The Empowered Messenger – The heroine whose message burns inside her, begging to be released. Even though her pen may quiver and her voice may shake, she knows it is time to stand in her power – clear, confident, courageous. She says yes to the call, and she shares her message, because she was born to inspire.

Question: I’m having a hard time setting prices for my 1:1 coaching services. I’ve looked at the amount I’d need to stay in business, pay all my expenses, and still turn a profit that feels abundant and spacious, but I’m uncomfortable asking for that much! I’m afraid of scaring off my clients. How do I charge an amount that feels abundant to me but doesn’t turn off my customers?

Answer: I have a three part answer to this question.

First, I would like you to go back and look at your numbers again, because whatever you have calculated is likely not enough.

I suggest that when you put together all of your expenses, your information, and all of the numbers you have crunched, that you double that, because there are so many aspects of running a business!

You can run into time delays, expenses that are exceeding what you originally anticipated, challenges with hiring team member that don’t work out and you have to start again, so I definitely invite you to go back and look at your numbers and double that.

Make sure to make sure that you’re including taxes and that you’re paying yourself out of the expenses, NOT out of the profits. The profits should be extra left over after you’re done. That means paying yourself as well as paying the IRS.

I also strongly suggest that you incorporate into your numbers some kind of a reserve, so that you have a cushion for when cashflow might be fluctuating.

The second answer to the question has to do with your relationship with money.

It’s very important that you have a very clear, beautiful, powerful, incredibly prosperous relationship with money. You’ve got to have all of your money issues looked at and cleared, or at the very least, you have to be in a process of continually looking at and seeking to improve your relationship with money.

I actually do my own work around this every single quarter. I bring up all my stuff about money and I look at it and discern where I need to do some improvements.

Our money relationship can be incredibly tangled, incredibly overlaid with all kinds of energetic and emotional snarls, so you definitely want to have a powerful, clear, and empowering relationship with money, and at the very least be working towards that. So when you do have the one on one sales conversation, any issues you have with money are not going to get in the way.

The third piece of this answer is being able to feel confidence speaking your value.

Just know you can use your throat center to create that sacred space and that environment where you are actually holding open a door for your prospective client to step into their own dream, their own vision, their own relief.

If you’re somebody who’s there to provide relief from a certain kind of pain, know that your work in this selling conversation is not only to articulate the value of what you have to offer, but to hold that space with your power, with your creative expression, with your ability to speak your truth and speak truth to them.

Sometimes you really have to “put people’s nose in the poop” as one of my mentors says so they can see how important it is for them to make a change and thereby make an investment. One of the most important questions I always ask is “What is it costing you to stay where you are?”

So that’s my answer for this month! Thank you so much for being a part of the Business Heroine community. I’m going to go back to enjoying a beautiful spring day on my back porch, because I feel safe and powerful asking for money, I know how to do my numbers so that everything adds up, and I have not only a profit, but a reserve to rest on!

We’d love to hear from YOU…

How do you price your services? Have you ever had trouble with pricing or with asking for money? Leave your answer in the comments below! 

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business owner, coaching, entrepreneur, make money, marketing, May 2016 Issue, online business, pricing, sales, setting prices, women in business