One of the reasons I am often given for why a would-be midwife puts off her training is money. Truth is, it can be very expensive to be a student. I remember how unreasonable the costs seemed when I first became certified as a childbirth educator. I needed to buy about 5 books, pay for a membership and certification fees and of course attend a seminar that meant travel and hotel expenses. The total cost, because I went with a more expensive program, was about $2000. It took me the better part of 2 years of teaching childbirth classes to make the money back for my family.

Midwifery school makes that $2000 seem like nothing. I first had to become an RN – which I did through an accelerated bachelor program that provided me with some scholarships and about $25,000 of student loans. Then on to my Midwifery school, 5 semesters at a major university graduate program.  Thankfully I have a scholarship, but it will only cover 4 semesters and does not include books and I still need to cover the MPH I am working on at the same time. Don’t forget I am not working because there is no time to work, so more loans to pay for this.  I anticipate being near $100,000 total debt when I am done – and that is with a full scholarship for 4 semesters.

As frightening as my student loan bill may be, I promise you it can be done cheaper. For starters, you don’t need to attend a private BSN program. I did that because I was in a hurry, but I could just as easily joined the waiting list for my local community college RN program because I already had a BS in another subject. Most university CNM programs can be completed in 4 semesters.  Mine is longer because in addition to CNM I am also completing an FNP (family nurse practitioner) and an MPH (master’s in Public Health) – so I am working on three degrees in two graduate schools at one time.  The schools are within one university so they cooperate, but it is still longer and more expensive than going straight CNM.

Other options include distance learning programs so you can maintain your current job and avoid the moving expenses I incurred. You can attend school part time so you can work to prevent the major decline in income and increase in loans. You can take some time off between degrees.  You can share books with a colleague.  Apply for grants and scholarships.

My point is, if you want to pursue training as a birth professional you can find a way to make it work.  Remember it is not simply about pursuing an interest, it is an investment in your career. Get creative and research the options available to you.  You might be surprised what you find out.

I have a very short break between terms. I am trying to use this break to update all the to do items that have been piling up for my business.  It’s true, I’ve been neglecting my business.  Part of me is sad to watch the website and books stagnate – I have put so much work into them and I have so much information I would LOVE to add now. But I need to be realistic about my life, my family and my health.  I cannot do it all.

So for the last 24 hours I have been trying to catch up on finances.  I would have been done already, except I decided to switch financial software earlier this year since mine had become obsolete. So what would have taken me just a few hours seems as if it will take just a few days.  I feel like I am starting from scratch, creating new product lists and accounts.  I have to relearn how to enter sales and advertising because this new program treats things a little differently.  I think I have the hang of it, but what a pain to go through.

It just got me thinking, I don’t know many birth professionals with a head for business.  It’s true.  The nurturing, care giving talents of most birth professionals do not usually come with accountant understanding of keeping books. Maybe it is not a big deal, but I cannot help but think it puts us in a dangerous situation.

You see, even a birth business needs to have adequate income to cover the bills.  If a business is not run in a way that at least pays for itself, it will be forced to close – there is only so long a family can support such a consuming hobby. In addition to all the skills needed to serve women in pregnancy, labor and postpartum, birth professionals need to understand how to keep a business running.

It gets even trickier when you move from a small business to a birth center. We desperately need more birth centers. But a birth center needs adequate funding, which means it must begin with a business plan and investors for the million or more dollars needed for start up funds. A birth center is an ambulatory care facility, and as such must meet the local and state health codes for ambulatory care centers. This will mean an expensive conversion of a building or an expensive new building project.  Then you need to staff the facility – unless you will be the sole employee.  You might want a fellow midwife, maybe a nurse/receptionist to take calls and do your filing. Who does the billing and negotiates with insurance? Will you be renting out space to your local LLL and childbirth educators?

Maybe a birth center seems a bit too much to tackle right now? Maybe you will be satisfied with home births a little longer? You will still need to deal with many business issues and make decisions about how your business is run.  You still need to keep up with billing.  You still need to understand how to compare costs of time and supplies to the income you make.

Perhaps we need a few more midwives with MBAs to help ensure our midwifery practices can stay in business.

It is tax time here in the US, and for many families that means making decisions about how to spend their tax refund. If you were thinking of using yours to start your training or your business, I want to encouarge you to do two things.

First, be sure you know how much you will be borrowing from your family and make sure you have a plan to pay it back. Remember, this is an investment in your business.  As your business begins to make money you must first cover any expenses before you make a profit.  By keeping track of every penny you spend, you will know exactly when your business starts giving your family money (instead of taking your families money.)

