Signs from the Universe (to raise my prices)

Sometimes, it’s little signs that show you you’re on the right path and other times, it takes a train wreck to show you that you’re not. Clearly, the Universe knows where it’s at. It’s so funny how the universe likes to send us little nudges to step up and step into our power, our worth, and to start owning our magic in the world.

Sometimes it’s little lessons and other times it’s life-altering smacks across the head – it’s up to us to listen and decipher what to do (and if we don’t listen, well just expect the lessons to keep on coming!).

Well I’m sure the universe was trying to tell me something and the message was very clear: raise your prices and start valuing your services more!

Early in my journey, I was building my coaching business and was bringing in new clients regularly. I was loving supporting some amazing women to reach their business goals, until these little things started to happen.

• Clients cancelled sessions at the last minute or showed up late
• Clients were paying late or I was having to chase payment every session
• Sessions ran overtime as I was so focused on creating a shift within the session
• Clients neglected the work that their progress relied on from session to session

I soon started to notice a pattern starting to emerge and I couldn’t work out why this kept happening. I spent some time reflecting on what was working and what wasn’t working. I realised that these little signs were pointing in the direction of having to raise my prices.

I had a call with another business coach and she also said the same thing – you have to raise your prices and show that you are worth what you’re charging. When things are too cheap people often don’t value them as much; they subconsciously don’t feel like they’d lose much if they didn’t spend too much to begin with.

I call it the grocery bill concept. This is based on the idea that how much someone spends on their grocery bill each week is the amount of money that they quite easily throw away. If you are charging less than they would spend on their groceries, then they are less likely to value your offering. I don’t mean that what you are offering isn’t of value, I just mean that because it’s cheap, the commitment and dedication to go all in and value your time and energy is less likely to be high.

The other thing I had to realise was that I was not valuing my own time! If I was to charge such little prices how sustainable would it be? I would have to take on 10-20 clients a week and energetically that just wasn’t sustainable. I decided to up my prices for a couple of reasons.

• I wanted people to commit to themselves and go all in. When there is more money on the line then this often seems to drive a stronger commitment.
• I wanted to be able to give my all to my clients and being energetically drained from being too busy was not the way I wanted to show up for my clients.

To do this, I decided to take on two client sessions a day which means I needed to start charging more. Importantly, I knew what I was offering was so much more valuable than I was giving myself credit for (hello self- doubt!). In my 9-week Business Empowerment Program. If clients were going to pay for the business education, business development and the mindset work separately from separate coaches they would be paying way over $10,000 and my new prices weren’t even a third of that.

I wanted to be able to give the time needed for my clients to have the breakthroughs and limiting that to 60 minute sessions was just not going to cut it. So what happened?

Within the week of raising my prices I was having a call with a potential new client and she was quite literally my perfect client- she was ready to go all in and was extremely passionate about making a difference in the world but wasn’t sure how she was going to do it. She was self-sabotaging herself and her business, she needed clarity around her vision, and also needed support with launching and selling out her new online group program, which she had created but had not been confident enough to put out there.

We discussed what she wanted to get out of coaching with me and we created a plan for what she and her business needed. And when it came time to share with her my new pricing, I was nervous but knew what I had to do. I shared with her the new pricing. Her reply? “Oh, that’s reasonable When can we get started?”

From there on out I had no qualms asking for what I was worth and the majority of clients even preferred to pay up front. I never had to chase money again. It was such a blessing. I love creating the time and space for my clients to receive all the support they need to be able to create the results they desire. Taking my power back and asking for what I was worth (and believing it) made all the difference in my business and allowed me to offer this to my clients.

My clients dive into their work now and show up every session ready to take their life and business to the next level. Their commitment is all in and their results from there on out reflect that.

So, thank you Universe, signs delivered and received. Thank you for your guidance.

(PS. She did sell out her online program and has a waitlist for the next one)