How much should I charge? How do I know my value?
Pilot programme starts on 7 June! Apply now for this special opportunity at the pilot investment of £97!
The most wonderful therapist who was helping her clients have huge health transformations asked me this one day,” Rosemary, how do I know my value”?
We spent the next hour or so tuning into her ideal clients in a visualisation and actually asking them what they were happy to pay for her consultations, what they would pay for extras like medications or Neals Yard products and much more. This is something I often do with my clients and when the instructions come from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, albeit in a process, my clients feel they have been told and go and make plans to implement new fees!
How do I know what my services are worth? What will people pay? Will everyone be able to afford me?
This lady had no idea how to value the work she was doing for her clients. She felt awkward asking them for money and sometimes they left her clinic, beautifully relaxed without paying. Then she had the quandary of what to say when she messaged them to say she forgot to ask them to pay and both parties felt supremely awkward.
I’ve run my own therapy business since 1993 and I’m a “Nurturer” money type so I have totally lived this. I would also add that when it’s time to increase my fees, it takes every ounce of courage that I have and I’ve been known to put it off again and again, ending up with clients on all sorts of different fees! And we try to be available to everyone and want all people to be able to afford to come and see us. That’s another subject about your Ideal Clients!
If this is you, let’s explore and find a better way for you to get paid for the wonderful work that I have no doubt you are doing, to feel good about your fees and you don’t have to go and get a job!
Don’t feel bad. It’s our history.
Getting paid for healing, energy work and talking therapies is very new. Healers might have been paid by being fed by the community and money may never have been exchanged. When I left nursing it was so challenging, I had never asked a patient to pay for me to care for them and it was totally alien to me.
Should I be paid for my healing gifts? It can feel wrong.
You are giving a service, an exchange of energy and money is the two way exchange for that. If you were paid by an institution or charity would it feel so bad? I don’t think so, for most people it’s the asking for money and setting fees that’s the challenge.
How much do I charge?
What most therapists do is to find out what others are charging and then pitch themselves somewhere in the middle. There’s nothing wrong with this but do you feel good about the money you are being paid? It it enough to live on? Are you working long hours, booking people in whenever they want to come, prioritising everyone else’s wellbeing over your own.
What are people paying me for?
We tend to think that people are paying us for our time and price our services accordingly. Wrong!! You’re a magical therapist, transforming lives. YOU ARE NOT A COMMODITY!
Your clients are paying you for the TRANSFORMATION they experience when they work with you which may last a lifetime and change many other lives too.
You pay your hairdresser for a haircut but really you’re paying them for the confidence you experience from having a beautiful barnet and what it allows you to do. When my hair is scruffy and out of shape I feel a mess. If I go on a first date or job interview feeling like that, I won’t stand tall and look the world in the eyes. I won’t have that sexy swagger to my hips or the same ability to speak well of myself.
When I booked myself in for counselling after my sister had died, I needed a private place to be honest with myself, to be able to grieve without feeling embarrassed. I didn’t want to talk to my friends and family. My real transformation, what I invested in, was an ability to get on with my life again, to feel joy, to be reborn, renewed, refreshed and feeling alive. I was also able to continue with my business, integrating my new found experiences so I could enrich the lives of MY clients even more. Without this my business stalled and was bringing in no money so the counselling helped me release the damn in my income.. Priceless!
Would you like my help to find YOUR value and set the prices you can really stand behind?
I recently did some money archetypes coaching with a therapist who as charging so little that she was resentful towards a 1:1 client who wasn’t taking the classes seriously. She felt unappreciated too. After a couple of hours coaching, looking at her money personality using the Sacred Money Archetypes she says, “I found the courage to increase my charge for one to one yoga lessons to 150 per cent. Through old patterns of unworthiness in this area I was ridiculously cheap but found it extremely difficult to charge a more realistic price”.
Send me a message and let’s talk! I offer a 30 minute Money Discovery Call or if you’re not ready to talk, drop me a line at info@rosemarycunningham.co.uk and I’ll add you to my mailing list so you can listen to my webinars and get my monthly updates.
My How to Charge What You’re Worth and Get it Programmes are perfect for anyone wanting to set prices, put programmes together and feel 100% good about your fees. Please enquire.