Second, start investigating your options now, before the money is in your hands.  You will want as much time as possible to be sure you have selected the best program to meet your needs and goals.  If you lost the link to all the education and certification programs, you’ll find it in the Natural Childbirth Directory.

That’s it, my only two requests.  Now get that paperwork filled out so you can get your refund.  Happy summing!

It’s that time of year again. Time to roll out your income and expense sheets and start getting your tax information ready. This year will be a new experience for me.  I’ll be filing in a new state and as a different business entity.  I’m not sure about all the issues I’ll need to understand, but that’s what accountants are for.

It is important to keep information about the income you earn from your birth business, but most birth professionals seem to be better equipped to manage the emotional needs of labor than tax forms.  Here are some rules I follow, use them as a guide to help you form your own financial rules.

1.  Keep a record of every client, the services they purchased and what they paid.  This was important for me because I often provided education or doula services free of charge. Keeping a sheet for everyone, whether they paid me or not, helped me keep track of income and the number of births I attended.

2. Keep track of every purchase.  I couldn’t really figure how much money I made unless I also knew how much money it cost to do what I did.  I kept track of every book I bought, conference I attended, cost of website, copies and paper – anything I needed to do my business was an expense.

3. Don’t skip filing my papers.  In my house, papers and receipts have a tendency to get up and walk away even if I have them in nice piles for filing.  I needed to designate a place to keep my work, somewhere they were safe.  I kept mine in a file cabinet drawer. I could quickly find everything because it was all in the same place.

4. The longer you ignore finances, the longer it takes to manage them.  I couldn’t remember why I had a receipt four months later if I hadn’t already accounted for it. I got to the point where I didn’t remember every client six months later, or how much I had charged them. If I didn’t know what it was for, it took time to look through old papers and try to figure it out. At the very least, write on your receipts and use the same form for every client so you can be sure you have basic information covered.

5. Start taxes early. Up to this year I have done my taxes myself with the help of tax software. It always amazed me how it took two or three tries (every year) to get all the information in correctly.  I would enter the information, print it out and read it only to find something was mis-entered or I hadn’t gathered everything I needed yet.  It was then back to the software to look for the way to edit it and try again. I usually gave myself three or four days to work on it, separated by at least a week to be sure I was checking for completeness and correctness with fresh eyes. I couldn’t have done this if I started the week before taxes were due.

I thought I better clarify something I said yesterday.  I am NOT bad with money, and I do a good job of making sure my business does not lose money for my family. But I do not do a good job of keeping the accounting software I have up to date.

I could, accounting software is really easy to navigate once you have it set up. It would take less than 10 minutes to make sure a transaction was entered correctly, and then I could get any information I wanted about what books are selling at the touch of a button. But really, that doesn’t matter so much to me.  I can get any of that information in a few ways, so the software really is just there to help me keep track for taxes.

But this system only works for me because I do a few other things. Really, by not keeping track, I put myself at risk of losing money or writing bad checks for my business. I would never recommend that to anyone, even though I do it myself.

Here are a few things that Will make tracking your money easier (and yes, I do actually do most of these which is why the computer entering is not such a big deal).

1) Open a separate account and do not mix money. If you use your business name you will need some form of identification for your business like a DBA or a LLC certificate. But even if you do not have a formal business name keep your business money in its own account. Then when you want to use the money for personal things, do a transfer or write yourself a check so that it is easy to track.  This will make it much easier to fill out the forms you need around tax time.

2) Have one place where you keep your receipts and bills so you always know where they are.  Do not mix them with your personal or household receipts, and don’t throw them away.  This is the information that tells you how much money your business is making or losing.

3) Don’t ignore the finances for months.  I know I do this, because it really does seem better to me to do five hours between semesters than to lose time when I could be studying.  But this is really just laziness on my part because as I said, it should only take a few minutes to enter it into the computer.  But I do a good job of keeping all my paperwork, so when I do the marathon financial update days they go fairly easily.

4) Don’t forget who paid you.  Write on the information sheet you keep for each client what day they paid you and how much. If you give them receipts and keep one for yourself that is even better.  You need this information to make sure all your clients have paid (especially if you wait a few months do enter your accounts into the software you use).

5) Don’t buy business stuff with personal money.  I know it is tempting, especially when you are cash poor at the business.  But force yourself to save for the items you need so your business doesn’t end up losing money.  It is very easy to keep buying supplies for your business without realizing how much you have spent when you pick up a few things here and there on your personal account.

So, there are five ways to help make the finances work better, from a woman who knows the advice is good but doesn’t apply it all to her own life at present.