Why You Should Stop Undercharging for Your Services
A topic that often comes up in the Money Magicians Facebook group is the topic of undercharging and how difficult it is to tell people how much we charge for our services.
When I started out as an entrepreneur I couldn't tell people what I charge, instead I bought into the myth that I needed to lure people with discounts and freebies so I could "break into the market".
And you know what - it never worked!!!
Now, I just tell people my price, I don't negotiate or apologize and I only offer discounts and freebies to people that my spirit guides guide me to offer discounts to.
And guess what?
Wealthy Money has grown faster than when I was offering freebies.
Why should you stop undercharging for your services?
1. Price is a matter of perception, no matter the market
You determine what your value is and you determine the value of your products and services.
In 2016 I had an interesting incident that reiterated this to me - someone emailed to say they thought the Wealthy Money Circles were overpriced and they can't see the value in what I do and then they asked for their money back.
Yes, it was that honest and I paid them back.
I have a strong policy of not arguing with the customer and accepting that value and pricing is perception.
Right after that, no jokes, 5 minutes later - someone else emailed about the circles and said wow, the price was so affordable and they felt like they'd get tons of value and they'd pay asap.
And then someone else said, they were keen and they'd love to sign up for the next one for sure.
I laughed. Same country, 3 different responses.
So yes it’s about the market, but it’s also about perception.
Ultimately you want to attract your kind of people. The kind of people that love what you do and what you're about.
2. Price too low and people won't take you seriously
This was a hard pill to swallow for me but it became obvious in 2016.
In 2016, my sister referred some people to me and asked me to give them free access to the course.
My sister has done the course, the meditations, paid for the workshops; she and my aunt swear by Wealthy Money.
They refer tons of people to me. When I'm home, I spend hours talking to people they've rounded up.
I offered my sisters referrals free access to the course including a free coaching session.
And guess what?
Not one person took me up on the offer. I was running after them, instead of the other way round.
I saw this when I offered to write for free for magazines; instead of being valued, I ended up running after them instead of the other way round.
On the other hand, I have paying students for the course and they email me and are dedicated to doing the work.
I saw this in my business and my life.
3. Spend time understanding your value and what you bring to the market
Most people are scared to charge correctly because they're scared people will judge them and not like them.
Make sure you like yourself first and don't make pricing about people liking or approving of you.
Pricing has nothing to do with whether or not people like you.
If you can't see your value no one else will.
If you can't define your value and what people will get from working with you, it'll be hard to sell anything. This is the practical side of marketing.
unfortunately to master the practical side you have to do the emotional stuff and understand your value.
It took me years to raise my prices but I believe there's a faster route - you can do meditation, akashic records meditation, tantra work, journaling etc.
I recommend really doing the work on how you see yourself. I had to spend a lot of time questioning painful thoughts like:
" I am unlovable"
"I am not worthy"
"I have nothing to offer the world"
"I am a failure" etc
I spent weeks with just one thought, watching where it sat in my body and exploring the emotions and memories it brought up.
There are meditations in the money magic course for this.
At one point in my life I took 6 months off to spend 8 hours a day doing nothing but working on these thoughts. I took 4 months at the beginning of 2016 to do the same thing and it was worth it.
4. Spiritual element - vows of poverty and service
A few years ago I started going to past life regression and in the very first past life regression session I saw myself in different past lives taking on different vows of poverty and service in different religions and orders.
I saw myself saying things like: "Not even death can break these vows."
My regression therapist took me through a process to revoke those vows, I walked out of there and an 1 hour later I knew I’d never again feel guilty for turning down non-profit work.
I was right - I no longer be do things for free.
I cancelled all my free things as soon as I got home from the session and have been happier for it.
People got angry and told me I was selfish but my friends and family just said, “Amen, we thought this day would never come.”
I don’t mind when people criticize my prices because I know that my kind of people are okay with my prices and those are the people I want to work with.
Ultimately you want to work with people who say - "how can I afford this" instead of "I can't afford this."
5. When you think of pricing also think about time
Pricing is about time, if you're an entrepreneur then your time is your most valuable resource.
If you underprice then you have to get twice as many clients or sell twice as many products and that means you spend twice as much time making up that money, which means other parts of your business suffer.
That time will now be spent on clients and hunting business instead of building a team, interacting with potential customers and creating new products and services.
And if you try to do it all - work with twice as many clients and still do the business side, something will suffer in that equation which will eventually affect your entire business.
So pricing is also about opportunity cost.
If you price properly, you can still do non-profit work or donate to charities you agree with or fund people in other ways because now you have resources at your disposal.
When you can give from a full cup, you have more to give.
When you give from an empty cup, you’ll just keep running on empty and eventually you'll resent them for taking what little you have.
And they’ll resent you when you can no longer give, because you gave the impression that you could give more than you were capable of giving.
I leave you with a quote by Warren Buffet who says: “Price is what you pay, value is what you get.”
When you’re selling a product or service, I recommend modifying the quote to: “Price is what you charge, value is what you give.”
What do you think?
