We all undercharge in the beginning.
In the middle.
Even today, there are some of us listening (myself included!) that are STILL undercharging for our services and time — and we don’t know why.
I mean, come on, we all KNOW, but we don’t know how to get around the elephant in the room: our mind block around asking people for money.
In today’s episode, we’re going to talk a few strategies to get out of the weeds with pricing and feel really good about what we offer people when we’re talking moolah.
First — let’s get out of the habit of talking about our pricing in terms of HOURS we work.
This is a traditional 9-5, even corporate model that isn’t what we’re after.
(Although yes, some of you it may fit into the hour model — but for the majority, cut it out!)
The reason we all get stuck in figuring out pricing is because trading time for money is the only model we’re familiar with in our work setting. It feels foreign to us to even begin to think about a different model —
Which is: time for value.
As service providers — whether you’re a coach, photographer, teacher, creative, etc. — what you’re giving your clients is SO much more valuable than $35, $75, $100 an hour.
But it takes a shift to actually get comfortable with this idea.
I can’t even take credit for this. My own business coach, Renee Hribar, kicked my butt on this nearly two years ago when I first met her and was in this same place — stuck figuring out hourly pricing and hating the work and my clients because it was SO underpriced.
I even knew it was underpriced because my friends would tell me they were going to hire me before I realized how good I was.
Um.. still wasn’t a wakeup call at that point.
Here’s an exercise I walked a member of the Marketing Magic Academy through this week to help figure out pricing.
To get out of the time for money hustle and grind, first start by listing out ALL the things you can do and write a value price beside each one.
Now how much you’re currently charging, but a true price on how much it’s worth to your client over the course of a year, or a lifetime.
Personally, I have this on a Trello board and it’s called The Whole Enchilada… Of course, it is.
It’s where I list out every single thing I’ve offered, done or created for someone and the value of it. I also listed out the price I charged — which is so laughable now. Seriously go pause this podcast and do this right now. You won’t believe in a year from now how little you were charging for things.
The point of creating the Whole Enchilada is that you start to see HOW MUCH value you truly bring to your customers.
You see HOW MUCH you’re capable of.
And also, how much you’re undercharging.
If your lifetime value ends up being $50,000 for every single thing you do and you offer it to someone for $197 a month — you’re insane.
But it happens!!
The second benefit of listing out everything you do — is that it helps you to see how to package things up better.
You can see what a typical package and result would look like and what to add on as an upsell.
Or what else you can market by lumping certain services together.
Or what piece to pull out to offer as a low price item by itself, or a challenge or a workshop or…. Anything else you can think of.
It helps when you have all the pieces of the chess board to know how to make a move.
I love that I’m giving you chess analogies on the podcast so much because I’ve literally never played. But my daughter does and I watch… sometimes.
When you can see what all you offer people and what their results were, it gives you the confidence to A) charge more B) make more offers C) Dream bigger and create bigger offers.
Every single person should have a whole enchilada offer in their back pocket — for the one day client.
There IS someone out there that would buy your whole enchilada if they knew it existed. But because we only see what’s right in front of us, we never even think about putting it out there.
Now your job is to start that list.
- On a paper on your desk.
- Voice memo it into your phone if you’re driving
- On a Trello board if you’re techy.
Just start creating your Whole Enchilada offer and see how much confidence you gain to own your pricing.
One more thing, it’s totally OK to go raise that price now.
