For today’s post, I’d like to provide you with a simple tool you can use to estimate how much money you will make and how much money you will spend next year. With this tool, you can forecast your income and expenses and see how much money you will make (or not) in 2009. Why should you do a forecast? First of all, it’s an element of a good business plan. Here are some other benefits:

For today’s post, I’ll be revisiting an old one I wrote a few months ago regarding business expenses. I thought I’d share a list of deductible expenses today for your business. It’s by no means comprehensive, but maybe there are some items that you haven’t thought of:

There are many ways doulas set their prices and even whether or not to charge. Different doula organizations suggest different methods of whether, when and what to charge. I will go out on a limb (and may be disagreed with vehemently, I know) and discuss some ways that others I’ve spoken to have structured their pricing. Hopefully that will help you to decide what works best for you.

When you have a business it’s important to keep accurate records. Here are some ways to help:

Do you need to get malpractice insurance? Well, no, you really don’t. There haven’t been many cases of doulas getting sued. As long as you’re practicing in your scope, risk shouldn’t be high.