So you’ll remember from last post, I outlined Trap #1 which is I have to do it all myself syndrome. Have you asked yourself those questions?  What difference has it made for you so far?  I’d love to hear about your journey by leaving a message in the comment section.

Who else is sick of hearing about the economy and lack of business? Mindset block #2 is the belief that People won’t pay higher fees. This mindset gets you in the trap of having to try to keep your rates low, under charging, and feeling guilty if you ask your clients to pony up their dollars for your services. For me, I need only go to one of the restaurants in my city (Scottsdale, AZ) and notice just how many people are spending money!

The trick here once again is to discover if there is any part of you that pulls back from either asking for the sale, or from raising your fees. Usually there is a story underneath that it’s not right to ask for that much money or the tendency to jump into other peoples’ financial situations and make decisions for them. I think the heart of this mindset block is two fold. The first could be a lack of boundaries and a tendency to take in the ‘popular opinion’ which you must stay away from! If you find yourself believing that no one will spend more, begin to notice things to the contrary. Go to malls, nice restaurants, or car lots. See evidence that while some people are constricting in their spending, there are still loads of people who are willing to pay for good service and value. And stay away from the nay-sayers or any negativity that could lead you to buy into the lack consciousness.

Next is to understand the value you provide. If you have the story that people won’t pay for your services, it might be because you haven’t done the work on getting the clarity you need around the results you bring. I guarantee that if you really take a stand for what you offer and believe that deep in your core, you won’t pull back from offering your services. How to do this? One way is to ask your past clients to list what they have gotten from your work together. And you don’t want to stop at the surface level…do the ‘deep dive’ with them about how they were impacted 6 months later, 2 years later, etc. If you charge someone $1,000 but your client was able to get new business and bring in $5,000 that year, imagine the lifetime of their business and the results gained from your expertise. Its mind boggling to think of the reach you can have.

I’ll also give you a link to a short visualization where I guide you in getting clarity on understanding what you bring: http://www.audioacrobat.com/play/WP6c64cx.
It’s about 6 minutes long, and will give you a jump start on identifying the value you bring. Once you own this, you’ll not again have to worry if someone can afford your services.

Join me next time and discover the simple steps involved in mastering Traps 3 and 4.

Blessings,
Therese

As I described in my previous post, mindset can play a huge role in the money business owners generate.  Another place to look for some money leaks is your pricing model.

Since my main market is the service provider, I’ll address that in this article.

Usually for service providers, we start by looking at either the fees per session, or what kind of packages/programs they are offering their clients. Too many people are still stuck charging hourly. I know this one well, having been a psychotherapist for decades! The problem here though is that you have to constantly be selling. One of my sub-niches is holistic practitioners, so let’s use an acupuncturist as an example. If you have a fee-per-session model, at the end of the treatment, you have to get your book out and ask them if they want to reschedule. Hopefully your client is “blissed out” because of the amazing treatment you just did, but what if they are in a rush and have to pick up their son from school. You will likely hear….”Oh, let me call you soon.” Then they get busy, or sick, or short of cash, and you lose the business.

Compare that with the holistic practitioner who has a six month PROGRAM. I like to structure this where some of the money is paid up front or there can be payments made, but folks know that they are paying for a longer term commitment and seem to have more “skin in the game” because they are paying even if they aren’t coming. (Of course we’d prefer that they come!) It works for them because the understand that you are holding a bigger vision that just a one time fix, and it works for you because it levels out your cash flow because you don’t have to constantly be selling and getting new people in the door.

Now let’s look at your model. Where do you see that you could make some tweaks?

And the final place we will talk about here is you owning your value. Have you done that yet? What is your time and expertise worth? The way to understand this is to look at the results your service gets for people. These are some questions that will help you get what you do in a bigger way:
What results to people get after working with you?
What problems do you help solve?
What did those problems cost them?
What intangibles (like confidence) do you provide?
What’s that worth to get?
What’s the lifetime value of the work you do?
What has not working with you cost them?

I guarantee that if you would take 20 minutes and just do some journaling on those questions, you will never again devalue yourself! Make time for this ever important foundational piece so both you and your clients have a better experience.

Blessings,

Therese