Raise Your Rates with Confidence_May18

>> In this lecture, we are going to talk about how to raise your rates with confidence. Take a moment to think about what you're charging for your services now. Are you charging $100 a month? $200? $500? Are you comfortable with the amount you're charging? Or does it seem like you are not charging enough to cover all your expenses? It might even seem like you are charging too much. Now, I want you to think about the goal you set for yourself when you started this program. If your goal was to make six figures as an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach or even just to replace your current income through health coaching, you can't do that charging $100 or $200 a month. There just aren't enough hours in the day or the week to privately coach that many people. Also, consider that not all of your hours are billable. Even if you did sign on enough clients to meet your financial goals, you'd be spending time outside of coaching on administrative tasks, sending session notes, and checking in with clients. So not all of your work-week will be spent actively coaching. With that in mind, think about how much you'd need to charge in order to meet your financial goals. Would you have to charge $300 a month? $500? More? In this module, we have included a handout to help you get clear on your rates. And we encourage you to post what you discover in the Facebook group for feedback. Now you might be thinking, "Okay, I know I need to raise my rates but how do I do that?" That's a great question. Let's talk about some of the practical steps to raising your rates. Then some of the internal ways you could increase your confidence around asking for more money. One, decide on your new rate. Use the worksheet included in this module to help you settle on a new rate that works for you and your financial goals. Two, update this everywhere. While we don't recommend putting prices on your websites or brochures, make sure you update your program packages with this new rate. So that when you're talking to new potential clients, you offer your services at the new rate instead of mistakenly giving them your old rate. Three, ask for it. Once you've raised your rates, it's time to get comfortable asking for it. Next time, you're meeting with a potential client and they ask you about the cost of your services, tell them about your new rate. You don't need to tell them that it's new or that you've recently raised your rates. You don't even need to explain yourself and tell this perspective client why you priced your services the way you did. Simply state your new rate with confidence. Now what if you don't feel confident asking for more money? Maybe you realized you need to be charging a lot more for your health coaching services but you're not comfortable asking for that much money in exchange for your time. Don't worry. That's not uncommon. And we will walk you through how to reframe raising your rates, so you can do it with confidence. One, understand your value. As a Health Coach, you are not just giving someone information, nor are you simply "coaching" them. You're changing their life. For some of your clients, you may be giving them a new lease on life. Take some time to look at your past client's success stories and the value you have given people in your life as a Health Coach. These success stories will help remind you of the true value of your coaching, which is priceless. Two, remember that your time is limited. You can only offer so much at a time. If you are not charging enough for your services then you are likely doing some kind of work to support yourself financially. This takes away from the time you could be spending coaching others. Why not make your living doing what you love and making the difference? Even if you don't desire a fulltime coaching practice, charging less for your services will still require you to coach more clients. This will eat up more of your time in order to reach your income goals. Three, charging more allows you to help more people. I know some of you are probably like, "That doesn't make sense. Wouldn't charging more mean that less people would be able to afford my services?" While it may seem that way, charging more for your services allows you the time and financial freedom to be able to offer your services for less to people who really can't afford a Health Coach. To give you an idea of what this might look like, think about how much free time you have now to offer your services for free. If you're like many Health Coaches, you may be working a fulltime job to support yourself and your family while health coaching on the side. This leaves a very little extra time to give back to your community through free lectures and workshops. Or by taking on pro bono clients. However, if you were charging enough as a Health Coach to cover your expenses and pay your bills, you would free up time so you could offer your services for free or at low cost, to those who need it. Four, your ideal clients will pay you what you're worth. We've talked before about how your ideal clients are not only the embodiment of your target market. They are also willing, able, and ready to pay for your coaching services. If someone is debating with you on price and they aren't moving past the money objection, they probably aren't ready to work with you. Let them go and move on to someone who is ready and able to work with you. Five, increase the value. Sometimes, the easiest way to justify increasing our pricing is to offer more, right? Except that usually ends up with us answering text messages all hours of the day and night from clients in order to provide the most value possible. And this is very draining and far from ideal. Instead, find ways that you can add value to the coaching relationship that don't cost you a lot of extra time or money. Perhaps, you can work out a discount for them at a local natural food store or at a chiropractor's office. Maybe you could offer them a copy of your online program as part of their coaching package. Maybe you could offer more flexibility with scheduling and cancellations. Or if you practice another modality, you could offer bonus sessions as part of your private coaching. Get creative. There are endless possibilities for adding more value to your private coaching. Use these reframes when you're preparing to offer someone your services at your new and improved rate and see what happens. Lastly, I'm sure some of you are wondering, "How do I find clients willing to pay me my new rate?" That's another great question. Think about where you might find people who fit your ideal client profile and who would have the financial means to invest in working with a Health Coach. Would they be working corporate jobs? Would they be executives? Would they be at gyms or health food stores? Take some time to think about who would be able to afford your services and would be willing to pay you for health coaching. Make a list of the places where these people might spend their time. List out two. The magazines, newspapers and online publications they might be reading. Write these down on paper so you can refer back to them as these are the places you'll want to focus your marketing moving forward. There will always be people who want to work with you for free or at a low cost. But you want to focus your time and marketing on those who are going to be able to afford your prices. To recap, we talked about how and why it's important to raise your rates in order to make a sustainable living as a Health Coach. Then we talked about practical steps you can take to increase your rates as well as internal perspective shifts you can make to feel more confident and comfortable asking for your new rate. Finally, we talked about how to find the people who are willing to pay full price for your services. Remember to check out the "Raise your rates" worksheet included in this module to pinpoint the ideal price for your services. See you in the next lecture.