it reaches out to the person’s heart. Even if that person is not interested in your services or products, perhaps he or she knows someone who is and will show it to him or her.
Another thing to keep in mind is that your geographical location may have something to do with whether or not your practice can support your lifestyle. Whenever I lived in large cities and practiced, I had a lot of sessions and my classes were larger. In smaller towns, sessions were less frequent and my classes were half the size. If you live in a smaller town, be ready for the fact that your practice will be smaller. If you live in a larger city, your practice will most likely be larger.
Here is the most important thing to keep in mind: what your attitude toward your business is. I have found that by adjusting my attitude from “what I want” to that of being in service to the powers that be and “what God wants” has made a big difference in how well my business went. I have been willing to work for free, without concern about getting rich. I can’t say that I am getting rich, for that is not what is happening, but at least I have found right livelihood, and that was my goal with creating a metaphysical business. I can now do my metaphysical work full time and not have to supplement it with other jobs to pay my bills. It did take 15 years before that became a reality, but I don’t think it has to take that long for other people. I think I had more spiritual homework to do on myself than most people do since I had a lot of stuff to work out in this lifetime because of some rough beginnings in childhood. I had a lot of de-programming to do! It doesn’t have to take that long for you if you are able to just stop the mind and always be present, never moving into the past or the future in your thoughts or feelings.
The point is: you are in service. Your metaphysical business is not for you, it is for others! Think of yourself as being in service to God, the universe, or whatever you call the higher forces that you answer to, instead of trying to “get something for yourself.” Think of what it is that you have to offer to the world, regardless of whether or not you’re getting paid for it. For instance, I personally worked on the University Of Metaphysical Sciences for five straight years, seven days a week, living meagerly on credit cards and loans that I would eventually have to pay back, with no pay whatsoever simply because I felt that the world needed a school like this no matter what. I felt that it was my mission and service to humanity to make this school possible on this planet, regardless of whether or not I got paid. I never did expect to get paid much for creating the school. This is the type of attitude that is necessary to launch your metaphysical business. You must be willing to be of service to humanity, and if your heart is in the right place, the universe will provide for you. I could have worked at my previous career and made far more money, maybe even gotten rich, but metaphysics and helping people was where my heart was. In that way, I am far more fulfilled than I would be with a nice house and fancy things with more money than a person needs.
I do get a paycheck every month from the school now, even though it is not a large amount, but it is enough to live on. I don’t live a luxurious lifestyle, but I am not poverty-stricken either. On top of that, I feel fulfilled in having served humanity and having created right livelihood not only for myself but also for the small staff at UMS who would otherwise not have the fulfilling job that working for UMS gives them. I will never be paid for those five years of free work, but it does not matter to me because it came from deep within my heart and an attitude of service to those who can be helped by my business. The money issue was irrelevant to me. The school will be here long after I am gone from the earth, and if I accomplish nothing else in my life, I can feel pleased that this is what I have left behind. This is how you should think about your metaphysical business, that it is a vessel for the divine to flow into the world rather than a way for you to get what you want. So ask yourself this question: If you must work for free or very little, does the feeling of being in service to humanity make up for the lack of riches? What is it that you really want from your metaphysical business? Do you want to get rich, or do you want to serve the awakening process on the planet? What is your true purpose for creating a metaphysical business?
I promise you that if your heart is in the right place and you are in service to the divine, your needs will be taken care of. If you’re trying to get rich in metaphysics, this may be unlikely. There are a few who have gotten very rich in the field of metaphysics, but compared to the multitudes who are working in this field they are but a small fraction of the many who serve humanity. Be sure your motives are not just about the money. Your first priority must be to serve humanity no matter what, and in whatever way the universe asks of you, even if that means you won’t get super rich. Be willing to live modestly if the powers-that-be require this of you.