The invisible money barrier - coaching clients afraid to charge

How much do I charge? The big barrier for the self-employed.

As a coach, I quite often work with business owners who charge an hourly rate for their services. These owners can be totally tied up in knots around the question of what should they charge.

It is because when you start up in business you are desperate for income, any income, even if it is discounted so heavily it actually earns you very little money indeed.

There is also a perception of what others similar to you are charging, a sort of perceived ‘standard rate’, and that to go above that rate would mean you won’t get any customers.

And some potential customers quite clearly have been to some sort of training where they are told it is good to barter, to fight every price and get the cheapest deals they can.

Here is the problem. If you are stuck in this rut, you won’t be making any real profit. You will be working hard for very little and constantly looking over your shoulder at what your competitors are doing and charging.

Your customers won’t value your service, and even worse, they are in charge of you, they are dictating the terms of your business relationship.

And finally you yourself are losing faith, you feel you are not worth it, and every cheap deal, every discount is just more proof of your failure as a business person.

This is literally a backwards looking process and will ultimately lead to failure.

So what is the answer?

Ditch all of those beliefs about price.

Charge what you are worth and ignore what everyone else is doing.

Look forwards and concentrate on what you offer.

‘But’ you cry ‘Other people doing the same as me will just take all my customers.’

Really?

Listen, charge what you are worth. Somewhere in the world there will be someone with the same knowledge as you charging 5 times, 10 times, 50 times more than you. Are they any better? No.

They just got rid of the bondage of cheap pricing and you haven’t - yet.

What happens if you charge more?

Your customers will appreciate your work more and are far more likely to buy-in to what you are selling.

You will lose the hagglers and the moaners. Let someone else have the pleasure of arguing with that lot.

You will earn more, so now are motivated to provide a better service, you will look more professional and have money to invest in your business.

You will smile more, be more confident and certainly happier.

And all of these will increase your sales because you become more attractive to clients who can afford you.

People will pay for quality.

Ditch that ridiculous belief about money and free yourself.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author. All articles published on Life Coach Directory are reviewed by our editorial team.

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