Why You May Want to Disregard the Advice of “Charge What You Are Worth” for Pricing Your Services
How following the advice to “charge what you are worth” may leave you feeling disconnected or confused. Here’s my suggestion, instead.
If you are just starting out as a new coach and hoping to charge for your services, you may have heard this piece of advice given by many business coaches: charge what you are worth.
Thus, the recommendation is to base your pricing on how you value yourself. And obviously, since you are worthy and deserving, and are of infinite worth at the soul level, they suggest that you should be asking for a high price for your services. Even though you are still getting your business off the ground, you are likely to follow their advice as you’d like to be profitable as soon as possible.
However, such advice may work against a new coach. The rush to price your services at a high hourly rate can leave you in discomfort. It may even trigger thoughts of being an imposter.
Well, it’s exactly what happened to me. I have since made a change in my thoughts about pricing and I’d like to share my perspective. Let’s explore what it means to “charge what you are worth”, so that you can come to better terms with your pricing strategy too.
Evaluating “Charge What You Are Worth”
Most certainly, business coaches come from positive intent. They are here to encourage their students to be courageous in getting paid clients. Their pricing advice is meant to help those who are struggling in their relationship with money. The “charge what you are worth” advice serves to remind their students that they are worthy of getting paid for the service that they are providing.
However, the advice of “charge what you are worth” should not be taken literally. For a start, we can’t exactly charge what we are worth; since in reality, no one can pay us an infinite amount even though we are of infinite worth and very valuable. Few will be able to afford our astronomical-priced services. Thus, we risk pricing ourselves out of the market.
Not forgetting, in order to justify our high prices, we may even have to hustle a lot more. Consequently, instead of creating a business so that we can experience more freedom, we end up chaining ourselves to our desk. Our stress levels go up!
From what I see, “charge what you are worth” promotes the risk of cultivating an entitlement mindset. Having a sense of entitlement creates the expectation that we are deserving without necessarily putting in an equivalent amount of effort or work. Now, everyone knows that starting our own coaching business involves a learning curve and we get better with experience when handling more clients. Hence, having an entitlement mindset can set us back. We may have to lower our prices if we have charged them too high too soon.
My Story in Letting Go of Shame and Sticking to Authentic Pricing
I recall a time when I had to respond to a business coach on how much I was charging. He had asked me pointedly in front of a group of aspiring entrepreneurs. When I shared what my hourly rate was, he let out a gasp.
My face burnt with embarrassment as I was shamed for not charging more. He made it seem that I had based my prices on a low perception of my worth. For the same hour, he claimed that he was able to charge double to triple my rate.
Well, that business coach is no longer running his consulting business. When he pitched his up-sell, no one bought his high-ticket program later that day. He was a new business coach, and we weren’t sure about what more we could learn from him.
Authentic Pricing for Our Heart-Centered Business
I believe in setting some healthy guidelines and applying authentic practices for our heart-centered business. As such, we do not make guarantees or promises that we can’t keep to our clients. Also, I’d like to propose that we make the distinction between having an entitlement mindset and a deep awareness that we are worthy and deserving. An entitled mindset is focused on what we believe that we are owed while an awareness that we are worthy is about recognising that we have inherent value without imposing on others.
Instead of following the advice of “charging what you are worth” blindly, I would suggest doing some form of research. In other words, find out what the market is charging. I believe in charging a reasonable prices based on our experience and skills. We don’t want to underprice ourselves either. If you are running a business, it is important that you are able to pay your bills.
It is likely that if you charge a price that is lower than one based on “charge what you are worth”, more people will be able to take up your affordable services. Should you be hoping to gain experience from working with more clients, this is not a bad idea. After all, you are starting your heart-centred business with the intent of making a difference.
Indeed, the more people you can work with, the greater the difference you can create. Once you have built up your experience and have a waitlist of clients, you can gradually raise your prices. You will know it when the time comes!
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