Women Consultants, Do You Shy Away From Increasing Your Rates?
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When did you last increase your day rate? I had this discussion with a client recently. She believed she couldn’t ask for more because there was a poor perception of money in her niche. And then she was being treated badly by clients because they weren’t paying her very much, and didn’t see the value of what she was actually doing for them.
We discussed the issue for at least 6 months. This wasn’t a case of me suggesting it and her implementing straight away. In the end she started raising her prices incrementally. She did receive some pushback at times. But she also started to see that her perception of who her ideal clients are was often off-kilter.
This is something that comes up a lot with the women I work with. We think we know who our ideal clients are, we get really excited when we’re approached by someone who fits the profile.
But we forget that a key part of the profile always needs to be that they have the money to work with you. They value your services. They are ready to put budget behind it.
It is really easy to skip over this part. But if they aren’t willing to invest in your services, they aren’t your ideal client.
For my client, raising her prices meant pushing away some of the people who were asking about working with her. You might find yourself in a similar position. And that can feel really counterintuitive – BECAUSE there’s a mindset thing going on there. You might believe you have to say yes to every piece of work that comes your way because what will happen if you don’t? You might start to fear the worst. You worry there won’t be enough money coming in. There might not be any more client enquiries. Can you hear the scarcity in your thinking there?
But here’s the good news.
Once you start screening your behaviour for scarcity you see it all the time and you start to self-correct.
Let me tell you what happened with my client. Fast forward several months, and not only has she doubled her day rate, she made two super easy sales this month where both clients said yes without hesitation. No negotiations or quibbling.
When you deal with your own mindset issues, and particularly with your money mindset, everything gets a lot more straightforward. And that’s when business starts to feel simple, and definitely much closer to being easy.
Let me know, is there a chance you might be undercharging at the moment? (Because in my experience, this is true for most women!) Will you be increasing your prices this year?
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Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your feedback and future topics you’d like me to feature. You may also enjoy The Seven Figure Consultant Podcast, the show that takes you from booked up and burned out in your consulting business to THRIVING as the CEO of your 7 figure enterprise.