The Blog

74. Raise your Prices

It is time to raise your prices!

When I work with women in my one-on-one coaching, I’ve learned almost EVERY woman needs to adjust or increase their prices. I know it’s hard. But I am here to say that you’re not charging enough — not what you, your time and your services are worth.

There are a couple of reasons why we don’t charge what we’re worth:

Reason #1 – Natural Givers

Us women are just natural caregivers, and that makes us good coaches, good teachers, good therapists, etc. Because it comes to us naturally, we don’t feel like we need to charge and can give away our services for free.

Reason #2 – We feel like we owe our people.

We run into a problem feeling like all of our family and friends get things from us for free. But we can’t keep doing that. There needs to be an exchange of something whether it’s another service or value. We don’t owe our family just because we have a job and they’re our family. You just have to wrap your head around that. Our family is not our ideal customer, that time is better focused on our ideal customer.

Reason #3 – WE LOVE OUR JOBS!

We have jobs that we love but it doesn’t feel like a job, it’s still a hobby. Before this thing of ours became a business, we did a lot for our friends and communities just for free because we loved that. But now it’s a business, it’s a lot of money to maintain and we forget there are associated costs to keep it running.

Reason #4 – We don’t want to look at the numbers.

We don’t want to care about the money and don’t want to look at expenses as long as we are covering the bills. We don’t want to see where it’s going or want to seem like we love money too much to be prideful, so we avoid it all together.

Most of us are just plain awkward when it comes to money but we don’t have to make it that way.

The reality is: money is neutral. We are the ones who make money good or bad by how we feel about it. Instead see money as putting value into the world. The more money we make and the more value we are offering. So we’re not just talking about money, but value.

To help you understand what you’re worth, and really get a better idea of how to charge clients, think about what value you offer.

Ask: What value do I offer?

Knowing your value empowers you so when people in your field are offering what you have, you are more sure in your path. Remember that even though your offering may be the same price, your value is actually quite different.

Next, Understand that not everyone can afford you and that is okay.

You are not for everyone. The sooner you understand you’re not everyone’s cup of tea, the more comfortable you’ll be with your prices. When we hone in on our target client, who they are and what they need, it doesn’t matter about all those other people who aren’t willing to pay our full prices.

If we have people (ahem..family) aren’t paying our full prices, don’t let them get in your head and judge you for what you’re charging.

My ideal client is someone who values the art of photography, my style, my expertise and posing. I’m not worried that they think I’m priced too high because if I hone in on who I am for, I am going to get the perfect clients for me.

I had hard clients when I was priced low

When my prices were low, I was having the hardest time with clients, getting people who wanted me to do whatever they wanted, edit and fix photos and shoot on their time table. And I really wasn’t happy.

As soon as I raised my prices to a higher price point, I had dream clients. People were hiring me because they wanted the value I was offering, and not just because I was the cheapest around.

You will get better clients if you shift that mindset. So look at what you’re offering, think about how you make that offering more enticing with more value. You can do really simple things to increase the value.

Now I’m going to share a really simple pricing formula to help you understand what exactly you should be charging clients. But if you’re feeling like you want more guidance or someone to look over it, I am always available to do a 1-1 session with you to do a pricing audit.

Pricing Formula

First, you need to know how much you want to make per hour. And not minimum wage numbers. After you know what you want per hour, figure out how long your session or experience is, including the prep and post work.

Then you can use this formula: hours spent x your hourly rate + costs to run your business. Then when you get that total, divide that out by how many clients or sessions or products you had over the year. .

Knowing your costs is important so you know if you want to take on more, raise prices or bring costs down. And when someone asks for FREE you know how much it actually costs and know that you need to charge them x amount, rather than just letting them have your service for free.

Get comfortable with having that conversation with people because this is your business, and it does cost money to run it and that is time taken away from your family.

Listen to the full episode here:

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