This is a point of view about pricing, which is a huge topic and one which throws up all the emotions around worth and self value and the like.
Do you struggle with pricing? Does putting a value on your work bring you out in a cold sweat at times? Is your pricing getting in the way of you earning a decent living from what you do?
You’re not alone. It’s something many female business owners struggle with and when I start working with clients, probably at least half of them are undercharging for what they do or make or have hang ups around asking for the sale based on price.
Now, as I’m a women’s coach, you are possibly expecting me to encourage you to up your prices, ‘know your worth’, break through all the patriarchal bullshit around women and money, right?
Well yes and no.
Obviously I want you to earn lots of money and feel comfortable about doing so and I really believe that’s possible for you. But if you’re in a space of feeling uncomfortable about pricing and money and how that it all wrapped up in your self worth, me simply saying ‘raise your prices and everything else will flow from this’ is not going to work.
Why? Because you won’t believe it – which makes it hard to communicate and hard for others to buy into.
And what you think and believe is so visible to others, you wouldn’t believe how visible actually.
So yes, over a timeframe, you can absolutely up your prices. And you possibly need to by quite a bit to make your business as profitable as you need and want it to be.
But the most important thing to remember about pricing is that you have to be at least semi comfortable with the price that you put on your work and products.
Yes it can feel stretchy, no it shouldn’t feel like a block to you asking for the sale.
If you have limiting beliefs about your pricing (people won’t pay/ can’t afford that being just one of them) then you will find it hard to ask people to buy what you have to offer.
Now, you might think, well, I need to just get rid of that belief, I need to tell myself that the price is right, that I am worth it.
Yes you do.
But that won’t happen over night. It takes work and time, like any shift in belief and behaviour.
I also want to address here that you might well have heard and read in the coaching and business world that you can put any price on anything and it’s all about your self belief as to whether that would sell. That money is just ‘numbers’ and it’s as easy to charge £1000 as it is to charge £100 for something.
And I find that really problematic.
The right price for your work is a combination of;
1. Your target market
2. Your needs (overhead, profit, time etc)
3. How similar products and services are priced and pitched to your target market
4. How you feel about your worth and value
Sometimes to charge more, you’ll need to look at your target market – will they tolerate that price increase? Could you be aiming for different people? Do you NEED to fundamentally change your ideal customer in order to make that work?
Or you might need to differentiate yourself from competitors in order to be seen as more valuable. How can you offer something different or position yourself differently so that your price seems competitive even when higher?
And yes, of course how you feel about money and your value has an impact – but it’s not a stand alone as some would have you believe.