How much should you charge for your services?

As a coach, I quite often work with business owners who charge an hourly rate for their services. Many become completely tied up in knots around one simple question:

How much should I charge?

Why pricing feels so difficult

When you first start a business, you're often desperate for income, any income. Even if that means discounting your services so heavily that you're barely making any money.

There's also the perception that everyone in your industry charges a similar rate, and that charging more will simply drive customers elsewhere.

On top of that, some potential customers seem determined to negotiate every price and secure the cheapest possible deal.

The problem with underpricing

If you become stuck in this mindset, you're unlikely to build a profitable business.

You'll work incredibly hard for very little return while constantly looking over your shoulder at what your competitors are charging.

Your customers may begin to value your service less, and before long they are effectively setting the terms of your business relationship instead of you. Perhaps most damaging of all, you begin losing confidence in yourself.

Every discount becomes another piece of evidence that you're somehow "not worth it".

This is a backwards-looking way of thinking and, ultimately, it can prevent your business from growing.

A different way to think about pricing

So what is the answer? Let go of those limiting beliefs about price.

Charge what you believe your service is worth.

Stop focusing on what everyone else is doing and concentrate on the value you provide.

"But I'll lose customers..."

Perhaps you're thinking:

"Other people doing exactly what I do will simply take all my customers."

Really?

Somewhere in the world, there is almost certainly someone offering a service very similar to yours and charging five, ten or even fifty times more.

Are they necessarily better?

Not always.

Often, they've simply moved beyond the belief that they have to compete on price.

What happens when you charge more?

When you charge appropriately for your expertise:

• Your clients are more likely to value your service.
• People who are simply looking for the cheapest option often disappear.
• You generate more income to invest back into your business.
  You become more confident in the value you offer.
• Your professionalism grows.
• Your business becomes more sustainable.

All of these things help make your business more attractive to the clients who genuinely value what you do.

Know your value

People are prepared to pay for quality.

Believe in the value you provide.

Price accordingly.

And don't allow limiting beliefs about money to hold your business back.