This Biz Podcast episode discusses one of the most common reasons people hire a business coach - to help them figure out how to make MORE money. Business owners often want to make more money but they don't know how they're going to do it because they are already operating at full capacity. They have no more time.
How are they going to make more money without burning out, without feeling like everything is falling apart, and most importantly without hating their business?
When thinking about how you’re going to make more money, it’s a good idea to look at what got you to where you are, a place that's doing okay but isn't necessarily where you need to be, and then be okay with the fact that what got you here, won't get you there. You've got some clients and you're doing alright, but you're working a lot. You can’t just duplicate, you are at capacity. You would just be working yourself harder.
So, if you're somebody who feels like they're at max capacity with how much you're working, but is still not making enough money, you have to start thinking differently.
The mindset shift
The best place to start is with your pricing.
Is your pricing correct?
Are you charging enough?
Are you only charging what you believe people will pay, and are worried that they won't pay more? If so, that’s not going to get you to the next level. All that is going to do is make you constantly feel frustrated and maybe even start hating your business. It’s not possible for you to make as much money as you want to make in the amount of time that you have. The math just doesn't add up. So, either you increase your prices or you deliver less for the same price. I know that's something that can be really strange to wrap your head around, but it can be done!
Think about it. Are you doing too much for the money that you're charging? Undercharging and over-delivering are very common. When you do that you are the one who's suffering because you can't make the money that you want to be making. Something needs to shift.
Increase the pricing for what you're delivering. When was the last time you increased your prices? If you haven’t changed your pricing in five years, it’s time to increase your rates and even if you have increased your rates in the last little while, you can increase it again! There's no rule that says you can only increase pricing once a year. You get to decide if it's time to increase your pricing.
Accept that your pricing will not appeal to everyone
Something else that you are going to have to be okay with is that some people are not going to want to pay the higher price. It is not your responsibility to find a price that people like. It is your responsibility to offer a service that is delivering the value that you're charging for and THAT is going to help you get the income that you need to get. You do not have to come up with something that they want to say yes to just because they asked for something. Let that sink in for a minute. It’s not your job to design an affordable package for each and every person that comes to you looking for your services. By doing that you talk yourself out of making the money you DESERVE to make. You get to decide that you want to do that thing at all. Just because somebody asked you to do a thing that you are capable of doing does not mean that you have to say yes.
Set boundaries
It's not just increasing your pricing. What you need to also be thinking about is, depending on which package your clients choose they won’t all get the same results. Just because they paid you for the smaller package doesn’t mean you are to be delivering the same results as what your larger packages would have brought for them. I get it, you care and want your clients to succeed and get the full results, but they really didn’t choose to buy the package that will get them all the way there so you have to really pay attention to whether or not you are trying to over-deliver for what they paid. Only you lose out that way, it’s not sustainable.
You can have different levels of options. If you are offering a group program that usually has three or four people in it, I want you to start thinking about what it would look like, how much it would cost and how you would deliver something of value that had 20 people in it. Or if you usually sell something for $500, $1000 or $3000, multiply that number by five and decide what you would deliver for that amount of money.
It's time to start pushing out of your comfort zone in terms of what you charge for things and how you deliver things. When you start to reimagine what it is that you're selling in a different way, then you can start to see new possibilities.
Get out of your own way
Stop thinking that you're responsible for making sure that everybody gets exactly what they want, no matter what they paid for it. Instead, make sure that you remember that you need to have the things to sell that add up to the amount you want to make. Remember that there is value in what you do.
Some of the ways that you can create value are by doing things that can help lots of people at one time. For example, I have an accountability session that I run regularly in my business and I can bonus that into people. I recently ran a workshop and then I bonused accountability sessions in. There's no limit to the number of people that can be in that session, but it is a value to the people I'm giving it to. How can you create little pockets of value that aren't going to require more of your time and still give people what they need? That's how you can start to scale and create extra value without it being burdensome for you.
I want you to really think about all of these new things and think about how you're going to make sure that you're taking care of you so that you can keep running your business. If you resent your business because you're not making enough money, and if you resent all the time you're putting into helping people because you're not getting paid enough for it. That's not a win.
Asking for the higher prices and putting them out there knowing that some people are going to say no, but that some people will say yes, is going to be the shift that gets you out of your own way into earning more money and into enjoying how you're running your business again.
If you want support figuring this out you can book a consultation with me and we'll talk about how you can do that.
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Podcast editing by Eric Wellman